Disparity’s foliage was worse than the Javanese jungle. Here, the mists and humidity not only reduced visibility, but often painted halos around the numerous reflective surfaces. The supersaturated air also grayed-out objects very rapidly, obscuring even nearby silhouettes or terrain features. In short, Disparity conspired to reduce the visual acuity upon which effective security watches depended: an unnerving factor that soon evolved into a dangerous one.
Caine had just come off point when Macmillan held up a large, thick hand and crouched. The entire team took a knee; those without rifles hefted their axe-headed combotools. Caine crept a few steps closer to the burly IRIS operative. “Report.”
“Movement there.” Macmillan jerked his now red-furred chin at the narrow band of low land that separated the stream’s split courses; they had taken to calling it the median. “I think something from the far bank forded over to the median when our line of sight was blocked a hundred meters back.”
Riordan nodded. “Whatever they are, they’re paralleling us, using cover to get closer.” He scanned ahead and behind. “But if they are predators, and they have any brains whatsoever, they won’t charge at us from the median. If they can, they’re going to get across the river and approach our opposite flank before they attack us.”
Macmillan glanced at the gentle wooded slope behind them. “You mean, they’ll either get ahead or behind us by crossing the near stream when we can’t see them, and then press us so that our backs are to the water?”
Caine nodded. “Where they’d plan to run us down along the shore or in the shallows.”
Qwara Betul had drifted in far enough from the right point position to overhear. She hefted her rifle anxiously. “So what do we do?” She claimed to be a good shot, and Caine believed her, but hitting stationary targets on a range was a lot different than hitting moving creatures in combat. Particularly when the creatures wanted to kill you.
“We’re changing formation.” He waved Dora forward; she arrived with startling speed.
Before he could update her, she nodded. “I thought I saw something over to our left, just as Macmillan called for a halt. I’ve been checking the slope to our right. I don’t think anything has made it across and worked behind us, yet.”
Damn, she’s good. “And we’ve got to keep it that way. The three of you on watch are going to walk beside the stream. The rest of us are going to push away from the water a little bit, higher up the slope. That means we’re giving up the delta formation. We’ll be moving as two columns; the unarmed folks up higher on the bank, you three down closer to the water. That way, if the creatures try to cross the stream either in front of us or behind us, we’ve got a better chance of seeing them. And putting a bullet into one of them.”
Betul’s eyes widened. “Will that not just anger them?”
Macmillan looked thoughtful. “These aren’t big critters, Qwara. Pretty light-footed from the way they move, and their haunches don’t make a long flash when they pass between the fronds.” He shook his head. “Besides, most predators run from the sound of a gun. And if one goes down, the others tend to flee.”
“Sharks don’t,” Dora argued. “They don’t give a damn about what happens to other sharks. If they aren’t hurt, they don’t run. And the creatures here may not be any smarter.”
“Maybe not, but fish don’t work as cooperative hunters.” Caine pointed across the stream. “The group trailing us does. So, the same bonds that make the group work together can be used to collectively scare them into running.” Theoretically.
Dora shrugged. “Hell, it’s our best shot, anyhow.” She turned and scooted back, shooing the unarmed persons at the center of the delta up the slope and into a column paralleling the tree line. Macmillan started to move toward the point position on the stream-hugging patrol column, saw that Riordan wasn’t moving. “What about you, Captain?”
Caine rubbed his chin. “I’m going to play free safety in the center, between your column and the upslope group. Can’t really be an effective commander from back there.” He gestured toward the jungle to their right, where the first bioluminescent lures and attractors were warming to the approach of dusk. “We’d better get going, see if we can find a defensible rock outcropping or something similar before nightfall.”
Macmillan shrugged. “You’re the boss, boss,” he said, but Caine could read the real meaning in Keith’s tone easily enough: please don’t be stupid and get yourself killed.
* * *
The lower the sun sank, the more frequently the group saw movement. But their change in formation seemed to discourage the creatures paralleling them. They kept their distance, which probably signified that if the humans were considered prey, they were not deemed unaware nor easily frightened prey.
As more of the bioluminescent plants began speckling the undergrowth with orange, yellow, magenta, and indigo glows, the movement of the trackers became easier to follow. Although it was impossible to make out a flashing flank or leg, swift occultations of the glowing dots in the underbrush revealed the direction and speed of the creatures’ movements. Most of them had now crossed the far stream and were on the median. A few minutes after Keith Macmillan quietly reported he didn’t have enough visibility left to reliably hit a target at forty meters, the river’s northerly course bent slightly to the west and the narrow band of salmon and teal sky that had been visible between the trees on either bank suddenly widened.
“Watercourses rejoin up ahead,” he reported. “The median runs out.”
“Any rock formations?”
“Not that I can see from he — yes. About one hundred meters beyond where the river comes together again. There’s an angled bluff that juts into the current. Naked rock. If we get to the top of it, we’ll be in a defensible position.”
Caine stopped, scanned the terrain. The creatures knew this land, which meant that they knew they were coming to the end of the easily fordable part of the river and were coming to the end of the median, too. Which meant that they were running out of areas where there was enough cover to screen a crossing. In fact, they had already run out of opportunities for crossing the stream ahead of the group, as shown by the widening space between the trees downriver. Which meant they only had one option left: “Keith, double-time forward!”
“Forward?”
“Yes: watch for critters trying to cut you off from that bluff. Ambassador,” he called over his shoulder, “everyone in the upslope column runs after Macmillan. If he stops to shoot, you go past him. Lead our people up the rocky bluff you’re going to see in a few meters. Dora,” he shouted, moving to the rear. “Form up on Qwara, and watch the stream behind—”
Up ahead, Macmillan’s rifle spat three times as something started splashing across a rocky shallow where the streams began to reconverge. Whatever it was went down, thrashed, went down again. As it struggled, it made a sound like a soprano screaming over a fast rattle of deep-toned castanets. Another of the creatures, a thin-limbed and nimble quadruped with a heavy body, was sprinting past its feebly kicking packmate. Two more shots from Macmillan’s nine-millimeter had no effect. The animal started up the shallows toward the now sprinting group — then Macmillan’s weapon fired twice again, rapidly.
The creature, a bulldog body perched on whippet legs, spun away from the impact of a hit. Its broad, blunt head tossed — upward jutting fangs flashed as its jaws snapped irritably — and then it charged back into the water, fleeing for the median and the far stream beyond it.
Behind, Dora was approaching Betul — just as the median vomited out a handful of the same creatures, splashing across the shallow water. Dora shouldered her rifle, fired twice — the second bullet elicited a brief castanet-shriek — and then she ran. Caine sprinted toward Betul, who had drilled on what to do in this situation: aim, fire twice herself, turn, and run past Dora, who would then repeat the process. A simple leapfrog retreat. Riordan should have been retreating as well, but hung back to make sure that nothing went wrong. Because when even the simplest maneuvers had to be executed in combat—