Pygmies
Rain—very heavy rain with thunder and lightning greeted everyone in the morning. The tents leaked around the arrows. Dr. Devine was the only one allowed to remove them since he wanted to study the poison on the tips. Expedition members began patching where the arrows had been and placed more shields on top of and next to the tents. As the rain continued, the mechanics worked to knock loose rocks on the side door to the cottage. The cottage’s front door opening to the blue hole appeared to not have been unsealed in a hundred years. Since divers would be using the steps, this large door was also being put to use.
Except in Bruny’s command tent, the activity was subdued because of the downpour. He had called the two anthropologists, Carol and Charlie, to discuss strategy on dealing with the area natives. Everyone was in agreement the quarry was a sacred site to them, therefore the group needed a proper method of showing respect for native beliefs. Bruny had been in contact with the land forces cutting their way through the jungle, and expected them to be at the quarry before dark. The interpreter for the Efe tribe, who was with the expedition, could hopefully call together a meeting with the natives. Bruny had brought with him a small loud speaker system. He was curious about the beliefs and habits of these forest people who had tried to kill everyone the night before.
Bruny inquired, “Tell me why you think the Efe are so protective of this place and how many different tribes of natives are we dealing with?”
“Two tribes. The Efe who are pygmies and the Lese who are normal sized natives. The Efe are one of the oldest races of humans on earth. Some say Efe bones go back ninety thousand years. Not much is known about their religion, but we can safely guess it is primitive. What I’ve read says they have a God, “Tore,” who created them, lost interest, and went off to live in the sky. Once they die their “Borupi,” or rhythm, is taken by a fly to Tore. They also recognize a jungle spirit they call “Jengi,” Charlie said.
“From what I know, this spot is a source of great danger. First on my list are the snakes around the blue hole and the pitchblende. I believe sometime in the past, natives tried to live here. They may have built huts right on top of the pitchblende, with devastating results. I understand they believe in witches, so they left the quarry to rid themselves of the witches. Maybe they fear anyone who enters is firing up the anger of a badass witch. The non-pygmy Lese tribe, who work in a symbiotic relationship with the Efe, believe pygmies have the power to find and dispose of witches. Maybe we could use the angle of telling the Efe and Lese we are removing witches from inside the quarry,” said Carol.
“Will you have to ride out on a broom and a pointy black hat to prove they’re leaving,” asked Sony, who had come in to listen. Carol smiled and gave him the finger.
“Keep that idea in mind for your sit-down pow-wow with their chief,” Bruny said. He dismissed their meeting to start another one with his mechanics about the equipment in the cottage.
Unless the steady rain slacked off, the men hiking through the jungle would not reach the quarry before dark. The geologists, in rain coats, were taking samples and heading back to their shelters. Carol and Charlie ran to collect shields, dolls, spears, and artifacts lining the walls. Both grabbed some objects to study and ran back to their respective tents. Everyone predicted the rain would not stop, as a foot of rain in a day was not abnormal for the Congo. Dry inside the stone cottage, the mechanics worked on a 180-year old steam engine that no one doubted these guys could fix.
Several miles upstream, Barbos Vieux had found a large clearing and had set the helicopter and plane down without incident. He had a total of eight people with him and four could pilot a plane, but only he and one other of his men could fly a helicopter. Flying the copter and plane in the best of conditions was tricky and most certainly impossible in a driving rain. The group of nine had set up small tents they had carried in their knapsacks. All were cramped and tired of a diet of energy bars and water. Barbos didn’t really have a plan other than to ambush the expedition when they were vulnerable. He did not have a specific time for the attack, and he would have to take into account the four vehicles he saw parked at the edge of the jungle plus all the people from the large helicopters. They had seen a few natives in the area and assumed there were more. He and his men couldn’t do anything in the rain except lie in their sleeping bags.
He thought about his brother and how they had worked together during the glory days of their drug empire. Jon Jon Vieux had been arrested the same time as Barbos when U.S. DEA agents infiltrated the ring and caught them at an airstrip in the Everglades right after a huge delivery of cocaine. The two Vieux brothers weren’t at the airstrip but were captured in Miami making a drug deal. Since there were no drugs on them, a conspiracy charge held up in court and they each got ten years. Jon Jon escaped without spending any time in big boy prison. He had a prison insider mess with some paperwork which resulted in his name being left off the list in the transfer from Dade County lock-up to the Florida State Prison bus. He walked out of jail and took a friend’s boat back to Haiti.
Barbos was locked up at Bay Correction Facility south of Youngstown, Florida, a medium security prison vastly overcrowded and prone to excessively liberal early parole policies. In two years he was out and on a boat back to Haiti. He arrived a few months after Lu killed his brother, and Barbos began to piece things together. Although he had spilled much blood wresting back firm control, he ended up in the Congo jungle having no idea what he was doing. Maybe the rain would quit and he might figure out the best plan of action. Ideally, if he could find out when the Sony expedition was leaving, he could attack when they’d be carrying booty from the quarry. Posting someone as a look-out to radio him might work, or doing fly overs once a day, but those options would spook the members of the expedition. Also on his mind was the possibility of Kony sending men to retaliate for killing two of his soldiers. A long shot, he thought, and he couldn’t dwell on wild speculations. The sleeping bag in his tent had managed to stay dry so he inched down and went to sleep.
Pygmy tribes had guarded the quarry ever since the wall had been built and for hundreds and maybe thousands of years before then. The Efe had been in the area for at least fifty thousand years and possibly close to ninety thousand. Scientists believe the Efe are direct descendants of the oldest human race on planet earth.
In the last seventy or eighty years some forest natives were encouraged to move close to roads in a government attempt to develop a market type economy and modernize the natives. However, when roads were not maintained, trade stopped and the natives moved back to surviving in the jungle. Amidst all the civil unrest, rebel and government forces took over food supplies, then killed and raped the native tribes. A few tribes held out in remote areas and remained largely unchanged since the beginning of recorded time in the Congo. Such was the case for ten Efe pygmy and eight non-pygmy Lese tribes along the banks of the Aruwimi River upstream and downstream from the quarry.
The elderly leader of the largest tribe of the Efe was Bok Ande. He was no longer able to raid honey trees and shoot duiker antelope in the forest. Bok Ande was wise and experienced with the old ways and had some knowledge of things modern. Many years ago the Efe traded for shot guns, but they laid them aside, because of the expensive shells, in favor of the bow and arrow. He kept a few shotguns and shells for protecting the village if needed. To Bok Ande, possessing those weapons was similar to having nuclear warheads in a bunker.
The pygmies maintained a strong relationship with the Lese natives, providing meat in trade for vegetables and fruit. The complicated relationship was one of mutual dependence in order to survive. Kombutu, chief of the eight Lese tribes, stood over a foot taller than Bok Ande yet neither appeared to have power over the other. As the expedition helicopters landed in the quarry, both tribal leaders knew they had to meet to decide their next steps. After runners from both villages carried messages to the chiefs, the leaders called a meeting the next day at Kombutu’s village. No arrows would be sent into the quarry that night since a large group of men were moving in from the jungle. The natives wanted to see how many would stand guard on the big wall and where would be the best place to shoot poison arrows.
Isaac and Rishi had reached the river across from the island but the heavy rains had made the river swollen and rushing very fast. They decided to put their inflatables upstream where the river was wider with fewer rapids. Their goal was to transport all the men and equipment to the island before dark. Isaac led the first party and had to fight to stay out of the currents that would have pulled them into a series of deadly cataracts. Thankfully they landed safely on shore. The men on the island waded into the river and grabbed the other rubber rafts to pull them to safety. On shore they could hear chain saws cutting a trail through the heavy growth of trees. Several people from the quarry came to help the men up the wet bluff by hanging ropes over the side. All the ground forces made it ashore, scaled up the slippery cliffs and hiked through the forest to the quarry.
Rain continued to pelt the men as they set up their tents. Bruny greeted them by giving orders to stack shields against their tents. Isaac and Rishi would be welcomed to Bruny’s tent with a strong glass of scotch. Everyone would begin their assignments the next day.
No one knew what to expect when Rishi announced by bullhorn that he wanted to meet with native leaders. Rishi would fill the jungle air with native tongues emanating from a mysterious loudspeaker. Sony and his large group planned to find out the results the first thing in the morning.