Dominant Species Volume Three -- Acquired Traits (12 page)

“We will
pray now,” Patel said solemnly, lowering his head and closing his eyes. “Mister
Lavachek will say the prayer for us, please.”

His eyes
as big as saucers, Lavachek, in mid-chew, looked at Habershaw. To Habershaw’s
knowledge, Greg Lavachek had never said a prayer of any kind one could repeat
in mixed company in his entire life.

“Uh . .
.” Lavachek began.

Habershaw
nodded furiously for him to say something, then silently mouthed the word, “Any
. . . thing . . .”

“Uh . .
.”

Habershaw
clenched his teeth at him.

“Uh . . .
thank you, God, for the food that Mr. Patel is going to eat. Thank you for the
food that me and Bill are already eating, and thanks for the spectacular view,
too. Thanks.”

When
Patel’s head came up, he gave no hint of what he thought of the prayer, if
anything.

“And
thank you,” Lavachek continued, as Patel’s head went back down, "for this
beautiful planet and for the opportunity to live on it. Thank you for the sun
that warms us in the morning and for all the bugs at night, even though some of
us don’t think much of them, they are a part of nature. Thanks for this rig
here which will let us make Mr. Patel’s road so we can all live by the ocean
where it’s probably cooler and not as buggy. Thank you for The Council and The
Sacred Bond of the Fervent Alliance to tell us what to do.”

Patel’s
head came up.

“And
thank you"—Patel’s head went back down—"for the medical team that
treats Bill and me each week for the infections we get from the things that
live on the rig. We’d be dead now if not for them. Thank you, and so long.”

Patel
waited a while before coming up this time to make sure Lavachek was finished.

“What
infections are these then?” he asked.

“Oh,”
Habershaw said. “There’s . . . uh . . . a kind of bug that’s attracted to the
rig somehow. They live under things—underneath things in the shade, like under
this handrail.
 
They like the cool metal;
that's what I think. Lavachek thinks it’s the paint or the plastic. We run into
them all the time. Here look at this . . .”

Habershaw
stood up and dropped his pants. Patel was taken aback until Lavachek pointed to
the scar from the parasite on the back of Habershaw’s upper thigh.

“See
that. That’s where one was,” Lavachek said. “He got that one sitting on the
toilet in broad daylight. That’s the one that squirted that yellow juice into
you, ain’t it?”

“It was
either that one or this one here,” Habershaw said, feeling at a spot under his
underwear near his groin. “It hurt like hell, too. It took ‘em three hours to
get it off.”

“Yes, it
looks like it would have been very painful,” Patel said, looking around rather
nervously.

“They’re
all over the place,” Lavachek said. “You can’t hardly see ‘em until they jump
on your ass. Excuse my language, sir.”
 

“I see.
Well, then,” Patel said. “Mister Lavachek has thanked God for this food, so we
should eat it.”

While
they ate, Habershaw and Lavachek went on and on with bullshit about the bugs on
the rig and how nasty they were. Patel ate without saying a word.

When he was
finished, Patel gathered up his things, stood up and started down, trying not
to move too fast. “I wish to thank you for breaking bread with me,” he said.
“I’m sure the machine and yourselves are up to the job. My pilot is waiting
below, and I should be off. I’ll check in with you from time to time. Don’t
hesitate to let me know if I can help you.”

His last
words were spoken over his shoulder as he went down the first flight of
stairs.
 
Then he stopped and turned
around.

“And oh,
I should tell you that if the road is not completed within my timing frame, it
is in my power to have you arrested and detained, and doo have your pay downs
stopped as well,” he said through his white grin. “And you should be believing
me when I dell you that I will doo it.”

Habershaw
just stared blank faced for couple of seconds then said stiffly, “We’ll do our
very best!”

Still
grinning, Patel turned and continued down. Habershaw noticed that he kept his
hands off the handrails.

When he
was out of earshot, Habershaw and Lavachek looked at each other. Lavachek
frowned.

“Well, we
had that sonofabitch figured out,” he said, pursing his lips.

“Yep,”
Habershaw said soberly.
 
“We had that
sonofabitch figured out.”

“He’s not
the first one, is he Bill?”

“Nope.
Won’t be the last either.”

Later
that afternoon while they were prepping the rig, Lavachek turned to Habershaw
and said in Patel’s voice, “My bottom is as tough as yours, I assure you.”

They
chuckled.

6

H
is prayers were
answered at the end of ages, and when the pain vanished and the truth of his
blessedness was finally confirmed, God’s purpose remained. It shone bright and
pure like the light of a single, splendid star in the vast darkness. It shone
perfectly for him and only him. It was there as it had always been.

As the
jungle’s beautiful green hills rolled past, the sweet thoughts of God’s plan
unfolded, detail upon detail like the bloom of one of the jungle’s glorious
flowers. Within those folds were pleasures beyond pleasure, promised to him by
the Lord God one thousand years ago. For each moment of pain he had endured,
God had promised him ten of pleasure. God had shown him Hell. Heaven would soon
be his. Why else were the tools of creation left there for him but to create
heavenly pleasure?

But there
would be time enough for that. God’s plan, like the flower, had many petals.

This was
the new home of God’s chosen few. Better than Earth, this place was a sweet
ripe fruit, and its sweetness would feed the chosen, and they would grow and
grow. God had given him this place, all of it. He could use it as he saw fit;
he could change it to his purpose. God’s plan would be fulfilled through him.
He was God’s Agent, God’s Messenger and The Favored One. It could only be so.
Why else would God keep him alive for so long? Why else would God bring him to
this place if not to rule it as He had promised?

He looked
out the shuttle’s window at the distant clouds and saw flashes of bright light
within them. They looked as they had on Earth; dark and powerful. They were the
bearers of life—and often destruction. The shapes fascinated him. He wanted to
reach out and run his hands gently over them.

Fond and
distant memories of the shapes of clouds and of coming storms filled him.

“We’re
approaching the structure, Jacob,” one of the guards said. “Will you be
entering to witness the capture?”

“I’ll
follow behind you,” he said gently. “I don’t want to get in the way.”

They put
the shuttle down some distance from the structure in a patch of less-dense
bush, barely big enough to hold it. Jacob remained safely in the back where he
watched the half-dozen armed guards flow out close together, their mottled
uniforms making them look to him like one long organism.

“Don’t
hurt them,” he said gently to the leader. “I want them very much alive and
twitching.”

The door
closed with a hiss and a click. Jacob watched a small insect crawl up the thick
glass of the window. He tapped at it idly with a long and twisted finger.

* * *

Rachel
was thinking about bathing in the pool. Bathing in the pool was something she
really had to want to do before she would actually do it. She’d submerged
herself in the crystalline water many times without incident when they first
arrived. But once not long ago, she’d come out with a fat leech attached to her
butt. Since then, the idea had to work up to a real hedonistic craving before
she’d risk it. The leech was a relatively minor annoyance, but the ambiance of
the cool, clear pool had been largely ruined for her.

John had
thought it was funny.

Today,
the urge to strip and stand naked on this polished rock grew in her loins like
a sexual desire. She looked down into the calm water and could already feel its
wetness around her legs and breasts. She wanted to feel that coolness on her
skin when she plunged into it and to let it caress her entirely. Then she’d
climb out of the cool water like some slick and serpentine thing and warm
herself in the morning sun, leeches and all.

I must be ovulating,
she thought.

She
untied her boots, pulled them off and put them aside. Then she unzipped her
cottons, stepped out of them and kicked them onto a nearby limb. She undid her
bra, then started to strip out of her panties. She hesitated and thought about
leaving them on.

“Screw
it,” she said, then slid them down and stepped out of them.

The warm
sun kissed her smooth back and legs and made her take a long, deep breath. The
sweet scent of the jungle came to her as if for the first time.

She
stretched up in the warm sun with her arms up high, then higher still. She
raised up on her naked toes to stretch her strong calves. It felt so good. She
slowly moved her head from side to side, and basked in the sun.

John
watched her from the entrance to the structure and believed in his heart that
he’d never seen such beauty. He wanted to smile a big, wide smile because of
it. To his eyes, she was physical perfection. He felt that if he sniffed the
air just right, he and he alone could pick up her scent, even from this
distance. He lifted his head and sniffed a few times in his lover’s direction,
then smiled to himself. All he smelled was jungle.

He
watched her dive perfectly from the stone and disappear with a quiet splash. He
always worried about her swimming alone, but he could tell by her spirits this
morning that no seizures were likely, and he dismissed the fear.

Having
indulged his voyeurism, he turned and left her to her privacy.

As he was
turning, he heard the sound; a rustle of leaves and brush that didn’t fit in.
To ears that had listened to the jungle’s noises for months on end, this sound
was like breaking glass. His hand felt for his weapon. It wasn’t there—he’d
left it in the shuttle.

“Don’t
move!” came the order and a second later, the first guard, crouching, came at
him from the brush, a rifle aimed squarely at him. A second appeared, then a
third. Not stupid, John put his arms in the air. He’d been dreading this day
for months. They’d finally caught them, and he cursed under his breath. He
wanted to warn Rachel somehow so she might escape; but when he looked in her
direction another guard was standing on the polished stone, his rifle aimed
down at the water.

Don’t shoot her. For
God’s sake, don’t shoot her.

Two more
guards raced past him into the interior, no doubt to round up Donna and Eddie.

The
mercenaries were efficient. Within minutes, they had all four of them bound at
the wrists and just above the elbows. They had been especially rough about
binding them, and the entire time, Donna had cursed silently at their grinning
faces.

They’d
had the decency to let Rachel dress before forcing her inside, but John was
worried about the way they looked at her. One of them, a short man with a
salacious grin, couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

“So now
what?” John asked, then added, “You would have done the same thing in our
position.”

“Shut up.
No talking,” the one who acted like the leader said.

“You
could at least tell us why you’re arresting us,” Donna said bluntly.

“Shut
up,” the man said again. “Keep it up and the last thing you’ll hear from me is
bang.”

Donna felt
the iciness in his voice press on her spine, and her lips involuntarily pinched
together.

They knew
why the soldiers were there and where they were taking them. John, Rachel and
Donna would be taken back to face charges for the murder of Ed Smith’s alleged
nephew, Joe Devonshire and the other man, Kelly. Eddie would be shipped back to
Earth, or what was left of it, for his thievery. It was a miracle they’d gone
this long without being caught. John turned to Donna and said so with a look.
He got the same in return. It was inevitable, had been just a matter of time,
and they had both known it. The penalty for murder was death. He wondered if
Smith had been close to his nephew. It wouldn’t make any difference, but he
thought it anyway. He heard Rachel’s gasp, and the image of a seizure flashed
in his head. When he looked at her, she was staring at the opening. There at
the entrance, under a hideously blue robe with gold trim, was the unmistakable
and crooked shape of Jacob. He limped down the slight incline and came up
behind the squad’s leader, as if seeking protection from the captives.