The giant cave bear’s claws missed Anya’s head by mere inches. The blow was so close that it cut clean a long lock of her black hair. She cursed in Romanian and then in Hebrew as she scrambled backward on her behind just as the branches covering the small crevice came crashing in upon all of them. The enormous but blunted snout of the brown and black fur–covered behemoth roared as it leaned in to swipe at the branches covering its intended targets. The young and wounded Russian managed to slide by Sarah and Virginia and partially raise his weapon up and through the large leaves of their cover. That was a major mistake as it acted like a marker for the monstrosity fighting to get in. The boy screamed as the beast moved like lightning and took the man’s hand, but instead of biting through the light meat, sinew, and bone of the man’s wrist, the bear pulled the Russian up and out of the collapsed enclosure. Sarah and Virginia tried for his flying feet but missed.
The man screamed as he was thrown through the air to crash into other trees. The bear turned to move toward the easy meal.
Before anyone realized it, something had drowned out the roars of the enraged bear. Gunshots sounded outside and then their hopes soared as they realized that the colonel and his team had found them, or at the very least that bastard mobster had returned with Ryan and Mendenhall. Three more shots were fired and the roaring animal vanished from the enclosure. Sarah, Virginia, and Anya scrambled to push the debris of the shelter away as they struggled to take advantage of the brief respite. McIntire was the first one to break through and it was like a drowning swimmer breaching the surface for some much-needed air, only this particular sensation was brought on by fear. Anya popped up next to her and then Virginia with a halo of leaves garnishing her brown hair.
The animal screamed again and they saw the beast as it charged something that was blocked from view.
“Why aren’t they still shooting it?” Anya yelled over the din of the charging cave bear.
That was when they saw a fur-covered form break cover and dodge the charging giant. The man-shape moved quickly and took up station just to the animal’s exposed left flank as the beast crashed into the undergrowth where their savior had been in cover. Then they were amazed when the fur-covered figure fired a large arrow into the confused bear. Then another arrow was quickly nocked and fired without hesitation. Then the figure was again on the move just as the enraged animal turned to confront its attacker. The dark figure moved fast and before the women knew it the attacker had launched two more arrows at the bear.
“What in the hell is that asshole doing?” Sarah asked as she fought further to free herself from the roof of the enclosure. “Arrows?”
The bear had had enough. The giant roared one more time at the pesky animals that had thwarted its meal. The cave bear rose once on its hind legs and then screamed its outrage. It flopped onto all fours and vanished into the thick growth.
Sarah finally managed to free herself totally and then helped Anya and Virginia. They turned, and with their hearts still threatening to beat right out of their chests, they saw the fur-covered hunter move quickly toward the downed Russian. The man’s pulse was checked and the person or whatever it was lowered his head. Then their new company looked up toward them. There was no movement for the first few seconds as they waited to see who or what had come to their rescue. Finally, without rising from his crouched position, a gloved hand was raised and the fur hood was removed.
Even at the distance Anya saw who it was and her heart froze. Sarah and Virginia laughed aloud and even clapped their hands as the blond man finally rose. The beard was thick but even from that distance they saw the man’s eyes and there was no mistaking Admiral Carl Everett. He slid the large bow over his shoulder and smiled. Yes, it was Mr. Everett, and Sarah felt the tears come to her eyes as Anya ran forward. Virginia placed a hand on Sarah’s shoulder and they took in a reunion that had never been dreamed of until Moira Mendelsohn had been discovered. She jumped the last four feet and flew into his fur-covered arms. Carl took her in, fearing his own voice would fail him. As it turned out he didn’t need his voice at all.
Sarah looked at Virginia and saw that the older woman was crying. For Sarah it was a rerun of her reunion with Jack during the Leviathan mission … she knew the joy. Sarah’s smile said it all.
“We beat the damn odds, didn’t we?” she said as she watched Carl Everett embrace Anya for the first time since his once-upon-a-time death.
Before the embrace and the joy faded, the odds had shifted again for the worst as Mount Erebus rumbled and belched burning-red boulders from her caldera, and this time she and her sister world-killers didn’t stop.
* * *
The radio coming to life made Jack cringe. He hurriedly pulled it from its holder and lowered the volume. The noise in the silent jungle was not conducive to avoiding some of the pitfalls he and Farbeaux were made aware of by the screams of cats and other species that seemed to want to eat everything they came across. Collins could see that Henri was coming a little unglued, and he had to admit to himself that he was faring no better. You could only search in a scary place for so long before you start to hear monsters behind every bush you see.
“Collins,” he said into the radio as he hurriedly tempered his angry response, after all it wasn’t the master chief’s fault he had left his volume up like a rookie.
“Colonel, we have a serious problem,” Jenks said from five miles distant. “It seems we have an assorted selection of wildlife heading straight for us, and they have some disturbing company herding them. Doc says that they are migrating toward Erebus while the rest of the wild kingdom is heading the other way away from the volcano. The group heading our way is being herded by our feathered friends, over.”
“Our raging peacocks again?” he asked as Henri stopped beside him with an open bottle of water from his pack. Collins shook his head and then waited.
“Oh, yeah. The smart little bastards are keeping a massive migrating herd of bison and some damn big, ugly elephants.” Jack and Henri heard Charlie Ellenshaw’s complaint in the background that they were called mammoths before he was cut off.
“How long?” he asked as the exasperation and hopelessness of the situation was starting to wear on him.
“Doc says they’re traveling leisurely, but even if they stop at Denny’s we’re lookin’ at no more than twenty-four hours until they amble right over us and the doorway. Over.”
“Master Chief, do you see any indication of where these raptors may be clustering? Maybe they have a nest or something.”
It dawned on Jenks and Charlie at the same moment they heard Jack’s question.
“No, but I see what you’re getting at. Any leadership cast or whatever social, or pecking order”—they heard the master chief laugh if only briefly—“that may be where they stashed our little coupling.”
“My train of thought exactly.”
“Okay, we have our orders, we’ll use both drones and see what we can see. Any luck finding out who the assholes were that started the fires?”
“Negative, there wasn’t that much left to view.”
“I see, Jenks out.”
Jack lowered the radio and looked at Farbeaux, who had recapped the water and then wiped his brow. He looked from Collins toward the setting sun.
“The winds are bound to shift again and bring that damnable ash cloud back. Are you sure you want to use both drones to search for the coupling? Without at least one we’ll have a hard time tracking our new team members, whoever they may be.”
Collins knew not dividing up his two remotes limited his chances of finding Sarah and whoever else was sent through the doorway and into this hellhole of a continent, not to mention the fact that recovering Carl had become a distant part of the mission.
“You know who’s out there, don’t you?”
“Yes, I had my suspicions when you and I both saw the boot size that only one woman we both know wears. So, if you’re asking me if we should continue the search, yes, as a matter of fact, Colonel, I insist.” The Frenchman smiled, irritating Collins to no end.
“You want to take five?” Jack asked as a way of challenging Farbeaux. He returned the smile.
“No, but when I rescue young McIntire I fully expect for you to keep the word your president gave me when I fulfilled his recent, black request. I want to be free of you and your people for all time.” He smiled wider. “Or I’ll accept the offer of dear Sarah in return. Your choice.”
Jack started moving off without comment at Farbeaux’s desires. He then slowed to face the Frenchman. “The odds are that we’ll remain right here, Henri, so if we somehow manage to get out of here, and if I don’t kill you for any more remarks about Sarah, yes, when and if we get back you’re free to go.”
Farbeaux failed to see the humor in the comment as Collins laughed and then continued to follow the tracks in the fallen ash field. Then he realized it was so simple—if they got back.
“I truly despise you, Colonel.”
* * *
They were lucky to have only lost the one man. Doshnikov went to his knees after they had stopped running as did most of the others. Jason looked at Mendenhall as both men were not really winded but very much over-oxygenated. He shook his head at the captain.
“We have to ditch these assholes.”
“I agree, but in case you failed to notice, my backward navy friend, they have things they call guns. And we of course do not have said apparatus as per our usual circumstance.”
Before Jason could retort at his friend’s smart-ass observation they were joined by Doshnikov and two of his remaining men.
“If you think you can escape, by all means, I will not try to stop you.” The Russian looked around him nervously. “I don’t know where you fools have sent us, but this is not a very nice place.”
“If you only knew half of the places we’ve been, buster, you would crap yourself.”
Everyone looked at Mendenhall, who was deadly serious.
“Now, I’m sure you have an extra cap gun hidden away somewhere and me and my buddy are feeling a little exposed out here.”
“Listen,” Ryan said as he finally straightened from where he had his hands on his knees. He tilted his head as Will and the others fell silent when they saw he was trying to hear something. He tilted his head in the other direction. Then he froze, and before the Russians or a startled Mendenhall could say or do anything, Ryan started trotting away. The others hurriedly followed.
Doshnikov almost bumped into Ryan before he realized the American had stopped abruptly. He watched as Jason reached out and pulled some screening plants out of his way. The filthy Russian smiled and pushed past Ryan.
The river was fast flowing and blue as the gorgeous waters of the Caribbean. The smell of freshness after the dense jungle and forest was heavenly to Ryan. The others saw what he had smelled and pushed past him.
“Leave it to the navy to accidentally stumble onto water,” Will said as he slapped Jason on the back on his way past. Ryan smiled and followed. At least they wouldn’t die of thirst before some beast had their teeth-savvy way with them.
Ryan could see that the twisting river had worked its way down from the slopes surrounding Mount Erebus. He could even see fish as they jumped in the fast current. His smile vanished as he watched the Russians and Will drinking at the water’s edge. It looked as if they weren’t concerned about how potable this ancient waterway was, but of course he knew that the colonel’s team had all of the purification equipment and chemicals to make assurances of anything.
He started to join them when he saw that the river vanished over the small cliff in front of them. He was looking at a waterfall. He advanced slowly and was still wary of the animal life that he knew also used the waters to drink from. He eased slowly to the edge and then his mouth fell open when he saw where the river vanished to.
“Holy shit.”
When Will finally joined him with Doshnikov close behind, they found the navy man sitting on the ash-covered grass overlooking the falls and the greenest valley they had ever seen not far below. Mendenhall was about to say something when Ryan pointed to the valley and they saw what had stunned Ryan and sent him to the seat of his pants.
“If you have not lied about what time frame this is supposed to be, and if every schoolmaster in my life were not the most wonderful of liars about history, maybe you could tell me what in the hell that is doing here?” Doshnikov asked as his mouth dried up even after the thirst-quenching trip to the river.
Below, entangled in vine and undergrowth, was the remains of a wooden stockade. They could even make out the remains of watch towers at each corner and at the centerline of each fence. The jungle and forest had taken over the wooden structure and they could clearly see that it was deserted from their high vantage point. Inside the rectangle of stockade they saw deteriorating huts and other makeshift buildings. They saw sally ports along the high walls.
“You know what that looks like?” Mendenhall asked as he slowly looked at Ryan.
“Even I know what this is, and I didn’t go to school in America.” The Russian brushed past Will and examined the fort below.
Ryan stood and joined the others. He looked down at a sight they had no right to see in this distant epoch.
The Roman-style encampment was complete with a dried-up moat surrounding it. It looked to have been abandoned for a century at least.
Will laughed aloud and then turned to face the others in their lost band of idiots.
“This is going to throw a major kink into a lot of brilliant minds back home.”
Mount Erebus exploded as an exclamation point to the most bizarre discovery of that very long and trying day.
* * *
Carl smelled atrocious and as Sarah finally pulled back from her hugs and kisses so Virginia could get her shots in, she turned to face an exuberant Anya Korvesky. They hugged.
“I won’t even ask how,” Carl said as he held Virginia at arm’s length after her battery of welcoming hugs and kisses on his bearded cheek.
Everett allowed Virginia to move away as he reached for the dark-haired Gypsy woman and took her in his arms again. Finally it was Anya who couldn’t take it any longer. She pulled back from Carl and held her nose.
“I tried to be a stand-up trouper, but my God that cologne!” she said as she laughed as did the others who had been too polite to point out the fact that the admiral smelled so sickening that it was hard not to gag on the stench.
Everett acted as if he were hurt for the briefest of seconds, and then he broke out laughing also. He removed the longbow and the quiver of five arrows from his back and then pulled the bear coat off of his large frame. He tossed an empty shortened version of an AK-47 away as he did.
“Sorry, but to get around out here you have to smell like something bigger and badder than anything else—I find saber-tooth lion pee-pee the best.” He laughed as the women recoiled in horror.
Sarah saw the nine millimeter strapped to Everett’s filthy and ragged flight suit. The suit had once been white with red trim, but was now unrecognizable with the exception of the small American flag on his left sleeve and the Overlord mission patch on his chest.
“I guess saving us was worth only six shots? I take it you wanted to practice your Robin Hood thing?” Sarah joked with her right brow raised.
Everett smiled and then removed the Glock from its holster. He tossed it to Sarah. “My last bullets were fired over a month ago. I was lucky to come across a rather gruesome scene a few miles back and found that.” He kicked at the empty AK-47 at his feet. “It only had what you heard in the magazine. After that I had to use my superior mountain-man skills.”
“How long have you been living like this?” Virginia asked as once again Anya was on Carl like a lost puppy.
“A thousand rounds of ammunition were gone within three days. The damn raptors took my MREs the second day, and those damn condors flew off with my enclosure with me in it on the third. That was a close one, I can tell you.”
Sarah lowered her head and then swiped a tear from her eye just thinking what this man had to have endured in the six months he had been here.
“Okay, you’ve kept me in suspense long enough. Where’s Jack and those two low-ranking idiots I call friends and colleagues?”
Anya pulled back from Carl and then looked at him closely. “We haven’t seen the first team since we arrived. We don’t even know if they made it. Jack, Master Chief Jenks, Charlie, and Colonel Farbeaux—we can only hope they’re still alive.”
“Team? Then just what in the hell are you guys, then?”
“We’re an accident thanks to some outside Russian mob interference. They’re the ones who brought that.” She indicated the automatic rifle. “And as a real kicker that’s exactly who is holding your two low-ranking friends at the moment.”
“I’m not following one little bit.” He turned to Virginia and Sarah, who tossed the empty nine millimeter back to Everett.
“Longer story than the first,” was Sarah’s answer. “Right now we have to get Jason and Will back.”
Carl looked around and then leaned down and retrieved the stinky bear coat from the ashes covering the ground. He looked toward the erupting Erebus and shook his head. “Not now, the sun’s getting ready to go down and we can’t chance getting caught out here with only one bow and five arrows for artillery.” He looked at Anya and kissed her on the lips, his red-tinted beard itching her nose. “Unless you have a rocket launcher under that blouse?” Anya blushed like a schoolgirl and then looked embarrassingly at the two knowing women. “No, no rocket launcher? Then I have a place we can hang our coats until daybreak.”
“Where is that?” Virginia asked as she stepped into the small line of retreat from the forest primeval.
“This time it’s you who won’t believe it,” he said as he eased his found charges off into the jungle and the river that flowed not far away.
As the world around them started to come alive with the terrors of the night, Erebus belched smoke and flame and then settled into an uneasy slumber.
BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
Niles Compton limped toward the phone that was held out by Alice Hamilton. He set his demeanor to one of defensive confrontation as he took the receiver. Alice nodded, knowing he had to be firm.
“Mr. President?”
“What in the hell is going on in Brooklyn, Baldy?”
“No ‘Niles,’ no ‘hello,’ not even a ‘how are you doing, my very good friend’?”
“Do not, I repeat, do not act like it’s just a coincidence that a possible terrorist action in Brooklyn happens the same day you find it necessary to raid the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And also at the same exact time you seem to have been avoiding my damn calls. Your commander-in-chief! Now what gives, Niles? I have agencies screaming from here to the Potomac about some mysterious group of people running amok in New York. I can’t cover for you if you don’t keep me up to date. The hundred hours is nearly up.”
“Jim, you agreed to a one-hundred-hour window before we report oversight. We have forty of those hours remaining. If I told you that we had nothing to do with the terrorist action at the Barclays Center, will you stick to our agreement?”
“Don’t you dare hold me over a barrel, I am not one of those schoolkids you have at Group. I happen to be the President of the United States, who is right now getting ready to send the Marines over there and shut you down, among other things. This is getting messy, Niles. How am I going to explain the terrorist action in Brooklyn?”
Niles remained silent as the president, his friend, the best man at his wedding, exploded when he realized Niles was protecting his office over his express orders to keep him in the loop.
“Do we still have our time?”
The quiet on the other end of the phone was telling. Niles felt the sheer heat coming from his friend’s anger at what was possibly going on. He knew as long as the president had full deniability he would be protected.
“Jim, the terrorist action weren’t terrorists at all. It was the Russian mob and thanks to them you have a culprit. Allow the FBI to do their job and that should give us the time we need to complete our mission.”
“Niles, tell me the truth: Are you making headway in bringing Mr. Everett back home?”
“Very much so. Enough progress to say that we should be finished within your time frame.”
“Okay,” came the voice at the other end of the line. “I can cover my ass on this end, but no more buildings are to be blown to hell. I have the press screaming bloody murder.
“Niles, where is my submarine?”
Well, that did that. So much for hoping the president had suddenly ceased being smart. He looked over at Alice, who was listening to the speaker phone across the room. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
“Uh, yes, the Los Angeles. Assistant Director Pollock needed an alternate power source since the explosion and subsequent police response two days ago. She was close by in Groton so I made a few calls. That is in my new directives, along with the proposed allotted oversight time frame.”
“Do not quote to me the very policy that I wrote, damn it!”
“Do we have the time?”
“Of course you still have the time. Congressional oversight can only crucify me once.”
The line went dead. Niles looked at the phone and then sat heavily into a chair. Alice stood and slowly walked over and removed the receiver from his hand and placed it in its cradle.
“It won’t be the first time a president has yelled at the director of this department, I can assure you of that, Niles.”
He half smiled and then shook his head. “I hate placing my best friend in this situation.”
“It’s a situation he agreed to. After all, Niles, Carl is one of his men as well as yours.”
“We may not have a mission anymore, and may have also lost even more personnel and friends than just Carl. We may have single-handedly sunk a hundred years of departmental history. The Group may not survive this if the president is caught lying to his own agencies. I’ve placed my best friend in an impossible situation.”
Alice patted his arm and then turned on the monitor to check in with Xavier Morales. She turned just as the computer center back at Nellis came into focus.
“If we can get back our people, who gives a damn in the end? The president is still the head of this agency and one of us.”
Niles Compton smiled for the first time in two days as he realized that Alice had just refueled his desire to get his men and women back in one piece and save the president the indignity of having to explain something he had little to do with. He knew his friend would go down, just like the presidents before him, in safeguarding the secret that is the Event Group.
“Xavier, let’s start working to get our people home.”
On the screen Morales was there with his many computer techs.
“Yes, sir, we are assuming that they are alive and have been working to get the return doorway operational. We are beginning the signal now and will continue until we get an answer.”
Niles looked at the clock on the wall and then shook his head.
The director had a bad feeling that the clock here was not the only one running down as his thoughts quickly went to the threat of Mount Erebus and her murderous sisters.