Authors: Riley Barton
Instantly, the vice-like jaws parted. Seizing his chance to escape, Keith pushed himself out of the creature’s mouth and made for the bank. His whole body felt like it was on fire, and he could hardly breathe, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before the giant predator recovered and came at him again.
Keith swallowed hard, forcing down the pain, and began paddling frantically toward his team. His armor was heavy and threatened to drag him down. But he pushed himself to his limits, urging his wounded body forward. His eyesight began to blur, and he found himself gasping for breath with every agonized stroke. He was starting to hyperventilate.
“Keith! Hang on! I’m coming!” Rush’s voice drifted through the fog seeping into his panicked brain, and he looked up just in time to see his teammate jump into the water ten feet away from him.
“I’ve got him!” Rush called back to Patterson, just as Keith felt the muddy bottom squishing under his hands and knees. He’d made it.
“Well then, get him
out
of there!” Patterson replied urgently, “That gator’s coming back around!”
Come on, you’re not out of the woods yet. Keep moving,
Keith thought, dragging himself toward Rush.
“Cover me!” Rush shouted, slinging his weapon over one arm while reaching for Keith with the other.
Keith grabbed Rush’s arm and pulled himself up weakly, glancing over his shoulder just in time to see the one-eyed alligator lunging at them, mouth open wide.
In that brief moment time slowed to a crawl. Keith could hear the startled cries of his men and the sounds of automatic weapon fire. A moment later the white flesh lining the alligator’s mouth exploded as round after round slammed home, pulverizing the creature’s skull and the small brain within. The giant animal took three more steps then toppled onto its side, burying its long snout in the thick mud as Agent Patterson continued unloading his weapon into its writhing corpse.
“I! Hate!
Alligators
!” He shouted, slamming another clip into his smoking weapon.
“Remind me … never to get on your bad side … Patterson.” Keith rasped.
“Easy, Keith. Don’t try to talk,” Rush said, pulling him up out of the mud.
“Understood,” Keith replied, gagging on blood.
“We need to get you out of here. … Patterson, call Perkins—tell him we need
immediate
evac!”
“… Miss McKelly … ” Keith coughed.
“I’m sorry, Keith. You just moved to the top of the priority list.”
Keith laid his head back, overcome with guilt. He’d failed to complete his mission. Luna McKelly was missing: either dead or in the clutches of terrorists who would think she was an agent. He shuddered. Whether from the thought of an innocent civilian being tortured for information she couldn’t possible know or from his massive internal injuries, he couldn’t be sure.
“Rush … Patterson. If you get through to the Chief … tell him … tell him to look for Miss McKelly. … We can’t abandon her out here.”
“We will, sir.” Rush replied, reaching for his suit’s med-kit. “I’m sure he’ll do everything in his power to find her and bring her home. Don’t worry.”
Keith nodded slightly and closed his eyes. The last thing he heard was Rush’s frantic attempts to rouse him, but it was too late. He’d already surrendered to exhaustion and the shock of his injuries.
Chapter 13
“We’ve established contact, sir!” Rosa called out, causing Chief Landers to stop and turn. He had been anxiously pacing the communications room for nearly the entire five hours since Alex had picked up a scrambled distress call from the Stratocruiser. All further attempts at contacting the team had failed, because of the massive storm that had blown into the area shortly after the distress beacon had been activated.
“Give me an exact location on their signal and patch it through,” he replied briskly, turning to face the network of holographic monitors built into the comm room’s walls. He watched the glowing screens intently as they projected a topographical grid map of the Oklahoma Swamp. A tiny flashing dot appeared near the upper left-hand corner of the main monitor, and the screen automatically enlarged, giving Landers coordinates as well as a clear, three-dimensional view of the terrain surrounding the downed Stratocruiser.
“Come in, HQ. This is Agent Mitch Perkins. Do you copy? Over.”
“We hear you loud and clear, Perkins.” Landers replied, releasing a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “What’s your status? Over.”
“Not good, Chief. We encountered enemy surface-to-air fire and were forced to ditch fifteen miles north-northwest of our initial LZ. We’ve taken heavy casualties. Most of us are banged up pretty bad, and I just received an emergency call from Agent Rush five minutes ago requesting an immediate medevac for Agent Tagawa.”
“What happened? Was it more Swampers?”
“Negative, HQ. … It was an alligator.”
“An alligator? How the hell did
that
happen?”
There was a moment of silence then Perkins spoke again, slowly this time. “We … lost Miss McKelly, sir. She couldn’t fasten her seatbelt and was sucked out of the aircraft when we were hit. … But we
were
flying low, and we were over water at the time. So we think she
may
have survived the fall. Agent Tagawa was adamant about going back for her, sir. He, Patterson, and Rush headed out a few hours ago and apparently found an alligator instead. The last thing he said before he lost consciousness was for me to contact you and request that you locate and extract Miss McKelly if at all possible, sir.”
“That idiot. ” Landers muttered under his breath, then he said, “All right, Perkins. You men just sit tight. I’ve got three choppers on the tarmac ready and waiting. We’ll be in the air ASAP.”
“Affirmative, Chief. Perkins out.”
The Chief sighed and turned back to his aide, “Rosa, upload the coordinates of Tagawa’s Stratocruiser to the other choppers and tell them to take off. Once you’re done with that, start scanning for the homing chips. Let’s see if we can locate Miss McKelly’s body.”
“Yes, sir. Right away.”
Landers sank into a high-backed chair and massaged his temples, mentally composing his condolence letter to Luna’s next of kin. He knew that even if by some miracle Miss McKelly had survived the fall, the chances of her surviving the night in a swamp crawling with hostile insurgents and predators were almost nonexistent.
“Sir …” Rosa said slowly, “I found her.”
What a waste,
Landers thought solemnly, staring at the floor in front of him. He sighed and looked up. “Upload her location to the choppers, and have a team retrieve the body.”
“Um, sir … the tracer chip is broadcasting strong, stable vital signs. … She’s alive. Alive and … and moving, sir.”
“What?” He said, rising from his chair. “How is that even possible?” Landers muttered, watching the flashing light that marked Luna’s location. “If she’s alive, she’d be too badly hurt to even walk. How is she moving?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Rosa replied, raising an eyebrow, “but she’s traveling at nearly thirty miles an hour. … ”
Landers’ brow creased with deep furrows. “Are the choppers in the air?” He asked.
“All but the last one, sir.”
“Contact that pilot, tell him to hold his position. I’m going out there myself.”
Landers didn’t wait for her to complete the call. He had to get ready immediately. There was something horribly out of place about the events unfolding in the swamp. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.
Fifteen minutes later he was aboard the Stratocruiser, watching the swamplands racing beneath him as the V-244 soared out into the stormy night sky beyond New Denver’s energy shields. Somewhere in the swamp, Miss McKelly and his agents were awaiting his aid, hoping for rescue.
Chapter 14
Luna sighed deeply and opened her eyes. She was wrapped in a warm blanket and lying on a cot inside a dimly lit room. An IV bag hung at her bedside. Her armor had been removed and the constricting jumpsuit had been unzipped to her waist, allowing her badly bruised chest to rise and fall freely. She was embarrassed when she realized that a total stranger—and a
man
at that—had gotten such a good look at her. But it was a relief to be free of the cumbersome suit and be able to breathe again.
Luna gathered the blanket around her slender shoulders and eased herself into a sitting position, sucking in a shallow breath as her wounded arm settled into a sling tied around her torso. Her ribs still hurt, but it was more of a dull ache instead of the paralyzing agony she’d felt before. She waited for the pain in her shoulder to subside, swung her legs out of the cot, and planted her feet on the cold, steel floor.
She slowly eased herself out of bed and stood on the gently rocking floor, instinctively steadying herself.
“A boat?” Luna mused out loud.
“Indeed.”
Luna squeaked in surprise and pulled the blanket more tightly around her body.
“Who’s there? Ben? Is that you?” she asked, glancing around the small room.
“I’m afraid you have me mistaken me for my master, miss,” the male voice said. “I am Edward. AI Unit 002 and aid to master Ben. Would you like me to inform him that you’re awake now, miss?”
For goodness sake, get a grip! It’s just
the AI.
She allowed herself to relax a little.
“Um …yeah. I think that would be okay. Just tell him not to come in yet. I need to find a shirt or something first.”
“I believe you’ll find adequate coverings in the locker beside the door,” Edward replied. She turned to look where the disembodied voice had indicated. Sure enough there was a locker.
She picked up the IV bag in her good hand and walked over to the locker. Inside she found several pairs of raincoats and waterproof pants.
She removed a dark raincoat from the locker and held it up. The waterproof garment was too big for her: it reached nearly to the floor. She looked at the other clothes hanging in the locker hoping for a smaller size but found that—of course—they were all several sizes too big. She sighed in resignation.
She closed the flow valve on her IV and disconnected the line from the tiny stint in her hand, wincing as her fingers bumped the needle embedded in her skin.
“Miss, I am not sure that is a wise choice of action,” Edward said. His synthesized voice actually sounded concerned.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I know what I’m doing,” Luna said through gritted teeth, silently hoping that she knew what she was doing.
Please, God, don’t let me keel over and die.
She pulled on the raincoat with difficulty and zipped it up then quickly reconnected the IV—fighting the searing pain coursing through her shoulder.
“See. I told you not to worry,” She said shakily, inwardly hoping that the AI couldn’t see the tears of pain forming in her eyes.
“Excellent. I take it you’re now feeling well enough to speak with Master Ben?”
Luna nodded, “Yeah. Go ahead and tell him I’m up.”
“I will do so at once, miss. One moment please.”
The AI’s voice faded, and Luna reached up and gently massaged her tender shoulder, trying to ease the steady throbbing.
“Stupid shoulder,” she muttered, seating herself on the cot. It had taken every ounce of strength she had to keep from screaming while she’d fumbled with the shirt, but at least she hadn’t needed Ben to dress her, too.
A light knock at the door drew Luna’s attention, and she hastily wiped away the tears still lingering in her eyes. She cleared her throat, “Yeah. Come in.”
The door creaked and swung open on rusty hinges, and Ben entered the room.
She eyed him warily, still not entirely sure whether or not he was trustworthy. If he so much as twitched the wrong way, she planned on using all her weight to tackle him and then make a run for the door. However, her plan didn’t extend much further than that, and even then she wasn’t exactly sure that her petite one hundred and fifteen pound body could even do anything to someone as tall as Ben.
“How are you feeling?” Ben asked. He had removed his armored mask and most of his weapons now, so Luna was able to get a good look at his features. He was young—far younger than she’d thought. Maybe only a year or two older than she was.
“I’m okay,” she replied, looking into his gentle brown eyes. “Not good, but not too bad either.”
“That’s good to hear, considering what you went through. I gave you a couple shots of bio-aid about an hour ago, so that should take care of most of the minor stuff. But your shoulder was so messed up that there wasn’t much I could do about it except pop it back into place and inject it full of painkillers.”
“So … I suppose you’ve probably got a lot of questions for me,” Ben continued, running a pale hand through his tousled brown hair.
Luna nodded. “Yes, I do. First of all I want to know where we are.”
“Fair enough,” Ben said with a nod, “but before I tell you anything, I’d like to know your name. If I recall correctly, I already told you mine, but you never returned the favor.”
It wasn’t like I had much of a choice. I was drugged.
“Fine. My name is Luna,” she said reluctantly.
“Nice to meet you.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall. “All right, Now that that’s out of the way, I guess I can answer your question. You’re on board the
Second Wind.
She’s an old ferry I salvaged up north about seven years back. Ever since then she’s been home sweet home for Ed and me.”
“Indeed she has,” the AI cut in. “Without her circuitry I’d be forever trapped inside Master Ben’s chestplate—which is not at all a pleasant thought.”
“And would you mind telling me what’s
wrong
with my chestplate?” Ben replied hotly.