“I can only imagine,” Stacy said in a whisper.
“If we hadn’t attacked the moment we did,” Jeffrey said placing his hand on Stacy’s back, “They’d be gone.”
Stacy’s heart, which she felt had faded to nothing, spilled over. As her vision blurred, she felt weak. Fearing she might fall, she knelt as tears began streaming down her face.
Jeffrey crouched beside her, took hold her hand. “What we’ve lost is gone. We have to focus on what’s been saved.”
Marco’s little boy, no more than three years old, caught Stacy’s eye. Brow furrowing, he pulled his hand free of his mother’s and ran to her. He touched her face with delicate fingers.
“Su nombre es Stacy, sí?”
She smiled as best she could and nodded.
“Por qué está triste?”
As Sofía walked up, Stacy looked to her, a beautiful woman with delicate shoulders and kind eyes.
“I am sorry if he is troubling you, Commander Zack.”
“Please Sofía, call me Stacy. He’s not at all, but I don’t know what he asked me.”
Sofía said to her son, “Ella no habla español. She is one of the soldiers who saved us.”
He nodded, looked to Stacy, and said, “I didn’t think heroes cried.”
Stacy, barely managing a whisper, said as she took hold of his small shoulders, “Yes, Luciano, we do.”
“Why are you sad?”
“I’m not sad at all.”
The boy scowled as he asked his mother, “Por qué está llorando?”
A heartfelt smile came to Sofía’s face. “He asks why you are crying.”
Stacy drew the boy in, hugging him close. As she held the little chest in her arms, hair soft on her cheek, she whispered into his ear, “Do you ever wonder who rescues the heroes?”
He pushed away from her, his expression worried. “Who?”
“A few moments ago I thought no one would,” she wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, “but now I think you and your sister will.”
Chapter Sixty-Eight
As Kevin Bradshaw held up the sharpened pipe, a hunk of blood-dripping meat hanging from it, he asked, “Why are we feeding this thing?”
“Admiral Holt wants it alive so we can learn from it,” Gabriel Hernandez said as he gripped the handle on the sliding metal door as though it were the spring on a bear trap. “You ready?”
Kevin blew out a breath. “Wait just a minute.”
But Gabriel had already pulled open the door. He ran a few steps aside as the weld-laced metal wall, the south side of a large enclosure, concussed as something big collided with it. A spiderlike arm with four claws whipped out of the small opening, searching the surface of the wall.
“Oh crap,” Kevin said, backing away.
A bellowing rose up through the open steel mesh, which made up the top of the cage.
“Don’t back away,” Gabriel said as he ran around Kevin, shoving him forward. “You have to give it the meat, but whatever you do, don’t let it take the pipe.”
“Oh hell,” was all Kevin could say, eyes locked on the searching arm. He had spent countless hours with his friends, discussing what they would do to a Sthenos if they got their hands on one. Now, with one right in front of him and an angle-cut pipe in his hands, all he wanted to do was back away.
The Sthenos let out a clicking sound, vibrating Kevin ear drums.
“Get it done,” Gabriel said. He shoved on Kevin again.
“Get off me. I’ll do it.”
Drawing a deep breath, Kevin lowered the pole and stepped forward. As he did, he could see white-rotten eyes looking out at him through the pass-through. He felt dizzy as the arm reached, the four fingers held wide, ridged claws curling.
“Don’t let it get hold of the pipe.”
“How the hell am I supposed to keep it—”
The Sthenos snatched at the flesh, sank its claws into it and pulled. The pipe lurched, and the meat came free. Kevin stumbled backward, falling to the dirt.
Gabriel laughed at him as he took the pipe and used the end to shove the panel shut. Tossing it back to Kevin, he said, “Welcome to the zoo, rookie.”
The sound of wet chewing came from beyond the wall.
“Yeah,” was all Kevin could say as he got to his feet.
They walked out of the courtyard past the hulking shape of the Gorilla.
“What the hell’s that thing for?”
“That?” Gabriel said with pride. “That’s a Gorilla. Holt used it to capture this thing. They’re so aggressive it was the only way to restrain…”
They walked away, neither noticing the figure with a shag of blonde hair standing in the twilight shadows behind a pine tree. The man remained there for some time, seeming to wait for darkness to fall.
When night had come on, moonlight belied the darkness, throwing silvered shadows across the courtyard. Leif Holt, wearing the metal-ring-jointed jumpsuit, which controlled the Gorilla, stepped out from the darkness and looked to the officer’s offices to the north. Seeing no one in the windows, he approached the enclosure. His breath came in short huffs as his surging adrenaline made his arms and legs feel electric.
He placed his hand on the metal. Only a quarter inch of plate steel separated him from one of them… those that had taken his wife and child from him. The moonlight reflected off a half-mad smile as he smacked the metal with his palm, causing the wall to ring like a massive drum.
Running hoof-falls thundered up to the wall. Leif stepped back. The wall crashed and reverberated. Claws scratched down the metal as a sound like a buzz saw razed the air.
Leif laughed quietly and said, “I see you’re ready.”
He walked into the darkness under the Gorilla, mounted the ladder, strapped himself to the back rest and closed the cab door. He powered it on, and as it stood, he pulled the VR headset on. Now his sight line stood almost as tall as the cage wall. Walking up to it, he brushed his hands together, the Gorilla mimicking him, and threw the cage door open snapping the chain.
While he could have changed the cameras to infrared, he wanted to see it in natural light, and the moon offered enough, especially in the camera’s sensitive optics. The thing shied away from him, back to the other side of the space.
“Hey buddy,” Leif said as he moved into the cage.
He stepped aside. “There’s the door. All you have to do is run for it.”
The Sthenos watched him a moment before turning in a circle, kicking dust toward him, and spraying something out its thorax.
“Not as advanced as you’d like to pretend.”
Leif became suddenly cognizant of the risk he was taking, not for his own life, but others. If the Gorilla shut down or the thing got past him, he’d have let free that which his father had worked months to catch. But, somewhere deep in his psyche, Leif knew he needed this. He wouldn’t sleep right until he had it. He’d seek forgiveness later… if his father would grant it
“Come on you chicken shit.” Leif knew that if he moved away from the door, it, being faster and more agile than the Gorilla, could run around him and be gone. It would kill before being killed. Those deaths would be on Leif. He stayed by the door. “Go for it bastard.”
As if on command, the Sthenos dropped to all six limbs and sprinted at the open gate, startling Leif how quickly it crossed the space. As it passed him, Leif reached out, shouted a curse as he felt he would miss it, and caught it by its back leg.
The Gorilla jolted sideways, and Leif feared it might fall, but it settled down, and he lifted the thrashing monster up. Turning, he pulled the gate shut and regarded the oversized insect-like being.
“Intelligent. That’s nice.”
He gripped, crushing the leg.
The Sthenos let out a horrific scream.
That will bring the base down on me.
He had limited time, but wouldn’t go too fast. Europa had been their time. Now this was his.
It clawed at its leg, now chewed on it. Just a
s the leg came away from its body, Leif gripped an arm, then a second arm, and plucked one off. Threw it aside. Its head thrashed with the pain.
“Yes,” Leif said, his heart fluttering against his ribs. “That’s what it feels like.” He pulled the other arm off. “Do you see now what you’ve been up to?”
Darkness coursed from the arms.
“Not yet… I want more time. Cutter.” The Gorilla’s hand folded back, and the cutting bar lifted out. Leif pulled his trigger finger, sending arcs of blue electricity across the bar. Touching it to the bleeding sockets, he cauterized the wounds. The Sthenos writhed against his grip biting at the armor-plating.
Leif laughed and, for the first time, understood how much he’d held in.
Over his earpieces, he heard a commanding and familiar voice, “You in the Gorilla. Stop at once!”
He turned to the gate, which remained closed.
“This is Admiral Jeffrey Holt. Acknowledge my order.”
Leif’s eyes scanned the dark office windows.
“Down here, in the feeding port.”
Leif looked to the small rectangle, framed in scratches, and saw his father’s face illuminated by a flashlight.
“Hey dad,” he said over the Gorilla’s loudspeaker.
“Leif?” Jeffrey asked in an incredulous tone. “What the hell are you doing?”
My times up.
“This,” Leif said as he pinned the Sthenos to the ground, looked into the white rot of its eyes, and punched the Gorilla’s fist down, and down, and down again, until all that remained was a crater in the dirt with the lower half of a Sthenos extending from it.
He heard the scraping of metal and looked to see the gateway coming open. Several men ran through. Powering down the Gorilla, he swung sideways out of the cab, climbing up to sit on its back.
Jeffrey jogged up to the crater, stared at it. “Leif… I don’t understand… You know how hard I worked to capture this thing.”
With his eyes on the depth of the stars, Leif said, not to his father, but to the glittering reach of the Milky Way, “You like death?” He laughed to himself. “That’s good because I’m bringing you genocide.”
THE END.
A CLOSING REQUEST
Thank you for your time reading Hammerhead Resurrection. I hope I’ve served that time well. If you enjoyed the read, please consider helping an independent writer by leaving a review, letting others know about my work, and/or dropping me a line at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you.
Jason Andrew Bond grew up in Oregon and currently lives in Washington State with his wife and son. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Oregon and an MBA from the University of Colorado. When his first novel Hammerhead unexpectedly reached bestseller status, he dedicated twenty-five percent of his profits to disabled U.S. veterans. Jason takes a hands-on approach to writing. When SCUBA research couldn't wait for summer, he found himself certifying in Puget Sound's frigid January waters. Outside of writing and his family, martial arts are an important part of his life. At eighteen years of age he entered an Aikido dojo for the first time, and has since trained in Jeet Kune Do, Tae Kwon Do, Shudokan Karate, Goshin Jutsu, and Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu.
For more about the author, future novels, and events, please visit: www.JasonAndrewBond.com
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