Dead of Night

33

The quarry floor was coral chips and ferns. Banana thickets and birds-of-paradise created scattered domes of shade. Otherwise, it was a rock crater with walls fifteen to twenty feet high, open to the sky now that the overhead screen had been torn away.

The walls were vertical. There were calcium remains of limpets, brain corals, sea fans, vertebrates-evolution etched in limestone. They’d mined the stuff in blocks, so the walls were scarred with ridges where seeds of ficus and fern had rooted. There were cascading vines with umbrella-sized leaves.

Along the wall to my left were shelves of wooden cages of varying size, some as big as small rooms. Each had a door or lid, usually Plexiglas. Most of the doors were open.

Nearby was an enclosed cement circle, and a laboratory table, not unlike the table in my lab. Beneath a roof of corrugated plastic was an industrial-grade incubator, heating tubes suspended above.

This was a place to hatch crawling creatures. A safe place to extract venom.

A serpentarium.

There were also larger enclosures made of wood and wire mesh. Tire swings hanging from chains; rotting banana peels on rock floor.

Monkeys. They’d been freed, too.

The woman hadn’t lied, as I’d suspected. I’d ignored her warning, and now I’d have to deal with it. It gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.

The incubator was operational. A light was blinking near a row of gauges. I got close enough to see that, beneath the incubator’s opaque cover, were hundreds of eggs in open cartons.

Some reptiles are protective of their nest. They use their tongues to wind-track eggs if they’ve been moved. This was not a place to linger.

I walked to my right. Vines grew sunward on pitted rock. They looked strong enough to hold a man’s weight, and there were crevices for feet and fingers. I had to find a way out of the quarry, or soon face Ox-man, the Russian. Him and his rifle. Maybe him, his rifle, and the woman, too.

Or worse.

I reached, grabbed a vine, feeling its triangular edges, and began to pull myself up the wall, hand over hand. Got a few feet off the ground when the vine snapped. I landed butt-hard on gravel, dust and leaves raining down.

Got to my feet, all senses firing. Stepped toward a neighboring vine. I was reaching to get a grip when I noticed a shadow moving through the high foilage. Stood for a moment, then backed away.

Something alive was up there. It appeared as a descending darkness, thick as a man’s wrist, augering downward at a speed that created a barber-pole illusion. A wall of elephant’s ear leaves, from quarry lip to floor, rustled incrementally, syncronized with the shadow’s slow uncoiling. The expanse of trembling leaves suggested the shadow’s size. Twice as long as I am tall. Longer.

In a pool of sunlight, I got a glimpse: green scales flexing as muscle undulated. A single black eye in a head the size of my fist.

I became a statue, temples thumping.

Ahead and to my left, there was unrelated activity. A second shadow, rustling. Ferns in the area were knee-high. I watched ferns parting in a pattern of serpentine switch-backs as something vectored toward me, ground level.

For an instant, an image of the woman came to mind. Crawling after me over tile.

I began retreating, eyes shifting from vines to moving ferns, until I reached the metal door. Searched blindly. Finally touched its handle. Tested. Felt the door begin to open. Second option, confirmed.

My choices: snakes at feeding time, Russian with a gun.

I’d shifted into crisis mode; began projecting, then rejecting, a rapid list of alternatives. My eyes drifted to the incubator. Paused. Remembered the words of an African friend: “They get aggressive. Deadly mean, if you’re near their nest.”

I touched the door again. Not much of an escape route. But all I had.

I hurried past the cages to the incubator. Opened the lid… then froze.

Shit.

A few paces away, a cobra sprouted from the ferns, skull ribs flattening its head like a mummy’s cowling, black eyes lasering. It leaned toward me, unhinged its mouth wide, and exhaled. There was a stink of rodents. Hiss does not describe the sound.

The snake’s swaying head was chest-high. Ten or twelve feet of reptile. A king cobra.

It was aware of me; unimpressed.

In the banana thickets, other reptiles were stirring. On the quarry’s far wall, I noticed snakes exiting crevices. Beyond the swaying cobra, ferns had become animated.

My body remained motionless as my hand moved. It reached without looking and found a carton of eggs. Felt to make certain the carton was full, took it. I began to back away, slowly at first, then turned to run… but stopped. Froze once again.

To my right, shadow had touched earth. A hatchet-sized head lifted off gravel, tongue-testing the molecular content of air, a yard of its lichen-colored body visible. It was an African mamba, the genetic model of ascendency. I looked up. Saw its tail twitching twelve feet above among vines on the quarry wall.

The snake’s head turreted in slow assessment. Swept past me. Paused. Turreted back. Paused once again, tongue probing for specifics. Head lifted another few inches, dusty eyes vague above zombie-stitched lips.

A mammalian heart was beating.

Mine.

Behind me, near the top of the quarry, I heard a sudden thrashing among leaves; heard the gunshot crack of a tree limb breaking, then a shriek. I looked up in time to see a dark shape falling toward me. I thought it was a man, at first, because of the flailing arms.

The Russian?

I jumped and ducked, covering my head. Jumped again when it landed face-first a few yards away. The sound of a primate’s body impacting on earth is distinctive. A cavity containing lungs is percussive.

A gorilla?

The animal was the size of a teenager, big-shouldered, covered with hair. It groaned, stirred. Struggled to get to its knees. Collapsed and rolled, eyes open. It had a black elongated faced, and golden, human eyes.

A chimpanzee.

Its left arm, I noted, was grotesquely swollen. I looked up and saw a gray snake in the tree canopy. A black mamba. Not large.

The chimp groaned once again, head turning as glazed eyes found me. Seemed to focus in recognition-a great sadness to be shared. Lifted its right arm, muscles beginning to spasm, and reached its hand out to me, index finger pointing.

I’ve never felt such a combination of shock and fear. Unconsciously, I leaned toward the chimp, hand extended. Our fingers touched for a moment. Its skin was leathery, warm as my own. The hand fell as the chimpanzee shuddered, grunted, made a rattling sound of exhaustion. I watched its eyes dim, then close.

Dead.

I forced myself to step away, aware that a few more seconds of inattention could be fatal.

The cobra had disappeared among ferns. Where?

The head of the giant mamba was still visible. The rest of its body had arrived at ground level. The snake was moving in my direction.

I pivoted, sprinted, lunged into the doorway.

The woman was sitting, watching as I hurried to the window. She didn’t seem surprised that I’d returned.

Ox-man was life-sized now; he would be opening the door within the next minute. He still held the weapon at combat ready-not an AK-47 but similar. The man was spooked; I could see that, too.

Someone had let the animals out. He was aware.

The woman kept her voice low. “Take the tape off my ankles and we’ll overpower him. Together.”

I’d put the carton of eggs on the floor, was leaning over her. I began to rip away duct tape. Her lean calves were fuzzed with hair; thighs muscled. She didn’t flinch.

When the tape was gone, the woman flexed her legs, stretched. “Help me up.”

I shook my head. “Roll on your side and step through those handcuffs.”

“What?” As if she had no idea what I meant.

“Drop the act, lady. I don’t think you want to go out there with your hands behind your back.” I was pushing her legs into a fetal position, trying to position the cuffs. “You never jumped rope? Same concept, only the rope’s shorter.”

She contracted into a ball and extended her arms. I helped her work one foot through, then the other. Lifted her by the elbow and she came to her feet, hands cuffed in front now. Tall woman, dark tan, body of an athlete.

“My name’s Dasha. Not ‘lady.’”

I said, “Then you’ll understand why I don’t shake hands,” as I took her by the shoulders and spun her body away.

“Idiot. What are you doing? Aleski will kill-”

I clamped my hand over her mouth, pulled her close. Held her in a bear hug until she stopped struggling. Took my hand away, and said into her ear. “I think you and your partner are setting me up. I’ll find out soon enough.”

She turned, pale eyes searching for something. “No. I swear it. You can trust me.”

I’d saved a section of tape. Turned her again, saying, “No, I can’t,” as I pressed the tape over her mouth and did a quick wrap. Put my lips close to her ear again. “If you don’t do what I tell you, we’re all going to die.”

Outside, there was the scuff of footsteps on gravel.

I picked up the carton of reptile eggs and steered the woman toward the quarry door. Took a deep breath, then stepped out, pulling her along behind.

The giant mamba had found the chimp. Even though it was too big for a meal, the snake was preoccupied with inspection. Its tongue stabbed the air, its head flattening cobralike, as it raised six feet of its body off the ground.

The tape didn’t stop the woman from talking, only muffled her voice. She said something that sounded like, “Jesus Christ, are you crazy? Don’t make me do this.”

She wasn’t acting now. She was hyperventilating, her eyes locked on the mamba only a few dozen yards away. I’d backed her against the bank of snake cages, which was to the left as you exited the door. She was the first thing Ox-man would see if he peeked out.

I was tempted to say that I’d be crazier to let her, and her partner, go to work on me. Instead, I whispered, “Stick with the plan and you’ll be fine.” Then I hurried to the other side of the doorway. Flattened my back against the coral wall.

The instructions I’d given her weren’t complicated, but I didn’t expect her to follow them. If she did, we both had a good chance of surviving this hell hole. If she didn’t, I had a plan for that, too.

I could hear Ox-man inside the room. He was kicking rat cages, making sure we weren’t hidden among them. Yelling words in Russian that had the rhythm of profanity.

Then silence.

I’d stationed the woman at an angle a few yards from the door so that I had an unobstructed view of her. Hands cuffed, mouth taped, ankles crossed as if bound, she looked convincing-a comrade in distress. Her terrified fixation on the snake added to the effect.

I pressed harder against the wall when I saw the door handle move. I watched the door open an inch… another inch. Could see the wire stock of the man’s weapon through the hinges. He saw the woman. I heard him speak-an exclamation of surprise, but also anger. I got the impression that he had a reason to be surprised-something in her expression, not only his tone.

For an instant, Dasha looked at me, then looked away.

I had the carton of reptile eggs palmed in my right hand. Had my left hand up and ready as the door opened wider. I expected the woman to pull the tape away and yell a warning to her partner. Nod in my direction, or at least use her eyes to tell the man that he was walking into a trap.

Instead, the woman surprised me. Again.

“PANILA?”

Ox-man’s voice grew louder. He was shouting questions. Hopefully, an obvious question: Where’s the American? In response, I watched the woman motion to the incubator, and gesture vigorously with her head: He’s behind that box, hiding.

Exactly what I’d told her to do.

The door pressed against me as Ox-man took a careful step into the quarry. The barrel of his weapon preceded him. I waited a beat, then grabbed the barrel with my left hand; jerked it skyward, expecting him to fire.

BOOM.

A shotgun’s discharge.

In the same motion, I mustered all the torque my legs could produce as I lunged around the door and knocked his head backward with the heel of my open palm. A potentially lethal blow not softened by the plastic carton I held.

“Govnosos! ”

He roared the word. Nearly went down but caught himself. Then he used his left hand to paw at the mess of yolk and shell that was blinding him, used the other to wrestle for control of the gun.

I had a good grip on his right wrist, my thumb buried deep in the soft flesh beneath tendon. To move him away from the open door, I kneed him hard in the thigh. Moved him a few more steps from safety, then clamped my arm over his right elbow. I adjusted to get effective leverage, then let my legs collapse beneath me.

When a hinge joint breaks, it makes a sickening sound. That sound was simultaneous with Ox-man’s bawling scream of pain.

The shotgun was on the ground and I gave it a kick-accidentally lofted it in the woman’s direction. A mistake.

Ox-man wasn’t done. I was. I wanted to send him crashing into the incubator. All those eggs in a pit inhabited by nesting reptiles. The scent of the invader was already dripping down his face. A horrible end for a man who’d done something horrible to a friend.

But even with a broken arm, he was too big and strong to pursue a determined finesse.

I got behind him and levered his left wrist up between his shoulder blades. Pivoted him to face the incubator. Tried to drive him toward it but couldn’t get any momentum. He outweighed me by seventy, maybe a hundred, pounds. His heels dug just as hard in opposition.

As we wrestled, I glanced over my shoulder. The giant mamba was giving us her full attention. She was flushed with color, head flattened for attack, the zombie-stitched mouth wide as she shook her head. A striking display. It reminded me of the rattle on a rattlesnake’s tail.

She’d already covered half the distance between the dead chimp and us.

I gave Ox-man a last shove. When I felt his legs drive backward in response, I swung him in the opposite direction, and used his momentum to give him a final thrust. An old game: crack-the-whip. I watched him go running, stumbling toward what he thought was freedom.

I continued to watch as I retreated to the door.

Saw Ox-man slow, then stop, when he noticed the snake. They were separated by a few yards, the mamba at eye level. Two creatures with heads of similar size, each studying the other in this unexpected encounter.

Ox-man turned to look at Dasha without moving his body. His face was white, paled by a mix of the inevitable and terror. He tried to cry out but could only whisper, a pleading phrase in Russian. He backed a few steps, then he began to run. Legs churning, left arm pumping. Big man, adrenaline-charged.

The snake lunged after him. Ox-man looked over his shoulder and howled something. I’ve read that, according to black boxes recovered after plane crashes, the most common last words of doomed pilots are: “Momma! Momma!” His words had that childlike quality.

The snake was gaining.

I was only a few strides from the doorway. Glanced to see that the woman had picked up the gun. She held it awkwardly because of the handcuffs, but she was studying her grip, trying to get it into a workable firing position. As I started toward her, she swung the barrel in my direction.

“Drop it!”

I saw her startled reaction when she looked up. She hadn’t realized I was sprinting in her direction.

She thrust the weapon out. “Here, take this! Shoot!”

As I took it from her hands, I heard Ox-man scream, then scream again. Looked to see that he was down on one knee; the mamba’s head a blur as it struck him near the neck once… twice… a third time.

“Shoot him! Hurry!”

“Shoot who?” I thought she meant the snake. The snake was doing what it was born to do. Destroy a creature so highly evolved?

I leaned away as she reached to reclaim the shotgun. I finally understood when she said, “Shoot Aleski! He was my partner. A quick death among professionals-he deserves that much.”

I saw the snake bury its fangs in the man once again, lingering this time, head sawing for maximum dispersal. Like a fire ant hunkering to inject venom.

Aleski was on the ground, the mamba over him. The king cobra had also now appeared-broad head moving, adjusting its unfocused eyes by varying the distance, perhaps wind-scenting objects as pheromone-distinctive as her own eggs.

As I opened the door, I told Dasha, “Doing favors for your partner wasn’t part of our deal.”

What I was thinking, though, was Frieda.