The Chimera Sequence Read Free Page B

fine.” There it was again, the playful smile that made it hard to focus on anything else. “Just don’t make us wait too long!”
    “No danger of that,” Cole said. “Much as I love Virunga, definitely don’t feel like messing around with its current human residents.”
    He followed Innocence and Musamba into the forest. At least not with only this crew to back me up.
    It had been seven months since anyone from the park staff or the Gorilla Doctors had laid eyes on Virunga’s mountain gorillas, and they had no idea how the critically endangered animals were being affected by this constant violence. There were supposed to be over two-hundred of them in the park, almost a quarter of the world’s total population, but Cole didn’t know how well they could survive without the intensive protection and monitoring that was responsible for bringing the species back from the brink of extinction over the last forty years. Ever since the naturalist Dian Fossey—and her film version Sigourney Weaver—made them famous with Gorillas in the Mist , the mountain gorillas were enduring favorites of conservation organizations and animal lovers all over the world. Unfortunately, even their fame couldn’t protect them from the violent human conflicts that were an almost constant presence.
    The last visit to the park came at the official invitation of General Ntaganda himself, head of the M23 militia, a group of disaffected Tutsi soldiers who at the time were reigning supreme over the various other rebel organizations in the region. Cole remembered the general as a media-whore with a misguided public relations sensibility. He repeatedly emphasized that his soldiers were specifically instructed not to harm the gorillas, all while openly profiting from an illegal charcoal industry that was quickly destroying their last remaining home range. The invited team, including Cole, the Kambales, and several Fossey Fund trackers, was able to account for all three habituated mountain gorilla families during that visit, but since then the fighting had gotten completely out of control.
    There were rumors that a new group had entered the fray, eager to take over not only the charcoal production but also the much more valuable mineral mines in and around the park. Unlike most of the factions vying for control of the area, the new fighters had shunned any media attention and were shrouded in a seemingly self-imposed mantle of mystery.
    “You really think it could be Kony and his gang of misfits?” Cole had asked Marna the week before over a couple big bottles of Primus. The glass and labels on Rwanda’s most popular beer were clearly recycled one too many times, but that didn’t take away from the refreshment it provided after a long day sweating in the forest. “All the guys from Virunga seem to think he’s finally found his way out of the Central African Republic—even managed to do some recruiting along the way.”
    “I seriously doubt it.” Marna took a long slow drink. “Ever since your president sent those military advisors to hunt the lunatic down, he’s apparently done a pretty tidy job of staying under the radar. Why choose now of all moments to risk entering the mess across the border?”
    Military advisors, right. Wonder where Jake and his guys are now, anyway? Cole had thought, before answering her with a sarcastic smile, “Well, a few million bucks in black market minerals has been incentive enough for plenty of other guys through history, right? Why should poor old Joe miss out on all that?”
    Innocence had given Bonny a long leash, and she trotted along an overgrown trail leading through the thick forest, her nose alternating every few seconds between the soft earth below and the pungent air above. Another quick burst of automatic weapons fire cut through the silence, clearly startling Musamba from his steady pace just a few steps ahead of Cole. This time the faint popping was answered by several louder explosions. Some of