by Brian
There is only silence in answer. He repeats it and the same thing greets them.
“Any unit respond, this is Unit eleven.”
The three of them are sweating in the warm, clammy air.
“This is Unit three. Where are you eleven?”
“I’m out in the grass with the detective and the woman. There’s no sign of the American, and we can’t see the camp.”
“Tell the detective that I respectfully suggest that you three come back while you can. The American can make it back with three armed men all right.”
“We cannot see the camp at all,” says Miguel.
“Copy that. We’ll stoke up the fire to give you some light to aim for.”
“Thanks. Unit eleven out.”
Miguel clips the radio back to its loop and grabs his gun with both hands. Arroyos looks at June.
“We’re going back,” he says. “You can stay here by yourself and look for him if you want, although I wouldn’t suggest it.”
She’s upset at his decision not to look for Linus, but she sees she will gain nothing by arguing with the detective. She knows it would be foolhardy to stay and look for him by herself and so she grudgingly follows the man as he heads off in the direction he thinks they’ve come from. The three move into the darkness in a tight group.
›
Linus Hather is alone. He has his light and his gun, but he’s lost the three other men. It is silent and dark outside the flashlight’s beam. At the moment he is one handing the gun while the other hand holds the flashlight. He shouts to try to locate the other men. His voice seems not to carry too far. Linus is a little worried that his voice could attract the Maero, then realizes that the flashlight would do that as well.
He wonders where the three men who were with him for some time have gone. He looks at the sky and strains to see the campsite. Linus turns off the light and scans the horizon in a circle but still sees no sign of human activity. He turns the light back on and walks forward a little ways. He stops and scans the grass with the light as if he’s heard something, but he doesn’t find anything. He turns the light off again and darkness encloses him like a black canvas tent. This time, almost immediately, there is a rustle nearby in the grass. A grunt is heard and Linus’s gun and flashlight fall to the ground. The thud of bodies hitting the ground is heard.
›
Arroyos, June, and Miguel are moving at a steady walk. Their two flashlight beams bouncing and sweeping forward and back.
“It’s been an hour, Detective,” says June. “We’re going the wrong way.”
“Your job is to light the way and watch out for the diablo.”
“Yes, sir!” she says sarcastically.
“We can’t get lost out here, Doctor, just misplaced for a little while.”
The trio continues on in silence for a moment.
“I’m more worried about being dead than lost, Detective.”
“I thought you wanted to look for your friend.”
“How about if we just stop,” says June irritatedly. “Then we won’t get farther and farther from the camp!”
“We are not getting farther from the camp.”
“Oh, really. Isn’t that the Andes Mountains up ahead there?”
Arroyos looks and sees nothing. “Oh, I see, a comedian. I wouldn’t quit your day job, Señorita.” He starts walking again and they continue on in silence. A light rain begins to fall.
“What do you think, Miguel?” says the detective as they walk. “Do we keep going or stay in one place?”
“I think we are safer if we keep moving, sir.”
Miguel’s radio comes to life. “Unit eleven, this is Unit three, over.”
“Unit eleven here,” says Miguel.
“Linus’s group has returned.”
June’s eyes light up.
“Without the American.”
The three stop moving and there is silence for a moment. Miguel looks at June. He queries the radio, “What do they say?”
“They lost track of him. They looked for a while but it was too dark so they came back.”
Arroyos shakes his head with a dour expression.
“Ah, where are you guys? We expected you back by now.”
“We may have been on an incorrect heading, but we’ve decided to keep moving.”
“Copy that. You may want to sit still from now on though. I’ve called for choppers with the car phone, to come from Buenos Aires. They’re to look for you and Linus.”
“Thanks Unit three. We can hardly wait.” Miguel hooks the radio back onto his belt.
“It’ll be an hour before the helicopters show up,” says Arroyos. “How about if we keep going? A different direction.”
“No!” says June.
They look at her as she sits down, surprised at her resolve. When the two men sit down, they do so back to back so that the three of them are facing all directions. There is, however, nothing for them to see but grass all around them and a dark, wet sky above them.
“At least we are fairly well hidden.” she says quietly.
“Yes,” says Arroyos equally quietly. “Let’s conserve the lights so we have something to signal with when the chopper gets here.
After a while, June feels the need to say something because the darkness and the tall grass are making her claustrophobic. “Detective?”
“Yes?”
“You know what I am tired of?”
“The dark?”
“Yes, and the constant vigilance. How do you maintain hyper-alertness for so long? It is difficult to do.”
“Never thought of it quite that way, but I’ve felt it. You get used to it after a while. But a moment’s lack of focus gets more than a few policemen killed.”
They are silent for a couple more minutes, listening to the night because their sight is such little use to them.
“Señorita,” says Arroyos. “I hope Señor Hather is okay.”
June makes a sound to let him know she heard him. She doesn’t know what else to do. She had been focused on her immediate danger and had put Linus in the back of her mind. Now she couldn’t help wondering why he’d been split from his group and where he was. Maybe he was the third victim of the creature on this horrific safari. A tear rolls down her cheek as she thinks of the man she was beginning to have strong feelings for laying lifeless in the pampas grass.
›
Linus’s gun and flashlight have fallen to the ground, and he is on the ground as well. The flashlight is still on and though it is shining into the grass it does allow him some little bit of light. The creature is on top of him. They are struggling and Linus has the creature’s lance arm with two hands. After some rolling around, the creature bites one of Linus’s arms and he lets out a yell. This results in him having just one arm controlling the creature’s lance arm.
Linus has a weight and strength advantage over the Maero and he moves into offense. He knees the creature in the groin. It howls with pain, but the force of Linus’s knee actually launches the animal over Linus’s head. The security guard realizes that he cannot allow the Maero to escape because then he would have the advantage again. He holds the Maero’s arm tightly as the creature goes over his head.
As it ends up on its back and rolls to its side in a pained fetal position, Linus moves quickly to take advantage of the suffering animal. He keeps one arm in control of the creature’s lance arm and puts the other arm around the creature’s neck as he climbs on top of the beast. Then he quickly brings both hands up to the chin and turns the creature’s head until its neck snaps.
After some moments of heavy breathing, Linus collects himself and checks the animal’s pulse at its neck and then on the creature’s chest to reassure himself that the creature is indeed as dead as he looks.
›
June, Arroyos, and Miguel are still hunkered down in the grass. Arroyos looks up, and then June and Miguel do so as well.
“It’s coming,” June says quietly. “The helicopter’s here!”<
br />
“Lights,” says Arroyos. “Turn on your light.”
Arroyos and June turn on their flashlights. They shine them up to attract the attention of the helicopter, which is now getting closer. June’s flashlight flickers weakly.
“Not now damn it!” She bangs the light on the ground and it comes back on more strongly. The chopper seems to not see them at first so the two start waving their dimming lights back and forth. Occasionally Arroyos scans the grass around them for signs of the creature which June has all but forgotten in her excitement at seeing the helicopter. Finally the helicopter sees them and begins circling and descending. It lands nearby and Arroyos, June, and Miguel pile in. With no delay the helicopter takes off again. Arroyos speaks to the pilot.
“Where’s the other chopper?”
“Off to the south of the camp.”
“Any sign of the American yet?” asks the detective.
“No, sir.”
Beneath the helicopter is dark grass waving in the breeze. The chopper’s search light sweeps over the ground in an effort to find Linus. Five minutes pass, and then another five, then five more and still no sign of Linus.
“We cannot fly for more than twenty minutes if we want to have enough fuel to get back,” says the pilot.
“OK,” says Arroyos.
June is worried now that they will stop looking for Linus, leaving him vulnerable to the creature’s attack if he hasn’t been attacked already. She keeps scanning the ground below outside her window in a desperate effort to see any sign the prison guard. After another two minutes she thinks she sees something in the distance.
“I see something,” she shouts over the noise of the aircraft.
Arroyos leans over and looks out her window. “Where? I don’t see anything.”
“Over there,” she says pointing. “Right in front of the skid there.”
Arroyos concentrates on the spot and sees a weak light waving. Over the noise of the chopper he says to the pilot, “Look to your one o’clock. We see him there.”
“One o’clock! Copy.”
As the helicopter gets closer to a small light, it shines weakly up to their eyes and then goes off and on twice. Then the light is aimed at one spot on the ground. The pilot heads for that oval of light on the ground. As they get closer to the ground, Arroyos waves out the open door as they near what is now obviously Linus. The detective smiles as he sees the bundle Linus is dragging toward the aircraft.
›
Back at the campsite, many of the men are gathered together standing around the dead creature, which looks more like it is sleeping than dead. There is still a perimeter guard. Two fires are still lit and the first hints of dawn are breaking on the horizon. Linus, June, and Arroyos are among those looking at the Maero. June takes Linus’s hand and squeezes it once tightly as she looks at him. He returns an appreciative look.
“Thank God you’re alive,” she says.
“I am pretty lucky,” he replies.
“I suppose you’ll be heading home now,” states Arroyos.
“Not until I get some vital statistics about this creature – at the very least,” says June. “So we can compare with the data with what we have for the creature that escaped from us.”
Arroyos nods.
“Detective,” says Linus. “This is only one animal. No one on earth knows how many of these creatures live in one area. My guess is not many, but I think it wouldn’t be out of the ballpark to assume that two might live in any particular region. They have to mate once in a while, I would think. Maybe this will ramp up the activity of his mate.”
Arroyos scowls and shakes his head. “The glass in never half full for you is it Señor Hather?” He looks at June with a smile. “We will sit down tomorrow, or later today if you’d rather, and discuss what we have learned from this hunt and Señor Hather’s fight with the creature. What to do. What not to do. Type something up that we can fax to your police friends in China and Canada.”
“Not to mention New Jersey!” says Linus. “I think something like that is helpful and necessary, Arroyos. Gracias.”
Another policeman comes up with some coffee for each of them and they walk over to the warmth of the fire to ponder what lies ahead.
Chapter 10
Linus is in his living room in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey once again. He and Sava are sitting on the couch watching the news on television. He wants to relax after his long trip and ordeal. Sam Donaldson is the anchor of the television news journal 20/20 and he is speaking.
“As you may have heard this week, scientists are saying that they’ve discovered a new species of animal that is closely related to humans. More closely related to us than are the Great Apes like the gorilla or chimpanzee. Unfortunately, this is no harmless cousin like the aforementioned chimp or even gorilla. In fact some have dubbed the animal Homo Assassinatus because it apparently hunts and kills only Homo sapiens, or human beings.
“According to scientists it has done so quietly for more than two hundred thousand years. Stunning if you ask me. With us today on 20/20 is one of the co-discoverers of Homo assassinatus, Dr. Jay Miele of Rutgers University in New Jersey. Dr. Miele, we have heard this animal called Maero, and Homo assassinatus. In Argentina I understand they are calling it un poco diablo, meaning “little devil”. What are we to call it?”
“Thanks for having me here, Sam. First I’d like to say that there was really only one discoverer of this animal and that was Linus Hather. I was, however, the second person to see it and live.”
“That’s an interesting distinction you make there, Dr. Miele. You contend then that most people unfortunate enough to see this animal don’t live to tell about it?”
“Exactly, Mr. Donaldson. That’s one of the reasons this animal hasn’t been discovered up to now. As to what we should call it, there seems to be a consensus building to call it a Maero, which is a term of the native people of New Zealand describing a creature in their legends who was very similar to this creature – probably the same animal actually.”
A still picture of the Maero appears on the TV screen as seen in the first book that Linus saw it in. Jay continues his response.
“Homo assassinatus is an irreverent term that cropped up in the media and will in no way be the scientific designation of the creature.”
“So this Maero is intelligent and closely related to man. Do we know why it is so hostile to humans?”
“Well,” explains Jay. “The animal’s very nature appears to be to kill human beings and it has adapted quite well to its job. We have an animation we can watch while I explain.”
A computer-animated depiction of the Maero in its environment begins on the television. What is shown closely follows what Jay says.
“A couple of million years ago when the first hominids – or erect walking apes – were appearing on the scene there were apparently two lineages. The one that evolved into us and the one that evolved into the Maero. We had more in common back then than we do now in terms of food sources and activities. Over the next two million years we became very different. It is probably with Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens, that the competition between the two species arose. Food was scarce and this led to fighting between the Maero and the bigger, stronger Homo erectus. Early man may have even hunted to eradicate the Maero, perhaps going so far as to eat it.”
Donaldson is surprised. “To eat it!”
“I should say that is just speculation, but humans are omnivorous and if there was a shortage of food. I could see it happening. But it got to the point where Homo erectus or Homo sapiens had figured that the Maero was under control. The competition for food was won, as far as they could tell. Yet what the Maero did was go underground, so to speak. They lived in the shadows, learned to hide from humans. Then they started to kill from within the shadows. After a while their stealth was unmatched in the animal world and after some time they evolved a weapon to better help them kill their prey.”
On the sc
reen, the needle is slowly extended from the Maero’s arm a few times.
“As you can see they evolved a long, bony needle which they use to pierce their target’s lung. Through time, it probably evolved to what is a six to eight inch spear.”
“It’s a chilling vision,” says the host. “What do we do about it?”
“Well, first of all we should not panic. The evidence suggests that there are not many of these creatures in the U.S., and not many in the entire world. You are more likely to be killed due to horse-related injuries than being killed by a Maero.”
“Little solace to the people who are killed by the creature, Doctor. Do we have a best guess as to how many Maero there are?”
“It’s too early to say. There could be twenty or twenty thousand.”
“That’s quite a range. But what do we do about the Maero? Is there a way to coexist with it? Amputate its lance perhaps?”
“I doubt the solution will be so simple, Sam. This creature is programmed in its genes to kill humans. It wouldn’t let lack of one weapon stand in its way of evolutionary duty. It will, in my view be impossible to coexist with this creature.”
Mr. Donaldson nods. “So you’re saying we should eradicate the Maero?”
“By all accounts,” says Jay, “this animal has a brain nearly the size of a human brain. That and the fact that his sole mission is to hunt man make it hard to conceive of anything else. No other animal is hunting humans specifically and exclusively. Not tigers, or bears, or wolves, or sharks. And these have smaller brains, they can be controlled where they are captured, as in zoos. Maeros have big brains and that makes them dangerous, because all that extra processing power is geared to only one thing – the death of the human species.”
“We have word at this hour that the Maero’s discoverer, Linus Hather, is on his way back from Argentina where he killed one of the very animals he discovered.”
“Yes,” says Jay. “He joined a hunt for the creature after it had killed a rancher there.”
“Mr. Hather is a prison guard isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is.”
“What’s going to happen to the animal that he killed? Will it be studied?”
