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to the wrong island. They never knew the difference. Stuff like that. I mean, the government's very serious about this."
    "Why?"
    "They're worried."
    "Worried? Why should they be worried about - "
    Guitierrez held up his hand, shifted in his chair, moved closer. "Disease, Richard."
    "Disease?"
    "Yeah. Costa Rica has one of the best health-care systems in the world," Guitierrez said. "The epidemiologists have been tracking some weird type of encephalitis that seems to be on the increase, particularly along the coast."
    "Encephalitis'? Of what origin? Viral?"
    Guitierrez shook his head. "No causative agent has been found."
    "Marty…"
    "I'm telling you, Richard. Nobody knows. It's not a virus, because antibody titres don't go up, and white-cell differentials don't change. It's not bacterial, because nothing has ever been cultered. It's a complete mystery. All the epidemiologists know is that it seems to affect primarily rural farmers: people who are around animals and livestock. And it's a true encephalitis-splitting headaches, mental confusion, fever, delirium."
    "Mortality?"
    "So far it seems to be self-limited, lasts about three weeks. But even so it's got the government worried. This country is dependent on tourism, Richard. Nobody wants talk of unknown diseases."
    "So they think the encephalitis is related to these, ah, aberrant forms?"
    He shrugged. "Lizards carry lots of viral diseases," Guitierrez said. "They're a known vector. So it's not unreasonable, there might be a connection."
    "But you said this isn't a viral disease."
    "Whatever it is. They think it's related."
    Levine said, "All the more reason to find out where these lizards are coming from. Surely they must have searched…"
    "Searched?" Guiiticrrez said, with a laugh. "Of course they've searched. They've gone over every square inch of this country, again and again. They've sent out dozens of search parties - I've led several myself. They've done aerial surveys. They've had overflights of the jungle. They've had overflights of the offshore islands. That in itself is a big job. There are quite a few islands, you know, particularly along the west coast. Hell, they've even searched the ones that are privately owned."
    "Are there privately owned islands?" Levine asked.
    "A few. Three or four. Like Isla Nublar - it was leased to an American company, InGen, for years."
    "But you said that island was searched…"
    "Thoroughly searched. Nothing there."
    "And the others?"
    "Well, let's see," Guitierrez said, ticking them off on his fingers. "There's Isla Talamanca, on the east coast; they've got a Club Med there. There's Sorna, on the west coast; it's leased to a German mining company. And there's Morazan, up north; it's actually owned by a wealthy Costa Rican family. And there may be another island I've forgotten about."
    "And the searches found what?"
    "Nothing," Guitierrez said. "They've found nothing at all. So the assumption is that the animals are coming from some location deep in the jungle. And that's why we haven't been able to find it so far."
    Levine grunted. "In that case, lots of luck,"
    "I know," Guitierrez said. "Rain forest is an incredibly good environment for concealment. A search party could pass within ten yards of a large animal and never see it. And even the most advanced remote sensing technology doesn't help much, because there are multiple layers to penetrate-clouds, tree canopy, lower-level flora. There's just no way around it: almost anything could be hiding in the rain forest. Anyway," he said, "the government's frustrated. And, of course, the government is not the only interested party."
    Levine looked up sharply. "Oh?"
    "Yes. For some reason, there's been a lot of interest in these animals."
    "What sort of interest?" Levine said, as casually as he could.
    "Last fall, the government issued a permit to a team of botanists from Berkeley to do an aerial survey of the jungle canopy in the central highlands. The survey had been going on for a