A Mekong River Skimmer boat makes way almost silently through a tangle of pilings and stone piles whose retaining cribs had long ago rotted. White birds (gulls) top every piling and stone crib. Hundreds float in the open water. Townspeople have begun to comment on their numbers.

The white birds were the first to be displaced. Our target of course is the gluttonous cormorant but our alpha team being primarily night hunters I’m sure found the white gulls to be easily acquirable targets of opportunity initially. The gulls took some immediate casualties but being both smarter and less niche specific than the cormorants quickly vacated in the face of predatory pressures. They’re probably pissed though. …

The SOS from the front position in the Skimmer boat says: "can you see them Slag? They’re looking at you. They recognize you. They know you’re the one. Can you hear them speak?” He’s the one! He’s the one! they’re saying. We’re off the island! We’re off the island! He’s the one!"

I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable. I’m wishing the SOS would just shut up when suddenly, in unison, the white birds take to screaming:

“Mengele! Mengele!” they shriek. "Mengele! Mengele!"

Absurd I know, but I feel compelled to address them.

“We have no truck with you,” I scream. They fall silent. "Our battle is with the evil Black Ones. We’re sorry for the collateral damage to your kind. Be it known that we battle for your well being as well as our own. The cormorant competes with you. The evil glutton eats twice his weight a day. He feeds on the babies of the food chain and exerts deleterious impacts both up and down. You are scavengers who scour the food chain. You depend on the dead, the dying, the infirm. The cormorant challenges your livelihood. Do you wish to be relegated to the dumps and landfills where you’ll ingest lead, mercury, cadmium? Your eggs will soften. Your young will not flourish. Your kind will wither! All due to the hooked beaked Black Ones. We fight for diversity, for rich genetic variability. We fight for your survival!”

“Mengele! Mengele!” they all scream.

“Fuck you….fuck you then,” I respond. "You’ll be thanking us in the end!”