“Oh shit,” Rhino said.
Around them it was as if the jungle had fallen into a vacuum. Casey slowly stood up from the man’s chest, wiping the blood and gore from her hands on her pants. She waited.
Rinofsky’s face was lit by a small box he had pulled from his belt. He held it up and turned slowly. He frowned down at the small tracker.
“Boss…”
“What’ve you got?” Casey asked evenly.
“Movement, boss… plenty of it,” Rhino said without looking up.
Blake led Jennifer in closer, and Jackson joined them, looking at the small device in Rhino’s hand.
“Incoming?” Casey walked away from Hagel’s prone form and took the gun from Jennifer’s hand. As she holstered the weapon, she noticed that the McMurdo medic had blanched at her frightful appearance.
Casey half smiled, and turned away to collect her knives and rifle from the ground.
“I’m right here, Rhino, talk to me.”
“Multiple signatures, too many to fully register. They’re big and small, but get this, they’re all moving away. Disappearing off the grid.”
Casey grunted. “They’re going to ground.” She turned slowly, and scanned the dark, dripping growth surrounding them. “Making noise down here, and you might as well have just rung the dinner bell.” She growled. “Fucking distraction.” She turned back to where Hagel lay. “I should have just shot you, you bag of…”
The man was gone.
“What the fuck?” Casey spun. “Where’d that asshole go?”
Jennifer put a hand over her nose. “That smell is back. Just like in the caves.” She started to back up, looking like she was going to bolt.
“Grab her.” Casey pointed and Blake lunged at the woman, gripping her arm.
Casey quickly went to where Hagel had been laying. The mosses and lichen mats were flattened, and so was a glistening path leading into the underbrush.
“Hagel,” Jennifer screamed. “Hagel!” She strained against Blake’s hands, her eyes wide. “We have to go after him.”
“That’s just what it wants,” Casey said softly, scanning the jungle with her gun up.
“I don’t like this.” Ben Jackson backed in towards them.
Casey looked from the grass to the shrinking group. “He’s gone. He wouldn’t walk out and leave his rifle.” She nodded towards it. “Rhino, get the weapon. We’re out of here.”
“I heard that,” Rhino said, picking up the gun, his eyes on the jungle. “Go after Dr. Weir, boss?”
“No, we head for the signal.” She pointed. “It’s where the Chinese will be going. Maybe we can get the jump on them. We stay fast and stay tight.” She turned and vanished into the jungle, the others at her heels.
CHAPTER 46
“I’m sorry,” Soong whispered to Aimee, whose hands were tied together in front of her. A length of rope tethered her to the giant Chinese soldier in front.
Aimee snorted. “I don’t exactly remember, but when was it that we had you tied up?” She scoffed. “Must be a cultural thing, huh?”
Soong shook her head. “I trust you, but they do not. I told Captain Yang that you didn’t take their men, that it was something else, something down here already. And that you know what it is.” She stared hard at Aimee. “They could have killed all of you… I stopped them.”
Aimee snorted. “Do you have any idea what they’re triggering by going after the American submarine? Do you really think that they’re going to be allowed to walk out of here with the technology?” She shook her head. “Not that any of us is going to walk out of here.”
Soong sped up slightly, leaving Aimee behind.
“There could be war,” Aimee said forcefully to Soong’s hunched shoulders.
The Chinese woman half turned. “You can talk to my friend.”
“Shenjung Xing? Damn right I’ll talk to him, that’s why I’m here,” Aimee said, but Soong had threaded her way around the giant Mungoi, who turned to grin and tug a little harder on her rope.
Yang led them towards a small camp, or rather an area of flattened foliage in among the tangled jungle.
Soong ran to Shenjung Xing. Aimee recognized the scientist immediately from Hammerson’s profile picture. The pair embraced warmly. Shenjung reached up to tenderly brush strands of hair from her face, and Aimee now knew why Soong had so eagerly wanted to come with them. Soong spoke rapidly, and Shenjung’s face creased into a frown. His eyes lifted to Aimee.
“Untie her.” He spoke loudly, but Yang ignored him. Mungoi continued to stand like a colossus, hanging on to Aimee’s leash like she was a pet dog.
Aimee held up her bound wrists. “Do you mind?” She spoke directly to Yang. “I’m not going to run off into the jungle by myself, and I think you know why.”
Yang shook his head, and turned back to his conversation with one of his men. Aimee let her breath hiss out from between clenched teeth. She turned to Shenjung.
“You know what? We came down here for you. To warn you that there is a potential global conflict happening over our heads. I was sent as a diplomat… a spokesperson. If you ever managed to find your way out, which is unlikely, you’ll find something a lot different than diplomats waiting for you.”
Yang, overhearing, finally turned, his lips a thin line. “We are not afraid of you. This century belongs to China, Dr. Weir.” He looked Aimee up and down for a second or two, and smirked. “And we cannot go back, because Dr. Soong Chin Ling has informed us that you blew up our base.” His face was like stone. “She also tells me that you may know another way out. I agreed not to kill your people, because she convinced me that you would help us find that path back out. But if you won’t, then I am more than happy to finish my job.”
Aimee stared for a moment. “Listen, that wasn’t us. That was your own people that set your base to self-destruct. And by the way, one of your men ambushed and killed our captain.”
Yang’s lips pursed. “Only your captain? Shame.”
Aimee growled under her breath. She turned back to Shenjung. “You fools, you’re in danger. I know your soldiers are going missing, so are ours. You sense it out there; I know you do. It’s the other thing I needed to warn you about — what really lives down here.”
“Lives down here?” Shenjung looked from Aimee to Soong. Behind them, Yang edged closer.
“There’s a reason this place is off-limits. It’s unsafe.” Aimee waited. Yang’s eyes narrowed, but they slid to Soong.
Soong’s brows were knitted. “There is something, in the caves. And now, maybe down here with us.”
“No maybe about it.” Aimee tugged on her rope. “It’s big, smart, and hungry… and we’re right in its goddamn backyard.” She nodded to their weapons. “And you guys might as well have pea shooters for all the good they’ll do.”
“We are not that easily tricked,” Yang said evenly. “We have seen nothing.” He looked away quickly.
Shenjung’s head snapped around to Yang. “But you did! The scouts went missing, to turn up massacred. And then just hours back…”
“I saw nothing!” Yang’s voice boomed. He pointed a fist at Aimee. “Nothing but what the Americans wanted me to see.”
“Oh, bullshit,” Aimee spat the words back at him, and tugged angrily on the rope. “You’re going to walk everyone right into the jaws of death, literally.”
Yang’s lip curled. “An American trick, denied by an American spy, sent to divert us.” Yang held up a hand. “We will complete our mission, secure the site of the derelict submarine, and then Dr. Weir will show us the way out.”