into.
‘All right, you don’t have to answer,’ Bertram said. ‘I don’t want to
add to your anxiety. We’d enjoy having you over, so if you change your
mind, give us a call. But what about the gym or the rec center or even
the pool? I’ve never seen you in any of those places. Being stuck here
in this hothouse part of Africa is bad enough, but making yourself a
prisoner of your lab or house just makes it worse.’
‘I’m sure you are right,’ Kevin said. ‘But . . .’
‘Of course I’m right,’ Bertram said. ‘But there is another side to this
that I should warn you about. People are talking.’
‘What do you mean?’ Kevin asked. ‘Talking about what?’
‘People are saying that you’re aloof because you think you are
superior,’ Bertram said. ‘You know, the academician with all his fancy
degrees from Harvard and MIT. It’s easy for people to misinterpret your
behavior, especially if they are envious.’
‘Why would anybody be envious of me?’ Kevin asked. He was shocked.
‘Very easy,’ Bertram said. ‘You obviously get special treatment from the
home office. You get a new car every two years, and your quarters are as
good as Siegfried Spallek’s, the manager for the entire operation.
That’s bound to raise some eyebrows, particularly from people like
Cameron McIvers who was stupid enough to bring his whole damn family out
here. Plus you got that NMR machine. The hospital administrator and I
have been lobbying for an MRI since day one.’
‘I tried to talk them out of giving me the house,’ Kevin said. ‘I said
it was too big.’
‘Hey, you don’t have to defend your perks to me,’ Bertram said. ‘I
understand because I’m privy to your project. But very few other people
are, and some of them aren’t happy. Even Spallek doesn’t quite
understand although he definitely likes participating in the bonus your
project has brought those of us who are lucky enough to be associated.’
Before Kevin could respond, Bertram was stopped for a series of corridor
consultations. He and Bertram had been traversing the veterinary
hospital. Kevin used the interruption to ponder Bertram’s comments.
Kevin had always thought of himself as being rather invisible. The idea
that he’d engendered animosities was hard to comprehend.
‘Sorry,’ Bertram offered after the final consult. He pushed through the
last of the double doors. Kevin followed.
Passing his secretary, Martha, he picked up a small stack of phone
messages. He leafed through them as he waved Kevin into his inner
office. He closed his door.
‘You’re going to love this,’ Bertram said, tossing the messages aside.
He sat down in front of his computer and showed Kevin how to bring up a
graphic of Isla Francesca. It was divided into a grid. ‘Now give me the
number of whatever creature you want to locate.’
‘Mine,’ Kevin said. ‘Number one.’
‘Coming up,’ Bertram said. He entered the information and clicked.
Suddenly a red blinking light appeared on the map of the island. It was
north of the limestone escarpment but south of the stream that had been
humorously dubbed Rio Diviso. The stream bisected the six-by-two-mile
island lengthwise, flowing east to west. In the center of the island was
a pond they’d called Lago Hippo for obvious reasons.
‘Pretty slick, huh?’ Bertram said proudly.
Kevin was captivated. It wasn’t so much by the technology, although that
interested him. It was more because the red light was blinking exactly
where he would have imagined the smoke to have been coming from.
Bertram got up and pulled open a file drawer. It was filled with small
handheld electronic devices that looked like miniature notepads with
small LCD screens. An extendable antenna protruded from each.
‘These work in a similar fashion,’ Bertram said. He handed one to Kevin.
‘We call them locators. Of course, they are portable and can be taken
into the field. It makes retrieval a snap compared to the struggles we
had initially.’
Kevin played with the keyboard. With Bertram’s help, he soon had the
island graphic with the red blinking light displayed. Bertram showed how
to go from successive maps with smaller and smaller scales until the