Hot Zone (17 page)

It was a large bird, the biggest thing Ghost had ever seen with wings. It's wing span was at least six feet. It had a thick, pointed beak that could kill anything by impaling its victim. At the base two bright yellow eyes burned Ghost with their glare.

The most intriguing thing that Ghost noticed about the bird was it feathers or lack of. It's wings were covered with thick white feathers but it's body had none! The body of the bird was made up of and intricate pattern of silver and white scales that gave it the appearance of a deep sea fish.

Ghost could not believe his eyes.

On its two feet were two opposing claws that snatched at Ghost as he hit the ground, flattening out as best he could.

Jean-Paul dived back into the water as the bird swooped passed Ghost and towards him.

And with a blink of an eye it was gone.

Ghost turned around with his gun flailing wildly but the creature had disappeared.

"Jesus Christ." He panted.

It took a moment for Ghost to realize that he'd heard the splash of the frog hitting the water. He looked over to see the air bubbles rising to the surface.

He was going to escape!

Ghost couldn't let that happen. If the frenchie made it back to base he would return with more soldiers and he and his team would be finished. He ran for his dive equipment threw on the tank and mask and leaped into the water.

Suddenly the world was quiet again. The peace of the ocean surrounded Ghost as he dove in pursuit of the frenchie. He had a good lead on Ghost but he was not a Navy SEAL. His strength was not the water like Ghost. Ghost began to gain on him as he kicked harder after the bloody trail the wounded frog left in his wake.

Ghost stopped kicking. He sat suspended in the water as he watched the frog continue to swim away. Something was wrong. Ghost had remembered the holes in the walls of the cave and corridor on their way to the cavern. Something wasn't normal about them.

Then he saw them.

* * *

Jean-Paul never stood a chance. Kicking as hard as he could to retreat from the American he was ambushed by more than a dozen eels that zipped out of the holes, drawn by the scent of his blood.

They feasted on him in a frenzied manner, tearing him from limb to limb, fighting over the body parts, snapping at each other.

* * *

Ghost saw the eels emerge and kicked like hell back towards the surface, looking down the whole way and praying to god the eels did not see him.

No such luck.

Making short work of the Jean-Paul the eels caught movement up above and whipped their bodies skyward, chasing down their next victim.

Ghost gave it everything he had, he kicked, pulled and clawed his way up back toward the cavern, but the eels were gaining and gaining fast.

He wasn't going to make it. He had only one option. He wriggled the re-breather tank off his back along with his mask and watched it sink below as he pulled himself out of the water. Moments before the tank hit the eels he pulled out his sig-sauer and fired.

24

The explosion rocked the corridor of water to its very core. The blast was so powerful it blew Ghost backwards. Wasting no time he crawled up the bank as far away from the edge as he could until he was leaning against the wall.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

At that very moment an eel exploded out of the water and flew straight at Ghost. Ghost caught him around his strong jaws, just in front of his face. He held the eel with all his might as it snapped away aggressively just inches from him.

"You son of a bitch." Ghost yelled.

Ghost held on tight as he continued to struggle to gain control of the sea monster. He rolled his body over so he was now on top of the eel, planting his knee firmly on the eel's slender frame before pulling out his sig-sauer.

He shoved the mussel of the gun into the back of the eel's head and pulled the trigger. The eel let out a high pitched shriek as Ghost planted three bullets into its brain. It's body continuing to wriggle for a good minute before it went limp under Ghost's knee. Ghost rolled over next to the six foot long eel, looking at it in amazement as he wondered if it was these creatures that had taken the Greenpeace divers.

"Great, I’m in a god damn monster movie." He said, collapsing in exhaustion.

* * *

Jordan and Ice had come to a fork in their tunnel. With no distinguishing features leading them one way or another they stopped.

"Ice."

"Ah, go right. What the hell? It's all the same to us right now."

"What a plan."

"It's all I have, Jordan."

Continuing to run on their new course neither of the two realized the carvings and hieroglyphics that lined the walls of the tunnel. The further into the tunnel they went the more prominent they became.

The tunnel ended at the entrance to a large room with a vaulted ceiling.

"The domes. Ice, we're in one of the domes." Jordan gasped.

"Man, look at this place."

The two stood in disbelief as they looked around the room. It was an old laboratory that housed empty cages, test tubes, fish tanks, burners, microscopes and very old monitoring equipment. The entire room looked as it had been ransacked or that a large brawl had broken out right in the middle of it. Everything was smashed in one way or another.

"I think it's fair to say this is not some ancient City, Ice."

"I never said we were going to find Atlantis, did I?"

"I guess not. This is some kind of lab. How the hell did this get to the bottom of the ocean?"

"That's your department Jordan, I have no idea."

"We need to find a place to hide in here in case they make a right turn back there."

Ice looked around the room for something they could hole up in. On the other side of the room Ice eyed a storage closet that was open and appeared empty.

"The storage closet, Jordan."

"Oh, great." Jordan said under her breath.

They ran across the room, dodging in and out of benches and desks and dove into the closet, locking the door behind them.

Once in the closet Ice placed his light sticks up the sleeve of his wet suit and turned off his flashlight so the glow would not radiate through the crack at the bottom of the door. In total darkness the two stood silently, face to face and just inches away from each other.

"Storage closet huh? They'd be lucky to fit a broom in this."

"Shhh." Ice said.

Whispering now Jordan continued: "Is this supposed to happen? Us being chased by spear wielding maniacs."

"No, but it
is
happening and that's the reason why we're here with you. It's also the reason why they didn't just dispatch you with some more Greenpeace folk. Now hush."

"Sorry."

They stood silently, listening and feeling each others warm gasps. They were both panting still from the sprint along the tunnels. The feeling took Jordan back to her high school days where the hot rage was the closet game at parties. The idea being to get paired with the hot guy.

She was never that lucky.

Until now.

* * *

Grosjean and Yanick had taken up pursuit of soldier and the girl. Hitting the fork in the tunnel Grosjean stopped and ordered the soldier to do the same.

“
Hold up here, Yanick.”

Grosjean stood there thinking for a moment. He didn’t really want to take the right and if the Americans had done so they would have enough to deal with without him. If they had found their way to the lab, which was likely, they were in bigger trouble than they knew. Left was the only way Grosjean would go.

“
Yanick. I want you to go right. You will reach a room. When you get there you are to close the door behind you. Most likely the Americans will be in there. If not, the tunnel continues on the other side of the room. If you have not gotten onto their trail in half an hour come back here and meet me in this very spot. If I am not here go back to the cavern where we came in.”

“
Yes sir.”

Yanick took off sprinting down the tunnel leaving a wake of dust behind him. Grosjean stood there until he heard the door slam then headed off down the same tunnel. When he got to the closed door Grosjean pushed across the large dead bolt, sealing it shut.

He turned and headed back for the tunnel that lead off in the other direction.

* * *

Yanick did not hear the dead bolt snap on the other side of the door as he began searching for his evaders. The room he was in had old, thick air. A coat of black silt lined everything he touched. In here there were no signs of the soldier and the girl.

He searched under tables, behind cages, everywhere that looked like a hiding spot before spotting another door across the room.

“
I have you now.”

He tipped-toed across the room, his spear gun ready to fire when he opened the door. Yanick hesitated for a moment as he reached for the handle. Then, with a mighty pull, ripped the door wide open.

To his shock and disappointment the other side of the door revealed another tunnel that lead away in the darkness.

“
Shit.” He muffled.

Yanick continued running off down the tunnel and into the darkness.

* * *

Ice and Jordan had heard the Frenchman enter the room. They also heard him leave through another door. When Ice had heard him say “
I got you
” he pulled his gun out and had it aimed head high at the door. Had the Frenchman opened his door instead of the other one he would be dead right now.

Lucky for him.

Ice eased the storage closet door open with the barrel of his gun. Silently he and Jordan slipped out of the closet and looked across to the door that the Frenchman had run through.

“
I don’t know where that tunnel leads and I really don’t want to. Let’s get out of here.” Ice said

“
Amen.”

They made a dash for the entrance to the lab but when they got to the door something was wrong. Ice tried to ease it open, then shoved it but it wasn’t opening!

“
Uh oh. They locked it. We can’t get out this way.”

“
You can’t bust it down or something?” Jordan asked.

“
Jordan. It’s a metal plated door. We are not getting through that.”

“
So what
do
we do?”

“
The guy who was chasing us just became the chased.”

“
Oh brother.” She said.

Jordan followed on Ice’s heals as they left the room. Jordan’s nerves were beginning to get the best of her. She had made it passed the underwater monsters and her first encounter with an unexpected enemy. Now she had to help Ice chase down one of them.