'Well, .first of all, we can safely assume that the rapa is nocturnal. The remains of local men are found only in the morning. And we know from our own experience that these cats flee from the morning light. Ergo, they are nocturnal.
They hunt only at night and retire for the main part of the day.'
'If they've been shut up inside that temple for generations,' Race said, 'how could they have survived? What have they been eating?'
'That I do not know,' Krauss said, frowning seriously, as if he were pondering a troublesome mathematical equation.
Race looked up at the mountain-plateau that housed the mysterious temple. A veil of slanting rain covered its rocky eastern face.
'So what are they doing now?' he said.
'Sleeping, I imagine,' Krauss said, 'in the safety of their temple. Which is why now is the best time to send our men in to get that idol.'
Scott, Wilson and Graf emerged from the narrow passageway and stepped out into the pool of shallow water at the base of the magnificent crater.
It was unusually dark in the canyon. Any light that there was had been blocked out by the thick rain clouds in the sky and the dense canopy of trees that overhung the crater's rim. Every fissure and crack in the canyon's walls was cloaked in shadow.
Scott and Wilson walked in front. Thin beams of light shot out from the small flashlights attached to the barrels of their M16s.
'All right—' Scott said into his throat mike.
“—we're heading up the path now,” his voice said over the monitor's speakers.
Race watched tensely as, on the screen, Scott, Wilson and Graf stepped up out of the water and onto the narrow pathway that was cut into the crater's outer wall.
Johann Krauss said, 'What we must also remember about our enemy, however, is that they are, first and foremost, cats.
They cannot change what they are. They think like cats, they act like cats.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning that only one species of great cat—the cheetah-catches its prey by chasing after it.'
'How do other great cats catch their prey?'
'There are several strategies. Tigers in India are known to lie in wait covered in leaves, sometimes for hours at a time, waiting for their prey to arrive on the scene. Once their prey comes close enough, they pounce.
'On the other hand, lions in Africa employ quite sophisticated pack-hunting methods—one such technique involves a lioness parading around in front of a herd of gazelles while her colleagues sneak up on the gazelles from behind. It's quite ingenious really, and very effective. But it is also very unusual.'
'Why?' Race asked.
'Because it implies the existence of some kind of communication between the lions.“
Race turned back to face the monitor.
The three soldiers had made it a short way up the spiralling path, so that they were now about ten feet above the wide body of water that covered the base of the crater.
Race was watching Corporal Wilson's camera view as it panned out over the flat expanse of water when suddenly he saw a flicker of movement on the water's surface.
It had been a ripple of some sort—from something just underneath the water's surface.
“What was that?' he said.
'What was what?'
'Wilson,' Race said, leaning close to the microphone.
'Look to your right for a second, at the water.'
Graf and Scott must have heard Race's question too because, at that moment, all three camera views panned right, out over the glistening expanse of water that encircled the base of the rock tower.
“I don't see anything…” Scott said.
'There!' Race said, pointing at another ripple in the water.
It seemed to have been made by the whiplash of an animal's tail. An animal that seemed to be travelling in the direction of the three soldiers.
'what the hell… ?' Scott said as he looked out over the wide body of water before him.
A small bow-wave of water seemed to be cutting across the lake at an unusually quick speed—-coming right toward him and his men.
Scott frowned. Then he took a cautious step forward, toward the edge of the path and the ten-foot drop down to the water's surface.
He peered out over the edge.
And saw three black cats clawing their way up the sheer stone wall beneath him!
