“Go on,” Harris asked.
“I don’t know everything,” Nadia pleaded.
“Then goddamn guess,” Harris demanded.
“I think that it directs a high-energy resonance beam up, like a laser, but instead of focused light, it would deliver focused vibrations. The pulse remains compressed until it reaches its destination.” She grimaced.
“Pretty good guess, Nadia,” Ally scoffed.
Nadia shook her head. “I didn’t even know it existed. And if I did, would doubt it could even work,” Nadia pleaded.
“We have electromagnetic weapons, sonic weapons, pressure pulsers, and a range of other energy armaments in use. But we have never heard of that type of technology at this range.” Harris frowned. “What else?”
Nadia seemed to search her memory. “They have somehow improved the strength and compression capabilities. Consider it like the technology used to shatter kidney stones through the flesh without touching any of the healthy flesh around the hard matter. This works on a similar concept, with more power and more precision. This is not my field.”
Harris turned to Jane. “Is this possible?”
She shrugged. “Sure, anything is possible. But I have no idea how they can keep the vibrations compressed until they’re delivered to, at, a target.”
Nadia folded he arms. “That’s all I know, and if you don’t believe me, then you might as well just shoot me now.”
“Okay.” Harris lifted the gun to her forehead.
Ally grinned, and Mike yelled. Nadia squeaked and covered her face.
“Wait.” Ally still grinned. “She can lead us to her team and the weapon, can’t you, comrade?”
She took her hands away from her face. Harris still looked furiously at the Russian woman and kept the gun pointed between her eyes. Nadia let her eyes slide to Ally and gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
Ally shrugged. “Then she’s still useful.”
Harris slowly lowered the gun. “I guess.”
“Show us,” Ally said.
Nadia took a last look at Sasha and shut her eyes for a moment.
Ally gave her a push. “Move it.”
Nadia finally turned away. “This way.”
Harris winked at Ally, and she jiggled her eyebrows in return. Mike saw then that it was all a setup to get Nadia to lead them back in. He looked at the dead Russian soldier; or perhaps not all game playing, he thought.
Nadia walked beside Ally, with Alistair talking to the Russian scientist in their own particular language of science and enthusiasm. Jane and Mike steered Penny forward who seemed to be lost in some sort of semi-fugue state or maybe a dark depression was settling over her.
Harris was at the rear, but seemed to have been invigorated now that he had a goal, and on hearing that the Russian team had been attacked, he perhaps hoped that the odds had swung in his favor.
Mike saw that Jane’s mouth was turned down as she walked, and he gently nudged her. “Hey, look on the bright side.”
“Huh?” His voice broke her from her reverie. “There’s a bright side?”
“Yeah, our mission here looks like it might be just about over. If the Russian team has been scattered, or their machine has been destroyed, then we’re all done.” He smiled. “The biggest decision we need to make will be whether we backtrack, or head on to the Kosovo Gadime cave system. Maybe find another gravity well there.”
She turned to him and smiled. “I love an optimist.” Her smiled broadened. “But yeah, that’s a nice thought and I like it.”
Ally held up a hand and the group bunched up. Harris joined her at the front and she looked from Nadia to her boss.
“Ms. Comrade says there’s a swamp from here. They went through it, but something attacked the other science nerd that was with them.”
Nadia turned. “It was Oleg. We were moving quickly through the swamp when something came out of the mud and took him. Sasha couldn’t rescue him.”
Mike sniffed. “I can smell it already, the methane and rot.” He turned to Nadia. “Was there a way around it?”
“Maybe, I don’t know,” she replied. “We didn’t have time to decide on choices.”
“Nope, we press on. Nadia will lead us and hopefully keep us out of danger, right?” Harris said.
Nadia released a string of curses under her breath and Mike smiled as he understood every one of them. She suggested Harris was some sort of stupid offspring of his mother and a pig. For the most part Mike didn’t disagree.
The group paused, looking in through the twisted boughs at a steamy, twilight landscape.
“This is a bad idea,” Jane whispered.
“No, this is a shit idea,” Mike replied. “Stay close.”
They headed in.
*****
The ground quickly went from stable to soft, and then to squelching under their feet. With that came the miasmic odors as the heat and humidity combined to rot everything down to slime.
The first pools of water had a skin on them that was sticky and dark like thick oil, and when they came to the first large pond. Nadia stopped.
“It gets bad from here,” Nadia said.
“It’s bad already,” Alistair replied.
“For how long?” Harris asked.
“We were moving quick, running at the end, after Oleg was taken.” She bobbed her head. “Maybe an hour.”
“That’s around a mile; freaking great,” Ally replied. She turned to Nadia. “Now would be a good time to tell us what happened to your buddy in here.”
“He was at the back, so we didn’t really see. We were moving through deep water, and he screamed. When we turned, Oleg was gone.” Nadia’s voice trembled.
“We avoided swamps, because we assumed there’d be some sort of arthropod version of the crocodilian species.” Jane joined them at the edge of the water.
The heavy canopy overhead cut down on the light, meaning there was no chance of any depth perception in the water. Everything would be invisible. And there was no way to judge whether the water was an inch deep, a foot, or ten.
“Sooner we enter, sooner we’re out,” Harris announced. “Ally, take us in.”
Ally blinked a few times, and Mike could tell she thought it was a shit idea as well. She half-turned. “Everyone stay in tight and cover each other’s asses. And arm themselves.” She faced Nadia. “You’re excluded.” Ally drew her gun in tight to her shoulder, flicked on the powerful flashlight beam on the muzzle and waded in.
Alistair helped Penny, but instead of his gun he held his camera. He hurried to be just in behind Jane. “Did you see any? The arthropod crocodilian species?” he asked.
“No.” Jane half-turned. “But given they’re one of the most global species of ancient creatures it makes sense there’d be some sort of concurrent evolutionary match-up.”
“Right, right.” Alistair’s head bobbed. “But a perfect theory. Hope we see one… from a distance I mean.” He gave Jane an apologetic grin when she turned to frown at him.
Mike held his handgun in one hand and flashlight in the other. He panned it across the water’s surface that popped with bubbles of fetid gases. Slime-covered branches rose from its depths, and now and then an eddy from a current swirled on top, indicating something had moved out of their way beneath the inky surface.
It didn’t take long for the ponds to join up and soon there were no islands to rest on. Shawls of dripping weeds or moss hung from branches and tree trunks rose from the brackish water, but they did so on stilt-like legs to perhaps try and lift themselves from the corrupt waters beneath them.
After wading for nearly thirty minutes, Harris’ voice was filled with impatience. “How much further?” he demanded.
Nadia called back over her shoulder. “Halfway, I think.”
“I’m assuming we’re going the right way?” Mike asked. “Might help.”
Harris snorted. “Don’t even ask it.”
Mike laughed, but his mirth fell away when he felt the pres
sure wave against his thighs. “Movement,” he said. “Everyone hold it.”
Harris didn’t even question him. “Get in tight, everyone. Ally, hold up.”
They bunched up, all facing out, and guns and lights pointed out at the swamp.
“What did you see?” Harris asked.
“Not see, feel; something moved past us, big enough to create a surge wave under the water.” Mike looked about slowly. “Last time I felt something like that I was diving in Australia and a nine-foot hammerhead passed within a few feet of me.”
“Shark, huh? That’s just great, and if it’s below the surface we’re not going to see it. And standing here we’re just a big bunch of delicious sitting ducks.” Harris moved his light across the water’s surface.
Harris was about to move his light beam on when something jerked back below the putrid water’s surface. He flicked his light back in time to only catch the ripples.
“O-oookay, why don’t we keep moving?” Harris kept his light and gun focused on where he had seen the ripples. “Kinda get the feeling something is trying to get in a little closer without us seeing it.”
Ally began to move, and Nadia was right at her shoulder.
Jane and Mike were next, followed by Penny and Alistair, and Harris a few paces behind, guarding their rear.
From out to their right side, something big and dark rose and fell momentarily, making the slimy weed on the surface create eddies as the water was pulled after it.
“A whale?” Ally asked.
In the same area something like a rounded fist rose in the water. Then another. On the front of each was a black dot no bigger than a thumbnail.
“Eye stalks,” Alistair whispered and took some pictures.
As Harris swung to them, they were pulled below the surface with a double plop sound.
“We’re being circled,” Harris hissed. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He gave Alistair a shove in the back. “Move it, mister.”
As soon as Alistair took a step back a shadow fell over him as something lifted from the water. The eyes on stalks rose again, and this time following them came a broad, greyish body, six feet across and glistening with slime.
Alistair stared up at it, mouth hanging open. “Gastrapoda,” he breathed.
The thing seemed to flatten slightly as it lifted from the dank water. Frill-like growths down its side flared wide, and then a foot-long, vertical mouth opened like a wound showing rows of comb-like teeth inside.
Harris opened up, putting a dozen rounds into it in rapid fire. But it was like striking a pillow as the bullets went in and might even have passed right through the seemingly boneless thing.
“All muscle, all foot and head.” Alistair backed up, pushing Penny to the side.
Further eyes rose from the swampy water as more of the creatures approached, and Mike and Jane fired into where they believed the things hid just below the surface.
Ally screamed, more in surprise than anger or fear. “Below the freaking water; they’re right under us.”
“Can’t fight ‘em here, soldier,” Harris yelled back. He pulled a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin and threw it out about twenty feet. It splashed into the murky depths. “Fire in the hole!”
The dark water exploded in a geyser covering the group, and Mike felt the percussive wave against his legs as it nearly knocked him over. He held onto Jane to keep them both upright.
Whether it was the explosion or the creatures simply made a decision to attack, the murky water around them suddenly revealed what they were up against as monstrous slug-like creatures rose from the murky waters.
Half a dozen of them, some as tall as the people, and others towering ten feet over their heads. They flared open like slimy cobras and the vertical mouths gaped wide. They looked like giant glistening bags that had unzipped at the front.
Behind them were rows of downed trees. To the right of them was more open water, and the depths must have been crowded with the things as more crept and slid in the ooze along the swamp bottom to the stranded humans.
Alistair’s scream was so high pitched it sounded like a siren and Mike sensed the huge shadow loom over them. He spun in time to see the massive head bending forward, pod-like eyes fixed on Alistair as the vertical mouth flared open as it dropped to him.
Mike turned to fire, but Alistair had frozen to the spot and had thrown his hands up in front of himself, giving no clear shot.
Penny used her good arm to grab his collar and yank him back into the water. Whether she expected it or not, the force of her action pulled him back but propelled her forward, just a few inches, but it was into Alistair’s position.
The flattened head fell on her, and the flared gastropod enfolded the entire top half of her body like a slimy blanket. It immediately sunk below the water, taking Penny with it.
“Ally, get ‘em moving. Anywhere but here,” Harris yelled as he swept the swamp with bullets. His rifle clicked on empty and he ejected the magazine and slapped in another in a well-practiced motion.
Ally started to run, fire, and scream her fury as she barged through the waist-deep water. Jane and Mike used their handguns to shoot anything that wasn’t human. Mike had to drag Alistair with him who wailed about Penny, and at the rear Harris shoved Nadia before him.
The water lumped and swirled and out to their right where Penny had been taken, they saw that it boiled and then flushed a muddy red. The creatures seemed to be forming a knot as they wrestled together, and Mike had a pretty good idea what they were fighting over below the surface.
As they surged forward, it now became clear what had taken Nadia’s friend. Ally kept them moving and just a few hundred yards further on, they passed underneath a network of vines that housed a flock or school of creatures like segmented stingrays that tried to drop down on top of them. Fortunately, they were slow, easy to discourage, and even easier to hit. The few of them they hit fell into the water and were instantly set upon by the slugs, giving the people a few extra yards grace.
“Getting shallower,” Jane said.
Sure enough the water only came to their thighs, then knees, and then their calves, ankles, and finally it was only splashing beneath their boots.
“Keep going.” Harris forced them on, wanting to be as far from the stinking bog as he could manage.
It was only when they found some dry ground, grass, and beams of red light that Harris allowed them to slow.
“Ease up,” he said.
There were a few patches of open ground, still the red boiling heat, and shadows that could be hiding a dozen deadly denizens of this underworld, but after what they’d been through, it seemed like an oasis.
“Smell that?” Ally sucked in a deep breath. “Air without freaking methane.” She let her breath out with pleasure. She grinned, showing teeth streaked with the mud from the bog.
“Take five. Ally, do a quick scout.” Harris stopped below a tree, first checking up into its branches above for hidden ambushes, and then lowering his pack. Ally shot off into the jungle as the others crashed to the ground.
Alistair buried his face in his hands. “She saved me.”
“She did; she was a hero,” Jane said softly.
“Why? After what I did, it was stupid.” Alistair sobbed and looked up.
“No, not stupid. She was a doctor, and her first instinct was to save lives,” Mike said. “Her arm was becoming infected again, and I guess she knew you had a better chance of surviving this place than she did. She gave you her chance at life.” Mike placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you, Penny,” Alistair said softly. He rubbed his eyes, hard, and then turned to Jane. “I should have known.”
“Known what?” Jane’s brows knitted.
“When you said, you said…” he sniffed, “…that you expected to see in the swamp some sort of arthropod crocodilian species, as they’d been so successful and first appeared during the Late Triassic Epoch.” He started to giggle and put a fist over his mouth.
“But you know what’s been around even longer, and is even more successful?”
“You okay, Alistair?” Mike asked.
Alistair nodded vigorously and turned back to Jane. “Gastropoda Mollusca; they’ve been with us since the Cambrian period, half a billion years.” He started to rap against his head with his knuckles. “And we blockheads just wandered into the home of the granddaddies of them all.”
“That’s enough, son.” Harris sat forward. “I know you’re a little busted up right now. Penny was a good doctor, and good soul. But you start coming apart, especially down here, and you’re as good as dead. Then you’ll have thrown her life away for nothing.”
“How do you know we’re not already dead?” Alistair’s eyes blazed and his voice rose. “Yeah, that’s right, we’re already dead and in Hell.”
Ally came back in. “All clear.”
Harris got to his feet. “Good. I’ll keep watch and try and get our bearings. You take some rest,” he said to Ally. He thumbed over his shoulder at Alistair. “And shut him the hell up.”
Ally sat on the ground a few feet from Alistair, knees up and rested her forearms on them. “You okay there, little buddy?”
Alistair kept his head down and shook his head. “No, I just want to go home.”
“Yep, I hear that.” Ally nodded slowly. “We’ve come through a lot. But keep in mind we’re in the end zone now, final quarter. We finish our job and the next thing you know you’ll be back in your dusty old library, or wherever you get your kicks, eating hot pockets and reading comic books.”
Alistair looked up at her, his eyes red-rimmed and glistening. After a moment he sniffed and then nodded. “Trivia nights,” he said softly.
“Huh?” Ally turned.
“I like trivia nights.” He gave her a broken smile.
“And who doesn’t?” She grinned. “Bet you kick ass on those bug questions.”
“I do.” He brightened.
“Well, Penny gave you a second chance. Use it wisely.” Ally lay back and pulled her cap down over her face. “Now while you guys keep watch, I’m shutting my eyes for a few minutes.” She momentarily lifted one corner of her hat to stare at them. “And don’t do anything dumb.”
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