Terror In The Mist (The Island In The Mist Book 3) Read online

  “He did,” Cold confirmed. “And the sad thing is that he still has no idea that he did.”

  Jonathon kept his back turned to Cold and he continued to face the countertop. “What the hell does that mean?” he growled.

  “You still don’t fully grasp the value of this island and its inhabitants,” Cold replied. “Myself, and the department I work for, were willing to take all and any avenues at our disposal to find out as much as we could about this place.”

  Jonathon finally stood up straight and turned to face him. Suddenly, he began to understand. “Did you bug his phone?” he asked as he thought back to his conversation with Silas about his aspirations of writing a tell-all book.

  Mr. Cold stared at him and nodded slowly.

  Harley had been patiently watching the two men speak cryptically at one another and had finally had enough. She charged between them. “Alright, I’m going to ask one more time,” she said, clearly angry. “Tell me what is going on here or I may shoot both of you.”

  Jonathon smiled. “If I tell you, you won’t believe me,” he replied.

  “Tell me,” she demanded.

  Jonathon sighed and crossed his arms. “Alright,” he said. “Cold here is referring to the fountain of youth…it’s on this island.”

  Harley narrowed her eyes and cocked her head to the side. “You’re kidding.”

  “He is telling you the truth,” Cold answered for him. “It exists and he’s seen it.”

  Harley stepped toward Jonathon and locked eyes with him. “Tell me he’s crazy,” she said, jerking a thumb toward Mr. Cold. “There is no such thing as the fountain of youth.”

  “I wish I could say that were true,” he said genuinely. “If it were true, none of this would be happening and many people that have died here would still be alive.”

  Harley nodded slowly and then began pacing the room. “So, if this is true, I’m guessing you’re also going to tell me that it’s got something to do with why there are dinosaurs still roaming around here.”

  “I think it’s the logical explanation,” Jonathon answered.

  “Okay, then where is it exactly?” she asked, still pacing.

  “It’s in a cave a couple of miles from here,” Cold said. “It’s not that far, but the terrain is somewhat difficult to get through.”

  Jonathon turned and walked to where Cold was standing. They were almost nose to nose. “Are you telling me you’ve seen it?” he asked.

  Cold looked him up and down and then gently pushed him back. “No, I have not seen it,” he snapped. “At least not in person. When we found out about the existence of the fountain, we began taking geological thermal scans of the island from the air. We were looking for an area that would register temperature signatures consistent with caves—and more importantly, water.”

  “So, you located it?” Harley asked, finally stopping next to Jonathon.

  Cold nodded. “Yes, but that’s not all we found,” he replied. “As fate would have it, our search for the fountain also brought a more sinister natural presence to light.”

  Jonathon gestured for him to continue as his anxiety level increased.

  “There is an underground volcano here,” he explained. “And the shallow underground fractures coupled with the extreme heat signatures made our geologists jump right out of their chairs. It was clear that time was running out on this island. They estimated we had months before the volcano pushed through the crust, but it seems their calculations were off pretty significantly.”

  “And just how long do we have?” Harley asked, wide-eyed.

  Mr. Cold popped his knuckles and shifted his weight…clearly his injured arm was bothering him. “It’s hard to say,” he said. “Could be days, but most likely we have hours.”

  “Hours?” Jonathon replied, dumbfounded.

  Cold inhaled deeply through his nose and nodded. “Probably so,” he said. He paused and then approached Jonathon, once again bringing the two men almost nose to nose. “And if we don’t act now, the fountain will be destroyed.”

  “Act?” Harley asked. “Act how? We can’t stop a natural occurrence like the one you’re describing.”

  Cold waved her off with a dismissive gesture. “No, of course we can’t,” he replied. “We’re not going to stop anything. But what we can do is gather some of the water and take it back to the states where we can do extensive research on it. If we can duplicate—”

  “No,” Jonathon interrupted firmly. “Why would we want to do that? If you know about the fountain, then you probably know that not long ago a 500-year-old man finally died and was grateful to do so. He felt that the magical powers of that water were a curse, not a gift.”

  “Ah yes,” Cold replied. “We know all about Chief Macuya—or Osvaldo, whatever you wish to call him. And just because one man told you it was curse does not mean that it could not be a tremendous benefit to mankind. Think of all the good that we could do with it,” he paused and closed his eyes as if he were watching a movie in his mind’s eye. “There is no telling what sort of medical advancements we could discover that would make the quality of life longer and better for everyone. Remember that your wife was a benefactor of the miracles of modern medicine.”

  “You keep Lucy out of this,” Jonathon quipped, and he poked a finger into Cold’s chest.

  Cold glanced down at his chest and then shot a fiery look at Jonathon. “Who are you to deny the world of the benefits of what that water could bring us?”

  Jonathon chuckled and turned away from Mr. Cold. He walked toward the opposite end of the bunker and leaned against the cool concrete wall. “You said the same thing about these dinosaurs,” he said, smiling rather maniacally. He then glanced over at the unconscious Glenn Hardcastle. “You told me two years ago that studying these animals would be beneficial to mankind. But all I’ve seen so far is that the people that continue to meddle with this island continue to die. When are you going to get that through your thick skull?”

  “I will get the water with or without your help,” Cold spat in disgust.

  Jonathon shook his head. “You’re not even supposed to be here! Exactly when and how was this water going to be collected?”

  “Hank Bailey,” he answered quickly. “Hank was the man I hired to confirm the cave’s existence and to retrieve a sample of water. All the while Harley, Victor, Cliff, and yourself searched for, and then worked to extract, the survivors from this island. Hank was never a part of that plan.”

  Jonathon noticed a brief expression of anger wash over Harley’s face. “So that explains why I was left in the dark when he was hired,” she said bitterly.

  “Yes, I’m sorry, but this was top secret and I wanted you to focus on the task of locating the survivors,” he replied somewhat apologetically. “The plan was for him to report back to us and at a later date a larger team would come back to gather a significantly larger sample.”

  “And then your plane went down unexpectedly,” Jonathon said.

  “And once we were all on the ground, the earthquakes threw you another curveball,” Harley added.

  Mr. Cold nodded and bit his lower lip. He stretched both of his arms outward on either side of his torso, palms up. “I’ve got no choice but to complete the mission,” he said. “I’d be grateful for some help.”

  Jonathon scowled at him. “We’ve still got people in that compound that need our help,” he said, pointing toward the tunnel door.

  “And they’ve got Victor and Cliff there to help them,” Cold countered.

  “We hope they do,” Jonathon rebutted. “We haven’t really been able to speak to them since they’ve been in that building.”

  Cold sighed and closed his eyes. He was clearly agitated but was doing his best to control his emotions. “Harley, I think if you joined me, we could make it in a matter of hours. We could be back to the beach by noon and join the others when it’s time to leave.”

  “Absolutely not,” Jonathon said, stepping toward him. He positioned himself in
between Cold and Harley as if he were trying to keep her from even hearing the suggestion. “I’ve been in that cave and as I remember it, it was full of Troodons. Those are dangerous animals that—”

  “I know about the Troodons,” Cold replied. “Do you really think that the only reason I’ve had Dr. Nelson studying that particular species of dinosaur was for military reasons?”

  Jonathon felt his heart race. “You’ve been studying them so that you can get past them in the cave?”

  Cold shrugged. “Partially,” he admitted. “I wasn’t lying when I told you that the animals were being trained for use in warzones. However, learning their behaviors was an added bonus once we began this quest to find the fountain.”

  “Well, I don’t care how much time you’ve spent studying, or what sort of technology you’ve used to find the cave,” Jonathon said. “But me and Harley are going to focus on the reason we were dropped onto this wretched island to being with. If you want to go kill yourself to get a bottle of water, then you go right on ahead.”

  Jonathon turned to look at Harley and was stunned by the expression on her face. It was not a look of someone that agreed with his position. She stared at him wide-eyed and her expression slowly turned to something that resembled a child begging for forgiveness.

  “Oh no,” he said softly.

  She smiled slightly. “Jonathon, you and Glenn get to the compound,” she said. “I’m going to help him get the water.”

  He marched toward her and grabbed her forearm. He then pulled her toward a far corner of the bunker. “Please don’t do this,” he whispered.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, and her tone suggested she believed it. “I know that you’ve had some bad experiences here, but I get what he’s trying to do,” she added, glancing past him to where Cold was standing.

  “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen here. There are monsters on this island that can kill you before you even know what’s happening. And don’t think that gun hanging around your neck is going to keep you alive either,” he said. “You shoot that thing at a tyrannosaur and it’ll just smile at you and keep coming.”

  “Trust me, I won’t be relying on my gun,” she replied, sounding somewhat insulted. “And by the way, I’ve kept your butt alive since we jumped out of that plane.”

  Jonathon took a step back from her. It was clear that nothing he could say was going to sway her to stay. “Please,” he said softly.

  Harley grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled his face toward hers until their foreheads touched and she was looking directly into his eyes. “Look in my eyes,” she said. “When I tell you I will be fine, I mean every word of it. I’ll get him to the cave, we will collect the water, and we will meet you at that beach by noon tomorrow.”

  Jonathon pulled away from her and stomped toward Cold. “You know I’ve never trusted you since the first day I met you,” he growled. “You remind me of an old man I used to know.”

  Mr. Cold stared at him, perplexed.

  “His name was Angus Wedgeworth and his bones are somewhere wasting away on this island as we speak. He became obsessed with finding that fountain too,” Jonathon said. “It didn’t work out too well for him and you’re making the same mistakes he made.”

  “Maybe I am,” Cold shot back, and then glanced over at Harley. “But did he have a heavily armed combat soldier by his side?”

  “I’m pretty sure he did not,” she said.

  Jonathon could only watch in awe as she now stood beside her employer. She was now fully on board with his plan and there wasn’t a single thing he could do to stop it.

  Chapter 23

  The moment that Victor awoke, he felt panicked. He glanced at his watch and was surprised to see that nearly four hours had passed since he and Cliff had changed shifts. Daybreak was mere minutes away and Cliff was nowhere in sight. Victor scrambled to his feet and readied his rifle. He paused a moment to check on Charlie and Matt. He was pleased to see that they were still asleep.

  I got enough to worry about without babysitting them right now, he thought.

  As he surveyed the environment, Victor quickly noticed a stool had been placed directly under the gaping hole in the ceiling. It seemed to him that for some unknown reason Cliff had decided to climb up to the fourth floor. With careful consideration to each and every step he took, Victor quietly crept toward the hole with his rifle pointed the same direction as his line of vision. He refrained from calling out to his partner, though every fiber in his being currently wanted to.

  In his mind, the best-case scenario would be that Cliff had decided to do some exploring, took a seat, and fell asleep. As angry as it would make him, Victor sincerely hoped that was what he was going to find. Worst-case scenario would obviously involve him being dead, and then there was something in between that would probably involve Cliff bleeding out and in desperate need of help.

  After gaining the confidence he needed to believe the upper floor was clear of dinosaurs, Victor quietly climbed upon the stool and then pulled himself upward into the room above. Due to the lack of windows, the room was quite dark. Victor flicked on the light mounted on the barrel of his rifle and began to scan his surroundings for any sign of movement.

  The first thing he noticed was the bloody prints all over the floor. They were three-toed and most likely left there by a Troodon. Victor reminded himself of the warnings Charlie and Matt had given him concerning the dinosaur’s intelligence. There was a knot forming in his stomach and it continued to grow with every passing second that he did not find Cliff. With as much stealth as he could muster, Victor continued with soft footsteps toward the hallway. Once he reached it, he cautiously peered both directions for any sign of movement. The light originating from the barrel of his weapon picked up something shiny smeared all over the floor. It was more blood and it looked much fresher than the dinosaur prints in the veterinary ward.

  Victor felt the knot in his stomach tighten even more and his pulse began to race. He looked on as the blood trail seemed to slither its way toward a nearby stairwell where it eventually disappeared altogether. Victor took a deep breath and then reached for another cigar in his pants pocket. He then placed it in his mouth but refrained from lighting it. He was afraid that the smell would potentially attract unwanted attention to himself. With great reluctance, he began to venture further into the hallway until he eventually found himself moving down the stairs.

  Once he was back on the third floor, Victor continued to follow the blood trail down the hallway until it finally ended in front of a door. Also in front of the door were the remains of Cliff Gordon. His mouth was open, an expression of pure terror etched on his face. His entrails had been taken and there was a nasty wound to his throat. Victor instinctively whipped his head around in all directions. As he did so, his light followed, and there was a brilliant flash of illumination in all directions.

  He could not be sure but he thought he saw a shadowy figure disappear around the corner at the far end of the hallway. Every fiber in his being told him he should retreat back to the recreation room below, but Victor knew the feeling was fueled by fear. The fact that he felt a bit of fear scared him even more than the possibility that there was a deadly dinosaur just around the corner. He took a deep breath and, with little effort, replaced the fear with anger. Most people would feel sadness upon the discovery that someone they were working with was now dead, but for Victor, it enraged him. Cliff was a soldier and had served his country just as he had. He didn’t deserve a death as cruel as the one he’d just been dealt. Victor had to make whatever was responsible pay for it. He snorted, and with his rifle leading the way, he began to walk toward the end of the hallway.

  “Alright, I’m coming for you,” he growled through clenched teeth. “I know you’re used to people running from you, but you’ll get no such pleasure from me.”

  He moved ahead with purpose and as soon as he reached the blind corner, he darted around it and opened fire. The barrel of his rifle spat fire and
the bullets that spewed from it tore through sheetrock and wood that covered the walls all around him. Within seconds, he realized there was no dinosaur waiting for him…the small corridor was completely empty. Victor noticed a staircase that led down to the lower floor and realized the animal had narrowly escaped death. With determination fueling him, he trudged onward and marched down the stairs.

  Once again, he found himself on the third floor. The hallway was still quite bloody from where George Powell had been killed hours earlier. His vision remained contained to wherever the light on his rifle was pointed. It was not an ideal situation and he knew that he was at a severe disadvantage to the dinosaurs that had been operating in the darkness of the building for days now. Since his eyes were of little use to him, he strained hard to listen with his ears for any sign of movement within the veil of black around him.

  “I know you’re out there,” he said, frustrated when he heard nothing at all. “Come on out and see if I’m as easy to kill as Cliff.”

  Again, he listened intently, and he thought he heard the subtle sound of breathing somewhere just behind him. He whipped around, expecting to see a dinosaur mere feet behind him, ready to pounce and kill him.

  Again, he saw nothing.

  Victor shook his head and for the first time, he relaxed. Perhaps the shadow he’d seen on the fourth floor hadn’t been a dinosaur at all. He guessed his eyes were now playing tricks on him. As he felt his heart rate begin to return to normal, he rested his back against the wall and then reached into his pocket for another cigar. After planting it between his lips, he then retrieved his lighter and his face lit up a golden orange color as he lit the cigar. He took a pull from it and blew the smoke out softly as he contemplated what his next course of action should be. With Cliff gone, it was just him and the two scientists that were depending on him. Luckily, the sun was now up, and with the water fully receded, he’d changed his mind. It would indeed be far safer to take Charlie and Matt downstairs with him, despite what he’d said earlier about them continuing to wait in the rec room. The way he saw it, the sooner they got out of the building, the better.