Predator Island

by Douglas Cameron

  Chapter 41

  The morning after the B.B. São Rochelle left the island with the survivors of the Deadliest Predator Contest the Bundle met in the theater. Issaack greeted them.

  “I wish we could have had this final meeting under happier circumstances. Believe me, I did not think that the design of the program would have led to this. We all know that Ramiro Esteves was the driving force behind the plan. As far as can be determined at this point, Hurricane Davido’s devastation of this island was perhaps the inspiration for the agenda. How I got selected I am uncertain, but word had leaked about the course Siegfried and I were embarking on in the development of Horus using Siegfried’s radical design of a biological computer. I am uncertain how the choices of the rest of you were made and don’t want to speculate. However, input from all of you affected the final results. One of these most of you didn’t even recognize and, to my knowledge, it was not known to Esteves and we did our best to keep it under wraps.

  “While I have been talking a helicopter had landed in front of Vulcan’s Roost bringing two of the people responsible for the infrastructure of this island.”

  The door opened, and two men walked into the room.

  “Let me introduce you to Walt Jeffries, Construction Supervisor, and Andy Russel, the man who oversaw the work of Ant Man, our tunnel digger.”

  The group applauded.

  “Andy is going to tell you about another aspect of Ant Man that not too many know about.”

  “Thanks, Issaack. This is sort of a show and tell demonstration, and I’d like to begin with the show part.”

  The door opened, and a cart loaded with eight black boxes approximately eighteen inches by eighteen inches by thirty-six inches was pushed in by Gretel and Declercq.

  Andy continued, “Volcanos are a source of some very useful minerals – aluminum, nickel, lead, zinc, and copper. Usually not in large enough quantities to be worth mining. But there is also…” and he opened one of the boxes and pulled out a stone – “… gold, like this nugget…” he put the nugget back in the box but left it open. He opened another box and picked up a handful of stones which he held out “and diamonds.” That brought a gasp from all but Gloria. “You might remember when there was the exploratory visit to the crater and the plateau, Gloria Mitchell got snake bit. But do you remember how? She had picked up a small rock and thrown it and then suddenly gone after it. Unfortunately, that brought her into the space of a very angry tropical rattlesnake that bit her. The stone she had found was a diamond. She had it appraised, and the appraiser said that depending on clarity and flaws, when cut it could be a two or three caret stone.” As he was talking, Issaack and Walt had each taken two handfuls of stones from the box and given some to each of the Bundle.

  Looking at the ones, he had been given, Phil asked, “How much are these worth?”

  “Difficult to say,” Andy replied. I’ve done some research and found a couple of interesting diamond facts. There are four ways that diamonds are graded. It’s the four C scale: Color, Carat weight, Clarity, and Cut. At the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, an 8.52-carat white stone known now as the Esperanza Diamond was found in June 2015. When it was cut into a 4.6-carat triolette shape it was graded internally flawless. Not only that, it was color graded “D” by the American Gem Society. “D” is the highest color grade. The current value of this diamond has been reported at around $1 million. So what we have in these ten boxes is unknown.” That brought an undertone of whispering among the Bundle members. “Some of these stones are going to be too small to be worth much. Some of the big ones could be cut and be worthless because of the color grade and because they have flaws. There are ten of these boxes. There are thirty boxes containing gold nuggets, each box weighs approximately thirty pounds. At the present time gold is about $1300 dollars an ounce. That’s 480 ounces or $624,000. But remember this is not pure gold. It might be less than half of that.”

  “And how did we get all of this?” Harvey Gladstone asked.

  “Ant Man,” Andy said. “The dirt Ant Man dug was brought inside through pipes with screws moving the dirt through them. This is nothing new. It happens with every dig. Then the dirt is put on conveyor belts as it moves though the rest of the body to the back where it was put into what were basically mine cars on a track that was installed as Ant Man moved along. Dirt went out on mine cars and when needed, the concrete sections for the tub were brought in on other cars.

  “But when the dirt reached the end of Ant Man, it was dumped into hopper cars and taken out of the mine to an area where the hoppers cars were dumped on a big area of screens and water added washing the dirt away. There were five levels of screens, each getting smaller and smaller – we didn’t keep anything under a quarter of an inch. The screens were pulled and sorted through by workers who knew what to look for and were given a bonus for keeping their mouths shut. The bonus was partially cash and partially diamonds if they wanted to take that chance. They knew they cannot reveal where they got it. Since they understood that the value of the diamonds could vary from nothing to a fortune but closer to nothing, all of them chose the cash. And therefore, we are left with the diamonds and it is be up to each of us to decide what to do with them.

  “Don’t diamonds need to be registered?” Issaack asked.

  Andy told them how to get the diamonds in their boxes registered and how to report their origin.

  Issaack finished, “So each of you will get a box of diamonds as return on your investment as well as a share of the gold. We are also giving a box of diamonds to Walt and Andy for their part in this program.”

  “Did Ramiro know about this?” Phil asked. “I mean about the diamonds and gold, not about giving some to Walt and Andy. I know they earned them.”

  “Not that we know of. He never mentioned it and to me, the time he should have done that was when he seized control the first night. Personally, I think that if he knew about this, we would all have been killed for our share of the diamonds.”

  “What was his plan for the island?” Gloria asked.

  “This is supposition, but it would become a base for his operation. There are five years left on our lease and after that it would be between him and the Brazilian government. But he paid for the B.B. São Rochelle, so it would have something to do with his plans. Getting product to and from the island would be my guess.

  “Any other questions?”

  Nobody seemed to ask questions.

  “Two last things. First, we had a betting pool. For those of you who didn’t know, the veterinarians made a bet.”

  “They had that much money?” Gloria said.

  “No, it was a separate bet. They each put in a thousand dollars that the coyotes would form a pack and win. It appears that not only did the coyotes form a pack but they and the wolf united and they were among those still alive. This is what I propose. All bets in the pool of animals who died in the contest – regardless of how they died – lose their bets. Those whose bets are still alive – meaning that the animal or animals they bet on survived – split the pot. Minus six thousand dollars from each bet going to the veterinarians.”

  “How many bets were made?” Phil asked.

  “Including the veterinarians’ bet?” answered Issaack.

  “No, consider that separate.”

  “There were fifteen,” Issaack said.

  “So each of the veterinarians gets sixteen thousand dollars?”

  “Yes. And the rest is split equally among those still in.”

  “No problem. I approve.”

  “Any objections?” There were none.

  “Those with winning bets will get their proceeds deposited into their accounts.

  “The last thing is the films. We had proposed a televised show with profits to be split among the seven of us. The entry of Gerallt makes that impossible. What happened further makes that impossible. I think that it is only proper that all copies – and I mean all copies – be destroyed.”

&nbs
p; “You mean we cannot have any for our personal use,” Harvey Gladstone seemed to whine.

  “That is exactly what I mean. I do not want any of us to be able to make any money off that aspect of this project.”

  “Wish that we could wipe all memory of it,” Gloria said.

  “I don’t,” Monica said with a smile on her face.

  “I bet you don’t,” Gloria said.

  “I am certain that all of us have some pleasant memories and some bad memories,” Issaack said. “Any further discussion?”

  “If needed, I second the motion,” Waldo said.

  “All in favor.”

  A chorus of “aye” filled the room.

  “Well, then a helicopter will be here about 1:00 p.m. to pick you up and take you to the airport in Belém, so you can catch your flights home. But until then – if you’re already packed, there is champagne and shrimp and cheese and other nibble stuff in the restaurant. Thanks for being part of this project and we’re sorry it didn’t work out better.”

  Ramiro Esteves’s property was seized by the Brazilian Government and his empire effectively tumbled but the widespread parts were quickly picked up and used by other drug cartels.

  Phil Parmelee died less than six months later trying to find another treasure ship. Apparently a great white took exception to his diving in its territory and put him on its dinner menu.

  Harvey Gladstone left the real estate business two years later after it was discovered that he had not filed tax returns for the previous ten years. When the story of the Deadliest Predator Contest and the Billionaire Bundle was aired, the Internal Revenue Service got very interested in all of them and the fact that Harvey Gladstone hadn’t filed but had stored money via several dummy corporations came to the front. His habit of buying inexpensive clothes was simply an effort to look poor. His choice of food was because he just didn’t care about food except for the necessary sustenance it provided. The Federal Government seized all his assets and he ended up panhandling on the streets of Phoenix, Arizona.

  Gloria Mitchell married her fourth husband and this one stuck, maybe because he had more spendable cash than she did.

  Ralph “Waldo” Emerson continued making electric vehicles and was headed toward Trillionaire status.

  Horus “died” within a year because Siegfried Schmidt had discovered that the memory was dying faster than he could replenish it and he was having to grow memory to keep Horus functioning as long as he did. Nobody was willing to pay for a product that required as much maintenance as his did. For whatever reason, Issaack Kinkaid’s artificial intelligence program wouldn’t work on any other computer and his hoped-for battle with Watson didn’t materialize.

  Gerallt Cearrach became Monica Bartlett’s head of Security. When she became pregnant two years later, they got married, she quit touring but put out one album a year for the next four years. She did make one video on the island six months after the Deadliest Predator Contest was over. They bought an estate in Wales and settled into a quiet life.

  Stefan Declercq and Carmen Domingo started a small but financially successful café in London and tried to stay out of any limelight.

  Gretel started her own security business in Miami, Florida, and was quite successful.

  Brazil was given control over the island a year after the Deadliest Predator Contest was over and helped interested Brazilians move there and make a living enjoying the quiet island life. To date, except for the geyser from the top of Colina da Rocha every couple of days, the volcano has stayed dormant. Warning signs and metal gates were placed at the entrances to the lava tube to prevent the curious from an unexpected and dangerous wetting.

  Acknowledgements

  As usual, I used Wikipedia a lot to help me in choosing my predators and the facts you read were gleaned from there. Beyond that I relied heavily on the following people:

  Alex Cameron for help with the design of the railroad and the moving of the TBM and its Back-up Train;

  Doug Harding, Robbins Company, for getting Ant Man to function properly and furnishing me with diagrams to use to help readers understand this fantastic machine. You can see some pictures of Rosie, the Akron OH tunnel borer at:

  http://www.akronwaterwaysrenewed.com/ocit/rosie-akrons-tunnel-boring-machine.aspx

  And find out as much as you want to know about the Robbins Company at:

  http://www.therobbinscompany.com/products/tunnel-boring-machines/;

  Bob Dyer, Akron Beacon Journal Columnist, who gave the book an early plug when he wrote about Ant Man

  Tars Septimio, a Brazilian friend, who helped with the Portuguese and Spanish expressions in this book;

  Paul Orr, PE, a Florida PE (Structural) with NUTEK Engineering, LLC. of Dania Beach, FL (Ft Lauderdale area) for help in getting me pointed to Mabey Inc.;

  James Porreca, Bridging & Structural Shoring Specialist, Pittsburgh Depot, Mabey Inc. for help in getting the Chardon Bridge (in reality a Mabey Compact 200 Bridge) constructed;

  To see a wonderful video of one of these being constructed, here are two links to the save video: https://www.mabey.com/us/news-and-media/blog/bridge-animation

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObppOnivuq4.

  As usual in my writing, I must acknowledge two writers who have heavily influence my work. (you can skip this if you’ve read it before) I must acknowledge two writers who have influenced my work. First (and only chronologically) is Mary Higgins Clark whom I heard speak at a Book and Author Luncheon (or Dinner) sponsored by The Plain Dealer of Cleveland OH. She said that many of her works got their genesis with the words “What if?” And I used a big “WHAT IF” in this one.

  The other writer is the late Philip R. Craig, author of the Martha’s Vineyard based J.W. Jackson mysteries. My wife and I met he and his wife Shirley on a riverboat trip from Constanta, Romania, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2005 and shared many a happy meal together including my wife’s birthday dinner. He told me that in his writing, while he knew the story line, he often didn’t know how it was going to come out and let the characters lead him. Frequently that is what I do, and I did in this book

  Douglas Ewan Cameron grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where his father worked as a chemist on the Manhattan Project. He went to undergraduate school at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), earned a master’s degree at The University of Akron (Akron, Ohio) and a doctorate in mathematics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg Virginia). He then returned to The University of Akron where he taught for twenty-eight years before retiring in 1998. Since then he and his wife have spent their summer on the eastern shore of Hubbard Lake (Spruce, Michigan) where he has spent as much time possible in his boat on the water chasing the ever-elusive walleye. During the winter months, he returns to Ohio from which he and his wife have traveled the world visiting over one hundred countries. He has used his knowledge of the world thus gained as backgrounds in many of his books. He has written all his life starting with short stories in his youth, mathematical research papers in his working years, and finally novels in retirement chasing the ever-elusive bestseller. This is his twelfth novel. Some day he hopes to land the big one from the waters of Hubbard Lake just as he hopes to write a bestselling novel. Is this the one?