The Promised One (22 page)

The next day a plane arrived with two vets, James and Jane Stockwell, a man and wife team. They had radioed Lucy the previous day to find out exactly what was wrong with the jaguars and they brought with them the equipment they would need. Lucy explained that the jaguars had become half-tamed – a white lie, but one she felt was justified as being the only explanation the vets would understand for the cats’ docile behaviour. With Lucy’s help they anaesthetized and treated the animals, then told her that the drainage tubes they had put in would probably come out on their own, but if not they should be taken out in about ten days’ time.

‘Unfortunately we can’t come back then because we will be away on a field trip immunizing a wild herd,’ Jane told Lucy, ‘but anyone who feels comfortable being near the jaguars can do it.’

‘What exactly needs to be done?’ said Lucy.

‘Well, you see this little plastic tube,’ Jane said, pointing to the side of the third jaguar, which was just beginning to regain consciousness. ‘If it’s still there in about ten days’ time it just needs a tug to remove it. It won’t hurt the animal, just a twinge, and the little hole left behind will
heal on its own. It doesn’t need a vet, it just needs someone who can get near to the jaguar without losing an arm.’

‘I think I can organize that,’ said Lucy.

James and Jane assumed she meant she would help one of the company staff at the camp to do it and they had no doubt she could, having seen her amazing ability to relate to the animals.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as good with animals as you are,’ said James. ‘The way you can handle these big cats is almost unbelievable. What are you hoping to do eventually? Something working with animals, I hope.’

‘Yes, I’d like to be a vet,’ said Lucy, ‘and I’d love to do the sort of work you do. Thank you so much for letting me help and watch today.’

‘It’s we who should be thanking you,’ laughed Jane. ‘Our job would have been twice as difficult without your help. I’m sure we’ll meet again one day; maybe you’ll come and help us when you are a vet – or during your studies.’ She kissed Lucy goodbye and James gave her an affectionate hug; then they climbed into their aircraft, giving the
half-buried
drugs plane a puzzled glance as they did so.

Lucy waved until the little plane was out of sight and then returned to the camp where the police captain was supervising the removal of the fashion accessories acquired by the villains. The plastic bucket was eventually cut off Bert’s head by means of a large, high-powered tree saw, wielded enthusiastically by the commando. The cupboard door was removed from around Chopper’s ankle using the same tool. During these procedures the commando kept
turning his head and chatting to his colleagues as he worked. The conversation clearly involved some amusing stories for it involved a great deal of raucous laughter and at one point the commando laughed so heartily that he had to remove one hand from the juddering high-speed saw to wipe the tears from his eyes. Judging by their expressions, neither Bert nor Chopper seemed to find the removal operation to be a particularly relaxing experience.

Later that day the police launch arrived and the prisoners limped down to the jetty under an armed escort. As the prisoners boarded the launch the river officer in charge stood on the deck by the rail and talked to Captain Colarinho about Sam’s disappearance.

‘I just don’t see how we could have missed him,’ said the boat officer. ‘We didn’t even see an empty boat so he can’t have escaped on foot – though if he had we’d never find him in this lot.’ He gestured to the luxuriant jungle surrounding them. He gazed into the dark waters below him and as he looked, there was a slow swirl on the surface as though something large was moving in the depths. He looked up again at the forest.

‘A fellow could be neatly tucked away in some dark hidey-hole just a few feet away from you in this place,’ he mused, ‘and you’d never know it.’

T
hat night Richard and Lucy and the company pilot were the only ones remaining in the camp. In the evening, while the pilot and Richard prepared supper, Lucy walked out to talk to the jaguars who had now fully recovered from their anaesthesia. She called Queenie, who appeared within a few minutes with Sophie and Clio, and explained about the extraction of the drainage tubes to the monkeys and the convalescent cats. She then pointed to the moon.

‘See how the Great Silver One that lights the night now grows larger once again. When she is restored to her full size you must all return to this place. If the grey straws have fallen from the sides of the junglefangs there is nothing more to be done; if they remain
–’ She turned to Queenie.
‘– you must pull them out. They will come easily.’
She then turned to the cats.

‘When the arborikin removes these straws from your side you may feel a little pain but it will soon pass. It will be less than the sting of a buzzithorn. You must not hurt the arborikin, for she performs a great service for us all.’

She then explained that she would be leaving in the morning but would see them once more before she left.
She returned to the main camp and sat down to a supper of baked beans and sausages – the latter a rare treat, brought by the pilot in his cool box. Over the meal Richard told her that José had decided to close down the camp at Cayman Creek as part of the company’s new policy of developing only renewable timber resources. As soon as possible all traces of the development would be removed and the jungle allowed to reclaim the site.

José had also asked Richard to become chief scientific adviser to the company, which would not only mean an increase in salary but would allow him to develop his research into bananas and other trees producing food and new medicines. The company initials would still be ETC – it would be expensive and confusing to change them – but they would now stand for the Ecofriendly Trading Company instead of the Ecocidal Timber Company.

Lucy was excited by this news and they talked about the various developments long into the night. Just as they eventually crossed towards their hut, where Lucy, with the help of Sophie and Clio, had earlier arranged beds of new fragrant leaves and fronds, there was a deafening clap of thunder that silenced even the night noises of the jungle. Michelle clung to Lucy’s shoulder with all her tiny might. They dashed into the hut just as the rain started and stood at the mesh window watching the breathtaking phenomenon of a tropical thunderstorm. They had both experienced a great deal of rain of course: in the rainforest it usually rained every day, and there had been thunderstorms once or twice a week, but neither of them,
even Richard in all his travels, had witnessed anything remotely as spectacular as the storm that now raged around them. Vivid flashes of sheet lightning lit up the whole sky, silhouetting the vast canopy of the jungle, alternating with jagged bolts of forked lightning, some so near that Lucy hugged closer to her father and Michelle’s paws felt like a miniature vice clamped on to her shoulder. Then rain such as she had never seen before came down in what looked like continuous silver rods as thick as her fingers, pounding on the roof of the hut with such a drumming noise as to make speech impossible. Lucy hoped all the animals would be all right, then remembered that they had spent their entire lives experiencing such storms at regular intervals; storms that were an integral feature of the world they had evolved in. Eventually the storm passed and Lucy and Richard returned from the window to their nests of leaves, grateful that they had been under cover and not out in the open during the downpour.

In the morning the sun rose into a brilliantly clear sky and the camp looked clean and fresh as Richard and Lucy walked to the mess tent to meet the pilot for breakfast. The stranded drugs plane had been struck by lightning and was a smouldering wreck.

‘It’s as if nature has called an end to this wicked place,’ said Lucy, ‘and knows that today marks the start of a new era for the precious plants and creatures who live here.’

After breakfast the pilot went to the plane to prepare for their flight and Lucy excused herself for a few moments. There were tears in her eyes and Richard guessed she was
going to say farewell to the animals that had become so much more to her than just willing and loyal servants.

‘Just a minute, Lucy, I’ve something for you.’ He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a little case. Lucy opened it and inside were a pair of spectacles with bright green frames. She put them on.

‘Well, Dad,’ she said in a slightly embarrassed tone, ‘they’re an …’ she paused imperceptibly ‘… unusual colour, but to be quite honest they’re a bit small for me and they’re a bit blurred.’

Richard grinned: ‘Of course they’re small because they’re not for you, and they look blurred because those aren’t lenses – they’re clear plastic.’

Light dawned on Lucy.

‘You must have asked José!’ she exclaimed. ‘Your “boys’ talk”. And I suppose the vets brought them yesterday!’ Richard nodded, as she rushed over and hugged him. ‘You’re really cool,’ she said happily, ‘and the greatest dad anyone ever had.’

She hurried off to the edge of the forest with Katy and Michelle. All the animals congregated around her and, looking across at the gathering, Richard prayed that Tom, the pilot, would remain engrossed in his plane for the next few moments; he wasn’t sure how he would begin to explain away the extraordinary scene should the pilot ask him. As he watched, his daughter hugged all the animals in turn and then, though he heard nothing, he knew she was speaking to them:

‘Thank you for all you have done. I can now tell you that this
evil place will be destroyed and once again belong to you and all your kin. I also promise that one day, when I am a woman, I will return here and tell you of the changes I will then be making to benefit all animals in the world. Most of you who stand here today will not see me then, for the Great Silver One must wax and wane countless times before I return, but you can assure your young and their young that I will come.’

She beckoned to Queenie.
‘You, O Queen, have been particularly helpful to me and I will always cherish the memories of our times together. Here is something that will remind you of our adventures and our quest.’
She handed the spectacle case to Queenie, who opened it and took out the glasses with an expression of delight and surprise on her face. She put them on and gave the case to Sophie who started opening and shutting it repeatedly. Clio tried to help but got her fingers trapped – not seriously – and she contented herself with removing the little yellow cleaning cloth from the
case and putting it on top of her head, making Lucy laugh through her tears.

‘When I looked through the second eyes of the Promised One,’
said Queenie,
‘the world looked as though it were covered by the gossamer the arachnopods weave, but through these eyes it looks as it does on the clearest day. It cannot be right that I should have better second eyes than She Who Speaks.’
She tried to hand the glasses back to Lucy who stopped her and smiled kindly at her.

‘There are many second eyes made by the Tailless Ones and through them the world appears in many different ways. These eyes are specially for you and I hope they will give you pleasure and even greater status among your kin.’

She then turned to the assembled group and gave Michelle, Katy and Melanie final cuddles.

‘And now I must bid thee farewell, for I return to my own kin in Albion, far across the Great Salt. I will never forget you all and what you have done for me.’
Tears streaming down her face, she turned and went to join Richard. He put his arm round her and hugged her but said nothing. They gathered their few things and walked to the plane where Tom was starting up the engine.

Soon they were in the air and Lucy got butterflies in her stomach as the little plane lurched from side to side, buffeted by the tropical air currents as it climbed. She watched the campsite shrink to a tiny spot as they
ascended higher and higher. Once again she was confronted with the breathtaking enormity of the rainforest stretching unbroken to the horizon on every side. This time, however, she was able to share her sense of wonder with her father and together they watched the unfolding panorama as the plane banked to pick up the Amazon tributary winding like a silver ribbon through the trees, the marker that they would follow as it joined successive tributaries on its way to the great river itself.

‘You really did form a very special relationship with those animals, didn’t you?’ said Richard.

‘Much closer than I ever thought possible,’ she replied. ‘They’re so refreshingly
uncomplicated
. They know that life is hard and unfair and dangerous; they know that medium animals eat little animals, and big animals eat medium animals. They accept the reality of life as it is and I suppose that’s why they’re so relaxing to be with. You know that they say what they mean, and mean what they say, and that they’ll never betray you. They’re so much nicer than most people.’

Richard felt as though he were listening to an adult, so fluent and accurate was her language; then he remembered that she had always been good at language. She had learnt to speak fluently at a very early age and her vocabulary at three had already been that of a school-aged child. Perhaps … Richard started to explore in his mind the same ideas that Lucy’s grandpa had been through a few weeks earlier. For the very first time he began to realize that Lucy must
always
have been destined for this role and that her
language skills must always have been related to some special pathways in her brain that were one day going to enable her to communicate with animals. She was, in effect, a super-communicator.

It now dawned on him that the Promised One was always much more likely to have been a female than a male. He remembered a scientific article he had read just before leaving London for Rio. It had described the different types of human brain: type E for empathizing, type S for systematizing and type B for balanced. Most men were type S, leading them to understand systems and try to build them. Most women were type E which enabled them to perceive what another person was thinking and react to it appropriately. Lucy was an outstanding example of a type E brain. Richard thought that there should now be a new category, UE, or ultra-E, for those who could relate to animals as well as humans. At the moment Lucy was the only UE in the world.

Richard pulled himself back from his daydream to their conversation.

‘I was amused by the vets,’ he said. ‘They just couldn’t believe how good you were with the animals. They said that with you just standing there the jaguars seemed to know in advance what they wanted them to do and one of them even held out his foreleg to receive the anaesthetic injection. All I could do was to say, rather lamely, that you had always liked animals. Anyway, they said that their operations had gone very well and that you knew what to do about their aftercare. Something about some tubes
being removed.’ He suddenly stopped and frowned. ‘Hang on a minute – you didn’t know before they left that the camp was going to be closed down and that nobody would be there after today? I only found that out from José the same afternoon. What’s going to happen to the animals?’

‘Relax, Dad,’ said Lucy smiling. ‘You don’t think I’d leave them stranded, do you? It’s all arranged. Queenie’s going to pull their tubes out at the end of next week. She knows to do it when the moon is full, which conveniently happens to be in nine days’ time.’

Richard gaped at her.

‘You what!’ he exclaimed, ‘I mean – you’ve left some monkeys to perform a veterinary operation?’

‘Don’t make it into a big drama, Dad. The tubes may fall out on their own and they only need a little tug if they don’t. Monkeys are just as dextrous as human beings and, as there aren’t going to be any people there next week, they’re the obvious ones to do it. Anyway, I think it’s good that animals learn to look after each other in some situations. Close your mouth, Dad, you look as if you’re going to dribble in a minute.’ Richard realized he was staring at her open-mouthed in amazement. He wondered if he was ever going to get used to his daughter in her new decisive and authoritarian role. She really was something special.

Later in the day they began to fly over areas of forest that were already being developed, mainly near the rivers which were the only ‘roads’ in this part of the jungle. Soon they saw a haze covering the forest which, as they flew on, became so dense that it completely blotted out their view
of the canopy.

‘What on earth is going on?’ said Lucy, peering down at the swirling fog of smoke.

‘They’re burning the forest to clear it,’ said Richard. He then told her all the depressing statistics he had learnt about the destruction of the jungle and the damage that was being done to the earth’s atmosphere and climate by uncontrolled deforestation. Lucy’s face grew pale with anger as she listened and looked down. She already knew some of the facts from Grandpa’s books about the Amazon but seeing the destruction in real life was much worse. They had emerged from one immense bank of smoke but now she could see another coming into view ahead of them.

‘One day, I’m going to stop all this,’ she said simply. There was a look of frightening determination in her eyes and Richard knew that this was no schoolgirl’s idle boast; no pre-teenage fantasy. This was something that she could, and probably would, actually bring about.

‘My animals can achieve almost anything,’ she continued. ‘All they lack is someone to co-ordinate and direct them. They just need – what’s that person called who bosses armies about?’

‘A general?’ said Richard.

‘Yes, that’s it! A general. And that’s what I’m going to be. I’ll command the largest army that anyone ever conceived of in their wildest dreams. I can’t help it because it’s been plonked on me, and I’m going to have to talk to you and the family about what I actually do. And I know I’ll have
to finish school before I do anything – anything really big, that is.’