“… Fabi? Fabi, come out! It’s me, Cassandra. I know it’s you; I saw you go in there and not come out again.”
Beneath the desk, Fabi hung her head and breathed a huge sigh of relief. If anyone had to find her, Cassandra was the best possible person. It was still embarrassing, but infinitely better than if her manager, or God forbid — Dr. Avila — had caught her. She had no idea what she’d do then. As it was, it was going to be awkward.
“Coming.” She crawled out, stood, and gave Cassandra a sheepish look.
Cassandra left the door open but didn’t turn on the lights. “Fabi, what are you doing in here? You trying to get fired? Or more than fired… one time we had a part-time worker caught stealing office supplies — I’m talking really minor stuff— and Avila had him arrested. Never saw him again, even around town.”
Fabi blushed. “I wasn’t trying to steal anything. I was only looking for paperwork that could help me to do my job better.”
Cassandra put her hands on her hips. “Oh really? Poking around our manager’s office in the dark? You think I was born yesterday, honey? I like you, but don’t take me for an idiot.”
Fabi eyed her new friend. At least, she was really hoping she was a friend right about now and not overly loyal to Dr. Avila.
“All right, take it easy. I'll tell you everything.”
Chapter 27
“Don’t Haiti me because I’m beautiful.” Bones said to Maddock, who consulted the chart plotter on the console of the Sea Foam and then rolled his eyes.
“Bones, you don’t know where the heck you are. We’re not in Haiti anymore. We crossed into Dominican Republic waters ten miles ago.”
That the island of Hispaniola was now separated into two countries did not escape Maddock, for when the crazy sailor was here, it was but an island called Hispaniola constituting no country at all. Looming before them, a rocky isle jutted from the sea, taller than it was wide, a monolithic rock. Maddock couldn’t think of it any other way. It was simply a massive rock in the middle of the ocean, off the southwest coast of Dominican Republic. The island was green up top, but all gray rock on the bottom third.
“You're sure this is the place?” Willis sounded a little worried. They’d endured a not unpleasant but nevertheless long voyage on the Sea Foam to get here.
Maddock shrugged. “Not sure, but it's as good a candidate as any. Remember that weird plant the man on Tortuga told us about?”
Willis and Bones nodded.
“Jimmy identified an island near the forts at St Louis de Sud that had high zombii activity and a high concentration of that plant.”
“The one with the spores?” Bones eyed the nearing coastline with increasing interest.
“That’s the one. Also, I’ve come across accounts that herbicides have been dropped there as well.”
“Herbicides?” Willis also seemed drawn to the island, his inclusion in the conversation a mere afterthought. Maddock exhaled in frustration.
“Yes, Willis, herbicides. As in, they kill plants, especially the one our old friend told us about — the one with the spores?”
Willis nodded, “Okay, I hear you. But the currents… are they right? That sailor’s account of the weather… .”
Bones picked up the ball, sensing Maddock was losing patience. “He predicted a drift that would place the shipwreck near this island—Alto Velo.”
Maddock pulled out some crumpled notes and read from them. “Listen: Our sailor said he drifted past an island, one so small it was barely visible, but that it had lots of birds. He drifted for twenty-one days before hitting the zombie island.”
Bones looked doubtful. “But how do we know where that is? Which island? Hispaniola has thousands. How do we know this is it?”
Maddock was undeterred as he looked out at the island. “Alto Velo fits the bill. For one thing, it was endowed with large guano deposits — yeah, bird crap — which was valuable as fertilizer and as a source of saltpeter for gunpowder.”
“Holy crap,” Bones added, “I'm suddenly feeling depressed.”
Willis chuckled before answering. “What for, you finally look in a mirror?”
Bones shot Willis a look that conceded, nice one, but quickly moved on. “No, because now comes the boring part — running a grid pattern actually looking for this thing.”
Chapter 28
When Fabi finished talking, she was out of breath. She ended by telling Cassandra about how she watched their manager leave and deciding to see what he kept under lock and key all the time in his office, that maybe it had something to do with the disappearances. Cassandra eyed the folder Fabi had pulled from the file cabinet.
“And what’s that?”
Fabi opened the folder on the desk. “It’s some kind of special project called HAITI. I hadn’t yet gotten a chance to look at it when I had to take cover.”
Her new friend smiled. “Sorry about that, but I was a little worried about you. Let’s take a look…”
Together they read through the file’s contents, splitting the pages amongst them. After a few minutes Fabi stabbed a finger onto one of the papers. “Right here. You see that number?”
Cassandra squinted as she eyeballed the digits. “Yeah? What of it?”
“Earlier today I processed some payments, so I recognize it. It’s the same account Dr. Avila once used to purchase some computer equipment for the main clinic. He’s using it to bankroll this HAITI project, whatever it is.”
“Must be some high limit he has on that card, too, judging by these expenditures.” Cassandra raised her eyebrows as she traced a finger along the recorded charges. Fabi looked up from the records.
“Okay, so Dr. Avila is funding this HAITI project. There doesn’t appear to be a description of the actual project work anywhere here, but I do notice that some of these invoices are related to other clinics here in town.”
Cassandra leaned over. “Let me take a look… I recognize that one. It’s a small clinic in a bad part of town, receiving lots of money for unspecified ‘equipment’. That is strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“That place is notorious for being understaffed and not having enough equipment.”
Fabi shrugged. “Maybe he used this project to change that?”
Cassandra continued to study the file. “You would think, except that I was there not too long ago for a meeting to show their data manager how to set up one of our databases, and believe me, they didn’t have anything new that I could see.”
Fabi studied the reports some more, finally shaking her head. “This seems irrefutable to me. The money is flowing their way for some sort of equipment. How much of the building did you see when you went there?”
“Not all of it, but I did see the patient areas. You would think that’d be the place for new equipment.”
“Why don’t we go over there and have a look?”
Cassandra looked unsure. “You mean set up a meeting—”
“No, I mean we go over there right now and see what’s going on.”
“Fabi, I don’t know. For one thing, I don’t have a key to that place.”
Fabi grinned. “You’re not going to let a little thing like that stop us, are you?”
The clinic lay on the outskirts of town, where there were no streetlights. Only a weak outer security bulb kept the place from being in complete darkness.
“Not the kind of place that shouts, ‘all kinds of valuable stuff in here’, is it?” Fabi whispered as she and Cassandra walked up to the entrance.