Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure - By Jeremy Robinson Page 0,86
reminder that the beauty standing next to him caged a beast inside. With Queen by his side, Rook’s thoughts turned back to the mission. “Where’s King? Did you find Pawn?”
They crouched together in the nook of the tree. “We got her back, but then . . . something attacked us. Captured all three of us without a fight. We didn’t stand a chance.”
Rook nodded, eyes filling with fury. “Dr. Weston and his spawn.”
“Weston?”
“Picture Doctor Dolittle, but with a hankering for animal love, and you’re on the right track. He’s got a whole village of freaks. They’re faster than Knight. Stronger than Bishop.”
“I saw them,” Queen said, “when I escaped. How do you know what they are?”
Rook took a deep breath. He wasn’t ready to tell the story, so he turned it into an ugly little pill for Queen to swallow. “He explained everything to Bishop right before his hairy little bastard child took off Bishop’s head. Somi’s dead, too.”
Her eyes flared with intensity, neither widening or squinting. “Knight?”
“Injured, but alive. Hiding for now. He’ll make it.” Rook shook his head, remembering the things he’d seen. “There’s more. The mothers of Weston’s people . . . fully Neanderthal. Before we found him, they’d captured Knight. Hung him in a meat locker. Saving him for an afternoon snack. They’re more monster than any kind of man, Neanderthal or otherwise. The first generation of Weston’s group was born to them. I don’t know how many of them there are now, but they mature quickly, like animals, so I’m guessing there are a lot.”
Queen nodded after taking it all in. “You have a plan?”
“I was going to cover myself in mud, recon the area, find Weston and Cha-Ka, and then kick some ass . . . but with King and Pawn captured . . .”
“We need to rescue them and complete the mission.”
He ground his teeth, remembering Bishop’s death.
“And if we run into Weston on the way,” she said, “well then, we’ll just see what happens.”
He could live with that. “Have a direction?”
She pointed. “North. Probably at the base of that mountain.”
A tall green mountain with a clear rocky peak could be seen through the small holes in the canopy. A layer of fog drifted around the uppermost peak.
“In the tunnels, the ones you and King took. Did you see the symbols on the walls?” Rook asked.
Queen remembered them well. “Every time the tunnels branched.”
Rook nodded. “Like road signs. Well, there was more . . . a lot more. A whole city of the dead. Buildings built from bones. Neanderthal bones. The place glowed with green algae. It was creepy as hell and huge. If it had been made by man, it would easily qualify as a world wonder. But Weston shrugged it off as no big deal. Said it was the tip of the iceberg. I’ll bet my left nut that we won’t find them on that mountain.”
Rook met Queen’s eyes, glowing blue, surrounded by mud. “They’ll be in it.”
FORTY
WESTON SQUATTED ON his toes, elbows resting on knees. He appeared to have reverted back to some sort of savage state, the kind you see in 1970s caveman movies—hairy hippies dressed in cloth diapers and smelling of raw meat. The one flaw to his caveman appearance was his thick glasses that enlarged his blue eyes.
Sara found the man’s scent repulsive and focused on breathing through her mouth instead of her nose.
“Don’t suppose you could untie us?” King asked, squirming to get comfortable.
Weston frowned. “I’m sorry, but we’ve learned to not trust people from the outside world.”
“There were three of us,” King said, knowing the statement would ask the question he’d been wondering since his hood was removed: Where was Queen?
“Your friend aptly demonstrated why we trust you so little,” Weston said, his frown becoming a scowl.
“She escaped?” Sara asked.
“Indeed,” Weston said. “Just after killing one of our guards and nearly killing a little girl. She’ll be found soon enough, though. And if the others can keep themselves from exacting their revenge, she’ll be joining you here.”
Hearing Queen had escaped and was still at large was good news, but knowing Weston was overestimating his odds of capturing her a second time was excellent. He had no idea whom he was pursuing.
King looked Weston over. The man had a friendly face and demeanor, but he’d seen dangerous men put on a good show before. “You’re American?”
“Once upon a time, that’s what I called myself, yes.”
“But not anymore?”
“You seem very confident for a man who’s tied up,”