Finn Recoiled from the godawful smell as he covered his mouth to keep from throwing up. He stepped back, as he let Muldoon step forward, and kneel down in front of the dead sheep. The man seemed stoic, turning the animal over with his bare hands as he disregarded the flies that seemed to be buzzing everywhere. Yeah, Finn was going to let the other man handle that for now. He looked around, taking deep breaths and trying to clear his mind. He paced a bit, watching the herd of sheep graze undisturbed by the loss of one of their own. It seemed that they had almost completely forgotten what had disturbed them that morning. It was disturbing in a way, he couldn't place his finger on it.
The rancher was standing in the background, anxiety and worry on his face. Well, Finn could sympathize, but in this situation he though that regrettably there was little he could do about it. As it was, they were lucky to have stumbled onto this situation at all really. Finn had scanned the newspapers for a long time; it was one of the ways he determined whether anomalies existed in the nearby vicinity. It was a small piece about a security job for an isolated ranchero, and his senses had perked for whatever reason. Answering the phone, he had been casual about it, asking if there were any risk factors for the job, what to look out for. But there had been one slip, the man had said it was about guarding the herd especially, but not the ranch itself.
The next phone call had been made to Muldoon. Since their last joint trip, he had many things to think about. First, someone else knew of these anomalies, and seemed to know more about them. Even had managed to capture one of them, although how the hell he had managed that, or what specimen it was, Finn had no explanation. But at Acapulco, they had gone back to where he had seen…. something. And then they had found something, although not quite what he had been expecting. Which was why he had called him again. Because in this search for anomalies, he had been doing it alone for a long time…and now he had someone who knew what the hell they were dealing with, knew it more then just out of a book.
He could see the car from here, he thought as he paced the ground. Muldoon was still studying the corpse for what seemed like the longest time. It was damn lucky that they had gotten here when they did, since when Muldoon had heard of the situation, he had insisted they travel there immediately. But then he saw that Muldoon was standing now, gesturing to Finn to look. "See on the side here?" He was pointing to several deep slashes on the side of the ram. It had been a fully mature ram, and there were slashes at least deep enough to have caused immediate death. It would have been traumatic, but the animal did not suffer. "It attacks its prey not like a lion, but rather hit it hard from the side. Sheep didn't even know what hit him most likely."
Finn nodded, faint memories of long ago appearing. "So it was one of the larger animals," he said, comprehending as he tried to narrow down the possibilities. Of the three he immediately thought of, he had to dismiss the first one almost immediately as impossible. The thing Muldoon had kept in his backyard…somehow he got the feeling it didn't kill like this. That left two things, and he thought about the feather he had in his pocket, thinking that was certainly likely. But then again…he remembered the sewers, the flash of something beyond all comprehension and rational thought and in his horror seeing only a fraction of what the true animal really was.
He turned to the rancher, ready to ask what it was, but the man seemed repulsed by the sight of the dead animal. Kept muttering something about 'Jaguar, Jaguar'. Well, might be, but even Finn knew that this slaughter was way too sloppy for a Jaguar to have made. Reminded him of something…and as he turned, he could see a similar look in Muldoon's eyes as well. He was remembering, almost as much as he was now. The rancher was almost panicked, and he realized he would get nothing out of him. "It's not a goddamn jaguar," he muttered to Muldoon as he looked at the wound marks. No. It was too obvious and he really was puzzled. What could have destroyed that lamb so easily?
He looked around, and saw that it really was not that much cover to try and hide in. There was an apparent copse of trees in the far distance but he didn't particularly want to try that. Too far, and they were too exposed as he thought again with a frown. "Can you figure out where it entered from at least?" He asked the other man, thinking at the least he could try and determine a trajectory of direction. They could get other valuable evidence, at least try and confirm something. But from what he had no idea. But Muldoon seemed to agree, as he began stepping back from the area, looking down to see if there was indeed something he had missed.
"There's a trackway here, it's really odd…" Muldoon was observing as he stared at the desert floor. He was frowning as he studied the path, trying to discern if there might be something he was missing. "Yes, there is faint sign here although its been covered up by the herd." He looked up, over at the gate and stared, as if he was intent. Blinking, he sighed as he walked over, and looked. "Ah come here boy," he said as he gestured over again. "You'll want to see this." Finn leaned over the fence, trying to see what it was. He could seesomething faint in the dust, like a disturbance, two evenly spaced markings…footprints? Oh yes they were footprints, just very faint indeed.
Finn felt his interest level increase exponentially as he examined them alongside Muldoon. He measured it with his hand, and found that it was slightly large enough for him to fit hish and in. That was interesting…It was like a birds almost, except too large for any bird that was around this place. He thought of the feather in his pocket, and then considered the fence. But then he could see that whatever had jumped had climbed… there were abrasions on part of the other side of the fence too. He frowned, as he and Muldoon jumped over the fence, looking up. There seemed to be a trail of some sort, and it led out into the back country. Not towards the grove of trees, no but out to a ditch where there were brambles and thorns.
Well that made sense, he thought as he looked down at the ditch, shaking his head. "These things don't make it easy to follow," he said giving a short and humorless laugh. Actually he was peeved off if anything, but didn't show this in his face right now. But before he could say anything, Muldoon was already climbing down, even though it was relatively shallow as compared to some others. Finn declined the chance to go down there, figuring he would rather walk from above, see where exactly they were going. From where he could see though, the Ditch led out for a while, off into the distance .It seemed more of a natural ditch that had been expanded by people then anything else to be quite honest.
But Muldoon seemed quite intent, almost like a bloodhound who had just isolated a scent. Actually if there was anyone going to find anything in this crap it would most likely be Muldoon. He thought that was what was most likely going to happen after all, since he was supposed to be a hunter. At the least when he had looked him up, Finn had found that Muldoon had quite the reputation about him, he was known not only for being a hunter, but also one of the best trackers in Kenya. So if there was anything in there to find, he was sure that Muldoon would dig it up somehow or someway. If it was there to find at all, he realized with a sigh. After all, the brush was pretty thick down there.
However Muldoon was still at it and begrudgingly, Finn had to give the man credit. He just didn't give up, no matter how hopeless it seemed to be able to find anything. Finn would have gone home satisfied with the photograph documentation of the footprint.., but it seemed Muldoon was after something more even as he walked. They were still nowhere close to brush or cover; very much out in the open and so Finn had to wonder just how far Muldoon really wanted to go here. Was he looking for another footprint or something? He had no clue but he didn't wish to disrupt him given that he seemed to have this level of concentration. But then Muldoon was pulling at something in the brush, and he turned to look and see what it was.
Hell, it was open country anyway so he jumped in the ditch beside Muldoon, wanting to see what it was. Muldoon was standing beside him, pointing to something. Finn blinked as the shrub got pushed to the side, not understanding for a second what he was looking at. Then he did, stepping back in shock and surprise. well the last location had given him some sense of what to look for, but right here it was more out of the blue then anything. He was looking at some crushed white remnants of something, the larger pieces curving and vaguely ovoid. Frowning, he picked some up, turning it over in his hands as he inspected it. "This is what I think it is?" He asked, and looked up to see Muldoon nodding. He took his satchel out from his shoulder, and gingerly placed the egg fragment in it. Crappy storage but at least it would serve as some sort of evidence.
They would have to come up with some bullshit reason to give it to a specialist though, but right now he was liking what he was seeing. This was something that had potential, very much so to be something of a greater find then before at least for him. Potentially even larger then seeing live animals back in Acapulco, but that was small stuff in comparison to this. He had physical evidence of the bigger anamolies now, something that couldn't be shaken off as a deformed lized unlike many of the smaller bogies. "Wonder what crushed the eggs," he said partly to himself, as expected his question was met withonly a grunt as Muldoon continued to search the area. He was careful though in his search, not tearing indiscriminately, but instead making room for evidence to possibly be found.
"There," he said again as he succeeded in tearing apart the brush that was right behind the crushed shells. It revealed more, showing the outlines of a nest and some more shells. Finn looked them over, trying to find pieces large enough to fit in his evidence bag. As he did so, he got out his map, and marked this spot with a red X so that he would be able to relocate it again if there were ever another report of an anomaly. But it didn't seem like there might be… "The eggs were crushed recently," Muldoon was saying as he studied the dirt around the nest. "The sign can't be more then a day old, I would say a day and a half at most." He was frowning as he continued to search, as if he knew what that might mean.
"So whatever it is might still be in the area?" Finn looked around again but still saw nothing, The area around them might as well continue to be the desert it appeared to any casual observer. "Goddamit, it seems so close and yet so far." He groaned as he took out his map and pen. This was a ways from Acapulco, but he thought it deserved mention all the same on his listings. If he could only get more of a sense from this maybe… He looked up and saw Muldoon frowning as he scanned the area too, then looking down again. Was there something they were missing? Because right now, the only tracks they could see were still obscured and hard to make out in this underbrush. But there seemed to be a disturbance as he made his way through the thick brush. Some thing that was surely coming from the opposite direction as the tracks.
Finn got down on his knees, tracing the outline of the path from the resort to here on his knee. It seemed that the geography of the surrounding area seemed odd, somehow intriguing. He was about to say something when Muldoon kicked at a slight overhang in the dirt, and it sent some rocks rumbling down. There was something that had been wedged in the rock he could see that now, and then it fluttered down to the ground. Muldoon held it up within his fingers. The blue feather shone in the daylight, as he twirled it up on his fingers. As he did so, Finn put the map to the side, digging into his pocket looking for something really fast. It was the feather from Acapulco, the same one that they had taken from the log there. He held it up against the other, and found that for the most part they seemed to match.
"Jackpot," Finn said as he considered the implications. But the markings on the sheep… they had not been anything like a bird, and Muldoon had seemed to almost recognized them. But whatever it was, he looked at where it was found. There was a disturbance in the slope, but that was on the opposite side, and where the feather had been found, that was whatever it was reorienting itself. But this was big; he knew that. Evidence of two larger anomalies in the same space? This was possibly around something, and about something that was larger then he had anticipated. He had thought that before, but the trail of things…led him to believe that he had somewhere to go at long last.
"Well, I think we have a lead," he said as Muldoon stood up. He put the rest of the eggshell pieces into his satchel, figuring that the evidence was solidified for now. At least he thought they had enough of a lead to get something worked out or so he was thinking. Both of the men began to climb up the slope again, dusting themselves off as they got up on the main floor of the area. "Think we can put a lead on the thing for now. I think we know where we need to go next." He said, taking his map out. "It's closer then you think…" he trailed off as he looked around, seeing beyond the grove of the trees for the first time. There seemed to be a row of low hills in the distance… he thought he could almost see them from where he was.
Muldoon stared off into the distance as if in thought. Or maybe it was contemplation. "All right," he said, as if he was thinking about things harder. "Just lead the way and I'll follow…" He said, looking at Finn with an amused look in his eyes. Almost as if there was something only just now coming into his sights that he had not thought of before. "Well, if it is, might we just need to take another look around then?" He asked, gesturing to the car. Finn nodded, thinking there was something else he was trying to figure out. The piece was putting itself down into its last slot, even as they walked back to the car together.
He took out his map as Muldoon leaned over to see. The rancher was still looking bewildered in the distance, especially when they had apparently done nothing to resolve his situation. But that was only because they had figured that there was something that was larger. "Right now we got evidence of two anomalies in one place," he said. "But they are not staying in one place…" He saw Muldoon's interested look as he looked out at the ranch. "Migration," Thomas Finn said as he came to his conclusion. "The animals began at an origination point somewhere down here in Costa Rica," he said pointing as he remembered. "But they seemed to have in general followed a path that can easily be traced."
He could see it down in his map, the little red dots that he had marked in the map. It made a sort of line, generally following an organized track with the exception of some small deviations that he had seen now and again in his travels. He couldn't explain these, but right now he thought he had some idea or solution. "Something is luring them all to some focal point, some central position. Now I have no idea how the hell or what it is. A food source, some natural instinct. Hell the way I can figure it out it's a one-way journey for now. But whatever the source, it's close and I can smell it."
Muldoon laughed, and started the car. "Well, seems like we need to pay the final destination a little visit."