Hairy Man (Zack Tolliver, FBI Book 12), page 17
"It must be just beyond these trees," Marvin said.
"Hold here. Nobody goes past..." Zack stopped mid-sentence, searching the group. "Where's Eagle Feather?"
The men stared at one another and around the meadow. The Navajo was gone.
"All right," Zack said, with a sigh. "We wait."
They didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, the radio signal changed, growing louder.
"It's moving," Marvin said, his voice almost a croak. "It's coming toward us."
The men with rifles raised them in one motion.
A darker shadow coalesced among the trees, strengthened and shaped into a large, amorphous figure coming toward them until, upon reaching the sunshine, it diminished to the size of one ordinary Navajo.
Eagle Feather held something in the palm of his hand as he approached them. He handed it to Marvin. "Is this the radio tag dart your drone shot into the beast?"
Marvin took it and studied it. "Yes," he said with a sigh. "He must have pulled it out. There's blood on the shaft. It penetrated the hide. It could not have just fallen out." He turned off the receiver. "We won't need this anymore."
"Now we have no way to know where it is," Newie said in a tense whisper.
Zack glanced at his watch, then up at the sky. "We've just a couple of hours of daylight left. We'd better come up with a plan."
"We should go back to the lab," Newie said, trying to sound confident. "We can use the satellite to relocate him and return in the van with the tranquilizer dosage necessary to subdue him when it's light."
"There are several problems with that," Zack said. "For one, that leaves the beast free to harm any innocent person who crosses his path that entire time."
"But there's no one out here," Newie argued. He waved an arm. "Look around. It's all empty forest out here."
Zack's patience was stretched. "We don't know that. There could be campers, hikers or anyone enjoying the mountains. And we don't know that this creature won't turn back toward the reservation, or the city, for that matter. We don't know that your satellite can find the beast again, presuming your friend can get you time on it. I think you were just plain lucky the first time. And that's before even considering the question of whether your beast should be allowed to live."
"But he's unique! One of a kind! There's so much we can learn from him."
"You can study his cadaver," Eagle Feather said.
"So what's the plan?" Jack asked, looking at Zack.
Zack didn't reply. He didn't have one.
"We can set a trap," Eagle Feather said.
"A trap?" Jack asked.
"We know the beast looks for a lone victim, it waits for someone to separate from the group. Then it attacks from behind."
"I don't think I like where this is going," Newie said.
"Are you suggesting we trick the beast into thinking someone has become separated from this group and then when it attacks, ambush it?" Zack asked.
"I really don't like where this is going."
"What will prevent the person who is bait from getting killed?" Jack asked.
"Baby is very, very fast," Marvin added.
"We will have the advantage of knowing that the beast will attack and that he will come from behind," Zack said. "We can set up our ambush accordingly."
"How can we create a scenario that the beast will believe?" Newie asked.
"We simply climb into the Jeep and drive off, leaving one person behind," Zack said.
"That's crazy!" Newie's voice had risen an octave. "That monster will get him before we can get back to help him."
"We won't all leave," Eagle Feather said. "But we will make the beast think that we did."
"That's right," Zack said. "Before the Jeep leaves, some of us with rifles will conceal ourselves where we can cover the area behind our bait."
"Like shooting a tiger from a machan with a goat staked beneath it," Marvin said, his eyes glistening with excitement.
"Exactly."
"But Baby is incredibly fast," Newie protested, his voice a whine. "What if the rifle bullets don't stop it soon enough? This is crazy."
"They will at least slow him," Eagle Feather said. "The volunteer will have a rifle. The key is in spotting the beast early enough." He glanced at the sky. "The longer we take to get this started, the harder it will be to see the beast coming. It's not getting any lighter."
Newie's voice rose to a squeal. "Who will be the goat?"
Zack looked at all the anxious faces. "Yes, that is the question. Will anyone volunteer to be Baby bait?"
Eagle Feather put up his hand.
Zack gave the Navajo an appreciative smile. "No, not this time, Eagle Feather. You are likely the best shot among us. We need you to be one of the riflemen."
Jack was staring at Newie. "I think the one who created the beast out to be the bait."
Newie was visibly shaking.
"No, although I agree he deserves that fate," Zack said. "It must be someone who can react quickly and shoot accurately." He paused. "I will be bait." He looked at the other three. "But we need a second rifleman who can shoot and won't lose his nerve."
Both Jack and Marvin raised their hands.
"It should be me," Jack said. "I use a rifle regularly as a Range Rider."
Zack gave him a nod.
"Wait," Marvin said. "I should be the one. Baby knows me; he's already attacked me once but didn't kill me. And I am practiced with the rifle from darting animals. I won't miss."
Eagle Feather cast an eye on him. "What difference does it make that the beast knows you if you are shooting him from concealment?"
"No, you don't understand. I won't be hidden." Marvin turned to Zack. "I'll be the bait."
CHAPTER FORTY
The teams were decided. Zack and Eagle Feather would be the shooters and Marvin the bait. Jack reluctantly agreed to drive the Jeep with Newie as his passenger.
Their task was complicated by the fact no one knew the capabilities of this creature. How sharp were its eyes, how strong its sense of smell, how sharp its ears? What would it take to fool the creature if it was watching their every move right now?
Zack laid out a detailed plan, a skit in which everyone would act their part. It called for noise and distraction as the Jeep was loaded. Zack and Eagle Feather would enter the Jeep only to disembark from the opposite side and sneak off to their predetermined shooting positions. Marvin, meanwhile, would say goodbyes and shake hands and stand forlornly off from the Jeep as it loaded, and wave as it drove off.
Then, with both shooters in their places of concealment, he would act as if he was camping for the night, using gear from Zack's Jeep, originally provided by Janice.
All the actors played their parts well, the Jeep drove off, and Marvin remained standing in the meadow. Zack and Eagle Feather had outlined a circle at the very center of the meadow. Marvin was to stay within it at all costs.
"We can't cover you if you wander out of that circle," they told him.
Zack's position was in the tall grass, where he lay prone, rifle in hand, prepared to swivel to face in any direction. Eagle Feather was in a tree at the edge of the meadow. He was lookout. Once he saw the beast, he would whisper its position by phone to Zack.
Failure was an option, they had decided. If the beast heard them or was alerted in any other way and disappeared, their attempt would end, and they would call the Jeep back. If the beast did not appear by the time darkness made the enterprise too dangerous, as determined by Eagle Feather, the attempt would end as well.
Now, they waited.
Zack could see little from his position beyond the tips of grasses swaying before his eyes. He could hear Marvin humming and occasionally talking to himself as he pretended to prepare his camp. After the roar of the departing Jeep ceased echoing in Zack's head, all was still. No birds crying, no animals rustling. The silence told Zack a predator was nearby, but whether the forest creatures were quieted by Marvin's presence or that of the beast, he couldn't know.
This was not Zack's first stalk. He had spent many hours of his long career on surveillance and hunting men in just this fashion, but this one was different. He felt more vulnerable. It was the unknown nature of the beast they hunted that disquieted him. How well could it hear? The beating of Zack's heart seemed precariously loud. Was the beast able to detect it? Zack tried to calm it.
The inevitable itches cried for his hand to scratch them, the predictable ant crawled up a pant leg, and the unavoidable sweat droplet trickled down an armpit. But Zack had experienced all these things before and had the patience to ignore them. Like a hunter stalking a man-eater in the mangroves of South Bengal, even the slightest twitch could give away his position, and end his life.
But Zack's life also resided in the hands of his old friend Eagle Feather and the Navajo's sharp eyes. He trusted him implicitly. The Navajo had the instincts of a forest creature; the ears of a fox, the eyes of an eagle. He would give Zack enough time and information to protect himself and save Marvin...if he saw the beast first. If...
The doubts rushed in. How safe was Eagle Feather? Baby 2, this beast's brother, had moved through the trees to avoid pursuit. What if this one did the same? It must have the same skills. It must have been watching from the forest. Had it seen Eagle Feather climb into his tree? If so, the Navajo could be quite literally treed.
Zack gave a mental shake of his head. These thoughts would not do, they must be banished. His job, his entire focus, was to be alert and ready to act, and that must occupy the entirety of his mind. There was no more time for what-ifs.
=
Eagle Feather had climbed, not without difficulty, into the lower branches of a tall pine tree and created a platform for himself on a thick branch, cutting away twigs and smaller shoots that obscured his view of the meadow below and Marvin. There was even a stub of a twig just at the right height to rest his rifle barrel as he waited.
He had emphasized to Marvin the importance of facing in the direction opposite where he and Zack were concealed, on the premise that the beast would attack from behind. If it attacked from the front, the Navajo must shoot beyond Marvin to kill it, a dicey situation at best.
In his tree nest, Eagle Feather was blind to anything behind him. The thickness of the pine's trunk might protect him from an attack from the rear, he thought, but the thick branches around his roost, while a deterrent to an attacking beast, also made it difficult for him to turn to re-position his rifle.
He accepted that. He did not think the beast was near enough to have seen or heard him climb the tree, and although he could not see anything behind him, his ears, and particularly his nose, would alert him. He would instantly recognize its distinctive odor.
Eagle Feather was satisfied he was in the best possible position for a shot at the beast. If it somehow detected his presence or that of Zack and attacked from another direction, well, it might be up to Marvin to protect himself.
=
Marvin knelt on the ground, his hands busy working the zipper of a sleeping bag. His rifle leaned on his shoulder, its stock against the ground. But his mind was not on the useless task occupying his hands: rather, he was preparing himself for each move he must make if he detected motion anywhere in the darkening shadows beyond the first band of trees within the arc of his vision. He mentally intoned the steps: first, shrug his rifle off his shoulder letting the barrel fall forward; next, catch the rifle in his hands, left hand under the stock forward of the trigger guard, right hand to the trigger, then bring the barrel up swiveling in the direction of the charging beast. Having a plan, any plan, was good, mind settling. But still not enough.
If the creature charged from behind, as expected, Marvin was dependent upon the alertness and the shooting skills of Zack and the Navajo. He'd never met these guys before today and knew nothing about them. Yet, somehow, he'd been caught up in the emotions of the moment, volunteering (how stupid was that?) to be the bait in a sketchy plan to kill this monstrous beast. The first he would know of it coming from behind him would be the sound of a shot––if he was lucky. If he was not lucky, darkness would descend over him before he knew anything else, as had happened once already today. His rib and back ached as he knelt, a painful reminder. Could he even spin to protect his rear with the cracked rib and the contusion over most of his lower back now stiffening up like a thick sheet of plastic?
Time was passing, darkness was lurking, and would come all too soon, to his mind. When the tree line blurred, he shifted his eyes to nearer objects to briefly change focus before returning to search the shadows of the forest. The muscles in his bent legs began to cramp, joining the overall aches of his body. He desperately wanted to change leg positions but dared not. This was physical and mental torture.
Marvin began to realize, as time inched by, that he might become too cramped to move in the short time he would have to save his own life.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The scent was faint and brief, but distinctive. The beast was near. The hair on Eagle Feather's neck prickled. He held very still. He felt a slight tremor pass up the pine trunk behind his back. The creature must be just beneath him, at the base of his tree. Did it know he was up here?
Could it see like a human or more like an animal? Was its sense of smell strong enough to detect him just fifteen feet above its head?
The seconds passed while Eagle Feather held his breath and waited. There was nothing else he could do. If it came for him, there would be a furious rush with splintering branches and the tree shaking and he would have seconds to react. But if the creature did not detect him, if it was intent upon the solitary figure kneeling in the middle of the meadow, Eagle Feather must be ready for the best shot of his life.
He felt another slight tremor, then a stronger vibration through the tree. What was it doing? Was it scouting its way up the trunk to Eagle Feather? Testing the roots of the pine, maybe? Could it push the entire tree over? No, that was impossible. Keep your nerve, the Navajo told himself. Remember your job.
He had two imperatives. First and foremost, to kill the beast before it could harm Marvin. If the creature came up the tree after him, he would do his best to accomplish that. If it charged into the meadow, he would take his best shot.
His other imperative was to warn Zack of the beast's presence. But now it was too near, he dared not speak into his phone. If it charged Marvin, the kill shot was up to him, and him alone. There would be no time to alert Zack.
The tremor came again, then another, a stronger one, as if the creature was testing the tree's stability. The Navajo waited, held his breath.
Silence.
Then came an ear-shattering roar and the tree shook violently and all its limbs quivered as if with a palsy. The branch beneath Eagle Feather vibrated with such force it jolted him into the air. Both hands had been on his rifle, he managed to keep his grip on it but came down off balance and askew, his weight to one side, and felt himself falling.
=
The roar was so sudden, so stupefyingly loud that Zack felt as if his heart had stopped for a moment. His instinct was to spin around and train his rifle in the direction of the sound, somewhere behind him, but he resisted. He must not give away his location, no matter what. If something happened to Eagle Feather, Zack was Marvin's only chance. He waited, a bundle of nerves, for what might come next.
=
The ferocity and suddenness of the beast's roar caused Marvin to wet himself with fright. It sounded as if right behind him. His entire body shook with fright so that his rifle slipped from his shoulder to the ground. He fumbled for it as one who is blind, his brain frozen with terror. At any moment the beast would be upon him and rip him to shreds. Where was that rifle? His groping hands instead came upon the soft folds of the sleeping bag, trapping his frantic fumbling fingers like flies in a silky web. Oh, God, where's that rifle!
=
Eagle Feather's right leg was now hooked around the thick branch that just seconds ago had been his perch, his fall checked with his shoulder against a lower branch, his head hanging free. He could not see the beast from this angle, but the smell of it just beneath him somewhere was strong. He still had his rifle and held it in one hand and the other grasped for a higher branch. He pivoted his body up to his former seat as the snapping of branches and gnashing of teeth sounded a few feet below him from the beast's furious attempts to reach him. He pivoted the rifle to point it downward, his legs now locked tight around the limb. But before he could find his target, the tree shook again, not with the same sudden violence as before but several times in great agitation as if the beast was grasping it with both paws and shaking it repeatedly, as one shakes apples from a tree. Then, just as suddenly, the shaking stopped.
Had the beast given up? If so, its next attack would be on Marvin, alone and vulnerable in the middle of the meadow. Eagle Feather brought his rifle back to his shoulder and aimed along the line the beast must travel to attack Marvin. Another blood-freezing roar sounded below and then there was a blur of movement into the meadow that was so fast in the fading light Eagle Feather almost missed it. The Navajo kept his rifle trained on the path to Marvin, ready for the precise moment to pull the trigger. But the beast had taken a different path directly toward Zack where he lay concealed in the grass.
=
When the second roar came, even more blood-chilling than the first, Zack again felt his heart flip over but he was mentally prepared for it this time and kept his rifle trained ahead. He felt the ground vibrate beneath him and it puzzled him–what was this? In the next millisecond, his mind grasped the cause and he rolled onto his back, swinging the rifle barrel up and firing all in one motion into the mass of the enormous beast bearing down on him. An arcing, massive arm passed inches from his face and struck his rifle, spinning it away like a matchstick. Zack instinctively rolled again and somehow avoided a huge descending foot as a rifle shot sounded. Now the beast was beyond him in the direction of Marvin, and there was another shot, and another, and another.
