Pulse

by Jeremy Robinson

  The Hydra, immortal once, buried for thousands of years and reborn in the present, was finally, and permanently, dead.

  Motion in the forest caught King’s eye. He spun toward it, taking aim.

  “What’s wrong?” Queen asked. “Saw something.”

  The others looked on, peering into the dark woods. Light filtered through the forest canopy as the trees swayed in the wind. Then a shadow moved against the wind. Unnatural. It hung between two trees, thirty feet up, watching them.

  “What the...” King placed his finger on the trigger.

  Rook recognized the ghostly shape and knew that gray flesh hid beneath the surface of its loose-fitting cloak. Another wraith. He put his hand on King’s weapon and lowered it. “Let it go.”

  “What is it?” King asked.

  “Let’s just say they were on our side this time around.”

  “What’s it doing?”

  “Making sure we got the job done,” Queen said. She was sure of it. What bothered her about its appearance was that Alexander either had a way to get the creature halfway around the world as quickly as the Crescent, or he had an army of the things lurking in every dark nook of the planet.

  The black wraith shoved off, landing on a pine deeper in the forest. It seemed to glide the distance between the trees, like a flying squirrel. It continued leaping from trunk to trunk, until the darkness concealed it.

  King looked at Rook. “What about next time? Will it still be on our side?”

  Rook shrugged. “Personally, I hope there isn’t a next time.” Queen nodded. “I second that.”

  King looked away from the trees and was struck by a terrifying thought. The PDA! Fearing that the valley would implode at any second, he pulled it out and looked at the screen. The timer showed fifteen seconds remaining and was still counting down. He was about to shout for the others to get to the helicopter when his phone rang. He answered it. “Lewis, it’s still counting down!”

  “What? Oh! No. You’re all set. Ridley’s PDA must not have registered the change. I stopped the countdown five minutes ago.”

  King let out his held breath. Thank God.

  Aleman continued, “I was just calling to let you know I piggybacked into Manifold’s VPN, stole their data, and dropped a worm to destroy their database. Ridley won’t be able recover anything.”

  “Ridley is dead,” King said. “Jumped out of a helicopter.”

  “Well, what comes around...”

  “And then some. Got to go.” King hung up the phone. The helicopter whined as its rotors spun up. King looked. Beck was there, in the back of the chopper, gun pointed at the pilot. She gave a wave.

  He didn’t try to stop her, nor did the team. They all knew she’d be arrested and imprisoned, possibly without trial, thanks to Manifold’s affiliation with terrorist organizations. But she had been as instrumental in stopping Ridley, Reinhart, and Manifold as the rest of them. She’d earned her freedom.

  Frightened campers began to stream out of hiding, gasping and talking loudly. Some pointed at King and Bishop saying, “It’s them!,” “They came back,” and “They blew up the devil!” Kids whooped and cheered. King saw the boy who had flipped him off upon entering the campground. This time he offered a thumbs-up and a smile. King returned the thumbs-up and then turned to the others as the helicopter banked away and disappeared over the trees. “So we’ve got a forest full of scared scientists, more than a few rogue Gen-Y soldiers on the run, one hell of a mess to clean up, and more than a few wounds to dress.” He looked at Bishop. “Well, some of us. What’s the game plan?”

  Queen reached into her vest and pulled out a vial of brown liquid. “I say we have Deep Blue call in the feds, have them handle cleanup, and get this to your friend.”

  King took the vial, swished it around, and looked at the liquid. “Sounds like a plan.” He paused and then squinted at Queen. “By the way, where did you find this?”

  EPILOGUE

  Rock of Gibraltar

  King slid through the darkness, viewing the cave in a haze of green, night vision light. He’d been told to watch out for a maze of strings and small flags marking the areas where Neanderthal artifacts lay, but the floor was not only clear of strings and flags; he didn’t see anything to indicate that anything had ever been dug up. He moved forward, leading with his Sig Sauer, wary of the shadow’s dark recesses. What Rook and Queen had described encountering in Pierce’s office and in this cave didn’t sound human, and he’d had just about enough of inhuman, fast-healing monsters. If a pair of reflective eyes opened at the back of the cave, he’d put a bullet between them.

  But there were no eyes. No sounds other than the distant crashing waves of the Mediterranean high tide. He found the hidden cave entrance at the back of Gorham’s Cave, exactly where it was supposed to be. He held his palm up and open, stopping the others. “Let me check it out.”

  He rounded the corner and descended a rugged slope...not stairs. A jagged entrance at the bottom of the slope opened where there should have been a door. King passed through and saw exactly what he expected: absolutely nothing. The place had been cleared out. All that remained was a stalactite-filled cavern. He backtracked up the slope and joined the others.

  “Lights up,” he said, removing the night vision goggles. A moment later several blazing bright flashlights clicked on and scoured the cave.

  “This is horse shit,” Rook said, looking around the cave. He and Queen had joined King on this little expedition, determined to return to the cave and uncover the mysteries they’d left behind. Knight had passed, preferring to visit Grandma Dae-jung. Something about the old folks he’d seen experimented on had struck a chord with him. Having seen their surreal youth, he knew that growing old, and eventually death, was the way things should be. Death was life. Without it the journey was meaningless.

  Bishop, on the other hand, had stayed behind under orders. They tried using the serum to undo the regenerative curse given to Bishop by Ridley, but, being designed to interact with Hydra’s genes, it had no effect on the early, pre-Hydra, genetic tinkering. He was being evaluated to make sure he was fit for active duty and not a danger to anyone. Scheduled meditation and a regimen of mood stabilizers had proven effective enough that he felt like his old, quiet self, but no one knew what would happen if he was injured again. A bullet wound might send him over the edge. Then again, so might a paper cut. Until they knew for sure, or until his services were in dire need, he was benched.

  “I think it’s safe to say that there were never any Neanderthal artifacts here,” King said. “What’s your take, George?”

  George Pierce, healed and fully human, searched the cavern with his eyes. His reaction to the serum had been as quick as the Hydra’s, and so far, the change had been permanent. Several of the nonhuman genes bonded to his body had been located and all appeared blocked. He had been declared fit and healthy two days after first being injected with the serum. “I think you’re right. The whole dig must have been a front for the Herculean Society.”

  “It’s only been a week,” Rook protested. “How could they have cleared out that fast?”

  Gallo, who had been found innocent in the University of Athens incident, stepped farther into the cave. George had insisted she join them, to reward her for her part in saving his life. King suspected there was more, but that was a ribbing he’d reserve for another day.

  “They’ve been around for thousands of years,” she said. “They have a lot of experience staying off the radar.”

  “Then why help us?” Queen asked as she inspected the floor, finding no evidence of any kind that would suggest someone had even entered the cave before them. Not even a single footprint.

  “You said the man, Alexander, knew about the Hydra being buried in Nazca?”

  Queen nodded.

  “Then he knew how dangerous it was.”

  “Or how dangerous the secret of regeneration...of eternal life...could be,” King added. “In a way, he was protecting the hum
an race.”

  Pierce walked to the back wall, running his hand across the surface. “So he’s a good guy, then? They nearly killed me to get the Argo crew manifest.”

  “Some secrets are worth killing for,” King said.

  Pierce looked at him, trying to gauge whether or not his old friend was speaking from experience. He decided he didn’t want to know and turned back to the wall. “That was the first time I saw the Herculean Society symbol. On the Manifest. When I saw it again, later, on the shipwreck, and then on the map, I knew what I had found.”

  “And when you saw the same symbol on the geoglyph in Nazca—”

  “It blew my mind. I had to see it for myself despite the exciting discoveries I was making in Greece. Of course, when I saw the Hydra sample reanimate on the lab table, I knew there was even more to the story of Hercules and Hydra than had been passed down through history. I should have told you sooner, though.”

  King stood next to Pierce and put his hand on his shoulder. “You told me just in time. Saved a lot of lives.”

  Pierce smiled. “Don’t give me too much credit. I was just trying to save my green, scaly skin.” His hand paused on the wall. “What’s this?”

  Rook and Queen shined their lights on the stone wall where Pierce’s hand had been. The symbol for the Herculean Society was still etched in the stone.

  “Maybe they missed it,” Rook said.

  Pierce shook his head. “It’s not an oversight.”

  “It’s a warning,” King said.

  “For who?” Queen asked.

  Pierce turned to her. “For us. You’ve seen what they’re capable of.

  They want to be left alone, but they want us to know you two didn’t conjure the story.”

  “You think it’s safe to let them stay in hiding?” Queen asked.

  “I think I’m alive today because of it,” Pierce said. “And I’ll be glad to leave them alone from now on.”

  Queen mulled it over and shrugged. “Then my only remaining question is, who is Alexander Diotrephes?”

  Pierce smiled. “You mean you haven’t figured it out?”

  The three of them waited for the answer.

  “First, he knew about Hydra’s resting place. That’s a secret of the top order. You’ve seen the kind of danger that knowledge could bring to the world. I doubt anyone beyond the leader of the Herculean Society was privy to that bit of trivia. Then there is his choice of name. Diotrephes. It means, ‘nourished by Jupiter.’ Jupiter is the Roman name for Zeus.” Pierce drew a small blade from his pocket and began scratching away at the Herculean Society symbol. When he stood back, the alteration drove home what he’d been insinuating. The Pillars of Hercules were now joined at the center by a horizontal line, turning the symbol into an encircled H.

  Queen gasped and whispered the name. “Hercules.”

  King had seen enough over the past months to believe anything was true. The idea of the mythical Hercules still living among them would have been ridiculous two months previous. But so would the Hydra. He’d never experienced anything so primal. It really had been a force of nature. At times he felt remorse for destroying it. He wondered if that had been why Hercules, or Diotrephes, if they really were one and the same, had buried Hydra to begin with. He decided he would never know, and having had enough mythology for a lifetime, exited the cave while the others finished searching for clues of the Herculean Society’s passage.

  Standing at the edge of the azure sea, King thought about his sister. He hadn’t had a chance to reflect since Pierce’s abduction. The world had become a messy place since her death. A worse place. But that only made her passing that much more difficult to bear. She’d made the world, his world at least, a better place. Pierce’s, too. Before the calm surroundings allowed him to slip deeper into thought, his cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID and answered it. “What’s up?”

  Deep Blue’s voice came on the line. “We found McCabe.”

  King caught his breath. The last time anyone had seen the woman she was a psychotic regen on a killing spree. “Is she—”

  “Alive,” Deep Blue confirmed. “But barely. Severely dehydrated. Starving. Barely put up a fight.”

  Without meaning to, Deep Blue confirmed King’s fear. She’d put up a fight. She was still a regen. “She’ll be cared for?”

  “We’ve got some brilliant people working on her. Bishop, too. We’ll figure out how to reverse the effects. For now we’re keeping her sedated.”

  King heard an unusual tension in Deep Blue’s voice. “There’s something else?”

  “You know me too well, King.”

  “I don’t know you at all.”

  “Better than most. Listen, they just finished sweeping the forest around the campground.” They’d been finding scientists hiding in the woods and Gen-Y soldiers on the lam for the past week. King doubted Deep Blue had called him to tell him about them. There was something more important.

  “You found Ridley.”

  “Pieces of him. An arm. Bits of organs. A lot of blood. The man fell through the trees, apparently tore himself open and hit the ground at terminal velocity.”

  “But no body?”

  “They say there were a lot of coyote tracks. That the arm had been gnawed on.”

  “But no body.”

  King listened as Deep Blue let out an uncharacteristic sigh. He knew as well as King what the answer meant. “No. No body.”

  Richard Ridley was alive.

  He always would be.

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Dear Reader,

  The first three Jack Sigler thrillers—Pulse, Instinct, and Threshold—represent my first novels published by a big publisher (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press). They helped take my career to the next level and launched a series containing some of the most action-packed monster stories ever put to paper.

  In early 2018, the rights to these three novels returned to me, allowing me to publish new editions, including the one you’ve just finished reading! We’ve fine-tuned the text, updated the covers, and lowered the e-book pricing significantly.

  If you enjoyed the story and want to help the series continue and expand, be sure to post a review. Each and every one helps a ton and keeps me seated in front of a keyboard, pounding out new stories. There are eleven books in the series (including the upcoming grand finale, Kingdom, due out in 2019), as well as two collections of novellas, and two spin-off Cerberus Group books. If you enjoy the exploits of King and the gang, be sure to check them out!

  Thanks for reading!

  —Jeremy Robinson

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The writing of Pulse created several challenges for me in terms of military and genetics knowledge. I was fortunate enough to be discovered by readers who are not only experts in these various fields, but also willing to consult on a variety of topics that took the book in exciting directions and root my sometimes whacky theories in a bed of hard facts.

  Todd Wielgos, senior research scientist with MS Chemistry. Your advice and insight into the world of genetics improved this novel in amazing ways. This book could not have been written without your help.

  As for military and weapons advice, I have three patriots to thank. First is Major Ed Humm, U.S.M.C. (Ret.). Your advice on weapons and tactics was invaluable and contributed realism to my depictions of the military. Further weapons insight (and shell samples) were provided by Rick “The Gun-Guy” Kutka. I now know the difference between .45 and .50 caliber bullets. Ouch. And finally, for tips on the mysterious world of Delta, a very special thanks to brigadier general and author of Sudden Threat, A. J. Tata.

  Of course, there are bound to be portions of this novel where I stretch the boundaries of science and weaponry. Any such incidents or errors are mine alone.

  Special thanks to Von Glitschka, who created the Hydra graphic for the original edition of Pulse and was kind enough to give me permission to use it again on this edition.

  Lastly, my wonderful fam
ily: Hilaree, my courageous wife and biggest supporter. Aquila, my creative and energetic daughter. Solomon, my loving and brave son. And little Norah—who in my last acknowledgments had yet to be born or named—you are beautiful and peaceful. I love you all.

  Older e-reader? Click here.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jeremy Robinson is the international bestselling author of sixty novels and novellas, including Infinite, The Others, The Distance, Apocalypse Machine, Island 731, and SecondWorld, as well as the Jack Sigler thriller series and Project Nemesis, the highest selling, original (non-licensed) kaiju novel of all time. He’s known for mixing elements of science, history and mythology, which has earned him the #1 spot in Science Fiction and Action-Adventure, and secured him as the top creature feature author. Many of his novels have been adapted into comic books, optioned for film and TV, and translated into thirteen languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.

  Visit him at www.bewareofmonsters.com.

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