Event (event group thrillers)

by David L. Golemon

  "You need to be back at the clinic!" Alice said, going to Lee's side and helping him to the couch.

  "Now, can someone fill me in on how this war is going? Or do I have to wait for the damn movie?"

  Niles explained Jack's plan to the senator, who sat and listened with his eye closed.

  "Jack, I know exactly what you need, and maybe I can get you some bait out there to ensure the animals' participation in their destruction. You two go on with your mission and we'll take care of everything from here."

  "Yes, sir, nice to see you decided to go to work today," Jack said, and smiled into the camera, placing his hand on Sarah's shoulder and walking away from the camera.

  "Okay, smart guy, what do we do to take advantage of knowing where they will run if they get by the tunnel teams?"

  "Well," Niles said while eyeing Lee, "as Jack said, we order some engineers into that gap in the mountains and drill a hole as deep as we can and then booby-trap it. One neutron bomb should do, no radiation. That may just finish them and break their backs, unless they just go deep under any rocks in the immediate stratum and go under the mountains at some point."

  "We may be giving these animals too much credit," Lee said. "I mean, are they sentient or just wild beasts? We don't know, and our only choice is to treat them as animals. So maybe they will take the path of least resistance just like the major said and go where they don't have to dig deeper. We must hope they are driven by their metabolism, not their brains. So, where we stand is, we need their path to be failsafe and very, very tempting. Get every head of cattle left in that valley and get them to that gap."

  Niles didn't comment but just nodded and marked the break in the mountains with his finger, drawing a line that bled into the map as his finger passed.

  "So there it is, the line has been drawn, huh, Niles? Now get on the horn and tell the president Jack's fallback plan," Lee said. "If the tunnel teams fail, Major Collins may have to do the unthinkable."

  Niles looked at Lee and shook his head, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

  "After you get done there, Niles, we have to sit down and discuss a little e-mail I just received from a traitor in the midst of our enemies. It seems after this is all over, we have an old friend we have to go meet in New York."

  Alice and the senator sat on the couch exchanging gentle words. It seemed whatever e-mail Lee had just received was like a tonic that gave him a breath of new life and a new mission.

  Niles connected with the president. "Sir, Major Collins has come up with a rather ballsy backup plan. Are you ready for this?"

  Collins followed Sarah, catching her just as she was walking up to Everett and Lisa. "You watch yourself, don't pull any hero crap out there." He stopped and looked her in the eyes and then at Lisa. "Because in my experience, a hero is a sandwich." Then he gave her a soft smile and turned away and left.

  Sarah smiled sadly at Lisa and Everett, then joined the line to get her body armor, leaving Lisa and Everett alone.

  "I've decided something," Lisa said as she watched her friend leave.

  "And that is?" Everett asked, not caring who saw them talking with each other. At this point, Congress could climb into one of those cursed holes and go straight to hell.

  "I'm resigning from the navy."

  "No, now that Jack is on board, the Group's security is in the best hands possible. It's me who's resigning."

  Lisa couldn't speak.

  "That means as soon as this thing's over, we're going to your folks in Houston and we're getting married. That's an order."

  She smiled and hit him in the shoulder. "Ow" was all the big SEAL said.

  PART SEVEN

  I SHALL FEAR NO EVIL

  Man has always been wary of the darkness and thus has followed the path laid bright by the moon; therefore I shall steal the moon glow and blacken the night... and show him just why he is afraid of the dark.

  -- ANCIENT HEBREW TEXT

  THIRTY

  Beneath Chatos Crawl, Arizona

  14.20 Hours

  Sarah turned and watched the Blackhawk carrying Jack and his tunnel team to Chato's Crawl. She thought he was looking down at her and she gave a halfhearted wave as the big helicopter lifted skyward. She turned and counted the heads that made up her team, then looked toward the command tent. Lisa was there with her arms crossed over her chest. She waved and Sarah just smiled as she threw her nylon rope down the dark hole. Thirteen more ropes followed, and two by two her team rappelled into the darkness.

  The heat and humidity hit her immediately as her light searched for the area where the hole became a tunnel. She came to a stop with her partner on the opposite side and scanned the area with her helmet light. Then she snapped it off and lowered her night-vision goggles and the world became a greenish hue. She nodded and they continued the final few feet to the floor, landing softly and pulling the ropes from their rappelling rings. They both lowered to an assault crouch as they scanned the emptiness of the tunnel ahead of them. Sarah raised her goggles and turned her helmet light on and off twice, signaling it was safe for the next two to finish the drop and enter the hole. Sarah moved to the mouth of the tunnel as the rest of the team came down in twos. Sarah raised her XM8 and stepped into the blackness.

  She moved twenty feet into the darkness before holding her hand up in a stop gesture. She removed her glove as the team assembled behind her and felt the wall. It was sticky, not to the point it made her fingers stick together, but it felt moist and tacky. The tunnel had a musky odor, like a lot of caves that host large bat populations, and some ammonia smell, but the humidity was the worst aspect thus far. Sarah replaced her glove and started forward.

  Her team had only gone two hundred yards into the increasingly deepening tunnel when a Ranger, a young sergeant, started talking loudly and shaking his head. He slid down one of the shining walls, losing his weapon and placing his hands over his face, knocking his night-vision goggles from it.

  Sarah turned and made her way back. The man was now screaming.

  "What in the hell is going on?" she asked as she knelt before the young soldier.

  "I gottta get outta here, the walls are closing in on me, I can't stand it!" he screamed.

  Sarah reached out and grabbed his right arm and shook it. "Calm down, calm down," she said as she reached out and took his oxygen tank and unclipped the plastic mask and quickly placed it over his mouth. "Breathe, troop, breathe, easy, easy."

  The sergeant started taking deep breaths, his eyes closing as he finally started calming.

  "Anyone else?" she said loudly. "Come on, you're no good to us if you're going to freak out, so is anyone else claustrophobic?" she said, looking around.

  The sergeant removed the oxygen mask and looked at Sarah with pleading eyes. "Sorry, sorry, I need someone to take me back," he said as he slammed the mask back over his mouth.

  "I'm the one who's sorry, Sergeant, but I'm not going to spare a man walking you out of here. You get back the best way you can. The rest of you, let's go."

  With that, the sergeant's eyes widened as Sarah abruptly turned and went back to the head of her team. The other Rangers and two Delta men didn't look back, but joined their team leader. The young sergeant scrambled to his feet and started back to the tunnel opening.

  Sarah shook her head as she once again started forward into the dark and humidity of the tunnel. If the truth be known, she wanted nothing more than to follow the kid out of there.

  As Collins hit the bottom of the hole, he was hit immediately by the heat. Everett landed easily on the opposite side. This tunnel was far smaller than the one Sarah was currently struggling in. It must be one of the offspring holes. They had to bend slightly to keep from scraping their heads on the rounded ceiling. Jack turned his night vision on and saw the small, sparkling elements of sand and dirt that made up the compressed walls. They were smooth and warm to the touch. Everett looked his way and shook his head.

  "Goddamn, Jack, but it's blacker than a well digger's
ass down there," he said as he brought his XM8 up, thinking it was too light to do any good, armor-piercing rounds or not.

  Collins watched as the tunnel sloped down into nothingness. He looked at the ground and saw large marks gouged into the earth. He reached down and saw they were scrapes made by the passing of the animal. He was looking at what were claw marks. He shook his head and moved forward so Mendenhall, Ryan, and the rest of his team could crowd in. Then Everett stepped aside and allowed a master sergeant from Delta to take the lead. The Delta sergeant went forward, held his hand up, then slowly lowered it, indicating that they should follow.

  Before long the team halted and Jack was asked to come forward. As he did, he nodded for Everett to follow. The Delta point man was kneeling and examining something on the floor of the tunnel. Jack looked down and immediately knew he was looking at an arm. It was severed at midfore-arm and had a watch that was still ticking off the seconds. As he looked up the tunnel, he could see a darker hue from his glasses as they were now able to follow the blood trail left by the animal and whatever victim the arm belonged to.

  Jack nodded for the team to move on. The coppery odor of blood was becoming more apparent the deeper into the tunnel they progressed, but in their minds it had become even stronger with the finding of the arm. Jack stayed behind with Mendenhall for a moment and indicated he should go ahead and take a reading on his VDF. The sergeant shouldered his weapon, raised his goggles, and removed the steel probe from its clip on the box and slowly pushed the spearlike instrument into the compacted earth. He removed his hand and looked at the lit gauge. One of the needles pointed west, toward the center of town, while the other needle picked up minute vibrations coming from underground, which they could only assume were the animals as they dug.

  "Looks like we're headed in the right direction, Major," Mendenhall said.

  "Keep that thing on and check it every sixty feet or so, it'll make me feel better," Jack said as he patted Mendenhall on the shoulder.

  Mendenhall quickly pulled the probe from the wall and decided to just let it dangle by its cord for quicker reach. Then he turned and hurried after the major, deciding the one with the VDF box should be in the middle of the team.

  Group geologist Steve Hanson, Sarah's friend, led his team of fifteen soldiers through one of the small holes. They had found nothing significant since coming into this underground hell. He had called a stop at a junction where their smaller tunnel joined one that was far larger. Unlike any of the intersecting tunnels before, Steve investigated and found that the musky odor they had noticed in all the other small excavations had changed significantly. This stench was far sharper and made him wince. He placed his mask over his mouth and took three deep breaths and headed back to his men. Jackie Sanchez, an Event Group army sergeant, raised her night-vision goggles and asked if he was alright.

  "Something's different here, you getting that smell?"

  "Just what I'm getting off of you, that's bad," she said.

  "That tunnel is far different than what we've seen. Any luck with the radio?"

  "Nothing but intermittent chatter. "Other teams, I think, trying to get Site One."

  "Doc, I'm picking up something here," a Ranger spec five said. He had his VDF probe stuck in the wall to his left. "Not strong, but it's steady, seems close, but can't say for sure."

  The rest of Hanson's team started looking around. There were three holes besides the large one that Hanson had just investigated, plus the one they occupied, and one more that seemed too small for one of the animals. The Ranger removed the probe and stepped to the smaller hole that was right in the middle of the team. He placed it into the loose earth that had been pushed out into the larger tunnel. The gauge moved minutely and held steady. The red indicator light came on for the first time and stayed on.

  "We definitely have something," he said, replacing the probe.

  "Go to the end of the line and make sure we don't have something coming in behind us," Hanson said, as he brought his XM8 around and kept it pointed at the larger hole ahead.

  The Ranger squeezed his way past the other Rangers until he came to the end of the team. A lone Delta commando covered their rear.

  "Excuse me, Sarge," he said as he placed the probe into the wall. As he started to take his reading, he noticed the red light on his VDF had become brighter. He lightly hit the box and was starting to question the sensitivity of the machine when he felt movement to his left. He looked back along the length of tunnel; there was nothing but blackness in the area they had already covered. He turned and looked at the Delta sergeant, who was taking a drink from his canteen. He could have been picking up his movement. He lowered his ambient-light goggles and turned back to his rear. He didn't catch it at first because it was so close it was unrecognizable. The creature was there, staring right at him. The eyes were actually glowing bright yellowish green as it tilted its large head and studied him for a moment. He quickly brought up his weapon and pulled the trigger; nothing happened. He had forgotten to remove the safety he had put on as he maneuvered around the team.

  Suddenly he was blinded as the Delta sergeant opened fire. The armor-piercing rounds flew by his head and struck the animal dead center in its broad chest. Then three more Rangers added their fire to that of the Delta soldier. Rounds were ricocheting off the creature as it roared. The Ranger was still blinded as he was grabbed by the lethal claws of the enraged animal. He felt the air being crushed from his lungs, and though he wasn't aware of it, three armor-piercing rounds went through his own armor where it met his hips, and then through his body, and struck the animal. He saw one round hit an area uncovered by the beast's exoskeleton, the pain causing it to squeeze him even harder. But still the animal had shown no ill effect from the bullet penetrating its body.

  The Delta sergeant lowered his weapon and was joined by two other Rangers as they tried in vain to pull the first man free of the clawed monstrosity before them. Hanson was there, adding his firepower to those trying to find a weak spot on the creature. Suddenly the wall exploded outward onto Hanson and the would-be rescuers. The creature that struck them in force was larger than the tunnel and brought down the rounded ceiling on them as they turned in terror. Hanson felt a powerful arm as it raked by his face and grabbed someone to his right. All he could hear was a scream of pain as the man was pulled over him through the loose collapse of dirt. He couldn't breathe as the sticky dirt fell into his mouth. He tried to pull back on someone he had grabbed on to when the roof fell in, but as he pulled, he realized it was someone's weapon and not an actual person. Then he was suddenly free of the cave-in as he was turned upside down. He spit out dirt as he felt blood rush to his head. He heard firing in all directions and just knew he was going to catch a wild round in the back. The screams were now reaching his ears as he finally focused his night vision on what had him. The beast roared and quickly bashed him against one of the hardened walls. His senses flew out of his body and he became mercifully numb as he heard his back and legs snap into several pieces. The beast screamed again, then threw him to the ground where he lay in a slumped position against the wall. Still alive, he saw around him at least five of the smaller animals as they attacked what remained of his team.

  The last thing Hanson saw was the larger of the animals as it lowered its large head toward him and the eyes blinked, as if it was smelling him, studying something it hadn't seen before. He didn't feel the roughness of the black tongue as it slowly curled free of the mandibles and delicately licked his face. The odor was the same as what he had smelled in the tunnel. Hanson's senses were gone forever as the beast started feeding.

  The first tunnel team to meet the enemy had been wiped out within two minutes of first contact.

  Ryan pushed the earpiece as deep into his ear as he possibly could and still the static was too much. He removed his Kevlar helmet and shone his light at Collins's chest, making sure not to hit his goggled eyes. He wiped sweat from his brow and shook his head.

  "Still can't
make it out, Major. It may be Site One, or one of the other tunnel teams, I just can't be sure." He reached for his oxygen to get a breath of clean air.

  They had been deep underground for almost an hour and forty minutes and hadn't made contact with as much as a ground squirrel. Collins shone his light ahead of the others in his team and noticed a branch in the tunnel up ahead. The men were squatting and taking some of their own oxygen. The humidity was off the scale and the heat was close to unbearable. They would have given anything to leave the 0 2 masks on because of the stench clinging to the tunnel walls, but they knew they might have at least a few more hours of this, so they conserved as much as they could.

  "Being underground is hell on the COMM links. Where do you estimate we are, Sergeant?"

  "I believe the center of town is just that way," Mendenhall answered, pointing to the right. "Maybe a thousand yards or so. The depth of this tunnel is making the GPS signal we're receiving from base sporadic at best and nonexistent most of the time, but my last fix was pretty dead-on, so I'd say not far ahead."

  Collins had chosen this particular hole because it seemed to be the freshest and hottest of the many trails. It seemed to have been created by two animals traveling side by side because it was wide enough for the men to get around without too much difficulty. He looked at the other members of his team. They were hot in the new abalone-shell armor and were using too much of their water.

  He placed his hand on the wall and felt the eerie smoothness through his glove. It was almost crystalline in feel and shimmer. He glanced again at the other fifteen members of his tunnel team. The Delta men were in the lead, then him, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Everett, and the last five were Rangers bringing up the rear.

  "Well, if the town is that way, I'm thinking the branch to the left, away from the town. Thoughts?" Collins asked them all, not just the officers.

  They all concurred with silent nods.

  Suddenly, the VDF Mendenhall held started blinking. Something was moving toward them and it was coming fast. The lights started blinking on and off at a faster rate, and the needle on the motion sensor went into the yellow. Mendenhall raised the small stainless-steel probe that was attached to the side of the handheld VDF device and shoved it into the wall of the tunnel. The lights became brighter and started blinking even faster. The gauges were starting to really move into the higher ranges, indicating extreme movement. He then removed the probe and jammed it into the wall to his right; the blinking lights slowed and dimmed at the same time. He returned the probe to the other wall but farther to the left, then he pulled it free and placed it in the wall farther to the right. The lights again sped up their blinking and glowed bright red. The directional indicator showed the vibration coming straight at them, and the motion sensor was now pegged in the red.