Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After getting the all-clear from the decontamination, Nik was feeling pretty darn good. His head was filled with the beautiful, deadly woman he was claiming as his. He just had to be careful not to scare her off.
As the two of them walked into the library, he had to force himself not to grab her. Instead, he focused on the large window behind Avril and the others clustered around the holo-table.
He stiffened. “We’re in the mountains.”
Avril glanced up. “Yes.”
He saw the magnificent peaks. At the top—where no vegetation grew—they must have looked as they did before the Earth was destroyed. At the lower elevations, they were covered entirely by the thick, black vegetation.
“You’re going after the Inca gold.”
Avril pressed her hands to the holo-table. The ancient paper map was spread out on the surface. “We have to try. This is a massive treasure of historical importance.”
Nik glanced at Nera, but she had her impassive, unreadable face on. He knew her well enough now to know she wasn’t pleased. But he also knew she had his back, whatever he decided.
“Niklas, don’t tell me it isn’t worth at least a look,” Avril said. “Aren’t you curious?”
“Sure.” He strode closer, taking a look at the incoming scan results flashing up on the table. “But according to these scans, the jungle below is teeming with mutated wildlife. And I’m sure plenty more zombies. You saw that beast, Avril. You want to face an entire pack of them?”
The astro-archeologist chewed on her lip, then straightened. “It’s worth the risk.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. God, he wished his brothers were here. “Everyone else in on this?” He looked at Gunn and Solomon.
Gunn gave a short nod, and Solomon eyed the holo-table before looking back at Nik. “No guts, no glory.” The young man shrugged. “We’re here, so we may as well take a look.”
Nik didn’t bother looking at Galen. He might be security, and he might have helped them, but Nik didn’t trust what the man would do with any artifacts he could get his hands on.
Nik looked at Nera. She nodded.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “Let’s go kill ourselves looking for lost treasure.”
It wasn’t long before the Drake hovered over the dense canopy near the coordinates listed on Avril’s map.
Supposedly, the pilot had found a clearing where they could rappel down. Nik wasn’t convinced the patch deserved to be called a clearing.
As he stood at the open door, all he could see was tangled vines and trees.
“I don’t like this,” Nera said from beside him.
He smiled. “You usually don’t like anything.”
“True.” Her gaze lingered on his armor-covered body. “I like you.”
Yes, she did. And he was extremely happy about that. “Ready for a short rappel?”
“Try and keep up, Dr. Phoenix.” She took a backward step out of the ship.
He watched her go down, fast and gracefully.
By the time he made it down and unclipped from the rappel line, Nera was circling the clearing, her hands resting on her holstered laser pistols.
Under the canopy, the light was murky, and up here in the mountains, there was more wildlife.
He couldn’t see it, but he could hear it.
The loud buzzing of insects, the flutter of wings up in the leaves, and the spine-chilling screeches of…
something. He gripped his laser machete a little harder.
Avril, Galen, and his small team of agents stood nearby, staring at the giant wall of vines ahead. Behind him, Nik heard Solomon and Gunn bickering about something.
“The map says we need to find a cave complex.” Avril tapped a boot, studying her handheld Sync. “It’s about one kilometer from here.”
A kilometer. He traded a glance with Nera. In these conditions, it may as well have been a thousand.
The security agents hefted their laser machetes and got to work hacking at the vegetation.
It did not go well.
Some vines contained the acidic poison that had eaten through the Centurion. One agent got sprayed by the acid, another got tangled in the vines and the damn things had started dragging him away before they’d freed him.
Nik swiped his arm across his forehead. The humidity was horrible. At this rate, they’d reach the caves in days, not minutes. Avril was looking frazzled and frustrated.
Suddenly, he realized that Nera, who’d been beside him a minute ago, was missing.
He stopped swinging his machete and glanced around. “Nera?”
“Up here.”
He looked up and spotted her standing on a high branch of a nearby tree. “What’re you doing?”
“Trying to find a better way to reach these caves.”
“Aren’t the trees covered in that oily, radioactive substance?”
“Not these trees, no.” She waved a hand around. “I think some sort of tree-dwelling animals live up here in the canopy. They travel along the branches.”
He frowned. “I don’t think we can all swing on the vines like monkeys.”
“No, but it looks like the animals have trained the branches. Up here, there’s a clear path of horizontal branches reaching between trees.”
“What’s going on?” Avril asked, looking up. “Darc, I see you aren’t getting hot and sweaty swinging a machete.”
Nera leaned against the tree trunk. “Nor are you.”
Nik bit back a grin. “Nera thinks we can travel along the branches in the canopy. It’d be faster. We could avoid the undergrowth.”
Avril looked skeptical. “I don’t know…”
Galen strode over, his face covered in a sheen of perspiration. “This isn’t working.”
The astro-archeologist rubbed her forehead. “Darc thinks we can travel through the canopy. Along the branches.”
Galen looked up. “I’ll give anything a shot right now. I have two injured agents, and we haven’t gone ten meters.”
“Fine.” Avril looked up at Darc. “How did you get up there?”
“I climbed,” came the dry response.
Nik slid his machete into the sheath on his belt. Then he eyed the handholds Nera had cut into the trunk. He set his boot in one and gripped another. Slowly, he started his way up.
Soon, he reached her, and pulled himself onto a branch twice as thick as he was.
There was a flutter of wings, and he spotted a brief flash of color through the black foliage.
“Pretty incredible.” He walked along the thick branch to Nera.
“These do look like they get a lot of use.” A wear pattern was worn into the wood.
“I didn’t mention it to the others, but whatever lives and travels up here…it’s big and possibly nasty.”
Nik sighed. “Of course it is. How do you know?”
She motioned him around the massive trunk. He carefully stepped onto another branch and looked where she pointed. Slash marks were carved into the tree trunk. They had to have come from very large, very sharp claws.
They were fresh.
“Well, let’s hope they don’t like the sound of Avril’s voice.”
Nera snorted. “Whatever it is, it can’t be much worse than acidic plant-life and zombies.”
“Right.” But even he heard the doubt in his voice. “Don’t jinx us.”
Soon the team were all standing on the branches, finding their balance.
“Trust your boots,” Galen called out as the others reached the branches. “They have built-in stabilizers. They’ll help you balance.”
The team started off. It soon became apparent that Solomon had very good balance. He was grinning as he ran along branches and leaped onto adjacent ones.
Nik shook his head. Oh, to feel young and invincible again.
He frowned. Actually, he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt young and invincible.
His father and their dangerous homeworld had made sure of that.
He watched Nera leaping carefully but gracefully between branches.
He now knew Nera had never been as carefree as Solomon.
But Nik had decided he was going to make it his mission in life to see she had more fun in her life. To make her smile, to ensure he saw pleasure flushing her face every day.
His boot slipped. He grabbed for the branches and caught himself.
“Daydreaming, Phoenix?”
Nera was watching him, one hand resting on her grappler.
“Fantasizing.”
Her lips quirked. “I suggest you focus on where you’re putting your feet or none of those fantasies will become reality.” She turned and looked back over her shoulder. “And I have a few of my own I plan to bring to life when we get back to the ship.”
He slipped again and grabbed the nearest branch. “Nera.”
She laughed. A light, if slightly rusty sound, and turned, running along a branch.
With a smile, Nik followed her.
Soon, Avril was calling out that they should be nearing the cave entrance.
They all climbed down to the jungle floor.
Mud squelched under Nik’s boots. It was wetter here, the ground fragrant with rotting vegetation.
He studied the area, but all he could see were vines and plants.
There were a few large rocks here and there, so it made sense they were getting close to the cave.
He studied one vine-covered rock a bit harder.
He stiffened. Was that what he thought it was?
“Nera.” He waved her over. As he neared the rock, he realized he was right. “This is a statue.”
She drew her machete and set to work, helping him cut the vines away.
“Keep away from the green vines,” he warned. “We don’t want poison everywhere.”
She nodded and kept hacking. It didn’t take them long to uncover the statue.
Nik stepped back. “Magnificent.”
It was a carving of a warrior. The man was wearing an elaborate headdress and holding what looked like a bow and arrow.
“Incan?” Avril demanded.
Nik shook his head. “It has some resemblance, but no, this is something different. I’d say the craftsmanship is less detailed, almost like it’s older, less-developed.”
“Pre-Incan,” Avril said, excitedly.
“No. This is far newer. The vines have grown on it, and it’s showing some wear. But it’s not worn enough. I’d say this is fairly recent.”
Everyone in their group stirred.
“You think the zombies did this?” Avril’s voice was incredulous.
Gunn snorted. “That’s a stretch.”
“No,” Nik answered. “I don’t think they have the dexterity to do something like this.”
Everyone glanced around, suddenly eyeing the trees warily.