them.’
‘What about telling him and cutting him in on a small percentage?’
Bertram suggested. ‘He could be very helpful.’
‘I’m not diluting our percentages!’ Siegfried said. ‘Don’t even suggest
it. Besides, Cameron is already helpful. He does whatever I tell him to
do.’
‘What worries me the most about this episode with Kevin Marshall is that
he must have said something to those women,’ Bertram said. ‘The last
thing I want is for them to start thinking the bonobos on the island are
using fire. If that gets out, it’s just a matter of time before we have
animal-rights zealots coming out of the woodwork. GenSys will shut the
program down faster than you can blink your eye.’
‘What do you think we should do?’ Siegfried asked. ‘I could arrange to
have the three of them just disappear.’
Bertram glanced at Siegfried and shivered. He knew the man was not
joking.
‘No, that could be worse,’ Bertram said. He looked back out through the
windshield. ‘That might stimulate a major State-side investigation. I’m
telling you, I think we should dart the bonobos, put them in the cages I
brought out there, and bring them in. Sure as hell, they won’t be using
fire in the animal center.’
‘No, goddamn it!’ Siegfried snapped. ‘The animals stay on the island. If
they’re brought in, you won’t be able to keep it a secret. Even if they
don’t use fire, we know they’re cunning little bastards from the
problems we’ve had during retrievals, and maybe they’ll start doing
something else equally as weird. If they do, handlers will start
talking. We’ll be in worse shape.’
Bertram sighed and ran a nervous hand through his white hair.
Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that Siegfried had a point. Still,
he thought it best to bring the animals in, mainly to keep them isolated
from each other.
‘I’ll be talking to Raymond Lyons tomorrow,’ Siegfried said. ‘I tried to
call him earlier. I figured that since Kevin Marshall had already talked
to him, we might as well get his opinion about what to do. After all,
this whole operation is his creation. He doesn’t want trouble any more
than we do.’
‘True,’ Bertram said.
‘Tell me something,’ Siegfried said. ‘If the animals are using fire, how
do you think they got it? You still think it was lightning?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Bertram said. ‘It could have been lightning. But, then
again, they managed to steal a bunch of tools, rope, and other stuff
when we had the crew out there constructing the island side of the
bridge mechanism. No one even thought about the possibility of theft. I
mean, everything was secured in toolboxes. Anyway, they might have
gotten matches. Of course, I have no idea how they could have figured
out how to use them.’
‘You just gave me an idea,’ Siegfried said. ‘Why don’t we tell Kevin and
the women there’s been a crew going out to the island over the past week
to do some kind of work like cutting trails. We can say that we’ve just
found out that they have been starting the fires.’
‘Now that’s a damn good idea!’ Bertram said. ‘It makes perfect sense.
We’ve even considered putting a bridge over the Rio Diviso.’
‘Why the hell didn’t we think of it earlier?’ Siegfried questioned.
‘It’s so obvious.’
Ahead the LandCruiser’s headlights illuminated the first of the
animal-center’s buildings.
‘Where do you want me to park?’ Siegfried asked.
‘Pull right up to the front,’ Bertram said. ‘You can wait in the air. It
will only take me a second.’
Siegfried took his foot off the accelerator and began to brake.
‘What the hell!’ Bertram said.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘There’s a light on in my office,’ Bertram answered.
‘This looks promising,’ Candace called out as she pulled a large folder
from the top drawer of the file cabinet. The folder was dark blue and
closed with an attached elastic. In the upper right-hand corner it said:
Isla Francesca.
Melanie pushed in the drawer of the desk she’d been searching and walked
over to Candace. Kevin appeared from the outer office and joined them.
Candace snapped off the elastic and opened the folder. She slid the