The Bone Labyrinth

by James Rollins

  No . . .

  What was he doing down here?

  With a final hurdle, Baako landed in a crouch next to Kowalski. Panting, the little guy faced the mountain of muscle only yards away. He lifted to his feet and thumped his chest with both fists, challenging the alpha beast of this habitat.

  Not smart, kid.

  “Baako, go!” Kowalski yelled, waving an arm, which triggered a fresh flare of agony from his broken ribs. “Get outta here!”

  Baako held his ground.

  The silverback remained rooted in place, clearly trying to comprehend this intrusion into its domain, not to mention the defiant posturing of such a small creature. But the confusion quickly wore off, replaced with irritation and anger.

  A bellow burst from its wide chest. The half-ton beast lunged forward and lashed out with a thick arm—but Baako was no longer there.

  The young gorilla leaped high, springing and somersaulting over the silverback’s shoulder to land on the monster’s rump.

  The silverback reared up, flinging around.

  Baako jumped away as another arm came swinging at him. This time he failed to get completely out of the way in time. An elbow clipped his hip and sent him flying. Still, he managed to twist before landing and rolled on a shoulder, tumbling across the floor.

  The silverback thundered after him, pounding its fists into the rock.

  The other denizens of the habitat—initially stunned by the strangeness—slowly reacted. With the silverback’s attention diverted elsewhere, they closed toward Kowalski.

  Not good.

  He continued his retreat toward the boulder field while watching Baako flee from that avalanche of muscle and claw behind him. Kowalski reached the rock pile and ducked behind a boulder. In one hand he grabbed a chunk of stone and in the other a concrete limb that had broken off one of the fake trees. He intended to go caveman on these monsters if necessary.

  He flattened his back against the rock, noting Baako had begun to slow, clearly tiring out. The silverback now huffed at his heels.

  Kowalski cringed, afraid to watch; then Baako juked to the left, ducking clear of the other’s path. The silverback could not turn so swiftly. The momentum of all that mass could not match Baako’s lithe agility. Still, the silverback heaved around and skidded through loose shale, bunching its tree-trunk-sized legs under its bulk. Before even coming to a stop, it bounded after Baako, who was unfortunately aiming straight for Kowalski’s hiding spot.

  Kowalski rose into view, waving Baako off, pointing to the open window.

  “Get your ass up there!”

  Like everyone else in his life, Baako ignored him.

  The little guy made a final leap in his direction, his arms straining for Kowalski, but luck and speed could last only so long. The silverback caught Baako by the ankle and swung his small body to the side, ripping Baako away from Kowalski’s reach.

  No!

  12:14 P.M.

  Pain rips through Baako’s leg as his body is wrenched around. The rock walls blur. Still, he knows he must keep struggling. Deep in his chest, he knows anything else is death.

  Still caught, his body is flung high above the monster. The beast is a horror out of one of Mama’s bedtime stories. It intends to swing him down and smash him to the floor. Knowing this, Baako wriggles around and bites the hand clamped to his ankle.

  A roar rises; the grip loosens.

  Baako yanks free and tumbles toward the ground. His arms and legs flail, seeking some way to catch himself. Then monstrously powerful fingers snatch him around the waist, grabbing him out of the air, squeezing so hard that he cannot breathe.

  The monster has him again, bellowing with rage and blood. Jaws open wide. Fangs dive for Baako’s throat. His eyes roll in terror, finding a face far above, so scared like him.

  He gets enough breath to hoot to her.

  Bye, Mama . . .

  Baako’s final feeble bleat reached Maria, shattering her heart.

  She squeezed her rifle’s trigger in a maternal need to protect, but the pin struck an empty chamber. She had already used the last of the tranquilizer darts, reloading three times during the brief battle below. She had concentrated her fire upon the silverback, but the beast had moved too fast, escaping the darts. The only shot that had struck home was one that hit a lumbering female that had gotten too close to Kowalski’s hiding spot.

  The sting of that impact had been enough to frighten the creature away, but it would take another minute or so for the sedative to knock it out.

  That’s if one dart was even enough for such massive beasts.

  With an empty rifle and no more ammunition, she could do nothing but watch the silverback prepare to rip out Baako’s throat.

  Suddenly a large rock flew through the air and struck the silverback between the eyes. The beast paused long enough to look up, more surprised than hurt by the assault.

  Kowalski mounted one of the boulders, bearing aloft a club of concrete.

  “Pick on someone your own size, you furry bastard!”

  12:15 P.M.

  Not that I’m your size . . .

  Even standing on the boulder, Kowalski was dwarfed by the towering silverback. It still clutched Baako, the little guy forgotten for the moment.

  “C’mon!” Kowalski challenged the beast, beckoning with his weapon, hoping it would let Baako go.

  The silverback stepped toward him, then stumbled slightly to the side. It caught itself by grabbing at one of the concrete trees. Branches snapped under its teetering weight. The beast fell to a knee.

  What the hell . . .

  The rock he’d pitched couldn’t have done that much damage. It was like wafting a pea at a bull.

  Still, the silverback let go of Baako and planted a fist on the ground to keep itself upright. Free now, Baako scampered over to the boulders.

  Kowalski glanced around. The other beasts had frozen in place, apparently intimidated by their alpha being so stunned. The silverback dropped to a hip, weaving in a struggle to stay up. Only then did Kowalski note the bloom of red feathers sticking out of the silverback’s rump.

  He glanced to Maria. Had she managed to nail the bastard after all? But she looked equally shocked.

  She shouted down to him and pointed toward the steel door. “Run! One dart’s not enough to knock it out!”

  12:16 p.m.

  Maria realized what must have happened. Earlier, she had never found the tranquilizer dart she had dropped on the floor. She now understood what had become of it.

  Before Baako had leapt into the Ark, he must have snatched the abandoned needle. Back in Lawrenceville, she had taught him about tranquilizer guns, as they were used as a common means of restraint at the primate center. She had wanted him to understand that the animals incapacitated in such a manner were not dead, but only sleeping.

  Still, she was never sure how much he had understood.

  Apparently it was enough.

  Below, the silverback continued to totter, struggling to shake off the sedative’s effect.

  Taking advantage of the situation, Kowalski and Baako took off toward the steel door that led out of the Ark. As they ran, the other gorillas began to stir, drawn by the motion, likely growing more confident with the silverback incapacitated.

  She swung to the young nurse who had helped her before. “You have to get that door open for them.”

  The nurse looked forlorn. “I cannot. Not from up here. Someone has to be down there and place their palm on the reader outside.”

  And we’re all locked in here.

  With a sinking heart, she turned back to the window. Kowalski and Baako continued their flight for the door, drawing the hybrids after them.

  But they’re going the wrong way.

  12:17 P.M.

  As Kowalski dove into the cage that enclosed the exit door, he heard his name shouted, in a voice full of urgency and fear. He glanced over his shoulder.

  Maria called to him. “I can’t open the door from up he
re! You have to get back to me.”

  Something tumbled out the window and unfurled along the rock wall.

  A fire hose.

  She clearly wanted them to climb out of here.

  Easier said than done.

  Kowalski lowered his gaze to the growing wall of fur and muscle gathering outside the cage. There was no getting through that crowd. While he might be able to create enough of a distraction to allow Baako to make a break for it, he doubted the young gorilla would leave his side.

  Baako tugged on Kowalski’s arm, drawing his attention. The gorilla splayed out his thumb and pinkie and thrust his hand down in a clear sign.

  [Stay]

  Before Kowalski could react, Baako bounded out of the cage and loped straight toward the herd. He favored one leg, but he still managed to leapfrog through the group at the last moment, agilely avoiding a few surprised attempts to grab him.

  So much for not abandoning me.

  As the hybrids closed toward him, he tried tugging at the cage door, but it was locked in its tracks.

  Then a fearsome bellow shook through the cavernous habitat, rising from that monstrous silverback.

  Kowalski retreated to the steel door, consoled by one thought.

  At least Baako got away.

  12:18 p.m.

  Baako drops the broken stone club and flees.

  A breath ago, he had snatched the tool from the floor and crossed to the monster. He found its eyelids hanging low, its breathing deep. Without slowing, Baako had leaped and swung the length of rock with all the strength in his arms. The club had shattered across the ridge above those dull eyes, snapping them fully open again.

  Earlier, he had wanted it to go to sleep; now he needs it awake.

  A roar chases Baako across the floor again. Pain shoots up his right leg, so he runs on all fours, needing to go fast. The monster rages after him.

  He flees not toward Mama . . . because Mama is safe from the monsters.Instead, he heads toward another member of his family.

  Kowalski gritted his teeth, expecting the worst as he heard the silverback thundering again in his direction. He did not expect to see Baako suddenly vault over the wall of hybrids that held him trapped. The young gorilla hurtled past that group, struck the floor, and shot headlong into the cage.

  Kowalski caught Baako in his arms, but the impact slammed him against the steel door, knocking the air from his lungs. Still, he hugged tightly to Baako.

  Past the kid’s shoulder, the mass of gorilla hybrids shattered apart as the silverback burst through them like a freight train. Still dazed, the beast could not stop fast enough and crashed sidelong against the opening of the cave door.

  Kowalski cringed from the impact of that mountain of flesh, fearing it might still crush them. Instead, the silverback’s bulk rebounded off the wall, bowling more of the hybrids out the way.

  Baako grabbed Kowalski’s hand and tugged him toward the open doorway.

  He understood.

  Let’s get out of here while the getting is good.

  They fled past the stunned bulk of the silverback and through the chaotic confusion of the others. But he knew such turmoil wouldn’t last forever.

  He raced across the floor, ignoring the agony lancing from his left side.

  When they reached the wall under the windows, Kowalski scooped Baako by the waist and tossed him onto the fire hose. Furry hands caught hold, but Baako glanced back, hooting his worry.

  “Go! I’m right behind you!”

  As proof, Kowalski grasped the hose and followed as Baako began climbing.

  From three stories above, Maria called down at them. “Hurry! They’re coming!”

  He didn’t bother to look. What good would it do? He hauled with his arms and dug with his toes. He envied Baako, who scampered up and reached Maria well ahead of him.

  As Baako ducked through the window, Maria’s face appeared. He read the fear etched across her features, saw the urging in her eyes.

  Hurry.

  12:19 P.M.

  As Maria watched, a score of the gorilla hybrids bounded toward them. Even the silverback rolled to its feet, bellowing and looking in their direction. Baako’s blow—followed by the chase and the impact against the wall—must have raised the creature’s blood pressure enough to shake off the sedative.

  It began lumbering toward them, drawing stragglers in its massive wake. With the pack’s bloodlust spiked higher, several of the beasts began to attack one another, the larger creatures ripping into the smaller ones, demonstrating again the level of savagery inherited from their engineered genes.

  By now Kowalski was halfway up the hose, but it wasn’t high enough.

  Maria glanced to the row of steel boxes positioned below the arch of windows, remembering the nurse’s description of the electrical barrier coded to the silver collars around the hybrids’ necks. The invisible shield was meant to keep the animals confined below, shocking their collars if they climbed too high.

  Kowalski wore no such collar.

  “You have to get above the electrical fence,” she warned him.

  He frowned up at her, not understanding.

  “Just keep going!” she urged.

  He put his head down and fought faster, struggling to gain ground. Then his grip slipped and he slid a full yard before grabbing hold of the hose again.

  He hung there, catching his breath, as the first hybrid reached the wall below him. Luckily it was one of the smaller ones, standing at best seven feet. It jumped and swatted at Kowalski, brushing the man’s heels with its fingertips.

  That immediate threat was enough to further stoke the fire under Kowalski. He clawed his way up faster, but he was clearly in pain. Sweat beaded and ran down his grimacing face.

  The larger beasts reached the wall below and began to climb the hewn rock, digging nails and toes into crevices and pits.

  He’d never make it.

  Then the hose shifted beside Maria.

  She glanced back and saw that Baako had grabbed its length. He tugged, trying to draw Kowalski up faster by hauling on the hose.

  Why didn’t I think of that?

  She braced her feet against the wall and added her strength.

  Then the young nurse joined her. Others of the surgical team came to their aid, rallying together, momentarily setting aside their differences. They had all watched the valiant battle below and honored that effort now. Even if it all came to naught once the dust settled, at the moment they refused to lose the man to the beasts below.

  Working together, they reeled Kowalski up to the window.

  He grabbed the sill with one arm, then the other, but he looked too weak to haul himself over the casement. Maria let go of the hose and pulled him the rest of the way through. He fell heavily to the floor and rolled onto his back.

  His lungs wheezed with each breath, but he gasped out, “What . . . what were you saying about some fence?”

  A frizzling electrical pop sounded from beyond the window, accompanied by a sharp cry of pain. Maria caught sight of a hybrid tumbling from its perch on the wall. As it fell, a spiral of smoke trailed from the steel collar around its neck. The other beasts either stopped in place or dropped heavily to the floor.

  “Doesn’t matter now,” Maria said and bent down to assist him to his feet.

  Baako rushed over and bear-hugged the large man once he was up.

  “Thank you for keeping Baako safe,” she said.

  Kowalski kept a protective hand on the young gorilla’s shoulder. “Think it was more the other way around.” He turned and glared at the surgical team. “Any of you going to try to stop us from leaving here?”

  Small shakes of heads answered him—not that it mattered.

  “We’re locked in here,” Maria explained. “Ever since the sirens blew.”

  “So we’re still trapped.”

  She touched his elbow. “But at least we’re safe for the immediate—”

  The lights flickered and went out, sinking the
lab into darkness.

  No one spoke until Kowalski finally muttered, “You had to say that.”

  Baako moved to her side and grabbed her arm. He didn’t like the dark, but after several tense breaths, crimson emergency lights flared along the top of the walls.

  She let out a sigh of relief.

  Kowalski offered another thought. “Maybe with the power off, we can get out of here.”

  He rushed across the length of the room and tugged at the giant steel sliders, but they still refused to budge. He put his fists on his hips, frowning at the doors as if that would open them.

  Baako’s fingers tightened on Maria’s arm. She looked down and saw that his gaze was fixed to the fire hose, which still ran from the wall to the casement window.

  Its length twitched and thrummed.

  Oh, no.

  She turned toward the window as a massive scarred hand reached into view and grabbed the sill.

  With the power off, the electrical fence was down.

  Backing away in horror, she warned the trapped group. “They’re coming!”

  22

  May 1, 12:32 A.M. ECT

  Andes Mountains, Ecuador

  Gray gasped at the cold as he waded into the dark pool, shattering the perfect reflection of the stars and moon in its mirrored surface. The others followed, splashing after him. Chakikui and Jembe remained on the bank behind him. The elder had honored his pledge to bring them to the lost city.

  Apparently that obligation ended at its doorstep.

  Left to their own now, Gray led the three others across the pond. He had to swim the last of the distance to reach the mouth of the tunnel that opened in the cliff face on the opposite bank. With the way ahead flooded, there was only a foot of clearance between the waterline and the roof of the tunnel.

  As he reached the entrance, he discovered his boots could touch bottom. Ducking his head inside the tunnel, he lifted a waterproof flashlight high.

  “Down a ways deeper, it looks like the roof lowers even more,” he warned.

  “Can we get through?” Lena asked.

  “Don’t know. We may have to swim and explore for air pockets.”

  She did not look happy about this prospect.