“When did that happen?”
“About a year and a half ago. The last I’d heard, he was working with someone in South America. On a preserve.”
Alison opened her eyes wide. “I had no idea.”
“How could you?” DeeAnn shrugged, then thought about something. “Unfortunately there’s one more thing. Dulce calls me mommy for obvious reasons. But if she considers me her mother, then Luke would undoubtedly be considered her father.”
“I’m terribly sorry, Ms. Draper. My intention was not to cause distress. I should have been more delicate about the news over Mr. Greenwood. Please accept my apology.”
DeeAnn forced a polite smile. “It’s all right. I’ve never been one for tip-toeing.” Her eyes were dry but still red. She and Alison had returned to the office and now sat facing Alves and his assistant. “I assume there is more to your visit.”
Alves nodded gratefully. “Indeed. Perhaps it might help if you could tell me the last time you saw Luke.”
“About a year and a half ago.”
Alves thought for a moment. “Right. I met him shortly after that. Shortly after he arrived in South America. He approached my organization in an effort to raise funds. I almost dismissed him at first, but then I realized exactly why he was there; to rescue animals which had been captured and were being sold for medical testing.”
DeeAnn smirked. “Medical testing is too kind a term.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Alves nodded. “I’m afraid South America has a dark side to our beautiful jungle landscape. It’s very easy to hide things you don’t want seen. And like other economically strapped countries, ours is also subject to a great many humanitarian abuses. Which is why Luke wanted to go straight to the source.”
DeeAnn turned to Alison, “Poaching.”
“Correct. The animals trapped in test labs first need to be captured. Luke called them ‘torture labs,' and while South America does not have many of these facilities, we do have a large number of poachers who are happy to provide the supply, unfortunately. Men travel deep into our jungles and capture a variety of different animals to sell cheaply on the black market. And with Brazil being the largest country in this region, we have the disgrace of carrying out more of these crimes than anyone else.” He turned to his assistant who shamefully dropped her head. She obviously understood enough English to know what Alves was referring to.
“So, Luke went after the poachers.”
“More or less, yes. But he didn’t go alone. You see, when Luke came to us and explained what he needed the money for, it became obvious that we had a rather symbiotic relationship. He wanted to save wild animals, and I wanted to keep them within the safety of my preserve. It seemed an ideal solution.” Alves shrugged subtly. “So he joined my employ.”
“And you funded his raids?”
“Well, the word ‘raid’ may be a tad extreme, but yes, I funded him. I also provided him with protection: a team from my own security service accompanied him and helped plan the rescues. And I dare say we were rather successful. Over the course of ten months, we freed hundreds of captured animals that were being prepared for shipment. Many of those animals joined my preserve, where they currently live a safe and happy life in the wild.”
DeeAnn frowned. “So, what happened?”
Alves leaned back in his chair. “Dexter happened.”
DeeAnn and Alison raised their eyebrows and spoke almost in unison. “Dexter?”
Alves’ lips broke into a smile. “Dexter was one of our rescues. He’s a capuchin monkey, rescued in our last mission.” His face became serious again. “That mission was the deepest into the Amazon rainforest to date. What they found was a big operation and a rescue that was, well, quite surprising.”
Both women were listening intently as he leaned forward, obviously getting more excited. “Luke and his team always went in at night. It was much easier. Normally, they would observe the camp for several days first to assess the situation.”
“However, on this trip, they saw something rather extraordinary. These particular poachers had rounded up hundreds of capuchin monkeys and were preparing to truck them back down to the coast, where they would meet a cargo ship and make the transfer. The capuchins would not be caged until loaded onto the ship since the space requirements were far too prohibitive for using individual cages in the mountains. Instead, they were gathered and kept in giant nets.
“You can imagine some of the problems involved in keeping them in these large nets. And it was while Luke was observing the camp that he spotted Dexter.”
“Spotted him in a net?” Alison asked.
“Not exactly.” Alves now smiled, almost humorously. “Dexter hadn’t been captured. At least not yet. He was outside the net, which was bound by a strong rope.” Alves paused for effect. “You see, Dexter was trying to free the other monkeys. More specifically, he was trying to untie the knot in the rope.”
Both women’s eyes suddenly shot open. “What?” DeeAnn gasped. “He was trying to untie the knot?!”
Alves was smiling wider now and nodded. “That’s right. But that’s not the best part.” He leaned forward even more. “Dexter was not only trying to untie the knot, but he almost did it! One of the poachers spotted him and netted him, but he didn’t realize what Dexter was trying to do. When Luke told me the story, he said that when he examined the net himself, Dexter had managed to get most of it undone!”
DeeAnn was speechless. The story had not been wasted on Alison either. She was no expert on primates, but even she knew how incredible that was. The look on DeeAnn’s face confirmed it.
Alves gave DeeAnn a knowing look. “From what I understand, Luke Greenwood had a very similar reaction.”
She just stared at him, shaking her head silently in utter disbelief. Finally, she put her hand against her cheek. “Luke told you that story?”
“Nearly word for word.”
“That’s…amazing. And in the wild. My God.”
“Luke was equally shocked,” said Alves. “But he was also excited. In fact, he was so enthralled that he stopped his missions and began working with Dexter. He knew what you were doing with Koko and then here with Ms. Shaw. He was planning to contact you. I’m surprised he hadn’t already.”
“He never did.” DeeAnn’s excitement quickly faded to disappointment.
Alves noticed Alison staring at him with a raised eyebrow and turned back to her.
“I’m afraid you still haven’t told us what you need help with,” Alison reminded him.
He looked at her, impressed. “You’re both very sharp. The reason I’m here is that while I understand that he did not have Ms. Draper’s experience, Luke was able to make quite a bit of progress communicating with Dexter. I believe this was why he was following your work here with such interest.” The pleasantness in Alves’ face seemed to fall away and was replaced with grief. “But, eventually came the attack on our complex.”
“And the animals were killed.”
“Yes. And Luke disappeared.” Alves sat up straight. “But there may be a silver lining. We believe Dexter survived and escaped back out into the preserve. I’ve come to get your help in finding him.”
17
“Excuse me?”
“Ms. Shaw, I know this may sound a bit presumptuous, but I’d like you to help us find Dexter.” Alves’ expression was serious. “We still don’t know who attacked us, or where Luke might be. Even though we haven’t received any communication, we are still hopeful. But more than that, I believe Dexter saw what happened that night, and he may just be smart enough to give us vital information about it. How many were involved? What they were wearing? If we can just get an idea of who did it, I promise you, I will spare no expense tracking them down and finding Luke.”
“I don’t-” Alison started, then turned to DeeAnn, who remained silently thinking.
Finally, DeeAnn looked back at him curiously. “This isn’t just about finding the monkey. This is about talking to him.�
�
Alves nodded. “That’s correct.”
“Is that even possible?” Alison asked.
DeeAnn rubbed her finger softly against her lip. “It’s feasible…maybe.”
“I thought IMIS was programmed specifically for gorillas. Is this monkey similar to a gorilla?”
“No,” DeeAnn answered. “Not even close.”
“Could IMIS talk to it?”
DeeAnn shook her head. “Doubtful. But…”
“But what?”
“But there’s another possibility. Dulce may be able to talk to a capuchin.”
“Are you kidding?”
“No.” She paused to think again before continuing. “I’m not sure, but I think it’s possible. When I worked with Koko at the Gorilla Foundation, there was a researcher by the name of Joanne Tanner. She was brilliant and had worked there for years.” DeeAnn’s speech began to speed up, with a trace of excitement. “She spent ten years filming gorillas at the San Francisco Zoo and discovered something startling. The gorillas there had never been taught to sign like Koko, but she found that they used gestures. She documented almost thirty common, instinctive gestures used by the gorillas. It was a major discovery in primate studies, demonstrating what some of us had already suspected. There is a lot more to their communication than we know. More importantly, she found those common gestures spanned multiple species. And I believe one of them was capuchin monkeys.”
“You mean like some kind of sign language?”
“Yes, exactly. And with Dulce and this Dexter monkey both being highly intelligent, it’s conceivable that they could actually speak to one another. I don’t know how likely it is, but it’s certainly possible. Joanne was sure there were many more gestures yet to be identified.”
Alves was smiling broadly, excited at DeeAnn’s explanation.
“But transporting a gorilla is a production,” she continued, thinking about the logistics. “It would have to be as fast as possible so she didn’t become too anxious or nervous. She would also need to be in a cage, just in case. Dulce is young, but she’s still strong. Too strong for us if she became frightened. It would definitely have to be by plane.”
“I can provide whatever you need.”
“Whoa, hold on!” Alison interrupted, holding up a hand. She looked at their visitors. “Would you mind if we excused ourselves for a minute?”
“Of course,” Alves replied.
With that, Alison stood up and motioned for DeeAnn to follow her. They crossed the room and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway. After it clicked shut, Alison wasted no time.
“Okay, hold up. What exactly are we thinking here?”
“A trip,” answered DeeAnn.
“A trip,” repeated Alison. “Just like that?”
DeeAnn folded her arms. “I don’t think we have much choice, Ali. Or time.”
“Okay,” Alison said calmly. “I know you’re worried about Luke. I understand that. But we just met this man. We know nothing about him.”
“That’s true, although we should be able to check him out pretty easily. I mean, the man sounds like some kind of billionaire mogul. I doubt we’d have much difficulty finding out.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s assume everything he says is true. We’d be heading off into the jungle in some unknown country-”
“You mean I would be.”
“Wait, what? Alison looked confused.
“I would be heading off into the jungle.”
“You would be? What about me?”
“Because you, Alison, have a very big day tomorrow. You can’t miss this.”
“Are you kidding?” Alison raised her voice. “You think I’m going to just ship off while you and Dulce get on a plane bound for God knows where?”
“Yes,” replied DeeAnn, with her face forming a determined look. “Because everything is ready now. Including Dirk and Sally.”
Alison froze with her mouth open, working on her rebuttal. But she had none.
“Listen, Ali. I don’t want to argue. Do I think this is a brilliant idea? No. But we also don’t have a lot of time. If there is any chance Luke is still alive and we can help find him, then I have to try.” Her dark eyes softened. “He would do it for me.”
Alison glanced at her, then off to the side, finally closing her mouth. She sighed in resignation. “Okay. What are the risks?”
DeeAnn thought about the question. “Something happens to me…or Dulce.”
“Exactly!”
“I see what you’re doing. Could something happen to me or Dulce? Yes. It’s a possibility, but probably not a very likely one. Listen, Ali, something has already happened to Luke. We’d be talking about a low probability against one that’s already occurred. It’s not a terribly hard decision.”
“Dee, there’s a lot more involved than that and you know it.”
“I do, but when it’s all boiled down, it still comes down to whether we try to help. And I think we both know each other well enough to know what that answer is.”
Alison stared at her in silence. Her head began to shake back and forth. DeeAnn was right. As long as Alves and his security team checked out, it wasn’t a huge risk. It was really more about the logistics. And it was not as though they wouldn’t be coming back. “Well, I don’t like the idea of both of us being gone at the same time. It doesn’t seem smart.”
“We can stay in touch by phone. You have the satellite phone on the boat.”
Alison sighed again and covered her face with her right hand. Something about this didn’t feel quite right. It was too rushed. In reality, they still knew very little. The only reason to throw things together so haphazardly was because they didn’t know whether Luke was alive and, if so, for how much longer.
“Assuming Alves can provide what’s needed,” DeeAnn said, “there’s really only one thing left.”
They looked at each other and then both slowly turned around. The one thing was an awfully big ‘if.'
18
“You want us to make another vest?!” Lee Kenwood was leaning over his metal workbench. Juan Diaz was on the opposite side, disconnecting wires.
Both Alison and DeeAnn stood at the end of the workbench, watching them. “Is it possible?”
Lee stopped and looked at them. “You mean when we get back from the open water testing?”
Alison glanced nervously at DeeAnn. “No, before we leave.”
Both Lee and Juan stopped what they were doing. “Before we leave?”
Alison eked out a small grin. “Possible?”
The two engineers turned their gazes back to each other, considering. Juan shrugged first. “There’s always V2.”
Lee took a deep breath, still thinking.
“What’s V2? DeeAnn asked.
Reluctantly, Lee replied. “It’s the backup.”
“The backup what?”
“The backup waterproof vest.”
Both women’s eyes opened wide. “We have a second vest?”
“Well, ‘second’ might be a stretch. It’s a second unit primarily for spare parts. We were planning to take it with us on the boat.”
“Does it work?”
Again, Lee and Juan exchanged looks. “It could work. But I’m not sure how quickly. We’d have to do a data dump and then go through testing, which takes longer than anything else. More importantly, the translations would be very slow without a separate server. The processor in the vest is small which is why we offload the bulk of the work to other servers. When are you and Dulce supposed to leave?”
“How about tomorrow?”
Lee rolled his eyes. “I don’t think we can make that. The data dump would take almost that long, leaving us virtually no time to test. Could you leave on Saturday?”
DeeAnn frowned. “I have a friend in trouble.”
“And you need an IMIS system to help?”
“Yes. And Dulce too.”
Lee was still pondering when Juan spoke. “We could probably put it together in time
, but with only minimal testing. If it didn’t work, it would be a wasted trip. It also means we have no backup or spare if we have problems during the open water test. And speaking from a technical standpoint, having no backup is a really bad idea.”
“Have you had any problems so far with the first vest?” Alison asked.
“Not yet.”
“Well, that sounds encouraging.”
“We’re still in a controlled environment. Sending the second vest off without thorough testing, especially if you need it so badly, scares the hell out of me.”
“Well,” DeeAnn interjected, with her hand resting over her mouth. “Maybe we can test on the way.” They all turned and looked at DeeAnn, who smiled at Juan. “Ever been to South America, Juan?”
Juan returned the smile. “I can be packed in ten minutes.”
DeeAnn looked at Alison playfully. “I hate that about men.”
“Hold on,” Lee said. With a sigh, he ran his hand over his face. “There’s something else.” Lee circled the other end of the workbench and headed for his computer. “Something I need to show you both.”
He fell into his black chair and rolled forward, placing his hands on an extra wide keyboard. “We have another problem.” He opened a window that filled the entire screen, displaying another frame of video footage. The long list of system log entries appeared alongside of the video. The frequency of red colored errors in the log was increasing. “I’ve been trying to track it down, but I can’t seem to find it.”
“Track what down?”
“This.” He pointed to the list of errors on the screen. “This is the main system log for IMIS’ translation process. This is where identification and translation happens. And these red entries are indicating problems.”
Alison leaned in closer, staring at the text. “What kind of problems?”
“Problems with the translations…as in mistakes.”
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