Beneath the Shining Jewel

by Balogun Ojetade

  The sky flickered. Thunder rumbled. Rain pattered on their body armor.

  Mba nodded. A telepathic message had dropped seconds after they set fire to the Poacher’s house. It was Binta, calling through Digger, ordering them forward to Bunseki’s position: the hotspot entry point. Jima had made contact through a garbled messaged from his driver. Bunseki’s crew was missing. Jima and his corporal had entered the sewer in pursuit of survivors.

  The constables marched into #1. A loud click came moments later as the oga’koi-koi’s mouth clamped tight. Digger would be in the driver’s seat. Swole would be with her, coordinating telepathic communications, since #2 was damaged.

  “Binta,” Mba said, gesturing to the transport. “How am I going to consult?”

  “Up close and personal,” she said, stepping close. She pushed the extra shortbow into his hand.

  “Come on, Binta. I can’t move in those tunnels!” Mba said. “It’s been 20 years. I’m not in shape for that.”

  “I’d say you’re about the right caliber for the hotspot,” she said, glancing over at the sewer opening where it stuck out of the hillside.

  “You’ve been doing pretty well so far,” She said. “We lost three constables at the stationhouse and at least one here. I can’t spare anyone.”

  “But...” Mba patted his gut. “I’ll slow you down.”

  “You better not,” Binta said. “And if you get stuck in the hole we’ll go through you.”

  She turned to Toy.

  He snapped to attention.

  “What happened?” Binta asked.

  “Gnaw Maws had entered the house,” Toy replied, his voice cracking. “We were too late to help. He…he manifested.”

  “Who?” Binta asked.

  “Go easy,” Mba said. “He had to...”

  “I shot Dummy!” Toy cried.

  “Dummy manifested?” Binta said, her eyes darting between Toy and Mba. “And you shot him?”

  Toy nodded.

  Binta punched him with a hard right to the jaw.

  Toy dropped onto his haunches. He looked up at Binta, bewildered.

  Binta extended her hand and pulled him back to his feet. “That’s so you don’t get comfortable killing friends.” Her voice was heavy with emotion as she slapped the younger man’s shoulders and helped him adjust his clothes and padded armor.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Toy said, sucking on a split lip. “I won’t.”

  “What about the little man with the dog?” Binta said, turning to Mba.

  “Nobody else home,” Mba said with a shrug. “Might be the individual that Jima’s trying to rescue from the Gnaw Maws.”

  “Who lived at the address?” Binta asked.

  Mba paused, then shrugged again. “I didn’t have time to research it.”

  “Dummy was infected during the attack?” Binta said, shaking her head. “Jima would have said something.”

  “Who knows?” Mba said. “The old cripple’s gone mad, going off half-cocked without backup…oh, yeah, there was lots of body fluid…and we had no way of bagging the place. It’s a residential area. The back doors were broken in. Neighbors could have entered, so I burned it.”

  Binta nodded, turned and walked toward the oga’koi-koi.

  CHAPTER forty-eight

  Jima pushed himself through the pitch blackness, his lamp dimmed to a dark red glow. The last waves of adrenaline and hope had burned down to embers. His foot cramped with every step; his lower back was seized with spasms as he shivered in the cold. His coat was soaked and clung to his aching legs, tangled in his braces. The sewer’s low ceiling forced him into a perpetual crouch, inflaming his aching hips. At times, the circular sewer opened outward where new construction replaced the old tunnel with flat walls and floor. For those short stretches, he could straighten up to allow some circulation into his cramped shoulders. But otherwise, there was no relief.

  His Tyrak-suit enhanced hearing picked up the rapid movement of Gnaw Maws in waves and, sometimes, dreamlike among them, he was sure he heard a woman’s voice talking; pleading and then cajoling, insinuating. Impossible! No one knew what the early Gnaw Maws were like before Ritual was fully formed. Were they more human?

  He caught a flash in the dark, as if amber light was boiling in the water. A silhouette appeared over it, hunched and backlit by a lamp. Some forty yards from Jima, near where the tunnel branched east and west, someone in padded armor was bent over something in the water. This far in, the liquid flooded halfway up Jima’s calves. The rain fell hard upon the surface.

  Jima moved closer. The stranger’s lamp showed activity momentarily above the water’s surface before it sank out of view. It was just a glimpse, but enough. The stranger pulled the brain out of an open skull and pushed it into a black bag that he then swung up over his shoulder on a strap, where two similar bags hung.

  Jima drew his sword. He looked up. The mysterious constable was gone. Glimmering light shimmered from the tunnel on the right where Jima knew the sewer stretched on to the east for half a mile to another cistern where water drained directly from the roads. Moving cautiously, uncertainly on his braces and the Tyrak-skin, Jima approached the crossing. An upgrade to the sewer created a flooded space 10 feet across where the cramped main pipes intersected inside a massive stone culvert. Jima was able to rise out of his crouch near where the knee-deep water still glowed. Some source of light beneath the surface gave off a pinkish ambience, but sudden splashing sounds to his left kept him from giving it more than a glance.

  “Eeeat” reverberated from the black hole that marked where the tunnel branched to the west. He glanced to his right and saw a black figure move and then...

  “Eeeat.”

  Click. Click. Click.

  “Eeeat. Eat. Eat.”

  Click. Click.

  Jima swept his sword around and aimed the point into the black circle of shadow. His hand came up to his lamp but froze as his eyes adjusted, making out a single distant circle of dim light…and movement.

  Black shapes lurched across the opening to the cistern.

  “Eeeat!”

  The word slithered across the darkness, growing louder with excitement and anticipation.

  Eeeat. Eeeat. EAT!

  “Be good! Be good!” A woman’s voice commanded.

  She’s alive! Jima thought. “I’m coming,” he whispered in answer. He started forward, twirling his sword as a new surge of aşe pushed him quickly toward the dim light where the Gnaw Maws moved.

  The Gnaw Maws continued to skip and skitter across the circular opening where the tunnel connected to the western cistern, splashing water. They chanted and crooned the act of their obsession: “Eat. Eat. Eeeat!”

  Jima stepped out of the tunnel and onto a flooded walkway. It was a yard wide and circled a pool five yards across.

  “Eeeat!”

  The hunting pack, startled by Jima’s appearance, screamed noises that sounded like both terror and desire at once. Their monstrous forms drew back, crouching; hissing; teeth snapping. There were a dozen in the pack: eight adults and four children. As they backed away, Jima saw that one wore a lamp where its tattered mask hung from the side of its skinned head.

  Partial faces looked back at Jima; faces that were masks of fear; of rage; of desire.

  “Eeeat!”

  The pack huddled together and then crept backward to the far side of the cistern. They crouched low, biting and slashing at the air as they gathered around a woman’s legs. She was beautiful, with dark hair, dressed in a white wrap skirt and blouse. She stood with her back against the wall next to another opening. The squad would come that way. Thank God! She appeared unhurt...

  Jima turned up the light on his lamp. It’s me, he croaked. “It’s your father, Surai. It’s me!”

  The woman’s – his daughter’s – eyes were round with near madness as the hunting pack cringed at her feet.

  “Are you hurt?” Jima asked, keeping an eye on the pack.

  “Eeeat!” A big male his
sed.

  “Eeeat, click, click...” the others answered.

  Their naked eyes focused on Jima’s face, at the dark skin there.

  “Father?”

  “I was told you lived in Badundu,” Jima said. “I wanted to get you out.”

  Surai smiled. “You came for me?”

  “Eeeat!” The big male hissed again.

  A trio of the creatures broke off and scurried to the far side of the cistern, behind Jima. The others crept forward.

  “Yes, honey, I love you,” Jima said, struggling to get the words past his sobs. He wiped tears from his eyes and brought his focus back to the pack. Their hunched and bloodied forms were moving closer.

  “I’m in trouble, father,” Surai said, her hands coming up to her mouth. Her eyes were wide, childlike.

  “Not anymore,” Jima said. “I’m going to draw them away; you run. Help is coming. I’m sorry I let you down.”

  “EEEAT!” The Gnaw Maws screamed as they charged forward.

  Jima swung his sword.

  The top of a Gnaw Maw’s head fell into the pool with a splash. The creature staggered and fell.

  The pack paused, startled by the attack.

  Jima cast a final look at Surai and then darted back into the tunnel, staggering toward the east.

  “EEEAT!” Click. Click. Click. “Eat!” The pack screamed in unison, their need for flesh quickly overpowering their fear. They followed Jima, moving fast.

  CHAPTER forty-nine

  Mba stood beside Binta. Her eyes were closed. The lids fluttered rapidly and her breathing was slow.

  “Swole says more bad news,” she said. “Commander Dinsu has relayed a report that one of his units found an extended passenger carriage parked along the main road. The vehicle belongs to the secondary school and was last seen bringing students home after a wrestling match. No one was in the cart. About a dozen footprints led toward Badundu.”

  “What about Kundo?” Mba asked.

  “Does Vos Anana have anything for us yet?” Binta asked, ignoring him.

  “What about Kundo?” Mba shouted.

  Binta’s eyelids flickered. “Kundo took a carriage out of metropolitan Sati-Baa an hour ago. The storm puts him here inside of a half hour.”

  Binta paused, breathing deeply, before continuing on. “Inspector Vos Anana dispatched a transport with the squad that searched the area around the Ndeleya Building. He will arrive from Metro in about an hour. And Dinsu’s crew is in place by the tunnel under the military base’s main road. His squad is prepped and helping Swole fix #2 – the damage was worse than he thought. They’ll come as soon as they can.”

  Mba reached out toward Binta in order to get her attention but her head snapped toward him before he could touch her.

  “Kundo is coming to assess the situation,” she said. “He has spoken to the Namaqua about coming here. He thinks this outbreak is too much for us to handle and is trying to convince the Namaqua that Bacillus is, without a doubt, a creature from the Cleave.”

  “He thinks?” Mba sighed, shaking his head. “Fine then, Kundo can give the orders.”

  “What are you talking about?” Binta said. “Our orders stand…Protocol.”

  “But Kundo trumps protocol,” Mba said. “And if he has backup...” Mba groaned. Kundo was bringing in the Namaqua...to kill everything.

  “He’ll need to know the situation under the ground,” Binta said. “Mba, are you just lazy or are you a coward?”

  “Lazy,” Mba grumbled. “But I don’t have a death wish either.”

  “Then stay sharp, so you don’t die,” Binta said.

  She turned to the constables who stood, in ranks, outside of oga’koi-koi #1. “Okay squad…time to go down in the scrolls of the scribes; time to become a verse in the songs of the djele.”

  Mba spotted Iya Siju in her padded armor. She carried a blue sack filled with healing herbs and instruments in one hand and a shortbow in the other. He perused the ranks. Foots stood poised and ready, with Digger and Swole, who had recently come from outside, where he could send and receive telepathic messages undisturbed, to either side of her; there was Dome and Rooster, both looking large and fierce with their masks in place and swords held across their chests. Onisako and Bun Son were there too; their attention fell on Toy as he took his place beside them.

  Flatfoot stood at the far end, his dejected stance suggesting he’d rather be back in metropolitan Sati-Baa walking a beat.

  Sharif Maho stood near one end of the squad looking awkward and nervous. He pulled at his padded armor’s crotch. His mask was already in place with the lamp on low. Binta must have drafted him after the explosion.

  Careful what you wish for Sharif, Mba thought. He drew his calabash out of his pocket and took a good swig.

  “Twenty years ago, brave men and women volunteered to fight Bacillus,” Binta began. “Twenty years ago, those brave men and women drew a line in the sand and held it. Many of you never knew more than stories of that time because we thought we had Bacillus beaten. We were wrong. Now, you have stepped forward to draw the line in the sand again. But this time we are going to destroy this goddamned thing, once and for all!”

  Thunder roared in solidarity with the battle roar of the constables.

  “We must assume that anyone in the tunnels is our enemy,” Binta continued. “Deal with them quickly. Anyone that cannot respond to your orders must be killed. Treat any survivors as prisoners of war. Bind their hands and feet if you have time. Bacillus can manifest in dangerous and unpredictable ways.”

  Mba took another drink and then slipped his calabash away. The wine warmed his belly. “Your capacity to protect the innocent will be put to the test,” he chimed in. “You will not have time to second-guess yourselves, so don’t. We win this, or everybody loses.”

  Mba studied the leather-covered soldiers. He wondered if any of them would see morning.

  “With the loss of veterans Jima, Bunseki and Biko, the duty of my Second-In-Command falls to Captain Mba,” Binta said, nodding toward him. “He will bring up the rear. It is not my plan to divide this group, but should it be necessary or if the squad is broken by attack, you will follow Captain Mba’s orders to the letter. Stay close to him. He has a bad habit of surviving.”

  A few chuckles rose from the ranks.

  “I passed out assignments on the way,” Binta said. “Red group will be at the front, going in. ‘Red’ is my group. ‘Blue’ group will bring up the rear with Captain Mba. If I order the squad to split in an offensive or defensive fashion, you will do so along those lines. We all had a look at the map. We will move into the tunnel; it will be sealed behind us. Don’t worry; the cavalry can open it when they need to get in. We will move north until the tunnel branches east and west. Then, we’ll push through that tunnel until we get to the western cistern at the north end of the loop. Along the way, we will seal any side vents, tunnels and holes. Past the cistern, the sewer loops back to the south. We will proceed south in the eastern arm of the loop pushing anything in there toward the entrance. As we move through the hotspot remember that it loops around the military’s underground storage. All vents and maintenance access points to the storage space open into the tunnel. Everything is supposed to be locked and grated, but we will look sharp just the same and seal any opening we find.”

  Mba remembered the maps showing the storage area linked, by an access tunnel, to a loading dock where the street burrowed under the military’s main access road. Commander Dinsu’s men would be waiting there. Everything was supposed to be locked and shuttered, but Gnaw Maws were unpredictable and strong.

  “When we find the pack, they’ll either fight or run,” Mba said to the constables. “If they fight, the tunnel will allow two constables kneeling abreast and one standing firing his or her bow overhead. It’s tight, but it also narrows their attack. Constables in the rear will reload and feed arrows to the front ranks when necessary.”

  “Anything that doesn’t fight will run,” Binta sai
d. “We will push them back toward the entrance that they will find locked. It’s dangerous, but simple. Watch for new construction, broken vents, any place something child to man-sized could hide in. We will treat them all and sleep well after, knowing we’ve saved Sati-Baa and maybe the whole damned world.”

  The constables raised their shortbows and swords. Their cheers smothered the thunder.

  Binta looked up at the blackened sky. “Nobody plans for weather. Remember that we’re in a sewer that moves water. Commander Dinsu assured me that it would take a flood to cause dangerous levels in there, but we will monitor that situation as the mission progresses. Remember, if you are uncomfortable, the Gnaw Maws will be very uncomfortable.”

  Foots pointed up the slope that led to the sewer hotspot. A couple of constables raised their bows as a man in leather clambered out of the tunnel, water pouring around his feet. He slid down the hill.

  CHAPTER fifty

  “Eeeat.”

  Click. Click.

  Feet splashed behind him.

  Jima tried to shut it out.

  It’s happening again! He thought in a panic, swinging his legs forward. He steadied his balance by pushing against the rounded wall with the pommel of his sword. His breath came in rapid gulps. Have to go faster.

  “Eeeat.” Click. Click. “EAT!”

  The splashing grew louder.

  It can’t happen again!

  Jima was terrified. He was an open wound. In their frustration, in the madness of Ritual, once they’d torn his Tyrak-skin suit apart, the Gnaw Maws could bite away the scar tissue that had formed over his body, killing him, or, worse, infecting him. Once a wound was opened, the Bacillus could enter and he would become...he would desire...

  “Eeeat!”

  They would take the only thing they left him twenty years ago – his mind. He would become them and worse, make others like him…even Surai. Whatever luck was working for her so far would not last forever, and once they were done with him they would track her down and he would be with them; at one with the pack. Ripping, tearing and biting at his daughter!