herself with a hand against the rock. For a moment, the cave had begun
to spin.
The men stood up and shined the bright light on the women and then on
Kevin. The former captives all had to shield their eyes.
‘You people are a mess,’ the man with the light said.
‘I’m Kevin Marshall and this is Melanie Becket and Candace Brickmann.’
‘I know who you are,’ the man said flatly. ‘Let’s get out of this
shithole.’
Kevin and the women were happy to comply on rubbery legs. The two men
followed. Once out of the cave, the three friends had to squint in the
bright, hazy sunlight. Below the face of the cliff were a half dozen
more animal handlers. They were busy rolling up tranquilized bonobos in
reed mats and lifting them onto a trailer where they were carefully
positioned side by side.
‘There’s one more up here in this cave,’ the man with the flashlight
yelled down to the others.
‘I know you two,’ Melanie said once she got a good view of the men who’d
come into the cave. ‘You’re Dave Turner and Daryl Christian.’
The men ignored Melanie. Dave, the taller of the two, pulled a two-way
radio out of a holder at his waist. Daryl started climbing down the
giant steps.
‘Turner to base,’ Dave said into the instrument.
‘I hear you loud and clear,’ Bertram said on the other end.
‘We got the last of the bonobos and we’re loading up,’ Dave said.
‘Excellent work,’ Bertram said.
‘We found Kevin Marshall and the two women in a cave,’ Dave said.
‘In what state?’ Bertram asked.
‘Filthy but otherwise apparently healthy,’ Dave said.
‘Give me that thing!’ Melanie said, reaching for Dave’s radio. Suddenly,
she didn’t like being talked about disparagingly by an underling.
Dave fended her off. ‘What do you want me to do with them?’
Melanie put her hands on her hips. She was incensed. ‘What do you mean
`what to do with them’?’
‘Bring them to the animal center,’ Bertram said. ‘I’ll inform Siegfried
Spallek. I’m sure he’ll want to talk with them.’
‘Ten-four,’ Dave said. He snapped off the radio.
‘What’s the meaning of this kind of treatment?’ Melanie demanded. ‘We’ve
been prisoners out here for more than two days.’
Dave shrugged. ‘We just follow orders, ma’am. It seems as if you two
have riled up the front office big time.’
‘What on earth is happening to the bonobos?’ Kevin asked. When he’d
first seen what the men were doing, he’d assumed it had all been for the
purpose of their rescue. But the more he thought about it he couldn’t
understand why the animals were being loaded onto a trailer.
‘The bonobos’ good life on the island is a thing of the past,’ Dave
said. ‘They’ve been warring out here and killing each other. We’ve found
four corpses as evidence, all bashed with stone wedges. So we’re caging
them at the staging area in preparation for taking them all to the
animal center. It’ll be six-foot concrete cells from now on as far as I
know.’
Kevin’s mouth slowly fell open. In spite of his hunger, exhaustion, and
aches and pains, he felt a profound sadness for these unfortunate
creatures who’d not asked to be created or born. Their lives had
suddenly and arbitrarily been doomed to monotonous incarceration. Their
human potential was not to be realized, and their striking
accomplishments thus far would be lost.
Daryl and three other men were now on their way up with a litter.
Kevin turned to look back inside the cave. In the far shadows, he could
see Arthur’s profile near the lip of the chamber where Kevin and the
women had been kept. A tear formed in the corner of Kevin’s eye as he
imagined how Arthur was going to feel when he awoke to find himself
encased in steel.
‘All right, you three,’ Dave said. ‘Let’s start back. Are you strong
enough to walk or you want to ride on the trailer?’
‘How do you move the trailer?’ Kevin asked.
‘We’ve got an all-terrain vehicle on the island,’ Dave said.
‘I’ll walk, thank you,’ Melanie said icily.
Kevin and Candace nodded in agreement.