Osborne gestured to Sergeant Ferguson, who had just recovered from the urine assault. “Secure him. If he resists, kill him.”
“With pleasure,” Ferguson growled through a clenched jaw. He lifted Horne by the collar and slammed him against the wall, gun to his temple.
Horne looked Ferguson in the eye. “Think about what you’re doing here, Sergeant. They’re kids. Osborne will burn this town to the ground to get that lizard. What do you think he’ll do to those kids?” The muscles in Ferguson’s clenched jaw twitched. “I read your file. I know what you saw in Afghanistan. What you saw in that village. That school. All those kids. You want to be a part of something like that?”
Ferguson growled like a caged wolf as he pressed the gun harder against Horne’s temple.
***** ***** *****
Osborne ran from the lab to the helicopter waiting outside. Kruger and the pilot, both armed with cattle prods, were climbing aboard and firing up the engines. Osborne cursed when he saw the downed section of fence. “Do we have a signal yet?”
Kruger studied the screen of his tablet and nodded. “Eastbound, half a mile away.”
The helicopter lifted off and streaked through the air.
***** ***** *****
The Humvee, which appeared to be driverless, suddenly roared to life. TJ sat up and studied the dashboard. “This doesn’t look so hard.” He yelled out the window to Rex, who was watching from his hiding spot in the bushes. “Climb on, pal. Let’s bid Frankenstein’s lab adieu.”
Rex climbed onto the roof of the Humvee and dug in with his claws. The vehicle jerked back and forth as TJ tested the gas. “Driving is easy,” TJ exclaimed. He raced down the road, toward the locked gate at the compound’s entrance. “Hold on up there.” He braced himself, and then smashed through.
The Humvee burst onto the main road, cutting off a pickup truck as TJ swerved to regain control. The truck skidded off the road, into a tree. “Sorry,” TJ yelled out the window.
The truck backed up and followed after the Humvee.
***** ***** *****
The blinking lights of the remote control illuminated Sam’s face. She crawled into some thick brush to make sure no one else could see it. She unzipped TJ’s bag and removed his seriously sweet birthday present, the quad-rotor drone that his mother had given him. She fished out some duct tape and secured the little black box to the underside of the drone.
She flipped the drone over and over in search of a power switch. Her heart hammered like a meaty fist punching her in the breastbone. The rhythmic pulse of helicopter rotors was getting closer. The treetops began to sway in the machine-made wind.
“Come on,” she growled. “Where is it?” Her fingers fumbled in the dark.
A searchlight snapped on and cut through the treetops. She squeezed further into the bushes wishing she’d taken the time to camo paint her face or at least shove a branch or two into her hat like any other soldier involved in a top secret dinosaur rescue mission would have. She made a mental note to remember that for next time. Still, she continued running her finger along the underside of one of the wings until finally she found and flipped a switch. The drone hummed to life.
Sam gripped the controller as if it were a life vest. If she let go, she would surely sink into a deep, dark hole never to be seen again. The drone lifted off the ground and bounced around clumsily as she acquainted herself with the controls. No time for fumbling around. “Good enough,” Sam said as soon as the little craft took off. Then she thumbed the joystick and sent the drone flying at top speed. It sliced through leaves and danced around branches as it climbed higher and higher. Soon, it punched through the canopy and sailed along through open space.
The searchlight didn’t move from her hiding spot. Her mind beamed a frantic mess. It didn’t work. Maybe they saw me. They’re going to lock me away forever. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! The world went dark. Oh, god, they killed me! I can’t believe they killed me. Hello, sweet abyss. Endless blackness of nonexistence...
Wait a second…
The sound of the rotors started to fade. The helicopter was leaving.
Ha! Idiots!
Sam ran after it. Mounted on the drone was a camera that transmitted to a small screen on the remote. She tried to navigate it, but it was hard to run through the dark woods and fly the drone at the same time without smashing her face into a tree. She just needed to put as much distance as possible between the helicopter and TJ and Rex.
Maybe they can hop a boat to Cuba. Unless Rex can swim. Can T-rexes swim?
Sam’s mind wandered. She couldn’t focus on either of the tasks she was supposed to be doing. She tripped on a root and tumbled head over heels into a ditch. The drone immediately did a nosedive and slammed into the ground. A small cloud of sparks erupted on the forest floor, followed by the smell of smoke.
The helicopter stopped just overhead then landed nearby in a small clearing.
Sam found another suitable thicket of bushes to hide in. She crawled in and silently apologized to TJ for obliterating his wicked cool birthday present and swore to replace it as soon as she found a place that sold drones, not to mention the money to buy it.
The helicopter’s rotors slowed to a stop. Cricket songs replaced the hum of engines. Several voices carried on the night wind.
Dr. Kruger scanned the forest. “I don’t understand. The signal is coming from right here. The subject should be here.”
Osborne squatted down over the drone crash site. He ripped the little black box off a piece of quad-rotor wreckage and showed it to Kruger. “What’s this?”
Kruger’s pointy nose was only an inch away from Osborne’s hand. “The backup transmitter.” He stood up straight, muscles rigid with frustration, and threw his hands in the air. “We followed an alternate signal.”
Osborne slammed the box on the ground and crushed it beneath his heel. “How long to reconnect?”
“The satellites won’t be in position for another nine hours. By then, they could be anywhere.”
Osborne marched toward the helicopter. “Not anywhere. They’re children, Kruger. I know where they’re going.” The rotors spun again. The chopper lifted into the air and shot off into the night.
Sam crawled out of her hiding spot. “Not enough time to get to Cuba. I hope they at least made it somewhere safe.” She raced through the woods, her feet more sure now that she wasn’t splitting her focus. She leaped through the tree line, and landed on pavement. For a second, she thought she’d been trapped in the helicopter’s searchlight again. Then she realized it was just the headlights of the truck barreling straight at her.
***** ***** *****
Squealing tires scarred the blacktop with streaks of rubber. A portly man squinted through his windshield and rubbed his eyes several times, expecting the creature in front of him to transform into a deer each time he took his hands away. But it never did. It kept the shape and appearance of his daughter. “Sam?”
“Dad?” Sam climbed into the truck.
Mr. Redfield muttered, trying to figure out what he was trying to say while he was trying to say it.
Sam had no such problem. “I’ll explain on the way. Drive this thing!”
Mr. Redfield’s eyes grew wider and wider and his jaw hung lower and lower as Sam told him her story. At first, it was because he was absolutely sure his daughter was knee deep in the most elaborate lie she had ever told. He was astonished at her commitment. But the more she talked, the more he believed she was telling the truth.
He was so enraptured by her story that he didn’t realize where she was having him drive to until he got there. He threw the truck into park and stared out at the dock that sat along the bank of the swamp. The dock was lined with airboats, but there seemed to be an empty space. One of them was missing. He didn’t think much of it until he noticed another vehicle parked nearby. A black Humvee, half in the woods as if it had been parked by a child.
Sam smiled wide, staring at the empty space along the dock.
“He made it.”
That smile was blown off her face by a helicopter as it raced overhead, heading into the swamp.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
TJ had swallowed at least twenty-three mosquitoes since setting off on the airboat. He’d almost crashed five times and Rex had nearly fallen overboard twice. But he totally had the hang of it now. Speeding through the Everglades in the middle of the night—early morning?—piloting a boat that he’d never driven before was no problem at all.
Until the Jet Ranger helicopter came racing up behind him. The force of the rotor wash made the water choppy. The boat bounced off the waves like a rubber ball falling down the stairs.
***** ***** *****
Osborne yelled to the pilot. “Set down right on top of him.”
“Don’t injure the dinosaur,” Kruger yelled back.
Osborne shoved Kruger back into his seat as he radioed for backup. “Hunter One to Wolf Den. Over.”
Static sounded over the radio before a voice responded. “Wolf Den Command. We read you, Hunter One.”
A gleeful smile spread across Osborne’s face. “Target sighted. Request assistance, over.”
“Roger that, Hunter One. Scrambling two and three. Lock on for rendezvous. ETA five minutes.”
Osborne pulled a long, thin metal crate along the floor and laid it at his feet. “I won’t need five minutes.” He unlatched the cover and threw it open to reveal a sniper rifle inside. He removed it, checked the ammo, clicked off the safety, and took aim. He watched through the rifle’s scope as the airboat bounced over the surface of the swamp.
As if sensing the barrel of a gun were pointed at the back of his neck, TJ steered close to the shore, trying to use the trees for cover. Unfortunately, in the dark he didn’t see the low hanging tree in front of him. TJ and Rex hit the deck just in time to avoid decapitation, but the big fan in the stern of the airboat wasn’t so lucky. It smashed into the tree, the rotors squealing and bending until finally slowing to a dead stop. The boat drifted out into the open.
“Perfect,” Osborne muttered. “Hold us steady,” he said to the pilot. “I’m ending this now.”
Kruger watched in horror. He had done much in his long career that many would consider immoral, reprehensible, inexcusable violations of the laws of nature. But he had never killed anyone. He had never hurt a child. He’d spent his entire adult life trying to bring dead creatures back to life. He had absolutely no interest in making living creatures dead. Not personally, anyway. However, interfering with Osborne’s plans would likely make Kruger dead. He wished the boy no harm, but sadly, he was not a man of courage.
The metallic click of a bolt-action rifle cocking into place snapped him out of his internal debate.
Osborne squeezed the trigger. The force was disorienting. It hit Kruger in the chest and rattled his eardrums, instantly making him feel dizzy. He didn’t realize until he saw the fire in Osborne’s eyes that he’d grabbed the gun before Osborne had taken the shot.
A geyser of water erupted a foot away from TJ.
Osborne’s gleeful smile shattered and his mouth filled with broken glass. He clamped his trembling hand around Kruger’s throat. “Fool! You’re lucky you’re crucial to the success of this project.” He threw Kruger to the floor. “But my patience has its limits. Interfere again and I’ll feed you to your pet once I get him back.”
Below, TJ worked feverishly on the airboat’s fan. A branch was lodged between the blades, keeping it from spinning. It slid a little as he pulled, but at that rate it would take hours to yank it free.
And Osborne had already reloaded.
As if Rex had heard the click of Osborne’s rifle buried under the sound of the helicopter engine, he pushed TJ aside and bit down on the branch. With one jerk of his head, he tore the obstruction free. The boat lurched forward at the last possible second. Osborne’s bullet tore into the deck only inches from the boy.
The airboat sped through the swamp again, dodging in and out of thickets of reeds and tall grasses. Osborne ordered the pilot to drop down closer to the water to pursue. TJ steered toward a cluster of trees, which made Osborne’s already clenched teeth grind a little harder. The helicopter wouldn’t be able to follow him in there.
The pilot realized what TJ was trying to do. He poured on the speed and raced past the airboat, spun the rotorcraft around, and dropped down to block his path. Suddenly they were locked in the most intense game of chicken ever. Airboat versus helicopter. Psychotic secret agent versus genetically engineered Tyrannosaurus rex. In the middle of the Everglades.
The pilot wouldn’t waver, not with Osborne standing behind him holding a high powered rifle. And TJ was just a kid.
He’ll stop, the pilot thought. He’ll totally stop.
***** ***** *****
The airboat totally didn’t stop. In fact, it sped up. TJ’d seen something the pilot hadn’t. An angled chunk of swamp grass halfway between the boat and the helicopter. This was either going to be the greatest moment of TJ’s life, or the last moment of TJ’s life. He shut his eyes, slammed on the throttle, and grabbed onto the side of the boat with every ounce of strength he could muster.
The chunk of grass acted as a ramp, launching the boat into the air. TJ dared to open his eyes and discovered that the helicopter was gone.
Maybe it flew off.
Maybe I dreamt entire thing.
And then he realized something… Maybe the helicopter was underneath them. Maybe they were rocketing over it like The Dukes of Hazzard. He glanced down and…yep. The helicopter’s rotor was only inches from the bottom of the boat. Mere inches separated the two machines from colliding and becoming a flaming, mangled mess of metal and bone.
TJ slammed hard into the deck when they splashed down. He scrambled to his feet and steered the boat into the tangle of trees.
The chopper flew up and overhead, disappearing over the horizon of treetops.
Adrenaline finally got the better of TJ. He fell to his knees, his legs numb, his hands trembling. The boat just drifted as he continued to shake.
Rex nudged him. Feeling began to return to his legs. Just enough so that he could stand.
“You’re right, pal. We need to find a place to hide.” He steered the boat through the narrow waterways between trees. Soon, they came upon a trapper shack—a small, wooden box on stilts barely a foot above the water’s surface held together by a handful of nails. He eased the boat up to the porch and made sure no one was home. The shack’s interior was barren. Just a table with a lantern on it, two chairs, and a raggedy old cot. But it was enough. TJ just needed to sit down for a while. Rest. It had been the longest day of TJ’s life. Ever.
He lay on the cot and stared at the ceiling. Rex sat on the floor beside him. Even then, he had to crouch so his head didn’t bump the ceiling. The bandage on his neck had bled through. All the excitement must have opened up the wound. TJ stared at the red stain. He couldn’t help but wonder if everyone would have been better off if he’d never found Rex. If everything had just stayed the same. Uneventful. Just him tinkering with spare parts, alone, avoiding Eddie Figley as best he could while his mother was off at work. Nobody shooting at him.
He rested his hand on Rex’s nose. “I’m sorry.”
But what would Rex’s life have been? Even if the suits had never found the egg, how long could a Tyrannosaurus rex live in the Florida Everglades before being discovered? They would have come for him eventually. Then he would have been poked and prodded and dissected to make more just like him. An army of killer, mutant dinosaurs.
Maybe TJ had made the right decision. Maybe Rex just wasn’t mean to have a happy ending.
The ramshackle walls began to shake. The rhythmic pulse in the air suddenly tripled, the combined force pounding on TJ’s eardrums.
Osborne’s helicopter, waiting on the other side of the cluster of trees, was now joined by two Apache gunships.
The machine guns mounted on the helicopters hummed as they warmed up. Then the
y pierced the air with a high-pitched whine before piercing the cluster of trees with a fusillade of bullets. Trees splintered and exploded. A few of them even caught fire from the blistering heat and friction.
TJ and Rex dove to the floor and scrunched into balls, making themselves as small as they could. Bullets ripped through the shack like it had been made of cardboard. Rex crawled on top of TJ, shielding him from the onslaught. A piece of shattered wood pierced Rex’s shoulder and buried deep in the muscle. A section of the floor gave out. Rex rolled them both out of the way.
The attack ceased. TJ felt as though he had cotton balls stuffed in his ears, but he could hear a familiar sound. He looked out through one of the holes in the wall to see an airboat racing toward them. As it got closer, he was awestruck by who was driving. Mr. Redfield and Sam!
TJ and Rex raced onto the small porch of the trapper shack. Their boat had been torn to shreds. Sam and her father pulled up as close as they could, though the debris kept them at a distance. Mr. Redfield’s face went sheer white. Even when he saw the military helicopters open fire, he still didn’t believe that Sam had been telling the whole truth. But there it was. The truth. A ten-foot tall Tyrannosaurus rex.
“Come on!” Sam yelled.
TJ studied the distance from the edge of the porch to Sam’s boat. Even with a running start, he couldn’t make that. But Rex could. They both had the same idea. Rex leaned down so TJ could climb onto his back. TJ wrapped his arms around Rex’s thick neck and held on tight. Rex hunched down, strength building in his legs. Just as he was about to jump, a shot rang out. The bullet tore through his leg. He stumbled and TJ fell off his back.
Rex Page 19