Collins just looked at Everett and was about to say something when all around them, close and far, the pounding of clubs on trees started, far louder and closer than they had ever heard before. Inside of the light of the flare, Collins saw the Russians as they turned every which way, in anticipation of something unexpected. Jack saw the look of fright on most of the battle-hardened faces and the sheer terror in the eyes of the regularly trained troops. All twenty-seven of the technicians and soldiers had the look that must have crossed the faces of Custer and his men when they realized the jig was up at the Little Bighorn.
"I have a feeling we're about to find out just who it is we pissed off by being here," Mendenhall said as he backed into Collins, all the while his eyes never leaving the woods around him.
"I believe I must concur with the lieutenant's assessment; these sounds are far angrier than before."
Farbeaux didn't have the words out of his mouth when the first flash of dark movement took the two men bringing up the rear of their small group. They were gone in an instant without as much as a shout.
Mendenhall just turned to face Collins with his eyes wide as the drumming continued.
"It… it… it was… was big!" he finally said.
The rain had stopped but the clubbing of the trees continued. Suddenly, a shot was fired, and that led to another, then another, and then someone opened up an AK-47 on full automatic.
Collins and the others cringed as bullets started ricocheting off of trees, and tracers lit up the night. He looked around as fast as he could and saw that no one was watching them. The lone guard was terrified and watching the woods to the rear where the two men had vanished.
"Mr. Everett, I think now would be a good time."
Carl didn't hesitate once given the order, he simply moved his hands from his back to his front and then as quick as the earlier lightning streaking across the night sky, he reached out and twisted the soldier's neck, snapping it, and then catching the AK-47 before it fell to the ground. He quickly aimed at one of the men as he turned at the sudden movement behind him. A single shot by Everett brought the man down. The single discharge wasn't even noticed in the din of gunfire.
"May I suggest egress from this area?" Farbeaux yelled as he ran past the others and then turned suddenly to his left and jumped into thick woods. Jack and the others quickly followed the man who had made a living out of surviving when he should have died.
All around the trail of men and equipment, clubs sang out and the dwellers of the forest primeval attacked in earnest.
* * *
As the rain slowed, Jason Ryan was trying with his wounded shoulder pounding in pain to get the ejection seat inside the cave opening. He slipped and fell several times while dragging the heavy piece of safety equipment and attached body to cover. He had decided to do something when Marla and Sarah had abandoned him when they went out after hearing noise in the brush.
After ten minutes of struggle, Ryan fell in backward through the cave's opening. The ejection seat was now secured inside with him. As he moved his hand to his right shoulder, he felt the stickiness of his own blood. Great, he thought, Sarah's going to be furious with me for opening my wound again. He lay back and tried to get his breathing under control. When he thought he had achieved a modicum of control after so much exertion, Ryan sat up and looked over the skeletal remains of the pilot as the ejection seat lay on its side. He couldn't see much in the dark, but he could make out the basic outline of the remains. The left hand was missing and the fibula was sticking out of the rotting flight suit. The crash helmet was still in place but Jason could see that it had done this poor bastard no good at all. From all the evidence he could see from the time outside in the illumination of the lightning storm, this man had died of a high-impact crash.
Ryan reached out, felt around the left shoulder of the decaying flight suit, and lifted a small flap and felt underneath. There should have been a patch indicating this pilot's flight group, or at least a flag of his country, but the space was empty. He felt around the sickening remains again in the dark. He came upon a rotting piece of leather and allowed his hand to travel down farther. It was a shoulder holster that all military combat pilots carry. As he unsnapped the strap that held the weapon in place, it came off in his hands and then the entire holster fell free. He lifted it to his face and saw that is was a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 Special. He opened the cylinder and felt the rounds there — six.
"Sorry, buddy, but I may have need of this."
Suddenly, he heard noise from outside the cave and he pointed the .38 into the dark. He didn't even know if the gun would work as he pulled back the hammer. He swallowed as whatever it was had not one concern for the noise it was making. He hoped the damn weapon would fire and was about to find out when the voice came through the opening.
"Jason, is that you?"
Ryan rolled his eyes and released the hammer on the small handgun. He let out a deep breath and then laid the weapon in his lap.
"No, it's Mary Jane Rotten Crotch. Who else would it be? Do you guys think you can make any more noise?" he asked angrily.
"Sorry, we picked up a hitchhiker," Sarah said as three people came crashing into the cave.
All Jason could see was dark hair and a shapely butt; his anger immediately vanished.
"Jason Ryan, meet Lynn Simpson, Jack's sister."
Sarah could see Ryan as he cringed when he heard it was the colonel's sister. He soon got over it and then picked up the small .38.
"Nice to meet you," Ryan said sarcastically.
"I'm sure," Lynn said as she stepped around the skeleton and the ejection seat.
"Don't mind him; he's being a baby because he got speared by a tree branch. He's been in a bad mood ever since he crashed our helicopter," Sarah said as she kneeled over and checked Ryan's wound.
"I crashed! You mean, when we got shot down?"
"So, that was you?" Lynn asked as she looked around the darkened cave. "Your flying drew enough attention from the Russians to give me time to escape."
"So glad I could be of assistance."
"Damn it, you're bleeding again!" Sarah said as she once more applied pressure to his wounded shoulder. "You did it dragging that thing in here, didn't you? You stupid idiot."
"Yeah, does this look stupid?" he asked thrusting the pilot's handgun into her hand.
Sarah still kept one hand on the wound but felt the reassuring feel of a gun in her other.
Lynn looked around her. "Hey, where did the girl go?" she asked.
Sarah looked up and saw nothing. She couldn't tell if Marla was standing right next to her.
"Marla," Sarah called out. "Marla, get back here with us, right—"
The sound of wood striking wood filled the cave. Then the sound of automatic-weapons fire erupted not far from the caves opening. Ryan saw tracers flying everywhere and that was when he decided.
"I think we better find a back door to this place; that doesn't sound good at all."
"I think you're right," Sarah said as she lifted the pilot to his feet, her small frame far stronger than Ryan realized.
With Lynn and Sarah flanking Jason, they entered the cave.
"By the way Mr. Ryan, who is Mary Jane Rotten Crotch? An associate of yours?" Lynn asked, knowing full well the name was one of those many foul-sounding delicacies the military used for describing the not-so-virtuous women hounding servicemen. "Maybe an old girlfriend?"
"Yeah, most definitely an old flame of mine."
As they went farther into the cave it wasn't long before long-sought-for items became visible in the bleak darkness and as Ryan fell over one of these Lynn realized they had found what Alexander was looking for: the Hyper Glide.
Lynn knew it by its real name: It was the weapon of choice for a mission known to the military as Operation Solar Flare.
* * *
Punchy Alexander couldn't see anything other than the Spetsnaz taking aim at nothing and firing. He aimed his own Beretta nine-millime
ter into the dark, but all he could see was the smoldering remains of one of his Sikorsky helicopters and smoke rising from the men doing the shooting. He tried to get them under control by shouting out orders, but through the explosive reports bouncing off of trees and rocks he didn't stand a chance at being heard.
He finally reached out and grabbed Sagli who was just as frightened as his men. He turned him toward the north and pushed him forward. They were soon joined by three of the Spetsnaz.
As Alexander turned to look behind him, he saw something that froze his blood. A dark shape jumped from the trees and clubbed one of the soldiers to the ground. The beast struck the man three times in quick succession and then vanished before the men next to him could react.
"Jesus, what are these things?" he yelled as the beating of the clubs continued in its deafening cadence.
The men he left behind started to fight in earnest, laying down a dense cover fire in all direction. Then, one of the Spetsnaz who had gone to ground in a prone position was struck by a huge rock that was thrown from the darkness of the trees. That was followed by a roar that chilled the blood of every man who heard it. As the prone man was quickly checked by one of the electronic technicians, another rock was thrown, this one even larger that the first. The tech didn't have a chance as the stone hit him square in the face. That was what broke the other techs' will to stay and fight. They all ran for the trail that Alexander had just disappeared down and that was when the animals hit with force. At least twenty of the great beasts broke free of their camouflage against the trees and started swinging their clubs. The sounds of wood striking flesh overpowered the screams of men as they were taken down one by one.
Giganticus Pythicus had evolved over the last twenty thousand years, enough to gain the knowledge that led them to the use of tools and they were using them now and winning against the advanced firepower of mankind. The camouflage and striking capability coupled with the knowledge of when to attack caught the Spetsnaz, the technicians and the regular soldiers off guard, and when the last one fell, he died never knowing what it was that attacked and killed them.
The battle for the Stikine River was over in three minutes.
* * *
Jack stopped long enough for Everett to snap the wire-ties with a sharp stone. It took them far too long as they heard the battle in the back of them. The shooting was getting lighter and the drumming louder. The screams of animals no one in their small group ever wanted to see in person tore through the trees and assaulted their hearing. The primal fear they all felt growing inside of them was surreal in the fact that they sensed this was something that their ancestors may have feared as they went about their daily lives, in that Jack remembered Mendenhall's brief description of what he was feeling on the river.
"Damn, Jack, whatever we're dealing with here is kicking the hell out of Alexander's men," Everett said as he finally freed Mendenhall and turned to work on Farbeaux.
"May I suggest now that we have a weapon that we continue north and see if we can't thwart that old friend of yours?" Henri said as Everett cut through the thick plastic of his restraint.
As they all looked up, Jack Collins made sure the Russian-made weapon had a full clip and then he turned and ran for the trail where he knew his old buddy, Punchy, was heading.
"I think the colonel's way ahead of you," Mendenhall said as he didn't wait for Everett or Farbeaux as he hurriedly dove into the brush and followed Jack.
When Henri and Everett started running after Will and Jack, they saw something pacing with them through the woods beside them, just on the other side of a line of trees. It dwarfed them as they ran. They would speed up and the shadow in the darkness would speed up. They would turn following Jack's lead, and then the shadow would mimic the maneuver.
"We have another one directly behind us, Captain," Henri said with as much grace as he could muster in the circumstance of that terrifying moment.
"Oh, shit, look," Everett called out as another of the giants was seen to their right, running just far enough away to be seen. "Jack!" Everett shouted as loud as he could. "We have some very large company!"
Everett saw that Collins was too far ahead to hear, but Mendenhall wasn't. The lieutenant half turned and saw the giant shadows as they raced along beside them and he yelled out an incoherency and doubled his efforts to catch up with the colonel, or more to the point, the only man with a weapon.
"May I suggest we give the colonel the time he needs?" Farbeaux shouted and then turned into the trees to his right.
Everett couldn't believe Henri was about to give himself up like that. His bosses in France really must have threatened him. In any case, the SEAL captain wasn't about to let the Frenchman show him up, he also peeled off, only to the left.
As Will chanced a glace backward, he was shocked to see an empty trail where Everett and Farbeaux had been. He shook his head knowing the captain and Henri must have met a fate that he was trying desperately to avoid.
* * *
Sarah, Ryan, and Lynn had only gone fifteen feet into the caves interior when they stumbled into the large, black object. Lynn let go of Ryan long enough to reach down and feel the thing they had stumbled into. She swallowed when she felt the condensation on the dark casing. She ran her hands along the surface and felt the heat just beneath. She moaned and that was when Ryan also touched it.
"Feels like a giant pocket warmer."
"Yeah," Lynn said straightening up. "You could call it that, about five hundred megatons worth."
Ryan straightened like a man shot from cannon. He swallowed and started wiping his hands on his pants.
"What?" Sarah asked, taking an involuntary step back.
"That's right, you've missed the discussions to date, this thing here, this massive nuclear device is what Mr. Alexander is looking for."
"Harrumph," Ryan said clearing his throat. "And his reason for that is… "
"Oh, I forgot, he's a traitor to Canada and wants to start his own country in Quebec," Lynn said as plainly and as simply as she could.
"Okay, that makes some sense — I guess," Ryan said.
"No, Mr. Ryan, it makes all the sense in the world."
Ryan looked around and saw that the cave had a wide-open shaft that was situated against the far wall. The opening was about ten feet in diameter and it looked deep, possibly hundreds of feet.
"Look, why don't we just push the weapon down this hole. Alexander would never find it down there."
"That wouldn't be very nice, Mr. Ryan."
A light suddenly clicked on, and standing only a few feet away was Punchy Alexander, bloodied and out of breath, and in the backlight they saw Dmitri Sagli and three of his commandos. Alexander had them covered with his automatic and Sagli looked to be enjoying the moment as he approached Lynn and slammed his fist into her stomach. Ryan reacted without thinking: he hurled himself into the smaller Russian, but after the death of his partner over the woman he had just slammed to the ground, Sagli saw Jason's move long before he tried it. He reached up and slammed the pistol he was holding into the head of Ryan and he went down hard onto the packed earth of the cave.
"Ms. McIntire, Jack will be so pleased to see you, almost as much as I. You and the colonel's sister will come in very handy when it comes time to complete our business here."
Sagli turned on Alexander and whispered something Sarah failed to catch.
"Have the men cover the cave's opening. If the animals try to gain access, shoot them all. They can do that, can't they?" he said sarcastically. "I mean, they are capable of covering a bottleneck?"
"You are missing the point here," Sagli said angrily. "We have to leave here at some point, you fool, and those things will be waiting."
Alexander smiled. "No, I think they'll go for whoever runs interference for us," he said as he stared at Sarah.
* * *
In three minutes in the light of four flashlights taken from the packs of the commandos, Alexander had the access port to the Hyper Glide d
evice illuminated and opened. The warmth he felt from the outer casing told Punchy that the weapon was still viable and it had been contained since its violent end in 1962. He closed his eyes, feeling the power at his very fingertips. Soon this lone device, split into twenty smaller weapons would give him the power to make his own country, and with the radical element of the French-speaking population, it would be a simple transition.
"I can't believe that you actually think you can do this. This isn't a movie, Alexander; this is the real world, a coup in a civilized Western country?" "
Alexander looked up at Lynn, swiped some of the moisture from his face and smiled.
"A coup in a province that is awaiting a chance of a lifetime. They'll willingly threaten any nation for the chance to be their own country."
"Quebec? Do you think even the most ardent supporters of separation of state from country will follow you, or allow you to stay in power using threats to the security of their friends as persuasion?"
"Yes, I do. I know them and I know the element that they seek: power, my girl, it's always power. And in the right hands, it's such a liberating feeling. Yes, I will have almost total support. Even the United States will find it preferable to the rebellious nature of Canadian policy." Alexander had had just about enough of Lynn so he nodded toward Sagli who immediately reached out and slammed his fist into the side of her head. She fell and struck Ryan as he lay on the cave's floor.
"You bastard," Sarah said as she leaned over and checked both Lynn and Ryan.
Alexander waved Sagli over and then stood.
"My friend, knowing Colonel Collins as I do, and his tendency to be the hero, he should be very close to the opening of this cave. Please step forward with one of your commandos and ask him to join us. It's time he does his part."
Sagli gave Alexander a strange look, but shrugged his shoulders and pulled one of the Spetsnaz toward the mouth of the cave.
"There's no need, Punchy, I'm here."
Alexander quickly grabbed Sarah and brought her to his front, placing the nine-millimeter to her head.
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