Note: I have gone back and edited Chapter 4 to tighten it up a bit. I felt that I repeated myself a bit too much with regards to the connection between Doyle's Lost World and Carl Denham's subsequent expedition to Kong's homeland. I apologize to and thank those readers who slogged their way through the repetitive phlebotenum and are still with me. Hopefully for newcomers some of the material in Chapters 5 and 6 will now read a little fresher.
As mentioned earlier, this story also makes use of Marvel's Black Panther and his kingdom of The Wakanda. The version used here is based on the Marvel Knights version re-imagined by writer Reginald Hundlin and artist John Romita, Jr. (The Black Panther was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby). From what I can tell, I place the Wakanda farther north in the African continent than Hundlin does, and also make it land locked (Hundlin gave the Wakanda a sea shore). This is so I can connect the Wakanda to mountain gorillas, Michael Crichton's Congo, and The Mighty Joe Young as re-imagined in the Ron Underwood directed, Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner written 1998 version (original story by the same guy who created Kong, Merian C. Cooper). Some of these connections will be made later in the story. With all that in mind, here we go.
Chapter 7 Enter, the Black Panther!
Day four after the awakening of Kong:
Jack Driscoll was bone tired, but he still woke up when Carl Denham tromped into their shared cabin. Denham smelled, as he did for the past three days, of Kong dung.
Before the Venture was underway, Driscoll and Denham both separately approached Captain Englehorn and volunteered to work for their passage. Although Doc Savage had paid for both of their passages, since he was still half a crew short Englehorn gladly accepted both offers. However, Driscoll's and Denham's experiences were widely different. Englehorn had Driscoll work with the rest of the crew, doing the same sorts of simple jobs and providing the same sort of assistance he did on the previous return voyage from "Skull Island". Denham, on the other hand, was assigned the worst jobs Englehorn could find, not the least of which was cleaning up after Kong. Since Kong's droppings were half as tall as Denham himself, not to mention up to 5 feet long, that job alone was massive.
But Denham never protested. He simply did the jobs he was given, and refused to take a break unless Englehorn himself took pity on him and told him to stop and rest. The crew of the Venture respected the way Denham did his jobs without complaint and Driscoll, who was fully accepted by the crew thanks to his heroism on the earlier voyage, heard the tone of respect that began to arise in the crew's discussions about Carl Denham.
Denham tried to move quietly in their tiny and cramped cabin. He froze when Driscoll rolled over and looked at him.
"Hello, Carl," Driscoll said.
"Oh, hi Jack," Denham said. "Sorry to wake you."
"That's OK," Driscoll said. "I wanted to talk to you anyway."
"About Ann?" Denham asked.
"Yeah," Driscoll said. "How…how is she doing?"
"She's worried because Doc's worried," Denham said. "Kong's not eating much, is breathing harder, and doesn't seem to have much energy. Doc says he won't be able to survive much longer in this world."
" 'This world'?" Driscoll asked.
"You were there, Jack," Denham said. "Didn't things seem to be real different on Skull Island? I mean more than just being some other place. Like it was another world?"
Driscoll nodded.
"I felt stronger there," Driscoll said. "At first I thought it was the adrenaline and worrying about Ann, but…you're right, things were different there. And I remember Englehorn saying something about how long the days and nights were."
Denham started to take off his clothes.
"I'm going to wash up," he said. "I'm sorry I am stinking up the cabin."
"Don't worry about it," Driscoll said. "Why do you let Englehorn saddle you with the worst jobs, Carl? He shouldn't blame you for the way things turned out. He is just as much responsible for what happened with Kong as you are. He could have told you no."
Denham chuckled. Then the chuckle turned into a laugh. Denham broke it off when Monk started pounding on the wall.
"Shuddup in there!" Monk yelled in his deepest voice. "Some of us are trying to sleep."
"None of us are trying to sleep now, thanks to your dim witted bellowing," Ham grumbled.
"Don't you start, shyster!" Monk retorted. They continued to squabble, but they subsequently kept their voices down.
Denham shook his head and looked at Driscoll.
"Jack, Englehorn didn't assign me those jobs," Denham said. "I requested them."
Driscoll was startled.
"Why did you do that?" he asked. "As penance?"
"Yeah, in part," Denham said. "But most of all, I simply figure it's the least I can do, after all the misery I've caused."
Denham sighed and sat on his bed.
"I'm never going to get the image of Crystal Evans out of my mind, you know," he said.
"Crystal Evans?" Driscoll asked.
"The girl who substituted for Ann," Denham said. "The girl who would still be alive if I had just left Kong on the island."
"Carl, while it's true you endangered that girl, Kong killed her," Driscoll said. "Not you."
"He didn't mean to," Denham replied. "She wasn't Ann, and he just tossed her aside."
"I was there, Carl," Driscoll said. "I saw what he did. He's a crazed animal. He threw her away like garbage."
"He was disappointed, Jack," Denham said. "He thought Crystal was Ann, his only friend in the world, at least our world. When he tossed Crystal, he was preoccupied with his disappointment, he wasn't trying to hurt her. Did you know when he was outside he picked up other girls looking for Ann, and he was much more careful with them?"
"Again, Carl," Driscoll replied. "I was there. Sure he put the other women down pretty gently, but then I saw him attack a trolley full of innocent people. And you saw how he came after me."
"Maybe he thought the trolley was something else," Denham said. "And we know why he was mad at you. On the other hand, I'm surprised Kong hasn't squashed me by now. I'm the one who put him on display. I'm the one who stood in front of him and threw chloroform in his face."
"How does he respond to you?" Driscoll asked.
"He watches me a little when I come in and start to shovel his…," Denham said, his voice trailing off. "But then he ignores me and watches Ann or Doc or Pat. Or he sticks his head up through the top hatch and looks out over the deck or the ocean. Sometimes, he makes these deep rumbling sounds that make my whole body vibrate. I swear he's trying to talk to the whales or something. It's the damndest thing."
"At least you can go down there," Driscoll grumbled. "I don't dare go down there and see Ann. I'm afraid Kong'll turn on her at any time, and if he knew I was on this ship…"
"He already knows you're on the ship, Jack," Denham said.
"What?" Driscoll exclaimed in alarm. "Carl, if he sees me, he might tear apart the ship to try to get to me!"
"When Doc first opened the big hatch to the main hold, he neglected to tell Englehorn what he was doing," Denham said. "That sure made Englehorn angry as hell when he heard about it, by the way. Anyway, Kong stuck his head out, looked up on deck, and there you were, about 50 feet away with your back turned. Englehorn has since made arrangements to have you below decks when the hatch is opened, but you were out there that first time, and he did see you. I thought you knew."
"W…what did Kong do when he saw me?" Driscoll asked.
"He ducked his head back down into the hold and didn't look out again for hours," Denham said. "And I swear he looked embarrassed."
Jimmy Hayes normally liked to go on wireless duty, but not when Helstrom had steering duty in the pilot room. Jimmy would usually bring a book to read while on wireless duty, but Helstrom would harangue him to "pay attention" when they shared duty in the pilot room. The problem was most of the time there wasn't really anything to pay attention to. There was occasional wireless traffic, but usually it was just other ships giving their position, or messages for passenger ships, but even that was very rare. Most of the time, the wireless sat quiet.
Besides which, it was at Mr. Hayes' suggestion that Jimmy started bringing books to wireless duty.
Jimmy looked at the radio Long Tom Roberts installed next to the wireless. The only indication that it was even on was the green light it emitted and a faint hiss of static.
"You aren't falling asleep, are you boy?" Helstrom asked Jimmy.
With a start, Jimmy realized that he had in fact been nodding off. That wouldn't have happened, he thought ruefully, if he'd had a book.
It was at that moment that Long Tom's radio suddenly came to life.
Loud and clear, an accented voice came over the radio.
"Wakanda One to the Venture," the voice said. "This is Wakanda One requesting your position."
"Don't give them our position, you idiot!" Helstrom exclaimed.
Jimmy already knew that. He took the microphone and pushed the reply button just as Long Tom had taught him.
"This is the Venture, over," Jimmy said as he turned towards Helstrom.
"Get Captain Englehorn and Doc Savage," Jimmy said. "The Captain and Mr. Roberts told me to expect this call and that they were to be contacted when it came in."
Jimmy felt grim satisfaction as Helstrom's face turned bright red. The Captain hadn't told him about the expected call from the Wakandans!
"Why don't you get them then?" Helstrom growled.
"Because I'm on radio duty," Jimmy said with satisfaction as he turned back towards the radio.
"This is crewman Hayes of the Venture," he said. "We are bringing Captain Englehorn and Doc Savage now to speak with you."
"Very good," the accented voice said over the radio. "I am very much looking forward to revisiting with my good friends Doc and Johnny."
"Johnny, wait!"
Doc said this to Johnny just as he was about to leave the cabin he shared with Doc, Renny, and Long Tom. Doc had spent very little time in the cabin, spending most of his waking and even sleeping hours in the large hold with Kong and Miss Darrow. Young Jimmy Hayes had told them that on the last voyage the cabin was occupied by Carl Denham and his film crew.
Doc turned to Renny and Long Tom, who had both stopped when he called Johnny's name.
"You two go on," Doc said. "Long Tom, you man the radio, help to give them our position, if they haven't already triangulated on it."
"Triangulated?" Long Tom asked skeptically.
"The Wakandans may have released a radio beacon to help locate us," Doc said. "They are very precise."
Johnny felt thrilled. He was hoping he would see at least one of the Wakandans he and Doc had played with as children. He wondered how on Earth Doc had managed to convince the Wakandans to overcome their traditional isolationism and meet him here in the Atlantic. Why would the Wakandans come here?
Johnny suspected that it might have had something to do with the giant mountain gorilla variant that sometimes appeared in or close to their homeland. Did Doc think there was a connection between Kong and those (much smaller) giants?
Doc went over to his trunk and pulled out two brightly colored robes.
"Spider silk," Doc said. "Reinforced by spun gold thread."
"Doc, these are royal robes!" Johnny exclaimed.
"Naturally," Doc replied. "Johnny, you of course remember Umaru?"
"Of course I do!" Johnny said. Umaru was one of the Wakandan royal family and one of their most daring playmates. However, nearly a third of the citizens of the Wakanda were members of the royal family, so having a playmate in the royal family was not unusual even for the (extremely rare) visitor.
"Umaru is now T'maru," Doc said.
"Umaru…I mean T'maru, is the Black Panther?" Johnny asked in amazement. Johnny spoke the title "Black Panther" in Wakandan.
"Yes," Doc said. "He recently won the mental and physical trials to become the Wakandan ruler. T'imi is planning on retiring soon. However, she will remain the Black Panther of record until T'maru returns from our trip."
Johnny was stunned. The Wakandan system of government was a fascinating mix of monarchy and meritocracy. There was a royal family, but who became the next ruler of the country was dependent upon who best passed the mental tests of science, temperament, and statecraft, and the physical tests of personal combat and a grueling scavenger hunt. The varied members of the Wakandan royal family raised their children to compete in these tests, and it was these rearing techniques that Clark Savage Senior, the former Lord John Roxton, applied to the raising of his son. T'maru would be one of the few people in the world whose abilities would rival Doc's. The Wakandans invested a lot in their rulers, and Johnny found it shocking that they would allow their heir apparent to accompany a bunch of outsiders to a place as dangerous as Kong's homeland.
"I told the Wakandans about Kong, and also about some theories I've had about the connections between his homeland and their history," Doc said. "They are very intrigued. The Twin Councils of Elders both deliberated and were convinced that T'maru's request to accompany us was worth pursuing."
The government of the Wakanda was a monarchy, but it was not absolute.
"Doc, that…" Johnny said. "Why wouldn't they simply mount their own expedition? They could do that."
"Because they trust us, Johnny!" Doc said, amazement reflected in his own voice. "My father and I remained in contact with the Wakandans over the years, and I have even visited with them once since my father died. But they remembered you as well, and even though you were just a boy, they were very impressed.
"Which is the reason for these robes. We are going to be asked to participate in a blood brother ceremony with T'maru."
"I'll be superamalgamated!" Johnny exclaimed. He started to put the robe Doc gave him over his clothes. He was amazed to find that they were the right length for his extremely thin, ridiculously tall body. This meant that the robes had been made just for him.
"They've been anticipating this, Doc!" Johnny said as he finished putting on the robe.
"They have," Doc agreed. "The Wakandans are pursuing a somewhat different strategy in their dealings with the outside world, and they are employing the same brilliance they apply to everything else. You see, Johnny, our time with them was more than simple play. It was a test that we both passed. Part of the reason for my returning to the Wakanda periodically was to give them my assessments as to how you were turning out. But it was when I told them that I now called you 'brother' that they said they knew all they needed to know about you."
Johnny felt a surge of honored pride that caused a tightness in his chest and an itching wetness in his eyes as he followed Doc up the stairs and onto the deck.
Captain Englehorn stood next to Doc Savage and yet again wondered what it was he was getting himself into. The Wakandans were by reputation a secretive people who did not welcome strangers and did not venture out of their territory. Englehorn had heard the rumors, of course: The Wakandans had a hidden city within their land that was full of precious gold and minerals, but they were so fierce in the protection of their territory that no one dared to venture there. It was said that the Boers and the Belgians both sent large armed parties into the Wakanda to conquer it, and both times a paltry handful of survivors returned with tales of "supernatural" weapons and bloodthirsty warriors who were half man, half cat.
And yet, here they were, waiting for a ship called "Wakanda One". What would an isolated, land locked African tribe be doing with a ship anyway?
Englehorn looked out at the ocean, at least the ocean that was illuminated by the ship's lights. It was 2:44 in the morning and a new moon, and there was cloud cover. There were no other lights. No sign of another ship's lights in the distance.
"Are you sure there's somebody out there?" Englehorn turned and asked Savage, who was clad in a brightly colored robe.
"Oh yes," Savage said. "Do you feel that breeze? A slight downdraft? It was completely still a minute ago."
"A downdraft?" Englehorn asked. "What would a downdraft have to do with a ship?"
Savage looked at Englehorn and smiled slightly.
"You're looking the wrong direction," he said.
Englehorn turned and looked the other way.
"No," Savage said, touching Englehorn lightly on the shoulder and pointing to his man Littlejohn. "Johnny", who was also wearing a brightly colored robe, was looking up in the air. "You're still looking the wrong direction."
So saying, Savage turned his head to look up in the sky.
"You mean that the Wakandans are flying a plane?" Englehorn asked.
"Not exactly," Savage said.
Suddenly, a bright finger of light erupted downwards from the clouds portside. The light reflected brightly off the water and also illuminated the clouds above them.
"I …I don't hear any engines," Englehorn said.
"You wouldn't," Savage said.
The light moved towards them, and as it did so it dimmed a little, so that it was not uncomfortably bright by the time it illuminated the deck. From above the illuminated clouds, three ropes dropped from the sky, ending about 20 feet above the deck of the Venture.
"They're going to climb down?" Englehorn asked Savage.
Savage didn't answer, and seconds later three men slid down along the ropes. The men on each side wore brightly colored robes, but the man in the middle wore a form fitting black suit of some sort, with a featureless mask except for two black projections that looked like the ears of a cat. When the men reached the ends of their ropes they simply let go and dropped onto the deck.
Like cats, they landed on their feet. Perhaps, thought Englehorn, there was something after all to those stories of warriors who were half man and half cat.
Renny stood next to Johnny as the three men slid down the ropes out of the clouds and dropped onto the deck. Renny was impressed. He couldn't hear the engines of the airship above them at all. He wished he could get a better look at it, but the ship hovered above the low lying clouds.
"Wish I could see that airship," Renny said to his tall, gaunt friend.
"You won't," Johnny said. "In fact, it's entirely possible that the Wakandans are generating the clouds themselves."
"A fog machine of some sort?" Renny asked. "Maybe CO2 ice?"
"I don't know," Johnny said. "What I do know is that the Wakandans don't like anyone to see their airships."
The man in the form fitting black suit took off his mask to reveal a very dark skinned, handsome African face. Doc stepped towards him and nodded solemnly. Then the two men embraced. As they did so, the two men in robes stepped forward to stand between Doc and the man in the black suit, and everyone else. The robed Wakandans each had a weapon. The weapons looked like spears at first glance, but the shafts were clearly hollow. The blades were on one side of a hole at the end of the shaft, while the other end tapered into what looked like the mouthpiece of a clarinet.
"What are those things?" Renny asked Johnny. "Some sort of blowguns?"
"You could say that," Johnny replied. Renny noticed that Johnny was using small words for once. "They use amplified sound like gunpowder. The tubes are made of a special alloy that absorbs or amplifies vibrations. There are metal pellets in those "blowguns"that they can propel through the steel bulkhead of this ship."
Renny was skeptical. The engineer couldn't imagine how such a device could be possible.
"Johnny, are you sure they weren't putting you on?" Renny asked.
"Positive," Johnny said. "I learned to blow one myself when I was a boy. I was terrible at it. Doc was better, perhaps as good as most of the Wakandan kids. Umaru, no excuse me, T'maru, was the best I ever saw at it. We had to do target practice on these massive stone blocks embedded into the side of a hill, the projectiles were too dangerous to fire anywhere else. Even then, we would knock off some pretty large chunks when we fired the pellets at it. I was told that they had to replace the stone blocks once a month."
Johnny stopped talking as Doc turned towards Captain Englehorn.
"Captain Englehorn, may I present T'maru, the T'______ of the Wakanda," Doc said.
"T'______?" asked Renny, or tried to. The word seemed to be almost all consonants, and he couldn't say it quite right.
"It means 'Black Panther' in Wakandan," Johnny said. "Wakandan is probably one of the closest languages to the ancestral Bantu tongue."
"The Black Panther?" asked Renny.
"The black phase of the leopard is relatively common in the Wakanda, and is sacred to the Wakandans," Johnny said. "The black panther is the totem of the royal family, and the current ruler and the heir apparent are both referred to as T'_____, or Black Panther."
T'maru extended his hand to Englehorn and shook it.
"Permission to come aboard, Captain," T'maru said.
"Permission granted, your majesty," Englehorn replied.
T'maru nodded his thanks. Then his gaze fell upon Johnny and he grinned.
"Johnny, so good to see you again!" he said.
Johnny replied in Wakandan. Johnny's Wakandan sounded hesitant and uncertain to Renny's ears, but T'maru's grin became wider.
After Johnny finished speaking to T'maru, the Wakandan prince turned to each of his two companions (bodyguards?) and nodded. One man took out three sealed packets, the other took out a metal cup apparently made from the same metal that their weapons were made from. The packets were handed deferentially in turn to T'maru, Doc, and Johnny. The man with the cup pulled another metal container from his robes, this one looking like a sealed metal bottle. He opened the container and there was a hiss, and condensation came out of the top of the metal bottle, indicating the cool temperature of the liquid within. The man poured the liquid, which was white, into the cup.
Meanwhile, Renny watched as T'maru, Doc, and Johnny each opened their packets. Each contained a small, sharp looking knife. Making a face, each man sliced the back palm of their hands. Then, T'maru took the cup and dripped a couple of drops of blood from his hand into the cup. Then T'maru handed the cup to Doc, who did the same thing. Finally, Johnny took the cup and also dripped a couple of drops of his blood into the cup.
The man who had the blade packets stepped forward and spoke in Wakandan. Johnny replied first, also in Wakandan, then took a drink from the cup. Then Johnny handed the cup to Doc, who repeated what sounded like the same Wakandan phrase and took a drink. Finally, T'maru took the cup, took a drink, and spoke the same phrase as Johnny and Doc had before him. The two robed men then stepped back and nodded solemnly to Johnny, Doc, and T'maru in turn. Then, the spotlight shining down on the deck from the hidden airship became brighter, so bright Renny could no longer look at it. As he squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head, the light suddenly vanished. Renny reopened his eyes and turned to look at the spot on the deck where the two robed men had stood. When his eyes adjusted to the sudden loss of light, he saw that the two men had vanished. T'maru, however, was still there and talking in low, urgent tones to Doc and Johnny.
Johnny wiped the blade of the knife the Wakandans had given him with his handkerchief and then slipped it into his pocket. Then he walked back over to where Renny was standing.
"Some sort of blood brother ceremony?" Renny asked his friend.
"Something like that," Johnny said. "It's unprecedented, really. It's the first time that outsiders have been trusted with the welfare of a Wakandan ruler, although it's not even that simple. T'maru is pledged to our protection as well, and by extension, the protection of our family and friends."
"We can take care of ourselves, Johnny," Renny said. "But of course you know the rest of us will do everything we can to help you and Doc uphold your obligations to T'maru."
"Don't fail to be impressed by this gesture," Johnny said. "Like I said, it is unprecedented. More to the point, if there is any man in the world who may be Doc's equal, the Black Panther of the Wakandans is that man."
Renny looked at his friend and started to say You're kidding. But when Renny saw the serious expression on Johnny's thin, scholarly face, he knew that the archeologist/paleontologist was quite serious.
Ann Darrow was awakened by the exclamations of the crew, and then a light that briefly shined down into the open hatch of the large hold. Kong, his breathing now heavily labored even in sleep, rumbled and stirred briefly, but did not wake up.
Eventually, the more typical sounds of men working above and below decks on the Venture returned, and Ann began to doze again until there was a rap on the door. Kong again rumbled and stirred briefly, but did not wake up.
The door to the large hold opened inward. Walking in were Pat Savage, her cousin Doctor Savage, Doctor Savage's man "Johnny" and a man she had never seen before. The man was not as tall as his companions, but he was still taller than average. He moved with the same easy economy of motion that Doctor Savage had. He was wearing a black jumpsuit of some sort, and his own skin was very dark so that for the briefest of moments Ann thought he was naked.
"This is Ann Darrow, who befriended Kong," Doctor Savage said. "Miss Darrow, this is T'maru, the Crown Prince of the Wakanda."
T'maru looked up at Kong, his expression awestruck. He spoke something to Doctor Savage, then turned to Ann and spoke again in lightly accented English.
"My apologies, Miss Darrow, for forgetting myself and speaking in my native language," T'maru said. "I was telling my friends Doc and Johnny that while I have seen a giant gorilla before, never before have I seen something as remarkable as your friend Kong."
Ann stared at T'maru.
"You've seen other giant gorillas before?" Ann asked.
"One other," T'maru said. "A male who weighed about a ton, ton and a half and stood 12 feet tall on two legs. He never made it to adulthood, and certainly wouldn't have made it to the size of your friend Kong."
T'maru turned to Doc.
"This isa profound mystery," T'maru said. "Even assuming that your theory about the nature of his homeland is true, that might explain his great size, but not what an African animal was doing there in the first place."
T'maru was already feeling vindicated in the effort he had exerted to convince the Twin Councils of Elders and his aunt, the current ruling Black Panther, of the importance of honoring Clark Savage Junior's request for Wakandan assistance in exploring the "Land Behind the Mists".
The Wakanda was the oldest stable nation in the world, with much the same government in the 3,012th year of the nation as it had when the first Black Panther had ascended the throne to begin the 1st year of the nation. The formula for the success of the Wakanda was simple and straightforward. They developed the incredible natural alloy derived from the nation's unique mineral richness, which the outside world had taken to calling vibranium, into the basis of an advanced technology. When the ancient Greeks started to pioneer the sciences, the Wakandans were already working out the electromagnetic force. When the ancient Romans built aquaducts and central heating based on heated water under the floors, the Wakandans had already developed flush toilets and air conditioners. During the Middle Ages, when expansionist Arab traders and slavers moved southward in search of the rumored mineral richness of the Wakandan cities, their arrival was announced by wireless, and their invasion attempts were repelled by artillery based on focused sound waves rather than gunpowder.
The other part of the Wakandan formula for success was isolation. They would occasionally send men and even women out into the outside world to monitor developments, but this became less practical as the other, competing Bantu city states in sub-Saharan Africa died out and were overgrown by the returning rainforests. There were other nations, powerful nations, but for the most part they were more distant than was practical. The Wakandans would welcome others into their nation through marriages, and occasionally (but very rarely) Wakandans would marry into the outside world. But the Wakandans did not welcome uninvited trespassers, and they dealt very harshly indeed with attempted invasions. The typical Wakandan strategy was to leave no more than four members of a failed invasion force alive to go back to their fellows and report the futility of invasion.
Then there came in the last century (the 19th by Western reckoning, the 30th by Wakandan) the European colonial powers. The Belgians, the Germans, the Dutch, and the English all sent adventurers to take the Wakandan mineral wealth. While each would be invader was still efficiently repelled, the different sorts of weapons the Europeans brought to the fray, the rifles and cannons, alarmed the ancient nation. Portions of the outside world were catching up technologically. The Wakandans still greatly valued science and technology, but the numbers and weapons of the new outsiders eventually convinced the Wakandans to modify their isolation strategy. The Wakandans sent men into the outside world. The men carried great wealth, which they used to hire agents, who in turn hired other agents, until the Wakandans had a worldwide financial and spy network second to none, and where 95 percent of the people who worked for the network had no idea that they were working for a small but powerful nation hidden in the heart of Africa.
Two of the initial agents they recruited were originally sent to the Wakanda as ambassadors from the English government. These two agents were Allan Quartermain and his young assistant, the future Lord John Roxton. These two men proved their honor to the Wakandan royal family, and the Wakandans, in turn, earned the men's friendship and loyalty.
Eventually, Quartermain was given a very different duty involving a highly secretive "League", and Roxton had vanished, only to re-emerge with a new identity and a son. That son, more familiar than any other outsider with the ways of the Wakanda, was now T'maru's blood brother. A blood brother with a theory about why gorillas were found in the "Land Behind the Mists". The theory, if true, was the answer to an ancient Wakandan mystery.
What had happened to the people of the great lost city of Zinj? Where had they gone?
Through lidded eyes, Kong watched the new arrival, a little tufted ape with dark skin like the ones from his homeland. The dark ape moved with the same ease and economy of motion as the bronze ape. Almost certainly, Kong thought, he was looking at another patriarch.
Kong was concerned. It was clear that the bronze ape was trying to return to Kong's homeland. Why the little bronze ape had captured and brought him along for the ride Kong was not certain. But, assuming Kong survived long enough to return home (a big if considering how hard it was for him to breath), the last thing he would do is lead the little apes to other survivors among his own people.
Assuming there were any, that is.
Next
Chapter 8
The Mists and Beyond!
