Nick Carter: The Terrible Ones

Once inside he flicked on his pencil flashlight and swung it around the hollow space. If at all possible they must remove all traces of human occupancy. The girl watched him.

“You don’t think you’ve chased them away for good, do you?” she said.

“No, I don’t. We’re leaving here. Get that cloth thing away from the entrance, and anything else you happen to have lying around.” He picked up his pack and her hat as he talked and, flashed the small light over the floor. It was hard soil and rock, and he could see no sign of prints. On a natural shelf in the cave he found a rucksack, a small battery lamp, and an even smaller flashlight. He put the last two into the rucksack and joined the girl at the entrance. She had the cloth down and she was rolling it up in a swift, fluid motion.

“You have any ideas about where we should go from here?” he murmured.

She nodded, and he realized suddenly that he could see her face. Outside the first light of the false dawn was beginning to rim the sky. They would have to get away from here in a hurry.

“We’ll go where I was going to take you later anyway,” she said. “Later, when we’d discussed how to move your men and made our plans.” Her voice sounded harsh and bitter, but completely unafraid. “There’s a village called Bambara where I have friends. They will give us shelter, if we get there. Also they have information for us, and there is something that I meant to show you after we had talked about it. That is one reason why I asked you to meet me here in Haiti.”

He was glad there was a reason. So far it was a mystery to him. “We’ll still talk about it,” he said evenly. “You’ve got plenty to explain. But let’s get away from this place first. I’ll take that.” He reached for the blackout cloth and took it from her to thrust it into his pack. The remaining piton-claws were stashed inside.

Nick raised his own clawed hand to show the girl.

“Do you want one?” he offered. “It may be more useful than your gun.”

She recoiled from him and almost spat her answer.

“No thank you!”

“All right, all right,” he said mildly. “Don’t shout. Here’s your hat.” He crammed it unceremoniously over her head. “Tell me where we’re heading so I can go first.”

“You can follow me,” she said crisply, and was out of the cave door in one swift, noiseless movement.

Nick fumed beneath his breath and followed, slinging both packs over his shoulders and padding out after her like a shadow.

She kept close to the cover of thick trees and bushes and glided on silently like some lithe and graceful cat. There was no hesitancy in her movements but Nick could see she was alert to all the pre-dawn sighs and sounds. Their route led downhill and through the outskirts of the grove of trees he’d traveled through before, then branched off to follow a singing stream that wandered erratically between thick clumps of flowering shrubs whose strong, sweet scent was almost sickening.

The noise of the brook was bothering Nick. Its splashy chuckle deadened the sound of their progress, true, but it would do the same for anyone else. He looked uneasily about him. His neck was prickling again. The dim light, fading again into the darkness before dawn, showed nothing but brook and tall trees and thick, unmoving foliage. But he was sure there was something. He slowed and looked over his shoulder. And he heard the low growl that rippled into a snarl and then became a chilling howl. It was not behind him. It was in front, and so was she…

He was already running when he heard her startled gasp and saw her slender body falling beneath the onslaught of the huge animal shape. His long legs carried him forward in swift leaps and bounds as she rolled over and hunched her shoulder against the snapping jaws. Still running, he swung his right foot forward in one mighty football kick that landed heavily against the beast’s rib cage and booted the snarling thing free of her body. There was a sound of tearing cloth but he could not stop to see the damage. He leapt over her sprawled figure and met the animal virtually in mid-flight. This time he would not miss— He brought the claws down brutally against the creature’s face and raked them over the eyes, digging in as deeply and viciously as he could. The dog screamed terribly and dropped. Nick kicked again so that its underside, its muscles jerking spasmodically, was vulnerable to his final thrust. He slashed the body from spiked collar to lower abdomen with all his strength and then stepped back, fighting down nausea and ready to strike again if the enormous mastiff still showed signs of life. That it had lasted this long was incredible. And appalling.

But it twitched convulsively and died before his eyes.

He breathed deeply and turned away, noting the small pool formed by the stones in the brook, realizing that the dog had come here to lick its wounds and die. He should never have let it out of the cave and in agony. But he had.

He turned toward the girl. She was on her feet and shaking visibly, and there was horror stamped across her face. Nick reached for her with his clawless left hand and gently took her arm.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked softly.

She shivered. “No,” she whispered. “He only — he only—”

She stopped, shuddering. Nick pulled her around so that he could see her shoulder. The jacket was ripped and there was a deep scratch on her upper back, but it was relatively minor.

“How horrible,” she murmured. “Horrible.”

Nick gave up his inspection of her back and swung her round to look her in the eyes. She was staring past him at the dog. It seemed to him that there was no fear in her, only pity and revulsion. “Why does it have to be like this?” she whispered.

It was no time to remind her that she’d been all for shooting down the whole patrol. Nick touched her cheek softly.

“Honey,” he murmured, “I hate it, too. But his name isn’t Paolo, and we have a job to do. Do we still keep following the stream?”

She shook her head. “We cross it soon and make a westward turn.”

“Good. Are we likely to run into any more patrols?”

Again the shake of the head. “No. We have passed the point where we should meet them.”

Nick nodded and turned away from her. With some difficulty he picked up the great, bloody shape of the dog and lugged it to the brook. He dropped it into the swiftly flowing waters beyond the quiet pool and went back to the girl.

“Let’s go,” he said. “And this time, let’s walk together.”

She nodded.

They walked on, listening for sounds of pursuit that never came.

It was an hour before they reached the little village of Bambara. The first cock crowed as they tapped on a window, and a pink glow tinged the mountaintop.

A door opened and they went in. Exclamations, greetings, offers of food which they declined, and then they were together in a barn smelling of sweet straw.

Nick reached for her almost reflexively. It was good to hold a woman in one’s arms after a long day.

She pushed him away roughly and crawled into the farthest corner of the straw.

“Stop that! If you were the posse of men I asked for I’d sleep with every one of them if I thought it would do any good. But you’re not, so leave me alone.”

“All right, Paolo,” he said drowsily. “It was only a thought.”

“The name is Paula”

“Prove it some time,” he murmured, and drifted into sleep.

Dr. Tsing-fu Shu shivered in spite of himself. He felt nothing, but contempt for native superstition, and yet the low throbbing of the drums made his flesh creep. Usually they did not begin until nightfall on Saturday, but today they had started before noon. He wondered why. Not with much interest, but he wondered. He was annoyed by their effect on him, and he was annoyed by his own complete lack of progress. Two full weeks in this stone labyrinth and his work crew had found nothing. It was most unfortunate that he had to operate with so few men and that they had to be so very cautious. But the Citadelle was one of the wonders of the world, and its very prominence as a tourist mecca presented great advantages. Inspiration alone would suggest it as the hiding place of either materials or men. Then, too, it was deserted at night, so that while great care must be exercised during the daylight hours there was no need for excessive caution at night.