Chapter 17: Extraction

  The clicking echoed in the empty building.

  Little Bear’s shotgun snapped toward the Visitor Center entrance. Hector’s rifle followed. Loni pulled Maria and Emilia back until their shoulders bumped the cool stone of a low planter wall.

  JJ aimed his rifle as a shadow slid across the rotunda’s broken light.

  “They’re stalking us,” JJ said.

  Hector’s jaw worked. “Jefe, if we’re going to get the girls out, we need to do it now.”

  “LB, you’re on overwatch, Hector, get ready to pop smoke,” JJ said.

  The clicking stopped. For half a second, the building was nothing but wind moving through ivy and the faint rotor hum fading somewhere above the canopy.

  Then a shape flashed at the doorway, dark and compact, too fast to read clearly, just a blur of limbs and tail.

  Little Bear fired.

  The blast cracked across the clearing. Dust jumped from the doorway’s stonework. The shape vanished back into the rotunda with a shriek.

  Hector muttered, “Annoying fuckers.”

  Maria flinched hard at the gunshot. Loni knelt and patted her shoulder. “You’re doing great,” she said. “You're almost out of here.”

  JJ keyed his mic. “J-2-zero, we’ve got multiple hostile contacts. We need a hover pickup. Two civilian girls for extraction.”

  Static hissed, then the pilot’s voice cut in. “Copy Muldoon.”

  JJ nodded at Hector. “Mark it.”

  Hector’s grin was humorless as he fished another grenade from his kit. “Thought you’d never ask, jefe.”

  JJ looked at Little Bear. “Keep them back. Loni, get the girls ready. Hector, watch the treeline.”

  The sound of rotor blades swelled fast, pressing down. The smoke churned. Leaves and dust lifted off and spun.

  Maria ducked instinctively, hands over her head.

  Loni grabbed her wrist. “Come on, hon, you’re out of here,” she said.

  The cable dropped the dark line, snapping slightly as it hit the turbulent air. It swung once, then twice, before JJ reached out and caught it with his gloved hand.

  Loni took out her kit and guided Maria into the harness.

  “Put your arms through,” Loni ordered. “Like that. Good. Now hold still.”

  Maria’s hands shook so badly that she kept missing the strap.

  A click sounded from the staircase.

  Little Bear fired, the blast of the shotgun echoing through the lawn.

  A feathered body tumbled down the stairs, headless.

  More clicking came from above, followed by distressed hisses.

  Hector swore. “?Mierda!”

  JJ swung his rifle toward the entrance. More shadows were crowded near the entrance, yellow eyes glinting.

  “Muldoon,” the pilot barked. “Thirty seconds!”

  “Copy,” JJ said.

  Loni cinched Maria’s harness tight and hooked her in and slapped the connection point twice to check it.

  Maria stared up, her breathing coming quick and short.

  “Don’t worry, you’re okay now,” Loni reassured her. “Just hold on to the cable.”

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  JJ watched a second shape launch from the shadows of the entrance, low and fast. Aiming for Little Bear.

  Little Bear shifted his weight and fired.

  At the last second, the creature dodged, narrowly avoiding the shot. Little Bear pumped the forestock and fired again. The blast punched dirt and shredded grass. The animal veered hard again, claws scraping concrete as it skidded across the front steps and vanished back into the Visitor Center.

  Hector exhaled in relief. “Fuckers finally got a clue.”

  From the entrance, more eyes glinted, yellow pinpricks behind the broken glass and hanging vines. Heads tilted. Bodies half-hidden. They watched them.

  Cold, predatory eye calculating.

  The Jayhawk’s rotor-wash hammered the front lawn, flattening weeds, whipping loose vines against the stone fa?ade. Red smoke curled and tore in the wind.

  The pilot’s voice cut through the radio. “Twenty seconds, Muldoon.”

  JJ nodded. “Copy. Hoist her up.”

  Maria held the hanging line with both hands. Her knuckles were white, her eyes flicking to the entrance, then to JJ, then up at the cable.

  “Don’t lock your elbows,” Loni said. “Let the harness do the work.”

  Maria tried to nod. It came out as a quick jerk.

  “Maria,” Loni said, voice low enough to cut through her panic. “When it lifts, don’t kick or twist. Got it?”

  Her lips moved once before sound came out. “Got it.”

  “Good.”

  The cable tightened as Maria rose an inch, boots skimming the concrete. Her breath hitched, and for a moment her hands clawed at the line like she was about to fall.

  Then the hoist lifted fast, knees bending instinctively as the air and wind grabbed her. The wash shoved her sideways.

  From the roof, one of the small shapes stepped forward, just fast enough to time the swing. Its head snapped up as Maria’s boots swung within reach.

  JJ fired once. The round sparked off the roof’s edge, and the creature flinched back. It retreated into shadow again, head tilted.

  Maria climbed higher, disappearing into the fuselage with the help of the hoist operator.

  Emilia let out a sound of relief.

  Loni grabbed her next. “You’re up.”

  Emilia tightened her grip on the axe. “No.”

  “Emilia,” Loni said, still calmly. “You're safe now, let it go.”

  Emilia's eyes flicked to the doorway. Her jaw worked, eyes watching. She hesitated a moment more, then she let the axe fall.

  It hit concrete with a heavy clunk that echoed off the Visitor Center’s stone.

  From the doorway, the clicking started again as the shapes shifted, crowding closer to the threshold.

  Loni secured the harness over Emilia’s shoulders. “Arms through. Good. Breathe.”

  Emilia’s breathing was shallow. She kept watching the yellow glint of eyes from the doorway.

  The cable dropped again, swinging in the wind. Loni caught it and clipped Emilia in. Two slaps on the connection point, and she was up.

  Two of the smaller ones had moved up now, one low on the left side of the entrance, the other higher, half-hidden behind a dangling vine.

  JJ shifted his muzzle a fraction higher, then spoke without looking away. “Little Bear. You take the Left, I got the right.”

  Little Bear’s shotgun tracked left.

  The higher shadow dipped, testing, then paused, hesitating at the sight of the guns.

  Then the left one made its decision. It burst straight for Emilia’s.

  Little Bear fired. The blast hit the stone steps just ahead of the animal, shredding chips and dust into its face. It recoiled instantly, skidding sideways, claws scrabbling on concrete, before it vanished back into the doorway with a shriek.

  Emilia rose fast. She held the line with both hands, eyes locked upward, refusing to look down at the doorway. The downwash shoved her sideways. She spun once, then steadied as the hoist corrected.

  JJ kept his rifle trained on the entrance the entire time.

  Emilia cleared the roof's edge and disappeared into the Jayhawk.

  The moment she was gone, the shapes at the entrance shifted again.

  JJ stepped forward half a pace, rifle centered, voice tight. “J-2-zero get them back to the Challenger.”

  “Roger that, Muldoon, Godspeed.”

  As the Jayhawk sped away, the doorway of the visitor center filled with the Agitated clicking. And then something moved deeper in the shadows, bigger than the others, pushing them aside as it neared the entrance.