by Greig Beck
“I’m sorry,” Soong whispered to Aimee, whose hands were tied together in front of her. A length of rope tethered her to the giant Chinese soldier in front.
Aimee snorted. “I don’t exactly remember, but when was it that we had you tied up?” She scoffed. “Must be a cultural thing, huh?”
Soong shook her head. “I trust you, but they do not. I told Captain Yang that you didn’t take their men, that it was something else, something down here already. And that you know what it is.” She stared hard at Aimee. “They could have killed all of you … I stopped them.”
Aimee snorted. “Do you have any idea what they’re triggering by going after the American submarine? Do you really think that they’re going to be allowed to walk out of here with the technology?” She shook her head. “Not that any of us is going to walk out of here.”
Soong sped up slightly, leaving Aimee behind.
“There could be war,” Aimee said forcefully to Soong’s hunched shoulders.
The Chinese woman half turned. “You can talk to my friend.”
“Shenjung Xing? Damn right I’ll talk to him, that’s why I’m here,” Aimee said, but Soong had threaded her way around the giant Mungoi, who turned to grin and tug a little harder on her rope.
Yang led them towards a small camp, or rather an area of flattened foliage in among the tangled jungle.
Soong ran to Shenjung Xing. Aimee recognized the scientist immediately from Hammerson’s profile picture. The pair embraced warmly. Shenjung reached up to tenderly brush strands of hair from her face, and Aimee now knew why Soong had so eagerly wanted to come with them. Soong spoke rapidly, and Shenjung’s face creased into a frown. His eyes lifted to Aimee.
“Untie her.” He spoke loudly, but Yang ignored him. Mungoi continued to stand like a colossus, hanging on to Aimee’s leash like she was a pet dog.
Aimee held up her bound wrists. “Do you mind?” She spoke directly to Yang. “I’m not going to run off into the jungle by myself, and I think you know why.”
Yang shook his head, and turned back to his conversation with one of his men. Aimee let her breath hiss out from between clenched teeth. She turned to Shenjung.
“You know what? We came down here for you. To warn you that there is a potential global conflict happening over our heads. I was sent as a diplomat … a spokesperson. If you ever managed to find your way out, which is unlikely, you’ll find something a lot different than diplomats waiting for you.”
Yang, overhearing, finally turned, his lips a thin line. “We are not afraid of you. This century belongs to China, Dr. Weir.” He looked Aimee up and down for a second or two, and smirked. “And we cannot go back, because Dr. Soong Chin Ling has informed us that you blew up our base.” His face was like stone. “She also tells me that you may know another way out. I agreed not to kill your people, because she convinced me that you would help us find that path back out. But if you won’t, then I am more than happy to finish my job.”
Aimee stared for a moment. “Listen, that wasn’t us. That was your own people that set your base to self-destruct. And by the way, one of your men ambushed and killed our captain.”
Yang’s lips pursed. “Only your captain? Shame.”
Aimee growled under her breath. She turned back to Shenjung. “You fools, you’re in danger. I know your soldiers are going missing, so are ours. You sense it out there; I know you do. It’s the other thing I needed to warn you about – what really lives down here.”
“Lives down here?” Shenjung looked from Aimee to Soong. Behind them, Yang edged closer.
“There’s a reason this place is off-limits. It’s unsafe.” Aimee waited. Yang’s eyes narrowed, but they slid to Soong.
Soong’s brows were knitted. “There is something, in the caves. And now, maybe down here with us.”
“No maybe about it.” Aimee tugged on her rope. “It’s big, smart, and hungry … and we’re right in its goddamn backyard.” She nodded to their weapons. “And you guys might as well have pea shooters for all the good they’ll do.”
“We are not that easily tricked,” Yang said evenly. “We have seen nothing.” He looked away quickly.
Shenjung’s head snapped around to Yang. “But you did! The scouts went missing, to turn up massacred. And then just hours back …”
“I saw nothing!” Yang’s voice boomed. He pointed a fist at Aimee. “Nothing but what the Americans wanted me to see.”
“Oh, bullshit,” Aimee spat the words back at him, and tugged angrily on the rope. “You’re going to walk everyone right into the jaws of death, literally.”
Yang’s lip curled. “An American trick, denied by an American spy, sent to divert us.” Yang held up a hand. “We will complete our mission, secure the site of the derelict submarine, and then Dr. Weir will show us the way out.”
Anger began to burn within Aimee, and it blew apart any diplomacy she had planned. “Your mission?” Her jaw jutted, and she lifted her head. “You think you can take ownership of American property?” She smiled at the way his head turned to her a fraction. “That’s right, that derelict submarine is the Sea Shadow. You try and even set foot on it, and there’ll be war … and one you can’t win.”
Yang sauntered closer. “You still think you can win a war with us?” He threw his head back and barked out a single laugh. “Our cyber-technologists will shut down your launch programs before they even start.” He leered at her. “By the time you figure out what went wrong, your country will be ash.”
Aimee lunged at him. “You fucking …”
Yang’s backhand knocked her down. Shenjung and Soong rushed to her, shielding her, but Aimee pushed them away, and wiped her mouth.
“You weak sonofabitch, you’re as good as dead, and don’t even know it. One by one, either in the next few minutes or hours, the thing down here will catch you, rip you to shreds, and you won’t be able to do anything about it. You can’t even hide, because it will find you, dig you out, and rip walls apart to get at you.”
She felt exhausted, beaten. “Forget the submarine. We need to be gone from here, and we need much better defenses. At least combine your forces with the HAWCs. That way we might, just might, be able to make it.”
Yang tilted his head. “So it’s our supplies, ammunition, and protection you need? If you think we will assist your team, you are wrong.”
Aimee’s head dropped for a moment. “We’re all going to die.” She looked up slowly, turning to Soong. “Make sure you stay in the center of the group, don’t lag behind. Predators always pick off the stragglers first.”
Aimee exhaled in exasperation. She suddenly realized that she had failed. She followed the thought – if she failed, then there was no turning the Chinese back from trying to get to the submarine. The future was set, and there would be justification for conflict – war. Millions would die, and she was here, and Joshua up there. She felt a cramp in her stomach at the thought of him being alone.
“Ho!” Yang pointed, and the team marched on.
*
The gunshots jerked Alex back to his senses. They were close, and he recognized the sound of the handgun – a Glock 22, plastic casing, feather light with a lot of punch, and an excellent weapon for wet environments. It was a jungle weapon and also part of the HAWC arsenal.
He slowed as he burst into a clearing and skidded to a stop. The trees were flattened, some of them with trunks a half dozen feet across, and others sunk deep into the soft ground as if something heavy had pushed into the jungle and rested there. There was a coating of ammoniac slime over everything that hung in the air like a stinging mist. Alex eased back into the tree line, wary. He knew that the nightmare predator that stalked, and probably attacked, his people was the most successful and inventive monstrosity that he had ever faced. His best chance of survival – everyone’s best chance of survival – was to simply avoid it.
Alex let the vines fall in front of him, and remained motionless. Aimee had once told him that cephalopods had acute visio
n that was triggered by movement. He just let his eyes travel over the foliage of the hundred feet of crushed plants, and the canopy and edges, looking for anything, no matter how camouflaged, that might have hinted at its presence.
Alex’s enhanced vision could pick up details at a granular level and also allowed perfect sight in night-black environments that was well beyond normal human vision. He could also “see” thermal variations. If something was warmer or colder than its surroundings, he would know it.
After another moment he stepped out and walked a few paces into the clearing. There was something black and glistening red, incongruous among the mud browns and drab greens. He quickly moved to it, snatching it up. He recognized it – he wore the same thing. It was an armored HAWC suit, its ceramic plating and Kevlar weave tough enough to withstand a shotgun blast, but here it was torn apart like paper. It was coated with streaks of blood and gore. The creature had taken at least one of the HAWCs, had peeled them out of the suit, and he could guess what happened after that. He dropped the armor, its obliterated remnants making it impossible to even guess who it had belonged to.
Alex wiped his hands. They were sticky, as the blood hadn’t fully coagulated – it was minutes fresh. Both his team and the thing were close by.
Come on guys, Hammerson would have made you read the reports, he whispered. You know what you’re up against. Alex reached out again – he could still sense the huge presence, but it was further out now, and moving away. He grabbed for his signal finder, quickly checking the readout and then cursing. The predator was headed in the same direction he needed to go … and the direction he bet his HAWCs had gone.
“Damnit, it’s tracking them.”
“Alex.”
He turned at Cate’s voice, and stepped in front of the bloody debris. “Stay there.”
She froze, wheezing, her face beet red. “What is it?” She gasped. “I can smell … phew … cat pee.”
“Ammonia; it exudes it. Allows it to leave the water without drying out.”
“This thing – is it your Kraken?”
“My Kraken?” Alex turned to face the cliffs. “Yeah, my Kraken,” he whispered. He imagined the beast pursuing the HAWCs, or maybe traveling parallel to their position, staying just out of sight. Its huge, boneless body keeping compressed and low, flowing around and over the trees and foliage like a slimy, muscular wave as it kept them in sight, staying close to its food … or its new toys.
Cate looked from the massive depression in the foliage, and then up at him, her eyes round. “This big? There’s nothing like this in the fossil record.”
“Yes, there is. According to one of the scientists who was with us, it was called an orthocone.”
Cate frowned, looking around again. “Cameroceras, orthoconic cephalopods, I know them. They were the apex predator of their time. But that was during the Ordovician period, hundreds of millions of years ago. And they only grew to about thirty feet, max.” She waved an arm around at the flattened trees. “This thing must have been …” Her lips compressed. “Hundreds of feet.” Her brow creased even further. “And it had a large conical shell, like some sort of mollusk.”
Alex kept his eyes on the jungle. “Seems it had plenty of time to evolve. It’s still the apex predator, but it’s developed a whole bunch of new skills.” He looked around. “It only used the shell in the water, and could leave it behind when it wanted to pursue us into the caves. It was able to flatten its body, get into the smallest of crevices, flowing almost like liquid. And it was a mimic – a very good mimic.” He looked at her.
She was frowning as she listened, but nodded. “Many creatures, and certainly many cephalopods, can mimic their surroundings, or even other animal shapes … in a fashion.”
“Not like this thing,” Alex responded. “It could create near perfect images of our people. Once it had ingested them, it could … become them.”
“That’s impossible.” She turned away, arms folded.
“That’s what I would have said … before.” He sighed and looked past her towards the dark sea. “Maybe it felt it only needed the shell in the water. Maybe your leviathan friends out there caused it to retain its armor. Got a weakness, after all.” He wondered how he could use this, but quickly gave up. “We’ve got to hurry, there were gunshots.” Alex looked down at her, wishing he could leave her behind, but knowing that would spell her death. Urgency now coiled within him. “Cate, we need to try and catch up … with my team.”
Cate nodded and her mouth curled down. “Boy oh boy, what I wouldn’t give to catch a glimpse of this thing.”
“No,” Alex said softly. “If it was close enough for us to see, we’d be dead, or just become part of its cat and mouse torture game. We’re going to stay as far away from this thing as we can.” He grabbed hold of her shoulders. “But if we do see it, I’m just hoping it’s long before it sees us.”
*
“Warm bodies … with plenty of nonbiological elements. Gotta be our PLA friends.” Rhino held up the reader, turning slightly. “Multiple signatures, all about the same size, and all stationary.”
Jackson grunted. “Not gonna let these guys get the jump on me again.”
Rhino leaned back. “Don’t feel too bad. These guys are robots – trained to be lethal since they were kids. We can take ’em, but that might mean permanent take-down. Not a great option while they’ve got Dr. Weir.” He exhaled. “And the last thing we want to be doing is starting a war that we were sent to stop in the first place.”
Casey came back in and crouched. Blake and Jennifer joined them. “Fifty feet, directly in front. They’re not moving.”
“Ambush?” Jackson asked.
“If it’s an ambush, it’s a strange one.” Casey’s lip curled. “Nah, unlikely. We’ve seen the concealment techniques these guys have used. They wouldn’t just be hanging it out there in the open.” She looked around. “Better scan for claymores, or anything else they could use for booby traps.”
“I don’t think so, boss,” Rhino said. “That big guy coulda taken me out clean. He didn’t. I don’t think that’s what they wanted.”
“Maybe they want to talk,” Blake said. “Let me go in.”
“Not a fucking chance,” Casey spat back.
“Attention, HAWC Special Forces operative Casey Franks!’
“What the fuck.” Casey’s head jerked around.
“HAWC Special Forces operative Casey Franks, operative Hank Rinofsky, operative Vincent Blake, soldiers Jennifer Hartigan and Benjamin Jackson. Come forward. We will not harm you.”
Casey turned to the group, her teeth clamped tight.
“No secrets in hell, huh?” Rhino said to Blake.
The voice drifted back to them again. “You are outgunned, outnumbered, and we have your chief scientist. Lower your weapons, we just wish to talk.”
All eyes were on Casey. She got to her feet. “Jackson, you come with me. Jennifer, stay put. Rhino, Blake, left and right flank.” She looked up at Jackson. “Stay on my shoulder, and stay cool.”
Rhino grinned at the big McMurdo soldier. “You just got a promotion, big fella … coz you’re expendable.”
Jackson grinned back. “That’s the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.”
Casey cradled her gun and pushed through the broad fronds and hair-like foliage of the blue tinged jungle.
CHAPTER 47
Casey stood just inside the line of hanging vines, watching the two men in the clearing. Rising up behind them, nearly invisible in the gloom, was the cliff wall, and the source of the signal. Somewhere at its base, or even inside, their goal resided.
So close, she thought. She looked back at the men. There was the brutal, black-eyed soldier, their leader – she assumed – one of the men she had briefly fought only just before. Behind him was the giant she had seen take down Jackson and Rinofsky. The massive soldier didn’t look human, and she assumed he was afflicted by something like acromegaly, the gigantism syndrome. His features were big and
broad to the point of being ogreish. But instead of the lumbering gait she would have expected from someone like that, he moved fluidly, athletically. She knew he’d be a problem.
Peeking out behind him was Aimee Weir. By the way Aimee held her shoulders, she guessed her hands were tied.
“Show time.” Casey grit her teeth and stepped forward.
She knew that though Aimee wasn’t being used as a shield, her proximity meant going in shooting was not an option. She also bet that the other PLA solders were close by, and a single word from their leader would bring them from the trees and trapdoors.
The soldier in front of her stood at ease, his hands clasped behind his back. He brought a hand around, making Casey brace, but it was empty. He motioned her forward.
“HAWC Casey Franks.”
Casey waited, watching.
“What now,” Jackson whispered.
“Now? Now, we join the party.” Casey continued in, her gun cradled.
The soldier smiled, but the lift of his lips never reached his blank eyes. “I am Captain Wu Yang of the PLA Special Forces, Dragon Brigade. You are Casey Franks of the American Special Forces, HAWCs.” He half turned. “Your chief scientist speaks very highly of you. She tells me we need you and your team’s expertise to survive.” He chuckled and looked around. “In this strange and savage place.”
“You bet you do,” Casey said.
“I think I do.” He nodded. “But I do not think I need you, though I do think we need your armaments. However, I am generous. Hand over your weapons and join us. It makes sense for us to combine under my leadership. I outrank you, Lieutenant.”
“Not in my army, pal.” Casey didn’t flinch.
Yang smiled grimly. “We could have killed you all. Many times. Please don’t make me regret that decision.”
“We’re just gonna find what we came here to find, and we’ll take Dr. Weir back. No one gets hurt, no one wastes time, energy, or ammunition. Then we all go home.”
“Go home?” His expression hardened. “I believe you shut that door … and killed our people.” His arms dropped to his sides. He spoke a few words in Chinese, and the giant turned to put a large hand on Aimee’s shoulder and pull her forward.
