Monsters In The Clouds by Russell James

Author:Russell James [James, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2018-01-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

When they returned to camp, the berm around the site had an extra layer of tree trunks and branches around the crest. The Bobcat was recharging by the solar panels. Griggs had fashioned a crude ladder and now stood guard atop the shipping container. He gave the group an all-clear thumbs-up and waved them in through a narrow gap in the trunks. The three scaled the berm and slid down the other side.

Katsoros met them at the container. Her eyes narrowed. “Where’s Hobart?”

“Killed by giant ants,” Grant said. He threw the backpack at her feet. “But we got a sample of one, so it’s all worth it, right?”

Katsoros gave the backpack a grim look. “Where’s Hobart’s body?”

“In the jungle. We’ll need to fashion some kind of a stretcher and go back and get it.”

“No we won’t.”

“What?”

“We can’t risk lives over a life already lost. Any more casualties and we might not complete the task at hand.”

“He wouldn’t be a casualty if you’d sent Dixit. Hobart’s leg injury cost him his life.”

Katsoros looked at McCabe. He shrugged. “Might have got him anyway. Ants moved fast.”

Katsoros put a hand on Grant’s shoulder. “I’m sorry that Hobart was killed. Believe me. At least you thought to get this sample of the ant.”

Grant shook off Katsoros’s hand. “I’m going to make sure Dixit knows what this sample cost.”

He grabbed the backpack from the ground and stormed over to where Dixit sat engrossed in a laptop screen. Grant unzipped the pack and dumped the ant head in Dixit’s lap. Dixit yelped, jumped to his feet, and scrambled backwards. The head rolled to a stop, face up, black, glassy eyes staring at Dixit.

“That thing killed Hobart,” Grant said.

“H-how?”

“Giant ants attacked us at the river. McCabe shot two but the third one bit Hobart before McCabe killed it. You’re the one who should have been out there. His death is on you.”

Dixit took a breath and exhaled. “I cannot control what wild beasts do. Or people’s reaction to them. This is a most dangerous location.”

“You bastard. Now next time you need a sample of something, you’ll be getting it yourself. We’ll see how the ‘wild beasts’ treat you.”

Grant scooped the pack off the ground and left Dixit staring at the severed ant head. He stomped off to a spot in the shadow of the sleeping container, tossed the pack aside, and slumped to the ground. A thick yellow card with a clip on one end fluttered out. Grant picked it up.

The card had a Transworld logo on one side. On the other were five squares. Each square had a number in it. 5, 10, 25, 50, 100. The square with the 5 was filled in green, the rest were clear.

More Transworld nonsense. He threw the card back in the backpack. Nothing about the expedition was working out as expected. And he was starting to wonder if there was more to the objective than he’d been told.

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