Harris tensed, looking to where he’d last seen the woman at the northern end of the clearing.
“Never mind, it’s Faina.” Eyeshine glinted at the edge of the meadow, but the Cobalt’s coloring made her virtually invisible in the dim light.
“Damn,” Harris whispered, relaxing again. They’d hustled to get here from base camp, but several hours of hiking and then hiding while the sun set and night came was mind-numbingly exhausting. He’d been brought up to speed on the current mission while they were traveling, and now at least had an idea of what to look for.
“Giant bugs,” Sig described simply. “Your height or better, slick black or brown carapace, and serrated appendages. Pincers where their faces should be.”
“Don’t forget the shock,” Tighe added, keeping his own eyes on the road as he drove them to where the Cobalts had found more ’poneras.
Sig nodded stoically. “Yeah, they can generate bioelectricity. They hit you with it, it’ll knock you on your ass.”
“I don’t suppose you’re making this up, to pick on the new guy?”
Vida held out a cellphone with a photo on the screen. Harris looked at it and grimaced.
Now, like the others he waited to see one of those monstrous OHs in the flesh. He’d been informed these creatures were coming through tears in the fabric of reality. How they were engineering the rifts was unknown, and why was equally mysterious. They entered the world in unpopulated areas then immediately went searching for the nearest human habitation. There, they would attack and kill, or kidnap the people they found. Those killed were little more than shredded meat when the ’poneras were finished. Those who were taken, mostly children, went to an obscure fate. Once transported through the rift, none of them had ever been recovered.
“Heads up,” this was Tighe again, a note of tension in his low voice, and Harris scanned his surroundings for movement. “Esfir reports something coming in from the south-west.”
One of the Cobalts, little more than a shadow, moved out of the trees and flowed across the clearing before merging into the darkness at the western edge of the meadow. Electric blue flickered then was gone, and Harris guessed Vida had activated her weapon. The wind picked up, tree branches flailing and making peripheral vision useless; everything seemed to be moving.
The fitful breeze brought an acrid smell, and Harris wrinkled his nose at the rank stench. He turned and crouched, facing into the scent, eyes narrowed as he tried to see something moving besides the tossing underbrush and swaying trees.
“Harris, to your right!”
He swung right, disoriented by the dancing shadows. There was nothing to focus on, everything was in motion. Something big seemed to melt into reality, and the stench of acid and rotten meat filled the night. Harris brought up his gun and fired. At the same time, projectiles from another weapon hit the same target. Blue light pulsed, revealing something from a nightmare. Broad as a draught horse and close to seven-feet tall, the thing was neither human nor one of the ’ponera that had been described to him. It had an extra set of limbs and a jutting chitinous jaw protruding beneath two large ellipsoidal eyes. Harris managed to take that in before the projectiles from Vida’s weapon exploded. He ducked away as a spray of gore and viscera erupted from the thing’s chest plate.
“You okay?” Vida gripped his shoulder, and he nodded, making a face at the dripping goo that coated his left side. “On your feet, there’s more coming.”
He stood and followed her, not sure how she could see where she was going. There were more gunshots south of their position, and once the yowling cry of an angry cat. From the ear bud, Harris heard Tighe giving orders between firing.
“Tchaz, Kai, what’s the latest from the cats? Sig, check west. Goddamn these sonsobitches reek. Vida, keep an eye on the rift, and keep Nate’s ass out of trouble.”
“Two o’clock,” Vida said to Harris, seeming to ignore Tighe’s chatter. “See it?”
He didn’t, but waited before saying so. Something moved against the wind and light glimmered on something hard and glossy. “Got it.”
“Aim low, it’s carrying something,” she whispered, and brought her weapon up.
The next few seconds were like strobes through a kaleidoscope. The trees tossed and shuddered in the freshening wind, undergrowth like splashes of ichor in the uncertain light. Things moved, their shapes unfamiliar and difficult to recognize against the natural background. Vida fired, blue light limning her hands and flashing quicksilver designs on her arms and weapon. Harris aimed low, as she’d said, and the flash from his barrel picked out multi-armed alien creatures beneath the trees.
Time seemed to slow, and Harris could count his heartbeats between the recoil of his rifle. In mere seconds it was over, and he followed Vida to check that the enemy was down.
The earbud conveyed Tighe’s words as Vida shone her light on the dead monsters. “The rift, Vida!”
She paused only to shoot one of the downed ’ponera between its protruding eyes. “Check the victims,” she said to Harris, hooking her thumb at two still forms that had been thrown free when the creatures fell.
He checked on the boys, both in their early teens, who were unconscious but appeared not to be seriously injured. Then he turned to watch as Vida crossed the clearing they’d been guarding. Roughly in the center, she stopped. The moon had risen now, and pale light seemed to surround her.
She set her weapon on the ground then stood straight once more. Her arms moved in a strange, graceful progression of symbols formed with her whole body. As Harris watched, intrigued, her techtatts began to glow. The light flashed and flared in enigmatic designs, and a few feet in front of her, the air began to lighten to the same intense shade of blue. Harris was amazed, as one of these so-called rifts he’d been briefed on appeared in mid-air. The edges twisted, billowing in a different rhythm than the wind-tossed foliage around the clearing.
The blue light, searing the edges of the tear, revealed a different landscape on the other side. Instead of moonlit knee-high grass ringed by shadowed trees, there was wet black stone and steep stairs curving away out of sight. Before the rip began to narrow, he thought he saw two small crescent moons hanging in that alien sky, one bluish and the other with an orange cast. Then the edges closed together, sealing in a burst of searing blue fire.
Harris blinked, trying to clear the afterimage of the rift from his retinas. In his ear, Tighe spoke.
“Vida, hope you’ve still got some juice.”
“What’s up, bòs?” she asked.
“We’ve got a live one.”
* * *
Two days later, Harris woke to find he hadn’t dreamed any of the last few days. He really was dealing with monster bugs from a different reality, and everyone else in the group seemed to take it all as perfectly normal. The live one they’d captured and brought back to base was a different breed than the ’poneras they usually dealt with. Tighe called it a belos’, named after the belostomatid or giant water bug it resembled, just as the ’poneras were named for the paraponera or bullet ant. Like the huge monster Harris had encountered in his first mission with the Bani, it stank to high heaven, and they’d put it downwind from camp as much as they could.
“Is she still at it?” he asked Aio, who was pouring a cup of coffee.
“Vida?” Aio handed him the cup, and poured a second for herself. “Yes. It was difficult for her to link with it, and I don’t think she wants to have to do it again. She’s trying to get all the information she can before the connection fails.”
“How does she do it?”
Aio shrugged, taking a seat at the small table they used for meals. Hot sunlight beat down on their camp, but the awning over the table kept it a few degrees cooler. “Magic and tech. She’s equal parts.”
Harris raised an eyebrow, his skepticism obvious.
“You think the tech does all the work?” Aio asked, smiling. “She could already do most of this stuff on her own; the tech just gives her a power boost.”
“But how?” he asked again. It wasn’t like you could take a class for this shit.
Aio shook her head, her flawless coif and bright-flowered outfit a complete contrast to the rest of the crew. She looked as though she should be sitting in a garden somewhere, eating tea cakes or playing croquet. Not in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of scruffy ex-military types, or two doll-like teenagers and their sideshow pets. “She’s got a lot of old blood. Descendant of Haitian voodoo, Apache medicine, and Icelandic Seidr; some of it she learned from her parents, some just came naturally.”
Harris sat beside her, drinking the strong, bitter coffee. Past the trucks and maybe a hundred feet into the trees, Vida and Tighe stood beneath a hastily-erected canopy. Strapped to a metal table was the belos’ they’d caught. Even in the bright daylight, gleaming blue light could be seen coursing along Vida’s techtatts. She did not move, and Harris couldn’t hear anything from this distance, but obviously something was happening. “It’s like the origin story for some kind of super hero,” he said, grinning.
“She is amazing,” Aio said, slanting a glance his direction.
Harris ran a hand self-consciously over his military haircut; he knew it made him seem boyish next to the rest of the men.
“But she paid for it, every bit,” Aio said.
“Never suggested otherwise.” He pulled his gaze from the tableau across the camp, and looked back at her. “How’d you end up in this madhouse?”
She laughed, eyes sparkling. “Just lucky, I guess.”
About that time, Bronze approached. Of the men in the group, he was the shortest, built stocky and muscular. His right leg had been amputated above the knee, and he switched out prosthetics depending on his need. Today he wore a simple recurved blade, which seemed to make his gait more bouncy than usual, although that might just have been Harris’s impression. “Aio,” he said, nodding to her, “Nate, you ready for duty?”
Harris nodded. He’d had little to do with Bronze so far, but had deduced the man was Tighe’s de-facto second-in-command. “What do you need?”
“We’re getting some strange signals from where we cleared the rift. Tighe and Vida are still busy with the belos’. I want you to take Kai and Faina back in to check it out.”
Harris set his cup down and got to his feet. “Just the one Cobalt?”
Bronze nodded. “Esfir injured a paw, so we’re letting her rest. The cats are linked to both girls, so Kai can interpret for you, and Tchaz can keep us informed here. Take the Jeep so you can drive all the way in. Nothing fancy, just a good thorough sweep to see why we’re still getting a signal even though Vida shut down the rift.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Harris didn’t dawdle, but by the time he’d grabbed his gear and walked to the small SUV, Kai and the Cobalt were waiting for him. “You go off alone regularly?” he asked, starting the engine after sliding into his seat.
“I’m never alone,” the girl returned, smoothing one hand over the cat’s broad head. “Plus, you’re here. It’s a party.”
Harris smiled and shook his head. She looked all of fifteen years old, slender and petite, but she was cool and confident with the presence of a queen. He glanced once at the cat, who was gazing at him solemnly, her bright green eyes reflecting his face back to him. Then he put the Jeep in gear and headed back down the rutted dirt road.
As he drove down the rough track, the cat put her head in Kai’s lap and purred loudly. The girl lightly dragged her nails through the Cobalt’s thick blue-grey fur, her eyes on the way ahead. After they’d turned onto a narrow paved road that would take them closer to their destination, she said, “So why did you volunteer for this outfit?”
Harris glanced at her sharply, before facing forward again. “What makes you think I volunteered?”
She chuckled softly, gazing down fondly at the feline head lying heavy on her leg. “We’re all volunteers. Tighe and Vida agreed at the very beginning, there would be no member of the Bani who didn’t want to be here.”
“The Bani?” he asked. He’d read the term before, but didn’t know what it was supposed to mean.
“Bane. We’re the curse on the dark, the downfall of those things that hide in the shadows.”
He snorted. “A little melodramatic.”
She laughed, a sweet tinkling that made the cat open one eye. “Yes, but still true. We hunt the things that wish to do us harm. But we are all hunted, too.” She turned to study his profile, her dark eyes giving nothing away. “What hunts you?”
He didn’t turn to look at her, but could see her quite clearly in his peripheral vision.
“Someday, if you want to talk about it, Faina and I will listen.”
His mouth twitched; he was going to confess his secrets to a cat?
“We’re very good listeners,” Kai said.
Harris turned onto another dirt road, this one little more than a couple faint tire tracks through the high grass. He slowed to squeeze past a fallen tree and started as the cat got up and leapt out of the still-moving vehicle. Faina landed squarely on the downed trunk, tail high and twitching, then raced along the rough bark and disappeared into the trees.
“She’ll go around and meet us at the meadow,” Kai explained.
“So why did you volunteer?” Harris asked, continuing to follow the rough track.
“There were three of us,” she replied in her light, breathless voice. “Tchaz, Nikki, and me. Nikki was taken from us. We hunt for the thing in the shadows that took her.”
He thought about saying he was sorry, but what good would it do? “Was it one of these things? A ’ponera, or… or the big one, a belos’?”
She was looking out the windshield again, her face composed and emotionless. “No, not one of them. But something like them. It came through a rift, like they do. Someday, we will see it again, and it will pay.”
They both fell silent then as Harris guided the vehicle down the winding trail through the trees. Eventually he had to pull off the almost nonexistent road, following the coordinates on the GPS unit attached to the dash.
“Faina is rounding the northern edge of the meadow,” Kai reported, her eyes vague as she accessed her link to the Cobalt. “She can still smell the OHs. When she is across the clearing from us, she’ll enter to investigate.”
“Don’t let her jump the gun,” Harris said, fighting to hold the wheel as they bucked over the thick undergrowth. “Tell her to wait for us.”
He parked when they had driven as far as they could; they had to walk the last few hundred yards. The sun shone, spangles of golden light through the trees, and dense underbrush made for slow going. Ahead, he could see brighter light through the trunks where the meadow opened up. Beside him, moving as silently as her cat, Kai alternated her attention between their surroundings and her link to the Cobalt. She surprised Harris by producing a handgun, which he hadn’t even known she carried. Despite her slim stature and young age, she was obviously well versed in its use.
“She’s straight across from us,” Kai whispered when they reached the edge of the clearing. The smell of the belos’ lingered, making her wrinkle her nose. “She’s nervous. We’re not alone.”
“People? Wildlife? Or an OH?” he asked.
“Something she hasn’t smelled before.”
The answer made Harris nervous, too. “Can she pinpoint where?”
“Upwind.” Kai pointed south-west, which was closer to their position than the Cobalt’s.
“Is the rift open again?” he asked, glancing into the meadow. He’d been unable to see it before, until Vida worked her tech-magic to close it. It could be open now, and he wouldn’t know.
Kai pulled a cellphone from a clip at her waist. For a moment Harris had the idea she was going to try and call the camp, but instead she held it toward the clearing and watched the screen. Expressionless, she whispered, “I can’t tell if it’s open, but it’s still there. That means it can be opened from the other side at any time. Vida didn’t seal it.”
> “Or, maybe they opened it again after we left. Shit.”
“It’s moving,” Kai said, putting the phone away.
“The rift?”
“No.” She cocked her head, apparently listening to Faina. “The OH – it’s coming this way.”
It had been bad waiting in the dark for something monstrous to appear. Harris had figured good light would make it better, but it didn’t. He still didn’t know what was coming, and found himself wishing the rest of the crew was here. He could hold his own with a man, hell, several men! But he didn’t like going up against an unknown, even with Kai there.
“Can she help?” he asked, searching for any movement in the woods. At least there was no wind today; any movement would be easily spotted.
Kai smiled, and there was something of the predator in her dark eyes. “Yes.”
Harris took her at her word, and proceeded south along the edge of the meadow, alert for any sign of what they hunted.
* * *
“Vida! Damn it, Calder–”
“Tighe,” Aio warned. “You’re not helping.”
“Sa ki lanfè a…” Vida whispered, brows drawn together as she rolled her head to the side. What the hell…
“Vida, don’t move,” Aio soothed. With gentle hands she examined the techtatts, wincing when the prostrate woman hissed in pain. “I’m sorry, hun. I’m trying not to hurt you.”
Vida opened her eyes, grimacing as bright sunlight stung. “What happened?”
Aio shook her head, worry clearly etched on the woman’s features. “Overload. I didn’t think it was even possible, the way you’re grounded.”
“The belos’?”
“Dead,” Tighe said flatly. “And I don’t give a shit, as long as you’re okay.” He paused. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She was disoriented and in pain, but otherwise… “Did you kill it?”
Tighe exchanged a glance with Aio. “You did.”
Vida closed her eyes, and let her head fall back again while she tried to remember. She had been linked to the belos’, minds and nervous systems aligned with the help of her implants. She’d been fishing through its alien thoughts, trying to read its mind when she didn’t even understand its language. Perfectly still and apparently tranquil, it had fought her all the way. When she’d finally found a way through the labyrinth of its synapses, there had been one moment of clarity – and then agonizing backlash. “When it overloaded me, I did the same thing to it, didn’t I?”
SNAFU: Hunters Page 24