David Golemon - Primeval

Jack watched Alexander trudge through the rain. Then he saw him turn and face him once more.

"Brainteaser, Jack. Remember our first mission together in 1989, our little foray into the Vancouver wilderness?"

Collins didn't say anything as the memory of that nighttime HALO drop into Canada back when he was a captain came back to him. The search for the prize was a wild goose chase, as the hundred other missions before that had been. That particular search had been on since October 1962, and now Jack finally realized that his worst fears were confirmed, and that Lynn's and her bosses at CIA had been on the right track all along, with only one of their theories about Alexander falling far short of the mark.

Punchy saw the concern spread across Jack's face. He laughed out loud and then turned away, slapping his thighs in laughter.

"Doesn't sound like he's speaking about gold, does it?" Lynn asked.

"The son of a bitch has found it, baby sister. You were right; I should have hit the alarm when you first broached Alexander's actions about the upper Stikine, I just didn't put it all together."

"What's he going to do with what he finds?" Lynn asked.

"If he's doing what I believe he's capable of, there could be a civil war brewing, and we're bound to be caught up in it."

"Jack, when we saw that Punchy had turned bad at the agency, we only thought he was involved in the separatist movement in Quebec. If it's not financing he wants, what in the hell is he here for?"

"Your boss at CIA should have let you in on something that used to be above your pay grade, baby sis. He's after Solar Flare."

Lynn knew the code name. She always thought it was a military myth, something that was used to make agents have sleepless nights during training.

"What does Alexander need you for?"

Collins knew that everyone being held by Alexander, Sagli, and Deonovich were now pawns in a game that Jack knew he couldn't win — at least until he knew the rules of that game. They would kill every one of them, and Collins knew there wasn't anything he could do but cooperate.

"The item he's looking for, the one the president, your boss and mine, only suspected he was after… well, he needs me to use the damnable thing. Jesus, that bomb is here somewhere."

"You and he were on a joint mission to recover it years ago? He knows you have something he needs."

"Yes, he needs me, but he doesn't need you, or them" — he nodded toward his friends—"anymore."

Lynn became silent as she thought about the trouble she had gotten her brother into just because she happened upon Alexander hacking NSA communications two years before. She shook her head in the pouring rain.

Jack leaned against Lynn and just took her in. He was happy she was alive and that was a good starting point.

"Hey, Jack?" Lynn asked through the pouring rain, and hoping to make the situation somewhat lighter.

"What?" he asked as the Russians arrived to take him back to Everett and the others.

"You have a girlfriend?"

Collins rolled his eyes as he was roughly lifted from the wet ground by the angry Spetsnaz and Jack looked down upon Lynn just as she looked up.

"Go back into your tent, at least you have one, brat!"

Marla and Sarah, with Jason limping along in the middle and being supported by the two women broke into the small clearing and saw the first of the four large Sikorsky helicopters. They ran toward the nearest one, stumbling and tripping until Jason literally bounced off one of the main landing gear and then rebounded to the ground out of breath.

"Now's not the time, Jason," Sarah said, out of breath herself, but pulling at Ryan nonetheless. Marla was looking around the clearing, not liking the absolute stillness of it as the far-off lightning illuminated the clearing and cast eerie shadows in all directions.

"We have to hurry, they're here," Marla said reaching up and pulling down the staircase.

That was all Ryan had to be reminded of as he pulled himself up and stumbled over to the folding steps. He crawled inside and then rose in the middle of the tight aisle, using the seats to help support him. Marla followed Sarah, and that was when she stopped and looked back out of the chopper, then she tried to exit the Sikorsky.

"The weapons, I dropped them by the door," she shouted back at Marla.

Marla continued to block her way.

"Leave them, the animals won't differentiate between us and the attackers anymore. They have their blood up."

"Jesus, are they animals or humans?" Sarah asked as she turned away angry.

"They're both," Marla said as she started to get frustrated. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "They fall back on instinct in violent situations. My father and grandfather have seen them tear a grizzly to pieces."

"Great," Sarah said as she gave up and turned toward the cockpit of the expensive helicopter.

Ryan had managed to squeeze himself into the pilot's left seat. He was studying the control panel when Sarah entered and pulled herself into the copilot's seat.

"Just like old times, huh?" Sarah asked just to take her mind off of grizzly bears getting torn to pieces.

Ryan looked over at McIntire and shook his head. "Attempting to fly a Blackhawk was easy. Look at this thing, it's an executive model Sikorsky that assumes the pilot's an expert. This is fucking nuts… I never have the time to study anything before some idiot asks me to fly it!"

Sarah understood where Ryan was coming from as she looked at the thousand gauges and switches that lined not only the front console but the overhead as well. Still, she was shocked when Ryan reached out and flipped two switches, which produced a loud whine.

"There, at least I got the preheaters online. Okay, we're in the red, turbines are coming up."

"Are you sure?" Sarah asked as everything on the main-control panel started flashing, blue, green, and red.

"No, for all I know I could have selected auto-destruct in that sequence of switches."

Sarah relaxed when she saw through the windscreen that the four bladed rotors slowly start to turn.

"Well, evidently you hit something!"

Marla squeezed between the pilots seats and pointed out of the window to the left.

"Look!"

When Ryan and Sarah both turned their attention on the tree line, they saw one of their Russian assailants break free at a dead run. He was waving his arms wildly trying to get the crew of the helicopter's attention. Then their eyes widened when something stopped just short of entering the clearing. The animal was huge and blended almost perfectly with its surroundings. They would never have seen it had they not been looking at the blank space behind the Russian at that precise moment.

"Should we let him in?" Sarah asked, unsnapping her seatbelt.

"No!" Marla said defiantly. "He may have been the one that shot my grandmother," she coldly said as she pushed Sarah back into her seat. "He may have injured one of the animals by shooting wildly; besides, he'll never make it. Look."

As they watched, another animal bolted from the trees to the man's left. Another streak of lightning brightened the clearing and Ryan and Sarah saw the legend for the first time.

The Russian commando saw the burst of motion from his peripheral vision and tried to veer away from the collision that was imminent, but he was far too slow. The massive beast struck the man and sent him flying, but before he could strike the ground, another of the massive creatures, moving at unbelievable speed, came from nowhere and struck the Spetsnaz again, pinwheeling him back into the sky. Then the one that they had seen standing at the tree line burst from cover and caught the man in its long and muscular arms, and angrily threw him toward the Sikorsky. The three occupants in the cockpit flinched when the man hit the slowly turning rotor blades and caromed off onto the ground.