Leap - 02 (16 page)

32

DeeAnn could feel a sense of worry growing within herself.  Dulce wasn’t as talkative as usual, and she wasn’t sure if it was due to stress or nervousness, or whether a result of the increasing errors from the vest’s computer system.  Juan had looked at it the night before and confirmed the frequency of errors was still increasing.

On top of it all, DeeAnn’s heart was sinking at the realization that the chance of finding the capuchin monkey was remote at best.  Alves’ preserve was simply too big.

They had spent almost four hours in the field yesterday.  Alves and his head of security Blanco had escorted them into areas of the preserve not yet searched.  But the place was just too
huge
.  They would never be able to cover the area, even in Alves’ giant four-wheel drive vehicle.  But getting out and hiking through the jungle was the only way Dulce could listen for the monkey.  Without at least some idea of where Dexter might be, it was quickly feeling hopeless. 

DeeAnn watched as Dulce examined more trees.  There were thousands of trees in the preserve, maybe tens of thousands. 

DeeAnn had been quietly, yet reluctantly, thinking of an exit plan.  What she was worried about the most was the vest.  If she lost the ability to communicate with a frightened gorilla in the wild, things could get much worse for them.

She realized her mind had drifted off and looked back to find Dulce now watching her.

No monkey,
Dulce said, matter-of-factly.

DeeAnn smiled and shook her head.  “Not yet.  Should we go look again today?”

Yes,
Dulce replied, looking up at DeeAnn. 
Look more.

“Okay, we look more,” DeeAnn smiled, placing her chin gently on Dulce’s furry head and rubbing her back.  “We look more.”

Upstairs on the top floor of the state-of-art facility, Alves and Blanco observed DeeAnn and Dulce from the inside, through a tall window.

“How long are we going to search?” asked Blanco.  It was a difficult question but one that needed to be asked.

Alves answered without looking away from the window.  “As long as necessary.”

Carolina, Alves’ assistant, approached and joined them.  “Everything is ready.”

Alves nodded.

Carolina waited for a reply, but getting none, she continued.  “And everyone is looking for you.”

Who cares?
Alves thought.  Business could wait.  It
would
wait.  The businesses could run themselves for a long time.

He continued watching DeeAnn and Dulce out in the grass.  This was far more important.  It was
the
most important thing he had ever done, and in the end, nothing else mattered.  Nothing.

Blanco wasn’t convinced.  He was sure there were other ways, but it wasn’t up to him.  He would do as he was told.  At least for now.

Standing behind Alves, Carolina looked at the hardened Blanco, who then glanced briefly at her.  They would both do what they were told.  For now.

Brazil’s unrelenting humidity made wearing the thick vest almost unbearable, especially through the peak heat of the afternoon.  The only relief was the wind flowing over the open top of the vehicle.  DeeAnn couldn’t tell what model it was, but it reminded her of the old military Jeeps she had seen as a girl.  These, however, were much nicer.

She turned and looked at Dulce, who was sitting on the bench seat between her and Juan.  Dulce was smiling the entire way.  Bouncing up and down while they drove over the rough ground, Dulce loved every minute of the ride.  It was a nice change.  The young gorilla looked up to the open sky at a group of birds darting away from a nearby tree.

DeeAnn still held Dulce’s leash firmly in her hand, worried that a sudden movement or shift could result in her falling out.  A motherly instinct that was never fostered through a child of her own, she clearly still had it.

Blanco slowed the vehicle and brought it to a stop in another open field.  A vast sea of trees began a few hundred yards away and continued on, high into the mountains.

Juan promptly jumped out and helped Dulce down.  DeeAnn followed closely behind, careful to keep extra slack in the leash.  It took only seconds for her to feel the sweat return under her vest.

Alves hobbled around the back from the passenger’s seat.  “This is another area Luke had taken Dexter to.  They’d spent a few days out here last month.” 

DeeAnn turned and scanned the area.  Luke probably brought Dexter out periodically to keep him calm.  Wild primates often became agitated with too much time in a captive environment, even one as nice as Alves’ facility.  However, with Dulce, DeeAnn had the opposite challenge.  She was born in captivity and now being
outside
her normal environment was causing her stress.

Together, they crossed the small field and passed into the edge of dark green forest.  The group continued following Dulce as she knuckle-walked from place to place, looking and listening.

DeeAnn watched the others who were idly scanning the area.  All except Alves, of course.  He was intently watching Dulce as he had been all day.  She had to admit it was beginning to feel a little odd.  His interest was beginning to go beyond mere curiosity.

Juan checked his watch and gave DeeAnn a concerned look.  He was forever thinking about the system and was no doubt estimating how much battery life they had left for the day.  That and, of course, the errors.  The vest still seemed to be working well, but he didn’t know for how much longer that would continue. 

DeeAnn noticed Dulce examining something on the ground and walked up behind her to have a look.  She frowned when she discovered that Dulce was looking at the remains of a bird nest.  Four tiny pink bodies were lying next to it on a wide rock.  DeeAnn looked up at the tall tree above them.  The nest must have fallen, causing the hatchlings to tumble out.  They were much too small to move about on their own, which meant they likely died on the rock.

Dulce used her rough brown finger and reached out to touch one of them.  She poked the featherless pink body gently and waited.  Nothing happened.  She then poked the others one by one.  Finally, she turned to DeeAnn with her lower lip drooping sadly. 
Babies die.

DeeAnn frowned and knelt next to her.  “Yes, the babies died.  It’s very sad.”  She was surprised when Dulce turned back, gently picked up the four little bodies from the rock, and placed them into her palm.  Using her free hand, Dulce then turned and dug her fingers into the soft earth, creating a small hole.  She placed them all carefully into the cavity and laid a leaf on top.  Finally, she began covering them with the dirt.

DeeAnn was awestruck.  She couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed, on so many levels.

Me no like die.

DeeAnn shifted her eyes to look at the amazing little gorilla in front of her.  “Me either.”

33

We here Alison.

Alison smiled and quickly stepped out of the salon, into the boat’s spacious cockpit.  She trotted to the side and peeked over the starboard hull.  Sally was waiting with her head poking out, gently batting the water with her fins to stay up.  “Are we here?”

Dirk abruptly popped his head out of the water next to Sally. 
We here.

Kelly immediately killed the engine and allowed the boat to drift to a stop.  “Thank goodness.”

Thank goodness, indeed
, Alison thought.  It was much further than they were expecting, repeatedly promised by Dirk and Sally to be just a little further.  That “little” further had taken them well south of their expected location, almost within sight of the small island of Grenada.  She knew that dolphins had a sharp understanding of distance, but they seemed almost purposefully vague this time.  It was something they had never witnessed before with Dirk or Sally.  Their conclusion was that the dolphins’
home
wasn’t stationary.  It moved.

Come Alison come.

“I’m coming,” she said, with a touch of sarcasm.  “Just give us some time.”

In the time it took them to get set up, more dolphins began to arrive.  Many more.  Alison pulled the second fin onto her foot and wiggled it while she looked out over the water.  There were
hundreds
of dolphins now.

“Chris, look at this,” she said, standing up.

“Wow!”

The number of dolphins swimming in and around each other seemed to be growing bigger right before their eyes.

Lee turned back from the water to look at Alison.  He was excited too, wanting to see how his new “aqua vest” worked in the real world.  “How’s that?” he looked over the straps on the vest.

“It feels fine.”

“Okay, good.  Let’s get the rebreather on now.”  Chris, standing behind her, lifted the tank and BCD up high enough for her to slide the unit on.  Next, Chris lifted the thick oxygen hose over Alison’s head and handed it to Lee, who aligned the hose with the facemask and attached it to the bottom.

“Test, please,” he said, handing the full mask to Alison.

She held it to her face and breathed in.  “Yep.  Got air.”

Next, Chris snaked the weight belt around her waist and Lee buckled it in front.

Alison pulled the mask strap over her head, while Lee examined the three lights on the vest’s shoulder.  All three were lit and steady. 

“We have power, link, and camera.”  Lee then turned to his laptop on the white fiberglass table to verify connectivity with the onboard servers.  “Looking good.”  He turned back to Alison.  “Ready to test?”

“Sure.”

He activated the translation software and made a motion with his hand for her to speak.

“Hello,” Alison said, inside the mask.

The familiar whistle and clicks were heard almost immediately through the speaker.

“Good.  Now remember,” he reminded her, “you have to be
looking
at them for IMIS to pick it up.”

“I remember.”

Lee looked past Alison’s shoulder to Chris.  “Are we good?”

“Yep, we’re good.” 

“Okay, Ali.  Let’s turn around.”

She nodded and slowly turned around to face the wide, built-in steps at the end of the boat’s starboard hull.  She gave them a thumbs-up and grasped the top of the rail on each side.  With careful movements, she descended each step until she reached the last one at the water line.  She could feel the lapping of the water over her fins and feet.

She looked out over the water at the peaceful blue horizon.  With a deep breath, Alison jumped.

Compared to the stifling warm air above, the ocean felt cool and instantly refreshing.  It took a few seconds to get her bearings, but Alison adjusted herself and tilted her head back and forth, looking for water leaks in the mask.  After verifying that all was still secure, she popped her head up above the waves and twisted around to find the boat.

Alison smiled and gave them the “A-OK” sign before dipping her face back into the water.  Less than twenty feet below, hundreds of dolphins were swirling beneath her in every direction. 

Alison was searching for them when Sally swam by and playfully bumped her from behind. 
Alison, you here.

“I am here,” she replied.  “Thanks to you.”  A moment later, she heard the familiar buzz indicating a translation error.  It didn’t matter.

“Where is Dirk?”

I here,
he answered, swimming to her excitedly. 
We home Alison, we home.  We show you.

Alison pivoted forward and kicked after them.  “Yes, show me.”

Together, Dirk and Sally descended into the darkening blue water and turned for a moment, waiting for Alison.  When she caught up, they dove further, before stopping to wait again. 
Come Alison.

She laughed and rolled her eyes inside her mask.  “I’m coming!” 

She let more air out of her BCD and sank further, into the heart of the immense pod.  The dolphins she had seen from above now swarmed from every direction, darting past her with amazing precision.  Alison reached out and grazed one with her fingertip as it glided up and around her.  She turned and watched in awe.  Dolphins were everywhere.

She noticed several dolphins bump one another and jet away as if playing a game. 

Incredible
, she thought, listening to the translations.

Come we

Metal

Get food

Find them leave

Where

Alison blinked and twisted back around.  Dirk and Sally had disappeared, and she realized she was becoming surrounded. The chatter in her earphone was now coming from everywhere.  “Sally, Dirk?  Where are you?”  She looked below, then up above.  All she could see was the giant shadow of the boat floating overhead.

Going

People here

She talk

I hear talk too

People talk

Alison turned again and found several dolphins had stopped a few feet in front of her, watching her curiously. 

You talk,
one of them said.

She talk

Who she

She talking

Alison tried to identify which dolphin was speaking, but there were too many.  She turned back to those closest to her, still unable to find Dirk and Sally.

“Hello,” Alison simply said.

The dolphins moved their tails excitedly. 
You talk us.  How you talk.

The pod was still surrounding her, but now more dolphins were slowing and staring at her.

Alison thought for a moment and spoke slowly.  “My name is Alison.  I talk with this metal.”  She heard the translation come through the speaker, noting the different combination of whistles and clicks that identified her name.  It was a crude, but unique compilation they had created in the lab to designate her name.  It probably sounded like gibberish, but at least it was a pattern the dolphins could repeat.

Alison

Alison

Name Alison

Alison Dirk Sally friend

Talk again

“Wait,” Alison said.  She was trying to follow who was speaking but turning her head to hear one would cut off the sentence from another.  She was suddenly bumped by a dolphin from behind, who appeared to be examining her rebreather tanks.  As she tried to steady herself, she was gently bumped again from the side.

Metal here down come talk

Alison whipped around again.  “Wait, easy!”  She put out a hand that got bumped as well, spinning her around.  “I can’t-

From metal come trip talk metal here down come with us trip metal talk talk Dirk here down Sally

“Wait! Wait!”  Alison shook her head and pushed away, clamping a hand over the side of her mask.  “Lee, Chris!  Can you hear me?!” 

Thirty feet above them, Lee leaned forward and grabbed the microphone off the small desk.  “Alison, can you hear me?!  Alison!”

She couldn’t hear him.  The translations were inundating her system so that she couldn’t hear anything over the constant flood of words.  There were now dozens of dolphins closely surrounding and trying to speak to her.  She was getting bumped from all directions by those curious to find out where her voice was coming from.

“Chris, Lee!” she yelled.  “Are you there?!” 

Come us metal many friends talk trip come-

Suddenly everything went silent.

“Alison.  Alison, can you hear me?”  It was Lee’s voice, clear and alone.

“Lee, yes!”  She was still getting jostled around and looked at the dolphins who were still talking.  “What’s happening?”

“I had to disable the translation.  I’ve turned off your microphone and speaker.  Can you get to the surface?”

“I think so.”  Alison pushed away hard and pumped her legs, sending her to the surface.  When she reached the top, she looked around through the fogged mask and spotted Chris.  He was already on the bottom step waiting for her.  She reached up and he clasped her hands before pulling her up forcefully, which caused her to stumble and fall into his arms.  In one quick motion, Chris reached over her head and pulled the mask from her face.

“Are you okay?”

She had to catch her breath.  “Y-e-s.”  She looked back to see that many of the dolphins had followed her to the surface and were bobbing above the water.  They were still talking excitedly.

Lee came running out of the salon and helped her up the rest of the steps.  They quickly removed her mask along with the tanks from her back, freeing her from most of the weight.

“What happened?” she asked, still out of breath.

Lee frowned.  “I think IMIS got confused.”

“Confused?”

“Yeah.  It was trying to process too many translations from different directions.  It got overwhelmed until it couldn’t sync the words correctly.  I’m sorry.”

Alison took a deep breath to calm her nerves.  “It wasn’t your fault.  I guess we should have expected something like that.”

Chris nodded in agreement.  “That’s definitely a response we weren’t ready for.”

“Agreed.”  Lee knelt down and helped Alison off with her fins.  “You sure you’re okay?”

Alison smirked with amusement and glanced back at the dolphins crowding around the stern of the boat, all still trying to talk.  “I didn’t expect them to be more excited than I was.”

Lee was studying his screen when Alison approached from behind with a mug of tea.  His monitor was filled with graphs and computer logs from the portable IMIS servers below.  The window in the middle of the screen displayed a jumble of crisscrossing lines, presenting all of the different conversations that IMIS had been trying to translate through Alison’s vest unit.

“Wow.  That’s what it looks like?”

Lee pursed his lips but kept his eyes on the graph.  “Most of it.  The problem is the vest.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, not the vest per se.  It’s because it’s mobile.  The camera is too limited.  Back at the lab, we have multiple cameras all synched with each other.  It provides a complete picture of the tank from almost any angle, which means nothing gets lost.  But the vest has only one camera and it’s small, which means a relatively narrow viewing angle.  It’s one thing to view a three-dimensional area like the tank, but it’s another to be right in the middle of it.”

“Meaning it’s easier to lose track of moving objects?”

“Exactly.”  Lee leaned back in his hard plastic chair and crossed his arms.  “The other problem is that with so many dolphins present, IMIS can’t keep track of who is saying what.  The camera limitation just compounds the issue.  I should have anticipated that.”

Alison took a sip and laid a hand on Lee’s shoulder.  “We can’t think of everything.”

He shook his head.  “I should have thought of
this
.”

“So what do we do?”

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about the camera, at least not here.  That’s going to take some design work and a whole lot of testing.”  He sighed, still staring at the scrambled lines on the screen.  “But I might be able to figure out a workaround.  The one thing we haven’t told IMIS to do is to listen for individual tones or pitches.  We never had to.  We only had two dolphins to worry about.  But now it simply can’t differentiate between so many different conversations.”

“Are these servers strong enough to do that?”

Lee nodded.  “I think so.  I just need to figure out how, and then try to code it.”

“Well, I know this is a long shot, but is there anything I can do to help?”

Lee looked up and smiled.  “Nah.  Thanks, Ali.  It’s just something I need to figure out.”