“What? No way we don’t look.” Andy looked appalled.
“We’re going to check it out.” Drake lowered his glasses.
“Is it safe?” Camilla asked. “I mean, I’m professionally curious, but have we got time for this?”
“We don’t have time to not investigate it.” Drake turned to Emma. “You said that the ruins on the jungle floor had a secret cave that led up here. Do you think there’s a chance at all that these ruins have a similar cave vent that leads back down?”
“Maybe, why not? For all we know, the Pemon found other ways to the top of the plateau and built their temples over them.” She hiked her shoulders. “But I’m not the expert.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Drake said. “Finding Ben is our mission objective. But staying alive and getting home takes precedence over anything else. So we check it out.”
Something slammed into the treetops over their heads. Guns were immediately pointed upward, and the suspects were flying things that could have been bats that skimmed awkwardly from treetop to branch. Could have been bats, in that their wings were noisy, and they landed clumsily. But that’s where the comparison ended, as they were emerald green, and had long heads with a knob on the back to balance out a long serrated beak in front.
In addition, they didn’t sing or even squawk. These varieties made a tock noise that sounded like metal on a hollow log. They turned their heads sideways to regard the humans with interest, and maybe a little hunger.
“They’re not birds,” Andy said. “Smaller cousins of the thing that attacked our balloon.” He grinned up at them. “Probably scavengers.”
“I bet they taste like chicken,” Fergus said.
Suddenly, the constant background noise of the jungle was shut off as completely as if someone had flicked a switch. The group turned about.
“What just happened?” Fergus slowly lifted his weapon.
“Not good,” Helen spoke softly in a silence where even the insects had gone quiet.
Drake scanned along the jungle’s edge, trying to see in past the first long line of foliage. The group started to bunch up, like a small herd of animals pulling in close to the pack.
At first, Drake could hear or see nothing, but then he began to feel it — like the jungle was suddenly holding its breath. He’d been on a mission in the Congo, when a big cat started to stalk them one night. Same thing happened. It was like the creatures of the jungle shut down, all hoping that it was the other guy being stalked and not them.
“Predators in the vicinity,” Helen whispered.
“Oh, fucking great,” Ajax spat. “I’ve changed my mind; I think we should take a look in that temple thing after all.”
“No, not yet.” Andy’s eyes were round. “Let’s wait and see if whatever it is just passes us by.”
“And if it doesn’t, we’re exposed as all hell out here,” Fergus countered.
“I think defensive cover would be a bonus right now.” Drake pointed. “We should also change Juan’s bandages. He’s leaking.”
Juan looked down and saw that his arm was stained a dark red-brown again. “It itches.”
“Yeah, that’s a good sign,” Ajax said, chuckling.
“Means it’s healing?” Juan asked, hopefully.
“Nah, means it’s probably infected,” Ajax scoffed, but then grinned. “But don’t worry; we have the skills to perform a rapid field amputation if necessary.”
Juan paled and gripped his arm.
“Shut it, Lieutenant,” Drake said with a scowl.
Ajax continued to laugh cruelly as he turned back to peer at the temple ruins.
Emma also looked at the man’s arm with concern, and then back at him with her lips pressed flat. Drake bet he knew why — the smell of his blood would draw predators like flies to crap.
“We move.” Drake eased his head around. “On my word; Fergus, ten feet forward, left flank. Ajax ten feet, right. Everyone else, close in tight, single-file up the center. I’ll bring up the rear. We stay low, fast, and quiet.”
A single twig snapped just a dozen feet out to their left. Then some tree branches shook a little on their other side.
Fergus eased his gun around. “Boss, we’re about to be surrounded.”
“Yep, time’s up. Focus on the temple, nowhere else.” Drake took one last look around. “3, 2, 1… go!”
Fergus and Ajax shot out to the left and right, guns up. Everyone else was in the center with Drake behind.
As Drake sprinted, he could sense the eyes on them. He hoped they were nothing oversized but couldn’t help feeling this was like a kill box. Then the jungle exploded around them.
What he at first thought were muscular ostriches came bursting from the jungle on three sides. Except instead of feathers, their skin looked warty and rough, blotched with green, brown, and some red. Their legs were heavily muscled and small arms ended in talons. They were only about six feet tall, but dozens were piling out and moving faster than they were, making a weird hissing rattle in their throats.
“Move it!” Drake yelled.
He turned and let loose a short spray with his M4—his bullets pumped into two of the hunters and they immediately went backward, blown off their feet. The others just accelerated.
“Engage!” he fired again.
Fergus and Ajax lay down controlled bursts, the professional soldiers never missing. The hissing rattle got louder as the theropods closed the gap.
They were still 50 feet out from the wide-open temple doorway, and Drake began to doubt they’d all make it. They were heavily outnumbered, and he turned again, and noticed the creatures were now only a dozen feet behind him. They ran like roadrunners, necks pointed arrow-straight at him as they leaned forward with their whip-like tails pointed out behind them for balance.
Their small red eyes were almost luminous with excitement, and their open mouths showed backward-curving teeth like a band saw. Drake wondered what the bite would be like — would it shred flesh and rip it from the bone, or would the bite be powerful enough to simply sever an arm or leg?
He turned, running sideways, and took out two more that had been so close. He could even hear their ragged breathing. At just 20 feet from the doorway, he turned to fire again, expecting to see them basically at his neck.
Drake slowed. “What the hell?”
The creatures had veered off and given up the chase. His group were now safely inside the temple, and Ajax and Fergus took a position up on each side of the doorway.
Drake stood on the front steps, breathing hard. The pack of carnivores melted back into the jungle. He jogged up the steps, and he turned at the doorway again, gun up and pointed back the way they’d come. Nothing followed them.
Weird, he thought. They basically had them and gave up. He looked inside and saw his people lying on the stones, sucking in deep breaths.
“Yeah.” Ajax grinned. “We kicked their ass, man.” He whooped and lifted his gun. “Don’t mess with modern man, you fucking big-ass lizards.”
Drake let his eyes drift to the walls of the jungle. “I don’t get it. They had us dead to rights. But they gave up.”
“Superior firepower tends to do that to an enemy.” Ajax fist-bumped Fergus.
“They’re not our enemy,” Helen said. “They’re just doing what nature intended.”
“Something spooked ‘em,” Drake said.
“Us,” Fergus added.
“Hey, maybe they’re superstitious.” Andy laughed softly, and moved further inside, pausing at carvings, crouching to examine something here and there, or just marveling at the architecture.