Dominant Species Volume Two -- Edge Effects (Dominant Species Series) (7 page)

“That’s better.”

“That’s about as far from view as I can put them,” he grinned. “If
you can’t get to them there without being seen, I don’t want you as a partner.”
Eddie smiled.

It was a good thing he did. It was just a little like a smartass
remark. Geary didn’t like smart assed remarks from cocky smartasses.

That night, Geary waited far into the night before heading for
the warehouse. It started to rain and the thunder and lightning were
relentless. Before he got halfway there, he was soaked through and his thick
cotton clothing was heavy with rainwater. Geary was sure the rain would keep
the guard in his shack all night.

He’d brought a satchel with a shoulder strap on it to carry the
booty. He didn’t think there would be a whole ten kilos, but you never knew.

He stopped behind a small backhoe about a hundred meters from the
platform and took a look through binoculars at the target and the surrounding
area. He could see the guard shack on the far side and true to form, the guard,
sound asleep, was sitting there with his feet up and his head tilted back.
Geary could almost hear him snoring. He watched as a particularly loud blast of
thunder woke the guard, then watched as the lazy bastard cast an idle glance
over the warehouse. He was soon asleep again.

He located the containers on the edge of the platform and scanned
the area around them just to be on the safe side.

Nothing.

He moved away from the backhoe at a tangent until a high stack of
containers on the platform obscured him from the guard shack completely. Then
he changed direction and started straight for the target.

The containers weren’t locked; they never were unless the goods
inside were something like copper wire or power tools. He lifted the lid on the
nearest one. He wasn’t prepared for the number of kits. There were maybe a
hundred of them packed neatly inside. He liked things neat. He grabbed one of
the bags and opened it. It took him just a second to find the bottle of Xerc.
He plucked it from the straps and deposited it in the bag, then closed the kit
and put it back in place. His quick, skinny hands processed the next one in
half the time.

In less than an hour, he’d harvested every last bottle of
painkiller from the kits.

He pulled the locator from his pocket, turned it on and found the
direction to the drums with a quick sweep back and forth. He’d be taking a new
way in from where he was, but that was all right; the route might even be
shorter.

The rain came down in sheets and lightning cast staccato shadows
in the jungle as he worked his way through. He was soaked to the bone, and the
wet material of his pants legs clung to him as he moved, making it difficult to
step over the fallen trees and branches.

He stopped and took a reading on the locator. The distance seemed
a little too far yet; but from the angle he was coming in, it was hard to tell.

Lightning flashed and something moved in a quick jerk of dark
motion at the edge of his peripheral vision. He watched for a second, but saw
nothing more. His mind went back to the black thing he’d seen in the cave. He
moved on.

Another flash strobed, and the jungle around him burst into ragged
strokes of black and green.

The something moved again, and before he could focus on it, the
jungle blinked to darkness once more.

He raised the lamp and pressed the switch. The lamp flooded the
area in front of him with white light. As he moved the light around, the
shadows of branch, leaf and vine shifted in perfect synchronization, back and
forth.

He decided to keep the light on for a while.

The incline at the cave’s entrance was slippery, and he slid and
skied his way down, holding the lamp in one hand and grabbing at the plants
with the other to keep his balance. The floor of the cave had puddled with
water, and he had to slosh through it to get to the drums. The drums were in
the deepest part of the chamber, sitting in a pool of water. If the water had
been just a little deeper, he was sure the drums would have been floating. He
was beginning to think the cave wasn’t such a good idea after all. He could
feel the water squeezing through the seams of his already soaked boots.

He slogged over and opened the latch on one of the drums, lifted
the top off and turned the light into it.

Then he pulled a large plastic bag out of a pocket on the satchel
and transferred the bottles of Xerc into it by handfuls. He saved the last
bottle for himself and slipped it into his pants pocket for a little
celebration later.

He felt something against his ankle like a tickle and squirmed his
foot around in his boot to clear it. As he was securing the latch on the drum,
he felt another tickle on the sole of his other foot and wiggled that one away,
too.

He didn’t notice, as he walked under it, that the cluster of eggs
on the ceiling of the cave was now a mass of empty husks. He had no way of
knowing that some biological sensor in the eggs had waited for just this
particular rainstorm and that about an hour before he’d arrived, the ideal
conditions of temperature and humidity had been met. Somehow knowing that the
water under them had reached a sufficient depth, the eggs split open and
dripped their viscous and squirming contents into the pool below. By the time
Geary arrived, the cool, muddy water in the floor of the cave was teeming with
tens of thousands of near-microscopic larvae.

Getting back out of the cave took some doing, but he inched his
way up, keeping his feet splayed outward to maintain some grip.

It had stopped raining but distant lightning still lit the sky and
thunder rolled through the jungle in bone-rumbling waves. Sensing a lull in the
storm, the bugs came out in greater numbers than ever, flying at him and past
him, alighting on the net covering his face and neck.

“That’s zylon netting you bastards,” he said to them. “Try to get
through
that.”

He squirmed his toes against another tickle. He couldn’t wait to
get his wet boots off.

The light was on in the kitchen of the shelter when he got back.

It had to be Burkett. He’d have to vary his schedule to work
around that little late-night eating problem of his. He didn’t want to be caught
coming in at night too often by the dumb bastard. There was nothing to do this
time but walk in and act
like
everything was normal.

Soaked to the bone, he did just that.

Sure enough, Burkett was sitting there in his underwear, hunched
over a platter of meat and potatoes.

“You been out in this mess?” Burkett mumbled through his food.

“I like it. You got a problem with that?” Geary asked, stepping
out of the net suit.

“Nope. Guess I don’t.”

“Good.”

He got cleaned up, and by the time he came back out of his room,
Burkett had gone back to his. He made himself a platter, took it back to his
room and ate it quickly; it wasn’t a good idea to take Xerc on an empty
stomach.

Time to celebrate.

He took out two tabs and, using the flat bottom of a plastic cup,
ground them into powder against the edge of the sink. He scooped the Xerc into
the cup, ran some water in it and swished it around to dissolve it.

He downed it in one gulp.

He headed for the bed and was barely able to turn on his alarm
before it hit him.

The large dose of dissolved Xerc flooded his system with a warm
gush of pure bliss. The surge of euphoria pulled him down on the bed like a
corpulent lover. He rolled on his back and stared up, mouth agape, adrift in a
state of perfect ecstasy, in need of nothing.

He slept a deep non-sleep.

His feet were swollen and painful the next morning, so much so he
could barely get his boots on. When he walked, it felt as if the bones in his
ankles had been fused together, and he high-stepped, his legs working
piston-like for the first few minutes. But, by the time he was ready to leave
for work, the joints in his feet had loosened up and the pain had subsided
somewhat.

Del Geary had no idea what could cause a condition like that. He
thought he must have sprained or twisted his ankles somehow climbing up out of
the cave.

He put the bottle of Xerc in his shirt pocket just in case he
needed some later. You never knew.