NorthWest (John Hazard - Book II) (14 page)

“Has anyone been added to your party since we spoke last?” Mark talked to her back as she walked toward the plane.

“What did you say?” She looked back over her shoulder at him.

“I said, ‘has anyone else been added to the passenger list since we spoke last?’ ”

“When was the last time we spoke?” She struggled to remove the pack and set it on the floor.

“I’m pretty sure it was last Friday.”

“Oh, if it was last Friday, then yes we have added one more, our camera operator or should I say videographer? Other than that, the team has not changed.”

“So that brings the total to eight? Did your assistant convey my payment terms?” He waited as she reached into her tote bag and pulled out a fat envelope.

“Yes, eight, that’s correct. I have the first half of your payment here, just as you requested. Could you give me a receipt please?” She held the envelope just out of his reach.

He stepped forward and took the envelope from her hand. Walking back to the desk, he opened the envelope and flipped through the twenty-dollar bills pretending to count them, then bent down over the desk and tore a piece of paper off of a pad.

“Do you want this made out to you or the university?” He held the pen over the paper.

“Make it out to me, please. Dr. Macy Renner.”

She watched as he wrote something on the paper. He dropped the pen and handed her the note.

“Uh, Mark, you don’t have something more official, like a receipt with your company info on it?”

“Here let me see it,” he said reaching for the paper. He opened a desk drawer and grabbed a rubber stamp and an inkpad. He slammed the stamp onto the pad, then on the paper. Holding it up to his mouth, he blew on it and handed it back to Macy. “Good enough?”

“I guess, if that’s all you have.” She looked at the paper with the stamp on it. The stamp did not seem like it was made for a transport company, but she couldn’t really make it out. Just then, she heard the muffled sounds of a conversation and turned to see Raj and Marcus carrying their gear through the large open doorway. They crossed the concrete floor toward the plane.

“We flyin’ in this bucket?” Marcus asked, dropping his gear on the floor next to Macy’s.

“Excuse me, but it’s not a bucket. These prop planes are much safer for flying up around the Northwest. Nothing worse than having a fat goose sucked into a jet engine to ruin your day. These props just make paté out of ’em if there’s an encounter.” Mark came up beside them.

“Whoa dawg! What happened to you? Your face looks like shit, man!” Marcus was chuckling as he checked out the swelling bruises on Mark’s face.

“Actually, it is none of your business… Dog” Mark’s tone was sharp, but as sore as he was, he really did not want another conflict.

Macy stepped forward to interrupt, “I’m sorry, Mark. Allow me to introduce you. This is Marcus and Raj, members of my team, and guys, this is Mark. He’ll be our pilot for the round trip.” The two men nodded in acknowledgement.

Unable to prevent himself from talking shit, Mark went on, “It’s none of your business, Marcus, but if you must know, I was up in the city the other night and two of your bro’s jumped me.”

Even though he was making it up, he pushed it further. “If you think I look bad, you should have seen those guys when I was finished with ’em.” He finished his lie by glaring at Marcus until he spoke.

“Oh, and I bet your puny Chinese ass fucked ’em up real good.” Marcus replied sarcastically. “What did you do use? Some Kung Fu movie shit on ’em, Bruce Lee?” Now he was grinning wide, and he could see Mark’s face turning red.

For a moment, no one said anything. It was Raj who broke the silence. “Come on guys, what are you going to do? Fight it out right here? This is not a time for violence. It will prove nothing, and then we have to travel together. I am not asking you to abandon your testosterone forever, just tone it down for the next couple of hours.”

“Ho-tep can handle it if Bruce Lee here can pull his panties out of his crack.” Marcus was still grinning as he swaggered a little.

“Come on guys. Marcus, Mark, how about if we just stay in our own corners for the rest of this trip? Then when we get back, you two can meet up somewhere and discuss this?” Macy was standing between them now, making her case and hoping it would tone things down.

“Hey guys, we made it!” Eddie yelled as he and Karla came in through the large hangar doors. “We saw Sherri pulling up just as we were leaving the... uh… office.”

As they walked toward the small group, they sensed something was not right. It might have been the way that everyone turned and looked at them without saying hello, but more likely the telling was in the glare of Marcus’ eyes and Mark’s reddened face.

“So what’s wrong anyway?” Karla set her large carry bag on the floor as Eddie, her virtual pack mule struggled with both of their backpacks. He had one on his back and one was carried as dead weight in front of him.

“It’s nothing. Just a little glitch in the program, but everything is fine now, isn’t it guys?” Macy gave Marcus the look of death.

“What? I was just playin’.” Marcus answered the look. “It was Bruce over there that lost it.” He tried to assume the look of innocence.

By now Eddie had freed himself from his burden and he stepped closer to the group. Macy made the introductions, “Mark, this is Eddie and Karla. Karla, Eddie, this is Mark.”

No sooner did the words leave her lips than Eddie exclaimed, “I thought his name was Bruce.” He shot a quick glance over at Marcus before turning his attention back to the pilot. “Wow, dude those are some serious bruises. It looks like somebody really kicked the shit out of you!”

“That’s what I’m sayin!” Marcus interjected. “Bruce here had a tussle with some of the boys, but we’re not supposed to talk about it. Right, Macy?” He looked at her with an mock expression of alarm, then smiled again.

Macy looked back at him in disbelief. He really was pushing her buttons, and she was just waiting for Mark to jump on him when the pilot spoke up, “Hey, that’s okay. I’m over it. I know the truth and really, Eddie, it’s a long story. Right now, we’d better get the gear loaded. Maybe you could give me a hand, Rick James.”

“Rick James? I’ll give you Rick James, bitch!” Marcus picked up one of the backpacks. “Where we taking it?”

Twenty-Five

Except for the soft chattering of the birds, the forest was quiet in the morning light. A variety of trees, mostly tall pines, surrounded the area allowing only brief shimmering thin rays of sunlight to cut through the canopy overhead.

The female creature rested against the disabled ship. Her mate was busy constructing a nesting site in the large circular clearing nearby. Such clearings were rare in these parts, but the aliens were unaware of their good fortune. They were focused entirely on the task at hand.

Spider-like, the male was extruding a ropey material from somewhere in the middle of his abdomen. He worked quietly with single-minded determination, connecting the sticky web-like material from tree to tree, spanning the width of the clearing and then weaving a circular pattern from cross brace to cross brace. The nest had to be strong enough to support the weight that would hang there.

The creatures had already spent several days collecting animals from the surrounding forest to feed their offspring during the initial stage of development. He hoped to store enough food to prevent them from engaging in the horrible cannibalism that he had witnessed at home in his world. The ensuing chaos was still vividly etched in his memory.

Now, as a sexually mature adult, he would embark on his first and last reproductive experience. It was the natural order of life for adult couples of his kind to offer themselves to their hatchlings as nourishment, a nutrient-rich feast to give them the best possible start in life. When the hatchlings emerged from their eggs, they would have no other option but to begin eating immediately or die of starvation. Eat or die, eat or be eaten, it was the way of their world.

Despite the fact that their advanced intelligence passed genetically from generation to generation, they were still creatures bound to primordial instincts when it came to such procreative practices. The alien creatures never questioned the cycle of life as they knew it. They willingly accepted that their own existence would end in order to give life to the offspring they spawned.

Each generation possessed nearly all the knowledge of the parents that came before. Intelligence and reasoning were programmed directly into their genetic material. Any new knowledge or understanding would be added to the code which would be passed on throughout the generations, a fortunate trait considering the short lifespan of these creatures. Though this intelligence was passed through DNA, it wasn’t an instantaneous awareness. The newborns had only the knowledge at birth to know that they must eat or die. The more they ate, the greater the level of their intelligence. In the same way a bud on a rose turns into a flower, at maximum growth the creatures would bloom into their full intellectual awareness.

There was no time for compassion for others. To them every other living creature was a potential meal, including others of their kind if need be. In their world no greater predator existed and, in the end, as food sources dwindled this would put the survival of their species at risk.

Now as the male continued to work diligently to create a fresh start for his offspring in this strange land, a deep-seated sense of dread came over him slowing his movements as he forced himself to complete the task. With everything he had already provided for them, he could not be sure how many of the young would hatch in this environment and time was running out. He must carry on building up their food supply before the hatch began.

As he labored on, the female was feeding on the fresh kill of the morning pausing to rest now and then to aid her digestion. Scattered about the edge of the clearing were the bones of many animals that she had consumed over the past month. Some of the gruesome remains were human, the bones of those who had happened upon her mate as he was hunting. He did not make any distinction between humans and other animals except for the strange loose and multicolored ‘skins’ that covered their meat, and the great deal of noise they made while being prepared or eaten.

The male creature had come to savor human meat, however, and to such a degree that several of the victims he had captured had served as a feast for him alone. The female knew no different as long as he saved some prize to present to her when he returned from his hunt. He was always careful to clean himself thoroughly after such a feast. He was well aware that an angry female could just as easily eat him while she was ‘in waiting’ to expel her matured clutch of eggs. 

After many days, various animals, including several deer, wolves, and rabbits, were stored in the clearing. They were strategically arranged several yards from the spot where the eggs would hang to draw out the hatchlings as soon as they would fall to the ground. Though the young aliens would be left to fend for themselves, they came into life fully equipped for survival. Their bodies fully formed and functional at birth, nevertheless it would be necessary for them to eat massive amounts of fresh meat to achieve their adult size. The more they ate, the faster they would grow. If a plentiful supply of food were available, a newborn might reach full adult size in a matter of forty-eight hours.

As the female closed her eyes again, she wondered what her offspring would discover here in this new world, and if they would ever return to their home. At the moment, she decided, it did not matter. This world seemed quite amenable, and she was not overly concerned about their future. If they found this world unsuitable, the ship contained the tools and materials for repair. Once they reached full size and intellectual maturity, they could leave here if they chose, and with an adequate food supply, this could be accomplished within two or three cycles of this planets star.

She looked up as her mate ambled toward her. Everything had been prepared, and he had come to assist her as she made her way to the nesting site. He carefully attached the appendages that extended from her abdomen, stretching them slightly to reach the center of the web, and then prepared the area where he would need to position himself in order to assist as she attempted to expel the fully developed eggs from her body. Judging by her size at this stage, he was expecting a difficult time. It seemed as though she could be carrying hundreds of eggs. 

Twenty-Six

Sherri, Emily and John came strolling in through the giant hangar portal about fifteen minutes after Eddie and Karla arrived. Sherri waved as she caught the eye of Marcus who was handing the last backpack from the pile up to Mark.

“Hey Sweet Cocoa, glad you could make it.” His smile was wide as he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He lifted her off the floor in a huge bear hug. “Are you ready for the adventure?” he asked as he gently set her on her feet.

“I certainly am,” she chirped. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to walk into the wilderness without the comforts of civilization for two weeks.” She picked up her backpack again and handed it to him.

John and Emily were right behind her waiting to load their gear. John held a smaller case in his left hand as he handed his pack to Marcus. “You want that in the storage compartment, or is that a carry on, Sherlock?” asked Marcus as he passed the pack to Mark who was struggling to arrange the near full cargo compartment.