Revelations

CHAPTER ONE

NVG Research Base, Russia

Zakhar was worried. The concern he felt hovered like a dark cloud over his head, shadowing his days. It had been months since there had been any contact with his boss, Konrad. He had been warned that the movement would soon take steps to gain more influence over the government, necessitating this base going dark.

By now he had expected personal contact or communications from Konrad or one of his lieutenants. The lack of any interaction with his commander made him feel like he was standing in the eye of a storm, waiting for disaster to strike.

All communications were to be initiated from outside the base. Even with no incoming calls, he followed the communication protocols Konrad had ordered.

Zakhar believed that the Russian government didn’t appear to have a clue that his base existed which showed their growing incompetence. If true, the political structure would be ripe for eventual takeover. That Konrad had kept the project secret confirmed that he was a worthy leader, at least to Zakhar.

Despite the nagging worry about the absence of contact, he was more concerned by what some of the teams had found. They had confirmed the existence of an unknown alloy at the opening of the main cave mouth, although none of his scientists had figured out how to replicate it.

Damn it.

The metal seemed to be from out of this world, quite literally. With the news reports the base still occasionally received, Konrad and the NVG would need every possible advantage against the damned Americans and, in particular, the corporation that was releasing all this new technology.

The reports from the investigation of the cave system worried him and he admitted he spent a fair amount of his time thinking about it.

He had no idea how Konrad had found the caves and was honestly unsure if he wanted to know. Mapping the caverns with radar and sonar had failed, and their manual progress was too damned slow. The teams were losing people. They simply disappeared. These losses were scattered and not linked to any single mapped offshoot tunnel.

As typical in an underground cavern system, the earth made many strange noises. Some of the noises from the cave might be natural rumbles, rocks falling loose from erosion or slight changes and vibrations from the explorations.

Nevertheless, the men swore they had heard sounds which they described as wheezing, roaring bellows from some sort of creature. The cries were so low pitched that not all of his men could hear them, but each time people had mentioned the sound, one of his team members had disappeared. The unexplained loss of people in the tunnels was causing huge morale problems.

No blood, no sign of rock fall, no weapons fire heard, the impact on the teams was worse than if there was a visible battle. The people were just gone. So far the count was low enough he could blame it on inexperience and lack of attention. He had even explained their disappearance by saying that missing personnel had gotten lost by going deeper than ordered.

Zakhar didn’t believe that.

Trying to think ahead, he ordered defenses to be constructed facing the cave entryway, but that was against specific orders. He certainly did not want to aggravate Konrad, so he did not dare do anything too radical.

He’d started sending down teams with no less than three people. Now, Zakhar’s problem was an entire team of three was missing. Similar to radar, radios were unreliable in the caves, so his teams were hampered in their rescue efforts. The group of three was only six hours overdue, but he had a bad feeling this time.

Zakhar rubbed his face, looked at the clock and sighed. He said a quick prayer, not sure why since he didn’t go to church and gave the order for all remaining teams to pull back for the night.

The groups searching for the missing had been down there for a total of eighteen hours between their own shift and now the added search efforts.

Certainly, they would start making mistakes in what could be a deadly situation even if there wasn’t something down there hunting them.

Zakhar wasn’t one to believe in aliens or the supernatural. At times he would admit Konrad had enough weirdness he thought him vaguely alien. But, Zakhar finally decided to put it down to the man’s driven personality.

Now? Now Zakhar wasn’t so sure.

The local legend that told of a devil trapped in this very region by Saint Michael was becoming more believable every day. After these incidents and dealing with Konrad, Zakhar wasn’t sure where his core beliefs ended anymore.

He wasn’t sure if he should be more worried about something from inside the caves or the attacks that had been taking place on NVG convoys. Zakhar almost wished this operation had government sanction at least. Then, if something really went wrong, he could call in the army.

Instead, if the military found out about what they were doing here, then he and all his men were probably going to get a reprimand at the end of a AK-74. The Russian government would not like the idea of potential alien tech on their land being recovered and researched without their sanction.

Zakhar pursed his lips and finally nodded his head.

He would have the ramp into the cave system dismantled and replaced by a lift. His engineers could rig something quickly.

If there was a creature stuck in the caves, Zakhar would not be responsible for releasing it into Mother Russia. He believed his government was corrupt and ineffective.

However, he loved his fellow countrymen.

The Beast was angry.

When she had encountered the first two creatures, she thought that they had fallen into her realm. Once she had realized, from their taste, rather than their looks or smell, that they were human, she was confused.

She had not encountered a human in these caves since that odd and powerful one had thrown her into the caves and blocked the entrance. Although she had searched extensively, no other reachable exit was discovered. The Beast felt a growing need to look again after encountering the first human thing. After all, they had managed to find their way in somehow…why not see if out was an option?

Then she had encountered a group of three of these strange humans. They were invading her space… her territory… her world!

This wouldn’t be allowed. She was the Queen of her area and nothing was going to change this.

The Beast followed their scents and found herself in a cave that she knew well. There was an opening that the Beast had tried to use to leave these horrible caves long ago. Before she had accepted this area as its territory. The overhang on the wall at the lip of the exit had defeated all her attempts to escape.

Now, the invaders had built a ramp.

A ramp, unlike any the Beast had thought humans capable of making, was there. It was made of metal, and lead easily up to the exit of the cave. The Beast realized she could leave. All she had to do was scare these strangers out of her home.

Make them fear her.

The Beast didn’t want to kill them unless they attacked her first. For all she knew, the powerful, strange man was still watching, waiting.

Patience was a construct of time and time was a meaningless concept for one who had experiences like she had survived.

The Beast approached the ramp, letting out a bellow of anger at their trespass. The ones inside the cave dropped what they were doing and fled in terror up the ramp. It sauntered after them, pleased with the result, moving slowly enough to allow them to escape. Having no way to know what they were doing ahead of her, the Beast cautiously climbed the ramp to the exit.

Reaching the top of the rise, she had found herself breathing forest-scented air for the first time in ages. She paused, drawing the air deep into her lungs, experiencing the long-missed smell with a kind of rapture. That short stop had left her in the open, exposed. The rapturous interlude had blinded the Beast, leaving her oblivious to others of the strangers’ kind approaching until the cracking, stinging annoyance of their weapons broke its reverie.

The Beast roared her anger and defiance at them. The short, sharp pains kept coming as the long metal sticks continued to bark. Realizing that the stings must be coming from those flares and cracks, she sprang forward, moving at a speed those with the poles could not, and did not anticipate, from a creature of her size.

Rage had taken it. Anyone holding one of the stinging poles became a target of that anger. Some were gutted by the Beast’s claws, others had limbs sheared cleanly in a single bite. A few kept firing, trying to hit the Beast as it fell upon their comrades. Unable to anticipate the movements and speed of the creature, most of their shots missed, or hit those same comrades.

The few that struck the Beast did it no real harm.

Many of the remaining attackers threw away their arms and fled. But they were marked by the weapons they carried with a scent that The Beast could track… It would hunt them down until its rage was satisfied. Those who fled to the houses it ignored — It would have time to decide about them later.