“What do you smell?”
Dulce grunted and shook her head. Flower smell pretty.
DeeAnn frowned and looked around at the others. She stopped on Corso, who was clearly not amused.
“I guess her sense of urgency isn’t quite the same as ours,” DeeAnn reflected out loud.
Corso didn’t reply. He simply stared at her and slowly shook his head.
She was about to apologize when Dulce abruptly stood up. Her large nostrils wiggled and she turned her head, as though listening. She then walked for several yards and sat back down in the grass.
Caesare lowered his rifle and pulled the satellite phone back out of his pocket. He dialed the number again and waited. Still busy.
It was too early to be concerned, but he needed to talk to Borger, and soon. He needed to know how much time they had before Otero and his goons arrived. Watching Dulce told him their chances of finding the capuchin first were dropping dramatically.
But there was something else. He looked solemnly past the others to the cliff face in the distance and followed it down to its base.
Finding the monkey was one thing, but Caesare and Borger both knew he was also there for another reason. Something even more important. There was something inside the base of that cliff that needed to be protected at all costs. Because if it was found, especially by someone like Otero, the world was not ready for what would come next.
Caesare was there to make sure that didn’t happen. Only five people knew what was hidden there. And if he had to, he would tell his men. Because if it came down to it, they needed to understand that no one could be allowed to find it.
No matter what.
55
The distant peak was in sight now and a frustrated Otero watched from the back of his Range Rover as their convoy made its way slowly and painfully up the narrow winding road.
His frustration was reaching new heights after multiple stops to repair the failing road. Wind and rain had eroded large sections, making it impossible for the larger trucks to pass without substantial reinforcements.
The third repair had unexpectedly given way when their trucks tried to pass, resulting in a near loss of the entire vehicle and its supplies. A loss that big would have been significant. He could live with the loss of some of his men, but fewer supplies meant less time to find the creature for which they had come.
It was becoming increasingly evident to Otero that the success of this mission was going to rely on a single person. And she was sitting in the vehicle just ahead of them, behind Captain Salazar.
Dr. Becca sat rocking back and forth with the sideways motion of the Humvee as it climbed, bouncing over what was left of the old road. Hours of driving — coupled with having to listen to Salazar spout his fascist political views — was making the trip truly deplorable. Instead, she tried to focus on the few positive aspects she could find. Like the vehicle’s air conditioning.
She’d met men like Salazar before. And just like them, he was an ass, plain and simple. A bureaucrat dressed in a military uniform and nothing more. Hiding within just another large government organization that was once again buckling under its own self-serving weight.
Brazil’s economy and its government were now completely imploding. Like many countries, Brazil was now in the last desperate throes of its collapse and was printing money like mad to stave off the inevitable: the long overdue cleansing of the country’s elite and political class.
To Becca, Salazar was part of the problem. Unfortunately, those in power never relinquished it without a fight. But this wasn’t her fight. She simply wanted to get back and save whatever career she might have left.
A career that, after reading all of the information she’d been given, just might include the zoological breakthrough of the century. She was now convinced that at least part of what Salazar and Otero were after… was real. A capuchin demonstrating a significantly higher level of cognition.
If it was true, it was the kind of discovery for the record books and one from which world renowned careers were launched.
In front of Becca, Salazar leaned forward, attempting to reach the dashboard in spite of the vehicle’s bouncing. His fingers found the small vent and adjusted the angle higher, trying to cool his beading forehead. The air was gradually growing cooler the higher they climbed, but it still wasn’t enough yet.
He returned his hand to the grab handle overhead, trying to steady himself after one bounce from a particularly large hole. Salazar’s own satellite phone rang loudly just as it fell from its tucked position against his leg. He fumbled for it but managed to get the phone to his ear by the third ring.
“Yes,” he answered, over the vehicle’s revving engine.
The voice on the other end was deep. “How close are you?”
“About five or six hours.”
“It’s about time.”
Salazar opened his mouth to explain but was cut off.
“Does anyone suspect anything?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Good. Surprise will be key. You cannot risk anyone knowing. Do you understand?”
“I do.” Salazar glanced at his driver for any indications that he was listening in.
“You should also know you’re going to have company.”
“What do you mean?”
“There is someone else at the top.”
Salazar’s brow lowered. “Who?”
“We don’t know. One of our AEW aircraft spotted an airplane over the area, which abruptly turned around over the mountains.”
A drop. Salazar cursed silently to himself and gritted his teeth. It was exactly what he was trying to preempt.
“You know what’s at stake,” said the voice. “And you know what happens if you fail.”
56
“This is bullshit.”
Everyone turned to Corso, standing in a small patch of shade with his HK416 gripped firmly in his large hands.
“Excuse me?”
His eyes moved to DeeAnn, then to Caesare. Dulce was sitting overhead in a young aphandra tree, examining its branches.
“She’s not going to find a damn thing.”
DeeAnn turned to Caesare before he could reply. “We need to give it time. This isn’t exactly a science. She’s doing the best she can.”
Corso looked up again into the tree. “Yeah, it looks it.”
A moment later, a large white and yellow flower fell down onto Corso’s shoulder, where he brushed it away and glared at the gorilla. Dulce returned a toothy grin.
“What the hell you expecting, Corso?” Tiewater grinned, descending from the top of a large rock. “You want the little thing to draw us a map?”
Anderson shrugged. “That would be nice.”
DeeAnn was still staring at Caesare. “We need more time.”
Time was a luxury they didn’t have. Caesare glanced at his watch again and peered up at the sky. They had three hours of daylight left at the most. And all the while Otero was getting closer. He needed to know how close but Borger still wasn’t answering his phone. Something was wrong.
“Ask her again,” he said.
After a moment, DeeAnn sighed and turned back around to face Dulce. “Where is our friend, Dulce?”
No know. Me look.
“How much more time?”
Her vest unexpectedly beeped, signaling a bad translation.
“How much longer?”
Dulce peered at her curiously from the tree. She looked like she was about to reply when she stopped. The gorilla abruptly stood up in the tree and steadied herself with a branch. Her posture was stiff. Alert. After a long silence, she spoke.
Go there.