An Accidental Alliance by Jonathan Edward Feinstein Page B

at night.
          Without a pier to tie up to, loading the boat was a very wet job. “Any chance of getting a small dock here?” Park asked Arn hopefully as he and Iris were about to set off.
          “I think that can be arranged,” Arn agreed. “We’ll need one anyway and compared to everything else we need to do it should be simple.”
          “Thanks,” Park replied. The shook hands and he continued, “So we’ll see you in a few days, I guess, unless this river is shorter than it looks.”
          “We’re hardly at the right end to judge that,” Arn remarked, “Don’t forget to radio back every night if you can.”
          “We will,” Park promised. Then he used an oar to push off from the shore and Iris started up the solar powered engine.
          “This probably all looks familiar to you,” Iris remarked once the people from Van Winkle Base were no longer in sight.
          “Not really,” Park laughed. “This all looks very different from up there. In fact from down here I can’t even see over the south bank.”
          “That won’t be necessary,” Iris reminded him. “The rest of the team can scout over there. We’re on long range reconnaissance.”
          “True enough, do you think the confluence will be difficult to navigate through?” Park asked.
          “We may have some turbulence where the two rivers join,” Iris warned him, “but it didn’t look too bad from what I could see. Neither stream is particularly turbulent. Through the telescope I found, the confluence seemed placid enough. The north branch is also somewhat smaller than this one, and we would have to portage at least once had we launched from there. It probably won’t have a lot of effect on our conditions. What we may find further downstream is another matter.”
          Iris’ predictions were correct and they continued to move southwest for the rest of the day. “I think this is far enough for one day,” Park decided in the middle of the afternoon.
          “Are we beyond where you went on the chopper?” Iris asked.
          “I doubt it,” Park laughed. “Tina and I flew well beyond Arn’s limits.”
          “I know,” Iris replied. “Arn couldn’t read all the indicators, but I knew precisely where you were the whole time.”
          “You didn’t say anything?” Park wondered.
          “I agreed with you, dear,” she smiled. “We need to see as much of the world as soon as we can. Should we set up camp on shore tonight?”
          “Let’s take a look around,” Park decided after making sure the anchor had been set securely. “I wish there was a tree or a rock to tie us up to,” he told her.
          “There are normally a few isolated trees on savannahs, aren’t there?” Iris asked.
          “On the African savannah, sure,” Park replied. “Here? Obviously not. There’s something about this that keeps tickling at my mind, though.”
          “What’s that?” Iris asked. Park was soaked from the waist up, but was gallantly offering her his hand so she could disembark dryly. “Thank you, sir,” she told him with a mock courtesy.
          “An honor, my lady,” Park replied just as facetiously. He had a pair of binoculars around his neck. They were digital with night-vision and infrared capability and he picked them up to look around the landscape. “I think I see some movement in the grass a hundred yards or so that way. I’ll switch to infrared, though with the sun up, that may not be all that useful.” He flipped a switch and grunted.
          “Anything wrong?” Iris asked.
          “No,” he shook his head. “I just forgot to close my eyes before flipping over to IR is all. It takes a moment for the display to filter out the excess light. That’s better. Still not too clear, but I think there’s something rooting about in the grass. Let’s go take a look, shall