Immortal Unchained(53)

Sarita nodded.

"So Uncle Lucian rounded up as many Rogue Hunters as he felt he could spare and flew down here to try to find Dressler. They quickly realized that he was a university professor here in Venezuela. But he must have caught wind that they were coming, or perhaps he suspected they might when he didn't hear from his men, because by the time the hunters landed in Caracas, Dr. Dressler had gone on sabbatical."

"During their first week here, all they were able to learn was that Dressler had both an apartment in the city where he stayed while teaching at the university, and a residence on an island somewhere that he went to on weekends and during summer break. No one seemed to know the name of the island, though, or where it was, although it was mentioned that he had a helicopter as well as several boats that he used to get back and forth. So Uncle Lucian decided they would have to check every island within five hundred miles of Caracas."

Sarita blinked and asked with disbelief, "Five hundred?"

Domitian shrugged. "He was being conservative in the hopes of speeding up the hunt."

"You think five hundred miles is conservative?" she asked with a disbelieving laugh.

"Si," he assured her. "The apartment in the city might have been necessary only for the nights he had evening classes. But it may also have been because the island was too far to travel to and from daily so that the island house was like a cottage would be to an American or Canadian. Helicopters can travel at speeds of one hundred and forty miles an hour. Five hundred miles would only take three and a half hours or a little more to travel to."

"Hmm," she murmured with a nod. A couple of guys at work had cottages up north in the Muskokas, a good three-hour drive away or more depending on traffic and coffee stops. One of them had invited a bunch of their coworkers out to the cottage one weekend last summer. Sarita had been one of those invited and she'd been chatting with the people in the neighboring cottage. They lived farther south and drove five hours to reach their cottage every weekend. Driving up Friday night and leaving Sunday afternoon. If the island house was used as a cottage for Dr. Dressler, three or four hours wouldn't be that far to go she supposed.

"Anyway," Domitian continued, "Uncle Lucian divided the areas up into four quadrants and sent two teams of two hunters out to each."

"What happened?" she asked at once when he paused.

"Nothing at first," he answered. "They were using boats, not helicopters, in the hopes of making a stealthy approach, but it was a lot of area to cover."

"And?" Sarita prompted when he fell silent.

"The third day two teams from two different quadrants did not report in," Domitian admitted solemnly. "Two women, Eshe, my aunt by marriage, and Mirabeau La Roche McGraw made up one team, and my cousins Decker and Nicholas made up the second team."




 

 

"Oh," Sarita breathed softly. She'd known he knew some of the missing immortals but hadn't realized they were family, and she asked, "Your aunt and cousins are Rogue Hunters too like your sister?"

"Si," Domitian murmured, and then cleared his throat and continued, "Anyway, when the two teams didn't turn up by dawn, Uncle Lucian tried to have their phones tracked, but they must have been disabled. So he pulled everyone off the other two quadrants, and split them up between the two quadrants the teams had gone missing from. But now they were looking for the missing hunters as well as the island Dressler owns."

"Did he check the land registry office?" Sarita asked and then frowned. "That's what it's called in Canada, I don't remember what it is called here, if I ever even knew, but they must have some record of who buys what properties."

Domitian nodded. "They checked. There is no property listed to a Ramsey Dressler in Venezuela."

"Ramsey," Sarita muttered. She'd never known Dr. Dressler's first name. Her grandmother had never mentioned it. Shaking her head, she said, "He must have used another name then."

"Si, that is what is suspected, but we have no idea what name he might have used."

"Right," Sarita breathed. "So, I gather from the fact that Dressler is still out here torturing people with his experiments that they didn't find the island?"

"No, and another four hunters went missing. This time one from each team of two."

"What?" she asked with amazement. "How?"

Domitian shrugged helplessly. "No one knows. With each team it was the same story. The other hunter was there, and then suddenly was not."

Sarita stared at him blankly and then shook her head. "Well, the ones who came back had to have seen or heard something. They were on boats, right?"