Then one, his hair a snowy forest of white, stepped forward.
“Habari ya mchana!” Both arms spread out wide as he shouted. “Karibuni!”
“Tell me what’s going on,” Sarah said.
Paul whispered. “Reed said hello in Swahili.”
She turned to Reed. “You speak Swahili?”
“Wouldn’t be able to do much in Africa if I didn’t.” He stepped toward the man, clearly the eldest tribal member and the one he knew would make or break this encounter.
“Jina langu ni Reed Kimble. Nafurahi kukuona.”
Sarah grabbed Reed’s arm as the man replied. “What did you say?”
“I said ‘good afternoon,’ then he wished me the same. I told him my name and said I was honored to meet him.” The hands holding spears across from them relaxed. “Now we learn what’s really going on around here, not the bullshit line Ray Dorcy gave us.”
The older tribesman stopped in front of Reed and offered his hand. “You speak our language,” he said in his native tongue. “My name is Meikuaya. You are welcome here.” The tribal elder reached out, and Reed grasped the man’s forearm. He repeated the gesture with Paul, who repeated his thanks in Swahili as well.
“Thank you,” Reed said. “We are all here to learn what killed your people, and to see that no one else is hurt.”
“You are with Soter?” Meikuaya’s words became guarded. “These are their vehicles.”
“We were hired to find out what happened.” Reed spoke loudly, his voice carrying to every warrior. “But Soter does not direct our efforts. I wish to protect your way of life, and to protect the animals.”
“Why?”
“If I don’t, your tribe may cease to exist. We fear Soter is trying to remove all inhabitants from this land. We’re not sure why.”
“We are Maasai.” Ten spears smacked the ground behind Meikuaya. “We are not afraid,” and now his voice lowered. “But there are powers we cannot stop.”
“Like Soter.”
“Yes.” Again Meikuaya spat at the ground. “They have guns. Their machines are everywhere on our lands. They throw dirt, rip into the ground and terrorize the animals.”
That sounded like mining. “Where are the machines?”
Meikuaya pointed east, away from Soter’s facility. “There is no road. Only trees, animals, and my people.” His shoulders went up, along with his eyes. “One day, not a full moon past, they show up and start digging the land. They say it is government work.”
“You’re sure it’s Soter?”
“The trucks come from their building and return at night. We have followed them.”
“Do they take anything away with them?”
“Yes.” Meikuaya lifted his spear and thrust it into the ground, the shaft quivering as he spoke. “Silver items, round. This big.” He held his hands a few feet apart. “They take dirt from deep in the earth.”
“Core samples,” Reed said to Sarah. “They’re drilling.”
“Gold?”
“Not as far as I know.” He turned back to Meikuaya and switched to Swahili. “We have a map. Would you show us where this happens?” The elder indicated a remote location, so it wasn’t surprising no one else had seen the equipment. “I will look into it,” Reed said. “Now tell me about your people who were killed, and about the elephants.”
“The elephants were ripped apart. This also happened to warriors who have lived on this ground since birth. No beast should have been able to do that.”
Paul translated for Sarah as Reed spoke. “Were there survivors?” Reed asked.
“No.”
“What kind of injuries?”
“Chests torn open, arms and legs taken off. Like I have never seen. Most animals, they kill to eat. These beasts ate, yes, but it was more. It was evil.”
“Where are the bodies?”
“Buried.”
“No ordinary animal could sneak up this way on your great hunters,” he said, and Meikuaya nodded. “The animals that killed your warriors are unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” Reed pointed toward Soter’s facility. “Soter created them.”
“The work of the devil,” Meikuaya said. Behind him, spear butts smacked the ground and his arms went wide. “They killed my family.” The Maasai elder remained stone-faced.
“I need your help to prevent them from killing again,” Reed said.
“You will have it.”
“Has anyone spotted the animals since their attack?”
“We have found signs of their movement. Dung and strange tracks.”
“Are the tracks nearby?”
Meikuaya pointed in the direction of the elephant killings. “We will go there.”
He loped away, long running strides eating up the distance. His tribesmen followed suit, a line of Maasai moving across the plains, spears in hand, just as their ancestors had for thousands of years. The two ATVs followed at a steady fifteen mile-per-hour clip for several miles. The Maasai chattered in Swahili as they ran, unaffected by the pace until they came to a group of trees set beside a small pond. Reed parked in the shade. He and Sarah got out of the vehicle and walked to join Meikuaya. Paul parked beside them and caught up to them.
“Here is where we found the small elephants,” Meikuaya told Reed as they followed him toward the water.
“Was there anything left after the attacks?”
“Large bites taken from the babies, cuts longer than my arm. I saw them as the sun rose, but when we came back for them later, they were gone. These demons have no fear of man or beast, Reed Kimble.”
Paul continued to translate for Sarah. “He saw the carnage from the elephant attack in the morning, but they disappeared by nightfall.”
“Soter removed the carcasses,” she said, one hand playing with her hair. “Funny they never mentioned that to us.”
Reed turned back to Meikuaya. “Would you show me where you saw the machines?” Meikuaya nodded, pointing to the middle distance. “We’re here,” Reed touched a spot on their map, “and Soter is located here. Where are the machines?”
Meikuaya proved to be a natural guide, pinpointing the site of the drilling areas by topography alone.
“Thank you.” Reed ended the exchange with a promise to meet Meikuaya the following day at this spot.
“We are here for you, Reed Kimble.” The elder Maasai’s spear smacked the ground. “We will stop this. Together.”
The Maasai departed, retreating into the landscape like a wave after high tide. The trio returned to the shade where they had parked their ATVs and Sarah spread the map over their hood.
“These places aren’t far,” she said, tapping the paper. “Do we head there now or look for the hybrids?”
“Neither.” Reed grabbed his satellite phone. “I need to call Chief Ereng.”
It took a few transfers, but Nixon Ereng eventually picked up the call. “Good day, Reed.”
“I need a favor.”
His statement hung in silence.
“What kind of favor?” Nixon finally asked.
“I have a question about drilling machines.”
“Drilling equipment?”
“Drilling permits. I need to know if Soter Pharmaceuticals has been issued any recently.”
The chief sighed. “Text me the details. I will do what I can.”
Reed sent everything over, and then they climbed into their ATVs and headed back toward Soter’s facility.
As they zoomed across the savanna, Reed leaned closer to Sarah. “Grab some rest when we get back. Tonight we hunt for wolves.”
A half-moon hung over the dark savanna. Inky black grass rustled in the night wind. Viewed through night-vision binoculars, the world sparked with green flashes, an African landscape painted by the Wicked Witch.
Reed’s team stood under a tree, all three of them scanning for signs of the hybrids. The small patch of woodlands offered camouflage, though Reed wasn’t counting on that. These animals were killers. A few shadows and black face pai
nt wouldn’t fool them.
What lay two hundred yards away might, however. A pile of bloody meat, still cool from the refrigerators in Soter’s mess hall. The Arctic wolf and the leopard may not have much in common, but both were carnivores, incapable of resisting red meat.
Reed glanced at Sarah and found her mirroring his stance, eye glued to her binoculars. “Is your safety on?” he asked her.
“Of course.” She displayed the tranquilizer gun he’d given her.
Reed turned to Paul. “How’s your bait pile?”
“It is quiet.” Paul kept watch over one pile of meat, Reed and Sarah the other. Should the hybrids appear, Reed would have five lethal killers on his hands with a novice assistant at his side. Paul could handle himself, no problem. It was Sarah he worried about.
Part of him hoped the animals laid low tonight.
“Keep your head down, and don’t forget to check behind you.” Her head whipped around. “No telling when or where they’ll show.”
An hour passed, the warm breeze carrying Africa’s loamy perfume to their noses. Dirt crackled beneath Reed’s boots each time he shifted his weight, stretching and moving, anything to keep the blood flowing. Every few minutes he’d whistle softly, a sound Paul returned to let him know all was clear. Reed looked up briefly when a shooting star blazed across the sky.
While Reed gawked at the sky, Paul didn’t make the same mistake. “They are here,” he said.
Reed lifted his binoculars. Three shapes glided toward them, each with pointed ears and eyes glittering like diamonds. The eyes never blinked as the wolves loped silently through the night.
“What?” Sarah had been looking up as well, and when she twisted around her feet tangled and dirt flew before she ended in a heap on her rear.
“We can always hope they’re deaf,” Reed muttered. She grasped his outstretched hand and he hauled her to her feet. “Three of them are past the water’s edge. Looks like the bait worked.”
Sarah finally got her binoculars up. “Where are the other two?”
“That’s what I’m wondering.” Rolling hills and patches of scrub glinted in the murky glow. All around them the landscape was devoid of animals, without even bats overhead. Reed spun full circle, now looking over the vehicles sitting behind them. He whistled twice.
“Sarah, you need to stay calm.”
“I am calm.”
“That’s good, because the hybrids have us surrounded.”
The other two hybrids approached from behind, slinking through the grass.
A deep rumbling growl reached Reed’s ear. “Paul, you watch the ones in front. I’ll take the rear. Sarah, stay between us.”
“They are not getting closer,” Paul said. “They are going for the bait.”
The three hybrids headed directly for a pile of meat. The waving grass thinned to almost nothing around the bait location, allowing Reed to see the beasts in their entirety.
Muscles rippled under their short fur. The dead hybrid in Mwanza had been scary, but seeing these live ones, up and moving with lethal grace, made his blood run cold. Reed touched the firearm at his side. “Put your night-vision goggles on,” he told Sarah, and then called over his shoulder to Paul. “Tell me if you have a clear shot. Each one on your side has to be in range before we fire.” He turned back around to find one of the hybrids had vanished.
“Sarah, where did it go?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Her voice was tight with fear. “I looked down for a second and it was gone.”
“My three are eating the bait,” Paul whispered.
That made four. The fifth hybrid was nowhere to be found. Reed peered down the barrel of his dart gun, searching the plains for movement, trying to see through an impenetrable wall of tall grass flitting in the night air.
Reed blinked, and the second wolf vanished. “I’m getting up on the hood,” he said to Sarah. “I just lost track of the other one.”
Waving grass mocked him as he scoured the ground. He’d only looked away for an instant. The wolf had vanished, possibly into the tall grass, or maybe headed for other trees. Either way, it didn’t seem to have been spooked. If one wolf got scared, that tended to panic the others, setting the pack on the defensive. Even outnumbering humans five to three wouldn’t make normal wolves confident. But these were not normal wolves.
Sarah hadn’t moved. “It’s okay,” he said. “Just keep watching—”
Time spent in the wilderness had sensitized Reed to true quiet, the kind city dwellers never experienced. A quiet so pure the softest of noises shattered it. Reed never saw the hybrid racing from his blind side. But he heard it. A scarcely audible drum roll beating death across the grass.
Reed dove forward as the sound of those nearly silent feet broke the night air. There was a splintering sound as the bulky animal smashed into the windshield. Pain seared across his back as the glass spider-webbed. The hybrid whizzed overhead with bared fangs.
“Get under the vehicle,” Reed shouted. The hybrid tumbled across the ground in a cloud of dust as Reed took aim and fired two darts into the haze.
“Watch your back,” Sarah shouted from beneath the vehicle. Reed pressed himself back against the cracked windshield as a cloud blocked out the moon. A fur-covered cloud with fangs.
One claw flew past his face, tearing a ragged gouge in the vehicle’s hood. Before Reed could move clear, one of the hybrid’s claws snagged his shirt, pulling him to the ground.
Man and beast twisted through the dirt, Reed’s goggles flying away as they struggled. Fire burned in his lungs and the world turned upside down. With the beast crushing him to the dirt, Reed lifted the dart gun and pulled the trigger twice.
A dark form flashed in front of Reed and hit the wolf broadside. Paul loosed a battle cry as he pushed the wolf from above Reed. The pair tumbled through dirt and grass until Paul jumped back, the wolf’s only response a whimper as the tranquilizing agent took hold.
“Reed?” Sarah appeared above him, her goggles reflecting green in the night. “Are you hurt?”
He gained his feet. “I’m fine.” In that second, an image of the other three hybrids flashed across his mind. “Where are the others?”
“Still feeding by the meat.”
Reed craned his neck. Shit. No hybrids at either bait pile. “They’re gone. Get inside the vehicle,” he told Sarah. “Paul, are you alright?”
“Always, boss.” Paul knelt beside the wolf he had taken down. “This one is asleep.”
“Same here.” Reed checked the first hybrid wolf, which was still breathing. “We have two. Where are the others?”
“They were eating that pile of meat but they’re gone now,” Sarah said. “Oh, no. Reed, your neck.”
Secure the area. Find the other three wolves. Reload. Years of experience had taken over. “What about my neck?”
“It’s bleeding.”
Reed reached up; his hand came back warm and wet. “Must have nicked me.” No time to worry about it now. “Get in,” he said, and jumped into the vehicle. “Paul, you stay with these two.”
“It wasn’t its claw,” Sarah said. “I saw the blood on its fangs. It bit you.” She jumped in the passenger seat. “It went for your throat.”
“Fastest way to kill your prey.” Reed turned the engine over. “I’m leaving our headlights off. We’ll see more through our goggles. You watch your side. I’ll take mine and the rear.”
Reed maneuvered between the bait piles. The wind had kicked back up, setting the sea of grass awash with waves and ruining any chance of spotting a wolf on the move. Reed hit the gas pedal as they approached the lake and whipped the vehicle around, the rear tires spinning on the muddy shore before he braked and stood in his seat, studying the landscape. No hint of the other hybrids.
“If they’re here, that noise should have flushed them out.” He glanced at Sarah, who now stood beside him, hands on the roll-bar. “See anything?”
She shook her head. “Do you think taking down two s
cared the others?”
“It depends. The dart guns don’t make much noise, and the two we tranquilized were separated from their mates. Then again, panic can spread quickly in a pack.” Reed lowered himself back in the seat, pulling Sarah down as well. “Strap in. We’re going to do a loop, see if we can get them moving.”
“You won’t see them coming if they’re crouched low in this grass.”
“Which is why you need to buckle up.” He strapped his seat belt on, pulling it tight. She followed orders and he pulled away, tires throwing mud through the air. “Nothing about this is natural, from the animals themselves to how they behave. Did you see how the other three reacted when their mates attacked us?”
“No. What did they do?”
“It’s what they didn’t do. They didn’t attack. If they’d come at us all at once, chances are we’d be dead. The other three chose not to attack.”
“You think they act together and also independently?”
“I’m not sure. This isn’t normal pack mentality. Wild animals react on instinct and most wolves would have attacked. What we saw tonight doesn’t fit.”
They crested a rise, and Reed wheeled around to face the lake glistening a half mile behind them, then put the machine in park.
“The animals aren’t just reacting,” Sarah said, standing again to scan the area. “They’re calculating, which is strange, but there’s no telling what to expect from genetically altered wolves. Enhanced intelligence and increased aggression could be part of their new make-up.” She shrugged, kicking the door frame softly. “There’s no way of knowing without studying them up close. Which could get us killed.” She tucked a short strand of black hair behind her ear as she sat down. Her hand was warm when it settled atop his. “Your neck’s bleeding again.” She reached over.
The seatbelt kept him from moving very far, so Reed leaned back toward her. “You know first aid?”
“Funny.” She probed gingerly around the ripped skin. “You need stitches and antibiotics. The sooner you get them the better. No telling what types of bacteria were on their fangs.”
Reed reached behind them and pulled out a safety kit. “That will hold me until we get back.”
Twisting and taping, Sarah patched him up. “It’ll do,” she said, leaning back to examine her handiwork.
The Turn Series Box Set Page 28