EXTINCTION WARRIOR

Chapter 24

"Tell me it's you, Mig," I say out loud nervously.

"Hungry!" he barks with a picture of...a monkey?

The red light drenches a dark hall as I ease off the last step. Mig walks away twittering,before I have a chance to lean over and give him a pet. I follow,hop-limping with Tuk behind me.

We're heading toward the stern. He makes a left, down the starboard side, and the buzzing grows louder. We don't go far, and the hall opens to an area for cargo or storage the width of the entire ship. There, in the bloodshot dark, behind a fine mesh screen that hangs from the ceiling to the floor is a jungle! A miniature jungle tangled with vines, orchids and trees crowded with ferns...and all around, clinging to the trees and vines, gripping with slender, padded fingers and huge round eyes that stare,unblinking...dozens of furry little creatures no bigger than my fist.Like little toys. Magical little stuffed animals. I've never seen anything like them...as if owls had crossed with monkeys. A few females have the tiniest infants clinging to their backs. Others are hunting. One catches a cricket and stuffs it in its mouth, crunching and smacking.As quietly as I can, I hop closer. All the ears turn toward me, and the buzzing gets louder. They're buzzing!Sweetly buzzing, a soft, bird-like trill, a chorus of peaceful contentment. They're not stressed at all, and their tranquil droning's like purring.

"What are they?" I whisper, enthralled.

"Luzon tarsiers. From the Philippines. The oldest, smallest known primate in the world."Tuk whispers flatly.

A spasm of disgust hits me when I wonder what the old man planned to do with them.

Tuk continues in his staccato monotone, "Tarsiers are extremely rare, sensitive, shy,nocturnal creatures. A stressed tarsier will commit suicide or will themselves to die."

I gasp and they all turn toward me.

" To die quickly," Tuk continues, "if you hold one in your hands, it will be under such stress that it will grow stiff, and eventually stop breathing."

"That's too horrible for words!" I whisper, and glance at Mig. He's watching with only one thing in mind—whether tarsiers taste better than rabbit.

I lean over and whisper,"Don't even think about it."

He turns with a "Yip,"and trots back down the hall behind us.

"Come on, he wants us to follow." I whisper.

He's heading up a hall behind the stairs we'd come down, up the port side of the ship. I hop-limp behind him in the bloodshot dark with Tuk following silently behind me.

Mig's excited, and sends pictures of Mom at the sink? Huh? And Dad at the kitchen counter cleaning salmon? Dad tosses Mig the tail..... "Here!"Mig is telling me.

The hall ends at a door. Mig's waiting, wagging his tail. Why would he send these pictures? Unless Mom and Dad are here?

"Here?.....Mom and Dad? Really?!!!!!" I exclaim, my heart about to explode. Really???

"Is that what he is telling you?" Tuk asks.

In the dim, red darkness I nod wide-eyed, heart pounding, my stomach a cloud of butterflies.

Mig starts to whine, he wants to go through the door. Turning the handle, the door opens easily – into blinding white light. So bright it hurts. I shield my eyes, squinting down another hall. A bright, white hall, with a door on the left. I turn the handle, and it opens. When I tick my head inside, the overhead light flashes on automatically. Motion sensors.

"A lab?" I mutter,scanning the frigid room filled with gleaming metal tanks, a table with high powered electron microscopes and lightscreen stations. The same kind Dad has in the lab at home. There's a door in the middle of the wall on the right. Probably a closet.

Tuk steps inside, and looks around. "This laboratory is equipped for only one thing...."He declares.

"Yeah?"

"...Cryo-preservation."

Every other tank is labeled NITROGEN with flexible metal hoses that snake out of their tops to squat, shiny tanks next to them. Each smaller tank has a digital keypad with a screen.

"Dad does cryo-preservation in the lab at home."

"With gas cooled to minus 196 Celsius, these tanks can be filled with organelles, cell tissues and extracellular matrix of thousands of creatures....no...let me correct myself...make that...." He pauses,his finger held in the air, as if to say wait a minute, and bobs his head around the room methodically counting. "...Ten tanks, each one holds twenty five hundred vials...."

My jaw drops and exclaim,"That's twenty five thousand endangereds?!"

Tuk approaches the nearest tank, pops open the latch and lifts the lid on hinges. Frozen nitrogen gas, like white, liquid smoke pours out, cascading over the edge.

He bends over, his face practically in the tank, blowing the vapor to clear it. Then dips his hand inside, lifts a vial, and squints to read the fine print. "Black Rhinoceros." He announces in his staccato, expressionless. Puts it back and pulls another. "Javan Rhinoceros." And another."Orangutan." Another. "Sumatran Elephant." And another."Western Lowland Gorilla."

"All Endangereds!"I gasp, wide eyed.

"Critically." He nods,chopping the word into four chunks with his staccato.

Mig whines from the hall,and sends a picture of Mom in the kitchen. She's holding a jar of peanut butter with Mig licking her finger.

"Come on." I tilt my head toward the door, and hop limp into the hall to try the next door. Locked with a keypad of numbers and letters on the wall. And voices? Coming from the other side.

"Mom, Dad, is that you?!" I shout through the crack in the door, and listen. I can't understand what they're saying – if it is them, and turn to Tuk, staring at the key pad.

"It could only be a million billion different combinations." I sigh.

"Or something simple.Something completely obvious. Something we already know." He stomps. "Something about the Yanbu."

"Like what?"

"Like the name White Wolf. That would be 944839653." He says, and rattles off the numbers way too fast for me to remember.

"Maybe." I shrug,spelling out White Wolf, and try the handle, but it's still locked.

"Perhaps it is 2442327.That is Big Bear." He suggests, and stands too close watching at my side.

I input Big Bear, try the handle, still locked.

"I'll try Red Dragon.Say those numbers slowly, please."

"733372466."

I enter the numbers, the keypad turns green, try the handle, and it opens!

"Mom! Dad!" I exclaim,rushing toward them, but they're behind another set of bars. It's agate of thin, white bars from the ceiling to the floor.

"Luki??!" They shout in unison, their eyes wide with surprise.

"What are you doing here?!" Dad asks, shaking his head.

"How did you get here?!" Mom squeals. "And your hair? What happened?" Her mouth droops.

"There's a keypad on the wall, there." Dad points. He doesn't wait for me to answer. "It's just out of our reach."

"Enter 9-2-6-2-8!" Mom says. "We watched that idiot droid enter the numbers the one time he came in to unlock the door to the lab."

"9-2-6-2-8 spells Yanbu." Tuk announces with a stomp.

I enter the numbers, the keypad turns green, the door pops open, and I fall into their arms.Dad hugs me so hard I can barely breathe. Mom hugs me from behind with Mig jumping and yipping at our feet. I can't believe it...Mom and Dad alive!!! Feels so good...like a totally true and wonderful miracle!