Primeval egt-5

by David L. Golemon

  The lightning was striking the ground up and down the Stikine in a display of power Lynn had never seen south of the Canadian border. She knew that this had to be one of the largest electrical storms she had ever been witness to. The rain was so thick and the raindrops so large that she felt she was in danger of drowning as she tried for her escape.

  Lynn tried in vain to look behind her as she ran, thinking the Russians had to be close behind, but seeing nothing. In that split second of turning her head back, she ran into a brick wall. She rebounded so hard that her breath was knocked from her lungs as she flew backward five feet. When she hit the noise she made as she tried to force air back into her throat sounded like a water pipe with air in its system. As she looked up through the falling rain, her eyes widened when she realized she could see clearly. She saw why almost immediately: She was only thirty feet away from what was left of the giant Sikorsky helicopter as it lay in pieces before her. The flames illuminated the area that, in her haste to escape, she hadn't even noticed.

  When she finally rolled onto her stomach, she managed to draw a breath, still wondering what it was she had ran headlong into. She tried to stand. She went to her knees, knowing that if she didn't get moving soon she would have the mercenaries catching her and undoubtedly returning her for use against Jack. As she finally gained her feet, she turned toward the still-flaming helicopter. That was when she saw what she had slammed into at a full run. It towered over her small frame. Her eyes traveled upward and locked on the fierce eyes of an animal that could not possibly be standing there.

  "What the…?"

  Lynn saw the giant apelike creature as it opened its mouth, clearly visible in its outline in front of the fire; the beast let out a grunt and then showed its teeth. In its massive human-looking hands was a club, which seemed to be adorned with marks of some sort that she couldn't make out. The large weapon looked as if it had been through hell and back again, scared and chipped, as if the animal had forever used it as a tool, a killing weapon. Before she knew it, the giant was gone. It just vanished before her shocked eyes, blending into the trees that surrounded the downed helicopter.

  Suddenly she heard the crashing of underbrush coming from behind her, and before she could react after being stunned by the beast she had stumbled into, Lynn saw the angry face of Gregory Deonovich as he ran headlong into the small clearing where she stood. Before she realized what happened, she was grabbed by the large Russian just as Alexander had grabbed him only minutes before. He raised a hand and hit Lynn across the face. Then he repeated the assault, this time from the opposite direction. He threw her down to the wet forest floor and stood over her.

  "You have caused me embarrassment for the last time. You will never be found and that will be my excuse for not bringing you back."

  Lynn, dazed from the two successive blows to her face, started to sit up, the rain washing the blood from her features. As she rose, she saw Deonovich reach for the shoulder holster at his chest and remove the Glock nine-millimeter he carried there. The look on his face was calm and collected. He knew he would face the wrath of the Canadian, but it would be worth it. He figured to shoot the American and then drag her body off and hide it, claiming he could not catch her.

  Lynn watched as the gun was aimed at her face. She defiantly looked at the muzzle and then her eyes widened as something behind Deonovich separated itself from the large tree it was hiding against. The animal had blended perfectly with its surroundings. She couldn't tell where the tree began and the beast ended. Only in the firelight did she see the true nature of the animal as it grabbed Deonovich by the shoulders.

  The Russian's eyes widened as he felt his large frame lifted free of the earth. The pistol swung up and around, and fired two shots, both missing the animal as it raised the man completely over its head. Before Lynn could even flinch or Deonovich could realize he was about to die, the great animal smashed the Russian against the tree, snapping his back and almost bending him in two. The branch Deonovich was pushed into caught him twenty feet off the ground and the large man grunted as the wood penetrated through his chest cavity. The animal roared and watched as Deonovich took his last breath. The beast admired what it had just done, tilting its large head first left, and then right. Then with a satisfied grunt, the beast leaned over and recovered something from the ground, and then turned on Lynn.

  "Oh, shit," she said under her breath.

  The giant ape took two long strides and it was suddenly standing over the small woman. It looked her in the eyes, and then it suddenly shook its entire body, releasing a torrent of water. For some reason, Lynn could see the animal far more clearly than she had before. Somehow, the beast had used not only its differing colors and thickness of its hair, but also the rain to hide itself. She was even more amazed to see some of the hair along the left side of its massive head had braids in it. Collected through those braids were what looked like colored stones, and to her amazement there were at least two of the gold American double eagles Sagli had shown her only the day before.

  The animal looked down at her and grunted, raising the club, and then jabbing the blunt end into her ribs.

  "Ow!" she cried out before she even realized she did it.

  Another grunt, and then the beast looked up and seemed to see or sense something. It rose again to its full height of over ten feet, grunted once again, and then turned and ran for the deep woods off to the right, vanishing among the trees in mere seconds.

  Lynn slowly collapsed until her head was resting on the soft carpet of wet pine needles. She shook her head for the reason she didn't fully understand her miraculous escape from the hands of the killer, Deonovich. She sat back up and looked at the still hanging body of the large Russian. The firelight caught the steady stream of blood as it flowed from his body. Lynn shook her head again and knew she was nearing the state of shock as cold chills overtook her system. She lay back down and closed her eyes.

  "Jesus," was all she could say.

  When she heard someone say something to her, she didn't move. She did, however, open her eyes and look into a set of green eyes. In the firelight she could see that it was a woman who was kneeling beside her and trying to get her attention.

  "Who are you?" Lynn croaked through the taste of blood in her mouth.

  "My name is Sarah, and I think we'd better get back to the cave before your knight in shining armor returns, don't you?"

  "You bet," Lynn said as Sarah and the girl Lynn knew from the fishing camp helped her. She was grateful to the two women and was about to thank them, when a realization struck Lynn Simpson. "Hey, you're Jack's girlfriend!"

  With that and before Sarah had a chance to respond, Lynn passed out and slumped against the two women.

  "Yes, I'm Jack's girlfriend, and you must be his sister Lynn."

  "It really is a small world, isn't it," Marla said as she took most of the American woman's weight on her own.

  "Yeah, well, we'd better get back to Jason before we have company other than our animal friend."

  Sarah, Marla, and their newest friend, Lynn, stepped through the fire and then walked fifteen feet to the cave opening.

  All three suspected they were in the realm of something they didn't understand, and little did they realize they had entered the forest home of the fiercest creatures that had ever lived on the North American continent.

  The ancient brother of man was no longer a myth.

  * * *

  Alexander and his tech team were just twenty feet behind the advance recon team. Altogether the Russians were heading into the bush with fifteen Spetsnaz, five mercenaries, and seven technicians. Alexander had five of the commandos watching Collins and the three additional captives with strict orders to keep Jack alive.

  One of the technicians reached out and stopped Alexander, who was intent on following his point team as quickly as possible through the woods. With the rain lessening somewhat, Punchy turned and saw his main technicians hold up the visual metal detector. As he took in t
he small LED screen, he could see that they were in the middle of a dense minefield of metal. He quickly looked around his feet and spied one of the objects they were chasing. He bent over and picked it up and smiled. It was a two-foot-by-eleven-inch piece of aircraft aluminum. Punchy tossed it away and they continued through the trees, trying to get to their goal as quickly as possible.

  As Jack, Carl, Will, and Farbeaux were pushed and pulled through the dense undergrowth beneath the thick canopy of trees, Everett quickly stepped up to Jack.

  "Okay, boss, this little trip of ours has turned into something extraspecial, so it would be helpful if you said your baby sister was great in the field."

  "She couldn't tell you a walnut from a rock, buddy," Collins said as he tried to keep Alexander in his sights through the falling rain.

  "So, she won't be bringing any cavalry this time out."

  Jack looked over at Everett and just raised his brows, and Carl took his meaning.

  "You, get back in the line," a voice said and pulled Everett backward by his wire-tie. Carl eyed the mercenary and tried not to let on to the fact that he felt the plastic strap break. He followed orders after being released and fell into line just in front of Henri.

  "You seem to have injured your wrist, Captain Everett. I hope you understand the severity of that cut," Farbeaux said as he saw the snapped plastic around Carl's bloody wrist.

  "Yeah, Henri, it's not as severe as it looks. I'll hold off getting attention for it until the colonel says to."

  "A wise decision," the Frenchman said believing that they might have a shot if Everett moved at just the right time.

  Suddenly, they were stopped abruptly. Men were ahead of them and they were brightly silhouetted in the flash of a flare being lit. The red tinted glow made the scene eerie at best as Jack tried to see what was happening as many thoughts swirled through his mind; Deonovich and Lynn, the worst-case scenario was Lynn, of course. Was she lying up ahead where the large Russian had caught her? Or was it their prize that they were examining? As he thought this, they were pushed to the ground by the guards and made to sit still.

  "Ow!" Mendenhall said as he sat. He wiggled free of something and then literally bent over backward to see what it was. His fingers curled around a small object and he twisted around to see it, bringing his arms up close to his left hip. As soon as saw it, he dropped it in disgust. "Jesus!" he said out loud.

  Jack turned back to see what was wrong with Will when in the red glow of the flare up ahead he saw what it was as Mendenhall leaned away from it. It was a skeletal hand. As Collins squirmed over he saw that something was wrapped around the terminated wrist bone — it was silverfish in color and rusted almost through.

  "Lieutenant, pick it up," Jack whispered.

  Will got a sick look on his face, but knowing the colonel, he had a reason for the macabre request. So he once again went through the maneuvering involved to pick the human hand up once again. When he twisted back around, Jack had turned his back to him and then removed the still attached bones from his grasp. Collins twisted in his restraints to look at the hand and what was wrapped around it. He grasped the small object and saw the band momentarily expand and then the years of rust did its job — it snapped. Jack held the wristwatch in his palm and looked it over. It was a simple Timex watch and he could see the small hands through the fog-clouded crystal: they were frozen at 1:58 and ten seconds. He didn't know if it were A.M. or P.M.

  "What have you got there, Jack?" Everett whispered.

  "A watch; its hands are frozen at almost the exact same time as right now."

  "That's interesting, Colonel, but does it have a particular significance to our current situation?" Farbeaux asked as he tried to huddle closer to the others without getting hit with the butt of a weapon or getting shot.

  Collins turned the watch over and looked at the back. The inscription etched by a jeweler many years before was hard to make out, but Jack managed to turn the watch toward the bright light from the trail ahead. His eyes betrayed his surprise to the others. He looked up, and when they saw their curious faces, he examined the writing once more and then read the inscription.

  " 'Commander John C. Phillips, USN, with admiration — your mates (CVN) 62, VF-13, 1960—Best of Luck!' "

  Collins looked up at Carl who was deep in thought.

  "Does that remind you of something, Captain?" Henri asked.

  "CVN 62, I think that was the USS Independence. VF -13, I believe, was a fighter squadron."

  "Are you thinking what I am, Colonel?" Farbeaux asked.

  "It looks like our long-lost naval aviator there had volunteered for a particularly dangerous mission back in October of 1962."

  "I agree, coincidence in this very strange affair has to end sometime," Henri said as he spied one of the Spetsnaz coming over from the area where the flare was glowing.

  "Jack, we have company," Everett said. "Just to let you know, I'm loose."

  Collins just nodded his head as the large commando reached down and pulled him to his feet.

  "I'll keep that in mind, Captain; for now, just take it easy and enjoy your surroundings."

  Jack was pulled along until he was met by Alexander. As the colonel looked around in the light of the flare, he saw Sagli squatting by a large tree and he had a look of sadness on his face as he stared at his hands.

  "I'm going to ask you something, Jack, and be straightforward with your answer, because I believe your life, as well as mine and my men, may be at stake."

  Collins didn't say anything. He looked up through the thick branches of the trees as the rain had almost stopped. He then looked back down into the face of the Canadian.

  "I know Lynn has no field prowess to speak of. Is there another of your men that you had along that has yet to be accounted for?"

  Collins was almost amused. He gave Alexander a curious look but remained noncommittal.

  "That's what I thought. No, if you had a man that wasn't accounted for, he would have made some sort of move by now." He raised his eyebrows at Jack. "You see, I know you train your people to be aggressive."

  Alexander was out of patience with the silent Collins as he grabbed him by the collar and pulled him over into the bright light cast by the dying flare.

  "Did one of your people do this?" he shouted as he thrust Jack forward, almost making him lose his balance.

  As Collins caught himself, he finally looked around, and then up until his eyes saw the body of Gregory Deonovich impaled on the tree branch. The body was slammed into the tree in a prone position with the limb traveling through his rib cage until it poked out the opposite side. The eyes were wide and staring. Jack could also see that the body had been impaled with such brutal force that the man's back had been shattered to the point where the entire large frame of the Russian bent far enough to create a an upside-down U shape.

  "Either Little Sis has been working out, or I would say you have a problem on your hands, and by the look of it, I would say, a rather large one."

  Collins was suddenly attacked from the rear and tackled. Alexander moved fast, but was slow in pulling Dmitri Sagli off. The man had actually gotten as far as to pull his large knife from its sheath and raise it, ready to bring it down into Jack's chest before he was kicked off by Alexander.

  "Is there something wrong with the English phrase, I need him alive, that you idiots don't understand?" Punchy yelled angrily. "You know how stupid Deonovich was; he undoubtedly deserved what he got. You yourself watched him be humiliated earlier by a small woman and you would have allowed her to kill him. It's a little late for sympathies about how you and he fought in Afghanistan together."

  Sagli lay where he had fallen, then he slowly picked himself up out of the wet loam of the forest floor. He sheathed his knife and then looked at Alexander.

  "It's the manner in which my old comrade was killed, not the justification of it."

  "You cannot account for fools, my friend, just grieve for them," Alexander said, making Jack's stomach
lurch at the falsity of the sentiment.

  Sagli just dipped his head once. Yes, he knew his partner was a fool, but one he could always control and order about. He knew he may have regret that Deonovich is gone after dealing with their new partner. He may have had a use for him down the road that Alexander would not have understood.

  Jack watched the exchange. As he did, he felt something under him that he had fallen on, just like Mendenhall had only minutes before. He knew what it was immediately as he had handled the same weapon a hundred times in his career: a Glock nine-millimeter automatic. The weapon must have fallen from the hand of Deonovich as he was being killed.

  Punchy Alexander strode over and lifted Jack in one strong sweep of his arms. Then he roughly turned him over and removed the handgun from his grasp. He angrily turned and tossed the automatic toward Sagli, who flinched and let it fall to the wet ground.

  "Don't get into the habit of disappointing me," he said to the Russian. "Now let's go."

  Alexander pushed Jack back toward the commandos and started walking. Sagli went to his dead friend and reached up, calling for assistance from someone taller to help remove Deonovich from the tree.

  "Leave him," Alexander said as he had stopped and turned around. "Let the men see the price of not being vigilant in this place." He turned back and headed for the plateau that was rising before them.

  Sagli angrily motioned the men away as he reached up and touched the face of his oldest friend. He glared at Jack and then abruptly turned and followed Alexander—his new boss.

  "What did we miss?" Everett asked as he and Will, and then finally Farbeaux, were led into the light of the flare.

  "I take it we missed this," Farbeaux said as he nodded toward the tree with Deonovich hanging from it.

  "What in the hell did that?" Will asked as he backed away from the gruesome sight.

  "Jack, are you starting to consider that either your sister hasn't told you about her current strength-and-conditioning program, or that we may have more than these assholes to worry about in these woods?"