“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?”
Alves grabbed the desk chair and sat down smoothly. “I suppose there comes a time when we all must take a stand on what we believe in, no?” He waved his hand casually as he spoke. “I suppose you could say we found out what Luke’s stance was.”
DeeAnn shook her head defiantly. Her eyes filling quickly with tears. “You killed him, you bastard!”
Alves smirked, dismissing her without a hint of remorse. “It was unavoidable. I did try to reason with him. But he remained an obstacle.”
“An obstacle?” she cried. “An obstacle to what? More power? More money? What happened… did he find out about some fraud you were involved in?!”
Alves surprised her with a burst of laughter. He leaned back in his chair, recovering slowly. “Oh, Ms. Draper, you are naïve. You believe this is over a business deal? Over money? What a simple world you must live in.” He reached up and wiped a tear of laughter from the corner of his wrinkled eye. “No, Mr. Greenwood didn’t have much business sense. He was lucky to figure out his email.” Alves shook his head, traces of laughter still on his face. “You really have no idea what’s happening here, do you?”
“I know you’ve cut off our cellular and internet access, so we must know something we’re not supposed to.”
Alves laughed again but not as hard this time. “And what is it that you know?” he challenged.
DeeAnn looked back to Juan. The truth was that they hadn’t the slightest idea. The only thing they really knew was that Alves killed Luke. They had nothing else.
Alves watched her fumble. “You haven’t even asked the question of why yet.” He looked past her to Blanco, who remained as still as a rock, listening. Alves’ laugh fell to a mild chuckle. “Why would I go out of my way to bring you here?”
He watched with amusement as the question sank in and marveled at their naivety. “I didn’t bring you here to find Luke, DeeAnn.”
She glared at his sarcasm.
“I brought you to find his monkey. Dexter.”
“Why?”
“Dexter was Luke Greenwood’s stand. His line. It was Luke who let Dexter escape in the first place. He was a smart man; I’ll give him that. But as you know, his sense of ethics bordered on obsessive. In the end, that was his liability, blinding himself to rational thought. And more importantly, his own mortality.”
“Yeah,” DeeAnn was seething. “Well, I’m sure it’s hard for someone like you to believe, but sometimes even innocent animals are worth dying for.”
Alves rolled his eyes. “Please. It wasn’t the monkey he gave his life for. Dexter was merely a symbol. No, Luke Greenwood gave his life for something much bigger. I suppose he should be commended for that. Even though he failed, thanks to you.”
DeeAnn was still confused. “Failed?”
“Yes. After all, you found the monkey he tried to free. After Dexter’s accidental capture, Luke realized there was something very special about him. They are exceedingly smart for monkeys. Organ grinders, I believe you call them. But this one had unusually high levels of intelligence and dexterity. Luke said it was ‘off the charts.’ He became obsessive in studying the monkey and, in the end, even more rabid in his moral convictions to protect him.” Alves’ eyes almost seemed to grow darker. “It turned out that while Dexter may have been a symbol for Luke’s convictions, what Luke ultimately discovered about him proved to be a much bigger surprise. A secret no one was expecting.”
“A secret worth killing for,” DeeAnn snarled.
Alves’ lips curled into a sordid grin. “Very much so. And thanks to you, one we have now recaptured.”
“So,” Juan spoke up, “bringing us here to find Dexter was just so you could figure out how to make yourself smarter?”
Alves suddenly laughed again, harder. He pushed himself up and out of the chair. “My, you Americans are dim. No, Mr. Diaz, that’s not why you’re here.” He motioned past them to Blanco, who smoothly removed a .40 caliber Glock from behind his back. “Not even close.”
40
It was truly a pilgrimage and bigger than anything Alison could ever have imagined. They had been surrounded by a veritable sea of dolphins for hours before IMIS picked up Dirk and Sally’s words again, calling to her.
The sun was steadily falling down toward the horizon when Alison finally slipped beneath the cool waves once again. “Can you guys hear me?”
“We’re here, Ali.” Lee reassured her through his microphone. “Are you okay?”
“So far.” Alison was surrounded by a wall of dolphins, all swirling around her, endlessly. They all adjusted their path to keep just out of reach as if she were in her own bubble. As she descended in her small space, she could see glimpses of bright colors below.
It was once she passed thirty feet that the dolphins began to thin and disperse. At forty feet, she broke out below them. Dolphins were mammals, which meant lungs to breathe air. Most activity was spent closer to the surface. They could venture much deeper. However, at the moment, Alison still felt as though she were swimming beneath a living, moving ceiling.
Yet, it was what she saw on the ocean floor that nearly drained the blood from her face. The entire floor was a section of raised seabed spreading as far as her visibility could see. But more than that, it was what covered the entire bottom: seagrass.
Different from seaweed, the seagrass was bright green in color and comprised of many forms of underwater vegetation, including flowers, roots and leaves. The growth here was as dense as Alison had ever seen it, so green and lush that it almost glowed against a background of blue water. Both in and above the seagrass were countless starfish, urchins, and crustaceans of dizzying numbers. There were life forms of all kinds, including billions of smaller fish with bright colors that resembled a giant underwater kaleidoscope.