Claws

by Ricky Sides

  The brush grew in a rough oval configuration, about twenty feet in diameter. The leaves had all fallen off the brush. The small-interlaced limbs looked dead. They were covered with thorns. Jerry wasn’t sure what type of plants they were, but he thought they might be blackberries. The lieutenant signaled the corporal to circle to the right. He circled to the left. He saw several trees between them and the brush, but he saw no sign of cats on the limbs. “Mind the trees, Corporal,” Jerry reminded the man quietly via the radio.

  A moment later, he was surprised when the corporal raised his shotgun and fired at the limb of a tree not far from him. Jerry saw a large dark colored cat drop from out of the limbs of the tree. The animal struck the ground and then lay still.

  “That’s not one of ours, sir. This is a bobcat,” the corporal explained. There was a loud hissing sound from the tangled brush, and then a calico cat burst from a small opening and charged the corporal.

  Cursing his lapse, the corporal realized he had reported to the lieutenant before bothering to chamber another round. He struggled to do so now, thinking that he could beat the cat’s leap. He was wrong.

  The cat leapt into the air, its front claws extended. The corporal staggered back a step as he chambered the round, and that move prevented the animal from grabbing him with both paws, but the feline’s right claws slashed his face, its left missed the face, but dug into the fabric of his camouflage winter coat. Crying out in pain, the corporal tried to bat the animal off him with his shotgun.

  Jerry saw this from his position and knew the corporal would need help. He dashed across the intervening space, flicking the safety on the shotgun and dropping it as he ran. His right hand drew his silenced pistol as he reached the struggling pair. Jerry grabbed the cat in a firm grip at the base of its head and pulled its body away from the corporal.

  The cat hissed and tried to turn on Jerry, but the corporal had dropped his shotgun and grabbed the animal’s front legs in his effort to hold it at bay, so the animal could do nothing but hiss at Jerry. The special ops leader pressed the end of the silencer against the enraged feline’s side near the heart and squeezed the trigger. The cat gave one final burst of movement, and then it collapsed in the corporal’s grasp.

  Tossing the animal’s body aside, the corporal cursed as he reached for his shotgun. Jerry covered the brambles while the corporal prepared himself. “I’ve got it, sir,” the corporal stated when he was ready.

  Jerry retrieved his own shotgun, and was in the process of flicking off the safety when another two cats burst from the tangled brush. Like the calico before them, both charged the corporal. Corporal Evans fired at the lead cat. His shot struck that animal, killing it instantly. A portion of the shot also struck the second, wounding its right front leg. Jerry’s shot put it out of its misery.

  “It looks as if we found a bedding area,” Jerry observed.

  “Lieutenant? Are you guys okay?” Sergeant Haskell asked on the radio.

  “The corporal was wounded by one of the cats. We’re about to target a large bramble pile that contained several. You’ll hear multiple shots as we try to cover the whole thing,” Jerry explained.

  “You need me there?” asked the Sergeant.

  “Negative. Hold your position. We’ll be there soon,” Jerry stated.

  “We start in the center and work our way to the outer edge,” Jerry said to the corporal.

  “One sec, sir. I’d best reload,” the corporal responded.

  Jerry reloaded his shotgun as well. Then, when they were both ready, the two men opened fire on the center of the brush and worked their way to the outer edge. There was no way to know for certain, but Jerry didn’t think there had been any other animals in the brush.

  “Do we go in to check it out, sir?” the corporal asked as the men reloaded their shotguns.

  “No, let’s get to the sergeant. I want him to do something about your face, but watch for more along the way.”

  Five minutes later, the two groups linked up. The sergeant treated the corporal’s wounds, but advised Jerry that he needed stitches in his face.

  “I’ll be okay until we can finish our hunt here, sir,” the corporal stated gamely.

  “You’re the medic, Sergeant. Is he fit for another pass through the east side?” asked Jerry.

  “He should be, sir, but he should drink some water to replenish the fluids he lost.”

  “Alright, Sergeant. “Corporal, you heard the man. Drink. Mr. Miller, are you game for another round?”

  “Yes, I’m game, but I could use a drink of water myself,” the man responded.

  The sergeant handed Miller his canteen and then listened as Jerry issued new orders. “I want you and Miller to use the streambed again. Backtrack to the south end, and then make your way to the eastern side. On your signal, the corporal and I will begin the sweep.”

  “We’re on it, sir,” the sergeant responded, and then he motioned for Miller to fall in with him as he moved out.

  Miller handed the sergeant his canteen, and then he paused beside the corporal. “I’m sorry you got hurt son, but I thank you for helping me kill these cats,” the man said and extended his hand for the corporal to shake.

  “You’re welcome, sir. I’m sorry about your loss,” the corporal responded.

  When the two men had left, the corporal turned to Jerry. Speaking quietly, he said, “That made me feel like an ass.”

  Jerry understood the corporal’s discomfort, but he needed the man’s mind focused on the coming mission, so he said, “Corporal, we didn’t release the cats. Hell, we didn’t even approve of their use in this experiment. I’m as sorry as I can be that these animals killed the Miller boy, but we had nothing to do with that. We’re just cleaning up the mess and protecting the secret because that’s what we get paid to do.”

  “I understand that, sir, but this mission has me questioning what I do for the first time,” the corporal responded.

  Jerry nodded his understanding. “I’m leaving the military after this assignment myself, but we have a job to do, and I need you focused on completing this mission.”

  “Sorry, sir. I won’t let you down.”

  “I’m not worried about you letting me down. You never have. What I’m worried about is you getting yourself killed because you’re not focusing on the mission. Now let’s count these animals, and then move east toward the edge of these woods,” Jerry said.

  They had been in position five minutes when they got the call from the sergeant that he and Miller were in position. The two men made their way south. As they moved through the trees, they heard the normal sounds of the forest that had been conspicuous by their absence during their previous pass. Jerry had the feeling that if there were any other cats in the woods, then they were holed up somewhere.

  They searched carefully, but by the time they reached the other team, they had failed to flush a single cat from hiding.

  Jerry thanked Mr. Miller for his assistance, and then he said, “We’d consider it a favor if you didn’t mention this to anyone. We wanted to help you, but if word of this gets out, we would be in a lot of legal trouble. There are laws protecting cats, I’m sure you understand. Hell, you’d be in just as much trouble as us, but we have our military careers to think about, and if word of this gets out, someone is sure to blame it on the military.”

  “I can see where that might cause you boys some problems,” Mr. Miller responded.

  Jerry nodded, adding, “We’d be court martialed and thrown out of the army for sure. We’d be lucky if we didn’t end up doing time in a stockade.”

  “You men helped me even the score for my boy. I’d never betray you. I can’t thank you enough,” the man said with tears of gratitude in his eyes. He sniffed and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. His hands shook as he pulled out a photo of his son, and added, “This was my son. He’d want me to give you his thanks for what you’ve done. I’ll come back out and collect the bodies tomorrow, and dispose of them so no one finds them and
reports it.”

  “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Miller. We’ll do that before we leave.”

  “Then I’ll stay and help you.”

  “Really, sir, I think you should go home to your family. They’ll need you.”

  “Yeah, the funeral is tomorrow,” the father said hesitantly.

  “Go home, Mr. Miller. We have the most to lose if we’re caught. There’s not a jury in this country that would convict a father for avenging his son, but for three military guys like us, it would go badly.”

  “You men needn’t worry. I’ll not tell a living soul about this.”

  “Sergeant, give Mr. Miller a ride to his truck. We’ll wait here and then recover the bodies,” Jerry said.

  When the van drove away, Jerry sensed the corporal’s stare. Turning to the man, he smiled wanly, and then he said, “Now I feel like an ass. Sometimes I really hate my job.”

  “I know just how you feel,” the corporal said.

  When the sergeant returned a few minutes later, the three men set about the grim task of recovering all the bodies. They recovered thirty-two, some of which Mr. Miller had killed before joining them, and a few of which someone else had killed a few days ago. The men assumed that Johnny Miller had killed some during his encounter with the animals. “It’s a wonder the other cats didn’t eat the bodies,” the corporal commented as they recovered the decaying corpses.

  “They probably would have, had other game not been so plentiful in the area,” observed Sergeant Haskell.

  During the late afternoon drive back to town, they heard a radio report that the body of Mildred Grummer, wife of Ralph Grummer, who’d been the single fatality in the multi-car pileup on Highway 31 that morning, had been found along the walking track in Athens. Authorities weren’t saying how Mrs. Grummer had died, but an anonymous source was being quoted as stating that portions of the body had been eaten.

  When they reached Athens, Jerry said, “Drop me off at my car, then I want you two to go back to the Huntsville base with the bodies of these animals. Have them take the cats off your hands. The General may want them dissected, or he may just want them incinerated. The base commander can find out and act accordingly. He’s in the loop. Then I want you to get your face treated by one of the doctors at the base, Corporal. There’ll be less questions that way. I’ll be in town tonight. I plan to stay at Patricia’s house.”

  “You think Talbot may try to get to her?” asked the sergeant.

  “I don’t know, but I think he was connected to the two thugs I encountered last night, so I can’t discount the possibility that he may try himself,” Jerry responded.

  He was relieved that the men hadn’t guessed his true intentions. He didn’t want them cracking jokes about his relationship with Patricia.

  “What’s on our agenda for tomorrow, sir?” asked the sergeant.

  “See what you can learn about the Grummer woman’s body. Apparently we need to check out that area,” he explained.

  “Will do, sir.” Smiling, he added, “I’ll call that nice young policeman who turned a few shades of red when he learned he wasn’t going to be able to arrest us.”

  “Don’t screw around with the local authorities. We may have their forced cooperation at the moment, but it’s always better to get them to want to assist you,” Jerry countered.

  “I won’t, sir. I was just making a bad joke.”

  “It wasn’t a bad joke. It’s just been a long day, and I still need to swing by Alcorn to see if there’s been any news on Talbot. You men drive carefully, and obey the speed limit. Don’t attract attention while the van is loaded with that cargo. Remember, the brass has the Athens authorities in the loop, but not the state troopers or the Huntsville authorities.”

  Jerry sniffed the air and frowned. “While you’re on the base, get someone at the motor pool to clean the van. It smells terrible.”

  That’ll take hours. We may have to stay at the base tonight,” the sergeant replied.

  Jerry nodded and said, “Call me when you get to Athens tomorrow morning. I’ll check on you both before I turn in tonight.

  “You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m looking forward to staying at the base tonight. That means chow on base, and I miss that,” the corporal stated.

  Jerry smiled. Corporal Evans was the only man he had ever met who actually loved army chow.

  “You clowns get out of here,” he said as he got out of the van.

  ***

  Robert and Patricia saw the door open. A moment later, the red scrap tub rolled out onto the floor. The two men pushing the container stopped for a moment and looked around to see if anyone had observed them exiting the special storage room. Neither of the men saw the security chief and the woman beside him because they were standing behind some opaque wind curtains in the shipping bay. From there, they were observing the men through the small gaps between sections of the curtain.

  Their luck changed when it became obvious that the men were heading straight for the shipping bay. Robert pulled Patricia aside, whispering, “Let’s get behind these pallets.”

  They slid between the gaps separating two stacks of shipping pallets, making their way to the back and the narrow space between the stacks and the wall. They had just reached their places of concealment when the two men pushed the tub through the wind curtain.

  “Push, you lazy bastard,” Patricia and Robert heard one of the men say in a deep voice. Through the slits between the wooden slats of the pallets, they could see the two men as they pushed the red tub, which was now heavily laden with the experimental feed. The men stopped beside an empty pallet near the wrapping station, approximately thirty feet from the concealed investigators.

  “I told you we were overloading the damned tub,” the other man griped.

  “Yeah? Well, this is the last load going out, and I want to get this done so we can leave. There’s too much activity at the headquarters building today.”

  “Do you think they suspect we jumped that guy at the woman’s house? I mean, what were the cops doing there for so long today?”

  “I don’t know why they were there, but no. I don’t think they suspect us. If they suspected us, they’d have come to this part of Alcorn.”

  “Why do you suppose Talbot wanted us to put all that cat food and catnip out at the woman’s house anyway?”

  “Hell, I don’t know, and I don’t give a damn. He was willing to pay us a thousand to prank a woman who used to work at headquarters. I’d prank my own mother for that kind of money.”

  “Let’s get this loaded on the skid. Then we’ll label and wrap it. Shipping will handle the rest Monday morning.”

  “Let’s hope no one catches us unloading the scrap cart in here. That’s a termination offense.”

  “It’s Saturday. No one’s here but a small production crew, and they’re on the other side of the plant. Now shut up and let’s get this job done so we can collect our pay.”

  “He’s going to pay us today?”

  “He said that we’re to meet him tonight so he can give us what we’ve got coming,” the deep voiced man explained.

  Robert had heard enough. He quietly keyed the radio and told the waiting security personnel to converge on the shipping room and apprehend the two men.

  “Stay here out of sight,” he whispered to Patricia, and then the security chief moved around the pallets and worked his way back toward the open space. He stepped into view just as several security personnel rushed through the wind curtain.

  Robert walked at a brisk pace toward the two men, who hadn’t yet noticed that the security team had entered the room. They had their backs to him and were busy pulling bags of feed from the tub and arranging them on the pallet.

  His security team passed him and spread out, preparing to encircle the two men. One of the thieves belatedly detected their presence. He dropped a bag of feed and turned to run toward the exit. A burly security man caught up with him before he’d gotten more than ten feet from the tu
b of contraband.

  The two men were taken into custody. The bigger of the two men said, “You’re making a mistake. We had instructions from the head of the company to do everything we’ve done.”

  Chapter 14

  Jerry was pulling out onto Jefferson Street when his cell phone rang. “Jerry, this is Robert. When you get back to town, you should come by my headquarters. We caught two of Talbot’s men and they may be able to lead you to him.”

  “I’m just a few blocks from you now. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Jerry stated, and then he hung up.

  When he arrived at Alcorn, he realized that Robert must have told security to expect him, because the guard waved him through without stopping him. He saw the guard use a radio and assumed that the man was reporting his arrival.

  As he walked through the hall on the third floor of the Alcorn headquarters building, Jerry saw Robert standing beside the command center door. “Is there anything I need to know before we go inside?” Jerry asked without preamble as he stopped beside Robert.

  Nodding in assent, Robert said, “I heard one of them say that they are supposed to meet Talbot for a payoff tonight, but they don’t want to talk about it. They want an attorney.”

  “I’ll bet they do,” Jerry said with a smile. He knew exactly how to handle a situation of this nature. He had done so upon more than one occasion in the past. “You don’t mind if I take over the interrogation?”

  “I was hoping you’d offer. I want you to get Talbot before law enforcement locates him.”

  “Alright, just play along with me on this. Don’t worry about what you should say in advance. Let it flow naturally. It’ll be obvious,” Jerry assured the security chief.

  “There’s one other thing. These are the men who jumped you last night and baited Patricia’s house. I heard them talking about it when I was hidden from view observing them.”

  Jerry nodded his understanding. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Three thousand pounds of the experimental food has been shipped to places unknown. These two clowns took it out of storage in scrap tubs, loaded it on skids, and tagged it for shipping. Some of it is still in the facility, but most has already been shipped,” Robert explained.