Endangered by Eliot Schrefer Page B

her attention to Brunelle. I murped, or as close as I could come to it, and held my open hand out in greeting. She didn’t take it.
    I approached and examined the rope around Songololo’s arm. It was knotted tightly, and her wrist was already bleeding from the chafing. I tried to untie it, but when Songololo cried out I had to stop for fear of alerting the soldiers.
    Roused by the activity, Otto crawled out from under my shirt, hopped to the ground, and approached the other bonobo. They stared at each other. Otto was intensely curious about the rope, and Songololo let him examine it until he got to her wrist. When Otto put pressure on it, she bared her teeth at him. He retreated to a spot behind me, holding on to my calves like protective bars.
    I couldn’t linger here. I was already farther from the enclosure exit than I’d ever planned to be, and one of the soldiers could wander by any minute. At the same time I couldn’t leave Songololo — who knew why they’d tied her up or what they had planned for her? But I couldn’t untie the rope without her crying out and alerting them.
    Brunelle was naked — I’d only just realized it. As far as shock went, nudity lagged far behind blood. Her pagne — a lavishly cheerful yellow wrap that I’d always admired — was wadded up a few feet away. I picked it up, at first thinking I would cover her body. Then I realized the militiamen would eventually take it, and I wanted the fabric as a memory of her. It would also be useful; a pagne could be worn as clothing, tied to bundle a baby — or a bonobo — onto your back, or serve as a ground cloth for sleeping.Hers was especially durable, covered in a layer of supple wax. When I picked it up I found her cloth bag beneath. I plucked it up — it might have some of her personal possessions inside, and I wanted to keep some memory of her in case I found her family.
    Otto and Songololo stared at me, wide-eyed, as I placed both hands on the stake. When I braced my arms against my thighs and pulled, it came away in my hands. I figured once I got Songololo and Otto back into the enclosure I could worry about getting the rope off.
    As I started back toward the fence, Otto bounded up and assumed his favored jockey position on my back. Songololo lagged behind. What a sight we must have been, me running with an ape on my back, trailing another bonobo attached by a leash.
    I input the code, and the buzzing of the electricity stopped.
    I grabbed the duffel, dropping the stake as I did, and passed through the gate with Otto and the duffel. I turned just in time to watch Songololo hobble through. We’d made it.
    But the long stake hadn’t. It hit the opening crosswise and held. Songololo jerked backward when the rope yanked on her bleeding wrist, shrieking in full voice at the pain. After a few seconds the sanctuary was alive with shouts. Men’s shouts. I dropped the duffel and grabbed at the stake. Songololo kept pulling on it and screaming, yanking her leash taut, which made it impossible to turn the stake so it would pass through.
    Two of the kata-kata were running toward me, machetes at their sides. I had both hands on the stake and was still fiddling with it when I realized another danger: At any second electricity would start surging through the fence.
    Straight through the iron stake. Straight through me.
    I was tempted to drop it, but I screamed and wrenched the stake. It dented the fencepost and came free. I fell away with it as the fence started humming.
    The two soldiers were running at me, only a short way away.
    With the enclosure gate still open.
    I knew I couldn’t touch it now that it was live, so I looked for a branch on the ground. There weren’t any, so I swung the duffel against the gate. A burst of sparks splattered as it impacted the metal, then the gate was closed, with the soldiers stuck on the other side. They shook their machetes and shouted at me. If