Expendable Heroes, page 8
“We should look for the scientists.”
Luciane’s expression betrayed that she might be about to kill Jack.
Steven said, “Listen, none of us know whether the scientists are still alive, or they are dead. I agree with you that they shouldn’t be our first priority. The company is big and rich enough to send their own lackeys with proper resources and not a bunch of misfits like us. I think the scientists arrived here, cleared the space, and battled for months to keep the clearing open. That is why there are not that many trial results, why the plots are gone and that is why eventually they left. They were more determined and had a lot more patience than we do. Because I think that they found a better place that’s not infested with his plant pest, and they went there. They put a brave face on having to re-locate and made excuses that sounded like there was a scientific reason. But it was just too uncomfortable for them to stay.”
They looked at each other. Rollo was still angry, and Luciane glared back at him.
Stephen turned to Jack. “And it is also my guess that you know a lot more about this, because you have been guiding us in that direction. So it is important that everybody comes clean with each other. Are you still in contact with the company, despite the fact that we’re out of reach, and are you letting them know what is happening here?”
Jack looked at him and said nothing. But he could not meet Steven’s eyes for long.
“It is true, you’re a company employee, aren’t you?”
Jack said nothing.
“Are you?” Steven repeated.
Then Jack said in a low voice, “They have my family. What else can I do?”
“Look mate, they have my family too.”
“No, they don’t. Your family live as free citizens on Earth. Mine are on the ship. My mother is a distinguished scientist, and she had some pertinent questions about the ethics of a lot of the experiments that the Merlin company conducts. So what do they do? As punishment, they have me arrested on some ridiculous spying charge, put me in jail, and then demote my mother from her position, but they don’t let her go, so that she is still in their influence, and then they give me this task and promise me that we will both be free if I complete this mission. I have no other relatives. I have to look after her.”
“But your mission is not the same as ours, isn’t it? You’re reporting on us. It’s all an experiment. It’s not about getting these people back. They’ve written them off or know they’re dead.”
Steven looked at him, but Jack looked at his hands.
Steven continued. “It is about some sort of commercial interest, or to hide something embarrassing, or something of that sort?”
Jack nodded. “Something like that. It really seems petty now that we are here, and our lives are in danger. Yes. I will do whatever it takes to get out of here and then I will teach the bastards, even if it’s going to kill me. I didn’t think my mother would have had it any other way.”
“So, in other words, we’re on the same page.”
“Who says we’re all on the same page?” Rollo said. “I don’t want to have anything more to do with this whole stupid project.”
Luciane snorted. “Then you can take your fucking arse off into the jungle and don’t return. But I may just remind you that we don’t have an ascent vehicle, you’re unlikely to get there by yourself. You can’t pilot the thing anyway, so you’re not going to get far.”
“You want to watch me try?”
And Rollo got up and left the room. A moment later, the outside door clanged.
“Fuck.” Luciane said.
CHAPTER 11
Steven, Jack and Luciane looked at each other across the table.
“The idiot hasn’t really gone, has he?” Jack asked.
“It sounds like he has,” Luciane said.
“What the actual fuck possessed him?”
“This is what I’ve been saying,” Steven said. “The sap from the plants isn’t just a simple irritant, it also has an effect on people’s brains. They behave strangely and become irrational.”
“Are you saying that we are irrational?” Luciane said. “You better come out with that, because I’m getting very tired of your patronising attitude.”
“Whoa, mate, calm down,” Jack said.
Steven said, “Yes, it includes us, of course, but for some reason, it affects him more. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the case. Maybe that’s what happened to the scientists, who knows? But yes, he seems to have gone, and he’s not gonna survive out there by himself. You might not like him much—”
“That is an understatement.”
“Well, you also know that we can’t afford to lose one person, because to have four people for this mission is already cutting it very close to its survivability.”
“Rollo’s right that they want us to die here,” Luciane said.
“And we just agreed that we will do everything to not let that happen,” Steven said.
There was another silence, and then Jack said, “So. We’ll we have to schedule a trip to retrieve the idiot?”
Steven said, “Yes. It’s dark. Who knows what roams out there, so we better take weapons. Just as well that somebody reminded us to keep the suits charged.”
“Dickhead,” Luciane said.
“Suit yourself.”
“I’ll carry the laser.”
Jack said, “Good. Then I can’t accidentally hurt myself with it, either.”
Luciane got up from the table and made a rude gesture behind Jack’s back.
The others got up from the table as well, and before doing anything else, Steven emptied out all of the water purifiers’ contents into drink bottles, which he lined up on the table. And he collected all the charged batteries he could find.
“What’s all that about?” Luciane asked, coming out of her room with a pack.
“If we go out there, I want us to take this. I don’t trust the water out there even if people say it’s safe, and having clean water with us might well be the difference between life and death.”
“Well, I think this baby will make more of a difference, Mr. Biologist.” She patted her hand on the laser.
“I’m happy to let you handle that. Just don’t make the beam too broad. I don’t fancy getting my arse burned off by friendly fire.”
“No one ever calls me friendly. But don’t worry. It will be narrow. Real narrow.”
They took the packs and the bottles, and went out into the suiting room where they got into their suits and then out of the door.
It was unbelievably dark outside. A faint glow radiated from the low-hanging clouds, and there were no stars to be seen, and no moonlight.
The screen of Jack’s pad was blindingly bright.
“He’s gone here,” he pointed at a spot on the screen. “His beacon still sends the occasional ping, even if the reception is bad. Let’s go.”
He turned on the light on his suit and led the way. It was easy to follow the path of the crushed vegetation across the clearing, past the hump of vegetation that covered their descent craft, and into the forest.
Steven followed Jack. If he had thought it was dark outside the building, it was even worse here amongst the tall trees. The light from Jack’s suit hit only a narrow section of the forest floor. Steven’s light hit Jack’s back and the piece of ground where Jack walked.
Steven had to be careful where he stepped, because the suit’s feet couldn’t feel things like sticks and insecure footing.
The slimy creepers were not as common here as they were in the clearing, and eventually disappeared altogether.
And he suspected they’d already lost Rollo’s trail, because Jack slowed down.
He also wondered how Rollo thought he knew how to get to the ascent vehicle, because he wouldn’t have a map, because Xander had all those and there was definitely no reception here and none of the maps they did have showed the ascent vehicle, anyway. Or the lake. They only went as far as the ridge that they were slowly approaching.
Jack stopped. He turned his head, shining the lantern on his head into the tangle of tree trunks and bushes.
Steven caught up with him, and Luciane followed.
They looked around. The only sound in the forest was their panting breaths from running.
“There are no animal sounds here at all,” Steven said.
Around the buildings, he would hear chirps and squeaks at night. He imagined they would be made by creatures like frogs or insects.
“There is not enough light,” Luciane said.
“Shhh,” Jack said.
He was looking at the screen on his pad. Steven could no longer spot the blinking red dot transmitted by Rollo’s suit.
They stood still and listened for footsteps or the cracking of branches, anything that might indicate where Rollo was.
But all Steven could hear was the roaring of blood in his own ears, and the soft breaths of the others. Not a leaf moved. Not an animal scurried in the undergrowth. Not a creature squeaked in the trees.
Eventually, after what seemed like an impossibly long time, Jack blew out a breath. “We’ve lost the fucker.”
“What now?” Steven asked.
“We could walk around a bit, to see if we run into a sign of him, but Xander’s reception is pretty much non-existent here, so I don’t like our chances.”
“It’s too fucking dark,” Luciane said. “If Rollo wants to be out here, that’s his problem. We got work to do tomorrow. I think that he really likes eating and if he gets hungry, he’ll come back, after he’s finished doing whatever his peanut of a brain has told him to do.”
“We could try calling him,” Steven said.
Luciane snorted. “Fuck no. I don’t want to advertise our presence in the dark when we can’t see. This place creeps me out. Up at the ship, when we were receiving instructions, I asked about large creatures. Because, you know, this forest seems healthy enough to feed herd of hungry nocturnal were-tigers or something.”
“If those were an issue, they would have told us,” Steven said, recalling a similar discussion he’d had with Jeremy.
“Well, I don’t fucking believe that.”
“I can’t see a reason not to. If—”
“Yeah, I know, I know, you’ll rabbit on about if they wanted to have us eaten by large carnivores, they could have just fed us to the lions on Earth, but the fuck—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Jack hissed.
“What?”
“I heard something.”
They listened. The forest was utterly silent.
“You’re just saying that to annoy us,” Luciane said.
“Don’t be stupid. I really heard something.”
Steven called out, “Rollo? Are you there?”
“Shut up!” Luciane said.
“Yeah, I know, were-tigers, right?”
And then he heard the sound, too, the cracking of a branch, and then footsteps.
“Rollo? We’re here.”
They peered into the forest, each of them directing a tiny spot of light onto the tangle of branches.
The next moment, somebody came rushing out of the vegetation. It was Rollo, judging by his suit and heavyset shape. He tripped over a branch and tumbled to the ground.
He half-crawled and scrambled to cover the remaining space.
“They’re after me.” Rollo indeed. His eyes were wide with fear. “They’re after me. Get out of here, quick, before they catch all of us.”
“Rollo, stop it. Drink some water. You’re hallucinating. No one is after you.”
“Yes, they are. Get out of here. We’re not safe.” But he grabbed the water Jack offered him with both hands.
He drank. His face was red and marked with dirty smudges.
And the next moment, there was another sound. For a split second, Steven wondered what it was, then he recognised it as the sound of a discharging laser, all within a split second. He dropped flat to the ground, a kind of reflex he didn’t remember he had, and something hit the tree behind him.
“Someone is shooting,” he said as loudly as he dared.
Another charge hit the tree. A singed scent filled the air.
“That sounded like our missing laser,” Jack whispered. “Fuck it if the bastards use us as target practice and they’re treating our searches into the jungle as a kind of survival game.”
“I can see something,” Luciane said from the other side of the tree. “This is not someone trained. They wouldn’t be so stupid to show themselves like that. This is an amateur.”
Steven would rather not know how she knew that.
They waited. Silent, heart thudding. The movement came closer. Footsteps. Slow and quite heavy. Was it someone in a suit? Was it a person at all?
“Who are you?” Steven asked.
The moment the words were out of his mouth, a light blinked red in the undergrowth.
Jack called, “Watch out.”
Steven pressed his head in the dirt.
A split second later, a blinding flash zoomed over his head.
“He’s really good at locating the source of sound,” Luciane said. She was changing the setting on her laser, before aiming. “All right. This is shoot to kill. I can see him.”
“What is he like?”
“A person in a mech suit.”
“Only one?”
“Yes, only one. Split up and draw him out so I can get a clear shot.”
Jack went one way and Steven the other, clawing his way through the undergrowth.
Luciane was right that the attacker was not a professional. He seemed… lost, for want of a better word.
He got so close to the attacker that he could hear breathing. He could also see the infrared screen on the attacker’s visor as he swung the weapon around. Indeed, the missing laser.
This was one of the missing scientists, mistaking the team for attackers.
He found shelter behind the trunk of a large tree. Steven scanned the forest for Luciane to warn her not to shoot, but she must have found a hiding spot, too.
“We’re here to save you, not to harm you,” he said.
But the moment he opened his mouth, the man discharged the laser in his direction. Not a very good shot, Steven noticed. He wondered how well this person could see. He picked up a piece of wood and threw it randomly into the dark.
Something heavy moved. The laser discharged again. Steven ducked behind the tree. Branches cracked.
Then a bright flash and a big thud.
Steven waited until someone—Luciane probably—would give the all clear. His heart was thudding like crazy. He’d received some basic training, but nothing like this.
Lighter footsteps approached, and then Luciane said, “Fuck. Will you just look at this?”
CHAPTER 12
Steven pushed himself through the bushes, to where Luciane stood, directing her light over the prone form that lay on the ground. The person had come down halfway across a bush and lay tangled in the branches. He lay on his side. Steven registered that his feet had come out of the harness and weren’t moving, so he wasn’t posing any more danger.
The person was a middle-aged man with dark hair and red blotchy skin. He was wearing a full mech suit of the same type that the team also wore. It was a slightly more battered and older version, but of the same make, with the same company branding, and with presumably the same capabilities. One of the eleven missing suits.
Luciane’s shot had hit the vulnerable side of the armour, under the arms, where the plating was rather thin to allow for movement. The material on the side had split, and revealed a blood splattered gory mess inside. Steven didn’t want to look much at that.
When the person fell, the helmet and top of the armour had dislodged from the body. The helmet lay half destroyed on the ground. He had a dark beard and Steven even thought that he had an idea of which of the twelve scientists this was. An atmospheric scientist by the name of Simon Yang. The lower half of his face was affected with tendrils of fuzzy, pink growth that look like small tentacles.
The area underneath was red and infected with sores. The growth had intruded into his eye, which explained why his aim had been so poor and he appeared so uncoordinated.
“What is this stuff?” Luciane said. She was leaning over Jack, who crouched at the man’s head.
“Don’t touch any of him,” Steven said.
Luciane moved back ever so slightly.
“I have no intention. It’s disgusting. Look at how the shit has taken over his eyeball, and it’s growing inside his nose.”
“Do you think this crap has grown inside his head as well?” Rollo asked.
“That’s a good question,” Steven said.
“Well, you’re the biology guy.”
“It’s something alien, so I don’t know. It could be, but I wouldn’t know, without cutting him open.”
“Don’t,” Luciane said with a shudder. And when they all looked at her, she continued, “I don’t like to see that… medical crap.”
Her voice sounded so unsteady that Steven asked, “Are you OK, Luce?”
“OK? Am I OK? Other than that I just shot a person?”
“I’m sorry. I thought you…” He let the rest hang in silence. Things like Were used to it or served in wars in the military seemed inappropriate. Yes, people served in wars and killed in the line of duty, but no one, not even the ones who did it frequently, probably ever got used to it.
For his own sanity, he argued that this man had ceased to be a person a long time ago.
“Do you think they’re all like that on the inside?” Rollo asked. “Those freaks lurking in the forest waiting to attack us? Why is he like this?”
“This is what I think,” Steven said. “The sap from the plants or some other irritant on this planet causes the skin to break out in these types of growths that also affect the mind. The scientists recognised that, and that’s why they moved away from the area, but it was already too late.”
“You mean the slime from those fucking plants? We might already be infected.”
“It could be. It could be something else.” The slimy sap was a good candidate, though.
