The Bone Labyrinth (50 page)

Kowalski glanced around. The other beasts had frozen in place, apparently intimidated by their alpha being so stunned. The silverback dropped to a hip, weaving in a struggle to stay up. Only then did Kowalski note the bloom of red feathers sticking out of the silverback’s rump.

He glanced to Maria. Had she managed to nail the bastard after all? But she looked equally shocked.

She shouted down to him and pointed toward the steel door. “Run! One dart’s not enough to knock it out!”

12:16 p.m.

Maria realized what must have happened. Earlier, she had never found the tranquilizer dart she had dropped on the floor. She now understood what had become of it.

Before Baako had leapt into the Ark, he must have snatched the abandoned needle. Back in Lawrenceville, she had taught him about tranquilizer guns, as they were used as a common means of restraint at the primate center. She had wanted him to understand that the animals incapacitated in such a manner were not dead, but only sleeping.

Still, she was never sure how much he had understood.

Apparently it was enough
.

Below, the silverback continued to totter, struggling to shake off the sedative’s effect.

Taking advantage of the situation, Kowalski and Baako took off toward the steel door that led out of the Ark. As they ran, the other gorillas began to stir, drawn by the motion, likely growing more confident with the silverback incapacitated.

She swung to the young nurse who had helped her before. “You have to get that door open for them.”

The nurse looked forlorn. “I cannot. Not from up here. Someone has to be down there and place their palm on the reader outside.”

And we’re all locked in here
.

With a sinking heart, she turned back to the window. Kowalski and Baako continued their flight for the door, drawing the hybrids after them.

But they’re going the wrong way
.

12:17
P
.
M
.

As Kowalski dove into the cage that enclosed the exit door, he heard his name shouted, in a voice full of urgency and fear. He glanced over his shoulder.

Maria called to him. “I can’t open the door from up here! You have to get back to me.”

Something tumbled out the window and unfurled along the rock wall.

A fire hose.

She clearly wanted them to climb out of here.

Easier said than done
.

Kowalski lowered his gaze to the growing wall of fur and muscle gathering outside the cage. There was no getting through that crowd. While he might be able to create enough of a distraction to allow Baako to make a break for it, he doubted the young gorilla would leave his side.

Baako tugged on Kowalski’s arm, drawing his attention. The gorilla splayed out his thumb and pinkie and thrust his hand down in a clear sign.

[
Stay
]

Before Kowalski could react, Baako bounded out of the cage and loped straight toward the herd. He favored one leg, but he still managed to leapfrog through the group at the last moment, agilely avoiding a few surprised attempts to grab him.

So much for not abandoning me
.

As the hybrids closed toward him, he tried tugging at the cage door, but it was locked in its tracks.

Then a fearsome bellow shook through the cavernous habitat, rising from that monstrous silverback.

Kowalski retreated to the steel door, consoled by one thought.

At least Baako got away.

12:18 p.m.

Baako drops the broken stone club and flees.

A breath ago, he had snatched the tool from the floor and crossed to the monster. He found its eyelids hanging low, its breathing deep. Without slowing, Baako had leaped and swung the length of rock with all the strength in his arms. The club had shattered across the ridge above those dull eyes, snapping them fully open again.

Earlier, he had wanted it to go to sleep; now he needs it awake.

A roar chases Baako across the floor again. Pain shoots up his right leg, so he runs on all fours, needing to go fast. The monster rages after him.

He flees not toward Mama . . . because Mama is safe from the monsters.Instead, he heads toward another member of his family.

Kowalski gritted his teeth, expecting the worst as he heard the silverback thundering again in his direction. He did not expect to see Baako suddenly vault over the wall of hybrids that held him trapped. The young gorilla hurtled past that group, struck the floor, and shot headlong into the cage.

Kowalski caught Baako in his arms, but the impact slammed him against the steel door, knocking the air from his lungs. Still, he hugged tightly to Baako.

Past the kid’s shoulder, the mass of gorilla hybrids shattered apart as the silverback burst through them like a freight train. Still dazed, the beast could not stop fast enough and crashed sidelong against the opening of the cave door.

Kowalski cringed from the impact of that mountain of flesh, fearing it might still crush them. Instead, the silverback’s bulk rebounded off the wall, bowling more of the hybrids out the way.

Baako grabbed Kowalski’s hand and tugged him toward the open doorway.

He understood.

Let’s get out of here while the getting is good.

They fled past the stunned bulk of the silverback and through the chaotic confusion of the others. But he knew such turmoil wouldn’t last forever.

He raced across the floor, ignoring the agony lancing from his left side.

When they reached the wall under the windows, Kowalski scooped Baako by the waist and tossed him onto the fire hose. Furry hands caught hold, but Baako glanced back, hooting his worry.

“Go! I’m right behind you!”

As proof, Kowalski grasped the hose and followed as Baako began climbing.

From three stories above, Maria called down at them. “Hurry! They’re coming!”

He didn’t bother to look. What good would it do? He hauled with his arms and dug with his toes. He envied Baako, who scampered up and reached Maria well ahead of him.

As Baako ducked through the window, Maria’s face appeared. He read the fear etched across her features, saw the urging in her eyes.

Hurry
.

12:19
P
.
M
.

As Maria watched, a score of the gorilla hybrids bounded toward them. Even the silverback rolled to its feet, bellowing and looking in their direction. Baako’s blow—followed by the chase and the impact against the wall—must have raised the creature’s blood pressure enough to shake off the sedative.

It began lumbering toward them, drawing stragglers in its massive wake. With the pack’s bloodlust spiked higher, several of the beasts began to attack one another, the larger creatures ripping into the smaller ones, demonstrating again the level of savagery inherited from their engineered genes.

By now Kowalski was halfway up the hose, but it wasn’t high enough.

Maria glanced to the row of steel boxes positioned below the arch of windows, remembering the nurse’s description of the electrical barrier coded to the silver collars around the hybrids’ necks. The invisible shield was meant to keep the animals confined below, shocking their collars if they climbed too high.

Kowalski wore no such collar.

“You have to get above the electrical fence,” she warned him.

He frowned up at her, not understanding.

“Just keep going!” she urged.

He put his head down and fought faster, struggling to gain ground. Then his grip slipped and he slid a full yard before grabbing hold of the hose again.

He hung there, catching his breath, as the first hybrid reached the wall below him. Luckily it was one of the smaller ones, standing at best seven feet. It jumped and swatted at Kowalski, brushing the man’s heels with its fingertips.

That immediate threat was enough to further stoke the fire under Kowalski. He clawed his way up faster, but he was clearly in pain. Sweat beaded and ran down his grimacing face.

The larger beasts reached the wall below and began to climb the hewn rock, digging nails and toes into crevices and pits.

He’d never make it.

Then the hose shifted beside Maria.

She glanced back and saw that Baako had grabbed its length. He tugged, trying to draw Kowalski up faster by hauling on the hose.

Why didn’t I think of that?

She braced her feet against the wall and added her strength.

Then the young nurse joined her. Others of the surgical team came to their aid, rallying together, momentarily setting aside their differences. They had all watched the valiant battle below and honored that effort now. Even if it all came to naught once the dust settled, at the moment they refused to lose the man to the beasts below.

Working together, they reeled Kowalski up to the window.

He grabbed the sill with one arm, then the other, but he looked too weak to haul himself over the casement. Maria let go of the hose and pulled him the rest of the way through. He fell heavily to the floor and rolled onto his back.

His lungs wheezed with each breath, but he gasped out, “What . . . what were you saying about some fence?”

A frizzling electrical pop sounded from beyond the window, accompanied by a sharp cry of pain. Maria caught sight of a hybrid tumbling from its perch on the wall. As it fell, a spiral of smoke trailed from the steel collar around its neck. The other beasts either stopped in place or dropped heavily to the floor.

“Doesn’t matter now,” Maria said and bent down to assist him to his feet.

Baako rushed over and bear-hugged the large man once he was up.

“Thank you for keeping Baako safe,” she said.

Kowalski kept a protective hand on the young gorilla’s shoulder. “Think it was more the other way around.” He turned and glared at the surgical team. “Any of you going to try to stop us from leaving here?”

Small shakes of heads answered him—not that it mattered.

“We’re locked in here,” Maria explained. “Ever since the sirens blew.”

“So we’re still trapped.”

She touched his elbow. “But at least we’re safe for the immediate—”

The lights flickered and went out, sinking the lab into darkness.

No one spoke until Kowalski finally muttered, “You had to say that.”

Baako moved to her side and grabbed her arm. He didn’t like the dark, but after several tense breaths, crimson emergency lights flared along the top of the walls.

She let out a sigh of relief.

Kowalski offered another thought. “Maybe with the power off, we can get out of here.”

He rushed across the length of the room and tugged at the giant steel sliders, but they still refused to budge. He put his fists on his hips, frowning at the doors as if that would open them.

Baako’s fingers tightened on Maria’s arm. She looked down and saw that his gaze was fixed to the fire hose, which still ran from the wall to the casement window.

Its length twitched and thrummed.

Oh, no.

She turned toward the window as a massive scarred hand reached into view and grabbed the sill.

With the power off, the electrical fence was down.

Backing away in horror, she warned the trapped group. “They’re coming!”

22

May 1, 12:32
A
.
M
. ECT

Andes Mountains, Ecuador

Gray gasped at the cold as he waded into the dark pool, shattering the perfect reflection of the stars and moon in its mirrored surface. The others followed, splashing after him. Chakikui and Jembe remained on the bank behind him. The elder had honored his pledge to bring them to the lost city.

Apparently that obligation ended at its doorstep
.

Left to their own now, Gray led the three others across the pond. He had to swim the last of the distance to reach the mouth of the tunnel that opened in the cliff face on the opposite bank. With the way ahead flooded, there was only a foot of clearance between the waterline and the roof of the tunnel.

As he reached the entrance, he discovered his boots could touch bottom. Ducking his head inside the tunnel, he lifted a waterproof flashlight high.

“Down a ways deeper, it looks like the roof lowers even more,” he warned.

“Can we get through?” Lena asked.

“Don’t know. We may have to swim and explore for air pockets.”

She did not look happy about this prospect.

He wasn’t exactly thrilled himself.

Roland waded next to Gray. “From Petronio Jaramillo’s account of his journey to the lost library, he claimed he
did
have to swim underwater to reach it.”

Seichan waved them onward. “Enough talk. The only way we’ll know if anything is actually down there is to just go look.”

He heard the clear skepticism in her voice. And she was right. This might all be a wild-goose chase, but the only way they would know was to do what she suggested.

Just go look
.

Gray pushed into the tunnel, half swimming along the passageway. The air inside was dank, smelling of wet rock and moss. The beam of his flashlight illuminated some distance down the passageway and shone far into the crystal-clear waters, making it appear as if he floated in glass.

Murmurs rose behind him as they proceeded single file, with Seichan bringing up the rear.

“The walls,” Lena whispered to Roland. “They look too smooth to be natural.”

Gray ran his fingertips along the roof, realizing she was right. The passageway also ran too straight. They continued in silence, mostly because the water soon rose above their lips. Gray kept his nose high, breathing hard through his nostrils, feeling a panicky edge of claustrophobia set in. From the harsh noises behind him, he wasn’t the only one.

Then as he took another step forward, the floor vanished under his boot. Caught by surprise, his head slipped underwater. His flashlight came with him. The beam revealed a set of steps leading down from here.