“Think you can fly that drone back here without cracking it up?”
“But we need to keep an eye on this, and what about the colonel and Farbeaux? We need to stay in contact with them.”
“That’s why we have radios, Doc. Now get that drone back here so we can recharge it for when we really need it.”
An angry Charlie waited the briefest of moments until the master chief looked up. He returned the look. “Listen, do you see that Ferris wheel — lookin’ thing over there?”
Charlie saw the doorway in its incomplete state. “Yes.”
“The priority is that damn thing, not keeping an eye on two men that know how to take care of themselves. We need to know when those murderous chickens start getting too close, is that clear to you, Doc?”
“Yes, but I don’t like the fact that I feel we are abandoning our friends out there, Carl.”
“One more thing while you’re so damn worried about everything else, there’s a missing piece of that Ferris wheel and those damn raptors or whatever they are have it. We need to see where they have taken it before the whole damn thing becomes a moot point. And in case you didn’t notice, we are sitting right in the middle of that damn game trail.”
Without another word Charlie started guiding drone number one home. He still couldn’t shake the feeling that they were abandoning Jack and the others when they needed their eyes the most.
Without knowing it, Ellenshaw was mirroring the master chief’s very thoughts.
20
The giant cave bear’s claws missed Anya’s head by mere inches. The blow was so close that it cut clean a long lock of her black hair. She cursed in Romanian and then in Hebrew as she scrambled backward on her behind just as the branches covering the small crevice came crashing in upon all of them. The enormous but blunted snout of the brown and black fur — covered behemoth roared as it leaned in to swipe at the branches covering its intended targets. The young and wounded Russian managed to slide by Sarah and Virginia and partially raise his weapon up and through the large leaves of their cover. That was a major mistake as it acted like a marker for the monstrosity fighting to get in. The boy screamed as the beast moved like lightning and took the man’s hand, but instead of biting through the light meat, sinew, and bone of the man’s wrist, the bear pulled the Russian up and out of the collapsed enclosure. Sarah and Virginia tried for his flying feet but missed.
The man screamed as he was thrown through the air to crash into other trees. The bear turned to move toward the easy meal.
Before anyone realized it, something had drowned out the roars of the enraged bear. Gunshots sounded outside and then their hopes soared as they realized that the colonel and his team had found them, or at the very least that bastard mobster had returned with Ryan and Mendenhall. Three more shots were fired and the roaring animal vanished from the enclosure. Sarah, Virginia, and Anya scrambled to push the debris of the shelter away as they struggled to take advantage of the brief respite. McIntire was the first one to break through and it was like a drowning swimmer breaching the surface for some much-needed air, only this particular sensation was brought on by fear. Anya popped up next to her and then Virginia with a halo of leaves garnishing her brown hair.
The animal screamed again and they saw the beast as it charged something that was blocked from view.
“Why aren’t they still shooting it?” Anya yelled over the din of the charging cave bear.
That was when they saw a fur-covered form break cover and dodge the charging giant. The man-shape moved quickly and took up station just to the animal’s exposed left flank as the beast crashed into the undergrowth where their savior had been in cover. Then they were amazed when the fur-covered figure fired a large arrow into the confused bear. Then another arrow was quickly nocked and fired without hesitation. Then the figure was again on the move just as the enraged animal turned to confront its attacker. The dark figure moved fast and before the women knew it the attacker had launched two more arrows at the bear.
“What in the hell is that asshole doing?” Sarah asked as she fought further to free herself from the roof of the enclosure. “Arrows?”
The bear had had enough. The giant roared one more time at the pesky animals that had thwarted its meal. The cave bear rose once on its hind legs and then screamed its outrage. It flopped onto all fours and vanished into the thick growth.
Sarah finally managed to free herself totally and then helped Anya and Virginia. They turned, and with their hearts still threatening to beat right out of their chests, they saw the fur-covered hunter move quickly toward the downed Russian. The man’s pulse was checked and the person or whatever it was lowered his head. Then their new company looked up toward them. There was no movement for the first few seconds as they waited to see who or what had come to their rescue. Finally, without rising from his crouched position, a gloved hand was raised and the fur hood was removed.
Even at the distance Anya saw who it was and her heart froze. Sarah and Virginia laughed aloud and even clapped their hands as the blond man finally rose. The beard was thick but even from that distance they saw the man’s eyes and there was no mistaking Admiral Carl Everett. He slid the large bow over his shoulder and smiled. Yes, it was Mr. Everett, and Sarah felt the tears come to her eyes as Anya ran forward. Virginia placed a hand on Sarah’s shoulder and they took in a reunion that had never been dreamed of until Moira Mendelsohn had been discovered. She jumped the last four feet and flew into his fur-covered arms. Carl took her in, fearing his own voice would fail him. As it turned out he didn’t need his voice at all.
Sarah looked at Virginia and saw that the older woman was crying. For Sarah it was a rerun of her reunion with Jack during the Leviathan mission… she knew the joy. Sarah’s smile said it all.
“We beat the damn odds, didn’t we?” she said as she watched Carl Everett embrace Anya for the first time since his once-upon-a-time death.
Before the embrace and the joy faded, the odds had shifted again for the worst as Mount Erebus rumbled and belched burning-red boulders from her caldera, and this time she and her sister world-killers didn’t stop.
The radio coming to life made Jack cringe. He hurriedly pulled it from its holder and lowered the volume. The noise in the silent jungle was not conducive to avoiding some of the pitfalls he and Farbeaux were made aware of by the screams of cats and other species that seemed to want to eat everything they came across. Collins could see that Henri was coming a little unglued, and he had to admit to himself that he was faring no better. You could only search in a scary place for so long before you start to hear monsters behind every bush you see.
“Collins,” he said into the radio as he hurriedly tempered his angry response, after all it wasn’t the master chief’s fault he had left his volume up like a rookie.
“Colonel, we have a serious problem,” Jenks said from five miles distant. “It seems we have an assorted selection of wildlife heading straight for us, and they have some disturbing company herding them. Doc says that they are migrating toward Erebus while the rest of the wild kingdom is heading the other way away from the volcano. The group heading our way is being herded by our feathered friends, over.”
“Our raging peacocks again?” he asked as Henri stopped beside him with an open bottle of water from his pack. Collins shook his head and then waited.
“Oh, yeah. The smart little bastards are keeping a massive migrating herd of bison and some damn big, ugly elephants.” Jack and Henri heard Charlie Ellenshaw’s complaint in the background that they were called mammoths before he was cut off.