Hot Zone (26 page)

Stevenson couldn't believe what he was hearing. This was supposed to be a simple search and potential rescue, not a fire fight. He would never have sent Jordan Pryde into a hostile situation like that had he known.

"The girl, Jordan?" Stevenson asked.

"With Ice I imagine." Storm said.

"We have to get you inside for debrief. I have some new information to give you before we think about sending you back out."

"Think?" Skip ask: "What's there to think about? We still have men out there, we already lost one this morning, you want to think about it? They could be floating in the middle of the ocean."

"Skip." Storm snapped. "Not here."

"Storm, Roo is still out there, Ice, not to mention a civilian. How is the Navy going to explain this one?"

"Listen. You guys are ticked off. I understand that. But I can't just send you out there without letting you know what we've found out. Now come inside, take it down a notch and we'll come up with something." Stevenson was stern but settling. He understood fully the consequences for losing a civilian in a situation like this but he also knew the ramifications for getting involved in an international incident with another nation.

* * *

Showered and refreshed Skip and Storm appeared in the briefing room thirty minutes later to be met by a room of four high ranking officials and Stevenson. None of which either Storm or Skip had ever met before nor cared to now. It was clear however that they were there to put their signatures to whatever was decided. Stevenson had the floor.

"Gentlemen. While you we out were received a call from the Pentagon relaying a message from an Australian representative in Amsterdam for the International Court of High Justice."

The word Australian instantly caught the attention of both Skip and Storm.

"This guy must have a contact, huh?" Storm asked.

"It's not uncommon for us to allow information flow from these people, much of our intelligence comes from such sources." Stevenson said. "You may not know this but in eighteen hours the French are testing a nuclear explosive bigger than any they have tested before. Much larger than Hiroshima and underwater.

Skip looked at Storm, Storm at Skip. They had been away training in seclusion for months, they did not know about the tests. They doubted their team members did either.

"Underwater?" Skip asked. "Like where underwater?"

Stevenson swallowed hard. "Two miles from were the coordinates we have for the dive team are. The information we have is not one hundred percent confirmed but we believe our boys down there are literally sitting on a time bomb. If they are in their current location when the bomb goes off they will not survive.”

"Oh my god. You sent us into a hot zone? How did you guys not know this?" Storm asked disgustingly.

"We knew Storm. We didn't think it would turn into this, we could never have foreseen what would happen."

Skip chimed in: "What about the Legion. Have you guys gotten in contact with them, requested a cease fire?"

Stevenson shook his head: " As far as they know, we are not there."

"Except for the bastards that almost killed us you mean?" Storm said.

"Yeah. Except for those."

There was a brief silence, Storm and Skip looked around the room, but mostly they stared at Stevenson in disbelief. Finally Skip broke the silence.

"Sir. We're wasting time. The clock is ticking."

The clock was indeed ticking but for their men on the ocean floor there was less time than any of them realized and barely enough time for Skip and Storm to make an impact.

2:45.50

2:45.49

42

2:45.48

Ice and Jordan edged their way along the wall in the greenhouse. They were yet to see one of the birds but they heard scuffling amongst the greenery and believed it was the birds feasting on the downed Frenchman. This was a long way from what Ice thought he would be doing twenty four hours earlier when they'd finished up the last exercise. He saw himself on a beach with a good book and fruity drink with one of those little umbrellas. The sun would be setting over the long blue horizon, a tan, hard-bodied girl would be walking along the beach, catch his eye, make small talk.

If only.

Instead here he was. Trying to be as light-footed as possible to avoid being eaten alive by some mutated crow. Being shot at, he could handle. Tortured by the enemy he could accept, but eaten alive by a mythical creature was pushing his job description to new heights.

Ice was, however, increasingly impressed by how Jordan was handling herself, both physically and mentally. He didn't know her but didn't expect her to be able to stick with his team in this situation. He had expected a breakdown earlier in the living quarters but instead found resilience and eagerness to keep going. And then to want to leave the safety net of his eye to study the birds further was incredible and as it turned out:
invaluable
.

Having discovered that the birds had adjusted to light but only reacted to movement and sound had given them the opportunity to sneak out of the greenhouse without being detected.

Together they reached an open door on the other side of the room. A tunnel they were yet to go down. A tunnel so short they could see clearly into the next room. The tunnel was dimly lit compared to the rooms themselves, light bulbs every ten feet that lit the ceiling. Neither said a word as they tip-toed down the tunnel and stopped at the threshold.

It was there that the pits of both their stomachs rose to the base of their throats and their jaws dropped between their ankles. Then they heard the cackle behind them. Instantly they pushed their backs against the wall, still inside the tunnel they faced each other with five feet of earth between them. One of the birds, his oil slick feathers and bile colored eyes began to stumble down the tunnel towards them.

Ice and Jordan stared into each others eyes, they dared not move their heads to see what the bird was doing, to them it didn't really matter. One of two things were going to happen in the next thirty seconds. Either the bird would be on his way or Jordan and Ice would become the biggest worms this early bird had ever caught.

Jordan couldn't believe how cool Ice looked as the bird crept closer and closer to them. He barely broke into a frown, she on the other hand had sweat beading on her brow, her lips quivered, the thought of what could happen to her after hearing the Frenchman squeal and gargle on his own blood was enough to all but throw her over the edge. She'd already been face to face with one of these things but that hadn't prepared her for the next encounter or made it easier to deal with.

Then a small coo echoed offs the walls. Out of the corner of her eye, Jordan saw another bird's head pop up from an enormous nest in the center of the room and glare at the bird in the tunnel.

Clumsily the head grew into a full bodied, raging mother bird who charged at the other bird in the tunnel, whooshing straight passed Jordan and Ice and hitting the bird with a thud. With feathers flying the birds tumbled back into the greenhouse allowing Jordan and Ice to slip into the room and out of sight. They could hear the birds fighting in the other room and hoped they killed each other.

Alone and able to breath again, if only momentarily, the two took in what lay before them. They looked at each other and waited for one of them to say it, Jordan did the honors: "This looks like the giant egg room in that Alien movie."

"You mean Aliens. Hell yeah it does."

Indeed it did. The room itself was twice the size of the greenhouse and covered with eggs three feet high. Some were already broken open, many were not. They were also translucent. Within their walls Jordan could make out the dark embryos in many different stages squirming in the embryonic fluid. From the large nest in the middle of the room, Jordan could clearly hear cooing and cackling.

"Ice, I have to check that nest out, cover me from momma bird."

"Are you crazy?"

"I'm confident we're alone in here. They're still going at it in the other room."

Ice looked at Jordan disapprovingly.

"I'll be quick." She said

Tip-toeing through the eggs, some of which rattled around her, she edged her way into the center of the room where the birds had constructed a nest ten meters wide and four feet deep. It was made up of leaves and mud from what Jordan could see and she was impressed by the workmanship.

As big as the room was, it didn't take Jordan long to get to the edge of the nest. She paused briefly before looking down into it.

She didn't know whether to freeze or turn her head in disgust at what she saw. Nine baby birds huddled in the nest feasting in one large black pile. Jordan could just make out what she thought was a human arm and hand. They did not notice her, did not look up once as they devoured what was left of the Frenchman, Yanick.

The nest was littered with human remains, most of which were nothing more than brittle bones. Jordan made out three skulls for sure, but there were far more bones than what three bodies would leave behind. She'd seen enough and as she stepped back and away from the nest, her world went tumbling out of control.

Ice saw it coming but didn't want to yell at the risk of attracting attention. Jordan had backed up and fallen over one of the eggs. A small but audible "ahh" was all she made but it was also all the birds in the other room needed to redirect their attention from each other to the nest.

Hearing them scurrying through the tunnel, Ice knew the time for being stealth was over. He pulled out his sig-sauer and leaped over several eggs, rushing towards Jordan. As the first bird entered the room shrieking, Ice planted two bullets, one for each eye sending it cannon-balling over the eggs, crushing them before coming to rest against the nest.

"Jordan, you gotta get up, we're out of here, now!"

Jordan was in a haze, she'd smashed her head hard against the dirt, it had shaken her. Dazed but still aware of her situation she stumbled to her feet and found herself in Ice's arms, running for the far aside of the room where another tunnel branched out.

They weren't out of danger yet.

A piercing, evil sound boomed through the tunnel and into the room.

"It's the mother." Jordan said, still in Ice's grasp and still running for the other tunnel.

Then, to Ice's absolute terror another bird appeared at the entrance to the other tunnel. They stopped dead in their tracks. Jordan turned around to see the mother, twice the size of the bird in front of them, bounding awkwardly before them. Then it stopped, tilted its head to the left and gazed on at Jordan and Ice. Jordan turned her head to see the other bird, also glaring at them with a strange curiosity.

A Mexican standoff to end all others, their next move would be the difference between surviving this encounter and ending up in the nest. Ice's mind ran at a million miles a second. He looked around the room for an out, any out, but there was none. He could shoot his way out of here but that would attract even more birds and he thought there were more birds down here than he had bullets.

In a whisper he asked: "Any ideas?"

Jordan shook her head: "No. You?"

"Just don't move until we come up with something. They seem to calm down when we're not moving."

"We can't stand here forever, Ice. At some point we're going to have to make a move." Jordan said.