Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 29



DEREK HAMMILL AND his men camped near the pillars. He kept someone on guard the entire night so that if and when the four searchers reappeared he could follow them. But they didn’t reappear.

It was morning. Decision time.

They could stay here and fail in their mission, or continue on.

Hammill was no fool. He and his men had seen the students’ tracks as well as the searchers’. They saw that all the tracks went up the mound to the pillars, and none came back down. What the hell was up there? Where did they all go?

His men were spooked. It had been simple to get someone to stand guard. No one could sleep. He heard them talking among themselves about the pillars, the lightning and thunder around them and nowhere else, the strangeness of the area.

He had tried to make outside contact, to request direction. Should they follow or not? But his sat phone had crapped out. He believed the same static or electricity or whatever in the hell caused the damned pillars to vibrate and make noise had also knocked out communications.

He could walk back until the phone worked again, but who knew how many miles that would be? He suspected they would have to climb the mountain, get out of this valley. That would take hours.

If, after all that, he received an order to continue on between the pillars, the searchers would be so far ahead they might be difficult to track. Following fresh tracks was one thing; following those more than a day old required a lot more skill. Even now, it would take a while to catch up.

No, Hammill reasoned, he didn’t have time to go back for instructions. He had to make his own decision.

People didn’t disappear into thin air. Something up there simply couldn’t be seen from ground level. The men were nervous, but they were seasoned fighters, and had done enough wet work for PLP that they couldn’t stop now.

He stood. “We’re climbing up there, and we’re going through. We will not abandon the mission.”