Leap - 02 (8 page)

Alves stopped briefly and caught his breath.  “And I wanted to make it big.  Our
preserve
,” he announced, with a hint of pride, “is approximately the size of eighty thousand of your acres.”  He watched their expressions change with some amusement.  “It’s the least I could do for a country that has given me so much.”

Alison watched Alves lean back in his chair.  “And you need some help with your preserve?”

He grinned.  “Of a sort, yes.  But probably not what you are guessing.  You see, I have hired a great number of people, not just to build this ecological oasis, but to run and maintain it.  Many people, including botanists, agriculturalists, and even animal behaviorists like yourself.”

DeeAnn, still standing next to Alison, tilted her head questioningly.  “Where did you say your reserve was located?”

Alves turned.  “Ah, I didn’t, Ms. Draper.  My reserve is called ‘O Nosso Mundo’ and is located a few hundred miles north of São Luis.  It was an ideal location for several reasons of which I won’t bore you with.  But we have since acquired a great many indigenous animals, including snakes, macaws, jaguars, as well as a number of primates.  All now part of our growing preserve.”

Alison was watching Alves with a slight look of confusion, still waiting to understand the significance of his visit.  Although what she didn’t notice was the color slowly draining from DeeAnn’s face.

Nor did she notice the subtle shift of Alves’ attention toward DeeAnn as he continued.  “In fact, our lead researcher is a strong follower of your research here.  He is fascinated with the dolphins and especially your young gorilla.”

Alison finally nodded.  “Oh, I see.  He must be doing similar research, I presume.”

Alves glanced back to Alison.  “Yes, very much so.  He’s been working with Capuchin Monkeys, which are native to South America.  And as you probably know, are the most intelligent of the New World primates.”

Alison turned to DeeAnn and opened her mouth to speak but suddenly stopped when she saw the expression on her face.

Alves paused and took a deep breath.  He was staring at DeeAnn again.  “Unfortunately, something has happened to our researcher, and he’s now missing.”

DeeAnn finally spoke, in a low whisper.  “What’s his name?”

Alves didn’t answer immediately.  Instead, he glanced up at Carolina, then back to the two women.

“What’s his name?” DeeAnn repeated, louder.

“Luke…Luke Greenwood.”

Alison watched DeeAnn begin to waver in place then stumble back a step.   Her face was now completely white.  She reached out and grabbed her arm.  “Dee?!”

DeeAnn blinked and reached for Alison at the same time.  A split second later, she fell back against the edge of the desk.

Alarmed, Alison looked back and forth between the two.  “What is it?  What’s going on?”

DeeAnn interrupted. “What…happened to him?

Alves took another deep breath.  This was the part he had been dreading.  He thought a moment, trying to find the right words.  “Please know that South America is a most beautiful place, but it’s also very…volatile.  I am the first to admit this.  And while I have become very wealthy as a businessman, it has not come without its share of controversy.”  A look of guilt began to appear on Alves’ face.  “I’m sorry to say I have developed many political enemies over the years, and I fear that Mr. Greenwood is now the victim of such.”

Alves dropped his gaze to the floor and gently shook his head.  “Recently our preserve was attacked.  A large portion of our new complex was destroyed and many of the animals slaughtered.  Mr. Greenwood was the only one there that night.  He has now been missing for two weeks, and I fear the worst.”

DeeAnn closed her eyes and began to cry.

Alison squeezed her hand.  “Oh Dee, do you know him?”

DeeAnn pulled her hands up and placed them over her face.  Her cries quickly turned into sobs.

Alves answered for her.  “Ms. Shaw, the reason I’ve come to talk to you is because I believe Ms. Draper knows Mr. Greenwood very well.”

16

DeeAnn threw open the double doors to the lab and rushed in, letting them close loudly behind her.  She immediately fell against the wall to the right and slid down to the floor, sobbing.

At the far end, Lee poked his head out from a small room, wondering what the noise was.  He stood up and spotted DeeAnn huddled on the floor.  With a concerned look on his face, Lee started to approach her.  He then saw Alison ease one of the doors open and look around.  She waved him off and he nodded, quickly retreating and leaving through another door in the opposite corner.

Alison let the door close, knelt down in front of DeeAnn, and put a hand on her shoulder.  She said nothing.  She just waited.

After several minutes, DeeAnn’s crying finally slowed.  She used the back of her hands to wipe the tears away and sniffed loudly.  She let her head fall back against the wall and opened her blurry eyes at Alison, who moved her hands down to DeeAnn’s bent knees.  “Are you okay?”

DeeAnn sniffed again and rolled her head from side to side against the wall.  “No.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

After a long silence, DeeAnn angled her head and looked up at the ceiling, absently following the dozens of support beams connecting one wall to another.  “I’ve been friends with Luke Greenwood for a long time.  Almost twenty years.  But I haven’t seen him in a while.”  She exhaled slowly.  “We were both working on our doctorates when we met at grad school.  He was a few years older.”  DeeAnn dropped her eyes back to Alison.  “He was also further along than I was, but our interests couldn’t have been more aligned, and he became my mentor.  In fact, we worked together for several years even after we got our PhDs.  Until I went to work with Koko.”  She stared off to the side as the memories came flooding back.  “He’s really brilliant.”

Alison adjusted her position and sat down cross-legged.  She leaned forward, listening.

After a moment, DeeAnn turned back to her.  “Do you remember what I told you about how I came to have Dulce?”

“You said you rescued her in Mexico.”

“That’s right.  It was a testing facility, used by the pharmaceuticals.  It was outside of U.S. regulations and barely one step away from a slaughterhouse.  What they were doing with those animals was horrific.  It was torture in every sense of the word.”

Alison nodded.  “I remember that part.”

“That was right after I left working with Koko and the Gorilla Foundation.  I told you I left the Foundation because I wanted to make a bigger difference.  A difference in the lives of these poor animals.  Dulce being one of them.  But I didn’t tell you what inspired a change at that point in my life.”  She leveled her eyes at Alison.  “It was Luke Greenwood who got me to leave.”

Alison raised her eyebrows curiously.

“I hadn’t seen him in years, but one day he showed up at the Foundation.  He told me he was forming a group to track and save captive and abused animals.  And he wanted me to join him.”

DeeAnn closed her eyes for a long moment, before opening them again.  “Luke always made it impossible to say no.  He was so passionate.  Seeing animals being tortured made him angrier than anything.”

“So you went with him.”

DeeAnn nodded.  “By the time I left, I was as angry as he was.  And you know what?” she asked.

Alison shrugged.

“We saved a
lot
.”  She breathed in deeply.  “From places all over the world.  And then we learned about the facility in Mexico.  All funded, built, and run by pharmaceutical money.  And they didn’t care who knew about it.  It’s like they were flaunting it.  So with help from others, we found the place and watched, planning.  And then late one night, we raided it.”

Alison frowned.  “That sounds dangerous.”

“It was.  They even had a few armed guards, but we caught them with their pants down and disarmed them.”  A smile spread across DeeAnn’s face.  “It was glorious!”

“And that’s where you found Dulce?”

“Yes.  We saved hundreds of animals that night.  Many were able to survive in the local ecosystem so we set them free. The rest we took out of there.  By morning, we’d made it to the border where we had a team from San Diego waiting, along with some government officials who supported us.  It was a major blow to those drug companies, both economically and politically.  We’d also taken video of the factory.  One of the companies got so much negative press and came under so much scrutiny that they abandoned their animal testing completely.  We broke their back.  And it was all thanks to Luke.”

“So what happened to him?”

“After we rescued the animals, I discovered that Dulce was far more intelligent than I expected.  So I started working with her, trying to provide whatever possible therapy I could.  I was hoping we could return her to the wild someday, but she never wanted to leave.  At the same time, I was making progress communicating with her even faster than we had with Koko.  I just fell in love with her.  But Luke wasn’t done.  He said he wouldn’t stop until he’d broken the back of every drug company.  I didn’t think it was practical and tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen.  We parted ways, and I’m afraid not under the best of terms.  Something I’ve always regretted.”

“When did that happen?”

“About a year and a half ago.  The last I’d heard, he was working with someone in South America.  On a preserve.”

Alison opened her eyes wide.  “I had no idea.”

“How could you?” DeeAnn shrugged, then thought about something.  “Unfortunately there’s one more thing.  Dulce calls me mommy for obvious reasons.  But if she considers me her mother, then Luke would undoubtedly be considered her
father
.”

“I’m terribly sorry, Ms. Draper.  My intention was not to cause distress.  I should have been more delicate about the news over Mr. Greenwood.  Please accept my apology.”

DeeAnn forced a polite smile.  “It’s all right.  I’ve never been one for tip-toeing.”  Her eyes were dry but still red.  She and Alison had returned to the office and now sat facing Alves and his assistant.  “I assume there is more to your visit.”

Alves nodded gratefully.  “Indeed.  Perhaps it might help if you could tell me the last time you saw Luke.”

“About a year and a half ago.”

Alves thought for a moment.  “Right.  I met him shortly after that.  Shortly after he arrived in South America.  He approached my organization in an effort to raise funds.  I almost dismissed him at first, but then I realized exactly why he was there; to rescue animals which had been captured and were being sold for medical testing.”

DeeAnn smirked.  “Medical testing is too kind a term.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Alves nodded.  “I’m afraid South America has a dark side to our beautiful jungle landscape.  It’s very easy to hide things you don’t want seen.  And like other economically strapped countries, ours is also subject to a great many humanitarian abuses.  Which is why Luke wanted to go straight to the source.”

DeeAnn turned to Alison, “Poaching.”

“Correct.  The animals trapped in test labs first need to be captured.  Luke called them ‘torture labs,' and while South America does not have many of these facilities, we do have a large number of poachers who are happy to provide the supply, unfortunately.  Men travel deep into our jungles and capture a variety of different animals to sell cheaply on the black market.  And with Brazil being the largest country in this region, we have the disgrace of carrying out more of these crimes than anyone else.”  He turned to his assistant who shamefully dropped her head.  She obviously understood enough English to know what Alves was referring to.

“So, Luke went after the poachers.”

“More or less, yes.  But he didn’t go alone.  You see, when Luke came to us and explained what he needed the money for, it became obvious that we had a rather symbiotic relationship.  He wanted to save wild animals, and I wanted to keep them within the safety of my preserve.  It seemed an ideal solution.”  Alves shrugged subtly.  “So he joined my employ.”

“And you funded his raids?”

“Well, the word ‘raid’ may be a tad extreme, but yes, I funded him.  I also provided him with protection: a team from my own security service accompanied him and helped plan the rescues.  And I dare say we were rather successful.  Over the course of ten months, we freed hundreds of captured animals that were being prepared for shipment.  Many of those animals joined my preserve, where they currently live a safe and happy life in the wild.”

DeeAnn frowned.  “So, what happened?”

Alves leaned back in his chair.  “Dexter happened.”

DeeAnn and Alison raised their eyebrows and spoke almost in unison.  “Dexter?”

Alves’ lips broke into a smile.  “Dexter was one of our rescues.  He’s a capuchin monkey, rescued in our last mission.”  His face became serious again.  “That mission was the deepest into the Amazon rainforest to date.  What they found was a big operation and a rescue that was, well, quite surprising.”

Both women were listening intently as he leaned forward, obviously getting more excited.  “Luke and his team always went in at night.  It was much easier.  Normally, they would observe the camp for several days first to assess the situation.” 

“However, on this trip, they saw something rather extraordinary.  These particular poachers had rounded up hundreds of capuchin monkeys and were preparing to truck them back down to the coast, where they would meet a cargo ship and make the transfer.  The capuchins would not be caged until loaded onto the ship since the space requirements were far too prohibitive for using individual cages in the mountains.  Instead, they were gathered and kept in giant nets.

“You can imagine some of the problems involved in keeping them in these large nets.  And it was while Luke was observing the camp that he spotted Dexter.”

“Spotted him in a net?” Alison asked.

“Not exactly.”  Alves now smiled, almost humorously.  “Dexter hadn’t been captured.  At least not yet.  He was outside the net, which was bound by a strong rope.”  Alves paused for effect.  “You see, Dexter was trying to free the other monkeys.  More specifically, he was trying to untie the knot in the rope.”

Both women’s eyes suddenly shot open.  “What?”  DeeAnn gasped.  “He was trying to untie the knot?!”

Alves was smiling wider now and nodded.  “That’s right.  But that’s not the best part.”  He leaned forward even more.  “Dexter was not only trying to untie the knot, but he almost did it!  One of the poachers spotted him and netted him, but he didn’t realize what Dexter was trying to do.  When Luke told me the story, he said that when he examined the net himself, Dexter had managed to get most of it undone!” 

DeeAnn was speechless.  The story had not been wasted on Alison either.  She was no expert on primates, but even she knew how incredible that was.  The look on DeeAnn’s face confirmed it.

Alves gave DeeAnn a knowing look.  “From what I understand, Luke Greenwood had a very similar reaction.”

She just stared at him, shaking her head silently in utter disbelief.  Finally, she put her hand against her cheek.  “Luke told you that story?”

“Nearly word for word.”

“That’s…amazing.  And in the wild.  My God.”

“Luke was equally shocked,” said Alves.  “But he was also excited.  In fact, he was so enthralled that he stopped his missions and began working with Dexter.  He knew what you were doing with Koko and then here with Ms. Shaw.  He was planning to contact you.  I’m surprised he hadn’t already.”

“He never did.”  DeeAnn’s excitement quickly faded to disappointment.

Alves noticed Alison staring at him with a raised eyebrow and turned back to her.

“I’m afraid you still haven’t told us what you need help with,” Alison reminded him.

He looked at her, impressed.  “You’re both very sharp.  The reason I’m here is that while I understand that he did not have Ms. Draper’s experience, Luke was able to make quite a bit of progress communicating with Dexter.  I believe this was why he was following your work here with such interest.”  The pleasantness in Alves’ face seemed to fall away and was replaced with grief.  “But, eventually came the attack on our complex.”

“And the animals were killed.”

“Yes.  And Luke disappeared.”  Alves sat up straight.  “But there may be a silver lining.  We believe Dexter survived and escaped back out into the preserve.  I’ve come to get your help in finding him
.
”