by Lee Murphy
Kodiak looked at Cyrena, surprised to find himself so taken by her. She was a beautiful woman, but not merely in the physical sense. Her beauty came from inside and radiated a warmth and kindness toward other people. She was one of those extremely rare human beings who by their very nature were innocent without being naive. He knew he would probably never see her again after this trip, and that made him feel more alone than he already was.
Dave was at the far end of the line, so Kodiak walked over to Cyrena and leaned close to her ear. "Having a good time?"
"Very good."
"I'm glad. Listen, I don't want to alarm you, but it might be a good idea to stay alert. Keep away from Norm and Jamie as much as possible."
She wasn't really surprised by this, but she didn't care for this confirmation of her earlier concerns. "Staying away from Norm'll be no problem. Him or Ruth. You think there's going to be trouble?"
He paused for what seemed a very long time, and just before she was about to speak up again, he said, "No."
***
Jamie Montagna brought a shoe box-size metal container into the house from Norm's wagon. It contained tranquilizing equipment, and he laid everything out on the dining room table: two dozen darts, several large syringes, and two bottles of liquid chemicals. Next to these items he laid out three air rifles.
Montagna picked up one of the bottles and started measuring off some of the liquid into a syringe.
Old Norm was behind him, leaning against the kitchen doorway and sucking on a brew. "What is that stuff, anyway, Jamie?"
"Ketamine hydrochloride. It's a powerful tranquilizer commonly used on primates."
"How do you know how much to use?"
"The general rule is two-point-five milligrams per pound. Now, according to Mama in there, we're probably dealing with a juvenile, possibly two hundred, two-twenty-five in weight. I want to play it safe, so I'll use five hundred milligrams. That should allow for a safe LB-50."
Norm made a sound of exasperation. "Let's pretend, just for a minute now, that I ain't no Nobel laureate..."
"Yeah, yeah, right. LB-50, that's our margin for error. That gives us a certain amount of leeway should we overdose the animal. That way, the amount of juice we pump into him won't be fatal."
"And what's in that other bottle?"
Montagna glanced at the second bottle, then continued measuring the tranquilizer. "Doxapram hydrochloride. That prevents respiratory failure should I miss-guess our LB-50."
Norm laughed. "You damn near got to be a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out, huh?" He took another swig of beer and belched.
While Norm watched Montagna prepare the darts in the dining room, Ruth was sitting in the dark living room, warming her aged bones in front of the fireplace. When she first came into the house, she spotted the gray cat and felt the urge to hunt it down and kill it, as she always did when there was a potential "game animal" around. The cat sensed her malevolence and went upstairs to get away from her. That didn't matter to Ruth. She would simply bide her time until she was ready; then the cat wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell.
In the meantime she reached into her shirt pocket and took out her nitroglycerin pills. She slipped one under her tongue, closed her eyes and hummed an Indian song her grandmother used to sing to her.
***
Ben met Kodiak, Cyrena, and Dave as they walked out of the woods and up the path to Mildred's house. He explained that he could no longer stand the atmosphere inside. Norm was being his usual obnoxious self, Mildred wanted nothing to do with any of them, and Ruth was giving him the creeps.
Kodiak said, "I was going to ask you to come with me to take the cars to where we stashed the horses so we could pack everything for the trip."
Ben leapt at the opportunity. "Hell, yes! Anything to get away from here. Of course, you'll be driving Norm's car?"
Kodiak shook his head in dismay. "And you say I've got a mean streak. All right, let's get it over with."
"You mind if I come with you?" Cyrena asked in a conspiratorial tone.
Dave had been morose ever since he saw how pleased Cyrena was to see Kodiak waiting for them on the road. What hurt most was that she didn't seem to notice, or even care about his dour mood. He didn't ask to come along and just headed back to the house.
***
Everyone had gone outside except for the old Indian woman, who sat in front of the fireplace, making animal cries of displeasure whenever the fire started getting low. Mildred didn't like her, but she was more frightened of her than any of the others, so when the old bat howled, Mildred went in and added another log while the hideous bag glared like the devil.
Back in the kitchen Mildred could hear the others through the open window. That creep Montagna was giving orders like he was the biggest turd in the toilet. And every time that Norm Cocke gagged up something to spit, Mildred had to suppress the urge to vomit.
Forty-five minutes after they had gone off to pack the horses, the one called Kodiak walked in the back door with several empty canteens. "Mind if I use your tap?"
Mildred just shrugged and turned away.
"Thanks." He went to the sink and turned on the water.
She listened to the metallic reverberation of the water as it flowed into the first canteen. This man seemed all right, and in some ways he even reminded her of Steve. Of course, Steve wasn't as tall, and was more stocky, but they both had that look of underlying moodiness that reflected in their features. But he was with those other people and that was enough to ensure that he was no good.
A couple minutes later the woman came in. She was very pretty and even seemed friendly. She tried to strike up a conversation with Mildred a couple of times, but Mildred chose not to get involved with her. She felt a little bad for that decision.
The woman said, "I see you have a friend." Mildred turned and saw Kodiak had picked up her cat. The cat was normally very scared of strangers, especially after Montagna threatened it, but now it was purring and chewing playfully on Kodiak's fingers as he stroked its head and belly. A lump formed in her throat as she watched them. Her emotions were so badly tangled from recent events that she was numb. She must have had a strange look on her face, because they were both looking at her, and the woman said, "Are you all right?"
Mildred was suddenly overcome and a tear ran down her face. "His name's Larry."
***
The screen door slammed, and Montagna saw Kodiak heading across the front lawn toward him. "Kodiak, we have to talk about setting up our stake-out..." Kodiak grabbed Montagna by his shirt collar and nearly strangled him as he marched Montagna into the woods. Fifty feet through the brush Kodiak slammed Montagna up against a tree.
"I want to know what you did to get Mildred to tell you about the Sasquatch."
Montagna couldn't breathe. He clawed desperately at Kodiak's fist, but there was no give. If Kodiak expected him to answer, he was crazy. Montagna grunted and spittle ran down his chin. Kodiak felt the wetness on his fist and loosened his grip, but still held Montagna firmly in place. "Let... go... of...me..."
Kodiak only glared. Mercy was not part of the bargain.
Montagna gagged again, then said, "Nothing. Not a damn thing... nothing. Let go of me..."
Kodiak said, "All I've gotta do is pinch your weasely head off, and there will be no stake-out tonight. Not for you. Not ever."
Kodiak released Montagna, who slumped to the ground, taking in deep gulps of air and looking up at Kodiak through his watering eyes. "I'm in charge. Me. You got that?"
Kodiak said, "You're in charge of the check book! And when we go back in there, you're gonna write Mildred a big fat check, compliments of Emory Pittman. You'll also recall that Pittman put me in charge of the capture. He said something about you being a coward, and a screw-up."
Montagna spat, slowly getting up. Kodiak had dropped him on some ants. He swatted at them to get them off of himself. Finally he turned back to Kodiak. "You're in charge, huh? Well, you might want to be
careful, because accidents can happen out here in the dark."
Kodiak reached for Montagna's collar. Montagna flinched, but Kodiak only straightened Montagna's shirt and wiped away a couple ants. "Are you threatening me, Jamie?"
"Just stating a fact." Montagna shoved past Kodiak and went back to the house.
Montagna was right. Kodiak had acted prematurely. He put himself in jeopardy after this confrontation, and it wouldn't be safe for him to be outside tonight.
He knew he could trust Ben, but Norm was Montagna's lackey, and he'd happily put a bullet in the back of Kodiak's head if it was what Jamie wanted.
***
Old Norm took a position on the roof of the garage, lying prone with one of the air rifles. It was mounted with a night- vision scope that would make the surrounding woods clear as daylight.
Montagna and Dave had the two remaining rifles and were positioned on opposite sides of the property.
Ben was on a hilltop overlooking the back yard, armed only with a pair of nightvision goggles. He was sitting on a tree stump with a perfect view of the back of the house and most of the front yard. He could see Ruth inside, curled up in front of the fire. He could also see the dining room, but he couldn't see Kodiak or the other women.
Earlier, he saw Kodiak grab Montagna and drag him into the woods. He knew he should have intervened, but didn't have the nerve to do so. He was tremendously relieved-- and confused-- to see them both walk out on their own two feet. But now Kodiak was in the house, and Jamie had become much more imperious when ordering the others around.
Ben saw Norm on the roof of the garage and wished he had one of the rifles, as he had a perfect shot at Norm's butt. He scanned across the roof and spotted Dave atop a telephone pole, looking back at him. After several minutes of staring at each other, Dave finally nodded and turned back toward the woods. Ben couldn't understand why, but he felt a strange malevolence coming from Dave and thought if he could have seen Dave's face, he might not have liked what he saw.
Between the four of them they had most of the area under surveillance.
They maintained contact via FM band radio headsets that allowed them to keep their hands free. Montagna addressed the others. "The sun'll be going down in ten minutes. Do whatever you gotta do now; otherwise, be prepared to hold it in for a very long time."
Norm spat. He was having a contest with himself to see how far he could spit, but each of the projectiles he forced up from his throat landed in the same spot, forming a puddle. He was now working on making a shape of the puddle, which looked remarkably like Bob Hope's profile. "Hey, kid." Norm was talking to Dave over the radio, but everyone could hear. "By this time tomorrow the hunt'll be on, huh?"
Montagna cut in, "What's the matter, Norm? Don't you think we're gonna have any luck tonight?"
"I was just commenting how nice it would be if we got to take a trip into the woods. Ain't that right, kid?"
Dave said, "Yeah."
"Hey, Jamie, where's that Kodiak, anyway?"
Montagna sighed. "Who cares. It's a little late to worry about him. He's smart enough to stay inside now."
The sun was almost completely down. Montagna said, "All right, let's observe radio silence unless you see something. Over and out."
Ben suddenly had to go to the bathroom.
***
Mildred made tea, and they sat at the dining room table. Cyrena stroked Kodiak's arm, trying to calm his rage after Mildred told them how Montagna threatened to kill her cat if she didn't fess up about the Sasquatch.
Mildred spoke just above a whisper so Ruth couldn't hear them. "I was scared when I called the ranger station, because I didn't know what it was going to do. But now I feel like a fool. After that first encounter I was paid a visit by two men who wanted to know about my sighting. I figure they got the information from the ranger station in Red Fern, but they chose not to enlighten me. They had mentioned something about how my reporting it could bring some sort of 'unwanted elements' to these mountains. They made it clear I would be wise to just keep my mouth shut about the Sasquatch-- and them. Then when you people showed up today, I thought they were back with reinforcements."
Kodiak looked at her face. "You didn't do anything wrong. And nobody's going to bother you again."
Mildred nodded and sighed. Then she said, "I have heard of you. All those books you've written about strange animals. Have you ever written any fiction?"
"No. But I've been accused of it," Kodiak retorted, and they all laughed.
"What kind of animal is it, exactly? I don't think it's a gorilla, because they don't walk like people do."
"I believe it's Gigantopithecus. A higher primate that existed throughout Asia up to half a million years ago."
Mildred shook her head. "I'm sorry if I sound like a skeptic. God knows I have no business acting like one, but how could they have existed out here all this time without ever being found out? And how'd they get all the way over here from Asia?"
"They've been reported throughout much the world for more than two hundred years. You've heard of the Yeti? As for how they got over here, the theory is they crossed the Bering Strait land bridge, same as the Indians. Which is a pretty amazing feat, because no primate other than Man has been known to dominate as wide a range as this animal," Kodiak said.
Cyrena said, "I think you mentioned in your book several eye- witness accounts by American soldiers of large, bipedal apes spotted in Vietnam during the war over there."
"I still don't see how they managed to evade detection after all these years." Mildred pounded her fist on the table to emphasize her point.
"Nobody's looking. Not really. The plain truth is, the people best qualified to lead a legitimate investigation just aren't interested. They simply refuse to believe it exists. Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate scientists involved in some of these investigations, but their fields of endeavor usually have little, if anything to do with zoology. They're also in serious danger of censure from their peers in the scientific community. Of course, the best evidence regarding footprints and the animal seen in the Roger Patterson film has come from the dissenting voices of physical anthropologists from Russia, England, and the United States. But they're dumped in the same boat as the rest of us who are scrambling around, trying to figure this mystery out."
Mildred smirked. "I heard that film is a hoax..."
"A lot of people have heard that," Kodiak said. "And not many of those people know the facts behind that film.
"In the Fall of 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, from Yakima, Washington, encountered a large, female Sasquatch at a place called Bluff Creek, in Northern California. She was standing near the water's edge, and when she spotted the riders on horseback, she walked away from them at a brisk, but not panicked, pace.
"Patterson and Gimlin were searching that area for evidence of the Sasquatch for a documentary film Patterson was going to make. Sightings and evidence of huge footprints had been frequent around the Bluff Creek area for years. They still are. Anyway, when their horses saw the animal, Patterson was thrown from his saddle and had to scramble to get his sixteen millimeter camera out of the saddle bag before the creature got away. That's why the first several seconds of the film are so badly jarred-- Patterson was running across the rocky ground trying to catch up with it.
"When the Sasquatch turned and glared at him, Patterson knew it was probably a good idea to stop, so he knelt down on one knee and continued filming. That's where you get the clearest shot of the animal. The whole thing lasted about fifty seconds before she disappeared among the trees in the background.
"Now, the reason so many people wrote the film off as a hoax is because the animal on the film walks upright like a human being, so it was purported to be a man in a costume. But that is the anomaly! Anthropoid apes, the gorilla, chimpanzee and the orangutan are all quadrupeds. The biomechanics of this animal's stride would indicate that its resemblance to a human gait is only superficial."
Mildred said
, "You said the Sasquatch is a female. How do you know that?"
"She had breasts," Kodiak answered. "Large, pendulous breasts. The problem skeptics seem to have with this is that the Sasquatch's breasts were covered with fur, not something seen on 'real' apes. She also had a prominent sagittal crest on the top of her head, something that is commonly seen on gorillas-- male gorillas.
"But we are talking about a species of ape heretofore unknown. None of the great apes look exactly alike. Chimps don't look like gorillas, gorillas don't look like orangutans. The idea that the breasts are covered with fur could be a logical adaptation, considering the cold climate in which these animals dwell. Besides, there is one other primate known to have developed chest hair: Man. "Also, a sagittal crest is not a form of sexual dimorphism. That's where the jaw muscles attach to the skull. In gorillas the sagittal crest is more prominent in males because males have heavier mandibles than females. The creature in the Patterson film is much larger than even a male mountain gorilla. So a female of this species would have a tremendous mandible, requiring a high sagittal crest. The two female Gigantopithecus jawbones that have been found bear this out.
"Based on the fourteen-inch footprints that were cast at the time of the encounter, the Sasquatch was estimated to be six feet, six inches tall and weighing roughly five hundred pounds-- that's a conservative estimate. The animal's height was determined by comparing its foot length to the foot-to-height ratio seen on the film, indicating that this animal had shoulders three feet across." Kodiak stood up. "I am six feet tall. No human being standing six feet tall has shoulders three feet wide. Their arms just couldn't fit into the costume."