“I’m not touching a damn rifle, you got it?”
His cell started ringing, and he saw it was Ackerman. He didn’t pick up. “Lisa, in this situation, it might be more dangerous not knowing how to shoot than—”
“Jason, I am a biologist. Do you understand that? And if any situation arises where we need to use guns, I am gone, get it? Gone.” She gave the ringing phone a dirty look and stormed away.
Jason picked up. “Hi, Harry… yes, I know; this area has horrible service…. How are you?”
The voice on the other end was cold, matter-of-fact. “Honestly, there have been some more… financial challenges with my companies.”
“Really?”
“Plus, I gave personal guarantees on a few bank loans.”
Personal guarantees? Jason had heard the term before but didn’t know what it meant. “What is a personal guarantee anyway?”
“To put this in perspective for you, Jason, the bank is trying to take my house.” Harry’s tone remained matter-of-fact.
“I had no idea, Harry. Are you going to be all—”
“I’ll be fine. I can’t seem to raise capital from the VCs, but I have a new plan to harvest an existing asset to cover our liquidity needs.”
“So…” Jason didn’t know what any of that meant. “You’re all right, then?”
“Fine. What’s the latest on your new species?”
Jason explained, and when he finished, Ackerman’s retort was direct.
“So you think this bear-cub skeleton further suggests these animals could have flown? I guess a bear is a land-based animal, but don’t they swim once in a while? I don’t know, Jason—to be candid… flying monsters… I just don’t see it.”
“I’m not saying I see it either, Harry. I just want to keep following the trail.”
A chuckle. “That sounds reasonable. Keep me abreast; we’ll see what happens.”
Jason hung up and went below deck looking for Lisa. Then he noticed Phil’s open door and remembered he still had to type up his notes. In sweats, Phil was stretched out on his single bed, going through pictures on his digital camera.
“Mind if I type up the day’s notes, Phil?”
A blank look. “Sure; computer’s over there.”
Jason went to the desk. The laptop was in screen-saver mode, and he smiled wide at what he saw. “What the hell is this?”
Pleased by the reaction, Phil looked up. “You like it?”
“Very cool.” Jason leaned in. It was an animated simulation. A massive winged creature flying toward a redwood forest from the ocean. Flapping in slow, mechanized movements, the animal looked shockingly real. It almost appeared to be flying right off the screen.
“How’d you do this?”
Phil smirked cunningly. “That’s my secret, pal.”
“Pretty damn frightening.”
“It would make a great video game, wouldn’t it?”
Jason stared again. “It really would.”
Phil went back to his camera. “Maybe I’ll work on that next.”
Jason smiled. Phil Martino was into his own thing, wasn’t he? And clearly still angry that Jason hadn’t made him a researcher on his report to the Species Council. Was that why he’d snipped at Craig earlier? Jason decided he didn’t care. He typed his notes then joined the triumvirate and Lisa in the galley when Lisa surreptitiously slipped past him.
“You got a sec?”
He followed her up on deck and… was amazed to see a full moon. The sky had been completely socked in with clouds only half an hour ago. The weather patterns in Northern California were bizarre.
“You want to howl at the moon or talk to me?”
He turned. “Can we do both?”
She smiled. “Maybe later.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you with the rifle stuff.”
“I know. And I shouldn’t have jumped down your throat like that. Guns just really scare me.”
“I got that. Like I said, they scare me, too.”
“But I was thinking…. If you really think I should learn how to fire one… I will.”
“I don’t want you to do it if you’re not comfortable with it.”
“I’m not comfortable with it!” She exhaled. “Sorry.” Then added softly, “But maybe it is… prudent.”
“That’s how I meant it, to be prudent.”
“All right, I’m gonna help with dinner.”
She disappeared, and he looked up at the moon once more, then at the dimly lit redwoods. With Phil’s computer simulation fresh in his mind, he tried imagining one of the creatures flying among the trees and to his surprise, the vision came quickly. Just like the simulation, it was incredibly lifelike.
“You look like I feel.” Darryl Hollis walked up on deck.
“What’s up, Darryl?”
Darryl eyed the distant creek, glistening in the moonlight. “That bear-cub skeleton’s stayed with me, Jason—makes me nervous. Makes me wonder if maybe one of those rays really would come to land.”
“What are you getting at?”
“We should double-check the creek. Make damn sure no people are on it.”
“We already did that, and we didn’t see a soul. Monique thinks there could be a better conduit further up the coast anyway.”
Darryl gave him a stern look. “We should check it again, Jason.”
There was something ominous in his tone. “OK, we’ll check it again.” Jason paused, looking up at the moon. “You don’t think anyone would go near that creek at night, do you?”
“Nah, the park doesn’t have overnight campgrounds, and it’s probably closed anyway. I just want to be conservative.” But just as he said the words, Darryl Hollis reconsidered. Would anyone go out at night? But no, that was ridiculous. Who on earth would do that?
CHAPTER 50
WAYNE ABBOTT was a big guy, six-three and a rock-hard 235 pounds. A former tight end for UCLA, Wayne had been out of school for a little more than a year and liked to stay in shape. He had big strong thighs from squatting up to four hundred pounds, a ripped, muscular chest from benching nearly as much, and healthy lungs from runs like this one. Wayne hadn’t made the cut in the NFL and didn’t have a job, so he lived with his mother in a desolate area near the outskirts of Leonard State Park. The park was closed for maintenance and almost entirely empty, but Wayne didn’t care. He snuck in regularly. The paths here were nice and flat. After two hundred push-ups and four hundred sit-ups, he ran them almost every night.
Screw the NFL, Wayne thought, pumped up and running hard, thinking about what awesome shape he was in. Wearing sky-blue UCLA mesh shorts and a white T-shirt drenched with sweat, he was two miles into a seven-mile run. Redwood Inlet Trail was his favorite, a runner’s dream: perfectly flat, as wide as a two-lane road, and topped with black soil that was easy on the knees but still allowed good traction. The scenery was great too. Wayne had already passed the prettiest part, the creek itself, but here, much deeper in the forest, wasn’t bad either. There were towering redwoods everywhere, as far as the eye could see.
Wayne glanced at a little green metal sign staked in along the side, a trail marker that told him he’d run two and a half miles. He was feeling good and had a good sweat going. Wayne liked it when he sweated. It made him feel like he was working hard, like he was young and strong. And like he would live forever.
THE PREDATOR surged out of the towering mountaintop cave. Easing into the moonlit air, it surveyed the surroundings. To the west, the sea, quietly rumbling, a place it no longer belonged. To the south and north, more mountains. And farther inland, the cornstalk field, blowing slightly in the wind, with the redwood forest beyond.