“Let’s do it,” Candace said.
“Oh, no!” Kevin groaned. “I’m outnumbered.”
“We’ll take you home,” Melanie said. “No problem.” She started to put the car in reverse.
Kevin reached out and stayed her hand. “How do you propose to get the keys? You don’t even know where they’d be.”
“I think it’s pretty clear they’d be in Bertram’s office,” Melanie said. “He’s the one in charge of logistics for the bonobo program. Hell, you’re the one who suggested he had them.”
“Okay, they’re in Bertram’s office,” Kevin said. “But what about security? Offices are locked.”
Melanie reached into the breast pocket of her animal-center coveralls and pulled out a magnetic card. “You’re forgetting that I’m part of the animal-center hierarchy. This is a master card, and not the kind that competes with VISA. This thing gets me in every door of the animal center twenty-four hours a day. Remember, my work with the bonobo project is only a part of the fertility work I do.”
Kevin looked over the back of his seat at Candace. Her blond hair was luminous in the half light of the car interior. “If you’re game, Candace, I guess I’m game,” he said.
“Let’s go!” Candace said.
Melanie accelerated and turned north beyond the motor pool. The motor pool was in full operation, with huge mercury-vapor lamps illuminating the entire staging area. The motor pool’s night shift was larger than either the day or evening shifts since that’s when truck traffic between the Zone and Bata was at its peak.
Melanie zipped past a number of tractor trailers until the turnoff to Bata fell behind. From that point, all the way to the animal center, they didn’t see another vehicle.
The animal center worked three shifts just like the motor pool did, although in the animal center the night shift was the smallest. The majority of the night staff worked in the veterinary hospital. Melanie took advantage of this fact by pulling Kevin’s Toyota up to one of the animal-hospital doors. There the car had lots of company.
Melanie turned off the ignition and gazed at the animal-center entrance that led directly into the veterinary hospital. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel.
“Well?” Kevin said. “We’re here, what’s the plan?”
“I’m thinking,” Melanie said. “I can’t decide what’s best: whether you guys wait here or come with me.”
“This place is huge,” Candace said. She’d leaned forward and was gazing at the building in front of them. It ran from the street all the way back to where it disappeared into the jungle foliage. “For as many times as I’ve been to Cogo, I’ve never been out here at the animal center. I didn’t have any idea it was so large. Is this part we’re facing the hospital?”
“Yup,” Melanie said. “This whole wing.”
“I’d be interested to see it,” Candace said. “I’ve never been in a veterinary hospital let alone one that’s so palatial.”
“It’s state-of-the-art,” Melanie said. “You should see the ORs.”
“Oh my God,” Kevin sighed. He rolled his eyes. “I’ve been ensnared by the insane. We’ve just had the most harrowing experience in our lives, and you’re talking about taking a tour.”
“It’s not going to be a tour,” Melanie said as she alighted from the car. “Come on, Candace. I’m sure I can use your help. Kevin, you can wait here if you’d like.”
“Fine by me,” Kevin said. But it only took him a few moments of watching the women trudge toward the entrance before he, too, climbed out of the car. He decided that the anxiety of waiting would be worse than the stress of going.
“Wait up,” Kevin called out. He had to run a few steps until he’d caught up with the others.
“I don’t want to hear any complaining,” Melanie told Kevin.
“Don’t worry,” Kevin said. He felt like a teenager being chastised by his mother.
“I don’t anticipate any problems,” Melanie said. “Bertram Edwards’s office is in the administration part of the building, which at this time will be deserted. But just to be sure we don’t arouse any suspicion, once we’re inside, we’ll head down to the locker room. I want you guys in animal center coveralls. Okay? I mean it’s not really the time anyone would expect to encounter visitors.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Candace said.
“All right,” Bertram said into the phone. His eye caught the luminous dial of his bedside clock. It was quarter past midnight. “I’ll meet you at your office in five minutes.”
Bertram swung his legs over the edge of the bed and parted the mosquito netting.
“Trouble?” Trish, his wife, asked. She’d pushed herself up on one elbow.
“Just a nuisance,” Bertram said. “Go back to sleep! I’ll be back in a half hour or so.”
Bertram closed the door to the bedroom before turning on the dressing-room light. He dressed quickly. Although he’d downplayed the situation to Trish, Bertram was anxious. He had no idea what was going on, but it had to be trouble. Siegfried had never called him in the middle of the night with a request to come to his office.
Outside, it was as bright as daytime with a nearly full moon having risen in the east. The sky was filled with silvery-purple cumulus clouds. The night air was heavy and humid and perfectly still. The sounds of the jungle were an almost constant cacophony of buzzes, chirps, and squawks interrupted with occasional short screams. It was a noise Bertram had grown accustomed to over the years, and it didn’t even register in his mind.
Despite the distance to the town hall being only a few hundred yards, Bertram drove. He knew it would be faster, and every minute that passed raised his curiosity. As he pulled into the parking lot, he could see that the usually lethargic soldiers were strangely agitated, moving around the army post, clutching their rifles. They eyed him nervously as he turned off his headlights and alighted from the car.
Approaching the building on foot, Bertram could see meager light flickering through the slats of the shutters covering Siegfried’s second-floor office windows. He went up the stairs, passed through the dark reception area normally occupied by Aurielo, and entered Siegfried’s office.
Siegfried was sitting at his desk with his feet propped up on the corner. In the hand of his good arm he held and was gently swirling a brandy snifter. Cameron McIvers, head of security, was sitting in a rattan chair with a similar glass. The only illumination in the room was coming from the candle in the skull. The low level of shimmering light cast dark shadows and gave a lifelike quality to the menagerie of stuffed animals.
“Thanks for coming out at such an ungodly hour,” Siegfried said with his usual German accent. “How about a splash of brandy?”
“Do I need it?” Bertram asked, as he pulled a rattan chair over to the desk.
Siegfried laughed. “It can never hurt.”
Cameron got the drink from a sideboard. He was a hefty, full-bearded Scotsman with a bulbous, red nose and a strong bias toward alcohol of any sort, although scotch was understandably his favorite. He handed the snifter to Bertram and reclaimed his seat and his own drink.
“Usually when I’m called out in the middle of the night it is a medical emergency with an animal,” Bertram said. He took a sip of the brandy and breathed in deeply. “Tonight I have the sense it is something else entirely.”
“Indeed,” Siegfried said. “First I have to commend you. Your warning this afternoon about Kevin Marshall was well-founded and timely. I asked Cameron to have him watched by the Moroccans, and sure enough this evening he, Melanie Becket, and one of the surgical nurses drove all the way out to the landing area for Isla Francesca.”
“Damnation!” Bertram exclaimed. “Did they go on the island?”
“No,” Siegfried said. “They merely played with the food float. They’d also stopped to talk with Alphonse Kimba.”