The Visitor (9 page)

Suddenly it started raining again. It riddled nature with large drops that from the multitude of impacts rumbled with more and more clatter.

*

Mahisa had moved away from the road, but, still keeping it in sight, she walked in the forest. She could just make it out in the moonlight. It was more comfortable for her feet to make progress on the undergrowth’s soft soil and she felt safer under the trees than completely out in the open. An hour earlier, she had seen an extraordinary thing. Quite extraordinary, Yes, but very scary! It started with two spots of light far before her. She was walking on the earthen path at the time. She had already seen glowworms in the grass at night and of course the stars in the dark sky and also the moon, as was the case at the moment. But these spots of light didn’t look like any of those phenomena. First, they were necessarily much brighter than glowworms since they appeared clearly from much further away. Also, they were visible under skyline unlike the stars. And above all, she was seeing them approaching at high speed. As a precaution, Mahisa had gone into hiding in the forest behind a tree while observing the phenomenon. The lights grew while gradually a noise that she had heard before was getting louder and louder. Something passed in a cloud of dust. A strange and frightening beast resembling that which had took Etos on its back and a lightning-slayer in its hollow head. Mahisa had discovered that, to add to its monstrosity, its eyes glowed at night like two suns. Long after its passage, she remained petrified with terror, legs trembling and her heart shaking her chest. Then, she hesitated. Should she turn back to follow this monster to find the one she loved? But she convinced herself not to. This ‘four round feet’ was different from that which had captured Etos. It wasn’t quite identical in shape and it had another color. Moreover, why follow it since it obviously didn’t have Etos on its back? The best was to continue in the same direction until she found the tribe of the four round feet. Perhaps, that’s where she would be able to recover her loved one.

She set off again, heavy hearted and full of anxiety. Now, rain crackled on the foliage above her. She licked leaves to quench her thirst. Later, she was able to drink from a puddle.

*

Now that she was responsible for Sneaky’s care, Akkaliza planned to get up an hour and a half earlier than usual to go and see him every morning. That morning, she went down the stairs without making a noise to avoid waking her parents that she hoped were still asleep.

But when she arrived in the living room, she saw her father, slumped in his chair, a cup of coffee in one hand. She found that he looked terrible.

“
Hi Dad!” she said.
 

He muttered a few sounds which she believed to sound something like 'my daughter'.

“
You’re awake early!” she tried.
 

Garbled response. Absentmindedly staring at his cup, he didn’t even raise his eyes to look at her. Everything suggested that he hadn’t slept at all that night. Deciding not to lose time over that, she quickly put two apples, a few nuts and a box of soy, that she had cooked the day before, in a bag and then she went out to see Sneaky.

The grass was still soaked; she regretted not having put boots on. As soon as she went around the last tree and the cage was in sight, surprise paralyzed her for a second, and then she rushed forward to look between the bars.

*

Akkal arrived at his office with a headache that numbed his mind. He went into the meeting room, vaguely greeted everyone, sat down in his chair and waited for the others to be seated also. When this was done, these were the words that were uttered from his beak:

“
All night, I couldn’t close my eyes. Natural Foods not having a choice... It isn’t really a decision. But, let's do it! Let's go and beat Ralchadomac. It’s urgent now that we solve the technical problems. With our vetoes, Ykkypol, you want to take care of that?”
 

“
Yes, I’ve even taken a head start. I’ve already discussed it with Ikkillu.”
 

Ikkillu was a plump green to whom was entrusted the direction of the veterinary service.

“
So, what does she think?”
 

“
It’ll be much easier to modify the bovs two or three days after their birth. To do it on adults is possible, but this would require substantial labor, additional antibiotics costs and a big risk of decrease in milk production.”
 

“
Uhhm... Unfortunate, that. That means that we’ll have to wait how long to have dairy bovs that are profitable?”
 

“
Ikkillu thinks that we can proceed with ablations on all females, from new births to all those that are within three months from becoming productive. The latter will have that time to heal.”
 

“
So, we’ll be more profitable in three months? Is that right?”
 

“
Yes, it is.”
 

“
And in the meantime, we must sell at a loss!”
 

“
I know, but what can I say? I’ve told you what Ikkillu thinks.”
 

Akkal looked around the table. All remained silent.

“
You others, what do you think?”
 

“
If Ikkillu says so...” settled Ukkbeyri pensively examining his upper right hand’s ten claws.
 

Ukkbeyri was the shareholder that participated the least in discussions at Board of Director’s meetings. But as he was always in agreement with final decisions, Akkal liked him a lot.

“
Okay!” concluded the latter. “Ykkypol, you tell Ikkillu to do whatever it takes, but I want some new profitable dairy bovs in only two months. Have her do something to make them heal more quickly... I don’t know, have her use her brains!”
 

“
Understood, I'll tell her.”
 

“
Okay... Does anyone have something else to add?”
 

“
Yes," says Ukkbeyri.
 

Akkal looked at him surprised.

Ukkbeyri has something to say!
he thought.
What a surprise!
He noticed that he wasn’t the only one surprised. All eyes were turned to the one who usually said so little.
 

“
I’ve an idea to make a little money," said the latter, “just enough to carry us over while waiting to have more profitable dairy bovs.”
 

“
We’re listening," ensured Akkal.
 

“
You may find it... how to say... Okay, I’ll explain. You’ll see! I was thinking of force-feeding meat bovs. Make them swallow everything they can up to the limit of what they can ingest without exploding.”
 

“
Ah! And what good would that do?” said Akkal astonished looking to the others as witnesses.
 

“
Let me talk without interruption, otherwise, I won't be able to explain. I said we need to force-feed them until they’re sick. That’s the goal. To make them sick.”
 

They all looked surprised. Akkal wondered if he wasn't the one who was sick, but he kept silent. Ukkbeyri continued.

“
The purpose is to cause a liver disease or more specifically hepatic steatosis.”
 

“
Ah!” Akkal couldn’t help himself saying. “I see that you have studied this in earnest, but its purpose still escapes me.”
 

“
Liver affected by this disease grows to an enormous size! Ten, fifteen or even twenty times larger than its normal size. We’ll be able to sell this organ as a luxury commodity. We’ll need to market it as an item of good taste, as terroir, for social graces and luxury... see what I mean.”
 

Everyone was so surprised that their first response was a long silence. The second was from Ykkmaly:

“
How do you expect people to buy sick liver? And that in addition to get them to regard it as a luxury product?”
 

“
Ads... Ads!” exclaimed Ukkbeyri clinging to his idea like a castaway to a buoy. “Advertising is everything!”
 

The seven other participants at the meeting stared each other looking like they thought their associate was out of his mind.

Akkal understood from their facial expressions that it was up to him to put an end to this far-fetched idea:

“
It won't work, Ukkbeyri! Nobody’ll buy sick liver, even with advertising. I'm sorry, but it’s absurd!”
 

*

Of course, the first thing that Etos did waking up was to think of Mahisa, but this didn’t stop him to head outdoors. There was full daylight. This wasn’t reassuring for him. Of course, the day had the advantage of being able to see clearly, but it also had the major disadvantage of making him too visible. Squinting his eyes because of the sun, he noticed, thankfully a far enough away, four creatures that he vaguely reminded him of something. They resembled the thing that had transported his cage when he was first inside it; except, although they had same feet that rolled, there was no big arm on its back. He wondered if it would be better to wait till night to return to the forest and be able to get away as far as possible from this place full of oddities and lightning-slayers. The last one he had seen had the thing that bangs and kills in its hands. It had imprisoned the sun, but apparently it had managed to escape as it was now high in the sky. Unless they had voluntarily released it... How to know? Whatever, better not to be seen at the moment. Horrible wailing still eerily filled the auditory environment. He was sure that they were complaints, crying, expressions of suffering, but although there were articulated sounds also, he couldn't make out a single word. Never had he heard anything so distressing. All members of Etos’s tribe spoke the same language. So the idea that he might one day hear words from one or more of his congeners without understanding didn’t come to him. It was even more disturbing than seeing the sun imprisoned.

Returning inside the dependency, he glanced at what it contained. Of course, he didn’t understand the purpose of everything that was offered to his eyes, motors, piping, valves, electrical cables, switches and a number of other various devices, but he noticed that there was another strange thing on the opposite side of the first, one of those flat shapes that rotated when you pushed them. It was closed, but he recognized it as being the same thing. Initially, he tried to push it with his right shoulder, but it didn’t budge. He wanted to insert his finger-nails between the wall and the thing to pull it. Impossible! Spying the handle, he conceived the idea to grab this good grip to force it in all directions. So with commendable
determination, he shook it and he ended up rotating it appropriately and the door opened. It’s hard to fully realize the sense of power that invaded him: wasn't he able to maneuver insane things in the world of the lightning-slayers? What a pity that Mahisa wasn‘t there to admire him! How frustrating it was to waste such elements of seduction!
 

But his sense of triumph quickly gave way to curiosity. He was in a room two times smaller than the previous one. The wall that it shared with the huge building of Natural Foods contained a rectangle of mysterious darkness. It was an opening through which passed many electrical cables and pipes of large diameter coming up from the floor. He took two seconds to consider all of this, wondering what the lightning-slayers could be doing with their lives by residing in such a singular world. But this question had no time to stick around in his mind because he was overcome with great anxiety upon hearing the sounds emanating from this dark opening. There still was horrible wailing, but it was considerably closer. From female voices, this time he was certain. They had to be so numerous!
So many, many, such a big number that a single head couldn’t phantom it
, he thought. Terrified and shocked to listen to so many expressions of such great suffering, adrenaline poured into his blood and his eyes filled with tears. With his whole body trembling, he decided to enter the devil’s den to come to the aid of those who tirelessly screamed their martyrdom. How many were they? What horrible torture lightning-slayers had inflicted upon them within the bowels of this cursed hill? He was terrified at the idea of suffering the same fate, but even more so at imagining what would be his remorse if he did nothing for them.
 

So, he leaned into this dark tunnel. Then he put a knee on its edge and entered completely on all fours.

*

Ukkosal was showing Okkala pictures and videos. She looked at the viewer display with concentration, without making any comment. Ukkosal was surprised by her lack of reaction. He was finding the scene very hard to support yet he had filmed it himself! To vision once more these atrocious moments was torture. How could she stay so cold in front of that? Then came the scene where an employee watched the treadmill where hundreds of live newborns, mostly male, were dumped into a grinder. You could see the creatures crammed one on top the other carried along then toppled into the large funnel of the machine. Rising quickly, he screamed and sent his chair two meters behind him:

“
You’re not saying anything!” he said outraged. “How can you remain insensitive to it? You yourself asked me to bring back images of this hell that your brother manages?”
 

She had a bitter smile, which umas expressed by a particular vibration of their neck scales.

“
If I don’t react in a visible way," she retorted, “it’s for several reasons. The first is that I am reacting inside myself with such violence that I'm about to pass out in front you. The second is that, as you’ve mentioned, my brother is involved; and I am ashamed despite myself. The third is that I've already seen worse! Much worse!”
 

With these last words, her eyes stared down on him with an intensity that scared him. He felt sheepish.

“
Do you want to see worse?” she proposed almost not opening her beak. “Do you want to see bovs butchered still alive and aware on the slaughter line? Or you may prefer those skinned alive for their leather?”