Predator Island

by Douglas Cameron

  As the man had passed by him, the caracal had become interested in him. He was too big for the caracal to consider attacking for food and besides, she was able to fill her needs with birds and small animals. She left the tree and followed the man carefully staying just off to one side. When the man had stopped, the caracal had caught the scent of another man and had recognized it as the scent of the man who had come up the tree that second night and scared her off. She had sensed that the second man was no danger to her but somehow sensed that the first man she was following could be a danger to both of them. Now, almost without thinking, the caracal had leapt on the man and knocked him to the ground and then she had jumped off and disappeared into the ground foliage of the rainforest. She heard the man running off and was satisfied. She moved to check on the other man, the one whom she considered a friend, but he was gone.

  “Gerallt,” the voice was in his ear. “This is important. There is a soldier behind you and the caracal is ready to pounce on him.”

  Gerallt dropped to the ground just as Sebastián’s rifle went off. He was up and had his rifle in hand in a flash. He heard the sound of the caracal bounding off and then the sound of the man running away. He moved carefully toward where the sound had come from but saw nothing. However, that was enough. He put the wood cut for torches but yet to have resin applied behind the tree, gathered his completed torches and set out for the lava tube.

  “Thanks, Tyrant,” Gerallt said.

  But there was no answer. Horus was off attending to other matters.

  When Sebastián reached the edge of the rainforest, he stopped and gathered his composure and then walked back across the open area to the encampment.

  “Any luck?” Pedro asked.

  “No,” Sebastián said.

  “Thought I heard a shot.”

  “I was trying to shoot a bird up in a tree. Missed.”

  “Better take target practice,” Pedro said.

  “Yes, been a while.”

  “Looks like you had a fall,” Pedro said, pointing to mud smeared on Sebastián’s left knee.

  “Yes, I tripped over a branch. Just clumsy I guess.”

  Sebastián continued on into the encampment and never mentioned the man in camouflage clothing he thought he saw in the rainforest or the animal that had attacked him.

  Chapter 31

  When Siegfried reached the wall of a room that no one had lived in and supposedly was being used for no purpose, the door opened and, without a glance either way, he disappeared into the room and the door closed making the wall look virtually unbroken.

  Once inside the dark room, Siegfried stopped and waited for the door to close. When the door was solidly shut, the room was lit like it was daylight. There was no furniture so to speak, only a couple of work tables. The surface of one table was covered with snippets of wire, wire insulation, and infrared lights with wires which had connected the lights to drones cut short. There was a basket containing new LED lights programmed to show either red or bright lights depending upon the command. The other unusual thing about the room, which except for its furniture was just like any of the other apartments, was the fact that the door to the garden area was open as was the window in the four-piece skylight that was directly above this room’s garden entrance. It was the invasion that had changed all that and what was underway was the beginning of the counterattack by “the good guys” or the AEA (Anti-Esteves Alliance.)

  Siegfried checked to make certain that the soldering iron was connected and working and that the snips and other tools were as he had left them almost an hour before. Since just after five this morning, Siegfried had been dividing his time between this room and the theater with stops in the restaurant to pick up coffee and, for the early part of the morning, the all-important beignets. With Carmen’s help, the beignets had been the pièce de résistance in the plan to keep Ramiro from becoming suspicious of Siegfried’s whereabouts during the early part of the day.

  Scarcely had Siegfried checked everything when one of the drones came down through the skylight, into the room and settled itself on the worktable in front of him.

  “You’re getting pretty good at this,” Siegfried said.

  “Practice makes perfect,” Horus said. “Even I can learn something.”

  “How many more?”

  “We’re now – or will be after you complete the conversion, exactly half done.”

  And even as they were talking, Siegfried was removing the drone’s infrared light which permitted photographing the male coyote’s activity at night and mounting it on a light bar with one which would light up the male coyote’s world with either sunlight or firelight. Then the light bar was put on the drone and wiring plugged in so that either light could be used.

  There were other members of the team who could have done this, but it was felt that it was better that one person did it rather than two or more. Siegfried was more adroit at working with electronics than the others although Issaack could have done it almost as well. Everyone who had been brought into the program developed by Horus – at the request of Issaack and Siegfried – had been asked if they could do it. All of them could have developed the ability given the time, but they didn’t have the time and Horus could absorb information much more quickly.

  It was midafternoon before things went awry for the first time. Siegfried was on his way out to convert yet another drone when Esteves halted him.

  “Ziegfried, you do not zeem to be enjoying zis today.”

  “Oh, you’re wrong...” your fucking holiness, he wanted to add. “It’s just that I am so nervous about everything that ...”

  “I wantz you to zit and talk to me about how zis is going and which one you wantz to win and which one will win.’

  Issaack and Waldo looked at each other with looks that said “he’s getting suspicious.”

  “I don’t really...”

  “Of course, you do,” Ramiro said. “Izzaack, you move one zeat to your left, I will take your zeat, and you can take mine, Ziegfried.”

  “I...”

  “No argument. I wantz it so ... Zit.”

  And Siegfried sat.

  That left Waldo as the next up in the drone light replacement scenario and it would have worked, at least for one drone, except for the fact that Waldo was in the theater at that moment. He knew that Siegfried being on his way out meant that a drone was on its way in to have the modification made. To delay too long would put the process in jeopardy and at that moment things were running tight. This knowledge was communicated by the use of keywords and countersigns in conversations within the theater. So as inconspicuously as possible, he got up and moved toward the exit. Had he been in the third row it might have worked, but he was in the second and so was moving directly behind Ramiro when ...

  “Waldo, please, have a zeat and help out in zis dizcuzzion.”

  “Really, I would love to but ...”

  “Nothing can be more important at this time zen what is going on out zere. Zitz.”

  Waldo hesitated.

  “Zitz!”

  It was as though Ramiro knew what was going on, but he didn’t. He was just being the arrogant asshole that he was. After all, his forces were in control of the island and that meant that he was in control of the island. Waldo had no choice but to sit behind Ramiro and join in the conversation – argument perhaps more to the point – about which predator was going to win the contest. And when Waldo sat down that left ...

  “Monica.”

  Monica jumped. She was in her room when Horus burst in audibly.

  “What?”

  “You are needed.”

  “In the theater?” she replied as she stood to go.

  “No, in the workroom.”

  “But I don’t know what to do.”

  “It’s easy. I’ll guide you through the process.”

  “But...”

  “It’s important. Everyone else is tied up with Esteves and if we cannot get this done today ... Well, our goose is co
oked because we won’t have infrared for the nighttime when the predators are usually out.”

  “But...”

  There was to be no “But” and Monica knew it, so she followed the guiding arrow on the floor tiles and soon found herself in the drone conversion lab standing in front of the workbench upon which was a drone.

  “First, turn the drone upside down.”

  Monica complied.

  “Get the medium sized Philip’s head screwdriver from the black box.”

  “Philip’s head?”

  “The end is like a plus sign.”

  “I was never good in math.”

  “It’s in the slot labeled 6.”

  “Got it.”

  “There are two screws on a black box. They have the plus sign on them.”

  “I see them.”

  “Use the screwdriver to undo the screws.”

  Monica used the screwdriver, got it into the slot of the first screw, tried to turn it and the screwdriver slipped from her hand.

  “Schitz!” she muttered.

  She picked up the screwdriver and tried again. Her hand was shaking. Then, through the room’s audio came music. Her music. And she started singing and swaying. She picked up the screwdriver and fitted it into the slot.

  “Turn the screw anti-clockwise.”

  “It’s out.”

  “Put it in the white dish and get the other.”

  “That slag is a lady ...” Monica sang.

  With music playing in her ear and Horus directing her, Monica finished the project in twenty-five minutes and clapped for joy when the lights worked.

  “Now turn it over,” Horus directed.

  Monica did as requested.

  “Hands out of the way,” Horus said and started the drone. It rose off the table, bobbed up and down and flew out the door to the atrium and up through the skylight.

  “Good job, Monica,” Horus said. “I don’t think you’ll have to do this again but if you do, you’ll do it faster. Now time to go to the theater and let them know you were successful.”

  Five minutes later, Monica walked into the theater bearing a small paper plate with a cookie on it, and everyone looked at her, Ramiro leering and Issaack, Waldo and Siegfried apprehensively.

  “Have the coyotes done it yet?” she asked sitting down in the second row next to Waldo and handing him the paper plate.

  “Not yet,” Siegfried said.

  Monica clapped her hands and said, “Great, I didn’t want to miss that.”

  The three men seemed to relax.

  “Where have you been?” Ramiro asked.

  “A lady doesn’t tell things that are private,” she responded, got up and went up to the back row and sat down.

  Chapter 32

  The rest of the drone work was completed within the desired time frame because Ramiro tired of the inactivity of the predators and said he’d be back at dark. Phil had joined the group on and off throughout the day and was there when Ramiro left. Watchdog! was the thought of the AEA and went about their activities as the program originally dictated.

  Outside the sun dipped below the horizon, the predators started stirring and a shadowy figure emerged from the lava tube. Gerallt made his way stealthily across the crater wall to the north side of Vulcan’s Roost where he could see the north side guard and prepared to start his part of the insurgency. This part of the action took over half an hour because he had to avoid being detected by both the west and north side guards.

  The guard (Soldado 9) had met his counterpart at the northwest corner and was returning to the southwest corner slightly lackadaisically although he was searching the surroundings every few steps. As soon as he passed Gerallt’s position, Gerallt quickly got to the crater floor and crossed the short distance to the west wall of Vulcan’s Roost. Knife in hand he stealthily closed the distance between himself and the guard. Ten feet from the corner, he reached around the man’s head, clamped a hand over his mouth, pulled back and thrust the knife between his ribs. The guard went stiff and then collapsed lifelessly in Gerallt’s arms.

  Horus changed the Invader Count from 29 to 28.

  Pulling the knife out, Gerallt let the man fall to the ground and hurried to the corner staying on the west side of the building. In just a few seconds after reaching the corner, he could hear the steps of the westside guard (Soldado 10).

  A look of surprise fleetingly crossed the guard’s face when he stepped past the corner expecting to see his counterpart and instead coming face-to-face with death – his own.

  Horus changed the Invader Count from 28 to 27.

  After lowering the westside guard to the ground, Gerallt returned to northside guard’s body and quickly stripped him of his weaponry. Hurrying back to the corner, he did the same with the westside guard and then double timed to the middle of the west wall. The door opened as he arrived and Hansel and Declercq took the weaponry from him and the door closed. Then Gerallt hurried to the southwest corner, once again waiting patiently, this time for the south side guard (Soldado 11). As most of them were, this one was a smoker and the fetid smell of cigarette smoke preceded him announcing his arrival to his appointment with an unexpected death.

  Horus changed the Invader Count from 27 to 26.

  This is too easy was Gerallt’s thought. Something is going to happen to change it.

  And, of course, that was true, but it would be several minutes before the eastside guard arrived at the northeast side of Vulcan’s Roost to meet the northside guard whose dead body was lying about ten feet from the northwest corner. At that point, “all hell was going to break loose” Horus had said and those involved in this part of the program knew that. Picking up the guard’s armament, Gerallt returned to the door in the west wall which was standing open. Stepping inside he came face to face with Monica, who this time was more appropriately dressed in pants and a safari blouse.

  Gerallt handed her the guard’s ammunition belt which he had already buckled into a loop. Monica put it effortlessly over her head and under her left arm. Then she extended her right arm and took the proffered south-side guard’s rifle.

  “You know how to use this?” Gerallt asked.

  Monica looked at the weapon. “AK-47, known also as the AK or Kalashnikov, is a gas-operated 7.62×39 mm assault rifle, developed in the U.S.S.R. by Mikhail Kalashnikov. So I think so. Ta Ta” and she turned and vanished down a hallway.

  “You’ll go left,” Gerallt heard the voice of Horus in his ear say.

  Looking at the floor, Gerallt saw “
  Near the front of Vulcan’s Roost, the guard in front of the computer room door was bored. He had been there almost two hours, and no one had passed by. But then no one hardly ever did except that Siegfried fellow every other evening. He just spent about ten minutes looking at some of the equipment and then left.

  There was a sound behind him, which he recognized as the door to the computer room opening, but it usually only happened when Siegfried was here. The guard whirled around and saw just blackness with rows and rows of blinking or steadily shining lights in a variety of colors.

  “¿Quien va…? (Who goes…?)” was all he got out before Gretel grabbed his head with her left hand over his mouth, pulled back and stuck a knife in his back. Unfortunately, because of the unexpectedness of the door opening, his finger was on the trigger of his rifle and it had tightened when she grabbed him. Fortunately, her pulling back on his head caused the rifle’s barrel to rise and his short burst went harmlessly into the back wall of the room, about sixteen inches from the ceiling.

  Soldier 16 was dead.

  Horus changed the Invader Count from 26 to 25.

  That burst should have alerted the other two guards in the building who were at the inside front door. And it would have, in fact did although they couldn’t do much about it as Declercq and Hansel had them covered with their recently acquired AK-47s. But they hadn’t been there
alone, Symon Sheetz was there – armed with his own weapon that had been stashed in one of many built-in hidey holes when the invasion occurred – and stepped out the door into the crater facing north and fired an accurate burst cutting down the eastside guard (Soldado 15) who had heard the muffled burst and wasn’t certain where it was from.

  Horus changed the Invader Count from 25 to 24.

  Symon raced to the body to make certain that he was dead and relieved it of its armament and ammunition belt. The two inside sentries (Soldado 4 and 12) were relieved of all armament and clothing except for underwear and escorted to an unused room.

  Horus changed the Invader Count from 24 to 22 and the jail count to 2.

  Even though Horus had assured everyone that the two couldn’t get out of the room, Gretel took the first guard duty.

  Gerallt had no idea where he was as he followed the path through the dark hallways. He just read the tiles and listened to occasional advice from Horus. “Stop,” Horus said as a light ahead announced the presence of people in the corridor.

  “Around the next corner, to the left, is the theater where everyone except the security team – which now includes you – has gathered to watch the evening predator show. There are two guards. In just a minute, when I tell her, Monica is going to come down the hall and will distract the two guards. Symon Scheetz is at the corner with Monica now and Stefaan Declercq is on the opposite side of the corridor like you. Ease up to the corner and when I tell you, step around and cover one of the guards. Declercq will do the same as will Scheetz. Don’t shoot unless you have to. Monica should have them relaxed enough that it will be useless for them to try to shoot.”