The Hunt for Jardine by Herbert A. Beas II

Author:Herbert A. Beas II [Beas, Herbert A. II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Google: 0S_oDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B089FVWSY8
Goodreads: 53724640
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2020-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

Brooke’s legs burned and her mouth watered with the memory of her last cup of coffee. Her skin crawled with the feeling of her own sweat and the rain that had picked up in the last fifteen minutes and found its way through the gaps in her light green poncho. Traversing the broken, uneven rain-forest terrain—in almost twilight-level darkness thanks to the forest canopy and the rain clouds beyond it—while hefting a bulky pack of five sensor shafts made the journey that much more miserable.

But what concerned her most was that she felt as though she were being watched—and this time not by Esok. In fact, Esok was sloughing through the forest ahead of her, his rifle at the ready as ever. They had encountered no creatures of any kind since leaving the campsite, which Brooke had found a welcome surprise, considering the abundance of snakes, rats, and the occasional skatha they had run across at the other sites. But the initial relief soon faded as she started to wonder why.

It also occurred to her that Esok’s tour-guide banter had also tapered off in the last few minutes. When they first set out, he had begun a proud tale about Shasta’s first colonists—mainly peoples from Terra’s Argentina and Colombia regions—and their efforts to recreate the lost glories of the Amazon region here. Brooke was only half listening then, giving noncommittal or bland replies as Esok went into how, if one looked really close, one could almost see the orderly rows to these trees here, a hallmark of their origins as an artificial grove and natural preserve.

But now he was silent, and his eyes were sweeping the woods as he went onward. His pace had also slowed. Instinctively, Brooke tucked one hand under her poncho and released the holster catch of the Sternsnacht Python at her right hip.

“Something wrong?” she finally dared to ask, keeping her voice low.

“Oh,” Esok said with a slight start, his tone still light. “Maybe nothing, Doctor. The forest just feels unusual to me here.”

“‘Feels’ unusual?”

Esok stopped finally and glanced back at her, but kept his rifle pointed away. Then, suddenly, he started sniffing the air. Brooke did so too, and immediately picked up a stench she was surprised she had not noticed before.

The smell of something dead, something close.

Her eyes darted around as she sniffed the air again, her tongue curling in her mouth as she fought back the nausea. Whatever it was, it was very close.

Then she saw it, just as Esok took a few steps toward a clump of rocks. The carcass lay in the opposite direction, and a swarm of red flies scattered as Brooke drew near it. Struggling against her urge to gag, Brooke removed her backpack and knelt.

Whatever the creature was, it didn’t look like the agouti rats Marissa had been telling her about. In fact, with its six bony arms partially covered in gray-brown fur, it looked to Brooke like a juvenile skatha ape. Only its head had been ripped

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