Amir Ngeze watched his man disappear behind Yves. He let himself chuckle at the boy’s naïveté. He wanted so badly to have his father set free, he would continue to do anything. It was too bad the kid hadn’t figured out yet that his father was already long dead.
Ngeze pushed his chair back and stood up. He looked out toward the top of the distant mountain. It had been a long time. What exactly did the Americans want to know about the Fossey woman now?
64
The Jeep’s engine roared loudly as it crawled up a steep embankment and around another washed-out section of road. Overhead, the towering mahogany and kapok trees shrouded the area under dense canopy for as far as they could see. Rich green plants leaned out from the edge of the dirt road, their leaves slapping the sides of the vehicle as they passed.
Now on DeeAnn’s lap, Dulce eagerly leaned out the side window laughing when brushed by a passing leaf or small branch. Her eyes caught sight of a cluster of bright pink bromeliad flowers, before they disappeared again behind another wave of green flora.
But to Dulce, the excitement was not just in what she saw. It was in what she smelled—a symphony of scents and odors that seemed to reawaken her senses. Sensations that her olfactory system remembered, even if the young gorilla’s memory did not.
Even Dexter seemed mesmerized by their surroundings. He sat, cautiously, half perched on John Clay’s shoulder with his thin gray arms resting on the window strip.
It had taken two hours to reach the first crest of the Volcanoes National Park and nearly another to spot the first glimpse of the snowcapped peak of Mount Karisimbi.
Mommy. Dulce hooted, turning back and motioning with her hands in front of her. We home. We home.
Clay leaned in closer. “Did you ever meet Dian Fossey?”
DeeAnn nodded. “Once. In college. She was giving a talk, and a friend invited me. To be honest, I’d never even considered this kind of work until then.” A deep pothole shook the Jeep from side to side before she continued. “I remember thinking that I’d never seen anyone so passionate about what they were doing before. I even got to talk to her for a few minutes. But she wouldn’t have remembered me. It was after that when my friend and I started following her work. Fascinating woman.”
Clay smiled. “Like you and Ali, I think.”
DeeAnn let out a small chuckle and turned away, looking out the window with Dulce.
Several minutes later, Janvier leaned forward in the front seat, peering through the dirt-splattered windshield. When they came around another tight bend, he bolted upright. “Stop! Stop here!” he shouted over the engine.
Caesare slowed and pulled to a stop against the inside embankment, leaving just enough space for Janvier and Clay to open their doors.
“Is this it?”
“No. The cabin is far ahead, but this is where we can get in.”
All four climbed out. Dulce, rather than reaching for DeeAnn, readily climbed down onto the dirt road and touched it gingerly with her fingers. She sniffed several times and scampered across the road to the opposite side, looking down the mountainside through the trees.
“What does it smell like, Dulce?”
After the translation, she grinned up at Caesare. Smell happy.
The exchange was the first time Janvier had realized what was happening, and he was immediately taken aback. “Y-you can talk to them?”
“To her. Yes,” DeeAnn replied.
The teenager stepped forward in amazement and studied the strange vest. “How?”
“It’s a computer,” Caesare explained. It was a tremendous simplification, yet it seemed to satisfy the youth who nodded and continued watching.
Behind them, Dexter also crossed the road and approached Caesare. He lowered his arm and the monkey promptly climbed up onto his shoulder.
“He’s really beginning to trust you,” DeeAnn declared.
“I wouldn’t hold it against him,” Clay joked over his shoulder. “I’ve made the same mistake multiple times.”
Caesare squinted at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be the strong silent type?”
“I forgot.” Clay noticed an odd look on DeeAnn’s face. “Everything okay?”
She moved several steps back and motioned both men toward her. When they stepped forward, she lowered her voice. “I think I should remind you of the other reason I didn’t want to come back here.”
“Which reason was that?”
“The poaching. We talked about it, but I need to re-emphasize just how serious things are here. In Rwanda, gorilla poaching isn’t just bad, it’s really bad. Probably as bad as any place on the planet.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
DeeAnn took a deep breath. “We’re talking about a very bad place, where poaching ends and outright murder begins.”
“I thought poaching was for capture?” Caesare asked.
“Some of it is.”
“Then what would be the purpose of just killing them outright?”
DeeAnn shook her head. “Primarily for their meat. But as bad as that is, it brings certain… consequences. That we all need to stay aware of.”
“Such as?” Clay questioned.
“The other reason I didn’t want to come here is that if we see other gorillas in the wild, things may not go well.”
“And not well means what exactly?”
DeeAnn glanced past them at Dulce, who was playing with the branches of a small kapok tree. “Dulce has not experienced other gorillas before, at least not that she can remember. And certainly not in the wild. I don’t know how she’s going to react. But that’s not the part I’m worried about. It’s what happens when they see her. It’s one thing to run into a female adult out here. Even a mother with her young. But it’s very different if we see a silverback.”
“A male?”
“Exactly. The males are the protectors. And they’re not stupid. They are intimately aware of what’s happening to them up here. They understand who’s doing the killing. Which means that if a silverback spots us with Dulce, he will most likely conclude that she has been kidnapped. And he’ll try to recover her.”
“So he might attack?”
DeeAnn shook her head. “Not might. Gorillas fight to the death to protect their young. If he thinks Dulce has been kidnapped, there’s no question that he’ll attack.”
Caesare frowned. “Crap.”
“And believe me, a silverback is the last thing you want to fight. They are not just strong, they’re Superman strong. Strong enough to literally rip arms off if they get angry enough. And they can run much faster than you think.”
“How fast?”
“Let’s put it this way. Unless there’s a significant distance between us, we won’t have a chance.”
Caesare folded his arms and glared at Clay. “Okay, I don’t want to sound negative, but this trip is really losing its allure for me.”
Clay turned to DeeAnn. “Remind me exactly why we bought Dulce?”
“Because I had to,” she replied. “Once we leave, I don’t plan on coming back here. Ever again. And although Dulce is young, this is still her first home. This is where she came from. As difficult as it is for me, the choice ultimately belongs to her.”
“Plus,” DeeAnn added, “there is a chance Dulce and Dexter can help us. And we’ll need all the help we can get.”
After a thoughtful pause, Clay nodded and turned back to the teen. “Where to from here, Janvier?”
“That way. A path in the trees. We get in from the other side.”
The path was about a half mile through dense rain forest. Brushing through broad, hanging leaves that were still wet, everyone’s clothes gradually becoming soaked as they pushed through. It wasn’t long before they heard the sound of a waterfall.