Kraken Rising: Alex Hunter 6 (29 page)

The first bullet punched into Casey’s right pectoral, spinning her and making the second one miss. In her armored suit, she knew only a head-shot could have been counted on to take her down for good. As it was, the impact would deaden her shoulder, but she ignored it as she had long learned to live with pain.

She rolled and came up fast, seeing Blake and Rhino engaging in combat, and the big McMurdo soldier, Jackson, already on the ground and struggling to breathe. The PLA seemed to be appearing from everywhere, and she had walked them right into it.
Fucking amateur hour
, she thought.

Her HAWCs she wasn’t worried about, but she knew she had left Aimee and Soong without cover. The pissing soldier who had shot her was coming at her fast. He was big, with eyes that were black as coal. There was no hint of anything other than determination to finish her off.

“Fuck you.” She spun, sweeping one of her legs around, taking him off his feet, and sending his gun flying. A punch to her ear suddenly told her that she wasn’t fighting just one man. She dived and rolled and came up in front of the first PLA soldier, who was now back on his feet. He was half a head taller, and trained to solid muscle.

She backed to the side, trying to keep both of her attackers in view. Casey excelled at unarmed combat, and in a number of different disciplines, all blended into a style created just for the HAWCs, termed RADET – Rapid Debilitation Technique. Most maneuvers were lethal, and she had been trained for fighting multiple opponents.

But for each kick or punch she and her combatants threw, the other would block it, and would in turn direct ever more furious punches, strikes, and kicks back towards the other. Casey gritted her teeth, becoming ever more infuriated. Unwaveringly, the two soldiers betrayed nothing – no surprise, fear, pain – they never grunted, made a noise, or changed their expression. It was like she fought robots.

Seems they’ve picked up their training
, she thought. Though her focus was supreme, she became aware of a whistle, and then it was like the combat changed up a level. The PLA to her left kicked out, pushing her back. She blocked it, but immediately felt a jarring impact to her spine. The blow wasn’t meant to do anything other than knock her forward again into the flying boot of the first guy.

Casey saw stars, her head swimming for a few seconds, before she came up with a blade in her hand, blinking away watering eyes and a streaming bloody nose.

When her world cleared, she found she was alone. Her opponents had left the field. Jackson was rubbing his neck and helping a groggy Rhino to his feet. Blake was walking back towards her, also wiping blood from his lip.

“They’re gone. There was whistle, and they just vanished.”

Casey grimaced from the pain, and felt her nose and eye socket. It was raw and hurt like a bitch, but the eye orbital wasn’t shattered. “A signal. Something changed, or they …” She spun. “Shit.” She sprinted back to where they had left Aimee, Soong, and Jennifer.

Jennifer was face down on the boggy ground. Casey knelt and flipped her over. Thankfully the woman was breathing and her eyes opened slowly.

“Wha …?”

The others crowded around.

“Easy. You okay?” Casey sat her up, ripping her canteen from her pouch and tipping it into the McMurdo woman’s mouth.

Jennifer nodded. “They came … from the jungle.” She looked up, her mind seeming to clear. “Where are they?” She spun one way and then the other. “Aimee and Soong, they took them.”

Casey gritted her teeth. Hagel jogged back in.

“They’re gone.”

Casey looked up at him. He didn’t have a scratch. Her eyes blazed, but she kept her mouth shut … for now. She turned.

“Rhino!” She turned to the big man, who still looked groggy. “Get your head back in the game. We’re going after them, now.”

“No, we’re not.” Hagel stood his ground, looking down on Casey as she held Jennifer’s shoulder. He shook his head.

“You just made bad decision number one hundred and ten. As far as I’m concerned you’re done.” He leaned his rifle against a trunk. “You fucking walked us right into it.”

Hagel looked up at Rhino, and then to Blake. “They could have mowed us all down. Just as well they decided to pull back, or we’d be food for whatever goddamn thing it is that’s ghosting us down here.”

Casey rose slowly to her feet, feeling her adrenalin start to pump.

Rhino winced. “Hagel, c’mon, man. This is not the time.”

“Not the time to be ambushed.” Hagel snorted. “We’re fucking HAWCs. No one, but
no one
, gets the jump on us.” He grinned, turning to Rhino. “Unless we have an incompetent leading us.”

“Ah, fuck.” Rhino looked skyward.

“You want to be the daddy now? That it, Hagel?” Casey sneered, but her brow dropped.

“Maybe I should be,” he said evenly.

Before anyone could blink Casey had her Glock pointed between the man’s eyes. “Insubordination in field, only one way to deal with that.”

“
Boss
.” Rhino grimaced.

“All mouth, just what I thought.” Hagel didn’t blink as he stared back into the gun’s muzzle. “Takes more than a gun to be a leader.” He leaned forward slightly. “Certainly not a job for a coward.” He grinned.

Casey chuckled. “Oh boy.” She stared down at the ground for a moment, before letting her gun drop. She then lifted her rifle from her shoulders and let that drop beside it. Next went her knives. “Time for some education.”

Ben Jackson put one large hand to his head. “Now? You’re gonna do this
now
?”

Hagel turned back, a grim smile on his face. He started to pull and drop his own weapons. “No weapons, no rank, no report.”

“Just you, me, and your big fucking mouth … that’s gonna be full of broken teeth in about ten seconds,” Casey said, keeping her gaze leveled at the young HAWC. “I’m going to enjoy this, you little freak.”

Casey got into a crouch, and began to circle. Hagel did the same.

“Are you two mad?” Jennifer Hartigan was on her feet. She turned to Rinofsky. “Stop them. Make them stop.”

He shook his head. “Bad blood, got to be sorted.”

Hagel came in fast. He feinted one way, and then threw two flat-handed strikes at Casey’s face. She blocked them both, and returned her own, her fist flicking out, and Hagel just pulling back by fractions. Both swung, dodged, and kicked out, but this was only the prelude, the sizing up, and it soon ended.

They engaged. The two HAWCs came together in an explosion of furious blows. Every part of their body, every hard or sharp edge, was a formidable weapon. Each HAWC warrior was trained to be an ultimate combatant – fearless in attack, and near impervious to pain.

The sound of reinforced knuckles against armor plates was as loud as the punches were hard. Both fighters knew that a full strike of that force to a vulnerable area would be devastating or even lethal. Regardless, neither of them pulled their punches.

The pair broke apart momentarily. Both were now streaming perspiration and blood. They sucked in the humid air of the jungle. Casey’s scar lifted her face into its usual sneer. She knew that both of them were fast, well trained, and could give and take a killer punch. But she felt calm, her heartbeat barely rising over resting normal. She knew she could withstand whatever Hagel dished out. Her heart was like iron, and so was her jaw.

She looked Hagel up and down, assessing him again. He was younger, bigger at just on six two, and weighing in at around 220 pounds. His physique was iron hard through training and a tough Special Forces existence. Casey was four inches shorter and many pounds lighter. But anyone who had seen her stripped down attested to a body that had obviously navigated years of pain. She had bullet holes, a zipper stitching of old scars, burns, and flaring tattoos, all over muscles that bulged without an ounce of fat. Pain was her friend, and fighting was an equation. When facing a skilled opponent, for her it came down to two elements of that equation: who could take the most pain, and who had the most experience. She smiled, because that would be her.

She decided on her next move. Hagel’s reach was longer, so she needed to be behind that reach. To do that meant taking a risk, and she took it. Casey lunged straight at Hagel. He threw his arms up, but then flicked out one fist to lash across her jaw. It connected, hard. A lesser opponent would have been rocked back on their heels, or maybe even felled.

Casey expected it, planned for it, and took the impact on her jaw. As Hagel’s arm continued on its swing, she had what she wanted – she was close to her goal, and under his reach. In a lightening fast strike, she struck out at his throat. Her hand was open, and she caught his larynx between her thumb and forefingers. His windpipe collapsed, the cartilage closing off.

The bigger man coughed and staggered back; only his training kept him focused, as his hands never dropped. But Casey knew now his oxygen was cut off, in seconds, his overstrained body would burn through his reserves, and first his head would begin to pound and then his vision would swim. Once that occurred, no matter how hyper-trained you were, oxygen panic would start to short-circuit the system.

Casey nodded into the man’s eyes, letting him know it was over. Either he surrendered, or she would enjoy putting him down.

Hagel made his choice and came at her, his teeth showing through split lips, his eyes manic and white, framed by slick bloody features. Such was the depths of the man’s hatred for her. He staggered as he came. Casey dodged his clumsy attack, and used his own bodyweight to throw him over one of her legs.

Hagel landed on the ground with Casey immediately on top of him. She started to pound down, blow after blow, her reinforced knuckle plates smashing bone and shredding flesh.

“Enough.” Rhino tried to drag her off, but she wasn’t done. Her bloodlust not yet sated.

The two gunshots were loud in the near tomb silence of the jungle. The bioluminescent light overhead immediately went out.

Casey froze … the seconds ticked by, and then gradually, the bioluminescent creatures on the roof of the massive cave overcame their timidity and started to glow once again. The twilight gloom returned.

Jennifer stood holding Casey’s Glock, the barrel pointed in the air.

Underneath Casey, Hagel gasped like a fish out of water. She quickly reached down and gripped his throat at the area of the compression, squeezed, and then tugged hard, pulling the cartilage back into place. It’d hurt like a bitch, and would swell back up, but at least he’d be able to breathe. Hagel dragged in two huge breaths and then groaned.

“Oh shit,” Rhino said.

Around them it was as if the jungle had fallen into a vacuum. Casey slowly stood up from the man’s chest, wiping the blood and gore from her hands on her pants. She waited.

Rinofsky’s face was lit by a small box he had pulled from his belt. He held it up and turned slowly. He frowned down at the small tracker.

“Boss …”

“What’ve you got?” Casey asked evenly.

“Movement, boss … plenty of it,” Rhino said without looking up.

Blake led Jennifer in closer, and Jackson joined them, looking at the small device in Rhino’s hand.

“Incoming?” Casey walked away from Hagel’s prone form and took the gun from Jennifer’s hand. As she holstered the weapon, she noticed that the McMurdo medic had blanched at her frightful appearance.

Casey half smiled, and turned away to collect her knives and rifle from the ground.

“I’m right here, Rhino, talk to me.”

“Multiple signatures, too many to fully register. They’re big and small, but get this, they’re all moving away. Disappearing off the grid.”

Casey grunted. “They’re going to ground.” She turned slowly, and scanned the dark, dripping growth surrounding them. “Making noise down here, and you might as well have just rung the dinner bell.” She growled. “Fucking distraction.” She turned back to where Hagel lay. “I should have just shot you, you bag of …”

The man was gone.

“What the fuck?” Casey spun. “Where’d that asshole go?”

Jennifer put a hand over her nose. “That smell is back. Just like in the caves.” She started to back up, looking like she was going to bolt.

“Grab her.” Casey pointed and Blake lunged at the woman, gripping her arm.

Casey quickly went to where Hagel had been laying. The mosses and lichen mats were flattened, and so was a glistening path leading into the underbrush.

“Hagel,” Jennifer screamed. “Hagel!” She strained against Blake’s hands, her eyes wide. “We have to go after him.”

“That’s just what it wants,” Casey said softly, scanning the jungle with her gun up.

“I don’t like this.” Ben Jackson backed in towards them.

Casey looked from the grass to the shrinking group. “He’s gone. He wouldn’t walk out and leave his rifle.”  She nodded towards it. “Rhino, get the weapon. We’re out of here.”

“I heard that,” Rhino said, picking up the gun, his eyes on the jungle. “Go after Dr. Weir, boss?”

“No, we head for the signal.” She pointed. “It’s where the Chinese will be going. Maybe we can get the jump on them. We stay fast and stay tight.” She turned and vanished into the jungle, the others at her heels.

“I’m sorry,” Soong whispered to Aimee, whose hands were tied together in front of her. A length of rope tethered her to the giant Chinese soldier in front.

Aimee snorted. “I don’t exactly remember, but when was it that we had you tied up?” She scoffed. “Must be a cultural thing, huh?”

Soong shook her head. “I trust you, but they do not. I told Captain Yang that you didn’t take their men, that it was something else, something down here already. And that you know what it is.”  She stared hard at Aimee. “They could have killed all of you … I stopped them.”

Aimee snorted. “Do you have any idea what they’re triggering by going after the American submarine? Do you really think that they’re going to be allowed to walk out of here with the technology?” She shook her head. “Not that any of us is going to walk out of here.”

Soong sped up slightly, leaving Aimee behind.

“There could be war,” Aimee said forcefully to Soong’s hunched shoulders.

The Chinese woman half turned. “You can talk to my friend.”

“Shenjung Xing? Damn right I’ll talk to him, that’s why I’m here,” Aimee said, but Soong had threaded her way around the giant Mungoi, who turned to grin and tug a little harder on her rope.

Yang led them towards a small camp, or rather an area of flattened foliage in among the tangled jungle.

Soong ran to Shenjung Xing. Aimee recognized the scientist immediately from Hammerson’s profile picture. The pair embraced warmly. Shenjung reached up to tenderly brush strands of hair from her face, and Aimee now knew why Soong had so eagerly wanted to come with them. Soong spoke rapidly, and Shenjung’s face creased into a frown. His eyes lifted to Aimee.

“Untie her.” He spoke loudly, but Yang ignored him. Mungoi continued to stand like a colossus, hanging on to Aimee’s leash like she was a pet dog.

Aimee held up her bound wrists. “Do you mind?” She spoke directly to Yang. “I’m not going to run off into the jungle by myself, and I think you know why.”

Yang shook his head, and turned back to his conversation with one of his men. Aimee let her breath hiss out from between clenched teeth. She turned to Shenjung.

“You know what? We came down here for you. To warn you that there is a potential global conflict happening over our heads. I was sent as a diplomat … a spokesperson. If you ever managed to find your way out, which is unlikely, you’ll find something a lot different than diplomats waiting for you.”

Yang, overhearing, finally turned, his lips a thin line. “We are not afraid of you. This century belongs to China, Dr. Weir.” He looked Aimee up and down for a second or two, and smirked. “And we cannot go back, because Dr. Soong Chin Ling has informed us that you blew up our base.” His face was like stone. “She also tells me that you may know another way out. I agreed not to kill your people, because she convinced me that you would help us find that path back out. But if you won’t, then I am more than happy to finish my job.”

Aimee stared for a moment. “Listen, that wasn’t us. That was your own people that set your base to self-destruct. And by the way, one of your men ambushed and killed our captain.”

Yang’s lips pursed. “Only your captain? Shame.”

Aimee growled under her breath. She turned back to Shenjung. “You fools, you’re in danger. I know your soldiers are going missing, so are ours. You sense it out there;
I know you do
. It’s the other thing I needed to warn you about – what
really
lives down here.”

“Lives down here?” Shenjung looked from Aimee to Soong. Behind them, Yang edged closer.

“There’s a reason this place is off-limits. It’s unsafe.” Aimee waited. Yang’s eyes narrowed, but they slid to Soong.

Soong’s brows were knitted. “There is something, in the caves. And now, maybe down here with us.”

“No
maybe
about it.” Aimee tugged on her rope. “It’s big, smart, and hungry … and we’re right in its goddamn backyard.” She nodded to their weapons. “And you guys might as well have pea shooters for all the good they’ll do.”

“We are not that easily tricked,” Yang said evenly. “We have seen nothing.” He looked away quickly.

Shenjung’s head snapped around to Yang. “But you did! The scouts went missing, to turn up massacred. And then just hours back …”

“
I saw nothing!
” Yang’s voice boomed. He pointed a fist at Aimee. “Nothing but what the Americans wanted me to see.”

“Oh, bullshit,” Aimee spat the words back at him, and tugged angrily on the rope. “You’re going to walk everyone right into the jaws of death, literally.”

Yang’s lip curled. “An American trick, denied by an American spy, sent to divert us.” Yang held up a hand. “We will complete our mission, secure the site of the derelict submarine, and then Dr. Weir will show us the way out.”

Anger began to burn within Aimee, and it blew apart any diplomacy she had planned. “Your mission?” Her jaw jutted, and she lifted her head. “You think you can take ownership of American property?” She smiled at the way his head turned to her a fraction. “That’s right, that
derelict submarine
is the
Sea Shadow
. You try and even set foot on it, and there’ll be war … and one you can’t win.”

Yang sauntered closer. “You still think you can win a war with us?” He threw his head back and barked out a single laugh. “Our cyber-technologists will shut down your launch programs before they even start.” He leered at her. “By the time you figure out what went wrong, your country will be ash.”

Aimee lunged at him. “You fucking …”

Yang’s backhand knocked her down. Shenjung and Soong rushed to her, shielding her, but Aimee pushed them away, and wiped her mouth.

“You weak sonofabitch, you’re as good as dead, and don’t even know it. One by one, either in the next few minutes or hours, the thing down here will catch you, rip you to shreds, and you won’t be able to do anything about it. You can’t even hide, because it will find you, dig you out, and rip walls apart to get at you.”

She felt exhausted, beaten. “Forget the submarine. We need to be gone from here, and we need much better defenses. At least combine your forces with the HAWCs. That way we might,
just might
, be able to make it.”

Yang tilted his head. “So it’s our supplies, ammunition, and protection you need? If you think we will assist your team, you are wrong.”

Aimee’s head dropped for a moment. “We’re all going to die.”  She looked up slowly, turning to Soong. “Make sure you stay in the center of the group, don’t lag behind. Predators always pick off the stragglers first.”

Aimee exhaled in exasperation. She suddenly realized that she had failed. She followed the thought – if she failed, then there was no turning the Chinese back from trying to get to the submarine. The future was set, and there would be justification for conflict –
war.
Millions would die, and she was here, and Joshua up there. She felt a cramp in her stomach at the thought of him being alone.

“Ho!” Yang pointed, and the team marched on.

*

The gunshots jerked Alex back to his senses. They were close, and he recognized the sound of the handgun – a Glock 22, plastic casing, feather light with a lot of punch, and an excellent weapon for wet environments. It was a jungle weapon and also part of the HAWC arsenal.

He slowed as he burst into a clearing and skidded to a stop. The trees were flattened, some of them with trunks a half dozen feet across, and others sunk deep into the soft ground as if something heavy had pushed into the jungle and rested there. There was a coating of ammoniac slime over everything that hung in the air like a stinging mist. Alex eased back into the tree line, wary. He knew that the nightmare predator that stalked, and probably attacked, his people was the most successful and inventive monstrosity that he had ever faced. His best chance of survival –
everyone’s best chance of survival
– was to simply avoid it.

Alex let the vines fall in front of him, and remained motionless. Aimee had once told him that cephalopods had acute vision that was triggered by movement. He just let his eyes travel over the foliage of the hundred feet of crushed plants, and the canopy and edges, looking for anything, no matter how camouflaged, that might have hinted at its presence.

Alex’s enhanced vision could pick up details at a granular level and also allowed perfect sight in night-black environments that was well beyond normal human vision. He could also “see” thermal variations. If something was warmer or colder than its surroundings, he would know it.

After another moment he stepped out and walked a few paces into the clearing. There was something black and glistening red, incongruous among the mud browns and drab greens. He quickly moved to it, snatching it up. He recognized it – he wore the same thing. It was an armored HAWC suit, its ceramic plating and Kevlar weave tough enough to withstand a shotgun blast, but here it was torn apart like paper. It was coated with streaks of blood and gore. The creature had taken at least one of the HAWCs, had peeled them out of the suit, and he could guess what happened after that. He dropped the armor, its obliterated remnants making it impossible to even guess who it had belonged to.

Alex wiped his hands. They were sticky, as the blood hadn’t fully coagulated – it was minutes fresh. Both his team and the thing were close by.

Come on guys, Hammerson would have made you read the reports,
he whispered.
You know what you’re up against.
Alex reached out again – he could still sense the huge presence, but it was further out now, and moving away. He grabbed for his signal finder, quickly checking the readout and then cursing. The predator was headed in the same direction he needed to go … and the direction he bet his HAWCs had gone.

“Damnit, it’s tracking them.”

“Alex.”

He turned at Cate’s voice, and stepped in front of the bloody debris. “Stay there.”

She froze, wheezing, her face beet red. “What is it?” She gasped. “I can smell …
phew
 … cat pee.”

“Ammonia; it exudes it. Allows it to leave the water without drying out.”

“This thing – is it your Kraken?”

“My Kraken?” Alex turned to face the cliffs. “Yeah, my Kraken,” he whispered. He imagined the beast pursuing the HAWCs, or maybe traveling parallel to their position, staying just out of sight. Its huge, boneless body keeping compressed and low, flowing around and over the trees and foliage like a slimy, muscular wave as it kept them in sight, staying close to its food … or its new toys.

Cate looked from the massive depression in the foliage, and then up at him, her eyes round. “This big? There’s nothing like this in the fossil record.”

“Yes, there is. According to one of the scientists who was with us, it was called an orthocone.”

Cate frowned, looking around again. “
Cameroceras
, orthoconic cephalopods, I know them. They were the apex predator of their time. But that was during the Ordovician period, hundreds of millions of years ago. And they only grew to about thirty feet,
max
.” She waved an arm around at the flattened trees. “This thing must have been …”  Her lips compressed. “Hundreds of feet.” Her brow creased even further. “And it had a large conical shell, like some sort of mollusk.”

Alex kept his eyes on the jungle. “Seems it had plenty of time to evolve. It’s still the apex predator, but it’s developed a whole bunch of new skills.” He looked around. “It only used the shell in the water, and could leave it behind when it wanted to pursue us into the caves. It was able to flatten its body, get into the smallest of crevices, flowing almost like liquid. And it was a mimic – a
very
good mimic.” He looked at her.

She was frowning as she listened, but nodded. “Many creatures, and certainly many cephalopods, can mimic their surroundings, or even other animal shapes … in a fashion.”

“Not like this thing,” Alex responded. “It could create near perfect images of our people. Once it had ingested them, it could … become them.”

“That’s impossible.” She turned away, arms folded.

“That’s what I would have said … before.” He sighed and looked past her towards the dark sea. “Maybe it felt it only needed the shell in the water. Maybe your leviathan friends out there caused it to retain its armor. Got a weakness, after all.” He wondered how he could use this, but quickly gave up. “We’ve got to hurry, there were gunshots.” Alex looked down at her, wishing he could leave her behind, but knowing that would spell her death. Urgency now coiled within him. “Cate, we need to try and catch up … with my team.”

Cate nodded and her mouth curled down. “Boy oh boy, what I wouldn’t give to catch a glimpse of this thing.”

“No,” Alex said softly. “If it was close enough for us to see, we’d be dead, or just become part of its cat and mouse torture game. We’re going to stay as far away from this thing as we can.” He grabbed hold of her shoulders. “But if we do see it, I’m just hoping it’s long before it sees us.”

*

“Warm bodies … with plenty of nonbiological elements. Gotta be our PLA friends.” Rhino held up the reader, turning slightly. “Multiple signatures, all about the same size, and all stationary.”

Jackson grunted. “Not gonna let these guys get the jump on me again.”

Rhino leaned back. “Don’t feel too bad. These guys are robots – trained to be lethal since they were kids. We can take ’em, but that might mean permanent take-down. Not a great option while they’ve got Dr. Weir.” He exhaled. “And the last thing we want to be doing is starting a war that we were sent to stop in the first place.”

Casey came back in and crouched. Blake and Jennifer joined them. “Fifty feet, directly in front. They’re not moving.”

“Ambush?” Jackson asked.

“If it’s an ambush, it’s a strange one.” Casey’s lip curled. “Nah, unlikely. We’ve seen the concealment techniques these guys have used. They wouldn’t just be hanging it out there in the open.” She looked around. “Better scan for claymores, or anything else they could use for booby traps.”

“I don’t think so, boss,” Rhino said. “That big guy coulda taken me out clean. He didn’t. I don’t think that’s what they wanted.”