Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [138]
The first rapidly fired half-dozen shots echoed across the clearing like so many dried and brittle branches snapping, and five out of six of her targets dropped like leather sacks of bone and meat. The one she’d missed had bobbed unpredictably, the shot skimming across the top of his head.
The other creatures froze where they were, uncertain as to what the rapid cracks of gunfire actually meant.
Becks took advantage of the moment of stillness and confusion and selected another six targets, all the larger males again. But this time the muzzle flash of her gun had attracted their attention and they began to bound towards her. She killed four and wounded another, before their short-lived charge faltered. They drew up a dozen yards away and fanned out, snapping and snarling.
Beyond them she could see the others, females and cubs being herded away from harm by a large male. She recognized it as the pack’s leader, a claw from one of its four digits missing on its left arm. It was holding one of their spears, waving it around and using it to prod and cajole the pack away into the darkness.
[Assessment: primary target]
The pack leader, the alpha male … logic and observation dictated that that particular creature was the one who’d been learning from them; the shrewd one, the clever one whose genes and unique acquired knowledge were going to pass onwards to its offspring. In only a few nanoseconds of silicon-based analysis, she realized that the one creature she had to be absolutely certain of killing was the one with the missing claw. She was striding forward like an automaton as she fired another rapid succession of single shots, killing half of the creatures bobbing and snarling in front of her; those still standing turned and fled. The noise and the muzzle flash were as startling to them as the sudden inexplicable death it seemed to deal out. The entire pack was in motion now, scattering like birds startled by a handclap. But her eyes remained on the back of the alpha male. She swung the assault rifle towards it, aimed and fired.
The shot spun the creature off its feet.
CHAPTER 75
2001, New York
Maddy looked over at Cartwright. He was with the two children and Sal, standing beside the half-raised shutter entrance, staring out at the jungle and eagerly waiting to see the spectacular sight of a new reality arriving from a distant past. Sal was doing a great job keeping them all over there, telling them all about time ripples and waves and her job as an observer.
‘You understand what you’ve got to do?’ she asked Liam quietly.
He nodded. ‘But are you sure it’s the right date?’
‘Well, I hope so. He said your fossilized message was discovered on that day. I presume he’s not lying. I’ve got the Glen Rose National Park entered in as the location. I’m sure he mentioned a river called the Paluxy River … so that’s what I’ve put in. And you’re looking for the two boys that found it.’
‘Boys? How old?’
‘I don’t know … You know, boys.’ She shrugged. ‘Boy age, I guess.’
Liam glanced furtively over her shoulder at the others. ‘Well, then, what do they look like?’
She ran her hand tiredly through her frizzy hair. ‘Jeez … How the hell am I supposed to know!’ she muttered irritably, then immediately felt guilty and angry with herself. She looked at Liam … his bloodshot eye, the streak of white hair … and felt like a snappy cow. ‘I’m sorry,’ she sighed. ‘I guess they’ll look all excited and very pleased with themselves. OK?’
She turned towards the desk. ‘Bob, are we ready for a portal?’
> Affirmative. There is sufficient charge for this displacement.
‘OK.’ She nodded. ‘All right.’ She looked at Liam’s face again, pale like the other two, but not as bad. No nosebleeds, no apparent nausea or any other apparent haemorrhaging. ‘You sure you’re OK to go, Liam?’
He nodded. ‘I’m fine, so I am. Tired, I could sleep for a year, but I’m all right.’
Why not go in his place, Maddy? Look at him … look at the damage