Andy looked up, but there was nothing to see above, as the clouds were too thick. But he knew they wouldn’t be for much longer. Soon, when the vortex stabilized, the maelstrom would dissolve and sunshine would rule on the plateau once again.
He smiled, wondering if someone was already on their way coming to look for him. He wondered when they arrived, what would it look like? Would they beam down and materialize from the future like they did in a Star Trek teleporter?
His grin widened, remembering that it wasn’t that special, and in fact, it had been as simple as walking through a gossamer sheet, that had made him feel slightly flippy in the stomach for a second or two, and then he was there.
As he watched, the cloud started to drop, creating a misted atmosphere on the plateau. It would still be dripping with humidity but he knew now that at its center, the cloudbank would break and rise.
The oily curtain remained, but beams of light began to shine down like beacons. Andy eased back down in his treetop perch and watched for another few moments. His hand was half-mutilated, his skin was covered in scars, and his body that was once slightly pudgy was now whip thin and nothing but stringy, sunburned muscle. Hell, even his teeth hurt, not from any sort of sugary diet, but from having to, at times, eat food that was bordering on being tougher than boot leather.
He opened his bag to let the small flying reptile out. Gluck immediately set to hopping around and chasing down bugs for a quick meal.
“Save some for me.” He grinned and then turned about, looking back along the valley. Things hooted, squealed, and screamed out of a green world. Things that looked like thick tree trunks rose from the green ocean and at their top were explosions of spiky leaves. Medium-sized pterosaurs glided from tree to tree, some chasing insects as long as his arm that glittered on membrane wings.
There were other massive trees that climbed into the clouds, some primitive pines, gingkoes, and redwoods, with smoke-like mist curling in and around the canopies, and he knew below them the forest highways created by eons-old animal tracks would also be shrouded in mist — perfect for an ambush, he knew from experience.
Andy cupped his fingers into a box and brought them to his lips. He filled his lungs with the humid scent-rich air of the Late Cretaceous and blew long and carefully into his hands. It produced a long mournful bellow that traveled along the valley floor.
He finished and waited. Sure enough, heads the size of small cars lifted on tree-trunk-thick necks from the endless green, and as he hoped, responded. They called back to him, the sauropods, the largest creatures to have ever lived on land. 120 feet from nose to tail and around 80 tons, the creatures were walking mountains.
Andy blew into his cupped hands again, and once again, they responded. But this time, they looked toward him. He waved. What would they make of a tiny creature like me? he wondered. He was nothing to them, a bug, an anomaly out of place and out of time. And where mankind ruled for a few thousand years, these things ruled for many millions.
He smiled as he watched them, and his chest swelled and eyes watered. This was his land, and his alone. And it was as magnificent as he imagined and hoped it to be.
He turned back toward the plateau. Right now as the comet Primordia was overhead, everything was thrown into chaos — the atmosphere, the weather, the magnetic orientation of the Earth, and even time and space itself, as a portal or doorway to another reality was thrown open.
He had a little over 24 hours. And at the end of that period, when the comet pulled away and the time distortion ended, the two realities went back to being ordered once again, the two worlds separated by a distance so vast it was hard to even comprehend.
He remembered that Ben Cartwright had seen himself as being marooned here in the Late Cretaceous. But Andy never saw it that way. If his sister came to find him and try to take him home, what would he do or say to her?
He smiled; she couldn’t take him home, because this was his home now, wasn’t it?
Andy was torn. He had so much more to do and see in this world. It had taken him a decade, but he learned how to survive in this place. He peeked over the edge of the tree canopy, looking at the growth below him.
He made a plan: she would try and convince him to come with her. But instead, he would convince her to stay here with him. He had so much to show her. She’d love it.
He looked down from his perch — there were broad and fleshy leaves, bulbous hanging fruits, and a mad tangle of vines, some with hooked barbs that tore at the flesh, cycads, and tongue-like ferns. And on the trunks of those titanic trees, there were brilliant red and orange fungi, like flatbread growing out from their bark, and their lower branches had what looked like strings of green pearls hanging from them.
It was a wonderland, except in among that wildness there were the predators — big or small, they all spelled death for a soft-bodied mammal. But he knew how to avoid them. He had something the other creatures didn’t: a giant brain.
He looked back once again at the plateau — there was another reason to go no further, turn around, and just head back into the jungle. Up on that plateau were monsters, but not just massive two-legged theropods, or flying reptiles the size of airplanes, or waterways filled with carnivores that made sharks and alligators seem like goldfish.
Andy felt the tremble in his stomach at the memory — the monstrous snakes known as Titanoboa were creatures that were like some sort of elemental force. The entire plateau was where they thrived, and it was like a pit of vipers on a monstrous scale.
“Gluck.” The tiny reptile hopped up on his leg, obviously now having had his fill of insects and fruit. “Don’t go there, Andy.”
Andy smiled flatly. “I don’t really want to go.”
“Gluck.” It cocked its pointed head. “And Helen?”
He sighed. “I know if there’s a chance my sister is going to be there, then I should at least meet her. After all, it’d be rude not to, if she’s just come a few thousand miles and 100 million years to see me.” He pulled at his lip. “Be also good to get some supplies. Even a new knife would do.”
He looked down at his emaciated frame. He was covered in scars, missing a couple of fingers, his skin covered in dirt and a deep tan, and he bet his long hair was filled with twigs, seeds, and all manner of debris. Andy smiled; he was a prehistoric Robinson Crusoe. Yeah, he needed some supplies. But that was all.
“Gluck.” The tiny flying reptile turned one suspicious eye on him.
“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you. I’m not going anywhere.”
Gluck climbed up his leg, and then used his sharp beak to open the bag and burrow in. Andy grinned.
“What, so I’m a kangaroo with a pouch now?”
He looked in at the tiny bird-like thing.
“We’ll just take a look, a quick one.” He went to close the bag but paused. “And no snoring in there — silence is the key up where we’re going.”
Andy began to ease down the tree and felt more vulnerable every foot of the way.
CHAPTER 40
Still several hundred feet from the top of the plateau, Ben was the first to find and then enter the cave mouth. There had been several caves he had bypassed, but what attracted him to this one was it had dappled light falling at its rear.
As he scrambled in, he stayed pressed in tight to one side, gun up, as the others came in behind him. He motioned to his eyes and then to the cave interior, and Chess and the mercs, plus Drake spread out. Ben waved Helen and Nicolás in behind him.