Despite Francis’s foresight, there were no immediate answers to whatever had been nagging Derek.
Sadly, they didn’t have a great deal of time to mull it over. Mitchell requested a printout of the screen capture so they could look it over again when they had a few moments to spare. However, daylight was burning and they needed to get out into the woods.
It was agreed that Eric and two of his men would come along. So as to avoid any further issues, Derek agreed to let them ride in the team’s SUVs. However, once in Shilough, the security director and his people would remain with the vehicles while Derek’s team rode into the woods and set up their base camp, keeping in touch via long range walkie-talkies.
The drive to Shilough was slow going at first, but once they got off Route 206, traffic lightened considerably. Though they hadn’t seen too many people during their first visit to the small town, that didn’t mean they hadn’t been noticed. As a result, just to be on the safe side, Derek ordered their vehicles stopped and the ATVs unloaded before they reached the town proper. There was no point in attracting more attention than their two hulking black SUVs already would. He just had to hope that Eric would behave himself and not do anything that would cause a scene.
There wasn’t much he could do about that once they were off on the hunt, though, assuming it even was a hunt. Derek still wasn’t convinced they would find anything more interesting than mud and trees by the end of the night.
Mitchell gave a quick call back to the lab, confirmed with Arthur that the results from their samples were still pending, then they loaded up and headed out.
They backtracked about a quarter of a mile until they found the turn-off for Swamp Forge Road. They followed it for another mile before coming upon a small trail that their GPS told them matched the one that the AEP team had followed while searching for John and Sophie Guiterrez.
The difference now, though, was that the majority of their gear was far less friendly to any rogue creatures that happened to cross their paths.
Once the forest and surrounding bog land began to get too thick for even the ATVs, Derek ordered his team to look for a suitable clearing. Roughly an hour later, they finished setting up their gear, including trail cams and trip-wired sensors that would serve as an early warning should anything breach their perimeter.
Camp set, guns loaded, and radios checked, the group set out into the ever-darkening woods. The hunt was on.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Anything?” Derek asked, although from his tone, it was obvious what he expected the answer to be.
“Pretty sure it’s a bear. Small one at that,” Danni said, examining the tracks in the mud. “Half-grown cub probably.”
“Oh no, not that,” Francis replied with mock horror.
Mitchell let out a laugh. “Dickhead.”
Francis turned to him and held out his arms. “Hold me.”
“All right, calm down,” Derek said. “If there actually is anything out there, we’re going to send it running for the hills with all the noise we’re making.”
“If,” Danni echoed.
“We all knew what we were signing up for.”
She nodded and continued to lead the way slowly forward.
“Anything on the thermal, Mitch?”
“I think I might see a few squirrels.”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
It was nearing midnight. The group had been covering an ever-widening circle from the spot where John and Sophie Guiterrez had supposedly disappeared. Unfortunately, they’d found precious little so far that was out of the ordinary.
There was no doubt the woods were very active. They found signs and spoor from multiple species, just no monsters. Derek tried reassuring the group that the trail was simply cold and that they needed to put in their due diligence regardless, but discipline had been waning the last hour or so. They were wet and muddy, and their mood wasn’t helped by Eric Zeist’s constant interruptions, demanding continual progress updates as if that would make their search go faster.
Finally, Derek had initiated radio silence, telling Eric that they had maybe spotted something interesting and were going to investigate.
It had bought them a small period of peace, but the damage was done. His team was already debating where they should grab breakfast rather than staying focused. Even he had to admit that keeping them on task was more out of habit than any sense of urgency. He felt bad for Julia, but more and more began to wonder if perhaps some other, more easily explained, accident had befallen her sister and brother-in-law. “Hey, Mitch.”
“Yeah?”
“What do you think about asking whether we can get a look at John Guiterrez’s remains?”
“You thinking what I am? Maybe we can figure out what happened to him without traipsing around in these woods until the good governor decides he’s had enough of us?”
“Pretty much.”
“They might already have a coroner’s report that we can look at.”
“Good idea. Assuming, that is, Yarlberg didn’t force them to list the cause of death as old age.” Mitchell chuckled softly, then Derek added, “Okay, sounds like maybe we finally have a task for our friends back in Shilough.”
Derek slid his earpiece in and activated the radio by his side. “Eric, are you there? This is Derek, over.”
Silence greeted him.
“Asshole probably fell asleep,” Danni said, standing up from where she’d been checking some more tracks.
“Eric are you there? Over,” Derek repeated, wondering whether Danni was right. If so, he wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or ticked off.
“Bob Hernandez here,” one of Zeist’s men answered.
“Where’s Eric?”
“He’s taking a piss.”
“Thanks for the info. When he finishes, please have him radio me.”
“Will do. Out.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Francis said. “Time to water the bushes.” He shouldered his rifle and stepped off into the trees.
“Watch your footing,” Derek called after him. “I don’t want to have to pull your ass out of a bog.” He heard a chuffing sound from somewhere behind him. “Gesundheit.”
“Huh?” Mitchell asked.
Just then, the radio squawked to life in Derek’s ear. “Zeist here. Did you find anything?”
Derek turned off his earpiece and lifted up the radio so Mitchell could listen in. “Not yet.”
“Then why...?”
“A request,” Derek interrupted. “We need access to John Guiterrez’s body, or at least the medical report.”
“John who?” Eric asked, sounding perturbed.
“The empathy on that one is astounding,” Mitchell whispered.
Derek waved him silent, then explained, “He’s that AEP worker who went missing. The one that Donald Krychech’s men found.”
“Oh, the stiff?”
Derek and Mitchell shared a glance, and then he replied through gritted teeth, “Yes, the man who was found.”
“I don’t think there is one.”
“What?”
“A report, I mean. The governor ordered his remains cremated. I can ask, but I haven’t heard of any...”
Derek switched off the radio. “Son of a bitch!”
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Mitchell said. “How the fuck can he do that to this poor guy’s family?”
Derek didn’t try to disguise the disgust in his voice. “Wasn’t there a paper published a while back that said sociopaths tended to gravitate toward positions of power, like politics?”
“If there wasn’t, there should be.”
Derek double-checked to make sure the radio was off, then said, “That reporter from yesterday, remember her?”
“The one who tracked you guys down?”
“Yeah. Turns out she’s Guiterrez’s sister-in-law. Guess who I think is going to get an anonymous tip when this is all over?”
Mitchell smiled. “It won’t be about environmental damage, so I think we’re free and clear there.” He turned his head. “What do you think of all this shit, Dan...?” Before she could reply, he reached into his pocket. “Hold on, getting a call.” He pulled out his cell phone and answered it. After a moment, he said to the others, “It’s Arthur, back at the lab.”
“What’s up?”
“Hold on, I’m trying to find out.” Mitchell returned his attention to the phone. “What’s that? I couldn’t hear you. Say it...” He pulled the phone away and looked down at the screen. “Damnit.”
A few moments later, it began to vibrate again. Mitchell once more answered. “Hey, can you hear me? I’ll call you back. I said, I’ll call you back. I’m getting no...” Finally, he pocketed the device. “I lost him. No bars.”
Derek looked around at the trees with mock concern on his face. “Mind blower, isn’t it?”
“Very funny.”
“So what’s going on?” Danni asked, rising from some broken branches she’d been inspecting.
Derek was proud at how seriously she took her job, even if whatever she’d been examining probably wasn’t a lead worth pursuing.
“Results are in at the lab, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” Mitchell replied, before turning to Derek. “How long do you think we’re going to be out here playing hide and go seek?”
Derek looked at his watch. “Too early to call it a night, at least without having Yarlberg crawl up our asses about it.”
“Okay. Why don’t I head back to camp and take one of the ATVs to Shilough? I should be able to get a signal there, see if our sample was anything other than a blob of bear puke.”
Derek considered this. He didn’t like splitting up the group during a hunt, but so far this night had been a bust. They hadn’t seen anything more threatening than a chipmunk. “We could radio Eric, have him call Arthur.”
“Do you really want those goose-steppers to be the first ones to get their hands on anything? Especially if it’s something important?”
“Good point.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Mitchell added, “I’ll be fine.”
After a moment, Derek replied, “Okay. Just keep your radio on and your eyes peeled.”
“Trust me. I don’t want to have to hear about it from Frank for the rest of my life.” Mitchell checked their position, got his bearings, then unshouldered his rifle and walked off.
“Radio in when you get there and let us know what you learn,” Derek called after him.
“Got it!” Mitchell replied back, before disappearing from sight.
♦ ♦ ♦
Derek’s radio beeped about an hour later. It was Mitchell, letting them know he’d made it out of the woods and back to Shilough.
“Any issues?”
“None on the trip itself. Although the company out here could be a bit better.”
“You know, I can hear you, right?” Eric’s voice cut in over the radio.
Derek let out a laugh, then said, “Let us know what you find out. Over.”
“Can’t say I envy him,” Francis said. “I think I’d sooner be out here with the boogeyman.”
“I know what you mean. Let’s catch up to Danni.”
They didn’t have to go far. She was maybe twenty yards ahead, busy studying something on the ground.
“Find anything?”
“Huh?” she asked, hunched over.
Derek walked closer. “What have you got there?”
“I think these are footprints, but it’s kind of weird.”
“From what?”
“That’s the problem. I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it’s pretty messed up.” She pointed to a large print in the mud that was more defined than the others. “See this? That looks like a fairly well-defined toe. But then here, that’s a claw mark. And this bump here, maybe an old break.”
“Or a deformity,” Derek said.
“Maybe. Whatever it is, it’s big and heavy. Look how far down that print goes. I’d say two-fifty, probably closer to three-hundred.”
Francis joined them in peering down at the strange tracks. “It’s on the low end, but still within squatch range. Juvenile, maybe? Could’ve had something wrong with it and was driven out of the clan.”
“Not usually their style,” Derek said.
Danni pointed to other parts of the print. “I don’t think so. Look at this indentation in the back. Could be a dew claw. Never seen a bigfoot with one of those, deformity or not.”
Derek leaned over and studied it as well. She was right. It did look like a dew claw, but more reptilian than anything. The rear of the foot was similar to the prints of a megalania, a giant monitor lizard thought to be extinct. They’d tracked one in New Zealand about three years back, but this print was far smaller. Definitely not a twenty foot dinosaur throwback. It was as if this print was cobbled together from different unrelated species ... which probably meant it was. “A fake?”
Danni stood up and wiped her hands on the seat of her jeans. “Could be. I mean, the way the ground is depressed looks like this came from a real foot, but then there’s the shape. If it is a fake, then whoever carved this was either really good at what they do or really lousy.”
“Oh, man!”
Derek and Danni turned toward Francis, but the big man didn’t appear to be in any danger.
“Sorry, guys. Leaned against a tree and put my hand in something nasty.”
“It’s a bog,” Danni replied. “Pretty much everything here is nasty.”
“You’re telling me.”
Derek started to laugh, but was interrupted by the sound of his radio beeping.
He motioned the others over and raised the volume so they could listen. “Derek here. Tell me you got something, Mitch. Over.”
“Something is an apt description.”
“Come again?”
“I called Arthur. The results were in. I had him read them to me over the phone. Then I had him read them again.”
“I take it they were interesting.”
“That’s just it,” Mitchell replied over the radio. “I’m not really sure what to make of it. I asked him to rerun the sequence to make sure it’s not a glitch.”
“What did they come back with?”
“Human,” Mitchell replied.
The three hunters shared a glance, as if they’d suspected all along.
“Kinda, anyway.”
“Wait, hold on,” Derek said. “Define ‘kinda.’”
“That’s exactly it. Normally I’d expect high eighties or nineties, even with a contaminated sample. This came back as a sixty-three percent match with Homo sapiens.”
“That’s not very high at all.”
“No, it’s not. Problem is, the rest of the results are all over the map, and that’s not even including the non-organic material in the sample.”
“Non-organic?” Francis asked. “So what you’re saying is the samples were fucked.”
“Maybe.” Derek could hear the frustration in Mitchell’s voice. “I don’t know. From what Arthur read to me, it sounds more degraded than contaminated, which doesn’t make sense either. When you guys are finished chasing ghosts out there, I need to get back to the lab and read it myself.”
“Not so sure about ghosts. Danni found some prints.”
“From what?”
“Hate to throw this one back at you, Mitch, but we’re not sure. They’re either faked or whatever made them is some god-awful mess that I don’t even want to imagine.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Start wrapping up on your end. We’ll head back, regroup, and double check those results. If it looks even remotely possible that we’re dealing with human DNA, then I think we hand this off to the cops where it belongs.”
“Roger that.”
“We’ll see you in a while. Over.”
“So we’re calling this turd hunt?” Francis asked.
“Yeah. I’m not seeing much reason to do otherwise. It’s a shit show out here. Let’s head in before we end up covered in leeches or something.”
“What about those prints?” Danni asked. “There’s one other thing we haven’t considered about them.”
“What?”
“If they are fake, then why bother making them all the way out here where nobody is likely to see them?”
Derek had to admit that was a good question, but he didn’t have a good answer to go along with it ... at least not yet. Still, she was right. In their line of work, one didn’t so easily dismiss potential evidence, even if later it turned out to be faker than a three-dollar bill. “Take casts of the best. We’ll take a look at them in the lab. Maybe in better light something will stand out.”
Danni nodded. “On it.”
She turned back toward the prints, while Francis took off his pack and began rooting inside of it. He knew the big man would be fishing out his handheld camera so as to get some footage on the way in. That way the journey wouldn’t be a complete loss.
He was about to turn away to ask Danni if she needed any help when he heard Francis zip up his pack, loud in the quiet woods.
Too loud.
It took Derek a moment, but then he realized the forest had gone completely silent around them.