Symptoms of Rebellion (The Zakarian Brothers Book 3) by Bradford Bates & Michael Anderle

Author:Bradford Bates & Michael Anderle [Bates, Bradford & Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2023-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

“I don’t remember this marsh from the briefing.” I looked out over the miles of knee-deep water.

Cyro released a low whistle, and the images on my HUD changed. It showed where we were supposed to land versus where we were. This part of the map had never been scouted because we weren’t supposed to be there. A sigh escaped my lips. There was no time to try to find a way around the marsh. We had to go straight through.

“Active scanning until we are out of the water.”

Cyro responded with a series of beeps.

It was probably my imagination, but I’d seen too many movies where something lurked in the water. I was not going out like that. The lower right corner of my HUD showed Cyro tracking everything around us. With his full scanners enabled, the distance the droid could search was reduced, but nothing should be able to get past him. Cyro could pick up any unusual movement within a hundred yards. More accurate readings within fifty. It wasn’t a huge heads-up, but it was something.

The water of the marsh was still. Algae had grown over the surface. Cyro sent out a quick pulse and assured me the water level remained the same as far as he could scan. That was a huge relief because I couldn’t swim across with all my gear.

Gigantic jungle trees rose from the water. Their branches hung down to the surface, almost like vines. They reminded me of the willow trees in the city gardens back home. It didn’t take a genius to see the trees were healthy. That probably meant fish in the water, and if there were fish, there was something that ate the fish nearby. That was what I worried about. What ate the fish, and was there something bigger eating that?

Nature always found a way to stay in balance.

I took my first step into the algae-covered surface, then another. Five or six steps into the marsh, I froze. The ripples of my steps headed outward, and the HUD showed me the movement across the surface. Anything I could do to reduce splashing or ripples was probably a good idea. The surface settled around me, and I waded farther in. This time, I never let my feet break the surface. Before I knew it, trying not to break the surface wasn’t even an issue.

Perfecting my little shuffle became easier with each step. The water was slightly over my knees, with the mud below doing its best to suck off my boots. The HUD was still clear of any movement but mine. I heard bugs all around. Every now and again, something would breach the water’s surface and splash back down. Nothing big enough to make me jump, but in the quiet of this place, the noise seemed deafening.

Cyro beeped, and my HUD showed a fish jumping out of the water. The little fish didn’t worry me until I noticed the shadow behind it. Whatever was chasing the fish was big. At least as big as me, and possibly a good deal larger.

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