Robert put the coffee cups on the table, saying, “It’s also invasive. It upsets the wolf. I thought you had had bad experiences with that in Yellowstone?”
Sylvie looked puzzled. “Not that I know of but then I haven’t been back there for a year now.”
Jean-Luc closed his laptop and put it back on his desk. “We haven’t found them to be effective. The battery gave out on the first one after three months and on the second one after a year. A rockfall crushed the third wolf. Not a great success!”
“So, it’s not a question of finance?” asked Lisa.
“Not at all. The French government spent over twelve million euros last year on le Projet Loup, that’s close to sixteen million dollars for a country roughly the size of Texas.”
Robert stood up from the table to collect the coffee cups. “There is another point, you know. The Yellowstone experience shows that unscrupulous hunters can tune in to the VHF signals emitted by the collars, locate the wolves and kill them. In 2011 there were ninety-eight wolves in Yellowstone and this year, the number is down to seventy.”
“But not all of those had collars, did they?” said Sylvie.
“True,” Jean-Luc conceded, “but all in all we prefer the non-invasive approach to collecting data. It’s interesting that our wolf population, which was a natural re-incursion, is increasing by twenty per cent per year whereas the Yellowstone population, which was an artificial re-introduction, is declining at the moment. Maybe the French approach is kinder to the animals. Anyway, that’s enough shoptalk for today. I suggest that you both take the rest of the day off. Get used to the mobilettes –”
“Is Robert going to show me how?” asked Sylvie.
“Bien sûr!” he answered.
Jean-Luc continued, “Learn your way around the town. Tomorrow you can start work in earnest here in the office. We’ll get you busy on some data inputting and analysis. And I’ll take Sylvie next door to meet our friendly vet, Dr Petit.”
As soon as Robert had put Lisa in touch with the Professor at Bende, who agreed to see her later in the week, the two girls left the office with him to take delivery of their mopeds. It wasn’t long before Sylvie was as confident as Lisa, and the two rode off back to the hotel.
Having learned their lesson, Sylvie and Lisa were on time the next morning. They were downstairs asking for their petit déjeuner by eight o’clock. Madame Bonjean was pleased to have their company for breakfast as the hotel was’nt busy in the winter and she found the days long and boring.
Like many of her generation she was an inveterate smoker and the two girls had to endure the outside door being open while she puffed away at her cigarettes with her head stuck out of the door, but the delicious coffee and croissants made up for the discomfort from the icy draught which whipped its way around their legs.
The mopeds made light work of their trip to the office and they were soon taking off their helmets at the office and attempting to fluff up their hair.
As Jean-Luc had promised, Sylvie spent the morning learning how to input and analyze data. Lisa was left with the more mundane task of filing paperwork and generally helping out around the office whenever someone asked her; her French was not good enough to deal with the more detailed work. They were drinking a mid-morning cup of coffee when the door opened and a good-looking young man put his head round.
“Salut, tout le monde! I’ve come to collect Sylvie to show her round the clinic.”
Introductions were made and Sylvie went off with Dr Marcel Petit. She found the clinic kitted out with the very latest equipment and Dr Petit, or Marcel, as he insisted she call him, was charming.
“Would you like to keep your hand in by helping out from time to time, Sylvie?” he asked her. “It’s mostly a small animal practice, as you would expect in the center of the city, but it does get busy at the weekends. I’d be interested to watch you operate, to see if I can pick up any tips from the other side of the Atlantic.”
Sylvie liked his friendliness and professional camaraderie. He had an open uncomplicated face with strong features, clear blue eyes and unruly blond hair.
When they went into his office, Sylvie’s eyes were drawn to a photo above his desk. It showed a young gray wolf, not much more than a cub, sitting on what she recognized as the clinic’s examination table.
“That’s the famous P’tit-Loup,” Marcel said as he followed her glance.
“Famous?”
“Well, not really famous but he is important to all of us here - Jean-Luc, Robert and myself. He’s something of a mascot. Jean-Luc found him caught in a wolf trap up in the mountains a year ago. If Jean-Luc had been any later in finding him, P’tit-Loup would probably have chewed his paw right off and then died from loss of blood. He had already begun to gnaw at himself when Jean-Luc arrived and darted him.”
“You mean the killers actually use iron wolf traps?”
“They’ll use anything they think they can get away with: traps, guns, poison.”
“What happened to him?” asked Sylvie, walking up to the picture to get a better look. “It looks as if you managed to save his life.”
“Fortunately, Jean-Luc wasn’t alone as he usually is; Robert was with him. Between them, they succeeded in opening the trap and they brought the young wolf down here to me to be fixed up. We kept him here for as long as we could, but we had to set him free again for his own sake once his leg was healed.”
“And now?”
“I guess he’s off in the wild looking for a mate. He will have some trouble finding one, I think, with that shriveled back leg but at least he’s alive and free. We were afraid that he wouldn’t be able to hunt on his own with a leg like that but we haven’t come across his body so he must be making it - probably surviving on a diet of small mammals, like marmots and hares, and carrion.”
He put his arm around Sylvie’s shoulder in a brotherly fashion. “If you have a tender heart, you’ll have to learn to steel it while you’re here. Some of the cases we have are truly distressing. I never thought I would see tough guy Jean-Luc cry - and I didn’t - but he wasn’t far off breaking down and weeping like a baby when he brought that poor little mite into the surgery.”
Sylvie stepped away from him, raising her eyebrows, “Really?” she found it unbelievable that Jean-Luc could be capable of such tenderness; he hadn’t been kind and gentle to her and Lisa so far.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have been telling tales out of school but, you see, that’s the thing with wolves; you either love them or hate them. The closer you get to them and the more you learn to admire and respect their family life, the less objective you become. It’s quite a problem for us here on the wolf team, even a seconded volunteer like me.
“We should be getting back to the others. Jean-Luc will think I’ve hi-jacked you to work in my clinic. But you will consider moon-lighting won’t you?”
“Of course,” said Sylvie. “I’d love to help out, and some small animal work would be good for me as I deal mostly with farm animals.”
When Sylvie walked back into the office, she could tell at once that something was wrong. The two men and Lisa were all crowded round the laptop showing Kaya’s GPS position.
6 : Kaya
“What’s wrong?” Sylvie asked as she joined her colleagues. She couldn’t see anything to cause alarm. The collar was beeping, as it should have been.
Jean-Luc looked away from the screen for a moment. “I think we have a problem. Kaya hasn’t moved since yesterday - not an inch - and that doesn’t make sense. At the very least she would have to walk to find water to drink.”
“Are you sure?” Sylvie asked, leaning forward to look at the screen and then pulling away to read the data printout. “I see what you mean, the same GPS position for over twenty-four hours. You think that means something bad has happened to her?”
“I’m afraid so. It looks as if she could be injured or trapped. I want to move our trip forward. Can you all pack up and be ready to move in thirty minutes. We’ll
pick up some sandwiches and get the vacuum flasks filled on the way.”
“What about clothes, Jean-Luc?” asked Lisa. “We came to work today prepared to spend the day in the office, not going up into the mountains. Won’t we need to dress more warmly at this time of the year?”
“Sorry, Lisa. I wasn’t thinking; I’m too worried about Kaya. Yes, you both go back to the hotel immediately and we’ll pick you up in twenty. Dress warmly, hands, head, and wear your mountain-hiking boots. The terrain is rough up there and we’ll have a four-hour hike in and then out again.”
Sylvie and Lisa snatched up their belongings, crammed on their helmets and hurried out of the office to their mopeds, leaving the two men in the process of shutting down the computers.
The girls were waiting outside the hotel with bundles of winter clothing in their arms when Jean-Luc drew up in his long wheelbase Range Rover. They had surprised Madame Bonjean when they returned to the hotel. She was in their room supervising the new cleaner who was servicing the room.
When they told her they were going up in to the mountains to look for an injured wolf, Madame Bonjean said, “Heuh! The Park is closed now. It is cold and dangerous up there. You be careful, mes filles. And all for a wolf. They are a nuisance, these wolves. Not everyone is as enamored of them as your Monsieur Jean-Luc.”
Sylvie tried to argue that they were beautiful wild creatures and deserved their place in the environment, but the old lady remained unconvinced. Her cousin was a shepherd, she said, and he had lost some of his flock to the depredations of the wolves. Even though the government had paid him compensation as part of their Projet Loup, that didn’t make up for finding the remains of his precious lambs.
“But the lambs and sheep are going to be eaten in the end, anyway,” said Lisa. “What difference does it make to them whether they are eaten by wolves or human beings? And the farmers don’t lose out financially if they are compensated by the state.”
Madame Bonjean shrugged. “What do I know? It is all so complicated. Who am I to weigh up the rights of the wolves against the rights of the sheep? I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions. Now, you look after each, and make sure those men don’t have you doing anything you don’t want to do up there in the mountains.”
She turned and walked out of the room in a bit of a huff.
The maid, Marie, looked up from making Lisa’s bed and said,” Don’t worry about Madame. She is the older generation and they don’t have any feeling for the wolves, as there were none about when they were young. It’s different for my age group. We’ve grown up with the excitement of the return of the wolves. We like going up to the wolf sanctuary and seeing the wolves there. And, of course, they are very good for tourism. Lots of people from the rest of France, and many overseas visitors, come here now in the hope of catching sight of a wolf.
“But she’s, right, the old one, it is cold and dangerous up there at this time of the year, especially if you are going off the authorized trails. Make sure you stay with the men and don’t go wandering off on your own.”
With that, she moved on to Sylvie’s bed.
Jean-Luc drove and they took the autoroute, the freeway, along the coast to Ventimiglia in Italy where the road would go north and then back on itself into France. They had gone only ten miles when Robert suddenly asked the girls if they had remembered their passports.
“Passports? You didn’t tell us we needed our passports, Robert,” said Lisa.
Jean-Luc let out a heavy sigh and swung over into the nearside lane. “We are going across into Italy. The main road up from Ventimiglia to La Sigue is the quickest way for us to get to le Vallée des Miracles. We will cross back into France on the way but we have to have our passports or cartes d’identité. I thought that was obvious.”
Lisa rolled her eyes at Sylvie, and Robert said, “That’s unreasonable, Jean-Luc. How were two newcomers to know that we had to go into Italy and back out again? I think you owe the girls an apology.”
“Right, I apologize,” said Jean-Luc with bad grace, as he took the turning off the freeway and started back towards Nice again. “Mes excuses, girls, but I am anxious. Every second we waste is a second we could be spending helping Kaya, you understand?”
Lisa and Sylvie accepted the apology and vowed that they would carry their passports with them at all times in the future.
In spite of the enforced turnaround, they made good time through the border with Italy and were soon on the way north, then back into France again and on their way to La Sigue. They turned off left onto a country road before they hit the town. The road they were on passed through a valley with steep sides strewn with rocks and piles of fallen stone. There were few trees in this part of the park, but here and there on the lower reaches were dotted domestic sheep. Rising up ahead of them, a long way off at the end of the valley was the crest of the sacred mountain, Mt Bégo, nearly nine thousand five hundred feet.
“You can see how treacherous this terrain is once the snow falls, can’t you?” said Robert.
The road wound round the tall rakes of ice-eroded rock, sometimes doubling back on itself, and passed by lakes of clear alpine snowmelt. After what seemed a long drive, the road petered out and Jean-Luc pulled to a stop in a parking area in front of mountain hut, which he said was used by tourists in the summer.
“Right, hope you’re feeling like stretching your legs because we have to hike from here further along the valley to reach Kaya’s location,” said Jean-Luc, climbing out of the vehicle and stretching his arms above his head to loosen the kinks from driving.
Lisa was first out of the car after Jean-Luc. “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have something to eat straight away and then we wouldn’t have to carry anything?”
“Good thinking” said Robert. “It’ll only cost us five minutes, Jean-Luc, and the girls must be hungry. I know I am.”
Jean-Luc tossed his head. “We can’t afford to waste a moment. We’ve already spent unnecessary time going back to the hotel for the documents. I’ll go on ahead on my own and you can all catch me up.”
With that, he shouldered his backpack and strode off up the trail.
“Is he always like this?” asked Lisa.
Robert smiled at her. “No, not always. He’s anxious. Apart from the fact that he cares deeply about every wolf for itself, we don’t have so many of them here in the Park that we can afford not to safeguard every single one. As we told you, there are only two hundred and fifty wolves in the whole of France.”
Sylvie unloaded the bag with the sandwiches and the flasks. “I for one am glad for a few minutes to take in this wonderful view. I had no idea there were places like this in France - so wild, so stark. I thought France was all vineyards and châteaux.”
The three friends sat down on a nearby rock, a rock of sandstone polished to the smoothness of a blackboard by mighty glaciers ten thousand years before.
“You can see that these slabs of sandstone made a perfect drawing board for the ancients,” said Lisa running her hand over the surface. “It must have been a strange place for the people all those years ago. No wonder they thought the mountain they could see at the head of the valley was sacred. It’s an awe-inspiring landscape.”
“We shall be walking through the part of the valley were there are thousands of drawings, Lisa. If it is still light enough and we have time on the walk back, we can stop and look at some of them but for the moment we ought to press on in case Jean-Luc needs our help with anything up ahead.”
“I can’t wait to see the drawings, just a glimpse or two. We can always come back for a proper look another day when we don’t have a possible crisis on our hands.”
Sylvie cleared up the remains of their meal and stowed them away in the vehicle. “I’ve been watching the sun; it will soon be passing over the top of the mountainside on our left and then I guess it will grow dark very quickly. We should hurry.”
Sylvie was right; the autumn sun was not far above the side of the valley. The th
ree strode out, moving as fast as they could along the rough path. They had to concentrate on where they put their feet because the way was rocky and rough. Robert had thoughtfully provided them all with hiking sticks with rubber tips - no metal tips allowed, he said, for fear of damaging the terrain.
“How long before we see the first drawings, Robert?” Lisa called out after two hours of hard walking.
Robert looked back and laughed when he saw Lisa’s tired face. “Remember, it’s a four-hour slog altogether. We’re only about half way there.”
Two hours later, they reached the first of the carvings. Lisa was enchanted and wanted to stop and examine every single one but Robert and Sylvie had to pull her onward, explaining that they didn’t really want to be walking back that way in the dark.
Robert took out his laptop and checked for the beep of Kaya’s collar. “She’s not far ahead of us now, probably round the next bend, up on the side of the cliff where she had her den last year.”
As they rounded the bend, they saw Jean-Luc in the distance in front of them. He was sitting down on a rock by the trail with his head in his hands, his shoulders bowed. As they drew closer, they saw that he was twisting something around in his hands.
Sylvie was the first to realize what it was. “Oh no, it’s the collar. Jean-Luc is holding Kaya’s radio collar.”
She ran forward and he looked up as he heard her steps on the loose stones of the pathway. His face was pale and drawn.
“Regarde,” he said. “Just look what those barbarians have done to her, my beautiful Kaya. I can only guess how terrible her ending was.”
Sylvie sat down beside him and put her arms around him, trying to absorb some of his distress.
Waking the Wolf (Coup de Foudre) Page 5
