Mega 3: When Giants Collide (Mega Series) Page 21

  “Oh,” the creature responded, “then let me help you with that.”

  Bokeem suddenly found himself weightless as he flew through the air. Then his weight came rushing back as he slammed into the wall and crumpled to the floor. He tried to stand and scramble away, but he collapsed back to the floor when he put his weight on his crushed hand.

  “You have hurt and scared my friend and colleague,” the creature said. “I do not take kindly to intruders on my island and I certainly don’t take kindly to violence. I am, by my nature, not a violent being.”

  The creature loomed over Bokeem.

  “Please,” Bokeem begged as he looked up at the creature, “please, I give up.”

  The creature bent down and took one of Bokeem’s wrists in each hand then slowly stretched out the merc’s arms to the side.

  “Give up?” the creature asked. “I don’t remember asking for, nor granting you the opportunity to surrender. You see, this is the problem with humans, you never see anything through. You are a species that gets easily distracted. Lord knows where our research would be if I left everything up to Boris there. That man cries squirrel more than a golden retriever.”

  “Well, that’s hardly fair, Ronald,” Boris pouted. “I just like to explore the tangents that our discoveries bring.”

  “Tangents,” the creature laughed. “If that’s what you want to call them.”

  Bokeem felt the tension in his shoulders and knew what was to come. He’d been a soldier of fortune for too long not to know what the creature intended to do.

  “Listen to me, please,” Bokeem said, “you can’t kill me. A signal has been sent and if I don’t activate my own corresponding signal, then this whole island will be swarmed down on by more men with guns, than you can even think of killing. You need me.”

  “Do you need your arms to activate the signal?” the creature asked.

  “Yes!” Bokeem cried. “Yes, I do!”

  “You are lying to me,” the creature sighed. “Another human trait I could go the rest of my life without dealing with.”

  He pulled hard and Bokeem’s arms tore from their sockets. Blood spurted left and right as the creature stepped back and admired his work.

  “I enjoyed doing that,” the creature said. “See? That’s the truth. I don’t lie and I don’t distract easily. These are traits of my species.”

  Bokeem whimpered as his life quickly drained from him. He stared at the creature then whispered.

  “What was that?” the creature asked as he bent down and put his ear to Bokeem’s mouth.

  “I wasn’t lying about the signal,” Bokeem said with his last breath. “You are all dead.”

  Then the life left his eyes and the creature stood up.

  “Do you think we are in danger?” Boris asked. “More danger than we’re already in?”

  “Apparently so,” the creature named Ronald replied, then looked up at the open ventilation shaft in the ceiling. Dr. Morganton stared down into the room, her eyes wide with shock and terror. “Oh, Doctor, sorry. I forgot you were up there.”

  She didn’t respond, just kept staring. Ronald looked down at the arms he held in each hand. He let them fall to the floor.

  “Oops,” Ronald laughed, “forgot I was holding those. Do you remember the shaft ten meters back that we had to climb down?”

  Dr. Morganton just kept staring.

  “Doctor? Hello? Dr. Morganton?” Ronald asked. He snapped his enormous fingers. “Doctor!”

  “Oh…,” was all Dr. Morganton said.

  “The shaft,” Ronald said slowly like he was talking to a small child. “Go back to the shaft and wait there. I’ll be right up and help you get down.”

  “Oh,” Dr. Morganton said.

  “I believe she’s in shock, Ronald,” Boris said. “Hardly unexpected.”

  “True,” Ronald nodded as he turned his attention back to Bokeem, “but it is annoying. Yet another weakness of your species. How homo sapiens ever became the dominate hominid on this planet I will never figure out.”

  “Our procreation rate,” Boris said. “We’re worse than bunnies.”

  “Yes, well, that is true,” Ronald sighed, “and to think what you could accomplish if you’d get that sex drive under control.”

  Boris just shrugged.

  Kinsey stirred and Ronald walked over and cut through her bonds with a flick of a claw.

  “Be careful when she comes to,” Ronald said as he went to the stairs. “She’s a trained killer and might go after you.”

  “Where are you going?” Boris asked.

  “I have to help Dr. Morganton then go find Ballantine,” Ronald said. “There’s no way he can carry the backup drives all on his own.”

  “Those men are with him,” Boris said.

  “Not for long,” Ronald smiled. “See you in a few minutes, friend.”

  ***

  The shark’s mouth opened wide and it was about to chomp into the B3’s hull when it felt excruciating pain in its tail. Its jaws clamped closed and it whipped its head about to find the source of the discomfort. For a brief second, it was honestly confused. Its mind had no way to comprehend the animal that had a hold of its tail.

  Its killer nature took over and it no longer cared about comprehending the thing. Instead, it only wanted to destroy what it believed to be its new and greatest enemy.

  A target. A true target. One that wouldn’t just float in the water and let it tear it apart. No, the new target was an active foe.

  The shark opened its mouth once again and twisted its body almost in half as it lunged at the attacker.

  ***

  “What the fuck did this shit do to my ship?” Cougher yelled in Carlos’s face. The two men stood in the middle of the engine room, only an inch apart. “I let you do this because you said it would protect us from whatever was coming.”

  “It will!” Carlos yelled.

  “Well, does this look like protection?” Cougher yelled as he pointed a wrench at the cooling engines then at the dimming emergency lights. “This looks like a serious fucking problem to me!”

  Darren and Gunnar raced into the engine room.

  “What happened?” Darren asked.

  “Tinker toy here fried my engines!” Cougher shouted. “He wrapped that metal shit over everything and now we are fucked! Look at the emergency lights! This shit is sucking the power from the battery banks!”

  “What is this?” Gunnar asked as he stepped next to a metal shrouded piece of equipment. “Is this some sort of shielding?”

  “Yes,” Carlos said, “it’s designed to absorb electromagnetic energy. We found deflection caused too many problems, so containment was the best option.”

  “Containment?” Darren asked. “Why the hell would we need to do that?”

  “Yes, well, that’s a question for Ballantine,” Carlos said, “not for me.”

  “Contain this, mother fucker,” Cougher said as he raised the wrench up over his head.

  “Whoa!” Darren yelled as he lunged at Cougher and grabbed the Chief Engineer’s arm before he could brain Carlos. “All friends here, Cougher!”

  “Not friends with him!” Cougher shouted as Darren shoved him away from Carlos. “Fuck this guy!”

  “Carlos, you have to be straight with us,” Gunnar said. “Why did Ballantine ask you to do this?”

  Carlos hesitated, but then slumped his shoulders and glared. “Because of the EMP coming.”

  “What EMP?’ Gunnar prodded. “Why would there be an EMP? Is it part of the plan? Is there a device on the island that sends out an EMP? What does Ballantine need an EMP for?”

  “He doesn’t need it,” Carlos said. “He just said it was coming. You know, when the nuke hits the island and goes off.”

  “Nuke?” Cougher and Darren asked at the same time.

  “Yeah, a nuke,” Carlos said then glared harder. “I am going to get my ass handed to me by Ballantine if I say anything more.”

  “What do you think we are
going to do to you?” Gunnar asked.

  “Whatever,” Carlos said, “but if Ballantine asks, you say you tortured me, got it?”

  “Not a problem,” Gunnar said. “You’re such a pussy that Ballantine will believe that easily.”

  “Nice,” Carlos sneered.

  “Tell us,” Darren ordered.

  “You know how we have been disowned by the US government?” Carlos asked.

  “Disavowed,” Darren corrected.

  “Yeah, that,” Carlos nodded. “Well, apparently they didn’t just disavow us. They also sent these folks after us. You know, the folks we’ve been fighting and took us hostage and all that good stuff.”

  “The US government is behind these merc fucks?” Darren growled.

  “Yeah, or some branch of it. Ballantine said it was all black cover stuff,” Carlos shrugged.

  “Black ops,” Darren said. “The CIA and NSA’s shadow organizations.”

  “Whatever,” Carlos replied, “not that it matters. Crazy assholes are crazy assholes no matter who they are.”

  “What does this have to do with a nuke?” Gunnar asked.

  “Ballantine believed there was a fail-safe in place,” Carlos said. “He’s pretty sure that we’ve been tracked to this island and if the mercenaries don’t report in, then an ICBM is going to be headed right for us.”

  “ICBM?” Darren gasped. “Mother fucker. That’ll wipe out the island and pretty much half the ocean around it.”

  “Yep,” Carlos nodded as he pointed at the metal. “That’s why I shielded all essential equipment. I just may not have calibrated it right. Instead of absorbing the energy from the EMP, it’s started absorbing the energy from the engines and battery banks.”

  Darren looked at all the metal.

  “How do we get it off?” he asked.

  “Get it off? Why?” Carlos asked. “If the EMP hits, then it’ll destroy every piece of electronic equipment on this ship.”

  Darren moved from Cougher and over to Carlos then tapped the tech on the forehead.

  “You need to look up in your weapon smith brain just exactly the kilotons worth of damage an ICBM does,” Darren said. “Then you need to tell us how to get this shit off so we can start up the engines and get the fuck away from this island as fast as possible.”

  “Oh, right,” Carlos said as his eyes went wide.

  “Did the calculations?” Darren asked.

  “We need to be at least forty miles from here,” Carlos said, “or we’re toast.”

  “Nuked toast,” Darren nodded.

  “Wait a fucking minute, D,” Gunnar said, “even if we get the engines up and running, we can’t just leave everyone on the island!”

  “I know,” Darren smiled. “So I guess we better go get them then.”

  Gunnar smiled back. “Yeah, I guess we better.”

  ***

  “Hey there,” Max said from the railing as Mike, Shane, Darby, and Lucy climbed up to him. “How’s it going?”

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Shane snapped. “You need to be resting!”

  “Oh, you know me,” Max said. “I rest better with a rifle in my hand and an eye on the danger.”

  The four teammates climbed up over the railing then turned and looked down into the water below. Except for Darby. She walked over to Max, grabbed him by the back of the head, kissed him hard then shoved him away and slapped his face even harder.

  “Ow,” Max smiled.

  “You’re an idiot,” Darby said. “Get below and rest.”

  “With you up here all vulnerable and shit?” Max smiled as he rubbed his cheek. “Not a chance, sugar ass.” Then Max noticed the others were busy studying the water and there was one person missing. “Uh, where’s Uncle Vinny?”

  “Still in the water,” Shane said. “He was by the gate.”

  “He has a few hundred tons of sea monsters between him and this ship,” Mike said.

  “Oh, that’s not good,” Max said.

  “What happened to the com?” Lucy asked. “We were trying to hail the elves forever, but they didn’t respond. Why didn’t they activate the pineapples?”

  “Power’s out,” Max said. “Engines are offline and the batteries are borked.”

  “How the hell did that happen?” Shane asked.

  “I can make a guess,” Darby frowned.

  “Carlos screwed up,” Ingrid said as she ran up to them waving her tablet. “I think I have a fix. I just need one of you to go back in that water so you can activate the pineapples. You’ll have to be about fifty feet out away from the ship for it to work, though.”

  “Back in the water?” Mike asked.

  “With those fucking things?” Shane asked.

  “Fifty feet? Fuck you,” Lucy said.

  “I’ll do it,” Max smiled. “I’m hopped up on painkillers and crap and could give a shit right now. I’ll totally do it.”

  “No, you won’t,” Shane said, “I’ll do it.”

  “Cool,” Ingrid said. “Let me show you how it works. You have to activate them individually, one by one, or the whole network will collapse. That means there is more room for error, but it should still work as expected.”

  “More room for error,” Shane frowned, “great.”

  Max pulled a joint from his pocket and lit it up. “Here. You’ll need to focus up.”

  Shane took the joint and drew deeply.

  “Uh, I think that’s going to increase the chance for error further,” Ingrid said.

  “All these long months and you still haven’t figured us out,” Shane said as he handed the joint back to Max and exhaled.

  “Yeah, get with the program, Ingrid Bobingrid,” Max said as he took a hit from the joint and looked at Shane. “I’m going in with you. I’ll cover your ass with a channel gun.”

  “No, you won’t,” Lucy said as she took the joint from him and smoked it down to a roach. “I’ll cover him. You sit up here and watch the island. If the bad guys come for the ship, then send Mike down to get us.”

  “No need,” Darren said as he stepped up on deck, fully geared out with Gunnar next to him. “We’re going to the bad guys.”

  “There’s the possibility of an ICBM coming to destroy the island,” Gunnar said, “so we sort of need to get on the road and get the fuck out of here.”

  Darby just shook her head. “I’ll go in the water. Max can stay up here and be my spotter.”

  “Don’t you want to come rescue the others?” Darren asked. “We could probably use your help.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Darby said. “Ballantine has it all under control like the ass always does. Kinsey is a survivor and the facility isn’t without its own protection.”

  “What does that mean?” Shane asked. “What protection?”

  “Ronald,” Darby said.

  “Who the fuck is Ronald?” Darren asked.

  “Bigfoot,” Darby said without any hint of irony.

  Everyone stared at her and didn’t move until Max pulled out another joint, lit that one, and passed it down the line. Even Ingrid had a hit that time. Darby rolled her eyes.

  “I’ll help get the Zodiac in the water,” she said as she walked off.

  “Dude,” Shane said to Max.

  “I know,” Max nodded. “Totally.”

  Chapter Nine- Race The Boom

  Thorne decided the best thing for him to do was to swim into the lagoon and away from the thrashing, gnashing giants of the sea. He had no idea what was in the lagoon, but he knew it was better than being anywhere near the teeth and blood of the battle that raged before him.

  He pumped his arms and legs with all his strength as he swam through the lagoon’s opening and into its main body. The water was so clear that if it wasn’t for the weight of his body he would have thought he was flying through open air. Open air that had a small coral reef below it and a multitude of bright colored fish swimming about.

  Thorne wondered how the massive whale survived in a space that was obviously too s
mall for its size. A creature like that needed the open ocean to live, not a glorified water cage that was the lagoon. Not to mention the amount of food it would need daily. There was no way the lagoon was its permanent home. Every instinct in Thorne’s body knew that much.

  Those questions and musings had to wait while Thorne focused on getting himself to the beach that he could see was about a quarter mile from his position. Unfortunately, he was so focused on getting to safety and up out of the water that he didn’t pay attention to the fight that had followed him.

  Thorne’s world became one of swirling water and clouds of bubbles as he was knocked aside by an errant tail swipe. As he rolled and tumbled through the crystal blue, he knew the attack hadn’t been directed at him, just that he hadn’t been watching his back as he should have. When he was finally able to slow and right himself, he stared in horror as two monsters of the deep locked in mortal combat blocked his way out of the lagoon.

  ***

  “Jesus Christ!” Shane said as the Zodiac bounced over the waves away from the B3 and around the island. As the sight of the lagoon was lost to him, he turned to look at the others in the raft. “Did you fucking see that?”

  “Yeah,” Lucy shouted over the sound of the Zodiac’s motor. “Was that the whale or the shark?”

  “Whale,” Darren said, a far off look in his eyes. “It breached.”

  “Going for the whale body slam,” Shane said. “Off the top rope, mother fuckers!”

  “More like trying to evade a bite,” Darren said.

  “You can keep your sciencey nerd speak for when you and Gunnar are geeking out over your fish friends,” Shane said. “Me? I prefer to think in terms of professional wrestling. It’s simpler that way.”

  “I know you’re smart, Shane,” Gunnar said, “but sometimes I have a hard time believing it.”

  “I’m a simple, complex person,” Shane said.

  “You’re an oxymoron,” Lucy said.

  “How have we ever beaten anything?” Mike wondered out loud, as he steered the Zodiac around the island and towards the dock in the front bay.

  “No dock,” Darren said as he pointed at the Monkey Balls crew that stood on the sand and milled about the dock. “We’re beaching it. Just run it up there and get ready to roll and fire, kids.”