Hell Heart by Robert E. Vardeman

Author:Robert E. Vardeman [Vardeman, Robert E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
Published: 1999-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

16

Alex Allen struggled back to the empty road leading to the front gate at San Cristóbal just as the Maw was breaking the eastern horizon. How he had lost his GPS was a mystery. He was always careful with military-issue gear he might have to pay for if lost. It must have fallen out of his belt pouch during the battle at the meteor crater. Explaining to Diego Villalobos how he had wandered around in the jungle for almost two days was going to take some doing. The colonel ought to give him a medal for surviving in such a terrible environment. He was trained for the icefields of Alaska, not the jungles of Chiapas, yet he’d survived on a single liter of water, avoiding guerrilla patrols and the terrifying creature he had seen at the bottom of the pit.

Allen frowned, remembering his meeting with Consuela. It had almost seemed that she’d wanted him to encounter the pit-thing, as if she already knew of its deadly existence. He couldn’t shake the thought even though he knew it was absurd. She was merely a simple peasant he had rescued. For that he ought to get a commendation. After all, wasn’t it the stated goal of the Mexican Contribution Force to give aid and assistance to the natives?

Feet sore and muscles aching, Allen finally reached the gate. He was surprised to see no sentries in the guardhouse on either side of the gate. What was this? A ghost town?

He jumped when a loudspeaker blared, “Recognition code!”

“This is Captain Alex Allen, and I’ve returned to report to the colonel on a recon mission. I don’t know what the daily recognition code is. I’ve been gone almost two days.”

There was a lengthy pause, and then, “ID verified. You may enter, Captain.”

“I should hope so,” Allen said testily. The gate unlocked. He stepped through, then it closed and locked behind him automatically. His mouth dropped open when he saw the empty garrison. Ghost town described it perfectly.

He wondered what had happened for Villalobos to move out so many of his soldiers, leaving his command post bare. If some crisis had occurred during his absence, it might reflect badly on him, unless he revealed all of what he had seen at the strange impact crater. Allen didn’t really want to do that. Villalobos might steal his discovery to win some points finally with the MCF and Union brass.

Allen fumed, but there was nothing he could do. Before he could get to the object in the crater, he would have to take care of the whatever-it-was rampaging at the bottom of it. He had seen how useless standard armaments were against it; he didn’t think anything short of a SPEAR missile could take it out. And, unfortunately, the only person who had the launch codes for the post’s missiles was its commanding officer: Colonel Diego Villalobos.

Allen decided he’d first check out what Diego had done, then worry about forking over what he’d found. He hefted the rucksack holding the portion of the alien creature he had killed.

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