Fear No Evil. John Davis Gordon

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ animals were fifty yards away now, lumbering up the grassy slope of Big Bald in the moonlight. All senses were alert, the cold night air was moving over their bodies and into their nostrils. Elizabeth could still hardly believe what she was witnessing even though, as a scientist, she knew there were such people as David Jordan. Before she could hesitate she started jogging desperately up the grassy slope after them. Charlie Buffalohorn stood, holding her doctor’s bag and the meat, staring after her.

      Then he started up the slope.

fourteen

      It was some time before dawn.

      Davey lay in the undergrowth on the edge of the forest, peering down onto Highway 23 at Sams Gap. The road was a black blur, ten feet below the embankment. Beyond it, the forest rose again.

      He could see no vehicles, no people. He lay, panting, sweating, trying to press his exhaustion into the earth, waiting. For a match to flare, for a voice, for a shadow, for a vehicle to come along the highway out of the forested night and light up the road. For five minutes he waited, then he stood up, quietly as an Indian, and retraced his steps.

      The big cats were scattered about in the darkness devouring the meat.

      Elizabeth sat well away, slumped against a tree to cover her rear, her legs shaking. Her exhaustion was nothing compared to her fear of the huge dark shapes of the animals in the moon-dappled forest. For one moment she had looked straight into the eyes of the Siberian tiger; those big, carnivorous eyes in that huge killer face with that menacing body behind it, staring straight at her without any bars between them, and she had felt a terror so pure that all she had known to do was throw her arm across her face and cringe. Then Davey had tossed the tiger a hunk of meat, and she had grabbed it and turned away. Then he had turned away himself and melted into the darkness, and she had wanted to run after him for protection, to beg him not to leave her alone. She waited desperately for him to return, her knapsack clutched in front of her as a shield, listening to the sounds of feeding. When she saw David Jordan come back she felt a wave of relief so enormous that it was almost sexual in quality—he was her protector.

      She tiptoed nervously over to him. He was squatting, his face in shadow.

      ‘Mr. Jordan? Please listen to me … for the animals’ own good.’

      ‘I’m listening.’

      She swallowed, feeling inarticulate.

      ‘How do you think you’re going to get away with this?’

      He did not look at her. ‘I’m not trying to get away with anything, Dr. Johnson. I’m just doing what is right.’

      She cried softly. ‘Right? How can it be right to throw defenseless animals back into the wild?’

      ‘You asked me a question,’ he said quietly, ‘so listen to the answer.’

      She took a quivering breath to contain herself. His voice and manner were so quietly determined they were almost military. His whole presence inspired confidence. ‘You’re a vet, you should know. It’s not right to keep an animal in a cage. You’ve seen them at that zoo of yours—you must’ve seen them in plenty of zoos.’ He shook his head at her across the dappled darkness. ‘Pacing about, in those tiny cages. Why are they doing that, Dr. Johnson? Mama, here, the tiger. Up and down, up and down. Why? Is it natural for a tiger to do that? Or is she doing it because she wants out? Because she wants space? Because her nerves and body and soul are crying out for freedom?’

      ‘But Mama doesn’t know about freedom! Any more than a child who grows up in Manhattan knows about Africa! She was born in captivity.’

      He said quietly. ‘Then why does she do it? For fun? Because she’s enjoying herself? No, Dr. Johnson. She’s doing it because she just naturally knows she wants out. She’s yearning. And the other big cats in your zoo—they weren’t all born in captivity. They remember, just as you and I remember, natural things like freedom. They long for it. And the elephants and the hippo. And the gorillas …’ He shook his head. ‘Jamba—she wasn’t born in captivity, was she? And look at her tiny cage. Nor the two youngsters …’

      Big Charlie said out of the darkness. ‘Cats finished eating.’

      ‘Mr Jordan, please listen …’

      ‘We’re going now, Dr. Johnson,’ he said quietly. ‘Thank you very much for the meat. You better go back to your car. I don’t think you’ll keep up with us; you’ll be left behind. It would be much better if you went back and told them to leave us alone.’

      She cried. ‘Where are you going?’

      But he turned away from her and made a low whistling sound. All about her in the dark the big animals turned and shuffled; then he was moving among them like a shadow, making soft muttering noises, touching them and calling them by name. She grabbed her knapsack, too desperate to marvel at what she was seeing.

      They slithered down the embankment at Sams Gap, and scrambled onto the highway. Davey ran across the road and leaped up into the forest on the other side, and the animals loped and lumbered urgently after him, followed by Big Charlie and Sam. Last of all stumbled Dr. Elizabeth Johnson.

      Davey slogged up through the black forest, across the mountain-side, the animals strung out behind him. Elizabeth gasped. ‘Mr Buffalohorn!’

      Big Charlie hesitated, then stopped. She toiled up to him, and dropped her medical bag.

      ‘You better quit, ma’am.’

      ‘I’m coming, dammit!’

      She was bent double, hands on knees, head hanging. He hesitated, then picked up her doctor’s bag. He turned and started after the animals.

      She straightened, exhausted, then started stumbling doggedly after him.

      Just before sunrise Davey stopped. They were in dense forest about a mile down-mountain from the Appalachian Trail. Somewhere, above the thudding of her heart, Elizabeth could hear a waterfall. He said, ahead in the dark, ‘We’re sleeping here.’

      She looked exhaustedly about for a good spot. She badly wanted to sleep near him, or Big Charlie, or both.

      But she was not going to ask. She wasn’t going to sleep surrounded by animals either. She went plodding back up the mountainside, struggling through the undergrowth, for about twenty paces. Then down she slumped.

      She woke with sun on her eyelids. And the dread.

      She blinked; all she could see was dense foliage. She struggled out of her sleeping bag, then her heart suddenly tripped as she heard a branch snap. She jerked around and stared, heart pounding; then closed her eyes. They were still here—that was the sound of an elephant feeding.

      ‘Mr. Jordan?’ she whispered.

      The elephant jerked and blundered farther into the forest.

      It was completely silent but for the hammering of her heart. She stood there, feeling helpless, afraid. She started rolling up her sleeping bag. Then out of the corner of her eyes she noticed a pair of black hairy legs. She jerked up, and looked straight into the blinking face of a chimpanzee, holding СКАЧАТЬ