“This is the one,” Taylor whispered.
The team stood in a half-moon formation around the passage entrance and watched as Taylor explained his findings.
“They’ve been using all these passages,” Taylor continued. “But this one by far the most. My bet is that it will eventually lead up and out.”
The team nodded in agreement.
“How we gonna fit?” Pearce exclaimed, noting the tunnel’s height of just over five foot.
“You’ll just have to turn hunchback for a time,” Hunter joked.
“It might open up to something taller,” Taylor offered, ignoring the comments from Pearce and Hunter. “So, until then, it’s heads down and take the problems as they come.”
The team nodded in the affirmative once more.
Taylor ducked his head and partially hunched over. He held his rifle at the ready and entered the tight, narrow passage. The team followed in single file, each adapting to the confines of the passage in their own fashion.
The floor of the passage was slick rock and worn smooth by the flow of water over a period of time no one knew. The air was thick with humidity and made hot by some unknown means. Taylor led his team through the passage and around and through the small stream and the narrow pools it formed. Occasionally, they passed the remains of some animal discarded or washed onto the rock shore and footprints of primates left in silt or loose gravel.
The passage slowly widened and the ceiling rose. The team came to a small chamber that allowed them to gather around each other for the first time since they entered the tunnel some 45 minutes earlier. They paused to stretch their backs from the strain of being bent for so long and checked or changed the batteries in their goggles. Some took the opportunity to smoke and others to drink water or to eat.
“Some crazy shit down here,” Hunter noted to Taylor on an exhale of cigarette smoke. He held his pack of cigarettes out before him, and Taylor took one and lit it.
“Yeah, I never would’ve guessed my introduction to the job would involve discovering a new species,” Taylor dryly observed on a puff of smoke.
“Discovered it and, if things go right, blast it into extinction,” Hunter joked.
The men paused to enjoy their smokes and further stretch their backs.
“Where you think they came from?” Hunter began again.
Taylor took a long drag on his cigarette then offered, “Zoo. Carnival maybe. Long time ago.”
“A zoo!” Hunter exclaimed in humorous disagreement. “They got out of a zoo then decided to live in a hole? Underground? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Shit, Hunter. I don’t know. And I really don’t care.” Taylor laughed. “You asked and I said the first thing that came to my mind.”
“Huh. That was the first thing that came to your mind?” Hunter smirked. He dropped his cigarette butt and moved to grind it into the ground with his boot then kicked it to the side into the half-inch deep creek to his right instead. “Because the first thing that usually comes to my mind is porn.”
“Even when talking about monkeys?” Taylor laughed.
“Especially. You’d be amazed at the sexual shit a monkey can do when put before a camera and properly directed.”
The two men stood silent for a bit then burst into laughter.
44.
Taylor called an end to the break then led the team forward and into the next section of the tunnel. The passage opened up and the team was no longer forced to walk with their backs hunched over or bent to either side. The passage also widened but not so much that they could hike side-by-side. They maintained a single-file line and followed the passage and the intermittent stream within it, all the while watching for sign of exit or for more of the animals that had begun their mission so far under the earth.
Taylor brought the team to a sudden halt with a raised clenched fist. The team stopped and then followed Taylor into a crouch and made themselves ready for whatever was to come. Taylor called Hunter to his side with the motion of his hand then pointed to an object some 100 yards before them. Hunter studied the signature then shrugged his shoulders to inform Taylor that he had no idea what the object was.
Taylor called Drake and Nickerson forward and led them and Hunter out of the passage. They entered into a vast cavern much larger and taller than the one that served as the beginning of their journey. They moved forward and toward the object like wraiths, spectral mercenaries focused only on the single object before them. They covered 20 yards then came to a stop and studied the object from a stationary position. Taylor stared hard at the heat signature. It was considerably larger than the dead baboon they’d examined but pretty much the same shape. Taylor didn’t notice a tail but then he wasn’t sure if monkey tails carried as much heat as the rest of their bodies.
Or if all the monkeys in the cave system had tails.
Taylor led the team closer. They covered another 20 yards in near silence and with swift determination. Taylor brought the team once more to a halt then studied the figure from a closer distance.
The heat signature was sitting with legs spread out before it and its arms held at its side.
Monkeys didn’t sit like that.
Did they?
No.
It was a child.
Taylor’s mind flashed through 1,000 questions at once.
What would a child be doing down here?
Was it along?
Had it been abandoned?
How could he approach it in total darkness without frightening it?
Taylor turned to the team and whispered, “It’s a kid.”
“Just about to say that,” Hunter offered. “But didn’t want to sound crazy before you did. What the hell’s a kid doing down here?”
“That kid damn near got lit up!” Nickerson exclaimed, lowering his rifle.
“It can’t see or hear us and the last thing I want to do is scare it,” Taylor explained.
“You don’t think it’s already scared being down here in a cave?” Nickerson interrupted.
Taylor ignored the comment and instead turned to Drake. “Your voice will be the least frightening.”
“Why because I’m a woman?”
“Yes,” Taylor answered.
“Screw that,” Drake snapped. “I’m supposed to like kids because I’m a woman?”
“I don’t care if you like them or not,” Taylor shot back. “I’m talking about your voice.”
“I hate kids. I won’t even watch my niece’s kids. They’re brats.”
Taylor sighed and stood. He called across the darkness in as calm a voice as he could muster. “Hello. My name is Taylor.”
Dejah turned to the call in shock and fright. She was both elated and scared to death. She stood and called back across the black ink. “Where are you? Who are…?”
“I’m about 60 yards away.”
Dejah scanned the darkness as though she would be able to see. “I can’t see you,” she called.
“But I can see you,” Taylor replied in his friendliest voice. “I’m with three other people and we’re wearing special glasses that allow us to see in the dark.”
“Is my mom with you?”
Taylor heard the fear and uncertainty in the girl’s voice. He gathered the girl had been separated from her mother somehow and was scared and alone. The sight of soldiers with guns and crazy goggles would only scare her even more so. He wanted to do anything he could to avoid that.
“We’re gonna walk over to you, okay?” Taylor called.
“What about my mother? What about Carlos?”
Taylor continued to politely ignore the child and instead walked his team forward. When they were within 10 yards, Taylor brought them to a standstill and ordered them through his commentary with the girl.