Leap - 02 (22 page)

44

The damp morning chill hung in the air as Alves’ goon, Blanco, escorted DeeAnn up the grassy slope toward the helicopter.  His grip around her upper arm was like a vice and felt as though it was beginning to cut off her circulation. 

Still, she tried to remain calm for Dulce’s sake.  DeeAnn’s hand was wrapped tenderly around the small gorilla’s, which was squeezing her hand firmly.  She could sense the nervousness in Dulce’s hold.

Alves was standing near the giant helicopter, an AgustaWestland AW101.  It was one of the most expensive private helicopters on the market.  One look inside would explain why.  It looked more like the interior of a private jet than a helicopter.

DeeAnn paid no attention to the aircraft.  Instead, she glared angrily at Alves, who appeared to have changed dramatically from the man she first met.  He no longer made an effort to hide his real accent, nor was there even the slightest hint of compassion in his eyes.  His face now looked dark and stone-like.  The transformation was truly sickening.

They reached the short set of metal stairs and were pushed forward by Blanco without pause, sending both DeeAnn and Dulce stumbling up and into the cabin.  Behind them, they heard a screaming Dexter approaching.  He was being toted up the hill in a cage, by one of Blanco’s henchmen.

Inside, DeeAnn hated having to put Dulce back into a cage, but she had no choice.  It was for her own good, and frankly Alves and his men were no longer here to help.  They were simply giving orders.

DeeAnn closed the metal door behind Dulce until it clicked shut.  She then turned and sat down in the next seat, looking at Blanco and noting the large gun in his holster.  DeeAnn turned away and peered out the window, back towards the large building.  There was no sign of Juan.  Why would there be?  She didn’t expect to see him, yet it made her feel even sicker to her stomach.

As it turned out, Alves’ men
did
record some of the communication between Dulce and Dexter.  And they knew exactly what Dexter had revealed.  There was no hiding it now.  That, along with Alves’ devastating admission the evening before, exposed just how little freedom she and Juan ever really had.

From the very beginning, they were there for a purpose.  Any appearance of a collaborative effort was strictly intended to get them on the plane and away from Puerto Rico.  Alves was after Dexter all along, for very different reasons.  And DeeAnn and Dulce were little more than Alves’ bait.

Now the game had become deadly.  Juan was being held until DeeAnn and Dulce fulfilled their orders.  Of that, Alves was imminently clear.  And he promised them that if they refused, Juan would be dead within minutes.

DeeAnn closed her eyes and tried desperately to keep it together.  Dulce was on the verge of an anxiety attack, Juan was being held at gunpoint, and yet DeeAnn somehow had to get Dexter to lead them to some place that no one but the monkey had ever been before: his home in the jungle.

Dexter’s cage was lifted inside and slid in next to Dulce.  The small capuchin quickly scrambled back to the far corner of his cage and fearfully wrapped his tail over his mouth.

After several more minutes, Blanco and two of his men, including the handler of Dexter’s cage, climbed in and sat in seats at the front.  They watched DeeAnn and the two primates with an expression of dark ambivalence.

Alves had a word with the pilots before sitting down in a rear facing seat directly across from DeeAnn.

“Are you at least going to tell me why?” she sneered.

Alves barely reacted.  “What exactly do you feel you need to know?”

“Why are you trying to find out where Dexter came from?  What is so damn special about him that made you kill Luke over it?”

Shadows appeared through the cabin windows as the extra-long blades of the chopper overhead began to turn.  They flashed eerily over Alves’ face as the motion accelerated.

“And I suppose you think this knowledge will somehow help you in your effort with the monkey?” Alves asked sarcastically.

“It might.”

Alves shook his head, irritated, but he relented.  “Your ignorance knows no bounds.  Luke knew the monkey was special.  That was very obvious from his intelligence alone.  But other things indicated there was something more.  Things like his hair and teeth.  They suggested that Dexter was much older than expected, given the normal lifespan of capuchins.”  Alves paused and glanced out the window as they felt the helicopter lift off the ground.  “So Luke did a DNA test.  He wanted to match it against the current gene mapping for capuchins.  But he found something none of us were expecting.  Something that made everything else pale in comparison.”

“That he was smarter than you?”

The old Alves would have at least grinned at the insult.  This Alves simply looked at her with increased irritation.  “He found that the monkey’s gene sequencing was different.  It wasn’t just older than normal, it was a
lot
older!”

The nasty look on DeeAnn’s face fell away as an innate curiosity overtook her.  “How old?”

“Most capuchins live a maximum age of twenty-five years in the wild.  But your Luke Greenwood was convinced that Dexter was well over a
hundred
.”

45

Admiral Langford kept his head against the headrest, trying to relax in the back seat of the town car.  He rolled it sideways and peered out of one of the darkened windows.  Even at six a.m., the traffic heading into downtown Washington, D.C., was beginning to slow with congestion.  The only consolation was knowing that several others from the President’s security cabinet were having to endure the same conditions.

The folder on the seat next to him was filled with copies of pictures, diagrams, and the hasty write-up sent over by Commander Lawton after their call.  Given how rapidly the cabinet meeting was put together, only the President and Vice President had an inkling of what it was about.  The rest would find out soon enough.

Langford’s cell phone rang.  He reached into his inside coat pocket to retrieve it.  It was a number he didn’t recognize.

“Langford here.”

“Admiral, this is Caesare.”

“Caesare?  Aren’t you supposed to be on a boat headed for the Bowditch?”

“Yes, sir.  I am.  But something urgent has just come to my attention that I need to speak to you about.”

Langford looked outside again at the ever slowing traffic.  “I appear to have plenty of time.”

President Carr looked up from his copy of Lawton’s write-up and back to Admiral Langford with raised eyebrows.  “Is this
real
?”

“We believe it to be authentic, Mr. President.”

“Jesus Christ!”  He put the paper down in front of him and looked at the high-resolution pictures again.  “How the hell did the Chinese find out about this?”

Vice President Bailey put down his own copy.  “And how did they convince Guyana to just roll over for it?”

Miller answered.  “We don’t know who or how they found it.  But it appears they convinced the government of Guyana the old fashioned way.”

“They bought them off,” Baily acknowledged.

Carr smirked.  “You say that as if we wouldn’t have done the same thing.”  He rubbed his forehead absently.  “How can we be sure about the implications this Commander Lawton is laying out here?  I mean, how many scientific discoveries do we hear about every day that end up meaning nothing?  Not everything pans out.”

“That’s true,” agreed Secretary of State Bartman, from across the table.  “If I had a nickel for every medical or technological advancement that promised to be a breakthrough, I’d be a rich man.”

Next to Miller, Langford shrugged.  “The fact is, sir, we don’t know.”

“How long have we been testing this thing, forty-eight hours?” Bartman asked, with a hint of sarcasm.  “Look, I’m not saying this isn’t what she claims, but how on earth can we be sure after just forty-eight hours?  Other advancements have turned out to be nonviable after months, even years.”

The Admiral sat motionless, listening.  Finally, he frowned and scratched his cheek.  “Well, the Chinese have had months to study it, maybe longer.  And they sent a
warship
to go get it.”

The others became silent. 

Langford shrugged.  “We can sit here and debate how viable this is, and we can decide to wait until we’ve tested more.  But all the while, there’s a fully armed Chinese ship scooping up this plant by the truckload, and it’s doing it as quietly as possible.  Maybe we should consider the logistics of what it would take for us to do something like that, while trying to keep it secret at the same time.  That’s a lot of moving pieces, and the Chinese appear to have moved on it awfully fast.  If you ask me, I don’t think we should be spending our time discussing the odds of this being real.  I think we need to be considering the ramifications if it is.”  Langford looked at Carr.  “How wrong are we willing to be, Mr. President?”

“And what if we’re wrong, Admiral?” the Vice President asked.  “What do you recommend, a blockade?  Our relationship with China is already on delicate footing.  What if we rush in and manage to elicit a situation that escalates into something even bigger?  How would we feel starting up a military conflict with them, come to find out this big ‘secret’ discovery turns out to be a fascinating new toothpaste?!”

President Carr nodded his head solemnly.  “Ramifications can go both ways, gentlemen.  The Chinese and the Russians continue to strengthen their alliance.  Considering our problems with Russia, this certainly doesn’t help matters.  The last thing we need to do is to inflame the relationship even more.”

The room was silent again, allowing Secretary of State Bartman the opportunity to interject.  “Let’s assume for a moment that this discovery is as important as you say.  And we don’t try to stop them.  Why not send our own team in to retrieve specimens?  Hell, even if we don’t, we can steal whatever secrets the Chinese derive from this plant.  If they document anything, we can eventually get it.”

“We’re starting to add a lot of ‘ifs’ to our thinking,” Miller noted.

“That may be, but I think it’s less risky than inadvertently creating a geopolitical conflict.”

The President turned to National Security Advisor Griffith, sitting quietly in his seat.  “Stan?  Thoughts?”

Griffith was leaning forward with his chin perched on his palm.  He blinked and looked up.  “Espionage is never a sure thing.  And it often causes more long-term damage than one would expect.  Look at the NSA and their surveillance snooping.  We lost a lot of credibility after that, not to mention some important allies.  I do agree that risk is less about the odds of something happening and more about the ultimate ramifications.”  He picked up and examined his own set of pictures again.  “How much do we know about Commander Neely Lawton?”

“She graduated cum laude and one year early from Harvard before getting her Masters,” Langford replied.  “After joining the Navy, she was part of a team, who two years ago, discovered an algae capable of cleansing toxic metals from polluted water five times faster than any other known method.  An algae that several corporations are now working to commercialize.  She’s as sharp as anyone I’ve met in the field.”  He looked around the table before concluding, “And she thinks this plant the Chinese have found is a pretty damn big deal.”

Sam Johnston, the
Commandant of Marines, leaned forward onto the table with hands interlocked.  “It seems to me the one thing we don’t want to do is to try second guessing how important this discovery may ultimately be.  We should be focused on getting someone in there to find out exactly what the Chinese team is doing.  There’s a lot of speculation on what’s actually happening at the top of that mountain.  I suggest observation be our first priority.”

“We can still get ships in the area if we need them, without making anyone n
ervous,” added the Chief of Naval Operations, sitting next to Johnston.

“If it’s that important,” Griffith added, turning toward the President, “we can put a non-military team on the ground and stake a claim without screwing around with that corvette.”

The President thought it over.  Everyone knew the Chinese had been stockpiling virtually every essential commodity for years: gold, silver, copper, iron ore, and a dozen more.  They were preparing for something.  Yet even with all the other commodities, they had never moved as quickly as they had in Guyana.  They knew something, something that no one else did.

“Mr. President, Commander Lawton believes this may just be the tip of the iceberg on what the Chinese have actually found.  If that’s true, to what lengths do you think they will go to keep it?”  After a pause, Langford added with a grave tone, “What lengths would any of us go to?”

46

The streets were virtually empty.  The pollution in Beijing was worse than normal and most people remained indoors.  The few who did venture outside covered their faces with white masks and walked briskly from building to building. 

The growth of China over the last four decades had been tremendous, raising the country from a veritable third world status to the second largest superpower in the world.  It was a level of growth like nothing the modern world had seen.  Hundreds of new cities with gleaming skyscrapers and endless shopping malls now littered China’s eastern seaboard.  The country was now home to a faster growing number of millionaires and billionaires than any other country in the world, including the United States.  And they had just overtaken Russia’s ranking for the second largest military on the planet.

Yet the explosive growth of China’s modern industrial gold rush came at a price.  Production remained in overdrive as their factories worked to keep up with both a global and now domestic demand for goods.  It also meant a lack of standards and every incentive to cut corners.  Regulations were nowhere close to keeping up with production.  Not to mention they came without any semblance of safety, particularly with incentives for fraud and corruption oozing from every public office.  It was unsustainable.  Their red-hot economy was going to have to slow eventually.  When it did, the impact would be harsh.

Wei’s Mercedes crossed over the Landmark River on Xindong Road, the thick veil of smog leaving him unable to see past the edge of the structure’s steel railing.  The pollution was getting worse.  More and more days were deemed unfit for breathing and each of those meant a significant loss in productivity.  Change was no longer avoidable.  It was only a matter of time.

The general looked at his watch.  Of all his meetings, this was one he could not be late for.  In reality, it was less a meeting than it was a summons.

The seven people that waited for Wei were beyond authority.  They were beyond any real definition of accountability, yet everything that happened in China fell under their ultimate control.  They were the government elite, the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the seven men who determined the path of China’s future.  It was the same group who secretly appointed nearly all heads of state and the military.  And they were the same group who had appointed Wei.

Regardless of their ultimate disconnect from the average citizen, the Politburo Standing Committee steered the political, economic, and military courses of China’s future with a deft hand.  A hand that also had the ability to instantly clench into the most ruthless of fists.  While justice in other modern countries was bound by at least a facade of judicial fairness, the masters of China had no such requirements.  Punishment was occasionally handed down from them with a stunning lack of mercy, usually in the form of executions.  Swift and strategic, the executions of high-ranking public officials were performed just as often to make a point rather than to actually deliver ‘justice.’  In fact, out of a number of officials executed for their role in deeply rooted corruption, Wei suspected several were never involved at all.

It was what made the recognition by the group of seven as much of a curse as a blessing.  Power and wealth could be granted with the wave of a hand, yet it could be withdrawn even faster with the swing of a sword.

Wei’s mood grew even more somber as his driver turned onto the byway and the image of a giant complex emerged through the suffocating brown smog.  The Mercedes made its final turn into the half-circle entrance under an enormous glass overhang.  After the car stopped, Wei barely had time to unfasten his seatbelt before the door was promptly opened from the other side.

He was escorted to the eightieth floor where the elevator dinged and opened its silver doors.  Wei walked forward into the expansive room, which was the top floor.  Glass walls, on all sides, looked out over a heavily obscured cityscape.

They motioned him to a chair on the far end of the oval table.  He sat and looked up at the serious faces of each of the seven members.

On the other side of the table, Xinzhen began immediately.  So much for etiquette.

“So the Americans have arrived.”

“Yes,” Wei answered.

“Are you prepared?”

Wei nodded.  “Yes.  We will protect it at all costs.”

“Even if it leads to conflict?”

Wei tried to appear relaxed.  “We always knew that was a possibility.”

The man nodded slowly.  Another of the Committee members spoke up, the brashest of the group.

“And what about the extraction?”

“It is nearly complete,” Wei reassured.  “You will have it soon.”

The man’s eyes narrowed.  “I hope so.  Time runs short, General.”

“Careful steps must be taken, Mr. Secretary.”  Wei had explained it all to them many times before.  Each meeting was almost like the first, yet Wei revealed none of his irritation. 

After all…he knew something that the Committee didn’t.

Lieutenant Chao stood on the deck of the corvette class ship, this time in direct sunlight.  Secrecy no longer mattered.  The Americans knew.  They had gotten a sample and by now, no doubt, had discovered the secret of the plant.  But ironically, they wouldn’t realize its full potential for at least another week.  Nevertheless, they knew enough now to understand what Chao and his men were up to.

The boat sat surreally silent, rocking gently with the help of the mild incoming ocean surge.  There were no more shipments, no more transfers in the dark, and no more running the crates back to the hangar for the next load of trucks. 

In fact, General Wei was probably sitting in front of the Committee now, being questioned for the hundredth time.  They wanted to make sure their prize was safe.  It was their future.  And it would ensure survivability for China’s supreme ruling class and their political structure, regardless of the coming devastation their economic rot would bring.  At least that’s what they were expecting.

Chao looked up at the distant mountains of Guyana.  Who would have thought that crazy explorer Zang had been telling the truth?  And that it would turn out to be a discovery that would change the path of human history, a history of which Chao was an astute student.  He wondered how many explorers had dreamt of this find.  How many had spent their entire lives searching for one of the world’s greatest legends?  Only to have someone else stumble upon it by accident.  What fools.

He raised his binoculars and looked out across the ocean.  The American ship was still there.  They were no doubt running around desperately trying to figure out what to do.  A grin crawled across his tight lips.

Soon they would come in with guns blazing like the Americans always did.  But this time, their only discovery would be that they were too late, that their mighty empire missed out on the most epic of revelations.  He only wished he could be there to see it.

But he couldn’t.  What was going to happen that evening remained far more important.  It was their last trip back into the mountains.  Yet this time, the trucks were loaded with more than just crates. 

And most of his men would never come back out.

Several miles across the water, Clay stood on a metal grating just outside the Bowditch’s bridge.  He remained still, with his binoculars up, studying the corvette ship.  For a moment, he thought he saw a glimmer of reflection from something. 

Standing next to him, Captain Krogstad looked through his own pair.  He scanned the waterfront from side to side and muttered to himself.  “‘Don’t let them out of the dock,’ he says.  How the hell am I supposed to do that with an unarmed science vessel?”

Clay mused and turned to scan the rest of the southern shoreline.  He panned, looking out over the northwest horizon.  He froze and, after a brief pause, dropped the binoculars.  He couldn’t help but smile.  “Vessel sighted.”

Krogstad spun with his glasses still up.  The small white object was clearly visible against the dark blue water, even with the unaided eye.  The azure sky stretching overhead lacked even a wisp of cloud. 

The object was the Prowler catamaran steaming ahead at twelve knots. 

Krogstad noted the time on his watch.  “They’re even early.  Well done, son.”

It took almost an hour for the boat to reach them, eventually rounding the stern and coming under the same maintenance ladder Clay and Caesare had used.  Peering over the edge, Clay smiled at the sight of Caesare at the helm.  He was wearing a T-shirt and someone’s baseball cap to block the sun.

Lee and Chris were the first to climb the ladder.  With some difficulty, they reached the top and were immediately escorted off to sickbay by Krogstad’s crew.  Next came Kelly, followed by Alison.  Considering recent events, the women seemed no worse for the wear.  When Alison spotted Clay standing off to the side, she quickly covered the distance to him, smiling all the way.  She wasn’t sure what would be deemed appropriate on an official ship with an official crew and was pleasantly surprised when Clay put an arm around her.

“How are you?” he asked warmly.

Alison beamed.  “Good now, thanks to you and Steve.  How did you know where we were?”

“Borger found you.”

“Ah, the mysterious Mr. Borger I hear so much about.  Does that mean I finally get to meet him?”

Clay smiled.  “In the flesh.  Though you might want to keep your sunglasses on.  His shirts can be a little hard on the eyes.”  He let the smile fade from his face.  “How are Chris and Lee?”

“Pretty good.  Steve couldn’t find any signs of critical injuries, but their wounds will take some time to heal.”

“Well, they’re in good hands now.”  Clay looked at the ladder just as Caesare appeared.  He climbed over the edge effortlessly and nodded to the Captain before approaching Clay.

“Nice job, sailor,” said Clay, pausing when he noticed that Caesare was not smiling.

Instead, he looked at Clay with a serious face.  “I’m not staying long.”

“What?”

“We have a problem.”  Caesare gave a slight nod to Alison.  “It seems DeeAnn Draper and Juan Diaz have gone missing.  Along with Dulce.”

“For how long?”

Alison peered up at him.  “We haven’t heard from either one of them in a few days.”

“I called a friend at the CIA,” Caesare said.  “There’s been no activity on their cell phones from the tower they were connecting to outside of São Luis.  I also had him dig deeper into our billionaire, Mr. Alves.  It seems he’s not quite the Boy Scout philanthropist he seemed.  He’s involved with some bad elements in Brazil.”

Captain Krogstad walked up behind them.  “Trouble?” he asked.

“You could say that,” Clay answered, then turned back to Caesare.  “So, do you have a plan?”

‘Yeah, my plan is to find them,” Caesare stated flatly.  His face became even more serious.  “I talked to Langford and got clearance.  As long as you stay here working with Borger and Commander Lawton.”

Even though it wasn’t a surprise, Clay still didn’t like hearing it.  He wasn’t one for staying behind.  “Do you need anything?”

“Nope. I’ve got what I need on the boat.  I’ll need to hold onto your bag.  Langford diverted a transport plane on its way down.  It should be waiting at Georgetown’s airport by the time I get there.  Which means I should be in São Luis by sundown.”  Caesare turned to Krogstad.  “Captain, can I borrow one of your crew?  I can take the Prowler to shore, but I need someone to bring it back.”

“Of course.  Whenever you’re ready.”

Caesare opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by someone shouting from across the deck.  It was Borger.  He was waving frantically and running toward them.  When he reached them, he spit out the words and bent over as though someone had just given him the Heimlich maneuver.  “You guys gotta get in here!”  He pointed back the way he came and rested his other hand on his knee, nearly hyperventilating.

“What’s wrong?”

Borger couldn’t reply.  He was desperately trying to catch his breath.  After several more inhalations, he finally got it out.  “Hurry!  The lab!”

The other five immediately bolted for the stairs less than a hundred feet away.  Rapid pounding on the gray metal steps could be heard as they made their way up.

Clay reached the lab first.  He grabbed the door and pushed it open forcefully, stepping inside along with it.  Behind him, Caesare entered, followed by the two women, Krogstad, and finally Borger in a distant last.

Startled, Commander Lawton jerked her head away from the large monitor in front of her.  There was an instant before she spoke when her eyes flashed on Caesare, a gesture which only Alison and Kelly caught.

“We have a problem,” she stated as she stood up.  “A big one!”

“What?”

Lawton smiled politely at the women and turned back to the screen.  “Look at this.”

Instinctively, everyone stepped in closer behind her.

Lawton enlarged a window on the screen and it zoomed in, displaying the twisted shape of a simple life form.