Legend egt-2

by David L. Golemon

  As he stilled his heart he thought he could see through the trees to the lagoon beyond. He felt his chest and legs, and found no broken bones. His right ankle felt as though it may have been fractured until he attempted to stand and could put his full weight on it. That was when he noticed the damage to his boot and the puncture marks that lined the thick rubber sole. They looked like teeth marks. He was having the hardest time remembering what had happened to him. The only thing he could recall was drowning — being pulled under the water and not being able to come up for air. He remembered the feeling of being released and quickly grabbed again, and then a sense of speed, of being pulled through the depths and then just as suddenly being let go. Now he could recall the water becoming strangely and overly warm around him while there had been a tremendous explosion of motion around him. Then another vague memory of an animal that had no right to be in existence. The plesiosaur started to rematerialize in his confused mind. Now he remembered being thrown into the water and even firing at the great animal as it smashed into the boat.

  Jack tested his sore ankle by taking a few steps. Then he remembered the berries being placed in his mouth, and saw where he had spat them out onto the grassy forest floor. He looked around and wondered who it had been who tried to feed him. He was deep in thought when a bunch of the small red berries hit him on the head and shoulders. He looked up in time to see a small, shiny arm shoot back into the tree branches. Keeping his eyes on the tree, he reached down and retrieved one of the berries and popped it into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed and continued to look upward. That was when he heard chattering along the ground in front of him, and he looked that way. As he watched, several of the small monkey-like creatures Sarah had said she had seen grooming poor Sanchez walked out of the underbrush. Jack felt as if he were hallucinating. He shook his head and stared as they advanced upright with a bowlegged gait. Their arms were longer than their legs, and they seemed to wobble as they walked. Their skin was perfectly smooth with not a hair visible. Scales covered their bodies and even in the dark he could see the fins that lined their forearms and legs. Small gills puffed in and out along their jawline, and their small lips were parted to show teeth that were short and pointy, not like a monkey's at all.

  "Well, what have we here?" His own voice sounded strange to him.

  The five small creatures stopped short when he spoke. They looked from one to the other as if the sound coming from this man amazed them.

  Jack now noticed their small hands; and indeed, as Sarah had said, their fingers were joined by webbing, and the same went for their overly large feet. There was a finlike appendage on the top of their heads that flared up and down as they took in air through their small noses.

  "I suppose I have you to thank for the berries and water?"

  The creature closest to him turned to look at its companions and then back at Jack. It tilted its head and then suddenly ran the thirty or so feet to the trees and disappeared, immediately followed by the others. Jack watched them leave and wondered what had scared them off. He listened closely, and he heard splashing coming from the lagoon. He turned in that direction and that was when he saw the footprints. They were huge and came from the lagoon. There was another set going back the way they had come. The enormous webbed prints heading from the beach looked as if whatever they had belonged to had been dragging something.

  "What in the hell?" he mumbled as he reached down to touch one of the impressions. He picked up his nine-millimeter Beretta. Had it been him that had been dragged ashore?

  He heard voices and looked again toward the lagoon. He followed the tracks of the large, fan-shaped footprints all the way to the water. In the bright spot of sunlight he saw the surreal vision of Teacher anchored in the center of the lagoon. Several people crowded the upper deck as they stared down at a man in the water. Jack stepped close to the water and called out.

  * * *

  Aboard Teacher, the crew had just opened one of the lab windows to take Carl in when a shout startled all on deck. Sarah looked toward where the others were pointing and her heart almost leapt from her chest. Jack was standing on the small beach with his hands on his hips. Then he raised his hands to his face, to cup his mouth.

  "Will someone get a boat and get me off this beach?" he hollered. Shouts and laughter erupted everywhere on the upper deck. Carl dove back and swam to the other side of Teacher, then pulled himself up into the rubber boat. He then quickly started the motor and cast off, sped around to the opposite side, and zoomed into the lagoon.

  Running the Zodiac up on shore, Carl hopped out before it came to a complete stop. He shook Jack's hand and then guided him to the rubber boat. Sarah was so elated she didn't feel it as the others on deck patted her on the back and shoulders. Even Danielle Serrate gave her a smile.

  * * *

  An hour later, Jack was cleaned up, his ankle taped and his stomach full of scrambled eggs and sausage supplied by Heidi Rodriguez. Sarah sat next to him and kept shoving food into his face while he told his strange story. Her happiness brought a mood of joy and a sense of reprieve to the rest of the crew.

  "Not to break the mood here, but how in the hell has that animal survived?" Jack asked.

  Keating started to reply but bowed to an excited Ellenshaw instead.

  "Well, Major, one of the things we must consider is the fact that this lagoon, this valley, must now be considered as one would an island. A place that is separate from the rest of the world. And as on an island that has been left undisturbed, the animal life and even its ecosystem will evolve almost totally void of outside interference. The indigenous food supply would be the main key to any species and its growth. If this plesiosaur, or whatever it was, and its offspring has an ample supply of, let's say, monkey and fish, and both land and lagoon life is as abundant as I've ever seen in such a small environment, there would be less competition for that food supply. The same can be said of other life forms associated with this lagoon. Obviously, this species would be near the top of that food chain."

  The others looked at Ellenshaw as if he had just spoken in Latin.

  "Perhaps another example, Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. It was separated many, many thousands of years ago from the continent and in consequence the species on that island developed far differently from their cousins on the mainland. Why? Because they were isolated. Birds, for example, became flightless because they had nothing to fear in this new environment."

  "Until man intervened on the island," Keating interjected. "Then many of these amazing new species went extinct, like the dodo bird, once found on Madagascar and now gone forever."

  The group brooded quietly as Keating reminded them that although the mother animal that had attached Teacher had been a killer, still she couldn't compare to the relentlessness of man. The uncomfortable silence continued until Danielle broke in with questions.

  "But how does an animal escape the very extinction that killed its land cousins? If I remember my biology classes correctly, wasn't the plesiosaur a saltwater species?"

  "As for its escaping extinction, the argument has been made that many varieties of sea animal may have escaped the fate of their cousins by the simple fact of their enjoying a more abundant food chain in a particular location," Keating said as Ellenshaw agreed, aggressively bobbing his white head.

  "And the fact that this variety of plesiosaur is clearly living in freshwater indicates that the creatures may have left the harsher, more competitive hunting grounds of the oceans for the less dangerous waterways to be found inland. We may never know. I have a new theory about the animal that attacked us, as I have looked at the carcass very closely. I believe one reason this beast didn't go along gracefully to extinction land is the fact—" Ellenshaw paused for dramatic effect, "I believe this particular species has turned into what we know today as the giant sea turtle."

  "Oh, come on! How can you speculate so carelessly like that?"

  With that, the argument was on between the two scientists.


  Ignoring them, Sarah asked Jack, "How in the world did you kill the mother animal?"

  "I didn't," he answered as he popped half a sausage into his mouth.

  "Jack, something killed it. Tore its head right off and then staked its body to the side of the boat," Carl said.

  The major turned around and looked out of the tinted side window. He opened it and breathed deeply. His eyes scanned the water and then the small beach he had been on only an hour before.

  "Something saved me from the creature and dragged me up on that beach. It was something big," he said as he turned back to face the others. He took Sarah's hand in his own and didn't care who saw it. "I was as good as dead; the plesiosaur had me dead in her sights and there could have been no way I could have escaped on my own. I was pulled down by the smaller ones, hard enough to sprain my ankle. I was taken deep underwater. Every time I tried to fight to the surface, I was pulled even deeper. Then something came at the animal with incredible speed. I only saw a violent strike by something and then I was released. There was blood in the water; I could taste it. I didn't know if it was my blood or someone or something else's. Then before I could reach the surface, I was grabbed by my ankle and pulled away. All I remember after that was the feeling of being pulled along in the water. Then whatever saved me from the animal left me on the sand, and that is all I remember until I woke up with one of Sanchez's small monkey fishes trying to feed me."

  "Then what was it in that water that saved you, Jack?" Virginia asked.

  "I don't know, but according to the footprints that were left in the sand where I woke up, it's huge. Its feet resembled those on the couple of statues we came across."

  "My god," cried Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III. "It's real! The legend of a creature that walks upright is real!" His amazement was enough to interrupt his argument with Keating.

  * * *

  The Rio Madonna was at anchor, and Farbeaux thought the captain should count himself lucky for being that way. When the Americans went off the radar Farbeaux became curious as to why, when suddenly Captain Santos threw his engines in reverse and brought the Rio Madonna to a standstill in the middle of the river. There, the captain had sent a small party ahead to reconnoiter the river. They were gone but an hour when they reported the rapids lay in front of the ship. Santos had narrowly missed smashing the Rio Madonna to splinters. Of course Mendez was angry at this development, stomping the decks, threatening everyone who crossed his path. But the captain smiled and watched how coolly Farbeaux handled him, by not handling him at all. The Frenchman seemed content to wait and the captain was curious as to why.

  "I'm afraid this perpetual false twilight is affecting your capacity to see my point, senor," Farbeaux said, "The Americans are there and we are not. Do you wish to charge in there with your guns blazing and take by force that which we can have with no risks by just waiting?"

  Mendez stopped his pacing at the stern of the boat. He stared out at the anchored barge behind them and thought for a moment.

  "I wish to do something, anything," he grumbled.

  "As I would, but I am a patient man. The Americans cannot leave here without going through us; we have effectively cut off any retreat they may have. Besides, my friend, the minerals have been there since the beginning of time; they're not going anywhere."

  Mendez made a decision. "As always, you are right; I must learn to be as you. But you must understand, it is hard for a man such as I." He turned to face Farbeaux. "What is your plan?"

  "We will wait until the middle of the night and utilize our rebreather scuba equipment, which won't leave any telltale bubbles on the surface, and simply swim under or around the Americans and reconnoiter the mine. Are you ready for a swim, Senor Mendez?"

  "Yes, this is a good plan. But I must ask as I am curious, why not just place a charge on the bottom of their boat and send her to the bottom of the lagoon?"

  "And then if there are survivors, senor, what then? What if three or four of those highly capable men survive? I am prone to believe they wouldn't be in a very charitable mood because we tried to kill them, do you?"

  Mendez just glared at Farbeaux. He hated having things explained to him as if he were a wayward schoolboy.

  "I know these people you seem so quick to try and murder, senor. They are capable of cutting your men to pieces." Farbeaux glanced toward the sneering Rosolo. "Let's find out first if we even have a reason for such ruthlessness, shall we?"

  Mendez relaxed and finally smiled. "That is why men such as I pay handsomely for men such as you, my friend; they think on another level."

  Farbeaux nodded and then moved away toward the bridge.

  As soon as his back was turned Mendez ceased to smile and addressed Rosolo.

  "You will of course place the charge and send the people he admires so much to the bottom. Just make sure it won't detonate until we are well within the mine."

  Captain Rosolo grinned. "Si, jefe."

  * * *

  "You look like a man who is concerned about a problem, senor," Santos said when Farbeaux closed the bridge door.

  "There is no doubt about your ability to observe. And of course, I do have problems. Senor Mendez is a fool. But I have observed you, Captain Santos, and I don't believe you are one." Farbeaux held the captain's eyes. "And since you and I are not fools, tell me how a river captain, one who has said that he has never traveled this particular tributary before, knew there would be rapids ahead."

  Santos smiled broadly. "I was born with a sense for danger, senor. My own mother, she was always crossing herself and telling me I was of Satan's villa. Proclaimed this until the day she sent me to Bogota and the Catholic nuns there. Then when they couldn't figure me out, I was sent even farther away to study at the seminary. But, senor, the river, she was always calling for my return. So you see, I feel the river, I know the river and her many moods."

  Farbeaux laughed. "You have a gift all right, senor, but it is a gift of storytelling. Be careful in the coming day or so, Captain, and hide this strange… ability of yours; someone other than myself may become suspicious."

  Santos watched as Farbeaux left his bridge. He crossed himself and again kissed and then caressed his medal before dropping it back into his shirt. Then he went to the window and checked on the men on deck. He opened a drawer and removed a Colt.38 Police Special, all the while watching.

  "Si, senor, I will watch them very closely. But you, I will watch even closer," he said as he checked the loads in the pistol.

  PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

  Jason Ryan stood in the giant hangar and watched as the modified Boeing 747–400 aircraft taxied after landing in the hot afternoon sun. Ryan was dressed in casual clothes, as was his two-man Delta escort. Each was armed with a nine-millimeter Berretta. As the giant plane approached they heard the whine of her four large engines slowly throttling down. Her falsified camouflage had been painted on by the United States Air Force and was styled after the livery colors of blue, white, and red. The words federal express were written across her side and the giant tail.

  Ryan could see almost no variation from a regular civilian cargo carrier. But he did notice the strange protrusions on the nose of the 747. There were no windows; it was one long, sealed aircraft. The Boeing plane taxied slowly to the front of the hangar, where the engines shut down. A large yellow vehicle streaked forward, and a ground crew immediately hooked up the nose wheel and started pulling her in.

  "So this is Proteus?" he said as he watched the plane being pulled inside. The large hangar door began to lower after the five-story tail section cleared the opening.

  When the aircraft stopped, a gangway was driven forward just beneath the crew door and it opened. Several men scrambled down. They were air police and two came quickly forward. Four others remained in back with two lethal-looking MP-5 machine guns pointed toward the hangar offices and two others pointed somewhat toward Ryan and his men. Two advanced and asked for identification from Ryan and his men. He examined each, lo
oking very doubtful about Ryan's navy card, enough to give him a nervous moment. Then the man quickly handed the cards back and then turned and waved toward the giant plane. Twenty U.S. Air Force personnel started down the gangway.

  "Which one of you is Ryan?" asked the largest man the lieutenant had ever seen in a military uniform. He was a black full-bird colonel. His voice boomed throughout the hangar.

  "Lieutenant, JG Ryan, sir," replied Ryan as he again handed over his military ID.

  "So, I was told you have the targeting data? I hear it's a small one."

  "Yes, sir, think you can hit it?" Ryan asked, putting his ID back into his wallet.

  "Son, we haven't hit a goddamned thing yet in thirty-one attempts, and two of the test targets were an ocean, an ocean! Hell, the last time out we nearly blew the fucking tail off this thing," he said with half a smile.

  Ryan looked over at the two Delta men and closed his eyes, "Be sure we bring the high-altitude chutes just in case, I have a feeling Operation Spoiled Sport may not work out."

  18

  Jack, Virginia, and Carl had come to the conclusion that, after an inspection of the mine, regardless of whether they found the lost students, the expedition would need to be terminated for reasons that included a possible Broken Arrow situation in the valley. Jack knew he would have to alert Niles and then get a full military team in here somehow to conduct a proper search for the weapon, if there was one. But between the discovery of a black operational unit that had been clandestinely attached to Zachary's team and the finding of an activated nuclear trigger key, the odds were soaring that this particular expedition could turn bad real quick. Jack would tell the others about the nuclear aspect only after the lagoon and the mine were checked for possible survivors of the lost expedition.