“HEY, LOOK.” Monique saw it first, a mountain-lion cub, the size of a house cat, with little paws and golden fur with dark stripes. The tiny animal had been there all along, but none of them had noticed it. One of its hind legs was caught in a bear trap, and it had just made a sudden and useless attempt to escape.
Darryl shook his head. “Somebody should kill that thing.”
Monique gave her husband a filthy look. Then she trotted over to it.
As she did, Jason ran his eyes up and down a few of the redwoods. What if the predator had somehow attached itself to a tree? No one had aimed at a tree; their shots would have missed it, just as Craig’s radar gun would have. Jason followed the largest trunk from the ground into the fog. Was the predator smart enough to realize they wouldn’t fire at a tree?
“Jason.” Darryl was looking at the same spot. “You think?”
“Maybe.”
Suddenly there was a hissing scream—from the mountain-lion cub. Monique was crouched over it, yanking hard on the clamps that had ensnared its paw.
Darryl turned angrily. “Not the time for that, Monique! Just shoot the damn thing!”
The clamps snapped open, and Monique was her typical calm self. “No need for that, Husband.” She lifted the little animal gently, crying softly now, like a cat that wanted its milk.
“Keep it quiet,” Darryl snapped.
Monique walked over. “Shut up, Darryl.”
He ignored her and turned back to the tree.
THE BLACK eyes focused on the cub, studying it, analyzing it. Then they returned to Darryl.
One of his arrows was pointing right at it now. Pulled back in the bow and ready to fire.
The Demonray didn’t move, didn’t breathe.
DARRYL GAZED at the patch of white above the tree trunk. Unsure if the predator was up there or not, he noted how quiet it was. No movement at all. He lowered the bow and turned away.
“Let’s get outta here.”
Then, without warning, he spun and fired—five times.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The arrows ripped into the fog and plunged into something unseen.
Then nothing. Silence.
No one moved. They just watched and waited.
THE EYES shifted. To an arrow an inch away.
Then they swiveled back to Darryl.
HE STARED right back at the animal, albeit unknowingly. “Let’s go back to the cabin.”
AS THEY turned to go, the creature didn’t move. It just watched them. Then it focused on the bear trap.
CHAPTER 78
“WAIT A second.” In the middle of a clearing, Craig paused. “Let’s reposition the equipment. Cool, Hoss?”
Darryl Hollis hesitated. He actually felt like using the equipment here might be to their detriment, but—
“What do you say Darryl?” Jason didn’t see any reason not to reposition it.
“Sure, whatever.”
Craig crinkled open a map. “OK, we need to go… this way….” As he and the others walked off, Darryl didn’t budge. He looked up and was amazed. In just minutes, the fog had thinned considerably, so much so that he could see. He could make out the upper tree trunks and branches now. But nothing else was up there. He turned and followed the others.
“ALL BETTER now. Thanks a lot, Jason.”
Jason smiled. “Looks like the patient’s doing fine.”
Snuggling on a towel, the mountain-lion cub rubbed its tiny head on Monique’s thigh. On the living-room floor, Jason had just assisted Monique in splinting the animal’s broken leg. While Jason had held the little creature down, Monique had done the real work, and she’d been impressive. The cub had been in excruciating pain, and when Monique reset the bone, the animal bit her hand, gashing the skin and drawing blood. She’d barely blinked. Monique had simply absorbed the pain and continued. Sometimes Jason forgot, but despite her looks, Monique Hollis was one tough hombre.
“OK, baby; all better.” She gently petted the cub, which was purring loudly now.
Watching from the couches, Lisa and Jason thought this was adorable, but Darryl couldn’t have cared less. “What are we gonna do to hunt this thing, Jason?”
Jason got up from the floor. “I don’t think we can sneak up on it. That might be impossible, literally impossible.”
Craig laughed darkly. “Well, that’s a problem.”
“You know what else is a problem?” Darryl turned. “It might not even hunt on instinct.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Most predators hunt on instinct, meaning they’re not really ‘thinking’ about what they’re doing; they’re just sort of going through preprogrammed motions. But what we’ve got out there is thinking. It analyzes what it sees, then adapts to it.”
“Maybe we can bait it.”
“With what?”
Craig shrugged. “How about Phil?”
Everyone laughed, even Phil Martino.
Darryl wasn’t amused. “It will detect steel traps, right, Jason?”
“I think so. Can we hang a net or something?”
“Any nets in that storage shed, Craig?”
“No.” Summers eyed the two monitors on the hearth. “I still think this equipment’s gonna help pick something up.”
Darryl doubted it. “We’ll keep hunting it the way we have been.”
Craig shook his head. Then he walked to the window and looked out at the moon-dappled landscape. “Anybody ever wonder why this thing came to the land in the first place?”
“We’ve been over that, Craig.” Monique wondered if he had Alzheimer’s. “Food.”
“No, I mean philosophically.”
“Philosophically?” Darryl wondered if he was hearing things. “I didn’t realize you knew what philosophically meant.”
“What do you mean, Craig?” Monique asked seriously.
“I mean, did you ever think this thing might have evolved for a reason?”
“Like what?”
“Like maybe it’s nature’s way of protecting itself.”
“Protecting itself from what?”
“From us. You know, Jason, your name choice for this thing is surprisingly apt.”
“How so?”
“Demonray. Do you realize what the very first ‘demons’ actually were?”
A pause. “No… I don’t.”
“According to the book of Revelation, the original demons were—get this—expelled from heaven because they wanted to destroy humanity.”
Everyone paused. This was eerie.
“That’s in the Bible?”
“Uh-huh. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Because I’d say if there’s anything that could destroy humanity, this species is it.”
“Destroy humanity?” Darryl rolled his eyes. “When’d you start believing in fairy tales, Peter Pan?”
“It’s no fairy tale, Darryl, and the science side is even scarier.”
Jason turned. “How so?”
“Why do predators evolve in the first place? To stop existing species from becoming too abundant. So think about the existing species that is the human race. Just eleven thousand years ago there were less than five million people on this planet, but there are six billion today, and that’s supposed to go north of ten billion in just a couple of decades. Man’s been growing like a weed and nothing. Not a virus. Not another species. Nothing has kept that growth in check. Maybe the evolution of this thing is nature’s way of doing that.”
Darryl wasn’t amused anymore. “There’s one of those things out there, Craig.”