Tritium Gambit (Max and Miranda Book 1) (32 page)

Chapter 40. Max

The forest was still. I didn’t see any sign of Miranda or John, but then, I was here on a complete guess, and I was losing confidence that this was the right choice as I walked through the night. I really wished Miranda had a mobile phone or a com link.

I wandered rather aimlessly through the trees, walking slow to not make too much sound while listening for any hints of danger. I heard faint music. It sounded like Michael Jackson. I crept toward the sound. A device glowed on the ground by a tree. I realized the song was Thriller. I picked the device up and saw it was a mobile phone. A new text message read, “Darcy, please call home! We’re worried about you.” There was a streak of dried blood on the screen.

That was a call those worried folks weren’t ever going to get. The thought made me sad. Part of my job was to stop things like this from happening. If I hadn’t fallen into Tyler’s trap, Darcy probably be home right now doing her homework. What was I saying? If Tyler hadn’t been such a dumb ass to bring the creature here in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. I wiped my fingerprints off the phone and put it back down next to the tree.

I heard the snap of a branch a dozen yards away and froze. The forest was too thick to see more than a dozen feet in any direction. Then I heard a snort and a sniff and another branch cracked. Something large was moving closer.

I pulled Wendy’s pistol from my waistband. The gun made a small click as I loaded a round into the chamber. The silence stretched on and I looked nervously around. I glanced up to be sure I wasn’t taken off guard from above. The half-moon didn’t give me enough light to see far into the dark corners of the shadows. I heard another snort, and I spun to face it. The sound had moved a few yards to my right.

I took a few steps back as quietly as I could. I wasn’t ready for a fight with the Wendigo. A few gunshot wounds wasn’t going to do more than make him angry, and even though I had a stun grenade, that wouldn’t do more than slow him down for a few seconds.

Something small hit me in the back of the head, a piece of bark. When I looked upward, a brief flash of light from a tree hit me in the eyes. I studied the shadow and realized it was Miranda.

I heard deep breathing nearby followed by another snort. Maybe it was a bear. The phone started playing Thriller again. It was a catchy tune. I couldn’t remember all the words, but I sort of wanted to hum it.

Leaves rustled nearby, and I turned my attention back to the darkness. I stepped behind a large tree. I knew the Wendigo had a powerful sense of smell, and maybe that’s why it was hesitating. Maybe it knew there were three of us. It might even know we were the ones that tried to drown it.

I looked up at Miranda and whispered, “I’ll distract it while you find a way to kill it.”

I wasn’t sure if she heard me, but I knew the Wendigo did for the ground shook and a roar split the silence. I ran like a cop to a sale at a donut shop. I couldn’t risk firing random shots behind me into the dark. With my aim, it was a definite concern that I might hit Miranda or John.

I darted between the thickest trees I could find, all the while looking for anything that could slow this big boy down. I scanned the trees behind me and saw the hulking figure pushing along a parallel path on all fours. He was now nearly thirty feet tall. He wasn’t big enough to knock over the larger trees yet, but he was too big to fit through some of the narrower gaps.

I kept using that small advantage by squeezing between larger trees and through thickets and bushes. I came to a power line clearing and sprinted into the open air. I wondered if the Wendigo had played with electricity on his visit to Earth yet. He didn’t have things like power lines on his home planet.

I ran past the power line pole, stopped, and surveyed the forest behind me. I didn’t see the Wendigo. The night air was still and quiet. I raised my pistol and studied the darkness. I was scanning for his white skin, some glimmer that would give him away in the shadows, but he could be twenty yards away and I might not see him in this faint moonlight.

Downed power lines were dangerous for anybody, and I was keenly aware that I was vulnerable to electrocution like anybody else. If he pulled down the lines and I touched them, that would definitely burn me to a crisp—and there was no coming back from that.

The Wendigo’s regenerative abilities were far superior to my own, but I wondered if it could suck on a power line and still walk away. I doubted it, but how does one talk a Wendigo into eating a power line?

I had to try. “Come and get me!” I yelled into the night.

There was no answer. I shot three blasts into the pole to my left, and then three into the pole on my right. Both poles quivered and shook but didn’t tip over. The ground shook as I pulled out my spare clip to reload.

I needed him under the poles, and so I charged forward to meet him while reloading. He stepped out of the dark tree line and snatched me up. I dropped my clip, and so I did the only thing that came to mind. I threw my pistol at his face. It bounced off harmlessly, but he looked a little angrier.

I needed to reach the stun grenade in my pocket, but his hand was grasping me around my midsection tight and I couldn’t.

“
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” a voice said below me. I saw John below. He still had one arm in a sling. He grabbed the Wendigo’s leg with his good arm and the creature howled in pain. The electrical discharge from John glowed blue. “Teslians have all the fun,” I called down to him.

The Wendigo kicked John, and he flew into the trees and out of sight. Miranda stepped out of the dark trees reloading my pistol.

“
Hey E.T.!” she shouted. “Phone home.” She shot the pole nearest me. Wires snapped and danced around us, sending arcs of electricity into the Wendigo. Hot lashes and seizing jolts gripped my whole body.

The Wendigo took a jerky step and toppled. We hit the ground hard, but his grip on me was still devastating. Occasional bursts of electricity wracked my body. I saw Miranda approaching. “Stay back,” I croaked between jolts.

She fired five shots into the Wendigo’s wrist, shredding the flesh, and then tucked the pistol into her belt. I couldn’t feel anything. I smelled burning hair and my mouth and eyes felt dry. I blinked slowly and tried to focus. “Stay with me,” she said as she pulled on the Wendigo’s giant severed hand, trying to pry it open. Eventually, she dragged me free. She sat down and rested my head on her lap. “You’re covered in blood,” she whispered.

I couldn’t look down to see if she meant my blood or the Wendigo’s. “Thanks,” I whispered back.

“
Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” she asked. “Did Wendy take it?”

“
Bikers,” I mumbled.

She still looked stern as she gently ran her fingers through my hair. “I swear, you can’t keep your clothes on.”

I closed my eyes. I could feel gripping pain in my spine, which I assumed was broken. I still couldn’t feel my legs.

“
Look at me,” she ordered.

I opened my eyes slightly. She wasn’t in focus, but I could see that she might be crying. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “We won.”

“
Damn right, we won,” I heard John say.

I licked my cracked lips. “You didn’t tell me you were Teslian.”

“
It was none of your business,” he said. He was smiling though. “I don’t think I’ve ever jolted anything that hard that didn’t get knocked out.” He cleared his throat. “Say, you look like shit.”

A groan escaped my lips as my spine repaired itself. I felt the pain shimmer through the rest of my body. Miranda kept her eyes on me and continued to stroke my hair.

Minutes or hours might have passed. I couldn’t be sure. I was beyond awareness of anything but the mending of my body. I felt like the Wendigo had squeezed my guts out.

When the pain subsided to a dull ache, I opened my eyes again. Miranda was still holding my head.

“
We should call for an evacuation and cleanup crew,” I said.

“
We don’t have a com link,” she said.

“
In my lower left pocket.”

She found the lower left pocket in my cargo shorts and pulled out the mobile phone I had purchased.

She dialed. “Agent Miranda. Clearance fifty-two fifty-one.” She paused. “Mission accomplished. We need an evacuation and cleanup a couple miles northeast of Cloquet, Minnesota.” She listened for a moment longer and then hung up.

“
The only crew that could have helped us with evacuation was sent to pick up Wendy. The Texas mission has priority on other resources.” She looked up in the sky. “They are going to use the phone’s GPS to fire a long range surface-to-surface stealth missile at our position. So, if we want to live, we need to leave here in about thirty seconds.” Miranda tossed my phone on the ground.

“
Let’s go then,” I said.

Miranda helped me to my feet, pulled out the graviton bars and set them to thirty percent reverse, and then attached them to her belt. She wrapped one arm around me and one around John, and then she jumped.

We moved at speeds that made bullet trains look slow. I enjoyed every moment. We were about a half mile away when a pillar of fire shot into the air behind us. We landed on the edge of the road going into Cloquet and turned to watch the smoke and fire rising.

“
These are yours,” she said. Miranda turned off the graviton bars and handed them to me.

Chapter 41. Max

When the fire subsided, we walked into town. John had a limp, and so we walked slowly to accommodate his pace. My body already felt better, but hunger gnawed at my stomach. I saw a Perkins. Pancakes and bacon sounded so good.

Miranda noticed me looking. “We’d need to find you a shirt to get in there,” she said with a smile.

“
Unfortunately, there aren’t any stores open in the middle of the night that sell shirts,” I said. I pulled out my cash and put the money in Miranda’s hand. “Bring me leftovers. I’ll rest here for a bit.”

She slapped me in the chest, but it didn’t hurt. “I’ll be back in a few. Don’t move.” She looked at John. “You can rest here, too. We’ll all eat out here together.” As Miranda walked into the restaurant, John and I sat down against an oak tree.

“
Thanks for everything,” I said.

He smiled. “Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t seen the bill.”

I noticed his eyes were closed and imagined he was in pain and probably exhausted. It had been a hard week for everybody, but he couldn’t simply overeat to feel better.

I watched the stars while I waited for Miranda. It seemed like there was never time to just watch them anymore. An agent always had to keep his eyes on some creature threatening the planet rather than on the sky.

Miranda returned and handed me three boxes, each with burgers and fries in them. She set a box next to John and then opened her own box.

We ate in silence for a few minutes. John finally opened his eyes and took a few bites of his sandwich, then pushed it away.

“
Are you okay, sheriff?” Miranda asked.

“
I’ve been better,” he murmured.

“
We should get you medical attention,” she said.

“
It’s not like I can just pop in at the ER,” he said. “I think that last kick broke my insides.”

“
The Service has an infirmary. We’ll take you there. They can handle this,” I said.

“
I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I can hardly walk.”

“
By car, it would be over 11 hours from here—if we even sort of followed the speed limit. If we flew, I could get us back in five hours or less depending on the plane.”

I pointed at a green sign. “Looks like the airport is that way. John doesn’t look like he’s walking, though, and so we’ll need to borrow a car.”

Miranda looked around. “I’ll be right back with a ride. Just be ready to go when I get back.”

She leapt away in a flash. I helped John stand. He leaned heavily on me.