Tritium Gambit (Max and Miranda Book 1) (9 page)

John knelt. “Look at this.” He pointed to some yellow-green goo on the ground.

“
Yeah, you’re right. Somebody really hocked a giant loogie.”

John shook his head. “It isn’t phlegm. It’s blood. It looks like this guy got off a few shots before becoming dinner. I don’t see a blood trail leading away, though.”

“
If it can bleed, that means we can kill it,” I replied.

Miranda frowned. “To leave teeth marks this large means this creature is huge. I don’t see how you could kill anything let alone a monstrous eater-of-people. You don’t even have a gun.”

“
The lack of blood trail suggests it had a way of staunching the bleeding,” the sheriff said. “There’s a chance it has regenerative abilities.”

Miranda sighed. “We don’t have any definitive evidence this creature can heal. It may simply have been carrying around Band-Aids. We only know that it is large, has teeth, and likes to eat humans. We also don’t know what technologies it has.”

John nodded. “I agree. We need more information.” He scanned the ground further. “But we don’t have any sort of trail to follow.”

“
Just because I heal fast doesn’t mean I can’t be killed. I can drown, or if I sustain a large enough injury…” I pointed at the unfortunate innkeeper. “I’m not invincible.”

John smirked. “Yes, but you are tough to kill. If you weren’t so resilient, your species couldn’t have survived the conditions of your planet with such low intellect.”

“
Well, yeah, I guess I am pretty tough,” I said.

“
I wonder who is going to take care of his cat.” Miranda asked.

“
What cat?” I asked.

“
Remember that cat back at the resort? It was orange. Poor thing,” she said.

“
It’s a cat. They can take care of themselves,” John said.

“
Let’s worry about finding Tyler,” I suggested.

Miranda put her hands on her hips. “I remember Wendy saying the ping originated near, or was possibly coming from, a mineshaft. Do you know of an old mineshaft near here?”

John shook his head. “There is no mineshaft near here.”

“
It would be underwater,” I said.

John considered. “Well, there’s an old strip mine filled with water about a mile that way, but strip mines are not mineshafts. They’re giant pits in the ground. This one filled up with water after all the iron was scraped out. The locals call it Miner’s Lake now. They even stock it with fish.”

“
We should give Wendy an update,” Miranda said.

“
Why should we do that?” I asked.

“
Chapter 12, section 4.2 of the Agent Handbook states that an agent shall remain in constant…”

“
Fine. Fine. May I borrow your com link?”

She looked surprised. “You don’t have your com link?”

“
They’re so fragile. Mine was broken a few missions ago, and I keep forgetting to get a new one.”

“
A few missions ago?”

“
Giant beavers. You should have seen the size of their…”

“
Here’s my com link,” she said as she extended it to me, but when I went to take it, she didn’t let go right away. Then she sighed and released her grip.

I hit a few buttons on the com link and a hologram of Wendy’s face appeared.

“
Hello, Maxie,” she said. “Miranda called a little bit ago. She must have forgotten to tell me something."

From behind Wendy’s hologram, Miranda mouthed, “Maxie?”

“
We’ve found evidence of a ping, but I have some bad news,” I said.

Her face took on a pouty look. “Poor Max. If you lost Miranda, I wouldn’t worry too much about her. We can get you a new partner.”

“
So far, I’ve only lost Tyler. No, the bad news is we don’t know what we are up against. But speaking of Tyler, do you know why he snuck on our plane? Why didn’t he simply get on with us?”

She frowned. “You know he has a penchant for the dramatic.”

I shrugged. “Well, it struck me as kind of odd. You’re sure he was cleared for this mission?”

“
Yes, and you better find him in one piece. Life might get difficult for you if you don’t. I’ll keep your blunder under wraps as long as I can, but I can’t promise Captain Johnson won’t find out. I’ll bet he’ll throw you in the stockade for this one.”

I groaned. “I’ll do what I can.”

“
Find him quickly.” Her face disappeared and the com link’s hologram faded to nothing.

“
She’s lying,” I said. “I’m sure that Tyler wasn’t part of this mission. Wendy must be trying to cover for him.”

Miranda looked at me. “Why?”

I shrugged. “I confronted Tyler last night, and he told me he needed this mission so he wasn’t forced into retirement. He’s helped me before, and so I was returning the favor. I didn’t know he and Wendy were friends, or maybe she owes him a favor or something. I only wish she had more information for us.” I handed Miranda the com link.

Miranda frowned. “Poor guy.”

Chapter 9. Max

Miranda and I followed John cautiously through the forest and to the top of a fern-covered hill. As we topped the rise, I realized we were on a rocky cliff. A hundred feet below us was a lake with red rock cliffs around it on all sides. Tightly packed trees stood sentinel along the top of the rock face. The water was calm and dark, but I wondered what lurked below the surface. I had heard of amphibious aliens visiting Earth before, and I wasn’t so sure I was ready for that challenge, partly because I was afraid of water. Well, not water so much as drowning.

John pointed down to the lake. “This is the easiest way to get to the water from this side.”

Nothing about the descent looked easy. Jagged rocks stuck out of the water next to shore, but there didn’t appear to be a way to get down the cliff face without the proper gear anyway. If I used my graviton bars, I could climb down like I was crossing monkey bars. However, I didn’t think I could carry two people on my back while swinging from point to point without the risk of us all falling onto the rocks.

“
Oh! Well, maybe we should go around then,” Miranda said.

“
The other side will have tourists and would require either a long swim or a boat to get back here. I believe if the creature we are hunting came out of the lake then it came out from this side. This is the easiest way in or out of the lake without going all the way around.”

I looked down at the water. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but the thought of swimming was terrifying. “Yeah, maybe Miranda is right. Maybe we should go around and get a boat or something.”

“
No, the sheriff is right,” Miranda said. “If Tyler is still alive, we can’t waste a few hours trying to get back to this spot if it’s the most likely starting point.”

“
Maybe you should go first, and I’ll keep an eye out for the creature up here. You know, in case it isn’t in the water,” I suggested.

Miranda put her hand on my shoulder. “Are you worried about jumping from this height?”

“
No, but maybe you could give me a couple of quick pointers on swimming.”

“
It’s amazing your kind survived at all,” John said.

“
Wait, you don’t know how to swim?” Miranda asked.

“
It isn’t technically required in agent training.” Not if you are willing to put in extra credit work at night anyway, I thought.

“
I had to do it,” Miranda said.

I felt warm. “Well... Commander Addison had me do...alternate training exercises.”

“
Wasn’t she sent to a remote post on Alpha-Centauri Prime for inappropriate sexual behavior with a cadet?”

I didn’t look at her. “All right, let’s get this show on the road,” I said.

I pulled my rebreather apparatus off my belt and put it in my mouth. With two quick steps, I leapt off the cliff, waving my arms and kicking my legs as I tried to control my descent, but falling in control is an oxymoron. A hundred feet goes by very fast when you are thinking about how you don’t really want to hit the water.

I smashed into the lake with enough force to push my testis into my throat and dislocate a shoulder. Through sheer force of will, I kept the rebreather in my mouth. If I could simply stay conscious and keep breathing, the rest I could survive. I went under about ten feet initially, but then an undercurrent grabbed me and sucked me down. I flailed in an attempt to resist as another body hit the water above me. I struggled with all my might, but I was pulled into darkness.

I began to panic as ragged stone pummeled me from all sides and I tumbled through the darkness. I was being pulled into an underwater tunnel and being battered by the rugged walls. I could make out a green light from somewhere near me, possibly a glow stick. Miranda must be nearby, I thought, and I tried to remain calm even as terror tore at my brain. Swimming might be horrifying, but being tossed around uncontrollably in an underwater cavern was the limit of my endurance.

I crashed against stone, shattering ribs and possibly some of my vertebrae. Miranda collided into me, but I absorbed the shock of her impact. I nearly lost my rebreather. She held up her wrist, which had a thin green glow stick wrapped around it, and I could see a cavern above us. The water of the tunnel we had been sucked into was black and impenetrable.

The pain of the battering overwhelmed me and pinned me to the stone. If I lost the rebreather, I knew I would die, and panic gnawed at me anew. I wanted to grab hold of Miranda, but I had heard about frantic people who drowned their would-be rescuers and I couldn’t risk doing that to her. It took all my willpower to let her go. Then she was out of the water, and I could only see the green light faintly somewhere above me. Below, behind, and to either side of me was cold slimy rock. I could feel the burning heat of my ribs rebuilding themselves and my spine healing. My dislocated shoulder already felt better. I realized I hadn’t cracked any vertebrae after all but that I probably had a bad bruise that would be gone in seconds. Everybody thinks it is so great to be able to heal fast, but they don’t know how much it hurts. I suddenly became aware of how cold the water was and could tell that, if I stayed in it too long, the temperature alone would be a problem. I wasn’t immune to hypothermia.

A hand grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me up. I broke the surface and pulled myself onto a narrow rock ledge.

We were in a small cave, actually more of a fissure, that wasn’t much bigger than a tent. There was a roughly triangular hole in the floor through which I could see the dark water that I had been pulled from. The walls were smooth and orange, like so many of the other rocks I had seen near here. The cave had an eerie green glow from the light Miranda carried.

Miranda tugged at my shirt in an effort to lift it up. My clothes, standard issue and already dry, had traces of blood. A normal shirt probably would have had tears in it, but the Service didn’t make Tshirts from cotton.

“
You’re bleeding.” She lifted my shirt higher and a look of astonishment came to her face in the green glow of the stick on her wrist. “Wow, you really do heal fast.”

I held my ribs, which I could feel reconstructing themselves. “Give me a minute or two,” I whispered.

She obviously noticed the telltale signs of reconstruction as my ribs repositioned themselves under my skin. “Does that hurt?” she asked.

I did my best not to clench my teeth. “Not at all,” I lied. I lay back down and breathed a few deep breaths. I spoke to the ring on my hand. “External testis. Nice one, dad.”

“
So you were made by the Boyhen?”