David Golemon - Primeval

Jack had talked nonstop for the past hour, sharing something with Everett. Will wondered what it could be that made the captain sit as still as he had while he listened, being as the colonel had placed the Frenchman and Alexander as far away as possible in the boat so he could talk to the captain. Doc Ellenshaw was constantly writing in an open journal, looking up from his words for a minute of reflection, then delving back into his writing.

As they approached a large bend in the Stikine, Will turned and saw that Collins had changed his position and had come up to the bow without him noticing.

"Colonel," Will said as he lowered the binoculars, and then turned over from where he had been laying against the tall rubber and plywood bow, "you shouldn't sneak up on me like that."

"Getting spooked in your old age, Lieutenant?" Jack said as he slid down beside his security officer.

Mendenhall looked around at the passing scenery of the Stikine and its surrounding woods. The sun was now so low as to set the trees and even the water on fire with its bright orange illusion. The sun was dying and Will could see hope doing the same in Jack's face; this would be a long night of waiting on shore instead of going ahead upriver.

"To tell you the truth, Colonel, I've never been big on camping." Will looked back at Jack with an embarrassing smile that started and then failed to materialize. "I don't know, I guess it's become more acute since we left the fishing camp, but I swear for the past fifty miles…"

Collins watched Will as he failed to say what he was thinking. He glanced back as he felt the eyes of Farbeaux on him from behind. Henri raised his brows, smiling. It was if he knew Will was distressed about his surroundings and wanted to let Jack know that he knew. Collins gave him no indication that he cared one way or another as he turned back to the young black lieutenant.

"It's not like you to not finish a thought, Will, so give: What's on your mind?"

"We're being watched, Colonel," Mendenhall said as he again attempted the smile, and then shook his head at his failure. He turned back to face the front of the boat and the river beyond.

"We just may have something watching us, although I believe we won't run into our Russian friends for another fifty or so miles."

"It's not that," Will said without turning back to face Jack. "It's more instinctual — like walking down a street in Compton, just knowing that there is someone lying in wait for you around the next corner."

"Are images and memories of growing up in L.A. coming back to spook you?"

"No, that I could deal with, now as then. This is something else, like a memory, a very old memory or something. A thing from the past; hell, I don't know what I'm trying to say."

"What you're feeling is the state of loneliness in this part of the world," Collins said as he relaxed and lay against the large rubber wall of the Zodiac, placing the blue, seventy-year-old baseball cap that the old woman had given him before they left at a lazy angle covering his eyes. "I don't know if men… people like you and me that is… were ever meant to be here. Hell, maybe no one was ever meant to be in a place like this." Jack lifted the old Brooklyn ball cap and looked squinty eyed at Will. "And, Lieutenant, in the wilderness there is always something out there."

"Yes, sir," Will said, but was not satisfied as he turned back and looked into the dark woods that slid by the large boat as it moved upriver.

As the boat with its six-man crew moved along the river, the sun began to set and the woods surrounding them began to come alive with the animals that used darkness to hunt. As Mendenhall nervously glanced behind him, he saw Punchy Alexander watching the left side with all the determination of a man truly seeking out the bad things that could harm them. Farbeaux, on the other hand, was looking right at Will, his smile still there. Henri then winked at him. It was if the Frenchman were conveying once more that he had a secret that only he knew. Will figured it was only Henri being the total ass that he was.

Mendenhall finally relaxed when Carl turned the Zodiac in toward shore. All eyes except for the colonel watched as a small clear area presented itself, and the roving band of rescuers had a spot in which to wait anxiously for the rising sun that would signal them another day closer to finding Jack's sister — one way or the other.

The tent that had been set aside for half of the camp to eat in was still crowded as Lynn was given a plastic plate, and then watched as something resembling beets and a mystery meat was plopped into it. She was given a plastic fork but no knife. She turned away from the surly brute with the filthy apron and looked about the tent. She saw several places she could have sit down to eat, but decided that she would forgo the splendid company of men that grumbled and shoveled food down their throats and move to the outdoors. She chose a place by the small fire about halfway between the tents and river. The sun was now but a memory as the last of it dipped below the tree line to the west, signaling the true beginning of night.

As she sat down on a large rock worn smooth over a millennium worth of river water running over it, she saw that the guard had been set around the camp for the first of many shifts. They didn't care about her as she watched most of them as they in turn watched the surrounding woods. They were still on edge after the demonstration of noise had ceased about an hour before. The beating of wood on wood had set everyone's nerves on edge and the men didn't mind the reassuring feel of the large caliber weapons each of them held as they watched the darkness envelop the camp.

As Lynn nervously tasted the concoction of red sugar beets and beef, she saw Sagli and the freshly washed and cleaned Deonovich as they stood at the river's edge. They were talking with one of the technicians from the tent that held the lab and mechanical equipment she had seen earlier. Sagli seemed to be doing most of the talking. The ponytailed Russian was gesturing at the far shore of the Stikine, indicating with his hand certain areas she could not see from her place at the fire. She made a face when the beets and meat touched her tongue and then she placed the plate beside her and watched the animated exchange.

Sagli turned and saw her twenty yards away, and then pointed at the smaller Russian technician and then at Deonovich. Both of them turned abruptly and started for the tent brimming with electronic equipment. She noticed that both of the men had shoulder holsters as they passed by her. Deonovich glared at the small American woman and then growled something she couldn't understand as he eventually disappeared into the tent followed by the smaller man.

"We have possibly located something across the river by electronic means."

Lynn turned as the sound of Sagli's voice surprised her. He was standing by the fire looking down at her, but not really looking at her at all. The man was a thinker, and that was when she realized that all of her field reports were not quite telling her the truth; Sagli didn't really have a true partner in Deonovich, he was the man in charge and the other was just his lackey. To her, that could mean some sort of an advantage she could utilize down the road — but how? She didn't know just yet.

"Then why don't you wade across the river and get what you came for?" she asked, watching the man for his reaction.

When he didn't answer, she knew she had touched a nerve, one that he was trying to hide from her, for what reason she didn't know. Instead of answering the American's enquiry, he lowered his hands from the warming fire and then faced her.

"These woods," he said, gesturing around him to the dark tree line and even the flowing river, "what do you know of their history?"