When the sun set, the jungleplunged into darkness, as if a blanket had been pulled over it. Awhole new set of creatures awakened and the jungle turned into aliving thing. In the distance a spine-tingling roar split the airwhile nearby thousands of high buzzing and chirping sounds surroundedher.
A branch snapped. Toemeka’sbreath caught in her throat and she stared in the direction of thenoise, straining to hear or see what it was. Couldit be Erling?An uneasy wave passed over her. She slipped out of her body andlooked down at the jungle from above. A huge moncron sniffed theground, moving in her direction. She reentered her body and scrambledup a tree trunk as the moncron came bounding toward her.
He lunged against the treesnapping, barking and growling. Something crashed through the jungle,coming closer and closer. She crawled out on a limb and pulled outher blaster.
A guard came into view below her,wearing night vision goggles and carrying a thermo-scope rifle. As helooked up, she fired her Blackhawk blaster. It made a sharp crack andkicked back against her chest, almost causing her to fall out of thetree. The guard collapsed. The moncron leapt off the ground, tryingto bite her feet. Its fanged mouth dripped saliva and its huge frontclaws scraped the tree, tearing off chunks of bark. She fired at itand the moncron whined. She fired again and again until it lay still.Moncrons never hunted alone and she wondered how many more were outthere. Their hearing was keen and the crack of a blaster wouldattract more of them.
15
New Dangers
Koriann stood on the dark oceanshoreline, gazing up at the stars. Somewhere on one of those tinydots of light, Erling and Toemeka were risking their lives for hercountry. Since they left, she’d been a bundle of nerves, fearfulthey wouldn’t make it back. Missions were dangerous.
A strong wind came up from theocean and blew strands of hair into her face. She brushed them backand took a deep breath of salty air. Hearing a noise, Koriann turnedand saw a man’s tall form walking toward her in the moonlight.
Recognizing his walk and build,she ran to him. “Michio! Thank God you’re here.”
He enfolded her into his arms.“Toemeka came to me inwardly and said she and Erling needed help. Iflew directly from the monastery to find out where they are, so I canhelp them.”
“What kind of danger are theyin?”
“They’re being hunted in ajungle. Erling was injured and too weak to go any further.”
“How badly hurt is he?”Koriann clutched Michio’s arm, feeling as if her knees might giveout.
“He’ll recover if they canmake it back. Where are they?”
“The Coalition sent them on asecret mission. That’s all I know.”
Michio frowned. “But Toemeka’sno longer on active duty?”
“She must have gone back onactive duty. She was helping with Jaipar’s defense when she washere.”
“She can’t be on active duty;she’s pregnant.”
“She is! She never said athing.”
“She was excited about it. Iassumed she would have told you right away. I’ll contact theCoalition and see what I can find out about the mission. Let’sreturn to the palace.”
They began walking back along thesandy beach.
“Michio, I’m sorry thishappened. I feel responsible since I told Toemeka about the missionand asked her to stop Erling from going. She’d been shot by asniper earlier in the day and it never occurred to me that she mightaccompany him.”
“She was shot by a sniper?”Michio stopped walking and stared at her in horror. He’d feltToemeka reach out to him in terror when he was sparring with Mazarka.That must have been when she was shot.
“The bullet wound wasn’t tooserious, but the impact caused her to lose her balance and take a badfall.”
Michio looked even moredistraught. “Then why would she go on a mission?”
“Because she knew it was toodangerous for Erling to go alone.”
“I don’t want to lose her,Koriann.” Michio’s face twisted in pain. “It doesn’t reallymatter why she went. I just don’t want anything to happen to her.”
From her branch perch, Toemekaheard someone, or something, running toward her, unconcerned aboutthe amount of noise they made. She raised her blaster as a man brokethrough the bushes.
“Toemeka, where are you?”Erling yelled.
“I’m up here.” She startedclimbing down the tree right as two moncrons came running out of thejungles at Erling.
“Look out!” she screamed.
“Stay up there!” Erlingyelled as he fired his blaster. He killed one, but the other knockedhim onto his back.
Toemeka scrambled down the treeand raised her blaster. She couldn’t see well in the dark anddidn’t dare fire for fear of hitting Erling. Grabbing a branch offthe ground, she slammed it into the beast. It turned toward hergrowling and she fired her blaster repeatedly until it crumpled tothe ground.
“Erling, are you all right?”She squatted beside him.
“I think so.” He stood. “Itold you to stay in the tree.”
“I was afraid I’d hit you ifI fired from up there.”
“I had everything undercontrol.”
“Sure you did,” she saidsarcastically.
“We’ve got to get out ofhere. The noise will attract other moncrons and guards.” He put onthe guard’s night vision goggles, then grabbed her hand and startedrunning in the direction of the outpost. The goggles enabled him tonavigate through thick foliage and around fallen trees, but Toemekahad to slow down to keep from tripping over roots. After they’dgone a fair distance, Toemeka dropped to her knees in a bog, tootired to go further, panting for breath.
Erling surveyed the area. “Comeon, Toe. More moncrons are trailing us.”
“I . . . can’t . . . go . . .any . . . further,” she said, panting for breath. She leaned overclutching her side.
“We can only rest a moment.”Erling stood alert, listening. All was quiet around them.
“I don’t hear them, but I’msure they’re out there. Why did you go wandering off like that?”
“I went to find food. I wasstarving, but I knew you needed sleep.”
“Next time wake me. It’sfortunate I woke up before it got dark. I’d almost decided to giveup searching for you until morning
