The Veritas Codex Series, #1

by Betsey Kulakowski

  “It’s a deer.” She lowered the camera. “Just a deer.”

  “Dang it,” Rowan grumbled. “What time is it?”

  “We have another hour,” Lauren said. “I could go for a snack.”

  Rowan grinned. “Me too.”

  Half an hour later they both had a cup of hot cocoa and were sticky with chocolate and marshmallows. They enjoyed s’mores by the fire. They kept their playful banter low so as not to wake the sleeping or disturb the fauna.

  The time passed quickly. Lauren crawled into their tent while Rowan woke the next watch. He gave them an update on the night’s inactivity then bid them all goodnight.

  * * *

  Rowan gave the morning briefing. “Today, Lauren and I are going to go scout around the lake and see if we can find any signs of activity in the area. We saw deer and other small creatures last night, but we haven’t heard or seen any evidence of Bigfoot activity yet.”

  Lauren took over. “Team Two I want you to go southeast down to the public area. That’s where there were reports of damage to the picnic area you wanted to check out.”

  “Team Three, there are some caves not too far from here. See if you can find anything over that way, but don’t go into the caves. Last thing we want is for anyone to get lost in the lava tubes.” Rowan folded up the map. “Everyone should check in with base camp on the half-hour. If you find anything, radio it in. Any questions?”

  There were none.

  * * *

  Lauren had the forethought to bring a smaller backpack, in which she’d stowed provisions for their mini-expedition. Peanut butter sandwiches were carefully tucked inside plastic containers. With some granola bars and bottles of filtered water and a couple apples they could have lunch whenever they were hungry. Rowan brought his entire pack, with all his emergency supplies. He also had his camera and audio equipment, just in case. The consummate boy-scout, he was always prepared.

  The day was clear and cool, and the ground was slick with mud and damp lichens from the rain that moved in after they’d gone to bed. For once, the heat wasn’t oppressive. Lauren considered it a pleasant day, despite the damp.

  The hike to the lake wasn’t especially hard. It didn’t take long to get there either. Lauren paused to take pictures as they entered the valley, just to document the sheer beauty of nature. If she had her way, the pictures would appear on their website along with their travel blog.

  Deer lifted their heads in the meadow and bolted when they caught scent of the approaching hikers. While Lauren was enraptured by the breathtaking vistas and glens, Rowan was looking down, scanning the damp ground for tracks, traces of anything that might have passed this way.

  She paused when they reached the edge of the pond, which was mirror-clear. She could see fish collecting in the still water. “Look, trout.” She pointed.

  “Guess if we can’t find Bigfoot, I can at least catch something to eat,” Rowan grinned. He always carried fishing equipment. He could find a good meal almost anywhere there was water.

  “Nothing like a broiled rainbow trout over an open camp-fire.” Lauren continued her inspection.

  Rowan pointed out deer tracks as he worked his way along a small game trail. Lauren lingered behind. She veered out across the field when something caught her eye. A dark form hid in a deep patch of thorny blackberry bushes. She turned, raising her camera, zooming in on the shaded patch. She tried to focus on it. Branches rattled and the smell of crushed berries and stale cat litter assaulted her nose at the same time. She fired off a series of shots with her Nikon. The bleep of her digital camera broke the silence. The form startled and rose, turned and matched her gaze with two dark, cold eyes. Lauren stood transfixed, her finger still on the camera button.

  Chapter 28

  Rowan knew at once something was wrong. He put a hand on her elbow, but she didn’t flinch. He didn’t move. His gaze followed hers into the trees. Beyond the clearing, a dark shape disappeared into the cover of the forest. “Lauren? What was it?” He started after it, but she didn’t move. He paused, torn between the chase and her thousand-yard stare. “Lauren?” He glanced back at the woods and shook his head as he turned around. Her face was neutral — no fear, no pain, just blank.

  Rowan snapped his fingers in front of her face. She blinked slowly then turned. She looked at him, but it seemed to take a split second for her to see him. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “What?” she asked. She looked down at the camera in her hands and took her finger off the button. She looked back at Rowan. “What?”

  “What was it? Did you see it?” He took the Nikon and scrolled through the pictures. Nothing but blurred images.

  “See what?” She looked around. He could see her knees suddenly turn to rubber. Rowan forgot about the camera and took her by the arm.

  “Come here and sit down.” He took her over to a fallen log, handing her a canteen of water. “Drink this.” He brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Her skin was cool, but a mist of sweat collected on her brow and upper lip. Rowan checked her pulse and encouraged her to drink more. “Tell me what you saw?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  * * *

  Lauren was still dazed when they found the others. Rowan did his best to explain what had happened.

  “I have heard reports that the Sasquatch have the ability to hypnotize people. To make them forget what they see,” Jean-René said, snapping his fingers in front of her face. She blinked a half second slower than someone operating at full capacity might. “Lauren? Are you okay?”

  She turned and looked at him. “Hmm?” She answered a beat too late. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Oh?” Jean-René lifted a brow. “Why don’t you come sit down over here?” He took her arm and led her over to a place by the fire.

  “Grab her camera,” Rowan said to him. Jean-René reached for it, but she drew it back defensively. “Lauren? It’s okay. Let him have it,” Rowan said kindly. Lauren looked at him with uncertainty. She relented and gave the Nikon to Jean-René. He patted her shoulder and took it over to Rowan.

  Jean-René took the memory card and plugged it into the computer. They sat around looking at the pictures on the computer screen. “I suppose that may be why you can’t remember anything about what happened to ... before.”

  Lauren wrinkled her nose. “That’s nothing more than superstition and hokum. Don’t you think?” she asked. Jean-René tried to improve the resolution on the picture. The bushes obscured the image. She’d done a terrible job getting the subject in focus, much less in the frame. The pictures were useless. She had plenty of shots of the ground and the horizon, even the toe of her boot. But, the one halfway decent shot of a dark form in the bushes was rubbish.

  “Score another point for the reigning Hide-And-Seek champion of the world,” Jean-René snarked. Bahati chuckled at him, returning to the task of making dinner.

  “It’s not like you to take bad pictures like this.” Rowan came to sit by her. She leaned into him.

  “I don’t know what happened.”

  “When I found you, you were just standing there like you were in a trance. Your mouth was hanging open. You had drool running down your chin, for Pete’s sake.”

  Lauren glanced down at the dark spot on her black tank top, and then shook her head dubiously. “Whatever.” Bahati brought her a plate, and she wasted no time. Rowan watched her. He noticed Jean-René did too. She shoveled the food into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in a year. While Rowan was happy to see her eat, he was duly concerned. Normally she picked at her food, rarely eating more than a few bites. She was usually more interested in getting back to work.

  “Maybe the lab can clean it up,” Jean-René suggested, closing the laptop.

  * * *

  Lauren gazed into the fire long after the sun had set. She wrapped her arms around her knees, deep in thought. One by one, the team disappeared into their tents. Rowan and Lauren had the first watch. He spent it watching Lauren.

  “T
si stu wu-li-ga’ na-tu-tu’n une’gu-tsa-tu ge-se’i,” she finally said, in a low, soft voice.

  “What’s that?” Rowan poured himself a cup of coffee and came over and sat across from her. Jean-René and Bahati came over too.

  She repeated it. “The Rabbit was the leader of them in all the mischief,” she translated. The flames cast a glow on her golden skin. He could almost see her ancestors in her dark glowing eyes. “The Rabbit always got the others in trouble, but never seemed to get caught himself.” She continued, resting her chin on her knee. “If the Rabbit was the leader, it was Tsul’Kalu who would judge him.” Rowan knew that word. He had played the recording from the hospital enough times. “When the ancient Rabbit was caught, the animals demanded justice and brought him before Tsul’Kalu. The Ancient One began to recount the sins of the Rabbit and all his ancestors. Speaking in the ancient language of All Animals, he counted the Rabbit’s transgressions. One hundred generations back he went. He told of the time the Rabbit’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather made the buzzard bald. How the Rabbit’s great-great-great-great-grandfather stole the bear’s tail. How the Rabbit’s grandmother spilled the milk and the dog ran through it and escaped into the sky, leaving a trail across the darkness. How the Rabbit himself tried to steal the stars from the sky...” Lauren took a deep breath. “When the Rabbit denied the claims, Tsul’Kalu shook his head, and silenced the mischief-maker with a deep growl. ‘It is not a sin to be who you are, Rabbit,’ the Ancient One said. The Rabbit smiled to himself, thinking his cleverness was about to acquit him. ‘But justice demands repayment for the trouble you and your ilk have caused,’ Tsul’Kalu continued. ‘Your fate is to dwell among the briars. You will be tormented by thorns for all your days. You will be chased by wolves, snakes, owls and eagles. Never to rest. Never safe in the day. Never safe in the night. Tormented, as you have tormented others. This is the fate for the leader in all the mischief’.”

  She was quiet after that. Rowan scratched his chin with his thumbnail. “Who is Tsul’Kalu again?”

  “The Ancient One,” Lauren’s gaze locked on his. “The Tall Man. The one we seek.”

  “Bigfoot?” Jean-René confirmed.

  Lauren took a deep breath and nodded. “The Rabbit will be judged. Tsul’Kalu will ensure it.”

  “I never heard you tell that story,” Bahati said, standing.

  “I just learned it today,” she said, getting up too.

  “From who?” Rowan asked.

  “Tsul’Kalu told me,” she stopped and turned around. “He will show us. In the north, signs of the Rabbit’s mischief are there. We will find it.”

  Rowan’s gaze passed between his team. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. He saw his own concern reflected in the faces of his friends.

  “Pauline said there was another camping area to the north,” Bahati said. “We didn’t have time to check it today. We came back when we got your radio call.”

  “What did you find at the camping area south of here?” Rowan asked.

  “A couple of smashed trash cans. Looks like vandals. Nothing I would chalk up to Sue Kal ...? How did you say it, Lauren?”

  “Tsul’Kalu,” she said. “The Ancient One.”

  “We’ll go check it out tomorrow then,” Rowan said. He rose, taking Lauren’s hand. “Go get some sleep. You’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

  Lauren, uncharacteristically, obeyed. Without argument, she went to bed. She didn’t fuss or pitch a fit, she just went and crawled into her tent. As Rowan watched from the entrance of the tent, she collapsed into a deep slumber.

  Chapter 29

  Lauren was up before dawn. She had their tent broken down before Rowan could finish breakfast. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and the group made quick work of the morning duties.

  “Which way?” Jean-René asked.

  “Up through the trees,” Lauren pointed.

  Rowan stayed close to her. The story she told the night before had him unsettled. He’d been up most of the night, chewing over it. He was trying to figure where it had come from and what she could have meant, if anything at all. Since finding her like a statue in the meadow, she’d seemed — different. He didn’t like it.

  * * *

  Lauren struck off ahead of the group, moving at twice her normal gait. Her pack didn’t seem to be weighing her down any. Rowan had to work to keep up. He breathed hard as they broke through the dense underbrush an hour later, into the public camping area.

  The campsite stood empty and even the rangers paused in stunned amazement at the devastation they saw. The campsite was in ruins, ransacked. The fire rings were upended. The solid sheets of metal lay crushed like broken wagon wheels. The metal barbecue grills were broken off of their stands and crushed. Even the concrete picnic tables were smashed.

  Rowan stood in shock at the devastation. Even the timbers placed as parking barricades at the trail head below lay about as if they’d been tossed aside like cabers at a Highland festival.

  From campsite, to campsite the destruction continued. “This was done recently,” Katie said. “Look at the trash. Not many animals have gotten at it. This was maybe not in the past day or two, but within the last week.”

  “I take it this is worse than the reports indicated?” Bahati asked the ranger.

  “Much worse,” Katie said, as they approached the bank of bathhouses in the middle of the camping area. The frosted glass windows near the rooftops had been busted out, and the doors ripped off their hinges. Inside, the metal partitions between the showers and toilet stalls had been pushed over and crumpled like tinfoil. One of the toilets had been shattered and the floor was flooded. Water gurgled from the broken bowl.

  * * *

  Rowan was outside the men’s shower, kneeling down by the wall, snapping pictures when Lauren came up behind him. “What’d you find?”

  “It looks like blood,” he said. “Do we have a DNA sample kit?”

  “Of course,” she said. She shrugged off her pack.

  “Did you know we’d find this?” He asked, looking up at her.

  She paused. “Tsul’Kalu did not do this,” she stated. “But the Rabbit wants you to think he did.”

  “Who is the Rabbit, Lauren?”

  “The Leader of Them in All the Mischief,” she said, handing him the kit.

  “You’re talking in riddles,” Rowan said. “What’s gotten into you? Ever since yesterday, you seem to be in a place where I can never go. I feel disconnected from this place in you.” He caught her hand. “I can’t protect you there.” It made him even more determined to protect her here.

  Her lips thinned as she hesitated. “Rowan, the People are threatened, and it is the Rabbit who is behind it. We must find the Rabbit and put a stop to his mischief. He must be shown justice ... and soon.” She took the kit back curtly when he didn’t move to collect the evidence fast enough, and bent to take the sample herself. She dabbed at the spatters of blood with the moist cotton swab and then returned it to the vial. She sealed it with the evidence tape, taking a marker from her jacket pocket, initialing it. She placed it in a plastic bag, peeling off the strip that covered the sealing tape. She initialed it as well. She also took out a Chain of Custody form for the lab and filled it out. Whatever had gotten into her, the scientist was still in there too. Despite her agitation, it gave Rowan a sense of comfort, even though he was less-than-happy about this new aspect of his fiancée. She tucked away the sample, looking up when they heard Jean-René’s excited shout from a nearby site.

  “Wait,” Rowan caught her arm, pointing to the print on the metal door that lay crumpled on the ground a few feet away. Lauren’s jaw dropped and she rose slowly, taking a tentative step forward. “What the hell is that?” Rowan was on her heels.

  “Tsul’Kalu was here,” Lauren said. Her voice went shadowy.

  A deep rumble echoed through the ground; pine needles showered them from above. The ground lurched beneath their feet. The blood-curdling scream that erupted
from Bahati’s throat echoed off the trees around them. She threw her arms around Jean-René. In the distance, a mournful bale answered, as the rumbling subsided. Lauren smiled brightly. She patted Bahati’s back. “Tsul’Kalu says hello to you, too.”

  “Was that an earthquake?” Bahati’s eyes went wide. “Seriously, you felt that, right?”

  “How could we not?” Rowan snapped.

  “We are sitting on an active volcano, remember?” Pauline asked.

  “It’s not going to erupt is it?”

  Pauline shrugged. “Eventually.”

  “Dammit.”

  Chapter 30

  “We’ll make camp here tonight,” Rowan said. The excitement had worn off. He was tired and hungry. “We’ll establish a perimeter, but we need to comb this entire area for additional evidence. We need castings of each of the prints. I want to preserve that handprint somehow. Be sure we photograph everything. Be careful where you sit or step. There are prints literally everywhere. We don’t want to disturb any of them before we can get them sampled and make plaster castings.”

  Morrison stepped up. “We need to be diligent with our watch tonight. Whoever, or whatever did this could come back.”

  “I agree,” Pauline nodded.

  “We need to get all this evidence to a lab,” Jean-René said. “How are we going to do that?”

  “I’ll radio the ranger station in the morning and have someone drive up and get them. They can have them delivered via USPS or FedEx,” Derry said.

  Lauren shook her head. “The chain of custody has to be maintained. No one touches these samples but one of my team.”

  Bahati stepped up. “I’ll take them to the lab. Just get me a ride out of here before this mountain blows up.”

  Pauline knitted her narrow brows. “You know I was joking, right?”

  “I’m not,” Bahati said. “Volcanos are nothing to joke about.”