The Extinct (11 page)

“It is not your fault, Mr. Berksted.”

“Isn’t it?” he said, turning toward him. “How the fuck would you know?”

Namdi didn’t say anything.

Berksted turned back to the landscape. “Sorry,” he said.

“You do not need to apologize.”

“So you’re a doctor?”

“Yes, surgeon by specialty. But out here there are no specialties.”

“You live here?”

“Sometimes. I have a house in Johannesburg in South Africa as well.”

“What the hell you doin’ here?”

“I spend half the year working for the government and then half the year in Johannesburg working at a free clinic. I would work for free the entire year if I could, but one must earn money somehow.”

Berksted took a deep breath and closed his eyes, sadness washing over him and weighing him down as surely as any weight. “The cop said it was a tiger attack.”

“Maybe. But I don’t think so.”

“What do you think it was?”

“Hyenas.”

“Why do you think that?”

“There’s some evidence for it.”

“What evidence?”

“Markings on the body. Hyenas are very different from other animals, Mr. Berksted.”

“I didn’t know there were hyenas out here.”

“Oh yes, they are found everywhere except North and South America. There is a lot of legends of them here and in Nepal.”

Berksted was silent a moment and then said, “By the way, that’s my wife, not some body. I’d appreciate you respecting that.”

“I apologize. In my work, it helps if I don’t think of them in that way.” Namdi took a sip of bottled water and continued. “It is not difficult to detect one. But I’ve never seen markings like this. They are far larger than normal hyenas. That is why I said perhaps it could be a tiger, or there are even Asiatic lions. Perhaps a lion with teeth deformity or some trauma to the teeth that caused it to have such specific bite patterns.”

Berksted looked away. There was a large tree just off to their right and a panther sat on one of the branches, cautiously eyeing the passerby. “I used to fuck around on her all the time. Blonds, brunettes, Asians . . . didn’t matter. She didn’t know, at least, I don’t think she knew. She deserved better than what she got.”

“We all do.”

They drove in silence for the rest of the morning. They circled an area of a dozen miles, going off-road through the grass a number of times and stopping midday to refuel. Namdi got out and took a plastic jug of gasoline, inserting a funnel into the gas tank and pouring the fuel in. Berksted sat in the jeep, staring off into space. He was still drunk and every once in awhile would doze off.

“We can rest if you like,” Namdi said.

“No, I want to keep looking.”

They drove for over an hour until they reached the base of a large hill far north of the house. Vultures had gathered in a circle around a kill and were fighting and nipping at each other for position.

“Wait here,” Namdi said.

He stepped out of the jeep and took a rifle from the backseat. Aiming in the air, he shot off a round and the vultures scattered as he approached. One remained, picking at whatever they had found. Namdi fired another shot and it took flight, landing on a tree a dozen yards away and watching his movements.

Namdi walked close. He lowered the rifle and put on his glasses. In front of him was a mass of rancid meat on white bones. Blood had dried into the earth and there were horns. It was the carcass of a juvenile black buck. He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to return to the jeep when he heard a growl coming from a field of grass to his right.

He turned his head and saw the gold and black fur of a tiger ducked low in the tall vegetation. Tigers had very distinctive growls, bassed and heavy. But they hunted by stealth. If she had growled, it meant she wanted him to know she was there. He could not see her head but had no doubt she was watching him carefully.

Sweat rolled down his forehead into his eyes. Slowly, he began walking back to the jeep, keeping a firm grip on the rifle. The jeep was more than a dozen yards away and Berksted looked half asleep.

The tiger moved. It was so subtle Namdi wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking directly at her. It was just a slight adjustment in her position; going from a crouch to a tense crouch position. She was getting ready to sprint.

Namdi darted for the jeep, hearing only a roar as the animal leaped out of the grass and chased him. He kept an eye on his feet to make sure he wouldn’t trip but could hear the heavy breathing of the great cat just behind him.

He turned to look. She wasn’t more than a few feet away. Her legs flexed and she pounced. As she became airborne her front claws dug into Namdi’s back. It was searing pain that caused him to scream as he toppled over. Berksted heard the scream and was out of the jeep and trying to steady his hand as he fired.

Namdi kept his arms over his face as the animal bit down, piercing the flesh of his forearm and scraping bone. She tugged at him, tossing him to the side as if he were a rag. The predator circled her prey, mouth oozing drool as she prepared for the killing bite to the neck, suffocating Namdi to death before beginning to feast.

Shots crackled through the air, kicking up dirt wherever they landed. The tiger yelped as she was struck in the shoulder. She dashed for the safety of the grass as Berksted continued firing until the dry click of the empty gun made him stop.

Namdi had the breath knocked out of him and his back burned from the wounds of the creature’s claws. His chest felt heavy, as if the weight was still on him and his arm was pouring blood. He ripped part of his shirt and wrapped it around the wound.

“Let’s go” Berksted said, helping him up.

“I am certain she broke my ribs. Can you drive?”

A colossal force and a gust of air and Berksted was ripped from Namdi’s arms. The speed at which he’d been pulled away left Namdi off balance and he fell to his side. Namdi thought Berksted had fallen. He saw him near the tall grass on his stomach, his face pale, a thick soup of saliva and black blood flowing from his mouth. Berksted screamed a wet, gurgled scream as he was dragged into the grass.

Namdi jumped to his feet and tried to run after him. He could see something moving through the grass at a quick pace, splitting apart the field like a speedboat through water. He lost sight of Berksted who was clawing at the ground to stop himself.

Berksted screamed, and then there was silence.

Namdi froze in place, listening. There was the wind rustling through the brush but nothing more. It was as if the plains held its tongue. Namdi’s breathing was labored and each inhalation shot pain through his ribs. As he wondered how he was going to go after Berksted he saw something moving toward him though the grass.

It was a gray hide, spotted black. It moved with purposefulness, trying to remain quiet. A chill went down Namdi’s back. He turned and hobbled toward the jeep. The hide followed. It turned in an arch, going up away from the jeep and then coming down toward it.

Namdi started the jeep and drove, watching in his rearview. The hide was motionless awhile, then ducked low and disappeared.

Namdi was not a religious man. There wasn’t much room for such a luxury in his work. But for a reason he didn’t understand, the sight of that hide had frightened him down to his core and he said a prayer. It didn’t move like the tiger; it seemed to move with awareness. As if it fully understood what Namdi was thinking at that moment and tried to adjust its movements because of it. It seemed almost . . . human.

CHAPTER

19

Bangkok is tightly packed on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, its brown-green waters winding past the tenements and buildings and temples like a guardian watching his charge. It has the feeling of a modern city built over an ancient one, centuries-old Buddhist temples with crimson colored roofs and golden spirals pointing skyward nestled in between twenty-first century office buildings and hotels. The traffic was frequently congested to the point of immobility; cars, three-wheeled rickshaws with motorcycle engines, bicycles and brightly colored buses all vying for space on the narrow roads.

Being so close to the river, the city was also a green landscape of palm trees bursting forth from the ground in between the office buildings and residential tenements with finely manicured shrubs in front of the contemporary hotels and auditoriums that were found everywhere. The people were not unfriendly but were so hurried that tourists occasionally thought so. Many of them had the dark complexions of the Mongol hordes that conquered and devastated the land nearly a millennia ago.

At night, many of the temples and hotels would light up with red and purple and blue lighting, attempting to attract the swarms of tourists that were always clamoring for entertainment. It is also the home of all the major commercial enterprises and banks of Thailand and a major hub for foreign businessmen interested in Southeast Asia. The sidewalks and roads are always swarming with men and women in business suits, cell phones glued to their ears.

But above all, it’s a city meant for tourists, and tourists seek excitement and pleasure. And like any city designed for pleasure, vice is king. When night falls, the go-go clubs turn to strip joints and brothels, any dancer for sale for the right price. As the night wears on, in some of the districts where law enforcement makes no more than unskilled laborers and is easily bought, child prostitutes can be found as easily as a drink of beer. Pedophiles come from the world over to abuse children as young as they wish. Drugs are also prominent, heroin and opium easily found on any street corner or in any smoke-filled bar. At night, life is cheap.

Eric Holden knew this the second he stepped off the plane just under a year ago. He sat now on the porch of a ten dollar a week hostel, drunk though the morning had just begun. His clothes were unwashed and he hadn’t shaved in months. The hostel faced a busy street and he watched the overflowing traffic struggle to move forward, the odd businessman or police officer glancing toward him.

“Come back bed baby,” Lily said from behind him, the sheet wrapped around her nude body. She was short with long black hair but had big ruby lips that seemed disproportionate to her small face.

“Your English is terrible,” Eric said.

“I learn good. In school. And I watch A-mer-ican TV.”

Eric stood and walked back inside, Lily following him to his room. The hostel was two floors of rooms no bigger than closets with only one bathroom and shower on the first floor. There were cockroaches but they were easy to grow accustomed to. The rats were a bigger problem, their squeaks and the patter of their feet against the wood floors at night making sleep difficult.

Eric pulled a handful of cash out of a pair of pants that lay on the ground and handed it to Lily. She smiled and dropped the sheet, her sleek body curvy and soft to the touch. Eric ran his fingers along her breasts and put his mouth to hers, dragging her to the bed.

When they finished Eric watched her get dressed, putting on a miniskirt with no underwear and high-heels. She straightened her hair using the reflection in a window and came over to Eric to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“I see you night,” she said.

“Not tonight.”

“But I make very good yum yum,” she said, running her hand over his chest.

“Get out,” he said as he reached for a pack of cigarettes that lay on a small table. As she left, he lit a cigarette and sat up in the bed. The sheet was pockmarked with gray and black cigarette burns and the room smelled like mold, but he’d stopped noticing such trivial things. He had bigger problems; his money was almost gone and he couldn’t get legitimate work without a work permit that needed to be approved by the U.S. embassy.

Eric pulled a small black canvas bag out from under the bed. It held a needle, a length of cord, a spoon, and a small plastic baggie filled with the fluffy white powder of heroin. He cooked it up and tied the cord around his bicep, using his teeth to hold it tight, and injected the urine colored fluid into a vein. H was so relaxing he’d lost control of his bowels the first time he’d tried it, but not anymore. He could function on it now. A girl had gotten him to try it his first few weeks here, he remembered. What was her name? An American girl stripping here. She had dirty blond dreads and muscles that bulged underneath her clothes. They’d gotten high and tried to have sex but he’d passed out and she didn’t really have the urge to keep going. What was her name?

He itched a rash on his arms that was starting to turn red and leaned his head against the wall, the warmth of the drug spreading through his body; into his heart, down his legs, up into his head. It made his scalp tingle and his face hot, every muscle limp and motionless, his eyelids straining to remain open. He sat for four hours staring at the walls and listening to the traffic outside. Finally, his vision swirled, and he fell asleep.

CHAPTER

20

The effects of the H hadn’t worn off when Eric woke up but he felt alert enough to go out. He dressed and walked outside as the sun was going down, a red globe in the distant horizon, painting the surrounding clouds pink and purple. The hostel was close to the business district and he walked the streets, stopping every once in awhile in some alley or doorway to smoke.

He walked past a large glass and chrome hotel, golden lights shooting out from the front and giving it a sun-colored hue. Tourists in shorts and cotton shirts poured in and out, a few eating at the restaurant on top of the hotel’s roof, laughing and drinking. The sidewalks were as packed as the roads and people bumped into him every couple seconds, though he didn’t notice.