Shadow Dragon (39 page)

“Why?” Kyle asked, even though he was afraid he already knew the answer.

“Because,” the man said. “They’re nocturnal. They hunt at night.”

CHAPTER 93

With Kyle’s help, Carrie shrugged into her pack. It was noticeably lighter. The only things left within were the first-aid kit, a small amount of food, the ammunition, and the digital camera she refused to leave behind. Even though they had an eyewitness, Carrie knew an actual photo of the creature, if they could manage to get one, would be infinitely more valuable in proving the authenticity of their story. The rest of the gear lay in a pile alongside the trail, including the sleeping bags and most of the water. It seemed like such a waste, but she understood why it had to be left behind.

At the sheriff’s suggestion, Carrie and the biologist led the way. They were walking directly into the teeth of the storm now. Her face was becoming wind burned, and her eyes watered in spite of the goggles she wore. As a precaution, she walked with her right hand in her jacket pocket and held the grip of the Glock. Behind, Kyle and the sheriff struggled to keep the wounded man, Ramirez, upright and moving forward.

While the man had promised to tell them everything, Carrie wasn’t willing to wait until they made it back to the ranger station. She was determined to get the answers she had come for while she had the chance. She began questioning him almost immediately.

“I don’t really know where to start,” he said. The visor on his helmet was up, or else she wouldn’t have been able to hear him at all.

“Why don’t you start with your name and who you work for,” Carrie prompted.

“Yes … yes, of course,” he said. “I’m Dr. Myles Bennett. I’m a biological engineer for GenTech.”

Carrie perked up at the mention of the company’s name. Excitedly, she glanced back at Kyle. She wanted to say, “See, I told you. I was right all along,” but he was busy struggling with the Ramirez kid.

Turning back around, she said, “And you’ve seen the creatures?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “The dragons were genetically engineered in the black projects lab at GenTech. I was one of the scientists involved in the project.”

Carrie could hardly believe her luck. Not only had they found a witness but someone who had firsthand knowledge of the project.

“But why?” Carrie asked, “I mean, what were they created for?”

“They were designed with a very specific purpose in mind,” Bennett said. “The impetus for the initial experiments came during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Our soldiers were fighting a very different war from any that had ever been fought before. Those wars were waged in inhospitable locations with unconventional tactics being employed by the enemy. They were in swamps and forests and rugged, mountainous regions, being attacked from virtually every direction with guerilla-style tactics. Typically, the army depends on our air superiority to soften up the opposing forces through extensive bombing prior to our ground forces moving in—a method that was employed with great success in the wars against Iraq. But this approach doesn’t always work. In conflicts with less easily defined targets, such as Vietnam and Korea and more recently Afghanistan, this proved to be an ineffective method. The government was desperate to find an alternate means for dealing with these guerilla and terrorist forces, which typically move in small groups in remote and often harsh environments, and mostly at night. My understanding is there were numerous projects being worked on originally—everything from training small, elite, counterterror forces to small remote-controlled attack droids to chemical and biological weapons. But with the mapping of the human genome and the exponential advances in genetic research and recombinant DNA, the Mandarin Project, as ours was known, was seen to offer the most promising results for the near future.”

“My God.” Carrie could hardly believe what she was hearing. “So you’re saying these things were intentionally created as some sort of weapon?”

“Created, yes, although ‘designed’ is perhaps a more accurate description. The dragons were developed with very specific parameters in mind. First, they were to be carnivorous and, if possible, to specifically seek out humans as prey. They wouldn’t be a very effective weapon if they were herbivores. Second, they were to be warm-blooded, which would allow them to function in all environments. Of course, such characteristics require a lot of energy, which means they must eat a lot. They hunt almost continuously, although this isn’t really a problem, since it fits in with the overall design criteria.”

Carrie was shocked as she listened to Bennett’s description of the creatures. It was as if he was detailing the specifications for a piece of hardware, not some genetically designed killing machine. He sounded like he was proud of their creation.

“Third,” Dr. Bennett continued. “They were to be nocturnal so they would be active during the times of most guerilla and terrorist movement. The cover of darkness offers the added benefit of making the dragons more difficult to detect as well as playing upon man’s innate fear of the dark. For the most part, the dragons were to be deployed in remote and often less technologically advanced areas, so the effect of rumor and superstition was seen as an added benefit. Fear is a great disrupter of cohesion and motivation among forces,” Bennett noted.

“Fourth, they were to have the ability to fly, enabling them to travel in almost any region as well as allowing them to cover large amounts of territory in a short time. And fifth, there had to be a means for deactivating them once their work was done.”

“In the end,” Bennett said, “the creature’s design wound up being a mixture of various animals, but its primary makeup came from the Nile crocodile, chimpanzees, and bats. Most people don’t know it, but crocodiles are similar to birds in many aspects. The bats provided the nocturnal habits as well as sonar and echolocation and the ability of flight, although it was very difficult to increase the growth factor enough to match the size required by the dragons. It was all much more complicated than it sounds. It took years and years of work by dozens of scientists to develop a self-sustaining prototype.”

“Wait a minute,” Carrie said. “You said there was to be a way to deactivate them. What did you mean by that? Did you mean
kill
them?”

“Yes,” Bennett replied. “Eventually, there were to have been tracking units implanted in each of the creatures. The plan was to install a chip into each dragon’s head that would serve as a GPS locator as well as a radio frequency receiver. Once the dragons achieved the desired result, a signal would be initiated from a satellite and the implant would immediately sever the link between its spinal column and cerebral cortex, thereby deactivating it. There were also miniature radio transmitters developed to prevent unwanted attacks on ground personnel.”

Hearing all of this was beginning to make Carrie feel sick to her stomach. To describe the program as a violation of human and animal rights was a gross understatement. But it still didn’t answer what she wanted to know. “So why weren’t these ‘deactivated’ after the crash!” she asked angrily.

“Unfortunately, they had not been fitted with the implants yet. The two prototypes were being transferred to a base in Alaska for further testing when the plane went down. A cleanup crew was deployed to the site immediately after the crash, but there was little time for them to get in and out before the NTSB investigators arrived. They didn’t have time to search the area sufficiently, and therefore, they were unable to determine that one of the dragons had survived. Even so, it should never have become as big a problem as it did, were it not for several extenuating circumstances that even we didn’t know about until it was too late. Apparently, the dragon that survived must have become pregnant at some point without our knowledge. After giving birth to what I now suspect are at least several litters, they began to put a strain on the local food supply—a problem that was exacerbated by the exceptionally harsh winter. The dragons were forced to range farther and farther afield in search of prey.”

Prey?
Something about the way he said it caused Carrie to snap. Without fully realizing what she was doing, she attacked the man. “Those goddamn things killed my grandparents!” she screamed as she began hitting him. In spite of his suit and helmet, Bennett cowered before her assault, holding his arm over his head in a halfhearted effort to defend himself. Arms flailing, she struck him again and again, screaming and crying until her throat was raw. “You bastard, you fucking bastard—”

Someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her off. She struggled to break free, but the arms around her waist held her tight.

She fought to turn around and hit whoever was holding her back, but as she thrashed about, she heard Kyle yelling in her ear. “Carrie, stop it! Stop! Settle down.”

Hearing Kyle, the fight drained out of her. She stopped struggling, and as she did so, he loosened his grip enough for her to turn around. With hot tears rolling down her face, she fell against Kyle’s chest.

She stayed that way for several moments before Kyle gently asked, “Are you all right?”

She nodded weakly and stepped back, wiping at the frozen tears on her face.

“I had no idea,” Bennett said. “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

After they gave Carrie a moment to gather herself, they started back down the trail again. They still had a long way to go, which included making their way through the bog of deep snow, and the light was rapidly fading. The sky was dark with angry, black clouds roiling overhead like a turbulent sea turned upside down. Tiny pellets of snow and ice fell like frozen spray.

Carrie remained silent as they trudged along, but Bennett started speaking again, as if now that he had started, he wanted to get it off his chest all at once. “I didn’t start out to create monsters,” he mumbled, as if talking to himself as much as Carrie.

“Shortly after my little brother, Douglas, was born, he was diagnosed with Dandy-Walker syndrome, a congenital malformation of the brain and, in his case, his heart. Douglas’s head grew to be larger than normal, and he never fully developed mentally. He could never really hold his head up without it wobbling about, and his eyes never seemed able to focus on you.

“Throughout his infancy, we suffered as he was forced to endure numerous surgeries in an effort to correct the problems, but all they ever really did was prolong the agony. He cried all the time. It was horrible. Then, when I was in high school, I read
Flowers for Algernon
, and it changed my life. You are familiar with it, aren’t you?” Bennett asked.

“Yes,” Carrie replied.

“I was so affected by that story I decided to become a scientist in hopes of helping people like my brother, like they did in the book. Only I was determined to succeed where they had failed. I had just graduated from high school when my brother died. He was only six. My parents were devastated. I don’t think they ever recovered.” Bennett wiped at his eyes beneath the raised visor. He sounded sincere, but Carrie wasn’t about to let her opinions of him be swayed that easily.

“I became more determined than ever to help make a difference,” Bennett said after a moment. “Children shouldn’t have to suffer like that. Unfortunately, genetic research is very expensive, and in the early days, there were no marketable products to help offset the costs. As a result, the company was forced to look for alternative means of funding. The Mandarin Project provided the solution. Although now I don’t suppose it matters how it got started,” he said. “The road to hell, right?”

Carrie didn’t say anything, but as they continued to march into the teeth of the growing snowstorm, she was afraid that was exactly where they were headed.

CHAPTER 94

By the time they reached the stretch of trail passing through the bog, the storm had struck in full force. The wind howled through the trees, and what little daylight remained had been blotted out by the thick mass of churning clouds.

Javier’s behavior had become more troubling as well. His head lolled from side to side, and he muttered continuously as he stumbled along. Even before they had started, it was obvious they were going to have a difficult time with him.

They paused while Kyle and the sheriff spoke among themselves, but it was impossible for Carrie to hear. The sheriff tried the radio again to no avail.

“Carrie,” Kyle called out, and she leaned in closer. “Don’t wait for us. You and the doctor go on ahead. When you get to the high point on the other side, try the radio again,” he said, holding it out to her. If it still won’t work, head for the snowmobiles as fast as you—”

“No,” Carrie interrupted. “I won’t leave you.”

“You have to,” Kyle shouted. “Take one of the snowmobiles and get to the ranger station as fast as you can. Tell Hank to bring one of the ski sleds back with him and meet up with us at the trailhead.”

“But what about the dragons?”

“That’s why you have to go now,” Kyle shouted back. “We’ve got the shotguns. We can take care of ourselves.”

“I won’t leave you,” she said again.

“Carrie, you have to. It’s the only way. We’ll be all right,” Kyle assured her.

She started to ask, “And what if you’re not?” but she couldn’t bring herself to say it, as if saying it might somehow make it come true. She bit her bottom lip and nodded. As she took the radio from him, she looked up at him one last time, hoping he would change his mind. But he didn’t. He just nodded at her in encouragement and offered one last, “It’s all right. Now go.”

Numbly, she turned around. Step by agonizing step, she began to slowly walk away. Behind her, Dr. Bennett paused to speak with Kyle and the sheriff, their voices too low for her to hear. After a brief conversation, he turned and began following her.

As they began trudging through the drift, Carrie felt as if she had been sucker punched in the gut. A gnawing emptiness bloomed inside of her just as it had after the death of her grandparents. She felt as if she stood on the brink of a yawning chasm, one foot out in space, as if she were about to take the fatal plunge.

God, how it had hurt—
physically hurt—
when he had told her to go.

It wasn’t until now that she realized just how much she had come to depend on Kyle’s presence to help her through her grief. And with that thought came the realization that she might have finally found someone capable of filling the void she had lived with for so many years.

All of which made the current situation even more devastating. The thought of losing Kyle was suddenly unbearable, especially when she was the one responsible for putting him in danger. She knew she wouldn’t be strong enough to go on alone this time. The thought of her long, empty life stretching out before her like the dark forest corridor they were now passing through would be more than she could withstand.

She almost turned around then to go running back to him, but she knew Kyle would never leave Javier behind, not even at the risk of his own life. The best way for her to help him was to do as he had asked and get to the bluff and radio for help—and failing that, get to the ranger station as fast as possible.

With a renewed sense of resolve and energy born of desperation, Carrie lowered her head and plowed onward into the storm, heedless of Dr. Bennett. He could manage on his own. In a strange twist of fate, now that she had the story she had been so desperately chasing, she realized it was never what she had really been searching for. The story was no longer the most important thing to her, and she wouldn’t hesitate to leave Bennett behind if he couldn’t keep up.