People were dying in increasing numbers, a prowler was still out there, and he wasn't getting anywhere. His lab team was still at the beach, so he'd had to request a forensics unit from nearby Ventura County in order to get this site sampled before it rained or the wind blew away clues or camera crews arrived and saw them doing nothing here except scratching their asses while they looked again for footprints or tracks that just weren't here.
And then there was the problem of failing to apprehend this thing before it spilled into another county. Not only would Gearhart lose control of the manhunt to the state police or-worse-the National Guard, he'd lose face. Even when he came home from Vietnam, there was nothing Malcolm Gearhart had been ashamed of personally.
As the sheriff was about to get on the radio-again-and ask for another update from Thomas Gomez and his lab team at the beach, stones suddenly struck the top of the RV and the ground around it. He looked up at the mountainside to the north. Ground appeared to be giving way somewhere near the top, dropping rocks and dirt.
It could be nothing. It could also be the killer.
Gearhart switched the radio from Gomez's frequency to the frequency of the helicopter.
"Officer Russo!" he said to the woman flying the chopper.
"Sir?"
"Take yourself up about two hundred feet," Gearhart said. "Ride the spotlight along this side of the northern peak to the top. I want to see if there's anything there."
"Yes, sir," Russo said.
A moment later the spotlight was crawling from the center of the campsite toward the northern rim.
Chapter Forty-One
Jim Grand had once read a zoology paper about the interaction between apes and humans. More than once, the lifestyle and activities of the great apes gave him ideas about how Neanderthals and other human ancestors might have organized social hierarchies.
According to the paper, it was not uncommon for a male ape to stand watch while the female ate. However, there had been several recorded instances where a male ape would appear to stand watch while the female circled and attacked intruders. Grand had never heard of any other species doing this, since it required a level of deception and intelligence that most animals did not possess. But that didn't mean it never happened.
Even before Grand was sure exactly what was standing in front of him he became aware of something moving to the side and then behind him. It was moving quickly. He heard the low drumroll of its breath as it stalked away, deeper into the woods. Then he saw a large shadow move from the far side of the thicket toward the cliff.
Toward Hannah and the Wall.
There are two animals. Grand realized.
He had speculated about that possibility before, when he and Hannah were tossing ideas out at the university. Grand should have kept that in mind here, in the field.
The scientist was angry at himself for having underestimated these creatures. The animal in front of him had been the decoy while the other one flanked them. Fortunately, the animal to the side was hugging the ground and moving toward Hannah at a slow, stealthy crawl. Perhaps it didn't intend to attack. It might just be positioning itself to protect its home or enter the sinkhole. The animal in the thicket could be covering for it.
Still, Grand didn't intend to take chances. He started back toward the ledge. He wanted to get back to Hannah and the Wall, be there in case the big cat did go after them. Make sure they got a good start down the mountainside and cover as they descended.
By this time Hannah had seen what Grand was looking at. She froze. That was a good thing; this wasn't the time to make any sudden, panicked movements.
Grand moved confidently but not hurriedly. As the seconds passed he became more and more in tune with the land, the moat of the two animals, and his own center. He looked to the east. The second animal was still moving without haste or menace. At this rate, Grand would reach the ledge first. Now that he'd had a clearer look at the animal, he could see that it was definitely a large cat, though he couldn't tell what kind.
Grand listened carefully. He didn't hear anything behind him. The encounter would probably end without a confrontation. Though they didn't get everything they came up here for, at least they now had some idea what they were dealing with: animals that apparently weren't hostile unless hungry or provoked. The first thing he and Hannah should probably do upon getting back to town was bring in the State Department of Fish and Game, Wildlife and Large Animals Division. Try to figure out a way to track, encircle, and tran-quilize the cats-
Grand's brow darkened as the slap of the helicopter rotor suddenly became louder. He looked out and saw the chopper rising higher above the campsite, the sky brightening in front on him.
No-
A moment later the darkness turned bright white and the mountaintop flooded with light. From behind and from the right. Grand heard a roar that ripped through the din created by the helicopter, the wind, and Hannah screaming his name.
Chapter Forty-Two
The light and the bellowing collided somewhere over Grand's head. "Hannah, get down!" he yelled. Hannah turned back toward her photographer. "Wall, get a picture!"
"What?"
"There's time to get a shot-"
"No!" Grand screamed. "Get down!"
"Jim, we can do this-"
"Dammit, call Gearhart to get the chopper out of here then get the hell down!"
The Wall had had enough. He wrapped his big arms around Hannah and pulled her back. Hannah shouted at him. He didn't care.
Good for him, Grand thought. He admired Hannah tremendously, but she could be completely reckless.
Grand kept running but took a moment to look behind him at the animal in the thicket It was moving now. It emerged at a slow-motion gallop-big, strong steps powered by muscles that were so taut, propelling a body so long, that it took several moments for the animal to build up speed.
Incredibly, the creature was exactly what they had thought it might be: a saber-toothed cat.
As the giant came forward, the fine white fog rolled around its low-slung head and shoulders. It was almost as though the animal had taken form from the cloud itself.
Grand couldn't tell much about the saber-tooth from this distance. The animal had long, golden fur-not shaggy, but longer than the coat of a lion. It seemed stiff, like bristles.
Because the creature's head was down, averted from the spotlight. Grand could only see its eyes. They were dark, wide-set, and very narrow now.
The scientist also didn't have much time to study it. Looking back, he ran across the white-lit terrain toward the ledge. The chopper was just hovering, level with the cliff. Grand waved for it to go back, but the helicopter remained. The cat on the east was just outside the light but also running toward the ledge. It would be in the spotlight within moments. Hopefully it was headed toward the sinkhole and not toward Hannah and the Wall.
Grand watched the cat as it ran. The animal was easily over six feet in length and its tail added nearly another foot to that, held straight behind with a teardrop-shaped tuft of hair at the end. The cat had to be moving at least forty miles an hour and gaining. It moved like a cheetah, its torso extending with each long stride. But it was much larger and more muscular than a cheetah. And just seeing it turned something on in Grand. It aroused something primal, a competitiveness he didn't feel in real life. Certainly not in academia. His legs moved harder, faster, and his senses seemed more acute somehow. Challenge, stretching and expanding the human template.
Or was it the animal spirit of the earth itself entering him, he wondered, the way the Chumash said it was supposed to?
Behind him. Grand heard the stones crunch faster as the other cat picked up speed. The scientist started turning the starbursts at his side and then raised one of them above him, a dervishlike display of moat. He whistled loudly. Grand wanted the cat to know that he was running not because he was afraid but because he was protecting his own.