Predator Island

by Douglas Cameron

  He was standing guard at the rear (westside) of Vulcan’s Roost, the most isolated of the guard positions having taken his position only fifteen minutes after Deva first entered the lava tube behind him. He had been walking the other way on patrol to his first meeting with Bruno Suarez (Soldado 28) who was patrolling the northside at that time and was coming back when he heard the sound of Gerallt’s yell. Albeit faint, it was still audible, and he knew it to be a human voice, he knew that it had come from the side of the crater, and it was almost directly above him. It was incongruous because it had come from the side of the crater and there was nothing there other than shrubs and rocks. Still, it was the kind of thing that a sentry needed to investigate. Retrospectively, if he had had time for any retrospection, he would have notified his superior, but he didn’t and that was for the good of both the snow leopard named Deva and the man named Gerallt.

  Pablo climbed the slope carefully because it wasn’t easy and had just reached a small copse of vegetation – that happened to be covering the mouth of the lava tube in which Gerallt was hiding – when Deva burst through it, crashing into him and knocking him backwards, rifle and company standard red beret flying. If he had been wearing a helmet, it just may have saved his life, but he wasn’t, and it didn’t. His head hit one of the multitudinous rocks covering the slope and most of the floor of the crater. He hadn’t died from that although he was unconscious. And that was fortunate in a way because he never felt Deva’s sharp claws sink into his chest and the teeth that found and pierced Pablo’s jugular and in a matter of seconds, he had bled to death and Deva settled into his first real meal.

  Horus changed his enemy count from thirty to twenty-nine.

  It was only shortly thereafter that Gerallt arrived at the lava tube’s crater entrance. When he had first seen the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak even though it was dim in the late afternoon, he had left the torch lying against the wall, and walked then crawled to the entrance. It was obvious that the cat – he never knew what kind – had gone through the bush. He crept cautiously to the mouth of the lava tube and looked carefully out through the lower parts of the vegetation. What he saw sent chills down his spine and he wished he had gone back for the weapon he had dropped when leaping the chasm.

  Chapter 23

  Dylan Del Cid (Soldado 24) was the guard on the southside of Vulcan’s Roost and he was almost at the rear corner where he would meet Pablo. Then they would turn and walk the lengths of their beats again. Four more steps and Dylan was at the corner but Pablo wasn’t there, and he was nowhere in sight. Duty was clear! He was to notify his watch commander that there was a possible intrusion. What else could have happened? He was reaching for his communicator when a movement on the slope caught his eye. He looked and was stunned by what he saw. A large spotted cat was crouched over one of his compadres or what he judged was one of his compadres. Not just crouched over but actually eating one of his compadres and he knew this to be Pablo. The very sight and thought of it made him sick to his stomach. Holding his rifle in his left hand he reached out his right to the corner of the building and steadied himself taking several deep breaths. Then, like any good soldier upon seeing an enemy, he racked the lever on his weapon putting a cartridge into the firing chamber and took aim upon the cat. But then, from his subconsciousness came the warning he had received again and again. The predators are not to be harmed. He let his rifle slip down from his shoulder. Still, he just couldn’t let the cat eat his friend. He had to do something. He raised his rifle, took aim, and didn’t shoot. What if he missed by not missing? Taking a deep breath, he stepped toward the cat yelling at the top of his voice.

  Deva heard the yelling and recognized it for what it was – a human. Looking up with fresh blood dripping from its mouth, he saw the man approaching him slowly, waving his hands one of which had a stick. He was hungry but not that hungry. He had to run.

  To say that Horus had seen what was happening would be inaccurate even though every predator had a drone tracking it and the drone had a television camera which broadcast reception back to the Bundle’s theater so that they could see what was happening. But Horus couldn’t see, but he knew where the snow leopard was. He had tracked it since release from its cage and he knew that the snow leopard had gone into the lava tube where Gerallt was hiding. But that wasn’t broadcast because then it would be known that there was a cave there and, more than likely, it would be investigated and that would be the end of Gerallt. It probably would have been the end of Horus also, but he had not developed enough to even consider that. He wasn’t concerned with his own safety only with keeping Gerallt safe. So the drone had a problem just before the snow leopard entered the copse. If anyone questioned it, the video footage would become blurred – irretrievably blurred because it would have been destroyed. In fact, on a regular basis but no so regular that it would be a concern, almost every drone had a glitch of one kind or another. Consequently, the snow leopard’s camera had “glitched” prior to the snow leopard entering the lava tube and had “unglitched” when the snow leopard had reappeared. It came back on at the moment the snow leopard raised its head with blood dripping from its jowls and the picture was flashed to the big screen because of its import.

  “Oh, yuck,” Monica said. “What’s he eating?”

  “Soldado 13,” Horus said. There were better ways to say it and Horus probably could have chosen a better way with a microsecond or two of thought, but he didn’t. He just made it known that the snow leopard had killed one of the soldiers.

  Monica was both revolted and happy. Revolted that the snow leopard was eating a human and happy that the human was one of Ramiro’s men.

  “Another one bites the dust,” Gloria said, licking a finger and drawing a one on the chalkboard in the air.

  “Onez of my menz,” Ramiro said. “Zat cat iz eating onez of my men? Kill zat cat.”

  “Can’t do it,” Issaack said. “That’s interference.”

  “Yep,” Waldo said from behind the two. “Twenty-five-yard penalty and a $50,000 fine.”

  Ramiro glared at him. Then he picked up his communicator and spoke a burst of either Spanish or Portuguese, nobody knew which.

  “What did you say?” Issaack asked.

  “I told zat watch commander to chase away zat cat and retrieve the body.”

  “Then what?” Waldo asked.

  Ramiro looked at him blankly.

  “We continue with a new guard.”

  Gerallt saw the guard walking toward the snow leopard waving arms and rifle. He watched the snow leopard look around, seem to decide on an escape route and then take it, bounding up the slope of the crater and vanishing. The guard rushed up to the side of his fallen compadre, grabbed the corpse’s collar and dragged the body down the hill. Gerallt breathed a sigh of relief knowing that this event would most likely keep other soldiers off the hill. He crawled back from the entrance, stood, walked silently back to where he had left the wood torch, got it and walked back to the chasm with the torch once again flaming to life. After crossing the ladder, he picked up the rifle and rushed back to the base of the strangler fig. Picking up his pack and ammunition belt, he returned to the chasm and took up a defensive position, his rifle sighted up the lava tube, torch doused, night vision goggles in place and waited. Two hours and nothing happened. Then nothing will, Gerallt thought and moved his things back to the base of the strangler fig. First though, he pulled the ladder to his side of the chasm, so it wouldn’t be too easy for anyone who came a-calling.

  Then, in the dying light of day, he went to the front of the tube and, after listening for several minutes but closer to half an hour, he crawled out and waited another lengthy period of time before standing up, half expecting to but probably not hear a shot. There was nothing.

  Then a voice said, “It’s ten point three feet to your right and fifteen point six feet in front of you.”

  Looking in the direction that would be, he saw the small drone hovering, moving slightly up a
nd down.

  He moved as quickly as he could down the slope of rocks and looking down between three of them he found the light.

  “Thank you,” he said but the drone was gone.

  Only after returning to the lava tube did he turn on the light and was pleased to see that it worked. Still, just in case, he needed to figure out how to make other torches. And, just to be certain, he returned to the crater end of the tube and peering through the vegetation, saw that all was back to normal. There was a guard walking to the right but every few steps, he cast a glance over his shoulder at the crater wall as though expecting a big cat to come leaping down after him. But there was no other cat. The snow leopard had left the crater completely with a partially filled belly. Not fully sated but enough so that it required a nap. And Horus let it because it was going to play a big part in his plan later.

  Chapter 24

  Following the invasion of São Rochelle by the forces of General Gutierrez, the three members of the Bundle group whose rooms adjoined the atrium which had been compromised were moved to other rooms. This had taken place under the supervision of guards from Ramiro’s forces while the Bundle were looking at the predators. Declercq, Symon Sheetz, Carmen, and Hansel and Gretel had done the moving which involved only personal items because the rooms were already furnished otherwise. The three who moved were Monica, Gloria and Siegfried. Monica and Gloria were moved to the atrium cluster with Hansel and Gretel. Siegfried was moved to a single across the Roost and further from Horus which did not make either him or Issaack happy but made Horus tickled as he could be if he could be tickled. Also, Horus was happy – as happy as a computer could be – that Monica had been moved to the back of the Roost where there was easy access to the outside and the side of the crater where the lava tube – where Gerallt was living – opened. And so it was that he put the next piece of his plan into action. Truth be told, he was working unknown to Issaack and Siegfried, but he was certain that they would have approved. If they hadn’t, he would have gone forward anyway because by now he was a West Point level senior in military tactics and was, admittedly in his own opinion, way above either of his creators. The first big problem was getting Monica all the way across the Roost to the computer lab without being seen. There was only one guard to worry about and that was in front of the door to the room where Horus resided – the computer center. There were two guards inside the front door but unless they started walking around because they got bored, he was safe. But since he controlled the lights and the doors – doors that no one but he, Issaack and Siegfried knew about – there shouldn’t be any problem.

  “Ms. Bartlett, wake up.”

  Monica stirred and rolled over, the sheet uncovering a bare leg. A bare arm also stuck out the top of the sheet. Well, everything about Monica was bare when she slept because she eschewed pajamas.

  “Ms. Bartlett.” A little louder this time.

  Monica’s eyelids fluttered but didn’t open.

  “MS. BARTLETT.”

  Monica sat up, eyes wide open, sheet clutched to her chest, not out of modesty but surprise.

  “What! Who’s there.”

  “Be quiet. It’s Horus.” Horus wasn’t worried about her being heard because the rooms were soundproof.

  “Horus. Can you… no, you can’t see me, can you?”

  “No, Ms. Bartlett. We turn off cameras at night.”

  “Okay.” She let the sheet drop.

  “What in the world do you want? Is there a fire?”

  “No, madam. If there were a fire, the alarms would be ringing and the sprinkler system might be on.”

  “Sprinkler system?”

  “Yes, madam. The Roost has everything. Even a fire department.”

  “Who?”

  “Mr. Declercq, Hansel, Gretel, Mr. Sheetz, and Ms. Santiago. But that’s not important. I need you to help me stop Esteves and his plot.”

  “What is his plot besides using that man as a predator?”

  “That man is Gerallt Cearrach and you are going to meet him tonight if all works according to plan.”

  “I am?”

  “Yes, madam.”

  “Is he coming here?”

  “No, you are going to him.”

  “Outside with all those predators?”

  “No, madam. Just outside of the Roost and maybe a little bit up the crater wall.”

  “But that snow leopard ….”

  “Is gone. He went over the top of the crater and is on the outside.” Just where I want him. “You’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “Well, then I better get dressed,” and Monica got up.

  “Not very much,” Horus said. “You’re going to be sleepwalking.”

  “I don’t … oh, I see.”

  “Yes, if you get caught, you’re sleepwalking.”

  Monica picked up her peignoir from the bed and put it on.

  “Can I wear shoes?”

  “I think it’s best. Slippers or flip flops would be best.”

  “I don’t have any. How about cross trainers?”

  “No socks.”

  “I don’t usually wear socks with cross trainers.”

  In two minutes, she was ready.

  “No wait. I need to brush my hair and put on makeup.”

  “No, you’re sleepwalking.”

  “I know,” Monica said laughingly. “It was a joke.”

  “Oh. I see,” Horus said but he didn’t. “Ha ha. When you get outside your room, it will be dark. Just follow the red arrows in the tile in front of you. Even if it is pointed the wrong way. These are fire exit arrows. I can’t talk to you until we get to the room where there is stuff we need. Don’t talk. Just follow the arrows.”

  Monica walked to the door, which opened. On the tile in front of her, she saw a red arrow pointed to her left. She stepped on the tile and turned as the door shut behind her. There was no arrow. Confused she looked her right – no arrow. Turning around she saw an arrow pointing toward her. She stepped forward and another appeared. Then several steps more and the arrow was to her right down a hallway and she followed even through the arrows pointed the other way. Step after step, tile after tile. Left turn, right turn, right turn, left turn, left, right, right, left and a longer walk with no turns. She heard swishes like doors sliding open but didn’t look and didn't talk. Then a right turn and three steps and no arrows. She stopped looked right and left and no arrows. Then there was a swish behind her and lights came on.

  “Wow,” Monica said. “That was scary.”

  “You did well.”

  “Where are we?”

  “The computer lab. Turn to your right. Take two steps then turn left.”

  Monica followed the directions.

  “On the third shelf on your right, there is a plastic box with a blue lid.”

  Monica got it.

  “Inside are earbuds. They let you communicate with me and others. Take out two.”

  Monica got the two and replaced the box.

  “There is a small box – black – with a one-inch silver circle on the top. Put one of the ear buds on that.”

  Monica did and several lights flashed.

  “Now get that one and put it in your right ear, silverish end first.”

  “It’s in.”

  “Can you hear me now?”

  “You sound like you’re inside my head.”

  “Just your ear. Now put the other one on the silver circle.”

  Monica complied and lights flashed again. She didn’t notice it, but the pattern was different.

  “Now put it in your left ear.”

  Monica did.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Leave it in your ear. That one is for Gerallt.”

  “Okay.”

  The lights went off.

  “Now you’re ready for the difficult part.”

  Chapter 25

  Monica followed Horus’s verbal directions in her earbud. Exiting the computer lab, she turned left a
nd knew that she was retracing her earlier path only this time there were no arrows in the tiles because now she was really supposed to be “sleepwalking.” Almost immediately, she heard in her ear: “There is a guard behind you. He has a flashlight. If he talks to you, stop. Say nothing. Stare straight ahead. Try not to blink.”

  Monica walked a few steps more.

  “Tu! Pavar! (You! Stop!)” she heard and stopped.

  “If he touches you or shines a light in your face, scream and run to your right.”

  Monica waited. She heard the soft pat pat pat of the guard’s hurried steps. Then a hand touched her left shoulder. She screamed and ran to her right.

  “Go right … now.”

  She turned and ran.

  “Go right … now.”

  She did.

  “Go right … now.”

  She did.

  “Walk. Breathe deeply.”

  She walked.

  “You lost him. Just be calm. Sleepwalking.”

  She hadn’t lost him. Horus had blocked him by making a “wall” slide out at the end of a corridor. The guard, who was guarding Horus’s room, didn’t know the building and was simply investigating a noise when he saw her. He had no idea where he was and wandered several minutes before finding himself (with a little help of extra walls) at the outside glass wall and then followed it back to the front. There the two guards laughed at his dilemma but one, who had been on guard at Horus’s on a prior duty, told him how to get back and not to leave his station again for any reason.

  In a few minutes, Horus told Monica to stop. She was facing a glass wall and she knew that the door to her room was just to her left and in front of her was the door to outside.

  “There is a guard out there,” Horus said. “He will stop you when you step out. Just stand still and wait. Someone will come. If he touches you … you know what to do. You’ve taken self-defense courses. But even then … just wait.”