James Tabor - The Deep Zone

She understood that the ACE mutation, wherever it had come from, antigenic shift or enemy biowar, had given him exactly the opportunity he’d needed.

“What did you mean when you said ‘all of this could have been avoided’?”

For several seconds he hesitated. Then, finally: “Well, those men would still be alive, for one thing.”

“Would still be—did you have something to do with their deaths?”

He nodded absently. “Honestly, I didn’t know if I could do such things. But they turned out to be easier than I’d expected. I think it has something to do with the darkness, and being so isolated from everything else on earth. As you said back at the river camp, anything is possible in a cave like this.”

“How?”

“In the sump I waited around that sharp turn. When Haight came along, I smashed his faceplate with a rock. Arguello was easier. I pretended to be frozen with fear on that ledge above the acid lake. I reached out a hand and asked for help, and he responded like the good man he was. I just gave a little yank and off he went.”

“My God.”

“And as for your big friend…”

“Bowman?”

“I knew that when the two of you had finished… doing what you were doing… he would go to the river. He was far too proper a man to piss right there at the sleeping spots. There was so much noise from the river it was easy to follow him. I went right down to where he was. He said, ‘You too, eh?’ And I said, ‘Yes, me, too,’ and moved off as though finding a little privacy. One quick shove from behind was all it took.”

Hallie’s mind shuddered. For a moment, she could form no response. Then, her voice steady: “I’m alive, Al.”

He remained silent for a while, then said, “Do those ropes still hurt?”

“A lot.”

“Stand up and I’ll take them off. But please do remember the Taser.”

“I’ll never forget that thing.”

“All right. Stand up and don’t move.”

She struggled to her feet, saw him holding the Taser in his right hand. He came very close to her then, so close that she could feel his breath on her face.

“You understand that I could do anything I want with you now, don’t you?”

He stared into her eyes and she held his gaze, saying nothing. The moment stretched.

“You’re not that kind of man,” Hallie said.

Cahner inhaled, let out a long breath. “No,” he said. “I’m not.”

Then, in one swift motion, he bent over, wrapped his arms around Hallie’s thighs, and picked her up in a fireman’s carry. With her draped over his shoulder like a sack of grain, he walked forward. Bent over his back, she could not see where they were going. She managed to sink her teeth into his flesh and bite hard enough to make him yell in pain. He swung an elbow around and hit her in the face.

She was about to bite him again when he stopped.

He pitched her over the edge of the bottomless pit.

“I loved you, Hallie” were the last words she heard, and she could not tell if he was laughing or crying.

KATHAN AND STIKES WERE SITTING IN THE DARK. KATHAN had just come back from the hide. It was Stikes’s turn, but he had a question first.

“Hey. I been thinking. If all of them come out, what do we do with five bodies?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, too. What if we weighed them down with rocks and put them right here in this lake?” Kathan scratched the side of his face. Something, Stikes saw, some vicious bug or plant, was giving him a bad rash.

“They’re going to bloat and float sooner or later, though,” Stikes said. “Unless we do a lot of cutting. You know how messy that gets.”

“Okay. But I think burning is out of the question, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah. Slow, messy, leaves identifiable residue. Plus which, we don’t want to be advertising our presence here with a big barbecue.”

“I don’t like dismemberment much, either,” Kathan said. “Animals will take care of the meat, but there’ll be bones and that’s too many loose ends.” He frowned, considering. The details were always messy. People like Gray never worried about the details.

“Agree again. We could blow them up with grenades.”

“We have six, with the two we took off Dempsey. But way too much noise.”

“Yeah. What about dropping them into a pit somewhere?” Stikes so far had escaped the facial rash, but his groin had become a playground for bugs that were no less vicious for being invisible.

“Probably the easiest,” Kathan said. “But not if we have to haul them far. That big one’s gonna be heavy. Another thing: you know how long it takes a body to decompose. Really decompose.”

“For the bones, you’re talking years.”

“Centuries. Especially when you don’t have the usual insects and bacteria and such. Hey, maybe we could make them eat each other.”

It was hard to tell from the tone of his voice whether Kathan was making a joke. But they were having a serious discussion, so Stikes gave a serious answer. “Do you know how long that would take?”

“I’m just tossing out options here.”

“ You should eat something.” Stikes had been growing concerned.

“Not really hungry.” Kathan showed an eerie little smile.

“You go too long on that stuff without eating, it’ll drop you right in your tracks.”

Kathan snorted. “Not me, it won’t.”

“Suit yourself.” Stikes knew that Kathan had been taking micro-doses of the blue meth to keep his edge. Stikes stayed away from the stuff. He was eating his second chocolate and peanut butter bar, washing it down with the coca-laced water. They were sitting side by side with their backs against the rock face.

“I guess I’m leaning toward putting them in the lake here after all.” Kathan sounded resigned.

“It does seem like the best option, all things considered. Lot of cutting, though. Can’t have them floating back up.”

“Concur.”

“Suppose they find another way out of the cave?” Stikes asked.

“Then we’re screwed. But they won’t.”

“How can you say that for sure?”

“We were told there was only one way into this cave. That means there’s only one way out. Gray’s intel has never been bad before.”

“Yeah, but how would he really know? And what about those GPS coordinates?”

“There is that, you’re right. But it doesn’t change anything. What else can we do?”

“We could go in after them.”

“Knock yourself out, Stikes. You ever been in a cave? Like this, I mean.”

“No. You?”

“One time and one time only. Caves are very weird places, man. There’s no way I’m going in that thing.”

Stikes thought, If it was bad enough to make a man like Kathan afraid… It was hard for him to imagine anything that could frighten Kathan. But clearly a cave had. “Okay, I hear you,” he said.

Kathan, obviously wanting to change the subject, said, “Where do you think we should start first? With the blonde, I mean.” It was as though he had forgotten their earlier conversation about Hallie’s fate and Stikes’s plans to get out. Keyana’s image came to Stikes, as if conjured by Kathan’s words. She seemed to be frowning. Don’t you worry, girl , Stikes thought. Your man doesn’t do those things . “I hadn’t really thought about it,” he said indifferently.

“ I been thinking about it. But I worry about teeth, man. There was a girl in Kabul, if I hadn’t shot her, she’d have bit it off.”

Stikes forced a grin. “That must have been something to see.”

“She was clamped on me like a snapping turtle. I hurt for a month.”