“Has he asked about Kevin Marshall?” Bertram asked.

“Of course,” Siegfried said. “As soon as he got me aside, it was his first question.”

“What did you say?”

“I told the truth,” Siegfried said. “I told him Kevin had gone off with the reproductive technologist and the intensive care nurse and that I had no idea where he was.”

“What was his reaction?”

“He got red in the face,” Siegfried said. “He wanted to know if Kevin had gone to the island. I told him that we didn’t think so. Then he ordered me to find him. Can you imagine? I don’t take orders from Raymond Lyons.”

“So Kevin and the women have not reappeared?” Bertram asked.

“No, and not a word,” Siegfried said.

“Have you made any effort to find them?” Bertram asked.

“I sent Cameron over to Acalayong to check out those cheap hotels along the waterfront, but he didn’t have any luck. I’m thinking they might have gone over to Cocobeach in Gabon. That’s what makes the most sense, but why they didn’t tell anyone is beyond me.”

“What a God-awful mess,” Bertram commented.

“How did you do on the island?” Siegfried asked.

“We did well, considering how fast we had to put the operation together,” Bertram said. “We got an all-terrain vehicle over there with a wagon. It was all we could think of to get that many animals back to the staging area.”

“How many animals did you get?”

“Twenty-one,” Bertram said. “Which is a tribute to my crew. It suggests we’ll be able to finish up by tomorrow.”

“So soon,” Siegfried commented. “That’s the first encouraging news all day.”

“It’s easier than we anticipated,” Bertram said. “The animals seem enthralled by us. They are trusting enough to let us get close with the dart gun. It’s like a turkey shoot.”

“I’m glad something is going right,” Siegfried said.

“The twenty-one animals we got today were all part of the splinter group living north of the Rio Diviso. It was interesting how they were living. They’d made crude huts on stilts with roofs of layered lobelia leaves.”

“I don’t give a damn how those animals were living,” Siegfried snapped. “Don’t tell me you’re going soft, too.”

“No, I’m not going soft,” Bertram said. “But I still find it interesting. There was also evidence of campfires.”

“So, it’s good we’re putting them in the cages,” Siegfried said. “They won’t be killing each other, and they won’t be playing around with fire.”

“That’s one way to look at it,” Bertram agreed.

“Any sign of Kevin and the women on the island?” Siegfried asked.

“Not in the slightest,” Bertram said. “And I made it a point to look. But even in areas they would have left footprints, there was nothing. We spent part of today building a log bridge over the Rio Diviso, so tomorrow we’ll start retrievals near the limestone cliffs. I’ll keep my eyes open for signs they’d been there.”

“I doubt you’ll find anything, but until they are located we shouldn’t rule out the possibility they went to the island. But I’ll tell you, if they did go, and they come back here, I’ll turn them over to the Equatoguinean minister of justice with the charge that they have severely compromised the GenSys operation. Of course, that means they’ll be lined up out in the soccer field in front of a firing squad before they knew what hit them.”