Not waiting, Nate quickly powdered the river with the crushed ayaeya vine, sprinkling it slowly, ensuring a good spread.
Behind him, Camera was busy protecting their rear. The beasts from the stream were now converging on them.
Nate shook the last of the powder from the satchel, then tossed it into the stream. As he watched the pouch drift downstream rapidly, he prayed his plan would work. "Done," he said, turning.
Camera glanced over to him. Past her shoulder, Nate spotted bodies leaping from branches in the deeper jungle. "We have a problem," the Ranger said.
"What?"
The Ranger lifted her flamethrower and shot a jet of fire toward the jungle. As he watched, the line of fire drizzled back to the weapon"s muzzle, like a hose draining after the spigot had been turned off.
"Out of fuel," she said.
Frank O"Brien stood by his twin sister, guarding her. At times, he swore that he could read her mind.
Like now. Kelly stared at the river, watching with Kouwe and Manny for any sign that Rand"s plan might work. But he noticed how she kept peering into the jungle, her eyes drawn to the path the ethn.o.botanist and soldier had taken. He also saw the glint in her eyes.
An explosion momentarily drew his attention around. Another grenade. The rain of debris rattled through the canopy. Gunfire was now almost continuous, all around them. The line of Rangers was slowly being driven back to the cl.u.s.ter of civilians. Soon they would have no choice but to retreat toward the stream and closer to whatever skulked in its watery depths.
Nearby, Anna Fong stood with Zane, guarded by Olin Pasternak, who stood with a 9mm Beretta pistol in hand. It was a poor weapon against such small, fast-moving targets, but it was better than nothing. A growl suddenly rumbled behind him, from Manny"s jaguar.
"Look!" Kelly called out.
Frank turned. His sister stood with her flashlight pointed toward the stream. Then he saw it, too, lit by the reflection of her flashlight. Small glis-tening objects began to bob up from the water"s depths, floating, drifting with the current.
"Nate did it!" Kelly said, a smile on her face.
At her side, Professor Kouwe stepped nearer the streambed. One of the piranha-frogs burst from the water toward him, but landed on its side in the mud. It flopped for a couple seconds, then lay still.
Stunned. Kouwe glanced to Frank. "We must not lose this chance. We must cross now."
Frank turned and spotted Captain Waxman a short distance up the slope. He yelled to be heard above the gunfire. "Captain Waxman! Rand"s plan is working!" Frank waved an arm. "We can cross! Now!"
Waxman acknowledged his words with a nod, then his voice boomed. "Bravo unit! Retreat toward the stream!"
Frank touched the brim of his lucky baseball cap and stepped to Kelly. "Let"s go:"
Manny hurried past them. "Tor-tor and I"ll still go first. It was my dis-section upon which this plan was based." He didn"t wait for a reply. He and his pet stepped to the stream"s edge. He paused for half a breath, then waded into the stream. This fork was clearly deeper. Midstream, the water reached Manny"s chest. Tor-tor had to swim.
But shortly the biologist was climbing out the far side. He turned. "Hurry! It"s safe for the moment!"
"Move it!" Waxman ordered.
The civilians crossed together, strung along the current.
Frank went with Kelly, holding her hand. By now, hundreds of crea-tures bobbed in the water. They had to wade through the deadly forms, b.u.mping them aside, avoiding sharp teeth that glistened from slack mouths. Horrified, Frank held his breath, praying for them to remain inert.
They reached the far side and scrambled, half panicked, out of the water. The Rangers followed next, rushing across in full gear, oblivious to what floated around them. As they clambered up to dry land, the first of the advancing creatures began to appear on the far side of the stream, hurtling out of the jungle. A couple piranha-frogs approached the stream but stopped at the water"s edge, gill flaps trembling.
They must sense the danger,Frank thought. But they had no choice. On land they were suffocating. As if obeying some silent signal, the ma.s.s of mutated piranhas fled into the water.
"Back away!" Waxman ordered. "We can"t count on the water still being tainted:"
The group fled from the stream into the jungle-covered heights. Flash-lights remained fixed on the water and banks. But after several minutes, it was clear the pursuit was over. Either the waters were still toxic to the beasts or they had given up their chase. Frank sighed. "It"s over:"
Kelly remained quietly focused beside him, using her flashlight to scan the far bank of the stream.
"Where"s Private Camera?" she asked softly, then turned to Frank. "Where"s Nate?"
Upriver, a blast sounded, echoing through the forest.
Kelly"s eyes widened as she stared at Frank. "They"re in trouble:"
Nate raised his shotgun and blasted another of the creatures that ventured too close. Camera had shrugged off her weapon"s fuel canister and was bent over it. "How much longer?" Nate asked, eyes wide, trying to watch everything at once.
"Almost done:"
Nate glanced to the stream at his back. In the glow from Camera"s flashlight, he saw that the poison in the water was working. Downstream, bodies floated to the surface, but the current was rapidly carrying them away. The narrow streambed behind them was empty of bodies and could not be trusted. The current, as swift as it was, had surely swept the pow-dered poison away from here and down the length of the stream. It was not safe. They needed to backtrack along the trailing toxin in the water and seek a secure place to cross, where the current was more sluggish, some-where where the poison was still active-but between them and safety lay a small legion of the creatures, entrenched in the forest, blocking their way.
"Ready," Camera said, standing.
She hauled her handiwork from the jungle floor and tightened the canister"s lid, leaving a primer cord draping from it. The tank contained only a bit of fuel, not enough to service the weapon, but enough for their purposes. At least he hoped.
Nate held his position with his shotgun. "Are you sure this will work?"
"It had better."
Her words were not exactly the vote of confidence Nate was seeking.
"Point out the target again;" she said, moving beside him.
He shifted his shotgun"s muzzle and pointed at the gray-barked tree about thirty yards downstream.
"Okay." Camera lit the end of the primer cord with a butane lighter. "Get ready:" She swung her arm back and, using all the strength in her body, lobbed the canister underhanded.
Nate held his breath. It arced end-over-end-and landed at the foot o. the targeted tree.
"All those years of women"s softball finally paid off," Camera mum-bled, then to Nate: "Get down!"
Both dropped to the leafy floor. Nate fell, keeping his shotgun pointed ahead of him. And he was luckyhe did. One of the creatures leaped from a bush, landing inches from his nose. Nate rolled and batted it away with the stock of his shotgun. He rolled back to his belly and glanced to the Ranger beside him.
"Varsity baseball," he mumbled. "Se-nior year.
"Down!" Camera reached and smashed his head to the dirt.
The explosion was deafening, shrapnel ripped through the canopy overhead. Nate glanced over.
Camera"s trick had indeed worked. She had transformed the near-empty fuel tank into a large Molotov c.o.c.ktail. Flames lit the night.
Camera got to her knees. "What about-?"
Now it was Nate"s turn to tug her down.
The second explosion sounded like a lightning strike: splintering wood accompanied by a low boom. The nearby jungle was shredded apart, followed by a rain of flaming copal resin.
"d.a.m.n it!" Camera swore. Her sleeve was on fire. She patted it out in the loam.
Nate stood, relieved to see that the plan had worked. The tree, their target, was now just a blasted wreck, bluish flames dancing atop the stump. As Nate expected, the sap, rich in hydrocarbons, had acted as fuel, causing the makeshift Molotov c.o.c.ktail to turn the tree into a natural bomb, and torch the entire riverbank as well.
"C"mon!" Nate called, bounding up with Camera.
Together, they ran along the flaming and shredded section of the for-est, paralleling the stream until they overtook the poison trailing through the water. Bodies of the creatures and other fish filled the channel.
"This way!" Nate ran into the river, half swimming, half clawing his way across. Camera followed.
In no time, they were scrambling up the far bank.
"We did it!" the Ranger said with a laugh.
Nate sighed. Off in the distance, he spotted the shine of the others" flashlights. The team had made it across, too. "Let"s go see if everyone else is okay."
They helped each other up and stumbled away from the stream, aiming for the other camp.
When they marched out of the forest, a cheer went up. "Way to go, Camera," Kostos said, a true smile on his lips.
Nate"s greeting was no less earnest. As soon as he arrived, Kelly threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. "You made it," she mum-bled in his ear. "You did it:"
"And not a minute too soon," Nate said with a nod.
Frank patted him on the back.
"Well done, Dr. Rand," Captain Waxman said stoically, and turned to organize his troops. No onewanted to remain this close to the stream, poi-soned or not.
Kelly dropped her arms, but not before planting a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thanks . . . thanks for saving us. And thanks for returning safely"
She swung away, leaving Nate somewhat bewildered.
Camera nudged him with an elbow and rolled her eyes. "Looks like someone made a friend:"
10:02 A. M.
AMAZON JUNGLE.
Louis stood in the center of the blasted region near the river"s edge. He could still smell the acrid tang of napalm in the air. Behind him, his team was offloading the canoes and loading up backpacks. From here, the jour-ney would be on foot.
With the dawn, clouds had rolled in, and a steady drizzle fell from the sky, dousing the few fires that still smoldered. A smoky mist clung to the dead pocket of jungle, ghostly white and thick.
Off to the side, his mistress wandered around the site, a wounded expression on her face, as if the damage to the forest were a personal injury. She slowly circled a pole planted in the ground with a speared crea-ture impaled on it. It was one of the strange beasts that had attacked the other group. Louis had never seen anything of its ilk before. And from Tshui"s expression, neither had she. Tshui eyed the beast, c.o.c.king her head like a bird studying a worm.
Jacques stepped up behind Louis. "You have a radio call . . . on your coded frequency."
"Finally," he sighed.
Earlier, just before dawn, one of his two scouts had returned, badly frightened and wild-eyed. He had reported that his partner, a squat Colombian who went by the name of Toady, had been attacked by one of these beasts and died horribly. Malachim had barely made it back alive. Unfortunately, the man"s report of the other team"s whereabouts was thready at best. It seemed the Rangers" group, chased across a tributary stream, had fled these same beasts, and were now heading in a southwest-erly direction. But toward where?
Louis had a way of finding out. He accepted the radio from Jacques. It was a direct link to a tiny scrambled transmitter held by a member of the opposing team, a little mole planted under the Rangers"
noses at significant expense.
"Thank you, Jacques." Radio in hand, Louis stepped a few yards away. He had already had one previous call this morning, from his financiers, St. Savin Pharmaceuticals in France. It seemed some disease was spreading across the Amazon and the United States, something a.s.sociated with the dead man"s body. Stakes were now higher. Louis had argued to raise his own fee, on the grounds that hiswork was now more hazardous. St. Savin had accepted, as he knew they would. A cure to this disease would be worth billions to his employer. What were a few more francs tossed his way?
Louis lifted the radio. "Favre here:"
"Dr. Favre:" The relief was clear in the other"s voice. "Thank G.o.d, I reached you."
"I"ve been awaiting your call:" A bit of menace entered Louis"s tone. "I lost a good man last night because someone did not have the foresight to inform us of these venomous little toads:"
There was a long pause. "I . . . I"m sorry. In all the commotion, I could hardly sneak off and place a call.
In fact, this is the first chance I"ve had to slip away to the latrine alone:"
"Fine. So tell me about this commotion last night."
"It was horrible:" His spy blathered in his ear for the next three min-utes, giving Louis an overview of what happened. "If it wasn"t for Rand"s use of some powdered fish toxin, we would all have surely died:"
Louis"s fingers gripped the radio tighter at the mention of Rand"s name. The family name alone bristled the small hairs on his neck. "And where are you all now?"
"We"re still heading in a southwesterly direction, searching for Gerald Clark"s next marker."
"Very good:"
"But - "
"What is it?"
"I. . . I want out:"