A moonless night, the empty beach was dark, only the glow from the city lighting up the sky. Malique waited, watching the dark waves intently, even though he knew that he wouldn't see anything until they were already there. Other members of his team watched the land, but Malique was the one who would have to make the contact. Finally, he heard the sounds that he'd been waiting for. High pitched squeals, splashes. A dark shape rose up out of the surf, silhouetted against the horizon. It didn't wade in closer, but began to do something in the waist high water. He'd brought in more supplies after all. Malique whispered a curt order and several of his men followed him as he cautiously stepped out of the concealing vegetation..
Caesar Teslof took care of his dolphins first, removing the lines that connected the pods to their harnesses, checking for sores or injuries. His foster father tried to tell him, again and again, to make sure that Malique was the one waiting for him, but that was ridiculous in his opinion. Malique was told when and where he, Caesar, would be coming in. So anyone waiting there would be Malique. It wasn't as though Caesar could recognize him, after all. Almost all people looked alike to him.
Malique gave a resigned sigh as the supply pods began to drift back out. If it weren't for his commandoes splashing after there, they would have been lost. If he'd had any doubts at all, that one bit of supreme indifference would have informed him that this was the CIA operative he'd been waiting for. He shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself. It was getting to the point that if Teslof did give the appropriate passwords and counters, he'd suspect a ringer.
"Caesar," he said quietly, greeting the slender, pale-skinned, dark haired twenty one year old youth. He was wearing a long wet-suit, cut away along both sides of the back to reveal long scars running on either side of his spine, stretching around to the front.
"Malique?"
The rebel leader nodded, amused anew with the questioning lilt in the younger man's voice. He'd seen Caesar recognize a dolphin up to a year after seeing it in passing for half a second, but pass by someone he saw everyday without recognizing them.
"I've got something I want you to check for me," Malique said quickly while he had his attention. Caesar's companion dolphins were beginning to swim away and he knew that he only had a brief time to get his message across.
He took the passport assigned to Renee St. Paul out of his pocket and handed it over. Caesar looked at it incuriously, puzzling it out.
"See what you can find out about this woman for me," he directed. "General Miguel had her kidnapped from her flight and taken to a local hospital. We managed to free her, but the militia attacked the favela and she was recaptured. I need to know why...?"
Before Malique could stop him, Caesar lit a penlight, and trained it on the photo with a sharp intake of breath.
"That's Ari," he said flatly.
Malique stared at him, surprised by the unexpected response.
"Ari? Ari who? She said her name was Renee."
"Ari Darwin's friend. Where is she? Is she here?"
Without waiting for an answer, he splashed out further into the water, and Malique rolled his eyes. Time up. But instead of diving into the surf after the disappearing animals, Caesar stood still and the dolphins returned, faster than they'd left. After several minutes, he removed the harness from one of them, which took off at top speed. Then, carrying the harness, he returned to where Maliqu watched, too surprised and curious to leave.
"Where is Ari?" he asked, sounding forceful.
"Umm, General Miguel has her hostage." He tried to regain control of the meeting. "Look Caesar, this is important. The General kidnapped that woman from the airport. She's being held at the residence. I need to know who she is and why he took her prisoner. Don't forget."
"I won't forget," he promised, his voice hard. "The dolphinkiller has Air Darwin's friend again. Is she hurt?"
Malique blinked with surprise at the show of concern the other man usually reserved for one of his dolphins.
"Umm, I... Last I saw her, she was bleeding badly. Maybe dangerously. I don't know."
"Find out. Find out everything you can. She can help bring the dolphinkiller to justice."
Making sure that the passport was tightly sealed in a pouch, he ran back into the water, diving smoothly. The gills implanted along his sides opened when the moisture hit them and began to function. One of his friends bumped up to him, asking what Malique had said, and Caesar took hold of his harness, letting the dolphin pull him along while he manipulated the dolphin communications device in the belt of his suit. He wished his foster father would let him have the surgery done on his vocal cords so that he didn't have to use the sound generator, but Malcolm Lansdowne held the opinion that having gills and a hearing aid implanted was far enough. He pointed out that if Caesar had his vocal cords altered, he wouldn't be able to speak to other humans, but that was a non-argument in the opinion of the young man.
Both the gills and the ear implant had come in useful over the past three years, since Malique had launched his rebellion against General Miguel's corrupt regime. Caesar didn't know why Malcolm or even the United States government was opposed to the dolphinkiller, but his friends wanted the man dead and destroyed and that was enough of a reason for him to get involved. Some of the dolphins that had been tortured had ended up at the Caicos Dolphin Research facility, run by his foster father, and Caesar had seen for his own eyes the evil that the man had done.
Malique stood quietly on the again empty beach long after the strang young man had left, wondering several things. Caesar had called her 'Ari Darwin's friend', and at the moment, the only Darwin that the man could remember was the dolphin attached to the seaQuest. And the seaQuest had disappeared ten years ago.
Except; the woman, Ari or Renee or whoever she was, she'd mentioned Miguel of the seaQuest as well, as though she'd known him and known him well. If that were true, she must have been jailbait at the time. Shrugging, he turned to go. The sun was rising and it wouldn't be good to be caught on the beach by any of the military's goons. Caesar had said that he would return, with the information, so he'd know soon enough.
He disappeared into the shadows under the trees, trusting the tide to remove all signs of the covert operation.
General Miguel sat with several of his aides while Col. Allan Jameson, his security officer, described the progress of the safety programs intended to prevent the rebels from obtaining either arms or support from traitorous armed military units."Once the program protocols are complete," he was saying when the intercom beeped for attention, "we'll be able to lock down all armories and all military barracks from this location."
General Miguel raised his hand, leaning over to open the channel. His secretary responded.
"Doctor Hermano to see you, sir." the intercom squawked.
The General looked around with worried alarm, gesturing imperiously.
"All you, leave. Send the doctor in."
Jameson, a former UEO officer, stayed behind to argue.
"You're making a mistake, Carlos," he warned with the familiarity of one who knows exactly where and how deep the bodies are buried. "This Adler broad is trouble. You can't trust her.
"I don't intend to trust her, Allan. I intend to bed her, breed her and marry her." While he was speaking, the outer door to his office opened and a uniformed guard showed Doctor Hermano in. The doctor winced, shaking his head cautionarily.
With a sharp look at the medical man's face, the general waved Jameson out. Reluctantly, he left.
"Well?" Gen. Miguel demanded. "It's been three days. How is she?"
Doctor Hermano swallowed heavily, his eyes darting around as though seeking an escape.
"Ahh, you may wish to change your plans, my general. She ... " The look on the general's face stopped him and he had to clear his throat before he could contnue.
"There was significant blood loss, general. I told you that at the time. Her blood pressure fell to dangerous levels before we started replacing it, and ... And certain cognitive areas of her brain were affected. She may never recover."
"Is she still fertile?"
The question wasn't one that the good doctor expected. After a few seconds of blinking rapidly, he was forced to admit ignorance.
"There is no way to tell at this time. The flow of blood is still heavy and examination is..."
"When will you know?" Gen. Miguel interrupted abruptly.
"Three weeks?" Hermano quessed.
"Can I see her?"
"General, you don't understand. She's an idiot. You don't want..."
"She may be an idiot, now, but she is a beautiful idiot and she will give me handsome, intelligent sons. In fact, your news today is the best I've heard since she was kidnapped by those criminals." He smiled unpleasantly to himself. He pushed himself away from the desk and stood up.
"I want to see her."
Bowing to the will of his leader, Dr. Hermano followed Gen. Miguel to the room that had been set up as a temporary sickroom. The generalissimo brushed aside the nurse on duty and threw open the door.
Ari sat cross-legged on the top of the hospital bed, wearing a short white gown, intent on writing something. At the sound of General Miguel's entrance, she looked up and smiled brightly.
"Hello. Are you another doctor?" she asked happily. Then she screwed her eyes shut and shook her head from side to side.
"Of course you aren't silly. You're not dressed like a doctor. Are you here because your tummy hurts? My tummy hurts." She nodded her head toward Dr. Hermano, half-hidden behind the dictator's bulk. "He's making it better."
General Miguel stared flabbergasted at the girl. He blinked, unable to find anything to say.
Her face changed, becoming sympathetic, and she slipped down, moving gingerly, and walked over to him to slip her hand into his and reach up to pat his face comfortingly.
"It's ok," she assured him earnestly. "It doesn't hurt that much so he must be good. I think I got applencider," she whispered confidentially. "That makes your tummy hurt a lot, my mummy says. That happened to one of Daddy's friends when they were out at sea. And Doc had to remove his apple."
Helplessly, Gen. Miguel turned to Dr. Hermano for help. The doctor sighed, pushed himself forward and held out his hand to Ari.
"Ok, Ree, back to bed. You know I told you you had to be quiet."
"I am quiet, aren't I, sir?" she asked, turning to the dictator for confirmation. "I was whispering, wasn't I?" She stuck her chin up at the doctor. "He's an officer, so what he says, is!"
The general took a deep breath. Still looking stunned, he shook his head at Hermano and began to lead Ari back to the bed.
"Yes, you were quiet," he told her soothingly, pulling back the covers to let her slip under them. "But I think that the doctor means you should lie down so your tummy can get better. Umm, do you know who you are?"
"Uh-huh! I'm Ree Adler," she answered with childish self-importance. "I live at 35 Rue Chantilly, Paris France with my mummy. She's Brigid Adler and she's the most beautiful mummy in the world and guess what? I'm gonna be a big sister. My daddy is away right now, we don't know where exactly, but he's the COB of the Seawolf."
"That's good. You're a very smart girl, Ree. Do you know how old you are."
She shook her head vigourously. "I'm six years old and I can read and write. Mummy says that's good." She smiled the happy, confident smile of a child who knows that she is loved.
"That is good," Gen. Miguel assured her, tucking her in. "Will you go to sleep, now? For me?"
She frowned, eyeing him suspiciously for the first time.
"Who are you?" she asked, sounding for a moment like her older self.
"I'm a friend of your parents. They asked me to look after you for a while. My name is Carlos Miguel."
With a regretful and shy smile, she ducked her head. "I like that name, but I gotta ask you for the password."
He shot a look over at the doctor, who shrugged ignorance. Taking a wild guess that she might remember something, he answered, "seaQuest?"
"Thass right," she yawned, closing her eyes and slipping one hand under her cheek, the other into his hand. "seaQuest." She began to hmm softly to herself, drifting back into sleep, holding on to his hand still.
"You see what I mean, sir?" Dr. Hermano said, with a sigh of exasperation. "A complete idiot."
"Keep your voice down. Do you want to wake her up?" he answered, whispering harshly. Smiling at the sleeping woman, Carlos Miguel reached out to brush back the hair from her face, humming a little as her droning faltered.
"Make the room off of mine ready," he ordered. "As soon as Ree doesn't need all this ... this equipment, I want her moved there."
"But sir...?" Hermano started to protest. "You could hurt her if you start ... too early. Before she's healed."
"What do you think I am? A monster? Of course I'm not going to sleep with her until she's healed. I want to be sure she's safe. Just in case."
Slowly, he pulled his hand free, pleased and flattered by the small frown of protest that crossed the sleeping face. He faced the doctor, still standing watching with bewildered apprehension.
"Let me know when Ree starts to wake. I want to be here." Without waiting for an answer, he walked past the doctor and out of the room, feeling much happier than he had when he went in.
Malcolm Lansdowne gazed thoughtfully down at the photo on the passport, his face nostalgic and distant."It's a sad thing, when a man grows older and all the women younger," he mused to his foster son. Caesar looked at him blandly, waiting for some response that made sense. "Right, ok," Malcolm muttered, putting the id down again.
"You say Malique asked for information about Ari?"
Caesar nodded impatiently. They'd already gone over all this and he wanted to get back into the water.
"And you decided not to tell Captain Freedman?" the portly dolphin scientist continued, referring to Teslof's CIA contact. The young man shrugged, spreading his hands apart. "Good boy, I knew I raised you right. If Ari's there under cover, then she wouldn't want the authorities to know. The question is, who does know?" He frowned, his eyebrows rising dramatically. "And I can think of one man who might."
Pushing his swivel chair around, he activated a vidphone and made some connections. After getting several 'The party you want is not available at this number' messages, he grunted and exclaimed, "Come on Nathan and answer! I know you're there!"
Instantly, the wrong number screen vanished and Nathan Bridger's weather-tanned features appeared, wreathed in wrinkles of pleased recognition.
"Downy, you old scoundrel! How've you been?"
"Well, I was doing pretty good keeping my blood pressure down until I tried to get through to you!" he grumbled, For several minutes, they just visited, but finally, conscious of Caesar waiting impatiently out of viewer range, Lansdowne got down to business.
"I've got a question about one of your people," he said, flipping the passport open so that Nathan could see it. "She's in some kind of trouble in the Amazon Confederation. You have any idea what she's doing there?"
Shaking his head and sighing, the former captain of the UEO deep submergence vessel, seaQuest, shook his head.
"Can't help you, Downy. I'm retired. You might ask her CO. I think you remember him. Oliver Hudson? He's got command of the 'Quest now. I'm out of it entirely."
"Can you call on any of your section 8 connections to find ..."
"I'm out of it," Nathan repeated, his voice growing suddenly hard. "I'm retired. I'm a private citizen and I have no responsibility to any of them. If Adler's in trouble, talk to Oliver. Not me." He paused for a second, then, with a tone of finality said, "Goodbye Malcolm. It was good to talk to you. Call again when you aren't so busy." And the screen went blank.
Malcolm sat back heavily, his face totally blank as he continued to look at the empty screen. After several minutes, he gave a deep sigh and looked sadly over at his protege.
"I had heard he'd turned in on himself again, but I'd hoped it wasn't true. Ok, let's see what 'Jolly Olly' has to say."
All attempts to contact the seaQuest were denied due to the current, classified nature of their mission. When asked to state the nature of his desire to talk to Captain Hudson, Malcolm signed off. "I guess that's it," he told Caesar, the silent, invisible witness to all his attempts to find out more. "I looks like it's up to us."
Caesar leaned over and picked up the passport, folding it and replacing it in the sealed belt pouch.
"I could go to Captain Freedman?" he offered. Malcolm shook his head, thinking. "Malique will expect something," the young man reminded his mentor.
"Yes," the scientist answered, spinning himself around again and stopping in front of his computer monitor. "But I can provide what he needs. You go on and do what you have to. This time, when you go, I'm going too."
Caesar, on his way out the door, stopped and stared in frank amazement. In the ten years since seaQuest was lost, he'd continued to put on weight at a steady pace and now rarely left the research facility environs. He couldn't imagine the only father he remembered fitting into the single person, high speed submersible that he used for his forays down the coast of South America.
As if aware of his thoughts, Malcolm looked up and smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry, son. I won't delay you. I'll follow topside in the Darwin," he said, naming the center's research vehicle. "I think you're going to need more back-up than your friends can provide." Caesar eyed him with obvious curiousity at that odd statement and Malcolm grinned, mischief removing the years.
"Considering what happened last time General Carlos Miguel tangled with Ari Adler, it's possible that the entire area is about to blow."
Chapter 3
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