* * *
Helen Zachary awakened and tried to open her eyes, but they were sealed shut with infection; additionally, her left eye was seared closed because of the extreme nature of the ore she had handled.
Jenks was having his leg tended to by three of the young women from the expedition who were happy just to be doing anything at all. The master chief kept smiling and reassuring the girls that others were there and undoubtedly looking for them, even through the horrible pain as they tried clumsily to set his leg. Every once in a while he would take a deep breath against the excruciating waves their touch produced, and then he would look up and wink at Virginia, who was proud of the way he tried to reassure all of them in the cave.
"That man, Kennedy," Robby babbled and cried, "he came here because someone wanted him to make sure nothing like that ore was brought out of here. But it was he who took samples. It was Kennedy's people that set off the dark one, the creature that lives in the pyramid; it attacked his team and then us when we tried to help. I don't know why, but that thing acted as though it was here to stop anything from leaving this mine. I mean the ore; it wasn't concerned with gold, just that damned ore. And then it was Professor Zachary who discovered why. She was actually communicating, well, in a rudimentary way with the smaller one, the one that's hidden us since the other went berserk."
"Why… not, we're… related."
Sarah and Virginia saw Helen was trying to sit up.
"Oh, don't do that, Helen, don't move, you're very sick," Virginia said, placing her hand on Helen's chest and easing her back down.
"Virginia?" she whispered. "Do…you and… still…hate me?"
"Stop that, no one at Group—" She caught herself before she said it. "No one ever hated you, Helen, no one."
A tear slowly trickled from Helen's right eye and forced its way down her swollen cheek. "Niles," she whispered.
"Dear, it was Niles who sent us," Virginia whispered in her ear.
A sad smile came to Helen's features as she lost consciousness.
"What did she mean when she said the creature and us are related?" asked Sarah.
Robby placed a wet cloth on Helen's forehead and then sat back and explained. "Before the dark beast sank the boat and barge out of anger over those guys' taking ore samples, Dr. Zachary ran a complete DNA sequencing on both of the creatures. There was not one difference between them, or us."
"That's impossible. From what I saw, that thing is an amphibian," Virginia challenged.
Robby shrugged. "Doesn't matter what you believe; those animals were once us. The doc said it chose to go back to the water, whereas we chose to stay on land."
"You say she communicated with it?" Sarah asked.
"According to a wall diary of sorts, painted by the Sincaro, which the beast and its kind saved once upon a time from a bleak future, the darker species and its kind used to be slaves alongside the Indians. And they were the only creatures, human or otherwise, who could mine the uranium without becoming sick. The smaller ones, the doc figured, were wild, never tamed by the Inca, that's why they have more tolerance for us than the dark one. The doc said the animals had a natural resistance but not a complete immunity to the ore. It had something to do with total immersion therapy, a natural way to fight radiation sickness. Since the creatures mined the ore underwater, they didn't die as rapidly as us land walkers."
"But what did the Inca need or even want the ore for?" Virginia asked.
"The doc said they used it to heat their giant smelting pots. She says they discovered it was more efficient than trying to use the natural volcanic aspects of the mine. No telling how many people were killed during their reign over this area. Pizarro might have had the right idea; who's to say who screwed who?" he said bitterly. "The Sincaro weren't sad their masters were conquered; I bet those creatures have been a sight happier also."
"How many are there?" Sarah asked, actually concerned.
"Kelly, you were there when the professor transcribed her notes. What did she say about the number of animals?"
Kelly was haggard like the rest but she gave a smile that told Sarah she had a lot of courage. "She said that the animals are a long-lived species, but Helen thinks these two may be the last of their kind. The wild one, the green and gold creature, is very protective of all things in this valley. It saved us from starving to death."
"But what—"
"Any further questions can be asked out here," a deep, French-accented voice said from the cave opening, cutting off the question Virginia was about to ask. "So please, come out quickly, as my associate has stupidly pulled the pin on a hand grenade and is quite prepared to throw it in among you," Farbeaux said as he stared at the stupidity of the move by Mendez.
They all stood with the exception of the injured professor and Jenks, who could only look around in frustration for a weapon.
"These guys aren't with you?" Robby asked as he started to follow the rest from the enclosure.
"No, they're not," Sarah answered.
"Please, senor, find the pin and replace it in the grenade, quickly," Farbeaux ordered, flicking his eyes from the motley group of survivors to the sour countenance of the Colombian.
Mendez scowled as he placed the silver pin back in the grenade. He tossed it back to one of his men and then faced the twelve raggedy people before him.
"Colonel Farbeaux, I take it?" Sarah asked.
"At your service." The Frenchman actually looked pleased for a moment as he took in Sarah. "Ms. McIntire, isn't it? How was Okinawa, my dear? A learning experience, perhaps?" He turned and told several of the men in Spanish to light a few of the torches that lined the wall.
Sarah didn't answer, but she did wonder how this maniac had known she had been to Japan recently, then she thought she knew the answer. In her estimation, it didn't take a brain like Niles Compton's to figure it out.
Farbeaux smiled as he walked past Sarah and Virginia and leaned into the small cave opening. He frowned at the sight of Helen, then he straightened and returned to the group. Mendez and his men had found other torches and the area was alight with illumination that brought out the wall paintings and carvings into stark relief.
"Helen is seriously ill?" he asked.
"She's dying, Colonel, so surely you don't intend to hold us up here. We must get her to a hospital," Virginia said, lowering her hands.
Farbeaux looked from the Americans to Mendez and closed his eyes.
"Please keep your hands in the air, senora," Mendez growled.
"I will not," Virginia stated flatly.
"Do as he says," Jenks hissed from his place just inside the small cave. He was watching through the opening while lying on his side on the cave floor.
"Shut up, Chief, these people have been through too damned much; we're taking them out of here," Virginia announced.
"I'm afraid no one can leave here," Mendez said as he waved his men forward.
Farbeaux reached into his satchel, removed a small bottle, and tossed it to Virginia. She looked at him quizzically.
"Potassium and iodine. It will slow the spread of infection, but I'm afraid by the looks of the professor's condition it will do no good, though no harm, either. She must have received over five thousand rods, a rather massive exposure."
Virginia angrily tossed the pill bottle back to Farbeaux.
"Shove them up your—"
"It's far too late for Professor Zachary," Sarah said, stepping quickly in between Virginia and the Frenchman. "But I'm curious to know why you thought to bring the one pharmaceutical that could help with a lesser exposure, Colonel."
Farbeaux raised his left eyebrow at Sarah and then with the corner of his eye saw Mendez tense up.
"I suppose you wouldn't accept it was a lucky guess, perhaps?"
"Not likely, Colonel."
"I should also like to know why you would take such a medicinal precaution without informing your financier, senor," Mendez said as he pulled a nine-millimeter Beretta from its holster and
pointed it at Farbeaux. His men followed suit with their Ingram submachine guns. "Now I insist you tell me why it is you are really here."
The Frenchman was about to respond when he saw the disturbance in the water. The wake was traveling very fast, obviously created by something just beneath the surface of the canal. Mendez saw his eyes flick from himself to something the Colombian could not detect.
The creature was suddenly there. It had exploded out of the water like a shot from a cannon. The first two of Mendez's mercenaries never knew they were being attacked. Being the closest to the grotto, they were taken unawares backward into the roiling waters, as everyone present saw just a spray of water and a fine mist of red swirling where the two men had been only moments before.
Farbeaux didn't hesitate as the mercenaries were snatched from the land of the living in a microsecond. He made a dash for the opening in the far wall that Sarah had discovered earlier. Too late, Mendez saw what Farbeaux was attempting. His slow reaction time seemed even slower in sharp contrast to the quick and violent death of two of his men. He fired wildly at the retreating Frenchman. Three nine-millimeter bullets hit to the right of the opening, missing Farbeaux by mere inches as he disappeared up the steep steps.
Just then, the beast came from the grotto again. A sudden swath of water accompanied the creature as it cleared the grotto wall by six feet, landing inside the circle of gunmen, who began firing. Sarah ignored the noise and gunfire as she seized this opportunity to grab for the Ingram of the man to her left. But just as she thought she would succeed at catching him by surprise, the Colombian sensed her movement and turned toward her.
Jenks tried desperately to maneuver his bad leg. The pain was so intense that he knew he only had a moment to react and help the diminutive army officer. As gunfire erupted only feet away from Mendez and his men as they defended themselves against the maniacal creature in their midst, Master Chief Jenks grabbed his shattered leg with both hands and with a howl lashed out in a sideways kicking motion that caught the armed man beside Sarah by both of his ankles. Jolted by the unexpected blow, the man fired his Ingram, sending rounds into the stone ceiling.
Sarah reacted almost as quickly, slamming her fist into the man's upturned face as he was knocked off balance. He hit the floor right in front of the small cave opening, and Sarah let her forward momentum carry her down on top of him. Jenks was still screaming in pain as the two rolled into him.
As Mendez watched in horror, the beast before him swiped with long powerful arms at his men. Seven-inch claws ripped into their flesh and bone, and the heated air was instantly corrupted with blood and sinew. In shock at what he was witnessing, he blindly turned his Beretta on the bloody scene. He fired twice, hitting one of his men in the back. Then he panicked and ran for the doorway that he had just watched the Frenchman disappear into a moment before. Three of his men quickly followed their boss into the far wall.
Sarah had managed to gain control of the Ingram but the Colombian, merely stunned, was quick to recover from the blow of landing on the stone. As Sarah raised the weapon and tried to gain some semblance of aim from where she lay, another scream and a unlaced boot heel came crashing down into the mercenary's face. Jenks started shaking badly after he had smashed his broken leg once again into the man. He passed out from the pain as Sarah screamed a shout of triumph and rolled free of the unconscious Colombian.
Robby, Kelly, and Virginia were trying their best to get the rest of the students out of harm's way as bullets started flying in every direction from the firing of panicked men. Several rounds found their mark as the beast screamed and roared in pain. But that didn't stop the huge creature as it reached out and grabbed the closest man still standing in its midst. It easily raised him above its head and tossed him like a stuffed doll into four others.
From her position on the ground, Sarah saw one of the men near her had expended his magazine and drawn a large, very lethal-looking machete from a long scabbard and raised it above his head. As it came down, Sarah pulled the trigger. Later she would be grateful for the three-round burst-of-fire setting on the Ingram because in her haste she depressed and held the trigger down. Two of the three rounds caught the man in the back as his machete came crashing down into the chest of the animal. The blade sank deep as the man's forward momentum carried him into the enraged creature. Blood spewed out of the animal as it grabbed for the man that had hurt it so, and jumped with him into the grotto.
Sarah quickly sighted on the next man, concerned that her slowness might have killed the creature that had suddenly come to their rescue. As she was about to depress the trigger again a large boot slammed down on the short barrel of the weapon, knocking it onto the wet stone floor. She looked up; another of the remaining mercenaries was standing over her with his own smoking weapon pointed right at her head. Now that the animal appeared to be disposed of, the man clearly relished the power of holding the struggling Sarah beneath his boot.
Robby saw what was about to happen and came at the two. Another of the surviving men quickly swiped at Robby and sent him sprawling to the floor. Several of the panicked girls screamed as he skidded along the stone.
Sarah knew the master chief wasn't likely to throw this man off his feet. But instead of being scared at her imminent death, she became angry as her attacker brought his hot gun barrel up to her face. Suddenly he jerked as a look of consternation crossed his face. His body quickly jerked again and then he fell forward, slamming face first into the cave opening and rolling dead onto the floor. Sarah felt the fine spray of his blood as it misted down her face. But her horror turned to amazement when two figures rose from the grotto. They were dressed in black wetsuits and advanced with two XM-8 light machine guns at an aiming position.
Now 5.56-millimeter rounds started to slam into the remaining men. Five of them went down without ever knowing they were hit, bullets neatly parting their foreheads. Three others besides the one that had almost dispatched Sarah managed to at least turn toward their sudden executioners. Going from a frightening animal attack to this new threat overwhelmed them; more XM-8 rounds easily found their mark. One man withdrew a hand grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and was in the act of throwing it toward the new, human demons to attack them when he was also hit, the round glancing off his skull that sent him sprawling. The grenade hit the slick flooring and Virginia, thinking quickly, picked it up and threw it toward the canal opening to the outside. It hit the floor and bounded into the arched opening, where it detonated next to the right-side arch. The shrapnel burrowed into the soft, water-soaked stone.
Sarah, thirty feet from Virginia and the others, realized what was happening. They had been saved! The two figures rising from the water were close to being the best marksmen in the world. Jack Collins and Carl Everett were methodical as they went from man to man, dispatching all with neat shots to the head. Sarah knew they would take no chances in the environment around them and with the students in such close proximity, even while they would be ruthless in dealing with the remaining threat. Jack and Carl would never allow an enemy to survive to harm people again, especially where kids were concerned. The four remaining men who tried to run for the wall opening only knew the sudden slug of impact on the back of their heads as their bodies came crashing down to the ground.
"Clear!" the smaller of the two men shouted in the echoing and sudden silence.
"Clear!" the taller answered.
Jack and Carl moved their silenced weapons from side to side as they visually covered the interior of the cave around them. Everywhere their eyes went, the barrel followed. Several of the girls of the Zachary expedition screamed as one of the smoking barrels slowly pointed at them and then moved on.
"That's it, Jack, they're all down! The bad guys are down!" Sarah called out as she held one arm in the air.
Slowly the two men stepped from the shallows of the grotto. They had entered from the lagoon side right into the melee of the animal attack. They had watched the violence explode above them a
s the beast swiped and moved like greased lightning. They couldn't tell who was being attacked or who was inside the large chamber they had surfaced into. After the beast disappeared, they quickly assessed the situation and Jack communicated with hand gestures what the plan would be. The former Special Forces operative and ex-navy SEAL had understood exactly how to proceed. Now they stepped onto the hot floor and surveyed the devastation around them.
* * *
"Goddamn, Toad, it took you assholes long enough!" Jenks said, grimacing in anguish as Virginia again tried to straighten out the mangled broken right leg.
"Chief, we thought that fish man may have got you," Carl said as he examined the first mercenary Sarah had wrestled with. The man was surely dead.
The lieutenant commander stood as Jack and Sarah came back to the group. Carl safed his XM-8 and placed it on a snap hook on his weight belt. He unzipped the top half of his black wetsuit because of the extreme heat.
"I see you found some of the kids that we saw on the milk cartons, Chief," he said as he took in the haggard group before him.
"Jack, Helen's with them; she's in there." Sarah pointed.
Jack slowly removed his wetsuit hood, then went toward the small cave and bent down. He shined his light on the lone person inside. Helen Zachary moved, rolling her head toward him.
"Professor Zachary, I'm Major Jack Collins. Niles sends his regards and wants you to come home now," he said as he stepped into the enclosure. He kneeled down and took her hand. Jack immediately recognized the nature of the sickness afflicting Helen.
She attempted to smile but failed through her obvious pain. "Give Niles… my apologies, I… don't think I'll be able to… promise anything," she murmured and Jack squeezed her hand.
"I'll tell him that you did what you set out to do, Professor. You proved your theory about a species unknown to us."
This time she managed to smile, as Virginia entered the cave. The heat inside because of the lava vent made it almost unbearable, but still Helen shivered with cold.
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