The Darwin Protocol: A Thriller (The Last Peak Book 1) Page 5

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Beth crept out of the metal doorway and secured it behind her. She stood with her back to the enclosure and worked to force the stubborn bolt home. As she finally jiggled it into place, the fine hairs on the back of her neck tingled.

  She spun around and saw nothing moving but the gentle breeze rustling the leaves of the California Black Oaks and Bigleaf Maples that dotted the habitat. The thick foliage drew shifting patterns of light and dark on the grass and dirt below. Thickets of shoulder-high grass waved in a lazy, hypnotic dance.

  Her heart hammered in her chest and she took a breath to get it under control. There was something different about entering their terrain. Even as manufactured as it was here in the heart of the zoo, it was still their turf. A prudent human was wise to remember that.

  The enclosure held nothing of apparent concern so she headed for the viewing area where she’d last seen Jane. She kept the rifle pointed low but ready. She trusted the female chimp not to hurt her, but then again she’d never entered carrying a rifle. And now she was injured on top of having a hard time with the pregnancy.

  It was better to be ready for anything.

  With just a few large boulders between her and Jane, Beth quickened her pace. She had to get that wound attended and check on her condition. Jane wasn’t doing well already, and that was before getting a brutal smash to the face.

  The area opened as she rounded the boulders.

  The wall of thick, clear plexiglass held no zoo visitors on the other side. The zoo was still preparing to open for the day. That much had gone right. Not having an audience should calm Jane. Make working with her easier.

  Just over the bump in the ground would be Jane, hopefully not pouring blood.

  Beth crested the small hill, and she wasn’t there.

  She stumbled to a halt, confused. Jane was there, just moments ago. She must have made it to her feet. Maybe when Ralph was tempting Jack back into the holding pen. She’d been ravenous since the two little infants had made a home inside her. She had to eat enough for three.

  But Ralph would’ve told her if Jane followed Jack into the holding area.

  She was here somewhere. Various parts of the enclosure were out of sight from this vantage point. It had been designed as such so that the chimps had different places to get some privacy when they felt the desire for it. It was aimed at making life “in the joint”, as she sometimes joked with Mason, more fulfilling for the animals.

  Jane had a favorite spot in the tall grass up on the hill. A few feet inside, she’d flattened a section of grass into a comfortable bed. Beth headed toward it, confident she’d find the giant chimp there.

  A low barking rumble spiked the air and vibrated in her chest. Jack’s warning call. Must’ve come from the holding room.

  Thank God he was safely locked away. Beth didn’t want to think about what that powerful male would do if he ever got a hold of her.

  She noticed her palms were slippery with sweat and wiped each on a pant leg. Sweat beaded on her neck and pooled in the hollow there. She walked around a shallow pool and made her way up the hill, the rifle heavy and awkward at her side.

  The sad whimpering call of an injured chimp sprang from somewhere ahead. Thank God. Every second wasted tightened the vise around Beth’s chest.

  She edged forward, her eyes focused and searching.

  Just fifty feet away, the tall grass shuddered. The stalks swished wildly back and forth. Beth froze and listened.

  The stalks settled and rejoined their formerly fluid dance with the breeze.

  Beth crept closer.

  Now less than twenty feet away.

  The towering shoots whipped and shuddered and parted with a flash of motion. A huge head poked through. Its dark eyes focused intently on her. Its mouth hung open, fearsome canines exposed.

  A shiver of delight fluttered in Beth’s stomach.

  Jane.

  Blood matted the fur above her right eyebrow. It created a trail down her cheek and neck, tinting the gray-black hair a darker shade. She needed help.

  Not for the first time, Beth gave a quick thank you to the universe for putting this career in front of her. She loved caring for all the creatures on this green earth.

  Most of them anyway.

  Observing Jane for a moment, Beth noticed an unwelcome shallow, quick panting. A slightly unfocused feel to her eyes. An immediate examination was required. Emergency-level required. No matter what the idiot in the front office thought.

  Beth was about to close the distance and begin the exam when something odd tickled the edges of her consciousness.

  The head-high thicket to her left.

  What was different about it?

  She couldn’t resolve it for a moment. And then it zoomed into focus. Clumps of stalks in the middle swished around in sporadic bursts. The movement contrasted with the gentle swaying of the surrounding areas. Beth narrowed her gaze to study it.

  What—

  An enormous form crashed through, splintering the thicker stalks like cheap toothpicks. The hulk landed on two feet and spread his arms, his posture broad and threatening.

  Jack.

  Oh shit.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Cold eyes regarded her with malevolent intent. She shuddered as a chill like an Arctic wind washed over her. Her legs wobbled. Her body a quivering mass of flesh and bone incapable of obeying commands to act. Not that any higher instructions were forthcoming.

  Her brain was equally numbed. A thousand thoughts collided at once, threatening to degrade the fight or flight response into a third, far worse option: freeze in fear.

  Jack watched her from less than a hundred feet away. A distance he could cover in seconds. His lips snarled and pulled back to reveal gigantic, white daggers for canine teeth.

  He rolled his head back and a roar tore from his throat like thunder from a storm. The sound touched a primal nerve deep in her brain. Her heart pounded like a bass drum in her ears. The air seemed to crawl across her skin. Terror became a taste on her tongue, like licking an old penny.

  She looked back toward the locked metal door she entered a few moments ago. It was the closest point of escape. It may as well have been miles away. She wouldn’t come close to making that distance.

  Something slipped in her right hand. Her grip clenched involuntarily to hang on to whatever it was.

  She looked down to see what had provoked the automatic response.

  The rifle.

  Loaded with a dart primed with M99. Enough to make Jane drowsy. Not nearly enough to knock out the much larger Jack.

  It was better than nothing.

  Jack’s roar cut to silence and left behind a cacophony of responses from the surrounding animals nearby. They all screeched one message.

  Danger! Danger!

  He lowered his head and glanced at Jane to his left for a moment. She held her head low in an obvious display of submission.

  With his focus pulled away, conscious thought returned. A ragged breath struggled into her lungs. She thought of Theresa and Mason. Imagined their faces when upon hearing of her death. Their pain broke her heart.

  And steeled her will.

  Consciously slowing her movement, she raised the rifle and settled the stock into the crook of her shoulder. She tried to keep the front sight aligned on Jack’s broad chest but her shaking hands bounced it around.

  One shot. One chance to even have a chance.

  He turned his massive head back toward her. The vicious intensity of his focus threatened to knock her down. Send her back into physical spasms of horror.

  She took a deep breath and let it escape. At the end of the exhale, she paused and let the front sight settle.

  Jack leaped forward, his arms extending in front of him and stretching for the ground between them.

  She squeezed the trigger.

  BOOF.

  The dart exploded out of the barrel and spiked Jack in the chest as he rushed forward. He flinched as
he registered the sting.

  Lucky shot.

  He’d already closed the distance by more than half.

  God. He was so fast. Too fast.

  He bounded closer as another second passed and her life ticked down to a sliver that she couldn’t extend.

  She stumbled back, buffeted by the tremor of psychic violence that preceded him like a shockwave. Her boot heel caught a rock and she tumbled back. Her arms windmilled in a futile attempt to grab air to regain balance. She landed hard and her body whipped back as the force of the impact rolled through.

  Her head snapped to the rear and then slammed into hard dirt. Bright pain clawed at her eyes. She blinked hard and watched in horror as Jack launched into the air more than ten feet away.

  He sailed through the air, his cavernous mouth open and eager to tear into her flesh.

  Beth yanked the rifle up in front of her, as if it might somehow hold back two-hundred-seventy pounds of fury.

  Movement streaked across her vision, coming from her right.

  Jack stretched for her, his enormous hands extended as he descended.

  Beth turned her head. She couldn’t watch. She’d done her best.

  She never had a chance.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Visions of her family and their grief at her death saddened her. Beth prayed they would eventually heal.

  Jack’s jaws reached for her throat. His mouth stretched wide to claim her. Jane streaked through the air and broadsided him. Though smaller, the fury of a Bili chimp was not something any animal brushed away.

  A sharp canine caught Beth on the pant leg and gouged a red furrow across her thigh.

  Jane’s impact slammed both chimps to the ground to Beth’s left. They rolled and tumbled in a flying ball of fur and fangs. Their limbs blurred as they tore at each other.

  Beth glanced at the laceration on her thigh and almost vomited. It had just missed her femoral artery. An injury that would have ended her life in minutes. The gash was wide open but didn’t look deep. She got lucky. Very lucky. She struggled to stand, using the rifle like a cane to get upright.

  Already, Jane’s smaller size and weaker condition began to show itself. Jack slashed and caught her down the side. Red spilled down her ribs and over her swollen belly.

  Beth grabbed a plum-sized rock and whipped it at his backside. Her aim was true, but it bounced off harmlessly.

  This was a fight she couldn’t sway. Not without better tools than the one she currently wielded. She needed another dart. A full dose of M99 would do it. She just had to get it before it was too late.

  Beth sprinted for the exit and nearly stumbled to the dirt as the gash in her leg ripped a shock up her left side. She hobbled along as fast as her injury would allow.

  The two huge chimps scrambled and rolled in a dust cloud so thick it was hard to see what was happening. Then Jane flew out and tumbled to the ground. She rolled to her feet just as Jack slammed into her.

  Jane couldn’t win. It was only a matter of time. And by the looks of it, not much of that.

  Beth limped to the metal door and fumbled at the ring of keys at her hip with numb, unfeeling fingers.

  She found the right one and observed with a curious detachment as her hand levitated in front of the lock, but the tip of the key bobbed and weaved around the keyhole. She finally managed to shove it home and cranked the bolt free.

  Jane had little time left. The ferocious sounds of aggression subsided. The fight was ending. But not with a truce. Not with a mutual promise to retire to one’s corner and take the respite to lick wounds and wonder how it could have come to this.

  No. The sounds of combat ended because a clear victor emerged.

  Jane lay sprawled on her back. Pinned to the ground by the furious goliath Jack. She offered only a token resistance. Only what her weakened condition could muster. Beth saw that even that would soon dwindle.

  Jack stood over Jane, his hands on her chest. His powerful jaws around her neck. In minutes, he would starve her brain of oxygen and end not only her life but the life of the two unborn infants as well.

  Beth rushed through and slammed the door shut, in a blind panic like a parent losing a child.

  In her fevered rush, she neglected to throw the bolt and lock the door shut.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Beth fumbled through unlocking the cabinet in the lab and fumbled further in dosing a dart with enough M99 to incapacitate an adult Bili chimp in short order. She yanked back the bolt on the rifle and loaded the primed cartridge. She slammed the bolt home and checked that the safety was engaged.

  Not wanting to be caught unprepared again, she filled another dart, left the safety tip on, and dropped it in her pocket.

  She had two shots to take the beast down. It should be one more than needed.

  She locked the cabinet and started off back down the maze of corridors that led back toward the metal door on the west side of the chimp exhibit.

  She’d moved as fast as she could, but the gash in her leg slowed her down. And she was keenly aware that precious minutes ticked by. Jane could already be gone, her body twitching as stray electrical impulses fired muscles that still couldn’t accept that life was a rapidly fading memory.

  The final turn brought her back to the metal door. And to a recognition that sent a violent shudder skidding down her spine.

  The door was wide open.

  She knew she hadn’t left it like that. She knew she’d locked it.

  Didn’t she?

  Her lungs sucked at air that felt thinner than at the top of Mount Everest. There was too little oxygen to clear her thoughts. To get her brain functioning normally again.

  Did she lock it?

  She accepted that she couldn’t remember. That the terror of loss swept her along in an almost robotic current of action.

  Beth paused at the door, paralyzed for a moment at what the open door might mean. She didn’t wait long as a low, deep howl echoed down the corridor.

  Her walkie-talkie chirped.

  “Dr. West! Come in, Dr. West! This is Ralph!”

  She thumbed the transmitter.

  “Ralph, what’s going on?”

  “Ma’am, I came back to the holding room to grab my clipboard and, well, I don’t know how it could have happened, but, well…”

  “Jack isn’t inside. I know.”

  “Yes. I secured the pen just as you showed me before. I swear I did. I don’t know what happened.”

  “Let’s worry about that later. I’m over by the west gate and it’s open. And Jack’s location is unknown.”

  Another low growl echoed down the hall. This time, distinctly coming from the direction of the north gate and holding room.

  “Ralph, get out of there! Now! Jack may be loose in the maintenance corridors!”

  There was no response. She waited.

  “Ralph! Do you hear me? Get out now!”

  The faintest whisper replied.

  “He’s here now…”

  His whisper cut short as a wild scream tore through the tiny speaker.

  Beth sprinted down the corridor. The overhead lights painted patches of light in the surrounding shadows. Her boots slapped the hard concrete floor in a desperate rhythm.

  Just as she arrived, a loud crash accompanied another roar. The sound was deafening in the enclosed space. She made the turn and lifted the rifle stock to her shoulder.

  Ralph was trapped under a large stainless steel pushcart. The one they used to transport the daily meals for the both chimps. It was now turned upside down with Jack above and Ralph beneath. A deep gash on Ralph’s shoulder left his tan shirt ragged. A dark crimson stain covered that sleeve, all the way down to the cuff.

  Beth skidded to a stop and fired.

  Jack’s head whipped around just as the trigger broke and the dart shot forward.

  The small projectile ricocheted off the table and landed harmlessly in the tangle of thick fur at his neck. Jack flinched, pausing to assess what h
ad been done to him.

  Which was nothing.

  Shit.

  At least she had his attention now.

  Shit.

  She had his attention now.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  She fumbled for the remaining dart lodged in her pocket. The projectile turned sideways and got stuck in the folds of cloth. With a violent jerk, it finally came free. She ripped the plastic safety tip off just as Jack turned and lunged.

  The enraged animal slammed her backward. The rifle clattered to the floor several feet away.

  She crashed to the ground with Jack above. His enormous hand crushed down on her chest. He regarded her coolly with mouth open and a rumble emanating more from his chest than his throat.

  She reached for the rifle, but a few feet away may as well have been miles. She couldn’t breathe, much less move an inch.

  She didn’t need it.

  She gripped the dart tightly, extended her arm above her head, and then aimed it at the thick muscles in the arm smashing a hole through her chest. The anesthetic would take more time hitting a muscle group so far from the brain. It would take a few minutes to knock him out.

  She wouldn’t survive a few more seconds, much less a few minutes.

  She jabbed the dart at the thick meat of his arm.

  Faster than seemed possible, a blur of movement, Jack’s other hand swatted the dart away just before the needle pricked his skin. The brute force tore it from her grip and sent it skittering across the floor.

  That was it.

  That was her last chance to stop him.

  His attention followed the dart as it came to rest.

  Beth lifted her hands above her face, knowing her small arms were no more an obstacle for the adult Bili chimp than a silk scarf was to a samurai sword. Less even.

  “Dr. West!”

  Ralph shouted as he pushed the cart off and levered himself up against the wall on visibly shaking legs.

  Jack turned his head toward Ralph as the hand on her chest seemed to gain another thousand pounds. She couldn’t breathe. Her ribcage creaked, close to cracking like an eggshell.