CHAPTER 304

Marty walked up the dirt access road. Thorne had said there was another group of buildings about a five minute walk from the nursery. Thorne had explained to Marty that as a rule he did not ask questions about the jobs he did if the information did not directly pertain to him or his crew, but if there was anything that posed a threat to himself or his team he needed to know about it. Thorne had instructed Sparrow and Reuben to have a quick look around. He insisted that Marty go along since he was a biologist, and there was some, "weird animal shit going down."

Marty walked a pace or two behind Sparrow, and they both trailed Reuben, who was about twenty feet ahead. There was jungle on both sides of the road, and Marty felt very unsafe. Every noise made his head turn one way or the other, but Sparrow and Reuben didn't seem nearly so concerned.

As Marty's shoes crunched through gravel and squished in mud he observed as Reuben held his watch up near his jaw line. He dangled it by its chain and murmured to it. This had begun shortly after they embarked up the road and had continued without cease. In Reuben's other hand he held a pistol near his waist that was poised in a half ready position. Reuben's eyes were watchful, but he didn't seem nervous, a bit squirrelly perhaps, but not nervous. All the while he maintained a dialogue with his pocket watch.

Marty watched this go on, and finally he did a hop step closer to Sparrow and whispered, "is he alright?"

Sparrow tipped her sunglasses and looked at Marty. "Who, Reuben?"

Marty nodded.

"He's not insane if that's what you're getting at. Just a little eccentric is all."

"A little?"

Sparrow laughed, but there was something about it that told Marty he had almost overstepped a boundary, and he was bordering on being offensive to both her and Reuben.

"He's ok," she said.

Marty nodded and changed the subject. "So, you don't have any idea what's on this island, do you?"

"We're not in the habit of asking too many questions."

"Thorne said as much."

"Do you?"

Marty gulped and was quiet. "I'm not sure. Quite frankly I'm hoping whatever this is is all some kind of big hoax."

"Whatever was out in that jungle didn't sound like a hoax."

"Well, just trust me on this one. I think we're all better off if it is."

Ahead of them Reuben had stumbled into a hole in the road, but there appeared to be a lot more troubling him than that. His gun was up and pointed stiffly toward the right side of the road. His watch was still at his jaw, but he wasn't conversing with it any longer.

When Sparrow saw this she wasted no time unholstering her own pistol. "What is it, Reub?"

Reuben didn't answer. He didn't move.

Marty wanted to hide, but he didn't know where. He certainly wasn't about to dive into the jungle, so he simply floundered around for a moment and then stood where he was.

"Reuben?" Sparrow slowly side stepped over to him. "Are we in trouble? What's out there? Talk to me."

Reuben finally broke from his frozen state and muttered something to his pocket watch, then he side glanced Sparrow and said, "I heard something."

"What?"

"I haven't the foggiest. It purred, like an oversized feline, but it wasn't. Because I saw it, you see? Just for a second, mind you, but it was there, beyond those trees, hunkered down in the fern beds there."

Sparrow looked. She spied intensely, but there was nothing. She shook her head.

Reuben held his pistol firm. "I swear to it."

"I hear you Reuben, but there's nothing now."

"It was feathered, maybe, with wrinkly bald skin on its head. And its face was as ugly as the devil's sphincter. Damn big too. Near twenty feet."

"Look Reub, it was probably just a-"

"No, god damn it! This was a freak of nature. A real carnival show. It looked like a giant…" He paused and turned his ear to his pocket watch. "That's right! Like a giant vulture."

Marty had come over, and he did not get a word into the conversation before he saw something troubling of his own. "Oh my God." He was looking down at Reuben's feet.

Reuben's eyes darted down, and as soon as he saw what he was standing in he jumped out of it at once. "Mother of Beelzebub!"

Sparrow saw it and gasped.

Marty gathered his wits and crouched. His hand went down until his skin met the damp earth. The depression dwarfed his palm. It was larger than his abdomen. The three toed footprint was akin only to fossil imprints he'd seen in natural history museums, but this was fresh. Marty's heart fluttered as he reached to feel the deep claw gouges at the ends of the toes. He smiled as a rush of excitement and childhood wonder pulsed through him. This might actually be real. Then the feeling was gone, and in its place was a humbling terror. This might be real. They might be in a lot of danger. He gulped.

Sparrow knelt beside him. She removed her aviators. "What the shit." She turned to Marty. "That's not."

Marty said, "it is." His eyes shifted. "Maybe. I don't know."

Sparrow touched the edge of the footprint. It was a strikingly well formed cast of the foot of whatever monstrous creature left it. There were even detailed scale patterns depressed into the mud.

Reuben had his pistol on the trees again. He was more squirrelly than ever. He muttered to his pocket watch, "a god damned tyrant lizard."

Marty and Sparrow stood.

Marty said, "If it's all the same to you I think we should turn back."

Sparrow put her sunglasses back on. "I thought you said whatever this was was all a big hoax."

"I said I'd feel better if we found out it were all a hoax."

Sparrow sighed and looked down the road. "I can see the buildings from here. We're just going to take a quick look around like Thorne wanted us to. Then we'll go back."

Sparrow headed off, and Reuben fell into step with her.

Marty looked back in the direction of the choppers. They were a good five minutes away. He really didn't want to be alone.

"Shit." He ran to catch up with them.

Falling in line with Reuben, Marty caught his first really good look at the man's pistol. His eyes fixed on it with surprise. "Is that a Luger?"

"Eyes off my Parabellum, you twit."