Olaf swung his MP88 toward the preacher.
“Stop!” I shouted, already bounding toward him. “He’s possessed!”
“The beast cometh,” Guzman snarled, jerking his revolver toward me. Bullets clanged off my helmet and slammed into my shoulders, but my protective gear kept them from going any further.
I leapt and smashed the gun from his grip. When I landed, it was with one hand palming his head. I took him to the ground. He struggled under my weight, but without the superhuman strength Rusty had described in his battle with Nicho. Between my fingers, Salvador Guzman’s eyes remained red-rimmed, but now they looked more horror-struck than hate-filled.
“How did you know where to find us?” I demanded. There was no way he’d tailed us up here undetected. The Chagrath had to have guided him. “How?”
“I followed him,” Guzman grunted.
“Bullshit. We would have seen you.”
“No, not this time. Last month, during the festival. I followed him up and I watched. I listened. I heard him calling to Satan. When I saw him leading you from town earlier, I knew where he was taking you. Now look!” he shouted above the rumbling. “Look what he’s done!”
I glanced over a shoulder to find Chepe still lying where he’d fallen. Yoofi was kneeling beside him.
“It’s not Satan,” I growled. “And Chepe didn’t call it up. That’s an underworld creature he was trying to stop.” Whatever doubts I’d harbored against the shaman earlier, I was fully convinced now of his good intentions.
“Oh, he’s manipulative,” Guzman said with a sneer. “But you know that already. Don’t you, beast?”
We didn’t have time for this. The preacher wasn’t possessed by anything except his own violent zealotry. I patted him down, then flipped him over hard. From my pack, I pulled a length of cable and secured him. I then stuffed a towel in his mouth to shut him up.
Pulling off my helmet, I glared down at him. “Don’t move.”
Guzman’s eyes flew wide, and he released a muffled shriek. Beast enough for you? I thought, replacing my helmet. I signaled for Olaf to keep an eye on the preacher and rushed over to Chepe with a medical kit.
“He doesn’t look good,” Yoofi said.
With each straining breath, blood bubbled from the old man’s lips. His chest hitched and rattled. I pulled his blood-drenched shirt up enough to see the entrance and exit wounds. They were bad.
“Can you heal him?” I asked Yoofi.
“Not without Dabu,” he replied apologetically.
I swore and opened the kit. Chepe reached a trembling hand toward mine and shook his head. “No time,” he rasped.
My watch showed three minutes till midnight. I looked at the portal, where the shaking Chagrath had turned even more toxic-looking colors of green and orange, then down at the scattered wormwood.
Could Chepe complete the ceremony?
As though hearing the thought, the old man shook his head again.
“No power,” he said. His cloudy eyes moved to Yoofi. “Must be him.”
“Me?” Yoofi leaned back on his staff. “No, I am sorry, but Dabu is a thousand miles away. He wants nothing to do with this place.”
“You heard the man,” I said, raking up the wormwood. “It’s you or no one.”
Yoofi swallowed hard and looked at the handful of dried herb I held toward him.
“Listen,” I said, “you’ve called Dabu back before, you have to do it again.”
Yoofi accepted the wormwood, but with a shaking hand. “He will not listen.”
Amid the quaking, the cavern lurched to one side. Olaf stumbled to keep his footing, while the children clung to one another. Balls of resin rolled around. “Then make him listen!” I shouted.
“How?”
“You know him better than anyone.”
“Parts of town are starting to sink,” Rusty radioed. “And I’m seeing some pretty scary shit on Drone 2. Crevices are opening. A couple of houses have already gone in. And something’s moving around at the bottom of those cracks. Some kind of giant worm.”
Shit, I thought, it’s getting its food supply.
“That’s an appendage of the Chagrath,” I said. “If you get a clean shot, nail it.”
“I’ve got the drone locked on. How’s it going up there?” he asked nervously.
“If you lose communication with us, have Drone 2 give you a lift out of there.”
“That swell, huh?”
I was watching Yoofi, who still appeared to be mulling over what I’d said about making his god listen. A sudden light came over his face. He clenched his hand around the wormwood and wheeled toward the portal. As Yoofi began to speak, I carried Chepe a short distance away and started to treat his wounds. It was the only activity I felt I had an ounce of control over at the moment. I worked methodically, falling back into my field trauma training and experience. To my left, Olaf stood over the screaming children. To my right, Takara had curled onto her side, her powers spent. Both of their gazes were on Yoofi.
He spoke sternly, the hand with the wormwood held over the portal, the other clutching his staff straight overhead. His coat trembled around him. He looked convincing, anyway. But when I searched the staff’s black blade for something—anything—to suggest Dabu’s return, there was no warping force or black smoke. There was nothing.
I checked my watch again. Two till midnight.
The portal began to ripple and then rise. The interface was stretching, the Chagrath pushing its way into our world. Its bloated lips pulsated above the concentric rows of hooked teeth.
How big is this fucking thing that it’s also under the town, miles away? I thought.
As the interface began to peel from the Chagrath, I stood with my MP88—a weapon that suddenly felt puny.
“I take them outside!” Olaf called, flipping on his weapon’s tactical light. He was referring to the children. I hesitated before nodding. Despite my early, violent mistrust of the man, Sarah had been right. We’d given him the mission parameters, and he had followed them to a T. Right now that meant keeping the children safe. Plus, with the Chagrath emerging, it couldn’t possibly be more dangerous out there than in here. Especially if I started shooting.
“Be careful,” I told him.
Olaf helped the children up and began shepherding them from the cavern.
“You should go too,” I told Takara. But she shook her head and struggled to her feet. Threads of smoke still drifted from her body, and she winced like she was in incredible pain. Regardless, she worked her M4 around into firing position.
Yoofi continued to talk and shout as the Chagrath rose above him. The African priest, with his braided hair and bulky coat, looked like a child. The Chagrath broke through and angled its wormlike head toward him. Its mouth opened and closed, as though tasting the air.
Stupid mortals, came its chilling voice. You have no idea my power…
Takara and I opened fire. The hideous being recoiled as rounds exploded in and around its mouth. The cavern lurched again, this time to the other side. Rocks crashed down. Yoofi stumbled to keep his balance, but he maintained his stance, the hand clutching the wormwood held straight forward.
The Chagrath recovered from our initial assault, more surprised than hurt. Its body bulked as it rose higher.
I have arrived, it whispered. And I will only grow more powerful as I feed…
Takara and I released more bursts of gunfire. We might as well have been blowing bubbles for all the good they did. I considered calling for everyone’s evacuation, even Yoofi’s, but I couldn’t.
Not with so much at stake.
“C’mon, Yoofi,” I whispered. “I believe in you, man.”
Without warning, the air seemed to leave the room. A thunderous black bolt shot from Yoofi’s staff and into his hand holding the wormwood. A moment later a purple and white aura burst around Yoofi’s fist, lighting up the cavern. As the Chagrath dove for him, Yoofi hurled the wormwood, which had coalesced into a crackli
ng ball of energy. The Chagrath released a horrid scream as the potent energy ball disappeared down its gullet.
I bounded in, seized Yoofi around the waist, and pulled him from the descending path of the Chagrath. More rocks crashed around us. I shoved Yoofi ahead of me and shouted for him and Takara to flee the cavern. Yoofi picked up Chepe, while I lifted Guzman by an arm.
The twenty or so feet of the Chagrath that had emerged was flipping around like a giant leech coated in salt. Where the wormwood had gone down stood a vein-like network of purple trails, pulsating and beginning to ooze black pus.
Had Yoofi’s power been enough? Would the thing retreat to its realm?
As though to answer my questions, more of the Chagrath squeezed forth.
I switched to the grenade launcher and, running backwards, pumped bursts into its mouth. But the detonations seemed to do little more than remind the Chagrath we were here. It straightened and lunged toward us. I turned and sprinted, shouting Takara and Yoofi onward.
We emerged to an apocalyptic scene of flashing skies, crashing rain, and boulders cascading down the mountainside. Below, branch lightening made jagged arcs over the thrashing trees. Olaf had taken the children a short distance from the cavern, probably as far as they could go, given the chaos. Now he was huddled with them under a stone shelf. I handed the preacher off to Takara, who appeared to have recovered some, and pointed to the others.
“Go!” I shouted. “Try to get them out of here!”
As they made their way down, Yoofi still carrying Chepe, I backed from the cavern entrance and pulled the electronic tablet from my vest. I accessed a laser feature for calculating positions.
“You still there, Rusty?” I asked as I took the cavern’s coordinates.
“Still here, boss man,” I could hear destruction all around him. “But I don’t know for how much longer.”
I’m going to give you some coordinates. Hit it with Drone 1’s entire payload. Then take Drone 2 and get the hell out of there.” I read the coordinates off the tablet. “You’re cleared hot.”
I bounded behind cover. The missiles weren’t going to hurt the Chagrath, but if we could collapse the cavern, it might buy us enough time to get out of the being’s range. A peek showed the mouth of the cavern glowing orange and green through the downpour.
It’s emerging.
Rusty’s voice returned a second later. “Incoming in three … two … one …”
I ducked low. The mountain shook as the drone’s missiles slammed home. More boulders smashed down. In the dissipating smoke and dust, I saw that the entrance had been buried. I hurried over to the others.
“I don’t know how much time we have,” I shouted above the rain, taking Guzman back from Takara, “so we’re gonna have to move. There’s a valley on the other side of the mountain from El Rosario. Should be stable—”
I felt more than heard Guzman scream as the mountain above us shook. I turned to find the rocks over the just-collapsed cavern trembling. The Chagrath burst forth. It crackled orange and green, but pus was pouring from its body now. The psychic words it issued were little more than gibbering shrieks. It reared up, lightening flashing around it, then threw itself toward us. I crouched back and made sure everyone was behind me. One way or another, we were going to escape this thing, get the children to safety, and then figure out a new strategy for El Rosario.
But it wasn’t looking good.
I tensed as the enormous being neared, its twisting lips reaching, straining. I fired a burst of incendiary rounds, already knowing they couldn’t do anything. The Chagrath landed ten feet from us—and burst apart over the boulder field. Black pus sloshed off to both sides in thick waves.
The mountain trembled for another moment, as though settling back into place, then went still. The sky stopped flashing. The rain thinned to a drizzle. Behind me everyone had gone silent, even the children.
I stared in disbelief. Where the Chagrath had been was … gunk.
Finally, someone spoke, his voice faint and rasping: “Thank you.”
I turned to find Chepe clasping Yoofi’s hand in both of his. His face was pale, his body limp where Yoofi had set him, but his cloudy eyes shone above his smile. Yoofi looked from Chepe to the steaming remnants of the Chagrath and back.
“Did I do that?” he asked.
Chepe nodded and patted his hand. “You have a powerful god.”
Yoofi giggled in disbelief, then shook his head. “I will have to make him an extra big cigar, then.”
I wanted to hug Yoofi and ask what in the hell he’d done to get Dabu to come back, but there wasn’t time. Chepe was critical. “We passed a clearing on our way up,” I said. “I’ll run him down and arrange for a lift. Can the rest of you bring Guzman and the children?”
My teammates nodded, but as I stooped for Chepe, he shoved my arm back.
“No,” he rasped. “I will be buried here.”
“What are you talking about?”
He tapped his chest. “I told you about tremors here. I told you one of us will die, from he who comes behind. Remember this?” I looked over at Guzman. “I want to be buried here. On the mountain of Maximon.”
“Nothing’s preordained,” I told him, even as I thought about the old Kabadi sorceress declaring that the Blue Wolf would protect all. “We have medics who can help you.”
“They are safe now.” Chepe looked past me to the children and smiled. “Evil gone.”
His lids slid to half mast as he breathed for the final time.
“Evil gone…”
28
I buried Chepe under a cairn of stones, then went off to perform a final task as Yoofi spoke a few words, one priest to another. He set his favorite flask at the head of the cairn, which was touching.
When Yoofi indicated he was done, I lifted him onto my back and began bounding down the mountain. Takara and Olaf had already started down with Guzman and the children. I’d arranged for Centurion to pick us up at the clearing. That they agreed told me Sarah’s assessment had been on the mark: with this company, success trumped everything.
I craned my neck around. “So how did you make Dabu see the light?” I asked.
“I thought about what you said,” he shouted against the wind. “How I know Dabu better than anyone. And it’s true. I know his good, and I know his bad. He’s very funny, but also very jealous. I so much mention another god, and he want to explode. One god especially.” Yoofi giggled. “Even now Dabu don’t want me to talk about her. Udu is her name. She’s Dabu’s sister, god of the earth. So I tell Dabu, if you don’t come, I give all smokes and drink to Udu. He still say nothing. Too scared. So I start the prayer to Udu. I almost finish, and that’s when Dabu come. And brother, did he come. I never feel that much power before.”
“You did great, Yoofi. I couldn’t be prouder of you.”
“It’s like Sugar Nice say, ‘After all the bullshit I been dealt, I got no qualms ’bout hitting ’neath the belt.’ And Dabu deal me a lot of bullshit this trip, man.”
I laughed in agreement.
The helos arrived at the clearing shortly after we did. When everyone boarded, they lifted off and swung toward El Rosario. Within minutes, the town came into view in my natural night vision. It was pretty much what Rusty had described. The outskirts were a wreck. Several homes had fallen into the crevices that stretched toward the town center, while others lay in ruin, but still above ground.
As a nearly full moon emerged from the clouds, I thought about the dead, the ones the Chagrath had consumed in order to emerge. Although the soldier in me knew collateral damage was an unfortunate corollary of combat, the Blue Wolf swore to do better next time.
My gaze ranged over the center of the town—blessedly intact. The Chagrath hadn’t made it that far. And the luminous white church, where many in the town had taken shelter, remained standing.
Still, I thought, we can do better.
By the time we touched down, a crowd had gathered around the soccer fields. W
e disembarked and lifted the children down. The Centurion medics had checked them out during the ride. Apart from shock, they were in good health. A couple of the older children had taken on parental roles and they now carried the smallest ones. Olaf, Yoofi, and Takara held the hands of the other children, while I grabbed Guzman and hauled him out.
The parents of the missing had already begun to separate from the crowd and run toward us. Amid laughter and crying, they found their children, lifted them into their arms, and smothered them with hugs and kisses.
When Mayor Flores approached me, there were tears in her eyes as well.
“El Rosario will never forget this,” she said. “We thank you so much.”
I accepted her hug, expressed condolences for those they had lost that night, and then explained what had happened to Chepe. For several moments, she was too overcome to speak. I handed Guzman over to Juan Pablo, who jerked him to his police cruiser. Eyes fixed on my visor, Guzman screamed behind his gag—no doubt about beasts and damnation. The people of El Rosario didn’t spare him a second of their attention. Maybe he would convince his fellow prisoners.
Mayor Flores wiped her eyes as she watched the police cruiser pull away. “The other pastors said Salvador was becoming too zealous. I should have kept a closer eye on him.” She turned back to me. “So it is all over?”
“It is,” I said, remembering Chepe’s final words. “The evil is gone.”
“Can we call on you if we need you again?”
I met her gaze from inside my helmet. “Legion’s here for you. Before we take off, we’ll give you a direct number.”
She thanked me again before leaving to check on the reunited families. Off to my right, Miguel Bardoza was back with his family. Wrapped in his father’s and mother’s arms, I had to identify him by smell. The only part of him I could actually see was his right hand. His sister was clasping the wrist like she would never let go of it again.
When she caught me looking, she smiled.
Still concealed inside my helmet, the Blue Wolf and I smiled back.
At that moment Rusty radioed. We had been in contact on the way down. With the Chagrath’s disappearance, not only had the quakes ended, but Nicho returned to a sane version of himself. Rusty placed him in police care and then took stock of the office. He estimated the equipment damage to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Director Beam was going to love that.
Blue Shadow (Blue Wolf Book 2) Page 22
