block that was stuccoed and painted white. The design had a Spanish
flare to complement the Colonial architecture of the town.
The enormous main building looked more like an airport terminal than a
primate housing facility. Its front facade was three stories tall and
perhaps five hundred feet long. From the back of the structure projected
multiple wings that literally disappeared into the canopy of vegetation.
Several smaller buildings faced the main one. Kevin wasn’t sure of their
purpose except for two buildings in the center. One housed the complex’s
contingent of Equatoguinean soldiers. Just like their comrades in the
town square, these soldiers were aimlessly sprawled about with their
rifles, cigarettes, and Cameroonean beer. The other building was the
headquarters of a group that Kevin found even more disturbing than the
teenage soldiers. These were Moroccan mercenaries who were part of the
Equatoguinean presidential guard. The local president didn’t trust his
own army.
These foreign special-forces commandos dressed in inappropriate and
ill-fitting dark suits and ties, with obvious bulges from their shoulder
holsters. Every one of them had dark skin, piercing eyes, and a heavy
mustache. Unlike the soldiers they were rarely seen, but their presence
was felt like a sinister evil force.
The sheer size of the GenSys animal center was a tribute to its success.
Recognizing the difficulties attached to primate biomedical research,
GenSys had sited their facility in Equatorial Africa where the animals
were indigenous. This move cleverly sidestepped the industrialized
West’s inconvenient web of import/export restrictions associated with
primates, as well as the disruptive influence of animal-rights zealots.
As an added incentive, the foreign exchange-starved local government and
its venal leaders were inordinately receptive to all a company like
GenSys had to offer. Obstructive laws were conveniently overlooked or
abolished. The legislature was so accommodating that it even passed a
law making interference with GenSys a capital offense.
The operation proved to be extraordinarily successful so quickly that
GenSys expanded it to serve as a convenient spot for other biotechnology
companies, especially pharmaceutical giants, to out-source their primate
testing. The growth shocked the GenSys economic forecasters. From every
point of view, the Zone was an impressive financial success.
Kevin parked next to another four-wheel-drive vehicle. He knew it was
Dr. Edwards’s from the bumper sticker that said: Man is an Ape. He
pushed through the double doors with ‘Veterinary Center’ stenciled on
the glass. Dr. Edwards’s office and examining rooms were just inside the
door.
Martha Blummer greeted him. ‘Dr. Edwards is in the chimpanzee wing,’ she
said. Martha was the veterinary secretary. Her husband was one of the
supervisors at the motor pool.
Kevin set off for the chimpanzee wing. It was one of the few areas in
the building he was at all acquainted with. He went through a second
pair of double doors and walked the length of the central corridor of
the veterinary hospital. The facility looked like a regular hospital,
down to its employees who were all dressed in surgical scrubs, many with
stethoscopes draped over their necks.
A few people nodded, others smiled, and some said hello to Kevin. He
returned the greetings self-consciously. He didn’t know any of these
people by name.
Another pair of double doors brought him into the main part of the
building that housed the primates. The air had a slightly feral odor.
Intermittent shrieks and howls reverberated in the corridor. Through
doors with windows of wire-embedded glass, Kevin caught glimpses of
large cages where monkeys were incarcerated. Outside the cages were men
in coveralls and rubber boots, pulling hoses.
The chimpanzee wing was one of the ells that extended from the back of
the building into the forest. It, too, was three stories tall. Kevin
entered on the first floor. Immediately the sounds changed. Now there
was as much hooting as shrieking.
Cracking a door off the central corridor, Kevin got the attention of one
of the workers in the coveralls. He asked about Dr. Edwards and was told
the vet was in the bonobo unit.
Kevin found a stairwell and climbed to the second floor. He thought it
was a coincidence that Dr. Edwards happened to be in the bonobo unit
just when Kevin was looking for him. It was through bonobos that Kevin