He pointed his weapon. Throughout the jungle, dark shadows flowed and shifted, jiggled by the play of the group's flashlights. But Nate knew it wasn't all illusion. These shadows were all flowing toward the trapped group.
One of the Rangers shot a flare into the sky. The whistling trail arced high and exploded into a magnesium brightness that cast the jungle in silver and black. The sudden brightness gave those who crept up on them reason to pause.
Nate found himself staring into the eyes of a monster, caught in the shine of the flare. It crouched in the lee of a boulder on the cliff's escarpment, a massive creature, the size of a bull, but sleek and smooth. A cat. It studied him with eyes as black and cold as chunks of obsidian. Others lay nestled in the jungle and boulders around them. A pack of the creatures, at least twenty.
"Jaguars," Manny mumbled in shock over his shoulder. "Black jaguars."
Nate recognized the physique similar to Tor-tor's, but these creatures were three times as large, half a ton each. Prehistoric in size.
"They're all around us," Carrera whispered.
In her words, Nate heard the echo of his father's last radioed message: Can't last much longer...oh, God, they're all around us! Had this been his fate?
For another breath, neither group moved. Nate held his breath, hoping the nighttime prowlers would be intimidated by the flare's brightness and retreat. As if this thought were shared by one of the Rangers, a second flare jetted into the sky and burst with brightness, floating down on a tiny parachute.
"Hold steady," Waxman hissed.
The impasse stretched. The pack was not leaving.
"Sergeant," Waxman said, "on my mark, lay a path of grenades up toward the cliffs. Everyone else, keep weapons ready. Haul ass for the centermost cave on my signal."
Nate's eyes flicked to the yawning cavern in the cliff face. If they could make it there, the group could be attacked from only one direction. It was defensible. Their only hope.
"Carrera, use the Bailey to cover our--"
The sharp crack of a pistol cut off the captain's order. Off to the side, Zane stumbled backward from the recoil of his smoking gun.
One of the cats spat and leaped in rage. Other jaguars responded, growling low and bounding toward the group.
"Now!" Waxman yelled.
Kostos dropped to one knee, aimed his M-16 toward the cliffs, and fired. Carrera spun with her new weapon, blasting from her hip, laying down a swath of fire across their rear. A flashing arc of flying silver disks flew out, shredding the jungle.
One of the jaguars was caught in midleap, its exposed belly sliced open. It howled and collapsed to the jungle, writhing.
Its cries were cut off as Kostos's grenade barrage began booming, echoing off the cliffs, deafening. Rock dust and dirt flumed up.
Shots were fired all around. Frank guarded his sister and the professor as they knelt beside the slack form of Corporal Warczak. Manny was on one knee beside Tor-tor, whose eyes were wide, hackles raised. Zane and Olin stood with Anna Fong, firing blindly into the dark.
Nate kept his shotgun raised and centered on the giant fellow he had first seen, crouched by the boulder off to the left. Despite the noises and the chatter of rattling rock debris, the creature had remained stone still.
Other shadowy figures fled from the bombarded slope. Others lay unmoving, dead, shredded.
"Go!" Waxman barked sharply, his command cutting through the explosions. "Make for the cave!"
The group lurched through the fringe of brush and jungle toward the open rocky landscape at the foot of the towering cliffs. Nate kept his shotgun pointed at the cat, finger tensed on the shotgun's trigger. If it even flicks its tail...
Waxman waved them on, Kostos in the lead. "Get up there before they regroup!" The captain dropped beside Carrera. Behind them, the pack converged along their trail. Several limped or sniffed at a dead mate, but they kept a wary distance now.
Nate sidled past the silent cat off to the left. Only its eyes followed their passage. Nate suspected this was the leader of the pack. Behind that cold gaze, Nate could almost see the thing weighing these strangers, judging them.
Carrera had switched her weapon off automatic, conserving her ammunition. She fired at a lone cat getting too near. Her aim was off. The silver disk shaved the jaguar's ear and whizzed off into the jungle. The wounded cat dropped to its belly, glowering with pain and anger.
"Keep moving!" Waxman yelled.
By now, the cave was in direct sight. The group's tense pace collapsed into a panicked rout. Kostos led the way. He raised a flare pistol and fired it into the opening. A bright trace flashed out of the pistol's muzzle and exploded with light inside the cavern.
The deep cave was illuminated all the way to its rocky end.
"All clear!" Kostos hollered. "Move it!"
Olin, Zane, and Anna were the first to race inside. The sergeant stood at the entrance, M-16 in hand, waving his arm. "Move, move, move..."
Frank pushed Kelly ahead of him. Professor Kouwe ran beside him.
As the flares died out overhead, Nate took up a position on the other side of the entrance, shotgun ready.
Manny and Tor-tor followed with Waxman and Carrera on their heels.
They were going to make it, Nate realized.
Then a jaguar leaped from the deepening shadows, landing atop a boulder right beside the last two Rangers. Carrera dropped and aimed her weapon, but before she could fire, a paw struck out and raked into the chest of the team's captain.
Waxman was yanked off his feet, sailing into the air, claws sunk deep into his field jacket and chest. He bellowed, bringing up his own weapon. He fired over his head, striking the cat in the shoulder. The beast toppled backward, dragging the hooked captain with it. His body flew over the boulder, limbs kicking.
Carrera lunged up and ran around the boulder, going to the aid of her captain. Out of sight, Nate heard the characteristic whir of her weapon. Then suddenly she was backing into sight again. On her trail were a pair of jaguars. They were bleeding, embedded bits of silver decorating their flesh. Carrera was obviously struggling with the cartridge to her weapon, out of ammo disks.
Nate leaped away from the cave wall and ran toward her. As he reached her side, he shoved his shotgun to arms' length, the muzzle only a foot away from the snarling face of one of the jaguars. He pulled the trigger, and the beast flew back, howling.
Carrera unholstered her 9mm pistol. She fired and fired at the other jaguar, unloading the clip. It fell back, then collapsed.
They stumbled up the slope.
Around the other side of the boulder, the captain fell into sight, crawling, one arm gone. His face was a bloody ruin.
"I...I thought he was dead," Carrera said with shock, stepping in his direction.
The captain crawled half a step, then a paw shot out and dug into the meat of his thigh. He was pulled back toward the hidden shadows. He screamed, fingers digging at the loose shale, finding no purchase.
A shot cracked. The captain's head flew back, then forward, striking the rock hard. Dead. Nate glanced behind him and saw Kostos crouched with his M-16 in hand, eyes fixed to its sniper scope. The sergeant slowly lowered his weapon, his expression pained and ripe with hard guilt.
"Everyone, get inside!" he yelled.
The party had remained clustered near the entrance.
Nate and Carrera hurried toward the cavern mouth.
Frank and Kostos flanked the threshold, weapons ready. The men were limned against the glare of the dying flare inside the passage. Frank waved to them. "Hurry!"
From Nate's position several yards down the escarpment, he spotted a deeper shadow shift along the base of the rocky cliff. To the left of the cave opening. "Watch out!"
It was the largest of the jaguars, the one Nate had first spotted.
It sprang past the mouth of the cave. Frank was bowled over, flying high into the air and landing on his back. Kostos was slammed into the wall. Then the cat was gone, racing back
into the shadows below.
Kelly screamed. "Frank!"
Nate ran with Carrera. Kostos picked himself off the ground, wheezing and holding his chest, dazed.
"Help me!" Kelly yelled.
Frank lay writhing in the shale. Kelly's brother hadn't just been knocked off his feet. Both his legs were gone from the knees down. Blood spurted and jetted across the stones. In those few seconds, the giant jaguar had sheared off the limbs, as cleanly as a guillotine.
Kouwe fell to Frank's other side. Olin helped drag the moaning man into the cave. Kelly followed, yanking tourniquets from her pack. Plastic vials of morphine tumbled to the floor. Nate retrieved them.
Near the entrance, a shot was fired. Light burst outside. Another flare. Nate held out the vials of morphine, feeling useless, stunned.
Kouwe took them. "Go watch our back." He nodded to the entrance.
Olin and Kelly worked on the stricken man. Tears flowed down Kelly's cheeks, but her face was tight with determination and concentration. She refused to lose her brother.
Nate turned with his shotgun and joined Kostos and Carrera at the cave's opening. The new flare showed that the jungle still moved with shadows. The bouldered slope offered additional cover for the cats.
Manny joined them, pistol in one hand. Tor-tor sniffed at Frank's blood on the rock and growled.
"I count at least another fifteen," Carrera said, face half covered with night-vision goggles. "They're not leaving."
Kostos swore. "If they rush us, we couldn't hope to stop them all. We're down to one grenade launcher, two M-16s, and a handful of pistols."
"And my shotgun," Nate added.
Carrera spoke, "I've fitted a new cartridge into the Bailey. But it's my last."
Manny crouched with his pistol. "There's some old debris blown in the back of the cave--branches, leaves, whatnot. We could light a fire at the entrance."
"Do it," Kostos said.
As Manny turned, a long, low growl rumbled up the slope. Everyone froze. Illuminated by the flare, a large shape revealed itself on the rocky slope. Weapons were raised.
Nate recognized the shadow as the largest cat.
"A female," Manny mumbled.
It remained in plain sight, studying them, challenging them. Behind it, the jungle churned with sleek bodies, muscled and clawed.
"What do we do?" Carrera asked.
"The bitch is trying to psych us out," Kostos grumbled, lowering his eye to the sight on his rifle.
"Don't fire," Nate hissed. "If you shoot now, you'll have the whole pack on us."
"Nate's right," Manny said. "Their blood lust is up. Anything could set them off. At least wait until we have a fire going here."
The cat seemed to hear him and let out a piercing yowl. In a surge of pure muscle, she leaped toward them, charging at an astounding speed, a precision machine.
The Rangers fired, but the she-beast was too fast, gliding with preternatural swiftness. Bullets chewed at the rock, sparking, missing, as if she were a true phantom. A single razored disk whizzed from the Bailey and zinged off a boulder to skitter harmlessly down the slope.
Nate dropped to one knee, shotgun pointed. "Here, kitty-kitty," he hissed under his breath. Once she was close enough...
Carrera repositioned her weapon, but before she could fire another shot, she was bumped aside. Tor-tor lunged past her, leaping from his master's side to the slope beyond.
"Tor-tor!" Manny called.
The smaller jaguar bounded a few yards down the slope and stopped, digging in, blocking the path of the larger cat. With a sharp snarl, he crouched low, rear haunches raised and bunched to spring, tail flicking with menace. He bared his long yellow claws and sharp fangs.
The giant black jaguar rushed at him, prepared to bowl him over, but at the last moment, she pulled up and stopped in front of Tor-tor, matching his stance, snarling. The two cats hissed and challenged each other.
Kostos lifted his weapon. "You're dead, bitch."
Manny motioned him not to shoot. "Wait!"
The two cats slowly padded around each other, circling, only a yard apart. At one point, the giant female's back was toward them. Nate could tell both Rangers had to restrain themselves not to fire.
"What are they doing?" Carrera asked.
Manny answered, "She can't understand why one of her own species, even a small one like Tor-tor, is protecting us. It has her perplexed."
By now, the two had stopped snarling. They cautiously approached one another, now almost nose to nose. Sharing some silent communication, the circling continued. Raised hackles settled back to sleek fur. A soft chuffing sounded as the larger cat took in the scent of this strange little jaguar.
Eventually they both stopped their dance, once again back to their original positions. Tor-tor crouched between the cave and the giant cat.
With a final grunt, the large jaguar leaned forward and rubbed her jowl against the side of Tor-tor's cheek, some understanding reached, a truce. With a blur of black fur, the giant cat spun and slipped back down the slope.
Slowly Tor-tor straightened from his crouch. His eyes glowed golden. With a feline casualness, he licked a patch of ruffled fur back into perfect place and turned to them. He padded back to the entrance as if he'd just come back from a stroll.
Carrera lowered her weapon and shifted her night-vision goggles. "They're pulling back," she said, amazed.
Manny hugged his pet. "You stupid bastard," he mumbled.
"What just happened?" Kostos asked.
"Tor-tor's close to being sexually mature," Manny said. "A juvenile male. The female, though huge, appears proportionally to be about the same age. And with all the blood in the air, tensions were high, including sexual tension. From their actions, Tor-tor's challenge was construed as both a threat and a sexual display."
Kostos scowled. "So you're saying he was making a play for her ass."
"And she accepted," Manny said, patting his jaguar's side proudly. "Since Tor-tor came out and met her challenge, she probably believes him to be our pack leader. An acceptable mate."
"What now?" Carrera asked. "They've pulled back, but haven't left. As a matter of fact, they seem to be massing down the chasm a bit, blocking any retreat back to the swamp lake."
Manny shook his head. "I don't know what they're doing. But Tor-tor has bought us some time. I say we use it. Get that fire lit and keep our guard up."
Nate watched the bulk of the pack flow down into the jungle chasm. What were they doing?
"We've got company," Carrera said, voice tense again.
She pointed in the opposite direction, deeper up the canyon.
Nate turned his attention. In that direction, he saw nothing but the dark jungle and the broken landscape of rock at the foot of the cliff. "What did you--"
Then movement caught his eye.
A short way up the chasm, a dark figure stepped more fully out of the jungle fringe and onto the exposed shale. It was a human figure. A man. He was as much a shadow as the cats, black from head to toe. He lifted an arm, then turned and began to walk up the canyon, keeping in plain sight. They watched him, stunned.
"It must be one of the Ban-ali," Nate said.
The figure stopped, turned their way, and seemed to be waiting.
"I think he wants us to follow him," Manny said.
"And the jaguars aren't leaving us much choice," Carrera said. "They've settled into the jungle below us."
The distant figure simply stood.
"What do we do?" Carrera asked.
Nate answered, "We follow him. It's why we came. To find the Ban-ali. Perhaps this was their last test, the jaguar pack."
"Or it could be another trap," Kostos said.
"I don't see we have much choice," Carrera said. "I have a feeling we go or the pack will finish us off."
Nate glanced over his shoulder to the deeper depths of the cave. Ten yards back, Kelly, Kouwe and the others were still gathered around Frank, now stripped to his boxers. The m
an seemed to be sedated. Anna stood, holding an IV bag at shoulder height. Kelly had one of her brother's stumped limbs already wrapped in a bandage and was tying off a vessel in the other. Kouwe knelt beside her, ready with the bandages for his other limb. Around them, empty syringe wrappers and small plastic drug bottles littered the cave floor.
"I'll see if Frank can be moved."
"We leave no one behind," Kostos said.
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