Savage Jungle Read online

Their mirror actions had guided them together, and Henrik was proud to be part of their quest for closure. No matter how much he prepared himself, he was never going to be able to do this alone. To have two people who had seen the heart of the unknown would prove to be invaluable. They were not just believers. They were survivors.

  He was a firm believer in fate and charting your own destiny.

  Men did not seek and find the Orang Pendek. Any sighting was by accident, a brief encounter that drifted away like tendrils of smoke.

  But things had changed.

  As impossible as the odds seemed, Henrik never doubted that they’d find his father’s killers. The Orang Pendek were out there. He knew deep in his gut that at this special time in man’s evolution toward an unclouded vision of the true world around him, their days of living in the shadows were over.

  Henrik packed his bag, went to the balcony in his room and watched the sunset. He closed his eyes and meditated, knowing the hypocrisy. One with murder in his heart and intentions could never become a Bodhisattva.

  No matter.

  He recalled the image of his father in those final seconds before his death, his mind’s eye examining every detail of the murderous Orang Pendek, right down to the scar under the eye of the creature that had gripped his father’s right arm and pulled it free without mercy or remorse.

  Chapter Three

  “What the heck do we have here?”

  Austin McQueen had availed himself of one last dip in the pool, followed by fifteen minutes in the hot tub, a full body massage overlooking the nearby mountain, and a tall glass of wheat grass juice. He noticed the laptop and manila folder atop his freshly made bed the moment he walked into his room.

  He leafed through the contents of the folder. Each page was a breakdown of a different type of weapon – make, model, country of origin, ammunition, weight, barrel, caliber, along with pros and cons. He looked back to the cover and the note from Henrik.

  ‘Sorry for the late notice, but I wasn’t exactly sure what we’d have available to us when we land in Indonesia. Acquaint yourself as best you can with each. I’ve also taken the liberty of loading several demonstration videos to get you more familiar with the operation of some of the more high-tech weapons. Many were designed for Special Forces, but you’ll also find sniper and assault rifles, infantry firepower and more. See you at 5. Again, thank you for agreeing to go on a journey that may not always be pleasant, but hopefully will have a satisfying ending.’

  “And I thought Henrik brought the kitchen sink to Scotland.”

  There were pages and pages of all sorts of weapons – Heckler & Koch MG43 machine gun, Milkor MGL multi-grenade launcher, FN P90 personal defense weapon, Browning pistols, Heckler & Koch MP5, a C14 Timberwolf Sniper Rifle and so much more. He must have robbed an army to get his hands on all of this.

  In a very weird way, Austin couldn’t help thinking how cool it was going to be. After years bopping from one desk job to another, bored out of his skull, waiting for Nat to give him the high-sign to cut bait and run to Loch Ness, the thought of traveling to Asia to find an elusive cryptid, the Orang Pendek, armed with an arsenal that would have made Arnold Schwarzenegger envious was this side of crazy yet awesome.

  The big question was, how were the three of them going to carry all this firepower? Four, if Henrik’s friend Oscar was tagging along.

  Don’t worry about it. Henrik won’t leave anything to chance.

  That was very true. Henrik was a planner, cool as the other side of the pillow when things went sideways.

  Natalie, on the other hand, was a bit of a loose cannon. Even when she did plan ahead, there were always big gaps she’d never considered. Act first, improvise when the shit hit the fan. He told her she should tattoo that on her arm. She responded with something filthy and unwarranted.

  Austin sat on the bed and read through the notes, studying the pictures of each weapon. Sure, most of them were simply ‘point the sucker and pull the trigger’. The hard part was figuring out the types of ammunition they used (bullets, clips or magazines) as well as how to load and unload them.

  He opened up the laptop. Since they’d parked their asses at the resort, all contact with the outside world had ceased. Sure, they could have asked for a computer, but it was nice not being bombarded with emails, social media, 24-hour news cycles and all of the other nonsense that took up way too much of people’s lives nowadays. He loved the fact that he hadn’t seen a ridiculous Facebook update or mindless Tweet in weeks.

  There was only one program on the laptop, an Internet browser with over a dozen bookmarks. He went to the first. It was a demo done by a man wearing a mask and gloves, his voice altered to hide his identity. He demonstrated the proper use of Steyr SPP, a semi-automatic pistol that housed a 30 round magazine. Once it was loaded, the mystery man used it to cut a wooden target in half.

  “Nice.”

  He watched a few more before his eyelids started to droop. He’d intended to take a nap when he first came up, the total relaxation of his body pleading for his mind to follow suit and shut down for an hour or so. Yawning, he set the laptop aside and lay back on the mound of pillows, sinking deep, feeling like he was back in the warm comfort of the womb.

  Natalie probably had the same surprise on her bed. He wondered if she would bother to read through everything or watch the videos. Knowing her, she would give it all a cursory glance, assume she knew how to shoot a gun, and then settle down with a book and an ice cold bottle of locally brewed beer.

  She would need protecting, that’s for sure. But she did a hell of a job watching out for him as well. He had a tendency to get caught up in the moment and act a little…rash…to put it mildly.

  Henrik had already seen them in action, so he supposed the German felt what they brought to the table outweighed their flaws.

  “Because we believe him. We believe in him,” he said before drifting off to sleep.

  Chapter Four

  Natalie couldn’t feel her face. It had been a long time since she’d been up this early. Being able to sleep through the night and past when the sun came up had been a much welcome change in her life. She needed coffee, bad. A waitress came by, Ida was her name, and brought her a cup before she could even ask.

  “Thank you, Ida.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out. If I see your cup get low, I’ll bring refills.”

  Natalie settled into a plush chair in the spa’s dining room, currently its only occupant. The room was quaint, lavishly furnished with a beautiful gold chandelier, finely cut crystals catching the light and refracting it in a dazzlingly display on the walls, especially when the sun hit it just right.

  There wasn’t any danger of the sun doing that at this time of the morning.

  Her right foot tapped on the floor.

  I don’t wanna fly. I don’t wanna fly. I don’t wanna fly.

  She had to self-medicate with alcohol last night just to fall asleep. Yes, Henrik had assured her she would be asleep through the entire trip, but she’d still be trapped in a death tube hurtling through the skies at hundreds of miles an hour. Maybe it was better to die in your sleep.

  “You’re not helping yourself.”

  Being more scared about flying than traversing an Indonesian rain forest chocked full of real creatures out to kill you was downright bizarre. She knew that. But fear was fear and this one was hard coded into her DNA.

  The coffee was warm, not too hot, light and sweet. She took small, nervous sips, waiting for her brother and Henrik to appear. She’d only been ten minutes early. She thought at least Henrik would be here an hour before their scheduled meet up time.

  Then again, he was German and all about schedules.

  “You look like ass,” Austin said when he entered the dining room wearing a too-tight T-shirt and black cargo shorts. He dropped his bag on the floor and sat next to her. Ida was quick to bring him his morning protein shake, giving him a lingering look before heading back to the kitchen. Natalie was pretty su
re Austin and Ida had shared a few intimate moments over the past few weeks. Austin wasn’t the kind to kiss and tell and to be honest, she really had no desire to know the details.

  “And good morning to you, too.”

  “I just mean that you appear to be a tad hungover.”

  “The eyes don’t lie.”

  “I thought you’d come down for dinner last night. They had lobster tail and Kobe filet mignon.” He patted his rock hard stomach.

  “It’s bad enough we have to leave. I didn’t want to depress myself further. Better to cut the cord quick and wallow in my misery.”

  “You get a little present from Henrik?”

  She tapped the bag by her feet with her foot. “I sure did. A little light reading before bed was just what I needed.”

  Austin arched an eyebrow. “How much did you actually read?”

  Natalie rested her head back against the chair. “Enough to make me thankful I’m a woman who doesn’t get all excited by guns. And the videos. I stopped at the one about the MP5 thingy.”

  Chuckling, Austin said, “That was the second video. You missed about fourteen more.”

  “Two was enough. But I did like the one with the flamethrower. Now that I can get into. I did, however, read up on those Orang Pendeks. I even watched a whole hour video about them. This show called Beast Hunters went pretty close to where we’re headed, searching for them. They got a whole lotta nothing. Which, to be honest, is what I’m hoping for. I mean, what are the odds we’ll come across two, count ‘em two, mythical cryptids in our lifetime? We’re talking Powerball odds.”

  The voice behind them startled her.

  “They’re much lower when you look at it from my perspective.” Henrik was decked out in a pale blue, tropical blend suit, complete with a tie.

  “You look real nice,” Natalie said. “Going to a meeting?”

  “Dressing for international travel is a lost art. I’m trying to start a trend.”

  “Now I feel underdressed,” Austin said.

  Natalie rolled her eyes. “You’re always underdressed, even when there’s no one around to show off your dancing pecs.” When she’d first seen her twin after an absence of a year, she couldn’t believe he’d turned into a total muscle head. At the time, she’d suspected steroids. Now, living with him for close to two months, she knew he was just a workout fiend. For Austin, weakness was not an option.

  Austin said to Henrik, “So what makes you confident we’ll find your Orang Pendeks?”

  Ida brought Henrik’s coffee along with a serving tray filled with triangles of wheat toast.

  “Belief,” Henrik said. “A peering behind the veil, so to speak.”

  Natalie rubbed the bridge of her nose. The tiny headache that had woken her up refused to go away. “Okay, it’s too early to try to figure out what you mean.”

  He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I could have given you a sedative last night. I should have. My apologies for not thinking that the night before a flight would have you just as anxious as the day of the flight.”

  “No worries. Alcohol is more fun…at least while you’re drinking. So, you were talking about belief.”

  “Ah, yes. These creatures, or any elusive animal for that matter, exist behind a cloak of disbelief. There are always a few who truly believe in their existence, but the moment they make that belief known, they’re subject to ridicule. That scorn dulls their belief, even if they hold true to their conviction to their dying day. Yes, they have faith that so and so creature exists, but that opacity of doubt colors everything. Even today, you see how popular Bigfoot and Bigfoot hunting has become. But to those people, it’s a sport, a pastime, a social gathering. And these creatures can feel that. They want that. It keeps them out of harm’s way.

  “And this is why I had agreed to help you and Austin in return for your help in my endeavor. When I met Austin, I met a true believer because you both experienced something that couldn’t be explained away or thrown into doubt. Our collective belief opens us up to experiencing the fantastic. And now that we’ve seen the creatures of Loch Ness, the next one will be even easier.”

  Austin tried to cross his bulky legs but failed. “How can it be easier? Especially when we’re headed to the center of one of the most remote jungles in the world?”

  Henrik nibbled on an end of dry toast. “It’s hard to put into words. Think of it as a part of our consciousness has been unlocked. We’re connected with this hidden level of understanding. And it’s the gathering of three, shall we say, awakened individuals that gives us strength. Sure, I could have done this with some of my colleagues, men very skilled with exploration and weaponry, but they would only believe in me – not the Orang Pendek. It would have been fruitless.”

  Sighing, Natalie waved Ida over, asking for some bacon. She needed grease to combat the booze. “You’re getting very New Agey on us, buddy.”

  Henrik flashed a smile. “But you can’t deny that you believe.”

  She tried to dispel him but found she couldn’t. “True. I do.”

  “And so do a lot of people now,” Austin said. “Millions of people are going ape over those things in Loch Ness.”

  “Exactly,” Henrik said. “The veil is lifting. Those savage creatures can no longer hide behind man’s ignorance.”

  “I just wonder, since we’re getting philosophical here, what we’re doing to our karma by setting out to kill these things. I’m sure some people will look at this like shooting the tooth fairy.”

  Henrik’s features darkened. Natalie tensed. He rarely switched moods like this. He was the most even-keeled person she’d ever met. “The tooth fairy doesn’t murder people.”

  Natalie looked to Austin, who sat still as a statue. Any second, she was expecting Henrik to go off on a rant. He looked ready to explode.

  Just as suddenly, the storm cloud passed and he was back to his usual composed self. “I’ll take this toast to go and make sure our ride to the airport is here. You can join me in five minutes.”

  They watched him leave the dining room, taking quick, long strides.

  “Well, that was scary,” Natalie said.

  “Yeah, it was like looking in your eyes when we used to talk about the Loch Ness Monster.”

  “I was that bad?”

  “Afraid so.”

  She slipped two pieces of bacon between a folded slice of buttered toast and chomped half of the sandwich. “Then I’m glad we’re here to help him. Maybe I’m proof there’s hope for peace and sanity.”

  Austin stood, grabbing his bag. “Well, the former, at least.”

  Chapter Five

  “Nope. That’s too friggin small.”

  Austin looped his arm through Natalie’s, steering her back toward the waiting private jet. “Come on.”

  She tried to tug away from him but he was too strong. “I’ve had cars bigger than that! How are we supposed to fly all the way to Indonesia in a Smart Plane? No way am I getting on Jay Jay the Jet Plane.”

  Austin knew this wasn’t going to be easy. He tried to reason with her. “First of all, that jet is bigger than a car. It’s bigger than a bunch of trucks fused together. Think of it as a Transformer. More than meets the eye.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him.

  “I’m not digging the thought of flying in a toy.”

  Henrik waited for them at the retractable steps leading into the G6. He saw Austin struggling to get his sister on the plane and came to his rescue.

  “Natalie,” he said with the cool, calming assurance of a master maître d’, “If you like, we can administer your sedative now. I’m sure Austin can manage carrying you onto the plane.”

  They could see the pilot through the window checking his instruments. Natalie stopped, considering Henrik’s offer. She then said, “No, I’ll get in like a big girl. I don’t need to be carried by an ape.”

  Austin put his hand over his heart. “You wound me.”

  The interior of the jet did not disappoint. I
t was all shiny wood paneling and gold.

  “So this is how Jay Z travels,” Austin said, whistling.

  “Who’s Jay Z?” Henrik asked.

  “Mrs. Beyonce,” Natalie replied, plopping into a plush leather seat, her eyes looking to pop out of her skull.

  “Do we get champagne and caviar?” Austin asked.

  Henrik spoke to the lone stewardess, a pretty brunette who, he judged, spoke no English. “I’m afraid we didn’t store up on caviar, but there is champagne. Well, not for Natalie.”

  “Maybe I won’t need the anesthesia,” she said. “I’ll give it a try.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She hesitated, checking her locked seatbelt for the third time in under a minute. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “We’ll wait until we get to cruising altitude before we break out the champagne,” Henrik said. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.” He knocked on the cockpit door and slipped inside, presumably to talk to the pilot.

  Austin held his hand out to his sister. She was one of the bravest people he knew. He hated seeing something as ridiculous as a fear of flying, something little kids did without thinking twice, turn her into a nervous wreck. “If you want, you can squeeze my hand. Squeeze as hard as you want. You can’t hurt me.”

  She stared out the window, lost in her own private hell.

  “Nat!”

  She turned to him, startled. “What?”

  “You want to hold my hand?”

  Chewing on a nail, she shook her head. “I’m good.” Droplets of sweat had broken out across her hairline and upper lip.

  Henrik came back and took his seat. “We’ll be taxiing down the runway momentarily.”

  The pretty stewardess walked past them, smelling of jasmine and honey, and closed the cabin door. She said something in German to Henrik, smiled at Austin and seemed taken aback when she glanced at Natalie.

  The G6’s engine revved and the jet made a slow turn toward the runway. Natalie pushed her head back into the seat, eyes shut tight. Despite her telling him no, Austin reached over and took her hand. She instantly put it in a death grip.