Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs (trilogy)

Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs - chapter 10

10. Nanosaurs

Morgan and Lin huddled together with Winston strapped tight on hard metal seats. The Chinook rattled and roared. The ride was bumpy and uncomfortable. It was dark now and Morgan could just about make out the blinking lights of the control panel and the shadowy outline of the pilot behind the grid and reinforced partition that separated them.

“Where are they taking us?” whispered Lin loudly. It was so noisy that even a hoarse whisper could just about be heard.

“Wherever Natzler is?” replied Morgan.

“Natzler wants me for a reason,” said Winston. “It must have something to do with these creatures.”

“Nanosaurs,” said Morgan. “That’s what these creatures are called. Nano, right? Dinosaurs, nanosaurs, nanotechnology. Natzler must have used some of dad’s techniques to create these monsters. So he wasn’t just trying to steal the microbe, he was piggybacking on dad’s research. But these creatures have not been created just by science. There’s some kind of dark force somewhere. I dreamt about it. But it’s not logical.”

“Forget logic, Morgan,” said Lin. “It’s obvious there’s more than science at work here.”

Morgan turned to Winston. “Think back, Winnie. This magical creature that appeared to you, Animus you said it called itself. What did it tell you?”

“I just saw pictures in my mind,” Winston replied. “Animus said it would be with me always even if it could not be seen. I just get this feeling that there is some force looking after the animals and that’s why they vanished.”

“What about us human beings?” said Morgan.

“Guess that could be down to you, Morgan,” said Lin, “if the I-Ching is right.” Lin shuddered as she looked back at Taurus, unmoving, silent, staring but still a terrifying presence. “What do you suppose that thing really is?” she questioned. “What’s it made of? How does it think?”

Morgan was at a loss. He found himself appealing to the data lodging in his mind and this surprised him. It was the first time he had really acknowledged that whatever it was had a separate existence. “I just don’t know. It’s an incredible piece of biological engineering.”

“And there could be thousands of different nanosaurs,” suggested Winston. “Remember all those computer images we found on the hard drive?”

Morgan looked again at the mass of Taurus, darker than the surrounding empty gloom of the cargo hold. So, this was a nanosaur, a creature created by the most advanced scientific techniques known to man. Morgan could only wonder with a kind of choked admiration about the mind behind these creations. He was not looking forward to meeting the man who possessed that mind, Marius Natzler.

As if reading his thoughts, Lin suddenly piped up. “When I meet this Natzler character I’m going to scratch his eyes out.” Morgan realized her display of bravado was meant to give them all hope and a warm, intimate closeness to the needle-sharp American flooded through him that made him feel suddenly happy.

They were silent for a time bouncing uncomfortably on the hard metal benches drenched in the roaring sound of the twin rotors. Morgan glanced at the pilot and could only make out a vague shape but he could see that there were lights dancing in the sky ahead reminiscent of the aurora borealis.

“We’ve got to escape from Natzler and get back to Cambridge,” said Morgan. As soon as he said it he realized it could be wishful thinking. He was just trying to lift everyone’s spirits.

Lin took out of her pocket three odd-looking coins and her portable I-Ching hexagram creator.

“What are you doing?” asked Morgan.