His grandfather, for the first time, looked up at Nakai, deep knowledge shining through his dark eyes. And in a very firm voice he said, “Do you, Grandson? Do you really know it, in your heart, as well as your head?”
And that was how it ended. Nakai had no answer. He had left the next day for boot camp and three weeks later his grandfather had died, sitting above the drawing of Nayenezgani.
20
Monsters, such as this one, are rare. They exist to keep us humble, to remind us that we are not the greatest creatures in the universe. They also exist to remind us of the relationship between predator and prey.
Without prey, the predator is nothing. When our people roamed freely, we blessed the spirit of our prey. We knew that without the prey, we would be nothing. We would not have clothing, or homes, or food.
We have lost our connection to our prey. We no longer understand the relationships that have kept us alive for all those centuries.
By losing touch with our prey, we have forgotten how to be predators.
We have forgotten how to survive.
Major Lee adjusted his night goggles. The damn things always made him slightly dizzy, something he didn’t dare confess out loud. He figured it was because they reproduced the world in ways that were not natural. The desert didn’t look like a night desert. It looked faintly grayish green, with all the details highlighted.
All the details, including the creature’s bloody trail.
Private Corales stood beside Lee, holding his M-16 at the ready. Corales didn’t seem disturbed by the night goggles. In fact, he was the one who had spotted the change in the creature’s direction.
It veered to the right. Carefully, silently, Lee and Corales followed the trail to the top of a ridge. Lee felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. He’d been feeling like something was wrong, something was off.
He was feeling as if this part of the plan wasn’t going well.
He kept telling himself it was because the attack in the town had gone badly. To let a civilian die—well, Lee would be lucky if he didn’t have some music to face on that one. And then the damn creature got away.
Corales glanced at Lee as if he were expecting something. Lee was expecting something, and it wasn’t coming. He had called to Private Chaney, to let him know about the change in the trail’s direction, and Chaney had responded that he found it.
Then he had said nothing more.
Now, Chaney might be taking simple precautions. Even though Lee hadn’t commanded silence, they all knew this creature was out there. Still, Chaney should have reported which direction he was going in.
Unless the direction was so damn obvious no one could miss it.
If that were the case, Chaney should have waited. No one in the team should have gone far from the others. Not alone.
That was basic tracking. Lee had trained Chaney himself. Lee remembered teaching that.
Lee shouted one more time. “Chaney. Report.”
His order echoed through the night and died off in the warm breeze.
“Spread out,” Lee said to Corales. “I want to go over that hill apart, just in case.”
Corales nodded and went left about ten steps, stopping behind a small rock. Major Lee nodded and turned around, shouting back the thirty meters to Mayhew on the opposite ridge. “Move to our right and cover our flank.”
Mayhew signaled that he had heard.
Lee glanced at Corales. “Ready, Private?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Corales answered.
“Now,” Lee said.
Together they went over the slight ridge, both moving parallel to the creature’s tracks. No more than a few meters in front of them, just beyond the crest, was Chaney’s body, his head severed, his gun missing.
“Damn it all to hell,” Lee said softly as they both stopped and crouched, scanning the desert night for anything moving.
Nothing was.
Somehow that creature had killed Chaney without a sound, then disappeared into the night again. But how? And where was it now?
Before Major Lee could even move, his question was answered. To their right the desert silence was shattered by the rapid fire of an assault rifle.
Both Corales and Lee dove for cover, coming up facing the sound of fire, guns at ready.
Mayhew screamed in agony, the cry echoing over the final sounds of gunfire like a haunting note.
Then again the desert was silent.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Lee said to himself. Then he called, “Mayhew, report!”
His words echoed and died.
“Mayhew, report!” Lee shouted louder.
Nothing.
“Shit!” Lee said again. Then with a wave to Corales, he motioned that they move up. More than anything he wanted to retreat, but until he discovered what had happened to Mayhew, he wasn’t going anywhere.
Slowly, moving as carefully as they could through the brush and rock, they stalked toward Mayhew’s position. No sound, no attacking fire greeted them. Nothing but the darkness and the desert breeze. And to Lee, the silence was worse than gunfire. At least with an attack, he knew what he was facing. At the moment he had no idea.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, but was less than a minute in real time, they reached Mayhew’s body. He had been riddled point-blank by an M-16. Most of his middle had been blown into dripping blobs of flesh and intestines on the brush behind him.
Killed by Chaney’s gun. The creature had done that on purpose, toying with them, letting them know that it knew that they were nearby.
Corales gagged, but held his dinner.
Lee moved slowly to the top of the ridge, scanning the area. From the looks of it, the creature had headed straight off into the desert, toward the volcanic ridgeline ten miles away. If it got into those rocks, not even Nakai could track it.
If it didn’t, it was planning something. Lee gripped his gun tightly and searched the darkness, but saw nothing. For the first time he understood their disadvantage.
The creature, in using the M-16, had told them that it understood their weapons. It had weapons of its own, which it used with impunity. But by taking one of their weapons and turning it against their own man, it was sending a message.
It knew how they thought.
And they knew nothing about it.
The idea sent a chill through Lee. He took a deep breath to calm himself, then turned to Corales. “You all right?”
Corales nodded, his face a strange greenish color when viewed through the night goggles. Lee suspected that Corales was also that green when viewed without the night goggles.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s head back. We got to tell the colonel it’s time we stopped playing army and kill this thing.”
“Yeah,” Corales said. “Before it kills us.”
Lee clapped Corales on the back. He didn’t agree, at least not verbally. He didn’t have to.
After one more glance at the desert, the men turned and headed quickly toward the lights of the nearby town.
21
My grandfather tells me that my brother might finally understand his place in the way of things. My grandfather tells me the time is yet to come. He is a powerful Yataali. I must believe him. I must remain at my brother’s side until the time is right for him to slay the monster.
“Hey, Corporal.” Tilden’s voice broke into Nakai’s memory of the last time he had seen his grandfather alive. “Can you hear me there?”
“I’m sorry,” Nakai said, scanning the desert, seeing nothing. “Just drifted off there for a second. Been a long day.”
“Yeah,” Tilden said. “It has at that.”
They stood in silence for a moment. Nothing moved around them, and no noise came from the center of town. A warm wind drifted off the desert, bringing nothing but normal smells to Nakai. The creature wasn’t out there in this direction, that much was for sure. And guarding this end of town was a waste of time. It was simply a way to keep him out of the kill.
He leaned his head against the rough wood and tried to peer deeper into the desert. The silence was eerie. The shadows from the town’s lights were right, but the background noise was all wrong. At this time of night, he should have heard more than one car rev its motor as it was about to head onto the straight desert road. The music from Ben’s Saloon would have carried this far as well, provided it was a weekend and Ben had hired a band—or what passed for a band in Agate. And if there was no music, there would at least be conversation: loud drunken conversation, usually about pool, usually spilling into the roadway.
There was nothing.
Nothing except Tilden breathing softly beside him. Shouldn’t the kid be walking point at least?
“You know,” Tilden said, breaking the silence. He had amazing timing. Nakai was about to tell him to scout a bit. “They mentioned at the briefing that this creature had some sort of deadly ray that killed people.”
“Yeah,” Nakai said. Instantly the image of the blue flash cutting through Dietl rose in his mind. He’d have that memory for the rest of his life, and it would come at the most inconvenient moments. Damnation, he wished he could once remember how Dietl had been when he was alive. “The weapon fired like blue lightning. I was the one who told them about it.”
“Wonder why the creature didn’t use it when we attacked it,” Tilden said. “Think its ray gun might be broken or something?”
Nakai froze in place. He had missed that. How had he missed that?
“Damn,” he whispered. The truth of the situation was dawning on him. “I wonder why I didn’t think of that.”
“What?” Tilden asked.
“You stay on post,” Nakai said. “I’ve got to report to the colonel on this.”
“But—”
Without waiting for Tilden to finish, Nakai headed off at a run toward the center of town. It didn’t take him very long to get there.
The colonel’s men had set up a large tent against the back of one building. A guard patrolled the top of the building and two more stood post on corners. Inside the tent, Nakai could see the colonel sitting at a table, studying a map.
Nakai slowed to a walk when he reached the sentry positions. Outside the edge of the open tent flat, he stopped and saluted. “Colonel, sir.”
The colonel glanced up, frowning. “What is it, Corporal?” His voice was tired and sounded annoyed.
“Begging the colonel’s pardon for the interruption, but I’ve got to talk with you, sir.”
The colonel motioned for Nakai to come in, but didn’t offer him one of the open chairs. Instead he went back to studying the map.
The colonel had really changed his mind about Nakai. Or was he afraid of him? Afraid of a man who had come through the desert on his own, who had survived meeting that creature, not once, but three times.
“Sir,” Nakai said. “I believe the creature has a camp.”
The colonel looked up. “A camp?”
“Yes, sir,” Nakai said. “When this creature killed Dietl, it was with a blue bolt of some kind or another. And when I came upon the creature in the desert, it fired on the cat using the same weapon. Yet tonight it didn’t fire on us.”
The colonel studied Nakai. “Do you believe you have some special understanding of this creature, Nakai?”
“Yes, sir.”
The colonel brought his head back, as if he were surprised.
Nakai held out his hands. He would make or break his own argument here. Now. “I’ve had more time to study it, sir, than anyone else has. And I’ve, been thinking about its patterns. It acts like a hunter.”
“A hunter?”
Nakai nodded. “It has traveled here, alone, and it hides. It stalks its prey, and it is very careful to take souvenirs. It carries those souvenirs with it.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s a hunter, Nakai,” the colonel said. “Tourists carry souvenirs.”
“That’s my point, sir. If you were big-game hunting in Africa, wouldn’t you make sure you kept a scrap of everything you bagged—a tooth, an antler, something—even if you ate the creature?”
The colonel kicked out a chair and sighed. “You certainly make a good argument, Nakai. Have a seat.”
Nakai sat down.
“A hunter.”
“Yes, sir. It doubles back. It watches us—its prey. It uses weapons in very precise ways, and when it’s outnumbered, it runs.”
“That seems only logical,” the colonel said.
“And remember, it seems to have some kind of camouflage ability.” Nakai cleared his throat, uncomfortable with this next. “And when it has time, it dresses its kill like we would dress a dear.”
The colonel slid the map toward Nakai. “So you think it has a camp.”
“Yes, sir.” Nakai’s heart was pounding. He had convinced the colonel to respect him again. That was critical. Once he had the man’s full respect, he would request a return to duty. Real duty. That meant going after the creature.
“A camp,” the colonel mused. “Well, why not? If it can fly a craft, it can build a camp.” Then his eyes narrowed. “But we are making assumptions here. Just because the creature didn’t fire doesn’t mean it wasn’t carrying its weapons.”
“True,” Nakai said. “But there’s another detail I missed this morning that I should have seen. The creature left a trail from the site where he killed the big cat toward the north, and then back again. He obviously went into those lava flows and returned, for some reason. I didn’t give it much thought, since they were older tracks, but if his camp is in those lava rocks, he might have left weapons and supplies there, before he blew up his ship in Cole.”
“Setting out from a camp without a weapon doesn’t make much sense,” the colonel said, thinking aloud. He shook his head slowly. “But then, from what I’ve seen of this creature, it doesn’t need a weapon most of the time.”
“Yes, sir,” Nakai said. Now was his chance. “I just might be able to track it back to its camp if you give me a chance.”
“Well…” The Colonel sat back and thought for a moment. He never finished his sentence. Suddenly the sound of gunfire echoed over the town, coming clearly from the north side, where Major Lee had gone.
Where the creature had gone.
Nakai was off his chair instantly, his rifle ready. The colonel stood and moved around to stand beside him, both of them listening.
“Damn it,” the colonel said. “I told them not to engage the creature until we had the right men and equipment here.”
“Maybe they didn’t have a choice, sir,” Nakai said. The creature rarely gave anyone a choice.
The colonel nodded.
Silence covered the town as everyone waited. Nakai admired the colonel for not sending more men to investigate at once. A lesser leader would have done just that, and possibly sent even more men to their deaths. Instead the colonel stood and waited.
Within a minute of the gunshots, Major Lee and Private Corales came running at full speed around the corner of the destroyed hardware store.
The major ran directly up to the colonel and snapped off a salute, “Sir,” he said, breathless and sweating, the dirt forming streaks on his sunburned skin. “Chaney and Mayhew are dead.”
“Damn it all,” the colonel said. He took a deep breath, obviously upset at the news. “What happened?”
“The creature must have ambushed Chaney,” Major Lee said, “then took his gun. It killed Mayhew with Chaney’s rifle while making its escape. It seems to be headed directly north.”
“Toward the lava fields and its camp,” Nakai said.
“It would seem that way,” the colonel said, glancing at Nakai, then turning back to Major Lee.
“Suggestions, Major?”
“Sir,” Lee said, “I think we should bring in everything we can bring in, before it reaches those lava
fields. If it gets in there, we’ll never get it out.”
The colonel nodded. He turned and moved back into the tent, dropping down into his chair. “I agree,” he said. “I’ve got an elite commando unit coming in on a chopper, escorted by a gunship. They’ll be here within an hour’s time.”
Major Lee nodded and smiled. “Good.”
Nakai also agreed with Lee. Army commando units consisted of fourteen of the best-trained fighters in the world, and a helicopter gunship had more firepower than almost anything aloft. Against one creature, they might get the job done.
“But let’s not take any chances,” the colonel said. “Major, I want you to round up all the men around town, leaving two to stay with the dead. Corporal Nakai?”
Nakai, who had been listening intently, snapped to attention. If the colonel stuck him with guarding bodies, he’d go over the wall. He wasn’t pulling guard duty at a time like this. Not for any reason. “Yes, sir.”
“Think you can track that thing through the desert at night?”
“Yes, sir,” Nakai said, smiling.
“Good,” the colonel said. “Major Lee, have the humvees ready to go in five minutes. We’re going to drive that creature right into the commandos and kill the damn thing.”
Nakai could only smile. Finally, the army was doing as he had hoped, working smart and working together. Just maybe, if they were lucky, they’d bag that creature tonight.
If they weren’t lucky, a lot of men were going to die.
22
The story of the twins, of Nayenezgani, has been told from father to son for generations. The center of the story concerns the monster’s power. A monster must show its true power before its defeat can be honored in a story. Killing a field mouse is easy. Killing a cougar is hard. Killing this monster, this creature, is almost impossible.
That is the task of the monster slayer; doing the impossible.
This monster has destroyed an entire army base full of people, and killed dozens more. But it has not yet shown its true power. I fear that when my brother understands this, he will turn away.
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