The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (38 page)

"We're Americans, we're
Americans!"

Mark, being Hispanic, was a bit
more in question than Otis, a blue-eyed blond. The officer in charge,
ticked-off at being startled, pulled Otis into a sitting position.

"Who the hell are you?"
he demanded. "And would someone mind telling me what in the name of Christ
is going on here?"

Otis kept his hands up. Too many
guns around to suit him, and too many young, eager faces willing to pull the
trigger. "My name is Otis Dison," he said steadily. "I'm Dr.
Kathlyn Trent's project architect. This is Dr. Mark La Coste, one of her
associates."

The officer looked at Mark,
sitting up wiping the blood from his nose. "Oh, yeah," he said vaguely.
"I think I recognize that guy. He's been on television with her."

"Right," Otis said.  He
looked around, counting twelve men in all. "Where's Marcus? Did he send
you guys?"

The officer shook his head.
"Our orders came directly from the President of the United States. We were
told that Dr. Kathlyn Trent was being held hostage by a Middle Eastern
colleague by the name of Fayd Fahdlan and that we were to extricate her."
He looked over at Fayd, his suspicion evident." So here you are, Fahdlan.
You said you knew where Dr. Trent is. Care to let me in on it?"

"That's the problem,"
Otis said. He looked at all the serious faces above him and wondered how he was
going to explain. "It's not a matter of knowing where she is. We already
know that she's being held in a cave about a mile southwest of here."

The officer in charge looked from
Otis to Fayd and back again. "I don't get it. If Fahdlan doesn't have her,
who does?"

Otis scratched his head. He was
trying to figure out where to start with all of this.  "You've said that
you've seen Dr. Trent's programs, lieutenant...?"

"Lieutenant Commander Ross
Ellsner, United States Navy S.E.A.L.'s," he said. "Yes, I've seen
them."

"So you know she deals with
things that are out of the ordinary. Biblical relics and things like
that."

The commander nodded. "Yes,
yes, I know. I saw something she did on the Holy Grail. After seeing that, even
I believed it ended up in Scotland in some guy's private chapel."

Mark wiped away the last of the
blood on his nose. "Then you understand that she seeks out what most
people just accept as myth."

"Everybody knows that. So
what are you leading up to?"

"That this little trip here
to Iraq has been the most strange and unusual of all."

"How so?"

"We received information
that there were skeletons of men with wings here.  We came to check it out and
found out that it was true. We found four of them."

The commander looked dubious
while the rest of his men, those that weren't intently watching their
surroundings, looked very interested. Seems like the magic of Dr. Kathlyn
Trent's quests made eager children of them all.

"Are you telling me that you
found angels, Dr. La Coste?"

"No, not angels. But some
kind of humanoid with wings."

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

 The commander stared at him a
moment before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but that's a little
far-fetched, don't you think?"

Mark looked at Otis and Fayd.
"No," he said slowly. He looked back at the commander. "I don't.
Because Kathlyn Trent is being held in a cave about a mile south of here by things
that look suspiciously like winged men."

"You're out of your goddamn
mind."

"If seeing is believing,
then you'd better come and take a look."

The Commander was trying not to
show any serious reaction one way or the other. But he made the mistake of looking
at his men, who were more than willing to take a look at what Dr. La Coste was
suggesting.

  "Commander," Fayd was
still down on his knees." I can assure you that these things exist. Dr.
Trent and I were examining mummies of these creatures when we penetrated deeper
into the cave and apparently came across the area where the living descendants
of these winged people were living, only we didn't know that at the time.
Truthfully, the remotest possibility that these things were even still alive
didn't even occur to us until one of them chased us out of the caverns. Dr.
Trent was behind me one moment, gone the next. I bolted out of the cave to find
Dr. La Coste and Mr. Dison waiting out in the desert."

Ellsner looked at Mark and Otis.
"And you didn't see this... this winged thing?"

"No," Mark shook his
head. "We just saw Dr. Fahdlan flying out of the cave as if... as if the
devil was on his ass."

Fayd sighed heavily, his dark
eyes brooding and distant. "The devil was."

Whatever uneasiness had enveloped
the archaeologists now had the commander and his S.E.A.L team in its grip, too.
It angered him.

"You seriously expect me to
believe this?" he demanded. "Do you have any idea how bizarre this
sounds?"

"I know it's
difficult," Fayd agreed.

"Difficult wasn't the word I
had in mind. So let me ask you this; if these things really exist, how come
we've never seen them before now?"

"There are many stories of
cave dwellers, people who live in the center of the earth, lost races, things
like that. Iraq isn't as frequently traveled as more urban parts of the world.
It's entirely plausible that beings such as this could have kept themselves
hidden down in the earth for thousands of years."

"Without anyone ever seeing
one?"

"But people have seen them.
Do you remember the story in the Bible about winged demons, good against evil?
And what about Sumarian legends speaking of the winged god of the elements,
Kishar? Then we have incubus and succubus of Medieval legends, flying demons
that feasted upon human babies and mated with men and woman.  These legends, in
fact, originated from the first Crusades when knights returned home to tell of
winged creatures in the Holy Land that drank human blood. Yes, Commander, we've
seen them. But we've dismissed it all as myths and legends until now."

"So now you're telling me
you've found a... a nest of these flying things?"

"That’s exactly what I’m
telling you."

The commander wasn't convinced.
"This is goddamn ridiculous," he growled. "Look, my orders are
to rescue Dr. Trent and that's what I intend to do, winged people be damned.
Jesus, it sounds crazy just to hear myself say it."

"And realizing that it does,
you must trust me when I say that I would not lie about it," Fayd said
quietly.

Ellsner fixed him with a hard
stare. "The United States military deals with the probable, doctor, not
the improbable. Until I see differently, I am assuming that Kathlyn Trent is
being held by hostiles that must be eliminated at all cost. As for you, I need
a as detailed description of this cave as you can give me. I don't like going
in there blind."

"I'll tell you what I
can."

"You'd better." The
commander was interrupted as one of his men approached and whispered something
in his ear. Ellsner's angled face tightened and he looked at his subordinate.

"You're sure?"

"That's what I could get off
the transmission, sir."

"Were you able to
reply?"

"No, sir. We're still
observing radio silence. I picked the transmission off satellite voice
mail."

"All right." Ellsner
motioned sharply to his men. "Pack it up. We're leaving."

Fayd, Mark and Otis were stunned.
"Wait," Otis said. "You can't leave. Kathlyn needs help!"

The commander looked at him.
"I've just been given orders to pull out. They're apparently going to let
the Marines deal with this one."

"You've got to be kidding,"
Otis snorted. "It'll take them time to get here, time Dr. Trent doesn't
have. We can't just leave her there. She's in real mortal danger."

The Commander wasn't
unsympathetic. In fact, he was ticked off that he had been pulled out just when
they were getting ready to roll. For a bunch of Marines, no less. "Be that
as it may, I have my orders."

"Look," Otis was deadly
serious, "I don't care who called you off. I don't care if the President
himself did it. Kathlyn had been in that cave at least six hours and there is
no telling what has happened, not to mention what could potentially happen if
we don't get her out of there. You guys are trained for this stuff and she
needs you, desperately. Whatever politics are going on, I don't give a damn.
All I know is that a woman who means a lot to a whole lot of people is in
trouble and if you don't go in and get her right now, I will.  And whatever
happens will be on your hands."

Ellsner stared at him.
"Don't threaten me."

"Fine. So I'll beg you.
Please
."

The commander took a long, deep
breath. He glanced back at his men. He could see by their expressions that they
wanted to complete their mission. This was what they trained for and
opportunities like this were rare. But more than that, a life was at stake.
Deep down, Ellsner didn't want her death on his conscience.

"You really believe this is
life threatening?"

"Without a doubt."

He pursed his lips, like a man
who had just made a decision he would regret. "I'm going against orders,
you know."

"If you never talked to them
directly, how will they know you got the message?"

"They won't until I show up
at the rendezvous point for extraction."

Otis merely lifted his eyebrows.
Ellsner shook his head. "All right," he growled. "I guess I
never got the damn message."

"Thank you."

Ellsner didn't reply.  He hoped
he hadn't just thrown away a bright career.

***

"... Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art
with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anoint my head with oil. My cup
runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

 One of those things drifted too
close to her, hissing, and Kathlyn let out a yelp of fright before she could
finish the prayer.  She could feel the heat from it, the hatred, and she found
she couldn't even look at the creatures, scientific discovery be damned. With
their crispy brown skin and amber eyes and sharp teeth, they were everything
horrible she had always imagined demons to be. Only these weren't ghostly
phantoms. They were real. And they had her.

It was deep down in the bowels of
the cavern, in a room with a hissing vent pouring scalding hot steam into the
air. It was unbelievably warm. Though she'd never heard of Iraq having any sort
of volcanic or seismologic activity, there had to be a reason why these caverns
were so hot. Just like the beings inhabiting it, the cave was a striking
anomaly. For a while she had struggled to see the scientific side of all of
this, ranging from amazement that creatures such as this actually existed to
wondering if the heat from these caverns vented up somewhere and created
wonderful warm pools. But her resolve to be brave faded and stone cold fear
replaced it. So much for her scientific attitude; she wanted to get the hell
out of here.

They had her tied on a slab,
lying a few feet above the ground. The slab was made out of rock and warm to
the touch. From the moment they had grabbed her as she ran through the tunnels
after Fayd until the moment they tied her up, the events had passed with a
surreal, frightening quality. It was like being in a nightmare, only there was
no waking up. She had no concept of time. It could have been a couple of hours
or a couple of days for all she knew.  All she was completely aware of was that
she hadn't slept in a while, nor had she eaten.  The creatures had made a point
of staying clear of her for the most part, but she had a feeling that wasn't
going to last.

"Give me a sign of your
goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O Lord, have
helped me and comforted me."

 She whispered scripture from
Psalms. It helped her to draw comfort from her roots.  She imagined, thousands
of years ago, of early man coming across these creatures and being absolutely
terrified by their appearance. Living in heated caverns as they did, it was
easy to see how the myth of Hell in the center of the earth got started. 
Stories passed along in the oral tradition were eventually written down by
early scholars into books like the Bible and eventually all Mankind had a
common belief in where the Devil came from.  In a sense, she was elated to have
finally, in her own mind, solved the riddle of the origins of Hell.

  But her current status was
precarious. Hell or not, she was in real danger. With Fayd free, there was some
hope that he would contact Marcus and he would come for her. She knew Marcus
would stop at nothing. But these creatures were horrifyingly strong and would
give Marcus a run for his money. Powerful as he was, he couldn't match one of
these seven-foot creatures.