A large part of the Slayers, with the notable exception of the two Tun-Si who stood a little behind, lined up and while he recited a prayer in Latin, Sherman passed in front of each of them and blessed their weapons.
Once the prayer was done, the leader of the Slayers nodded to the pilot of their helicopter.
The latter nodded back and the aircraft took off with two teams of mercenaries on board just as planned.
It flew east, in order to fly over the area between the paddock and the mountain before dropping off one of the teams on its western slopes
The ash fall began to intensify at that moment and as a result, all those who were outside started to wear scarves, mufflers or disposable dust masks to prevent the volcanic ash' fines particles from entering into their lungs.
The outer grating of the lock was raised first, letting Grady in and he headed to the inner grating, behind which the achillobators were looking at him with great interest.
The keeper was holding in his right hand the Indominus' piece of flesh and as he moved closer to his raptors, he stretched out his arm towards the bars, allowing them to sniff the flesh and once they picked up her scent in the air, they started to get excited.
As they huddled against the grating, feeling a great need to get out of the paddock to follow the scent, Grady walked backwards, without removing his eyes from the raptors, and once he stepped out of the lock, he walked along the paddock' walls and joined the others by the vehicles, parked in the area between the paddock and the closest trees.
Everyone in the camp had been told to go there so that when the achillobators would come out of their paddock, no one would be on their path or in their field of vision, which would have triggered an unwanted and dangerous reaction from the animals and endangered the whole mission.
Grady straddled his Triumph, put his rifle over his shoulder, lifted his scarf up to his nostrils, and looked at Sembène, who sat on his motorcycle, and the rest of the hunting party, which stood next to the BAE Caiman and the buggys.
Behind, Hoskins, the group of mercenaries tasked with guarding the camp, the few keepers still there as well as Dearing and Leon in their jeep were waiting.
They told him that they were ready with a nod and they all climbed in their respective vehicles, ready to leave.
Finally, the opening' process of the inner grating was activated and before it was fully raised, the achillobators rushed forward all the same time, crossed the lock and then the camp, running without stopping, not even looking at the equipment there.
Just as they were about to disappear into the jungle, Grady started his motorcycle and left first, followed a few seconds later by Sembène and the troops.
Following the achillobators, they also faded in the jungle, letting those who remained at the camp return to the tent in order to watch on one of the laptops' screen the footage of the raptors' and the vehicles' cameras.
X
Following the achillobators' trajectory thanks to the smartwatch at his wrist, Grady slalomed in the middle of the vegetation, avoiding if possible the bushes' and shrubs' foliage in order to keep a clear view and to not have his face being whipped by leaves and twigs.
Noting that the raptors were distancing him, he accelerated to catch up, leaving the rest of the hunting party behind.
He disappeared from their sight, and when he looked at his smartwach a little further, he realized that he had gone so far that he had passed the achillobators.
According to the screen, they were a hundred meters behind him and before he could even get off their way, they emerged from the bushes behind him and arrived at his level.
He ended up between Blue and Charlie. They passed so close to him that they could easily have grabbed his head between their jaws just by extending their neck sideways and within the blink of an eye.
While they moved at the same speed, Blue looked curiously at her keeper before looking straight ahead.
They were so focused on tracking down the Indominus that they paid little to no attention to him.
The feeling he felt at that moment was strange: On one hand, he wasn't comfortable due to the potential danger of the situation, but on the other, riding with his raptors, almost as equals, had a very thrilling side and he even wished that his moment could continue like this.
However, he preferred to remain cautious and slowed down, letting them distance him.
Sembène, who had observed the scene with a wary eye, accelerated and caught up with his colleague.
A little further, he glanced at his smartwatch and noticed that the achillobators' speed was decreasing.
"They're slowing down!" He shouted to Grady.
Grady put his mouth closer to the microphone that hung at the collar of his T-Shirt:
"We're getting closer!" He informed the troops.
Finally, after driving nearly two kilometres from the paddock, the terrain began to get too rugged and the trees too close from each other, preventing vehicles to go further, even motorcycles.
The two keepers stopped, parked their motorcycles under a thicket, took their rifles and went to wait for the arrival of the troops at the rendezvous point they had defined with Sherman, located just next to a dry river bed.
When they arrived, the Slayers and the mercenaries went out of the vehicles weapons in hand and began deploying while Sherman communicated their status on the radio and asked about those of the teams that had left with the helicopter.
One of the teams that was transported in the ground vehicles left almost immediately, going eastward, while the other two, the Slayers and the keepers formed a single group.
The Slayers lowered their mask-like visors and put night vision goggles in front of their eyes.
Grady and Sembène were given theirs and after they put them on, they saw the world in different shades of green.
The formed company set out, following at a good distance and as cautiously as possible the achillobators.
X
The end of the trail being close, they had stopped running and were walking silently in a single line, with Blue ahead. She was holding her head upright and looking forward while her nostrils sniffed the air frequently.
They moved towards a rather steep slope and as they passed by an almost-complete skeleton of a Giraffatitan near its base, a few bats flew over them.
Blue, Delta and Echo, focused on the Indominus' trail, ignored them but Charlie, mischievous and more curious, jumped and caught one in flight. She then showed it proudly to Blue, holding the bat in her mouth as the flying mammal struggled and vainly flapped its wings while letting out strident sounds.
Blue looked at the gift that her younger sister offered her but she refused it and continued, pushing Charlie to do the same with a little bark. Charlie dropped the bat on the ground and set forth.
Delta, in the middle of the line, wasn't interested by the bat but when Echo, at the back, passed by it while it tried to crawl away on the dead leaves, she leaned forward, not intending to let such easy prey go away, moreover if it had been ignored by her sisters.
The black Achillobator grabbed the wounded bat between her teeth before crushing its frail body in her jaws and hurriedly swallowing it, like if she feared that the others would suddenly turn and come to steal her food.
X
Moments later, the humans reached the great skeleton and began to climb the slope, following a narrow trail that zigzagged to the top.
Turning at the level of one of the trail's bend, one could see through a hole in the canopy the waters of the sinuous Cartago, shining under the moonlight, the ghost village that had become the Jungle Trading Post, the dome of the large aviary in the gorge further downstream and the distant glow of Burroughs in the south.
Another in the opposite direction looked out onto the northern jungle. It was in flames.
When they reached the top, the achillobators were about to emerge from the jungle at the edge of what appeared to be a body of water at the base of high rocky walls. Observing this on the screen of the tablet that they had brought with them and where were displayed the footage of the raptors cameras, Sherman gave orders.
The two teams of mercenaries then moved away from the Slayers, each on one side, going to take positions further and moving downwind with the greatest possible silence in the middle of the vegetation, using the latter to stay hidden.
The keepers and the Slayers took the same precautions but followed the path taken by the achillobators before turning in order to stay away from the edge that bordered the rocky bank.
As Grady's animals had slowed down, walking slowly along the edge of the water body, an oval-shaped pool into which a high waterfall fell, they had them in sight again and followed them while staying in the undergrowth's total darkness.
Sherman saw a large fallen trunk nearby. It was long enough to hide them all and he pointed it to the rest of the company with his head.
As they approached, they noticed that on the side where they intended to go, the ground formed a hollow, deep enough for a man standing there to see over the trunk while being mostly hidden by it.
They also saw that the trunk did not rest entirely on the ground, leaving cracks of various heights and that its state of decomposition was so advanced that the wood crumbled if one leaned too much on it.
Here and there, wood-borers animals had dug so much that they had left real holes in the trunk that could be used as peepholes, allowing them to look at what was on the other side of the trunk.
Having all these hidden observation points, they had no need to make the top of their heads appear over the top of the trunk and take the risk of being spotted, visually at least.
About thirty meters separated their hiding place from the bank of the pool and between the two, there was almost no tree, giving them an unobstructed field of vision, and the trunk being lying on the top of an embankment, the grass and low plants between the bank and the base of the slope did not bothered them.
The achillobators appeared on their right, heading towards the creature for which they had come all this way.
The Indominus was lying on her side in the pool, bathing peacefully under the moon.
She had her neck arched back with her maw wide open, letting a group of Rhamphorhynchus, long-tailed pterosaurs of the size of a gull, land inside it and grab the pieces of flesh stuck between her teeth.
Hearing the achillobators coming, the Indominus interrupted her teeth-cleaning session and got up, pushing the pterosaurs to take off from her mouth and fly away.
As she came out of her bath and walked toward them while water ran down her sides, the achillobators stepped back a little, intimidated they were, but like if she wanted to reassure them and, to the surprise of the company, make them understand that were welcome, she made a series of cooing that were followed by a rumbling sound.
Seeing that the strange and disturbing creature they were facing was not hostile, the achillobators stopped moving back and stared at the Indominus while the humans watched the scene with attention. They were very surprised by her behaviour.
She momentarily turned away from the raptors and reached a pile of rocks near the edge of the pool that she began to dismantle.
Once she had moved aside enough rocks, she lowered a hand in the middle of the pile and when it came out, it was with the inert body of a young woman that wore the beige uniform of the J-SEC, the officer De Lorenzo, assigned to the quarantine paddocks at the time of the attack.
Carrying her delicately, the Indominus placed her halfway between her and the achillobators before stepping back and encouraging them to come closer, gently pushing the mauled body in their direction.
Cautiously, the achillobators advanced, with Blue in the front.
When they were a step or two from the body, the blue Achillobator paused to look at the Indominus in the eyes, as if to check that it was not a trap.
Observing that she wasn't showing any sign of aggression, she began to sniff the body and lick the gaping wounds on it while her sisters gathered around.
Among the company, the idea of watching the raptors devour De Lorenzo's corpse was not a pleasant for the majority, especially for the keepers who wondered about how the achillobators would consider them after tasting human flesh for the first time and realizing that the human body was so fragile.
When Parker asked Sherman if they could attack now to prevent the raptors from further mutilating the victim, he was told that it was still too early and that Grady hadn't given his green light.
"We must let them do unfortunately," the leader of the Slayers said not without remorse. "The mission must not be compromised."
When Blue bit into the abdomen and arched back her neck after, tearing off a piece of flesh, she made Grady looked away for a moment and Sembène sufferred from retching.
After swallowing some pieces, Blue finally allowed her sisters to eat too.
They rushed to the body and as they ate, they sometimes jostled each other and squabbled, hissing and flapping their wings.
Echo, at the very bottom of the hierarchy, had great difficulty getting the pieces she desired and when she wanted to get closer to the body, Blue growled at her and the black Achillobator didn't picked a quarrel with her. Her scar on the snout was there to remind her of what happened the last time she challenged Blue.
As the raptors began to dig their heads inside the victim's ribcage and torn abdomen, the Indominus took a step forward and let out a hoarse bark which draw the raptors' attention. Surprised, they raised their blood-stained heads.
Grady and Sembène had opened their eyes wide in astonishment when they heard the bark since it was an almost perfect imitation of that of another species of dinosaur they knew too well.
Some of the Slayers, who also had recognized the barking, exchanged wary looks.
The Indominus continued to bark to the achillobators.
"Those are neoraptors' calls," Butu muttered.
"Exactly," Grady confirmed.
"How is this possible? Does it have Neoraptor DNA?" Parker asked.
"I don't think so. Language is not written in the genes. It isn't innate, it must be learned," Grady replied. "Maybe she is a good imitator, like the Common hill myna or the Lyrebird. Using Neoraptor's vocalizations to try to communicate with a closely-related species… Fascinating. Although her idea is not likely to succeed, I am forced to admit that she is a helluva of a clever girl."
"Troubling…" Sembène whispered. "Deeply troubling…"
"Yours are achillobators, right?" Decker asked. "It's like speaking Japanese to Vietnamese…"
"Rather English to a Neanderthal…" Sembène corrected.
The achillobators had interrupted their meal and raised their heads, looking confusedly at the Indominus, not knowing what she wanted of them while she continued to make various neoraptors' sounds, desperately trying to communicate with them.
"They're not understanding a goddam thing then," Kevin said.
"And it's frustrating her…" Sherman noted while his eyes had been locked on the Indominus since they arrived.
She was becoming impatient due to the lack of real answers, stricking the air with her tail and letting out more vehement calls which were sometimes interrupted with growls.
Then she had enough.
She suddenly put her hands on the ground and irritated, she rushed forward to chase the achillobators away.
They panicked and abandoned the body, though Delta grabbed a piece of gut in her mouth before clearing out, barely escaping the jaws of the Indominus which almost closed on her tail.
She did not bother to run after them but in their flight, the raptors rushed straight towards the trunk behind which the humans had hidden without their knowledge.
Seeing them rapidly getting closer, Parker got scared but as he was about to run away, Grady firmly grabbed him and told him to stand still.
"Don't move and keep calm!" He hissed to all the Slayers.
As the achillobators climbed the embankment, they all flattened themselves against the trunk and crouched a little, hoping that they wouldn't even notice them.
They heard claws scrape the bark and a shadow flew over Grady and Sembène.
They did not look up, it wasn't worth it since a blink of an eye later, Blue landed on the ground just a few meters in front of them, with the fan of feathers at the end of her tail almost whipping their faces.
Charlie and Echo jumped in their turn over or from the trunk itself, causing parts of it crumble under their weight, making shavings fall on those below.
When Delta stepped on the trunk, an entire part beneath her broke from the rest and fell straight towards Méndez.
Before the part fell on him, Arana promptly grabbed his comrade arm and pulled him toward him.
If he hadn't done this, not only the piece of trunk would have fallen on Méndez skull, which would have made him fall, but Delta, dragged down by the trunk part's breaking, would have fallen right on him.
When she flattened on the ground, Grady and Sembène froze on the spot, hoping that she wouldn't turn around, not only fearing that she would be surprised and feel threatened, which could make her call her sisters back, but also that, on the opposite, one or several of their companions lose their control and shoot due to their happy-trigger nature.
Fortunately, Delta got up right away and ran to catch up with the rest of the pack, which had run towards the depths of the jungle, not even looking back.
The company watched her fade in the darkness of the undergrowth.
They relaxed:
"Not only they don't answer but on top of that, they steal some food when they leave. You raised them well from what I can see," Kevin said sarcastically to Grady.
The latter did not said anything back and talked to Sherman instead:
"They're no longer in your firing line. You have free reign."
"Understood. Stay hidden behind this trunk."
Sherman ordered his men to gain their positions and he himself hid behind a big tree located just a few steps from the lying trunk.
He waited for all the Slayers to be in place before having a quick glance at the Indominus. She was staring at the pool with an unexpressive look and her back was facing them.
The leader of the Slayers turned his head and nodded to Decker, hidden behind a nearby tree.
His right-hand woman answered with a nod and he drew his sword, while his heartbeat accelerated and his breathing quickened.
He waited a moment, then, after biting his lower lip, he launched the attack with a hand sign.
However, when they left their hiding places, they noticed something that stopped them in their tracks: The Indominus was staring at them and didn't seemed to be surprised at all by their ambush.
She had already lowered the front part of her body, spread her arms and opened her maw, ready to greet them.
In truth, she had heard them talking in a low voice during her attempt to communicate with the achillobators and had therefore faked to be unaware of their presence. She had planned to turn around only when they would came out of hiding to turn the element of surprise against them.
As they prepared to shoot, she unexpectedly turned around to rush into the pool and dive.
When the Slayers reached the edge, she was gone.
The two teams of mercenaries deployed north and south of the pool also came, but Sherman told them to not come closer to the pool, fearing that the Indominus was hidden at the bottom and that she waited for them to step into the water before attacking.
The helicopter reached their location and on board, one of the mercenaries directed a powerful searchlight towards the pool. The light even managed to illuminate its depths but seeing nothing, he informed Sherman by radio, but the latter and his men had been briefed about the Indominus' abilities and he suspected that she had camouflaged where the spotlight couldn't reach her.
He preferred to use a not-so-conventional way to protect themselves against a potential ambush:
"We better ensure that she doesn't dupe us… Grenades!" He ordered.
Several of the mercenaries as well as McNamara, Arana and Olsen nodded and threw grenades into the pool, either with their hands or with a launcher.
A few seconds later, while the helicopter remained above the pool, several smothered explosion sounds were heard and bubbles appeared where the grenades had sunk.
As the surface of the water calmed, InGen's troops looked for some blood or better, the Indominus' body. They didn't see anything.
"Where is she?" Parker wondered.
"Inside the mountain," Sherman said.
As the searchlight was still oriented towards the pool and the mercenaries scanned the surface of the water, the Slayers raised their visors and Sherman came closer to the edge to look at the pool.
A few steps from him, the two Tun-Si were looking thoughtfully at the waterfall and the jagged top of the mountain, like if they were apprehensive about having to search the Indominus inside, more than their comrades but not for the same reasons.
The keepers left the trunk and joined them.
They originally wanted to leave and search for the achillobators but as the Indominus just revealed an unsuspected aspect of her behaviour, Sherman preferred to keep Grady and Sembène with them until the end of the mission.
"For obvious reasons, we can't follow her there," Grady said as he looked at the water. "Is there another way that lead inside the mountain?"
"Yes, there is another," the leader of the Slayers answered in a mysterious tone without turning away.
Hearing Sherman's answer, Cortès frowned and then came to him in order to have a talk. Both whispered and from the bits that he keepers heard, it seemed that they were talking about a gorge that had been obstructed.
At the same time, the sound of an explosion came from further south and Sherman said to Cortès:
"Custer's team just cleared it."
They turned away from the pool and joined the rest of the company, leaving the helicopter and one of the mercenary teams that had gone with them to guard the pool and bring back De Lorenzo's remains to the vehicles.
Sherman led his men and the two keepers along the pool, heading towards the location of the explosion.
They saw that at its southern end, the pool was blocked by a pile of rocks whose creation resulted from the collapse of a part of the mountain's side centuries earlier due to erosion or an earthquake.
If the pool existed, it was only thanks to the dam of rocks which had prevented the water poured by the waterfall to follow its natural course.
Contained, it had filled the little cirque that was once there and when the level of the pool rose too high after a period of abundant rains, the overflow of water poured over the pile and flowed to the dry bed near which the vehicles had been parked downstream.
The company passed in front of the second team of mercenaries and Sherman ordered to half of it to follow them so that they could rather reinforce Custer's team.
