Infinite Testament (12 page)

It was pleasantly warm outside. Summer was right
around the corner and spring was giving them a nice preview for the
evening. The grass was almost back in full force and the leaves in the
trees showed signs of regrouping.

“It’s weird,” Lisa said, “I just met you… but I trust
you. You seem genuine.”

“Thanks.”

Lisa hobbled along, slightly limping with each step.
“Did you mean what you said the other night? About not knowing what you
want to do with your life?”

“Absolutely. I have no clue.”

“I don’t know why I’m asking… I just… My parents and Matt…
they put a lot of pressure on me to figure it out. Matt’s probably going
to play in the NFL next year. And I just… sometimes I don’t know if
that’s the kind of life I want to live. I don’t know
what
I want
to do.”

Stephen and Lisa approached the lake. It was peacefully
quiet. The full moon reflected off the surface of the rippling
water. They stared out at the lake, embracing the peaceful quiet around
them. Stephen said, “You know what they say… Life is about the journey,
not the destination.

“People want you to figure out your destination. But
you can’t. No one can. It would’ve been like asking Columbus where
he was going. Would he have responded ‘America’? No. Because
he had to go on the journey to find out.”

The lake was surrounded with rocks; everything from big
boulders to little pebbles. Stephen picked up a pile of rocks and amassed
a mini-arsenal in his hand. He tossed one into the lake, watching the
splash flutter up.

Stephen continued, “My dad once told me, ‘All paths lead
nowhere. Follow the path with heart’.”

“Your dad sounds like a smart guy.”

“He’s not,” Stephen retorted, “He left me and my mom when I
was little. Haven’t heard from him since.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

Stephen reassuringly smiled at her. He wasn’t upset
about it in the least. “Rock?” He extended his hand and offered her
a rock to throw in the lake.

“Sure.” She grabbed one from his hand. She
wound back and flipped her arm sideways. The rock flew from her hand and
skidded across the water.

“Wow!” Stephen proclaimed, “That was great!”

Lisa laughed. “Thanks.”

There was silence between them. They looked out at
the rippling water, listening to nothing but their thoughts.

“I have to be honest with you,” Stephen said as he dropped
his arsenal, “I don’t know you all that well… but you’re one of the most
amazing people I’ve ever met.”

Lisa turned to him and smiled. Never in her life had
anyone made her feel the way he did. Her hands crept forward and softly
rested in his.

Stephen peered into her green eyes. Full of light,
they longed for him. He searched his whole life to find someone like
Lisa. And the woman in front of him was beyond anything his imagination
could have thought up. They both had the strongest feeling they had known
each other for longer than just a week.

Lisa’s fingertips caressed his hands. He gently
rubbed hers in return.

Lisa’s thirst grew too strong. She leaned forward and
brought her lips toward his. As they kissed, Lisa’s moist lips felt
angelic on his. It was at this moment Lisa fell in love with him.
Sure, it happened quickly, but real love won’t be denied.

Lisa pulled her lips back from Stephen and gazed into his
blue eyes. Though surrounded by darkness, they illuminated the
area. She
smiled
. Everything felt right.

She whispered, “I find you… endearing.”

Stephen smiled. He leaned forward and kissed her lips
one more time. He couldn’t resist.

Their lips separated. They gazed into each other’s
eyes as they continued to hold hands. “Well, this complicates things,”
Lisa cracked.

Stephen and Lisa headed back to the apartment. The
walk back felt much different from the walk out. They walked to the lake
as friends. Now, they were more.

Inside the apartment, the party was over. Everyone
was gone. The kitchen was a disaster; cups were everywhere and chairs
were overturned. There were even a couple holes in the walls.

Vince stood with Natalie, who nursed his fresh wounds with
an icepack. Stephen and Lisa, shocked at the sight, saw Bruce leaned
against the counter and Kristen at the table, looking exasperated.
Kristen uttered, “I’m sorry Lisa. I kicked them all out.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Bruce and Vince fought the football players.”

Stephen looked at Bruce. He was unscratched.
Typical. Even more typical that he got in a fight. “Again?”

“Shut up, Stephen. You weren’t even here.”

Lisa asked, “Where’s Matt?”

“He left. He wants you to meet him at his place.”

Stephen and Lisa simultaneously looked at each other for answers.
Should she go? Almost subconsciously, Lisa grabbed Stephen’s hand and
squeezed it.

She wasn’t going anywhere.

Kristen looked at their locked hands. Her neck
straightened. “Shut. Up.”

Bruce’s face lit up, proud of Stephen. “Told
you! Like it wasn’t obvious this whole time.”

Lisa smiled, aware that she had just revealed her true
feelings. And didn’t care. Stephen looked into her green eyes.

Lisa was everything Stephen ever wanted.

“Can you handle it?” Vince asked.

“Yeah I got it.”

Stephen and Vince were in a laboratory at the University of
Michigan. They wore full-body radiation suits; every inch of their body
was covered. Stephen felt it was an unnecessary precaution but Vince
insisted so he went along with it. The lighting in the room was terribly
fluorescent. Truth be told, the lab was not a visually pleasing place,
but it was effective. Computers were abound, monitors were blazing, and
there were cages of subdued rats in the waiting.

Stephen approached a plexiglass box. Behind the box
rested a mirror that occupied the entire wall. Stephen waved to it and
gave it a thumbs-up. “You ready for this?”

A female voice filled the room, “Good luck you two.”

The front of the clear box had a door that swung
open. Stephen cautiously opened it and cold steam waterfalled out.
The box was essentially a super-powered refrigerator keeping whatever they put
inside at any desired temperature. As the box cleared of the steam,
Stephen could see what he needed to retrieve: a small microchip, roughly the
size of a thumbtack. A metal arm held it up, high in the depths of the
box.

It was because of this microchip, this revolutionary
technology, that everyone in the room needed to wear full-body suits. One
wrong move and the results could be disastrous.

“Hey Vince, there’s this kid in my class…” Stephen said as
he grabbed a thick pair of tweezers off the counter. “He reminds me of
you back in the day.”

Vince cracked, “He must be a great kid.”

Stephen gripped the tweezers through his gloves. He
needed to grab the microchip with the tweezers and relocate it. It was
like a difficult game of Operation. One unsteady move by Stephen and
they’d have to start all over. This being their 2
^nd
try,
Stephen didn’t want to screw it up.

“Here we go.” Stephen moved the tweezers to the
microchip. It was directly between the tweezers’ grasp. He
squeezed. The tweezers clicked around it. Carefully, he pulled them
out. “Placement ready?”

“Ready.”

Next to the plexiglass box sat an unconscious rat.
More importantly, its brain was exposed. Vince held a knife that kept a
miniscule flap of the brain open. Delicately, Stephen moved the microchip
toward the brain of the rat. This was it; the attempt they’d been waiting
for. Last time, Vince slipped and the microchip landed just anterior of
the brain. That created a mess of problems. If Stephen could just
get it inside the flap, that would all be forgotten.

Stephen could feel the pressure. He focused all his
energy on keeping his hand steady. It was normally an easy thing to do
but when countless hours of work were riding on it, it became
excruciating. Sweat poured out of Stephen’s forehead. Uh-oh.
It snaked its way down. Focus. Just focus. Stephen shook off
the distraction and managed to hold the microchip just above the brain.
He slowly moved it into the flap and placed it on the target. Almost
instantly, the microchip disappeared from sight and dissolved into the brain of
the rat.

“Yes!”

Stephen and Vince high-fived each other. They did
it. Stephen pointed to the mirror and pumped his fist. “Yes!”

Stephen turned to Vince. “Now we wait to see if it
worked.”

The entrance of the laboratory opened and Natalie walked
in. “Nice job guys!” Behind Natalie was their other partner.
Wearing a blue backpack, he had short, black hair and was cleanly shaven.
His sharp blue eyes locked onto Stephen’s.

Stephen asked him, “What’d you think?”

“Very impressive,” said their other partner, Moros.

At the University of Michigan, Campbell observed a rat on a
counter that slept peacefully in a cage.

Stephen and Moros stood with him, overlooking the sleeping
rat.

“Now look at this screen,” Moros said.

Next to the rat’s cage sat a video monitor. Campbell
looked at the screen. It was black.

“Are you watching?” Stephen asked.

“Yes, sir,” Campbell said, staring at the blank screen.

“No Campbell. Just say yes. You don’t have to
say ‘sir’. We’re peers, okay?”

“Okay.”

Without warning, Moros slapped the cage, creating an
earthquake in the rat’s world. It furiously awoke and darted its head
around. At the instant it woke up, images filled the screen.
Campbell looked carefully. The images looked like the research lab but
were moving so fast he couldn’t decipher them.

Stephen tapped on the cage and bent down to eye level with
the rat. “Hey guy,” he said to the rat, “How are ya?” The rat
settled down and looked at him. On the screen was Stephen’s face looking
out at Campbell.

Stephen waved.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Moros asked.

Campbell was baffled. “So… there’s a camera in the
mouse?”

Stephen stood up straight and faced Campbell. “Not
really. We’ve created a microchip that dissolves on contact with flesh
and becomes a part of the organism. The microchip ceases to be a
computing device. It instead adapts and fuses to whatever we put it in
contact with. When placed on a precise spot in the brain, this microchip
enables us to transmit exactly what is being seen. Then, we can see it on
a monitor.”

Campbell looked at Stephen admiringly. He had no idea
his professor was such a genius. Moros interjected, “You might be
wondering about the moral implications of this, but don’t worry. This
technology will only be used on animals. And only for research
purposes. Privacy concerns are nonexistent.”

Campbell looked back at the screen, watching in awe at the
precise images the rat was broadcasting.

Several Months later, during the heart of the summer,
Stephen and the research team of Vince, Natalie, and Moros were in the Congo,
extending their experiment to bonobos, a type of primate. With them was
Jay Campbell, the student Stephen recruited to help assist. The five of
them were housed in a research facility deep in the jungle.

“I have a good feeling about today,” Moros said.
Standing with Campbell
,
he looked through a giant glass wall.
Beyond the glass was a view of the jungle. They watched as the simple but
intricate life played out in front of them. Colorful, exotic birds flew
by. Strange insects scrambled around. The entire view was crawling
with life. The green of the diverse jungle was a refreshing sight from
the concrete jungle of the city.

Campbell, digging through his thoughts, quipped, “You know,
monkeys were never my thing.”

Moros laughed. “Me neither. But you know the
‘Thrilling Threesome’ is all about it.”

“Why are you here then?” Campbell asked.

Moros quizzically looked at him and smirked.

Campbell added, “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“It’s okay, Jay. The three of them were friends
before this whole project began. The University assigned me for my
expertise. More or less, I’m just overseeing everything. Making
sure it all goes to plan.” Moros was only partially truthful.
Nonetheless, Campbell was appeased.

Meanwhile, in another room, Stephen, Vince, and Natalie
watched two big screens. On each screen was a different first-person
perspective of the jungle. They had planted two of their microchips in
two different bonobos. Stephen and Natalie diligently took notes as they
sat in bulky recliners. Vince stood behind them, watching with his arms
folded. It was like they were in a family room watching educational TV,
but were instead conducting groundbreaking research.

Other than chimpanzees, there wasn’t a better primate to
study than bonobos. Most fascinating about them was their close relationship
to Homo Sapiens. A bonobo’s DNA was almost 98% identical to a
human’s. Bonobos were most famously known for their propensity to have
sex with each other-constantly. A simple greeting was often in the form
of a quick sexual encounter. They were a predominantly peaceful species
with a near-nonexistent history of violence. Although they branched away
from chimps and humans roughly three million years ago, they were most likely
to resemble a common ancestor. Bonobos weren’t even discovered until 1929,
so research on them was relatively scarce. Stephen’s team looked to
change that.

Stephen observed the face of another bonobo on the
screen. It was looking out toward them so this particular one was
obviously gazing into the eyes of the chipped bonobo. The bonobo’s face
grew larger and engulfed the entire screen.

“What are they doing?” Natalie wondered out loud,
“Are they kissing?”

It sure seemed like it.

Lisa held Stephen’s hand and guided him through the
cave.
At the outset was a wide-open space filled with trees,
ropes, and most notably, monkeys. Stephen and Lisa walked along the
trail, joining the multitudes of people already leaning against the rails
observing the monkeys in action.

It was only a few weeks after the fateful party where Lisa
chose Stephen over Matt. The choice had paid off. He was far from
perfect, but perfection wasn’t what she was looking for. Stephen made a
lot of effort to please her, and on this day, he accompanied her on a trip to
the zoo.

They leaned against the rails to get a better look at the
monkeys. “Aren’t they cute?” Lisa asked.

Stephen joked, “What an outstanding observation!”

Lisa laughed and elbowed him in the side. The whole
exhibit was modeled to emulate a jungle, creating a natural habitat for the
monkeys. Most impressive about the exhibit was the lack of glass, cage,
or anything separating the monkeys from the people. Any spectator could
have easily leapt over the rail if they so desired. The monkeys were kept
at a far enough distance with a considerably high wall to prevent any
human/monkey interaction. The monkeys seemed to ignore the people who
constantly laid eyes on them, choosing instead to, well, monkey around.

Lisa pointed to a monkey sitting high on the tree nibbling
on a banana. “Stephen! That one looks just like you!” Lisa
laughed at her own joke.

Stephen shook his head at her lame attempt at humor.
Then, he pointed at another monkey: one more overweight than the others.
“There’s you, Lisa!”

She glared at Stephen. “So I’m fat?”

“I was talking about the eyes. Green, just like
yours.” A smile crawled across Stephen’s face. Lisa squeezed his
hand affectionately. “Do you think monkeys love each other?”

“How else would they make babies?” Stephen joked.

“That’s not what I mean…”

“I know.” Stephen replied sarcastically, “We haven’t
learned about that yet.”

“I think they do.”

“I guess if they kissed… that would prove it. But I
don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Lisa asked.

“That’s a good point. But I’m not buying it.
They’re an incredible species. But they’re not as advanced as we are.”

“I bet you five dollars monkeys kiss… and therefore love,”
Lisa challenged.

“Alright. Deal.” Stephen and Lisa formally
shook hands, ensuring their bet.

Later, outside the monkey arena, Stephen and Lisa were
sitting in the daylight next to a grand fountain. The water shot into the
air and trickled down several layers that funneled into a pool. As the
sun baked them, the mist of water grazing against their skin offered a cooling
reprieve. Even more refreshing were the ice cream cones they munched
on. Stephen ate chocolate and Lisa ate vanilla. Lisa looked deep
into Stephen’s illuminated eyes. And
smiled
.

“Stephen. I want you to promise me something.”

“What’s that?” Stephen asked with ice cream smeared on his
lips.

“Don’t give up on me. Don’t walk away.” Lisa
was nearly pleading. “Sometimes I get scared. But don’t give up on
me.”

Stephen reassured her with a simple gaze into her
eyes. He would never give up on her. She knew it. But she had
to be sure.

“I promise,” Stephen said, gracing her with a comforting
smile.

She leaned forward and gently placed her hand on his.

Lisa whispered, “I love you.”

And for the first time in her life, she knew she meant it.

Moros stood with a captivated Campbell watching the
world outside.
The wall of glass provided them with a spectacular
view of the jungle. The two killed time waiting for the others, who had
been watching the bonobos’ perspectives on television screens in another room
of the base.

Moros spoke up, “I believe they will be needing me.”

“For what?” Campbell asked. He couldn’t fathom what
they could possibly need.

So as to not give anything away, Moros stoically said, “I
just have a hunch.”

In the other room, Stephen and Natalie continued to take
notes while Vince watched. Their faces dropped in horror at what appeared
on the left screen: a human figure dressed in all black. “Who is that?”
Stephen gasped.

The human figure appeared to be female but a black-cloaked
mask shielded her face. The image on the screen fixated on the figure;
the bonobo was watching her attentively. She slowly raised something in
her hands.

Stephen leapt out of his chair in disbelief.

“Oh my God!” Natalie yelped. “It’s a gun!”

The figure held up a long rifle and took aim at the
screen. BAM! In an instant, the screen was blank. The bonobo
was dead.

Stephen, Vince, and Natalie stared at the screen.
Months of work were awash.

Locals were constantly hunting bonobos for their
meat. That was the only explanation Stephen could offer himself, even
though the woman appeared dressed in modern clothing. Regardless, he grew
infuriated.

“Let’s go get ‘em,” he mumbled.

Vince replied, “You want to go after the hunters?
Absolutely not.”

The door behind them opened. Stephen, Vince, and
Natalie turned to see Moros walking in. He noticed their gloomy
expressions and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Natalie replied, “One of our bonobos was just killed.”

“That’s terrible…” Moros noticed the monitors still blaring
away. “Then why are both of the feeds still going?”

Everyone looked at the screen. What was just an empty
feed was back on. Stephen declared, “But that’s impossible. That
bonobo was dead… and it’s a different season on that screen.”

The screen showed a new first-person perspective. The
colors were different. The surroundings were different. And it was
surrounded by other bonobos, who were viewed towering over it.

“It’s a baby bonobo,” Natalie observed, “But how?”

Finally. That was the question Moros was waiting
for. “This is fascinating. We should try to figure this out.”
Moros smirked, knowing more than he let on.

The screen went black again. The feed was gone.
Little did they know, this was just the beginning of the research that would
lead them to the ILD.