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Dagon Rising(51)

By:J. F. Gonzalez & Brian Keene


As the plane rolled down the runway, Tony spotted a series of white stone markers spread out at even intervals between the jungle and the complex. He wondered if they were phosphorescent—they glowed in the darkness. He glanced out of the other side of the plane and saw matching stones on the far side of the landing zone. They seemed to form a large circle, completely surrounding the area.

The jet braked to a halt. The whine of the engines slowly faded. Tony yawned, cracking his jaw and popping the pressure that had built up in his ears. His head began to ache slightly and he felt a tightness in his chest, in his gut. It couldn’t be nerves. Tony had never been nervous before a job in his life. Next to him, Clark undid his seatbelt, stood up, and then stretched. The operatives did the same. Clark rubbed his forehead. “Fuck, just what I need.”

“What’s that?”

“A fucking headache.”

“Yeah, I’m getting one too.” Tony replied. “I’d kill for some Advil.”

The Black Lodge agents were silent as they retrieved jackets and bags.

“So where’s the limo?” Tony asked.

Silence from behind him and from the next aisle. Tony traded a glance with Clark, who gave him a slight grin. At least the ex-Secret Service guy got the joke.

“I take it that Naranu does not get many international flights,” Clark said.

“That is correct,” Onyx said. “This is a private landing strip. It’s nowhere near the populated areas of the island. In fact, most of the people who live here don’t even know about it.”

“The people who live here?” Tony quipped. “You mean all twelve of them?”

Clark snickered, stepping out into the aisle. Encouraged by his audience of one, Tony continued.

“There’s town’s in the Jersey Pine Barrens that have more people than this place.”

Ruby paused in the aisle and motioned for Tony to step out before her.

“I know,” she said. “I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Pine Barrens.”

“Oh, yeah? Me, too.”

“But for different reasons. You were seeking to hide something, Tony. Bodies, I believe. I was seeking to find something.”

“What were you looking for? Some big-eared mutant redneck sitting on his porch and playing the banjo? Because most of that is gone now. A lot of the Pine Barrens have been paved over and turned into strip malls.”

Ruby smiled. “No, nothing so grotesque. I was searching for the Jersey Devil.”

“The Jersey Devil,” Clark said, mostly to himself. “So that fucking thing is real?”

“Absolutely, Mr. Arroyo,” Ruby answered. “Or, at least, it was. We fear it may be extinct, as a new specimen has not been sighted in quite some time. Sad, really. It is a member of a very old, very sophisticated race of beings. Not entirely unlike the race of beings that wreaked so much havoc in the United States and much of the world in 2006—the Dark Ones.”

This is insane, Tony thought as he walked down the aisle. She’s equating the Jersey Devil with the fucking Dark Ones? What next? Bigfoot? Chupacabra?

“On the contrary,” Ruby said. “Bigfoot is a member of Gigantopithecus, a race of primitive ape that many anthropologists believed became extinct several hundred thousand years ago. Gigantopithecus is a distant relation to modern day orangutan’s, and like orangutan’s they possess the same body hair, smell, and behaviors…namely their secrecy and their habit of dragging their dead to remote areas of the forests they live in for burial. This is why genuine remains of a Gigantopithecus have not been found.”

“No shit?” Tony brushed his hair from his eyes and thought, Jesus, I wish she’d stop with that mind reading shit.

“As for Chupacabra,” Ruby continued, “that is the result of mass hysteria. There’s actually no such thing. And I wish I could stop reading your mind. It’s not a very nice place to visit.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Clark said. “Chupacabra, I mean—not Tony’s mind. I have a brother in New Mexico who claims he saw one in the desert. Even took pictures of it.”

“Yeah?” Tony asked Clark.

“Yep.” Clark grinned at Tony again.

“Enough,” Amethyst said as they approached the open door. “Caution, Ruby. You’ll never make it past adept status if you continue to reveal so much information to the uninitiated.”

“Mr. Arroyo won’t be telling anybody.”

“No,” Clark agreed. “My lips are sealed.”

Tony watched the silent interplay between Amethyst and Ruby. The baby-faced team leader—if indeed he was in charge—seemed angry with Ruby about something, but Tony couldn’t figure out what. His expression had momentarily changed when Ruby said that Clark wouldn’t tell anybody. It had been a strange look, as if Ruby had just revealed some great secret—there really wasn’t a Santa Claus or there was really another shooter on the grassy knoll the day JFK rode through Dallas.