No time for shock ...
Hunter fired almost immediately, not a full heartbeat passing between the horror and the detonation, and the report of the rifle was deafening. Then he glimpsed the huge apelike arms raised in pain and an unearthly, bestial roar of pain that contained bestial rage.
Hunter worked the action and fired again and again and again—six massive rounds as he advanced into it, moving it back on the ledge toward the river. It was swaying on the edge when he ran out of ammo. Then, swinging the butt of the weapon hard, Hunter struck it fully in the face as it fought for balance.
It bellowed in fury and lashed out with a wild blow. Hunter ducked and then returned his own before it swiped the rifle from his hands and caught him across the face with a clawed hand, leaving narrow furrows. It was only a glancing blow, but the force behind it was inhumanly powerful and Hunter was hurled against the wall.
Growling, hands raised, it came for him.
Stunned, Hunter tried to rise, couldn’t. But he sensed the immense humanoid shape over him, so large and monolithic that it blocked out the moon and the night together, leaving nothing but itself, master of both.
Hunter clearly recognized its pure, dominating strength, but reached for his Bowie as it prepared, snarling.
It came.
Hunter rose, crouching, squaring off.
What happened next—it was a blur to Hunter—was something that moved with a fury and speed beyond anything he had ever seen or imagined, all coming from a roaring, wild black animal center that exploded from the wall.
Ghost struck the creature fang to fang, colliding against a creature of supernatural strength and rage, and the violence made the night retreat. Snarling and roaring, Ghost savaged it for a fantastic, spellbinding moment before the creature bellowed in pain and twisted as if to hurl the wolf from the cliff.
“No!” bellowed Hunter.
It heard the threat and hurled Ghost into the cleft, turning into the challenge. It slashed at him but Hunter struck first with a purity that merged grace and strength in the unleashed movement, and the blade struck true.
Flashing white in the moon in a crescent that hit the creature full in the neck, the ten-inch blade sliced through the armored skin to exit the other side in a flood of smoking blood and the creature staggered back, holding its throat.
Nothing but this . . .
With his right hand on the hilt, Hunter ducked under the wrathful counterattack—a wild clawed swipe—and slashed backwards to tear a deep slice through its torso, yielding a wild outpouring of blood.
It howled.
Staggering, it grasped roughly at both wounds—mortal for any natural creature—and focused on Hunter with a power and rage beyond anything worldly, staggering forward.
Incredible ...
Hunter staggered back.
Moving with a savagery that shocked even Hunter, Ghost exploded from the cleft once more, roaring in the air, and they collided with a vicious exchange of fangs. Stunned, the creature toppled backwards.
It was too much.
Hovering in midair, the creature wind milled on the edge of the ledge for a long, surreal moment, before the true fall began.
“Ghost!” Hunter screamed as he leaped forward and viciously snatched the wolf by its thick black mane, hauling him from the monster’s deadly embrace as it was claimed by space and night.
Only at the last minute did a taloned hand lash out to smash against the ledge with titanic strength and titanic rage before its great weight pulled it down and away, leaving claw marks in the stone.
It was gone.
***
Wind and the last of night enveloped Hunter as he crouched on a boulder, resting on his way back to the ragged campsite. From the stars, he estimated two hours before dawn.
He moved only his eyes as he scanned the broad expanse, patient and disciplined. He felt alive in the purity of it, at home again. But it had been a narrow escape, and even Ghost had not come away unscathed. A series of savage gashes had been torn in the wolf’s neck and ribs, slashes that had even torn through the thick fur, though the wolf did not seem to notice. Hunter smiled at the thought; Ghost never noticed anything at all, had never asked a question in his life.
Easing down, Hunter had traveled less than a mile, moving toward a pass that would quickly return him to the camp, when Ghost stopped in place and emitted a single threatening growl. Hunter reacted instantly, swinging the Marlin from his shoulder in a vertical movement.
Immediately Ghost fell silent and Hunter remembered that the big wolf only gave one warning. The next sound Ghost made would be something beyond wild, something that thundered from the center of a blurring black death.
For almost five minutes Hunter held position, conditioned to waiting without sound or movement. Then, in the distance, he saw a black silhouette emerge over a ridge. Ghost lifted his nose slightly to the oncoming wind, tasting a scent as he stood solidly on all fours, head slightly lowered at an intense animal angle.
“Easy, boy,” Hunter whispered, noticing the shape was walking slowly and somewhat unsteadily. He squinted through the night, grateful that his vision had improved so much with use, and tried to make out details. He saw almost instantly that it wasn’t the creature because it was too small, held too short a stride, and its bulk wasn’t right.
Hunter moved to the side without a sound, crouching low, using a boulder to hide his profile against the sky, and then he slid around it and out of sight. He knew that if the man was alert, the width of the boulder would have appeared slightly larger for a split second before Hunter had moved behind it, but he doubted the man had noticed. Hunter gave no concern to Ghost, knowing the wolf would melt beyond the rock with only the faintest flicker of night shadow.
Carefully selecting his ground, Hunter crouched on a slope, still hidden from the stranger’s view but bisecting his path. Then, when the man passed beneath him, beyond view but well within Hunter’s acute hearing, Hunter stood, staring down.
Instantly the figure whirled, raising a rifle.
Hunter was implacable.
It was an old man. An old Anathasian man.
A hundred years ago, men knew them only by the primitive term “Eskimo,” native Indians of the far north. But in the white light of approaching dawn Hunter could identify the style of crude leather clothing, the hair, could almost read every harsh year of survival etched in the gaunt brown face. And he recalled that the Anathasians were once revered as the continent’s most accomplished hunters and trackers, even selected their chiefs by their prowess at such things. Those, and war.
It was a warrior race, Hunter knew, and the aspect before him did not belie that suspicion. Slowly, the old man lowered his rifle.
Hunter spoke. “It is too cold to be walking alone in the night, Grandfather, so far from your fire,” he said. He knew that, among all North American Indian tribes, “grandfather” was a term of respect.
The old man nodded once. “Yes,” he said. Then, “I hunt. Only now I do not hunt so well. Or I would have seen you.” He shook his head. “I must be getting very old. I must hunt very badly now.”
“Not so bad,” Hunter smiled. “Not so old.”
Hunter noticed that the gaunt voice, so low against the wind, seemed weary and disturbed. He continued, “Why do you leave the safety of your village to walk alone in the night? And what do you hunt in the night that you cannot hunt in the day?”
The old man hesitated. “I hunt the beast that walks by night,” he said simply, unafraid.
There was no need for more. Hunter knew what the old man hunted, alone and helpless, wandering through the hungry cold in the coldest hours before dawn. “Why do you hunt this beast that walks at night?”
The old man bowed his head. “I had a grandson.” He waited long, and longer. “I have one no more. He was young. Just learning to hunt. I was t
here when the beast ...”
Hunter bowed his head. Then, bracing, he looked up. “I am sorry, Grandfather. I am sorry for you, and for your family, and for your people. But I will avenge your grandson.”
The old man seemed to stagger slightly. He did a kind of quarter turn, to face Hunter fully. “You ... hunt ...”
“Yes,” Hunter said plainly. Up here, he knew, where men were so alone with each other against so much that was not man, there was no need for lies. “Yes. I hunt it.”
It was enough. The old man nodded, simple as that. He believed, but Hunter knew he believed for more than the words. A long time in the wild, and a man learned to read the words of other men, perhaps because they heard them so little.
Hunter saw more clearly the old man’s withered face as he seemed to somehow step into a fresher shade of moonlight. The countenance was indeed old, but the eyes scintillated with intelligence, keen and quick. “And what is this beast, Grandfather?”
The old man approached the foot of the rock.
Hunter did not move.
“It is not the bear,” the old man said. “But it is not man. I do not know ...what it is. I only know that it does not belong.”
“Why does it not belong?”
“Because ...” The old man paused. “I have seen pictures of it. Many years ago, when I was a boy, I saw pictures of it in the caves.” He pointed to a faraway ridge with his rifle. “Long ago, when my people lived in the caves, we knew the pictures well. The pictures, they were drawn by those who came before us, the storytellers. There were pictures of this beast that walks in the night ... I remember these pictures.”
Hunter frowned. “And so what did these pictures say, Grandfather? You said it is not a bear. You said it is not a man. Tell me more of these pictures.”
“It is not man ... but it was feared by man,” he answered slowly, but his voice seemed subdued, taken by the gusting wind. “The pictures, they spoke of war. War among the natural man and the unnatural man, the Iceman. They spoke of slaughter, and much killing. And they spoke of bones at another place, a cursed place. We do not go there. To the other place.” He pointed south with the rifle. “It is at the place the white man calls ... White Mountains. On the river where it bends, beside the water that comes out of the rock. We call it Cave of Souls. There was much death there.”
Hunter knew.
“I heard the old people speak of it once. They said that the Cave of Souls is where the Iceman lived long ago, before it no longer belonged, and the forest took it. They say there are also pictures there. And much death. For it is a haunted place. An evil place. But you can find it by following the water that flows from the rock between the two beasts, I have heard. But I do not know. I have never been there.”
Hunter said nothing.
Pausing, the old man continued: “When I was a boy, we would find things in the mountains. Weapons not made by my people. All very old. My grandfather told me it had always been that way. And then he would speak of hidden things ... of things buried in the ice. And one day, after we found a bow deep inside the north, he spoke of when he was a young man and they found one of the men of ice. It was very old. Frozen. And when they lifted him from the ice and carried him to the village, his body crumbled like ancient bone. But I remember my father’s eyes as he spoke of it, and I know he was very afraid.” A pause. “Just as I know that I, too, am very afraid.”
Hunter’s blinked. “Go home, old man. I will hunt this ...Iceman. I will kill him for you ... for your grandson.”
“This I believe.” The old man’s eyes squinted against a sudden, slicing gust of wind. Hunter knew that what he said next was a warning. “It has killed many men.”
“I know,” Hunter answered. “And it will kill many more if it is not itself killed. So go home, old man. It is cold in the night. And when you rest beside your fire, pray for me. Pray that I will kill this man from the ice ... before it kills us all.”
* * *
Hunter approached the camp from the heights in the last hour before dawn, moving in silence. He didn’t worry about Ghost, knowing the great wolf always moved without sound.
He knew the creature had been severely wounded by the fall and the throat cut more than anything else, and knew that they would be relatively safe until dawn, but he still traveled at a relatively brisk pace. Battered and exhausted, he approached the campsite, Ghost trailing beside him, and all of them whirled, alert to the movement. Hunter was also too tired to care if they accidentally fired.
Takakura was the first to reach him. Hunter didn’t see where Bobbi Jo was positioned. The Japanese searched his battered form with surprising concern before he hazarded, “And ... so?”
“It’s alive.” Hunter knelt and picked up a can of MREs, eating a small bite. He made a face and gave it to Ghost, who devoured it in seconds. “I led it west, south, lost it for a while. It caught me. I put it off a bluff. I think we need to get moving. It’ll heal up fast.”
Takakura’s voice had relief. “We will move immediately. But we must proceed slowly. Dr. Tipler is tired. And we would call for an emergency extraction but ...”
Not shocked, Hunter approached him, staring the Japanese hard in the face. He didn’t need more to know that the radio was no longer functional. After a second he shook his head, trying to rein in the anger. Yeah, his suspicions had been correct.
“You spoke of this,” Takakura said in an unnatural tone. “How did you anticipate this?”
Without even responding, Hunter walked past him, moving to a hastily erected tent where he suspected they had laid Tipler. The old man was inside, and his face was white and sweating. Bobbi Jo was at his side, administering an injection. She tilted her head to indicate they should move outside and discuss the situation just as the professor sighted him.
“My boy!” Tipler cried, overjoyed. “I knew it! I knew you would do it!” He tried to give Hunter an awkward one-armed hug. “Ha! Ha! Ain’t no man that ever lived who could ever track my boy!”
The outrageous exclamation was so uncharacteristic that Hunter almost laughed. He moved slowly to the cot, bent gently. His voice was calm. “How ya doing, old man?”
Upon seeing Hunter’s battered body more closely, Tipler reached out and gripped him. “You are well?”
“Yeah, yeah, you know me. I’m always fine.” Hunter smiled. “A few bruises. But you and me have seen worse.” A laugh. “Especially you. I’ve seen you weather everything.”
“Oh, this is hogwash, that’s all,” Tipler laughed gustily. “I had a slight palpitation. Had them for years. I am about as concerned about it as I am about the fact that my second-grade teacher died forty years ago. You get used to things.”
Hunter laughed. “All right, you just take it easy. I’m gonna go outside for a minute and then I’ll be back. I’ll talk to you in a few minutes. ‘Cause we gotta get you out of here.” Tipler raised a hand but Hunter said, “No objections, old man.” A wink. “You did all you could. Time to rest. I’ll be right back.”
Outside, a crimson dawn cast a golden halo around Bobbi Jo’s silhouette, and Hunter stood motionless—a monument of dignity and strength. He waited only a second before she began. “His blood pressure is lower now than a few hours ago. But his pulse is still in the nineties. He can walk if we go slow, if we don’t push him, but we have to get him serious medical attention. He could arrest at any time. I gave him something to thin his blood just a little and to boost his energy. But it’s not a good idea to try and control this condition with what I have. We have to get to the research station as fast as we can move him.”
“We’ll put him on a stretcher,” Hunter said instantly. “I’ll have one made in fifteen minutes.” Then he turned to Takakura. “What in the hell happened to the radio?”
“I do not know,” the Japanese commander said plainly. “It is disabled somehow.” There was a moment of pause before Hu
nter turned away and then back again, almost in Takakura’s fearless face. “When we get back, I’m going after this thing alone, ‘cause something is wrong with this mission. I’ve seen that from the first. So I’m gonna get you back to the research station, but not for you or this team. I’m getting you back for that old man in there.”
He walked into the bushes, past the aristocratic Wilkenson, who said only, “I believe he will be all right until night, Mr. Hunter.”
But Hunter wasn’t in a mood for replying. He went into the woods, drawing his bloodstained Bowie to swipe two seven-foot length poles of poplar sapling. The trunks were about an inch in diameter, and strong because they were still green. With that and the leather twine in his pack he would quickly have a stretcher constructed.
They had broken camp when he finished gently loading the old man, who protested but finally conceded to Hunter’s stern reproof. And then they were walking.
Takakura and Wilkenson guarded the rear. Buck and Riley had the first duty of carrying the professor through the difficult terrain, and Taylor was point. Hunter found himself walking beside Bobbi Jo, lost in his thoughts.
Until she spoke.
“Tell me something,” she asked with the tone of someone who wanted to lighten the mood. “How did you get involved in something like this?” she looked at him, clearly curious. “They told us in the briefing that they’d found the best tracker in the world. Said you weren’t military, but that you could track a squirrel across rock. But how would they know? Have you worked with them before?”
“No, not really with the military,” he said finally. “When I was a kid, I found a place out in Montana. High. Cold. Isolated. Thought I might settle there. I didn’t have much, but I could live off the land. So I trapped, hunted, survived pretty well. It looked a lot like this.” He gestured toward the woods. “Anyway, I had a ham radio, just in case I was hurt or something. And I was listening to it one day when some kid got lost in this wilderness area below me. It was November, a cold front coming. They had tons of people in the woods, but they couldn’t find this kid. I knew those mountains – how cold they got. I knew he wouldn’t survive the night.”
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