Debs rose and came into his arms. He took her in gratefully only to hear Wiggins’ voice call out from across the street.
“I don’t know. We leave you alone for two minutes and this is what you get up to?”
Banks and Wiggins, kilted and armed only with the one spear between the two of them, dropped down off a wall to one side of the entrance. At the same time, the crowd in the gateway by the arena exit, seeing that the coast was clear of raptors, rapidly made their escape into the surrounding streets.
The captain came over as Hynd disengaged from Debs and they shook hands.
“Well met, Cap,” Hynd said. “Have I got a story for you.”
“Aye, well, ours will win. I’ll put a pint on it,” Wiggins replied then the squad were all hugging each other and laughing.
“This is all very nice,” Debs said quietly, not having left Hynd’s side. “But can we please get the fuck out of here?”
“I like your new girlfriend, Sarge,” Wiggins said. “I hope you got one for me.”
Hynd didn’t get a chance to reply. The bark of another raptor sounded, this time coming from the gateway to the arena.
Four raptors and riders came out in formation.
- 21 -
The king addressed Banks directly.
“You and yours have caused me no end of trouble here today, sir,” he said.
“Aye, well,” Banks replied, stepping forward to stand between the raptors and the squad, holding the spear casually in his left hand. “We passed your wee test, didn’t we? So what’s next? Membership of the tribe I think you said?”
“I think we’ll forego that pleasure, don’t you?” the king replied and with no warning, kicked his raptor into an attack.
Banks was ready for it.
He wielded the weapon, not point first but holding it two-handed like a quarterstaff. He let the raptor come on then at the last second stepped aside on the opposite side from the king’s spear. With a quick one-two honed of years of practice, he clubbed the beast on the head. The beast staggered, almost fell, and Banks stepped inside. He thrust the blunt end of the spear forward in a smooth stroke, hitting the king between the eyes and tumbling him out of the saddle. The raptor was struggling to get to its feet. Banks took out its throat with the head of the spear and stepped on the king’s wrist as the man reached for his weapon. He held the bloody, still-dripping point at the king’s neck.
“We’ll be leaving now,” Banks said. “Thanks for the hospitality. Don’t try to follow us. I only show leniency once; I’m not stupid.”
Two of the riders behind the king edged forward. Hynd and Wilkins stepped up to the captain’s side and raised their rifles.
“Enough lives have been lost,” Banks said. “Let’s do this the easy way.”
He was answered not by the king but by a bellowing roar from the direction of the crater.
“What the fuck is this now?” Wiggins said at Banks’ back. “King fucking Kong?”
The king laughed.
“You talk of hospitality? You have betrayed his. Your punishment is out of my hands.”
Banks resisted a sudden urge to plunge the spear deep into that laughing face and turned away to speak to Hynd.
“Get them together, Sarge. Your lady friend will be glad to know we are indeed getting the fuck out of here.”
The king was still laughing as he got to his feet and waved a goodbye as Banks led the squad and WHO people away.
“I shall be seeing you soon, my friend. We are not done with this dance.”
Banks took a handgun from Hynd and Wiggins got one from Davies.
“To the canoes?” Hynd asked.
“Aye, fast as we can manage. And we’ve got some stowed gear to pick up on the way back. There’s ammo there and rations we might need. Can they all walk?”
It was the woman, the sarge’s new friend, who answered.
“They can run if need be,” she said. “Please, just get us home.”
“Anything you say, ma’am,” he replied and she laughed.
“A lass and a ma’am both in the same day. How quaint.”
They were moving at a fast walk through now-empty streets, although they were watched by silent townspeople from doorways and windows. Nobody tried to stop them.
Another roar came from behind them.
“You didn’t leave the gate open, did you?” Banks asked Hynd, who smiled ruefully.
“You ken me, sir, born in a barn.”
“So what is it? Another raptor?”
“We never saw it,” Hynd replied. “But it sounded big. Big and angry.”
“Then let hope it takes it out on yon bugger we left back there and lets us go,” he replied.
They reached the track leading towards the river and he had them up their speed to a jog.
He was leading a hard pace so he was surprised when Wiggins came forward to run alongside him. He was amused to see that the corporal, although almost running flat-out, had a cigarette stuck tight between his teeth and was taking gasps in between breaths, or breaths in between gasps—Banks couldn’t quite figure that out.
“So, the sarge and a WHO lady, eh?” he said. “I never saw that coming.”
“Judging by the look on the sarge’s face when we joined them, I don’t think he did either. Still, you never can tell when it’s going to hit you.”
The bellowing roar they’d heard earlier came again, behind them but sounding too close for comfort. Banks looked ahead at the trail they had yet to travel and the exposed ridge they’d have to clamber up and over.
“I don’t like our odds if yon king decides he needs some sport,” Wiggins said. “A pack of riders on raptors would mow us down. We don’t have the firepower to keep back more than a few at a time.”
“I’m hoping that getting beat down in front of his men was a sobering experience for him,” Banks replied. “But if not, we’ll deal with whatever comes at us. Nobody else dies today. Not on my watch.”
Then it was back to the serious running. Wiggins needed all his energy for that and finishing off the smoke so they ran in silence that Banks only broke when he recognized a large tree ahead.
“That’s where we left our stash,” he said. “Get back to the sarge, tell him we’ll take a break—a couple of minutes, no more—then we’ll have to get moving.”
He left the corporal to relay the order then headed for the stash of gear. He got himself a jacket from his pack, retrieved a spare knife and sheath that he strapped to his ankle, and picked up his binoculars. The rest of the squad and the WHO team were gathering around the tree as Banks clambered up three levels of branches until he found a spot with a good view back down the trail to the town now some distance behind them.
Something was kicking up dust near the edge of town. Even with the binoculars, he couldn’t make out detail, but whatever was disturbing the ground was on the point of leaving the town proper and onto the trail. He saw sunlight flash on something and focused slightly farther back into the town itself. The first thing he saw was the unmistakable tall headdress of feathers; the king, riding another tall raptor, was leading a troop of almost a score of raptors and riders and they were following whatever was disturbing the ground.
He focused farther ahead in the trail to a gap in the foliage and finally got a glimpse of the thing the king and his men were trailing. Terror gripped hard at him and awe as another bellow echoed across the jungle.
There was more than one king of this land and the second had now made an entrance. A Tyrannosaurus rex barreled along the trail roaring as it came. It loomed large in the binoculars and Banks had a feeling it was looking straight through them back at him.
He dropped out of the tree without bothering to look for branches to climb down, causing the people below to scatter, startled.
“Run,” he said. “Right now. The canoes are our only hope.”
- 22 -
Hynd was to lead the fleeing group. He handed Wiggins his rifle before starting out.
“You’ll need this more than me if you’re hanging back with the captain.”
“Aye, and you need your hands free for your girlfriend,” Wiggins replied.
Debs cuffed him, hard, around the ear and Wiggins smiled.
“She learns fast.”
Wiggins dropped back, Davies and Wilkins having already joined the captain at the rear. The captain hadn’t said what he’d seen that had got him so spooked but Hynd knew it was bad; he’d seen it in his friend’s face. And they all heard the roar and bellow from behind. Whatever was after them sounded big and pissed off.
He noticed that the dark-haired Frenchman wasn’t with his group. He had fallen back and taken up at the side of young Wilkins. Debs saw him looking.
“Looks like someone’s made a conquest,” she said with a laugh. Hynd didn’t have any time to consider the implications of the remark as a fresh roar shook the trees.
“You heard the man,” Hynd shouted. “Arseholes and elbows. Get a fucking move on.”
Without waiting to see if anyone would follow, he broke into a run heading for the high ridge and the descent to the river beyond.
He only looked back once, after making the crossing of the ridge and when he reckoned he had gone almost halfway to the canoes. Debs ran almost at his side, loping along with the practiced gait of a seasoned runner; she looked good for miles yet. The others of her team weren’t doing so well, and the three of them were strung across a span of fifty yards. The rest of the squad and the black-haired doctor were almost down to walking speed at the rear, trying to move the stragglers along faster.
Another roar came, and Hynd looked further back down the trail. Something big was coming. He saw its effect on the foliage more than the thing itself but if it was another raptor, it was by far the largest yet.
“Come on,” he shouted. “I can almost see the canoes. One last push and we’re home free.”
They were far from home and far from free.
But they don’t know that. Yet.
He reached the riverbank just ahead of Debs and headed straight for where they’d stowed the canoes, dragging one from under the canopy.
“Get these in the water,” he said, “and get your people into them, three in one, two in the other.”
“Yes, Sarge,” she said, giving him a mock salute. “But I’m in yours. You’re not getting out of my sight.”
“Fine by me, lass,” he replied.
The first of the WHO team came over the top of the bank seconds later, then it was mayhem for a minute as the rest arrived, were allocated a seat, and Hynd tried to stop them all fleeing before everyone had got into a canoe. Private Davies was the first of the squad to show up, coming over the banking at a flat run.
“It’s going to be close,” he said.
“Get in the first canoe,” Hynd said to him, “And get it out into the river. Cover the rest of us from there.”
The three members of the WHO team in the first canoe let out a small cheer as Davies pushed them off the bank with his oar. Two of the men lifted a paddle from inside the canoe, helping him stay out of the main current long enough to take up a steady position ten yards out.
Wilkins and the Frenchman arrived, leaping over the bank like hurdlers and coming to a halt inches from where Hynd and Debs stood.
“Where’s the cap and Wiggo?”
“Busy,” Wilkins said, then the sound of gunfire echoed loud around them.
The captain and Wiggins came over the bank at a leap. Wiggins landed heavily, tumbled, and slid in the mud. The captain got him to his feet and retrieved the corporal’s rifle. He didn’t get time to hand it back.
A raptor and rider came over the bank and started down towards them. The captain didn’t lose a beat. He put two rounds in the beast’s head and one down the throat of the rider. The shot pair fell dead in the mud inches from Hynd’s feet.
A bellow, almost deafening, replied to Banks’ shots. Everyone left on the bank looked up and up again as the head then body of a T-rex rose up on the banking only yards away. Debs put her hand in Hynd’s and squeezed. She stood her ground beside him as first the feathered headdress then the king and his raptor came up onto the bank, the rest of his men coming on behind him.
Within seconds, a score of raptors and riders lined up alongside him along the bank on left and right sides of the T-rex.
They set up a chant that sounded like a prayer.
Mokele-Mbembe.
Mokele-Mbembe.
The T-rex roared in reply.
- 23 -
Banks didn’t know much about dinosaurs but he knew better than to turn his back on a predator. He stood silent and gazed back at the beast that had stopped and was looking down at the dead raptor and rider.
“Get him,” the king shouted and moved to urge his raptor forward. The T-rex stopped him by the simple action of nudging his raptor with its huge head. The raptor went quiet and still; it obeyed the king on its back, yes, but it gave its true allegiance to the real king towering above them. Banks began to feel the faint stirrings of hope.
He pointed the rifle at the dead raptor below him then pointed it at the nearest tree and let off three shots, blasting splinters of bark and wood into the air. Then he pointed the rifle at the raptor the king was riding.
The T-rex snorted. Banks felt hot moist air on his face and tasted meat in his mouth. The beast looked at the weapon then at the dead raptor then at the king’s raptor. Its tail swung lazily in the air behind it but its gaze never left Banks.
“Get them!” the king shouted again. The T-rex nudged the man’s raptor again harder this time and again it refused its rider’s command.
Banks spoke, not taking his eyes off the T-rex.
“A true king looks after his subjects,” he said and realized as he said it that he wasn’t talking to the human but to the beast. “All of his subjects.”
The king tried to spur his raptor into an attack but it was having none of it and refused to budge.
“They have usurped my authority,” the man shouted. “They must die!”
Banks raised the aim of his rifle to point directly at the king’s chest. The T-rex watched, still unmoving. It snorted again, more wet heat in Banks’ face. Banks had the strangest feeling that the huge animal was somehow amused at the proceedings.
“I don’t think the true ruler around here agrees with you,” he said to the king and winked at the man.
The king kicked his raptor hard and dug a spearhead into its flank in an attempt to persuade it into an attack. The raptor yelped in pain. The T-rex looked at Banks, looked at the king, then plucked the screaming man from the raptor’s back as neatly as flicking a fly with a finger. The man was still screaming as a huge foot slammed him into the mud. The feathered headdress flew off into the river and floated away in the current. The T-rex bent its head and bit, just once. The last they saw of the king’s head was as it vanished down the T-rex’s throat as it swallowed. It looked directly at Banks and bellowed, a blast of wet air ruffling his hair. It nudged the king’s raptor gently, almost tenderly, with its head, then turned away.
The raptor followed.
The king’s men up on the bank were slower to take their leave but Banks saw that they would not overrule the T-rex’s decision. He showed them his rifle.
“We’re leaving now. Do not follow us. I’ll tell you what I told him,” he said, pointing at what was left of their king. “I only show leniency once. I’m not stupid.”
“And neither am I,” one of the riders said in the same clipped English his former leader had used. “Do not come back, sir. You are not welcome here.”
He turned his raptor and headed off back into the jungle. The rest followed them, leaving the squad and the WHO team survivors alone on the river and bank.
“Fuck me, Cap,” Wiggins said at Banks’ side. “I damn near pished myself but you just stood there, stared down a T-rex, and won. How are any of the rest of us ever going to top that?”
“I would
n’t recommend trying, Wiggo. You got a fag? I’m gasping here.”
- 24 -
Debs was as good as her word and stayed by Hynd all the way down the river, sitting up close to his back while he paddled, sharing his smokes and not speaking much at all. It was only when they reached and then passed the ruined WHO station and village that she showed signs of relaxing.
Up front of the canoe, the captain got out his sat phone and attempted a call to HQ in Scotland. After ten minutes or so of navigating farther down the river, he finally got through. Hynd knew that meant there would be a pick up and extraction somewhere in there near future, but for now, at least he could enjoy the river and the company.
“We’re home free now, aren’t we, Sarge?” Debs said, her arms reaching around his waist.
“Aye, I think we are at that, lass. Can I buy you a drink to celebrate when we get somewhere civilized?”
“You can buy me a bucketful,” she replied. “I think we all need it.”
“Amen to that,” Wiggins said from in front of Hynd. “It’s about time the sarge got a round in.”
Debs nudged Hynd in the back and when he turned, she pointed down the canoe.
“Like I said earlier,” she said. “I’m not the only one who made a conquest here today.”
Wilkins was paddling and the dark-haired Frenchman had his arms around the young soldier’s waist, head leaned forward to nuzzle his neck.
“Close your mouth, Wiggo,” Debs said. “You’re catching flies.”
The End
Read on for a free sample of The Anaconda Of Z
Amazonia 1922
The crocodilian exploded forward unleashing a geyser of black water that shot upwards of eight feet. The sudden burst of energy pulled tight the crossbow bolt embedded just behind the massive dragon’s skull, snagging the barb tight against its inch-thick hide, releasing a rivulet of blood that shone purple in the half moon light. The beast dove beneath the surface of the Rio Negro and the force of the dive pulled floating debris and even small fish behind and into its wake.
Operation Congo (S-Squad Book 9) Page 10
