The Traveler Page 36

  The two remote viewing systems were designed by Niles Compton’s special projects division, the very same division Jenks himself was to take over, if and when he survived this ordeal. They came equipped with night vision, three different telephoto lenses, infrared detection, and laser targeting. A little redundant in Jenks’s experience, but he had to admit the drones were very nearly self-flyable. Jenks followed the compass heading that was currently giving him erratic readings, forcing him to position the drone by eye, which was growing increasingly difficult because of the thick ashfall.

  “Well, the infrared systems work, there’s the colonel and Froggy.”

  Charlie chanced a wrathful rebuke by Jenks and leaned over and saw the aerial view of Jack and Henri as they made their way slowly across the small savanna toward the area where the explosion was seen. He even saw Henri look up at the passing drone. He smiled when the Frenchman shot them the bird.

  “Damn French have no respect,” the master chief mumbled as he ordered the drone forward. The second drone was taking up a preprogrammed station to the opposite side of the large wooded and jungle area.

  They watched as the second drone slowly crept in on the smoking site at over three hundred feet. The monitor showed small fires still burning, which ignited a white blur on the camera lenses. Jenks switched to passive viewing. He hovered just inside the woods and over the tree canopy. Once he was over the site he used the telephoto lens to try to penetrate the sparse areas where the giant trees didn’t shut off their view.

  “Damn it, this is like to trying to catch a glimpse of a hot woman getting dressed through a keyhole.”

  Charlie looked from the monitor and at the master chief with concern. He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses.

  “Oh, don’t give me that look, it’s not like you never tried to peek at a good-lookin’ lady through a keyhole.”

  “I most certainly have not. Why, I would—”

  “Whoa, someone screwed the pooch,” Jenks said, cutting Charlie’s indignant response short.

  Ellenshaw looked at the monitor and saw the small opening through the canopy and the three mangled bodies on the ash-covered ground. The red blood soaked through the ash, giving them a clear idea of their condition.

  “Looks like whoever they are they ran into something that didn’t like them being there.”

  “Stop joking, we know who has the only access to the doorway back home. Those can only be our people down there,” Charlie said as he raised the radio and called Jack. He informed them of what they saw and were ordered to cover them as they entered the forest.

  “Look, Doc, since you’re not a military man you don’t understand the humor of scared men.”

  Charlie realized what the master chief was saying and then slowly nodded. “Sorry for biting your head off.”

  Jenks laughed as he adjusted the hover mode on the second drone. “Is that what you call biting my head off, Doc? Looks like I’m going to have to give CPO training on how to talk to people. No one can chew ass like a chief petty officer.”

  “Yeah,” Ellenshaw said, still leery about the master chief.

  Suddenly the static picture on the monitor went wild. The view skewed from a still shot of the tree canopy to a wildly spinning shot of the ash-colored sky, and then the ground and the sky again. Jenks fought with the toggle in an attempt to control the spinning drone.

  “Doc, get the other drone up higher in altitude so I can see what the hell’s wrong with this damn thing.”

  Ellenshaw quickly turned the control knob on the hovering first drone and the view on the second monitor rose with the plastic craft. He didn’t have to adjust anything else as the machine rose to three hundred feet.

  “This is ridiculous!” Jenks said loudly as he spit his cigar stub from his mouth.

  On the screen both men watched as a giant condor with a wingspan of a Cessna dove once more for the drone. The bird missed on the second pass as Jenks moved the drone out of the giant’s path. On the second monitor it showed the wings nearly miss the flying craft. The vortex shook the drone and almost knocked it from the sky.

  “Damn chickens have an air force, too?” Jenks said as he dipped the rounded nose of the drone over and dove for the tree canopy below. He would try to get her close, too close for the large bird to follow. “Hit return on that panel. We don’t need to lose both drones out there.”

  Charlie did as he was told and then he watched the view of the first drone move away and then start back toward the camp. Meanwhile Jenks was watching for the return of the great bird.

  “Do you mind telling me what in the hell that was?”

  “It looked like an exact duplicate of the species of California condor that is close to extinction in our time. Only much, much larger.”

  “Well, they look pretty damn healthy to me in this one.”

  On the monitor the giant flew close over the drone and then vanished high into the falling ash overhead.

  “Inform the colonel he not only has to watch for chickens, he’s now got something real freakin’ big in the air large enough to carry both him and Froggy away.”

  The earth shook far more violently than ever before as Charlie made the radio call.

  * * *

  Jason had managed to wedge everyone into a crevice on the rock face of a small hill. The area was covered by giant trees and had good ground cover. He and Will had cut up small branches and made a small stockade area that covered them from the ashfall, which had blanketed them all until they were a sickly white. Once they were all inside the makeshift fort, Ryan sat hard on the grass and ash-covered ground. He shook his head and the ash flew from his dark hair. He took a deep breath, not really wanting to go into how desperate their situation was.

  As he looked around at not only the people he was responsible for, but who were also his very close friends, he knew they could all handle the situation without losing their composure. Will, Virginia, and Sarah had actually been in worse situations, and Anya was a trouper who faced death every day in the Middle East. No, he was worried about how he was projecting his command. Thus far he had managed to get everyone out of harm’s way for the moment, but as for a plan, he was at a loss. Maybe the colonel was right, maybe he was destined to always be an Indian and not a chief. That thought used to give him comfort, but since being around Jack, Carl, and Will, he had become someone he never used to be—a responsible officer. He wanted the chance to prove that those good men had rubbed off on him.

  “Water?”

  Jason didn’t know Mendenhall was speaking as he sat and thought. His tired brain was worn from the dimensional shift and he was slow to recover—he wondered if the others were just as affected.

  “Hey, fearless leader, our first priority has got to be water, right?”

  Jason finally looked at Will and then realized he had been asked a question. He slowly nodded.

  “Yeah, but no one else is going back out there. Will, you’ll stay and everyone had better start sharpening some sticks. Let’s just hope water is close by.”

  “Jason,” Virginia said as she stood and walked over to him. She leaned in close so the others couldn’t hear. They were busy collecting some of the leftover cuttings from their fort making. “Look, we can just lay low. The colonel is bound to find us. After all, I think we made quite a spectacle on our arrival.”

  Ryan shook his head. “No, we can’t assume anything. First order of business is to make sure we’ll be alive if and when they do find us.” He started to move toward the small opening they had left as a doorway.

  The gun in his face stopped him short. He took a step back and then held Will Mendenhall at bay as he too realized they weren’t alone.

  “Oh, look, it’s Mr. Wonderful and his band of cutthroats.”

  The pistol’s barrel hit Ryan in the chest, forcing him back into the makeshift cover.

  “Not exactly the Ritz, my friends, but as they say, any port in a storm,” Doshnikov said as he and four other men made their way insid
e the makeshift shelter. “Very industrious in such short order, it makes me suspect you have had superior training for situations such as this.” Each of the five was armed and each of them showed signs of their tangle with the saber-toothed cat. “Sit down,” he said, waving the Colt Peacemaker menacingly. Jason backed away and slowly sat with his friends. The other four men looked grateful to be out of the elements. “I must apologize for my earlier hysteria. I’m afraid your little trap confused me for a moment. It is now obvious we need each other.” He saw Ryan eyeing his men. Doshnikov wiped some blood from his still-bleeding nose and then looked at Jason closely, the gun still pointing menacingly at his face. “I see the arrogance of military training in you, my friend, so let me warn you. I have four more men waiting outside, so you see, even if you got by us my four more ruthless employees would handle you.”

  Ryan threw his first plan to get out of the enclosure with the knowledge that Doshnikov wasn’t as stupid as he first thought. He settled in and watched as the Russians started tending to their wounds. He noticed along with the others that his men were no longer watching their boss in awe. They now looked at him with trepidation as to how the man could have gotten them into this mess. Ryan would have to take advantage of that if he could.

  Doshnikov eased his aching frame to the ground and then allowed the hammer of the old Colt to slowly release. He looked at Ryan and then Virginia.

  “You were one of the doorway’s designers, yes?”

  Virginia looked at Ryan and he nodded that it was all right to talk, after all this was no big military secret. They all knew they were truly screwed.

  “No, I didn’t design the doorway, we reverse-engineered it, as you well know.”

  “Semantics, my dear lady.”

  “Awful big word coming from you, dickwad,” Mendenhall said as Sarah and Anya cringed at Will’s blatant insult.

  The Russian snickered. It was more of a laugh that conveyed the joy he felt at having survived the transit to this time, but also the fact that he had survived something out of his worst nightmare—an animal he had only seen pictures of in books.

  Doshnikov looked at Mendenhall with not anger but with a small degree of admiration. “I will not blame you for your views on us Russians, my friend. The lie that we are all dumb peasants is widely perpetuated by your unfair news media, but I assure you that some of us have had all of the training you have, maybe even a measure more in other deadlier areas. But I believe that yours is now the correct attitude we will all need to escape our predicament. So I will ignore your attempt at an insult and at pushing me into a corner as what to do with you. I think you know the answer to that, my friend.”

  “Listen, pal, we’re going to need more than that. We have another team out here somewhere, and guess what, our boss is with them and he’s not going to take it too kindly that we’re here. So if you want to make like friends, I suggest you give us two of those weapons and start doing exactly what this lady here tells you.”

  “Cooperation, yes, weapons, no.”

  Ryan only smiled. “Okay, fearless leader, water—we need water and we need it now, and to get it we need those weapons. Unless you want to volunteer to go and get it yourself?”

  Doshnikov smiled his own crooked grin and then slowly stood up as he again raised the Colt and then replaced two spent shell casings from the cylinder. “You think me a coward? My men, cowards?” He laughed this time. “Where we come from we have to fight to survive every day, not like you people who have had everything given to you. No, we are no cowards, and no, we are not fools either.” He pointed the weapon at Jason and then moved it to Mendenhall. “Shall we go and find that water, gentlemen?”

  * * *

  Jack surveyed the scene after the three-mile trek back to their original landing area. He couldn’t believe what it was he was seeing. Men were lying in pieces. He counted at least ten men in varying states of dismemberment. He leaned over and turned a body skyward. The man had both arms missing and it looked as if something had taken a large bite from his neck and back. He examined the face.

  “Who in the hell are these people?”

  “Judging by their dress, I don’t believe this was a planned trip for these men.”

  Collins looked over in time to see Henri toss him something. He caught it and looked the blood-splattered shoe over. On the bottom in gold script was the brand name Gucci.

  “Pretty expensive camping attire, don’t you think, Colonel?”

  Jack tossed the shoe away and looked the scene over.

  “What in the hell happened back in Brooklyn?” he mumbled as he gestured at Henri to follow.

  “Where to now?” the Frenchman asked as he looked around nervously.

  “This way,” he answered, looking to the west as he saw the tracks. He glanced up at the canopy overhead and hoped the drone he was hearing over the trees could follow.

  That was when Henri saw the second and third set of tracks. One set led off in the opposite direction as them, and he could tell it was some sort of large animal, a cat possibly. The second set was unmistakable as they had seen these before.

  “I suppose you noticed our little feathered friends are hunting again?”

  Jack turned and looked at Farbeaux. “No, Colonel, we’re now the hunters, and I have a very bad feeling here that we may be in for a surprise as to who exactly is out here.”

  “What are you referring to?” he asked.

  Jack knelt by a set of smaller prints. Farbeaux followed suit but kept a wary eye on his surroundings and as he did so the colonel saw an impression pressed into a bloodstained carpet of white ash.

  “A woman?” Farbeaux asked incredulously.

  “Yeah, wearing Group-issued combat boots. Size six.”

  Henri stood first as his heart skipped a beat. He looked at Collins as the colonel stared off into the jungle where the prints vanished.

  They both knew only one person who wore Group-issued size six combat boots. Jack kicked at the thick ash and then raised his M-4 to his chest and moved off mumbling.

  “Damn you, Short Stuff!”

  * * *

  The thought of leaving Sarah, Virginia, and Anya behind with the four Russians made Ryan angrier than being prodded along by Doshnikov and his five goons, who he noted were rather large. It was also clear why these brutes survived the giant cat attack—they were just too damn big to die. The one assigned to Mendenhall towered over the captain by a good foot and a half.

  The ash cloud had shifted and the skies, while not clear, had at least allowed small snippets of sun to burst through. His guess was that they were headed in the wrong direction to find the colonel, Farbeaux, Charlie, and Jenks, that they were instead heading in the exact opposite direction from rescue—they were headed toward the great inland sea.

  After an hour of travel they were hit with a freezing breath of wind that came in from the south. The next wave of air was warmer and that was when Jason realized that Sarah had been right—this continent was going through changes that had never been recorded in history. The very last continent to fall under the spell of death that Erebus had cast upon the rest of the world.

  The seven men made their way through the heavier undergrowth but had to skirt the more impenetrable bush, which made their zigzag pattern time consuming.

  “Look, we can’t be out here much longer. We don’t know when the sun goes down here and one thing I do know is that we don’t want to be caught out here in the dark,” Ryan said as he stopped and leaned against a large tree.

  “You are worried about your women back at the shelter?” Doshnikov laughed. “I despair when I imagine what it is that you have heard about us Russians. Do you think us barbarians?”

  “Not all Russians, no. As a matter of fact the last Russian I dealt with was one of the bravest men I have ever had the privilege of fighting alongside.”

  Will nodded his silent agreement as he remembered the battle for Moon Gap during Operation Overlord and the Russian naval captain who ha
d given his life in that fight.

  Doshnikov went silent when he didn’t know what to make of the secretive comment.

  “At any rate, your women are as safe with my men as—”

  “Don’t move,” Ryan said easily as Doshnikov saw his men freeze and the black man back off a few steps. That was when he felt the movement behind him in the thick jungle.

  Ryan felt his mouth slowly fall to the open and stunned position as he saw the creature looking through a clustered bramble of vines and branches. The yellow eye blinked and then the head tilted and the eye moved left and then right. The beak alone was wider than an old catcher’s mitt and its yellow-gold eyes moved in rapid motion as it studied the men before it. Doshnikov slowly turned his head without moving his body. His eyes widened when he saw the yellowish-brown beak slowly open.

  If it wasn’t for Ryan’s quick movement and action the Russian would have had his head snapped clean off. Jason hit the Russian and both men went flying just as the giant roc fought to clear itself from its entanglement of vine and brush. The jaws of the giant, flightless bird missed Doshnikov’s head by three inches as the long-legged grounded avian screamed and clawed in anger as it missed its target. Ryan rolled onto his back with wide eyes as a vision from an old horror movie tried desperately to get at the seven men.

  The roc stood at over six and a half feet. The powerful legs were far stronger than any bird species ever to roam the world. The giant snapped and hissed as it tore at the vines holding it back.

  Several gunshots rang out and then the world around them went silent as the roc was sent crashing into the undergrowth with bullet wounds in its chest and head. Jason looked over at the two large Russians who had dispatched the large predatory bird. The men looked pleased with themselves.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Will said, not liking the fact that he and Jason were the only two unarmed men in the most hostile world he could ever have imagined.

  “We need water,” Doshnikov said as he picked himself up from the ground. “We have to or we’ll dehydrate and—”

  Again he was cut short as one of the men who had fired on the roc screamed as something rushed at him from the undergrowth. They saw a blur of black feathers, shortened wings, and powerful legs as the second roc slammed into the man and then ripped at his upturned face. Instead of helping their comrade, and preceded by their fearless leader, the men ran, even leaving Ryan and Will behind in their haste to escape the feathered nightmare. Mendenhall looked at Jason, knowing this was their chance to get away. They saw the second roc look up from its meal and eye them with that chicken look all avians have. The tick-inspired, quick glance and rapid eye movement took them in. They both decided that accompanying the Russians was probably the best recourse for the moment. They too ran as even more rocs came flying through the jungle after smelling blood in the air.