The Copernicus Deception (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 15) Page 8

  Coop was sitting on one of the bunks, a sheet stuffed between his collar and the skin of his neck. From the pained look on his face, it wasn’t helping much.

  His mouth fell open at the sight of Adam, covered entirely in a coat of thick, dark blood.

  “It’s okay,” Adam said. “It’s not my blood.”

  Then he concentrated on Coop’s collar, able now to see the faint reading that was the locking mechanism. With a clunk, the thick, metal collar fell to the floor.

  “Is this the signal I was supposed to wait for?” Coop said with a weak smile. He was drained from nearly ten minutes of constant electric shock of varying strength.

  “I wanted to make sure you noticed.”

  Coop nodded. “Subtle, but effective. I take it you found Kaylor and Jym.”

  “They’re at the tree line, along with Riyad. He’s been shot.”

  As the pair ran from the barracks, Coop asked, “Is he okay?”

  “It was a level-2. Burns like hell and it will leave a scar, but he’ll be fine.”

  They reached the spot where Kaylor and Jym knelt near Riyad, who was sitting up now. The light drizzle had washed most of the dinosaur blood from Adam’s skin, although his clothes—what remained of them—were now stained a dark burgundy.

  Kaylor, Jym and Riyad didn’t seem to notice. They were too distracted by what was happening in the compound. Adam and Coop turned to look, too.

  Only a couple of the emergency lights now lit the area, but it were enough to show a bloody feeding frenzy taking place. Dinosaurs rushed about, scooping up running guards or writhing prisoners, while two other beasts were now munching on the dead T-Rex Adam had killed, ripping huge sections of tough, bloody flesh from the corpse. More creatures emerged from the jungle, many making a beeline for Adam’s fallen victim, attracted by the scent of warm blood.

  “Help Riyad. We have to get out of here,” Adam cried out.

  “Were to?” Kaylor asked.

  Chapter 13

  “Into the jungle—” He raised his hand to squelch the coming protest. “It looks like most of the jungle creatures are going to be preoccupied for a while. It’s our only chance. Now move!”

  Adam still had his trusty chainsaw, so he led the way. The glowing chain provided some light; Adam hoped it wasn’t enough to attract any of the dinosaurs. Kaylor and Coop helped Riyad, who was weak on his feet and grimacing with every step, especially when leaves or branches brushed across his angry wound. The mud helped, but now he ripped away a wet leaf from a passing plant and pressed it against the burn.

  Adam glanced back and saw a look of relief cross his friend’s face…moments before his eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open. He jerked away from his helpers and dove face first to the muddy jungle floor. Adam stopped.

  “What the hell?”

  Riyad rolled over, the entire front of his body now covered in mud. “There was something in that leaf. And I thought it hurt before!” The others helped him to his feet “It’s better now.”

  “Probably some kind of acid,” Adam said with a smile. “Let that be a lesson to you.”

  “Oh yeah…as if you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

  “I’ve had jungle training, smartass. And if I’m not mistaken, I don’t think they had a lot of jungles in Lebanon.”

  “Your training was something like a century ago,” Riyad countered.

  Adam resumed slicing through the jungle growth. A few minutes later, he stopped again. “You notice anything unusual?” he asked.

  “It’s getting thinner,” said Copernicus.

  “What’s getting thinner?” Kaylor asked.

  “The jungle,” Jym replied. He began to nod.

  “Why are you nodding?” Adam asked.

  “Just look,” said the tiny bear. “It is getting thinner, and it will only improve.”

  “How do you know that?” Coop asked.

  “It is because I come from a world similar to this. We also have aggressive forests. Don’t you see what’s happening?”

  Adam could now see several meters to the front and the sides. The jungle had indeed thinned out, and the muddy ground had given way to a cushy mat of moss and fallen leaves. A near-constant drizzle of rain fell from the canopy over a hundred meters above them.

  “What’s going on, Jym?” he commanded.

  “The jungle is like a huge, living organism. As it is attacked, it strives to repair the damage, even to defend itself, against such attack. As a result, the jungle becomes thicker near where it has been cut back. The more you cut, the more it fights back. Yet the further from the damage, the more natural the growth becomes, as we witness now.”

  They had stopped in a small clearing. Adam concentrated with his ATD and began to gather a small ball of negative ions from the atmosphere. They ignited to create a one-inch ball of light floating in the air above them.

  “What…is…that?” Coop asked.

  “It’s a static electricity ball,” Adam replied. “It’s harmless.”

  “Won’t it attract attention?”

  “It might. It might also scare off anything around here. This way we’ll be able to better see our way. And I still have the chainsaw.”

  “So where are we going, oh great leader?” Riyad groaned.

  Through the sparkling light, Adam looked around. It was clear where the jungle was the thickest; it was to their left. “The road is this way,” he said pointing. We’ll skirt along the thick growth. Eventually it will rise up in front of us when we reach the city. It took two hours of slow driving through inches of mud. We should be able to make good time on this mat, but we still have a four hour hike ahead of us, if not more. I’d really like to get back to Swiv before daybreak. Are you up for a brisk hike, Riyad?”

  “With this gravity, maybe we should jog. I’m feeling better, really I am.”

  “Kaylor, Jym, how are you holding up?”

  “Surprisingly well,” Kaylor said. “The gravity here is weaker than even we’re used to—is this how you feel all the time?”

  Adam smiled. “Okay, then a light jog it is. Remember to lean into your strides, otherwise you’ll just hop up and down in place. Coop, keep an eye on Riyad. He may not let on that he’s getting tired, until he collapses. I’d rather go a little slower than to have to carry his useless bag of bones.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “We’ll see. Now everyone form up on me. I’ll keep the light above and slightly ahead of us. Okay, let’s move out.”

  ********

  The limiting factor in their journey ended up being Jym. Although he could run faster in the light gravity of Visidor, he was still handicapped by the shortness of his legs. As it turned out, for the Humans they moved along at slightly more than the pace of a brisk walk.

  It was hard to tell time in the confines of the jungle, with no watch or even the stars to go by. After what seemed to be an hour’s march, they stopped to let Copernicus work his way through the thick bush to verify if there really was a road on the other side. He returned a few minutes later drenched to the bone from the water of the jungle.

  “It’s there, all right,” he confirmed. “And there’s a whole caravan of vehicles headed for the prison. Even if we had taken a vehicle, everything’s moving in only one direction, away from the city.”

  “Could you see anything that might tell us how much farther we have to go?”

  “I did notice that most of the trucks are relatively clean, not like the ones that made the full trip. I’d say we’re about half way there.”

  Everyone fell silent as they heard a low growl coming from the forest. Panicked eyes scanned the shadows.

  “I told you that light would attract something.”

  “There!” said Jym, pointing.

  It was a pair of red eyes staring at them from the jungle depths. They appeared to hover about two meters off the ground.

  Adam command the static ball to drop lower and close on the pair of beady eyes. The bea
st moved off to the left. Adam’s mind control matched the movements of the creature.

  The beast stopped, fascinated by the moving light. Adam sent a command to the crackling ball of light, and it shot off toward the set of red, unblinking eyes. With just a glimpse, the group saw a slick coat of shiny black fur before the beast spun and ran away.

  “Looked like a panther,” Riyad said. “A fayd.”

  “Yeah, a fayd about the size of an elephant.”

  “Luckily they scare easily.”

  “Let’s move on,” Adam said. “The next one may have bigger balls.”

  “I did not see any balls on the beast,” Jym said. “Are you referring to nodules of some kind?”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “You must have had a better view.”

  Adam shook his head. He brought the static electricity back to the clearing and then sent it out ahead. They resumed the journey.

  ********

  The end of their journey came in the form of a dark wall of thick foliage rising before them. The city had been maintaining its area of dominance for generations, so the thickness of the jungle here had taken on a permanence, a balance of sorts.

  Adam was sure the natives were aware of what they were doing. Unfortunately, they had little choice. Even without trimming, the jungle was too thick to settle. So they staked off their territory and dealt with the consequences.

  Adam set to work with the chainsaw, and after about fifteen minutes, he paused to listen to the sound of the huge, automated trimmers that ran along the perimeter of the city. They were close.

  He waited until the sound of the closest trimmer began to fade before he cut through the last layer.

  He and Coop crawled up to the clearing. The city lay about a kilometer beyond. To their left was the main road leading out of the city and to the prison. In the soft glow of morning, transports were still heading down the road, bringing assistance to the overrun prison.

  “You know, they may not realize we survived,” Coop said. “Why would they?”

  “So let’s get to the spaceport before they do,” Adam said. “I’ll disable one of those trucks going by. Most appear to be troop carriers.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “By the number of flash weapons they’re carrying.”

  “Your…thing…can tell you that?”

  Adam nodded.

  “Where can I get one of those?”

  “Sorry, they’re on backorder. It could be a while.”

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

  “Relax, Sergeant Smith. It’s beyond your paygrade.”

  “Fuc—”

  “Here comes a truck. There are two readings in the cab, six in the back. I’ll take the ones in the back, if you can handle the two in front.”

  “They have flash weapons.”

  “I’ll have them all disabled.”

  “Like you promised with my collar?”

  “This is different, trust me.”

  Coop opened his mouth to respond, but Adam was already up and sprinting toward the troop truck that had just coasted to a stop along the side of the road in front of them. He ran to the back of the truck, and without hesitation, flung open the rear door. Six, pudgy and hairy female Visidorans sat in the back, three on each side of the bed. They had MK’s around their waists and Xan-fi rifles in their laps. Adam couldn’t remember the last time he’d struck a female, alien or not. But when the natives identified him as a threat and began to lift their rifles, he reacted without a second thought.

  The first Visidoran he hit was the female at the end of the row on the right. He didn’t know much force it would take to incapacitate her, so he swung with all his might.

  He should have known better.

  The natives evolved on one of the lightest-gravity worlds he’d ever been on, and their bone density showed it. His fist ripped through the alien’s soft face spraying everyone behind her in a soup of brains, blood and bone. When he was through, only the curved back on the soldier’s head remained.

  It was like this for the other five. Adam swung his hands and arms wildly, even kicking out with a foot once. In a matter of seconds, the troops weren’t only dead, but they were barely recognizable piles of bloody flesh. And Adam didn’t look much better, splattered once again from head to toe with the innards of his latest victims.

  He peeked out the back of the truck to make sure no other traffic was coming, then jumped out and rushed to the front.

  The driver’s side door was open, and when Adam looked inside, he found Coop sitting in the middle of the bench seat, one alien crushed against the driving column, the other spattered against the passenger side door.

  “Any problem?” Adam asked.

  “Hardly,” Copernicus relied. “But what a…mess.”

  “Let’s get the bodies over to the forest, then get going. It’ll be light before we reach the spaceport.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Chapter 14

  Adam opened the back of the transport truck and Jym, Kaylor and Riyad climbed in.

  “Is this an eye?” Jym cried out.

  Adam looked at the gooey string he was holding up, with a bloody ball dangling at the end.

  “Looks like it. At least I hope it is. The alternative would be…well, nasty.”

  Jym dropped the offensive object and attempted to wipe his hand on the metal bench he was sitting on. It didn’t help; he just picked up more blood off the surface.

  Jym stood up. “I can’t sit back here. This will make me sick.”

  “It’s not any better up front,” Adam barked. “It’s either this, or you walk to the spaceport.”

  Reluctantly, the tiny bear sat back down.

  “How far to the spaceport?” Riyad queried. “I’m with Jym. I already feel sick enough without having to spend too much time in your playground.”

  “Shouldn’t be more than a half hour, maybe less, depending on how many lights we hit.”

  “Very funny,” Riyad said.

  Adam shut the door and rushed to the cab. Copernicus was in the driver’s seat.

  “Scoot over, sergeant; I do the driving around here.”

  “Bullshit. I was here first. Besides, I need you concentrating on whatever it is you concentrate on when doing your magic act.”

  He had a point. Adam ran to the passenger side.

  There were a number of smaller transports and trucks streaming past, and the volume had only grown over the past few minutes, as the first light of day began to fill the shadows. Coop merged with the traffic, just moments before a huge, wheeled trimmer rolled by the spot where they’d dumped the bodies. Soon the green mulch would take on a reddish hue.

  “We could cut through the city or go along the perimeter,” Copernicus said. “Can you get the local traffic report on your gizmo?”

  “No, but I can monitor the number of electric motors nearby. Doing that, it looks like our fastest route will be outside the city.”

  The truck ran on heavy tracks instead of wheels, and along the perimeter road they came in handy plowing through the watery mud that flowed from the jungle and crossed the highway at several points along the way. When they crossed these puddles, twin plumes of dark brown slush sprayed out behind the vehicle, something very few of the other transports were producing since they traveled at a much lower speed. Horns blasted behind them, as tailgaters were showered with blinding mud. Most of the trailing vehicles fell back to avoid these periodic baths. Others changed lanes and raced to the side of the truck to express their displeasure in more unambiguous ways.

  Adam didn’t let them get too vocal before he disabled their motors with his ATD. The stricken vehicles drifted to a halt on the highway, blocking traffic and allowing Copernicus to put some distance between them and the irate drivers.

  “You better slow down,” Adam said, “otherwise we could get pulled over. I’m sure they have some form of traffic control in a city this big.”

  Coo
p complied, and ten minutes later the spaceport came into view.

  Coop slowed down and merged with the parade of traffic entering the grounds. Most of the vehicles parked in one of two huge paved lots, saving them from having to traverse the overnight accumulation of mud farther out in the field. Large trucks towed massive rollers behind them, sweeping the field and soaking up some of the moisture, but it was still a losing battle. The field was already a mess and would remain so throughout most of the day.

  The tracks of Coop’s truck churned a path through the field and ground to a stop next to the Vivian. Doors flew open, and driver and passenger plopped already wet and muddy boots into another eight inches of sticky goo. They struggled to lift their feet from the mud’s sucking hold.

  Riyad poked his head around the back of the truck. “Is this some form of security goo, designed to keep us from moving?”

  “Seems like it,” Adam called back. “Kaylor!”

  The Belsonian came around the back, his lighter weight allowing him to move more easily across the field. “Yes, Adam?”

  “Where’s your ship? We didn’t see it when we landed, but there’re a lot of larger Juirean ships around here. I could have missed it.”

  “They left it in orbit, linked to the client’s ship with mag-lines.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “It had something to do with legal jurisdiction, from what I understand. When linked, the ships are considered to be one vessel. It gave the Visidorans the right to search our ship as well.”

  “Do you have anything aboard that could come back to bite you?”

  “You mean something living? No, nothing. That’s a very strange question to ask.”

  “So it’s in orbit—good.”

  Copernicus managed to reach his ship and dial in the code to open the outer hatch. “Leave your shoes in the entry chamber.”

  Riyad was the first to enter. “You’re kidding, right? Your ship is a piece of shit.”

  “It runs, doesn’t it? Besides, once the mud dries the dirt will get sucked into the ventilation system and screw up everything. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”