Z. Raptor (18 page)

“Who says we
are
controlling it?” sneered Lisa.

“Speak to me, JJ,” said Chen casually. “Or we let the raptor speak to you, and he doesn't talk so nice.”

The guard's eyes hardened. “I'm telling you nothing.”

“Well, I'm telling
you
that you have an anterior dislocation of the shoulder, possibly with a fracture of the proximal end of the humerus,” said Stone. “And this puncture wound may have caused a partial rupture of the axillary artery.” He mustered a grave smile. “It's what we doctors call ‘a mess.' Right now, your body's pumped full of endorphins to reduce the pain and shock, but pretty soon you're going to be hurting. And if I don't stop the bleeding, you're a dead man.”

Chen leaned in closer. “Sure you won't think again, buddy?”

“All right,” JJ muttered finally, sweat pouring over his bloody face. “But I don't know much. I'm hired help. Private security expert.”

“A mercenary,” David translated, looking down at the gun in his hands. “Soldier for hire.”

“I got here only three weeks ago, relieving some other guy. Please, you've got to pop my shoulder.”

Stone reached around, took the man's wrist and bent his arm into an L shape.

“Wait.” Harm was suspicious at once. “The sea monsters trash any ship that comes here. We've seen them.”

“Up close,” Chen added. “So how did you get past them?”

When the guard didn't respond, Chen put a hand on Stone's arm to stop him from fixing the dislocation. “I'll ask you one more time.”

JJ spoke through gritted teeth. “A woman called Josephs controls them somehow. Computers and stuff.”

Stone rotated the man's arm outward, popping the shoulder back into its joint. JJ gasped, then shook as if with intense relief. But blood was still pooling from the wound; Stone began tying a tourniquet.

“Think-Send,” Adam breathed, and leaned closer to the guard. “You said computers—does someone put on a headset linked to a kind of metal box when they tell the monsters what to do?”

JJ stared. “How would a kid like you know . . .” He trailed off, clamming up.

I'll take that as a yes,
thought Adam, pleased with himself.

As Stone took a big wad of gauze and started taping it over the wound, Harm spoke up. “Did Geneflow use this Think-Send to put thoughts from the death row prisoners' heads into the raptors?”

JJ looked at her blankly.

Even Adam wondered what she was talking about.

“We need to get out of here,” said David before Harm could explain. “Antistink spray or not, Vels and Brutes alike will be able to smell that man's blood.”

“At least we've got a gun that works against the raptors now.” Chen carefully avoided Loner's gaze as he turned back to Adam. “You understand this Think-Send stuff, right?”

Finally,
thought Adam,
something I can feel confident about
. “I've used it more than anyone. If we can find the computer and the program, I can switch off those monsters that trashed the
Hula Queen
.”

“Yes,” Loner wheezed. “Stop them. You must.”

David nodded eagerly. “If we could contact your other ship, bring it back here . . .”

“We could all get away.” Lisa finished, clutching Harm to her. “Far away from here.”

Dad,
thought Adam, hope charging through him.
I could see Dad again
.

Then a roaring howl grated out from the jungle, along with the sound of something smashing through the vegetation. Despite the morning sun, Adam felt the temperature drop by degrees.

“Sounds like prehistoric fight club's back,” said Chen. He started pulling the remains of the hazard suit from JJ's battered body. “Tell me, how many people does Geneflow have here?”

“Skeleton staff,” JJ muttered. “Josephs, two other science types, three guards and me.”

David looked at Chen. “If we can free the prisoners, we'd have strength of numbers on our side.”

“Those poor saps are weaker than you are,” JJ said, wincing as Stone wrapped the tape tightly up and around his neck. “Anyway, they're locked up.”

Chen turned to David, Stone and Lisa and started pulling on the torn hazard suit. “Keep our new friend behind you. I'll walk in front—if we meet anyone, from a distance they'll think I'm him.” He raised the electroshock gun. “At least until I can zap them.”

As they set off cautiously across the camp, Adam fell into weary step beside Harm. Distant cries and yowls colored the rain forest gloom. The Brutes were calling to each other, communicating instructions, screeching understanding. The racket creeped Adam out big time.

Turning to Harm, he said, “Why were you asking about Think-Send and the prisoners?”

Harm shrugged. “It's nothing. Forget it.”

“That raptor with the hunched back,” Adam persisted. “Was it what he said to you?”

Harm hesitated. Then she sighed and nodded. “It's too weird,” she said, the words falling out in a rush as if trying to escape before she could change her mind. “The hunchback was in that supersized chicken coop, smashing up stuff, and I saw it was him and I tried to run past, but he saw me and came running out, and I fell. . . .” She bit her lip, put on the brakes. “I guess you heard what he called me.”

Adam nodded. “Sweet. Perfect.”

“Yeah.” She snorted softly. “What got to me was that it's sort of what my dad used to say to me. “'Cause of my name, get it? Sweet harmony, perfect harmony, yada yada yada.” She shook her head. “It's nothing.”

Adam considered. “Well, you know, Think-Send has transmitted some of my thoughts by accident before. If the convicts used the system to play games and the same sets were used to train the raptors, I suppose it's possible—”

“That I'm clutching at straws. I get it; it's okay. You don't have to be nice.” Harm shrugged. “I guess that freak with the back just wanted feeding is all. I mean, just look at all this meat on my bones.” She looked at him wryly. “Who wouldn't think I was perfect?”

Not sure what to say, Adam could feel himself blushing. But as they passed the tower, he could feel the color drain from his cheeks. The path to the main entrance was strewn with raptor corpses, Vels and Brutes locked in combat even in death. The barricade and the main entrance had been torn apart, the piles of scrap lying like strange headstones around the killing field. Adam saw Loner looking all around, his eyes unreadable.

“Can you tell if any of the Vels are still alive?” Adam asked.

“I am the last.” There was no emotion in his voice. He scented the air. “Brutes have been inside. They are not there now.”

“You can't scent the guards, though, can you?” said Chen. “And they could be laying on something special for us. I'd better check it out.” He moved toward the shadowed entrance. “You've got the raptor to look out for you till I get back. Stay here.”

“Like there's anywhere else to go.” Harm crouched beside an overturned packing crate, and David gestured for the others to join her in hiding amid the remains of the barricade as Chen cautiously approached the ruined entrance. Adam sank down behind a rusted-up generator, mindful that the one he'd helped destroy had brought this bloody massacre down on the camp.

More crashes carried from the jungle. “The Brutes who survived are coming back,” JJ promised them. “I saw them on the spy cams, shifting their eggs from the beach.”

“Taking the enemies' territory,” Stone noted.

JJ shrugged. “The prisoners are in no state to make the trek to the beach. Easier to bring the eggs here for their feast.”

“You're so cold about it.” Lisa glared at him. “Have you been spying on us too down in your safe little base? Laughing at us?”

“Get over yourself,” sneered the guard. “The spy cams were built into key raptors on each side. It's them Josephs watches. You're nothing in all this.”

Suddenly a Brute crashed out of the jungle gloom and into the clearing—three large, pale eggs clamped in its claws. Adam slid down farther behind his rusted metal cover, and the others followed suit. But Loner was too big to hide himself.

The Brute saw him at once. It threw back its head and screamed, a terrible, gargling summons to its pack, and the hate in its eyes was as eloquent as its howl.

There's one Vel left standing after all,
Adam thought.
But it won't be for long.

L
oner grabbed a rusted sheet of corrugated iron for a shield and charged at the Brute. It wasted barely a second as it stooped to place its eggs on the sand.

But that was long enough for Loner to close the distance between them.

He slammed the scrap metal against the Brute's body, knocking it to the ground. Its writhing tail shattered one of the eggs, and Loner stamped on the other two with a savage hiss of satisfaction before running back to the barricade, a blur of red and black—just as three more battle-scarred Brutes came out of the jungle, barking and roaring.

“Where's Chen?” David whispered, staring in horror as the Brutes advanced. “Why hasn't he come back—what's waiting for us in there?” Stone took hold of JJ's good arm. “At least we have a hostage.”

“Inside,” Loner rasped to the humans around him.

David pushed JJ through the entrance. “C'mon, kids,” said Lisa. She took Harm and Adam by the hand and started hauling them into the wartime building that now served as the Vel camp. The entrance hall was dingy and damp, poorly lit through high and broken windows. It stank like a zoo enclosure, only twenty times stronger.

Adam snatched his hand from Lisa's grip. “I'll catch up with you,” he called, and ran back to the doorway. The Brutes were advancing steadily. “Loner, please, come on.”

“Your queen is dead,” the Vel bellowed at his enemies, holding up the mangled band of barbed wire their leader had once worn. “I killed her.”

The words had a varied effect on the Brutes. Some growled, some sniffed the air, others barked and yelped like dogs or wolves. He could see two of Loner's allies—the one-eyed Brute and his friend with the broken teeth—hanging back at the jungle's edge, impassive.

The Brute that Loner had knocked down kicked away the corrugated iron and got back to its feet. It stared down at the broken, stinking eggs at his feet. “I will kill you,” it croaked.

“No.” Another shook its huge head. “
I
will kill the Vel.”

“Who among you is strong enough to wear this crown?” Loner bit through the circlet of barbed wire to Brute yowls of anger, then hurled it out into the clearing. The creatures fell upon the token, snapping and slashing at each other to get hold of it.

“Now.” Loner turned and snatched Adam away, holding him around the waist like a fullback running the ball upfield, and darted into the building.

“Cool distraction,” Adam gasped as Loner's quill points bit into his skin, his pounding footfalls echoing the thump of Adam's heart. “I can't believe they're so stupid they'd fight among themselves before they come to get us.”

Loner looked down at him as they ran, and Adam could've sworn he was smiling. “Stupidity is good.”

Maybe,
Adam thought.
But when they've sorted that little spat, the Brutes will really be out for blood
.

Lisa, David, Harm and Stone were waiting for them at a junction between two corridors. JJ was leaning against the stained concrete, pale and sweating. Loner put Adam down beside them with surprising gentleness.

“He was brilliant.” Adam smiled nervously at the raptor. “Bought us some time.”

Lisa pressed a hand against Loner's side. “Bless you.”

“Uh-huh, God bless the talking dinosaur.” Stone looked around distractedly. “Where's John? We need him. Where is he?”

“My people must have got him,” said JJ, starting off uncertainly down the corridor to the left. “Let's go.”

David held him back. “So Geneflow can kill us too, like they killed the people we loved?”

“I won't let them hurt you,” JJ promised. “You helped me, I help you, right?”

Lisa chewed her lip. “Maybe he means it—”

“We can't trust him,” Stone insisted.

The concrete floor carried the vibration as heavy clawed feet pounded in the distance. “The Brutes will kill us all if we stay here,” hissed JJ.

“The armory,” Loner said. “The Vels kept human weapons . . .”

“From the war.” David nodded. “Like the tear gas they used on us at the dugout.”

“The armory is on the way to the hidden door,” Loner said as the stamping steps drew closer. He curled his tail urgently, as though beckoning the humans to follow, guiding them through the twists and turns of the base. David and Lisa went first while Adam ran with Harm, his legs feeling leaden, praying they didn't have much farther to go. He turned to ask JJ—just as the guard stumbled and fell to the ground.

Stone, already out of breath, dropped to examine him. “He's out. Lost too much blood.”

While Loner and Harm ran on ahead, Adam hesitated. And before David could stop Lisa, she had run back to Stone and JJ. “We'll have to carry him,” she said.

A hunting roar echoed hard off the concrete. The Brutes weren't far off.

“There's no time, Lisa,” David argued. “Those things will smell his blood and get straight on our trail.”