Chapter 29 The Jungle Is Neutral
Wind whips across the deck as the boat heads toward L'Isle Barjot. It's windier than usual, and scattered grey clouds block the sun intermittently. Normally Doug has to handle the sails alone, but today he has several capable hands to assist.
"Looks like a storm might be coming in," Jack shouts, enjoying the work.
"Might be," Doug agrees, speaking loudly to be heard above the wind. "Not supposed to be, by the forecast," he adds with a grin.
"We'll make good time," Jack comments, grinning back.
Indeed, early afternoon finds them snugly ensconced in a sheltered harbor. High above them the tops of tall palm trees whip in the wind, but the thick vegetation stills the air at sea level. The surface of the water is only slightly choppy, almost calm. They drop anchor and quickly load two dinghies with equipment and tools, all carefully wrapped in weatherproof tarps. The dinghies are equipped with outboard motors.
"Invigorating," Annetka remarks as they race over the surface of the water. "It's like riding in a convertible," she adds, trying to gather her long hair in her hands so it won't be tangled by the breeze. Zoe smiles and nods, trying to protect her own hair likewise.
The short trip to the beach passes quickly.
The men assemble six foot long poles from sturdy plastic sections, like plumbing pipe, and lash them together with rope to form an A-shaped frame like an artist's easel, tying leather strips at the apex for handles. They throw a canvas tarp across the frame and lash it into place, forming a plains Indian style travois. That done, they test its strength by shaking it back and forth and jumping on it. It holds up well. They repeat the exercise to make a second travois. Onto these conveyances they pack the computer equipment and tools from the dinghies, finally lashing everything securely into place.
"Ready to go," Doug announces, glancing quickly out to sea at the impending weather.
"This way," Snake indicates with a nod toward the road inland up the hillside.
Baldwin takes the other handle at the apex of the travois Snake has grabbed. Jack and Zeph together man the other frame, leaving Doug with nothing to do but carry a tool bag. The women carry lightweight beach bags holding everyone's spare clothes and personal effects.
Dragging the frames over the sand quickly, they reach the paved road in a few minutes. Doug calls a halt. The others think he wants to adjust the cargo, but in fact he rapidly affixes wheels to the ends of the poles. Snake smiles. They take off at a trot up the road, hoping to make it to the village before the storm comes in.
When they reach the point where the blacktop road turns into a dirt path, they pause again and remove the wheels, returning them to Doug's tool bag. Immediately they press on into the jungle. Within a few minutes the beach and the wind are just memories. The jungle seems darker than they remember it, but apart from that they find no indication of the inclement weather they know is coming in quickly behind them.
Halfway up the mountainside, Jomo and a group of young local men meet them.
"Jomo!" Baldwin greets him almost gleefully. "Good to see you!"
"Seems like I be rescuing you again," Jomo jokes. His group of locals smile. "Come on, we help you carry this stuff now. It be gonna rain soon," he adds, still jovial.
The young men gather around the sides of the stretcher-like travois and pick them up like pall-bearers. Baldwin relinquishes his position to a much fitter replacement. Zeph does the same. Even Jack and Snake turn over the job quickly. One of the fit young jungle dwellers offers to take Doug's tool bag, and Doug doesn't protest. The same man takes the beach bags from the two women, grinning sheepishly at them as he does so. Together the enlarged group commence at a quick trot up the mountainside. The locals can go as quickly carrying the equipment as Baldwin can go without it. Indeed the city dwellers have trouble keeping up on the steeper inclines.
About an hour later they arrive at the village. The city dwellers are exhausted but happy. The local men are smiling and joking with each other, not apparently tired by the trip at all.
"Where you want this stuff to be?" Jomo asks.
"For Azacca," Baldwin answers. Jomo nods and his smile becomes even broader, something Baldwin would not have thought possible. Their seemingly inexhaustible capacity for good humor astonishes him as much now as it did the first time he saw them. Then again, he reflects, why not? Life here seems good, and they're certainly healthy. In many ways it's an idyllic existence. Not the life he wants for himself, but he can see the appeal.
Jomo directs the others from his contingent to carry the equipment into Azacca's hut, without stopping to ask Azacca whether he wants it. As the cargo is carried into the doorway, the medicine man himself emerges from it.
"So, Bald Eagle. You return for another visit. You like my company so much? Or you want something again?" Azacca inquires.
"Azacca, meet Doug," Baldwin introduces the only member of the party who hasn't already made the old man's acquaintance. "Doug is helping us to distribute the cure in the north."
Azacca nods. "Come inside," he says, with a gesture that encompasses the entire group. "It's going to rain, you know."
"Yeah, it sure looks like it," Doug says, looking up at the sky.
This strikes Azacca as very funny, and he laughs as they all duck into his home. A minute after he stops laughing, the laughter overtakes him again. "Looks like rain to you, too, does it?" he asks, eyes twinkling, looking at Doug. He laughs for a third time.
"Uh, yeah," Doug agrees, not sure how to interpret the laughter. He decides his remark must be funny in the same way as happens when a child states an observation of something obvious. "I can't be sure, of course," he adds, calculating that it might provoke more laughter.
At that Azacca chuckles and looks at him again, eyes twinkling.
"I like you, Doug. You're a very funny guy," the old man says. "So, what brings you out to our island in this weather?" He turns from looking at Doug to look at Baldwin.
"We want to set you up with some computer equipment," Baldwin says plainly.
"Like a telephone," Snake adds for explanation. "Telephone with a television together. Then we don't be having to come all this way up here to talk. We be seeing you on the computer."
Azacca looks at Snake.
"Takes electricity though," Snake adds when the other man makes no response except to stare.
"Okay," Azacca says, and nods. "Let's give it a try." He turns to Baldwin and asks, "You planning to set it up in here?"
Baldwin gestures towards Doug. "This is really Doug's equipment. I was planning to let him set it up, unless he asks for some help. As Snake points out, it'll need electricity. Is this a good place? Will it be in the way here? It needs to be indoors out of the rain."
"Might be better to put it in the bicycle shed where we generate the electricity," Azacca decides.
"Yeah, that's good," Baldwin agrees.
Jomo goes to the door and waves to some of the young men to come back. In a few minutes the boxes have disappeared and been relocated to the bicycle shed.
"You want to do this now?" Azacca asks. "Or after dinner? You're spending the night, right?" He addresses the question to Baldwin, but then he looks at Doug, as if expecting Doug to make some comical reply.
Not wanting to disappoint, Doug responds, "Thanks for offering, because, you know, I think it's going to rain."
Azacca chuckles. He nods and gestures to Jomo in a barely perceptible way, and Jomo is off to make arrangements for the guests.
"If you want to set up equipment," Azacca tells his guests, "Let's get started with that now, while it's still daylight and the ground is still dry." So saying, he walks back outside, expecting the others to follow.
They walk over to the large hut that Snake and Jack think of as the bicycle shed, but Baldwin and Zeph think of as the generator shed, where electricity is generated by peddling a stationary bicycle. Inside they see the equip
ment on the floor, still securely wrapped for transit.
"Is there something we can use as a table for the computer?" Doug asks as he squats down and starts to unwrap the tarps. Zeph and Snake join him. Jack helps Azacca move a table to an advantageous position near the center of the room, where it will get light from the windows without being in much danger of getting wet.
"Those are shutters we close over the windows when it rains," the old medicine man points out, gesturing towards them as he speaks. "The electronics should be safe here. We never get hurricanes here, or anyway we never have before. We get high winds when they pass, but it hasn't ever knocked out any buildings."
"You speak pretty good English, for a medicine man," Doug observes, unpacking components and cables, which he sets on the table.
Snake brings over the end of an extension cord. Doug's eyes follow the cord back to its other end, where it links into a big box attached to the bicycle apparatus. He shrugs. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, it'll mean another trip to bring up a generator.
"Zack went to school," Snake informs him. "He don't spend his whole life here in the village."
Doug nods. "Studied medicine, probably?" he enquires, looking at Azacca while plugging connecting cords into their appropriate sockets.
Azacca nods.
"Good thing for us you did," Doug says with a grin. Azacca returns the smile.
Doug plugs the computer power cords into the sockets of a surge protector, and hands the plug end of the surge protector to Snake. "We can just plug it in, I guess?" Doug inquires. Snake has anointed himself the local electrical expert by bringing the cord over to the table.
Snake nods and makes the final connection. The computer starts to power up, but Snake jumps on the bicycle and starts peddling anyway, to regenerate the supply.
"We won't attract lightning with this?" Doug wonders.
Azacca laughs. "We might," he allows, "but we never have before. I run a refrigerator and a ham radio from here. We've never had a problem. Then again," he adds with a grin, "We don't get a lot of storms. This could be the one that does it."
Doug smiles back at the old man, and shakes his head. Azacca laughs.
"So, what do you want me to do with this fancy equipment you've brought out here?" Azacca asks, walking over to look at the startup screen. "Snake said something about Skype?"
"He did," Doug agrees. He goes through the motions of bringing up the Skype connection, glancing at Azacca frequently to make sure everything is being understood.
"So, who we going to talk to?" Azacca asks. "Looks like we're all here at this end of the call."
"Not all of us," Doug answers. "There's a girl back in the states that I've been trying to reach all day. Let's see if she's available. Unless you have someone else you want to call?" he adds, glancing at Azacca to see if that might get a laugh.
It gets a little smile and a head shake. Still smiling, the older man says, "No, let's call your girl, by all means."
Doug tries to put through a call to a computer in the storefront building in Wisconsin that serves as the Liberty Tea World Headquarters and Research Facility.
Miraculously, after a minute, Katrina connects.
"Doug!" She says perkily at the same time as he exclaims, "Kat!"
Both laugh. Several people in the room with Doug smile.
"I didn't expect you to answer! I've been trying to get you all day," Doug blurts out.
"What's the emergency?" Katrina asks, smiling like a child. Her eyelashes flutter for a second.
Doug feels a little embarrassed to admit his fears for her safety. He also still feels a bit afraid. "We were talking," he begins, "and Snake here pointed out that some of our formulas exist only in your head, and," he pauses for a second as he gathers the courage to hear himself say, "that makes you a target."
"A target?" she says, surprised, trying to keep a straight face. She says nothing for a minute, trying to be sensitive to his obvious concern, suppressing the urge to suggest "for a sentient virus? or, uh, fungus, was it?" She wins the battle to keep quiet, but loses the battle to suppress laughter. A little giggle comes out. "I'm sorry," she says immediately. "Of course it's an exposure. It bad business practice if nothing else. So what do you want me to do?"
"Email the recipes, I guess," Doug says sheepishly. "In our code, of course."
"Of course. Shall I send them to Albert and Zeph? Or ... ?" she trails off, waiting for instructions as to how to set the man's mind at rest.
Baldwin hands Doug a sheet of paper. He looks at it. It contains several email addresses. He holds it up to the camera.
"Well, all right, then," Katrina says, "I can read that." she continues, speaking slowly, moving around as she does. "I will send you those formulas right now. There are copies on the disk here, in code of course, and I just have to append them to an email, which I can do on this laptop here." She points the camera briefly toward a laptop on the same desk as the main computer, then turns it back to focus again on her face. She smiles. "Okay?" she asks, moving her hands as she talks.
"Okay," Doug answers, watching her.
"One email, cc to all five of those addresses," she says. "I'm hitting send," she intones, looking at the camera, holding one hand lifted over the enter key.
"Yes. Send," Doug agrees, and her hand falls.
"There, it's done," she says with a grin. "Feel happier now, Douglas Christopher?"
"I do," Doug agrees. "Speaking of which, you seem to be in a very good mood yourself."
"I am," she allows. "Charlie went to the hospital this morning."
The others laugh, and she turns a bit pink with embarrassment. "With a headache," she explains. "He said he felt like he had a hangover. He seemed almost a little amnesiac, too," she adds. "I really think he's just embarrassed about the things he's been doing while, um, under the influence, so to speak."
"Probably so," Doug allows. "I know I would be."
Katrina laughs. "So anyway, he'll probably be in the hospital for tonight at least, and then who knows. I'm planning to spend the night here and get some work done. Not just Liberty Tea work, I use the computer for research for school too. Actually I've been spending the night here a lot. It's easier to concentrate. Then it gets late. And we have that cot set up. It's so easy just to stay, you know?"
Doug nods. "Yeah, Baldwin has a bed set up at the greenhouse too. Probably even has a cot in his lab, though I haven't seen it. So, you're happy because Charlie's recovering, then?"
"Besides that, distribution is looking up!" Katrina announces with enthusiasm. "Charlie gave a case of our tea to Marie Mallon. She then proceeded not only to give a few bottles to that lunatic right-wing Wright, her running mate; she also gave some to our current president, Sheppard. They all love it. The White House emailed us an order for twenty cases as soon as we have a bottling operation that can supply them, and Marie has given Charlie an informal assurance that if Wright gets elected they'll put in a standing order for it. Talk about a win-win scenario! I'd love for the LiberTEA party to lose the election, but they'll probably win, and we're good either way."
"Wow," Doug responds. "I better get that bottling operation operational."
"So, how come we're Skyping?" Katrina wants to know. "Are you at the greenhouse? Or on the boat? Phones not working?"
"In fact the phones have not been working for me today," Doug answers sheepishly, momentarily embarrassed about his earlier apprehension. "Maybe you just didn't pick up because you were at the hospital with Charlie, though, now that I think about it. We're actually on the island where the medicine man, the guru guy, lives. We brought the computer equipment from the boat up here, so we can have, you know, meetings, without coming up here."
"Okay, well, I haven't met him," Katrina answers. "You going to introduce us?"
"Yes. Azacca," Doug says, turning the camera eye towards the old man, who smiles and raises one hand slightly in greet
ing.
"Pleased to meet you," the girl says. "May I call you Zack? Or is it always Azacca?"
"Zack is fine," the old man agrees, and the girl smiles. "Pleased to meet you too," he adds.
After a pause, something else occurs to him. "If this is so we can have meetings," the medicine man says, turning to the others in the room, "There's something you might want to know about."
"That sounds ominous," Doug answers, as lightning flickers in the distance.
They wait, listening to see how far away the storm is. A minute later thunder cracks, distant but well audible. Azacca moves to close the shutters, but Jack takes care of it before he has gone two steps.
Azacca turns back to the assembled group. "There was a merchant ship docked in the harbor by the jungle a few days ago," he tells them, shaking his head as if preparing to deliver bad news. "It had a Japanese flag," he continues, "but the crew that came ashore were a motley group. Some of the men went down to watch them, see what they were up to. It turned out they were trapping animals."
"Did you talk to them about it?" Baldwin asks hollowly.
"Of course we did," Azacca says, his voice heavy. "But it turns out those big Spectral bats are worth a lot of money to the zoo in Japan."
"That's bad," Baldwin says flatly, suddenly tired. He feels blood draining from his face and looks around to see if there's a chair. There isn't. He breathes deeply and slowly, forcing himself to renew his strength. "You told them the bats are sick?"
"Of course we did. The young men did. Jomo was there. He speaks English. Some of the poachers spoke English too. They didn't believe us. Thought we were just trying to scare them away."
Zeph and Zoe sigh heavily at the same time. Annetka looks at Baldwin, then at the old man, waiting to hear more.
"They were armed," the old man explains, trying to make it simple for them to understand. "They had guns. We could have fought, but we couldn't have stopped them from getting at least a few of the specimens they wanted."
"A zoo in Japan?" Baldwin asks.
"No zoo needs that many bats," Azacca answers. "There must be more than one zoo. Maybe private collectors."
Again Baldwin feels a bit weak, but strengthens himself as well as he can. Annetka takes his hand, then grasps his arm. He puts his arm around her, drawing her close.
"Oh," Azacca adds, almost as an afterthought, "also they took several of the margay, the little tree leopards."
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