The Traveler Read online

  The four walked outside and took in the stillness of the night. The fog had actually worsened in the past hour. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the open Wellsian Doorway in that all sound was absorbed by the fog. The strange light the fog produced made Sarah feel uneasy.

  “Peter to Paul, we have a vehicle approaching from the main gate,” came the call from one of Ryan’s men at the perimeter. “Looks like a limo, over.”

  Jason raised his brows at the other three who heard the call. He raised the radio to his lips and pushed the transmit button.

  “Stop and detain,” he said. He lowered the radio and then started to raise it again but stopped. He waited.

  The radio finally crackled to life. “Driver says the party is expected by Madam Mendelsohn, over.”

  “Number?” Jason asked, not liking this one bit. He nodded at Will, who quickly vanished into the night after retrieving a small case from the dock area. Sarah raised a questioning look at Ryan.

  “I count what looks like a family of four plus infant.” The radio went silent for the briefest of moments. Then it awoke once more. “Two well-dressed men plus the driver, over.”

  “Will, are you in position?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Mendenhall said from the high vantage point he had taken. It was one of the many streetlights he had rigged earlier for climbing. He was using a new scope delivered the past year from Bushnell. The infrared lighting system cut through fog like it wasn’t there. Will could switch the system to read heat signatures as well as cold spots. “Oh, it looks like they brought company. They’re hanging back just beyond the gate. Lights off. Six large Explorers. Infrared says they’re full of very large sacks of meat.”

  “Copy. Let me know if they move.”

  “You got it,” replied Mendenhall.

  “Let them through, then blend into the night and wait for Captain Mendenhall to make a call on those cars. Positions three and four close on the main gate.” Ryan was quickly answered by just three clicks from each man watching the buildings. “Sarah, you and Anya get out of sight for now until we see what these folks are up to. Dr. Pollock, are you there?”

  “Pollock,” came Virginia’s quick response.

  “Inform the director we have company, supposedly at Madam Mendelsohn’s request.”

  “Copy.”

  Sarah didn’t question Ryan as she and Anya vanished into the fog next to the USS Los Angeles, which now sat dark and silent under the camouflage netting.

  “They’re moving to your pos, over.”

  Ryan made sure his own pistol was charged. He stepped forward to greet their visitors and raised the radio once more. “Dr. Pollock, I’m sending Sergeant Hernandez in. He’s to stick with the director, who is to remain secured inside the observation room.”

  “Copy. Also, Professor Mendelsohn was not expecting company. She says she’s in the dark.”

  “Roger,” Jason said as he finally saw the long limousine appear through the rolling fog. Its approach was slow as it made its way to the front of the building. Ryan stepped forward and held his hand in the air. As he did he got what the colonel called a jolt to his hackles as he felt the trouble before it actually appeared. He watched as the driver emerged from the front seat and stepped easily to the rear and opened the door. A man eased himself from the car and adjusted his ankle-length coat and then he saw Ryan. He smiled, his teeth even and white. His beard was immaculately trimmed and the navy man immediately took the guy for an asshole.

  “Thank you for allowing us to visit,” the man said with a slight taste of Russian accent, which brought Ryan to full attention.

  “This building and area are closed for the time being. Stems from the trouble this afternoon.” Ryan watched the man closely. “Perhaps you heard?”

  The man stood his ground and then his smile grew as he looked to his left at the former dry dock area and saw the camouflage netting covering the long shape of the Los Angeles. He turned back to face Jason.

  “I must admit that whoever you are, you have access to the most amazing resources.”

  Jason remained as still as he could while his eyes slowly took in the man and his driver, who still hadn’t moved from the open rear door.

  “It is cold and damp out here, so I will state my business.” He gestured to the driver, who leaned in and said something to the people inside the darkened interior and then stepped back. “Inside the car are some particular friends of Madam Moira Mendelsohn. Very close, you might say.”

  “I don’t know a Madam Mendelson and as I said before this section of the navy yard is closed. No one goes inside.”

  The man looked Ryan over and smirked at the garish tattoo. He stepped aside as he was joined by an older couple and what looked like a young family of three, including a baby. The family looked frightened.

  “I insist.”

  Jason Ryan didn’t move or gesture in any way as the three laser beams struck the man and remained unmoving upon his black coat right over where his heart would be. For emphasis a red beam of light struck the bearded man on the forehead. The laser beams were clearly marked as they cut a swath through the fog. Ryan just raised his brows as he waited for the Russian to continue on his insistence to enter.

  “Very well,” the man said as he took a step back. Ryan didn’t like the fact that the Russian did this without fear of being shot. He pulled the young mother forward and then raised the blanket covering the sleeping baby. Jason tried not to react when he saw the plastique and electrical wiring. His eyes went to the well-dressed man, who released the blanket and allowed it to once more cover the explosive-covered baby.

  “Barbaric perhaps, but it is an attention-getter, is it not?” The man saw something in Jason’s eyes he didn’t like. “I assure you there is enough of a charge attached to that child to not only kill us all, but to flatten enough of that building to bring in the authorities. Neither of us can well afford that, can we? Wellsian Doorways are a little hard to come by.”

  Ryan knew the man had the advantage and no matter what firepower he brought to bear this man held all of the cards at the moment. He couldn’t risk damage to or the discovery of the doorway, or they would lose everyone. Ryan gestured toward the building. He raised the radio and informed Virginia about the situation and she also knew they had very little choice.

  As the frightened family and the three Russians moved toward the building and the doorway beyond, the six Explorers entered the navy yard and also made their way toward building 117. The remaining Event Group security posts could do nothing about it.

  ANTARCTICA, 227,000, B.C.E.

  As the sun rose, Jack felt more in control. The jungle surrounding them was lush and green now that the hard rains had washed the greenery clean. With the ashfall turning to a fine dust, Collins could see the jungle had a youngness to it, a beauty none had ever seen. The flowers were large and colorful. The insect life was active with mosquitoes the size of large houseflies. They had started making their way toward the inland sea and hoped to exit the greenery before too long. The electric drive on the tractor made little noise as the group finally broke into the clear and they saw the diluted, shrouded sun for the first time. The angry ash clouds to the south were far more visible now. Even as they examined the dark sky they felt the movement of the earth beneath their feet.

  “Here’s something for the books,” Jenks said as he had pulled the atmospheric analyzer from the trailer nearest him. He shook his head at the readings. “We just went from a balmy and humid ninety-two degrees to a low of sixty-seven in less than three minutes.” He looked up from the analyzer. “Air current shift from the northeast. Cold air front.” He again looked at the readout. “We’re back up to ninety-two degrees.”

  “What do you think?” Jack asked Jenks.

  “Hell, your guess is as good as mine, Colonel.”

  “The great freeze has begun,” Charlie said as if speaking to himself. He then looked around and saw the team looking his way and he realized he had spoken alou
d.

  “Go ahead and keep it to yourself, Doc,” the master chief quipped.

  “Sorry, but it seems the activity of the four or five volcanoes are interacting with the freeze that’s occurring in the northeast. Sarah’s geology department in conjunction with atmospherics say that we have just entered the opening rounds of the climate change that leads to Antarctica being buried in ice. Perhaps the volcanic activity is retarding the process.” He looked at the confused master chief. “Slowed it down. At least for now. But in the end it is the activity of so many volcanoes that they are the ultimate culprit in sending this continent to the same frozen hell as the rest of the world.”

  “There’s a small rise right over there.” Jack loosened the high collar of his camouflage BDUs. “It has a clear field of fire for about two hundred yards. I say we start this show right there. I don’t relish traveling too far away from the beacon but also don’t want to have a sea at my back in case we have to get the hell out of there fast.”

  “The sooner the better,” Henri said as he looked around him. The sudden stillness rankled his calm. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we have eyes on us,” he said as he pretended to adjust something in the first trailer.

  Without comment and believing every word just uttered by the Frenchman, Jack started the tractor forward, its tracks digging deep into the soft soil.

  The deep rumbling beneath their feet started and they assumed at first it was the movement caused by the rumbling mountains to the south. But it wasn’t Mount Erebus and her sisters. Jack stopped and they all saw the giant herd of bison as they rumbled no less than two miles away. They sped past the four men, moving the very ground they stood upon even at that extreme distance. Collins watched the hairy bison, the likes of which had vanished long ago. The sight amazed him. Charlie was beyond himself as he took in the scene. He quickly removed a small digital camera and started shooting the extraordinary view. The only one who wasn’t watching the scene in the distance was Farbeaux. He was busy looking at the jungle they had just exited moments before.

  “What in the hell are those things?” Jenks asked as he raised a set of field glasses to his eyes.

  Behind the large herd of bison, several smaller animals could be seen running at a strange gait. The smaller creatures would dodge in and out of the herd as if they were driving them toward something. Several more of the animals emerged from the jungle that ran parallel to the frightened bison. The herd started to turn toward them and then back again when the small creatures waved long, feather-covered arms in the air as if they were scaring the frightened animals back toward the center of the large plain.

  “Doc, you’re the expert, what in the hell are those things?” Jack asked as he lowered his own field glasses.

  “My God, they’re raptors of a sort. I’ve never seen anything remotely that size in the fossil record. They must be close to five feet in height. Look at the feathers, how colorful they are!”

  “Charlie, I am beginning to believe that that particular fossil record you scientists keep referring to is vastly incomplete,” Jack said as he again raised the glasses to his eyes.

  Suddenly the men were startled as in the distance one of the birdlike animals raised a right arm and then threw something at the closest bison. Jack’s eyes widened when he saw that the raptor had thrown a rock. The animal fell, sliding to a stop as three of the raptors jumped upon its thrashing body. More rocks were thrown to still the injured beast. The raptors then circled the dying animal.

  “Tell me, Nerdly, what does the fossil record say about large chickens that use weaponry to kill its prey?” Jenks said as he looked over at the stunned cryptozoologist.

  “This is impossible,” was the only thing crazy Charlie could come up with.

  Henri ducked and warned the others as a long and sharpened stick flew from the jungle only thirty yards away. He brought his weapon up but Jack gestured for him not to shoot. Instead Farbeaux pulled the long polelike object from the ground where it had embedded itself next to him.

  “Dr. Ellenshaw, perhaps you can enlighten me as to how an animal with a brain no larger than a walnut can develop such tool-using capabilities?” he asked as he again examined the spear. He broke it and held it high toward the dark jungle it had come from.

  “I’m at a loss,” Charlie said as he watched Henri toss the makeshift weapon away.

  “Look, I don’t particularly wish to stay here and get skewered by a pissed-off hungry chicken. May I suggest we egress to said hill and make a defense of some sort?”

  “I must concur with our rough friend here,” Henri added.

  To punctuate the statement another, although smaller, stick flew from the greenery and ricocheted off the last trailer.

  As Jack moved off he hoped Carl had survived in this backward world.

  * * *

  The large herd of bison had moved off after losing seven of their number to the hunters. Jack and the others had been amazed at the efficient way the raptors had disposed of the large carcasses. Instead of feeding in place, the birdlike animals dismembered, butchered, and moved the meat off with very little left behind. They had nervously watched as they set up the camp. They had just finished when the sun started to set. The raptors had not made an appearance since the hunt, and the jungle only a quarter mile distant had remained unmoving. Even Henri felt the eyes were no longer upon them.

  “I thought we would see more animal life than we have,” Jack said as he reached over and threw a switch that activated the automated laser defense pod he had just installed. The camp was now ringed with the high-tech weaponry. The six modules were perched on their high posts and were aimed outward. The weapons looked like nothing more than a small black box with a glass ball in its casing. Each pod was capable of firing two thousand high-voltage radar-guided laser bursts. It should be enough to frighten anything that may come upon them in the night.

  Master Chief Jenks made sure the doorway was secure inside the last trailer. He would start to build it during the lighted hours of the morning. He hated losing the day but they had no choice if those chickens decided to visit during the night. The camp was efficient. They set up a small cookstove but refrained from putting up their shelters. The tents would only keep them from knowing their surroundings and give them a false sense of security, and Collins wanted them all in one place and alert. The five trailers and tractor had been dispersed so as to give them some sort of cover as they watched the terrain below them. Jack knew the makeshift barrier looked like covered wagons and they were the settlers. He stood at one of these and examined the darkening terrain. To the south the earth rumbled and they could see the glow of Mount Erebus. Every now and then a deep explosive jolt would course through their feet as the great volcano rumbled. As they waited for nightfall the night became cold. Yes, the deep freeze was slowly coming to the last land on the planet to know warm sunlight.

  “This place has a decidedly dark edge of doom to it, don’t it?” Jenks said as he prepared to send the signal balloons up. He adjusted the strobe light that would flash inside of the white aerial device. He quickly filled the balloon with helium and it shot skyward. As it rose into the air the flashing beacon shone brightly in the night sky like a magical orb.

  “There, I hope we attract the attention of Toad and not some monster out of a nightmare,” the master chief said as his eyes watched the round balloon sending out its flashing beacon. “I’ve noticed that in my time with you people you seem to attract a hell of a lot of monsters,” he said as Henri nodded in agreement. Jenks repeated the process two more times until three of the balloons rose a thousand feet into the air.

  “Now look up, Carl,” Jack said mostly to himself as his eyes took in the bright luminescent balloons overhead that blinked their magic against the most brilliant star field they had ever seen. Then the night sky was slowly blotted out as a large ash cloud rolled over the area, cutting off the signal from above.

  Five miles distant other eyes were trained on the stra
nge sight that filled the night sky, and the ancient world slowly came alive with menace.

  * * *

  “What in the bloody hell is that?” Henri asked as he spit out the mouthful of food as he attempted the impossible task of not allowing it to touch the inside of his mouth. He figured his tongue and taste buds had already been lost.

  Jenks smirked and then spooned his own tasty mouthful.

  “Uh, enchilada casserole I believe the package said,” Ellenshaw said as he examined his own MRE packet.

  “Beats the hell out of the old C-rations we used to have to force down,” Jenks said as he ate some more of the casserole. “Back in ’Nam we would have sold our souls for this crap. The only good thing the old ’rats had was cheese and crackers.”

  “I would gladly take your cheese and crackers over this,” Henri said as he tossed the casserole free of his plastic spoon. He slowly placed the open package into the plastic bag they were using to keep the animal life from snooping around for food. He spit again to clear his mouth and then drank some water.

  “We have enough of the damn MREs to last three months,” Jack said as he sniffed his own package of roast beef. He reclosed it and decided to try again later.

  A soft tone came from the remote panel Jenks held on his lap. The master chief placed the MRE package down and raised the small plastic console. The holographic map displayed the radar information the portable defense system was acquiring. The first station coordinated with her sister units and that gave Jenks a complete 360-degree view of their surroundings and anything that moved within.

  “We have major movement close to the tree line.”

  “Which one?” Jack asked as he raised the night-vision scope to his eyes and started scanning the trees to his left no less than three hundred yards away.

  “All of them,” Jenks said as he saw multiple targets moving in and out of radar range. He switched over to infrared and his eyes widened. “Targets are too numerous to count.” Jenks leaned over and switched on the main acquisition program on the weapons control. “Laser system is now armed.” He looked up at Collins. The light-colored ash was now falling heavier than a moment before as the skies to the south were a deeper red in the night sky. “What fail-safe point do you want the safeties placed on, Colonel?”