Raising the Past Page 4

“Woman’s touch,” Eve said.

  “I bet,” replied Steve, elbowing Eddy in the ribs. “So what’d she do to get you back, eh? A little nookie nookie? C’mon, you can share it with old Steve-O.”

  “Another word and old Steve-O’s gonna be old dead Steve-O,” Eve said with a stern look that revealed she meant business.

  Steve leaned in to Eddy. “We’ll talk later,” he whispered.

  “Man, am I glad to see you here,” Paul said, his New York accent still as thick as ever. “This whole thing was going to hell.”

  Eddy looked confused. “How so? Everything looks great to me. You two have outdone yourselves this time.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. The equipment is primo; the best we’ve ever had. But there are a few, ah, problems with certain crew members.”

  The Californian woman huffed. “I’m right here, you imbecile.”

  Paul motioned to the woman. “You see, boss? She never shuts up.”

  The woman’s eyebrows launched to the top of her forehead. She stormed toward Eddy and stopped a foot from his face. “So you’re the big man in charge now?”

  “Um, yes. Eddy Moore.” Eddy extended his hand.

  She glanced at his hand with a wrinkle in her nose. Eddy noticed the blue eye shadow above her eyes. Not quite drag queen but close enough. The look was accentuated by her pink, tight-fitting ski suit. Eddy could see she was a girl used to getting her way.

  “Mind telling these two monkeys to stay away from my equipment? My crew will load it on the plane themselves.”

  Eddy’s face contorted with confusion. “Your crew?”

  The valley girl’s shoulders dropped and she shook her head. “Idiots,” she whispered to herself, loud enough to make sure everyone heard. She spun on her heels and walked away, grumbling to herself.

  “And that was…?” Eddy asked, to no one in particular.

  “Nicole Lu,” Steve said. “Major hottie, big time bitch.”

  “She’s leading a film team that’s documenting the dig,” Eve added.

  Eddy turned to Eve, surprised by the new information.

  Eve smiled. “It was Brian’s idea.”

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  Surrounded by notebooks, charts and laptop computers, which were busy downloading data via a satellite link, Eddy felt a mingling of various emotions. This was what he loved to do. It was his truest calling, and no one, absolutely no one, knew more about the past (as far as extinct species were concerned) than Eddy. He felt right at home planning routes, emergency contingencies and digging strategies; but did he deserve to be here—to have all these people under his control, under his watch? He wasn’t sure.

  He pushed his feelings aside, as he was used to doing, and focused on the multiple tasks at hand. To his right was a stack of personnel profiles. He could mix and match his crew to the last person, making sure that personal differences and squabbling was kept to a minimum. On his other side, a laptop displayed the latest satellite information on temperature, ice thickness and surface stability. Eddy was plotting the safest route and safest seating arrangements simultaneously. He had learned that they often went hand and hand. Personal differences sometimes got in the way of decision making, even at critical times. Of course, he also liked people to hash out their differences before anything important came up. It was why he planned to put Steve, Paul and Nicole in the same Sno-Cat. For twenty hours.

  Being so wrapped up in his work, Eddy failed to notice someone approach from behind. He flinched when the hands grasped his shoulders but relaxed when they began squeezing and massaging. He didn’t look back to see who it was. He didn’t have to. Eve.

  He slouched back in the seat and let her continue the backrub without another word between them. It was five minutes before Eve broke the silence.

  “So how’s it coming?” Eve asked.

  “All right, I suppose. I’m not convinced we’re ready. Weather looks erratic and portions of the ice are unusually thin for this time of year.”

  “We have more survival, research and excavation gear than ten teams would need. I think we’re ready for anything Mother Nature throws at us.”

  Eddy paused with his response while Eve dug at a knot in his back. He grunted.

  “It’s not always Mother Nature you have to worry about.”

  Eve stopped rubbing Eddy’s back, pushed a laptop aside, and sat on the desk, facing him. “Have you ever seen an excavated mammoth before?”

  Eddy leaned back in his chair, relaxed from the back rub. “Unfortunately, only skeletons.”

  “Well, I have. It was mangled beyond recognition. But I touched its hair, smelled its skin and saw what it ate for lunch the day it died. Eddy, nothing compares to it. To study a near perfect specimen would be like bringing the past back to life. Then again, if Brian can—”

  Eddy stiffened at the mention of Norwood’s name. He felt all the knots undone in his back begin to return. “And you had me so relaxed.”

  Eve sighed and rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Eddy, but you’re going to have to work with him on this. Better get used to the idea.”

  Kevin Dent, a man with a bright smile and messy hair, leaned into the room. “Greetings, Earthlings. We’re all set for the final prep.”

  Kevin’s mind was sharp and his personality loving, but he was frail and easily insulted. He had a Ph.D. in paleontology like Eddy, but Kevin specialized in cryptozoology—the study of theoretical species. His guidance had been unparalleled in their search for the giant fossa, the largest and most savage mammalian predator the island of Madagascar had even seen, and on average projects Kevin provided another brilliant mind to the team. For a man who left two kids, a wife, and a dog behind, he was always the cheeriest member of the team. His unwavering devotion to comic books and all things science fiction earned him a nickname.

  “Buck? Is that you?” Eddy asked as he hopped to his feet, face brimming with happiness.

  “Eddy!” Kevin rushed across the room and the two shook hands, after which Eddy took Kevin by the shoulder and squeezed him. They were like brothers. They all were. A big family of some of the best minds on Earth.

  “How are the kids?” Eddy asked.

  Kevin pulled out his wallet and showed Eddy a family photo of Kevin, his wife, and their two kids, a boy and a girl. “Salina’s half way through her first year of high school, and Peter’s a junior now. Captain of the soccer team.”

  “Think he’ll want to join an expedition with his old man soon?” Eddy asked.

  “I doubt it. Kid has soccer in his blood. I played soccer for ten years, but he’s got a golden touch. I think he’ll go pro.”

  “That’s great,” Eddy said. “That’s great. Is everyone in the prep room?”

  Back to business.

  “Yup, good to go…though tensions are high. It’d be better if we get there sooner rather than later.”

  Eddy shook his head. “This is going to be a long trip.”

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  Eddy stood in the warm glow of the three thousand dollar projector, which was shooting an aerial view of the Canadian Arctic onto a large, white screen. The makeshift meeting room had been created using dividers, which provided a visual barrier but little else.

  Steve and Paul sat at the back of the room, feet up on chairs and offering the occasional nonsensical comment—pointless, but always getting a laugh. Technically, they had no say in the choices to be made, but when it came to equipment, their word was equal to God’s. If they found problems with the issues brought up at this final meeting, logistically speaking, they had the final say.

  Eve and Kevin sat silently, listening to Eddy speak and occasionally jotting down notes. If something happened to Eddy, one of them would be in charge, and they had to absorb every particle of information and insight Eddy might offer. It was the safe thing to do, the responsible thing to do…that’s why Eddy insisted they do it.

  Nicole stayed silent for the most part, whispering occasional instructions to the camera crew who
moved around the room, filming every movement Eddy made and every word he spoke. Nicole had become thrilled by him. His presence on camera was incredible and his voice demanded attention. Eddy’s command of the expedition meant that ratings would double in the female demographic from age sixteen all the way up to sixty. That was a lot of women.

  Eddy eyed the camera with an annoyed glance as he advanced to the next image. A graphic display appeared, showing a route from Base Camp Alpha in the Canadian Nunavut territory, marked by a red dot, to the northern tip of one of the smaller chunks of land in the Queen Elizabeth Island group. The words “Mammoth Dig Site” blinked over the end of the graphic.

  Eddy turned away from the camera. “We’ll land at Base Camp Alpha and spend the night with Sam and Mary. From there I’ve mapped out a safer route that minimizes time spent on the frozen ocean and maximizes time spent on land. First order of business once we’re on site is to secure and reinforce the labs and living quarters.”

  Kevin squirmed in his seat. “Uh, Eddy, you realize this will put us two days behind schedule?”

  “The thought occurred to me.” Eddy paused and caught his breath. They weren’t going to like this. “That’s why we’re going to drive through the night and work double shifts for the next two days. While one team drives, the other sleeps. It will cut our drive time on the ice in half.”

  Steve grunted in protest, but otherwise no one voiced any objection.

  “I know it doesn’t sit well with any of you, and it won’t with the rest of the crew. But you asked me here for a reason. I get things done, and I get them done right. We’ll be safer and with any luck, we’ll get to the dig site early. Rest up on the plane and save your energy. If we make good time, you can all rest before we start digging. Any questions?”

  Eddy looked around the room.

  Steve’s hand went up.

  “Let me rephrase,” Eddy said. “Any intelligent questions?”

  Steve’s hand went down.

  Nicole’s hand went up.

  “Yes?” Eddy said with a glint of suspicion in his eyes.

  “Well,” Nicole said, “I was hoping you could fill us in on the details of the dig. What we’re going to see. The history of the mammoth. Things like that.”

  Eddy cleared his throat while a nervous smile turned the corners of his lips toward the ceiling. “Don’t documentaries hire narrators for things like that?”

  “Not this time. Besides, people feel more educated when they hear it from the lips of the man in charge. That would be you.” Nicole motioned for the camera crews to focus their attention on Eddy. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  Eddy sat on the corner of the table holding the computer projector and ran his fingers through his already rumpled hair and let out a long breath. “Mammuthus Primigenius, or ‘woolly mammoth,’ as it’s widely known, roamed the Earth during the last ice age of the late Pleistocene epoch, about nine thousand years ago…though I believe there might have been living mammoths up until about five thousand, maybe even four thousand years ago, in more remote regions, of course, which would have brought them into the early Holocene epoch. Some believe that the mammoth might have even still walked the plains of the high north while Jesus was walking on water. They stood around nine feet tall, though some grew as tall as fifteen feet. Their hair was dense and ranged from a ruddy brown coloration to pitch black. They had two long, curved, ivory tusks that were sometimes almost as long as the mammoth’s entire body. The tusks were probably used for foraging in the snow and for bouts of interspecies dominance. Their bodies were massive, between three and four tons, built similar to modern elephants—tusks, a long proboscis, or trunk, and strong musculature—with the exception of a fatty hump at the base of its skull.” Eddy looked at Nicole. “How’s that?”

  “You mentioned some mammoths might have lived longer in remote regions. Why’s that?” Nicole asked.

  “It’s no secret that the Earth’s fauna and mega-fauna are going extinct on a global scale of one species every thirty seconds, faster than the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, which was caused by an asteroid impact. The current mass extinction, which will wipe out half of the planet’s biodiversity in the next one hundred years, got its slow start ten thousand years ago with early man. The few species that are surviving are either adapting to the civilized world, like raccoons, skunks, pigeons and the like, or are so remote that we have yet to destroy their habitat…or have yet to even discover their existence.”

  “So man is to blame for the extinction of the mammoth?” Nicole inquired.

  “Disease and climate change played their parts, but like other animals, the mammoth would have adapted. Man simply finished the job nature started before the species could rebound.”

  “And what was the mammoth habitat? Where did they live?”

  Eddy sighed, eager for the interrogation to end. “Cave drawings of the mammoth have been found in Spain and France, but we believe they originated from Africa. They migrated across Siberia and into Alaska, where remains have been discovered. They then migrated south into the mainland of North America—the same route that early man took out of Africa.”

  “So,” Nicole said, chewing on a pen, “if this mammoth is raised intact…and is cloned…”

  “It will be the first species wiped out by mankind and brought back to life. If we can do it successfully with a ten thousand year old mammoth, we can bring back other species brought to extinction, given access to DNA samples. Our success on this expedition is not only a scientific curiosity. It could mark the beginning of the end of the largest mass extinction in sixty-five million years.”

  Nicole clapped her hands together and stood with a bright smile. “That was perfect! Thank you!”

  Eddy nodded and turned to the crew, who had been watching in silent amusement. “This is it, people. A fully intact mammoth is waiting out there for us,” Eddy said, as he stood tall with confidence.

  The cameras zoomed in on Eddy’s face.

  “Let’s go raise the past.”

  4

  EN ROUTE

  Screams of anguish, like a horde of dying hyenas, tore through the enclosed cabin of the C-130 Hercules turboprop. Steve leaned over Kevin’s shoulders, eyes wide at the swath of blood and gore laid out before them. Kevin pulled the trigger three more times and with each pull a single shot of his Electronic Pulse Sniper Rifle was fired, finding its mark in the forehead of another alien. The beasts shrieked as death came, while globules of brain matter sprayed across the ground. The alien bodies slumped to the ground, wriggled for a moment then disappeared from existence.

  “Look out!” Steve shouted. “There’s one more!”

  Kevin glided the mouse left. “I see him.”

  The creature came into the crosshairs of the sniper rifle. Kevin steadied himself, finger twitching over the left mouse button. Before he could push the button and pull the trigger, his on-screen character grunted with pain.

  “What the—”

  Kevin’s fingers sprang to action. He turned his character and faced a large alien creature with huge fangs and dual laser pistols. The alien opened fire as Kevin ran backwards toward a virtual cliff.

  Steve was in a near panic as he watched the action unfold. “You’re dead, man! No way out!”

  Kevin continued back and jumped. His character began to fall over the edge of the cliff but before disappearing over the precipice, Kevin fired two quick shots with his sniper rifle, killing the two remaining opponents. It all happened faster than Steve could register. The screen changed to an image of Kevin’s character, a marine with Kevin’s face grafted to the model, floating in mid air. An announcer boomed from the speakers, “You’re the winner!”

  Steve leaned back in his chair. “How’d you do that?”

  Kevin smiled, eyes wide and very aware. “Nerves of steel, my friend.”

  Steve reached over, grabbed Kevin’s chubby belly, and shook it. “More like nerves of pudge.”

  “Insulation from the cold,�
�� Kevin said. “If we got stuck out in the arctic, who do you think would live the longest?”

  Steve wasn’t one for long debates with scientists on subjects that had no bearing on reality. He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  The computer screen flashed and gave a warning that a new match had begun. Kevin resumed playing. Steve returned to watching the virtual gore-fest. “What’s going on now?”

  “CTF,” Kevin said.

  “CT-what?”

  “Capture the flag.”

  “Who are all those other guys? Why don’t you shoot them?”

  The screen displayed a group of humans, all armed to the teeth and dressed in blue. “That’s my team. We have to capture the other team’s flag.”

  Kevin turned his character away from the advancing group and took an alternate route through a tunnel in the lower parts of the level. He encountered zero resistance.

  “Some team,” Steve observed. “Where are you going?”

  A smile stretched across Kevin’s face. He smelled victory. “Oldest trick in the book. If you were defending the base, who would you consider more of a threat: little old me or the fully armed squad? They’re the decoys, I’m the hero.”

  “Risky move,” Eddy said, as he leaned over Kevin’s free shoulder.

  Kevin’s character came up behind the red team’s base, while sounds and flashes from a battle at the front of the base revealed that Kevin’s path was clear. Kevin maneuvered through the base, heading for a red flag. “Now all I have to do is grab this flag, run back the way I came, and we’re home—whoa!”

  A red player emerged and opened fire. Kevin’s fingers clacked against the keyboard as he returned fire. The two were locked in mortal combat, but Kevin quickly gained the upper hand; that was, until the C-130 lurched up and bounced to the side, sending Kevin’s character into a dizzying spin. The red player finished him off. “Damn!” Kevin muttered.

  Kevin leaned into the plane’s aisle and shouted toward the cockpit, which was only ten feet away, “You think you could fly above this crap?”