African Pursuit

by David Alric

  ‘Hist!’ said Jambo suddenly, taking Neema’s arm and pointing through the undergrowth. There, rising above the swampside bushes, was an enormous nest. It appeared to be constructed of whitened branches but, as they drew nearer, Neema realised with amazement that it was composed entirely of interwoven elephant tusks. Beyond it, at the edge of the swamp, stood a huge creature the like of which she had never seen before, even in picture books. It was larger than an elephant and brownish-grey in colour. It had a long tail like a crocodile and a long neck like a dinosaur. As it slowly turned its head to inspect the visitors Neema was astonished to see that it had a single giant horn, larger by far than the horns she had seen in pictures of rhinos. She detected a primitive and unformed greeting emanating from the animal, which she acknowledged with a bow, but it became apparent that the bonobos were completely unaware that the creature had communicated with her.

  ‘The Greathorn uses not the common tongue,’ Jambo said quietly to Neema. As far as she was concerned the creature had just made a meaningless grunt. ‘It speaks only to the Dreadful Ones.’ The bonobos were clearly terrified of the great beast, and the entire group withdrew with Neema as soon as possible. Neema was disappointed: she wanted to see if she could speak back to the extraordinary creature, but felt she had to follow Jambo and her family. Soon they were making their way back along the side of the swamp, the bonobos occasionally casting nervous glances behind them. Whatever the animal was, thought Neema, it certainly had a fearsome reputation.

  They had travelled about a mile from the Greathorn and the chimps were looking considerably more relaxed when Jambo pointed across the grey-green water.

  ‘Lo!,’ she said, ‘the other who seeks thee comes nigh.’ Then, over the swamp came a harsh and eerie cry. Neema looked out across the forbidding quagmire to see a black creature like a giant bat come flapping slowly across the swamp. The amazing creature had membranous wings spanning about two metres and a long black beak containing rows of vicious-looking teeth. It passed close to the girl and the apes, muttering a raucous rasping sound as it passed by and disappeared across the swamp.

  ‘It’s a pterodactyl!’ Neema gasped aloud. Once again she had clearly been aware of a primitive greeting being emitted.

  ‘I think the Great Flitterkin pays thee homage,’ said Jambo. ‘I cannot be certain, for he speaks only in a strange and ancient tongue,’ she added by way of explanation. Before Neema had recovered from the shock of seeing a creature supposed to have been extinct for millions of years, she had another surprise. This time so, apparently, did Jambo. The chimp suddenly pointed across the swamp and said:

  ‘The Ancient Ones come. I knew not that they were aware of thee’.

  Neema gazed in fascination as two massive, long-necked shapes emerged through the surface of the swamp. From her school books she knew they could only be plesiosaurs and realised that the swamp she had been brought to contained several species that had survived since prehistory.The creatures gazed in silence for a few minutes at Neema then sank below the surface once again. A massive swirl of the waters as they disappeared gave Neema some idea of the true bulk of the monsters.

  ‘It is said they speak but slowly and often not at all,’ said Jambo, ‘but they came to see thee. I have heard tell of them but never before have I seen them.’

  As they made their way back to the hut Neema wondered what she should say to her grandfather. She knew he would be particularly interested in these creatures, but could hardly admit she had travelled through the depths of the jungle to a swamp when she was meant to be sitting quietly in her hut. In the end she decided to mention only two of the animals she had seen, on the grounds that they were both species she could conceivably have seen from her observation post.

  That night she told him first about the giant horned creature. To her surprise he showed no scepticism whatsoever, only giving a smile of quiet satisfaction.

  ‘So it does exist!’ he said. ‘The BaAka pygmies in the north speak in their legends of a giant unicorn who lives in the remote swamps of Ndoki. The creature is called mokèlé-mbèmbé, which means “The one who stops the flow of rivers” in the Lingala language. I once thought I saw one in the reserve here but never told anyone for fear of being called a fool or of being accused of trying to attract tourists with a “Loch Ness Monster” type of story. Your sighting proves that the creature exists and that there is a population here as well as at Ndoki. They say that the unicorn lies on a bed of elephant tusks, but I suspect that that part of the story is an embellishment to the original legend.’ Neema smiled to herself but said nothing; she could hardly admit to having seen the creature’s nest from a seat in her little hut.

  Encouraged by her grandfather’s response she then told him of the pterodactyl.

  ‘Good heavens!’ he said, in great excitement.’ In one day, sitting quietly in your cabin, you’ve solved two of the greatest mysteries of the Congo basin!’

  ‘Why, what did I see this time?’ Neema asked innocently.

  ‘From your description this is almost certainly the “flying demon of the swamps” – known to tribes in Zambia as Kongamato. The creature is most probably a living relic from the Cretaceous Period and has been seen by several respected scientists over the last hundred years in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, West Africa and Zaire. I think we can now submit an official report about these creatures in your notes. What a pity about the camera!’ Neema had already explained that her sightings of the unicorn and the pterodactyl had been so fleeting, and she had been so excited to see them, that she hadn’t had time to photograph either creature. She felt the white lie was justified in the circumstances.

  ‘It’s quite amazing, your seeing these Cretaceous Period creatures,’ her grandpa continued. ‘There have always been reports of mysterious creatures in the deep interior of the continent. Nobody believed even in the existence of the gorilla at first and the other “unicorn”, the okapi, was only identified with certainty comparatively recently. Many other explorers have reported Loch Ness-type monsters in the remote jungle swamps and I see no good reason why some of these accounts might not also turn out to be true.’ Neema had to bite her tongue not to tell grandpa of her other experience that day, but decided that it would be better to go on a swamp expedition with him on a future occasion when they might “discover” the plesiosaurs together.

  The worst day in Neema’s life dawned bright and clear. She was thirteen years old. After school she went as usual to the reserve to do a couple of hours observation. She thought her grandpa looked thoughtful as she left him in the park office to set off with a ranger to go to her cabin. She recalled that he had had a series of phone calls in the last few days that had left him preoccupied and tense, and had led to long discussions into the night between him and grandma and Mzuri. It seemed as though some politicians were becoming jealous of his prominence in zoological circles and of his close relationship with UNESCO officials. They were accusing him of fomenting unrest and having allies in anti-governent circles.

  She was chatting to the bonobos when suddenly a grey parrot flew into the group and spoke quietly to Jambo. The little chimp turned to Neema.

  ‘There is trouble,’ she said. ‘Tailless Ones with thundersticks have taken thy kin. Even now they are in a house that moves and travel to where the Brilliant One rises.’

  ‘Are they all gone?’ asked Neema.

  ‘Yes,’ said the ape. ‘Your mother and the two old ones have all been taken. Only she with the ears of silver remains. Other Tailless Ones with thundersticks stand near the place you dwell and it is not safe for you to return.’

  ‘Have my kin been hurt?’ asked Neema, desperately upset and frightened.

  ‘No, they seem to be unharmed. The fledgiquills say they sit talking together in the back of the house that moves. They have water to drink.’

  Neema sat down to think. Her grandpa’s political enemies must have arrested the family and they were obviously in a lorry, heading east. Her grandpa had repeatedly sai
d that they wouldn’t dare to execute him because of his links with the UN, so perhaps the plan was to exile him to Rwanda or Burundi. There were obviously guards keeping watch over the house so she clearly couldn’t return there. The problem was, where could she go? The rest of her schoolfriends’ parents were friendly with grandpa and grandma and she didn’t know who else might be targeted in this political move. There was no-one she could really trust or, at least, there was no-one with whom she could be sure she would be safe. She might even bring trouble to an innocent family by staying with them.

  She decided without further thought what she must do. She pulled her notepad towards her and scribbled a note to Chakula, the girl who helped the family with cooking and housework. She was seventeen, loved bangles and brooches and was particularly proud of her large silver earrings. She had obviously been spared as being unimportant by whoever was targeting the family.

  “Dear Chakula,

  I know what has happened to the others but I am safe. Please can you put some bottles of water, some matches and some clothes in a small bag and leave it near my bedroom window. I may send you more notes when I know what I need.

  Thank you,

  Love from Neema

  P.S. Destroy this note immediately and tell no-one about it.

  P.P.S. Don’t forget my spare glasses!”

  She folded the note into a tight wad and turned to Jambo.

  ‘Jambo. I wish to come and stay with thee and thy kin.’

  ‘That will be a great honour and privilege for us, O Special One,’ was the immediate reply. ‘We shall be held in high esteem by all the junglekin. No harm shall befall thee whilst thou art in our care.’ Neema was relieved to hear this reply.

  ‘There are things I shall need from the place I dwell.’ She handed Jambo the note she had just scribbled. ‘Canst thou take this to the one with the silver ears? Those with the thundersticks must not see thee.’

  ‘My kin cannot be seen in the village,’ said Jambo, ‘for we never leave our own place. The leaf thou hast scratched on is small. A mimicquill shall take it.’

  She turned and called up to the canopy and within a few seconds a grey parrot fluttered down. Jambo spoke to it and soon it grasped the note in a powerful claw and flew off towards the village.

  ‘Another must also go,’ said Neema. ‘Maybe one of the arborikin? One who can carry a burden.’ She gestured with her hands to indicate the size of a small bag. Jambo turned again to the canopy and soon a black and white colobus monkey swung effortlessly to the ground. Neema explained what he must do and soon he scampered away on his journey to Neema’s bedroom window.

  The next few days were both stressful and enthralling for Neema. She was in a state of constant concern for her family and could not see a satisfactory way out of her current situation that would enable her to resume a normal life. On the other hand she found life in the rainforest intensely liberating. The bonobos were gentle and kind and did their utmost to help her in every way. They brought her all manner of food: things with which she was familiar such as pineapples, peaches, avocados, bananas, papayas and coconuts, but also many kinds of succulent fruits and vegetables that were unfamiliar to her. They were terrified when she first lit a fire, but after a while got used to it and brought her fish and crustaceans to cook, and she baked eggs, yams and plantains in the ashes. She roamed far and wide in the vast jungle and was taken to regions so remote and impenetrable that they had never before been visited by any human being. After some days, to her great relief, the animals reported to her that her family were now in a land far to the east, and were no longer under guard. Neema correctly assumed that they had been exiled, and as the animals said that there were gorillas in that land, she guessed that they were probably in Rwanda. After much thought she used the birds to send them a message assuring them that she was safe and that would one day join them. She knew that they would be utterly bewildered by getting a message apparently out of nowhere (a crumpled note on a table near an open window), but decided that this was better by far than having them constantly wondering whether or not she was alive.

  One day she was playing with some baby bonobos near the edge of the reserve while the adults foraged for food. Suddenly she heard a shout and saw two men with rifles in a boat that had appeared round a bend in the river. She easily disappeared into the jungle with the bonobos as the men were scrambling on to the shore, and she heard a single shot from far behind as she clambered through the canopy. She assumed the men must be poachers – no ranger would have attempted to shoot at her or the chimps – but was still frightened that they might report what they had seen and initiate a search for her. She told Jambo her fears and the entire troop moved to the very furthest limits of their range in the hope that nothing further would come of it.

  5

  Preserving Prehistory

  Julian and Helen Fossfinder and their son Mark gave a final wave to Clive as he passed through security control at Rio airport to return to London. Their older son, aged twenty, was returning with the Bonaventures, ostensibly to get back to his medical studies, but Julian suspected the real reason had more to do with Clare, the Bonaventure’s nineteen-year-old daughter with whom Clive seemed to have become very friendly. Their younger son Mark had opted to stay with his parents in Rio while they had a holiday before returning to their university jobs in England. They certainly felt that they had earned a break. Julian, as the pilot for the party of adventurers from the two families, had flown thousands of miles in the previous fortnight, across the remote vastness of the Amazon jungle. He had managed to save the lives of his passengers when his plane had been hit by a giant pterosaur in a lost valley dating from the Cretaceous period sixty-five million years ago. He, Richard and Lucy had survived attacks by velociraptors in the lost valley and his wife, Helen, had been at the mercy of villains hidden in invisibility robes who had attempted to take her hostage. Finally, he had himself only narrowly escaped being killed by a brilliant but evil professor who, had he not walked backwards into Julian’s propeller, would have kidnapped and eventually killed Julian and left the rest of the party to die, marooned in the remote crater without a radio.

  As they now bade farewell to those heading home Julian turned to Helen and Mark with a grin.

  ‘Phew! What a fortnight! And now I think we’ve earned some time doing nothing but sightseeing.’ The others heartily agreed and that evening they made plans for their holiday. The next day Julian apologized to the others.

  ‘I know I said we were now going to chill out, but there’s just one thing I must do before we start our break’.

  Helen looked across at Mark with a resigned smile.

  ‘How did I guess there’d be something?’ she said. ‘Nothing changes! Well, hurry up and do it and then we can all relax.’

  ‘Actually, it’s not just me. You should come too! I’m sure Mark can occupy himself sunbathing by the pool and chatting up some of the local talent.’

  Mark was only too happy to do this and after breakfast Julian and Helen went to the UN offices. They were both by now highly respected scientists who had benefited from UN support for a number of projects, including the one they had just completed. Up until now, the prehistoric crater that they had discovered with the Bonaventures had remained a secret because they had been terrified of its being exploited for commerce or tourism. They now realised, however, that it was only a matter of time before the crater was discovered by others and they had agreed with the Bonaventures that the UN should be told, with a request that the information should be restricted to a few senior officials until the future management of the site could be properly planned.

  Helen and Julian insisted on speaking only to the most senior official at the Rio office, who listened in astonishment to their story about the prehistoric crater with its two extraordinary valleys. As they showed him dozens of photographs and videos of giant ground sloths, sabretooth tigers and dinosaurs of every size and shape, his attitude turned from an initial one of deep sc
epticism to one of wonder and admiration.

  Helen and Julian also told him about the villains but did not mention the invisibility robes. They mentioned the visit to the crater by the policeman investigating the deaths of the villains, Inspector Colarinho, but explained that he knew nothing of the prehistoric nature of the site. At one point the official rang the detective, without disclosing the secret, and the inspector was able to confirm the details that Helen and Julian had given concerning the position and inaccessibility of the crater. When they had finally finished their story and requested that the information they had given him should remain confidential to all but the most senior people, he sat in deep thought for several minutes. He then asked an assistant to download all the photographic material he had been shown on to his computer and turned back to Helen and Julian.

  ‘They’re just not going to believe this,’ he said with a wry smile, ‘but let’s give it a go.’ Over the next hour he spoke to UN officials in New York, London and Paris, and then to the Brazilian Minister for the Environment. Every call followed the same pattern. First, frank disbelief at the other end, then the emailing of the photographic evidence, then an excited discussion about what to do next. The Rio officer proved to be a strong and eloquent advocate for Helen and Julian and they were relieved to have had the good fortune to be dealing with such an intelligent and sympathetic person.

  Finally he turned back to Helen and Julian.

  ‘We will obviously need you to come to a top-level conference in the near future to discuss this in detail and to formally present your evidence,’ he said. ‘My colleagues point out that, before that meeting, it will be essential for our experts to verify that the photographs and videos are genuine. In the meantime I think I’ve managed to convince the appropriate authorities that the site should be put completely out of bounds. The Brazilian authorities are, with immediate effect, banning all flights within an area of fifty square miles centred on the crater on the grounds of national security. This won’t raise any eyebrows; there are lots of military sites that are restricted and everybody will just assume it’s just another defence project.’