Gargantua (19 page)

“Thank you for letting me try this,” Jack said, meaning it.

“I’m hoping you succeed. I hope it very much,” Wayne said, sounding like he meant it, too.

Within minutes, two Marines had arrived, one of them providing a radio for Jack. He collected Paul and Doctor Hale, and then the five of them followed Brandon into the jungle.

In addition to a pair of rifles, Privates Radysh and Schleiben carried large flashlights.

Jack had been somewhat distracted the last time he came into the jungle at night, so it wasn’t until now that he appreciated how loud the place was when the sun went down. The noise was matched only by the sounds of mortar fire from when the Marines went after the mother lizard.

Unlike their two fellow privates, Radysh and Schleiben didn’t panic, nor seem overly jumpy.
Wish I could say the same,
Jack thought.
I’m half expecting the nine-footer to come leaping out at me.
Next to him, Paul and Doctor Hale looked equally apprehensive.

But Brandon, bless his little heart, didn’t look at all fazed by the jungle noises or the very real danger. He looked more worried than scared, and Jack suspected that it was on behalf of the baby lizard.
Casey,
he remembered.
He named it after that puppy we got him—Lordy, that was six years ago.
While he was mildly annoyed with Brandon for keeping Casey’s existence a secret, it may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise. If they’d known about it sooner, it probably would have wound up in a cage next to the nine-footer, and whoever released the one would have released the other.
Now that little guy may be the only way to keep the mother from crushing Malau under her big feet.

Suddenly, Brandon stopped, motioning the adults to stop as well. The two Marines stood with perfect posture, rifles down but ready to go at a moment’s notice. Hale and Paul just stopped and looked at Brandon, as did Jack.

Brandon seemed to be listening for something. Then he must have heard it, because he reacted to a particular noise, though how he could distinguish one noise from another in this cacophany was beyond Jack. Then he looked around at the jungle floor, peering into various bushes and things—then he found something and moved toward it, cheese puffs in hand.

Radysh and Schleiben moved in time with Jack right behind him. Schleiben shined his flashlight at the area in front of Brandon.

Jack peered into the beam, and saw a miniature version of the creature that stomped across Malau earlier that evening. The eyes were proportionately bigger and the scales smoother, but it looked just like Big Mama, as Colonel Wayne had taken to calling her.

However, Jack only got the briefest of gazes at Casey, for a second after the light hit him, he dashed off into the underbrush.

Brandon turned angrily on Schleiben and Radysh. “You scared him! Stay back!”

Jack was worried that the two men would take umbrage at being given orders by a twelve-year-old, but they simply nodded and stood back, lowering their flashlights.

Satisfied that the Marines were out of the way, Brandon got down into a crouch, clutching the bag of cheese puffs for dear life, and moved into the foliage where Casey had slipped off. He rustled the bag a couple of times, then gripped it by both sides and pulled it open. Reaching in, he took out a handful of the vile foodstuff—
his hands are going to get all orange,
Jack thought with an internal sigh—and held them out expectantly.

Part of Jack Ellway refused to believe that any marine creature could possibly be interested in eating food that was laced with more preservatives and chemicals than the average pesticide.

Then he realized what he was thinking.
Artificial chemicals were responsible for these creatures’ existence.

He decided he didn’t want to examine that thought very closely.

Besides which, he didn’t have the opportunity, as Casey actually poked his little head out and started munching on the puffs, eating out of Brandon’s hand exactly the same way a dog or cat would.
Remarkable.

Slowly, very slowly, Brandon carefully moved backward, leading Casey out of the undergrowth. When Casey finished the puffs, Brandon turned around and started walking normally. Casey stuck behind him, following just like an obedient dog.
Geez, he’s got that thing trained better than the puppy.
The baby lizard’s namesake had never been an especially obedient dog.
But this Casey is.

Jack was moved by the sight.
A boy and his lizard. Who’da thunk it?

The touching moment was shattered by the squawk of the radio that Jack had clipped to his belt.

Casey stopped walking, and froze in his tracks, obviously not sure what to make of this alien noise.

Cursing himself for not doing it sooner, Jack turned down the volume on the radio and put it to his mouth. He heard Wayne’s filtered voice say, “Have you found anything?”

Really lousy timing, Colonel,
Jack thought. But then, Jack had been asked to keep Wayne informed, and Jack hadn’t been doing that.

Jack whispered into the speaker: “We found the baby.”

“I can’t hear you,” said Wayne’s voice, still distressingly loud despite the volume being turned down.

Speaking a bit louder, Jack said, “We’ve got the baby. We’re on our way.”

“Give me a time,” the colonel said.

How the hell should I know?
Jack bit back the retort, took a breath and said, “Soon. We’re on our way.”

Brandon looked down at Casey, then started walking. Casey, having apparently decided that the noise was nothing to be concerned about, again followed alongside him.

How about that,
Jack thought,
we just might pull this off.

TEN

“W
hen that judge gave me the choice to go to jail or join the Marines, I should’ve given it a little more thought.”

T.J. White rolled his eyes.
Why the hell did I have to be partnered with Jace?
he asked whatever gods or generals controlled such things. Actually, it was neither god nor general who decreed that the pair of them be assigned to the two ground-to-air missle launchers and stationed on the Malau beach waiting for the Mother of All Lizards to make a return engagement—it was Sergeant Szabo.

Not that Harold “Jace” Jason was a bad person or a bad Marine, it’s just that he never tired of reminding people of the fact that he was in the Marines only because it beat the alternative of jail time. It especially irked T.J. since the little incident with that general. T.J. was the only black man in a squad that was run by a white sergeant and also included eight white men and two Asian men. Some four-star or other had come to inspect the troops, and when he got to their squadron, he mentioned that he’d heard that one member of the squad was a convicted criminal serving his sentence with the Corps. The general then made a beeline for T.J. and assumed that he was the felon.

To this day, it rankled on T.J.

However, it didn’t rankle nearly as much as the fact that he’d spent his entire tour sitting on his ass. Not that being a Marine meant anything other than constant work, but still . . .

“We’re havin’
action,
man,” he said to Jace. “I got to thinkin’ we’d never have action.”

“Look, man, I saw enough action in Baltimore,” Jace said, pronouncing it “Bahl-mer.”

“What, you joined the Corps to
relax?”

Jace grinned. “Naw, I just figured it’d be better than some lifer decidin’ I’d make a good squeeze.”

T.J. was about to make a comment along the lines of how good a squeeze he’d make, but then he noticed something happening—or, rather, noticed something not happening. One of the searchlights stopped moving. T.J. tensed up; next to him, Jace did likewise.

Out of the corner of his eye, T.J. saw Colonel Wayne raise his binoculars. If the colonel saw anything, he didn’t react to it.
Not that he would,
T.J. thought, and looked back out at the ocean. He couldn’t see anything in the searchlight’s beam.

Turning around to look at the searchlight operator, T.J. saw the private struggle with the light for a minute, then move it again.

Great, the stupid thing was just stuck.

Wayne relaxed and set his binoculars back down. Then he started pacing the beach.

Several ice ages came and went, though T.J.’s watch insisted it had only been a minute or so. In direct contrast to the constant noise that had been the hallmark of this operation since they first landed on Malau—between setting up and routing civilians around, not to mention the chaos of the cleanup after the Mother of All Lizards’ attack—it was now very quiet.

If Jace turns to me and says, “It’s real quiet,” figuring I’ll say, “Yeah, too quiet,” I’m gonna shoot him with the damn missile launcher.

So when the water started to churn, T.J. noticed.

Wayne was standing right behind T.J. and Jace’s position when the noise started. Again, the colonel brought his binoculars to his eyes.

Besides the water, there was something else: a kind of low rumble.

Then a massive head broke through the surface, followed by the rest of the body of the Mother of All Lizards.

Damn,
T.J. thought,
she came back.
He couldn’t imagine why, given the reception she got before.
Then again, it’s not like we hurt her or nothing.
That’s why Wayne had ordered the missile launchers set up. They couldn’t very well have used them in the middle of town, but on a beach deserted of all save Marines, they’d work just fine.

At least T.J. hoped they would.

The searchlights all converged, illuminating Mother as she came out of the water and onto the beach in full forty-foot glory.
Jesus Christ, she’s huge,
T.J. thought. He hadn’t seen her quite this close the last time.

Behind him, the colonel spoke into his PRC. “Where are you, Ellway?”

“Close,” said a scratchy voice through the speaker. “We’re close.”

“It’s back. Say again, it’s come back.” Wayne sounded pretty damn calm for someone who was talking about a forty-foot reptile.

“We’re coming,” said the tinny voice, “we’re not far.”

Mother stomped across the beach. This wasn’t the casual stroll it took the last time—this was a bull-in-a-china-shop walk, a big lizard that wasn’t letting anything get in her way.

“It’s approaching—I can’t hold off much longer!” Wayne said, now sounding much less calm.

“Please wait, we’re
almost there!
I can see the lights,” said the voice on the PRC. T.J. wondered who it was the colonel was talking to and what he was supposed to bring to the party.

Mother reared her head back and let out a yell.

I do not like the sound of that,
T.J. thought, and started praying.

Then the creature continued her approach.

Right at T.J.

In the back of his head, Private Thomas Jefferson White knew that Mother wasn’t really heading directly for him, that he was but one of many troops who just happened to be in the big lizard’s way. But in the front of his head, he saw a forty-foot monstrosity bearing down right on
him.

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
he thought as he heard Colonel Wayne say, “Fire!”

T.J. raised the rocket launcher to his shoulder.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

He fired.

On Earth as it is in heaven.

Next to him, Jace did likewise.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses.

Twin streaks of light shot through the air from the perimeter to the chest of the Mother of All Lizards. And, unlike the mortar, bullets, and shells of before, these actually penetrated Mother’s scaly hide. She let out a nasty scream, louder, higher-pitched, and longer than the previous wail.

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

“No!” “Stop!” “No!”

T.J. saw three civilians—two adults, one kid—running toward the beach, shouting at the tops of their lungs.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The earth below TJ.’s feet shook as Mother pitched forward and collapsed in a heap on the beach with a second cry.

Amen.

It’s over. I’m still alive. Thank you, God,
T.J. thought, crossing himself.

Jace looked at him. “That actually
work?”

“We’re still alive, ain’t we?”

Then he saw a tiny creature that was a dead ringer for Mother scampering out onto the beach, making a beeline for the giant lizard.

The baby creature got to Mother’s side just as she closed her eyes for the last time.

Within a few seconds, the little kid civilian caught up with the baby and took it in his arms like it was his pet or something.

This,
T.J. decided,
is just too weird.

“Y’know,” Jace said, “when that judge gave me the choice to go to jail or join the Marines, I shoulda given it a little more thought.”

T.J. rolled his eyes. “Jace,
shut
up.”

Jack Ellway shook his head in amazement as he examined the corpse of the forty-foot lizard.
One second she’s stomping around the beach. The next second, she’s falling onto the beach. Alive, dead, just like that.
He compared it to the lingering agony of Diane’s bout with a brain tumor, of watching her disintegrate slowly from both the disease and the chemotherapy, then one day falling asleep and not waking up.

He wondered which was preferable.

“It’s a female,” he was saying, trying to keep his mind on the work rather than grisly speculations about mortality. President Moki, Chief Movita, Colonel Wayne, Doctor Hale, and Alyson all stood nearby, and Brandon sat on the sand a few feet away, Casey cradled in his arms. Wayne had ordered several searchlights to remain trained on the area, so the place was almost as well lit as it was in sunlight. “I’m sure it’s the mother of the baby here,” he indicated the three-footer, “and the nine-foot adolescent.”

The chief asked Wayne, “Will the nine-foot creature return? Must we prepare?”

“We’ll plan for it,” Wayne said, “but I’m not as worried.”