Austin gave Schroeder an odd look. The old man didn't look like the type who walked around with a grenade in his pocket. Austin was reminded that looks were deceiving. Schroeder was old enough for Medicare, but he talked as if he were part of a SWAT team.

Zavala trotted over from his lookout post. “Showtime. Our pals are coming down the street.”

Austin took a quick look around the plaza. “I've got a crazy idea,” he said. He quickly outlined his scheme.

“It might work,” Schroeder said with excitement in his voice. “Yes, it might work.”

“It better work,” Austin said.

“Isn't there another way?” Karla said. “They're such beautiful creatures.”

“I'm afraid not. If we do this right, they won't be hurt.”

Karla sighed, but she knew they had little choice. At Austin's direction, Karla and the others moved quietly around the perimeter of the plaza, leaving the side nearest the street open. Then they waited.

The mammoths had picked up their heads when they saw the humans on the move, and became more nervous at the harsh voices of Grisha and his men. The ivory hunters were making no effort to keep the noise down. They may have done it deliberately to frighten their prey, or were just plain stupid. But whatever the reason, their arrival was making the mammoths even more restless.

The herd moved away from the plaza and stopped when the mammoths saw the humans standing around the edge of the square. Those in the front ranks turned and collided with the others in the herd. The snorts and squeaks grew louder.

There was a flicker of movement at the entrance to the street. Grisha stuck his head around the corner. The sight and smell of another unpleasant, two-legged creature spooked the animals closest to him. In their eagerness to escape, they bumped against the other mammoths.

Emboldened at the lack of a challenge, Grisha stepped into the open, followed by the other thugs. They stood at the edge of the square, spellbound at the sight of the animals they had glimpsed only at a distance.

The herd had reached critical mass. Austin set off the chain reaction. He fired his gun in the air. Zavala began firing too. Schroeder and Karla yelled and clapped their hands. The herd was transformed in an instant from an uneasy group of placid animals to a full-blown stampede. Trumpeting in fear, the moving mass of heavy bodies and sharp tusks flowed toward the only avenue of escape, the narrow street that would lead them to safety outside the cave.

Unfortunately for Grisha, he and his men stood between the rampaging herd of mammoths and their goal of freedom.