Jon Reskind - Caesar conquers book III

"Damnit, Jean!" Carol gasped. "I just can't go off and leave you up here like this! Please… try to realize that he's a very capable animal, and that he's stayed alive this long! We've done our best…!"

"No, I said! I'm not going back down, Carol!" Jean distraughtly exclaimed. "I've got to find him! I'd never be able to live with myself if I didn't try to stop the killing of one of my lovers by another! How could I? Here, take the water! I'm going on…!"

"Wait!" Carol called after her when the voluptuous pony-tailed blonde had taken a half-dozen steps.

"Well…?" Jean replied, turning to face her friend.

"Well…? Well, shit! I'm going with you! What do you think…?"

Mark's posse, with both him and Link Morgan riding lead horses, ascended into the hills at a pace-sparing rate, designed to save the animals until something concrete gave them a sign. The hours beneath the hot, California sun passed slowly, but by late afternoon they were well into the depths where Mark began to feel they would find something. After a rest period in which they ate and drank lightly, they progressed toward a thick wooded and brush-filled area, finding their first indications.

The remains of a recently killed sheep were scattered about, along with the obvious stool of dogs, sufficient to advise both Mark and Link Morgan that the wild-pack had been there not too many hours before.

"What do you think, Link?" the young deputy questioned the older and more experienced hunter.

"Well… after this, my guess would be they'd head for water," the big man said. "Probably off to the south toward Wiley's Stream. That's the nearest," he added, hoping the other wouldn't see through his lie.

"How about the pond?" Mark asked, nodding his head eastward in the general direction of a spring-fed, small body of water he was familiar with. "Red-Heart mountain is there, too, and honeycombed with caves… perfect lairs for them to avoid the elements, like that storm that's coming up."

"No… I don't think so," Morgan replied without looking at him. "This sonofabitch is too smart to pick the obvious. Besides, we scoured that area last night…"

"Maybe," Mark said, looking off toward the sky-rising hill called Red-Heart, his own intellects drawing him in that direction. "But I still think that's where he… they, might hole-up. It's a perfect terrain for that uncanny brute to ferret out…"

"I don't know, Mark," Frank Clifford put in. "I don't want to interfere, but Link's got a good point. Besides, if the posse last night covered that area, no use of backtracking."

His timely butting-in was all Link needed. Trying not to show it, he leaped onto the opening. "Well… the deputy's got a point, too. We covered that ground at night… could be more productive in daylight."

"So…? What you got in mind, Link?" Frank Clifford asked.

"An idea… that maybe we should split up. There's twenty-two of us all together… more than enough divided to take care of that fucking horde should either group come across them," the scheming police chief said, knowing that he'd have to somehow slip away from his group to do what he intended. But that wouldn't be too difficult, and he knew these hills like the back of his hand. He could find Blakely's posse with little effort, then, completely destroy the broken-down rifle he had carried in his saddlebag purposely for the job… after it was done!

"I don't know," Mark started, somehow uneasy with the idea of splitting the men. But several more came forward in agreement, finally persuading him. "Well… all right, if all of you think it's best," he said, glancing toward Steve who was constantly making notes. "Chief Morgan will head one group, and I'll handle the other. We'll plan to meet at Razor Ridge. Whichever group gets there first, waits for the other. Should any of us hear a lot of shooting, we'll know the others have discovered the pack. Okay?"

A conglomeration of agreements filled the mountain air. Then, Mark added: "Should either party come onto them, I insist there be no brutality, understand? Kill them quick and clean!"

"Right!" Frank Clifford and several others chimed in.

"Okay," Mark said. "Let's decide who's riding with whom…?"

Caesar's vantage point was such that he could witness the two groups of horse-carried, male humans moving in separate directions, as well as his golden-one and the fiery-eyed female stumbling through the ravine below him. Only the huge barrier of rocks divided the party of males from the pair of females he had thought were his friends! Now, his keen animal brain sought other answers! By chance alone had he, through intuitive instinct, become aware of the mass human presence and moved above them to investigate! What he saw slowly enraged him! They had deeply penetrated his domain, with both the golden-one's male-human and the brute-man heading them! But more hurting than all else was the apparent fact that his loving, human-mate and the fiery-eyed one had somehow brought them there!

For a long moment, the great and powerful animal stood picturesquely outlined against the skyline, his tongue licking out characteristically; then, a deep whimper emitted from his broad chest. He had been betrayed! How, he was not yet certain, but retribution for such traitorism he was inherently steeped in! The handsome, massive animal whimpered inside himself once more before he backed off, turned, then leaped away as silently as he'd appeared!

A sudden rumble of deep, distant thunder sent a curdling chill up Carol Foster's spine. From behind, she called to the girl only yards in front of her and said: "It's a storm, Jean! Let's find someplace to get out of it!"

The young blonde wife paused to look back, almost as if just remembering at that moment that Carol was with her. "We'll start climbing right here," she said. "There's an overhanging ledge up there; it'll shelter us. Anyway, it's just a little thunderstorm…"

"We should have turned back!" Carol said, reaching her and grasping onto the other's arms. "This is crazy, Jean…!"

"Oh… ooohhh, Carol, I'm sorry!" the blonde girl exclaimed. "I told you to go back…!"

"Damnit, I'm not about to go anywhere without you!"

"Are you afraid?"

"Well, it's getting dark enough to be… and that storm's almost on top of us, girl, if you haven't seen it!" Carol half-whimpered. "I-I mean if… if we only knew where we were going…!"

Jean started to console her friend, but she never had to. The sudden appearance of a horse carrying the huge frame of Link Morgan whipped her breath away. For a moment, she stood as frozen, then undeniably welcomed the sight of the big chief of police.

"Look!" she said, pointing. "It's Chief Morgan!"

Carol did, not in the least disappointed with his unexpected appearance, though she could think of others that might be more pleasing! "Oh Goddd…!" she sighed.

"What the hell you girls trying to do, kill yourselves?" Morgan blurted. Apprehensively, he looked up at the clouded skies. "In seconds, there'll be a downpour that'll send flash-floods all through these gullies! Come on!" he ordered, swinging down from his mount. "Let's climb!"

Struggling on hands and knees into the mouth of a cave, Jean couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the horse Link Morgan had abandoned below! She turned to help Carol behind her, and then the big frame of Link Morgan who moved into the cave opening with surprising agility. She hardly noticed the faint smirk curling the lips of the police chief as she looked down to see the saddled animal standing fast…

Morgan read the concern on her face, his smirk broadening. The horse was in no danger, he knew, getting to his feet and setting his rifle against the wall of rock. There'd be no flash-flood… probably no more than a few drops of rain, but it'd been the perfect gimmick to scare them up into the cave!