Island 731

44.

The sight should have filled Hawkins with relief. The helicopters could get them away from the island. But he knew the men on those choppers had just one mission.

Liquidation.

Anyone who’d laid eyes on this place was most likely a threat to whoever headed the secret DARPA group that had been running the island since at least the sixties. DARPA as a whole—even if they weren’t aware of the project’s true nature—could be shut down. The agency would probably not recover from what was possibly the worst human rights scandal outside of a war. Worse, if the island and its secrets were revealed to the world, it would be a permanent stain on not just DARPA, but the United States as a whole. Political careers would end. The president would ultimately bear the brunt of the backlash. It would degrade the country’s status in the world. It seemed likely that at least a few other nations had similar secret laboratories—maybe tucked away in the Amazon, or in the wilds of Siberia, or anywhere else hard to reach—but most of those places already had bad reputations. Whoever was on those helicopters knew all that, and they were coming to stop it from happening.

The line of helicopters now looked like a squadron of angry wasps. “We need to get the hell off this island,” Hawkins said.

“You mean with them?” Blok asked, pointing at the screen.

Bray chuckled. “They’re going to kill us.”

“We’re United States citizens,” Blok said.

“Well, you can stick around and see how that goes,” Bray said. “We’ll hightail it to the Magellan and get the hell out of Dodge.” He took a small bell from his pocket and gave it a shake. “I’ve got my Get Across the Island Free card.”

“Not exactly,” Kam said with a cough. “The bell won’t work on the crocs. Or my mother.”

“Or Bennett’s newest creations,” Hawkins added.

“BFSs.”

Hawkins looked at Bray. What?

Bray shrugged. “‘Big fucking spiders.’ It’s the best I could come up with.”

“There’s one more,” Kam said. He pushed himself up, grunting in pain. “The litter.”

Hawkins knew the term “litter” referred to the young of a species, usually mammals, that gave birth to more than one offspring at a time.

Bray came to the same conclusion as Hawkins, saying, “There are more of those panther savages running around?”

“They’re not savages,” Kam said. “They’re my brothers and sisters. The one you speak of is Lilly. She’s the oldest of them. And the smartest.”

“Lilly,” Hawkins said. “I think I spoke to her.”

“You did?” both Bray and Kam asked.

“Briefly. In the jungle. Back by the old lab. I think I insulted her,” Hawkins said.

Kam nodded. “She is easily upset, but rarely violent.”

Rarely, Hawkins thought. He would have preferred never. “I thought Kaiju had just one child?”

“My mother has perhaps fifty different species combined within her single body. Some of them reptile, some of them amphibian. Both classes contain species capable of saving and preserving sperm for long periods of time. Based on the egg clutches I’ve seen, she has both active human and turtle reproductive systems.” Kam looked Hawkins in the eyes. “She has laid one clutch per year for the past five years. Maybe ninety eggs total, though only five of the children survived their first year, all from the first two litters.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Bray asked.

“I want you to get them off the island.”

Bray threw his hands up in the air, scoffing.

Blok shook his head, whispering, “This is insane.”

“Can they all speak English?” Hawkins asked.

Kam looked proud for a moment. “I taught them myself.”

“And what if Bennett turns them on us?” Bray asked.

“He can’t,” Hawkins said. “Because he doesn’t know about them.”

Kam gave a slight nod. “While they are a result of the horrible experiments performed here, they have not been tainted by them. They are free of the evil that bent Bennett and made me too weak to stand against him. They are strong. And fierce. Survivors. But they are innocent. While my mother hid their birth, perhaps out of instinct, or some small act of rebellion, she did not raise the children. She does not protect them. She might even kill them if Bennett ordered her to.”

Bray shook his head. “Ranger, please tell me you’re not considering this.”

Hawkins agreed that the idea sounded ludicrous. Getting off the island alive seemed less and less likely, never mind being shot, or torn to pieces, if they made it to the Magellan in one piece, and tried sailing the ship out of the lagoon. The helicopters would have to see them. They’d be blasted to pieces before entering the Garbage Patch. Of course, the ship was still inoperable, so the Magellan wasn’t even an option. No, if they wanted to get off the island, they needed Kam’s help. “Where is it?”

“Where is what?” Bray said.

“The boat.”

“It’s not much,” Kam confessed. “We had a nicer ship, but took it to the mainland and left it behind. What’s left is closer to a lobster boat. It’s not fast, but it won’t be easy to see, either.”

“And…” Hawkins said, sensing a downside.

“And it won’t get you far, but there is a distress transmitter. You’ll have to survive at sea until you’re rescued.”

“If we’re rescued,” Bray said. “But I suppose that’s an improvement over being torn apart or napalmed.”

Kam looked relieved, but weaker than ever. “Thank you. To gather the children and reach the boat, head south from the gallery, through the jungle. You will need the bell.”

“It’s a big jungle,” Hawkins said. “How will we find them?”

“They will find you,” Kam replied. “Of that, I have no doubt. But they live in an old bomb shelter. When you meet them, tell them you are the Ranger. I told them about you. That it was your job to protect humans and animals. That they could trust you. Lilly was harder to convince. I thought it was because you nearly shot her, but you insulting her helps explain her reluctance. When I explained your fear to her, she understood. Is that what upset her, your fear?”

“Before I knew who I was talking to, I referred to the chimeras as ‘things.’”

Kam pursed his lips for a moment. He looked slightly hurt by the words, too.

“I didn’t know,” Hawkins said, but then squinted as something occurred to him. “Kam, was this your plan all along? To have the children rescued?”

Kam shook his head slowly. “But it was my hope.” He held out his hand. Hawkins recognized the gesture as an invitation to perform their practiced handshake. He wasn’t sure what to make of it until he saw the weakness in Kam’s eyes. He was saying good-bye and wanted to know they were still friends.

Hawkins took his hand. Two shakes in, Kam’s arm went limp. His eyes closed.

Hawkins took Kam’s arms and shook him gently. “Kam!”

After a moment, Kam opened his eyes again. He squeezed Hawkins’s hand hard and stared in his eyes with burning intensity. “When you have the children, head south to the shore. The boat is anchored fifty feet out. You’ll have to sw—”

Kam’s head lolled to the side.

Hawkins checked his pulse and found nothing. He stood and turned to Blok and Bray. “Anyone have a better idea?

No one did.

Hawkins glanced back at the helicopters. They looked impossibly close now. Just one of them filled most of the screen. He took the computer mouse and used it to zoom out the image. He was glad to see that they were still quite some distance off, but knew the fast-moving choppers could close the distance in minutes. They had maybe ten before the kill squad reached the ground.

It wasn’t much time to do what he needed to do.

“I want you two to find an exit and go south. If you come across the… children, try to take them with you. Get to the boat.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Bray said. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m not leaving without Joliet.”

“It’s a big island, Ranger,” Bray said. “Searching this building alone could take all day. And most of the doors are locked. There’s also, what, twelve BFSs running around?” He stabbed a finger toward the line of helicopters. “If we don’t leave now, and fast, we’re not going to make it far.”

Hawkins ground his teeth. “Bray, I’m not leaving without her.”

“Guys,” Blok said.

“And I’m not leaving without you,” Bray said.

“Guys!”

Hawkins and Bray turned to Blok, both saying, “What?”

“Look,” Blok said, leaning in close to one of the small video feeds.

Hawkins took a closer look. Trees framed the view on either side, but the shot showed the clearing in front of the sterilized gallery. Standing in the center of the clearing was Bennett. Joliet knelt on the ground in front of him, a gun to the back of her head.

It took all of Hawkins’s self-control to not fling himself out of the room and charge around the complex looking for an exit. But he knew that would likely just get him killed. So he clenched his fists instead.

“He doesn’t know about the choppers,” Bray said. “No way he’d be standing around waiting for you if he knew an army of mercenaries was about to drop on his doorstep.”

Hawkins looked at the incoming helicopters. “We don’t have time. Bennett knew we escaped, so he’s set a trap. Whatever he has waiting for us, even if we can survive it, the mercs will arrive first.”

Bray smiled fiendishly.

“What?” Hawkins asked.

“I have a wicked awesome idea,” Bray said.