Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

Outside, the creature was still struggling to free itself from the pincers. As if sensing the sudden attention, it stopped and slowly turned its neck to stare back in at them. Its mouth cracked open and it let out an ear-piercing screech.

“You have caught him!” Darya said, her voice shrill with disbelief.

Peterson perched himself in the sub operator’s seat. “Sure I managed to catch the ugly son of a bitch. Now would one of you care to tell me what the hell it is?”

2

“We’ve no idea what it is,” Callum said, his gaze fixed on the creature. “Darya thinks it might be a new species.”

“You have not seen anything like this?” she asked Peterson.

“Not in twenty years of trawling the oceans looking at weird critters.” He leant his arms across the control deck and manoeuvred the creature closer to the screen. Darya watched him closely. The arms whirred as they retracted and turned, and the creature hissed back and launched a series of kicks into the air.

“Those clamps are secure, right?” Callum asked.

“Those pincers can exert hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch. Any securer and Mr lizard bird’s cahones would be stuck in his back teeth.”

Callum’s eyes widened. “Lizard bird?”

“That’s sure what it looks like to me,” Peterson said, “unless you know better.”

“Tansu Taibaa.”

“Tansu what-now?”

Callum surveyed the confusion on the Texan’s face. “Tansu Taibaa. It means lizard bird in Nganasan.”

“Since when do you speak Nganasan?”

“I don’t.” Callum hesitated. Whether it was the adrenaline controlling his lips, mental exhaustion or something much more basic, the urge to keep on talking was overwhelming. “A couple of days ago I found something.”

“Something archaeology?” Darya asked.

“An ice mummy. A man frozen solid, his body preserved for thousands of years.”

Peterson let out a loud cat-call. “Sounds like a pretty big deal.”

“The mummy on its own would be a big deal. But there are two things which make this one even bigger. For one thing, I’m pretty certain I can identify him. He was called Ngana’bta. He was an ancient Nganasan warrior.”

“How can you be sure?” Peterson asked.

Callum told them about his discussion with Lungkaju, about the tooth pendant that he had pulled from beneath the mummy’s parka and held in his palm.

“You sure this ain’t some kind of messed-up Candid Camera?” Peterson asked.

“Out here?”

“Okay, point taken. So what about number two?”

“Number two, whatever killed Ngana’bta tore off both his legs before he could escape into the tunnel.”

“And you think that one of these ugly little bastards might have been to blame?”

Callum shrugged. “In the legend, Ngana’bta is sent to hunt the mythical Tansu Taibaa, and he never returns. Ngana’bta was supposed to be mythical as well, and against all the odds he’s turned out to be real. So why not Tansu Taibaa?”

Peterson leant back in his chair and scratched a hand through his sideburns. “I can see where you’re coming from, McJones. But it all sounds just a little far-fetched.”

“Of course it sounds far-fetched,” Callum retorted. “In fact it sounds bloody ludicrous even to me. The whole thing does. But just look.” He pointed back towards the creature. “You said it yourself. What’s that if it isn’t a lizard bird? Personally I don’t believe in coincidences, especially ones on this scale.”

His words hung in the air as all three of them stared at the creature. It was craning its neck forward, straining to assault the pincer at the base of its tail.

“I don’t know,” Peterson said at last. “You talk a good case, McJones. Sure looks like a goddamn oversized marine iguana with feathers.” He swivelled his chair around. “So anyway, what? This Tansu whateymajig just up and attack you?”

Without taking their eyes off the struggling creature, Callum and Darya took him through what had happened that morning, from the moment Darya had first spotted the three youngsters, to the Centaur’s arrival on the scene. As the story unfolded, Peterson’s eyes widened with undisguised awe. “So let me get this straight, you actually killed one of these things?”

“I guess so,” Callum replied. Confronted with the full horror of the creature, he hardly believed it himself. “I promise you it was more luck than judgement.”

Peterson laughed out loud and slapped a hand across his thigh. “Bullshit! When a monster like that’s got you by the tail and you take him out underwater with… with a camping tool, that’s nothing but sheer ball-busting heroics. I don’t care whether he’s a Tansey whatey, a rooster on steroids or what. You’re a goddamn hero, McJones!”

Callum felt a hand stroke at the back of his arm. He turned to see Darya staring up at him.

“You are hero, solnishko,” she said. “You are very brave.”

“Dan’s the real hero. If he hadn’t turned up when he did, we’d both be dead for sure.”

“I won’t argue with you on that one,” Peterson replied. “But you folks sure were lucky. It’s unusual for me to be out in her so early.”

“Why today is different?” Darya asked. But before Peterson could answer she shouted, “Look!”

Outside the creature was no longer struggling. Instead it lay motionless, its body starting to go limp. “He is dying, you must please let him go now!”

“Let him go?” Peterson exclaimed. “Are you crazy? That thing just tried to make mincemeat out of the both of you.”

“Yes, but it is living creature. He does not try to eat us for fun – he just does not know better.” She grabbed on to Callum’s forearm. “Please tell him. We are not in danger from him anymore.”

Callum took another look at the creature. By now its head was dangling down, while its other limbs twitched pathetically against its flanks. For a moment it reminded him of a strung-up chicken, albeit an enormous one, waiting to be plucked. Then his eyes passed over the mass of twisted teeth lowering towards its chest, and the razor-like claws still clenching on the ends of its hands and feet. He could feel her grip tighten around his arm.