Hunters moon

19: Saber

"Did you see the way he went down boys! He fell back and his leg fell forward, I almost couldn't handle my laughter" Piet said as they were once again heading south.

"Fokker asked for it, Frits, hand me the papers for the Ratel" Koos said and Frits gave it as he himself was checking a blueprint for the satellite GPS computer he always carried, something caught his eye making him frown.

He then took a tiny toolbox out of his bag and opened up the back of the computer, after fiddling a while he closed it up, and restarted it, a smile came to his face.

"What is it Frits?" Koos asked.

"There were all sorts of chip's in it's motherboard, limiting it to only being a satellite GPS system, now that I removed those chip's I can basically do with it what you can do with any computer, and since it works through satellite, I can access all sorts of military information all over South Africa"

"Sounds interesting"

"It is, I'll snoop around here a bit and see... Wait a minute"

"What?"

"Look at this s**t! According to this info, a Rooivalk is already been built and ready for it's test phase, but it's hidden under its English name, the Red Buzzard"

"But didn't Ezbar say it's blueprints aren't finished yet?"

"Yes, but here is one, done and dusted"

"Where?"

"Ysterplaat air force base"

Koos rubbed his beard "Someone bullshitted the good doctor, and I can think of only one person"

"Cleopatra"

"Yes, see if you can find out who are the main investors in that thing"

Frits typed away "Confirmed, Cleopatra Anubis"

"s**t, it looks like she'll do anything to wipe the wolves out on the next moon, even build an advanced attack helicopter"

"What do we do?"

"Isn't it obvious Frits...? We're going to go steal it"

***

It was a painstaking process, Ezbar fainted a few times, and Quintin had to resuscitate him, but eventually he got his wound closed and he collapsed breathless on the bed.

"s**t doctor, I tip my hat to you that must have been awful" Quintin said.

"Horrid son, and what's worse, it's been done by a rifle I created"

Quintin chuckled "Murphy's law I guess"

"Now, we must proceed with the next phase, the moon is in two nights, and we need to make sure you're up for it" Ezbar said sitting up, Quintin nodded.

Ezbar took a painkiller before he continued mixing the serum, it took concentration and he couldn't get it wrong, otherwise it might kill Quintin.

He added the blood Naledi gave him to the platelet, then scanned it into the computer. Several minutes later he drew fluid from a vale into an injection, then turned to Quintin "This is it"

Quintin swallowed "Ok, so what's going to happen exactly?"

"This is basically like being bitten by a wolf, but instead of the venom being wolf or hyena, I altered it with DNA from an extinct animal"

"An extinct animal?"

"I kept it secret from Cleopatra, which is a good thing, it means she doesn't know what I'm going to do. Apart from the breakthrough I had with this experiment, we also found a fossil here in the Kalahari, signifying there was a type of cat that lived here in the dessert many years ago, almost like lions now.

It was at least twice the size of a lion which means it might have been a pride animal. It's also got lengthened canines, almost like a smilodon, so we named it the Kalahari sabertooth"

"A sabertooth lion!?" Quintin asked.

"More like a sabertooth cat, or tiger, it had a much longer tail than the one America discovered, which tells me it was a chase down predator, similar to a cheetah, which clashes with the pride animal theory"

Naledi chuckled "Ok, I was interested to see this go down, and I even believe it's possible, but now? Finding an age old skeleton and thinking you can still get DNA from it?"

"Well that's the thing, it seems this fossil was only buried that quick thanks to shifting sands, and I was lucky when my team found it before the sand covered it again, apart from that, judging by the condition of the carcass, this cat couldn't be more than a thousand years old"

"That doesn't explain how you got DNA from it?" Naledi said.

"I'm not entirely sure, my theory is because it's so dry and lifeless here there wasn't enough needed bacteria to break the animal down completely, sure there were no flesh left, but there was a little bit of bone marrow, and that's all I needed"

"Which means there is a possibility to revive this cat?" Quintin asked.

"It's possible, only time will tell, for now, I think becoming this sabertooth will give you an edge, it has longer claws, bigger teeth, and a much more agile and powerful frame... You up for it son?"

Quintin looked at Naledi, she smiled "Pussycat"

"f**k you" He said and approached Ezbar "Lets do this"

"For safety reasons, I suggest we strap you down"

"Why?"

"Just for in case you shift into this thing here and go ballistic, remember, I helped you before with the previous serum that I also made using basic werewolf geno, so this new serum might cause you to fully become primal"

Quintin nodded and sat down, after Ezbar and Naledi strapped him in, Ezbar held the needle to his neck "This might sting a little"

When Ezbar injected Quintin with the serum he felt the burn enter his neck instantly, it spread quickly to his shoulders then chest, but the worst of it was when the burn reached his head.

Quintin screamed of agony, it felt like his mind left him, and he had no control over himself, siliva came from his mouth, his eyes teared so much it streamed down his cheeks.

"You poisoned him!" Naledi yelled, Ezbar only stood watching in shock.

The burn now set over into pain, all his muscles were throbbing, Quintin could swear he felt his bones in his body vibrating so agonizing was it.

Naledi grabbed Ezbar by his collar "You better hope he survives this, or it's the end of the line for you doc!"

Still screaming Quintin's voice seemed to get deeper, and a rasp joined it, making it sound like roars, Quintin didn't notice anything, all he experienced was the agony, until his sanity left him.

***

Koos, Frits and Piet laid flat in the brush looking at the military base, the sun was setting and the lights around the base was coming on.

"So, how do we do this?" Frits asked.

"Don't know, we could wait till dark and sneak in, but I see a lot of guns, and some surface to air missiles out there"

"Yoh, stealing from our own men, I don't want to kill anyone here Koos" Frits said.

Just then Piet chuckled "Aren't you two supposed to be the brains in our team?"

"De fok Piet?" Frits asked.

"We are in uniform, we have a Ratel, why not just drive up there and tell them we need supplies? I mean it's only been two days, the boys in Angola still think were hunting hyenas, they have no idea we went awol?" Piet said smirking.

Koos and Frits looked at each other, then Koos knocked Piet's bald head with his knuckles "So bomskok Piet can actually plan for something?" He chuckled making Piet throw him a finger.

Not long and they approached the base, a soldier with a rifle stepped forward holding his hand open, Piet stopped.

"Identification!?" He yelled in Afrikaans.

Koos came out of the top hatch and answered him back in the language "General Koos De La Rey! We're here on a resupply mission"

The man saluted him "Copy that sir, please enter"

Piet drove in as the gates opened, throwing a cocky smile at Frits "Ja ja!" Frits said back.

"How can we assist General!?" A soldier asked approaching, Koos first gave it some thought, then answered.

"Boet, were in a pinch up at the border, I'm going to need some extra stuff for this resupply"

"I'm listening sir"

"Do you have Ratels on base?"

"Yes sir, fresh ones standing in the back"

"Nineties?"

"Yes sir"

"Bring me one, then load four crates of ninety ammo, four crates of twenty ammo, and machine gun ammo for both. Then I want tools to fix the Ratels as well, engine lifting, tyre swapping, the full fokkin monty boet"

"Sir yes sir!"

The men set off to load a military long haul truck, the brand new Ratel ninety in front, the rest of the requested crates closed in a sail behind it. Piet and Frits smiled as they watched this unfold.

"Done and dusted Sir!"

"Good work soldier, now, were here for the secret weapon as Well"

"Secret weapon sir?"

"You weren't informed of us coming for it after all hey?"

"I'm sorry for being misinformed sir!"

"The Red Buzzard soldier!"

"Oh! you're early sir" The man said, this told Koos that the real testers are on route, meaning they don't have much time, he grabbed the soldier by his chest "It's a hoax boet, the ones who were supposed to come get the Buzzard is the enemy!"

"What!?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes sir!"

"Then listen up, this is whats going to happen"

***

"This is a good time to get out of here doctor" Naledi said as they saw Quintin break off one of the restraints, there was no humanity on his face, his eyes sleeted like a house cat's he had grown fangs top and bottom of his mouth, his physical size almost doubled, his muscles ripped beyond the limits his shirt had.

"His eyes! Those are not large cat eyes, those are... Different!" Ezbar muttered.

"Get out Doctor! I'm going to hold him back as much I can!" Naledi yelled.

"You must first try and calm him Naledi! Killing him is the last option!"

"I know! Get out!" She yelled again. Ezbar twisted with his crutches and left as quick as he could, leaving Naledi alone with Quintin, who was looking at her like she was his next meal.

"Ok kitty cat, it's time to calm down" She said softly but Quintin roared tugging at his other restraints, he took his massive claws and cut the wrist, then ankle restraints, then slowly stood up, siliva dripped from his mouth, there was rage in his eyes.

Naledi stood back, even if she was a werehyena, as she was now, without a moon, this thing Quintin turned into will kill her quicker than she could say her name.