“And we’re still going out with Dirk and Sally?”
“Yes, but we’ll go Friday instead.”
Chris turned and looked incredulously at Kelly, who frowned but said nothing. “Well, I hate to be a downer here,” Chris began, “but you and I both need to go. Kelly is the captain, so without her we can’t even leave, and Lee is the technical expert. So… who exactly is staying behind and watching the place?”
“Bruna.”
“Bruna? She’s part time.”
“She said she can come in every day. And she can always call on the maintenance crew if there’s a problem.” Alison was expecting this reaction from Chris. For months, he and Kelly had worked hard on the details of their groundbreaking trip with Dirk and Sally. They’d covered everything, and last minute changes could present all kinds of issues. The most obvious was that the building, not to mention IMIS, would be almost completely unattended. And without Juan, there would be no one to check and rotate the backup tapes: an important task that had saved their bacon not too long ago. Juan was also supposed to be on standby in case they had any serious problems out on the open ocean.
Chris shook his head again. “This could be a real problem, Ali.”
Alison put her hands on her hips. “Yeah, well what would you have me do then? Put an ankle monitor on her and forbid her to go? Maybe I can just get her arrested!” She stood, glaring at him. “There is nothing I can do. Christ, there’s nothing I would want to do! DeeAnn is afraid for her friend, Chris. She’s desperately hoping she can help him before it’s too late. Are any of us seriously suggesting she shouldn’t do that?”
He frowned and dropped his eyes to the floor, embarrassed. “No. Of course not. We’d all do the same.” He looked back up at her. “I’m sorry.” After a moment, he stood up. “DeeAnn needs our support. Let’s help her, and then we’ll figure out the logistics.”
Alison finally exhaled with relief. “Thank you.”
Built atop old sugarcane fields, the Mercedita Airport in Puerto Rico was located just three miles outside Ponce, and less than ten miles from the research center. The airport, after expansion during the Second World War, now served over one hundred thousand passengers annually.
Mateus Alves’ Gulfstream G550 rested motionlessly under the bright sun, taking up almost a third of the wide lot reserved on the north side of the airport. The door remained open, with a short set of stairs in place, as Alves arrived in an expensive, black sedan. The driver exited quickly and opened the back door. He stood, waiting while Alves and his assistant Carolina stepped out into the heat.
They immediately made their way across the concrete lot to the stairs. Alves climbed up and stepped into the Gulfstream’s plush, air-conditioned cabin just as his cell phone rang.
He stepped in front of one of the cool vents and retrieved the small phone from his pocket. “Hello?”
“Mr. Alves,” said the voice on the other end. “This is DeeAnn Draper. I wanted to let you know that we’ve decided to join you.”
“That’s wonderful, Ms. Draper,” he replied, enthusiastically. “I’m very happy to hear that. How long will you need to prepare?”
“We can be there tomorrow morning.”
If Alves was surprised, he didn’t show it. “I’m very grateful to you and your colleagues. What can I do to provide assistance? Perhaps send a car?”
“We should be fine getting there. But yes, we will need a few things. First and foremost, we’ll need about forty pounds of food. All vegetables. Mostly green leaves, but as much kale and celery as you can find. And lots of berries.”
“Of course,” Alves answered. “Is there anything else?”
“Yes. We’ll need a large cage. Gorillas can become very excitable in strange environments. Dulce will need a cage to travel in, with something soft to sit on inside. And I need to be able to sit next to her.”
Alves nodded. “Yes, yes, of course. We’ll find a way to make it happen. We’ll be ready for you both.”
“Actually there will be three of us. One of our engineers is coming too.”
“Excellent. We’re happy to have him. We will be ready for all three of you then. Please do not hesitate to call if you require anything else.”
“I think that will do it,” DeeAnn replied. “I suspect you’ll have your hands full with that cage.”
Alves chuckled. “All right then, Ms. Draper. We shall see you soon. Thank you again.”
He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He glanced at Carolina before looking past a set of white leather seats and couch to the square object at the rear of the cabin.
A large cage had already been installed.
21
“What in the hell is that?”
Everyone was staring at the screen, puzzled by what they were seeing. The Chinese corvette ship was suddenly illuminated, bathed in bright lights. Figures could be seen appearing from below deck and quickly lowering a long gangplank to the dock.
Yet, what was really perplexing was the stream of lights that appeared from out of the dense jungle less than a mile from shore. It was a stream of… headlights.
Borger zoomed in as far as he could. Each set of headlights shone brightly against the vehicles in front of them. Trucks.
Several more from Neely Lawton’s research team had joined them on the far side of the room now and stood observing over their shoulders as everyone watched the trucks back up against the gangplank. One by one, the men from the ship retrieved dozens of crates from the trucks and carried them below deck.
“What are they doing?”
“Unloading something,” Clay said, hesitatingly.
After less than fifteen minutes, it was over. The transfer of crates was complete and the bright lights abruptly disappeared. The only lights left were those of the half dozen trucks, which appeared to refuel before heading back into the blackness of the jungle.
Clay and Caesare exchanged looks again. “Well, that’s not normal.”
Clay turned to Borger. “Will, we need to find out how long this has been happening.” He turned back to Caesare. “And we need to call Langford.”
Given everything Admiral Langford had seen during his career, he didn’t surprise easily. However, Clay and Caesare managed to accomplish that more often than he liked.
“You’ve got to be kidding?” Langford leaned forward onto his desk, the phone pressed to his ear.
“No, sir,” replied Clay.
“Any idea what was in the crates?”
Clay shook his head on the other end. “None, sir. Borger might be able to enhance the image, but the crates looked sealed so I doubt it will show much more.”
“And how many were there?”
“Forty-eight.”
“So, let me get this straight. We have a warship sitting in downtown Georgetown which does nothing all day, but it mysteriously receives and loads something onboard in the middle of the night, from out of the jungle.”
“Yes, sir. That’s about it. Borger’s working through it now to get us a timeline. We’re going to have to get another dump from the ARGUS data first, which is going to take a while. As far as we can tell, both the corvette and the Forel sub have been here a while.”
Langford leaned back again, thinking. “This is becoming damn peculiar.”
“We agree, sir.”
“Okay, go through everything as quickly as you can. Call me back by oh-seven-hundred and give me an update. I need to bring this up in tomorrow’s security briefing. Something tells me we’re not going to like what we find out.”
“Yes, sir. We should be nearing Guyana by sunrise.”