Caesare grinned. He was glad their relationship hadn’t changed, even after what she’d been through. “I was just flying through,” he said with a shrug. “Thought I’d stop by to visit two of my favorite gals.”
Alison looked suspiciously at DeeAnn. Stopping by wasn’t something a person did easily from an airplane. “I see you’ve shaved off your mustache. Trying to impress anyone?”
Trying to blend in, actually. He chuckled and turned to DeeAnn. “How’s Dulce?”
“Good. Bouncing back faster than I expected.”
“And how about you?”
She frowned, nervously. “I’m a bit slower.”
Caesare simply nodded. “And how about the guys?”
“Pretty good. They’re all here if you want to stop by the lab.”
“I will.” He looked around the room, decorated with two large Wyland prints and a bookshelf beneath the window. When his focus came back to Alison and DeeAnn, both women were staring at him questioningly. “What?”
DeeAnn spoke to Alison without looking away. “I sense bad news coming.”
“Bad news? From me? Never.”
“You’ve never come here alone before, Steve.”
Neither woman was buying it. “Fine,” he relented. “I came here to talk to you two. And…more specifically, to Dee.”
“About what?”
Caesare dropped the act but kept a trace of the grin. “Well, we have a wee bit of a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
He crossed his arms, trying to ignore a sudden spike of pain in his side. “It’s about our old friend, Mateus Alves.”
DeeAnn raised her brow curiously. “I thought he was dead.”
“He is. And so is his head of security, Miguel Blanco.”
“You found him?”
“I did.”
DeeAnn stared at him for a moment, puzzled, then shrugged. “So he’s dead. Why should I care?”
“Normally I’d say you shouldn’t. But he was murdered yesterday morning. By someone who we think knew Alves pretty well.”
“An eye for an eye, I guess.”
Caesare glanced at Alison, who was watching DeeAnn. Blanco had nearly killed DeeAnn, and Alves had been planning to. She didn’t care what happened to either of them. But she couldn’t hide her surprise either, no matter how hard she tried.
“Blanco died after being tortured. By someone who wanted to know everything that happened up on that mountain, including who was there.”
That got both of the women’s attention.
“What does that mean?”
“He knows what Mateus Alves was after. He knows how he died, and where. He probably also knows about you and Dulce, and that monkey, Dexter. We think he knows just about everything, and we think he’s going back to find what Alves couldn’t.”
The first signs of concern appeared on DeeAnn’s face. “Dulce and I aren’t in danger, are we?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Good. So why do we even care?”
“Because if he finds that monkey, I think we all know what’s going to happen.”
DeeAnn stared at him, but said nothing. What happened to the damn monkey wasn’t her problem. She couldn’t save it –– she knew that now. But her brush with death had woken her up to the ludicrousness of what she thought she could do. It also left her with a very real appreciation of the value of life. Life was precious. And she only had one shot at it. She was no longer interested in sacrificing hers for some hopeful ideology.
“I don’t care what happens.”
Caesare glanced to Alison and back. “Well, that may be. But that’s not what I meant. Alves was a fanatic, obsessed with the idea of immortality. And now that we know DNA can be passed between species, what do you think is going to happen if this new guy gets a hold of that monkey’s DNA?” Caesare took a small step closer to her. “Alves came damn close, and believe me, DeeAnn. Alves was bad. But this guy is a whole lot worse. Blanco and his girlfriend were tortured and literally beaten to death. For answers. What do you think happens if someone like that figures out how to outlive all of us?”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
“I’m not stupid, Steven. It’s not that easy to transfer DNA.”
“It can be done.”
Something on Caesare’s face made her halt her reply in mid-sentence. Her eyes narrowed and she turned to Alison. “You know something.”
She nodded.
“What?”
“Steve’s right. It can be done. We saw it, on the Bowditch.”
“The ship that sank?”
“Yes.”