The Ancient Breed (17 page)

Lisa turned and looked in the rear cargo area.

“Wow!”

“I told them to stock this baby for a muddy exploration and a full-scale war. One can never be too well prepared,” Nick smiled.

“I guess!”

Chest waders, inflatable mud shoes, night-vision goggles, six-packs of power drinks, cases of canned and dry food, blankets, the biggest first aid kit she ever saw, and other objects she didn’t recognize were neatly stacked by the rear door; but what startled her the most was the cache of munitions lying in open wooden crates. There were large and small machine guns, mortars, ammunition clips, shotguns and shells, hand grenades, and even a rocket launcher.

She turned back around. “Everything we need for a romantic picnic in the country,” she said facetiously.

He smiled. “Just a few surprises for that demon guardian if he shows his ugly puss tonight.”

Lisa rifled through her purse and pulled out a can of mosquito repellent. “I think a can of this demon spray would’ve been quite enough,” she quipped.

Nick laughed. “They should’ve let a woman pack the Rover.”

The humorous banter eased their trepidation as they sped around the congested tourist traffic. The demon guardian was not a laughing matter, but they couldn’t allow paralyzing fear to rule their emotions and actions. They would need clear minds if the supernatural killer dropped in for a surprise visit.

The Sikorsky S-76A corporate helicopter touched down by the cavernous hole. Grant Donovan and Tobias Simpkins ducked their heads below the whirling blades as they disembarked and plodded through the muck to the exposed structure six feet below the surface. Grant scowled at his partner.

“God, this muck stinks,” he griped, holding his nose.

“A small price to pay for eternal youth,” Tobias retorted.

“We finally found Tobhor’s place.” Grant’s celebratory tone was reduced to a nasal twang in the stifling humidity.

Tobias smiled. “It’s been what – four thousand years since we’ve seen it?” he asked as he examined the purplish-red stones with blue marbling that glistened beneath the powerful, artificial lighting.
They’re not of this world
, he thought.

The two executives climbed down the same mud-slick ladders that the pureblood workers used to descend into the pit and clean the last mud daubs from the mysterious structure.

“Which direction’s south?” Tobias called up to the team leader.

The team leader glanced at his wrist compass and pointed out the answer. The old man stooped before the south wall and muttered two words. Suddenly, an opening appeared in the solid stone. The workers gasped and spoke excitedly among themselves.

“What did you say to make it open like that?” Grant whispered.

“The magic words.”

“How’d you know them? I don’t remember anything about Tobhor having magic words to open this place,” Grant asked.

“All you need is a little common sense, Grant.” Tobias grinned. “I just chanted
Alick Tobhor
, and presto, the entrance appeared. After all, he built this little fortress.”

“I’ll be damned,” Grant muttered, but with his sinuses plugged, it sounded more like a squeak.

Tobias looked up at the leader. “Man the pumps and order your men with the hoses to get down here immediately,” he commanded. He stared into the darkening sky and hoped they could recover the elixir before the Zyloux materialized.

Twilight deepened as Grandfather and Crow reappeared and stood on terra firma for only the second time since they left their Fort Myers motel room. During their wind walks, Crow had no sense of time or place. The magical, mystical journeys were akin to traveling in a timeless and sightless vacuum. The suddenness of their reemergence
somewhere
always startled and excited him.

They found themselves standing in ankle-deep mud in the center of a pasture. Long-horned cattle stood bunched beneath the umbrella-like branches of a solitary tree that sheltered them from the heavy showers. Grandfather and Crow had no such protection.

“Look at us, we’re drenched!” Crow exclaimed.

“You won’t melt, Grandson. Now, open your eyes and search for the great evil’s tracks. It stopped here before changing direction and heading south.”

“You think it’s going back to that construction site Lisa told us about?” Crow asked, as he wiped away the torrent streaming down his face. “Got any ideas on why the evil creature suddenly changed direction?”

“It could mean many things, Running Bear. It could mean that the terrorists and Blossom are dead. It could also mean that someone is defiling its home ground near Fort Myers,” he replied gravely.

“I just hope Blossom’s still alive.”

The old man appeared worried. “I hope the same, Running Bear.”

Crow’s stomach sank at the thought of Blossom dying at the hands of such a savage demon. He shook the horrible vision from his mind and searched for tracks in the direction of a narrow sand road. The wind howled and tree limbs groaned overhead as he trudged through the soft mud. Suddenly he stopped. There they were.

“I found its tracks!” Crow shouted.

Grandfather splashed through the flooded pasture to Crow’s side. He studied the deep, three-toed tracks for a long time before speaking. “I believe Blossom is still alive.”

“How do you figure?” Crow shouted above the storm’s din.

“I feel it here.” Grandfather doubled his hand into a fist and pounded his chest. “Because these ancient bones have never been wrong, and they tell me she is among the living!”

A smile curled Crow’s mouth. “Good! It looks like the thing’s footprints stop over there.”

They inspected the sandy road for more tracks, but they came up empty.

“Looks to me like it just flew away. Is that possible?”

“I doubt it. In what direction were the footprints heading?”

Crow pointed east. “That way.”

They scanned the thinly wooded landscape framing the soggy pastures and saw that the woods were dotted with dozens of ramshackle bungalows, single-wide trailers, and badly weathered outbuildings. The large lots were littered with junk cars, stacks of trash, and glassy puddles.

“We’ll never be able to check all those places tonight in this weather,” Crow said.

The old man nodded his agreement.

“I’ll phone Neo and have him bring the cavalry,” Crow suggested.

“Have him bring the
warriors
. We need warriors to fend off the great evil,” Grandfather corrected him.

“Yeah, right.
Warriors
.” Crow sheltered his sat phone beneath his shirt and speed-dialed Neo. If Grandfather was right about Blossom being alive, they had to find her before the demon returned.

Neo had only just arrived at Tampa’s downtown FBI headquarters and stomped the rain off his shoes when his sat phone rang. He recognized the number on his caller ID.

“Crow,” he said, “where the hell have you been all day?”

“There’s no time for explanations now. Just listen.” He hastily described their search for Blossom and the sudden disappearance of the killer creature in a rural region east of Tampa. Crow recited the names of the intersecting roads that marked their location.

“I need you to send as many agents as you can spare out here to canvas the area homes. Blossom’s close by. Grandfather and I can both feel it.” He paused to catch his breath. “But, Neo, you’ve got to hurry! We’re running out of time!”

“I’ll do what I can, but this is a political celebrity weekend in Tampa,” Neo said. He envisioned the protests from Tampa Bureau brass about the overtime costs and manpower drain from other important assignments. But, Neo would physically threaten them, if necessary, to get their skinflint asses off the dime to search for Crow’s niece.

“Is Nick in town yet?” Crow asked.

Neo swiftly told him Lisa and Nick’s plans.

“Holy buffalo chips! Now listen closely, this is very important. Get Nick on the phone and warn him that the demon is on its way back to that construction site. He’s got to get out of there!” Crow explained urgently.

“I’m on it,” Neo replied.

“And send those Tampa agents out here pronto!”

19

T

obias and Grant ordered the group leader and three of his armed men to lead the way down the steep, ominous staircase. Their flashlights illuminated the pristine walls and stone staircase as they descended into the quiet bowels of the mysterious structure.

The two Aspirations partners found the interior to be just the way they remembered it – arid and mildew-free, even buried in a swamp for thousands of years. Those were two of the magical properties of the Sphiryx stone from the other dimension - Klundze - Tobias and Grant’s previous world.

When a freak meteor shower assailed the Earth’s parallel dimension thousands of years ago, the fiery meteors somehow penetrated the energy fabric separating the two worlds, Earth and Klundze. The violent, explosive impacts from the raining meteors hurled many of the Klundze inhabitants, animals, plants, rocks, and stones into Earth’s dimension. Klundze’s inhabitants were divided into purebloods, destroyers, and mages. Tobias and Grant were destroyers who possessed enormous magical powers.

Tobias recalled his childhood when his late mother told him about the existence of parallel dimensions. “There are many dimensions in this world like there are rooms in this house. If you have the right key, you can move beyond the locked doors and explore other rooms. Our ancestors arrived from another room in Earth’s house, Klundze, that possessed the identical, geographical features.”

Of course, Tobias learned much more as he grew older and studied the ancient chronicles, but his mother’s explanation was enough to whet his boyhood appetite so that his adult mind devoured every available scrap of information concerning his people’s history.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Tobias once again focused on the present and told the others to switch off their flashlights. They fell silent as they witnessed the spectacular sight ahead.

A domed grotto towered above the men and bathed the room in a pure, white glow. A pool of crystalline water, its surface inches below the floor level, shimmered in the center of the vast underground room from a soft light emanating from its depths. A narrow stream of water cascaded from the dome’s apex and splashed into the pool, shattering its surface into blazing diamonds that cast prismatic rainbows into the gloom. The reverse fountain mesmerized the entire party.

“Get the hoses down here,” Grant said, breaking the reverent hush.

The leader spoke into his radiophone, but there was no response.

“I guess we’re out of range down here, sir,” he reported. “I’ll run up top and bring them down immediately.”

Grant nodded his approval as the leader ascended the stairs two at a time behind his bobbing flashlight beam. Under normal conditions, Grant would have stayed longer to search the area for clues to Tobhor’s elixir recipe, but it was far too risky with the Zyloux lurking nearby.

“The Zyloux’s on its way here,” Grant whispered to Tobias.

“I felt it, too,” he replied, alarm tingeing his words.

In less than two minutes, the purebloods responsible for pumping the elixir from the fountain arrived and thrust a pair of broad hoses into the pool just as the surface pumps began sucking the elixir into the twin tanks beneath the Sikorsky S-64 Sky Crane.

Tobias tapped the anxious Grant on the shoulder. “It’s time for us to vamoose,” he warned.

The fountain of youth elixir disappeared quickly. The bottom of the pool was already in view.

“I want every drop of that eli . . . water!” Tobias shouted, before he and Grant hurried up the stairs.

Nick slowed the black Range Rover when he noticed the police cruiser parked sideways across the road.

“Strange,” Nick murmured.

“What?” Lisa asked nervously.

“The cops aren’t getting out of their car to chase us away. This doesn’t look right.” Nick parked the Rover close to the cruiser. “Stay here.”