The Veritas Codex Series, #1

by Betsey Kulakowski

“Bahati’s right,” Rowan said. “She’s the best choice for the errand. She knows the procedures. You can take the blood and prints back to the lab and stay there until the results come back in.”

  “I can’t call you back, though,” Bahati said. “We haven’t had a signal since we got here.”

  “We should be able to at least get a radio signal to one of the watchtowers. We can have them send a chopper to pick you up and bring you back,” Derry suggested. “How long do you think the labs will take?”

  “It could take a couple of days once I get them there. It might take me a day just to get to the lab.”

  “I’ll take care of all the travel arrangements,” Katie said. “I have some connections,” she smiled. “Bahati, we’ll hike up to the Bivouac tomorrow. There’s a clearing there. I’ll stay until the chopper picks you up and I’ll meet you back there in a few days.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Joshua said.

  “The sooner I get out of here the better,” Bahati gulped. Rowan could understand why.

  * * *

  To keep Bahati busy and keep her mind off the volcano, Lauren had Bahati set up the perimeter cameras and the warning beacon system. They needed to set the trap cams. The evidence around them needed to be processed.

  They found large footprints in several locations. It was suspicious to find so many. Lauren insisted they cast them all.

  As she was waiting for one of them to dry, she found herself scanning the area looking for anything else out of place. There was a narrow path that beckoned her. It was nothing more than a game trail, but she found herself drawn to it. As she walked, she noticed there were broken branches on the trees. Blades of grass were bent over from something that had passed by less than a few days before.

  Then she noticed the beer cans. Crumpled along the trail, they were the cheap kind. The aluminum had been crushed and tossed aside. There were littered in twos or threes here and there. She found more a few hundred yards down the path. In all, she counted almost two dozen. The trail of cans stopped at the edge of a wide, shallow stream. That’s where she found the most telling evidence of all, a large footprint set in the mud ... and then she found another. There was a whole series.

  She reached for her walkie-talkie. “Lauren to Rowan ...” There was a long pause followed by a wicked squelch and static.

  “Where the hell are you? We’ve been looking for you for the last twenty minutes.”

  “What? Why didn’t you radio?” She glanced at her watch and discovered it was much later than she thought it to be. Sunset would be on them before they could get the evidence collected, if they didn’t hurry.

  “We have been. Did you have it turned on? Where are you?” She looked up and realized she had no idea. “I followed an animal trail out of the campsite, right by where Bahati and I were casting prints. There are beer cans scattered along the path, there’s a small river at the end of the trail. There are prints everywhere.”

  “Are you ... lost?” Rowan’s voice held genuine concern.

  “I’m not lost,” she snapped. Lauren couldn’t get lost. “Are you lost?”

  The radio squelched again. “Stay where you are, I’ll find you.”

  “Bring more dental stone powder. Have Jean-René bring the cameras. We’ve got to document this.”

  * * *

  Rowan’s ire faded the moment he saw her. He rushed over and wrapped his arms around her. “You scared the daylights out of me.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I was following the evidence. Look what I found, Rowan.” She pointed to the first print, and then the second.

  “Oh my God,” he breathed, walking around the tracks. “This is unreal.”

  “Tsul’Kalu has been here,” she said. “He watches over this place. It is sacred.”

  “Sacred? Why do you say that?”

  She turned and raised her hand toward the horizon. The sun over the valley, cast an almost magical glow over the volcano, a plume of steam billowing from its peak. It mixed with the red rays of the setting sun and cast a brilliant pink pallet over the entire valley. Even the trees seemed to glow. The ash beds of pyroclastic flow from the 1980 eruption looked ethereal. Something he could only describe as magic tingled through his nerves. Lauren’s face reflected the glow, and her eyes seemed as black as the night sky. She took a deep breath, drinking in the beauty of the scene before them. “Sacred.”

  * * *

  “How many Bigfoots drink beer, seriously?” Rowan picked up one of the cans with a gloved hand, inspecting it. The can was crushed, but not completely flattened. “Let alone skunky beer.”

  “Now you know why they are called skunk ape.” Jean-René chortled.

  “Do you think we can get DNA off the cans?” Bahati asked, inspecting one of the cans she had collected.

  “If anything, it could be used as evidence if it turns out the same person or persons did all the damage to the campgrounds,” Lauren shrugged.

  Rowan arched a brow and shook his head. “Alright, let’s bag ’em and tag ’em.”

  Lauren’s eye was drawn to something else, and she went to inspect it, leaving Rowan to collect the beer cans. “Jean-René, your camera,” she called, gesturing for him to come over.

  “What did you find?” He followed, pausing when she stopped and knelt. He raised the camera to his shoulder, clicking it on as he approached and came around behind her. He zoomed in over her shoulder as he neared. He paused. He had to look out over the viewfinder to make sure he was seeing it. “Is that ...?”

  “Poop,” Lauren said. “It’s cold. It’s been here a while.”

  “Human poop or Bigfoot poop?” He took a reflexive step back. Returning his attention to the view finder, panning in as she inspected it.

  “Hard to tell,” she said. Lauren leaned over it, pulling her long braid back to keep it out of the way. She sniffed and recoiled, turning away. “Smells like poop.”

  “I thought we’d already established that it was, indeed, poop,” Jean-René laughed, and for the first time in a few days, Lauren smiled brightly.

  “I stepped in that one. Didn’t I?” She chortled, looking up at the camera; pleased at her own joke.

  “I sure hope not,” Jean-René said. Everyone had a good laugh. Even Lauren relaxed.

  “There’s not a lot of plant matter in the scat. Our quarry is known to be omnivorous, but I would expect more fibrous matter in the mix,” Lauren said. “If the Bigfoot has had good hunting, he could have wiped out a whole elk or deer. That could explain it.” Lauren poked the sample with a stick.

  Katie came down the trail and came to see what everyone was looking at. “Looks like someone took a dump.”

  “Someone ... or something,” Lauren raised her poo covered stick in emphasis. “I need a sample kit.”

  “You’re bagging poop?” Katie’s brow arched.

  “We’re bagging beer cans too,” she stood. “It’s all DNA evidence. Maybe it’s nothing, but we won’t know until we get it to the lab.”

  “It’s probably human poop.” Katie said.

  “What if it isn’t?” Lauren retorted.

  “What makes you say that? How can you be so sure?”

  “No toilet paper,” she pointed around the area. “Not even a hand full of poo-covered leaves.”

  Rowan gave Jean-René a dirty look and the cameraman grinned from ear to ear. “She has a point,” Jean-René snickered.

  “Well, then, it’s definitely not lady poop,” Rowan grinned, his teeth shining in the fading light. “I’ve been known to do without in worst-case situations.”

  “That’s why I make you do your own laundry,” Lauren turned up the edge of her lip and wrinkled her nose.

  “Ew. TMI, you two,” Jean-René shook his head, recoiling.

  “Don’t forget to protect the sample in alcohol,” Rowan said, before returning to what he was doing.

  “I know how to preserve fecal samples.” Lauren snapped.

  “Silly me. Of course yo
u do.”

  * * *

  Jean-René stayed with Lauren while she finished her evidence collection. It was dark when she and Jean-René returned to base camp. It was Rowan’s night to cook, and the smell of fried eggs, corned beef hash and warm biscuits greeted them. “Breakfast for dinner?” Lauren asked.

  Rowan held out a plate. “It sounded good,” he smiled.

  She held up her hands a moment, still holding the bag containing the poop samples. “Let me wash,” she said. He nodded, setting the plate down on the one undamaged picnic table in the whole campground. Lauren disappeared into the bath house, returning a few seconds later. “It sure smells good,” she said. She sat down beside him and took a bite from one of the biscuits. Rowan was an excellent cook.

  “Coffee?” he asked. He reached for a cup, already knowing the answer.

  “Yes.” She accepted it gratefully. It’d been a long day, and after all the excitement, she was starving.

  Jean-René came over and sat down beside her. “I hope you washed your hands.”

  “I did,” she said between bites. “At least there’s running water, despite the damage in there.” She reached for her cup and took a sip. “Bahati and I were discussing getting a hot shower after dinner. Pauline said there should be cleaning supplies in the janitor’s closet, and it wouldn’t take much to get it where we could use it.”

  “Oh, God,” Rowan rolled his eyes. “A shower sounds like heaven.”

  “The men’s shower is wrecked, but you could get into the women’s shower after we get done.”

  “Of course. Ladies first,” Rowan said. “Do we have any soap? Shampoo?”

  Lauren grinned. “I never leave home without it.”

  Chapter 31

  Rowan was waiting outside when Lauren came out of the shower. “Sounded like a regular hen party in there.”

  “Don’t judge.” Lauren kissed him quickly. He could smell the perfume of her shampoo. He wished he could strip her naked right there and get her all dirty again, but he resisted the urge to say so. “You’re next. You stink.” She tilted her head back toward the bath house. “The shower is all yours. You and your roosters can have it.”

  “Thanks.” He grinned. “We drew watch while you were showering. Hope no one cares.”

  “Not I.” Bahati shrugged as she passed.

  “Fine by me,” Lauren and Pauline said in unison.

  “Pauline and Derry have first watch, Morrison and Katie, you’ve got second watch. Bahati and Jean-René on third, and Lauren and I fourth.”

  “Sweet,” Lauren smiled. “We can watch the sunrise and make breakfast.”

  “I vote for pancakes,” Bahati said.

  “In that case, I’m turning in early. I’m exhausted,” Lauren said.

  “I got our tent set up.” Rowan pointed towards it with his chin. “I’ll be quiet when I come in, in case you’re already asleep.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chapter 32

  “Rowan,” the tent shook. He sat up, abruptly. “Rowan!”

  “I’m up,” he groaned. He threw back the covers and the cold night air hit him. He searched in the darkness for his clothes. “Give me a minute, will ya? I’m up.”

  “We’re getting some activity,” Bahati said, urgently. “You’re missing all the excitement.”

  Rowan dressed quickly. He gave Lauren a shake. “Activity! Wake up!” he pulled on his jacket and hurried out with his shoes in his hand.

  * * *

  Lauren wasn’t a morning person. She certainly wasn’t a three-in-the-morning person. The absence of Rowan’s body heat urged her to find her clothes. She squirmed in the sleeping bag as she dressed. When she emerged from the tent, her hair was disheveled. Her mood wasn’t much better.

  “What is it?” Lauren grumbled. She joined the team in front of the computer screen.

  “We’re hearing tree knocks from two different directions,” Jean-René said.

  “Tree knocks?” Lauren stood with her hands on her hips. “You woke me up at three o’frick in the morning for lousy tree knocks?”

  “Not just tree knocks,” Jean-René grinned. “Look at this ...” He pointed to the video he’d just pulled up. “We got something on the FLIR. That’s the one we set down by the stream.”

  Lauren dropped to one knee. The thermal imaging camera assigned a color for the various temperatures with red being body temperature. Hotter temperatures were darker shades of maroon. The cooler tones were yellow, green and blue. Trees showed as almost white, colder than the ground around them which was a much darker blue-black.

  The image was hard to make out. It was just a blob. The colors were in the red tones and moved behind the ice-blue trees. The form was large, lumbering. The creature appeared to be interested in something on the ground, hunched like an enormous squirrel foraging for nuts.. When it stood, it was tall. If Lauren had to wager a hypothesis, she might have estimated seven to eight feet. It disappeared behind another tree.

  “Is that a bear?” Bahati asked.

  Lauren was shaking her head no, but answered, “I suppose it’s possible, but ...”

  “The arms are much longer than a bear,” Rowan finished for her.

  “Dang it. The trees are too thick. I can’t get a good view of it,” Lauren said. She leaned back as the form took several long strides. It turned and worked its way back up the mountain. They lost sight of it all together. “Wait, this is playback? How long ago was this filmed?”

  “No more than five minutes ago,” Bahati said. “I left to go to the bathroom. Jean-René was making coffee. We didn’t think to check the video until we heard the tree knocks.”

  “We need to get up there.” Lauren stood, and turned to look for the equipment. “Wake the rest of the team. We need to get eyes on this thing before we lose it,” she said. She brushed her hair back out of her eyes. “Which direction did you hear the knocks?”

  “The first one was coming from the left, up the mountain. The other came from the right, towards the river,” Bahati handed Lauren the handi-cam from one of the kits. “The second one sounded close, but the video came from trap-cam-six.”

  “That’s the one uphill,” Jean-René clarified.

  “Put on your shoes, Rowan. We gotta move!”

  * * *

  Lauren conducted the hasty pre-hunt briefing. She gave out assignments. “Rowan, Jean-René, Joshua and I will go down the river to check out what we caught on the FLIR. Bahati, take Pauline and the others and go up the mountain with your thermal cam. Keep your voices down. Move as quietly as you can. Use your radios only if you have something. We’ll circle around and see if we can find whatever that was on the thermal trap-cam. We’ll meet back at base camp before sunrise.”

  * * *

  Lauren worried about what they’d seen. She had begun to sense the presence of the being she knew as Tsul’Kalu. She didn’t trust her senses, though. This feeling was something she couldn’t explain using any scientific methods she had been taught. She couldn’t sense him at the moment.

  The night had gone cold, as it usually did on the mountain. It seemed colder than she would expect. Her breath hung in the air around her as she huffed and puffed her way up the hill. Rowan led them through the dense trees. He blazed a trail straight to the area where the trap cam had caught their quarry.

  “There’s the cam,” he whispered.

  “That’s where the creature was,” she pointed to the stand of trees ahead of them. “Go stand over there. Let me see if I can determine how tall it was.”

  Rowan nodded. “Let me know when I get to the right one.”

  Lauren gave him an owl-hoot to signal the right spot. He stood up right and reached his arm up over his head.

  Lauren hooted again and the team met in the middle. “It was every bit as tall as the top of that branch,” she said, pointing to one of the high branches on the tree. She pulled up the pictures she’d just taken to give them a better view. “What would that be?’

  “That’
s got to be at least seven feet,” Joshua said. “Are you sure it wasn’t a bear?”

  “No,” Lauren said. “Bears don’t walk on their back legs. They can stand, but they don’t walk.”

  “Was it your Tsul’Kalu?” Rowan asked her in sidebar.

  “I don’t think so,” Lauren said, trying to find that presence somewhere inside her mind. “But I think there are others of his kind. I do not speak to all of them the way I do Tsul’Kalu.” Lauren noticed a look pass between Jean-René and Rowan. They both seemed perplexed and she suspected they didn’t believe her. She didn’t care.

  “Alright, let’s keep moving. Watch where you step. Look for prints.”

  * * *

  They reached the top of the ridge thirty minutes later. Jean-René scanned the distant valley with the thermal imaging cam. The forests were dark. There was no sign of whatever they’d seen earlier. Rowan radioed the other team to check in. Lauren paced, and sat down on a rock, her shoulder aching. She was exhausted and felt defeated. “Son of a ...”

  “No one’s better at not finding the truth than we are,” he shook his head.

  “Whatever,” she snapped. She turned towards camp, storming away. “We have to get a new fricking catch phrase.”

  “We’re just going to give up?” Jean-René stood fast. It wasn’t like Lauren to call it quits so easily.

  Rowan started after her, but stopped. “Jean-René, go on. Take the rest of the team and see what you can find.”

  “But ...”

  “She’s tired, mentally and physically. I’ll talk to her and we’ll meet you back at camp later. Go on.” He turned and followed her down the hill into the darkness. “Lauren, wait up!”

  * * *

  “Let’s try some wood knocks,” Jean-René said. “We’re on the peak, we should be able to be heard across the whole valley.”

  “I’ll radio the other team,” Joshua said.

  Once the other team had been alerted, Jean-René turned the camera on as Joshua picked up a long thick broken branch and cracked it over the side of a fallen tree trunk. The sound, like an echo of thunder, reverberated over the valley. Three more whacks followed, then ... silence.