Dominant Species Volume Two -- Edge Effects (Dominant Species Series) (20 page)

A field biologist’s job was
demanding. Fifteen years of advanced and grueling training before you ever got
your certs. After that, mostly grunt work if you could find it. Not everyone
could do it—certainly few as well as Rachel.

There were probably less than a
thousand certified biologists in the entire Commonwealth and only a fraction
of that number were willing to do the field work, the dirty work.

Rachel loved it. She loved seeing
life where it lived and to study it on its own terms. Unlike the lab-heads
she’d known, Rachel liked to roll up her sleeves and get right in it. She was
used to the dirt and uncomfortable living conditions a field biologist had to
endure.

But this contract was a different
matter altogether.

You couldn’t work without tools.
You couldn’t do your job without resources. Time was a required commodity, too;
some things you couldn’t rush. To have worked half her life studying, sweating
through exams, enduring sleepless nights, wondering if she was good enough, if
she knew enough, if she had the stamina to continue. All that had culminated
with this dry-fuck of a project. Verde was a biologist’s wet dream from a
distance, but up close it was as sexy as a kiss from your brother.

“Damn it,” she sighed.

They got the containers inside
and stacked up on one side of the lab. She didn’t want to run the risk of
bumping into another disappointment, so she called it quits for the day. She
sent Joe to the store with a list of groceries and sundries she wanted, asking him
to take them directly to the shelter and get himself settled in.

The sun was beginning to set when
she went out back and sat down on the grate, just for a while; just to unwind.
Her spot was in a pleasant wedge of shade cast by the lab’s west-most corner.
From her slightly elevated seat, she could see far into the rolling green for
many kilometers.

The air was clearer than she had
imagined. It was humid in the extreme, close to one hundred percent, she was
sure, but somehow devoid of haze, and the reddish slant-light cast the distant
hills in sharp relief.

From time to time, she saw things
flying over the treetops—flying things that made her smile a little in spite of
herself. Except for the obvious fact of wings, the organisms, from a distance,
gave little clue to their physiology. She wished she’d brought her binoculars
out with her, but there would be plenty of time to study them.

She could see bright flowers of
red and yellow and white tucked like jewels within the green and black vines.

She jumped down and strolled over
to get a better look. The sun was low and red but still hot enough to make her
squint and scowl at the heat.

The jungle was as thick and
nearly impenetrable as she had heard, at least in this section. She walked a
little up and back, eyeing it, getting its feel without touching it, taking its
measure. She breathed it in deeply through her nose.

She plucked a large red
orchid-like flower from its stem. The stem was fibrous and tough and didn’t
relinquish its prize easily. She smelled it with a long, slow inhale.

God, how sweet.

When she turned the flower over,
she saw an insect-thing as long as her thumb clinging to the underside of it.
She’d seen specimens more alien than this one; creatures more bizarre and
certainly more disturbing, biologically speaking. But she wasn’t sure she’d
ever seen a more fitting representative of a planet’s predominate life forms
than this one. It clung to the waxy petal as if it were an integral part of it.
It wasn’t particularly well- camouflaged, color-wise, but had she not been
sensitive to where things dwelled, she might have missed it anyway, because it
bonded so well with its substrate. It was beetle-like with a wide, segmented
body. Eight thin legs, like dark hooks, held it tight to the petal’s underside.
Antennae were visible; thin hairs as long as the body itself laid back along
the carapace, typical of a resting state. Its color was a light and golden
brown with a hint of green iridescence along the sides. The head was smallish
and ended in a set of wide and blunt mandibles, probably used to chomp and
mince the bodies of prey attracted to the flower. Supporting this hypothesis
were two grasping forelegs extending out and forward at the ready, their
strong, thorny surfaces suggesting no other use.

It was a perfect emissary,
offering up to her by its unique and impeccable physiology alone, a precise, if
not friendly, greeting.

“I’m here,” she said softly.

13

He put
the last Xercodan in his mouth and crushed the tablet between his teeth. His hand
trembling, he filled the plastic glass from the tap and washed the brittle
fragments down. Turning was a problem, his feet were so stiff now he could
barely make them work at all. He struggled around, using the sink to keep his
balance. With tiny, excruciating steps, he crept back over to the bed and sank
down on it in slow motion.

He picked up the phone and asked
for Eddie Silk. It took a moment to connect.

“This is Eddie,” the voice on the
other end said.

“Get your ass over to my shelter
right now,” Geary said.

“I’m workin’ right now.”

“I don’t give a shit. Get over
here right now. You gotta do something for me.”

“What?”

“Just get over here.”

He put the phone down and slumped
back on the greasy pillow. He looked down at his feet and barely recognized
them. All of his joints hurt and the cough had gotten much worse since the day
before yesterday. He’d tried to get back to the clinic but couldn’t make it. He
learned later that the nurse wasn’t there anyway, and nobody knew where she
was.

Doctors . . .

He’d gone through the bottle of
Xercodan faster than he should have. He knew that now; he should have saved
some.

Grinding up two and three at a
time had probably been excessive. He had to have some more. The problem was
that he couldn’t go for it himself. Eddie would have to go. He was reluctant
to reveal the exact location of the stash to someone who hadn’t earned his
complete trust, but he didn’t have a choice. The pain was killing him.

An hour later, Eddie arrived at
Geary’s shelter and let himself in.

“What took you so goddamned
long?” Geary asked.

“What the hell happened to you?”
Eddie wanted to know. “What happened to your feet?”

“I got to have some Xerc, and you
gotta get it for me.”

“Where is it? You never told me
where you put it, remember?”

“Get that locator from the sink
and turn it on. Set it to channel two.”

Eddie got the device and turned
it on. He set the tuner to channel two and waved it slowly across the room.
When it picked up the signal from the transponder on the drum, the light flashed.

“Simple enough?” Geary asked.

“Yeah. I guess I can find it with
this.”

“Channel one’s set for the
transponder on top of this shelter so you can follow the signal to get back.”

“Got it.”

“There’re some barrels down in
the cave. The stuffs down in the first barrel on the right. You’ll see it.”

“Got it.”

“Get goin’ then. Bring back ten
or twenty bottles. This shit is killing me.”

“I can’t go ‘til after work.”

“I’m not gonna wait,” Geary said
with malice.

Eddie looked at Geary’s swollen
feet and sallow face and figured there wasn’t a whole lot Geary could do about
the wait. Eddie sensed the older crook’s lameness like a young wolf smells the
infirmity of the old. A slight sneer raised one corner of his mouth like the
beginning of a snarl. He toyed with the idea of hitting Geary with something
for squeezing his arm the other day—maybe getting a good stomp in on one of his
sore feet.

“I could get dinged if I get
caught,” Eddie said. “You gonna pick up my slack if I do?”

“Yeah, I’ll pick up your slack,
and I’ll kick your ass if you don’t get goin’. Get moving damnit.”

“And what if I don’t,” Eddie said
suddenly.

“What’d you say?”

“I said,
What if I don’t
? That’s what I said.”

Geary stared at Eddie as if he
could swallow his soul. Eddie stared right back, confident in his superior
position.

“You know,” Eddie went on,
"You oughta be nicer to people who can help you.”

Eddie saw Geary swallow but try
to hide it.

“Yeah,” Eddie continued. “You
should be a lot nicer.” Geary felt the pressure on his neck and decided to relent.
Eddie had him. There was nothing he could do—for the moment. He brightened,
like all good liars can.

“Well, my feet have got me in a
bad mood. I apologize.” Eddie saw that as a victory. He put the locator in his
pocket and started out without saying another word. He’d had all the shit from
him he wanted to hear in one day.

“Fuck you boy . . .” Geary said
under his breath.

Before Eddie got so uppity, Geary
was ready to tell him to wear some rubber boots in the cave, or he’d wind up
just like him. Now that’s just what he wanted to happen; and in a couple of
days, the smart-ass would be in the same condition as he was, only Geary would
have the Xerc, and the locator.

“Thanks, partner!” Geary yelled.

Eddie heard Geary yell something
else but ignored that, too. He got in the truck and headed back to the dock. On
the way back, he thought about terminating his relationship with that prick
before he got in any deeper. This little trip was pure bullshit; he probably
wanted the Xerc just to get melted on. He wasn’t going to get dinged just
because Geary said so, that was for sure. Maybe he didn’t need the bastard at
all. There were other guys around who might be willing to take the risks. He
had the inside information and was willing to trade it for a percentage. He
didn’t necessarily have to trade with Del Geary. He’d have to think about it.

After he put the truck away, he
called Mike Kominski. Mike didn’t have much to do right now, so he could go get
Geary’s shit. If it came to it, he could tell Joan he’d sent Mike on some
errand he’d make up.

* * *

“All you do is point it and walk
in the direction it tells you, got it?” Eddie said.

“Yeah,” Mike replied.

“Channel One will point you
back.”

“Where am I going, though?”

“Into the green about half a
kilometer.”

“For what?”

Eddie told him.

“So head out around the back so
Thomas won’t see you. Stick to the building until you’re out of sight.”

Mike looked like he’d just heard
something that made no sense whatsoever.

“I’m not supposed to go in there,
am I?”

“It’s okay. Everything’s asleep.”

Mike swallowed.

“I know, but will I get in
trouble over this, Eddie?”

“Not exactly, but don’t let her
see you. Get going.”

Mike thought about it, then put
the locator in his pocket and headed for the perimeter, staying close to the
buildings and out of sight of Joan’s office like he’d been told. When he
reached the end of the row of modulars attached to the landing, he looked around
to make sure no one had seen him, then trotted out toward the green.

He didn’t like this one bit.

First of all, he didn’t like the
jungle much. Daylight or not, he knew there were things in there that could
hurt or kill him. What if he stumbled on something and woke it up, or fell in a
nest of alien hornets or something? They wouldn’t sleep through that, now would
they?

He hopped over the debris at the
jungle’s edge and went in a few meters before he stopped and got his bearings
with the locator. He let the device point the way, then started into the green,
praying with each step that it came down on dirt and not on the thick back of
some slumbering, poisonous monster.