Remember guys Helena and Deborah can't use their real names in these cases. They must use fake names, IDs and credit cards. But anyways sorry for the big delay!


The Bronx Zoo

The Bronx, New York

Thursday 16 November 2005

Tanya James brushed the bits of grass off the Wildlife Conservation Society logo on her blue shirt as she headed out into the pavilion in front of the Wild Asia Ride. The crowds were a bit sparse in November, but visitors to the Bronx Zoo still wanted to go on wild Asia.

Tanya remembered her mother talking about how thrilling Wild Asia was back when it first opened in the late seventies. For her part, she couldn't imagine why anybody would make such a fuss, The monorail was so retro, and it wasn't as if it was that big a deal to see animals wandering around free. Of course, back in the Stone Age when mom was a kid, she guessed it was a big deal not to see animals in cages, but there wasn't any novelty to it now. The monorail was cheesy piece if plastic that Tanya was convinced was gonna fall off the rail any day now.

Then again, she was in a bad mood generally. Ever since what happened with those two kids, she'd been talking to reporters, to police, and to lawyers representing Fordham University, and she was really, really sick of it. The lawyers were the worst—Okay, cops and reporters were doing their jobs, but why should she have to listen to crap from Fordham's legal eagles just because the two kids who died happened to be their students? They weren't even killed on campus!

"Excuse me, Miss James?"

Tanya closed her eyes and let out a breath. She's had about fifty conversations that started with those four words this past week, and they were alway like having a root canal, only without the anesthetic. If it wasn't someone from law enforcement or from the WCS, she was going to tell them to screw off so fast…

She turned, and saw the hottest women she'd ever seen in her life.

There was another women with her, but Tanya didn't pay much at her, she was focused on this one chick. She had such amazing light green eyes, and if she was the one who'd called her, the the most sexiest voice she'd ever heard. Right there and then, she decided that she would do whatever this women asked. She's tall, too, but not intimidating the way some tall girls were. Her semi-shaggy light brown hair was somber neatly, and she had an adorable small nose.

"Uh, yeah, I'm—I'm Ms James. Uh, Tanya."

The other, shorter one, said, "Nice to meet you, Tanya. My name's Andrea Watson, and my sister here is Regina Watson—we're with National Geographic."

Tanya blinked, and tore her eyes away from Regina Watson—what a wonderful name!—to look at the shorter one with the same light brown hair, light green eyes, a mouth that looked like it was in a permanent smirk but what made Tanya nervous was the glare she was giving her.

Andrea, was it? "Uh, okay."

Then the text message she'd gotten from Frieda, her boss, came back to her. "Right! Frieda said you guys be talking to me. What do you need?"

"We're doing a story on the orangutan that killed those two students, and we were told you were the one who cared for them."

Regina added, "If it's too much trouble—"

"Oh no!" She said quickly, not wanting Regina to go away, but also still not entirely clear as to why NG would be doing this kind of story. Frieda's text had said that they were cleared by the press office, as long as they stuck with the questions in the memo that had gone around on Monday, but Tanya was confused as to why they'd bothered in the first place.

"This isn't really, I dunno—typical of you guys, is it?"

Andrea smiled, "Eh, We just follow orders from the boss."

Rolling her eyes, Tanya ignored Andrea cause she was still glaring at her, and looked at Regina's form and soulful eyes. "So what is it you girls want to know? I mean, I've already told this story, like, a thousand times. You can probably get whatever you want from the newspaper."

"They're being very sensationalistic," Regina said. "We're trying to print out the truth, and make it clear that this wasn't the orangutan's fault."

"Oh, it wasn't Albert's fault at all!"

The short one suddenly developed a coughing fit, and then said, "Albert? That was the orangutan's name?"

"Well, that's what I called him. We've got two on loan from Philadelphia for a while, and I named them Frank and Albert."

Looking at Andrea, Regina said, "Actually, I think Albert's a great name for a big ape, don't you?"

"Sure it is," Andrea said in a low voice, and Tanya started wondering what was going on. But then Andrea looked back at her. "So, Tanya, can you tell us in your own words what happened?"

"Yeah, okay." She was feeling a little exposed, so she led the two reporters to one of the wooden tables near a food stand. Taking a deep breath, and trying not to get lost in Andrea's eyes, she went through the whole story: How Albert suddenly went crazy and started jumping up and down, before retreating under a rock.

"Nobody saw him for a while after that—we don't really keep an eye on them 24/7, y'know?—and then when I went to feed him and Frank, I couldn't find him. Now you gotta understand, both these guys never miss a feeding—like, ever." She found her eyes misting up, and she wiped them with the cuff it the sleeve of her blue shirt.

Andrea said, "you must care about Frank and Albert very much. That's really admirable—our parents have always been impressed with the work people like do."

"Thanks," she said, then looked at Regina. "So I knew something was wrong, and we instituted a search. Animals wander off sometimes, and Albert had been acting a little weird, but we usually have really good security. But we didn't find anything." Good security was an understatement. Allen and Jimmy had lost their jobs thanks to Albert's escape.

Regina leaned forward while Andrea suddenly got up. "The paper said that NYPD animal control took Albert in."

Tanya nodded. " They called us first, since we're the only people in the city who have Orangutans. Our animals have transponders so we can verify who they are, so they sent me to Animal Control." She shuddered at the memory.

"God, what an awful place. All these animals stuck in tiny metal cage and treated like crap. I mean, I know, most of 'em are involved in crimes and stuff but God."

A napkin appeared in front of her face. She looked up to see Andrea, with a look of what she guessed was concern on her face. "Thanks," she said as she took the napkin and wiped the tears away. She even almost smiled, this girl gave her the chills especially her glare.

She sat back down next to Regina, across from her. "So you checked the transponder."

"Well, yeah, but didn't really need to, y'know? I know my Albert." She wiped new tears with the napkin. "The poor little guy was scared to death. They did blood tests on him, and he was hopped up on amphetamines of some kind, can you believe that?"

"Jesus Christ, who would do that to the poor guy?" Andrea asked.

"Well, somebody who wanted to kill those two kids."

"So it wasn't Albert's fault." Regina said, sounding relieved.

Tanya shook her head. "And we were so afraid that we'd lose him. Sometimes the families of victims insist that the animals be euthanized, and judge usually come down on other side."

"Really?" Regina said. "That's awful."

At this point, she couldn't work up much outrage. "It's typical. They're part of this word, too, but try to get most humans to acknowledge that. In fact, I'm going to law school part-time so I can make the laws about this kinda thing tougher."

"Good for you," Regina said. "I actually almost graduated the CIA University."

"Really? Why'd you give up?"

Regina hesitated. "Weird family stuff," she said quietly. "Anyhow, I'm real happy with I'm doing right now, believe me."

"Well, good for you. Still, you should think about going back. Where did you go"

"Stanford—that's where I did my undergrad work."

Tanya whistled appreciatively. "I'm a NYU. I wish I had more time for class, but it's expensive, and I work a lot of hour here."

Andrea then said, "NYU is a tough place, our parents went there but they were determined like you."

"Cool," Tanya said quickly to Andrea, then looked back at Regina. All that, and brains, too, if she made it through Stanford and the CIA.

But then Andrea said, "you said families of the victims usually ask for the animals to be euthanized."

Andrea pronounced the word as if it was the first time she used it, which struck Tanya as odd. " But they didn't ask for that this time?"

She'd been hoping to quiz Regina more on her academy aspirations, but Andrea seemed determined to actually do their job, Which Tanya supposed she could understand.

"No, Albert lucked out." Was it her imagination or did Andrea mouth twitch upward every time she referred to the orangutan by name?

"Both the kids were members of WCS, and their families were sympathetic. Once the blood test proved than that Albert was drugged, they didn't insist, the cops were in a good mood that day, so they let us have him back."

She shook her head. "I remember one time—in Minnesota, maybe?—a meerkat bit a kid who was too stupid to actually pay attention to the sign that said not to stick your hand over the fence. The family refused to give the kid a rabies test, so the zoo had to euthanize the entire family of meerkats."

"Sounds to me," Andrea said, "Like the wrong family got put down."

Tanya nodded, conceding the point to Andrea, then turning back to lose herself in Regina's eyes. "So Albert's back with us, but we won't put him back out in the habitat yet."

"Why?"

"You kidding? He's, like, totally traumatized. I just came back from feeding him, and he wouldn't eat until I left. He won't go near Frank, and he won't let me hold him."

Andrea raised an eyebrow. "He wouldn't let you hold him?"

Tanya nodded, "of course. But now when I try, he—he hisses."

Regina bit part of her lower lip for a second, which Tanya thought was just adorable. "Tanya, can I ask a favor?"

"Of course," she said without hesitation. Then added with what she hoped was a coquettish smile, "you can ask."

"Can we—can we see Albert?"

That wasn't what she'd been hopping for, especially since it meant she would have to disappoint her. "I'm sorry, but I so totally can't. Right now, they're just letting me in there."

Andrea leaned forward. "Well, if you say it's okay—"

"It's not up to me. They only let me in because I'm their handler. We may wind up sending them both back to Philadelphia because of this. I'm sorry, but I'll get in a huge amount of trouble, and—and then they won't even let me see them anymore."

Regina was cute, but she wasn't that cute. Frank and Albert were her boys, and she wasn't letting anything jeopardize her relationship with them.

Not even Regina.

They asked a few more random questions and then they got up, which surprised and disappointed her. "Well," Regina said, "thanks for your help. If you think of anything else to share with us, give me a call, okay?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ratty piece of paper.

"I'm sorry, we're outta business cards. We ordered them, like, three weeks ago, and still nothing."

All of a sudden alarm bells were going off in Tanya's head. Why weren't they asking more questions? And they hadn't been taking notes or anything.

Still, she took her phone number. She wasn't a complete fool. Maybe she could talk to her without her sister and her glaring.

"Thanks." She broke the handshake before Andrea did, then watch them both walk toward the staircase that would take them up to other parts of the zoo, or to one of two exits.

And that was it.

Frowning, Tanya stared at the number, which had a 650 area code. She was pretty sure that NG was located in Washington, D.C., and their area code was 202. She was also pretty sure that 650 was in California somewhere. Of course, that could've been Stanford's area code, in which case Regina would've had it from when she went there, but why wouldn't she have changed it to D. she moved there after graduating Stanford and left for the CIA University?

And why didn't they ask more questions about Albert or the drugs that were used to any of the other questions on Frieda's list?

She shook her head, got up, and walked over to the small wooden ticket booth near the entrance to Wild Asia.

"Hey Tanya," the woman in the booth said, her voice echoing in the small booth and coming through the glass partition. "What's up? Who where those girls you were talking to? The tall on was hot."

"Gina, can you call Bill for me? I need to talk to him.:

Bill was the head of security—and the one who fired Jimmy and Allen. Much as she hated to admit, she was pretty sure he needed to know about Andrea and Regina Watson...


Alright time to start writing chap 4 where our lovely Ada Wong will make an appearance! Yay! Finally! Agent Puppy torture begins!

Helena:...why me?

Me: why not?

Ada: hmmm

Me: I see someone's excited to meet their puppy!

Deborah: I really don't like this Tanya chick

Me: Ik, that's why I made you glare at her every single time she stares at Helena too long

Ada:*frown*

Me:*grin* Don't worry Tanya is not Helena's type...she prefers exotic Asian beauty's that can kick ass

Helena:*blush* H-hey!

Ada:*smirk* Oh? She does?