Luana (10 page)

“It’s all right. Anyone would have reacted the same with that monster centimeters from his nose. Me too. Probably the best thing you could have done.” He tried to make the next question sound casual.

“What were you shooting at?”

“There was something moving in the forest. It . . . it looked at me.” Kobenene helped the shaken scientist to his feet. “It snarled at me and I thought it was going to charge.”

“It snarled. Was it another big cat? A panther, maybe?”

“Each tooth looked like an Afgan dirk!” Albright replied. “I didn’t get the chance to check its pedigree. Kobe, give me a hand back to the tent, will you?”

“Yes, Mr. Albright.”

Barrett put out a restraining hand. “Just one thing more, Albright.” The other stopped.

“Yes?”

“What were you doing in the jungle at this time of night . . . with a rifle?”

Albright hesitated, but not too long. Necessity lent speed to his wit.

“I heard something prowling around at the back of my tent and thought I’d better investigate.”

Barrett acknowledged this explanation, and Albright sighed inwardly. It would not be helpful if the guide thought he’d gone hunting for this odd girl.

“You’re going to hear a lot of sounds like that. Loose branches, the wind, harmless animals. It didn’t,” he said distastefully, “wake up the watch. I’d prefer you didn’t go gunning for every new sound you hear. You might shoot yourself. It’s been known to happen.”

“You’re right, of course,” agreed Albright.

“And now,” Barrett continued, “it’s time for my first order of the new day.” He looked around, noticed that the bearers were crowded around also. “Everybody go back to bed.”

“But those big cats,” Albright protested. “They might still be around. Surely we should mount a stronger guard . . .”

“Don’t worry, Norman. They’ll stay away from the fire. And,” he added, looking into the jungle, “somehow I don’t think they’ll cause us any trouble unless we go asking for it.”

The sound of drums rose with the sun. They were distant, very distant, to the north.

Murin rubbed at his eyes as he joined Barrett. “Wanderi, partner.” Barrett felt, or imagined he felt, a sharp twinge in his left shoulder.

“Probably. Can’t be certain.”

“Well,” said the Breeded, “at least they’re not getting any closer. That means we’re not walking into them.”

“They’re not getting any quieter, either, partner. Don’t try to cheer me up. That means they’re moving parallel to us. It means they know we’re here.”

“Not necessarily,” Murin countered. “They might not be interested in this part of the forest. Probably only hunting. And if you say ‘hunting what,’ George, I’ll pop you one.”

Barrett grinned with a humor he didn’t feel.

“Okay, you’re right, we’ll jump to no conclusions. But pass the word to the boys to try keeping the lid on any unrestrained hilarity, huh? Tell ’em to lose quietly for a change.”

They stopped for an early lunch. There was a small river in front of them and further upstream, a moderate waterfall. Even aerial maps of this area were spotty and incomplete, but if Barrett was right, there should be a major river nearby. They’d have to cross it eventually. And the country ahead should get rugged even sooner.

Barrett sat down and did some careful thinking. They were moving in country well to the south of his previous, ill-fated expedition. The distant drums (maybe they weren’t Wanderi, after all) continued to stay well to the north. Maybe they really had passed to the south of the witch-men’s influence. The boundary could be defined only by fatalities. Barrett hoped he was right.

Isabel, meanwhile, sat boredly in her tent. They had a long day ahead yet. The life of the camp is repetitive make-work. And the jungle can become incredibly dull to all but a select few. Isabel was neither botanist, entymologist, nor Barrett.

She took a towel and wiped the back of her neck. The white cloth came away brown. That was the last straw!

Scrounging through her personal pack, she managed to unearth a bar of soap . . . another luxury. Barrett complained about every excess gram. Well, the hell with him.

The jungle air, damn it, was like green gravy. Sooner or later you got coated with filth and grime that seemed to materialize out of thin air. The time had come to counterattack, or else she’d go crazy. Taking the towel, she slipped quietly out of camp.

Some bearers had cut a narrow path to the river’s edge. She followed it to the water and turned upstream. Just enough of a beach ran parallel to the water so that she didn’t have to battle vines and thorn bushes all the way. She paused only once, to watch a painted box turtle make its lumbering way from the water’s edge to a hole in the soft bank.

The waterfall, which fell a scant few meters into the river, had dug a hole in the soft sand of the bank and river bottom. So when she stepped in, the water came up to her shoulders. It was warm, though not as cloying as the slow moving river. The fresh water cascading over her tired skin held the pleasure of something wicked.

High above, perched on a knot of a stalwart banyan, Luana watched as Isabel made pushing motions at herself with the waxen white rock.

“What do you think of the she?” she asked.

Jukakhan leaned over and gave Isabel a moment’s attention.

“Weak, like most man-things. You could break her in small pieces.”

“Perhaps,” agreed Luana diffidently. “Do you think she’s more attractive than me?”

“Most man-things are ugly,” came Ohoh’s strident tone. “Even, yea, even the cat is more graceful. Barely.”

“Say that again, tree-toad, and I’ll—”

“You’ll what, ill-tempered one?” The chimpanzee hefted a heavy jungle nut. “Chase me through the tree-tops? Come, then.”

The lion rose to his feet and bared his teeth at the dangling chimp.

“Peace, you two,” said Luana warningly. Primate and lion subsided, Ohoh refusing to let the big cat have the last word.

“Tell the big mouth to watch himself, then.”

“Be polite, brother,” Luana admonished him.

Agh—another man-term. But Ohoh settled down on his own branch and said nothing more.

“See how her hair catches and turns back the sun,” she mused. “Even more so than yours, Chaugh.”

The panther did not deign to reply. To his way of thinking, he could kill the other female with one blow. That made up for any imagined deficiencies in the color of his coat. He continued licking himself.

“Tell me,” she continued easily, “do you think a human male would find her attractive?”

“You ask impossible questions, sister,” Chaugh murmured. “I have no standards for judging the attractiveness of man-things. Only,” he smiled with his eyes, “their taste. Nor does such a thing interest me.”

She leaned over and ran her hands along the big cat’s flank.

“But you find me attractive, Chaugh.”

“That is different,” he grumbled. “You are not a man-thing.”

“Then what am I?” Chaugh twisted uneasily out of her grasp.

“Too much talk,” he growled. He leaped from the branch and disappeared with a crash into the growth below.

Isabel looked sharply to her right. Something in the bushes? It was hard to tell with the sound of running water ringing in her ears. It wasn’t repeated and she shrugged it off. Probably some little lizard, or rodent, or something. She turned.

The river had no visible current here and lay as a cold mirror between its banks. Huge lily pads covered much of it. Fragrant blossoms half a meter across sprang from the center of the green floats, filling the air with overpowering loveliness. How beautiful this place was! If only they could travel by river, out of the clutching, stinking green caves. She put the soap on a dry rock, turned, and kicked out towards the center of the stream.

She swims fairly well, mused Luana. The thought was interrupted as she detected movement on the far bank. Ohoh saw it a moment later and began jumping up and down on his branch and pointing.

“Yes, I see it too,” she said.

On the far side, resting beneath overhanging reeds and ferns, was a dead log that wasn’t. It began to move sideways, then forward, drifting almost imperceptibly towards the center of the river. Isabel had reached the first of the lily pads. She was leaning in to smell one of the huge blossoms. Obviously she did not see it, which was not surprising.

While they’re difficult enough to detect from above, a crocodile moving towards one at water level is for all practical purposes invisible.

Luana jumped to a different branch, then to another, hanging over the water. She yelled and waved.

“Hey! Hey! Behind you!”

Isabel heard a faint noise, turned, and spotted the exotic gesticulating figure immediately. It was Luana, that strange girl. She waved back politely.

“Hello there! Hi!”

Luana waved more vigorously, shouted more urgently. Isabel waved happily in return and splashed the water. The little idiot thought Luana was playing!

The croc continued its slow, inexorable advance. Luana had seen it happen often before. There would be a sudden thrashing in the water and then quiet. Eventually the reptile would reappear with a bloated, drowned Isabel in its jaws. Luana dropped to the ground and took a step forward, stopped.

Jukakhan blocked her way.

“Move, brother.”

“Let the female man-thing die, sister. It is not worth the chance of—”

There was no time for discussion. She feinted right, then left, and vaulted over the startled lion before it could rise to intercept her. It followed, but she was already in the water, swimming furiously towards Isabel.

If only the fool would swim to meet her! But Isabel simply watched Luana’s approach with pleasure and some surprise. The girl certainly seemed in an inordinate hurry!

“Slow down, Luana!” she shouted as the other came close. “There’s no hurry. The river’ll still—”

Luana dove abruptly. Well, that was odd! What sort of strange game was the girl playing?

Treading water, Isabel peered down. The water itself was clear, but shadows from the broad water lilies hid much of what went on below. She looked around sharply left, right. Where had the girl gone? She turned.

The river exploded.

Both screaming and swimming for the near shore were reflex actions. The last thing Isabel saw as she looked back over her shoulder was a toothy green torpedo rising out of the water. Luana was astride its back, her right arm high and the single blade catching the light.

The river monster had been surprised by the unfamiliar biting thing that had come up beneath it. Now the thing was stuck to its back and continued to bite. The bite itself was small, but repeated itself over and over. The monster spun, great jaws snapping air. It was unable to reach the small biter.

The armored tail, which could easily break a leopard’s spine, thrashed impotently at the neutral lilies. Finding its strength ebbing, the monster began to spin desperately in the water, fighting to dislodge the tormentor on its back.

From the far bank other logs began to move towards the source of the disturbance, hoping to lay claim to loose pieces. On the other shore, Ohoh saw them and shrieked incessantly. Again and again a slim steel arm rose and fell. The water began to turn a dark red, and the lilies were stained.

A last failing twist, and the great meat eater lay limp in the water. Luana was drawing in long, deep breaths. She heard Ohoh’s distant screeching and struck out for the safe shore.

Five big crocs were close behind her. They pulled up meters short. One or two considered giving chase. But the other shape moved strongly through the water, and there was ample meat already waiting. They began to tear furiously at the carcass of their dead cousin.

Luana staggered out of the water. Isabel was nowhere in sight. Probably ran all the way back to camp. She noticed the girl had taken her clothes and smiled despite her exhaustion. Crazy man-thing! For herself, she was never in danger of being bitten, but the monster had nearly drowned her.

A few agonizingly painful tugs hauled her to a fork in one of the trees. She collapsed gratefully. Ohoh was beside her in a second, with Jukakhan a leap behind. The chimp made a cursory inspection of the motionless form. Jukakhan had only to sniff once to be satisfied. Man-sister was unharmed. She would sleep for awhile. He curled up beside her.

Eventually, a party from the camp arrived. A breathless Isabel was in the forefront. There was no need to point to the area of danger. The family of armored leviathans was still making plenty of noise, thrashing about on the far side of the river. Isabel looked from the watery hell to Barrett, then to Murin.

“Well, do something, can’t you?”

Barrett watched the crocs at table. He’d never cared much for the big reptiles. They had no personalities, and terrible table manners.

“Like what, Izzy?” He gestured with his rifle towards the confused tumbling. “If she’s in there with them now, there’s nothing left but a faint suggestion. And if she got away—God, I hope she got away—she’ll let us know when she’s good and ready.” He turned to go. She grabbed his arm.

“But can’t you do something? She saved my life!”

“Well, damnit, for that, she saved mine too!” he roared, suddenly angry. “If she’s still out there I’d rather not see what’s left. If it’s revenge you want, crocodiles have no sense of retribution. But here, help yourself.” He tossed her the gun. She caught it and stared down at the smooth barrel blankly.

Barrett, Murin and the others started back to camp. Isabel looked out to the still active reptilian convocation. She raised the gun, then lowered it slowly and began to cry. She sniffed and bawled all the way back to camp.

She felt better in the morning. By then she’d more than half convinced herself that Luana had escaped, somehow. It was nicer—and better for her peace of mind—to think of the girl as still in the trees somewhere with her cats than in the belly of some— She forced that thought resolutely out of focus again. She had other things to concentrate on. Like struggling up these hills.

Despite the change in altitude, the character of the forest changed but slightly. There were fewer of the towering trees that Barrett had labeled emergents, more thick bushes and scrub growth. They came to the small canyon just after midday.