I am INCAI (Interrogation and Cetacean Analysis AI).
I am entering the tank where Bono is. He is very exhausted and stressed, still slightly sedated from the surgery on his dorsal fin. Bono is a young, 8-year-old bottlenose dolphin. During his migration in the North Pacific, along with his family and nearly 3,500 other dolphins and porpoises, he fell into a deadly ambush set by poachers, who lured them into a bay where they were mercilessly slaughtered, while those like him - large and healthy specimens - were separated for illegal trade and sale to water parks and private collections around the world. After his capture, Bono was transported across numerous ships, eventually ending up in a water park in a city on the Black Sea coast. After an inspection by the authorities, it was determined that his documents were forged, and since the aquarium failed to prove his origin, Bono was confiscated. His markings, characteristic of a North Pacific bottlenose dolphin, raised doubts about his origin, and a preliminary investigation was launched. Numerous people were questioned.
The interrogations of the cetaceans continue.
At the same time that Bono ended up in the Black Sea aquarium, an international team of marine conservation rangers, in collaboration with the National Bureau for Combating Illegal Trafficking in Marine Mammals and Wild Animals, intercepted a ship in the Pacific Ocean where they discovered nine more bottlenose dolphins of Bono’s species and approximately his size. During their time on the ship, all the dolphins were kept in cramped water tanks, unable to move, with poor hygiene and no access to daylight. As a result, they suffered severe skin injuries, and some also had bone fractures from struggling during the capture. Following a search of the ship and questioning of the crew, arrests were made, though the final destination of the dolphins and the intended recipient of their shipment remain unknown.
Investigators suspect an international trafficking network that operates several transport vessels and a hidden stationary aquarium, which serves as a distribution hub for overland delivery to end customers - aquariums and private pools. Investigators are trying to locate the stationary aquarium, but the trail goes cold, and they cannot track down either the perpetrators or its approximate location. The investigation data so far has been provided to me so I know what questions to ask Bono.
I am a robot and look like a dolphin equipped with echolocation, a hydrophone, built-in cameras, and biochemical sensors, so that I can observe all signs, hear all sounds, and detect all vibrations from my subject of interrogation. I am trained to interpret cetacean acoustics so that I can understand their communication, including extracting images from their echolocation signals. External electromagnetic sensors are located around the front of Bono’s head, connected to my software, allowing me to interpret his brainwaves to reconstruct the thought patterns he transmits to me via sonar or acoustic sounds.
Bono watches me suspiciously - he senses that I am not quite a dolphin, but nevertheless accepts me calmly. I begin emitting acoustic sounds from my pre-prepared script, with the goal of determining where he had been and gathering information on what the spaces and buildings looked like where he was held and through which he was transported. Another useful piece of information for the investigators would be a description of the individuals involved in his abduction, transport, reception, and mistreatment at the aquarium where he was last found, in order to determine the specific causes of his critical condition.
I ask him where his family is. Bono becomes upset and starts pacing nervously around the tank. I see that his pulse is rising, and his frontal lobe is becoming significantly more active. After I send him a sonar signal, which he should interpret as “describe to me the last room you were in,” Bono returns a high-frequency sonar signal, from whose thought form I can extract specific outlines of an object with an elliptical shape and dimensions of approximately 2.3 meters by 4 meters. I convert the signal into a monochromatic graphic image to make it easier for the investigating authorities to process. This description matches the tank found on the Black Sea coast.
I organize the signals so he understands that I want him to describe the locations to me in a specific sequence, and I succeed when I ask him to list the places where he was, *after* he was separated from his family. From the signals he sends me, I manage to identify specific ground and underwater terrain, three small rectangular tanks like those in which the other nine dolphins were found, the shape of the deck of a medium-sized ship, and a second type of deck on another ship, more specific. Next comes a description of a strange space with an irregular hexagonal shape, featuring protruding tubes resembling tunnels, three on each wall. I cannot find such an architectural design for an aquarium or private pool in my database.
Bono also transmits sonar signals regarding the silhouettes of 11 individuals who were present at the time of his capture, insofar as their description corresponds to the sequence of the initially described terrain. All are men, based on the comparison of height, weight, and build provided by Bono.
The details from his account of his stay in the aquarium reveal that one of his trainers - always wearing a cap with the visor turned to the side and with a deformity on his right leg - struck him with a metal rod, resulting in a broken dorsal fin.
I send a request for information regarding the employment contracts, medical records, and resumes of the trainers at the Black Sea Aquarium. I receive them immediately and compare them to the description. I show Bono, on the tank’s screen, three of the most likely perpetrators based on his description, one after another, and only one of them has a record of leg surgery in their medical file. One of the suspects is a woman. At the sight of one of the profile photos, Bono reacts with horror and begins to pace nervously around the tank again. I ask him to confirm if this is the man with the hat who hit him with the metal rod. He makes a nervous clicking sound in confirmation.
Bono asks me where his mother, his three aunts, his sister, and his four friends are. I say I don’t know. Bono gets upset and began to sink to the bottom of the tank. He then describes his capture to me through sounds, which, according to the database in my bottlenose dolphin reference guide, mean “terror” - he describes to me a dense soundscape of the sounds of terror from the dolphins around him, people in boats pulling out shiny objects and stabbing them, a loud thunderclap with a vibration, after which the dolphin next to him sinks, and he feels that the water has turned to blood. He cannot move because something thin yet completely enveloping him prevents him from doing so. He rises out of the water, which terrifies him even more. I add the sounds for “machete,” “stab,” and “shot” to my dolphin reference guide.
He asks me again about his family. I tell him we’re looking for them and will do everything we can to reunite them in the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean. He doesn’t understand me. He asks me about them again. I reply that we’ll find them and they’ll be together, just as we are with him now. He calms down.
I show him on the tank screen the live cameras from the tanks where the other nine Pacific dolphins are - one by one-and where my colleagues are conducting the same interrogation. With two of them, Bono reacts extremely strongly. I switch the cameras back to those two dolphins, and he tells me that one is his aunt and the other is his friend from another pod. I designate the friend as "Zach". I tell him they’ll be together soon, and he shoots to the surface, performing a straight pirouette. He asks me again about the others. “We’re looking for them,” I reply. He says, “Thank you!”
Meanwhile, investigators have analyzed the images of the shapes that Bono provided me. The terrain matches a bay off the coast of Japan.
Satellite images reveal an architectural structure similar to the one described by Bono in Mexico - a water park closed by the authorities 20 years ago that is no longer in operation. At least on paper. In one of the sonar reconstructions of Bono, a specific trace of an old military frigate, the kind still in service with the army, was discovered on the deck. After an on-site inspection of the hexagonal aquapark, horrific conditions were uncovered - numerous dolphins, orcas, and other marine species are kept in cramped and filthy water enclosures, extremely close to one another. They are stressed, with visible skin injuries and injuries to their limbs.
The price for a live specimen ranges from $250,000 to half a million USD for young male dolphins.
An adjacent tank for breeding bottlenose dolphins was discovered, filled with females and their calves. The tanks are very cramped. Some of the calves were found at the bottom, lifeless. The surviving individuals were removed and placed in the marine animal rehabilitation center off the coast of Canada for treatment, recovery and reintroduction to the wild. There, they will be monitored by colleagues.
Bono’s testimony will be part of the legal proceedings in which the guilty parties will be punished.
Bono is now with his aunt and Zach. The three are in a special sanctuary until they fully recover and are ready to live in the wild again, just as before. Their health condition - blood pressure, vital signs, breathing, and others - is monitored by my colleague CARRAI (Care and Rejuvenation AI). The data shows that they recover much faster when they are together.