55
The Mi-17 pilot reduced power on his cyclic and gradually eased back on the stick in front of him, slowing his approach. Using his pedals, he rotated slightly to his right, giving him a better view of the car as it rested just under the edge of the trees.
He smiled to himself. The girl wasn’t even smart enough to get completely under the protection of the canopy, where he wouldn’t be able to use his infrared.
Her dumb luck had clearly run out.
With the thumping of the helicopter drawing closer behind her, Li Na remained still, almost hovering, and staring strangely at the area around her.
Covered in brown decaying leaves and needles, the ground felt soft underfoot. The tall green trees overhead shaded most of the area, providing not only cover but a cool crispness in the air. But something felt different.
The branches, still covered in leaves, fluttered in the light breeze, moving slowly — a rhythmic back and forth. The grasses, bushes, and even the rocks felt strangely dissimilar. Even the sound of the helicopter seemed to have changed. Reverberating with a pitch that made them sound slower, or heavier.
Li Na began to waver and reached forward to steady herself against the fallen tree. Yet when her hand touched the deteriorating bark, even it felt different.
But far more difficult to understand was that the billions of tiny bacteria inside her body were slowly and very methodically changing tiny areas of her DNA. And in the process reawakening genes that had been dormant in the human body… for thousands of years.
56
It was called “crate training.” A task left to DeeAnn Draper who was standing under her own tree with a completely different set of problems. Keeping her eyes on Dulce and Dexter, she adjusted the small computer on her chest and approached the primates — both of whom were playing under a stream of water from a garden hose.
Crate training was the way most zoo animals were transported. Weeks of conditioning were involved to train the animals to feel comfortable inside a special shipping crate built for the trip.
But DeeAnn’s goal was not to train her animals to like it. Her challenge was just to train them not to hate it. Dulce’s first trip aboard a plane had been to South America to help search for someone. The second was to return to the same area in search of Dexter. And neither of those trips had ended well. In fact, it was a miracle that one of them didn’t have a nervous breakdown during either trip. And Dexter hadn’t fared much better.
The result was a reaction to cages that was nothing short of terrifying. And it was DeeAnn’s job to coax them in, yet again.
She had already started the discussions with Dulce, but each time she broached the subject, it left her with an uneasy feeling as to just how exactly the gorilla would do. It also brought to light Dulce’s growing hunger for the out, as she called it — which was gorilla-speak for the “outside,” a simple transliteration, but one that left DeeAnn with a twinge of guilt. Dulce wanted to be with her, there was no doubt about that. But the gorilla was still decidedly and undeniably captive.
Crate training to date had not been nearly as successful as she had hoped, which left her now hoping for a small miracle.
As she approached the two, she pushed the thought from her head and smiled at Dulce. The gorilla was snorting and playing happily beneath the flow of water from a garden hose. She had become fascinated with the emergence of clear water from such a small thing. But after DeeAnn sprayed her for the first time, she became absolutely obsessed — even learning how to turn it on and off by herself.
Yet after several uses, it was DeeAnn who was captivated when Dulce moved from merely playing in the water to actually cleaning herself with it. This was fascinating because Dulce had never seen another human shower themselves.
Now DeeAnn stood still, amused, watching as the small gorilla used her free hand to splash Dexter. The smaller primate returned the interaction with an expression similar to disdain. He reached up and rubbed the top of his small head dry, leering at his playmate.
“Dulce,” said DeeAnn though the vest.
The translation was lost to a sudden, loud snort from Dulce.
DeeAnn repeated. “Dulce.”
“Mommy,” she responded with a smile, lowering the hose. She was nearly waist-high and peered innocently upward with her bright hazel eyes.
“Turn the water off, Dulce.”
After a long a pause that had DeeAnn wondering if Dulce had heard her, the gorilla dropped the hose and waddled several feet to the faucet. She then carefully twisted it closed with her oversized hands.
Once the water was off, Dulce turned and smiled pleasingly at DeeAnn. Water off.
“Good girl.” She stepped forward and retrieved a hand towel from a tree where it was drying. DeeAnn then bent down and used it to rub the top of Dulce’s head, leaving a dry tuft of fur sticking up. “It’s time to go, honey.”
Dulce’s smile immediately returned. We go. We happy.
She peered over Dulce’s head at Dexter, who was gnawing on a green stem, watching them. “And Dexter?”
Yes. Dexter. We happy go. We help.
“Thank you, Dulce.” She swallowed, wishing she could leave them there. “But… we have to fly. Again.”
On metal?
“Yes. On the metal.”
Dulce stared at her as if contemplating. Fly like bird.
“Yes,” she grinned. “Fly like a bird.”
Dulce turned and motioned to Dexter. He didn’t reply.
No cage.
DeeAnn nodded in agreement. “No cage.”
Her reply was troubling. Because DeeAnn knew eventually they would both have to be in a container again, at least for a short time — which left her words insincere, at best.
The Luiz Muñoz Marín was the largest airport on the island. As the Airbus A300 thundered from out of the gray cloud cover over the airfield, its glowing landing lights were the first to be seen. They were immediately followed by the plane’s landing gear, and seconds later, a long and dark purple-painted underbelly. The rest of the Airbus appeared white with large block lettering displayed prominently on the side of its fuselage.
Five of the world’s most famous and unmistakable letters: FEDEX.
It was the company best known for the delivery of many of the world’s most important packages. And less known was that the company was also used by many researchers and zoologists to ship crate-trained animals worldwide.
On the ground, waiting on the tarmac under a light drizzle and fading daylight, Steve Caesare glanced at his watch. He then looked to John Clay, standing next to him. “Right on time.”
Clay nodded and scanned their surroundings. They were at the far end of the airport, near the shipping terminal, where there would be significantly less activity. The fewer eyes the better.
They watched the FedEx airliner disappear behind the top of a small building. Clay then scanned the paved roads again. “Hmm.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll be here,” Caesare reassured. “This ain’t gonna to be easy for any of them, especially DeeAnn. I think she’s struggling with some things.”
“I know.”
Several minutes later, the aircraft appeared again, rolling toward the terminal, where several of the airport’s ground crew guided it to a stop. A tall, motorized stairway followed and was pushed into place. Then the aircraft’s passenger door was swung open by someone inside.