Predator Island

by Douglas Cameron

  Finishing his third cup of coffee just before eight, he walked out of the dining room just as his limousine pulled up. He let Symon Scheetz carry his bag to the limousine and open the door. Do all the footman things. Once in the car, he settled back for a nap that would last until the airport.

  PART II

  CONSTRUCTION

  Chapter 1

  The next meeting of the self-named Billionaire Bundle was 7 months, 9 days later in the same spot. Entry was the same although new cards had been issued and the entry times changed by lot – except for one, Ramiro Esteves. This was because of the incidents that had happened the time before. Ramiro Esteves had been handpicked to enter last. Well, actually Siegfried and Issaack had been talking about it where Horus could hear.

  “With all that went on last time,” Issaack had said, “We need one of three things: 1) Esteves doesn’t attend; 2) Esteves comes first with a delay for any attack; 3) Esteves comes last with an hour delay between the last person and him.”

  “How are you going to explain that to him?” Siegfried said. “You know he’s going to be upset.”

  “True but he’ll just have to live with it.”

  “Based on what we know,” Horus said, entering the conversation uninvited, “the probability of another attack is less than 5% or the odds are 19:1.”

  Siegfried and Issaack looked at each other. Both shrugged meaning “Don’t ask me.” And Siegfried mouthed, “I didn’t program that” and Issaack replied, “neither did I.”

  Horus continued, “And here is the arrival schedule with Esteves arriving last which is best.” And the printer spit out two sheets of paper. Siegfried and Issaack both took a copy, looked at it, agreed and that was that. Both noted that Esteves’s arrival was just fifteen minutes after Gloria Mitchell’s, the sixth to arrive.

  By chance (or at least by Horus’s chance), Harvey Gladstone was first to arrive, and he did punctually at 8:00 a.m. Directions were the same as the first time although the new keycard each billionaire received had a notation that “the old one will not work.” He completed the screening process in five minutes and walked through the door into the dining room, which was set up with the round table as before. Stefaan Declercq greeted him with his silver tray bearing a crystal tumbler half filled with ice and then filled three quarters full of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire.

  “Good morning, Mr. Gladstone,” Stefaan said.

  “Good day, Stefaan,” Harvey Gladstone said amenably as he took the crystal tumbler and had a sip. “Is seating as the first time?”

  “Nothing was said, sir,” Stefaan said, which is what he was told to say. “So I suspect you may sit wherever you wish.”

  And where Harvey Gladstone preferred to sit was exactly where he had the first time. In fact, as the rest of the Bundle arrived, each sat precisely where they had the first time. Because the security equipment had been updated and was the best that was available, the arrival times had been pared down to fifteen minutes, so Esteves arrived at the outside door at precisely 9:30 a.m., but this time with no bodyguards. Well, at least none that tried to come in.

  And basically, everyone came dressed as before and was greeted with his or her preferred beverage. Harvey Gladstone was wearing a gray suit with a blue shirt and dark blue tie with Daffy Duck on it (he mentioned he got it at Goodwill). Second in, Phil Parmalee had a plain gold tee shirt, black Dockers with a gold leather belt (big change for him), the buckle of which resembled an open but empty treasure chest with a skull in it (his answer to Dead Man’s Chest rum), and his habitual thongs. Waldo Emerson, the third to appear, was wearing a white button down shirt, robin’s egg blue Dockers and his traditional black top-siders with white socks. A lightweight dark blue sport jacket was folded over his left arm because he had taken it off to make the body search easier. Arriving just before her time was up at 8:49:50 in fourth place, Monica Bartlett was clad in a white leather jacket, crimson skirt and white patent leather knee high boots with a skin tight black top. She looked tired having flown from Lisbon on a private jet after finishing a show at 1:00 a.m. She eschewed the champagne asking for a double English Breakfast Tea – not Earl Grey. Issaack Kinkaid strode in fifth wearing a dark blue Levi jacket and pants with a silver polo shirt showing no identifying logo. Gloria Mitchell had toned down a bit (or brightened up a bit depending on your point of view) wearing a pink short sleeved blouse with a blood red skirt and red cross trainers explaining that her feet had been killing her. The first six were finished with their croissants, Danish, or donuts when Ramiro Esteves, dressed exactly as before, came in, gave the room a once-over as he had the first time and sat down without a word. A quick glance and a nod passed through the other six and in unison, they welcomed him with “Bom dia, João.” He looked at them and went back to his pastry and Havana Club Máximo.

  “Good morning, everyone.” Horus’s voice came through their earbuds which they, except for Ramiro, had all put on when they sat down. As before, Waldo picked up Ramiro’s and handed it to him. In return, he received a noncommittal look, but Ramiro did put it on.

  “We have a lot to talk about today and at least one of you has asked for an early day, so we had better get started.”

  “That’s me,” Monica said. “I have a show in Naples tomorrow.”

  As the meeting began, on a rooftop two blocks away, Gerallt Cearrach was putting away his rifle. Although he had been ready, the bodyguards were too good and had Ramiro Esteves’s back covered from the car to the door where they had handed him off to Hansel and Gretel. It had been a long shot anyway – not the distance but the opportunity.

  Chapter 2

  Horus began, “It’s taken a while and it hasn’t been cheap, but we have the property. We tried to purchase it outright but because it is a territory of Brazil they wouldn’t sell, but they were willing to give a ten-year lease which was approved for fifty million dollars. All infrastructure improvements – roads, buildings, etc. – are to be left. The ten years was more than was to be required, but it was felt prudent to leave some kind of leeway. Of course, the fifty million was just the legal fees. Whenever there are politics and money involved, there will be bribes. Yes, that a nasty word, but that’s business and we were prepared.”

  “We?” Phil mouthed at Ramiro.

  Horus continued, “However, there were some things that happened before the lease was approved.

  “Because we want to build headquarters in the volcano’s crater, we asked permission to do a survey prior to the start of negotiations. That was approved – for a price – and Mr. Kincaid and Mr. Parmalee accompanied by two surveyors, four volcanic experts, and a videographer made a trip by helicopter.”

  The Eurocopter EC145 dubbed Surveyor I for the purpose of this trip entered the one-thousand-foot cone of Montanha da Cratera at 11:19 a.m. (1119 military time) on the agreed upon day and started a counterclockwise tour of the area. In two revolutions they corkscrewed down to two-hundred feet above the crater’s floor. The sides of the crater were relatively smooth and getting down from the rim to the crater floor on foot would require an experienced rock climber or rappelling with a very long rope or making the descent in stages – if any of those were possible. The remains of the vent could be seen in the center of the crater’s floor. From that height, it was obvious that the floor was covered with vegetation. There were even two sizable trees and many small ones.

  “Drop down to about fifty feet and take us around again,” Issaack instructed. He was in charge of this excursion as everything else in the program.

  Raoul Sanchez, the pilot of the rental Eurocopter, followed his order and flew around the crater slowly letting everyone get a good look.

  The members of the Bundle watching the proceedings via digital recording on a large screen television set between the two windows of the hotel’s dining room were enthralled.

  “Looks good and solid,” said Mike McCormick, one of the two volcanic experts.

  “Fairly level,” Virginia Columbine, head of the
surveyor team, said. “You shouldn’t have any trouble with construction.”

  “If we can get a tunnel through the mountain,” Issaack said.

  “It’s not the tunnel that’s the problem,” Phil said. “It’s getting the machinery to the spot.”

  “Looks like a good spot to put down,” Issaack said. “There on the left.”

  The chopper went into a counterclockwise turn and Raoul Sanchez looked at the area Issaack had identified.

  “Looks good to me,” Raoul said. “Let’s put this bird on the ground.”

  As the Eurocopter started dropping down to the crater floor, a small flock of birds took flight from the area that had been designated as the landing area.

  Monica laughed. “Look at those boids scatter.”

  “Looks like we’re not the first bird to set down,” Raoul said.

  The Eurocopter settled peacefully on the crater floor, and Raoul shut the engine off.

  “It’s 1207. Lift off for the trip back is 1700,” Raoul said.

  Everyone hurried to get out of the chopper because each had tasks to perform and wanted as much time as possible. While everyone was gathering whatever equipment they wanted, Phil and Issaack got two freezer chests out.

  “The blue one is water and the green is food,” Issaack said. We’ve got sandwiches: chicken salad, ham salad, veggie subs, turkey subs, salami subs, and roast beef subs. Each is labelled appropriately. There’s also a platter with cheeses, pickles and olives and mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. Help yourselves and don’t leave any trash.”

  Phil looked at Issaack as though to say “Do you think that last was necessary?” and Issaack mouthed “You never know.”

  “Where do you think you’ll put the headquarters?” Virginia Columbine asked Issaack.

  Issaack pointed and said, “Over there. It’s flat enough and should be big enough.”

  “You got it,” Virginia Columbine said, and she and the other surveyor took their equipment and headed for the indicated spot.

  The four volcanic experts had handheld augers with which to drill as deep as twelve feet down and bring back core samples. They broke up into two teams and one team took off for the opposite end of the crater while Mike McCormick and the other team headed for the area where the surveyors were setting up.

  Issaack and Phil each picked up a sandwich from those left, fixed it with cheese and condiments, added a bottle of water and started walking, followed by the videographer.

  “Mine was a veggie sub,” Phil said.

  “Lah di dah,” Gloria said.

  Phil looked at her and shrugged.

  “Be certain to get pictures of each of the teams and what they’re doing,” Issaack said to the videographer, who touched a finger to his cap brim and went to where the closest team of volcanic experts was drilling a hole.

  Chapter 3

  While the team from Surveyor I was doing their business in the volcano, a second Eurocopter C145 dubbed Surveyor II was setting down on a plateau on the south side of Montanha da Cratera. The two helicopters had travelled together from Belém, Brazil. The Bundle team in Surveyor II was headed by Harvey Gladstone and Gloria Mitchell. Harvey Gladstone was dressed in a brown guide shirt with khaki cargo shorts, white athletic socks and hiking boots. Remarkably the hiking boots had been purchased new from a top flight outdoors store. With them were six surveyors, two volcanic experts and a videographer. Their duties were to survey the plateau and the incline leading up to it so that plans could be made for the tunnel through the mountain.

  With the chopper on the ground, everyone alighted, and, except for four of the surveyors and one volcanic expert, the others retrieved their equipment. As with Surveyor I, there were two freezer chests with food and water and everyone got sandwiches and water. The four surveyors and one volcanic expert got back into the chopper and with the ground teams clear, the chopper fired up its engine and took off for a short flight to the bottom of Montanha da Cratera where the four surveyors would determine the best route up to the plateau.

  On the plateau, the volcanic expert start taking core samples and the remaining two surveyors set to work mapping the plateau. When they were finished, they would start working their way down the mountain to meet up with the other team. Harvey Gladstone pulled out a GPS that had a contour map of the island. It said that he was 872 feet above sea level. That matched the GPS map, so he began to have some confidence in that.

  “So what’s the plan with this tunnel?” Gloria Mitchell asked. She had volunteered to be the second Bundle member on Surveyor II.

  “It will link the crater basin with the rest of the island. The crater’s basin has a lot of potential for agriculture once we get water there,” Harvey Gladstone explained.

  “And how do we get water there?”

  “Through the tunnel. We run a pipe through the concrete in the tunnel – it may be possible just to have the hole in the blocks and the seal between blocks will be watertight. That is yet to be investigated.”

  “So the basin is for the future of São Rochelle – beyond our use of it?”

  “As is the entire infrastructure that we construct. It will all be left for Brazil to do whatever they want with it.”

  The two had started walking around the plateau. Gloria had her hands in the pockets of red cargo shorts and was wearing a beige nondescript blouse. On her feet were white cross trainers with tennis shoe socks. As she walked, she was kicking small rocks and watching as they careened off bigger ones which dotted the plateau as they did the rest of the island. Suddenly she raced after a rock she had just kicked. She bent down and picked it up and then screamed, “A snake!”

  Harvey laughed. “I don’t think so.”

  “I do,” Gloria screamed. “It bit me.”

  Gladstone hurried toward her as did one of the surveyors who had heard her scream and the videographer. Gloria was holding her hand out in front of her looking at her wrist. The surveyor looked at her wrist and then said, “¿Donde está la serpiente? (Where is the snake?)”

  Gloria pointed (it was easy to understand “la serpiente”) and both men looked and could see a snake about five feet long moving away. It had two dark stripes running on the length of its back.

  The videographer had been filming the two billionaires and had caught the snake perfectly. Gloria cringed.

  “Cascavel,” said the surveyor. “We must get her to hospital.”

  “Cascavel?” said Harvey Gladstone. “I don’t understand.”

  “Very poisonous.”

  “Well, don’t just stand there, get the helicopter,” Gloria said.

  The surveyor had taken a handkerchief out of his pocket and was tying it around Gloria’s biceps.

  Harvey Gladstone finally snapped out of it and used a walkie talkie to call the chopper pilot. Within seconds the sound of the chopper’s engine was heard roaring to life. Several minutes later, the Eurocopter settled on the plateau and the two billionaires hurried toward it just as the other surveyor came up holding a plastic bag in his hand.

  “What’s that?” Harvey asked.

  “Serpente … fix,” the man stumbled grasping for the proper words in a language he didn’t speak too well.

  “I don’t know how…,” Gladstone began.

  The man opened the zip lock bag, pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Harvey. Harvey looked at it and saw printing but not in English – Spanish, he judged.

  “I don’t read … no entiendo,” he said pointing at the paper.

  “It fix bite,” the other surveyor said as he grabbed the bag, shouted something at his partner, and started to get into the Eurocopter with Gloria.

  “You come?” he said to Harvey Gladstone.

  Harvey was going to say “No” and then thought that he shouldn’t leave Gloria alone at this time and got in the chopper, which lifted off immediately.

  On the television screen, the Eurocopter faded into the distance and then the video stopped.

  “Why it stopz?” Ramiro
asked.

  “The videographer had to get down the mountainside to the other surveyors and didn’t need to film his twenty-minute trek,” Gladstone said as the video came back on and showed two of the surveyors conferring over a map. One of them pointed up the mountain and the other started in that direction.

  In the chopper, Gladstone got on the radio and called Issaack.

  “Gloria got bitten by a snake. We are going to a hospital in Belém. The surveyors said that it’s poisonous. One of the men had a snake bite kit. I have one of the surveyors with me because the instructions are in Spanish and I’m monolingual.”

  “As you can tell, they made it to the hospital in time,” Horus said. “While the surveyor, Luis Garcia, read the instructions, Mr. Gladstone, an admitted haemophobe, did what the instructions said to do. The doctors told him that he may have saved her life or at least prevented some severe damage.

  “The snake was identified as a tropical rattlesnake or scientific name Crotalus Terrificus. Unlike most rattlesnakes, it strikes with little or no warning. The venom is extremely toxic and has haemotoxic and neurotoxic components that can damage tissue and paralyze the central nervous system.”

  “Excuse me, Horus,” interrupted Phil. “How was the identification of the snake made?”

  “The surveyor left behind on the plateau was very familiar with the snake and its habits. In his equipment, he had a machete and, after catching the snake, he cut the head off and put it and the body in a bag.”

  “That man is to be congratulated.”

  “Yes, because the hospital required accurate identification before administering the anti-venom serum and with the body and head, he was able to answer the question. He was fortunate to have a satellite phone provided by his company and his partner gave them the number. I think we should thank Mr. Gladstone for overcoming his fear of blood.”