Lee shook his head. “I have no idea.”
Alison blinked out of her trance and looked down at Lee, who was still seated. “Well, I guess we can be happy the software isn’t broken.”
“Uh, yeah,” he chuckled in agreement. Just moments later, he became serious again. “This is huge guys. I mean really HUGE.”
“I agree. And it means we need to get a hold of DeeAnn for a couple of reasons,” Alison said, reading her watch.
Chris eyed her curiously. “What’s the second?”
She turned to both of them. “Well, we’re going to need her help trying to validate what Lee just found. And secondly, I’m guessing she’ll want to know that there may not be anything wrong with that new vest of hers after all.”
35
The sun’s first rays of the new morning broke over the distant blue horizon and raced across the surface of the earth, illuminating the coast of South America. The trees lit up in a bright green hue, reflecting the lushness of the mysterious jungle laden continent.
The early twilight splashed over everything close to the water, including Alves’ preserve and Dulce, who was huddled into the corner of her fenced area. She was hiding with her small black head tucked down, from a fear that was now causing her fingers to shake. She was beginning to feel nervous and more than a little irritable. She wanted to help and make DeeAnn happy but deep down, more than anything, she wanted to go home.
She’d been awake most of the night and a growing wisp of exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on her. She was waiting quietly for her mother.
The sound from a nearby group of black-goggled tanagers filled the air as the jungle awakened to the cool, humid morning. Other birds began to join in, adding their own morning calls. But it was a different noise that caught Dulce’s attention. It was a very peculiar sound.
Dulce silently raised her head and looked around behind her, scanning the nearby building less than thirty yards away. She kept watching and listening until she heard it again, this time louder.
She turned her attention to a small area of the building where the lower wall overlapped with the next structure, providing a darkly shaded corner section of the roof. It was there that Dulce continued to stare until she saw it. A small gray head appeared from the shadow and glanced around. When the small capuchin monkey spotted Dulce observing from the ground, he quickly ducked back into the shadows.
Dulce’s eyes opened wide and she wrapped her fingers eagerly through the chain link fence. She continued watching the hidden area for several minutes before the gray head appeared again. This time, it was staring curiously at Dulce. After a moment, he tipped his head as if trying to figure her out.
Thirty minutes later, DeeAnn was surprised when she opened the outside door and found Dulce standing attentively at the fence. She followed Dulce’s gaze up to the roof but couldn’t see what she was looking at. Her curiosity grew when she approached the caged area to find that Dulce was still ignoring her.
DeeAnn gingerly unlocked the gate and stepped inside, still observing the young gorilla. She began to close the gate when she suddenly froze. Up along the first roofline, she could see something protruding out from the shadows. She eased her breath out slowly. It was the small gray head of Dexter, the capuchin monkey they had spent the last two days searching for. The monkey had never left!
DeeAnn rolled her eyes. Of course! Why didn’t she realize? With as much time as Luke spent with him, Dexter could just as easily have become comfortable at Luke’s home, especially since his own was so far away. In fact, Dexter probably wouldn’t have left a familiar environment for the unknown unless he was being chased. Instead, frightened from the attack, he found what he considered the safest and closest place to hide. How could she not have thought of that?
DeeAnn turned as the exterior door to the building opened again, and Juan stepped out. She immediately put her finger over her lips and signaled him to come quickly.
It took Juan just a few minutes to locate a ladder near a nearby utility shed. It wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the lower roof, but it was enough to allow Dulce to get within eight feet of the monkey. DeeAnn kept her distance and remained further down the ladder, just within reach of Dulce’s dangling leash. Juan stood immediately behind her, securing the bottom of the aluminum ladder.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t understand what Dulce was saying to Dexter at the top of the ladder. DeeAnn could not point the vest upward at the correct angle, and Dulce was facing away from her, making a translation impossible. But speak, she did. Dulce stood poised at the top, carefully studying Dexter and exchanging an unending series of sounds and gestures.
Dexter’s sounds were higher pitched, sounding less like an exchange and more like a screaming match; but step by step, his head and body gradually emerged into the morning sunlight. When he reached the edge of the roof, DeeAnn slowly shook her head in wonder. The full significance of the event would have been lost on anyone else, but to DeeAnn, what she had just witnessed was nothing short of earth shattering.
36
The metal door burst open, and Alves charged down the hall with Carolina hurrying behind him. Miguel Blanco was waiting near the end of the hallway with arms folded, gazing through another smaller window. He calmly turned when Alves reached him.
“Tell me!”
“He was here all along,” Blanco smirked, “hiding upstairs.” He motioned back outside. “We have him contained.”
“Is he talking?!” Alves blurted, excitedly.
“Don’t know. The woman asked us to stay inside. She said they needed to establish a level of trust with the monkey first.”
Alves peered eagerly through the exterior window and across a small open area to where several cages sat at the base of the group of trees. They were too far away to hear. “We need a feed on them!”
“Enrique’s working on that,” Blanco replied smoothly. He glanced at his watch. “He said he’d have video and audio in ten minutes.”
Alves nodded anxiously. “Good.” From their angle, they could only see part of Dexter’s tiny frame outside, but it was him. He was sure. After a long pause studying him, Alves turned back to Blanco. “He doesn’t get out of that containment cage! Understand? No matter what!”
The roof was just the beginning. Coaxing Dexter down was one thing, but once on the ground, watching Dulce ask Dexter a question and then relay the answer back to them left DeeAnn in awe. She was sure she had just witnessed IMIS do something of which Lee Kenwood had never dreamed.
DeeAnn continued watching, still dumbfounded, as Dulce handed Dexter a small chunk of celery and asked, Hungry?
The tiny gray monkey studied the vegetable for a moment, but then seized it in a flash. He finished it within seconds. Dulce tilted her head and grinned, then reached for another.
The two were now in a different caged area. It was smaller and located under the canopy and shade of several dark green, mid-sized mango trees. DeeAnn and Juan were both inside but leaning against the chain link, a distance which Dexter appeared to deem safe.
They watched intently, and DeeAnn kept her vest pointed carefully, as to allow her to capture both primates within the tiny camera’s field of view.
What was interesting though was that over the last couple days, the IMIS vest had grown increasingly efficient at translating for DeeAnn, and yet it was unable to translate the exchange between Dulce and Dexter. DeeAnn pondered what that meant. Was there something else happening with the communication between the primates?