Maddock looked away from the trees and ground up ahead, satisfied they were not being observed. He considered the primate, which now rolled to one side and scampered off into the underbrush while Bones flipped it a silent bird. “What worries me is that monkey betrayed no emotion while it attacked.”
Bones nodded, making eye contact with Maddock. “Like those freaking zombie people” Bones said. “You don't think…”
Rustling noise ensued from the plants behind them, the way they had come. Maddock spun around and took in the source of the ruckus.
“More monkeys! Run!”
Chapter 35
Fabi had no intentions of waiting around to see what Avila had in store for her. Although she had no access to tools of any kind, her pockets having been searched and everything taken by Avila’s guards, she worked at her bonds by wriggling her slender wrists back and forth. A stifled cry of pain escaped her lips as she wrenched her joints in ways they were never designed. But at last her hands came sliding free of the restraints.
She heard footsteps approaching from outside the room, hard-soled shoes on stone and stuck her freed hands behind her back as if she was still bound. She tried to sit still and calm her breathing so as not to show signs of her recent exertion.
A lab worker she did not recognize entered holding a leather case of some kind. He made brief eye contact with her from behind clear plastic safety goggles, then walked behind Fabi toward a counter. She heard him unzip the case, followed by the clatter of unknown instruments on the counter. He spoke soon after that.
“I’m going to administer you something that should make you feel more comfortable, more relaxed and open to discussion. It won’t hurt a bit.”
Fabi heard the man step back toward her chair. She prayed he wouldn’t notice her unbound hand but a second later he was leaning over in front of her, eyeing a bare spot on her right arm.
“What do you think you’re doing? What is that? I don’t want it!”
He held up an alcohol swab in one hand, lowering the syringe a bit in the other. “Now, now. Just relax. Here you go.” The lab tech bent down to administer the shot and sprang into motion. The tech reared up as the arm he was about to shoot moved, but he was far too late.
She grabbed him by his curly mop of hair, yanked his head down, and drove her knee up to meet him. He slumped to the ground, stunned by the blow. He began to groan, and she kicked him in the temple, hard, but not hard enough to be lethal, and he fell silent.
“I guess they forgot to tell you some girls know how to fight.”
Fabi stripped him of his lab coat and donned it. She figured it might distract some people for a few seconds, at least, and sometimes that was all she needed. She looked around the room briefly to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon, but saw nothing and hurried on. She had to find Cassandra. Where was she now?
Fabi slipped into the next room, where half a dozen people lay strapped to beds, each receiving intravenous treatment of some sort. A couple of them looked at her with glassy eyes but the rest were sleeping or heavily medicated. Another thought she didn’t have time for flashed through her mind — what was Dr. Avila doing here with these people? They didn’t appear to be regular patients. Many of the more common machines were missing altogether, although there was no shortage of equipment in general; it was just that most of it was unidentifiable to Fabi.
She hurried through this eerie space to a closed door at the end of the room. She reached out to open it and then felt someone grab her from behind. Instinctively, she snapped her head back, cracking her unseen assailant across the bridge of the nose. She heard a cry of pain and shook the man off. Whirling around to finish the job, Fabi was instantly deflated to find herself facing, in addition to her attacker, an armed guard with a pistol aimed at her chest… and Avila himself.
The physician’s expression was stern as he stared down Fabi while her bloody-faced attacker backed away from her with a hateful glare. Avila wagged his head side to side while making clucking noises.
“Fabiola… I am growing impatient by the minute. If you continue to refuse cooperation, you leave me no choice but to take more rigorous measures, measures that you will not find palatable in the least, I can assure you.” Having slunk back to the corner, the guard who had attacked Fabi licked his lips.
Fabi ignored him and focused on Avila. “I’ve been extensively trained to resist torture, Dr. Avila.” She put on a brave front but her insides threatened to turn to water at the thought.
Avila smiled and turned to his armed guard. “Enough nonsense. Take that lab coat off her and then bring her back to her bed. I think it's time we used the formula.”
Chapter 36
Maddock, Bones and Willis dashed through the jungle, chased by the shrieks and howls of the troop of primates in hot pursuit. Willis looked over at Maddock and patted the pistol he wore in a shoulder holster. “Why don’t we just pop a cap in a couple of these things? The rest of them will get the message and leave.”
Maddock jumped over a tree root and kept going. “We don’t want to let Avila’s men know we’re here.” He slowed to duck beneath a low-hanging branch. “And armed.”
Looking back, Maddock could see the monkeys were easily gaining on them. A confrontation was inevitable. The SEAL-turned-treasure hunter drew his dive knife. “We’ll have to do this old-school. Stand your ground.”
Maddock stopped with his back to the trunk of a large tree and faced the oncoming assemblage of primates. Willis and Bones also unsheathed their blades and prepared to fight. The prospect of facing down about a dozen animals roughly the same size as they were, but with body mass consisting mostly of pure muscle, was a daunting one.
Maddock hoped the humans’ intelligence and use of tools — the knives — would be sufficient advantage. He knew they could go to their pistols as a last resort, but giving their position away would compromise the extraction mission. He reminded himself as he always had on these types of missions that a person waited somewhere close by, probably in dire circumstances, counting on him to get them out.
Then the monkeys reached them, and a full-scale melee erupted in the jungle. Sharp nails scored Maddock’s flesh. Strong hands sought to gouge his eyes. Dark fur and white teeth flashed before him as he fought. Mad, bestial shrieks drowned out all other sound, save for a few choice curses from Bones. This is crazy, Maddock thought as he slashed with his blade and another attacker fell.
It was grisly work, but the blades made all the difference. The crazed monkeys kept coming, drone-like in their single-mindedness, until the last lay on the ground.
Maddock and the others had suffered a few cuts and large bruises, but thankfully no bites. He didn't know if whatever had turned the primates into automatons could be transferred, and he didn't want to find out. Willis removed his boot from beneath the carcass of a dead monkey and shook his head slowly. “I hate that we were forced to do this.”
Maddock nodded in agreement. “Avila did this. I’m sure of it.”
“Me too.” Bones holstered his knife. “In that email Fabi sent, she mentioned something about Avila’s weird experiments in that clinic.”
Willis looked up from the pile of monkeys. “All that only makes me want to get at this Dr. Avila guy even more.”
“So let’s do it.” Bones walked toward the edge of the small clearing in which they had battled the monkeys. With a last glance at the fallen primates, Maddock and Willis followed him deeper into the island forest.
The foliage grew thicker as they penetrated further into the island’s interior, and it grew increasingly difficult to move steadily and silently. All the while they were looking over their shoulders for new threats. Finally, light appeared up ahead and they saw a clearing. Maddock and Willis crouched behind a stand of banana palms and they discovered they now faced a different threat; an even deadlier one.