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Sky thought she detected some worry in the doctor’s eyes. There was some kind of unreadable look in the woman’s gaze, but Sky was not a mind reader. “I’m really okay?”
“Of course,” Allegra murmured, offering her hand to help Sky step off the examination table.
“You looked… well… concerned?” Sky probed.
“Oh, it is nothing, nothing.” Allegra forced a smile and said, “I’m fairly sure you are a tad anemic. I’m going to order nurse to give you a B-12 shot right now. And some packets of vitamins and minerals. The lab tests will, of course, bear this out.”
“Is that why I’m tired?”
“It certainly can contribute,” Allegra said cheerily, removing her lab coat. “Well, I must be flown back to the capitol. I have a long and busy day of patients waiting for my attention upon my return.”
“Wait,” Sky said, “what about my tests? Can you tell me what you find?” She saw Allegra’s open face become guarded. It was a dramatic change. The doctor put the stethoscope she had hanging around her neck into her leather medial bag sitting on a chair.
“I’m sure Don Tobar will be more than happy to pass on any comments I may have about your tests to you, Sky.” She looked up, smiled, and said, “I would suggest you continue to take naps when you want. I would also order more walks in fresh air for you. You are pale and you need some sunlight to make Vitamin D for your body.”
Sky nodded, feeling better. “Okay. Thanks so much, Dr. Zapato. I really appreciate your making this trip to see me.”
“It’s not a problem. I will visit you in a few weeks and then we can discuss any questions you may have personally with me. The lab reports will be sent to Don Tobar in approximately one week. I’m sure he’ll be first to tell you if I’ve seen anything important in the results. But I doubt there will be any issues.”
Sky watched them leave the room. Her skin prickled as she felt eyes on her. She hated those damned cameras. Moving quickly to the bathroom, she decided to shower, to wash herself clean and hopefully feel better than she did presently.
CHAPTER 14
July 8
Cal’s heart leapedas he spotted Lauren hurrying into the war room. She placed a piece of paper down in front of him. She was grinning like a feral wolf. Alex was on her heels, his expression hopeful. Driscoll looked up from his laptop from the other table.
“What’s this?” Cal demanded, picking up the paper that showed latitude and longitude coordinates plus a message in Russian.
Alex grinned hugely. “It is possibly the break we were looking for! But the credit goes to Lauren. She was taking all the comms coming out of Central America. She was running computer simulations on GPS signals.” Alex looked up at Lauren with no small amount of pride and said, “You tell him.”
“There’s been a lot of cell traffic from a specific spot in Northern Costa Rica. It’s been with San Jose, the capitol of that country. Always in Russian. Always encrypted.” She smiled over at Alex, who was practically glowing with excitement. “Alex ran it through encryption.” Lauren leaned over, placing her fingertip on the paper Cal laid down between his hands. “Whoever is making calls is using the code name White Hawk. And guess what, Cal? Where we’re getting this signal? It’s in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Remember? Alex had said Alexandrov wanted to retire to a cloud forest, but couldn’t say where?”
Alex clapped his hands, startling everyone. They were now into their third week without a break, all bone tired, living on coffee and donuts. “Remember me telling you about Alexandrov’s passion for falconry?”
Cal rubbed his watering eyes. “Yeah? So what?”
Alex was almost bursting. “Alexandrov collects raptors. When I saw that call sign after I unencrypted it, I recalled Vlad telling me his father had a special interest in a hawk in South America. It’s called a White Hawk. That could be a connection.”
Cal let out a long, slow breath, staring at the jumble of words and numbers. He glanced sharply up at Alex. “White Hawk? It’s a bird? It lives in Costa Rica?”
“Yes,” Lauren said triumphantly. She pulled out her laptop, opening the lid and turning it around so Cal could see it. “I Googled the hawk. Look: it lives in woodlands like they have in the Monte Verde Forest.”
“And,” Alex said excitedly, leaning over and pointing at the map where the hawk was found, “the cell phone calls are emanating from this one spot in the woodlands. In fact, it is near the Arenal volcano. Very close to it.”
“And,” Lauren added, growing excited, “the hawk is said to be very common in that specific area.”
Frowning, Cal rapidly read up on the hawk and the type of area it liked to hunt in. He picked up the paper, studying it. “Okay, who are the calls going to in San Jose? To a specific number? Or to a bunch of individual numbers?”
Lauren sat down and quickly pulled up the map showing the cell phone calls from the satellite over Costa Rica. She turned it so Cal could study it. “We don’t know yet. That’s our next step. But if you look at the lines, you can see this past twenty-four hours, wherever that is originating from in the Monte Verde Cloud Forest, it’s been intense traffic. Far more than normal.”
Alex sat down on Cal’s right and opened his laptop. “But we cannot get too excited yet.” He turned the screen around, showing a map of the area surrounding Arenal. It was ringed with about fifty resorts, hotels, inns, and bed and breakfast. “Now, I’ve been in Costa Rica a number of times. Maybe five years ago.” Alex tapped the laptop. “Arenal used to be one of the most active volcanos in the world.”
“I didn’t know that,” Cal muttered, his brows drawing down.
“Arenal is Spanish for sandy,” Lauren told him, going to the same webpage, and then throwing it up on the overhead screen so everyone could view it. She pointed toward it. “The volcano is moving in a southeasterly direction, which is why you don’t see any resorts or villages in that direction.”
“Which means,” Cal growled, “a shitload of cell phone traffic by the tourists visiting them?”
