Catalyst (Breakthrough Book 3) (37 page)

86

Caesare finally stopped and scanned the area around him.  A large hill climbed to the right and he caught a glimpse of movement just before he saw the muzzle flashes.  Bullets ripped past him and he dove to the ground, rolling behind a group of small trees.  He came to a stop on both elbows and fired back between the narrow trunks. 

Two more rounds tore into the tree just above his head, after more muzzle flashes.  He fired back, estimating where the outline of the shooter would be, and everything fell silent.

DeeAnn stopped when she heard the shots behind her.  After it went quiet, she turned and called forward again.  “Dulce!”  She stumbled forward in the darkness, listening for the gorilla to answer again.

Here.  Come.

There was a slight echo, and DeeAnn looked down to realize that she was standing on a pile of rocks.  She leaned forward, placing a hand on the slope in front of her.  Under the moonlight she could see a dark opening in the wall, eerily resembling a gaping mouth.  “Dulce, are you in there?”

Yes.  Come.

She stumbled forward to the entrance and found the first several feet into the cave illuminated by the moonlight overhead.  She shook her head and mumbled under her breath.  “This feels like a really bad idea.”

She stepped slowly into the darkness, trying to keep her balance over the uneven ground.   Unable to see beyond the glow of her vest, she stopped again and stared forward, letting her eyes adjust.

“Dulce?”

The small gorilla emerged from the darkness in front of her. 
Me here.

She took DeeAnn’s hand and pulled her deeper inside.  Together, they walked forward, the vest’s blue glow giving her an eerie feeling.

“Did you find Dexter?”

Yes.  Me find friend.

DeeAnn squinted, still trying to see, as Dulce pulled her deeper into the cave.  After perhaps fifty more feet, she stopped when something emerged out of the blackness.  She gasped. 

Standing in front of them was the small capuchin, covered with bright gray fur.  He remained still, watching them in the damp coolness of the cave.

But it was another image that most surprised DeeAnn.  Another monkey standing behind Dexter.  She stepped forward to get a better look with the tiny vest light, and her eyes suddenly widened.  There wasn’t just one monkey behind Dexter, there were several.  Dozens.  All standing together.

Ever so slowly, DeeAnn turned, shining her light in different directions to find more, all sitting calmly along the walls of the cave.  All with gray hair and even a few with white.

But it was what she saw next that caused her mouth to fall completely open.  Drawn on the inside of the walls were lines…and shapes.  Crude, but easily recognizable as circles and lines.

“Oh my God,” DeeAnn whispered.  Her vest made a loud buzz.  She covered her mouth and continued shaking her head in disbelief.

“Oh my God, indeed,” a woman’s voice said behind her.

DeeAnn whirled around to find three silhouettes standing in the entrance, backlit from the moonlight.

“Who are you?”

One of the figures approached.  She stepped close enough for the blue light to show her face.  Her Portuguese accent was thick.  “My name is Marie Becca.”

“What do you want?”

Becca ignored the question, her eyes panning the wall, then falling onto Dexter in amazement.  “My God, it’s true.” 

DeeAnn stepped between them.  “What do you
want
?”

The other woman smiled with an air of condescension.  “I’m here for the same reason you are.” She then looked past Dexter to the others.  “An evolutionary wonder that no one else has ever seen.”  She shook her head incredulously.  “But I never thought it would be true.”

DeeAnn’s face hardened.  “Leave them alone.”

Becca nearly laughed.  “Leave them alone?  Are you serious?  Don’t you understand what this means?”

“I know exactly what it means.  But you’re not going to take them.  Any of them.”

Becca’s eyes returned to DeeAnn’s as if seeing her for the first time.  Hearing another loud buzz, she lowered her gaze and studied the strange vest with the blue light.  “What is that?”

DeeAnn instinctively turned it off.  “It’s none of your business.”  At once, the light went off, causing them all to disappear into the darkness.

Moments later a red flare burst into light, revealing both men standing behind Becca, one holding the flame over his head.  More of the cave came alive, revealing even more capuchins.

Both women gasped nearly in unison.  The cave continued for quite a distance, extending deep into the mountain.  About twenty yards back, they noticed something remarkable on the floor.  It was a large area ringed by stones.  In the middle were several small piles of leaves, layered with taller sticks leaning over them.  It didn’t look like much, but the women studied it with astonishment.  The monkeys were trying to create fire with piles similar to those they had seen from humans.  They still didn’t understand how to make it happen, but they were trying.

Out of the corner of her eye, DeeAnn saw Becca withdraw a small tranquilizer pistol from behind her back and point it at a nearby monkey –– one covered in white fur.

“No!”  In a split second, her instincts kicked in and she lunged for the other woman, trying to knock the pistol out of her hand.  The two fell to the ground, causing the gun to fire, and a dart ricocheted off the cave wall.

DeeAnn clawed for the gun, trying to wrestle it from Becca’s hand.  But the taller woman fought back, striking DeeAnn in the face with her fist. 

Becca rose onto a knee and tried to aim again, but DeeAnn quickly pushed forward, knocking her back down.

Before she could lunge again, one of the soldiers stepped forward and pushed a heavy boot against DeeAnn’s back, pinning her in place while Becca returned to her feet.  Not bothering to brush herself off, the Brazilian repointed her gun and fired a dart into the chest of the monkey at close range.

The monkey screamed and clawed at the dart, pulling it out.  At the same time, the other capuchins surged forward trying to protect him.  But within seconds its movements began to slow.

Forcefully, Becca pushed through the troops, grasped one of the monkey’s flailing arms and pulled it off its feet.  She immediately jumped back behind the two soldiers for protection.

Becca lifted the monkey and examined her prize as it went decidedly limp, dangling from her hand.  She looked at DeeAnn on the ground and smiled.  “I win.”

Those were the last words spoken before Becca, followed by both men, turned back to the mouth of the cave and disappeared into the night.

By the time Steve Caesare arrived, it was too late.  His flashlight searched the cave floor and walls until he spotted DeeAnn leaning against a rock.  Next to her was Dulce, and both were surrounded by the capuchins.  He slowed and studied DeeAnn, who was holding one of her arms.

“You okay?”

“I will be.  I had a run-in with our Brazilian friends.”

“What happened?”

“I tried to stop them from taking one of the monkeys and lost.”

Caesare tucked his light under an arm and bent down to examine her.  He checked her arm and it didn’t feel broken.  He shone his light around them, scanning the inside of the cave.  “What is this place?”

Despite her injured arm and some scrapes on her face, she managed to reach down and turn the vest back on.  “I’m not sure.”  Once the blue light appeared, DeeAnn grinned.  “What do you say we find out?”

87

Just twenty-five percent below Mach One, the Chinese Y-20 cargo plane thundered over the southeastern border of Venezuela and headed directly for the Acarai Mountains.

At fifteen minutes out, two crewmen began unlatching the straps holding the giant bomb in place.  They then used the hold’s loading assembly to slowly roll it back to the edge of the aft ramp, securing two heavy chains to each side.

Once in position, one of the crewmen picked up the phone on the wall and spoke loudly over the Y-20’s powerful turbofan engines.  After a pause, he replaced the phone and closed the metal cover.

It took less than thirty seconds for the bomb’s panel to light up and begin its remote programming.

Seven minutes later, the giant aircraft approached the Acarai summit, hidden thousands of feet below in the pitch-black jungle.  The plane gently increased its pitch and began a slow upward climb.

Inside, the crewmen attached one final powerful cable to the device, with an electronic release in the middle nearly the size of a bowling ball.  They promptly removed the side chains and moved further up the cargo bay’s wall, attaching themselves to nylon safety lines.

There they waited, watching the wall until a bright green light signaled their position.

One of the men looked to the other, who nodded back.  He then opened the clear cover and slammed his hand down on the giant button.

Overhead, several red flashing lights filled the cargo bay, accompanied by a loud siren, as the ramp door disengaged and began to lower.  The bomb slid backward toward the tail of the plane until it was halted by the thick cable.

It took two full minutes for the ramp door to fully open and provide a smooth path out the rear of the plane.

Then at last, when over their target, the strap disconnected.  The long, elliptically-shaped bomb abruptly accelerated, leaving the ramp and disappearing into the night.

The Russian thermobaric bomb detonated at one thousand feet above the Acarai peak, releasing a brilliant orange mushroom cloud into the dark sky, along with a supersonic shockwave hot enough to evaporate solid rock.

88

A jolt from the truck’s old suspension shook John Clay from his unconscious state.  His head rocked side to side from the continual shaking of the bumpy road, making it hard to focus.  He could hear rocks pelting the inside of the wheel wells, indicating a rapid speed over a dirt road.

His eyes closed again for a moment before he was able to find the strength to force them back open.  As the light began to sharpen, he tilted his head to see what appeared to be the dark shape of the driver against the bright front windshield.  A second person was ahead of him in the passenger seat.

His next sensation was the pain.  Every part of his body screamed out from under a thick wool blanket which covered all but his face.  He tried to move but couldn’t.  Not anything.  Instead, he tried his mouth and managed a slight whisper.

On his third attempt, the passenger turned around and looked down at him.

“You’re awake.”

Clay fought to make his lips move again.

“Don’t talk, save your energy.”

The driver glanced over his shoulder at Clay and quickly turned back to the road.

A severe dip sent a wave of pain through Clay’s limbs, causing him to moan.

“Hang in there, man.  We’re all trying to get you out of here.”

“W-what happened?” Clay whispered.

The Chinese passenger shrugged.  “Hell if we know.  Someone at the agency hit the panic button.  Instructions are to find you and then get the hell out.”

Clay blinked slowly.  His memory was a jumble of images and he was struggling to put them in order.

“Where’s Li Na?”

The other man looked at the driver before replying.  “We don’t know.  She escaped and disappeared into the forest before we could stop her.”

Clay shook his head.  He could see the girl’s face, frightened and alone.  “Stop.”

“What?”

“Stop the car.”

“Sorry, can’t do that.  We have to get out of the country.  There’s a team waiting for us in Huludao.”

Clay shook his head.  “We have to go back.”

The driver abruptly pulled the truck over to a stop.  He twisted around in his seat and Clay recognized him from Qin’s team.  “Look, I don’t think you understand what’s happened here.  A lot of covers just got blown to find you.  Agents who can now be traced to a lot of others all over this region.”

The second agent in the passenger’s seat nodded in agreement.  “Our only priorities are you and this case.”  He held up the metal case.

Clay managed to angle his head and stare at it.  “Did you open it?”

The agent lowered it.  “Nope.  Not authorized.”

Clay’s memories were coming back.  “Check the case.”

“Sorry.  I can’t do it.  Our instructions are to get you, and this thing,
out
.”

“Listen to me,” Clay said louder.  “We have to go back.”

The driver shook his head and put the truck back into gear.  “I think you got hit one too many times in the head.”

Clay gritted his teeth in pain and took a deep breath.  “If you won’t go back, then at least check the goddamn case!”

The agents both looked at each other.  The second agent reached down and brought the case back up.  After contemplating, he turned it sideways and opened the clasps, pulling the cool metal case open.  He stared inside before turning it for the driver to see.

It was empty.