ballast. In Spanish colonial times the town’s wealth had come from
agriculture, particularly cocoa and coffee production, and it had
graciously supported a population of several thousand people.
But the town’s history changed dramatically after 1959, the year of
Equatorial Guinea’s independence. The new president, Macias Nguema,
quickly metamorphosed from a popularly elected official to the
continent’s worst, sadistic dictator whose atrocities managed to
out-class even those of Idi Amin of Uganda and Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the
Central African Republic. The effect on the country was apocalyptic.
After fifty thousand people were murdered, a third of the population of
the entire country fled, including all the Spanish settlers. Most of the
country’s towns were decimated, particularly Cogo which had been
completely abandoned. The road connecting Cogo to the rest of the
country fell into ruin and quickly became impassable.
For a number of years, the town was fated to be a mere curiosity for the
occasional visitor arriving by small motorboat from the coastal town of
Acalayong. The jungle had begun to reclaim the land by the time a
representative of GenSys had happened upon it seven years previously.
This individual recognized Cogo’s isolation and its limitless
surrounding rain forest as the perfect spot for GenSys intended primate
facility. Returning to Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, the
GenSys official immediately commenced negotiations with the current
Equatoguinean government. Since the country was one of the poorest of
Africa and consequently desperate for foreign exchange, the new
president was eager and negotiations proceeded apace.
Kevin rounded the last corner and approached his house. It was three
stories like most of the other buildings in the town. It had been
tastefully renovated by GenSys to give it storybook appeal. In fact it
was one of the more desirable houses in the whole town and a source of
envy of a number of the other GenSys employees, particularly head of
security, Cameron McIvers. Only Siegfried Spallek, manager of the Zone,
and Bertram Edwards, chief veterinarian, had accommodations that were
equivalent. Kevin had attributed his good luck to intercession on his
behalf by Dr. Raymond Lyons, but he didn’t know for certain.
The house had been built in the mid-nineteenth century by a successful
import/exporter in traditional Spanish style. The first floor was arched
and arcaded like the town hall and had originally housed shops and
storage facilities. The second floor was the main living floor with
three bedrooms, three baths, a large through-and-through living room, a
dining room, a kitchen, and a tiny maid’s apartment. It was surrounded
by a veranda on all four sides. The third floor was an enormous open
room with wide-plank flooring illuminated with two huge, cast-iron
chandeliers. It was capable of holding a hundred people with ease and
had apparently been used for mass meetings.
Kevin entered and climbed a central stairway that led up to a narrow
hall. From there he went into the dining room. As he expected, the table
had been laid for lunch.
The house was too big for Kevin, especially since he didn’t have a
family. He’d said as much when he’d first been shown the property, but
Siegfried Spallek had told him the decision had been made in Boston and
warned Kevin not to complain. So Kevin accepted the assignment, but his
co-workers’ envy often made him feel uncomfortable.
As if by magic Esmeralda appeared. Kevin wondered how she did it so
consistently. It was as if she were always on the lookout for his
approaching the house. She was a pleasant woman of indeterminate age
with rounded features and sad eyes. She dressed in a shift of brightly
colored print fabric with a matching scarf wrapped tightly around her
head. Besides her native tongue, she spoke fluent Spanish and passable
English that improved on a daily basis.
Esmeralda lived in the maid’s quarters Monday through Friday. Over the
weekend she stayed with her family in a village that GenSys had
constructed to the east along the banks of the estuary to house the many
local workers employed in the Zone, as the area occupied by GenSys’s
Equatoguinean operation was called. She and her family had been moved
there from Bata, the main city on the Equatoguinean mainland. The