Despite the sounds generated by the explosion and the volcanic bombing and the sight of one of the Costa Rican Coast Guard's water-bombing planes passing nearby, losing altitude while its engines roared, flattening on its way some of the trees that bordered the gondola lift line before crashing further south, somewhere in the Cartago Valley, InGen's troops had continued their advance towards the southeast.
Those who had remained on the edge of the pool during the mission in the mountain had joined the others and the Slayer's helicopter had flown away from the bombed area. Thus, they deplored no loss because of the Sibo.
Once they were close from the pass between the two summits of the Misty Mounts, Sherman sent three mercenaries as scouts to see if the way there was clear and the company stopped temporarily.
The scouts returned some twenty minutes later, but with bad news:
"We saw the Pack," one of the scouts declared. "Five hundred meters to the east. It prevents us from taking the pass."
"Let's stay on the side of the island then" Sherman said. "If ever we try to pass, they will find and decimate us. We shall reach the summit from the west."
The scouts joined the troop, which set out again and started to walk along more or less parallel to the southern summit of the Misty Mounts.
Sherman took his radio and communicated with their helicopter.
"Archangel? What is your situation? We have to define a new rendezvous point."
"We landed between the mountains and the coast in order to avoid the volcanic bombs," the pilot replied. "But there is so much ash in the air... If we try to fly, the engines will be damaged and we will crash! I'm sorry but we are unable to evacuate anyone."
"Okay. Keep low profile and don't go outside of the helicopter. Close the doors if necessary. You shouldn't try to join us with the Indominus, her minions and the guards between. You must even stop communicating with us and stay hidden until the arrival of the Arcadia tomorrow at the end of the day. I hope with all my heart that God will be merciful towards you. Sherman, over."
"Good luck, Sherman. May you all return."
Sherman turned off the radio and hung on it on his belt.
"To say that we're all in this shit just because you couldn't control your cock at that damn evening on Sorna!" Decker fulminated, speaking to Faraci who was walking in front of her.
"Oh, put that old story back on the table and say that it's all my fault! If they want to kill us, it's because we all organized their slaughter," he argued.
"We could have done this without being unmasked but I don't know who or what told the guard that we were responsible but they discovered it was the case because you couldn't button it!" She added, referring to the fact that he had clearly said Leng when they had Sergeant Bellamy at their mercy.
"What a pain!" Faraci grumbled "Shut up, you bitch..."
Having heard those words, Decker flushed with anger and without any warning, she struck Faraci's legs with the shaft of her glaive in a violent blow, making fall face down.
As he pulled his face away from the forest humus, she kicked him over and before the others rushed to put an end to the brawl, Decker put her boot on Faraci's throat, blocking his breath, and she raised her glaive above him, with the point of one of the blades only a few inches from the belly.
"If any word of that kind comes again out of your mouth, I swear I'll bleed you like a stuck pig!" She threatened him while he looked at her with his frightened porcine eyes.
"Olivia!" Sherman berated her before begging her with a look to stop it.
As the company had stopped and everyone was watching, she groaned and moved away from Faraci, letting him get up.
"It has been fourteen years that we are stuck with that swine! I'm sick and tired of this..." She complained. 'I would be glad to see him drop dead, shot by the guards!"
"I know," Sherman said, "but right now, we're surrounded by foes. If we start murdering each other, we will only be more vulnerable to them. The guards did not understand that. By attacking Torres's group and tracking us, they are wasting their efforts and if a battle break out between them and us, they are likely to lose many of theirs. They will come out more or less weakened and this will contribute to endanger the other people still on the island. If only we had combined our forces... the Indominus would have been defeated! Now, that thing can march on the city, to slaughter everyone in her path."
Decker sighed and convinced by Sherman, she nodded weakly.
The two already knew each other before the Saurian Wars.
At the beginning of the Afghanistan War, they served in the same regiment, but they had formed a bound only after a tragedy that took place not on the battlefield but within their base.
The captain of Decker's company had looked at her lustfully and several times he had made advances to her, to which she didn't responded. However, not being used of being rejected, he had ended up losing patience and he cornered her.
When he tried to rape her, a fight broke out between the two and which ended when Decker killed her attacker. Fleeing the scene, she returned to her quarters and hoped that no one would ever discover that she was guilty.
While an investigation was underway to solve the case, she had felt the need to confess to the young chaplain that had just been assigned to the regiment, Sherman. The latter listened attentively and although he had to respect the confessional secret as a member of the church, he would have never denounced her, as he had witnessed the captain's harassing behaviour and had empathized with Decker. However, one of the captain's friends, suspicious of her, had followed her and all her conversation with Sherman had reached his ears.
Shortly after, both were denounced and put in jail while waiting to appear in martial court.
Unfortunately for Decker, the court members weren't as sympathetic to her as Sherman was, and the captain she had killed having turned out to be the nephew of a senator, her judgment was all the more severe and she was sentenced with not only with a confinement in jail but also with a dishonourable discharge from the US army. Sherman didn't escaped injustice either since his corrupted superior strike him off the orders and he was also put in confinement, alongside the one he had covered.
It was at this moment that Hoskins arrived in Afghanistan, following the advice of a high-ranked friend within the army.
Following the serious setbacks inflicted by Nublar's feral dinosaurs on InGen, Hoskins had to consider hiring professional soldiers and he naturally had turned to a former friend of his who had risen to a position of great responsibility and know many secrets of the US Armed Forces.
When Hoskins asked him if the army would be willing to give men to InGen, he replied that it wouldn't be the case, especially in the midst of the War on Terror, and that it had better things to do than to send its soldiers "hunt some lizards" for a private company.
On the other hand, he suggested to him the possibility of recruiting soldiers with dishonourable discharges by signing an agreement with the US military justice, as the work that had to be done on Isla Nublar could pass a "community service".
The urgency of the situation on Nublar forced Hoskins to put aside his initial hesitations and after some negotiations with members of the military court, he was allowed to recruit Olivia Decker and Gregor Sherman.
Hoskins confronted the two incarcerated soldiers with a choice: Accept his proposal and go with him on that cursed island off the coast of Costa Rica or rot in jail.
Thinking that dinosaurs couldn't be worse than the Taliban and eager to be as far away as possible from Afghanistan, they had accepted and little by litte, as Hoskins' recruitment process advanced, the group of those who would become the Slayers formed.
On their arrival, there was only Ross, Cortes, Pizarro, Méndez, Arana and Damian's father. They were joined shortly after by Butu, who had previously collaborated with US agents in Central Africa and who had been recommended by Hoskins's friend, and Ford, McNamara and Leng. Although the latter three had been also members of the US military, they had left it on their will as a mercenary career showed less constraints and more opportunities for them, and none of them had been formally condemned by justice, despite the fact that they had been involved several times in shady activities.
Thus, only Sherman, Decker, Olsen and Faraci had been in jail. The third had accidently killed a fellow soldier during a brawl in a bar, but the fourth had been convicted of rape and was still serving a sentence when he was transferred to InGen's security division. When he joined the Slayers, it was very hard for Decker to have to work with the same kind of individuals responsible for her misfortune, but she wasn't the only one to have trouble supporting his presence because due to his misogyny and racism, those who had ever liked Faraci could be counted on the fingers of a single hand and in truth, quite a few of his companions wished or had wished his death and during the Saurian Wars' fights, several had been tempted to let him become dinosaur chew.
But there, as Decker had mentioned, he was the one who had sowed the seeds of hatred between the Guard and the Slayers and whose words had betrayed their identity.
"How can you deplore this Gregor, since you dragged all of us here?" Faraci asked as he stood up. "You and your fluff chivalry that you so quickly abandoned for the prospect of a generous bonus? For what? Buy a gold crucifix? Spend it in some whorehouse?"
"My bonus shall pay the treatment of Damian's mother! Nothing else!" Sherman retorted curtly. "I would never have accepted if her situation wasn't so urgent and desperate..."
"I'm sorry for her, truly..." Faraci pretended. "But do you realize in what you have involved her son? And for what?"
As the company got going again, reaching the edge of the long deforested strip that ran under the gondola lift line, he turned to the other Slayers and raised his voice to be heard by all of them.
"The bonuses will never be on our bank accounts! The board doesn't care about us anymore. Lynton has the footage and that's all she wanted. We are only tools in the eyes of that witch! We can die in atrocious sufferings, she won't shed a single tear."
"It sickens me to admit it but Reynald is right," Leng said suddenly. "What guarantee do we have for a helicopter to pick us up on top of that mountain? I wonder if it wouldn't be better to reach the coast as fast as possible and take a boat."
"The docks must be watched, just like every bridge and tunnel that connects the opposite banks of the Rio Iris," McNamara reminded him.
"I wasn't thinking about the docks but the Marina," Leng clarified. "When we passed by, there were plenty of boats there. The J-SEC and the authorities have advised their owners against putting out to sea because of the loose animals and the weather conditions. Nobody should be there, so no one shall see us stealing one. We would have to swim across the sound though..."
"After wading through the mangroves infested with crocodiles, snakes and bulldog sharks?" Added Cortès. "Don't think about it... Some might never leave them. And we're forty. It's a small yacht that we would have to find if we reach the Marina."
"What other solutions do we have?" Another slayer wondered.
"We could hide and do like Cafaro and Yoder, hold until the arrival of the Arcadia," Parker suggested.
They had begun to descend in the middle of the strip, passing next to the large pylons that supported the cables.
Suddenly, one of the mercenaries at the back of the line began to hear the sound of hooves striking the ground.
"Quiet... Riders are coming!"
The Slayers rushed at the back of the company, formed a line and grabbed their weapons, ready to greet the riders.
Three of them appeared shortly after, trotting down the strip towards them.
Seeing that one of them held a white flag, they realized they were coming for parleys but next to Sherman, Parker had his rifle pointed at the riders, fearing some trick.
Sherman gently put his hand on the barrel, lowering it, and stepped forward.
Ahead of the trio was tall slender figure mounted on a white horse and whose face, like those of his companions, was hidden behind a balaclava.
When he stopped a few steps away from InGen's troops, they could glimpse a stern look through his helmet's spectacle guard.
The rider dismounted, planted the flag in the ground and first removed his helmet, putting it under his arm, revealing long smooth brown hairs tied in a tight bun, and then he lowered his balaclava, revealing the sharp features of a middle-aged woman's face.
Her two companions stayed a little behind and did not get off their horses, doing nothing else than staring at the Slayers and the mercenaries.
"I bear a message from my brothers and sisters. We offer surrender to any of you that is willing to accept it," she said.
The Slayers exchanged cautious glances. They had expected the guards to attack them directly without offering them any chance to negotiate.
"Is that a joke?" Leng asked the messenger.
"Let her speak," Sherman said to him.
"You must be aware that we hold a deep resentment against you, Slayers, for the crime, no, the atrocity you have subjected us," she told them in a stern voice "However, Captain Brunet was keen to offer you a unique chance to surrender. If you accept, we will interrogate you but if you collaborate and answer our questions, your lives will be spared and you shall leave this island unharmed when you will be delivered later to the authorities in order to appear in court."
"Gilbert Brunet is the leader of this insurgency?" Decker asked her. "The opposite would have surprised me but we must warn you that you got yourself into hot water..."
"One of us, Leopold Butu, may God have mercy for his soul, knew him by name and among all the people present on this island, he was the one who knew best who Gilbert Brunet was," Sherman told the messenger. "In Congo, where Leopold was born, Brunet was called the Black Lion and there, as well as in other parts of Africa, it was a name that one didn't said in vain. Did you know that he was a mercenary, just like these people or some of us, and that Hoskins had thought about recruiting him a the very beginning of the Saurian Wars, just before he went to the Five Deaths and ended up joining you. If fate had decided otherwise, he would stand by our side and not at the top of some ridge, looking at us and ready to order the firing of a salvo to mow us down. Butu told us about some of the acts that Brunet allegedly committed more than two decades ago... He is not better than us. If you knew what he did then, you would never have accepted to follow him this night."
"The purpose of this parley is to talk about your surrender, not Captain Brunet's past," the messenger said firmly. "I am waiting for you answer! All those who wish to surrender have to move forward and give us their weapons."
The other two riders advanced until they reached the level of their colleague.
Aware of the true fate reserved for them, none of the Slayers stepped forward and the messenger sighed.
She turned to the mercenaries in order to address them:
"The Slayers are at the origin of this conflict, not you! You can still surrender. We invite you greatly to do so, this fight is not yours!"
"Surrender? After what you did at the Rotunda? Never!" One of the concerned replied.
"It was your colleagues who opened fire first, we only defended ourselves!" The messenger justified. "If you surrender, you will be disarmed and escorted to Burroughs where you will wait with those we captured. Since you weren't as much in InGen's most treacherous secrets as the Slayers, the interrogation to which you will be subjected will be much more amicable and you shall eventually be evacuated from the island when the time comes."
"It's a trap...," a female mercenary said in a low voice.
"Stay with the Slayers and you shall die with them because there will be no quarters!" The messenger warned.
She softened her tone.
"Don't sacrifice your lives for them! Haven't you relatives who are waiting for you in your homes? Would you let them spent the Christmases to come remember that you have been killed during this one? Do not impose this on them! I have children you know, and if I was in your position, I would give all the gold in the world to see them again. It's a reasonable bargain, isn't it? What do you say?"
There were whispers among the mercenaries but as their companions were still debating, two Costa Ricans, a skinny man in his thirties and a boy who was barely over his age of majority, decided to advance, hands up. The younger one's eyes were misted over because of the situation in which they had ended up unintendedly.
The words of the messenger had succeeded in sowing doubt in them, and the fear of not seeing their families again had crushed any will of fight.
A pity for the pay but getting out of that island alive and returning to their homes was more important.
"Come back, cowards!" Faraci shouted at them.
"It's their choice, Reynald! Let them!" Sherman said. "I wished they stayed with us but she's right, this fight is not theirs."
"But we are losing men!" Decker protested. "We cannot allow that!"
Once they reached her level, the messenger grabbed the weapons of the two Costa Ricans and hang them on her horse's saddle. They then passed behind her, under the watchful eyes of the other two mounted guards.
The messenger kept glancing at the mercenaries.
"Any other candidates? Take it or leave it! I remind you that you won't have a second chance."
She waited a few more seconds but seeing that no other mercenary wanted to surrender, she shook her head and said:
"So be it. We shall meet again, sooner than you think..."
She draw her balaclava up to eye-level, put her helmet on, picked up the flag and climbed back on her horse. With a scream, she commanded her steed to turn back and trot towards the thicket from which they had emerged. Her companions and the two mercenaries that had surrendered followed her, with the latter running behind the horses.
Sherman watched them disappear into the jungle.
"I think their intentions were genuine for you," he said to the mercenaries. "But we... because of the sin we committed, they have already decided to slaughter us," he said to his own men. "This offer of surrender was only a method to get rid of us easily and quickly... We shall fight until our last breath..."
He ordered the company to set forth and walk at a faster pace, and although he still intended to lead them west, he decided that they should try to shake off their enemies as much as possible.
To accomplish this, Sherman planned to move closer to the Cartago, forcing them to make a detour that would lead them away from the guards.
"Will we ever reach the mountain?" Parker asked.
"Let's say that our chances have lowered drastically. They know where we are, our numbers and our pace," Sherman explained him. "Prepare to be attacked at any moment!" He said to the whole company. "And remember one thing, we are not going to fight dinosaurs but men. Be ready for anything and to show no mercy because they shall have none!"
X
The riders and the deserter mercenaries arrives a short time later at the top of the ridge where Brunet, mounted on his black horse, and the bulk of the guards were waiting.
While the two deserters were taken to one of the marauders, Carmen d'Argento, the messenger, came to talk with Brunet, disappointed by the fact that they couldn't convinced more mercenaries to surrender.
Once they finished their discussion, he ordered to all his men to climb back in the vehicles or on the horses.
However, some of the guards strongly dreaded the coming battle and were uncomfortable at the idea of killing human beings, even if those had become their sworn enemies, because when they looked at Brunet, they realized that he didn't just want to defeat the Slayers and the mercenaries, but to outright destroy them.
Seeing that those were dawdling, Brunet sent Darbinian to fetch them.
"They are no longer men..." she told them.
Velasquez stared at the ground and didn't dared to meet either Darbinian's or Brunet's gaze, with the Frenchman being as intimidating and frightening as ever.
Having listened to the parley like all the others through a retransmission of the microphone that d'Argento carried, he had been disturbed, worried even, by Sherman's words about Brunet. His mistrust towards the latter did nothing but grew.
He was still hesitant about what to do to his cousin shall they meet amidst the battle, but he was certain of one thing: He wasn't looking for him to die, and this thought even frightened him.
Velasquez felt a hand touching his shoulder affectionately.
Looking over it, he saw Drekanson's face, giving him a sympathetic nod.
Together they joined the others and the convoy headed south, as Brunet intended to intercept InGen's troops further down in the Cartago Valley.
