finally approached, his cart was loaded with a lot of gear including a couple of Ghillie suits such as are used by trained snipers and four large long range rifles with attached telescopic sights, they looked like those that would be used to hunt big game. He was not paying much attention to his cargo, from the limp posture of the two men heaped there, now they were only baggage to be disposed of.
Thus I understood they weren't planning to talk to me as an officer of law enforcement about trespass or unlicensed hunting, we were unlikely going to even discuss whether there would be some penalty for attempted murder.
Now they set up the two living captives as one might position unruly grade schooler the gags still in place. When the gags were removed the first one spoke up with a southern accent. "Please you have to help us we were minding our own business and suddenly they grabbed us and killed our friends."
I particularly noted the ghillie suits and I moved to where I could smell the suits and then the men, I also took note of the weapons the lightest weapon was an 8mm they were all big game weapons. They had been wearing the suits and carrying the guns. There was no legal hunting at this time of year.There was nothing that appeared to be for a short range, or a weapon that would fire tranquilizer darts. There was one camera with a long range lens at least a foot long, the man tried another tack. "We only wanted to take some pictures the guns are for self-defence."
I wondered had the Sasquatch overreacted when they misinterpreted things.
"Lies." Stated the female from her position of dominance. She pointed to the male who had pulled the other cart with one captive. "Show him."
That male was almost as tall as her almost eight feet and there were less twigs and branches in his hair, for a second I considered thinking of him as the fussy one. He picked up what looked like a bag for a portable computer and pulled out of all things a lap top. It must have been cued up already, because there was no times wasted. Dates and times flashed on the screen as men traveling together discussed whore houses in different parts of the world and muscle cars and how each would spend their share. Then there was a conversation that was marked three days ago they appeared to be almost invisible in ghillie suits on the side of a hill watching down towards where my fire burned, they were discussing whether they would all fire at the same time when the Sasquatch first appeared or whether they would wait in case another specimen chose to come to the fire, having two if possible would be good they decided because in addition to providing proof to claim a reward they might be able to sell a second specimen to a collector while the publicity was in full swing.
It was pretty clear if I could bring nice clean recordings like this to a prosecutor he would likely bring them to trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Whatever doubts I had were gone, I knew them for what they were. My mind wandered to other things for a moment, the way the Technician had set up. He was deft, practised and entirely expert I had seen no shortage of media graduates who spent more time fiddling with their gear in order to showcase a presentation. I realized I had named two of the others as well, my first guest was the Speaker the other one was the Boss, it didn't fit. I chose again "the Power".
She was watching me now. Her voice was low and indistinct, no trace of English to guide me. They had not just learned tricks or to repeat words like a parrot. Obviously I am not the person who can decide what is sentience? But I had not entertained significant doubts.
"As you can see we have a problem." The Speaker had resumed. "There were a few references to he, someone who would arrange for transportation and other references to he who expected them to keep their side of the bargain. We want to know who these unknown men are so they can be dealt with."
"I could arrange for the council to get involved."
The Speaker shook his head, "So that the questions can be gone over again. So that some government functionary can decide that they need a fair trial or some judge can question admissibility of evidence. We are not going to be interested. I am sure you have heard these arguments before. But we can spend a minute considering, what does it mean to be what you call human? Some descriptions turn on sapience, and yet you have primate studies that hint that chimps can learn sign language and some can even speak and no one has declared them to be human and protected from imprisonment or hunting, the same is true of whales and dolphins who some of your people believe have complex language of their own. As can be predicted the rules you want are weighted to the advantage of your people if we chose to abide by them it would cost us much and we would gain little."
"You're a police officer aren't you?" asked the one with the southern accent. "And you have a gun, you have to arrest us and we can have a court decide this, they faked the tapes, all of this is a setup, we are innocent." As the last Sasquatch gagged him again I considered that he would have been more convincing if at the end of his speech he had not chosen to smirk like a school yard bully who knows that no-one will contradict his story.
Here I was once again facing a dilemma because I am too easily flattered. When someone tells me that I am the only one who can do a task I gather my tools and I follow their lead into danger and conflict, when I could have stayed home. I should have learned by now that one of my special gifts is a willingness to attempt tasks that wiser men avoid.
"We have no contacts within the Council of St. Louis can you inquire whether they have become involved in this?"
I considered this. "Yes I will make a call." I dug a rented sat phone out of my pack it still held a charge. "Can you give me a number to reach your opposite number in St Louis, someone recruited me to search for Sasquatch, yes I know some of the tabloids are talking about a reward. I need to know whether it's the council before I waste any more time, why can't you give me their number? Okay."
"They will call me back."
We all sat waiting, while we waited I asked Speaker what he meant by choosing to live among us. He looked at me closely. "I will give you an example my cousin he goes by the human name of Percy. He was always small I think even now at his full growth he is only seven feet in height and less than four hundred pounds. He has also never taken any of the challenges to prove his strength I have only faced the second which is to drive a hungry grizzly from a kill using only a club. Therefore he is not likely to find a mate. He chooses instead women from among your kind often little more than 200 hundred pounds and almost hairless, it is bordering on the perverse but after all he would likely never find a real mate. So he works behind the bar in a beer joint in Texas where he says many bikers go to party, he says they are surprisingly polite to him."
I pondered this and in less than twenty minutes the phone rang.
"Yes, well if that is the official story. Then there has been some leakage of information, the person who called me knew at least some of the information that I had been asked about in the past and he knew to call me, I don't think this is an accident can you inquire?"
While we waited I asked another question, "So how do you learn to read and write?"
"We do not seek you out but suppose that in the beginning we found people who needed our help; if a fur trader has lost his canoe in the rapids and so has no weapons or goods to trade. If he knows sign language he might be persuaded to spend a season in our employ, and so after he has been well fumigated with our fires he could then teach our young. In the same way a young man who is running from imprisonment might chose to spend many years with us rather than live within a cage."
This time the wait was almost an hour.
"Yes so what happened to him, his name? …And who are the suspects their names?"
Moving to the other side of the clearing I discussed my findings with Speaker.
When we returned I told the captives that we had learned most of what we needed but we needed to confirm some things. "We will give each of you a chance to tell the truth away from the other, our q
uestions will be who gave you the information about me? And who is your paymaster?" Before they removed the gag the black man who had a French passport and a tattoo from the French Foreign Legion they showed me a part of a tape where he could be seen going over the camp where I had been in Tennesse in a manner that confirmed to me that he was also a scent hunter such as myself. They also played me again the part of the tape where he said that in Thailand he knew of a place that was hard to find in the back country where they would sell you a young boy or a young girl if you paid enough.
When he was ungagged he claimed to know nothing of the source of the information and nothing of the identity of the paymaster. They dragged him over to near where the other man lay. The Power picked him up by the legs and swung his head against a tree, it made an ugly sound. As a demonstration of strength and ruthlessness it was hard to beat. The other man had wet himself before they pulled out the gag.
"We got the info from Pete Donner, he was a PI whose license was suspended he said that he had lots of good stuff from when he worked for this Council, all I know is he was a scuzzy meth head who would say anything to get some cash."
"Where is he now?" She reached down and grabbed one of his