Yeti

by Richard Edde

  As Stepan stepped onto the opposite shore, Jing fell into the frigid water and disappeared below the torrent. Harry made a frantic grab for her but missed. The rope pulled taut against him as Jing was pulled downstream. Fighting to keep his footing, Harry jerked hard on the rope and Jing’s head popped to the surface. She gasped and rolled under a second time. Harry pulled again on the rope but nothing happened, Jing’s head didn’t roll to the surface. He definitely had her by the rope--he felt her weight pulling against his grip. He gave the rope another yank and she breached the surface like a whale, taking great gulps of air. The swift current pulled the rope in Harry’s hands, stinging his fingers, turning two of them raw.

  She disappeared again.

  Stepan noticed what was happening and hollered for the team to get onto dry land. As they steadied the rope, Harry reached into the water, prayed for a miracle, found an arm, and pulled Jing to the surface again. When the dim light from his flashlight illuminated her, a look of terror greeted him.

  “I’ve got her!” he called to Stepan.

  The rest of the group stumbled onto shore.

  Harry supported Jing by an arm as they made their way through the stream until they fell, gasping, on rocks at water’s edge.

  “Are you okay?” Harry asked her.

  Jing coughed several times and nodded. She lay on the sandy ground, taking deep breath after deep breath.

  Stepan kneeled at her side. “Feeling better?”

  “I’m okay,” she said. “But I’m freezing.” She began shivering so Harry removed his parka and placed it over her shoulders. Jing looked past him with a vacant stare. Her lips and cheeks were blue.

  Harry started rubbing her arms and hands in an effort to stimulate warmth. “Jing,” he said, turning her face toward his. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Listen up,” Stepan said, standing. “We need to get warm before we move on so let’s look around and see if there’s anything we can use to build a fire. There might be some wood around here somewhere.”

  Harry stayed with Jing while the rest of the group began searching for anything that would burn. The darkness engulfed them like a velvet hood. Soon several of the SWAT team members arrived carrying small branches and they soon had a warming fire going. Jing huddled near the growing flames to dry her clothes, as did the rest of the team. Once her shivering stopped, Harry thought she looked better. After the short delay, they were on their feet again.

  At the far end of the large cavern, the stalactites grew larger, longer, and more numerous. Some hung almost to the cavern’s floor making it necessary to walk a meandering path as they approached the far wall. There the room grew smaller and Harry noticed what looked like a series of steps leading down into another tunnel. The stones of the steps were rectangular and encrusted with moss and dirt.

  “These steps look as if they were made and placed here,” he said as the group descended.

  A short distance down the tunnel, it leveled off; the air was heavy and languid, the roar of the waterfall less deafening. The group continued making their way, with Stepan in the lead. Here the narrow tunnel was devoid of debris and the ground was smooth, which made walking easier. Harry stopped to inspect the walls. His flashlight danced over the rock illuminating strange markings.

  “Look here,” he said, and Stepan and Li gathered next to him. “What do you make of this?”

  Stepan took a closer look and shook his head. “Hieroglyphics of some sort, it looks to me.”

  The wall was marked with black designs that Harry could not decipher.

  “I can see a figure like a man and an eye but that is all I can make out. I certainly don’t know what they mean, however.”

  “No telling how old they are,” Stepan said. “Maybe thousands of years.”

  “Some form of intelligent life drew them, no doubt,” Li said. “Maybe an ancient human.”

  “It’s obvious that something intelligent lived down here,” Harry said. “Pre-historic man, probably.”

  “Maybe a Yeti,” Jing said, joining them. “There are legends that they are as smart as humans.”

  “But can they communicate like that? I doubt it,” Li said.

  “Just wild talk,” Stepan insisted. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Farther into the tunnel, they came to a small alcove off to one side of the tunnel. A startled Stepan bolted from the anteroom’s entrance with a frightened look on his face. “Christ, Harry,” he said. “Look in here.”

  Harry pushed through the SWAT team and peered into the small room. His flashlight cast an unearthly light onto the floor and he followed its beam until it came to rest on a ghastly sight. Strung on the wall, like a puppet, hung the mangled body of the monk. His head was half-gone, as if chewed by a wild animal. His eyes were missing as well as one of his arms, blood congealed on the mutilated stump. The rest of his naked body bore numerous rips and wounds, betraying a vicious attack.

  Harry swallowed hard, choking down a desire to vomit. Li and Jing came to his side. Jing began crying and retching.

  “H--how did he get here?” Li stammered. “We’re a long way from our campsite.”

  “He was brought here, for sure,” Stepan said, stepping into the small alcove to examine the body more closely. “He didn’t come of his own accord. This is what I feared.”

  The sweet, putrid smell of decaying flesh filled the room and overwhelmed their senses. Back in the tunnel, Jing was doubled over, vomiting what was left of her breakfast. Li went to her side, placed a hand on her back, and tried to comfort her.

  Harry fought to keep his head. His world was out of control, crashing down around him. How could he have wound up in this godforsaken mountain on the edge of the world looking for a missing team member? Where was Dixie? What was happening? The answers were not forthcoming, only the questions remained. He felt so alone.

  Now he was scared, really scared.

  Chapter 23

  Doyle’s satellite phone rang as he and his men approached the cave. It was Eastwood and Doyle wondered why he was calling as he punched the TALK button. “Yes sir,” he said to his boss.

  “Ben, where are you? I’m on the way. In fact, I’m in a chopper and heading to the digging site. Is that where you are?”

  “You’re here? In country? But how? Why?”

  “Couldn’t stay away, Ben. Now, are you at the research compound?”

  “No longer, sir. We’ve moved to a location in the Altai Mountains. We have the doctor and the police cornered in a cave and are about to enter.”

  “How did that happen?” Eastwood yelled.

  “Quite by accident. They were apparently returning to their compound, than changed their course. We stumbled upon them yesterday.”

  “Give me your coordinates, Ben, and wait for me to arrive. I want to go in with you. Just wait until I can get there. Understand?”

  Doyle’s stomach took a sudden lurch and he held up a hand in a halting gesture. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Understood. We will await your arrival, boss.” After giving Eastwood the coordinates from his GPS, he continued. “What’s your ETA?”

  “Just a minute, Ben, the pilot is plugging the numbers into the chopper’s autopilot. Oh, he’s got it. Right at an hour--fifty-five minutes to be exact. See you then.”

  “I copy,” Doyle said and switched off the phone.

  His temples pounded, his mouth felt like cotton. Not only had he been ready to move into the cave and now had to stand down, he would have to put up with Eastwood trying to run the show. He didn’t need the aggravation or the delay. He’d watched as Dr. Olson and the SWAT team entered the cave earlier in the morning. In the gray dawn, they had rolled out of their sleeping bags, eaten a quick breakfast, donned gear and weapons, then disappeared into the mountainside. He was surprised to see that no sentries were stationed outside the cave’s entrance, the place was quiet. Hurriedly, Doyle and his men drank water, ate jerky, and checked their weapons once m
ore before moving out.

  At the cave’s entrance, Doyle peered into the darkness beyond. No sound or light emanated from its depths. He told Gillum, Kurt, and Marley to relax until Eastwood arrived and watched their eager smiles turn to frowns.

  “What’s the point?” Kurt sneered.

  “Point of what?” Doyle said.

  “The point of them being here with what looks like a SWAT team? I don’t get it. What are they doing in a cave?”

  “And why aren’t they going back to their digging site?” Marley added.

  Gillum studied the darkness beyond the cave’s entrance then sat on the ground.

  “You boys think I’ve got the answer to all those questions?” Doyle demanded. “Well, I don’t. We followed them here. It’s that simple. I don’t care what they’re doing in there. Eastwood wants whatever they have so that ends it, as far as all of us are concerned.”

  “Then each minute of delay puts them that much deeper in the cave, that much harder to locate,” Kurt snarled. “What’s the old man going to do when he gets here, anyway? Take over? Why can’t the bastard leave well enough alone and just let us do our job without his interference?”

  “Maybe he wants to safeguard his precious discovery,” Gillum said. “I admit having him here doesn’t make me very happy either, Ben.”

  So Doyle paced.

  ***

  Two members of the SWAT team cut down the monk’s stiff body and covered him with a blanket. The man was mutilated. His empty eye sockets were covered with white vitreous fluid. His right arm looked as if it had been ripped from his body by tremendous force. The white bone protruded from dried brown muscle. Part of the monk’s brain was missing, the surrounding skull showing gash marks from what could have been teeth. The man presented a grisly scene. Jing sobbed nearby.

  Stepan scouted the far end of the tunnel. When he returned, Harry and the rest of the group, including the SWAT team, gathered around him. The light from his headlight danced from person to person as he spoke. “Empty down that way,” he said, indicating the dark tunnel beyond them. “What do you think, Dr. Olson?”

  “A violent death for sure,” Harry said, glancing at the lump underneath the blanket. “Can’t tell if he was killed here or not but it doesn’t matter. I pray Dixie hasn’t met a similar fate.”

  “The fact that she’s not here,” Li said, “gives us hope she’s still alive.”

  “We shouldn’t waste time here,” Stepan said. “Need to keep moving.”

  The others nodded and he led the group down the musty-smelling passageway past the monk’s corpse. Bright green moss covered certain portions of the rock wall on either side of them, while the damp air felt heavy and pressed on Harry. It made his breathing strenuous.

  As they continued to make their way forward, the walls of the tunnel converged upon them. The passageway narrowed dramatically, forcing them to once again walk in single file. Harry still brought up the rear of the column. How deep are we going to go?

  He became disoriented in the dark with light beams flickering wildly and the tunnel meandering through the earth. The narrowness closed in on Harry, sending convulsive waves through his body and brain. Being claustrophobic, he felt a slow panic build within, a desperate need to get out of the tunnel.

  He fought to keep his nerves under control. Maybe it was a mistake to venture into this strange, foreign place.

  Their progress slowed to a snail’s pace. Harry noticed the SWAT team ahead stooping to scramble under a limestone arch from which dripped brackish, sulfur-smelling water. The arch was only about four feet high, requiring him to stoop to maneuver his tall frame underneath and, in the process, got drenched.

  Beyond the arch, the tunnel opened up enough to allow the group to walk several abreast. Jing walked alongside Harry.

  “Feeling better?” he asked her.

  Jing nodded. “Much. Thanks for helping me.”

  “Wondering what we’re doing in here, Jing? I’m asking that myself about now.”

  “I’m hoping we can find Dixie and that she’s okay. I hate to think otherwise. But our monk friend--what do you think? “

  “I dunno. It’s peculiar, for sure.”

  “More than peculiar,” Jing said. “It’s downright gruesome. I pray we find Dixie unharmed.”

  “Me too,” Harry said.

  The group continued along in silence. The lights dancing on the tunnel walls reminded Harry of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

  A scream pierced the darkness.

  A woman’s scream.

  It came from up ahead.

  Not far.

  Harry shuddered and stopped, head pounding, ears alert. The whole group stopped. Everyone heard the scream. Stepan moved back to Harry’s side and shook his head.

  Then another scream.

  Stepan pointed his headlight into the dark tunnel ahead but there was nothing. “Let’s go,” he said and moved to the front of the column.

  “Dixie!” Harry called, his heart pounding in his chest.

  The team groped their way down the passageway until it widened into another large room. A room that was decidedly different. Scattered on the ground were a variety of bones and there were remnants of clothing strewn about the room in disarray. The SWAT team scrambled throughout the cavern, weapons at the ready. Harry and Li continued to look about while Jing fell to the ground and waited. Around the room’s periphery were smaller chambers sculpted into the rock. Each chamber contained more bones cluttered on the floor. On the walls were more of the undecipherable hieroglyphs they had noticed earlier.

  Harry and Li searched each of the chambers but found them empty. Rejoining Stepan, Harry let out a long, low whistle. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. “It’s like someone’s residence down here. Someone or something is using this cavern as an apartment, living quarters.”

  “More than one something, by the looks of things,” Li said.

  “You’re right, Li.” Harry noticed Jing was up, approaching them. “What do you think, Jing?”

  “It’s creepy, that’s what it is. Any sign of Dixie?”

  Harry shook his head.

  “Not yet,” Stepan said, holding a scrap of blue cloth. “These bits of clothing don’t match with hers. But I’ve got an uneasy feeling that she’s down here, somewhere. It’s just a matter of time before we find her.”

  “I hope not like we found the monk,” Jing said.

  “Let’s not think about that,” said Harry.

  “But those screams,” Jing said.

  “I know, I know,” Harry said. “But there’s no woman here. Stepan, what now?”

  The captain glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late and we need rest and food. We’ve had a rough few days. I suggest we eat something, and then rest for a few hours before continuing. What do you think?”

  “Good idea. Jing is about all in and the rest of us could do with a few hours’ sleep. Let’s bed down here.”

  The SWAT team dropped their packs to the ground and Harry found a comfortable place for Jing to rest. They chewed jerky and sipped water. Harry volunteered to remain awake and take the first watch so Stepan gave him his Russian OT-33 Pernach machine pistol. One by one, the headlights and flashlights clicked off until darkness and quiet engulfed them. Harry propped himself against the rock wall and tried to relax. Only the sounds of muffled breathing broke the menacing silence.

  Harry’s pulse and breathing slowed as he worked to calm his frayed nerves. He shifted his position to get more comfortable, laid his head back on the rock, and closed his eyes. It was strange how much closer to Dixie he felt since her disappearance. The fleeting moment they shared in her room at the monastery had altered his earlier resolve not to get involved with graduate assistants. He was no longer the aloof professor where she was concerned, but an impassioned friend who longed for her company. He felt drawn to her in a way that was different from other women in his life, which had not been very many. He almost married Lisa bu
t her father’s money got in the way.

  She had wanted to purchase him, almost as one would a car or a house, and let him know that Daddy’s money would help see him through graduate school. She wanted the marriage but he knew in the end it would never work. She needed her father’s wealth and he needed freedom for his scientific research. So when he told her how he felt, she left with only a short note of explanation. And that was it--she was no longer in their small garage apartment one afternoon when he arrived home from class.

  Dixie was different. Originally, their relationship consisted of nothing more than working together or discussing her dissertation. He had viewed her as a colleague only. That was until the kiss at the monastery. One kiss and his life had been turned upside down.

  ***

  From the Mi-8T helicopter, Eastwood could see the orange smoke wafting from the spot that marked the location Doyle had chosen for their landing. The chopper banked sharply then circled the smoke, losing altitude as it did so. From his seat, he saw Doyle standing by a large gaping hole in the mountainside. His security chief shielded his eyes as the chopper descended. As it settled on the ground, Doyle ran to its side and opened the door while the pilot powered down the aircraft’s engines. Once the rotors stopped moving, Eastwood climbed out and greeted the man.

  “Good to see you, Ben,” he said, pumping his hand. “What’s the situation?”

  “The research and SWAT teams went in yesterday and have not returned. They are still in there. It must be a large cave system.”

  “Are we all ready?”

  “Ready. Locked and loaded, sir.”

  “How many of them are there, Ben? Your best guess.”

  “I’d say probably a dozen. But they are well armed. Some of them look like they are a SWAT team, so they may be willing to shoot it out.”

  “Maybe not. If we get them cornered, it’s possible they will listen to us. If it comes to that, of course, we fight Ben. We fight.”