Wild Meat (30 page)

“Did our doctor friend get all that intel just from Marcel?”

“Started with Marcel, but then got some other names. Somehow he’s strong-arming one of those guards into giving him regular reports on what’s going on in the boof operation.”

“Does he
know which part of the U.S. Sanderson is sending the v-chimps to?”

Amy shook her head. “
Not yet. Apparently some Sanderson employees – not sure which ones – came here with him to set up the boof lab for his buyer. The guard that our friend is leaning on says he doesn’t know. He says he didn’t make the trip and, that Sanderson didn’t tell him the destination beforehand, and the setup team hasn’t arrived back in Equateur yet, so there’s been no one around to tell him anything. Marcel says that’s probably a lie, because he knows the setup team was supposed to be back by now, so the guard’s probably trying to hold back a certain amount of information for leverage or whatever.

“
Since a v-chimp tried to climb in your bathroom window,” Stephen said, “it’s a pretty good bet they’re sending them to California. They could have sent goons from anywhere in the country to knock off you and me, but I doubt they’d send one of the animals a long way from wherever their new kennel is. Not precious cargo like that.”

“
Probably right.” Then she slapped the dashboard as if she’d just remembered something. “I haven’t told you the best part yet. Our friend says he thinks he can use the old story about a mystery disease to get his boss – the actual Minister of Public Health himself – to clamp a tight quarantine on the basin where the animals live. Whip up a big enough scare that even Sanderson’s allies in the government will think twice about letting anyone go messing around in that place.”

Stephen stayed silent a moment, absorbing what this might mean. “If they can’t get any more animals out of that basin where the logging camp used to be,” he said, “then Sanderson has nothing more to offer. His buyers will be stuck with the animals they’ve already received - ,aybe breeding, maybe not.”
He was silent for a moment, then asked, “What’s our Equateurian doctor’s interest in all of this?”

“First of all, he hates the fact that someone threatened him on Sanderson’s behalf. Second, I think he hates Sanderson just on general principle
; he apparently takes his job seriously enough to be annoyed by companies who house their workers in cesspools with hardly any medical service available.”

“What about the guys in body armor who were looking for the disappeared scientis
t? Did you talk about that?”

“Yeah. I told him I’ve been worried that someone in the U.S. government might think I was connected with that whole thing. He didn’t know
all that much. His team concluded that there was no unusual outbreak at the camp except possibly some contact dermatitis that came from being in physical contact with whatever animals had been jumping people. Apparently Tobin – the American scientist – agreed with him on that, but whoever came looking for Tobin after he disappeared wasn’t convinced.”

Stephen
spoke slowly, still trying to absorb the enormity of what Amy had just told him. “So Sanderson’s the main link that gets the animals from there to here…and he’s not done shipping yet. Wouldn’t that mean there’s a chance that the deal could still fail somehow?”

“Yeah….”
Amy’s voice sounded expectant, like she hoped she knew where he was going with this.

“
And if the whole operation were seriously messed up, actually failed, then you and I wouldn’t be a threat to Sanderson anymore, because there would be no boof business to threaten.”

Her face lit up.
“Does that mean you’re thinking we should maybe do something about this other than hide out?”

“
Well, since the whole thing may be happening right here in the Golden State….then yeah. I can’t stop thinking about Elaine and her family. As much as I would love to spend the next couple of months on an extended vacation, I feel like we ought to try and find some way to proactively screw this thing up for Sanderson..”

“I’m glad to hear that. Because that’s what I was going to do with or without you.”

Amy was wound up and doing close to ninety. She seemed irritated when Stephen pointed this out, but finally took her foot off the gas and let their speed sink a little.

CHAPTER TWO

Amy called Rita’s cell phone when they were
still an hour north of L.A.

“Good to hear from you, darling,” Rita said. “There’s a development, according to Phil.”

“Deputy Phil?”

“Deputy Phil. He knocked on a few doors in our old neighborhood and asked people to report anything that looked weird, like people slowing down as they passed our houses – and that’s exactly what happened a few hours after he left Cascabel Drive. Somebody called in a license number. Just a four-door sedan this time; no van.”

“Did Phil track it down?”

“He did. Traced it to a
rent-a-cop outfit called Top Gun Security. Easy name to remember, huh? It has an office a little east of downtown L.A. – but just outside the city limits, so it’s in the sheriffs’ jurisdiction. Phil went there and asked if they ever did business in the foothills. They said no. Phil also named the guy that got killed in your break-in, Cody Barnes, or Burns, or something, and asked if he worked at the security company. They said they never heard of him, but check this out: about a year ago, this Cody got himself arrested, and he listed Top Gun Security as his employer. Phil also saw a green van parked across the lot from the office, a perfect match for the one those creeps drove away after I caught them snooping around your place.”

“You get the address of this company?” Amy said.

“I heard part of Phil’s phone conversation while he was checking it out. He mentioned a street called Belvedere Court, but I didn’t get the building number. I would ask him, but he’d be pissed that I’ve even told you this much.”

“Thanks. I won’t let on that you
said anything to us. I’ve got a lot of new information about who’s after me; I’ll fill you in when I get there, but the big thing is about our friend from the pornographic cartoons. It looks like he’s personally behind the attacks on me, as well as being the main mover and shaker behind that “boof” thing we read about online.”

“Unbelievable.
” Rita was quiet for a moment. “Well, maybe some crazed anti-environmentalist will shoot the son of a bitch sometime soon. That’d make things a lot simpler.”

“You got that right,” Amy said. “The green movement wouldn’t
suffer in the least because he’s just a phony.” She thought for a moment. “In fact they’d have a martyr. No matter who got blamed for shooting him, there’d be lots of conspiracy talk about whatever
really
became of Hugh Sanderson. Alive, he’s just a fake. Assassinated, he’d help vilify the anti-environmental lobby. How are
you
doing? Everything alright at the safe house?”

“
Okay, I guess. Met a few of the neighbors, and they seem nice enough. Oh, and speaking of neighbors, I called some of the people on Cascabel Drive. You remember Matilda?”

“I remember the cat Matilda,” Amy said.
She thought of the cream-colored feline that lived across the street, but had adopted Rita’s place as a second home.

“That’s who I mean,” Rita said. “Matilda’s sick.” These last two words spoken in a pouty baby voice.

“Oh, no.”

“There’s something going around the neighborhood.
The last couple of nights, the animal shelter’s been getting calls from people who’re waking up and finding dogs and cats sacked out under their porches. One guy even found a llama sprawled out in his tool shed. And two people have been found in the same condition, all scratched up. People were worried about rabies, but they tested clean for that.”

“
Back up. Did you say
llama
?”

“
Yeah. Didn’t you know we have neighbors who keep a pair of them in their backyard?”

“Nope.
Didn’t know that.”

“I guess you wouldn’t, being gone so much of the time.
They’re around the bend from us, about a quarter mile. I talked to one of the owners, the husband. Says he woke up feeling like he had a hangover, found his back gate open and one of the llamas gone. Anyway, the domestic animals that turned up sick were all clean-looking pets, with tags and everything, but they were limp and droopy when somebody picked them up. Apparently they also smelled sick.”

“
Aw, crap.” The situation sounded horribly familiar to Amy.

“And they found wild animals
in the same condition, too, like raccoons and deer. There was even a bear. I haven’t heard of a bear coming down this side of the foothills for years. It made the
Pasadena
Star-News
. Yesterday morning, a lady and her six-year-old daughter went into their backyard, where they have a big row of out-of-control lantana bushes, and they heard something that sounded like a sneezy dog snuffling. The little girl went running over and started digging in the bushes before her mom could stop her. Put her hand right on the bear’s nose, pulled it out covered with blood, and started screaming. The bear was asleep, and it never woke up, even when the sheriffs got there. I guess they shot it like they always do. Doesn’t that suck?”

“Did the article mention the
disease?”

“Yeah, in fact the story was mainly about
that; the bear was just the hook. They said the shelter called Animal Control, and Animal Control got some specialists to do all sorts of tests on the animals they picked up, but they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. After a while, most of them seemed to get better anyhow. About twenty-five animals altogether. They still haven’t released all of the pets they tested, and the owners are pissed.”

Just like the medical team at Sanderson’s camp, Amy thought. They didn’t test for chemicals, because they were looking for microbes

“But they didn’t take Matilda?” Amy said.

“Nope.
Jenny – her owner – didn’t report her, and isn’t letting her out at all anymore. She usually keeps her locked in at night anyhow, because of the coyotes, but she got out the other night and didn’t come back. Jenny said she went calling her all around the neighborhood, and the next morning she went up into the hills. She finally heard Matilda crying and found her under a really dense bush.”

“Did she act like the light hurt her eyes?”

“How’d you know?”

“And I bet now she whines to get out at night, like there’s something really important she wants to get at out there.”

“Amy, darling, what’s going on here?”

“I’ll tell you
all about it when we get to town.”

CHAPTER THREE

“Top Gun Security doesn’t have a website,” Amy said
, tapping keys on her laptop. “But I don’t suppose they’re looking for legitimate business anyhow.”

At the safe house, Stephen slurped down the last of his instant ramen broth while Amy consulted her laptop. They had rested for a day and a half, and Stephen was feeling better, even energetic. He’d gotten into the swing of doing a lot of things one-handed.

“I found Belvedere Court on a map,” Amy said, “and it doesn’t look very big. Might be just a driveway into an industrial park.” She looked at Stephen for a long moment. “What do you say we head over there and see what we see? We might notice something that helps us figure out what to do next.”

“I guess it can’t hurt.”

She showed him the map on her screen. “Over here is First Street in Little Tokyo,” she said. “Just a couple of miles east of there is where most of the warehouses and factories are. And here’s Belvedere Court.”

“The downtown cathedral’s on our way there,” he said. “Maybe we should we go pick up a couple of silver crosses and a half liter of holy water.”

“I’m fine with Andre’s latte burner. Seven rounds in the clip, and a couple boxes of ammo around here somewhere.” She leaned across the kitchen table and locked eyes with him. “Tell me something, Stephen.”

“Yeah?”

“About your friend Mario. In Guatemala, when he was trying to protect those
campesinos
from the assholes with guns, did he ever pick up a weapon and fire back at them?”

“He never mentioned using a gun, but he told me he once brained a couple of soldiers with a baseball bat when they came into the church looking for some kids he was hiding.”

“Killed them?” she asked.

“He says one for sure, the other maybe.”

“You think he regrets it?”

“Not Mario. Not a chance.”

“Remember what I told you Rita said? How it’d be a lot simpler if someone just shot him?”

He nodded, studying her face.

“Because if I see Sanderson, and if it looks like I can get away with it, I’ll kill him. I’ll cut him right down. I’m dead serious.” She continued to stare into his eyes as she spoke. “And if we don’t find Sanderson himself at this place, maybe we’ll find someone who’ll lead us to him. Or lead us to where they’ve set up their v-chimp kennel, and we can smash it to bits. Put the captive animals out of their misery. Make the whole thing way more trouble than it’s worth for all of them, supplier and buyer.”