Day of the Predator

CHAPTER 36

65 million years BC, jungle

It was gone mid-afternoon as they neared the crest of the steep jungle mountain they’d been struggling up since dawn. Through fleeting gaps in the foliage canopy, Liam had caught glimpses of an ebony ridge of peaks ahead of them, to the left and right, as far as he could see. He’d considered suggesting they turn left or right to try finding a way round, but that might mean a detour of days. Better, he decided, to press on up the sloping jungle hillside and tackle the ridge. At least it would be all downhill on the far side.

Up ahead, now, the jungle was fast thinning, giving way to smaller withered trees trying to find a foothold on a ground of shale and gravel dotted with coarse tufts of grass. Just ahead of him Becks emerged into sunlight.

He noticed that her back, taut with muscle, was bone dry. Don’t these clones ever sweat? Liam was drenched. Every inch of his skin was slick with perspiration, the salt running down from his fringe stinging his eyes.

Behind him he could hear Franklyn and Whitmore talking. They hadn’t stopped since they’d set out from the camp, a relentless jabbering to and fro on all things prehistoric. It was certainly reassuring to know their group had what sounded like a fair bit of expertise on this alien environment, but Liam would happily have paid a ship steward’s monthly wage for them to just shut up for five minutes.

Whitmore dabbed at his damp forehead. ‘But I want to know why we haven’t seen any yet. This Mesozoic era was very favourable to the larger species. I mean — ’

‘No need to patronize me, Mr Whitmore,’ Franklyn cut in. ‘I know all that. I know this was the most densely populated era, that the Cretaceous was really the time of the dinosaurs. Much more so than the Jurassic era.’

Whitmore nodded. ‘Mind you, it wouldn’t have sounded quite so snappy if they’d called that film Cretaceous Park, would it?’

‘At least it would have been more accurate,’ said Franklyn. ‘But it’s so strange, don’t you think? I mean, Dinosaur Valley State Park isn’t so far away… and the Paluxy riverbed there is covered in fossils from all types of species. How come this jungle valley’s, like, deserted?’ Franklyn’s voice was laden with disappointment. ‘I mean, here we are… the perfect time, in fact, to see all the classic species: T-rex, ankylosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, and yet we’ve seen nothing.’

‘It could be the jungle itself is unfavourable terrain for the larger animals.’

‘That’s not true,’ replied Franklyn. ‘It’s nutrient heaven for the herbivores. And where there are herbivores you should also find carnivores. This jungle should be full of them.’

‘Well,’ said Whitmore, looking up the slope at the thinning vegetation and craggy peak ahead of them, ‘no more jungle now.’

They and the rest of the party followed Liam and Becks out of the lush green into a mostly grey-brown world of slate and shingle. Up ahead the slope rose to a fractured cliff face of sharp slate angles. He could see that the robo-girl was already climbing up it, making swift progress from one treacherous handhold to the next. He watched her pulling herself up the sheer cliff face without any apparent difficulty.

Robo-girl. Now they all knew she was some kind of a robot, and after seeing her nearly skewer Laura like one of those mudfish — and, Lord knows, if Liam hadn’t intervened, she would have killed them all, one after the other — there was no way anyone was going to entirely trust her.

Whitmore’s feet slid on the shale as he scrambled awkwardly up the last fifty yards to the base of the cliff to join Liam.

‘We… we’re…’ Whitmore gasped like an asthmatic as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked up at the sheer rock face. ‘We’re climbing that?’

‘Yup,’ said Liam.

‘I… I’m…’ He was still heaving to catch some air. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to.’

Liam shook his head as he peeled the rucksack off his back. ‘Not a lot of choice, Mr Whitmore. It’s that direction we need to go.’

He swallowed anxiously. ‘Uh… I’m really not so great with heights.’

‘Don’t worry about that, Mr Whitmore. She can pull you up if you’d like.’

Franklyn puffed and wheezed up the last few yards, kicking loose shale beneath his trainers. ‘That goes for me too. I’m exhausted.’

Liam looked up the rock face and saw Becks was already at the top and bracing her legs against an outcrop for balance. She pulled the heavy coils of vine rope off her shoulder, secured one end round her waist and tossed the rest down. It clattered on to the shale with several dozen yards in length to spare.

Liam looked at them both and down at the others making their way up the last few dozen yards of the mountainside. Beyond them he could see the green carpet of the jungle rolling all the way down the steep peak they’d been ascending to the deep valley below. He thought he could just make out the hairline silver glint of the river snaking through the lush emerald carpet, and there it was… a small oval of lighter green no bigger than his fingernail: their clearing.

‘I am ready to proceed,’ Becks called down.

They all studied the cliff face unhappily: sixty-foot high, all razor-sharp edges and craggy outcrops that promised to impale or slice anyone unfortunate enough to take a tumble.

‘Don’t all be chickens,’ said Becks.

Liam glanced up at her and saw she was smiling.

Did she just try to be funny?

‘Cluck, cluck,’ she added in her monotone voice.

Liam shook his head, put his hands on his hips and smiled. ‘So, I see you’ve found a sense of humour, Becks!’

‘I have been observing and learning humorous dialogue exchanges, Liam. I am now capable of delivering basic humorous responses.’

‘Well done!’ he shouted back.

‘You are all little chickens. Cluck, cluck, cluck,’ she said again with a hint of pride in her dry voice.

Not exactly hilarious, Liam decided, as he looked around at the concerned expressions on the others. But at least her AI was having a go at being more human.

‘Is she all right?’ asked Juan.

Liam shrugged. ‘It’s her attempt at a joke. Don’t worry. She’s fine.’ He looked up at her. ‘Becks! Maybe we should save the joking around for later? All right? You’re scaring the kids.’

Her face straightened. ‘Affirmative.’

‘OK, then.’ He turned back to the others. ‘Who’s first?’

There wasn’t exactly a rush.

Liam was the last one up.

As Becks hefted him up on to the ridge and helped him to his feet, he could see she looked fatigued. In fact, he realized, it was the first time he’d ever seen her looking like that. Genuinely spent. ‘You OK, Becks?’

‘Recommendation: I should now consume protein and then rest for several hours,’ she said. Her grey eyes met his for a moment and he wondered if there was a hint of gratitude in her expression, gratitude that he’d bothered to ask if she was OK.

‘OK, you do that,’ he said, slapping her shoulder. ‘We could all probably do with a rest. Maybe we should set up camp here for tonight?’

She considered that for a moment, panning her eyes around the immediate surroundings. ‘This is an acceptable location.’

‘Right. I’ll tell the others.’ He wandered across the top of the peak towards the rest of them. They were clustered together and staring out over the sloping ridge on the far side of the peak. From where he stood, he could see nothing but a rich blue sky and a far-off top-heavy bank of cloud hanging above a flat horizon like a giant floating anvil.

‘What is it? Can you see something?’ He clattered over, kicking stones and raising dust until he was standing right beside them. ‘Oh… my,’ his voice fluttered softly.

‘There’s all the dinosaurs you’ve ever wanted to see, kid,’ said Whitmore to Franklyn.

The peak sloped down gently, grey shale gradually giving way in patches to an enormous plain of verdant grassland dotted with islands of jungle — tall straight deciduous canopy trees draped with the vines they’d come to rely on. Around the patches of jungle, herds of huge beasts Liam couldn’t begin to name grazed lazily in the late-afternoon sun. Between the slowly meandering groups of giants, smaller packs of fleet-footed beasts flocked and weaved in an endless zig-zagging race.

‘My God,’ whispered Kelly. ‘This is really… quite… incredible.’

Whitmore and Franklyn were grinning like a pair of children in a toy store.

Beyond the sweeping plain, Liam noticed the flat horizon changed from a drab olive colour to a rich turquoise.

Laura was frowning at that, confused. ‘Is that an ocean over there? I don’t recall Texas having a freakin’ ocean in the middle of it.’

Franklyn nodded. ‘Sixty-five million years ago there was,’ he said, adopting the learned air of a college principal. ‘An inland ocean that ran north-south up the middle of America, cutting it in two. In fact, Laura, you probably wouldn’t recognize Earth if you were looking at it from orbit right now.’

Liam watched in silence for a good minute, stunned, like everyone else, into stillness and quiet as he gazed out on a scene that no human before had ever witnessed, nor should ever witness again. A moment of incalculable privilege, uniqueness. Once upon a time — and it felt like another lifetime now — he’d been standing in the creaking bowels of a dying ship, waist deep in ice-cold water, facing certain death and crying like a small child. And there was Foster, holding his hand out to him uttering a promise that if he joined him there were going to be things he’d see, wonderful things. Incredible things.

‘Well, this is certainly one of them,’ Liam whispered to himself.

‘What’s that?’ said Kelly.

Liam roused himself and grinned. ‘Nothing, I just said… so, this is where all you big fellas have been hiding.’

A good-natured ripple of laughter spread among them.

‘We’re camping up here tonight,’ he announced, studying the distant strip of ocean blue on the horizon. ‘And tomorrow we’ll be at the seaside, so we will.’