Juan leaned in and almost whispered. “I said I think we have a problem.”
“What are you talking about?”
He looked up and scanned the room, wondering if he would be able to spot a bug, even if there was one. “Listen. Did you notice anything while Dulce was talking to Dexter outside?”
“Like what?”
“When you were talking to Dulce, I heard something. When I looked up, one of Alves’ men had opened a window and aimed a video camera right at us.”
“They were recording us?” she asked.
“I think they only caught the last bit, but yes, they were recording.”
“That’s a little weird. We could just give them a copy of the translations.”
Juan nodded, still using a low voice. “That’s what I was thinking. And there’s something else. I know you may still be a little groggy, but do you remember the last thing Dulce translated before you fainted?”
DeeAnn thought a moment. “Teacher die?”
“No,” Juan shook his head. “She said something else right after that. She said, Friend die teacher.”
DeeAnn’s eyes narrowed as she thought about it. “Friend die teacher?”
Juan nodded but said nothing.
After thinking, DeeAnn looked at him curiously. “Redundant translation?”
“Maybe. Maybe it was a redundant reference or maybe it was one of those system errors beginning to cause problems. But if it was, the timing would be extremely coincidental.”
DeeAnn propped herself up on her elbows. “Well, you know the system better than I do. What are you saying?”
Juan turned and looked cautiously at the door. “The IMIS software catches most redundant translations. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty effective.”
DeeAnn’s eyes narrowed further. “Spill it, Juan. What are you getting at?”
He bit his lip, thinking. Finally, he leaned forward again. “I don’t think it was redundant. I think the word ‘friend’ may have been a reference to a third person.”
DeeAnn gave him a contemplative stare. Suddenly she bolted up. “Oh my god, friend die teacher. You think it was a reference to who killed Luke!”
“Shh!” Juan held up both hands. “Look, I don’t know. I don’t know what exactly was happening between Dulce and Dexter, but considering how accurate our other translations from Dulce have been, I think it’s very possible.”
“Oh, my god!” DeeAnn repeated, with both hands over her mouth. “Do you think ‘die’ means kill?”
“It’s a possibility. But Dee, we don’t know this for sure.”
DeeAnn dropped her hands. “With what you know of IMIS, how much of a possibility are we talking about?”
“Well,” Juan replied, glancing at the door again. “A few minutes ago, I would have said something like forty percent. But…”
“But what?”
With one hand, Juan reached down past the side of her bed and came back up holding his cell phone. He unlocked the screen and turned it toward her. “Remember when Alves told us he had a cellular repeater on site here? The one we’ve been using for calls? Well, after you fainted, my cellular signal disappeared.”
38
A mild southwesterly produced a morning chop over the deep blue waters of the Caribbean; though for the open ocean, it was still considered relatively calm. The swaying of the boat over the small rolling waves had increased, making it slightly more difficult for Alison to keep her balance. Chris and Lee loaded her up with the diving equipment again. Behind her, a soft sunrise shone through a veil of light clouds on the horizon.
It was already nearly eighty degrees when Chris opened the valve and Alison tested the airflow once more, giving another thumbs-up.
Lee stood in front of her. “Okay, so remember, you’re only going to hear Dirk and Sally this time. It’s the only way not to overwhelm the system.”
Alison pulled the mask from her face. “Got it.”
After a few test translations, followed by the addition of her weight belt, Chris helped Alison back to the stern. Dozens of dolphins were waiting for her again with their heads up out of the water. One by one, they bobbed higher as the small waves brushed past them. Alison smiled when she spotted Dirk and Sally in the middle of the group.
Her jump this time was more controlled and her splash smaller. She immediately spun around to signal Chris. After a short pause, she reached down to let some air out of her BCD and slipped below the surface, descending in slow motion through the emerald water.
The dolphins wasted no time circling her, all still trying to speak, but this time she felt a sense of calm as Dirk and Sally approached.
“Dirk, Sally, the metal is broken. I can only talk to you.”
She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Dolphins didn’t exactly nod. Instead, they just watched her and replied. You talk us only.
“Yes.”
Okay.
Dozens of dolphins continued to swarm around her excitedly.
We all happy you here. We like talk.
Alison smiled from inside the glass facemask. “So am I, Dirk. So am I.” She watched as he shot past and stopped behind her. He came in closer to examine her tanks.
Metal no broken.
She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, it’s broken.” The familiar buzz sounded in her ear, signaling a bad translation.
Alison watched Sally turn slightly and speak, most of which generated only more buzzing, courtesy of IMIS. Out of the string, there were only two words translated correctly: she here.
She waited in anticipation as Dirk came out from behind her. The field of swirling dolphins began to quickly thin until only a few were left, yet even they distanced themselves. From a distance, Alison could see three faint shapes approaching. All three swam in a tight group. They moved steadily until they slowed next to Dirk and Sally.
The three looked noticeably larger than the others but not by much. Instead, with their size and slow movements, they struck Alison as older.
Sally turned and drifted closer to Alison. Here our heads.
Alison stared at her with a puzzled expression. “Your head?” What does that mean…what heads? She pondered Sally’s comment for a moment and shrugged beneath her vest. “I don’t understand.”
Sally blinked, continuing to drift in. Our heads. Old.
“Your heads are old? I don’t…” Alison stopped in midsentence. “Wait,” her eyes lit up, “you mean your elders?!”
Yes. Old heads.
“Old heads,” Alison repeated, inside her mask. She looked back at the three older dolphins who seemed to be studying her. One of them appeared to speak, but Alison couldn’t hear it. She could only hear what Sally repeated to her.
How you speak.
“I speak with a metal,”
After Sally had repeated Alison’s reply, the elder spoke again. How many humans talk.
Alison smiled, feeling a surge of excitement. “Just me now. But soon, many will talk!” She considered explaining what “soon” meant but left it alone. She knew the IMIS system was wildly complex, not to mention expensive. It would take time. Years maybe. But one day it would come. One day everyone would be able to do it.
Another elder spoke to Sally, who repeated again to Alison. How old you.
She chuckled, creating a small patch of fog inside her mask. Clearly dolphins didn’t have the same hang ups with age that humans did. She briefly wondered if they had any hang-ups at all.
“I’m thirty-four.”
Finally, the third dolphin spoke through Sally. We happy talk again. Before Alison could reply the elder added, You come journey.
Alison gave a brief shake of her head. “What?”
We journey. You come.
“Journey? You’re going on a journey?”
Yes. You come. We go to beautiful.
Alison stared at them, surprised. “Isn’t this your home?”
We go --- home now. --- Beautiful --- ---.
Alison’s earpiec
e buzzed again with more unrecognized words. She reached down and found the glowing button on her vest that muted the speaker. “Lee, are you getting this?”
Lee’s voice was clear and crisp. “We sure are.”
“Who’s there with you?”
Lee glanced up at Chris and Kelly. “We’re all here, Ali.”
“They’re leaving,” Alison said, looking at the dolphins.
“It sure seems that way,” he replied.
Alison was afraid to ask the obvious question. They were, after all, out in the middle of the ocean and farther from land than any of them thought they ought to be. She swallowed silently. “What do you guys think we should do?”
Lee looked at Chris, who then looked at Kelly. With a smile, Lee leaned in close to the microphone. “Didn’t we hear an invitation in there?”
Alison was relieved to find the rest of the team was as excited as she was. After some assurance from the elders that their journey destination was close, Kelly was confident the boat would be fine. They had more than enough fuel and food.
Several hours of motoring later, Alison was woken by Chris shaking her vigorously. She had managed to catch up on some sleep, but when she blinked up at him, he had an urgent look on his face.
“Ali! Ali! You’ve got to get up!”
Her eyes darted around the small cabin in a panic. “What’s wrong?! Is something wrong with the boat?!”
Chris simply grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him. “Just get up! You need to see something!”
Alison shook the cobwebs from her mind and slid out of the bed, onto the cool wooden floorboards. Still being pulled by Chris, she stumbled up the stairs behind him and into the salon. Lee’s laptop sat abandoned on the round table.
Chris yanked on her hand again, pulling her outside into the wide cockpit, where both Lee and Kelly were staring out across the water.
Alison blinked again and this time when her eyes cleared, she gasped. “Oh my god!” She turned and looked past the stern, then over to port. “OH MY GOD!”
She finished a three hundred and sixty degree scan before turning back to Chris and the others. She was speechless.
Together, they all stared incredulously. That morning, during Alison’s second dive, they had seen more dolphins than ever before. Hundreds of them.
But that paled in comparison to what they were seeing now. They were now surrounded by thousands of dolphins. No, tens of thousands! As far as they could see in any direction were the familiar gray shapes and dorsal fins rising rhythmically up and out of the water, everywhere!
Alison stepped forward, completely bewildered. “My god,” she whispered to the others. “This isn’t a journey. This is a pilgrimage!”
39
DeeAnn peered over Juan’s shoulder at his laptop screen, watching as he typed. He tried again and waited. Finally, he shook his head and leaned back in the chair.
“Still nothing. It’s dead.”
DeeAnn remained bent over. “Maybe it’s a fluke,” she whispered. “I mean internet lines go down, right?”
“Not like this,” he said. “I can’t even ping the router. Which means either a failure inside the building itself…”
“Or?”
Juan shrugged. “Or we’ve been cut off.” He checked his phone again. “And we still have no cell signal.”
“Couldn’t they both be down at the same time?”
He nodded. “Yes, but these are two different signal types. They could certainly both be plugged into the same bad power circuit but that would be the worst example of putting everything in one basket.” He spun around, still keeping his voice low. “And Alves doesn’t strike me as a person who cuts a lot of corners.”
“Maybe the power’s just out,” DeeAnn offered. She turned to the small lamp on the table, then reached under the shade and rolled the switch. It lit up immediately. “Okay, maybe not.”
In another room, Alves and Blanco watched them from the high-definition feed of a hidden camera. Both DeeAnn and Juan could be seen near the top of the picture, hunched over the desk in Juan’s small room. It was difficult to see his computer screen, but their whispering was easily picked up by the camera’s microphone.
“Why don’t we just ask them?”
Juan could be seen looking at her sarcastically. “Because then they would know that we know.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“I think the sooner we get out of here, the better. I have a feeling that this is all related to that monkey. They sure wanted to find him awfully bad.”
DeeAnn nodded, almost reluctantly, before adding, “To find Luke.”
“At least that’s what they said.” Juan leaned in closer to her, pressing his hands together thoughtfully. “Let me ask you a question,” he whispered. “First, let me say that I’m really sorry about your friend, Dee. I really am. But…do you really think he’s already…you know?”
“Gone?”
“Right.” Juan watched DeeAnn’s composure deflate.
“I think so.”
He waited a moment before continuing. “Well, if it’s true, what if Alves already knew that?”
DeeAnn’s eyes immediately grew wider. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been thinking more about Dulce’s last translation from Dexter.”
She paused, trying to recall it. “Friend die teacher?”
Juan nodded silently then leveled his gaze. “If that little monkey is right, who do you think the ’friend’ is?”
The two sat silently, staring at each other.
There was a loud knock at the door. They both jumped and spun around. DeeAnn and Juan nervously watched the door but said nothing. A few moments later, there was a second knock.
“What do we do?” she whispered.
“I don’t know!”
They remained frozen, making no sound. Finally, they could hear the back and forth movement of the doorknob as it was turned from side to side. Juan had locked it. He shot to his feet and cleared his voice.
“Yes. Who is it?”
The reply was muffled through the thick door. “It’s Mateus. Is Ms. Draper still with you?”
There was no point in lying. “Yes. Yes, she is.”
“May I come in? I’d like to talk to you.”
He frowned worriedly at DeeAnn but moved hesitantly toward the door. He reached out and unlocked the knob, then turned it and pulled the door open. On the other side stood Alves in the doorway. Behind him was Blanco, towering above his boss and wearing his usual stone-cold expression.
“May I come in?” Alves asked.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Juan stepped to the side, feigning a welcoming gesture.
Both men immediately entered the room. Alves smiled at DeeAnn, who stood near the window. She grinned and nervously tucked a strand of hair behind one ear.
“Ah, hello, Ms. Draper. How are you feeling?”
“Good. Fine.”
“I’m very relieved. We were quite worried about you.”
As Alves crossed the room, something about him seemed different. She wasn’t sure whether something had changed or if it was her own nervousness.
“I’m fine, really. Thank you. I just needed some rest. It’s been a hectic few days.”
“It has indeed,” agreed Alves. “I’m sorry we’ve been so pressed.” His smile was still on his face as he scanned the room. He gazed at Juan’s open laptop and frowned. “Still working hard, I see.” He turned back to Juan. “But not too hard, I hope.”
Juan shrugged. “Oh, you know, just going through the logs again.”
Alves nodded. “Of course. Have you found anything interesting?”
“Not really,” Juan lied. “Just standard system stuff.”
Alves grinned and stepped closer to the laptop. He bent forward slightly, squinting to see the screen. “Just finishing up, I guess.” He turned back around. “It’s been quite a day, yes? I must say, it never occurred to me that Dexter was still here.”
/> DeeAnn shrugged. “They are unpredictable.”
“Indeed. I’ve been eager to hear what you found out this morning. Was the communication with Dulce successful?”
DeeAnn looked at Juan before turning back to Alves, trying not to appear nervous. It felt like she was failing, miserably. “Not much yet, I’m afraid. Mostly trying to establish some common words and trust. I’m afraid it’s going to take a while, but it looks promising.” DeeAnn felt a streak of panic rush through her. She suddenly remembered what Juan told her: that they had set up a video camera to record them. If true, it meant they undoubtedly would have heard Dulce’s words through the speaker on DeeAnn’s vest. But if Alves knew she was lying, he didn’t let it show.
“Well, at least it’s a big step,” he said. “I hope we can make progress quickly. For Luke’s sake.”
DeeAnn, who had found herself nodding while Alves spoke, abruptly stopped. His last line about Luke had an unmistakable tone. It sounded like an insinuation. DeeAnn’s nervousness came flooding back. Did Alves know about Luke after all? If he did, it meant he had been playing them all along. She looked Alves over again and realized what it was that had changed.
“Where is your cane?” she asked.
There was a flash of genuine surprise as Alves looked down out of reflex. He stopped and, with a smile, raised his head again. “Very perceptive of you, Ms. Draper.”
If DeeAnn’s face showed a moment of faint smugness, it instantly disappeared when something in Alves’ voice changed. His Portuguese accent was heavier.
Juan looked up at Blanco who, with arms folded, remained steadfast in front of the door.
Alves stood, thinking, and absently scratched above his eyebrow. Finally, he grinned. There was no more point to the facade.
“So, here we are,” he finally conceded. “Planning an escape are we?”
DeeAnn checked Juan’s reaction, then put her hands on her hips and glared at Alves. “Where is Luke?”
He breathed in and let it out slowly. “Well, I’m afraid Luke Greenwood…was just a tad too difficult.”
DeeAnn felt a jolt to her heart. Her eyes began to well up at the emotional confirmation that Luke was dead. She knew now it was true. Yet she could still feel part of herself struggling to find another possibility. She felt a tear roll down her check but maintained her stance. “You killed him?”
Leap - 02 Page 18
