Page 39 of Tooth and Nail

As soon as they started walking toward the caves, Eoghan sensed something was wrong. The foliage on this part of the mountain was similar to vegetation all over the hillsides of California, a mix of scrub brush, pine, and various other evergreens and deciduous trees. In Griffith Park, it grew thick and lush, making the park a destination for thousands of hikers and birdwatchers, and a home for a multitude of other wildlife all year long.

In early spring as it was now, some trees were bare, only starting to get their new leaves, leaving the forested park much less dense than in summer and fall. The ground under their feet crunched with fallen leaves, acorns, and small twigs but other than that, the hum of insects and the song of native birds was eerily absent. He reached out and took hold of Ari’s arm, stopping him from moving forward as he glanced around. No one was in the vicinity.

“What is it?” Ari asked, frowning as he turned back to look at him, halting in place the moment he felt the slightest tug on his sleeve.

“I don’t like this. Listen. There’re no normal forest sounds. No animals. No birds. No insects. There’s something wrong, Ari. Put on your goggles and drape and keep the can of deterrent at the ready.” He squatted to pull open the zipper on his backpack, quickly donning the goggles and pulling the drape over his neck and shoulders. He removed the spray can, testing the weight of it in his hand before standing back up. He watched Ari do the same, then met his eyes, looking throughthe mesh and slowly nodding in the direction of the Bronson Caves. They fell into step with their empty backpacks slung over their shoulders, taking it slow as he scanned the sky.

He saw nothing…no albats, no birds, not even a butterfly for that matter.

When they got within fifty yards of the cave, he noticed something lying on the ground near a tree. Its blackness was out of place. He frowned before glancing around. In fact, several small, black objects were spread out on the ground, appearing to ooze blood. As he walked up to the first one and squatted to get a better look at it, he realized what he was seeing. He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and withdrew a pair of gloves before handing a second set to Ari who crouched beside him. When he slowly picked up the small albat, he gently turned it over and over to identify it.

“Is it an albat?” Ari asked.

He hadn’t been sure until he spotted the large ears and slits where two eyes would have been. It was so tiny it fitted into the palm of his hand, about the size of the smallest variety of Chiroptera. It differed from an Earth bat by the distinctive yellow stripe which ran right down the center of its back. He traced a finger down its spine before looking up at Ari.

“You see that?”

“The yellow stripe? What does that mean? Is this human—er—earthly or an albat?”

“Albat,” he confirmed. It made him sick to his stomach to say so. He turned it over to look at its belly, noting the poor thing appeared to have had its throat torn out. He pointed to the wound on the front of his finely boned little neck.

“Something cut its throat?” Ari asked.

“It’s not a cut. It looks like something tore his throat out, similar to the way a werewolf would attack his prey. Albats have no natural predators and if an Earth creature got to them,they would have eaten them, not torn out their throats and left their corpses on the ground like this,” he said, examining another one lying nearby. “These have been killed by a larger albat, probably like the Acerodon jubatus—the flying foxes—we were talking about earlier. Ralphie told us they’re his colony’s only natural enemy and it just makes sense if Ralphie’s people made it off his planet, they may have followed suit. This is a big problem, or it might turn out to be one if we don’t get to the bottom of it right away.”

“A problem for the albats for sure,” Ari said, glancing around at what Eoghan now realized had to be close to a hundred tiny, black bodies which lay from where they were squatting, all the way to the cave’s entrance. Eoghan gently laid the body back on the ground and stood up.

“Not only for albats,” Eoghan said, pinning Ari with a serious gaze. “If we have what amounts to an invasion of a species of albat this aggressive, they are bound to go looking for a food supply soon. Acerodon jubatus’ eat fruit as well as other Chiroptera but who knows if this alien breed is some sort of vampire bat. Even a hybrid could spell real trouble. Seriously, this could be really fucking bad, Ari.”

“What do we do now?” Ari asked, looking around at all the carnage on the ground.

Eoghan did his own slow survey of the area. Tiny lumps of bleeding, black bodies littered the ground, reminding him of the aftermath of the buffalo hunt scene inDances with Wolves, one of his favorite movies. He reached for his phone and hit speed dial, putting the call on speaker as Ari twisted around to look at him.

“The chief?”

Eoghan nodded. “Yeah, I know what we’re going to do, but I need to clue her in as to why.” The moment the phone connected; she spoke.

“We just got satellite above the scene. Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing, Sapphire?”

“Yes, Chief. The whole area is covered with dead albats. Their throats have been torn out,” he replied, doing his best to keep the nerves out of his voice and sound professional.

“Have you found Ralphie?” she asked.

He glanced around at the carnage again, sweeping out his hand. “He could be any one of these, or he could’ve gotten away. This doesn’t look like his whole colony but there’s no way to tell.” He glanced up in the sky, knowing his face probably appeared huge on the large hologram where everyone could see the scene back in the office.

“What do you think did it?”

“Just what Ralphie was afraid of, Chief.”

“That’s what I feared.” She paused only a second. “I’m sending backup.”

“We need to get into that cave. If Ralphie is in there, we need to locate him and the rest of his colony. Information is vital as soon as possible.”

“And if his killer is roosting in there, waiting for a nice, fat human to wander in, it could be a suicide mission.”

“We can do this, Chief,” Ari said, looking up at the sky.

“No, I want you to wait. I’ve dispatched St. Clair. He’s the only marshal I have in the office at the moment. He’ll be there in three minutes.”

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