by R. D. Brady
Tess hiked her messenger bag a little higher up on her shoulder. She was pleased that science might be more open to the possibility of bigfoot, but she knew that without a grant, she would not be a part of furthering the field. And to get that grant, she needed to work her magic at this conference. Here she would find more people interested in the field than she could find in any other one place—which meant this was where she needed to be.
And it wouldn’t hurt to give a phenomenal presentation.
So here’s hoping.
Tess climbed the cement steps of Meyers Hall and pushed through the heavy doors. The large atrium was packed. Students eagerly chatted in groups. Older students, or more likely the public, wandered through as well, occasionally stopping to chat with one another. The sound of the milling crowd rose up toward the arched ceiling, which only seemed to enhance the noise below.
All told, there were easily two hundred people milling in the foyer or making their way through to the seminar rooms. And that didn’t include the hundreds of others who were already seated in the dozens of presentation rooms.
Tess stepped to the side of the room, trying to calm her heartbeat. She’d had this problem often lately. Spending so much time in the quiet and with very few people tended to result in her having a small panic attack when she was assaulted with a large group of people.
Taking a calming breath, Tess watched as the lines for registration began to dwindle. After a few minutes, she composed her face and walked up to one of the registration hosts as they finished up with the last person in their line.
The young blonde co-ed smiled as Tess approached. “Name?”
“Dr. Tess Brannick.”
The young woman turned to the bins lining the wall behind her. She made her way to one of them and pulled out a folder. Opening it as she walked back, she stopped, her eyes growing large. “You’re the bigfoot expert!”
Tess was taken aback by the woman’s enthusiasm. “Um, yes.”
“I so want to see your session! I’m hoping someone will cover my shift so I can go. I read your blog, too. I really love it.”
“Well, thanks. I appreciate that.” Tess was always surprised when someone recognized her. She’d started doing the blog as a way to share what she was learning and generate some interest. But she knew that really, it was just her sitting in a room typing on her computer. She was always surprised when she learned people were actually reading it.
The young woman handed over the file. “This is all your information. Good luck with the presentation.”
“Thanks. I hope I see you there.” Tess took the file and stepped away.
“Well, I see you have a fan.”
Tess turned to the tall, gray-haired man with the matching beard standing behind her. She grinned. “Dr. Sloane. I was hoping I’d see you.”
He smiled warmly and offered his hand. “Jeff. You’re done with school. We’re colleagues now.”
“Okay, Jeff.” She knew he was right, but it was hard to shift gears from “Dr. Sloane” to “Jeff.” He’d been Dr. Sloane to her for five years.
They fell in step together, heading to the main conference room. “So, I see you’re presenting,” Jeff said.
“Will you be attending?”
“I wouldn’t miss my star student in action.”
Tess studied his face. “Really?”
He sighed. “Tess, you know I wish you had chosen another area of study. You have an incredible brain, and you could do a lot. But bigfoot? It’s a mocked field. No one takes it seriously. You have a promising future. I just don’t want it derailed before it even begins.”
“I appreciate your concern. But I need to do this. And you know as well as I that animals are being discovered every year that we’ve never heard of, heard of only through legend, or thought were extinct.”
“But those animals are a lot smaller than an eight to ten foot ape weighing over a thousand pounds.”
“The Bili ape is pretty big.”
He sighed. “True. But that’s just one.”
“Dr. Sloane—”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, Jeff. I do appreciate you looking out for me. But I promised myself that I would give this a shot. This is what I went to school for—all those degrees were so I could bring science to this search. And that’s what I intend to do.”
“I know. And part of me envies your ability to break new ground. I mean, if you’re successful, it will not only change the field, it will change the world.”
Tess felt the little trickle of fear at the back of her mind that always appeared when she thought of the ramifications of her research. She wanted to prove bigfoot existed, but she tried not to think too much about what would happen after she’d succeeded. Right now, she simply needed to keep herself focused on the work.
“But Tess,” Jeff continued, “if you don’t find anything or prove anything, your degrees won’t help you. You may never be able to work in this field again. Your reputation will be irreparably damaged.”
Tess knew he was right. It was okay to go out on a limb in science, but if you did, you had to be successful, or you risked cutting the limb out from underneath you. “I know. So let’s just hope I find something.”
CHAPTER 6
Tess felt the energy of the crowd. She was almost finished with her presentation, and so far, it had gone incredibly well. Now all she had left to do she was at the question-and-answer portion, which she always enjoyed.
The room was packed. The crowd consisted mainly of college students from the university, but she also saw some of the regulars—the folks who attended almost all conferences involving bigfoot. And right now, everyone seemed to have a question or want to make a comment. Tess couldn’t have asked for a better response.
She called on a student in the second row. With a crooked smile, he asked simply, “New Jersey? Seriously?”
Tess gestured to the map on the screen behind her—a map of North America with dots indicating the locations of bigfoot sightings. There had been sightings all over the US. The biggest clusters were in the Pacific Northwest and New England, but there were also plenty of sightings in the Midwest and down south in Texas and Florida.
Tess grinned. “Well, not in downtown Trenton—but in the more remote areas of Sussex County. In fact, back in the nineteen-seventies and eighties there was a rash of sightings of a giant animal, eight feet tall with red eyes, in those more remote areas. It was called the Big Red Eye. Arms hanging by its knees, horrible stench.”
“That’s not possible,” someone called out.
“You have to remember,” Tess said, “Jersey is not all smokestacks and factories. The Appalachian Trail cuts through it. There’s a substantial area for a large animal to survive, and more importantly, to go undetected.”
About a dozen hands flew in the air. “Third row from the back in the red shirt,” Tess said.
A man stood. He had a long beard and a t-shirt that read “Eat at Frank’s.” Tess prepared herself for a probably sensational question.
“Do you think the bigfoot are the same beings mentioned in the tales of Merlin and the troglodytes?”
Tess struggled not to laugh. That’s what I get for judging based on appearances. She saw a lot of confused faces and knew she had to back up and fill them in. “I’m sure most of you have heard of Merlin—the ancient Celtic magician. What some of you may not know is that Merlin was said to have lived with a group of wild, hairy men in caves. Those men were called troglodytes.
“What’s really interesting, at least to me, is that in 1735, Carl Linnaeus wrote the first codex on all the animals in the world—he called it the Systema Naturea, and it included nine thousand species—and in it, he said there were two types of humans: man and the troglodytes.
“Reports from more modern times say that bigfoot does indeed make use of caves and tunnels to keep away from humans. So yes, I do think it’s possible that the troglodytes could very well have been another group of bigfoot.�
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Hands went up again, and Tess called on a woman in her thirties. “Yes?”
“So what do you think Bigfoot is?”
Tess studied the crowd while carefully weighing her answer. As a scientist, her job was to follow the data and let it determine her answer—yet she also knew that that particular answer would not go over well with the crowd.
“Right now there are two schools of thought,” she said. “One holds that bigfoot is an animal, a giant ape, possibly one that has existed hidden from mankind for thousands of years. The other holds that bigfoot is actually a man, a primitive man, who for whatever reason has not developed like the rest of us.”
“A man, like Homo sapiens?”
Tess shook her head. “No. Over twenty different types of hominids have been found in our past. We are related to them, but there are distinct differences. It is believed that bigfoot may be one of these cousins of Homo sapiens.”
“But what do you believe?” the woman pressed.
“I believe it is most likely an ape, a giant ape.”
“Apes are not ten feet tall,” someone called out.
Tess smiled good-naturedly. “Well, maybe not now, but they were in the past. There was a giant ape named Gigantopithecus who is believed to have gone extinct one hundred thousand years ago. It was at least ten feet tall and weighed in at over one thousand pounds. Due to its size, scholars believe it made nests on the ground, like the Bili ape. At first, it, too, was considered merely a legend. That was before a molar of the giant primate was found in 1938. And soon, more jawbones and teeth were found all across Asia.”
“So you really think bigfoot’s a giant ape?” the woman asked.
“I suspect that is the truth. But hopefully, in the next year, I’ll be able to prove it.”
CHAPTER 7
Tess keyed open her hotel room and shuffled through the door. It had been a good day, but she was exhausted. After the talk, she’d stayed to speak with members of the audience who hadn’t had a chance to get their questions addressed. It had been a long but interesting two hours.
She’d been surprised that Jeff had waited. The two of them had gone for coffee. He was working on geospatial distribution of Homo denisova in comparison with Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Tess could tell he wanted her help, and to be honest, part of her wanted to—the possible interaction of ancient humans fascinated her. But her passion was with her current line of research. Until she answered the question of what bigfoot was, she wasn’t going to be able to focus on anything else.
Kicking off her heels, she dropped her bag on the desk across from the bed and pulled off her suit jacket. The worst part of these trips was always the wardrobe. The person who invented heels must have hated women.
She grabbed the remote off the top of the TV, flopped onto the bed, and closed her eyes. Just ten minutes. I’ll relax for ten minutes, and then I’ll go back down for the meet-and-greet.
She knew that if she was to have any chance of getting funded, the meet-and-greet was where connections would be made. The presentation was just the audition; now she needed a sit down with a director.
She turned on the TV, flipping through channels without really focusing on them. Finally she shut it off and closed her eyes. A quick nap and I’ll be ready to go.
The hotel phone rang right next to her. She groaned. Oh, come on.
But she slapped on her “I was not just trying to sleep” voice and answered. “Hello?”
“Dr. Brannick?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Thaddeus Regan. I am the assistant to Carter Hayes.”
Tess’s mouth fell open. Carter Hayes was a world-renowned businessman who had a habit of turning small ideas into million-dollar ones. “Um, yes, Mr. Regan, what can I do for you?”
“Mr. Hayes was able to view your presentation today, and he would like to speak with you.”
“He was there?”
Thaddeus gave a small laugh. “No, no, of course not. But we recorded it for him. He was very impressed and would like to meet with you. Are you available now?”
Tess sat up, her eyes scanning the room for her shoes. “Sure. Where would he like to meet?”
“We’ve set up a video conference in the business center. Fifteen minutes?”
“Great. See you then.”
Tess hung up the phone and jumped off the bed, grabbing one shoe from in front of the TV. She got on her hands and knees and retrieved the other one from under the bed. Then she pulled out her makeup case and did a quick refresher. Throwing on her jacket and grabbing her messenger bag, she pocketed the room key and made her way out the door.
Ten minutes later, she was sitting in a conference room. A monitor sat on the table in front of her with a camera aimed right at her face. Tess squirmed. She was not a fan of seeing herself on camera. It’s why she wrote a blog instead of doing podcasts.
The attendant who ran the business center had left her a bottle of water. She took a sip and then tapped her pen on the legal pad she’d brought with her.
The screen in front of her beeped. Taking a breath, Tess pushed the button to connect the call.
A man in his forties with pale blue eyes and light brown hair beginning to thin at the peak appeared. He smiled, but it was not overly warm, more perfunctory. “Ah, Dr. Brannick. It’s nice to meet you in person. I am Thaddeus Regan.”
“Mr. Regan. It’s a pleasure.”
He gave her another perfunctory smile. “Please hold for Mr. Hayes.”
Tess’s heart gave a little leap. Carter Hayes. He’d been on the cover of Time magazine at least four times that she could remember, and every time they had debated whether he was a sinner or a saint. His standard mode of operation was to take over a floundering company, restructure it, and then turn it into a financially solvent corporation. But there was always a cost—pensions were lost, people were fired. His methods had gotten him likened to barbarians of old—nothing and no one was left standing when he was done.
The camera shifted as it was placed on a desk, and Mr. Hayes came into view. Tess had read that he was Scandinavian, but she would have known that anyway from one look. He had a narrow face, blond hair turning to white, and piercing blue eyes. He was a little thinner than the last picture she’d seen of him. I wonder if he’s ill or just cutting out carbs?
“Dr. Brannick, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice.”
“The pleasure is all mine. It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Hayes.”
He waved his hand. “Please. Call me Carter. I’ve read your recent papers and your blog.”
The idea of Carter Hayes hunched over a computer reading her blog brought a smile to Tess’s face. She hastily hid it with a cough.
“Tell me,” Carter said. “Why do you think you’ve been able to continually find evidence where others have failed?”
Tess had prepared for just this question. “Usually, researchers go to a place when they hear there has been a bigfoot sighting. They stay for a few days, sometimes weeks, and then they move on to the next reported sighting. I believe that approach is misguided.”
“How so?”
“Well, bigfoot know their surroundings well—they know what’s supposed to be in their environment and what’s not. And they tend to stay away from the things that are not supposed to be there—say, for instance, a visiting scientist. As a result, I’ve set up my base in an area that has had bigfoot sightings on and off for years, and I have been out there almost every day for over a year. So I’m not new to the environment—I’m now viewed as part of it. I think that’s what has enabled me to get the casts I have.”
“And you seem to think you’re repeatedly finding prints from one bigfoot in particular.”
“Yes. I noticed a consistent feature on many of the casts—a scar that tells me that they all belong to the same individual.”
“Have you actually seen a bigfoot yet?”
Tess hesitated, contemplating her a
nswer. But she knew lying would only come back to haunt her. “No. But I know one has been nearby.”
“How?”
“They have a rather strong scent—if you smelled it, you would understand. It’s a mix of woods, decay, and feces. It’s really remarkable. I’ve smelled it twice, and both times I found footprints shortly thereafter.”
Carter sat back in his chair. “People often refer to sasquatch or bigfoot as an animal. Is that what you believe him to be?”
Tess shook her head. “Belief has nothing to do with it. This is science.”
“And what does science tell you?”
“Science tells me we need to do more research.”
Carter gave a laugh, the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkling. “Good answer. So tell me, Dr. Brannick, do you think you will ever see one?”
Tess thought over all the prints she had found. She thought of the times she had felt eyes on her in the woods. But the memories of the night in the forest with her father and brother pushed to the forefront.
“It’s only a matter of time,” she said.
CHAPTER 8
Carter closed the laptop in front of him and sat back. Impressive. He had queried Dr. Brannick for almost forty minutes about her research. She had a strong science background, and she was straightforward, edging to blunt. He liked that.
Plus, she was good-looking. The picture in the file hadn’t done her justice. It hadn’t captured her energy. Even through the monitor, he could sense her passion, her intelligence, her dedication. If anyone was going to succeed in this quest, it was Dr. Tess Brannick. And her attractiveness would be a boon when she succeeded. The media would love her.
Thaddeus quietly stood up from the couch. “Sir?”
“What is your impression?” Carter asked.
“Her pedigree is impressive. She received high marks in all her coursework, and her professors were highly impressed with her, although many expressed concern about her chosen field of study.”