The Chimera Secret

by Dean Crawford

  The agent rolled sideways and came up onto his knees behind Ben. Two arms folded around Ben’s neck, the CIA man interlocking them with one hand cupping the opposite elbow as the forearm crushed the knuckles of the opposite fist against Ben’s throat. Natalie saw Ben’s eyes bulge and his tongue leap from between his teeth as he fought for his life in the pouring rain, his fingers scraping across the agent’s face, searching for his eyes.

  She could hear their agonized growls as they strained against one another, saw Ben’s features turn a shade closer to pallid, and made her decision. She leapt out of the car and dashed across the lot to where the pistol lay in the rain. She picked the weapon up, surprised at how heavy it felt in her grasp, and turned back just as she heard a terrible gagging sound above the hiss of the rain.

  Ben’s head was tilted back, his tongue poking from between his lips and the veins in his neck bulging. Natalie raised the pistol. The CIA man violently twisted Ben’s body to one side. A shiver of horror snaked down Natalie’s spine as the agent glared at her.

  ‘You want him to live, you’ll drop the weapon.’

  Natalie gritted her teeth.

  ‘You let him go,’ she snarled, ‘or you’ll get nothing.’

  The agent watched her for a long moment. In the distance she could hear police sirens wailing, could see far off down the freeway the flashing lights closing in on them. The gunshots must have alerted people close by.

  ‘Time’s running out,’ she snapped. ‘Let him go, now!’

  The agent smiled coldly, and was about to twist Ben’s neck further when another voice called out.

  ‘Mr. Wilson.’ The agent turned as Doug Jarvis appeared, a pistol in his grasp aimed at the agent. ‘Game’s up.’

  The agent released Ben, who slumped forward. His head smacked against the cold, unforgiving asphalt. The agent stood up, watching Jarvis.

  ‘You’re out of your league, old man.’

  Jarvis didn’t reply, simply keeping the pistol trained on Wilson. Wilson looked at Natalie.

  ‘Time for us to leave, Miss Warner.’

  Natalie kept the pistol pointed at him, ignoring the rain that had plastered her hair in across her face.

  ‘Go to hell.’

  In a flash the agent dropped down onto one knee as his hand flicked to his waist and whipped out another, smaller pistol with frightening speed, the snub-nosed weapon flashing up to point at Jarvis.

  Natalie pulled the trigger.

  The huge noise and recoil of the pistol shuddered through her arms and threw her backward as the muzzle flash lit up the shards of rain pouring down around her. As she fell she heard another gunshot that echoed across the parking lot as the agent’s pistol fired uselessly into the air. She landed flat on her ass in a deep, cold puddle and stared blankly in front of her.

  The tall man lay motionless on his back in the rain, the pistol lying by his side.

  Natalie looked down at herself. The rain had drenched her jacket, blouse and skirt, and her legs were splashed with muddy water. She ran one shivering, numb hand across her chest but could find nothing to suggest that she had been hit.

  The sirens were closer now, flashing red and blue as they tore down Pennsylvania Avenue toward her.

  Doug Jarvis ran to her side. ‘Natalie, come with me, now!’

  Natalie stared at Jarvis for a moment, and then she got up and dashed to Ben Consiglio’s side.

  Ben’s face was slowly regaining color and he was now breathing in short, ragged bursts. Fresh blood was oozing from a savage cut in his forehead, running in rivulets down his face in the rain as his dressings fell away.

  ‘Ben?’

  Somehow the former soldier managed a crooked smile as he looked up at her. ‘Afraid so.’

  Doug Jarvis hurried across to her, looked at the pistol in her hand, and then at the man lying motionless twenty feet away. Jarvis glanced her over once, then hurriedly searched the surface of the parking lot around her until he found what he was looking for. He bent down and picked up a brass casing, then turned and pointed at her vehicle.

  ‘That yours?’

  Natalie nodded and was surprised to see Jarvis hurry across to her car and jump in. The old man shouted at Ben as Natalie helped him to his feet.

  ‘Get her out of here. I’ll meet up with you both in the district in one hour, corner of Fourth and Maine.’

  Before Natalie could respond Jarvis drove her car out of the lot and vanished.

  She stood in the rain with a smoldering pistol in one hand and stared at Ben Consiglio, who leaned against her for support.

  ‘You coming?’ he asked.

  She obeyed without thought and staggered with him across to the car and climbed in.

  Ben said nothing as she drove out of the lot and accelerated away, leaving the approaching sirens and flashing lights far behind.

  62

  NEZ PERCE NATIONAL FOREST, IDAHO

  The light from the control room reached only a few yards into the darkness, glinting off damp rocks that smelled of mold. Proctor shuffled a few paces more until he reached the edge of the light, and looked back over his shoulder.

  Kurt Agry was on one knee, his rifle aimed directly between Proctor’s eyes.

  ‘Nothing back here but pain, Einstein,’ Kurt growled. ‘Keep movin’.’

  Proctor swallowed and edged further into the inky black grip of the tunnel. He could not see the forest or even the entrance to the tunnel itself, so complete was the darkness. He shifted one foot at a time, wary of tripping over the loose rubble scattered across the tunnel floor. He could smell the clean, fresh air of the night drifting toward him, and realized that he must therefore be alone in the tunnel.

  A wave of relief crept over him as he advanced, begging a god that he didn’t believe in that it would be all right.

  Suddenly he saw a tiny pinprick of light ahead, and then another close by. The clouds must have passed by in the night, stars twinkling in their place. He walked forward, more confident now, and let his hands drop to his sides as he called out.

  ‘It’s all clear!’

  As his voice echoed down the tunnel behind him, the two stars blinked out together and then reappeared. Proctor had just enough time to realize that he wasn’t looking at stars when he smelled the thick stain of decay that hung heavy on the air at the tunnel entrance. He froze, standing absolutely still as he stared into dull red eyes glinting back at him in the distant glow from the control-room lights.

  ‘Oh Jesus.’

  Proctor’s legs gave way beneath him and he dropped to his knees, his eyes adjusting enough to the darkness of the night to detect the huge form looming over him. He heard a rustle as it shifted position, its immense back stooped as it entered the tunnel, the eyes glowing deep into Proctor’s.

  ‘You see anything?’

  Kurt Agry’s voice rolled down the tunnel toward him, but Proctor’s voice was already a long-lost faculty. He merely kneeled, paralyzed on the floor of the tunnel as the huge creature stooped over him and one vast hand, thick with fur, clamped over his face and squeezed with an unimaginable force.

  Proctor screamed into the damp, rough palm that closed over his face, reached up and tried to prise the huge hand away, but it was utterly useless. He saw sparks of light through his closed eyes and a searing blaze of agony soared through his skull as he felt the bones crunch and crack as they were shattered in the creature’s savage grasp.

  Proctor felt his body twist as it was hurled aside and smashed into the wall of the tunnel, and then everything disappeared.

  ‘Answer me, Proctor!’

  Lopez watched as Kurt shouted down the tunnel but heard nothing in response. The goddamned idiot had probably taken his chances and fled into the night, not that she could blame him. There was no sense in worrying about him. If the coast was clear then they were good to go, but she could not hope to get out of the facility past all of the soldiers’ weapons.

  ‘All right, let’s move out!’

  Kur
t stood up and headed for the tunnel as Klein, Jenkins and Milner moved in behind him.

  Lopez saw it from the corner of her eye, a white flash that seemed to fly out of the tunnel’s gloom ahead of them. All at once she saw Proctor’s body arcing toward them, six feet off the ground.

  ‘Cover!’

  A soaring, keening scream of rage pierced her eardrums, as deep as a gorilla and yet gabbling like some kind of ancient dialect. Kurt hurled himself to one side as Proctor’s body flew past him and smashed into the control room doors, the scientist’s skull crushed like an eggshell.

  ‘Open fire!’

  Kurt aimed his weapon down the corridor and let off a three-second automatic burst of fire as Klein, Jenkins and Milner did the same. The lethal hail of gunfire roared down the confines of the tunnel as the muzzle flash illuminated its depths.

  And what Lopez saw there sent a lance of icy fear thrusting down into her belly.

  There wasn’t just one of them.

  The tunnel was filled with sasquatch charging toward them, a raging mass of fur and fury.

  Lopez turned in terror and looked straight down the corridor opposite. There, in the shadows, she saw the power light to the locking mechanism flashing bright red. The power was back on.

  ‘Fall back!’

  Kurt hurled himself backward over Proctor’s body and rolled over the restraining chair as one of the creatures burst into the control room. Lopez heard Milner’s scream of terror as one of the animals plowed into him like a freight train and smashed the M-16 out of his grasp before grabbing his chest with one hand and folding the other over his jaw. A moment later and Milner’s head was ripped from his neck with a sound like tearing denim as a fountain of dark blood splashed across nearby computer monitors.

  The creature hurled the severed, bloodied head across the control room to smash with a dull thud into the opposite wall as Kurt backed down the corridor, firing as he went. The bullets hammered into the creature’s chest and it wailed as it backed up into the tunnel again to shelter from the hail of gunfire.

  Lopez staggered backward, trying to seek her chance to cross the control center and flee down the corridor.

  ‘Fall back!’

  Klein and Jenkins managed to hold the sasquatch back as they fired, wracked with fear as they stumbled toward Kurt.

  ‘Control your fire!’ Kurt yelled at them, and then took up position on one knee and aimed carefully at of the nearest of the massive creatures as it charged toward the control room.

  He took a breath, held it, and fired.

  The shot hit the creature just above the eyes, smack in the center of its forehead. The huge head snapped back and the animal toppled onto its haunches as thick blood spilled across its face.

  Klein saw the animal go down and lowered his rifle as Jenkins covered his retreat.

  Lopez took her chance and hurled herself at him.

  63

  Lopez ran across the control center even as Klein whirled at the sound of her approach. His rifle snapped across to aim at her. Too slow.

  Lopez smashed into the soldier with all of her weight as she drove her shoulder into his chest and battered his rifle aside. The weapon fired at the ceiling as they crashed onto the floor, Lopez’s grip on the barrel failing as it was seared by the passage of the bullets. Klein threw her off of him, twisting the weapon as she grasped it. Lopez felt herself flip over him and onto her back on the hard tiles, the M-16 pinned between them.

  ‘Let it go,’ Klein hissed. ‘We’re not the enemy!’

  Lopez didn’t respond as she yanked her knee up into Klein’s groin and simultaneously jerked her head up toward his. Her forehead smacked into his nose with a dull crunch, the soldier’s face folding upon itself in pain as her knee thumped into his testicles and crushed them.

  Klein gagged, his eyes streaming as blood spilled in globules from his nose and down across Lopez’s face. She let go of the M-16’s barrel and smashed her upper forearm across Klein’s throat, driving her elbow deep into his thorax. Klein tumbled off of her and she rolled and leapt to her feet.

  Klein whipped the M-16 around toward her, but Lopez blocked the barrel with one hand as she lifted her boot and smashed it down across Klein’s head. The soldier shuddered as she reached down and yanked the weapon from his grasp.

  ‘Lopez is free!’

  Jenkins’s shout was audible even above the din of the rifle fire, but Lopez ignored it as she turned, lifted the M-16 and fired a salvo of rounds across the control room. Kurt and Jenkins hurled themselves clear of the hastily sealed doors as her wild shots clattered against the metal walls and rattled down the tunnel.

  In an instant the M-16’s clip emptied, and Lopez turned and sprinted down the corridor toward the laboratory. She burst into the chamber and ducked to her right just as a hail of bullets zipped through the corridor and smashed into the dissection tables in a shower of sparks. She rushed across to the computer server and grabbed Kurt’s hard drive before sprinting down the adjoining corridor toward the crematorium.

  The sound of running boots was amplified by the narrow passage as Kurt Agry raced after her, the thundering footfalls rushing ever closer.

  Lopez ran across the chamber and plunged into the eastern corridor. She leapt over the gruesome remains of Cletus MacCarthy’s body and reached the locked door, the mechanism glowing with a tiny, bright red light.

  Lopez reached into her jacket and yanked out the access card she’d palmed hours before from the fallen soldier. She slammed into the steel door and slid it through the magnetic strip. The bright little light changed to green and the three-pin locking mechanism snapped out of place. Lopez heaved the door open and hurled herself inside.

  ‘Lopez!’

  Kurt appeared behind her in the corridor, his rifle raised and pointing at her. She turned and slammed the door shut, then punched the access card through the slot on the inside. The mechanism clicked shut just as she heard Kurt slam against the door outside.

  ‘Lopez! Open the goddamned door, right now!’

  She stood back from the door, breathing hard as she swiped one sleeve across her face and wiped some of Klein’s blood off. Kurt pounded on the metal from the other side, but there was no way he could break through such a heavy door.

  ‘And you can’t break out,’ she murmured to herself.

  Not, at least, until Kurt and his men were dead, torn apart by the creatures now invading the facility. She was about to formulate some kind of plan when something caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end, as though a bitter wind had blown across her skin. She smelled the dank, stale odor of sweat and rotting meat.

  Her stomach twisted upon itself as she felt a presence nearby, something watching her from the impenetrable blackness.

  64

  Ethan eased his way to the ventilation gratings of the living quarters and peered through the gaps. The dim light in the room and the awkward angle made it hard to see much, but he was almost certain that the room was empty.

  He checked his watch. Three minutes. And then he heard the gunshots start.

  Even in the confined spaces of the facility he still recognized the sound of M-16s and the shouts of men at war. Suddenly he realized why Proctor, Dana and Lopez had been taken out of the room.

  Ethan crawled over the false ceiling, careful to stay on the girders until he reached a panel roughly over the center of the room. He reached down and prised the panel upward enough to get his fingers underneath it before hauling it to one side and dropping down into the room.

  For a brief moment he considered the possibility that Lopez had figured a way out of the room much as he had, but then he saw the door sitting slightly ajar, a thin strip of light from the corridor beyond slicing into the darkness.

  Ethan sprinted toward the control center and almost immediately ran into Jenkins. The soldier was down on one knee, firing wildly at the mine entrance. Ethan rushed up behind him just as Jenkins heard his approach and whirled in shock.

&n
bsp; ‘Warner, no!’

  Ethan grabbed the barrel of the M-16 with one hand as he drove his left boot with tremendous force into Jenkins’s face. The soldier’s head snapped backward with a savage motion as his hands went into spasm and released his rifle. Jenkins sprawled onto his back on the floor as Ethan yanked the M16 from his weakened grasp and aimed down at him.

  ‘Where’s Lopez and the others?’ he demanded.

  ‘Proctor’s dead and so is Dana!’ Jenkins spat from his bloodied mouth. ‘Lopez stole the hard drive from Klein and then locked herself in the crematorium!’

  Ethan felt a sudden chill flush through him and looked instinctively again at his watch.

  Thirty seconds.

  ‘Oh no.’

  Jenkins looked up at him and then his face went pale. ‘What have you done?’

  Ethan turned away to run back toward the living quarters, but Jenkins leapt to his feet and grabbed Ethan by the throat and hauled him sideways into the wall.

  ‘How did you get out of the store room?’ Jenkins screamed, wrapping his arms around Ethan’s throat and squeezing hard.

  Ethan felt his throat collapse and his eyes bulge as Jenkins locked his arms into place and strained with the effort of trying to kill him. He reached up and grabbed the soldier’s arms but he had too good a hold of Ethan’s neck, locked rigidly into place and driven by what Ethan could only guess was an insanity of panic: Ethan could hardly tell him how to escape when he was being throttled to death.

  Ethan leaned forward, forcing Jenkins’s feet off the ground. His vision began to star as his brain was starved of oxygen but Ethan kept his panic under control. Instead, balancing with Jenkins locked around his throat, Ethan moved his right leg and hooked it behind Jenkins’s own flailing leg, pinning it in place.

  In that instant, as the shift in weight proved too much for Ethan to hold and he felt himself topple to the right beneath Jenkins’s weight, Ethan twisted to his right and hurled himself off the ground as though leaping backward out of an aircraft, just as he had done many times before in the corps.