by Michael Todd
Pike did not respond. He prepared the team to move out and track the mother according to the disturbances in the foliage it had left as well as the bloodstains. Nevertheless, Chris could tell he was listening.
“Zoo creatures seem to help spread the Zoo itself,” Chris went on. “We still don’t know exactly how it all works, but do we really want a second Zoo in Saudi Arabia? Or in Russia? Do we want those people in possession of a creature they might be able to use as a goddamn bio-weapon? Do we want them to complete the medical, agricultural, and scientific breakthroughs that the United States is on the verge of making?” The team was back on the move now, following Pike deeper into the jungle and away from the bounty hunters. The rest of them seemed too tired and dispirited to say anything, even Gunnar. “This isn’t merely a hunting expedition, man,” Chris went on. “You used to be a Marine, for Christ’s sake!”
Pike stopped. He turned around, and his gaze snapped back to hold Chris’. “No,” he said. “Once a Marine, always a Marine. There is no ‘used to be.’” Everyone else halted as well, anticipating another fight as they looked grimly from Chris to Pike and back.
Arthur Pike, however, only seemed to think for a moment, and then he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So be it,” he said. He turned to the side. “This way. We are going after the infant creature. There is America to consider in addition to the welfare of our entire world.”
Chris blew air from his lungs in relief. He wondered if part of Pike’s increasing reasonableness was because the man’s respect for him had also increased. Chris had, after all, said some things he was forced to acknowledge as true, correct, and intelligent. And he’d even contributed to a battle, despite being an amateur and having had the shit kicked out of him the previous day. Luck had been the main factor in Chris picking-off the Haitian. But his aim had also improved.
“So we’re attacking them again,” Gunnar said. “At least now we know that half of them can’t shoot worth a damn. Although of course, those were probably the half we killed, leaving all the badasses.”
“And,” Peppy added, “at least now we know that it will all be over soon.” She paused. “It might hurt, though. Like…a lot. Does Glassner have anything we can dope up on before the fight?”
Glassner sighed. “I know I’m technically part of the medical profession,” he said, “but believe it or not, that doesn’t make me a drug dealer.”
“Actually stimulants might not be a bad idea,” Pike said. “We’re all tired, and so are they. Nothing too serious, of course, but we could use an edge.”
Glassner blinked in surprise and fished around in his med-kit as they walked.
“Speaking of having an edge,” Pike continued and shot a glance back at Chris. “This time we will do it my way. Period.”
Chris was about to protest, but he did as Pike had done a moment before. He thought it over, took a deep breath, and conceded the point. “Yes, fine. Even after the losses they took in that fight, there’s too many of them to take on in a straight fight. Plus, we already did that once, so they’ll expect it a second time.”
“Not bad, Dr. Lin,” Pike said. “You may be a civilian, but I would guess that you’re a chess player, at least.”
“Risk,” Chris corrected him.
“He sucks at it though,” Gunnar added. “Isn’t that right, Chris? Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Chris snorted out a half-chuckle. However, that gave him an idea. A whole group of ideas, in fact. It was merely a question of which of them were the best.
“Pike,” he began, “like I said, I agree with you this time. We need to use some sort of actual strategy. You’re the expert hunter and the guy with the most military experience, yes. However, I’m the closest thing we have to an expert on the Zoo.”
“We know this,” Pike returned in a low voice. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What is your point?”
They paused briefly as Glassner gave them each a caffeine pill. They washed them down with swigs from their canteens. Chris hoped it wouldn’t make them need to pee the way coffee or tea did. That wasn’t something they needed to deal with in the middle of a gun battle.
“My point,” Chris said, “is that we might be able to play the Zoo against the bounty hunters. I’m not sure exactly how yet but our strategy should incorporate every possible advantage. And what we know about the Zoo—especially what I know—can give us those advantages.”
“And what, exactly, do we know?” asked Pike.
“We know that the Chimera attacked the Wall One base a few days before the start of this mission,” Chris began. “We know that it somehow brought a bunch of locusts with it and had them assault one part of the wall while it personally went after another.”
“A diversion might indeed be a good idea,” Pike said, his tone suggesting he was not too impressed with such an elementary tactic. “We only need to get the baby away from them, not kill them to a man.” He rubbed his chin.
“Yes,” Chris said. “I agree. But that’s not it. In order for the Chimera to have done that, it would have meant that it has some kind of…influence over the locusts. Like it can command them, the same way you command us.”
“And how exactly does that play into our strategy?” Pike asked. He led them up a slight incline, and Chris suspected that Pike hoped to get the literal drop on the enemy mercenaries, whose numbers and damaged vehicle would probably have driven them to take the lower ground.
Chris thought for a moment about arguing his point, but that would take precious seconds since it would require them to take a stupid risk. Instead, he implemented the first part of the strategy himself by taking that stupid risk.
He drew his pistol, aimed it upwards—though angled slightly away from their position—and fired into the air.
Everyone’s reflexes were sharp as a knife. They all ducked. Then all their eyes were on Chris, wide and angry.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Pachrapa rasped.
“Signaling the Chimera,” Chris said. He put his gun back in its holster.
“What? Why the hell would we want to do that?” Glassner asked. He and the others scrambled to their feet.
“It’ll try again,” Chris went on as Pike and Pachrapa glared at him. “We know that. It might need to rest a little after being wounded, but it won’t abandon its young. The mama chimera will be back. And since she kinda got her ass kicked the first time when she attacked by herself, well…this time, maybe she’ll bring reinforcements. If we make noise, we can lead her—and hopefully her army—right to them.”
“Or to us. Hoo, boy,” Gunnar said.
“She’ll prioritize whoever has her baby,” Chris retorted.
“You have also let the bounty hunters know that we’re still after them,” Pike noted gravely.
“Yes, but they don’t give a shit.” Chris ran a hand through his sweaty, dirty hair. “Micky will think we’re shooting at a kangarat or something. He doesn’t care about anything except escaping with his bounty.”
“True,” Pike conceded. “They are still on the move and haven’t made any effort to pursue us or even to stop and wait for us to lay a counter-ambush. Though it’s possible they may leave a few men behind for such a purpose, so be alert.”
Chris didn’t think so. It was more likely they’d want all their remaining troops together to protect the JLTV and its cargo. But what Pike said might be possible. He’d have to hope that Pike, being a sniper himself, would have the necessary skills and instincts to judge if someone in a tree up ahead were about to take a shot at them.
They continued for a time. Nothing happened save coming dangerously close to a big squirming vine, although Pike noticed it at the same time Chris did and wisely led them around. Chris felt a stab of sudden regret. He had saved Duchesne from being eaten by one of those things only for the man to end up dead anyway.
The ground sloped upwards, and they crossed a small stream that ran out of a spring beneath some rocks. This must have been one of the tributaries tha
t formed the river. Beyond it lay a ridge, and beyond the ridge was a small open valley with hardly any trees.
And emerging into this low-lying clearing, several hundred feet ahead and to their right, was Micky’s caravan.
“Hey,” Gunnar said. “It looks like we’ll be going into the valley of the shadow of— Wait, how does the rest of it go? Peppy, I bet you’d know this.”
Peppy shrugged.
“Your cavalry has yet to arrive, Dr. Lin,” Pike said as he looked around and listened for any sign of the Chimera or the locusts. “We will implement our plan to the best of our ability regardless.”
Chris thought about firing his pistol again. But no—that would draw the mercenaries’ fire toward them. And there would be plenty of noise to spare only a few moments hence.
“Dr. Lin and I will sneak down around to the left, get ahead of them, and come up from the side,” Pike said. “By my estimation, that should take about five minutes. As slowly as they’re moving with that damaged JLTV, that is also about when they’ll reach the opposite side of the valley and start to regain cover in the forest.”
“That only leaves four of us for the diversion, sir,” Pachrapa said. “And my arm hurts like hell. I can still shoot, but goddamn if this isn’t a skeleton-crew operation.”
“That’s okay,” Gunnar said with a grin. “At least I still have the biggest gun.”
19
Chris thought he could hear the distant sound of buzzing and something rushing through the trees, but it might have been wishful thinking. There was certainly no immediate sign of the Chimera arriving with an armada of locusts. This confrontation was shaping up to be one of man vs. man.
“Quiet,” Pike whispered. The man had proven even faster and stealthier than Chris had suspected. He was almost as good as Frankie, and the scientist barely kept up with him. They practically ran down the ridge to the right but stayed behind the protective screen the foliage provided before they crossed through the woods at the other end of the valley. The enemy seemed terrifyingly close, and one of them had squinted in their direction and put a hand on another man on point to scan the woods. But they hadn’t seen them.
Chris and Pike hurried along the other side of the column, almost to the JLTV. Chris estimated that the mercs were down to fifteen or sixteen men total—not much bigger than a squad, now. But then again, Pike’s unit was practically only a fire team at this point. Pachrapa was right. The odds weren’t good.
And somehow, Chris doubted—although he did not say it aloud—that Micky would be entirely fooled by their maneuver. He contemplated advising Pike to target the leader before anyone else, but Micky was nowhere to be seen anyway.
Gunfire erupted overhead. The air split open. Muzzles flashed. Bounty hunters cursed and dove for cover as they attempted to return fire. Pike had instructed the others to aim for the front and back of the column, so that he and Chris wouldn’t get fragged as they made for the JLTV in the middle.
No sooner had the initial volley rained down than Gunnar leapt out of the weeds halfway down the ridge and sprayed at them with his automatic shotgun, essentially performing a drive-by shooting without the driving. Between sheer surprise and the firepower of the man’s weapon, the bounty hunters seemed stupefied by this attack and held their defensive line without trying to counterattack. They were not, however, caught as badly off-guard as they had been during the previous ambush.
Gunnar disappeared into the foliage on the ridge as the mercs returned fire. Up near the peak, Glassner, Peppy, and Pachrapa laid down suppressing fire in turns, each of them reloading as the other continued shooting.
“Now,” Pike snapped.
It was at that very moment that Chris saw Micky. The man stood in a half-bored slouch with his beret hanging slightly off his head, a phone or similar device held to his ear. “Now,” he said, just as Pike had done.
The jungle at the far end of the valley burst apart as a massive Hammerhead barreled out into the clearing. Their other vehicle! Chris had forgotten about it. The one they’d left behind, with two guys to man and guard it, and in which they would transport the Chimera. They must have been close to the eastern or northeastern edge of the Zoo by now.
“What the hell?” Pike snapped, even as he grabbed Chris and the two of them sprinted toward the JLTV.
The Hammerhead lost some speed as it hit the soft ground of the valley, but it still took only seconds for it to park itself directly in front of the mercenaries and protect them from Pike’s diversionary force by obstructing their line of fire.
The baby Chimera shrieked when it saw Chris and Pike approach. Pike had left his rifle on his back. There was no time to do sniper shit now. He held his knife in one hand and his machine pistol in the other.
Micky and two other men appeared suddenly from around the JLTV with guns raised and aimed.
“Down!” Pike shouted and shoved Chris earthwards as he leaped to the side and fired his machine pistol. The soldier at Micky’s left went down with half a dozen bullets in his torso and head. Chris lay prostrate on the ground. The force of the impact from Pike’s thrust had set off a whole network of nerves all shouting in pain. He’d landed almost directly on his broken rib.
For a moment, there was silence. And in that silence, Chris was certain he really could hear a buzzing sound. It had to be. Dear God, it had to be.
“Well, well,” Micky’s voice said somewhere ahead and above. “It turns out American hunters know basic tactic like diversion, which everyone in my country learns as five-year-old. What is new to me is strategy of bringing professors along as backup.” He fired his Desert Eagle a few times into the grass, and Chris tried, again, not to cry out as some of the weeds in front of his face disintegrated under one of the weapon’s powerful blasts.
Pike fired his machine pistol and again, the young Chimera screamed in terror. Chris crawled forward, not really knowing what the hell was going on. He had to get to the other side of the JLTV. When he reached the cab, he sprung to his feet and let the adrenaline rush numb the pain as he whipped his own handgun out.
The driver of the JLTV kicked the door open. It smashed into Chris’ hand and sent the gun flying. The man laughed when he realized Pike’s machine pistol was empty and in an instant, was on top of him.
Chris struggled to focus and to remember his own abilities. He was a blue belt in Hapkido, dammit. The man who’d attacked him, a burly Arab, had simply brute-forced him backward and now pulled out a knife to finish the job. He wasn’t slow, but Chris was faster. With one quick wrist-lock, the man screamed in pain. His arm twisted in ways not intended by nature, and the knife fell from his grasp. Chris kicked him in the back of the knee, which dropped his head within easy reach. After another kick to the head, the man dropped face-first into the tall grass, out cold.
And the locusts appeared.
“No! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” someone wailed.
The sky up near the ridge where the rest of Pike’s team had lain in ambush had turned green. The buzzing was almost as loud as the gunfire had been. Locusts swooped down. Some descended onto the ridge. Some spread out around the periphery of the open valley. Most headed straight for the main force of Micky’s mercenaries who had grouped around and mostly behind the Hammerhead. That tactic would prove to be their downfall. They had corralled themselves there and were now ripe for slaughter. They screamed and opened fire. Sparking, bleeding locusts began to fall from the sky, but they couldn’t repel their opponents. Not this time. The green wave split and rolled into them from both sides.
One of the locusts detached itself from the main force, hopped onto the half-melted rear of the JLTV, and looked at Chris.
“Shit!” he swore and retreated to the edge of the jungle. The big Arab driver groaned and regained consciousness. That was all the excuse the creature needed. The locust hissed and pounced. Chris grabbed the driver and heaved him into the insect’s path.
Both fell back in a tangle of limbs. Red blood spurted in the air as the locust
mindlessly clawed and bit at the man’s face, limbs, and torso. Chris fumbled for his pistol in the grass while Micky and the other man who’d been with him emerged from around the other side of the JLTV.
There—the shining black metal of the pistol. He pounced on it and brought it to bear on the locust as the creature finished slicing the Arab apart. It hissed, and he blasted it. The gun jerked in his hands, but he kept it steady and forced it to discharge only at his target. The locust shrieked and fell back. One of its limbs detached as its head caved in. It fell still and silent as Chris’ gun clicked, now useless.
Another locust appeared on top of the JLTV. One of its blade-like claws came down and pierced through the top of Micky’s companion’s skull. The point erupted out red and dripping from the bottom of the man’s chin. Micky raised his own pistol, which flashed silver in the noontime sunlight, and blasted the creature in half with a sequence of shots. Then he cursed impotently and smacked his now empty pistol against his palm.
Chris had a split second to survey the whole scene and take in the current situation. He, Pike, and Micky were alone. All three of them were out of ammo. The rest of the locusts concentrated on carving up the main force of mercenaries. No large blue shape had appeared, but the smaller blue shape on the hood of the JLTV still bawled for help.
Pike and Micky faced each other. “Sir,” said Pike, “we will take that creature now.” He extended a hand, flat and palm upwards, his other hand held slightly closer to his body and gripping his knife.
Micky tossed his Desert Eagle aside casually. “This is incorrect statement,” he said. “In fact, I will take it, making biggest payday ever, and then head to Crimea so I can retire in nice climate without having to deal with all the old Jews and hurricanes you have in Florida. Instead, I put on tracksuit and squat on faces of stupid American middle-class college girls who are enjoying exciting European backpack vacation.”