Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) (11 page)

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to be off my feet. I rolled onto
my side and pressed my ear to the dirt. A low rumbling…coming from the
northeast. “Will, you hear that?”

“No, but I feel it.”

I stood. “Major, how long until totality?”

He checked his watch. “Ten minutes.”

“Close enough. We need to go.”

Will sprang up, calling for Johnson and Nguyen, while I
gathered Lanningham, Blakeney and Dorland together. Dorland was toting two
rifle-mounted grenade launchers. He patted one on the stock and said, “I’m
bringing the party with us.”

“Amen to that.” I turned, looking for Mike and was startled
to see my Dad with him. We hadn’t talked much since I chewed him out that night,
and things were so strained between us I hadn’t felt comfortable asking him any
questions about his past or family.

I could worry about all that later. After we finished the
job here.

“I’ll take point, if you’ll watch our backs,” Will said.

I nodded and he jogged toward the staging area. The rest of
the group followed, with me and Uncle Mike taking the rear. The night was going
quiet. This had happened last time, too. The wind died down and there weren’t
any small creatures darting through the dark. It felt like the world was
waiting.

When we arrived, the Humvees had been parked to form a tight
semi-circle, pointed northeast. “So why’d you pick this place?” I asked Uncle
Mike.

“Look and tell me.”

We were on a flat plain that sloped downhill toward the northeast,
the direction all the tracks had come from so far. The ground grew rockier
farther out, and I imagined it’d be hard for anyone—even a monster—to maintain
good footing if they were running. A thin crevice snaked across the plain,
cutting us off from the other side. “A river bed?”

“It’s about six feet wide and three feet deep. We’re lucky
we were already on this side of it when we drove this way.”

“They’ll be able to jump that easy,” I said, worried he was
underestimating things.

“Wait and see,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Until the
monsters cross that line, you and Cruessan stay under cover with the rest of
us. I’ll let you know when it’s safe for you to run downrange, got it?”

“Sir, yes sir,” we said.

“Totality in two minutes,” Lanningham called. He’d taken up
residence in the firing seat of one of the Humvees, manning one of our huge
M240 machine guns. Nguyen had the other one. Two of the colonel’s guys were
handling the grenade launchers. I searched for Blakeney and found him
under
a truck, prone and aiming a very large rifle down the plain.

“Where is Dad going to be?” I asked Mike quietly. Once we’d
gotten here, he had squeezed my shoulder, murmuring, “be careful,” then had
disappeared.

Mike’s eyebrow twitched again. He really needed to get that
looked at. “See that tree?”

Eighty yards to the east, a lone tree stood with its bare
branches pointed up at the moon. A slightly deeper shadow was nestled in the
fork between a branch and the trunk.

“Trees don’t usually work out for us,” I said. “Right,
Will?”

“Yeah, we had bad luck with trees in Montana.”

“Now that Julie’s gone, Erik is our best shot. He’s an
exceptional long range shooter.”

Something about the way he said that made a connection. Dad
said he was beyond redemption… “Was he a sniper?”

Mike sighed. “Among other things.”

“Thirty seconds,” Colonel Black said from the center of the
Humvee shield. “All quiet.”

The only sounds now came from the rapid breathing of nervous
men, the crunch of dirt under boots and the metallic pop of a vehicle cooling
down in the night air.

Will tapped me on the shoulder and mouthed. “My eyes?”

“Turning orange,” I mouthed back. “Mine?”

He nodded. The eclipse had entered totality. It was time.

I drew my knife from its thigh sheath. The smooth handle fit
in my hand like nothing else did. Once, a lifetime ago, it had felt utterly
foreign; now it was part of me.

A howl echoed in the distance, and it was answered in kind.

They come
, Tink whispered.

The howls came again, lonely and high-pitched, a desperate
sound.

Will tapped me again and dared a whisper. “Doesn’t sound
like Dingoes, does it?”

I let my eyelids drop closed and scented the wind. “Doesn’t
smell like them, either, but the scent’s familiar.”

“Yeah—the giant porcupines are back,” Will muttered. “Isn’t
that great...those bastards are hard to kill.”

A different kind of screech started up and added to the
train-wreck of noise. These were tinny, with a hint of a hiss, like nothing I’d
heard before.

“What is
that?
” Uncle Mike muttered.

“Something new, I’d guess,” I said. “Will, you take the
right, I’ll take the left. I have a feeling we’re gonna be pretty busy.”

A scary smile spread across his face. “Don’t forget the
bet.”

“Incoming!” Dorland called. He was watching the field
through his scope. “We got more of those quill-things and…sweet mother of
mercy!”

“Call it out, Sergeant,” the colonel said.

“Sir, there are seven…no nine quill-monsters and thirteen,
um…” He lowered his scope and gave me a wild glance. “If I said there were
giant spiders out there, would you think I was crazy?”

“Not in the least.” I drifted to the side of the Humvees. My
enhanced vision let me see across the plain. A group of shadows milled just
past the river bed. I couldn’t see details, but Dorland’s count made sense.
We’d killed off four Quill’s in that fight right after we set up camp. These
could be the remainder of that pack of thirteen…and they brought friends.

I hated spiders.

The screeches and howls went silent. “Here they come.”

Uncle Mike ran to Yancy, who was standing in the middle of
the group, holding a black box. “Dorland, count it off.”

“Sixty yards from the river. Forty.”

My fist tightened around the knife handle. If they made this
jump, I had to be ready to run.

“Twenty, ten…”

Yancy flipped some switches and dials lit up on the box.

“Now!”

Yancy punched a button and fire exploded across the sky. The
ground shuddered under our feet. Two more explosions followed, sending up a
spray of dirt made visible by burning scrub brush. So that’s what Mike meant by
“wait and see.” An ambush. Well played.

“Report,” the colonel barked.

“Too much smoke in the air, sir. The night-vision is lit up
like a Christmas tree.” Dorland refocused his scope and long seconds went by. I
was just about to suggest Will and I go check it out when Dorland said, “Sir!
No movement.”

“They’re gone?” Will asked. “There’s no way they’re gone.”

“No, it’s never this easy.” A creepy feeling crawled down my
back. “Something’s wrong.”

“Still no movement, sir,” Dorland reported. “It appears the
enemy was eliminated.”

Some of the colonel’s guys looked around like “I told you
they were crazy.”

One of them trotted over to the edge of the Humvee barrier
and peered around it.

A shot cracked in the distance. A muzzle flash briefly lit
up Dad’s face in his tree as he fired again.

Behind us.

Scrabbling across the plain were a mob of….yeah, they were
giant spiders. “Anybody know anything about the kinds of spiders in the
Outback? I need details. Now!”

Leave it to Davis to know: “The Red-Back is one of the most
venomous in the world.  They’re black with a red stripe on the back.”

I squinted. No way I could make out color with my night
vision, but they did have a lighter stripe across their bodies. Great.
Just…awesome.

They came in a line, and a crowd of porcupines ran along
with them.

“How many?” I shouted. No need to be quiet now.

“Thirteen spiders and…thirteen Quills,” Dorland said.

A new gang—just who was doing the ambushing tonight?

“Check your twelve o’clock,” Uncle Mike yelled over the yips
and howls coming from the mob closing in on us.

Dorland whirled around and refocused his scope to the
northeast. “Sir, it appears three Quills and six Spiders survived the blast.
They’re making their way across the plain.”

“ETA,” the colonel said.

“The group coming from the river is having a hard time with
the rocks. Looks like most of them have been injured in some way, but they’re
still coming. I give it three, maybe four minutes? The other group? Sixty
seconds.”

“We gotta go,” I told Will. “Major? We’ll take the big
group. Could you see if ordinance can slow the other ones down?”

“Rockets, ready on my command,” the colonel barked before
Uncle Mike could answer.

Will and I tore out of the staging area and I silently
begged Tink to make me fast, to make me unstoppable. “Make me death.”

You already are. Now go!

With a screeching war-cry, I dove headfirst into a group of
a half-dozen Quills and Spiders.

The Spiders didn’t stop to engage. No, they ran right past
me and Will both, headed southwest.

Toward Norseman.

“Will! They’re not stopping!”

He jumped and slammed his knife into a Quill’s back. “Go!
I’ll finish this group.”

Not waiting to ask if he needed my help, I turned and ran.
The Spiders were faster, though, scrambling across the rough ground with ease
on their eight legs.

“They’re getting away,” I snarled, running as hard as I
could to catch up.

Tink growled in my head.
Not this time.

My brain went white-hot and my legs pumped with inhuman
speed. Slowly we gained on the Spiders, while Tink cried battle in my head.

We caught up with the stragglers and I hopped onto the
nearest Spider’s back, slashing its hard shell. Ooze spurted out of the hole
and the monster let out a high-pitched squeal before tumbling to the ground,
taking me with it.

I rolled to regain my footing—to find the group had moved
on. It was like this pack of Spiders had a single mission, to make a break for
more populated areas. I had no idea how to stop them other than chasing every
last one down, but that left the rest of my team exposed.

A shot cracked loud across the plain, followed by a squeak
of pain. I yanked my knife free and whirled around. One of the Spiders dropped
and curled up with its legs in the air. Another shot rang out and a second
Spider fell.

I was a good half-mile from the team…which meant someone was
a hell of a shot.

When another bullet caught a third Spider, the whole pack
slowed and turned to face me. The leader, with fangs that jutted past its
bottom jaw, opened its mouth and hissed. Thick liquid dripped from the fangs
and crackled when it hit the dirt.

Acidic venom. Fun.

Now the rest of the Spiders were creeping back toward me.
Maybe they finally realized I was too big a prize to pass up.

I ran to the downed Spiders to dispatch them before they
recovered from the bullet. Two were still alive when I got there, but the third
was dead. A head shot had killed it. Not believing my luck, I backed down the
plain twenty yards, leading the other Spiders closer to the sniper’s line of
fire. I turned to face the tree, hoping Dad could see me. Because that had to
be who was shooting—and if I was right, he was a
better
shot than Aunt
Julie.

Thinking fast, I mimed shooting a rifle and pointed at my
head. I only had time to do it twice before the Spider pack was on me. The
leader turned its back and shot a wad of sticky web right at my face. I ducked,
but some of it hit my ear and the other Spiders followed its lead. Enclosing me
in a circle, they fired wad after wad of webbing right at me. Tink helped me
spin and whirl to avoid most of it, but it was a battle of attrition—they had
more webbing than I could dodge, and there was no way for me to fight my way
out.

A big string wrapped around my legs, locking them together
and I toppled over. Two of the Spiders took this as an opportunity and rushed
me. Not thinking, I tried to pull the web loose with my free hand…and it stuck.

Use the knife!
Tink sounded so annoyed, it almost
made me laugh in hysteria.

I cut my hand free, then my legs, and swung the blade up in
time to lop the head off the nearest Spider bearing down on me. I rolled just
as the other one snapped its fangs at my throat. It missed by inches and I
scrambled around, slashing it down one side of its body.

More shots rang out in rapid succession. Three more Spiders
went down—all head shots. Sending a prayer of thanks that my dad was deadly
with a rifle, I used the confusion to cut my way through two more Spiders.

That left the leader and one of its friends. Before I could
even close in, Dad shot the follower. I hesitated, wondering if he’d shoot the
leader, but the follow up never came.

The leader gurgled a laugh. “Seems the mad gunman is busy.
Just you and me, eh?”

Its voice was rusty, like an old hag’s, and hate burned in
the Spider’s eyes as it advanced on me. I clenched the knife handle tighter and
glared right back. “As if I needed backup to deal with you.”

We circled one another. In truth, I wasn’t sure how to
approach it without getting webbed or sprayed with acid-venom. So I kept it
talking to buy time. “Where were you going, by the way? Kind of cowardly to
leave your friends to fight the crowd back there.”

“Orders are orders, no matter who you obey—spirit or
otherwise,” the Spider answered. “We had a package to retrieve. A very bad
girl.”

Carrie. They were after Carrie. “And once you had her, then
what?”

It laughed again, flinging venom in a wide arc and I
skittered back to avoid the spray. “Whatever we wanted, human. Blood, for the
most part.”

“That’s what your kind always wants,” I growled. I knew
enough—and I needed to get back. I turned and ran, pretending I was heading for
the team, hoping the Spider would follow.

Lucky me—it did. Carrie must’ve been forgotten now that its
buddies were dead. Once we built up a good head of steam, and it had nearly
caught up with me, I stopped short and dove to the side. As it barreled past,
trying to turn, I hacked off half its legs. It teetered, then fell.

Whether it was Tink’s rage, or mine, didn’t matter. I stood
over the wounded beast, even as it spit curses at me in both its own language
and mine.

“You were built on lies and dead children,” I growled. “And
I can’t let that stand.”

Then I plunged the knife into its belly.

The hateful light in its eyes died. Panting, I pulled my
knife free and cleaned it on my pants. There was no time to recover, though.
Shouts came from the guys standing their ground around the Humvees and I took
off running. Shadowed shapes, human and monster, struggled in the weak
headlights. Dad was shooting again, but from the muzzle flash, it looked like
he was taking out the monsters who had tried to cross the river bed, not the
group actively attacking the rest of the team.

I ran harder, covering the distance at a rate only Tink
could achieve, but by the time I got to them, a Quill had Yancy. I threw my
knife on the run and it drove through the thing’s forehead, but I was too late.
Yancy was so full of puncture wounds, he was dead before the monster’s body hit
the dirt.

Fury thrummed through me. Johnson was busy directing the
fight downrange, while the colonel and Uncle Mike shouted orders to fend off
the monsters that had already broken through. Lanningham was dousing every
Quill in his immediate vicinity with the flamethrower. That was doing some
damage, but it wasn’t enough to stop them and one barreled into a few of the
colonel’s men, lighting them on fire, too. I sprinted to pull my knife free of
the Quill and raced around, putting down as many wounded monsters as I could
before they burned everyone up.

Will swooped in with a crazy-man yell and helped me finish
off the pack. Momentarily without a task, I stopped to catch my breath. “That’s
it?”

“Except for the ones out there, and I think Officer Archer’s
put down a few of those,” he said, pointing down the rocky plain. “I took a
headcount. We got all of these. You take care of the Spiders?”

“Yeah. They were headed for Norseman.” I checked the moon;
it was the color of a new penny. Will’s eyes were still orange, too. “Anybody
know what time it is?”

“We’re twenty-three minutes in. Forty minutes to go,” Uncle
Mike said.

Tink stirred in my head.
West! West!

I didn’t have to look—the hairs on the back of my neck were
standing straight out—but I did anyway. With my weird night vision, all I could
make out were silvery blobs topping a small hill in the distance. They were
closing fast.

“Incoming! Looks like more Quills and some Dingoes this
time, sir!” Everyone’s head turned west and low murmurs of disbelief rippled
through the company. The sour smell of fear was rank to my over-sensitive nose.

“Dorland!” the colonel said. “Throw everything you’ve got.”

“Sir, yes sir,” Dorland answered, giving the other group of
monsters a wary look.

“We’ll deal with those.” I grabbed Will’s arm and led him to
the edge of the Humvee bank. “Just keep that big mob off of everyone until we
get back.”

“On it,” Dorland said before letting the first grenade fly.

As soon as it exploded, I took off across the rocky plain.
The straggling group of monsters out here were ragged and wounded. Grenades
hadn’t made much of a dent, but the C4 had done a decent enough job. One of the
Quills was dragging a leg, and the others were moving pretty slow. There
weren’t any Spiders left. Dad must’ve seen to that. When I had some time, I’d
thank my lucky stars we’d finally found monsters that weren’t bullet-proof.

Tink was struggling inside my head, trying to take control,
but I wasn’t ready to let her have the wheel yet. With that big group coming
in, I needed to keep her in check so she’d be pissed enough to turn me psycho
when we needed it most. “Hold that thought, Tink. Let me clean these out
first.”