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

Koikov’s gut reaction was to answer, Anything that’s got the balls to take me on deserves respect! But he couldn’t bring himself to be so flippant with a man that had helped to save his life. “If you’d been as up close and personal with these things as I have, Sergeant, you’d respect them too.”

Marchenko was uncharacteristically quiet. It could have been the tail end of shock or exhaustion. But Koikov had operated with him many times before and, as a rule, nothing but the threat of outright apocalypse would’ve shut him up. “What’s on your mind, Marchenko?”

Keeping his eyes on the wreckage, he replied, “It wasn’t a bear that attacked Dolgonosov, was it, Starshyna? Or Sharova. It was one of those things.”

Koikov took another drag on his papirosa and exhaled the thick grey smoke through his nostrils. His mind moved reflexively to the sight of the fleeing polar bear. It had been innocent. Nothing had been more certain. But Koikov had been in shock. He had lost two men to something he didn’t understand, something he couldn’t even bring himself to believe. Major Rabinovich had wanted answers. Mr Volkov had wanted answers. Everybody had wanted answers. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, a rogue polar bear had been the only plausible explanation, and Koikov had hunted one down, squeezed the trigger and hoped that it would all just go away.

“Yes, it was,” he said at last.

The confirmation seemed to stun Marchenko. “You knew about them and you didn’t think to warn us?”

Koikov snorted and turned away. Whether the man had helped save his life or not, he didn’t know a thing about it.

“You brought us here, me, Gergiev and the others, on that ridiculous bear hunt, and then again to find Einstein, and at no point did you think to point out that there was a horde of bloodthirsty fucking animals!” His voice reached a crescendo. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“Watch your tone, Marchenko.”

“It’s not my tone you should be worried about. It’s my neck. It’s all of our necks, because they’re on the block thanks to you. Yudina and Einstein are dead because of you. Why the fuck didn’t you say anything before?”

“I hardly believed it myself for one thing!”

“That’s no excuse.”

Koikov turned and squared up to him. His extra height cast a shadow over Marchenko’s face, but the sergeant stood firm, his narrow features set into a scowl of disbelief. “And what do you think would’ve happened if I had said something? Do you think Rabinovich would’ve patted me on the head and said, ‘Oh, well in that case we’ll just have to keep you and the boys all safe here on the boat – why not take the afternoon off?’ No, for a start he’d’ve had me sectioned. Then he’d’ve sent the rest of you back out here anyway.”

“How can you say that about the major? He’s already sent the reinforcements we requested this morning, and if he’d known before that there was this kind of threat—”

“Because it’s not the major who’s in charge,” Koikov spat. “It’s G&S. The company is in charge. Rabinovich is just a puppet out here, you know that as well as I do. And the company doesn’t give a shit about the likes of me and you. It gives a shit about money. There’s so much of it riding on this island that the rest of us could disappear one by one without explanation and they’d still go ahead and build their gas plant.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I would’ve believed you, Starshyna. And I’m willing to bet the others would as well.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t gamble,” Koikov retorted. He turned and walked the short distance from the site of the wreckage to the edge of the cliff.

“That’s exactly what you’ve done.”

Koikov pretended he didn’t hear. During impact, the Kamov’s swash plate had snapped, allowing the primary rotor to detach and cartwheel off the side. As he peered over the edge of fissured stone, he could see the surf pounding the cruciform blades into the rocks below. The sound of a million gulls nesting along the cliff-face rushed upwards and filled his ears, and the breeze brought him the cool, salty tang of the ocean.

Marchenko arrived at his side. “We’re lucky that isn’t us down there.”

Koikov took a last drag on his papirosa and flicked the end over the edge. “Are we?”

There was no reply.

“What’s the situation with the others?” Koikov asked.

“Still no sign of any movement. I’ve got every man surrounding the cave, just as you ordered. Including the reinforcements from the Albanov, that’s sixty eyes, twenty-eight rifles and two RPGs pointed at one hole in the earth. So much as an ant pokes its head out and it’s World War Three.”

“Perfect,” Koikov said. “Go and make it twenty-nine rifles.”

“Are we really just gonna sit around like this and wait for something to happen?”

“No, Sergeant, we’re getting the fuck out of here. I spoke to Major Rabinovich again and he’s sending the remaining Kamov back over to start the evacuation. It’ll be here any minute, but until then I want every rifle, including yours, trained on that cave. I’m not taking any chances.”

4

Gergiev slid his leg across the scree and booted Khabensky in the ankle. “Hey, Khabensky.”

Khabensky turned his tiny little pin-head from the cave and stared at him. “Gergiev, you prick, keep your voice down!”

The call had gone out just after 05:00 that Koikov’s team needed help. Yudina had been killed, and the whole team, along with a small arsenal of weapons, were being sent over to the island on some kind of killer bear hunt.

“You don’t believe this shit, do you?”

“What shit?”

“That there’s some kind of psycho creature living in this cave.”

“No, I think it’s fucking crazy,” Khabensky said. “But what’s new?”

Since arriving on the island, all thirty or so men had spent the entire time in the same position, lying prone on the jagged, ball-chafing rock, rifles shouldered and trained on the mouth of