Gargantua (16 page)

“That’s the scale of operation we’re trying to avoid here, Colonel,” Ellway said, taking Wayne aback. The colonel hadn’t realized he was speaking out loud.
Bad discipline, soldier,
he admonished himself.

Ellway continued: “Look, it’s my belief that the giant creature is searching for its offspring. I say we give it what it wants.”

Even Hale seemed surprised at that one. “Let the nine-footer go?” the geologist said.

“Why not capture the big one?” Wayne asked.

“How? And how do we know we could do it without killing it? It took almost a dozen tranq darts just to put Junior here down. And even if we got it, where do we keep it? I say we tag the nine-footer, then release it. We’ll be able to tell if it’s leading the giant creature away, and to where. Then we could come back and study them.”

Wayne looked down at the picture of the Mama Lizard again. He remembered reading that they did that with whales and other large aquatic creatures in captivity—let them back into their natural environment, but put computerized tracking devices on them so they could be monitored.

Finally, it hit Wayne what the thing in the cage—and the one in the photo—reminded him of. Andy had had a pet gecko when he and Wayne were both ten. Andy loved that gecko, showed it more love than most kids showed to a dog or a cat. One day, he came home from school, and the thing was dead. They never did find out why, though Andy kept insisting that his stepfather killed it ’cause he never liked the thing. Both Andy and Wayne were devastated when Andy’s mother flushed the gecko down the toilet.

“I’d like to keep these things alive,” he finally said. “But I also have to protect my men and the people of Malau.” He looked at Ellway. “How do we know the giant will see it?”

“We’ll bring the captive to the open beach. I’ll tag it, then everyone will clear the area and wait.”

Not the most scientific approach—but then, how else would we do it?
he thought. “All right,” the colonel said, “but my people will be stationed and ready. I’ll call it as I see it, is that understood?”

Ellway nodded.
Good,
Wayne thought.
The last thing we need now is some egghead nutcase screwing everything up.

As they walked back to Wayne’s helicopter, the colonel turned to Manny and Joe. “I’m gonna have to bring in two companies. Joe, I’m gonna need your help on this; keep your people off the beaches and out of the water—and out of my people’s way.”

“No problem,” Joe said. “I’ve already got one officer laid up from that thing. I’m not in a rush for more.”

“Neither am I. I’m willing to go along with this guy—” with his head, he indicated Ellway, walking several paces behind with Hale “—up to a point, but the minute that lives are in danger, I’m bringing the thing down.”

They arrived at Wayne’s chopper. To the pilot, he said, “Pat, radio the base.”

“Yes, sir,” Pat said. After a moment, the young sergeant handed Wayne the chopper radio.

“MacArthur, this is Wayne.”

“Got you loud and clear, sir,” came Corporal Macdonald’s cheery voice.

“Get Alfa and Bravo mobilized and over to Malau ASAP. They’re to report directly to me.”

“Yes,
sir.
Anything else?”

“Keep everyone else on alert, just in case. Out.”

A female voice cried out breathlessly, “I can’t find Brandon. No one’s seen him!”

Wayne turned to see that Doctor Alyson Hart had just run up to Ellway.

“He’s lost? My God, by lunchtime, this place could be Guadalcanal.”

Wayne snorted at the reference as Ellway came over to the others. “Brandon’s missing. I gotta go look for him.”

“I’ll help you,” Paul said.

Hale said, “I’ll make sure the creature is on the beach and ready to be tagged.”

Wayne turned to Joe. “Brandon?”

“Ellway’s kid,” the chief explained. “Twelve years old, going on thirty.”

“Damn, we got a kid running around loose?” Wayne shook his head. “Better turn up soon. I do
not
want stragglers in case things get out of hand.”

“Get no argument from me,” Joe said.

Brandon was having the time of his life. He and Casey had spent hours together in the lagoon. Brandon had stocked up on cheese puffs that morning—the clerk made a comment about how his father wasn’t going to like it when Brandon’s teeth turned orange—and found Casey in his usual spot. Brandon was delighted to find that Casey liked eating the cheese puffs out of his hand in exactly the same way as his namesake did with the chopped-up bits of salami Mom always made for him.

After Casey finished one handful of puffs, and before Brandon could grab anymore, the little guy ran into the foliage.

Oh geez, what did I do now?
Then he wondered if something else had come along to spook Casey, like his older brother tramping through the jungle being chased by humans had done before.

Then Casey peeked back out at Brandon. For a second, Brandon swore the little guy was smiling at him.

So Brandon smiled back. “Oh, you wanna play, huh?” he said as he ran toward Casey who, for his part, dashed back into the foliage.

For several minutes, they kept this little hide-and-seek game up, sweat dripping from Brandon’s unkempt hair, T-shirt coming untucked, shorts streaked with dirt, legs occasionally cramping from running around so much, and Brandon not caring about
any
of it, ’cause he and Casey were having fun.
I love this place.

At first he didn’t notice the python.

Only when Casey let out a tiny squeak—higher-pitched then the whine he used when Brandon had so much trouble feeding him—did Brandon see the huge snake suddenly show up in their path.

Brandon jumped back. He knew plenty about sea creatures, but next to nothing about snakes. He wasn’t even entirely sure it was a python, and he had no idea whether or not a python was poisonous.

Casey obviously didn’t know any more than he did—or he did know, and whatever it was was bad—because he ran off into the underbrush at top speed. Casey had been playful, only running at a speed that allowed the much slower Brandon to keep up. Now, though, the little guy was obviously scared out of his mind and was just running away.

Going in the same direction as the three-foot lizard, Brandon ran after him, but it was a lost cause. Casey was gone.

No. He’s not gone,
Brandon told himself.
He’s just hiding again, and he’s just gotten better at it. He’s
not
gone.

And so he kept looking.

Kikko kept running the line from that American movie in his head:
They have no idea, ’cause you’re Baretta and you’re totally cool.
He had no idea why someone named after a pistol meant being cool, but Kikko really liked that line. And it helped him get through this.

Derek had made it sound simple when he explained it to Kikko and Naru. “Look, all you gotta do is toss the sack into the truck when Marc and Mal ain’t lookin’. Soon’s it goes, we’ll nab our little prize.”

Of course, Derek never mentioned the nerves, or the fact that Kikko’s stomach would threaten to return his lunch.

Just stay cool. Be calm.

Forcing himself to look as nonchalant as he possibly could, he carefully shifted the burlap sack from his left to his right shoulder—he didn’t want to break the bottle too soon—and continued ambling casually toward the truck.

The sack was full of potassium chlorate and sugar. In and of itself, the mixture wouldn’t do much, but also in the sack was a sealed glass bottle filled with gasoline and sulphuric acid. Kikko had to toss the sack into the truck hard enough to break the bottle. It would take a few minutes for the chemical reaction to take place, but when it did, there would be an explosion big enough to start a small fire on the truck—which Derek had planted there earlier, drained of gasoline—and draw the two cops’ attention. Marc and Mal looked spooked enough to go apeshit over the explosion, and would be too distracted to notice Derek stealing the big lizard.

At least, that was the theory.

Kikko had considered asking Derek where he got all this stuff—most people didn’t have sacks full of potassium chlorate, not to mention sulphuric acid, just laying around—but then decided he didn’t want to know.

Waiting for Mal and Marc to not be looking at the truck proved fairly straightforward—they never looked at the truck. They spent all their time either looking at each other, engaged in deep conversation, or staring at the cage.

They were, in fact, looking at the cage when Kikko passed by the truck and tossed the sack in.

From this point, nonchalance went straight out the window. Derek was vague as to how long it would take the chemical reaction to take place, and Kikko wanted as much distance between him and the truck as he could get. Kikko walked as fast as he could without actually running away from the truck. He made it to one of the shacks that lined the beach, and moved around behind it, holding his breath.

He let out the breath after the back of the truck exploded in a plume of fire.

Malau’s pier was situated on a portion of the coastline that jutted out from the rest of the island’s borders. That made it a more convenient port, but it also meant that there were two blind curves in which boats could hide and come upon the pier unannounced. Normally, this wasn’t much of an issue, as people rarely needed to sneak up on the pier itself.

Today was not a normal day. As soon as Mal and Marc ran to the truck, shotguns in hand, to investigate, Derek brought his trawler around the bend and into sight. As soon as Kikko saw him, he ran toward the pier.

As Derek put the boat behind the cage, Kikko grabbed the ropes and moored it. Naru had a pair of bolt cutters and was trying to detach the lizard cage from the pier—a task made more difficult by the creature thrashing about inside.
Christ, can’t the stupid animal see that we’re trying to free it? I mean, okay, we’re just going to sell it to some Indonesian guy, but
he
doesn’t know that.

Kikko went over to the top of the cage as Derek lowered the winch that they had set up earlier. At the end of the winch was a hook, which should, Derek said, fit on the top of the cage.

Just as Kikko grabbed the hook and put it between rungs on the cage, Naru finally broke the chain.

The creature started thrashing even more now. Kikko jumped back from the cage, landing on the pier.

“Kikko!”

At Naru’s call, Kikko turned to look at his friend who was gazing down at the cage, which Derek was now raising out of the water with the winch. Kikko followed Naru’s gaze and he felt his lunch started to crawl up to his throat again.

The cage door had swung open.

Oh, shit.

Be cool. Be like Baretta. Stay calm.

Amazingly, the lizard hadn’t seemed to notice that it had achieved a means of freedom. It was still jumping around, trying to attack the top of the cage, as if that would make a difference.

“Derek!” Kikko called out. He surreptitiously pointed at the cage, half convinced that the creature would see him if he pointed more overtly.

Derek followed Kikko’s finger to see the open cage. “Bloody hell.” He eased the winch’s lever to a halt, ceasing its ascent. “Naru, go close it.”

Naru’s eyes went wide. Kikko couldn’t blame his friend for that reaction, and he was about to object when Derek interrupted.

“Don’t worry, Kikko and I will distract the beast.”

Oh, we will, will we?
Kikko thought, but said nothing. He leapt up onto the boat—it was probably safer there, anyhow—and positioned himself so he was facing the back end of the cage. He started whistling and jeering at the monster. Next to him, Derek did the same.

Kikko couldn’t even remember what he yelled out after the words left his mouth. He was running on autopilot.
This is nuts. This is absolutely nuts. We’re going to die because Derek wanted to try to steal a big lizard.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Naru slowly closing the cage door.

Okay, maybe we’re not going to die.

Then the cage squeaked on its hinges.

It was a small sound, and yet it seemed to Kikko as if it was loud enough to wake the dead. The lizard must have heard the sound, because it turned around.

Toward the open door.

And looked right at Naru.

Kikko swore that the lizard and Naru actually exchanged a glance. The idea was ridiculous, of course—it was just a dumb animal—but for just a moment it seemed as if some kind of understanding had passed between them. Kind of like the lizard saying,
You screwed up, pal,
and Naru saying,
Yup.

Then the creature attacked Naru.

Though the moment between the squeak and the creature moving on Naru seemed to take forever, the subsequent several moments went very fast indeed. Kikko only remembered them as snapshots. Naru screaming. Derek leaping down toward the creature. Kikko jumping right behind Derek. Naru’s blood flying through the air. The creature noticing Derek and Kikko’s approach. Naru still screaming. The creature tossing Naru aside. The creature swimming into the open ocean. Derek grabbing one of his harpoon guns. Kikko remembering asking Derek why on Earth he thought he’d need harpoon guns and Derek saying, “Just in case, mate, just in case.” Derek firing the harpoon gun.

Then time moved at a more normal pace as Derek dropped the spent projectile weapon and ran with Kikko to help Naru onto the boat. For a third time, Kikko had to fight down the urge to throw up. Even that American photographer hadn’t been this badly messed up.

Kikko and Naru had grown up together. They had gone to Malau Elementary School together, gotten thrown off the school volleyball team together, gotten their fishing licenses together, gotten arrested by Chief Movita for illegal use of fireworks together, gotten hired by Derek together.

And now Naru was a bloody mess on Derek’s boat. Kikko couldn’t stand to look at it, so he turned away and looked over the starboard side of the boat.

The water, oddly, was red. Blood red. At first Kikko thought it was Naru’s blood.
But no, he was on the other side of the boat. Which means . . .