The Visitor (10 page)

“
No. Not...”
 

“
So don’t tell me how to react, if you please.”
 

“
Excuse me," he whispered. “I... I'm upset and...”
 

“
Don’t worry. I understand. Thanks for this evidence. Your work for our cause is precious. I'll select some for The Inquirer. You knew that I was invited?”
 

“
Ah, no. What a superb opportunity to expose the truth.”
 

She had a wry smile:

“
I'm afraid that the network won’t take the risk of disseminating anything too disturbing for their viewers. They will be told the classic: ‘
We have chosen not to show you the most shocking scenes.
’ You understand, we mustn’t cut off their appetites, poor things.”
 

“
But! They’re there to provide information, no?”
 

“
Yes, maybe... They’re mainly there to reach the maximum number of viewers to be able to sell their advertising at the highest price. The networks are also competing companies with shareholders demanding that they make the best profits. And furthermore, the idea of being attacked in court by the meat and milk giants makes them timid. Especially, if in addition, it’s these same giants who buy their advertising!”
 

“
But then what will these images be used for?”
 

“
We'll see. Perhaps they will let a few pass. And we must also and above all, show all of it on the social networks.”
 

While Okkala was speaking, the viewer had continued forward. She made the device rewind. He didn’t utter one more word until the end, but he looked away.
I’ll have nightmares for months!
he said to himself. When she had gotten to the end, she thanked him again:
 

“
Thanks, it’ll be very useful.”
 

“
In spite of what you said?”
 

“
Yes. I assure you that we’ll try to show it to the maximum number of people possible. It’s true that the media will broadcast only small snippets of it, the least painful to watch because they wish to protect their public, I mean their interests. But, as I told you, there’s Internet and we’ll also organize private debates and projections... Sometimes, those who don’t want their story to be told invite themselves very brutally to these meetings and from time to time things get broken.”
 

“
Equipment?”
 

“
Yes, but often people are aggressed also. Three members of the Association were badly beaten up the last time.”
 

“
But, surely, you're not going to tell me that your own brother would attack you.”
 

“My brother doesn’t do those kinds of things. The company he heads pays people to do the dirty work. You know, he doesn’t control all what happens. He may be the main shareholder... I know he’s overwhelmed. I'm not saying this to excuse him, but... You see what I mean?”

He preferred to abstain from responding to that.

“
You said that you saw worse?” he risked.
 

He regretted his question as soon as he had uttered the last word. He was unable to say why it had eluded him.

“
Yes. But I won’t show you any pictures; you're too sensitive for that. I can tell by looking at you that already you’ll have a lot of trouble sleeping in the coming days.”
 

“
You're right. I don't want to see any. But how can it be worse? I have trouble to...”
 

“
It’s easy to make it worse. The worst has no limits. Little by little, you get used to everything! The worst is progressing in small steps. Each of them really doesn’t seem any more serious than the previous one that has become a habit. Imagine a staircase which leads to the deepest depths of meanness. With each step that we go down, we don't have the impression of being much lower...”
 

“
But...”
 

“
Yes?”
 

“
The public...”
 

“
What about the public?”
 

“
Once they know, everything will cease.”
 

“
I hope so. But, everything is done to keep the public uninformed. People don’t see tortured dairy bovs in stores. All they see in front of them are containers illustrated with drawings of animals happy to give them their milk. They don’t see meat bovs spending their short, miserable lives in the concentration camp you’ve visited. They’re only shown packaged parts. They’ve learned to view the flesh as separate from its provenance. For them, dairy products and meat are simply
edible substances. You must know that already yourself since you were like that, only a few days ago. Yet your parents were farmers.”
 

“
Yes. I admit that... I hadn't seen it like that.”
 

“
And yet... I remind you that you saw nothing!”
 

“
But how could it be worse?”
 

“
Ralchadomac has found a way. I’m almost grateful for them to have exceeded my brother in horror.”
 

“…
?”
 

“
The amputation of the milk bovs’ four limbs at birth. These poor beasts live suspended by straps. They said that the limbs were a cause for expenditure in proteins unnecessary for the production of milk. They’re devising means for additional savings. To reduce the costs related to feed distribution and evacuation of feces, animals will be soon connected to three tubes, one down the throat for the purée. You’ve surely guessed, the other two are to carry away excrement and urine. The experimenting has already gotten underway. They’ve just found out that psychotropic drugs need to be added into the puree because some animals eventually spontaneously die from mental distress.”
 

Ukkosal held his head moaning.

“
Argh!” he cried. “We need to stop it all! Now. now, I’m telling you! Do you hear me? Now! At this moment!”
 

He was screaming.

“
That’s what we’re trying to do in Two One Four. That's why we’re fighting!
 

But it looked like Ukkosal had suddenly lost his mind. Holding his head with all four hands, on the verge of tearing his vocal cords, he bellowed:

“
You’re not listening to me! I said that it must stop now. Right away! At this moment!”
 

She looked at him, dumbfounded, without knowing what to answer.

“
There is a way!” he said ferociously. There's a way! A single one! The only one!”
 

“…
I’m listening. But please calm down.”
 

“
We must blow up all Ralchadomac and Natural Foods facilities. We need to kill their leadership with sniper rifles.”
 

“
You want me to kill my brother?”
 

Ukkosal grumbled a few incomprehensible words.

“
Your parents too raised animals that were intended to be eaten. They also stole milk from their dairy bovs, milk that was normally intended to feed their children.”
 

“
My parents never tortured their animals like Natural Foods and Ralchadomac! How can you compare them? And yours have done the same!”
 

“
I agree that they were much less cruel, but they participated in a process that involves getting nutrition from living beings, to be regarded as assets and this process never stopped getting worse little by little, as I said. Neither my brother nor your parents invented it completely, but everyone participated. Certainly, not as low as us on the stairs of the abyss, they were there all the same. They had already gone down a few steps.”
 

“
...”
 

“
Killing those who manage these death camps won’t change anything! As long as there’s a demand... We only need to inform the public every way we can.”
 

“
People will say that they have to eat!”
 

“
It’s up to us to explain to them that they are not forced to eat animal resources. All vegans are proof that it’s possible. In the meantime, do what you can to bring back images of meat bovs. If you can't, we won't be angry at you, but if you can you’ll serve the cause. Thank you so much for what you did already. And don’t believe I think your parents were evil. Don't forget that mine had the same trade and that my brother is worse still. I want only you to understand that it's impossible to return to the methods they practiced. History shows that, little by little, the machine will take over and we would return quickly to what we're doing today. And even! And even if it were possible to raise livestock as it was done in
their time, it wouldn’t be okay anyway. Animals aren’t assets at our disposal, they are beings who think and suffer. To kill one of them is murder. We allow ourselves to do so because we are the dominant species. It’s the law of the strongest, but not of the most noble.”
 

*

Akkaliza parked her scooter against a wall on the narrow Kkoojor street sidewalk. She stopped the vehicle's engine and descended in such haste that she almost fell. Pain indicated that she was twisted a claw in her left foot, but she was in too much of a hurry to see to it more closely. She made a few paces limping to door number 269. There, one of the ten fingers on her upper right hand pressed the doorbell, while her other three hands drummed the door.

“
Akkaliza!” exclaimed her aunt upon opening. “What’s going on?”
 

“
Sneaky escaped!” cried her niece.
 

“
Who?”
 

“
Oh sorry! The bov that I’ve talken to you about. That my father let me take care of.”
 

“
Ah... Okay! Don’t stay there, come on in.”
 

Entering, Akkaliza passed by an individual that was leaving at the same time. He looked upset. The vibrations of his cheek’s scales expressed dismay. He mumbled something that sounded like something polite and walked away, shoulders hunched as if all the evils of the world were on his back.

In response to the surprised and questioning look of her niece, Okkala moved her crest in an expression that seemed to say:
'it’s nothing
...’
 

"So? Tell me!” she asked.

“
He managed to break the cage and escape," said Akkaliza.
 

“
Break his cage? But...”
 

“
He made a tool with a branch and he used it for... Wait, best to see it yourself.”
 

Akkaliza handed over the memory card taken from her camera. Intrigued, Okkala introduced the object into her computer and both looked at the display.

“
But... how did he get the stick with that sort of hook on its end?”
 

“
I hadn’t installed the camera yet, but despite lack of evidence, I believe that he made it himself from a branch. In fact, that's the reason that I’ve named him Sneaky.”
 

 
Akkaliza was explaining what had caused her to assume that while her aunt continued to discover all that the fugitive had done to break out of his prison and flee.
 

“
Then how did you find your camera then? It’s clear that he let it fall in the grass far enough away from the house.”
 

“
It's Okkdor, our guard hinec that found it. When I unleashed him, he sniffed everywhere and stopped in front of the camera and the tool that Sneaky made. But with all that fell last night... impossible to go further.”
 

“
It's true that it rained too, the hinec wouldn't be able to find the scent.”
 

“
See how intelligent he is! I knew that bovs were able to use and even make tools. But knowing that it was him who... To see it on these images... you understand?”
 

The green scales on Okkala’s neck vibrated in a way that expressed a loving smile:

“
For sure! He seems particularly intelligent. The funny thing is that he saw fit to bring your camera! What did he really want it for? Anyway, you possess an extraordinary video, because it was taken by a bov! It can’t be said that he’s good at framing, but... For a beginner, this isn’t bad! It’s funny when he filmed himself point-blank while he examined the objective.”
 

With a smile, she added:

“
Close-up of his tongue and teeth when he tasted it...”
 

“
Yes," agreed Akkaliza smiling also, “I'm probably the sole person having such a self-portrait.”
 

“
The biggest difficulty, as I’ve often said, is that people don't realize that animals, bovs among others, express themselves with facial expressions and means that are so different from ours that it’s impossible to understand them with any ease. I'm presently doing some work on this subject... But I’m wasting your time there, no?”
 

“
Not really... I think that Sneaky must have fled into the forest. I was intending to release him anyway. I would have liked to have opened his cage to show him that I was his friend. Too bad! I hope that he’ll get back with his own kind. They must be at about sixty kilometers from the house. At the place that Dad usually goes hunting.”
 

“
I think that he’ll eventually find them. Don’t worry.”
 

“
Well... I’m worried a little bit anyway... But you said that you were working on a topic?”
 

“
Yes. I’ve observed that bovs communicate a lot with the way they raise their lips and probably by moving the hair they have over their eyes also. I'll show you some images that I’ve put aside for this study. By the way, that did your father say about his escape?”
 

“
He doesn’t know yet. I don’t know at all how he’ll react when I tell him about it this evening. We'll see!”
 

*

Bent down forward and head low down, Etos had progressed. He had advanced very slowly at first, because of the darkness that had slyly administered several blows to his head, and then more easily, as he crawled towards more light. As he approached, the distressing moans had gradually become almost deafening, as much for his ears as for his compassion.