Black Mountain

FORTY-TWO

Hammerson took a few painful steps towards Alex. ‘Arcadian — wait! Alex! Ah, shit!’

The ex-HAWC moved up and over the steep ridge faster than Hammerson could have hoped to follow, even if he was in good shape.

He shook his head and turned back to the small group, keeping his injured arm pressed to his side. The ceramic plating in his suit crackled as he moved, and in many places it had simply fallen away. He could feel the searing cold through the rips in the toughened, insulated material. He could tell the young woman, Sarah, was about to go into shock. Matt Kearns looked cold and disorientated. Senesh was still staring up at where Alex had disappeared. Her fists were balled and her demeanour was far from being approachable.

Hammerson knew the Israeli agent harboured ill feelings towards him, but she had done what he had intended: she had kept Alex Hunter alive, and had brought him back. He couldn’t have hoped for more. She just needed to realise her job was done.

He spoke softly to her. ‘You said you owed him a life — you’ve given it to him. Now let him go. If he needs you, you know he’ll find you.’

She didn’t turn, and he could see her hands flexing. Her mind must be working furiously, processing options that would give the best outcome for herself, and perhaps what she thought was best for Alex as well. Hammerson walked a little closer.

‘You need to go home,’ he said.

She spun around, one of the deadly throwing spikes in her hand. ‘You used me,’ she spat.

She didn’t release the spike, just held it pointed at his face. He waited; there was nothing else he could do. His suit was shredded, and he was too battered to try to leap out of the way.

He waited and watched. She hissed something in Hebrew, through clenched teeth, but he couldn’t make it out. Her head dropped, but her arm and the spike stayed raised. Hammerson stood his ground.

‘The general, your uncle, wanted answers,’ he said, ‘so give him some.’ She looked up and he pointed to the crushed white-clad soldier. ‘Those men have undergone some form of the Arcadian treatment. Take one of them back with you. Have your people cut it into a thousand pieces and see what made it tick. I’m sure as hell not going to miss it.’

She dropped her arm, and, muttering to herself, walked to a rock near one of the dead soldiers and sat down… but for only a second. She jumped to her feet and launched a vicious kick at the corpse, then sat down hard again and grabbed her head with both hands.

‘They want me dead,’ she said, staring at the snow. ‘My own uncle wants me dead.’

Hammerson moved closer a few paces. ‘I don’t believe that. He wants his asset back. You need to help him save face, though. Take the body. I’ll help, make a few calls… Meir still owes me.’

When Senesh didn’t respond, Hammerson looked around for Logan’s body. He needed his comms pellet — his own had been smashed from his ear long ago. He saw the police chief’s body, went over to it and crouched down next to the bulky shape.

‘Sorry I got you into this, Bill,’ he said, and pulled the pellet from Logan’s ear and stuck it into his own. ‘Sam… come in.’

‘Boss, thank God. What’s been happening? I’m blind here.’

‘We need to get some warm and cold bodies off this freakin’ mountain ASAP,’ Hammerson told Sam Reid.

‘Yes, sir, I expected that. There’s a car already en route from Raleigh. Should be there in thirty minutes. You’ll need to get down to the east-side car park to rendezvous.’

‘Copy that.’

Hammerson walked back to where Adira was sitting and, facing her, spoke again. ‘Sam, I also want you to get a message to General Meir Shavit, direct from me. Tell him that Captain Senesh has successfully completed her mission and has an Arcadian subject for retrieval, with our blessing.’

Sam spluttered a response, but Hammerson cut him off.

‘At ease, it’s not Hunter. One of Graham’s abominations, I reckon.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Tell Meir that I’ll permit a single chopper to do a clean-up on the mountain and retrieve the asset, but after that I don’t want to see any more Mossad torpedoes on our soil or I’ll make it my personal mission to send every one of them home… horizontally. Oh yeah, one more thing — tell him to get the fuck out of our VELA satellite.’

Sam laughed darkly. ‘You got it, boss. And, ah, where is Alex now? Is he with you? And what about Franks?’

Hammerson walked away from Adira. ‘Unknown on both counts. There’ll be two for pick-up — Kearns and Ms Sommer. Don’t worry about me — I’m fine. I’ll check in later, once I’ve done a search.’

He suppressed a groan as he felt the cold on his damaged side. He wasn’t really fine. Still, he’d been worse. He turned back to the Israeli woman. She was looking at him with a flat smile.

‘Thank you. Maybe after some time, we…’ she trailed off and shrugged.

‘Maybe? Maybe next life. You’re good at what you do, damn good. Perhaps we can work together in the future; who knows. But like I told the general — right now, you need to get off our soil.’

He looked up at the dark sky as she got to her feet.

‘Don’t worry, they’ll find me,’ she said. ‘And also the other agents’ bodies. I bet they are already on their way — Salamon would have been in contact with the general by now.’

She held out her hand and he shook it.

‘I may see you again, and I may not,’ she said. ‘Our stories rarely have happy endings, Jack Hammerson.’ She shrugged. ‘It is not in my hands now.’

‘It never is,’ Hammerson said, and walked away.

Alex skidded to a stop at the edge of a precipice. The path he had been following through the interior of the mountain for the last half-mile had dwindled to little more than a slim ledge alongside a dark void that stretched several hundred feet across. At its centre was a nothingness that swallowed even the sound of his footsteps.

Along the way, he’d passed sections of rock art etched into the brilliant blues and greens of the deep-earth mineral salts. Not the sophisticated drawings or carvings that had so excited Matt Kearns in the outer caves, but crude drawings of the hulking shapes he pursued. If Matt had been there, he might have shown Alex the beginnings of a whole new language, or might have explained the creatures’ talent for storytelling, their desire to be free from slavery and from the darkness of their mountain prison. But Alex wasn’t interested in the wonders of science. His objective was to pursue and acquire the targets.

He strained his eyes to make out the figures ahead of him. He could see the silver of their nocturnal eyes in the dark, their huge shapes attempting to conceal themselves along the narrow path. They were waiting for him, clearly intending an ambush. Perhaps they thought he was like the others of his kind they had mutilated — blind, weak and fearful.

Taking my head won’t be as easy, he thought, and pulled the gun from his belt.

The leader raised its head, grunting once and causing the line of enormous bipeds to stop. Deep in the darkness of the mountain, the only light came from scant bioluminescent lichens, which gave everything a soft blue-green glow. Not enough for surface-dwellers to see by, but its people had adapted. The leader inhaled deeply through wide nostrils; it could smell the blood of its dead brother. Their pursuer was drawing nearer. Strangely, the darkness didn’t seem to bother it; instead, it came on at a determined and steady run. A wave of rage pushed out before it, unsettling the several dozen beasts that surrounded the large pack leader.

The leader grunted, and a small band of the largest males broke from the group. The rest would seek deeper shelter, taking the body of their dead brother with them, and the females and the young.

The band of males wanted to race back to meet the coming creature. But the older beast had heard of another with this small animal’s determination — the being that had driven their ancestors into the darkness. Perhaps this creature intended to do the same for the last of their great tribe. There was no hurry to find it. It would find them. They would wait here for it.

It was close now, and the dominant male moved to the centre of the path. It drew in a deep breath, flooding its enormous lungs with the dank air of the deep cave and its own kind. Its goal was simple — to protect its species. It would not allow the small creature to get past it and reach the rest of its people.

A booming whoop exploded in the air around the band of males and echoed throughout the dark chamber. But it came not from the leader; instead, one of the younger males broke from the pack and sprinted to face the oncoming challenge.

The leader grunted in frustration, and held up an arm as thick as a tree trunk to halt the others, who were excited with the desire for blood and war. Unlike its younger kin, the older male sensed the need for caution. It would watch to see how the challenge was met.

Alex saw the creature speeding up the path towards him — a small mountain of fur and muscle. Its long yellow teeth were bared, and its huge hands knuckled the ground with such thumping force that he could feel the pounding through the soles of his boots.

Alex didn’t pause, or even slow. He raised the Colt and fired two shots. The first struck the beast’s shoulder; the second blew a fragment of skin and hair from its large domed skull. The creature slowed, either stunned from the shots or from the boom of the gunfire in the enclosed space.

The moment of disorientation was the small opening Alex needed. He used his momentum to ram the beast with his shoulder. Though it outweighed him by more than 1000 pounds, his speed magnified the power of his impact, causing the giant to stagger back. Alex grunted from the collision, and felt something crunch in his shoulder as he bounced off the massive torso.

The creature swung its arm and latched onto Alex’s gun hand. As it took another unbalanced step back, the edge of the path crumbled beneath it. Alex braced himself, but the imbalance in weight took them both over the edge.

Alex grabbed a shelf of rock and together they hung there over the void, the monstrous beast gripping Alex’s wrist with an enormous hand that could have wrapped itself around his arm three times. Alex felt his joints scream. Even though his system was flooded with adrenaline, other natural stimulants and the synthesised Arcadian treatment, his muscles weren’t strong enough either to lift the creature up with him or to shake it loose.

Alex roared his frustration into the darkness as the beast threw up its other arm to latch onto Alex’s bicep. It was going to use his body as a ladder. He could see its silver nocturnal eyes as it edged itself towards his upper body; they were filled with hatred and cunning. He knew that when it reached the edge of the precipice, it would bite down on his head with its cavernous jaws and crush his skull.

Alex tried again to lift himself, but it was impossible. His arm was going numb in the creature’s grip. He had only one chance…

He edged the barrel of the gun he was still holding at an angle into the beast’s lower throat, and fired. The blast was deafening. The creature’s eyes went wide and Alex felt its grip loosen. The large face registered something like surprise. As it slid down his arm, its hand caught the gun, stripping it from Alex’s grip. He didn’t know if it was deliberate or by accident, but either way he’d lost his weapon.

The massive body fell into the void. There was no sound of it striking anything on its way down into the centre of the mountain. Straight back to hell, Alex thought.

He rolled himself back up onto the ledge, where he lay gasping for a few moments. He got slowly to his feet and rolled his shoulders. The one that had been dislocated lifted itself back into its socket, and he momentarily clenched his jaw from the pain.

He looked down the path to the band of silent, motionless creatures. They were all giants, but he easily picked out their leader, standing taller than the others. If they rushed him together, he knew he’d be dead.

Alex lifted the long blade from his belt and took a few steps towards the group, rage and battle lust making him grind his teeth. His grip on the knife handle was so tight, he felt its leather compress in his hand. He held it up in front of him.

‘Come on!’ he yelled at the leader.

The large creature didn’t move.

‘What’s the matter? Prefer old women and children? Come on!’

Alex drew back his arm and threw the knife as hard as he could. The silver blade flew through the air almost faster than the eye could follow. The creature hunched but the knife buried itself into its massive shoulder. It straightened and pulled the blade free; the knife looked little more than a splinter in its large hand. It puffed out its cheeks, making a snorting sound that Alex could have sworn was derision, and dropped the blade over the edge of the precipice. It watched it fall away into the nothingness before turning back to Alex.

Alex opened his arms to show he was unarmed, and yelled his rage at the giant. But instead of charging, as he expected, it half-turned and grunted to the huddled group behind it. Begrudgingly, they backed away along the path, clearly grumbling but obeying their leader.

Alex stepped closer. ‘You think I’m going to be that easy?’

The mighty beast bent to the rock wall and pulled free a block of stone the size of a small car. It strained to lift the boulder above its head, then held it there, sighting on Alex.

‘Ah, shit.’

Alex doubted the creature could throw the rock far enough to hit him, but the size of the boulder and the narrowness of the path would make it a near impossible juggernaut to avoid even if it simply bounced towards him.

The creature made a whooping sound, which was picked up by the other animals now out of sight. In one swift motion, it slammed the stone onto the narrow path before it. The explosive impact brought rocks raining down from the cavern’s walls, and the path itself crazed into deep cracks.

The creature pulled another stone from the wall and threw it down onto the same spot.

Alex backed up a step, suddenly realising what the creature was doing. ‘You’re cutting me off? No!’ He frowned and took another step back as pieces of the ledge broke off and fell away.

It fears you, said the voice in his head. Kill it now!

Alex tensed his muscles, filled with the sudden urge to leap at the creature. But a third rock came down on the pathway, causing a twenty-foot section to fall away into the void. The creature stood back, its chest heaving from the strain.

As it turned away, Alex, without knowing why, raised his hand, his fingers open. ‘Wait.’

The large beast turned back and stared at Alex for a few seconds, then it raised its hand too, fingers open, duplicating Alex. Its eyes locked on his for a moment, then it snorted and disappeared into the darkness. Alex could hear the creatures retreating deeper and deeper into the darkness of the mountain.

It wasn’t trying to kill me, he thought. It’s cutting itself and its people off from me.

He frowned. The beast had signalled to him, had wanted to tell him something. That there’s been enough killing?

Alex continued to stare into the darkness in the direction the giant bipeds had taken. Even if he managed to make it across the gap, what would he do when he caught up with the creatures?