They dropped off the wall to the sound of more jeers ringing around them and hugged the stone in the shadows for three right turns.
“Spot on, Cap,” Wiggins said as they arrived at a left-hand junction and heard the yep and bark of raptors above the crowd noise. Banks peered ‘round the corner.
They faced what at one time had been a gate at the opposite end of the arena to the one they came in. They had solved the maze. But the raptor pens beyond were out of sight. The gate had been filled in with loose stone and rubble.
Banks didn’t hesitate. He strode out of the alley, once again into full sight of the crowd, and began shifting the larger stones as fast as he could throw them aside.
“With me, Wiggo,” he said. “If we don’t get through this shite in the next two minutes, they’re going to be all over us.”
He already noticed that guards were running around the top level of the arena, heading in their direction. If they reached the top of the crater rim before Banks and Wiggins had cleared the way, then spears would be raining down on their heads and they’d be sitting ducks.
He worked harder.
- 18 -
The raptors came on cautiously. Davies had moved so that the five members of the WHO team were all behind him. He had his weapon raised, but if he took out one of the beasts, the other was ready to leap in. Hynd turned to Wilkins.
“The bodies. Throw the bodies over the wall. These bastards are after easy food, so let’s give them some.”
“We cannae do that, Sarge,” Wilkins said, but the doctor had already moved and was heaving the smaller of the guards, the youth Hynd had killed, over the wall. The body landed with a thud five yards to the right of Davies and the WHO team. The nearest raptor raised its head, looked at Hynd then at the body, and decided the food was worth the risk. It moved in with jaws already open in anticipation. The second raptor looked at Davies then at the body. It saw that its partner was getting the easy part of the deal and went to join it at the body.
“The doc and I can handle this, Wilko,” Hynd said. “If we can’t get the folks down there up on the winch, we’ll have to get them through the gate. Go and see if you can get it open.”
The next few minutes were among the grisliest of Hynd’s’ long career. They tossed the bodies over the side—he taking the legs, the doc the arms—swinging them over as if they were throwing a pal into the river as kids. But there was no soft landing for these poor sods, only the prospect of ending in the bellies of the beasts. The raptors fed with gusto and the bodies attracted interest from two more of their kind who came, seemingly without any fear or trepidation, to join the first pair. These two were smaller and more vocal, and Hynd wondered if these were the females. Either way, their gender wasn’t having any appreciable effect on their appetite or ferocity.
The raptors all ate ravenously.
Davies had the WHO team pressed up tight to the gate. Some of them couldn’t, or refused, to watch the grisly feast, but Hynd noted that Debs wasn’t flinching and was watching the raptors with grim determination although even from his position above he saw tears running down her cheeks and liked her all the better for it.
He turned to the doctor after they’d tossed the last body over the side.
“Shout if anything changes. I need to check on Wilko.”
The doc gave him a very serviceable salute as Hynd headed for the steps down into the town.
Wilkins was straining at a heavy wooden beam. It sat in a runner and stretched across the width of the structure holding the twin gate doors shut. It looked like it hadn’t been moved since the dawn of time and given the amount of effort the private was expending for no reward, it looked as if it was going to stay that way.
“Thank Christ,” he said as Hynd moved quickly to give him a hand. “I thought I was going to rupture something.”
“There’s time yet, lad.”
Both of them put their backs into it. The hunk of wood started to slide away to one side, painfully slowly, but they’d got it moving.
“Hurry,” the doctor shouted from above. Hynd looked up to see him pointing, not down into the crater but into the town. A raptor and rider appeared in the mouth of one of the alleys, saw Hynd and Wilkins at the gate, and immediately turned heels and fled into the shadows before Hynd could get his weapon raised and aimed.
“Bugger. The clock’s ticking. Get this gate open, Wilkins, and the next beer and curry night is on me.”
As if the thought of it spurred him on, Wilkins put extra effort into it. Hynd strained and pushed, felt the muscles of his back and shoulders tighten and complain, but the beam started to slide faster and within a minute had slid enough to one side that one half of the gate was exposed. Both men put their backs against the doorway and heaved. The door slid open an inch then creaked to a halt, but someone on the other side had taken note. Several pairs of hands grabbed around the rim and now Hynd and Wilkins were being helped in the task it went more easily.
The door creaked open.
Debs was the first face Hynd saw on the other side. She came to him and kissed him full on the lips, much to Wilkins’ amusement. Hynd returned the embrace for two seconds then held her away.
“Get your people out of there,” he said and shouted over her head. “Davies, the beasties still busy?”
“Aye, Sarge. But there are half a dozen of them now; two small ones just turned up. And I heard another roar in the jungle further in; there’s something bigger coming this way.”
“Whatever the fuck that is, I don’t want to meet it.”
They got the WHO team through the gate and into the cleared area between it and the town. Wilkins moved to get the door closed but Hynd stopped him.
“Leave it open, lad. If the beasties get curious and come through, they might give us a diversion that’ll buy us time to get out of here.”
With Debs’ and the doc’s help, they got the other four members of the WHO team moving. Hynd’s plan was still simple enough—get the rescued party out of the town, stash them somewhere safe, and come back to look for the captain and Wiggins. It looked like the plan was going to be scuppered at infancy when they entered an alley to head into town and found a raptor and rider blocking their way.
Unlike the earlier one, this one showed no signs of backing off. The rider raised his spear and let out a battle yell that was echoed by the creature he rode on.
Hynd had got as far as unslinging his rifle and getting ready to take aim when a series of answering barks came from the rear. He turned to see the six raptors, fed and ready for action, come through the open gate at a run.
He only had time to clear the mouth of the alley, splitting his people into two groups on either side, then the raptors were on them. The beasts ignored them completely and went directly for the rider who on seeing the odds tried to turn and flee. He never made it.
Six against one, the fight didn’t take long, but the rider lasted longer than his mount. His screams as the beasts fed on him echoed long and loud in the alley. Debs turned to Hynd with pleading in her eyes and he knew what was being asked. He nodded, took aim, and put a bullet in the man’s head.
The shot was answered almost immediately. Horns from somewhere deeper in the town in the direction where the drumming cheering had come from. The alarm had been raised.
The raptors looked up from their feeding at this new noise. They barked at each other then moved as one heading towards the source of the sound, deeper into town.
Something else responded to the noise, a roar louder than any they’d yet heard, the bellow of some giant thing that was still in the crater beyond the gate but was definitely getting closer.
“We go into the town,” Hynd said. “We can’t afford to get caught in the open. And the captain and Wiggins are around here somewhere. We’re not leaving them here with those buggering beasties running about.”
- 19 -
Banks and Wiggins made their breakthrough as the guards arrived above them. There was a second where t
hey were sitting ducks. Banks expected that the last thing he’d hear was the whistle of a spear just before one thudded into his back but instead he heard the distinct, unmistakable retort of gunfire. The single shot was immediately followed by the sound of horns being sounded from where the area where the king had been sitting.
And louder even than the horns, an accompanying roar came from somewhere out in the jungle, a bellow that echoed around the arena and brought immediate mayhem in its wake.
The guards who had been so eager to be after Banks and Wiggins just seconds before had already turned around, racing back around an arena where the crowd was rapidly dispersing in something approaching a panic. Banks clambered over the rubble pile and turned to lend his hand to Wiggins to pull him up and out of the maze.
“I’m guessing that’s the sarge and the lads out there somewhere stirring the pot, Wiggo. It’s game on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They clambered over the rubble pile and down the other side, alert to a possible attack either from above or from the area ahead of them, but it appeared they were no longer the prime focus of attention. No one stopped them as they walked into what was obviously where they kept and trained the raptors. Cages lined either side of an alleyway; walking along it felt like they were on a zoo visit. The heavy odor that rose around them made that impression even stronger. They were watched every inch of the way by raptors of various sizes, from some less than waist-height to others, more sturdily caged, who looked down on the men as they passed.
The cheers in the arena behind them had changed to panicked wails and screams mingled with the barks and roars of raptors. The beasts in the cages cocked their ears at that and immediately began throwing their bodies against the bars of the pens as if eager to join in the mayhem.
Banks and Wiggins looked at each other and Wiggins smiled broadly.
“Seems a shame they’ll miss out on all the fun, Cap.”
“It does at that, Wiggo. But how to do it without becoming breakfast ourselves is the bit I’m having trouble with.”
“Look at them, Cap. They’re not bothered about us. They want to be running with the pack. Let’s start with one of the wee ones. We should be able to handle one of them between the two of us.”
They went to one of the smaller pens where a young raptor was throwing itself wildly against the bars. It already had flecks of blood at its mouth. Banks slid the locking bar to one side while Wiggins stood on guard with the spear. No backup was needed. As soon as the pen door opened, the beast was off and away at a loping run and quickly vanished out of sight into an alley that looked to head uphill towards the arena rim and the seating area. Seeing this, the rest of the raptors began to bark furiously.
Over the next five minutes, they opened every cage and not even the larger beasts paid them any notice. The raptors all went off at a run for the same alleyway.
The screams of terror from the arena above them had gotten much louder.
“Looks like we’ve let slip the dogs of war,” Wiggins said.
“Aye. And we don’t have a leash. I hope to fuck we did the right thing.”
More screaming echoed around them. And now it was mixed with the roars of raptors and the crack of gunfire. Banks led as they made for the alley. A long, curved, much-used set of stone steps led up towards the crater rim and beyond that through a high gateway that led into the arena.
There was no sign of any guards, just the sound of chaos and panic. Banks and Wiggins followed their hounds into battle.
Chaos was the right word for the sight that met them as they reached the gateway on the crater rim and looked over the arena. Most of the crowd had already fled but there was mob all trying to leave through a gate on the far side that was already crammed tight with bodies. The people nearer the front tried to push their way out. The people nearer the back tried to avoid getting eaten but the raptors had found a meal and were feasting.
Wiggins pointed down to the far end of the arena, to the gate where they’d entered the labyrinth. There were no people down there and no sign of any raptors.
“Looks like our best bet, Cap?”
“I agree,” he replied as the sound of more gunfire came from beyond the arena, somewhere in the town. “And it sounds like that’s where we need to be. Double-time again, Wiggo. The other lads might need us.”
They’d got halfway ‘round the arena and about two-thirds of the way down the steps without interruption but they stopped when horns sounded above them. Four raptors with spear-carriers on their back came out from behind the throne; the king himself was on the lead beast, sitting up tall and imperious in his high feather headdress and long cloak. He locked eyes with Banks then turned away, leading his men to where the raptors were feeding on the townspeople.
The noise level went up a notch again as the trained raptors met the ones Banks and Wiggins had let out and a bloody fight ensued. Banks didn’t know much about that kind of fighting but he saw that the trained men and raptors were making short work of the escapees, working as a team to single out a quarry and take it down before moving on to the next one.
“That’ll be us next if we don’t hoof it,” he said. “Move it, Wiggo.”
- 20 -
Hynd led the group deeper into the town. They were getting nearer to the source of the crowd noise. Somewhere not far ahead was where the cheering had been coming from earlier…and the screaming was coming from now.
That’s where the action is. That’s where the captain and Wiggo will be. I’d bet my life on it.
They turned a corner and almost walked directly into a melee. A crowd was trying to escape from a stadium, the people at the back pushing those at the front forward. But those at the front were already trying to retreat. The raptors who had come through the gate stood guard in a semi-circle in front of the exit, ready to pounce on anyone who broke ranks from the crowd. There were already half a dozen bodies on the ground and the two smaller raptors were fighting over one of them.
They’d arrived in time to see a child, barefoot and naked, run out of the throng, heading for one of the bodies, oblivious to the presence of the raptors, running forward and shouting. Hynd didn’t recognize the language but he knew the word from just looking at the child.
Father!
The largest of the raptors cocked its head and barked. The two young ones stopped squabbling and looked first at the raptor then at the running child. Hynd understood the large raptor’s next bark as well as he’d understood the child.
Get him!
Hynd didn’t allow himself to think. He raised his rifle and shot one of the small raptors, almost taking its head off and spraying blood and brains across the street. The other one was still headed for the child but Davies did the business with that one, taking it in the back and blowing a hole out of its chest.
A woman came out of the crowd at a run, grabbed the young boy, and pulled him back to safety, but Hynd and his group were now far from safe—; they had the full attention of four grown raptors. The largest of the group looked at the dead young blown apart on the street then stared directly at Hynd. Its head feathers flared as if it had grown a headdress and it roared.
As a team, all four raptors leapt into an attack—the large one in the lead, the other three forming a wedge behind it—from a standing start to full speed in seconds.
Hynd went to one knee. Again, it was automatic. Davies and Wilkins stood above him, all three having moved to stand between the oncoming beasts and the WHO team. Hynd put two in the chest of the head beast and was almost deafened by the ringing in his ears as the others picked their targets and fired. All of their shots hit but the beasts had momentum on their side, carrying them at a headlong rush into the three soldiers who went under in a tangle of teeth and talons and thrashing. Hot blood flew in Hynd’s face as the large raptor fell on him. It coughed up gore even as it tried to eat his face. He managed to force the barrel of his rifle up and into the armpit of the beast, firing twice more when it collapsed on him,
dead meat and a dead weight.
A woman screamed. Hynd had to use all of his strength to roll the raptor off him. Another two shots sounded and Wilkins shouted loudly, not far off.
“Fuck off, you bastard thing, just fuck off.”
Hynd got to his knees, raised his weapon, and got a sight on another raptor. It had one of the WHO doctors on the ground and had already ripped her open from neck to belly. He shot it in the head then the chest then the head again for good measure.
Davies had dealt with a third. It lay twitching below him. He had a foot on its neck, holding it down as he shot it in the head.
“This one’s fucked, Sarge,” he said.
They turned when Wilkins shouted again, this time a strangled scream. Neither of them would be in time to help the private; somehow, the last raptor had pulled his weapon from his grasp and was already tensed to strike with Wilkins defenseless before it.
The black-haired doctor leapt forward onto the thing’s back as easily as if he was one of the riders. His switchblade flashed in the air once, twice, and blood spewed out of the raptor around the neck. It bucked and thrashed but the doctor hung on with legs and one arm while the other arm came up and down, striking deep with every blow.
And finally one hit the right spot. The raptor fell in a heap in the dust and the doctor leapt off as nimbly as a dancer, immediately heading to check on Wilkins who smiled and gave a thumbs-up before retrieving his weapon.
“Remind me never to piss off anyone in Marseille,” Hynd said then went to Debs’ side where she was bent over the woman on the ground, trying to put the stomach wound back together. The fallen woman’s dead eyes stared at the sky. He put a hand on Debs’ shoulder.
“Leave her, lass. She’s passed on, poor thing.”
Operation Congo (S-Squad Book 9) Page 9
