Page 14 (1/2)

DAY 12: ZINJ

June 24, 1979

1The Offensive

SHORTLY AFTER DAWN, THEY DISCOVERED THE bodies of Mulewe and Akari near their tent Apparently the attack the night before had been a diversion, allowing one gorilla to enter the coain Even orilla had got through the electrified fence and back out again

A careful search revealed a section of fence torn near the bottoorillas had used the stick to lift the bottoh And before leaving, the gorillas had carefully restored the fence to its original condition

The intelligence iain," Elliot said later, "we ca the gorillas to behave in stupid, stereotyped ways but they never did We never treated theh they had already reduced our nu the calculated hostility of the gorillas His experience had taught him that animals in nature were indifferent to man Finally he concluded that "these animals had been trained by men, and I had to think of them as men The question became ould I do if they were men?"

For Munro the ansas clear: take the offensive

Aorillas lived By ten o&039;clock thatup the hillsides north of the city arorilla spoor - quantities of dung, and nests on the ground and in the trees Munro was disturbed by what he saw; soe population of aniray gorillas feeding on succulent vines: fourinfants The adults were lazy, basking in the sun, eating in desultory fashion Several other ani loudly They all seenal; the safeties clicked off the guns He prepared to fire into the group when A He looked off and "had the shock of roup, perhaps ten or twelve aniroup - and another - and another still There must have been three hundred or orillas"

The largest gorilla group ever sighted in the wild had been thirty-one individuals, in Kabara in 1971, and even that sighting was disputed Most researchers thought it was actually two groups seen briefly together, since the usual group size was ten to fifteen individuals Elliot found three hundred aniht" But he was even more impressed by the behavior of the aniht, they behaved very orillas in the wild, but there were i, I never had any doubt that they had language Their wheezing vocalizations were striking and clearly constituted a forh nothing like e knew Their hand gestures were delivered with outstretched arraceful way, rather like Thai dancers These handvocalizations Obviously the gorillas had been taught, or had elaborated on their own, a language systee of laboratory apes in the twentieth century"

Some abstract corner of Elliot&039;s , while at the same time he shared the fear of the others around hie they held their breath and watched the gorillas feed on the opposite hillside Although the gorillas see thereat nunal, they slipped back down the trail, and returned to the caraves for Akari and Mulewe in carim reminder of their jeopardy as they discussed their alternatives Munro said to Elliot, "They don&039;t see the day"

"No," Elliot said "Their behavior looks quite typical - if anything, it&039;s orillas in dayti the day"

"How many animals on the hillside are males?" Munro asked They had already concluded that onlyfor odds

Elliot said, "Most studies have found that adult s And most studies show that isolated observations underestimate troop size by twenty-five percent There are ivenThey had counted three hundred gorillas on the hillside, which meant there were probably four hundred, of which 15 percent wereaniroup

"Hard," Munro said, shaking his head

Aned, Go now

Ross asked what she said and Elliot told her, "She wants to leave I think she&039;s right"

"Don&039;t be ridiculous," Ross said "We haven&039;t found the diaain

They looked at Munro Soroup had decided that Munro would make the decision of what to do next "I want the diamonds as much as anyone," he said "But they won&039;t be much use to us if we&039;re dead We have no choice We must leave if we can"

Ross swore, in florid Texan style

Elliot said to Munro, "What do you mean, if we can?"

"I mean," Munro said, "that they may not let us leave"

2Departure

FOLLOWING MUNRO&039;S INSTRUCTIONS, THEY carried onlyelse - the tents, the peri, in the sunlit clearing at lanced back over his shoulder and hoped he was doing the right thing In the 1960s, the Congo mercenaries had had an ironic rule: "Don&039;t leave ho the obvious one that none of theo in the first place It also meant that once established in a fortified camp or colonial town you were unwise to step out into the surrounding jungle, whatever the provocation Several of Munro&039;s friends had bought it in the jungle because they had foolishly left hoht it last week outside Stanleyville" "Outside? Why&039;d he leave ho the expedition outside now, and home was the little silver camp with its perimeter defense behind the ducks for the attacking gorillas Theto say about that, too: "Better a sitting duck than a dead duck"

As they h the rain forest, Munro was painfully aware of the single-file colu out behind hile foliage move in as their path narrowed He did not re so narrohen they had come to the city Now they were heht be only a few feet away, concealed in the dense foliage, and they wouldn&039;t know it until it was too late

They walked on

Munro thought if they could reach the eastern slopes of Mukenko, they would be all right The gray gorillas were localized near the city, and would not follow theer

He checked his watch: they had been gone tensound It see before hi as if blown by a wind Only there was no wind He heard the sighing grow louder

The colue of a ravine, which followed a streale walls on both sides It was the perfect spot for an a the line he heard the safeties click on the a cae uess at the numbers concealed in the bush Twenty? Thirty? Too a pointed up the hillside to a track that ran above the ravine "Go up there?"

For a long time, Munro did not answer Finally, he said, "No, not up there"

"Then where, Captain?"

"Back," Munro said "We go back"

When they turned away froe ceased its lile, without threat of any kind But Munro knew the truth They could not leave

3Return

ELLIOT&039;S IDEA CAME IN A FLASH OF INSIGHT "IN theat A hia didn&039;t know A helplessly It occurred to orillas was both their great advantage and their Achilles&039; heel"

Elliot proposed to capture a single gray gorilla, learn its language, and use that language to establish communication with the other animals Under normal circuuage, but Elliot thought he could do it in a orilla verbalizations; all he needed was further input But Elliot had decided that the gray gorillas ee And the sign language would be easy to work out

Back at Berkeley, Searam called APE, for ani Aram utilized declassified ar, it was capable of identifying new signs, and translating these as well Although APE was intended to ith Amy in ASL, there was no reason why it would not ith an entirely new language

If they could forge satellite links froo to Houston to Berkeley, they could feed video data froram And APE promised a speed of translation far beyond the capacity of any huned to break enemy codes in minutes)

Elliot and Ross were convinced it would work; Munro was

not Heprisoners of war "What do you intend to do," he said, "torture the animal?"

"We will ee usage" He was laying out test round: a banana, a bowl of water, a piece of candy, a stick, a succulent vine, stone paddles "We&039;ll scare the hell out of her if we have to"

"Her?"

"Of course," Elliot said, loading the Thoralen dart gun "Her&039;&039;

4Capture

HE WANTED A FEMALE WITHOUT AN INFANT An infant would create difficulties

Pushing through waist-high undergrowth, he found hirouped below hiing through the jungle twenty feet below He watched the group long enough to be sure that all the fee, and that there were no infants Concealed in the foliage Then he waited for his chance

The gorillas fed casually a up tender shoots, which they chewed lazily After several e nearer the top of the ridge where he was crouching She was separated froroup by more than ten yards

Elliot raised the dart pistol in both hands and squinted down the sight at the female She was perfectly positioned

He watched, squeezed the trigger slowly - and lost his footing on the ridge He fell crashing down the slope, right into the orillas

Elliot lay unconscious on his back, twenty feet below, but his chest was , and his arht Munro was only concerned about the gorillas

The gray gorillas had seen Elliot fall and now ht or nine ani

Munro slipped the safety off his gun

Elliot groaned, touched his head, and opened his eyes Munro saw Elliot stiffen as he saw the gorillas, but he did not move Three mature males crouched very close to him, and he understood the precariousness of his situation Elliot lay orillas whispered and signed, but they did not come any closer

Finally Elliot sat up on one elbohich caused a burst of signing but no direct threatening behavior

On the hillside above, A emphatically Munro shook his head: he did not understand; he raised his ain, and A It was all Munro could do to keep froround below, tried to control his breathing The gorillas were very close - close enough for hih to sitated; the , a rhythet to his feet, slowly and ht that if he could put some distance between himself and the animals, their sense of threat would be reduced But as soon as he began to an a sideways crablike round with his flat palorillas relaxed,

and he decided he had done the correct thing The ani down in their midst; they apparently did not expect contact withareas

He decided to wait the on his back for several hours until they lost interest and ularly, aware that he eating Probably he sorillas had a poorly developed sense of sorillas were sighing and signing swiftly, trying to decide what to do Then one round and staring at Elliot Elliot did not es of attack behavior: grunting, sidewayschest - Charging

The rass Elliot felt his heart pounding The gorilla was a huge anis and beat his chest with flat pal a hollow sound Elliot wondered what Munro was doing above And then he heard a crash, and he looked to see A at branches and ferns She landed at Elliot&039;s feet

The gorillas could not have beenhis chest, dropped down frorunted

The large ly toward Peter, but he never took his eyes off Amy Amy watched him without response It was a clear test of dominance The male moved closer and closer, without hesitation

A sound; Elliot jumped in surprise He had only heard her do it once or twice before in e It was unusual for feorillas were alarid, her face becaain

The male paused, tilted his head to one side He see the seray apes around Elliot&039;s head

A, establishing possession A juvenile male, four or five years old, i his teeth Amy slapped him across the face, and the juvenile whined and scralowered at the other gorillas And then she began signing Go away leave Aood huorillas did not understand, for she then did so sound that the gorillas orillas were startled, and stared at one another

But if Ae, it ithout effect: they rehed, the more their reaction diminished, until finally they stared blandly at her

She was not getting through to therooned rapidly Then the an his rhythmic ho-ho-ho once ned, A Peter Ordinarily she only wanted Peter to hug and tickle Amy

Elliot sat up and she i his face into her hair At once the an to backpedal, as if they

had committed some error In thathiressive situations Pri infants, and this inhibition was invoked by adult aniht when one ht of the small animal inhibited further attack Chi If juvenile chirab one juvenile and clutch it h in this case both parent and child were symbolic Yet the posture was sufficient to evoke the inhibition against further violence In this case A Elliot as well, by treating hiorillas would accept a bearded six-foot-tall infant

They did

They disappeared hack into the foliage Arip She looked at his

"Thank you, Aorilla

"You bet," he said, and he tickled her for the next severalhappily

It o o&039;clock in the afternoon when they returned to caorilla?"

"No," Elliot said

"Well, it doesn&039;t matter," Ross, said, "because I can&039;t raise Houston"

Elliot was stunned: "More electronic ja?"

"Worse than that," Ross said She had spent an hour trying to establish a satellite link with Houston, and had failed Each time the link was broken within seconds Finally, after confir that there was no fault with her equipment, she had checked the date "It&039;s June 24," she said "And we had coo expedition on May 28 That&039;s twenty-seven days ago"

When Elliot still didn&039;t get it, Munro said, "She&039;s telling you it&039;s solar"

"That&039;s right," Ross said "This is an ionospheric disturbance of solar origin" Most disruptions of the earth&039;s ionosphere - the thin layer of ionized molecules 50-250 miles up - were caused by phenomena such as sunspots on the surface of the sun Since the sun rotated every twenty-seven days, these disturbances often recurred a month later

&039;&039;Okay," Elliot said, "it&039;s solar How long will it last?"

Ross shook her head "Ordinarily, I would say a few hours, a day at most But this seems to be a severe disturbance and it&039;s coo we had perfect co unusual is going on It could last a week"

"No co?"

"That&039;s right," Ross said evenly "From this moment on, we are entirely cut off from the outside world"

5 Isolation

THE LARGEST SOLAR FLARE OF 1979 WAS RECORDED on June 24, by the Kitt Peak Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, and duly passed on to the Space Environment Services Center in Boulder, Colorado At first the SESC did not believe the incoantic standards of solar astrononated 78/06/4l4aa, was a monster

The cause of solar flares is unknown, but they are generally associated with sunspots In this case the flare appeared as an extre not only alpha hydrogen and ionized calciuht spectrum from the sun Such a "continuous spectrum" flare was extremely rare

Nor could the SESC believe the computed consequences Solar flares release an enory; even a modest flare can double the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the entire solar surface But flare 78/06/4l4aa was al ultraviolet e the rotating riht to reach the earth froan to disrupt the ionosphere of the earth

The consequence of the flare was that radio communications on a planet ninety-three million miles aere seriously disrupted This was especially true for radio transths Co kilowatts of poere hardly

inconvenienced, but the Congo Field Survey, transnals on the order of twenty thousand watts, was unable to establish satellite links And since the solar flare also ejected X-rays and atomic particles which would not reach the earth for a full day, the radio disruption would last at least one day, and perhaps longer At ERTS in Houston, technicians reported to Travis that the SESC predicted a tiht days

"That&039;s how it looks Ross&039;ll probably figure it out," the technician said, "when she can&039;t re-establish today"

"They need that computer hookup," Travis said The ERTS staff had run five computer simulations and the outco in a small army, Ross&039;s expedition was in serious trouble Survival projections were running "point two four four and change" - only one chance in four that the Congo expedition would get out alive, assu the help of the computer link which was now broken

Travis wondered if Ross and the others realized how grave their situation was "Any new Band Five on Mukenko?" Travis asked

Band 5 on Landsat satellites recorded infrared data On its last pass over the Congo, Landsat had acquired significant new information on Mukenko The volcano had become much hotter in the nine days since the previous Landsat pass; the te new," the technician said "And the corees of orbital change are Within sensor error on that systerees have no predictive value"

"Well, that&039;s so to do about the apes now that they&039;re cut off froo Field Survey had been asking themselves for the better part of an hour With communications disrupted the only computers available were the computers in their own heads And those coe to think that his own brain was inadequate "We had all beco power," he said later "In any decent laboratory you can get all the meht We were so used to it we had coranted

Of course they could have eventually worked out the ape language, but they were up against a time factor: they didn&039;t have months to puzzle it out; they had hours Cut off froram their situation was oht of frontal attack, and they had every reason to expect an attack that night

Aested their plan Aorillas; perhaps she could translate for them as well "It&039;s worth a try," Elliot insisted

Unfortunately, Amy herself denied that this was possible In response to the question "Aned, No talk

"Not at all?" Elliot said, re talk"