“Quiet!” Caesare exclaimed in a loud whisper. He knelt down next to the tree and continued scanning.
“You hear anything?” Clay asked.
“No.”
Clay turned and searched for cover. If they were in the trees in front of them, then they were likely in the trees behind them too. He backed up and reached behind himself to turn off the small burner, extinguishing the flame and its faint glow.
Clay then grabbed both of their packs and dragged them backward toward the tent, dropping them in front of DeeAnn. He pushed her lower. “Lay down. And get them down.”
Out in front, Caesare suddenly held up a hand and pointed two fingers in front of him toward two o’clock. Something, or someone, was moving.
He glanced over his shoulder at Clay, then pointed to himself, making a circling motion around the target.
Clay nodded.
With that, Caesare quickly rose to his feet and moved to the left, in the direction he had just emerged from. Trotting heel to toe over the ground, he moved smoothly and disappeared back into the trees.
DeeAnn watched Clay pull the packs in closer to her and the primates. Her heart was pounding with her chin touching the ground and one protective arm over Dulce. Dexter seemed to sense the danger, and even after squeezing free, remained low.
Above them, Clay hovered on one knee and scanned the darkness behind them. Listening.
***
Caesare was moving low and fast. Swerving in and out of narrow trees trunks and patches of bamboo. He ducked under a wide sprawling fern and stopped beneath it.
Nothing.
He waited. Controlling his breathing. Listening between breaths. If there was someone out there, it was best to reach them first and use the element of surprise. If it were a bigger group pursuing them, the last thing they would expect would be an attack.
Caesare calmed his breathing further, forcing the cool air in through his nose. He held his breath for a few seconds before gently exhaling.
And then he heard it.
It was slight. Barely loud enough to reach him. But it was there––a soft scrape against one of the trees. A scrape that an animal with fur would not make.
Caesare studied the ground in front of him, using what little moonlight he had, and surged forward.
After another twenty feet, he stopped again and waited.
Nothing.
He continued pushing forward, slowly.
***
Not far away a dark shadow moved between the trees, stopping behind a thicker trunk. He could see parts of the tent in the distance, sitting quietly in the small clearing.
The figure crept closer to see more of the area. There was no longer any movement. Or sound.
Their voices had stopped. They must have detected something.
The dark figure reached behind his back and began to withdraw an object when he promptly felt the cool sensation of a gun barrel press firmly into his right cheek.
Steve Caesare’s deep voice whispered behind him, “Nice night for a walk.” When the figure began to gently turn, Caesare pressed harder. “Nope. You move again, and you’re going to need a whole new set of dentures, capisce?”
The stranger nodded.
“How many others?” Caesare asked, looking over the man’s shoulder.
“None.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Just you?”
“Yes.”
Caesare finished scanning and looked down. “Drop your hands.”
The man complied.
Caesare stepped back and pulled the gun away from his cheek, silhouetted in the moonlight. “Now raise them up on top of your head.”
When the figure complied, Caesare next instructed him to turn around slowly. Watching as the figure turned towards him, the intruder’s face became only partially visible in the shadows.
Caesare glanced behind himself and stepped back further. “Walk towards me.”
The stranger stepped forward, led by Caesare, and eventually emerged into the light.
Once he saw the man’s face, Steve Caesare’s expression changed beyond surprise to a look of shock. He shook his head in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding.”
78
Almost ten minutes later, two dark figures stepped out and into the clearing, walking one in front of the other.
Clay rose slowly as they approached with his rifle trained on both shadows. Only when Steve Caesare spoke did he relax.
“I hope you’re in the mood for some amusement.”
Clay lowered his weapon and peered intently into the darkness.
The man in front of Caesare was shorter, with a pale white face, and dressed in dark clothing. But it was in the unique shape of his face and bald head that Clay immediately recognized. He looked very much like Palin, the man he met who had not been from Earth.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“That’s what I said.” Caesare gave a push forward, sending him stumbling to within a few steps of Clay. “And guess what. He ain’t.”
The figure flashed a brief gaze at DeeAnn as she rose from behind the bags.
“Who are you?”
His reply held only the slightest hint of defiance. “My name is Ronin.”
Clay studied the man’s clothing, then the pack he carried on his back. All the material appeared slightly reflective, resembling some kind of trace fibers or a soft alloy.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The man turned carefully to find Caesare still behind him, and the gun still pointed directly at his back.
“I was following you.”
“No kidding,” Caesare replied sarcastically.
He didn’t answer.
“You’re one of Palin’s men,” Clay said.
The man named Ronin nodded.
“How long have you been following us?”
“Since Kigali.”
“What for?”
“To see what you find,” he answered.
Clay looked past him to Caesare, then to DeeAnn who was now on her feet. “What do you mean, what we find?”
Ronin’s expression softened a bit. “We know what you found on the other side of your planet. In your South America. Before it was destroyed.” He glanced again at Caesare behind him. “And we know what it can do.”
“The vault.”
Ronin nodded.
Clay stepped back and motioned to a nearby rock. “Have a seat.”
The smaller man approached the rock and turned before sitting. “May I remove my pack?”
“Slowly.”
He pulled one arm through and swung the load off, around his other shoulder, before easing it onto the ground. Clay and Caesare both glanced down and studied it briefly. It was a dark metallic blue. Uniform in size, the pack first appeared stiff but seemed to move slightly as it hit the ground.
Caesare stepped in next to Clay. “I hope you’re feeling talkative.”
For a moment, the man looked bemused. “My mission is not a secret.”
“Well, it sure as hell is to us.”
Ronin blinked and then placed his hands on his knees. “We need the fluid, the solution.”
“What for?”
“To save ourselves.”
Clay and Caesare looked at each other.
“You’ve been there,” Ronin continued, “to our world. You know the devastation we have suffered. You know we are struggling to survive. And how little time we have left.”
“We saw that you were rebuilding.”
“What you saw is one of our only remaining footholds. We are trying to establish others, but the situation is dire.”
The men turned when DeeAnn edged closer, and Clay looked back to check on the primates. Both were next to the tent. Dexter was no longer watching the forest.
“How dire?”
Ronin’s mannerism was calm but firm. “You might say we no longer have rope.”
Caesare frowned. “At the end of your rope.”
“Yes. A
t the end of our rope.” The man nodded. “I am not as good with your language. I am not an academic.”
“What does that mean?”
“Like you, we have certain classes. Those that we excel at, and are born for. Academics. Engineering. Science. Things like that.”
“And what class are you?” Clay asked.
“I am a fighter class. Like you. Of sorts.” Ronin shrugged. “It is more complicated than that.”
“I bet,” replied Caesare.
“So you’re following us to see what we find here,” Clay said.
“Yes. As I said, we know what you search for.”
“Assuming we find it, how is it supposed to save your planet?”
“We know of its attributes. Its genetic influence. It could help us restore our own environment. Before it’s too late.”
“How?”
Ronin looked back and forth between them. “I am not a scientist, so my knowledge is not as thorough. But I do know some. Most of our life forms have been destroyed or are on the brink of extinction. The event destroyed millions of species, and for years we continued losing hundreds of thousands more every year. We were unable to stop it, and they were not able to adapt quickly enough. We barely survived ourselves. We have managed to slow the loss, but our ecology is barely functional.”
“What exactly was the event?” Clay asked.
“An asteroid impact. More than eighty of your years ago. The destruction was enormous. Cities destroyed, forests wiped clean, and most of our oceans lost.”
DeeAnn stared incredulously. “How in the world could you lose your oceans?”
“The impact vaporized much of our largest ocean, but we hadn’t lost it entirely. The moisture was still in our atmosphere, completely surrounding the planet and blocking out the sun. For the first year, it rained without stop––flooding and destroying areas that were not already damaged by the first impact.”
Clay raised his eyebrows. “The first impact?”
“Yes,” Ronin paused. “Two years later a second asteroid struck. We saw the first but could not stop it in time. The second was never seen. Our defense systems were all gone. The second was smaller but traveling much faster. The impact nearly breached our planet’s crust. Its damage was far worse and destroyed most of the remaining life on our planet within days.”
“Jesus!”
Ronin looked up at Caesare, solemnly. “Billions died. Only a few cities, situated in fortunate locations, were spared. And the second blast was so powerful it ejected most of the remaining vapor up and out of our atmosphere.”
Caesare shook his head. “Good God.”
“Our scientists say our gravity will eventually recapture much of what was lost. But it will take many years. Thousands. We cannot wait.”
After a long silence, Clay’s voice was low. “How many of you survived?”
“Less than five thousand. But over these years, we have nearly doubled that.”
“Five thousand in eighty years,” Caesare murmured. “That’s not a lot.”
Ronin replied with a brief sound of indignation. “For us, it was nothing short of miraculous.”
Caesare nodded. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.”
The smaller man continued. “We were not without some luck, I was told.”
“You were told?” Clay asked.
“I was only an infant when it happened. I have no memory of our world before the event.”
At that, DeeAnn looked soulfully at both men next to her before replying. “We’re very sorry for what has happened to you.”
“Extremely,” Clay added and extended his hand forward. Ronin grabbed it, and Clay pulled him back onto his feet. “So you’re after the same thing we are.”
“Yes. Restoring our ecosystem has been difficult. Even we are finding it much more complex than previously thought. Restoring life, even plant life, takes time. Generations. Which leaves our own existence hanging in the balance. The water we have brought from your planet has given us a foothold. But that is all.”
“So you think this solution, if it still exists, can turn the tide.”
“Yes. Our scientists believe it can dramatically increase the progress of our existing ecosystem. This is what we are in most desperate need of. The oxygen levels in our atmosphere are nearly depleted. If we cannot change that quickly, it will be over.”
“What did you mean when you said you did have some luck?”
“One of our cities that was spared also acted as one of our technology centers. For research. This meant it had a larger than usual population of scientists. Those are the ones that are now trying to save the planet.”
“Jesus,” Caesare said, crossing his arms. “You have to terraform your own planet.”
All three stood before Ronin, completely dumbfounded. But there was still one more incredibly important piece to the story. What they didn’t know, and what Ronin didn’t think to mention, was that the two asteroids that devastated his world had each struck on exactly opposite sides of the planet.
79
Alison.
The voices echoed in her ears almost simultaneously–– both the computerized words from Sally in front of her and Lee Kenwood’s radio transmission from his location above her on the Pathfinder ship.
“Alison?” they each said again.
She shook her head and blinked. Still floating in the dark water, she could see Dirk and Sally, as well as the elder dolphins, illuminated in the glow of her mask’s beaming light. All waiting and watching her.
Alison reached down and muted her vest. “Lee. Can you hear me?”
“I can.”
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes,” Lee nodded, staring numbly at the translated words on the screen.
Not only did the dolphins want to know what humans intended to do with the alien ship, they wanted something else too. Something that no one ever expected.
You make metal for us.
IMIS’s translations and the words displayed on Lee’s screen could not be clearer. They were both simple and shocking.
By metal, they meant tool. Tools that they were incapable of making. Lacking the dexterity of human hands and fingers, they simply could not do what humans had done. But it was not for lack of desire. The researchers already knew that dolphins had a larger, more folded brain as well as more cognitive capacity.
Their brains would not have simply wasted that cognitive potential. Without the hands they needed, that potential would have manifested elsewhere. Possibly in cognitive abilities that humans were still not aware of. But what they had lacked for so long might now be possible with the help of human dexterity.
These intelligent creatures now wanted us to make something for them.
“Now what the hell am I supposed to say?”
Lee stammered. “Uh…I don’t know.”
“I can’t simply lie to them.” Alison turned her mask, looking back to the hundreds of dolphins and their secret breeding ground. “They showed us this for a reason, Lee. As an exchange of trust.”
“I know,” Lee replied. “But we don’t know what they mean by tool. And we sure don’t know what we’re going to do with that ship, Ali. Even if we did, I’m sure it won’t be up to us.”
After silence from Lee, Alison reached back down and unmuted. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She didn’t know what to say. How could she explain that it was out of her hands? How could she explain that, in the end, governments did what they wanted? All she, Lee, and the rest of their team could really do was to try to influence the outcome. Because when governments got involved, all bets were off.
Alison swallowed hard and said the only thing she could think to say, the only thing that was still the truth.
“I’m not sure.”
The oldest dolphin studied her for a long time with its dark gray eyes. None of them made a sound.
“Did they hear me?”
Lee examined the translation on his computer. “Yes,
they should have.”
We hear. The elder finally replied, still floating in front of her.
But before Alison could respond to their second question, something happened. Without warning, several of the nearby dolphins began speaking rapidly. Very rapidly.
Dozens more turned to face the same direction. Their rapid clicking joined together and became a barrage of noise, far too much to be deciphered by Alison or her vest.
The elders in front of her had already turned their attention, as still more dolphins emerged from out of the darkness. In a burst of movement, the elders shot quickly past Alison, leaving her floating in the water with arms extended and a look of confusion on her face.
She looked at Sally who remained alongside her, watching. She muted her vest and called to Lee.
“Lee, can you still hear me?”
“Right here, Ali.”
“I can’t hear anything! Whatever’s happening is blocking everything out! Can you give me just Sally?”
Lee fumbled for a minute on his keyboard, trying to pull up another program. “Yeah, I think so. Hold on.”
After a flurry of typing, Lee finished and studied the flow of text on his screen. “Okay, try it again.”
Below the surface, Alison re-engaged the vest and faced Sally. “Sally!”
There was no answer.
“Sally! Can you hear me?”
It took several seconds, but Sally eventually turned back to her. Yes Alison. I hear.
“What is it?! What’s going on?”
Sally remained quiet, listening. Some thing come Alison. Some thing bad.
80
The massive Russian Ghost sub coasted to a gradual stop against the gentle resistance of the Caribbean’s currents. Maintaining its buoyancy at thirty meters above the beginning of an enormous coral ridge, the sub’s sail and foreplanes were left just ten meters below the surface.
In the control room, the navigation officer turned and nodded to the captain, prompting Zhirov to calmly reach out and pluck a handset from the wall next to him.
In the submarine’s forward hatch, Sergeant Popov was waiting and answered immediately.
Ripple (Breakthrough Book 4) Page 26