John stretched as Trigger barged into the shack, waking him up. “You certainly made a mess of this,” he observed, finding a chair and looking at the computer screens.
Dale frowned. “I thought I was doing pretty good, Trig. The kids are still alive and we are into our third week.”
“That’s the whole problem, Cap. No one expected these kids to last this long. No one.” He spun in his chair to throw a strange look at his friend. “I know I certainly didn’t expect them to last this long.”
“Yeah, I know. Part of the problem is Billy—”
“Who the blazes is Billy?”
John looked sheepish. “It’s the name I gave the dragon they’re hunting.”
“Billy?”
“You remember that kid that went into Kandahar with us?”
Trigger frowned in reflection. “Yeah. He nearly got us all killed when he deserted. We spent three months hunting the mother sucking fool. I put two right in his head.”
“You remember his name?”
Trigger’s eyes widened. “Billy?”
“Yeah. I thought it appropriate. Anyway, Billy is the most elusive and canny of the Komodo dragons I have come across yet. They’ve killed a total of 46 dragons so far, and only twice did they even come within sight of the one they actually need to kill. I can’t help them directly, and if I kill it, everyone will know something is wrong.”
“Well, someone is starting to suspect.”
“What do you mean?”
Trigger rubbed his face. “People are talking. The network reporters are questioning the legitimacy of the contest—people are growing bored with the whole thing, and some have even demanded their money back on the bets they placed. If something doesn’t happen soon, they’re going to do something about the situation.”
“Like what? What did you hear?”
“That Italian pig kisser, Manari, came to see the chief today. They argued, and Manari demanded to know who was helping those kids. He ordered the chief to send his hunters into the jungle to either kill one or two of the kids or find you.”
John stood to his feet, his mind racing. “Did they name me specifically?”
“Not in so many words, Cap. Manari had his henchmen around, so he dared not come right out and say that you made a fool of him. But I think he suspects. He knows someone has to be helping those kids, Cap. It’s gone on for too long, and I think he found out that you didn’t return to the mainland on that chopper.” He swiveled back to the screens and pointed to one of the feeds. “See Neesha there? Did you know that she stopped killing the dragons? The last one she killed had a baby. Cap, she’s taken to it…become its mother or something.”
“What?”
“You didn’t know? It’s all over the networks. She has no more interest in killing the dragons and has taken to raising the baby she found. The American audience is furious! They know she can’t win unless she hunts down the dragon.”
Poor Neesha. John sighed and began pacing. It was a strange time to find a conscience—and over that of killing these dragons! He had been able to manage the girl’s headaches with the medicine he had provided her, but he suspected something was seriously wrong. She needed to get to a doctor—fat chance of that happening.
Honest truth was, John had no idea what to do next. He had succeeded in keeping them alive, and some of his goals had been accomplished. He felt it was a victory that the public had begun to lose interest. If he could make this thing a complete failure, then he could prevent this gladiator style of execution from happening in the future—maybe.
Things would be more difficult now if they were actively looking for him. He couldn’t hide forever. Eventually they would see him in a camera, but did it matter now? Public interest was waning, and if he entered the fray would the public even care? Oh, the mob would. The US government would be forced to denounce him and perhaps even aid in hunting him down.
Or…another idea came to mind. He turned it over in his head, spinning it about and examining it like a puzzle. He let it cook in his brain, seeing if it would become palatable or not. Oh, he liked this one. It had the right amount of deviousness and subtlety that would make even Trigger pale. He looked over at Trigger. “Is there anything else I should know about?”
The other man shrugged. “Depends. The kids have killed enough of the dragons to make a serious dent in their population. This has given rise to animal rights activists who are protesting in several countries.” He shrugged again. “It is bizarre. With all the other problems in the world, who cares about this one predatory species of animals?”
“People are crazy.”
“Now don’t go throwing me in with that bunch. They ain’t crazy. They’re down right insane.”
John smiled. “Anything else?”
“Just the usual.”
John resumed his pacing. He had a plan…a very dangerous plan. The execution of it may work, but the results were well outside his ability to predict. That was the only drawback. He had had many plans backfire over the years, and each of them had either left him with a sour taste or had nearly gotten him killed. They had, on a number of occasions, gotten someone else killed.
He finally looked over at his friend. “I got a plan.”