The Chimera Secret

69

Lopez stared in disbelief as the sasquatch looked at the open door.

‘Oh shit.’

She backed away slowly from the cage as the huge creature leaned forward, one thick, heavy arm as thick as her thigh reaching out to the door. The door swung open as though hit by a car and clashed against the bars.

She realised that with the power back on to the room, the locks on the creature’s cage must also have activated, maybe even shorted out.

Lopez reached into her pocket for her access card and backed up another pace.

‘Easy,’ she said, keeping her gaze on the sasquatch as she slowly turned and reached out to slide the card through the mechanism. The door light turned green as the locks clicked open.

The sasquatch lunged forward, its massive chest slamming against the bars in its haste as a huge and hairy arm shot out toward her, the stale-smelling hair on the hand sweeping across her face as she crashed down onto the tiles. The huge hand flashed down and before she could kick away it folded around her ankle like a vice.

Lopez felt her scream snatched from her throat as an intense pain bolted up through her leg, as though her ankle were being driven over by a train. She felt the bone inside trembling under the immense stress as she was yanked back toward the cage, and the sasquatch let out a terrible gurgling cry as it tried to reach her with its other hand.

Lopez screamed and kicked out, but her boot folded sideways against the immense strength of the arm as it crashed down across her hip and gripped her jacket. With a growl the sasquatch hauled her toward it, those terrible eyes flashing in the light from the cellphone.

Lopez’s cell slipped from her grasp and skittered across the tiles, the light spinning and flashing across the floor as she struggled against the might of the beast hauling her in. The animal’s eyes flicked across to the glowing screen of the cell, and in an instant it released her as it reached out curiously for the light.

Lopez scrambled backward and turned for the door.

‘Lopez, up here!’

She stopped and looked up in surprise to see one of the ceiling panels removed and Ethan’s face staring down at her. His arms appeared and reached down toward her.

‘Move, now!’

The cage door crashed open as the sasquatch lumbered out, holding Lopez’s cell in one hand and staring into the screen’s blue light. Then it turned as Ethan’s voice attracted its attention. The cell dropped from its hand as it turned and lumbered toward Lopez.

She let out a cry of terror as she leapt up into the air and flung her arms up toward Ethan. Ethan caught her and with a heave of effort hauled her up until her hands gripped the edge of the support beam.

‘Pull me up!’ she yelled.

Ethan jerked himself up into a squatting position and then grabbed Lopez’s wrists and heaved her up through the open panel. Her feet cleared the gap as she scrambled out of reach of the sasquatch and struggled to get her breathing under control, but her chest heaved wildly and her vision starred in her eyes. She staggered sideways and collapsed onto one of the girders as the sasquatch pounded at the panels beneath them. Ethan staggered out of its range with Lopez just behind him, and then she dropped to her knees in the darkness.

‘You’re hyperventilating,’ Ethan said. ‘Nicola, get control.’

Lopez tried, but her breath rasped in her lungs and all of a sudden she slumped and felt herself crying as Ethan pulled her to him. She buried her face into his chest and clung to his jacket for what felt like hours but in reality was probably just a few moments, until her body stopped heaving and her breathing calmed.

‘Easy,’ Ethan said, one of his hands cupping the back of her head. ‘I think you were on the menu for a midnight snack.’

‘Jesus,’ she uttered. ‘I thought that was it, Ethan. I thought I was done.’ She looked up at him. ‘Where the hell did you come from?’

Ethan stood up and offered her his hand.

‘The mine wasn’t dug horizontally,’ he said. ‘The ore bodies were vertical, with a surrounding warren of tunnels and ventilation shafts. I got out and came looking for you when I realized what must be in this room.’

Lopez looked back down through the open panel, where the sasquatch was watching them both with hungry eyes.

‘The other ones led us here to free this one,’ she said. ‘What are we going to do? Where’s Kurt and his men? What about Duran and Mary?’

‘They’ve got away,’ Ethan said. ‘Proctor and Dana are both dead.’

‘I know,’ Lopez said. ‘That was down to Kurt.’

Ethan nodded. ‘We need to move, fast. It’s time to get out of here.’

‘What about the rest of them?’ Lopez said. ‘If they get out, they’ll come after us.’

A grim smile formed on Ethan’s features.

‘They won’t. I’ve made sure of that.’