The Token by Kevin Bird (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖

knew, but needed Drake to confirm it.
“The little beasties causing you all this fuss were nicknamed that by people such as Cale here,” he turned and pointed at him with an outstretched arm, “When this planet was being cleansed by the Suppliers, Cale was one of the men who came down to do the dirty work. So, how about it Cale?”
“The original prey animals were like mountain goats and about a third of the size of these blues,” he said pointing at a large blue that was peering over the nearest fence showing a dumb interest in this group of people. “They must have been desperate to switch to these guys,” he concluded.
“That’s one way of looking at it. However, though I do agree they were forced into hunting these because you killed their natural prey back then, there are a few other things that seem important. If you and the other Supplier goons thought you’d killed all of them, where did these come from? Also, if they’re used to hunting something so much smaller, how’re they able to be so successful taking animals like these?” Again he was looking up into the sublime and not too intelligent face of a large blue.
Cale gave it some obvious thought and before he could give any answer to his employer, Jacob spoke up. “It seems to me that these things are more resourceful and more intelligent than the Suppliers thought.”
“Exactly the thought running through my head!” Drake sounded impressed by Jacob. “What do you say Cale?”
“I’d have to agree. There must have been enough of them hidden away somewhere to be able to increase their numbers again in such a relatively short time period. That’s pretty impressive as we really scoured this planet. The idea that they’ve been able to change their prey source and do it so well is amazing and shows a level of adaptability and maybe even intelligence that’s almost frightening. If we’d sensed that when we first encountered them we’d probably have been more thorough. But at the time the war was expanding rapidly and they didn’t want us to waste too much time cleansing any one individual planet since there were so many more.”
“OK, what now?” Jacob wanted to get on with it. “What are you going to do?”
Jacob saw a faint smile pass between the two men as Drake responded simply; “We wait.”
“That’s it?” He was clearly disappointed.
“What else would you have us do?” Drake sounded more amused than annoyed at Jacob’s question. It seemed to Jacob that the man considered him to be naive. In truth, maybe he was, but he still didn’t like to think of anyone laughing at him.
“Can’t you go after them during the day before they become active?” It sounded reasonable enough to his ears.
“Cale, I’m going for a walk around to check the place out. Please explain to our farmer friend the realities of our situation.” With that he turned and walked along the fence line of the closest enclosure. Jacob, once again, bit his lip and didn’t respond to the man’s arrogance.
“Don’t take his attitude personally. A pirate captain only holds that office as long as he brings fortune to his crew. He was voted in several years ago and hasn’t retained his position by being sweet to everyone. He’s got to be tough or he’ll be booted out.”
“Survival of the fittest?”
“You could say that, Jacob. Let’s get back to our little problem. It’s not as easy as you make it seem. You should understand, you’ve already had your run-ins with these animals and realize they’re a very worthy adversary. We can’t underestimate them as the Suppliers did in the past.” He limped over to a bench in front of Jacob’s house and sat down. He pointed at the seat next to him, “Sit. You have to realize that we were hired to do this because we know what we’re doing, especially with my personal experiences on this planet. Clearly these animals are much more than we ever gave them credit for, and we have to do this the right way if it’s to be done permanently this time around.” He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees as he went on. “We can’t go after them when we don’t know exactly where they are. Too risky and too inefficient. We have an idea how we can get this done as quickly, completely, and safely as possible.”
Cale reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small object that Jacob could not make out at first. The man held it out for him to inspect. “Do you know what that is?”
Jacob held his hand out and Cale dropped the thing into his palm. It was very heavy though only about the size of his thumb and it was made out of a bright metal. “It looks like a bullet of some kind, but it’s bigger than I thought they would be.” He handed it back. “What’s so special about it?”
“It’s not really a bullet in the sense you think. It’s not designed to kill what it hits. This is a tracker. Once this penetrates the skin of its target it opens up like so.” He manipulated the bullet in such a fashion that the end immediately popped open like a bale of fodder when the binding was cut.
“They are fairly low velocity and the end expands so quickly on impact that it stops the bullet from penetrating too far and seriously injuring the target. Can you see inside the end now?” He turned the end towards Jacob who nodded that he could. There was a little metal spike pointing outwards. “That’s a transmitter. Once we fire this into one of them Hoppers we can just follow them back to their den and finish them right there in one spot. That’ll save us chasing them all over the mountainside.” He seemed pleased with himself and Jacob thought that maybe it was justified.
“Now don’t get me wrong. When these things come down tonight we’re gonna try to get as many of them as we can right there and then, but we know we won’t get them all. Each of the teams sent out to your farms has been instructed to kill as many as possible, but to make sure that some get away with a transmitter embedded so we can track them to their caves.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Jacob said somewhat grudgingly.
Drake appeared from the other side of the enclosure and told Cale to follow him. “We’ll go and set up for tonight. You should stay indoors with your family and let us do our thing, OK?” He was less condescending than Jacob had been expecting from him so he just nodded and went inside.
Bella and Bettine were standing by the door having listened to the whole conversation. He turned to look out the doorway to see the two men, weapons slung over their shoulders, disappear round the corner.
“Well, what think you, Jacob?” His wife was hugging him and looking up at him clearly concerned. He glanced over at Bettine, and even though she was putting on her brave grown-up face for her dad, Jacob could see that she was scared, though he knew she’d never admit it.
“Marshall sent these men to kill these things and it seems to me that they’re going to do it. We should be very grateful to them.” Jacob believed what he was saying. Bella didn’t.
“Oh, come now, Jacob! Those men are just bunch of pirates out to make some money, or whatever it is they getting from Marshall. They don’t understand how to give, just how to take.”
He knew her well enough not to argue on this point. Most of her anger was fueled by fear and he couldn’t talk her out of that. Their child’s freedom, and ultimately her life, was the stakes involved in this gamble and they had no other option but to trust in Marshall’s choice of Drake. Jacob and his friends were in no position to do much for themselves and must rely on others to do the fighting for them. Jacob didn’t feel very good about that, but his beliefs were strong.
“Bella, just remember that if they want to be paid they must fulfill their commitment to Marshall. We’ll be fine.” His calming and confident tone seemed to have some positive effect on her and she stepped out of his arms and gave him a loving smile. He knew she’d be OK now, especially for Bettine’s sake.
He turned to his daughter, “Bettine, I need you to help me tonight, OK?”
Her face brightened up, as Jacob had known it would; the signs of fear evaporating immediately. “I don’t quite know what’s going to happen tonight but I have a feeling that if those creatures show up there’ll be a lot of noise. I don’t want any of the animals in the barns to be scared, especially since some of them are pregnant. We can just be there to keep them calm. We can treat it like a camping trip if you like.” He didn’t need to sweet talk Bettine into agreeing to go along, the girl was glowing.
“Are you sure?” Bella was looking at Jacob obviously not as excited at the prospect as her daughter was.
“Don’t worry, we won’t go outside and we’ll keep the doors barred from the inside. Bettine will do whatever I say, won’t you?” His daughter nodded vehemently and looked pleadingly at her mother for permission. Bella nodded, without quite the level of excitement her daughter had shown, and gave Jacob the look that told him he’d be in trouble if anything happened to their baby.


Fifteen

As the sun went down and the sounds around them subtly changed, Cale and Drake were already positioned in well-chosen sites. Each could see the other even though the full length of Jacob’s fields separated them. They had picked spots that gave them a commanding view of as much of the property as possible, Drake on top of a small structure between the fencing and a large barn like building, Cale in the fork of a large tree outside an enclosure far to Drake’s right. Cale had managed to get up without help even though his leg had already begun to stiffen slightly as the cool night approached.
Each pirate wore special eyewear that not only improved the range of their vision but also their ability to see clearer during the coming dark hours. They felt confident of success as all aspects of this mission had been covered in detail. Now all they had to do was wait. Each pirate also had a small radio attached to his helmet and Drake had already used his to make sure that all his men were equally prepared for anything that might happen this night.
Cale was holding one of the new weapons Marshall had supplied them with. It was a good weapon to have in his present location up a tree. It was lightweight, easy to maneuver and also, though still very powerful, was designed to have barely any kick at all. He had told Drake how pleased he was to have a better weapon than the last time he’d been here to face these creatures that jumped out of the darkness. They moved so fast that he and the other hunters had found target acquisition hard with the older heavier weapons. This time, with the weapon being so much smaller and lighter, he didn’t think there would be much of a problem keeping up with the moving targets.
Drake was beginning to feel the usual rush that came to him in the quiet time of anticipation before any kind of a confrontation