B008IFNJZM EBOK, page 17
“Man, your plan is working great! All we have to do is ask for something and your government immediately delivers it. We even have portable toilets and running water near the power station.”
“What have Tom and the girls been up to?”
“They are the night shift. Every night from what I understand, the girls have been flying off. Tom doesn’t say much. He is getting more on edge since the days are getting fewer.”
“He hasn’t gone down into the cave while we were gone? We are his protection.”
“I don’t think so. Only I and Elizabeth have gone down.”
“You know the two of you shouldn’t go down there without us either. It’s our job to keep you safe as well.”
“I know. We just ran to the ledge and back. It was daytime.”
“Yes, well most of the Bigfoot sightings are in the daytime.”
“Yes that is true, but the information we got is fantastic! Later, I will play back the hard drive for you and the others. You have got to see this. The Sargent Major gave me three miles of cable and we now have video cameras out on the ledge with telescopic lenses. We have collected a great deal of data.”
“Well we are going to eat. We have an hour or two before Crosley & Jerrick show up. What has Elizabeth been doing?”
“Gathering everything we can off of the Internet. We now have high speed Internet via unrestricted military satellites.”
“I wasn’t aware we had such hardware deployed in space.”
“They have been granted access to the United States orbital military hardware.”
“Good, we will look forward to your briefing.”
***
As the two mercenaries ate, the Sargent Major came over and went through the equipment now on station for their immediate usage. Crosley and Jerrick finally pulled in and joined the others eating. After a short meeting, the four men went back to Nathan’s tent. Tom came through the top of the semi and immediately met up with his sister and they too, entered the briefing tent. Nathan stood next to the equipment as the others gathered around and Elizabeth picked up her sheets of data that she retrieved from the Internet. Crosley noticed that none of the military seemed to be authorized to enter Nathan’s tent or have a ‘need to know’ privilege.
“Okay, the second the Sargent Major arrived and his men began to seal off this area, the first truckloads of supplies arrived as well. His men set up spools of cables and stayed topside as Elizabeth and I rolled out cable to reach the ledge overlooking the valley. We then set up cameras that can be controlled from here to begin watching the valley below twenty-four hours a day.”
Jerrick was curious. There hadn’t really been any Bigfoot sightings since we arrived.
“So you were able to set up all this equipment without having to confront the Meeratts?”
Elizabeth responded to Jerrick and the others.
“No and we did make a considerable amount of noise rolling spools of cable down to the ledge and then unrolling each spool until we had enough to reach back here. It was almost as if the Meeratts were avoiding us.”
Everyone could tell that Nathan was excited about what they were about to observe on the monitors.
“But about two hours after the cameras were operational, we began to get great footage.”
Nathan froze the screen on an area of neck high tall grass.
“First came the Bunyips. You can see four black tails moving through the grass.”
Elizabeth points to the screen as the tails are moving through the tall grass whipping the thick weeds.
“We believe that these are the females. They are going out hunting at the same time. The females hunt as a pack for their young.”
Nathan added his commentary.
“We believe that there are four families of these creatures in this part of the valley.”
“From what I have been able to ascertain from the Internet, these creatures are like rats. A male rat will only have a single female rat as a mate for life. If that female dies, the male will never take another mate just like rats.”
Berdy is taking this all in.
“We must let the others know that if they attack, these females will be using coordinated attack patterns. They appear to hunt as a team much like what is believed to be the same tactics used by prehistoric raptors.”
The group watches as the females attack and kill a croc. As the one female leaves with the kill in her jaws, the others focus in on a group of dodo birds and quickly attack and kill a single bird each. The females then retreat to lairs. The footage is sped forward to another point in time where the four males are now out in the same area of tall grass. They are taller and their backs, necks and heads are above the weeds.
“Notice that the four males in this pride don’t really travel together, but instead, are going to appear to be scouting their portion of the valley with one of them in the lead. We believe this one out in front is the ‘alpha’ male. What bothered us about this is that given the size of the pride being four males and four females why didn’t their appetites for food exhaust the populations of the crocs and the dodo birds.”
Elizabeth interrupts Nathan.
“You see gentlemen, we are talking about this community of Bunyips needing four to five hundred pounds of food every four days. That would mean that after the litters of new cubs have their cubs, all it would take is one or two generations of young to increase the total demand for food and exhaust all the resources in the valley.”
Nathan then added.
“What we don’t know is how often each female has a litter of young and we don’t know how many each one has.”
Elizabeth looks at her notes.
“We did find one ancient legend that a female could give birth to as many as six cubs.”
“So the math didn’t make sense until we caught this.”
The video off of the hard drive is advanced to a point and a camera angle that shows an opening in the far wall on the other side of the valley. A pair of Bigfoot creatures come out on a ledge and seems to be discussing the valley below. The entire group strains to get an observation of the seven foot hairy creatures.
“Well they can definitely communicate.”
“Yes and watch what happens next.”
The group watches as seven Bigfoots come out with large baskets on their backs.
“Females?”
“Yes they are a little smaller. Watch what they do.”
The cameras are moving and following the group as they make their way along the far wall. Many shots show only bits and pieces of what these creatures are doing. Finally, the cameras do lock in on a distant shot where neither the green top mushrooms nor the grass is obstructing their activity. The video cameras then zoom in on the activity. The female Bigfoots are approaching a female Bunyip laying on her side with several young ones suckling her. It is obvious that the mother is somehow being communicated with and she does not move as one might expect to protect her young. While one of the female Bigfoots pets the mother, another picks up her young one at a time and sets them into a basket on the back of the third. When she is done, only two young remain. The mother does nothing to stop the extraction of young ones.
“We believe that these young ones are being removed from this valley to insure the balance between these creatures and the existing food supply of the valley.”
“So you think the Meeratts are relocating those to another valley somewhere else?”
“Possibly or maybe they will train the little ones.”
Elizabeth looks up from her notes.
“Or maybe they are taking them as their food source. We have no idea.”
Jerrick now asks a question.
“So in this valley we have only four pair of Bunyip creatures to be concerned about?”
“That is hard to say. Like all big cats, these four families on this end of the valley are territorial by nature. They seem to patrol their portion of this valley. There could be another pride on the other side of the valley also being controlled in size. This is the only pride we can capture on video.”
Elizabeth looks at her notes.
“If we try to develop a time line on this pride’s movements, we would propose that when it is eight in the evening topside, it is early morning in the valley and the pride should be settled in for their day time. We can then predict when they hunt given that all information we have at this point indicates that these animals are nocturnal hunters.”
“So our best opportunity for Tom and his party to cross the valley safely would be around midnight our time during their daytime rest period when activity by the pride is at its lowest.”
“We think that is correct. That would be the best time to avoid the females hunting for their young.”
“Remember that the males do patrol their territory and that would mean that as far as the males are concerned there is no safe time to really cross the valley. All we can say for sure is that the females are not likely to be out and about if you begin your journey around midnight our time.”
Nathan looked up with a serious face.
“There is one other thing we are sure of.”
“What’s that professor?”
The Meeratts know we are here. That is the single fact I am sure of.”
Chapter 31 The Team
Once the entire team arrived, Nathan and Elizabeth began another complete briefing showing the video. They could tell that by the time the last images went up on the monitors there was no longer anyone with a doubt regarding all the creatures they were told about back in the Capital. Willie leaned over to Henry.
“If those things don’t kill us, we are going to be millionaires!”
“Yeah and we will actually have money in the bank for a change.”
Willie turned to Elizabeth.
“You know, this whole world might be lined with valleys like this. I mean wherever there are deposits of this substance making this light, the Meeratts may have actually constructed similar game preserves.”
“Aye, and that is what this valley is… a managed game preserve.”
“Yes. And other valleys might even have more varieties of what our world would call extinct creatures. Maybe these Meeratts collect and save animals from the topside for just that reason. Think of all the species that we consider extinct on the surface.”
“You know Miss Elizabeth, taking the young ones from their mother at such an early age, would give the Meeratts a powerful weapon of defense.”
“What do you mean?”
“Being that young and being able to communicate with them, they could be trained. Like someone who trains killer attack dogs.”
Nathan responds.
“Yes. That is a distinct possibility.”
“Where are Crosley and Jerrick?”
“They are pulling cables and wenches down to the ledge. They will then set up their hoists to be our equipment and personnel elevator down into the valley. We are not going to use the stone stairs. They are too narrow and carrying equipment down them would be a danger in itself.”
“Well we aren’t making any money standing around here. Let’s go down there and help them.”
“Yeah, the quicker we start, the quicker we get rich.”
The men start to leave and Nathan stops them.
“Okay. I need you all to see the Sargent Major. He has a list of material that has to be taken down to the overhang area. Keep in mind that neither he nor any of his men know what we are doing below the surface.”
The young Shawn interjects his thoughts about all that he has seen.
“According to the legends I was told as a kid, the Aborigines always knew when a Bunyip was about to attack. It would always let out these loud terrifying screams. The people would immediately tell each other that is was time to hide their children. Legend said those things always came after children first.”
Henry smiles at the young lad.
“Well son, I guess you better be careful cause that would mean they are coming after you.”
Some of the men laughed as they all piled out to suit up and find out what equipment still had to be taken down to the ledge.
***
As the men approached the ledge carrying equipment, they saw Platt Neander & Berdy Hahn scanning the valley below with their riffles. Henry noticed that they were not scanning with tranquilizer rifles, they were both holding powerful fifty caliber semiautomatic sniper rifles.
“Now if those boys fire, they are definitely going to put something asleep for a very long time.”
The men sat down their loads alongside of a accumulated mound of material already down there. Henry walked over to see what Tom and the three women were assembling. Most of the men had seen enough to know those three were really vampires. A few didn’t seem so impressed that they were a threat in anyway. Shawn was one of those men. Tom noticed them and stood up.
The one already assembled was being inspected by the men.
“This is the first grass crawler we have ready. It has been painted with a camouflage design.”
“Henry here sir. That’s a waste of time sir. All the camouflage is going to do is to make it harder for us to find our own equipment. I believe those cats and the Meeratts will be using their keen senses of smell and hearing if they decide to attack us.”
“Yes Henry. We got them from your military and the units were already painted.”
“What is that made of…? It doesn’t look like metal.”
“It’s not Henry. It is made of a very strong polymer used by such organizations as the United States SEAL teams. You see men, that when a SEAL team is deployed on a ‘search and destroy’ or a rescue mission, many times the team is dropped into the water and they use rubber rafts to take them to shore or into combat. To protect their rubber boats from being punctured by bullets, the team has panels of this material over the rubber making it bullet proof. Just a one inch thick panel of this material offers more protection from bullets than a quarter inch of steel armor and it is extremely light. These grass cutters are built to hold two people.
“These big rollers in front and in back, are hollow and filled with gas to make them lighter in the field. We expect the tall weed area to be water covered with a thick mud base.”
Shawn had never seen this device up close. Tom could tell and Hadiya walked over.
“Two people get inside and close this latch. They are now in a sealed compartment that should offer some protection from claws and teeth. The two men then grab these handles and push it forward or backward. The man in front will steer. These hooks are for your tranquilizer rifles. The front panels come together to make a shape similar to the front of a boat. These two front panels are covered on the outside of the craft with razor sharp metal. The idea here is to move forward and the craft spreads the weeds and grass to the sides and you move forward with a certain amount of ease like a ship cutting through the water. Anything in front of you will be cut if it does move out of your way. These upper panels on the sides are transparent and perforated to serve as gun ports. This craft eliminates men in front with machetes cutting a path for the others behind them and being exposed to direct contact with the animals in the wild. The down side of these crafts is that something like a snake could still slither under the side panels and under the smooth ski like runners below them. “
Shawn is more interested in the woman than in what she is saying.
“Well beautiful, the down side is that it is not tall enough to fire in the upright position. You would almost be down on one knee when you shoot. The other drawback is that given the sizes of the Meeratts and those cats down here, I would think either could tip you over.”
Hadiya is flattered by this man’s attention and his smile.
“Well then, I would suggest that you do not allow yourself to get that close to something that big.”
Iolana leaned over to Chelsea. Both women could see some chemistry developing between the two.
“That’s funny, I didn’t hear any rifle shot.”
***
As soon as the units were assembled, the team was sent down, Shawn along with the two mercenaries, took up positions to offer a cover fire if needed. The trio stood on the rocks scanning the area as the crafts were brought down one by one. Shawn would disconnect the guide cables and push the unit from the back to make a space for the next unit to come down the wall. Each of the three women came down with their special coffin bed rolls on their back. Two of the members stayed topside as Crosley mounted a red flag on a light pole so its location would be seen from the ledge as the lead vehicle. Chelsea came over as Crosley inspected his clipboard.
“So who do you have assigned to each of the grass cutters? Am I with you?”
“Of course and Iolana is with Tom in his unit.”
“Did you say that young man’s name was Shawn?”
“Yes. Why?”
She tugged on his arm and smiled up as Crosley lost his concentration.
“Put him with Hadiya.”
“Playing matchmaker?”
“No, actually I am playing chemist.”
“Who will be in the lead of our convoy?”
“Tom and Iolana, but you and I will be on his right flank and Berdy and Jerrick will be on his left flank.”
