Runaway Heart (48 page)

     
Just then the stable doors opened and five low shapes scampered
out of the building followed by a man in cammies who turned and closed the
door, locking up behind him.

     
Jack focussed the lenses on the five shapes. They were slightly
smaller than an average man—maybe five-feet-four or -five and they kept low.
They were dressed in metal that reflected the moonlight. Through the binoculars
they looked like they had furry bodies and human faces.

Chimeras.

     
They were carrying long, two-handled weapons that resembled the
Star
Wars
ordnance the commandos had used at Zimmy's wife's apartment and
onboard
The Other Woman.

     
"Damn," Jack said aloud as the animals fanned out and
started looking around in the moonlight. Their faces through the lens, even at
this distance, looked amazingly human.

     
Izzy snatched the binoculars away and trained them on the distant
shapes. "What the fuck are those things?"

     
"You don't wanna know," Jack said.

     
Susan took the binoculars and looked. "It's them," she
said. "Chimeras!"

     
The hybrid soldiers turned, then headed in five separate
directions across the desert, staying low in the natural crevices until Jack
couldn't keep them all in the wide-angle lenses. He was panning frantically
back and forth, but they had scampered away. They looked like they were fanning
out and getting ready to attack.

"I hate this," Jack was
saying. "I'm not sure what weapons they're packing, but they look like
those rayguns."

     
"Rayguns?" Izzy turned and was looking at them, his
Costume National headband resting slightly askew over an expression of grave
concern.

     
"If these chimeras are the troops that I think they are, and
they're armed with particle-beam weapons, we're fucked. Gimme the cell
phone," Jack ordered. "Time to call in the badges and
bullhorns."

     
Susan dug in her pocket and handed over her phone. Jack had
memorized the number of the Indio Fire Department. He dialed. Long experience
had told him that firefighters had the best response time and always brought
the cops with them anyway. He pressed the
send
button.

     
"Indio Fire Department," a female voice said.

     
"This is Bob Bailey. I'm driving by the Ten-Eyck reservation
and there's a huge brush fire blazing out here!"

     
"Where are you exactly, sir?"

     
"I'm at the old reservation road. This desert is doing a
major flambé. Better hurry." Then he hung up. "Let's move. Forget
staying down. I don't know how they did it, but I think they've already seen
us," he said, deciding if they changed positions they might just avoid a
pincer movement.

     
They took off running across the desert, staying behind Jack, who
had now taken the lead and was running as fast as he could despite his
impressive array of injuries. Izzy was right behind Jack. Susan was faster than
Horsekiller, who lumbered. Carlos was keeping pace, but Digby was
falling way
back, grunting and woofing along behind them.

     
The first two chimeras suddenly appeared off to the right. One of
them stopped and pointed a weapon, then fired. The gun made a buzzing sound and
a red light arced at them.

     
"Down!" Jack shouted and dove to the right. The laser
beam hit a granite boulder to his left. It instantly exploded.

     
"Holy shit!" Izzy shrieked in panic, sounding nothing
like a Warner Bros. Indian now.

     
Susan was running in a zigzag until she caught up to Jack, who
rolled onto his stomach with his Beretta out and chambered. She threw herself
down next to him just as he fired at one of the chimeras. The animal was moving
fast across the desert, running toward them on all fours, its laser weapon
slung over its back. Jack's wild shot missed badly. The bullet whined away in
the dark, but the animal veered off.

     
"On the right!" Horsekiller yelled. Jack spun in time to
see two other chimeras loping across the high ground. They stopped, sighted
their laser weapons down on the war party, then fired as Carlos's 30.06 barked
simultaneously. The laser guns sent arcs of red light streaking across the
desert. The first hit Horsekiller, frying him on the spot, setting his whole
body on fire. He fell screaming and smoking onto the sand next to Susan and
died before he landed. The second laser shot went wide, cutting a fiery line
into the brush.

     
As Susan looked up she saw that Carlos's shot had hit one of the
chimeras. He was squealing in pain and rolling backwards on the sand. Seconds
later, for no apparent reason the wounded chimera exploded and burned in a
raging fire.

     
Adrenalized with fear, the war party was off and running, leaving
Horsekiller and the lone dead chimera smoldering in the sand.

     
Izzy was now out front. "This way!" he screamed— panic
taking over.

     
Susan didn't know where Izzy was taking them, but she ran for all
she was worth. Jack ran beside her. She turned
and saw that Digby was way too far
behind. As she looked back, she saw a fast-closing chimera jump on Digby from
behind. The big Indian and the hybrid beast rolled in the desert sand locked in
a deadly struggle. The monstrously huge Digby screamed as his arm was yanked
out of its socket. It wasn't completely ripped loose, but hung uselessly by his
side. Susan saw that Jack had spun and was running back to help Digby, who
seemed to be no match for the much smaller chimera. Although the hybrid warrior
was only a third of Digby's body mass, the animal was easily winning the fight.
In a last-ditch effort Digby finally slugged the beast with his good arm,
knocking the chimera back slightly.

     
Jack was now only five feet away. He steadied his Beretta in both
hands and squeezed off a round. The weapon roared. The chimera was hit in the
chest and blown backwards as Jack's Beretta tore a deadly hole in the animal;
but despite the mortal wound the chimera wasn't finished. It regained its
footing, then launched itself again at Digby, grabbing the big man's head in
both of its human-like hands. Digby had no strength to resist. His useless left
arm hung limply at his side. Jack pulled the trigger again, but this time the
Beretta jammed, so he yanked his hunting knife out and charged at the chimera
in a desperate attempt to save Digby from a horrible beheading. He dove at the
two of them, sinking the knife into the chimera's back. It let out a tortured
yell, sounding more animal than human. Then it turned in his grasp and Jack
found himself staring into its human face and pain-filled eyes. While Susan
watched helplessly, Jack and the beast rolled in the sand. The animal was
quickly losing strength, whimpering. It let go of Jack and flopped onto its
back. Jack struggled to his feet and looked down. There was agony and
intelligence in its face as it stared back at him. Then the chimera cocked its
head, whined once, closed its gray eyes, and died.

     
As Jack staggered backward the animal exploded with such a violent
force that it almost blew his head off.

It had never really occurred to Captain
Silver that any of his chimeras would die in battle. He had loved them and fed
them, cared for them, and fought for their well-being. Now as he watched two of
them first get hit and then explode, he realized that Valdez was destroying
them from the command room. He was suddenly struck by parental rage.

     
"No!" he shouted impotently. It was so different during
war games when they had occasionally been hit by the rubber bullets fired by
DARPA commandos. They had squealed in pain but none had died. Somehow Dave
Silver had come to believe in their invincibility. Now two more were gone, and
without any thought he gave the order to return.

     
The three remaining chimeras fell back and he opened the barn door
for them. They raced across the sandy terrain on all fours, not in retreat, but
in response to his command. Silver knew they would fight to the last animal if
ordered, but he was not prepared to lose any more. He had made a human mistake
. . . Silver had begun to value them as individuals instead of military assets.

     
When the survivors were all inside the stables he saw that Gree,
the lead chimera, was still alive and looking up at him. Dave Silver ordered
them to take up positions at the front windows. "Fire at will," he
said, and they began unloading the particle-beam weapons at moving shapes out
in the desert.

     
Suddenly the hydraulic hatch opened, rising from the hay-strewn
floor of the barn. Vincent Valdez emerged from the stairs and stepped into the
darkened stables. "What the fuck are you doing?" he demanded.

     
"We were losing troops. I gave the order to pull back,"
Silver said.

     
"These aren't troops, you asshole. They're things . . .
animals!" he raged. "Get them back out there! Destroy those
people!"

     
"No, sir," Captain Silver said. "I can't. . . I
won't."

     
Valdez's eyes burned with rage. He pointed his revolver at Captain
Silver and pulled the hammer back. Dave Silver had seen this look in battle
before. It was homicidal rage and he knew he was about to die.

     
"Gree," Captain Silver commanded. "Attack."

     
The chimera sprang across the floor just as Valdez fired. The
bullet hit Silver in the chest, sending him backwards to the ground. A split
second later Gree hit Valdez, and in an instant had ripped his arm from his
body and thrown it across the room.

     
Valdez screamed as he stared down at his shoulder and the bloody
hole where seconds before his arm had been. Arterial blood spurted out of him
as he staggered across the stables lit from below by the harsh light shining
from the hydraulic staircase. Then he fell backwards and tumbled down the
stairs into the command center.

     
"Gree. No more," Captain Silver said, his hand over the
bullet wound in his chest. He could feel his heart still beating, but he could
also feel blood leaking inside him. His lungs were filling and he started to
cough. Foamy red saliva came out of his mouth and dribbled down his chin.

     
The three chimeras stood watching him with blank expressions,
waiting patiently for their next command.

     
"Go. Hide inside the lab," Captain Silver finally
managed to whisper. They quickly turned and ran below without ever bothering to
look back at him.

     
Dave Silver crawled to the Navaho blanket hanging on the wall and
pulled himself onto his knees. He was dizzy and could barely see. He knew his
life was pumping out with each heartbeat. He was drowning from the inside,
drowning in his own blood. He could feel his breath become shorter as his lungs
filled. He reached out and managed to push the button. As he fell forward the
last sound he heard was the hydraulic door in the floor humming closed.

J
ack Wirta was running as fast as he
could, his tortured back sending shots of electric pain up his spinal column
and down his leg. He still had the smell of Robert Horsekiller's burning flesh
in his nose.

     
They were all following Izzy, who was running across the desert in
a wide right turn. Carlos had dropped the 30.06 somewhere and Digby was
galloping in the rear, favoring his strong leg and grimacing as his dislocated
arm flapped uselessly at his side.

     
Jack didn't know if Izzy had any specific destination or was just
running in a huge semicircle, but followed him anyway. After all, he used to
sneak off the res to get laid, so he had to know where he was going, didn't he?

     
He didn't.

     
They stopped in front of the old Airstream trailer that had
belonged to the late Robert Horsekiller. Izzy had his hands on his knees and
was sucking in great gasps of air as Jack and Susan pulled up.

     
"What's here?" Jack managed between gulps of air.

     
"Nothing," Izzy wheezed back.

  
   
"Then why did you lead us
here?" Jack asked.

     
"Dunno," Izzy said.

     
"You're relieved. Some fucking chief."

     
Digby finally arrived at the trailer groaning and holding his limp
arm, looking like a coronary case. Three-hundred-fifty-pound guys weren't
designed to run in the sand.