Until yesterday.
Angel had called on his satellite phone with word that his boys had accidentally dug into a cavern that looked like it could swallow their equipment whole. Cletus Lee told Angel to sit tight until he could get out there to survey the situation, and Cletus Lane left his office at five AM that morning to do just that.
It took him almost four hours to make it to Angel’s camp and when he did finally arrive, he was furious that no one rushed up to his truck to meet him. Cletus Lee angrily threw his truck in park and exited the vehicle. He stepped to the brush line to relieve himself and then walked back to the truck to retrieve his Copenhagen. He placed a huge wad in his lower lip and scanned the campsite before him.
He saw hammocks and chairs, empty bottles and cans, food wrappers and half-empty water bottles, and a sea of cigarette butts.
“Goddamn pigs, the lot of them,” Cletus Lee exclaimed aloud before spitting a huge mixture of spittle and phlegm up on the ground. “Goddamn pigs!”
He walked from the truck and into the campsite. He walked past the garbage toward the Porta Potty. He knocked on the door and, when one no one answered, opened it to find it empty. He turned from the portable commode and caught the glare of the early morning sun reflecting off a mirror on the excavator parked somewhere past a stand of mesquite. He walked toward it.
The expanse before Cletus Lee exploded in darkness. Dozens of buzzards, each black as midnight and carrying a wingspan of upwards of five feet, vaulted from the ground, from low-lying limbs, and from cacti. They turned the sky dark with their forms and their wings stirred a cloud of stench, decay, and rot. The air thundered with their flapping wings and the screeches of scavengers surprised and avoiding danger. Cletus Lee clutched his chest in surprise and fought to catch his breath. He watched the vultures fly higher and higher then circle in wait for his absence.
Cletus Lee’s eyes were brought back down to earth by the deafening buzzing of flies. He trained in on the source of the noise to see what was left of a human form twisted and mutilated in death and by the fight for scraps by animals and avian prey. He stumbled backward at the site and vomited. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stepped closer to what he saw was the first of several half-eaten human forms. He knelt next to the first body and studied it for any sign of identification, but the almost complete lack of a face made that task impossible. He thought of checking the body for a wallet then thought the better of it. He started to stand than noticed a print forced into the blood-soaked mud that pooled outward from the body.
It looked like a child’s handprint.
Only different.
The fingers were that of a child, but the palm was twice as long as it should have been. The pinky and thumb were oddly spaced and situated further away from the rest of the fingers. Cletus Lee wiped his mouth once more, returned to his truck, and retrieved a Taurus Judge handgun from the center consul. He nervously checked to make sure it was loaded then put it in the waistband of his pants at the small of his back. He put a fresh dip of Copenhagen in his sour mouth then dialed 911 on his satellite phone.
22.
Dejah awoke in the dark and in pain. At first, she didn’t know where she was but soon remembered her ordeal and what had transpired that led her to where she was now.
She was in a cave of some sort, alone, hungry, and scared.
She had no idea where her mother was or what happened to the rest of the group. She remembered the man in the hole above her, his screams, and how his fingers rained down upon her. She shuddered this thought out of her mind and stood. She was relieved to find that her ankle didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it had only last night. She was also relieved to see that she wasn’t in total darkness. In addition to the manhole-sized beam of light shimmering through the hole she fell through, there were other beams of light. More like pinpoints of light, these narrow splinters shone down from cracks high above to reveal a huge cavern. It was a dark expanse that seemed to go on and on forever. It reminded Dejah of being out under a star-filled sky.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the faintest sound of rushing water. She stared out into the void and saw that one of the needles of light pointed downward to a small stream. She edged down the slippery rock bank and toward the water, feeling before her with outstretched arms for dangers in the dark. Each step took her deeper into the cave, and she shuffled her feet before her to ensure she didn’t fall or trip on something unseen. She reached the stream and kneeled beside it. The light cast down on an area the size of her foot and in that she could see that the water was relatively clear and free of debris. She cupped her hands and drank. The water was warm but tasted fine. She drank four more handfuls then made her way back up the steep rock toward the hole that she’d fallen through. Without looking down, she kicked the fingers from within the light and into the darkness, feeling with her feet that the area was clear of dangers, to directly underneath the hole and shouted upward for her mother. Her cries echoed back at her and waved throughout the cave. She continued calling for her mother then changed her call to that of help.
A sudden shrill call from deep within the cave caught her off guard. She stared out into the darkness and toward its source but could see nothing other than a few narrow needles of light. The call echoed across the void once more. It sounded like the scream of some animals although she couldn’t tell what kind. Despite its far away distance, Dejah suddenly became more scared. She lowered herself to the ground and sat holding her knees to her chest in fear, hoping that she wouldn’t hear the cry again and that her mother would come get her soon.
23.
Jared climbed down the extension ladder to join Tom in the cave. The two men shone their flashlights out of the light from the opening above and into the darkness that spread outward in every direction.
“How far down is the actual floor?” Jared asked, shining his light down off the pile of bones, rock, and years of debris that he and Tom stood upon.
“Maybe 30 feet,” Tom offered. “Animals have been falling down here for centuries. Maybe a millennium.”
Jared wiped his brow and coughed.
“You gonna throw up again?” Tom asked, chuckling.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. No,” Jared mocked. “It’s just hot down here. I thought it would be cooler.”
“I thought it be smaller,” Tom admitted, still scanning the darkness with his light.
“And it stinks to high heaven down here,” Jared exclaimed. “What is that? Is that shit? A whole lot of bat shit?”
“I don’t think so,” Tom speculated. “If there was a bat colony down here, we would’ve seen them fly out last night. Or fly back this morning.”
“Something’s been down here shitting,” Jared replied.
“Rats maybe…”
“Monkey shit!” Jared suddenly exclaimed.
“What?” Tom asked, turning to face Jared.
“It’s not bat shit. It’s monkey shit. I knew it smelled familiar.”
Tom stared at Jared in question.
“My roommate works in a lab where they’ve got a few monkeys. Smells just like that down here.”
“You think there’s monkeys down here? In a cave? In South Texas?”
“No, of course not. I’m just saying the smell down here reminds me of that. Reminds me of monkeys.”
24.
“You’ve heard my jokes about it and my wise-ass comments over a few beers last night,” Hunter began. “But here’s the official detail of what our mission is.”
“A few beers?” Pearce scoffed. “I shared at least 10 with you myself.”