Page 39 of Monstrous Hunt
Rizan rushed back in with a laptop in his hands.Mylaptop.
I hadn’t seen any of my belongings since they left the previous house in a rush to come after me and Axxol. “Oh, wow! I had no idea you still had my backpack!”
Fluffing up his feathers, he gave me an affronted look. “Of course we would retrieve your things. I wouldn’t want to give you any reason for disappointment.”
Aw. Then Lohr added, “Plus if they have a tracker like me, everything that carries your scent could give them a lead of how to follow us.”
That made me gulp. “If you found a random backpack in the jungle, would you be able to find me even if I didn’t walk on the ground or touch anything?”
He nodded. “I would still find you. I’m not even sure that the continuous jumps Axxol took us on last time would be enough to completely dissolve your trail from your mates. After he took you, we were still able to locate the general area of his hiding place. We would have found you eventually, even if you hadn’t been able to escape into the river.”
Phantom pain flickered through my body like blue fire. “I don’t want to repeat anything like that unless we don’t have any other choice.”
Starting up the laptop, I connected to the Wi-Fi and opened my email from habit. While the inbox exploded, I started a browser window to check the news, scanning all the major headlines. War. More war. Atrocities against women and children. Drought, floods, and fire. Reading the headlines made my stomach churn. “It looks like we’re doing a fine job killing off our entire race by ourselves.” One article made me stop and read a few lines. “What about the COVID-19 pandemic? Though that started years ago.”
“I’m monitoring it,” Rizan said. “I would only be concerned if the virus combined with something like measles or bird flu and created a complex super-virus that spread even more rapidly than the original outbreaks.”
The thought made me even more ill. We’d lost millions during the pandemic—and that wasn’t bad enough for Rizan to suspect the Myrm.
Millions of people might die—before we even knew the Myrm were here.
So we’d better find them fast.
18
NATALIE
I’m not religious about anything in my life—except email filters. Ignoring all the spam folders, I checked the top “Important” folder first. Whoa. “Holly’s been emailing me non-stop.”
I opened the most recent email and started reading it aloud. “‘Nat, Please. Let me know you’re okay. You don’t have to tell me where you are. I swear I’m not trying to entrap or trick you. He’s gone completely off the rails. Now he’s sure that you’ve been taken by aliens…’” I flicked a quick look up at each of the guys. “Is that going to cause more problems for you if humans know that aliens are real?”
Kroktl shrugged. “Other races have made contact several times over the centuries. This is far from the first time that your people have encountered non-human lifeforms.”
“Well, it’s news to me. I always thought alien conspiracists were crackpots.” I returned to reading her email out loud. “‘He’s determined to find you and the creature. He’s even been mapping out supposed alien sightings and strange phenomena so he can intercept you. This is NOT going to be a rescue mission. He’s hired more guys and they have guns. Big guns. Plus recording equipment and tranquilizers and all kinds of satellite stuff. It’s like a strange mashup ofGhost HuntersandAlienaround here. I’m scared, Nat. He won’t let me go home until we find you. I don’t know what to do. At least let me know you’re still alive. Holly.’”
Kroktl let out a low grumbling whuff. “I thought I ate all of his mercenaries in camp.”
“Do humans have any tranquilizers strong enough to knock you out?” I asked.
Snryx snorted. “Hardly. Even if they managed to get a needle through our hide, it’d just piss us off.”
I couldn’t help but gnaw on my bottom lip restlessly. “It sounds like they’re going to try and get evidence of your existence. Maybe even trap you.”
“Baby, there’s no cage on this planet strong enough to keep us away from you.”
“But what about the cameras? If you’re plastered all over the news, then it’s more likely another Dynosauros squad will pick up your location, right?”
“These humans are nothing. They’re not worth a single moment of your worry.” Kroktl tipped my face up to his, letting me see the red flare of his beast behind his eyes. “Don’t forget what kind of soldiers we are. Riz can block any signals they try to send out while we feast on the rest. Once we’re assured there isn’t any other trace of Myrm threatening your planet, we’ll track down this human and make sure your friend gets home.”
I gave him a wobbly smile and tried to relax but worry still spiraled in the back of my mind. Dr. Snyder and his group of hired guns may be small fry to these elite soldiers, but something told me it’d be a mistake to discount them completely. He’d managed to surprise me before. With his extensive network, he might have access to other government and military agencies with jets, tanks, and cannons.
Could one of the guys survive a direct missile shot?I don’t want to find out.
“If I reply to Holly, is there any way for them to track our location through the email?”
Rizan shook his head. “I’m masking the IP address and bouncing the signal so much even another COMs specialist would have a difficult time tracing it.”
Nodding absently, I started typing a response to let her know that I’m okay. An idea popped into my head. “What if he’s on to something?”
