BESERK! Read online

  Colonel Suboti was a tall, heavy built, hard featured man. His skin was the color of tar. His love was money and women. And sadism, which he generally mistook for machismo. He was commissioned by the Zairean government to control illegal poaching and rebels. But he believed Nbokele was his serfdom and ruled it likewise.

  For days he had watched the hectic activities going on at the Belfour’s farm. If the Belfour’s farm was transformed into a beehive of activity, then it meant money. If the Belfours made money then he was entitled for a share, after all, they made it from his land. He would pay them a visit.

  x x x

  Colonel Suboti’s arrival sent a tremor of fear through the Belfour’s camp. The lords never visited the serfs, it was vice versa. Gerald hurried and greeted the Colonel with deep apprehension.

  “What monkey is going on here?” The Colonel asked in Portuguese, with a smirk.

  “Research…” Gerald mumbled.

  “Research?” The Colonel repeated. “What you reckon me to be a bull head?”

  “Get the colonel in here Mr Belfour.” Cathy’s voice rang from behind before Gerald could speak. The colonel’s eyes gleamed like gems at the sight of Cathy, he simply walked pass Gerald. She smiled at the approaching Colonel.

  Gerald felt like protecting her but she did not seem intimidated by his presence. As she led the Colonel to her office Gerald felt envious.

  Less than an hour later, the Colonel emerged carrying a leather case, pleased. The serfs had paid their taxes, the lords were satisfied. So pleased was the Colonel that he actually smiled at Gerald as the jeep drove away.

  x x x

  The pilot, was first to put a spoke in the wheel. He suddenly grew cold feet to fly the plane, a vital necessity in the B-Hunt. The truth was he had watched the Behemoth on the monitor, the horrors and nightmares was relived by him. He wanted to back off from the deal. For nearly an hour Cathy tried to convince him but in vain, and then she released him.

  x x x

  Two hours later he was intercepted by the colonel’s men and arrested before he could enter the city. An hour later colonel Suboti’s man came to Cathy to collect the money for the colonel’s service.

  x x x

  A day later NIBS sent a replacement for the pilot, a Mr. Jerkins. The man was tall, well built and had a military bearing in his personality. Yet, there was a streak of indiscipline in him—a mercenary. He stayed close to Cathy, like a bodyguard. It gave Gerald a queasy feeling as well as envy. She was gathering too many hard-necks, first the sadist colonel now the muscle-bound Jerkins. He began to feel caring for her. He liked and disliked the feeling.

  x x x

  For over two days the mosasaur image did not come over the monitors. Panic set among the NIBsians. It was the first time Gerald saw Cathy anything but calm. A number of hippos were slaughtered and their blood was poured into the river. Hoping to arouse the behemoth but it stubbornly did not come.

  “O Jeez!,” Cathy exclaimed, “let it not be another case of Loch Ness!”

  The next day it appeared on the monitor munching on the blubber of a hippo.

  x x x

  They decided to ‘cage’ the mosasaur a kind of ‘house arrest.’ Two ends of the river would be caged in with titanium (Ti) poles. But giving the mosasaur plenty of swimming space. This would be extremely dangerous work. Any vibration in the river was enough an invitation for the mosasaur.

  It was noticed the mosasaur grew sluggish after a meal. It would be then; they would build the underwater ‘cage’. A freshly killed hippo carcass was anchored downstream, as bait. A computer was hooked to a satellite; it ‘panned’ over approximate half a mile of the river with the carcass roughly in the centre.

  Anything longer than four meters and motile would be picked up by the satellite. No matter how many several meters deep, an image would be sent over the computer—an elongated dash.

  Soon the much sought after dash appeared on the monitor and moved towards the carcass.

  Walkie-talkies came alive in the Nbokele camp signaling the group upstream to begin building the ‘cage.’ Jerkins, Gerald, Cathy and a Kepler—the cameraman, dressed in skin diver suits, assembled upstream with a bunch of tribesmen. A pile of four-foot long, three inch thick Ti-rods lay on the bank. A highly sophisticated underwater drill lay at hand; ready to be used by Jerkins.

  As soon as the news of the mosasaur came over the radio, the four put on their earpieces and adjusted the headlights on their helmets. The earpieces would give out a series of beeps in three stages, depending how close the behemoth was. They silently dropped in the river. The water was brown, muddy and visibility poor. Everything appeared dark and ominous.

  Jerkins signaled Gerald to put on his headlight. Sharp light stabbed the silt filled river increasing visibility a lot more. Sediment particles danced all around them. They seemed to be in a strange unreal world. Fishes and other aquatic creatures darted as the four swam to the river bed.

  Gerald’s muscles and senses were taut, half-expecting the beep to go on. What if the satellite malfunctioned? What if the earpiece developed battery problems? What if there was a pair of Mosasaurs? Such doubts raced through his mind. He chased them out. Why was the river bed taking so long to appear?

  Jerkins had briefed them before the dive; the spot they had chosen was the narrowest roughly thirty-forty foot wide and about thirty-foot deep. For a day he had taught them how to fix the pieces of the Ti-rods. One fitted into the other, with push bolts locking them in place. It was as easy as a child’s mechanical-set.

  The river bottom was practically empty except for a croc which fled on seeing them. Jerkins drew out his drill and began punching holes into the bed. A net filled with Ti-rods was silently lowered down. Gerald, Cathy and Kepler began converting the 4-foot rods into 16-foot by joining each end together. 10-foot of each beam would disappear into the river bed.

  Gerald remembered Jerkins briefing them on the rods, fitting the rods on the land would be hard work. Each piece weighed easily over eight kgs, but underwater due to the water’s upthrust, the rods would weigh exceedingly less. And so it was when Gerald hefted it; it had lost a good amount of weight.

  Soon along the river bed eight gleaming vertical Ti-poles, six-foot each jutted from the bottom. The beeping started in the earpieces. The foursome quickly dropped the equipments and kicked to the surface. The tribesmen hastily hauled them out.

  For an hour they renewed their strength and watched the river but did not see the behemoth. Though they were informed that it had come about ten to fifteen feet near their work site.

  An hour later the all clear signal was given. Once again they dropped into the river; they found the Ti-poles unmolested. They began to build the vertical poles which reached the river surface. Again they dropped to the bottom and began setting up a horizontal line.

  Barely had they erected three lines when the beeper began screaming in their ears. The third signal! It meant they had missed the first two signals. A fatal malfunction!

  They looked at each other with uncertainty and fear. Jerkins stabbed wildly a finger again and again through the water, beckoning them to look behind.

  Through the pall of gloom, sediments appeared to merge together and take a gigantic shape.

  Jerkins slipped on the other side of the barrier and Gerald pushed Cathy through. A dark and huge shape came closer. Gerald moved to follow Cathy when he remembered his headlight. He switched it off in a quick movement. Just then he felt a huge wall of water press against him. The behemoth was no further than a few yards from him. It would be suicidal to move.

  Gerald grew tense and became one with the Ti-bars. Slowly he dared to open his eyes; it was oddly dark all about him. It was moments before he realized he was obscured by the huge reptile’s body.

  Above him was the mosasaur, its broad snout was like the hull of a ship. Cruel white teeth emerged, the size itself was terrifying. Fear strangulated his throat from within. The behemoth bumped into the rods and lazil
y studied them.

  It moved lower and watched Gerald at a distance of a few feet. The eyes glowed as if dusted with phosphorescence. Gerald bit his tongue to prevent himself from screaming. It was a meanest looking crocodilian he had ever seen. The glaring match continued for seconds but seemed an eternity to Gerald.

  All of a sudden the mosasaur broke the contest, distracted. It took a moment for Gerald to realize, the source of distraction—Kepler. He was kicking towards the surface; the camera guy had lost his nerve. Gerald stood frozen to the spot.

  With a powerful burst the mosasaur went after its prey, forcing another bone crushing wall of water against Gerald. All he saw was a dark silhouette. It resembled a gargantuan new born fledging; especially the paddles which appeared like featherless wings.

  In a moment the reptile reached Kepler and grasped him in its mighty jaws. Taking its struggling prey it disappeared in the gloom. All that remained was the slow descend of his underwater camera.

  The trio watched the particles of sediments lazily swirling in the water. Slowly, Gerald released his taut body, only then he was aware of the beeper screaming in his ears. He kicked to surface, occasionally turning behind, half-expecting the gloomy water to take a dark huge shape.

  He reached the surface and even before he could remove his mask he was throwing up.

  Chapter 7: The Behemoth

  Cathy’s passivity towards Kepler’s death angered Gerald. He strode to the technician and demanded the reason for the earpieces malfunctioning.

  It had malfunctioned, was all the answer he received. Gerald glared at Cathy. His eyes said it all. He walked away.

  x x x

  “What really went wrong?” Cathy asked Jerkins when they were alone.

  “Water sometimes momentarily blocks the satellite waves....” He explained. “It happens occasionally without reason...”

  “Good,” she replied. “At least we got rid of Kepler, the man was getting unreliable. Soon we have to start eliminating other unwanted characters too.”

  Cathy wanted the existence of the mosasaur to be a tight secret. The fewer knew about it, the better. Even the knowledgeable few had to be trustworthy by her standards. So her NIBSians colleagues were dependable, till the pilot wanted out. She knew she could not let him go free, not with the knowledge of the mosasaur, not before she had shifted the animal. So she had had him temporarily detained.

  Kepler on the other hand was found making duplicate prints of the mosasaur, it alarmed her. She could not accuse him openly for the fear of alerting him. She wanted to be sure who his cahoots were and what was their interest in this project. So he was on her hit list. Fortunately, the mosasaur had done the job for her.

  Then there was Gerald, he was ambitious, she had realized it from day one. It frightened her; she was like him a few years ago. He had to go, she would have done away with him earlier but she needed him now and in the future. He would go as soon as his use was over. And the father could forget the seven figure fee and the acclaim in the mosasaur discovery.

  x x x

  Kepler’s death dispirited the whole operation. Gerald flatly refused to enter the river, with the behemoth lurking in its murky depths.

  Jerkins and Cathy too were shaken but they tried vainly to hide it. For a day they sat in the camp monitoring the behemoth’s whereabouts. It was unusually active, frequently swimming from end to end but its presence was unseen on the surface. Then Cathy came up with an idea, she decided to tranquilize the reptile just enough, to set up the ‘cage’ on the other end. This was at least safe.

  The next morning Gerald harnessed himself at the door-way of the newly fixed biplane. He held a tranquilizer rifle in his hand. It was his job to tranquilize the beast. Jerkins piloted the biplane and Cathy monitored the reptile’s presence.

  They scoured half the length of the river, hopelessly, without getting a bearing on the mosasaur. Much later a yellowish dash appeared on the screen. Cathy’s call was a joyous yelp.

  The beast had picked up the dull droning of the craft and could not resist its primeval instinct. Its huge shape grew out of the water. The size was terrifying. Gerald remembered the huge ugly head, its closeness... in the river. The rifle turned slippery in his palms. Now it was his call. “Let’s make a pass over it.” He stammered.

  The biplane zoomed over it. Gerald watched its serpentine body, recollected its leap. Its yellow eyes suddenly seemed fixed on Gerald, he felt the cold stare in his bones.

  “Go lower,” he ordered, “behind its head.”

  Jerkins expertly swerved the biplane behind the reptile minimizing any chance of a leap. He dipped the plane earthwards like a WWII fighter plane. Gerald aimed the rifle, he could not miss.

  The dart buried itself in the reptile’s scaly hide but the brute hardly noticed it.

  They did not stall for another moment, the rest, they would watch on the monitor.

  It was minutes before the drug began to work. The yellow dash on the monitor slowly came to a standstill.

  Quarter of an hour later they were underwater fixing the cage. They worked about barely twenty meters from where the behemoth lay. It appeared like an enormous locomotive engine, lying waiting and waiting.

  They built the cage of only vertical bars, and left.

  Cathy could not resist swimming for a closer look at the beast. She looked puny like a firefly before a chameleon. It seemed any moment it would awake and swallow her.

  Once on the river bank she promised Gerald a bonus. Minutes later the yellow dash grew sluggish and then motile. The giant reptile was safely caged.

  Louis had always wondered about the difficulties of transporting the beast out of the jungle. First they would need a container large enough to contain the mosasaur. Then a vehicle to carry it out of the jungle, preferably a truck, but the rough roads and narrow pathways, would make it impossible to accommodate a vehicle so huge. An airplane would be adequate but again it did not have the hovering quality needed to stay while the behemoth would be lifted in...

  Gerald had pondered over these thoughts. But some how he knew Cathy would counter all these difficulties. And she did.

  x x x

  “Ever heard of a V-22 Tiltrotor?” Jerkins asked, almost professor-like. Cathy stood in the background. She had summoned all the NIBSians and Belfours for the briefing about the shifting the behemoth.

  Jerkins continued, “A V-22 Tiltrotor is a combination of a plane and chopper. Capable of carrying enormous cargo, flying high altitudes...”

  As he spoke, he flicked on a switch and an image of an aircraft appeared on the screen. The aircraft resembled a chopper and its rear a plane.

  “The V-22 is designed to replace choppers but carry several times its load,” he continued. “It has the hovering capability of a chopper. With a landing requirement of a plane, but needing a much shorter runaway. Our aircraft is very much like the V-22, only several times larger and many times more load bearing capacity. It is a prototype, known as Y-36.”

  As he spoke the Tiltrotor image faded away from the screen. It was replaced by an animated scene of the rainforest and river Ybankazi. A moment later a caricature of Gerald appeared carrying a tranquilizer and riding an animated aircraft, the Y-36.

  A cute little mosasaur appeared in the river and the Gerald character shot it. Next the Y-36 dropped a gigantic sling which was slipped around the reptile and pulled up.

  Cathy took over the explanation. “The belly of the Y-36 has an inbuilt tank to house the Behemoth. This tank would be filled with water, and oxygen would be pumped in, to last for the journey.”

  The scene on the monitor changed and a map of Africa appeared. It zoomed in on Zaire (Nbokele). An arrowhead appeared tracing a path, westwards into the country of Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and ending in the Atlantic Ocean. Here a frigate would wait to carry its burden into the US. There an artificial reservoir was being prepared to house the giant reptile.”

  All that was needed now was to get the mo
sasaur into the Y-36 unharmed. To assure this they would attempt at least two test runs. The first attempt would be to fly to Gabon maybe halfway into Congo, depending how the mosasaur responded.

  If successful, the next attempt would be to go into Equatorial Guinea right up to the Atlantic Ocean.

  x x x

  Few weeks later the first test-run day arrived and so did the Y-36. It was a huge craft like an aerial mosasaur. The craft was painted with jungle green military camouflage.

  Its interior was tight as an ambulance, offering space just enough for the patient and a few attendants. Gerald was there mainly to tranquilize the behemoth and then monitor the unconscious patient through the test run.

  Tranquilizing was easy, now came the tough part, loading the brute into the aircraft. He watched uneasily as a dozen of NIBSians donned in skin-diving suits appeared on the banks. Cathy looked nervous too.

  Jerkins dropped the heavy sling from the craft. Taking it they disappeared into the river. The Y-36 continued to hover over the river like a humming bird. It was minutes before they resurfaced to give the thumbs up—all clear sign.

  Jerkins in the cockpit pulled a lever and the cables connected to the sling began to roll upwards. The hovering aircraft shifted slightly as the mosasaur rose to the surface and stopped. The cables refused to budge. There was a sound of metal grating and the craft shifted violently.

  Slowly, the cable rode upwards to life, hauling the mega tonne beast into the air. Water cascaded heavily off the brute’s back. Gerald gasped at the size and for a moment panic flowed in him but its restfulness assured him otherwise. The huge mosasaur completely filled the belly of the aircraft, giving Gerald a claustrophobic feeling.

  Once inside, metallic doors rolled down all around the mosasaur securing an airtight room. Only the partition between Gerald and the beast was transparent.

  Slowly the craft descended and ducts dropped into the river to draw water. The slow purring of the pumps began and river water flooded into the tank. It was a tight squeeze for the reptile so as its body pressed against the tank walls. These were special sensitive material that gave readings over the monitor.

  Once the tank was full, Gerald gave an all clear sign. Laboriously, the Y-36 rose up wobbling precariously like a pregnant woman.