The Ancient Breed (18 page)

Lisa crouched down in her seat as Nick drew his gun and cautiously approached the dark cruiser. It was impossible to tell if anyone was inside, because all the windows were heavily coated with reflective condensation.

Lisa’s curiosity overruled her survival instincts, and her face popped up behind the Range Rover’s windshield. Her hand flew to her mouth. There were batteries of floodlights and an army of moving shadows out near the muck pile and large pit. She squinted through the closing darkness and spied two more muck mountains less than fifty feet from the first one. Dammit! Someone had beaten them to the fountain of youth.

She swiftly exited the Rover, bent low, and ran awkwardly toward Nick who opened the cruiser door and leaned inside.

“What are you doing, Nick?” she hissed, and then spotted two cops slouched lifelessly in their seats. “Are they dead?”

“No, but they’re heavily drugged and useless.” He scowled at her. “I thought I told you to wait in the Rover. You could get hurt out here.”

“I know, but I’m not very good at taking orders. But forget about me. We’ve got bigger problems. Take a look out there!”

He followed her gaze toward the lights. “I saw them. I take it those aren’t Warnke Construction’s people out there, right?”

“Right. But who are they?”

“I intend to find out.” Nick retrieved a pair of night-vision binoculars from the back of the Rover and scanned the distant activity. Lightning flickered on the horizon where dark thunderheads clustered for another round of storms. His hair was tousled by an unexpected wind gust.

He yanked the binoculars away from his burning eyes. “The damn lightning nearly blinded me!” He massaged his eyes. “Those men dug something up,” he said. “From here, it looks like the top of a small building.”

Lisa recalled Russ McKutchen’s thermal scans of the site. “The gray area,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Those men have uncovered the gray area on the thermal scans.”

“Meaning?”

“I think they’ve found the fountain of youth!”

“So that’s why they’ve got two hoses stretched from the building to a couple tanks under the big helicopter. They’re pumping the fountain dry!”

“And that’s why the cops are drugged. Those thieves needed to get in here undetected,” Lisa added.

Nick turned and nodded. “You’d make a helluva detective.”

“That’s what archaeologists do,” she replied. “Now what do we do about
them
?”

Before he had a chance to collect his thoughts on the subject, Nick felt Lisa shove him away from the cruiser. Stunned, he stumbled backward, flailing his arms for balance. A monstrous shape appeared from nowhere and collided with him as it raced toward the swamp activity. Nick’s body felt like a Mack truck had sideswiped it; he ricocheted off the thing’s hard, muscular form, flew across the cruiser’s roof, and thumped into the soft earth on the other side.

Lisa slid down beside him. “Stay down!”

After he caught his breath, Nick groaned. “Why’d you push me into that – what was it anyway?”

“You sorta bumped into the demon guardian.”

Nick’s eyes narrowed.
Did Lisa try to kill him by pushing him into its path?
He crawled away from her and pulled his gun. “Sorta! Hell, from where I’m sitting, it looks like you deliberately pushed me into it. Trying to murder me?”

“Murder you!” Lisa glared at him. “I tried to push you away from it. It just changed direction at the last second.” She crossed her arms. “I tried to save your life.”

He struggled to get to his feet, but she pulled him down.

“Hey!”

“Nick, those men out there are shooting at us.” When she read his skeptical expression, she grabbed his elbow. “Here, I’ll show you.”

They stayed low as she led him around the cruiser and pointed out the bullet holes in the door and windows closest to the thieves.

“There,” she said stiffly.

Nick studied the doors and windows, and then crawled along the demon guardian’s tracks. She was right – it had changed direction. “Okay, I admit I’m wrong, but you can hardly blame me for thinking that you shoved me into that speeding freight train.”

“I suppose not. I can see how someone might come to that conclusion.”

“And thanks for trying to save my life. It’s nice to know that someone’s got my back out here.” Nick picked up the binoculars and watched the camouflaged men greet the demon guardian with heavy machine-gun fire. “God, it’s a nasty looking son-of-a-. . .”

“We don’t have time for a play-by-play description. We’ve got to stop them from stealing the elixir, or the whole world’ll be in more trouble than you can imagine.”

“Looks like our demon guardian’s doing all right by itself.”

“Yeah, but when it’s done with them, it’ll go after Blossom again. We’ve got to kill it here, tonight,” Lisa explained.

He lowered the binoculars and glanced at the Range Rover. “That’s why I ordered my agents to pack all that firepower. Help me load up.”

“I’m going with you,” she informed him.

“Not on your life. If I have to, I’ll handcuff you to the Rover,” he replied brusquely. His sat phone rang, and he quickly answered it.

“Nick, Neo,” Neo said breathlessly. “Crow asked me to warn you that the great evil’s on its way to the construction site.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” he retorted. “I’ve already had a run-in with the damned demon, and I’m getting ready to put it down. We’ve got two illegal choppers down here, and a well-armed band of mercenaries. Send me some serious ground and air support as soon as you can. Out.”

Agonizing shrieks and cries mixed with the creature’s enraged growls, creating a surreal battlefield. The machine-gun fire became sporadic by the time a fully armed Nick trudged across the muck toward the action. An incensed Lisa remained behind, ostensibly to monitor his sat phone in the event that his backup support needed directions to the site; but she knew that was just a thin cover story to keep her away from the fighting.

Nick donned his night-vision goggles and witnessed the carnage ahead. It knotted his stomach. The demon’s gray flesh appeared impervious to the mercenaries’ large-caliber machine guns. The high-velocity bullet assaults pelted the creature at a remarkable rate, but they couldn’t draw blood. The hulking demon guardian attacked the shooters one at a time, moving with surprising agility for its size, and slashed and dismembered, then crushed the mercenaries between its powerful jaws. Occasionally, it lowered its horned head like an enraged Brahman bull and gored its enemies, splintering bones and obliterating vital organs. There were two mercs left by the time Nick arrived at the scene.

A wounded mercenary aimed his AK-47 at the approaching stranger, but Nick squeezed the trigger of his own machine-gun and cut the merc in half before he knew what hit him. The demon guardian spun around and glared at his new adversary through its glowing retinas. Nick swiveled the smoking barrel in the brute’s direction and returned its unblinking stare. Another merc opened fire on the creature, and it ended its appraisal of Nick and charged its new assailant, reducing the last mercenary to bloody bone kibble in seconds.

Two men, wearing pricey casual attire, slipped past the distracted creature and hurried into the smaller helicopter. The blades rotated to life, and it quickly rose into the air.

Nick propped the rocket launcher on his shoulder, loaded it, and hastily sighted the escaping chopper. But before he fired, he caught sight of the demon guardian heading in his direction. The terrifying spectacle of that hideous brute racing toward him temporarily paralyzed him, and the creature took advantage of his momentary indecision to close within slashing range of its enormous claws. Nick regained his senses in time to duck beneath its lethal, swooshing swipe.

He dived to his left to escape its angry charge, and then tucked, rolled, leaped to his feet, and slowly backpedaled away. The brute’s momentum drove it several yards past Nick. The demon guardian pivoted, lifted its leathery, gray skull skyward, and howled its frustration. Nick’s blood froze at the savage sound.

Then, it faced Nick and sized up the solitary trespasser who dared to confront it. Its cruel mouth opened and closed in anticipation of a new kill, but it remained motionless, wary of this enemy. It sensed that he was more than a half-breed. More than another ready victim. More powerful than he appeared.

After contemplating its attack for several long minutes, it leaned forward and charged with an earsplitting roar. The soft ground shook with each lengthy stride as it rapidly closed on the trespasser. Nick raised the end of the armed launcher and fired the screaming rocket into the demon guardian at point-blank range.

Nick dropped to the ground and clapped his hands to his ears. The explosion rocked the entire site and rained muck on Nick. When the foul deluge ended, he lifted his head and wiped the stinking mud from his face.

The demon guardian lay still on the ground, blue energy arcing along its convulsing body. Its mouth spit sparks like a blown electrical transformer. Suddenly, it rolled on its chest and weakly crawled past Nick toward the first pit. Nick fought to free his prone body from the sucking muck so he could toss a few hand grenades at the retreating demon guardian, but he was too late. By the time he was able to stand, the creature disappeared over the edge.

The motors of the large helicopter powered up, and the great machine lifted into the sky before Nick could reach it. He fell to his hands and knees, out of breath and energy but pleased with his efforts. He actually managed to pull it off!
He killed the demon
.

A disagreeable thought dampened his elation.
Maybe the demon guardian wasn’t dead.
Nick stood, reloaded the rocket launcher and made his way to the pit where the creature had vanished. He charily peered over the edge.

Except for two white columns, the pit was empty!

20

T

he wind-driven, horizontal rain drenched the FBI encampment at the site of the swamp slaughter. Tents had been quickly erected to protect the FBI forensic teams from the violent, electrical storm. They had flown in from several locations throughout the southeast and were engaged in collecting body parts. Every effort was made to sort the remains by victim, but as with difficult jigsaw puzzles, many of the parts just didn’t fit a body yet and were stored in the Unidentified Victims sector. The experts were forced to utilize crude sorting methods, because of the tempest raging over the crime scene. Later, at the sophisticated federal facilities, DNA testing would be used to identify the victims’ body parts, and the forensic teams would then be able to place them with the appropriate victims.

Despite protestations that he couldn’t spare the time, Nick was ordered to receive first aid treatment for the purpling contusions on his upper body from his collision with the demon guardian. Even though his ribs were aflame with pain and his back and leg muscles were knotted and achy from walking through the sucking muck, he didn’t mention these maladies to the nurse and snot-nosed resident. He was impatient to get the hell out of there and investigate the box-like dwelling in the pit.

Helicopters transported FBI agents and supplies on a frequent schedule. Most new arrivals were green gilled from their roller coaster ride through the gale winds and staggered to the medical tents for airsickness treatment. Nick’s tent was filled to capacity with gagging, moaning agents.

Lisa stepped off the ladder at the pit’s edge and marveled at how rapidly the FBI support teams responded to Nick’s call for assistance. The agents set up a multitude of generator-powered floodlights that transformed the gloomy site into high noon. Horizontal and vertical lightning strikes sliced the night sky and discharged deafening thunderclaps that jolted the work zone; but the diligent agents didn’t appear distracted by the storm and continued their investigations.

Lisa entered the tent, stomped the mud from her boots, and shook the raindrops off her plastic poncho. She squeezed between the crowd of pale agents and finally located the head nurse.

“How’s our patient?” she asked her with a mischievous grin.

Nick parted the curtains of his examining room and peered out. “I’m fine,” he grumbled.

The nurse winked at Lisa.

“Need a hand?” Lisa offered, as Nick squirmed off the portable examining table.

“No, I’m okay. I don’t need to be babied.”

“Do you have a piece of candy for the patient,” Lisa quipped, “to sweeten his disposition?”

The women laughed as Nick scooted off the table. He masked his agony with a tentative grin. “Cute, Lisa. Now can you get us inside that building under the swamp?”

“I’m pretty sure I can. You’ll need to put on a poncho before going back out there. The weather’s horrendous.”

“I’m already a drowned rat,” he responded sharply.

“Nobody can function if they’re soaking wet, including the all-powerful Nick Bellamy. Now put on a poncho,” she demanded.

The nurse found a poncho, and Lisa helped Nick slip it on. He had difficulty raising his left arm high enough to slip into the orange, plastic sleeve, but he never complained. Lisa remained patient and quiet, fully aware that any sympathetic words would only elicit his resentment.

Once the poncho was firmly in place, Nick followed Lisa into the maelstrom to the ladder that disappeared into the pit. The doorless and windowless structure awaited them at the bottom like a Chinese puzzle box. Nick recalled that he was a bust at solving them as a kid.

He held the flapping poncho close to his body and scrutinized Lisa’s odd actions. She bent in front of each of the structure’s sides and muttered two unintelligible words. But each time, nothing happened. The walls remained intact. Nick reconsidered his previous belief that Lisa was a witch. It was now apparent that the woman lacked magical skills.

Just as he was about to give up the ghost and head back up top, something finally happened. The structure’s entire south wall just vanished! No opening door. No sliding panel. Nothing but shadows and air.

He eyed her suspiciously. “How’d you manage that?”