Book Two, Chapter Five: The Broken Tether

[albatross]

All that currently resides in the soldier's mind is a memory of a muzzle flash and then everything going dark.

Ionic arrives, "I speak Chinese." [What are you talking about?] He asks the man.

They start conversing rapidly, and Ionic translates. "Says he knew when the four men were killed that Tiger was here to hunt down the creatures. Says he suspected before that." The soldier holds his head in his hands as memories of his youth flash through his head....

"Says that Tiger was a mentor to him when he was younger, that he thought he could help her, but that he was afraid she would kill him too." More talking.

Ionic sighs, shaking his head, "He says that he sent the guards off and snuck into the tent to get the drop on Tiger, using his creature. He thought that if he had her cornered she would hear him out and let him live. He had a squirrel sounds like. A 'lucky squirrel.' She summoned Pantera to defend herself from him, and killed the squirrel with her gun."

By this time the man is sobbing, holding his head in his hands occasionally trying to speak english, saying, "Noo. noo."

Ionic continues once the man pauses moaning enough to talk, "He says it was a misunderstanding, that he respected her and he didn't know the squirrel was tethered to her - knew it was someone, but didn't think it was her."

Ionic looks down at the man as Strongbow arrives. Obviously the guy wasn't very bright, and he didn't know Tiger very well if he thought he could corner her or that it would be a good idea.

[dakota]

Khris had to restrain himself from attacking the soldier like some sort of wild animal. He looked to Ionic, frustrated," That doesn't tell us where she bloody went. It felt like Tiger and Pantera just vanished into thin air." His Colt Pythons were suddenly in his hands and jammed against the soldier's chest as his temper flared," WHERE IS TIGER?"

[albatross]

"I think I know where she went," Ionic says slowly, thinking. "Look at him, he is crying. Obviously depressed. Much like the other defeated controllers. We just hadn't figured out why."

"Maybe the creatures aren't connected to us, they are connected to someone we know: a mentor, a friend..."

"And when the creature disappears, so does the person it is connected too."

[Dome]

"Well that's just lovely isn't it? We could wind up offing ourselves by taking out someone else s creature. As if this whole mission was weird enough before. We need to go back and check the cave. Maybe there is more info there than just the rings."

He turns and looks at Khris and says, "We'll find out what happened to her. But for now, your the boss."

[dakota]

" Like bloody hell, Dante." Khris snapped at being called the boss, putting his revolvers away. " I'm no team leader. Alexander had me try, and I got good people killed. I don't want that to happen again." He explained, then looked around," where's Jeckle?"

[albatross]

Strongbow looks at Kris and glances around at the others, "I'm not sure where Jeckle is. She set the surveillance and security on the cave, we'll need her to go in there."

[dakota]

Khris sighed, then looked at Strongbow," Can you go check on her? Odds are she's the lucky one that actually got to sleep. The big guy here," he thumbed towards Steelfist, " can translate if need be, provided you're still with us and not going back with the rest of the island regiment." He turned to Dante," If you can handle things here, I'll have a look around outside to see if the rain hasn't washed away all our clues where they took her."

[albatross]

Strongbow nods and walks to Jeckle's tent to search for her.

Ionic says to Kris, "Should we take this guy back to the plane and keep him there?" Indicating the Chinese soldier.

[dakota]

Khris looked at Ionic, and shrugged," That's a good idea. Just before she vanished, Tiger told me we had to complete the mission, but right now finding out what happened to her is the mission as far as I'm concerned. Change of plans, once we get him back to the plane and Strongbow gets back here with Jeckle, I want Steelfist and Dante to find out everything this guy knows. Ionic, you and Strongbow go through tiger's tent for anything of interest and then pack it up and take it to the plane. I don't want to take anymore chances of us being ambushed while alone. Have Jecks bring whatever toys she has that can help search and find me, I'm still going outside to look around. Once we have whatever clues as to what happened, we'll clean out our own tents and get it on the plane too. Be cramped living quarters for a bit, but we are all professional so we should be able to handle it."

He didn't wait for any input from the others as he ducked outside before his stomach could knot up any more. He tried to block out his memories of his last attempt at commanding a squad by focusing on his search for clues. Without even thinking about it, a bootprint in the mud had him down examining it on all fours, and it didn't even seem to be odd as he sniffed at it.

[Dome]

Dante helps the guy to his feet and leads him out of the tent. He says, "Steelfast take the lead."

Prodding the soldier along they follow as Steelfist leads them from the camp site to the plane.

[shiivster]

*Jeckle is curled up in a tight ball on her bed. the damp cheeks say she's had some kind of night terror but its unknown what it is. the burns on the arms and shoulder show against the pale skin on the hands and part of the cheek.

*she remains asleep until touched. then? .. she'll wake up groggy or something

[albatross]

Strongbow turns on a light in Jeckle's tent, then if Jeckle doesn't wake she says softly, "Jeckle, wake up." And shakes Jeckle's cot.

Meanwhile Ionic watches Dante haul the prisoner away before turning his attention to the tent. None of them even notice two hounds wandering nearby, as if the animals were invisible. Of course they aren't invisible exactly, just very hard to see.

Ionic finds mostly equipment taken from the Chinese in the tent, a rifle and a pistol, several uniforms, towels and soap, an officer's cot and chair. One of Tiger's gun cleaning kits is there, with a variety of custom specialty tools that seem like overkill to clean revolvers.

He packs it all up easily and waits for Strongbow to help him bring it back to the plane.

[shiivster]

*it isn't until the cot starts to shake does Jeckle react. the feet kick out even as she twists about elbow swinging to connect to any anonymous body part nearby.

*only when she's on the floor do the eyes focus long enough to look at who woke her up. 'oh .. sorry .. didn't hit anything important did i? .. ' *her fists relax and she shakes her body from head to toe waking it up.

'oh that will teach me to sleep in the coat .. jeez ... what's up? ... thought i could have gotten more than .. 2 hours? .. god .. '

[albatross]

Strongbow smiles, "Armor." As she taps her chest. Then her smile fades. "Tiger is gone. We're going to go back to her tent and search her things with Ionic."

Kris and Khamai track Tiger's entrance to the tent easily across the muddy ground, yet there is no sign of her leaving, indeed there are no signs of her at all. Kris cannot sense her.

Steelfist and Dante bring the prisoner back to the plane and he is cooperative under interrogation. What do they ask him?

[shiivster]

Jeckle makes no attempt to hide the yawns as she looks about her tent to make sure she didn't leave anything important. she checks her pockets as the eyes close once and makes a tally of items and locations.

'right, think i'm all here now. lead on then and lets figure this out'

*she'll follow Strongbow to the others as he mind unfogs