My evening with Jack was relaxing and intimate. The ebb and flow of our routine resembled something I’d seen with couples who had been together for many years. I even broached the topic with Jack, mentioning that we were like an old married couple. I blushed, and he stopped his preparation of a salad to look into my eyes.
“How about we just move in together? We’re consenting adults, after all.”
I thought I had never been happier. “I think that sounds like a practical idea,” I responded levelly.
But Jack saw through my attempt to remain the mature adult, and swept me up into a kiss. I forgot about being grown up for a while. Afterward, we ate dinner and discussed our days at work, settling into the couch to watch a Facility-sponsored newscast. Getting caught up on current affairs was an entirely different experience in this city and era than it had been in mine. Death and destruction had always been the top stories where I came from, but here there was very little, if any, of that. I found myself missing the drama of my generation, but reprimanded myself for wanting more action and adventure in this new life. It was a relief that things had become so calm and livable in this world. Jack was massaging my already healed leg when I fell asleep in his lap, contented.
The next morning broke hazy and promised to be as warm as the previous one, but I didn’t have the anxiety I’d had the morning before. I enjoyed my coffee with Jack, who was looking through my computer at the video I had clumsily recorded. He was asking me what this plant or that bird was, and I found myself having to stretch my brain to remember all the proper names of the species. But it was fun, and all too soon it was time to part ways. I had donned another light, breathable tunic set and packed my bag with my devices.
“I won’t be late tonight,” Jack promised, his lips against mine.
We were still in an embrace when Adam emerged from his door.
“Oh, excuse me,” he said, his voice rough, as if he’d been up drinking all night.
I broke away from Jack to glance worriedly at Adam, and saw he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. His glasses were askew and his hair was bedraggled. His tunic set didn’t match, and, even though Adam had always struck me as a bit of a nerd’s nerd, his appearance and behavior rung some alarm bells in my head. I was about to ask him what was wrong, but he had already hurried down the hall to the elevator.
Jack shrugged. “He seems like an odd duck. Wonder what’s eating him.”
I put Adam’s mental state out of my own mind and made my way to the train after bidding Jack goodbye. I made a note to myself that I needed to begin my morning runs again, now that I knew what my schedule would be, and hoped Jack would join me. I got on the train and looked around for my team. Elizabeth and Luke were huddled over one of their computers at the rear. I made my way back and said hello, as casually as possible. I still didn’t want them thinking of me as some kind of superior.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” I asked.
“We’re going to try and track the entire bonobo community today, if that’s OK with you,” Elizabeth offered, her tentative manner still apparent.
“Great idea. Maybe we can get the entire troop on camera.” I smiled sunnily at her, hoping I was sufficiently encouraging.
I turned to Luke to ask him what he had planned, and his reply was brusque. “I’m working on a difficult tracking assignment. Did you have a question about something?”
I shrugged, unsure of how to respond. He began to ask me about my work in my previous life, if I had encountered any dangerous situations, and I thought what he needed most was a thrill. I told him of some friends of mine who had been adrenaline junkies and had jumped out of planes and gone bungee jumping off cliffs, and he was enthralled, yet still clearly distrustful of me. Elizabeth just listened with a slight smile on her lips. At the very least, I hoped I could provide some amusement for Luke. In the middle of my story, Nick and Marilyn showed up, and our conversation turned to the date Marilyn had had the night before. I was pretty interested to hear how young people socialized in this city, and she didn’t scrimp on details. I was enthralled with her slang and that odd accent I’d given up on trying to place. Things in the dating department seemed the same, with social awkwardness abounding as well as the usual pressures that always surfaced on dates. We passed the time easily on the train that sped us toward the jungle. Once we arrived we found Cayman waiting for us in the same spot he’d been in the day before, and it was good to see his friendly face again. The team thought it would be amusing to see if I could still drive a car, but I demurred. Although I was eager to, the last thing I needed to do was crash the thing into a tree or do something to erode my newly gained respect among the team members.
“I promise I’ll drive it soon, OK? Trust me, it’s a skill you don’t want to test right now,” I said laughingly.
“OK, but when you do, we’re all taking bets on how far you go before crashing,” Nick joked.
We made it unscathed to our observation station, and I found myself champing at the bit to get out into the forest to see what we could find. Elizabeth seemed to want me to take the lead, and I did so with more confidence than the day before. This was what I was good at: tracking.
Our computers at the ready, we set out on the path we had taken the day before. The others had gone in their own directions, wishing us luck. Our soft shoes made no noise in the brush, and I had warned Elizabeth about talking at all this time. I was examining the bushes for possible tool use by the bonobos, but hadn’t found anything yet. Elizabeth touched my shoulder to point upward, and there was the rascally lesula poised above us on a branch, but he didn’t give a warning chatter as he did the day before. He also didn’t throw anything at us and I took that as a good sign. We quietly filmed him, and he watched us with intent, human-like eyes. I raised my hand in a greeting to him, and he mirrored the movement before taking off into the foliage. I raised my eyebrows at Elizabeth, silently asking her if he’d mimicked any of the team prior to this. She shrugged. We had filmed it, though, and that was a prize, to be sure.
We continued on through the forest, pulling back branches for each other and keeping an eye on the dark earth for snakes or anything else that might live there. We topped a crest and were looking down into a little valley when we stopped short. There before us was the bonobo community, perhaps in its entirety. We hunkered down and held our breath, waiting to see if any of them had sensed us. They were mostly in positions of repose, but there were a couple of youngsters rambling around the adults. I counted: There were eight bonobos, and they were magnificent and healthy. Their robust bodies were something I had never thought I’d see in my career.
Elizabeth was moving her computer around the panorama, and I followed suit. We hadn’t spoken a word to each other yet, and in my attempt to remain perfectly still I felt a light sweat of exertion break out on my brow. I settled into a crouch and we began to observe, filming all the while. And the little scene playing out before us was enthralling: entirely unhabituated primates interacting with one another in their natural element. There were three adult females, three adult males, and two juveniles, one of which was the young male we had seen yesterday. Perhaps they had just eaten, as now the adults were grooming one another and allowing the juveniles to chase each other around the little clearing. Bonobo males were less aggressive than their chimpanzee cousins, and the females were the ones usually in power, but I saw no conflict or ensuing conflict resolution occurring here. This was normal for them, however, and I didn’t expect we’d see much conflict during our time observing them.
Elizabeth and I listened closely for communication between the animals, but, aside from some gentle hooting at the youngsters, they were mostly quiet. I was assessing their weights, coats, and sexual maturity while Elizabeth did the same with her device. A slight breeze picked up, and we were looking up to see if it was going to rain when our scents were carried downwind to the valley. The females became alert first, then the males. Ours was a scent they did not know, and it was enough to get them moving. I held my hand up to Elizabeth; we would not be following them today. This had been enough. Frightening them was not on the menu. We waited till they gathered up the young ones and ambled off into the brush before we stood up and congratulated each other quietly. Over the ensuing days we would track their schedules and come to know each bonobo’s personality and their role within the community, as well as its hierarchy. But that would take time, and time we had plenty of.
We walked back through the winding trail to the station, discussing our strategy for the next day, barely noticing the mosquitoes that had come out in full force after a light rain. I thought of how good it was not to have to worry about malaria or any other jungle illness as I aimlessly swatted bugs away. We were still filming the treetops when a sound like no other I had ever heard before ripped through the brush like a serrated knife. It was far off, but the reverberations of it thrummed through my ears and through my entire body. We stopped short, and I reflexively reached an arm out to protect Elizabeth. The roar had been animal, surely. But it had also had a human quality to it, reminiscent of a woman screaming in terror. Every hair on the back of my neck had stood up, and I saw Elizabeth had crouched into a position of self-defense.
“It’s OK, it must have been a mile or so away from where we are,” I reassured her, although I felt none of the confidence of my words. She was scanning her device through the trees, aiming it in the direction of the sound.
“What was that?” she asked, and I could only shake my head in response.
It hadn’t been any sort of big cat I was familiar with, certainly not in this part of the Congo. We stood still for another minute, waiting for the sound to repeat, but it didn’t seem as if it would. We began walking again toward the station, where we would input the sound into the main console and see if it could tell us what species it had been. We didn’t speak during the rest of the walk but hurried along, Elizabeth looking over her shoulder as if something was in pursuit. Maybe the others had heard it as well or would have insight. I reminded myself I was still a stranger in a strange land, and maybe there had been some new species introduced into this ecosystem that hadn’t been here previously. But the sound had rattled me to my core, and I didn’t feel like a fearless leader anymore.
I heard Elizabeth sigh in relief at the sight of the station, and I felt safer too. My response to the sudden noise had surprised me, because I’d had plenty of close encounters with dangerous animals in the past. And what had it been about this particular sound that made us think it signified danger? Perhaps it had been the primal quality about it, but there were other species whose calls were a lot like a person screaming. Deep within the reptilian part of my brain, the fight-or-flight response was lit, and I was still high on the adrenaline. We hurried over to the console, and Elizabeth hooked up her device to it. I watched her hands move swiftly over the screen, and images flashed by. She commanded the console to pull up the audio from her device, and the sound was repeated in the small space. I had been prepared to hear it again, but it still unnerved me. We were flashing through a number of species that the computer had brought up as possible matches when we heard the others arrive. Their faces ranged from concerned to blanched white with fear. Nick was leading them, and didn’t bother to ask if we’d heard the cry. They came over to the console and began heatedly debating what animal could have produced such a sound.
“It was probably a wounded big cat, you guys,” Marilyn offered, her voice quavering slightly.
“Are you crazy? That wasn’t feline in nature, not in the least. No wonder you were at the bottom of our class at university,” Luke said indignantly, but I could tell he was also scared.
After several minutes of argument a number of theories had been formulated. But something told me none of them were right. My mind flashed to Jack telling me about the girl from the jungle who had shown up at his clinic. I blurted the story out to the others, knowing it was relevant information.
“Yeah, but what exactly did this girl see out here?” Luke asked, obviously challenging the veracity of my claim.
“I don’t know, maybe she didn’t tell anyone exactly. Jack, my boyfriend, didn’t see her again after his shift.”
“Well that’s not very helpful, is it?” Luke asked defensively, his eyes wary and lingering on mine. I could tell he was already blaming me for this intrusion into our day.
“What are we going to do about going out there again? We’ve got a lot of work to do; I only just found some pygmy hippos this morning after looking for days,” Marilyn complained, and they all looked at me for guidance.
I quickly calculated in my mind the risk of our all going out again with an unknown animal, a possible predator, in the dense foliage. I took a hard line, and said that we all knew there were risks to our work in a jungle. I decided to tell them about the time I unintentionally came upon a pride of lions in my previous life, and soon they were relaxed enough to laugh at my antics.
We settled down enough to eat our lunches and plan what we would do for the rest of the day. Elizabeth was still being very quiet, with a tight look around her eyes, but I thought for the most part my team had taken things in stride. Nick told us of an okapi, a relative of the giraffe, he had found in a ditch with what looked to be a broken or sprained leg. He had trained as a veterinarian for several years before switching to conservation biology, and thought it was appropriate for us to try and set the leg and help the animal out. We agreed, and set out into the forest again. We walked tentatively but I made an effort to take the lead and put on a brave face. All the while, though, my mind was racing, trying to recreate that terrifying call. What on this earth could it have been? None of my memories provided any comfort or comparison.
We soon came upon the miserable animal, and we all climbed into the ditch to set about helping it. It took a group effort to calm the creature with some injectable sedatives while Nick worked on examining and setting the leg. It was indeed broken, and we worried for its chances in the jungle, but the best we could do was give it a fighting chance. We were all sweating with exertion, creating a slope in the muddy earth so the animal could haul itself out. Our minds were occupied, and, after a couple of hours of teamwork, the animal limped its way out of the shallow hole, and we congratulated each other.
“I need a beer.” Nick proclaimed, and we all laughed in agreement. It had been a good team bonding experience, one I felt encouraged by.
Cayman would be returning to pick us up soon, and we were muddy and tired. But I watched everyone closely and didn’t think our earlier fear would dampen the mood for the next day. As long as it didn’t happen again, I corrected myself. I looked forward to seeing Jack so I could perhaps get some feedback from him. Maybe he’d learned more about the girl who had been at his clinic. Maybe Marilyn was onto something, and it was an earlier species of leopard that the planet hadn’t been home to for several million years. We were inhabiting the creation of an alien species that might have decided animals long extinct should be present once more. But while that didn’t make any sense, and there was no proof of that elsewhere in the jungle, I had to hope my theory held some truth. Because what else could it be?
Cayman arrived on time and noted our diminished spirits, but didn’t comment. Instead he happily chatted about his own day, and I sensed we all were grateful for his sunny attitude. Marilyn was busy fixing her hair, although I hated to tell her that what we all needed was a shower. I tried scraping some of the mud from my arms, but to no avail. I sighed and relaxed in my seat, looking forward to the train ride home, where Jack would be waiting. I thought some more about his proposition that we live together. It really was the most practical solution to our living situation. I wondered if it was allowed, for two clones to live together. But I couldn’t imagine the Facility having any issue with it. We were adults, after all, no matter how we had come to be created.
The train seemed faster than usual, although I knew it was just my desire to be home and safely in Jack’s arms that made it seem speedier. I wished my team a good night and hurried back to the apartment. I decided to take a shower first before Jack arrived for the evening. As I was in the shower scrubbing the day off my skin, I noticed a very fine tremor still in my hands. The fear had faded, but it wasn’t forgotten.