Harold was not afraid of heights—but he certainly was afraid of freefalling through the air at about a hundred miles an hour and splattering against the very solid-looking ground below, which was exactly what would happen in a few seconds. Jimmy had forgotten to pack him a parachute. Again.

Of course.

With his luck, it would be long after he became one with the ground that anyone noticed that he hadn't deployed his chute. He screamed in terror as the wind rushed past him, his hair whipping wildly in the breeze—and then something tackled him from behind, changing his direction. He and whatever had latched onto him approached the ground at top speed, but just before they could crash into the rock, a sudden burst of wind erupted below them and they slowed down, falling gently onto the moss-covered earth.

The weight on his back was relieved as Jimmy himself sat up, one hand at the back of his head and a nervous smile upon his freckled face. Harold rose and almost immediately doubled over; he took a few seconds to catch his breath, then wheeled around to face Jimmy with fury burning in his onyx-brown eyes.

"Are you kidding me? Again?"

"I'm sorry," Jimmy wailed. "I keep forgetting!"

"It's a pretty important detail to forget, Jimmy! Just because you don't need one doesn't mean the rest of us don't!" Jimmy hung his head, looking dejected, and Harold slumped back onto the ground feeling slightly guilty.

"Hey." He clapped Jimmy's shoulder lightly. "It's all right. Just...just let me handle the packing from now on, okay?"

Jimmy cracked a smile, then both began to laugh. His mood lightened, Harold sat up, pulling Jimmy up with him. "Where's Helen? You didn't forget to give her a parachute too, did you?"

"Nope, there she is," Jimmy said, pointing some distance to their left, where a large, dark parachute was floating serenely to the ground. Above it, they could see the air rippling as the camouflaged drop ship from which they had just jumped sped away.

"Get us over there. And try not to almost kill me again, will you?"

Jimmy grabbed Harold by the shoulder with one arm, the other pointed at the ground. He could feel the wind stir around them, lifting them off the ground and propelling them forward like a cork shot from a wine bottle. Seconds later they touched down beside Helen, who had hidden the remains of her parachute behind a large boulder and who was now studying the screen of a small tablet. Her hair fluttered in the updraft as they landed, but her eyes did not move from the screen.

"Good, you're okay." She sounded completely unfazed.

"I'm touched at your concern," Harold said sarcastically. "Second time this term, I'll have to start packing the equipment myself or I may not make it home for Christmas. Anyway, what's going on?" Harold knelt next to her and peered at the screen. A radar window obscured the monitor, displaying three blue, blinking blips that represented their squad, and another larger, crimson dot that represented the target, quite a distance away.

"It's due north," Helen said. "It moved up further than it was in the last two hours. Pretty far too."

"How's that possible?" asked Jimmy. "I thought he was injured?"

"He is, but he's clearly in better shape than we assumed." She stood and began to move. "This way, let's go."

They trudged along the path for several long minutes, walking quickly and quietly. The sky was a clear, velvety black, sprinkled with stars, with the moon climbing steadily higher above them, bathing the forest in its brilliant silver glow. They wound through the trees for another lengthy period, then came up to a river.

"Look at this," Helen whispered, kneeling at the bank. A splotch of thick, dark green fluid coloured the water's surface, as if a large ink bottle had overturned and spilled its contents into it. "He must be really hurt," she said sadly.

"But then how is he moving so fast?" Harold wondered.

"I don't know. But we're getting close." Helen backed up, then broke into a run and leapt over the surface and onto the other side of the river. Harold followed suit, and Jimmy touched down beside them, stray leaves fluttering in the sudden wind.

Helen consulted the tablet again. "Left," she said, and they all veered leftwards. The woods around them became much denser the further they ventured, the canopy of leaves overhead becoming so thick that the moonlight fell sparsely over the forest floor. Quite soon, each of them had pulled out their flashlights and were shining them through the darkness.

The trail of emerald blood was thickening, glistening in the moonlight.

"Er—I never asked before, but is it normal for blood to be this colour?" Jimmy asked.

"Nope, but when is anything we do ever normal?" Helen said.

"Good point."

"It's just up ahead," said Helen, glancing at the tablet once again.

They continued to forge through the dense trees, when Harold suddenly flung out an arm in front of them and hissed, "Stop! Listen...do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

A low, rumbling growl was drifting along the night wind. But there was no aggressiveness in the sound, no hint of menace. On the contrary, it sounded gentle, peaceful. It was almost like...

"Snoring?"

Helen suddenly gasped. "Look!" she whispered, pointing through the trees. The other two crowded around her and peered out through the spaces between the branches.

"Oh damn," Jimmy said. A gorilla was sprawled on the ground some fifty feet away. It seemed to be sleeping, its great chest rising and falling rhythmically. Only it was nothing like any gorilla they had ever seen. It was almost as large as the very ship that had brought them to the mission site, and ivory white, as if its coat had been bleached.

"Okay, I definitely know that that isn't normal," Jimmy said, aghast.

"It's hurt," Helen said, pointing at its side, which was stained with the same viscous, emerald fluid they had been seeing through the forest.

"This is insane, that can't really be our target, can it?" Harold asked, sure that this must be some sort of mistake.

"What else could it be? The huge blinking dot is pointed right at it!" Helen held up her arm to display the tablet again.

"So, what, we're supposed to get it out of here? Bring it back to school with us?" Jimmy asked. "I doubt that thing would fit on the ship for the return journey!"

"I'll send a message to O'Riley," said Helen, already typing away at the tablet. "Hopefully he'll be able to come up with something. In the meantime, we should figure out a way to transport it to the extraction site."

"That I can handle," Harold said, patting his bicep and grinning.

Helen rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you can, but that's not what I was talking about. I'm no expert on apes, but I'm fairly certain even a giant gorilla will notice if you suddenly yank it into the air and start carrying it through the woods."

"She's right," Jimmy said. "If it wakes up while we're moving, the whole mission is toast."

"So what do you propose?" Harold asked Helen, with a touch of impatience.

"That's going to have to wait," she said, looking once again in the direction of the abnormally sized primate with wide eyes. "New problem." She pointed back through the trees and Harold and Jimmy peered through the thicket of branches again. A group of men were now emerging onto the scene, all dressed in dark clothing and carrying what looked like short, thin sticks. They strode right up to the gorilla as though they had not a fear in the world, and one man broke away from the group to observe it more closely. He dragged his stick, which Harold now realized was a kind of wooden blowpipe, across the gorilla's chest, then whistled.

"What a beauty," he said in an accent Harold couldn't place. "Magnificent. He'll fetch a hefty price, this one."

"They're going to sell him?" Jimmy asked in an incredulous whisper. "We can't let them do that!"

"We won't," Helen said soothingly, "but you need to calm down, we can't risk giving away our location, at least not yet. We have to come up with a secure way to get him away from them. We might just have to wait until they leave again, then work out how to free him."

"Not good enough," Harold said, through gritted teeth. "Look at what they're doing."

The man with the accent was now walking around the gorilla, observing every inch of its ivory hide as if it were a rather sumptuous piece of meat. He suddenly straightened up and turned to the rest of his crew. "Right. Fire up the tractor."

"Sick," Jimmy muttered, looking at the man in disgust.

"I agree," Helen told him. "But we have to wait. A direct confrontation could blow the whole mission!"

"Then I suggest you tell him that," Harold interjected.

Her face contorted into a bemused expression for a fleeting moment, but she understood quickly enough when a bone-rattling roar shook the ground. The gorilla was waking up. The men had all drawn back, shouting in alarm, as the gorilla struggled to get up. The same man that had called for a tractor was now yelling for everyone to fire.

The others all raised their blowpipes and took aim, preparing to fire, but the gorilla smashed one of its arms into the ground in front of them and the resulting impact blew the men away with howls of pain. It was still moving groggily, as if whatever sedatives they had used on it hadn't worn off entirely, but it was reacting viciously to the sight of the men, trying its hardest to reach and clobber them.

"We have to—" Helen began urgently, but Harold had already parted the branches in front of them and slipped through the opening, hurrying onto the scene.

He sped forward, moving towards each of the men in turn as they pushed themselves to their feet, and with quick, precise movements knocked each of them onto their backs once more. He wrenched the blowpipe from the hands of the accented man and smashed it over his head—perhaps a little harder than was necessary—and the man fell in an almost comical motion, sprawling onto the ground with his tongue lolling out.

"That was surprisingly easy," Harold said, amused, dusting off his hands. "Now—" He turned to face the gorilla, and his face fell. The creature was staring at him, its wide, dark eyes, strongly contrasting with its pale hide, alive with fury. It growled, and then it pounced.

"Oh sh—"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The gorilla moved with a speed that, for a being its size, was both surprising and horrifying. Harold dove sideways as the beast raised its huge fists above its head and brought them crashing down, ripping the ground where Harold had so recently stood apart.

He rolled aside and jumped up, glaring at the gorilla. "Hey! I just saved you, you stupid monkey!"

The gorilla roared and dove at him again, swinging its arms in a wide arc. This time, Harold did not leap away. He swung as well, and his fist connected with the gorilla's wrist: the impact stirred a tremendous shockwave that blew them both away. The gorilla skidded, digging its thick fingers into the ground to slow itself down. Harold twisted in midair and landed in another roll, coming up in front of the bushes where they had been watching, where Helen and Jimmy were now standing, looking shocked.

"What's the matter with it?" Jimmy demanded, looking terrified. "Can't it see we're trying to help it?"

"Of course not," Helen said. "It's scared and hurt, it's acting the same way any other animal would in this situation."

"Stop defending the monster," Harold said bitterly.

"It's not a monster, and I'm not defending it. If we want it to stop attacking, we'll have to approach it peacefully."

But much to Helen's chagrin, peace was not an option. The gorilla swooped down on one of the men from earlier as he stirred, grabbing him around his midriff and hoisting him in the air with a roar, as if the man were some kind of trophy.

"How peaceful of it," Harold said to Helen, and ignoring her protests, he darted forward again and thrust his fist into the gorilla's chest. The man slipped out of its grasp as the gorilla flew backwards. But it leapt up almost immediately. With a vengeful snarl, it reached around and, as easily as if it had plucked an apple from a tree, ripped up a gigantic oak tree.

"Woah!" Jimmy shouted. The gorilla took aim and hurled the tree as though throwing a spear. Jimmy rushed forward, grabbed Harold's shoulder, and forced him backwards, waving his hands in front of him; a powerful gust of wind erupted in front of them, slowing the tree down, and with a final forceful push, Jimmy sent the tree hurtling away as if it had been repelled by an invisible barrier.

It had barely moved from in front of them when the gorilla itself fell from the sky, landing so forcefully that they stumbled. It swept out one of its long arms and knocked Harold backwards. He slammed into a tree, spit flying from his mouth as a cry of pain flew from his lips.

He had just crashed to his knees when something clamped over his face, obscuring his vision: the gorilla had grabbed his head and heaved him from the ground, shaking him wildly in midair. The sensation was worse than when he had plummeted towards the ground without his parachute, until at last the gorilla smashed him directly into the ground. A mixture of dust, debris, and pain clouded his vision as he felt his whole body go numb, then the gorilla's face came into view, looming over him, its huge fangs bared in a menacing snarl.

Ropes of saliva slithered from its mouth, splattering onto Harold's face as it roared—then the roar became a shriek as a grating, piercing wail split the night. The sound was like the screeching of a microphone, but louder and much, much harsher.

Harold could see flocks of birds erupting from the trees and scattering into the sky even as he writhed on the ground, his hands clamped over his ears, while the gorilla danced in front of him, howling in agony. The piercing wail stopped abruptly. Harold fought through the pain, forcing himself to move, and delivered a final punch, a sharp uppercut that sent the gorilla reeling backwards, and it crashed to the ground, motionless.

Helen, whose figure had been obscured by the gorilla's smooth, snowy profile, came into view a few feet away. "A warning next time?" he said loudly over the ringing in his ears.

He placed his finger gently into his ear, then held it up to his eyes. It was smeared with blood.

"Sorry," said Helen, with an apologetic smile. She helped him to his feet, then inspected the damage to his body as he groaned. She fished around in her backpack and pulled out a small container with three lumpy black balls, like oversized marbles. "Here." She dropped one into his hand. He popped it into his mouth and chewed, ignoring the stinging pain in his jaw.

"Thank God for super durability," Helen said, squinting past him at the hole his head had made into the ground. "The pill will take care of the excess damage. You should be fine in a few minutes."

"Take all the time you need," Jimmy called over at them. At their curious looks he gestured around. "Missing anybody?"

Harold glanced around with a sudden urgency. The gorilla was gone.

"Oh, that's not good," Helen sighed.