Chapter Twenty

The Birds

Abe, Mitch, and I hop into the SUV and head to Mitch's ex's house. I am looking through the previous new, trying to find anything that could explain the bird's odd noise.

"Here! A couple of months ago in Cape Town, the crew of a fishing trawler reported how a flock of razorbills attacked their boat. People were convinced they were after their haul of squid. But the captain was convinced they were after the crew. He described the sound the razorbills made as they circled overhead like cicadas."

Abe is in the driver seat in front of me.

"So this has happened before."

Mitch shrugs his shoulders.

"But with one try of the bird."

"It's something."

I sigh softly.

"I hope things are going well for the others."

"I'm sure they're fine, Uzuri."

Jackson and Chloe had gone to see Delavane and see if they could get any information from him about him working for Reiden and Jamie went to see if she could convince one of us friends to publish a story about the animals in a mainstream paper. While Abe, Mitch, and I went to give the medicine Mitch had gotten to Clementine, his nine-year-old daughter. When we get to the house Mitch looks around a little confused.

"Her car's not here."

We get out of the car and Mitch heads up to knock on the door, before rattling the doorknob. Abe walks up behind him.

"I don't think it's a good idea for us to linger."

I nod.

"Yeah, I second that. Who knows how long it'll be before there's a warrant out of all of us."

Mitch turns from the door and slowly makes his way down the porch, looking around at the plants.

"Back when Audra and I were together, she had an amazing ability to lock herself out of the house. Twice in one day, if you can believe that. So we developed a system of hiding a spare key."

Mitch lifts one of the plants in a pot up and pulls out a spare key. Before he can head back up the stairs of the porch to open the door we hear the same squawking noise that we had heard before. The three of us look up to the power line and see a line of birds.

"That's the same noise we heard from the sparrows."

"Yeah, but those aren't sparrows."

I shake my head and glance back to Mitch.

"It's like they're talking to each other. Don't birds have a universal warning call?"

Mitch nods.

"Yeah, but nothing resembling a common language."

As we step back to the truck we hear dogs beginning to bark.

"Is it just me, or…"

Just then Mitch's phone goes off.

"Audra, where are you? I can barely hear you. You're… at the park? Audra? Audra! Audra, tell me what's going on." Audra?! Damn it."

Mitch looks between Abe and I.

"What happened?"

"Let's go."

Without questioning further the three of us jump into the car and Abe drives off to one of the parks in the area.

"She said they're at the park. The birds are attacking."

"Do you know which park?"

"Yes."

I shake my head and lean forward, almost putting my head between the boys.

"We can't do anything for them if we don't know how to get rid of the birds."

"She's right, Mitch. What if we use sound to repel the birds? Like the oscillator, you built in Rio."

Mitch shakes his head.

"Yeah, maybe that would work, but we don't have an oscillator. And even if we did, we don't have time for a maybe."

"So what's another opinion."

Mitch thinks for a moment before nodding.

"I got something. I was here last year. In Boston for a conference. And there was a Dalmatian outside our hotel. Got hit by a motorcycle. I was there, I saved the dog's life. Its names was uh, uh… Rufus! His owners were very grateful."

I sigh softly.

"Mitch! Point!"

"Dalmatian, firehouse dog!"

"Mitch you're a genius!"

Abe and I finally understand what Mitch was going on about and we head to the park while Mitch calls the fire station.

"Hey, it's Mitch Morgan. Yeah, the doctor who helped Rufus. Yeah, listen I need you guys to get a truck and meet me at the park on south and 3rd. There are birds attacking people."

With that Mitch hangs up the phone and we head to the park. By the time we get there, two firetrucks are already here and we bail out of the truck. Abe runs over to help the firemen with the hose and Mitch and I go in to help people out of the play structures, as the water rapils the birds. Once everyone is out of the play structure and being check up first responders, Abe and I walk over to Mitch, who is talking to a blonde woman and little girl. When we walk up to them Mitch turns to us and Abe and I smile to greet them.

"Hello, you must be Audra."

Audra nods as she and I shake hands before I turn to Clementine.

"And you must be the famous Clementine. I'm Katherine, but you can call me Kat."

Clementine smiles.

"You can call me Clem."

I nod and smile to her, as Mitch looks over the four of us.

"We should head back to the house. Best to be indoors after all of this."

I nod.

"Yeah, I'll call the others and let them know where we are. If that's alright with you Audra."

"Of course, while Mitch hasn't told me a lot it seems like you all are trying to save the world from these animals so please if you need to use my house as a meeting point, do it."

I nod and text Jackson the address, before long he calls me."

"Hey."

"Hey, Kat. What's up, honey?"

Jackson sounds out of breath.

"Jackson, what's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine. We just uh… had a run in with one of Shafter's coworkers. He wasn't happy about what happened. But we are okay, I promise."

"We are going to meet at Mitch's ex-wife's place. That's the address I sent you."

"Okay, we'll meet you there soon."

Jackson and I hang up, as the group head back to the cars and back to Audra's place. It isn't long after we get to Audra's that the others arrive as well. When they do Jamie is lowering her phone from her ear.

"More bad news. Wilson's out. His executive editor called Reiden to follow up."

Jackson turns to her.

"And let me guess… five minutes later, their lawyers were slapped with a cease and desist by the Reiden legal team."

Jamie nods and I step up behind Jackson.

"They're good, I'll give them that."

"Maybe we should just turn ourselves in."

"What good would it be if you and Chloe are behind bars?"

"At least we could tell our story."

Jackson shakes his head, moving to sit in a chair beside the window.

"What… to a roomful of cops who want to try you for murdering a federal agent?"

"Okay, so what are we gonna do? We can't go to the press. We can't go to the authorities."

I nod.

"Yeah, the only people who can help us are in this house right now."

Before I can continue my statement, we hear Chloe call out from the other room.

"Hey, guys."

When we get into the room we see a report on the bird attacks.

"There was also a separate bird attack at Bowler Park in Brighton. Three adults were killed; 16 others were injured, including four children. City and state officials are currently investigating whether the three attacks are related. Residents are being asked to use caution when outdoors."

I sigh as Jackson turns off the tv.

"It's getting bigger."

"The animals are getting more aggressive. If it keeps progressing like this, it won't matter what we decide to do, because by then, it will be too late. We have to do something now."

"I agree. But what?"

I shake my head and think for a minute.

"Wait. Jackson, do you remember all those pictures we took of the walls in your dad's compound?"

"Yeah, of course."

"There was one page we found that had a list of traits. Felidae, Carnivora, all the big cat taxonomies. More specifically, leopards."

"Yeah, I remember."

"There may be a reason for that."

I turn to Mitch who is standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"What if Robert Oz was searching for a cure, too? What if that's our needle?"

Mitch looks at me a little shocked for a moment.

"Leopards?"

"Have we ruled it out yet?"

"Okay, leopards are found in India, the Arabian Peninsula, the Himalayan foothills, sub-Saharan Africa…"

Jackson stands.

"But we've ruled out most of those areas already."

Chloe nods, looking over the map she and Jamie had laid on the table.

"Yeah, but there are some areas in Africa where there's no reported Reiden activity."

Jamie looks over her laptop.

"Okay, Last year, six people killed in a small village near the Zambezi River. Zambia, Africa, 13 injured."

Jackson hands me the small leather-bound log book.

"Double check, make sure we didn't miss anything."

I nod and look over the book, as Jamie continues reading from her laptop.

"Okay, then, six months ago, five separate leopards attacks in villages along a 20-mile stretch of the Luangwa Valley. And… Zambia's largest agricultural company is owned by one of Reiden's biggest critics."

Abe steps forward and to my side.

"That would explain why Reiden products aren't being used there."

I look up from the book.

"Nothing. No mention of Zambia anywhere."

Mitch chuckles.

"I think we just found our needle."

"Let's go!"

Quickly and swiftly the group gathers our few things and leave Audra's house. Of course, after thanking her for letting us meet there and using it as our little conference space for a little while. We all pile into the three-row SUV, Abe, Mitch, and I had been driving around before we heading off.

Jamie sighs.

"I don't want to be a buzzkill, but it's about 7,000 miles to Zambia."

I nod,

"She's right, it's gonna take more than a police scanner and some dirt roads to get us there."

Mitch takes a deep breath.

"Yeah, you two are right… Don't be buzzkills. One thing at a time."

Chloe rolls down the window and we can hear the birds squawking.

"Do you guys hear that."

Mitch sighs.

"Yeah. we've been hearing it all day. Different species of birds, all making the exact same noise."

I nod.

"Mitch thinks the birds are developing a common tongue."

Jamie shakes her head.

"Wait. You think the Eagles can talk to the finches."

"Can talk to the skua, and talk to the black-headed grosbeak. There are maybe 300 billion birds in the world. Imagine if they could all talk to each other."

"If that's true, they could send a message around the world and back."

I nod and sigh softly, leaning back into the sit.

"Let's just figure out a way to get to Zambia… Quick…"