Event

THIRTY-ONE

Lisa sat in the communications tent with Virginia. They had heard little in the last few minutes, and from what they had monitored, a massive slaughter was obviously taking place beneath the surface of the earth. Lisa had tried for forty minutes to recall all the tunnel teams after the initial attack just outside one of the town holes. But thus far, she hadn't been able to raise a single team. Being deep underground was taxing the systems they currently had. As usual, the army had delayed sending the more reliable M-2786 radios out from Fort Carson, radios that were in use in caves and tunnels in Afghanistan. Lisa wished now they had at least had time to run antenna relays throughout the tunnels; they could have been placed as the troops went deeper, like bread crumbs. Now the softball-sized ground-penetrating radar units were not furnishing anything on the animals' movements as they had obviously caught on to the attacks and moved deeper under the ground, thus defeating the weak signals of the small units.

"S... t... ne, Si... One, come... !"

The static was cutting off whoever was calling. Lisa took a chance.

"This is Site One. Repeat, this is Site One, over."

"Get the hell... o... of there, the mother... heading... way."

"That sounded like Sarah," Virginia said.

Lisa didn't wait as she clearly understood the broken message. She threw off the headset and ran for the front of the tent. She hit a large red button on the way out that had been mounted to the main support pole, and a Klaxon started sounding throughout the crash site.

Colonel Sam Fielding was standing on a rock with field glasses pointing toward the valley floor when the alarm started. He immediately jumped from his perch and ran to organize the Event staff and remaining Rangers and Airborne personnel.

The state troopers or what remained of them drew their nine millimeters again and started scanning the area.

Gus grabbed Mahjtic and heard him say one word in a frightened voice with its eyes larger than normal: "Destroyer!"

Lisa grabbed an M16 from the arms locker and started back for the COMM tent. On the way she yelled at the remaining state troopers, "Get your asses over here and get something with a little more kick to it than those potato guns!"

They all immediately ran for the arms locker where Lisa had been a moment before. Trooper Dills arrived first and grabbed for an M79 grenade launcher. He smiled as he hefted a bandolier of grenades over his shoulder, saying, "Payback is a motherfucker!"

Fielding slammed into the COMM tent and yelled, "Get the goddamn Apaches up here, now!"

Lisa immediately put the M16 down beside the radio gear and started calling for reinforcements. Everyone from the White House situation room, Nellis, and the Event Center, to a few of the newly surfaced and severely damaged tunnel teams, heard Lisa's call for assistance.

The remaining Event staff were starting to run from the saucer's crash area to the tent site. Before most of them made it clear of the debris field, the ground rumbled beneath their feet and a high-pitched whine came to their ears. Suddenly, the ground exploded in the middle of the site, and the large, thick-haired form of the mother burst from the hole, sending pieces of the broken saucer flying in all directions, with some of the debris striking a few of the technicians, knocking them from their feet. The large beast roared, flaring her neck armor, and immediately went on the attack.

Virginia ran out of the tent in time to see Dr. Thorsen from the anthropology department picked up and torn in two by the massive animal. He was ripped like a rag doll and tossed aside. But still she couldn't bring herself to look away. The brutal life-form was horrible, but still a mesmerizing sight to the scientist in her.

The mother quickly grabbed two of the staff as they tried to dodge the towering beast. The mouth opened and the mandibles worked at an incredible speed, almost undetectable. The tail swiped at another doctor as she ran the opposite way, sinking the stinger deep into her back. As the barbed tip pulled free, it took with it most of her coverall and about eight inches of flesh. She collapsed and her skin instantaneously shriveled and collapsed in on the bone, as her insides, including the hard muscles, were reduced to jelly by the alien's venom.

The team member it held in its right claw was dispatched quickly with a bite to the top of his head as it casually tossed the man aside. It threw the other scientist against an outcropping of rock, smashing most of the bones in his body.

After the initial shock of seeing the parent and its size for the first time, the few Rangers, Airborne, and Arizona State troopers opened fire on the animal. It easily dodged most of the flying bullets, and most of the projectiles that hit ricocheted harmlessly away after striking the hardened chest plates of the beast. The Talkhan sidestepped Dills's grenades as it leapt into the air and sank into the soil. It surfaced again in the center of the gathered policemen to quickly seize three troopers, one in its maw, the other two in its huge claws as they cried out in sudden pain, then disappeared with the beast below the surface. The others watched; a few, out of frustration, fired into the sand and rock in which men and animal had vanished.

Fielding grabbed a few of the remaining 101st personnel and set up a perimeter around the command tents. It seemed as if an hour had passed, when it had actually been only a moment since the attack had begun. Finally they heard the sound of rotors as the Apaches fought for altitude and climbed the mountain.

The ground once again exploded as the beast breached the surface twenty feet in front of the command tents. Fielding saw it first and fired a burst into the animal. The bullets bounced harmlessly off the armored chest and side as the Talkhan swiped at him. Dills quickly saw an opening and, without aiming, fired a grenade from the M79. The round exploded at the animal's feet, and it quickly turned and jumped through the air, landing in front of the state trooper, swiping at his chest and driving him to the ground, snapping ribs and breaking one arm. Fielding saw the animal's amazing leap and ran forward, still firing the M16. It swiped at Dills's prone form, claws barely scraping through his shirt as it missed. Then Virginia screamed as Fielding fired more rounds into the creature's back. It forgot about Dills as two of the bullets found the mark between the two plates that protected the animal's shoulder blades. It roared in pain and confusion as it turned from Dills and swiped at Fielding's still form. The huge claws easily separated the muscle, sinew, and vertebrae of the colonel's neck, sending his head flying thirty yards to strike the side of the forensics tent. The Talkhan immediately dove into the earth, again creating a soil eruption that covered most of Dills's agonized body. Then they all saw the wave as it sped for the COMM tent. As they watched, the battle started up again in the huge command enclosure, with Lisa-facing the Destroyer of Worlds, alone.

Gus grabbed Matchstick into his arms and ran for their tent opening. The sight that met his eyes stopped him in his tracks. Bodies were lying everywhere, mutilated and smashed, crumpled and discarded as easily as one would toss away dirty clothes. As he was looking at the scene of slaughter, the whine and zing of bullets sounded in his ears, bringing back memories of his taking fire in Korea. And then he remembered what he'd wanted to do back then and couldn't. But now he could, he thought. The bullets barely missed him as they thumped into the tent flap. He ducked and ran in the direction of the crash site. Mahjtic, sensing the thoughts of the old man, said, "Bug out, bug out, beat feet!"

The animal came straight up through the ground and into the tent's plywood flooring. Lisa was lifted up into the air as the wood cracked and separated. As she hit the ground hard, landing on her back, knocking the wind from her lungs, she came face-to-face with the mother as it roared, shaking its head and sending her mane flaring and slicing through the sides of the tent. She roared again, sending spittle mixed with the blood of Lisa's comrades to soak Lisa's fatigues and face. The animal cocked its massive head and looked with hate-filled eyes at the weak creature staring up at her arrogantly.

Lisa stood stock-still, looking directly at the animal as it stood before her. Drool slowly fell from its open mouth as it leaned forward toward the diminutive human. Lisa swallowed as the creature seemed to be looking her over, possibly smelling her. Her right hand slowly started reaching for the M16 that was caught between an upturned desk and a support pole.

It suddenly and deftly reached down and plucked Lisa up in both of its massive hands, its claws digging deep into her sides and back, and Lisa screamed in pain and anger. The mother Talkhan roared again as it looked at the woman in her clutches. Lisa yelled right back, partly in terror, but mostly because she knew her death was imminent and she was angry. With great effort against the pain, she worked her right arm free and grabbed for the nine millimeter in her shoulder holster. Seeing this, the Talkhan squeezed, sending two of the sharpened claws deeper and puncturing one of Lisa's lungs, as it brought her toward its gaping, mandible-snapping, tooth-filled mouth.

As blood flowed freely from Lisa's lips, she weakly brought the pistol up and fired three times in quick succession into the beast's face. She was so weak by now the recoil after each round almost made her lose her grip on the pistol. One of the nine-millimeter rounds caught the raging animal in the right eye, knocking its head back and making it reach for its wounded face. The claws of the right hand severed a main artery in Lisa's stomach as they tore through her body and the screaming mother dropped her to the floor. It covered the wounded eye and roared, shaking the ground and rippling the tent as if an internal wind had erupted. The Destroyer then shook its head and brought the powerful tail up, and instead of stinging Lisa, it smashed the tail into her skull with bone-breaking accuracy. It repeatedly slammed the tail down, trying to obliterate the small creature that had caused it so much pain and anguish. It finished by repeatedly stabbing the now mangled body with its stinger, sinking the barbed tip deeply into the naval signalman's remains.

As the Talkhan stood glaring one-eyed at Lisa's body, the tent suddenly erupted as hundreds of thirty-millimeter rounds exploded into the interior. A number of the armor-piercing shells found their mark, neatly punching holes into the mother. It roared in pain and stumbled forward toward the opening. Then another two rounds exploded into its shoulder and upper chest. It screamed in outrage again as it leaped and dove into the earth just outside the tent, taking most of the canvas front panel of the communications and command enclosure into the hole with it.

The three Apaches circled the camp and saw nothing but broken and lifeless bodies. Their thirty-millimeter chain guns turned and scanned the area of the crash site. Here and there men and women slowly stood and shook themselves off. Most were half-deaf from the loud explosions brought to bear by the attack helicopters.

Sarah had a horrible feeling. They had been unable to raise the crash site for the last half an hour, as they sprinted through the tunnel and up the mountain. Suddenly the radio crackled in her earpiece as they came shallow.

"I repeat, tunnel missions canceled, over."

Sarah bit her lower lip as she realized it hadn't been Lisa on the radio. But she couldn't wonder about her friend's fate just now.

"We have movement!" shouted one of the point men with the VDF device.

They stopped and the entire team brought their weapons up, and the laser sights pierced the darkness and ran off into the blackness settling on nothing. They waited. Finally, they saw movement, and then the old man suddenly appeared moving fast down the tunnel. He didn't notice at first he was being targeted as several laser sights settled on Mahjtic's wide eyes.

"Sonsbeeeech, Guss, sonssssabeeeeches, don't shooooooot. Gus and Maaahjtic!" the small being cried, covering its head and burying its face into Gus's chest.

Gus threw his one free arm into the air, turning to the side to protect Matchstick the best he could. "Whoa there, get them laser beams off us!" Gus called out breathlessly.

"Mr. Tilly, what in the hell are you doing down here?" Sarah asked as she lowered the submachine gun.

"Escaping little missy." He placed his other arm around Mahjtic once again and hefted him higher onto his chest. "I guess no one told you. We just got our asses kicked up there," Gus said, nodding upward.

Farbeaux had felt them coming long before they made an appearance. Despite that, the animals struck so fast that five of his men had been taken in the first few seconds of battle. They looked like the same monstrosities he had come across in the Broken Cactus, only now they had grown considerably. But as the smoke from the automatic weapons cleared after the beasts' lightning-quick assault, he quickly counted. He could account for only two of the creatures' bodies. Not a good kill ratio at all. The animals were clearly hard to kill, and he suspected they would be much harder later in their lives. Now he was getting an inkling of the reason his former employer Centaurus was interested in such an animal. The rewards in bioengineering alone could be a bottomless pit of money. And Hendrix would be just the man to head a project that would bring a creature as destructive as this onto some future battlefield. Even Farbeaux understood the ramifications of this animal. Left alone, mankind would never stand a chance against these creatures' abilities en masse.

They had been traveling slowly through the tunnel, stopping every few minutes for a VDF check and some oxygen. They hadn't even noticed that the creatures had been right there among them. Some were half-buried in the walls of the tubelike excavation and others half-burrowed into the floor. One had even struck from above. It was a trap that foreshadowed the grisly loss of a third of his men.

"It seems we are up against a species that is calculating enough to lay ambushes," Farbeaux said, looking at the faces of his remaining men. He glanced over at Julie, Billy, and Tony. "You there, hand me that bottle," he ordered, holding out his hand to Tony.

Tony looked from the bottle of Jack Daniel's to the Frenchman. He held it out and watched in horror as the bottle was passed back and forth between the Frenchman's mercenaries using the whiskey as disinfectant. Watching this made Tony madder than being kidnapped.

"Why don't you guys do what comes natural to French soldiers?" Tony said.

Farbeaux looked at the man a moment, then asked, "And what would that be, my drunken friend?"

"Give up and let Americans get a handle on this."

Billy couldn't help it, he laughed, lowering his head as his mother tried to stifle him by quickly placing a hand over his mouth and pressing hard.

"Still trying to save the entire world, huh? Well, it looks like you may have an enemy you can't bully, it looks--"

"I hate to interrupt, Colonel, but we may want to leave this place. I heard on the radio the Americans are pulling out of the tunnels in anticipation of another strategy," the bearded radioman said.

Farbeaux held his gaze on the three Americans a moment longer. "I believe we can learn no more from this excursion," he said, lowering his eyes. "Either way, Hendrix would have killed me." He looked at his men. "Come, I see no profit in dying here. We shall choose our own time and place, and we'll make it for money, not this dark death."

Julie was having difficulty taking a deep breath in the enclosed and claustrophobic tunnel. She wished they would just let them go.

Farbeaux was just starting to move away when he saw one of the dead animals. He held his light on what looked to be small, round grapes. The light caught a shadow inside that suddenly jittered. His eyes widened in amazement as he realized what he was looking at. Eggs! They were purplish in color and half the size of a wine grape. He looked around quickly, then removed his combat knife. He quickly emptied his canteen and stuck the knife into the membrane that held the hundreds of eggs. He gathered twenty or so on the edge of his knife and scraped them off into his plastic canteen. With his gloved hand he scooped up a few ounces of the clear viscous membrane and also deposited that in the canteen. He replaced it on his belt.

They were just getting ready to start out when the animals attacked again. Farbeaux was just missed as the first animal grabbed one of his men and pulled him into the earth. The colonel yelled and dropped his knife, then quickly fired at the retreating animal. He turned and started pushing his way to the front. Suddenly the whole side of the wall caved in as four of the beasts struck. It was all close-in fighting after that.

Julie pushed Billy and Tony ahead. "Run!" she shouted as she felt more than saw one of the animals turn and start coming their way, screeching and shaking its ugly head.

The screams coming from behind them in the tunnel intensified as they fled as fest as the darkness would allow. Suddenly Julie felt searing pain slice across her back as one of the animals leaped. Her blouse was torn in two down the middle of her back as she yelled for the others to run. She stopped and turned, facing the nightmare in front of her. The animal rose to its full height and roared, but no sooner had the sound emerged from its mouth than it staggered under an onslaught of bullets. Pieces flew from its body as the tracer rounds struck nonarmored areas of its torso. A few of the bullets whizzed by her head, missing her by mere inches. She then noticed a dozen thin red beams of light dotted all over the animal's chest and torso. Amazingly, they were coming from the direction the three had been heading. Everywhere a beam of red light hit, a bullet soon followed, either bouncing away harmlessly or digging into the purplish flesh. She slammed herself into the dirt and covered her head. Then suddenly the animal dove into the wall, cascading dirt and sand over her.

At the same time, the screams and gunfire in the section of tunnel they had just fled subsided to nothing.

Julie was shaking uncontrollably as she felt movement around her but was afraid to look up.

"Miss Dawes, you alright?" a familiar voice called out, barely audible to her through the dirt.

"Mom, hey, Mom, it's the major and Lieutenant Ryan," Billy shouted.

Julie slowly turned over, rocks and dirt sliding away as she winced in pain. She brought up a hand to shield her eyes from the harsh glare of the flashlights.

"That was pretty close," Ryan said, bending over and helping her to her feet.

With a trembling voice she hissed, "A little too close."

Collins stepped forward along with Mendenhall and Everett. Their weapons were still smoking and held at the ready.

"Who else is back there, ma'am?" Collins asked.

"Probably no one now," she answered, hugging Billy and Tony. Ryan pulled the two pieces of her blouse together from behind. "But there were soldiers or mercenaries, French-speaking." She gingerly turned and faced them. "The leader was a man that passed himself off as an Interior Department person in the Broken Cactus. A colonel I think he had been called by one of his men."

"Farbeaux, Mom, his name was Farbeaux."

"Son of a bitch!" Everett exclaimed as he pushed by the others and made his way farther down the tunnel, squatting and holding his weapon high.

As Collins turned and followed, shining his powerful light after Everett's retreating form, he saw the carnage of what remained of the group of kidnappers. Most of them were, he assumed, missing. He looked down and saw a set of tracks leading the other way, away from where they stood and heading back into the tunnel.

Everett returned with a foul look on his face and looked the major in the eye. "It looks like one or two got away. And you can bet your ass on which one was among the two. Permission to give chase to that bastard," Everett asked.

Collins looked around, then at his watch. "Negative, let's get the hell out of here."

They both looked down the tunnel, knowing that the Frenchman was in there somewhere and there was nothing to do but hope he met a fate he deserved.

Thomas Tahchako was helping to unload what remained of his herd. The government boys had offered a good price for the lives of his now depleted number of cows, but he was secretly willing to sacrifice them all if he could just be a part of killing the horrible creature out there. He watched as the other ranchers in the valley unloaded their herds from trucks of every size.

As he turned his attention from the gathering cattle herd, he looked to the bright sky and prayed that this beast could be lured to this spot. He lowered his gaze toward the strange-looking drilling device and the heavy equipment that was busy smoothing the ground. He didn't really care to know what they were drilling for.

The army engineers that had been brought in from Fort Carson, using heavy drilling equipment they had confiscated from several construction companies in Flagstaff, had completed drilling the quarter-mile-deep pilot hole, between the two eastern edges of the Superstitions that slacked away to mere foothills and then nothing, as the mountain edges created a natural doorway out of the valley, or as Jack had earlier thought of it, a funnel.

With the hole drilled and all the sensors in place, the Special Ordnance Division of the U.S. Army out of Fort Carson, Colorado, started lowering the one device nothing could escape from, a fifteen-megaton tactical neutron warhead.

Operation Orion was about to be put into play with Jack's added plan of the funnel, if the animals could be lured to the open back door of the valley.

Collins was called forward by the Delta sergeant who had point. Jack left Ryan with the rescued civilians and patted Carl on the shoulder as he went by him.

"Everyone take some water and air," Jack ordered as he gave his canteen to Everett to pass back to Julie and the others.

The point man was kneeling and had his night-vision goggles raised as he peered into the shaft. He kept his eyes forward as he was joined by the major.

"What've you got, Sergeant?" Collins asked.

"We have another tunnel merging with this one. Looks like one of the town's buildings from above has fallen in, must have been a lot of animal activity. See how the two converging tunnels have been widened, like they were foraging for food or something?"

Collins saw that the two tunnels made up a good-sized cavern. He thought he saw trash cans, bright and shiny new, racks of hand tools, and other racked and shelved items.

"Looks like the hardware store fell in here," Jack said as he waved forward two of the Rangers. "You take some water too, sergeant, we'll check it out," he said as he lowered his ambient-light goggles and started forward.

The hollowed-out space was riddled with items of every description. He easily stepped around a rack of lawn rakes and hoes. He held his hand up and pointed to the-right for the two Rangers behind him to take that area. He continued forward as easily as he could. The expanded tunnel had a heavier than normal musky smell. As he looked up, he could see into the darkened recesses of the first floor of the hardware store. This must have been its basement as he saw large blocks of concrete that had once made up its foundation. From underneath one of the large blocks he saw an arm protruding. As he leaned over and felt for a pulse, he heard the shouts of the two Rangers as the far wall exploded in toward them. As Jack straightened, he felt the first shower of dirt as the roof of the tunnel fell in on him. He heard the screams and shouts as those men still in the tunnel rushed forward, but as quickly as it had started it was cut off like a radio being shut down. The tunnel behind had caved in, effectively sealing him and the two Rangers from the others.

The roar of an animal made Jack freeze as he tried to free himself from the fallen roof. He heard one of the men open fire and then the other started screaming. Collins moved from side to side, trying to push away the accumulated wall that encased him on all sides. Finally he felt his right arm free up, and he pulled himself up and out, spitting dirt and sand as he did.

Silence greeted his return to the air. He silently rolled down the hill that had been his own cage a moment before and found himself lying against plastic bags of fertilizer. Jack raised his goggles and reached into his vest and pulled out a flare and struck it. He tossed it over a jumble of wheelbarrows and immediately saw one of the creatures strike out at the light with its tail. Jack rose and fired a ten-round burst at the beast, which roared and turned on him. Collins fell backward over the fertilizer and landed with a thump into sacks of something whitish gray that plumed into the air around him. He fought to quickly right himself and came to his knees. Still off-balance, he saw the animal charge in the glowing red light of the flare. As he fired, the first three rounds hit the fifty-pound sacks of the whitish material in front of him, sending a cloud up as his other rounds passed through. He heard a roar and then the scrambling noises of the animal as it suddenly changed direction. He then heard the screams of the beast as it momentarily went crazy, slamming into the fallen racks and fixtures of the sunken hardware store.

Collins heard shouts coming from behind him as the rest of the tunnel team on the other side of the cave-in fought and dug to get to him. He saw the animal as it swiped at the white dust that clung to its sickening armor. Jack quickly fired ten rounds at the beast, and to his surprise he saw no ricochets as the armor-piercing ammo found weak spots all over. They seemed to stitch right up the animal's side armor as it screamed and fell forward, unmoving. Jack couldn't believe the easiness of this creature's death as compared to the others they had met up with. As he limped forward, he saw that the fifty-pound bags were full of potash. He figured some of the bitter-tasting stuff that he thought was used in planting may have blinded the creature, making it an easy target. He came forward and looked the animal over in the flare's light and could see where the armor had cracked as the bullets pierced it. Parts of its exoskeleton were lying beside it like fallen eggshell, and its blood was soaking into the ground.

Everett finally pushed the last of the dirt aside, and he and two others slid into the remains of the hardware store.

"Jack!" he called. "Where are the other two?"

Collins lowered his weapon and just nodded toward the far side of the tunnel. He reached out and rubbed a finger across the creature's armor, and his glove picked up a heavy coating of potash. He rubbed it together with his fingers and some soaked into his gloves; he felt a tingling but nothing any more significant than that.

"They're dead, Jack," Everett said as he returned.

Collins looked up from his fingers and into Everett's face. "We're all going to be if we don't get out of here," he said as he studied the unsteady and crumbling foundation of the hardware store, then finally turned and went back to the main tunnel.

It took thirty minutes for Collins's team to retrace their tracks through the tunnel to a large branch that he hoped led to another opening in the surface. The VDF machine had picked up nothing on their return but a far-off target that seemed too large to be one of the animals. Besides, the ghost target appeared to be at the far end of the valley where there had been no animal activity. The absence of any closer targets meant the offspring were heading out of the valley or were congregating somewhere else and keeping still, waiting around the next turn of the tunnel in ambush.

They moved closer to where they thought the town lay. Suddenly the small column stopped and Jack leaned against the wall and waited for Everett to report. It didn't take long.

"Major, you better come up here and look at this."

Jack took a deep breath and made his way past the others, winking at the small boy as he did. He found Everett looking to the right. Jack's eyes widened as he took in the massive tunnel. It had been excavated close to one of the offspring's burrowing and had partially caved it in, the one Collins and his team were currently inside. The large tunnel was three times the diameter of the tunnels they had been traveling through, and its odor was different from the stink they still couldn't get used to. But far more worrisome was the twenty-five-foot width of the hole.

"The mother?" Everett asked, shining his flashlight around the circumference of the shaft.

"Has to be, we haven't seen anything this size out of her offspring. But if it is, she's grown since she dug the tunnel at Site One."

"Can't tell which direction it's heading off in."

Jack lightly slapped Carl on the back. "Come on, we don't need to run into her right now, we're beat and low on ammo."

Carl turned away and started forward again.

Jack took one more look at the size of the tunnel and shook his head. The mother would have to be close to twenty-five feet tall to have made this. He turned his back on it and found the others.

Twenty minutes later Everett again held a hand into the air. They stopped and waited.

"We have a light up ahead, Major," Everett said into his microphone.

Collins eased his way past the others until he reached the front. Then he clicked his light off and waited for Everett, who turned and looked at Jack. Their faces told a story of hardship and terror he never wanted to see again. He had been through some bad situations before, but none that were this oppressive to the mind. He had started to think of the creatures as being much more than mere animals. They had to be sentient beings, with the intelligence to know when their lives were threatened. As he looked at his small group, he knew there could be no other conclusion.

"It looks like it leads up into some kind of bar or cafe or something, Major. No sign of the animals."

Ryan, who had left Julie, Billy, and Tony only after promising he would be right back, joined them. He had taken his nine millimeter and chambered a round, removed the safety, and started to hand it to Tony, then caught a whiff of whiskey from the man and handed it to Julie. "It's ready to fire, so be careful," he had told her.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Ryan whispered when he found Jack and Carl.

"We have an entrance hole up ahead," Everett said.

"I smell cheeseburgers," Ryan said, sniffing. "Must be the Broken Cactus, Julie's place."

"As good a place as any to get the hell out of here." Collins adjusted his mike to his mouth and spoke softly to his remaining nine men. "Alright, listen up, we found a way out. Let's move quickly and try and make as little noise as possible."

Ryan returned to Julie and the others and let them know they were home.

"After you, swab," Collins said, smiling at Everett.

"Yeah, SEAL would probably taste better to it than some old leathery army type."

Everett slowly approached the hole and noticed ropes hanging down. This must have been some other team's point of entry, but he couldn't remember ever seeing it on the chart. Then he thought about Miss Dawes and her kid; this must have been the point where they had been taken into the tunnel. Everett tugged on the first rope and was satisfied it was secured well at the top, then he tested the second. Slowly Carl pulled himself up. When he was a foot from the top, he freed his automatic from its holster and peered over the top. He was looking into a kitchen. There were stainless steel counters, pots, pans, and dishes lying smashed and bent everywhere. He listened for any sign of movement, then sniffed. The odors of old grease and coffee assailed his nostrils. Then suddenly he heard it, a soft crunching sound he couldn't place. As his eyes roamed over the remains of the kitchen, he froze. One of the animals was hunched in a corner near the stove, and it had a man and was slowly eating him. Everett let his eyes adjust for a moment, then made out a Channel 7 Minicam lying next to the former owner. Carl grimaced and carefully eased his nine millimeter back into his shoulder holster and removed a grenade from his web belt. He placed pressure on his boots and held himself in place as he quietly pulled the pin. He quickly rolled the round grenade over the broken floor, where it bounced twice and landed at the creature's feet. As it tilted its head in curiosity, the grenade exploded. Everett had ducked down into the hole and was holding on tightly when the flash and loud boom shook dirt down on him and the others waiting in the tunnel.

He didn't bother to explain to the major and the rest of the team as he scrambled up the rope again and peered over the flooring and into the smoke-filled kitchen. He looked through the swirling, acrid smoke caused by the grenade and at first only saw the damage it had caused to Miss Dawes's kitchen. Then he saw movement. The creature was down but still alive. Shrapnel had found a weak spot somewhere on its armored body, but Carl didn't know how seriously it was wounded. He reholstered his weapon to free his hands again and climbed the rest of the way up and gained the kitchen floor. He rolled as quietly as he could and pulled his automatic again. But just before he could fire, an angry scream filled the kitchen as a man with a giant butcher's knife fell from the rafters onto the wounded animal. The beast roared and tried to stand, but its assailant plunged the knife again and again under its neck armor until the Talkhan finally collapsed from the shrapnel wounds and the plunging knife.

Everett was shocked when he saw the filthy and blood-covered man as he moaned loudly and then rolled off and lay spread-eagled on the damaged floor. Carl holstered his nine millimeter and knelt down beside the man and looked at him curiously. The T-shirt of the large, bearded man read KIRK OVER PICARD AND JANEWAY UNDER ME!

"Like your shirt," Everett said, quickly checking the man's wounds.

The animal grunted and lay still in the far corner, and Everett stood and walked over to it and, to be sure it was finally dead, kicked it. Then he looked at the remains of the Channel 7 cameraman and grimaced. He then moved his weapon from side to side, sweeping the area for anything that so much as moved. Satisfied, he whispered into his mike the all clear while assisting Hal Whikam to his feet.

"What happened up there?" Collins asked from below.

"Don't let Ms. Dawes and the boy hesitate in the kitchen on their way through. It's not pretty, looks like the Channel Seven camera jock wasn't as fast as his reporter friend."

One by one Everett helped the others into the kitchen of the Broken Cactus. Julie was the first up and saw the man lying against the stove breathing hard. He was bloody and cut in so many places she couldn't believe it.

"Hal!" she screamed and ran to him. "Billy, Hal's alive!" she called back over her shoulder. "Hal, oh, Hal... God, what happened to you?"

Hal opened his eyes and focused on Julie. He smiled at her and then Billy as he joined her.

"That was one tough motherfucker, Jules, I'll tell you that," Hal said weakly. "We fought back and forth down in those tunnels for what had to be the longest four hours of my freakin' life. Then I made it back up here and the bastard had me cornered. Luckily for me, that reporter guy, you know, the one from Phoenix, Kashihara?" Hal grimaced in pain as he tried to raise his head. "He came in the diner screaming about being left behind." Hal focused on Julie again after drifting for a moment. "Well, I guess you could say he saved my life. That monster thing went for him and the chickenshit bastard actually pushed his cameraman in front of him and ran. But he got his when he turned and another one of those ugly bastards got him and took him under. That gave me time to scramble up in the rafters, then Captain Marvel there chucks in a grenade and almost made mincemeat outa me."

Julie hugged Hal and with Billy's help assisted him to his feet, and they slowly made their way out of the kitchen.

"But I finally got that fucker," Hal said with his arms around Julie and Billy. Hal gave one final look at the beast and shook his head admiringly. "What a tough SOB," he mumbled.

Collins immediately ushered everyone into the dining room and then called the base camp, looking around as the others found places to sit and rest. He watched Julie as she went behind the bar and filled glasses full of ice and water and passed them around. As Jack listened to the report from the base camp, he was glad his remaining men had removed their earpieces and let them dangle as they removed gloves, helmets, and the new body armor that had saved most of their lives. Collins turned away while listening to the voice on the other end explaining the details of the loss of life belowground and at the base camp. Collins shook his head as he listened to the numbers. When he was done, he turned and slowly walked up to Everett, who was just staring out the window. The major took a deep breath when he saw that the big SEAL still had his radio on and his earpiece in. In exasperation Jack removed his helmet and took his gloves off and threw them inside.

"We don't know for sure if she was one of the casualties, Carl," he said softly. At first it didn't look as if Everett was going to respond. Carl, for his part, was surprised that Collins had seen through his ruse with Lisa so quickly. But what did it matter?

"You didn't get a chance to know her, Jack. Most people just looking at her would've thought she was just another dumb blond or some stupid crap like that. But she was smart." Carl spit some dirt from his mouth. His voice lowered as he again looked out the window. "And brave? I've never known a braver woman. If the parent hit the base camp, she would have done her duty," he said as he turned and faced Jack.

Collins patted him on the back and turned to the others. "They're sending a Pave Low to pick us up. Is the way to the roof through there, Ms. Dawes? I came up the outside stairs earlier and I don't fancy going out there and doing it again."

"Yes, back through the kitchen," Julie's tired voice answered, and then she winced as Ryan applied ointment to the nasty cut running the entire length of her back.

"Don't bother to hand out menus," Everett said from the window, "Major, we're about to have company."

Collins ran to where Everett was looking out the window. Jack made no reaction for Julie's and Billy's sakes as he watched four or five waves of parting concrete and street asphalt head right for the Broken Cactus. Two zigzagged and crossed the road, sending up huge chunks of roadway as they crossed Main Street, then suddenly they swerved back toward them.

"Site One, Site One, we have company. We're headed for the roof, repeat, we are headed for the roof," Collins said as calmly as he could into the mike, then put his gloves back on. "Okay, kids, let's head up. Ryan, you first, take the civilians.... Where is the other one?"

Everyone looked around, but Tony had disappeared.

"Don't have time for this, let's just hope he knows what he's doing," Collins said, as he placed his last magazine into his XM8.

The navy pilot led the protesting Julie, Billy, and the wounded Hal to the stairs as they yelled about not leaving Tony. They were quickly followed by the remaining five Delta and Rangers. Collins called for Everett, who was still looking out the large dining-room window. Carl silently watched the advancing animals while shoving a new magazine into his own assault rifle, then he suddenly turned and dove as the floor exploded in the exact place he had been standing. He rolled and came up firing into the animal as it cleared the wall and floor. The rounds struck but only a few caused any noticeable damage.

The beast struck out and its claws sent Jack's XM8 crashing against the wall. Then it quickly turned on Everett and swiped, catching him on the new vest. The nylon covering material separated easily, but then the steel-like claws struck the packed-abalone-shell case and ricocheted off. Still, Carl was thrown across the room, the rounds from his weapon stitching a pattern in the wooden ceiling and sending 5.56-mm rounds slamming into the headboard of Billy's bed upstairs.

Now the Talkhan turned its full attention on Jack. He quickly pulled his personal combat knife from its scabbard and faced the inhuman form before him. The beast roared, shaking the remaining dishes and pans in the kitchen. Jack quickly glanced in the direction of Everett, who was just starting to regain his senses after striking the far wall.

The beast watched Jack, its brows arched to show the full glory of its yellow eyes, then it charged, head up and claws extended. Jack didn't move at first. To a layman it would have seemed Collins was frozen in fear, but Jack had a mind that always planned three moves ahead. As the beast charged and swiped at Jack, he ducked, barely escaping being raked by the death-dealing talons. As he did so, he quickly brought his black-painted, stainless-steel-edged knife up and slashed at the creature's leg tendons that were exposed when its leg muscles flexed. The Talkhan screamed in pain as the knife severed the tendon in its right knee joint. Before the beast could turn on Collins, he had come up behind it and instantly found a vulnerable spot in its massive shoulder armor. He quickly sank the blade in and out three times in succession, wounding the animal to the point it was delirious in pain and outraged at the assault.

Everett shook himself and looked about for his assault rifle. He found it three feet away.

Jack was surprised how quickly the animal recovered and regained its momentum. Instead of turning around to face its enemy, the beast quickly brought its tail up and slapped at Jack. The stinger caught in the front of his vest and pulled him down to the floor, slamming him into the bloodstained linoleum.

"Stay down, Jack!" Everett cried.

Collins quickly covered his head as the XM8 opened up.

Taking advantage of the animal's distraction as Everett slammed rounds into it, Jack rolled free, dodging two quick stabs of the creature's stinger, and recovered his own weapon. He opened up, adding his firepower to Everett's. Somewhere in the firestorm of tracers and smoke, the animal dove back through the hole it had entered by. Jack stopped firing, then watched the SEAL as his weapon finally ran out of ammunition.

"What do you say we get some sun?" Jack asked, eyeing Everett closely.

"Let's go," he said, turning and quickly running for the kitchen and the safety of the roof.

As they broke free of the stairway and into the bright sunshine of the late afternoon, they saw the other members of the team firing their weapons over the false front of the building. Julie was holding Billy in her arms and had an arm around Hal as they huddled at the feet of Ryan as the flier fired one shot at a time from his nine-millimeter handgun.

Collins and Everett ran to the front where Ryan was standing and looked out over the small town. The creatures were everywhere, diving back into the ground, then surfacing a moment later.

The soldiers watched incredulously as round after round bounced from them and into the dirt or into a wall after slamming into the creatures' armor.

"Shit," Collins said under his breath.

Two loud explosions rocked the building as the Rangers tossed grenades over the side. A Delta sharpshooter brought one of the animals down with a perfect shot into one of its eyes. It stumbled and skidded into the side of the building. A Ranger popped up and threw another grenade down right next to the fallen beast and it went off, jolting the creature away from the wall. Other animals fell upon the still-smoldering carcass, tearing huge chunks of flesh from it, devouring their sibling.

Then, as suddenly as the attack began, it ended. The animals had stopped dead in their tracks. The only movement was a gentle swaying as though they were listening to music only they could hear.

The strange thing was the soldiers were hearing music, as the sound of the jukebox was coming from the barroom below. The animal's landing against the building must have jarred it and shorted something out, and Collins shook his head as he watched the strange behavior of the beasts and listened to Guns N' Roses singing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

"Things have taken a turn for the fucking surreal," Jack said under his breath.

The others heard the music and watched the creatures as they swayed back and forth. The remaining troops looked from the Talkhans to each other. They were totally surrounded by the mass of animals, and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before they started to attack again.

The gathered survivors on the buildings' roof may have thought the creatures were swaying to the soft rhythm of the song. But what had caught their attention were the minute vibrations coming from the desert valley. They were also picking up signs on the wind that humans couldn't smell. It was the distinct odor of food, a lot of it. Also, an invisible wave was striking the animals that called them away. The male was aboveground and signaling in the center of the valley.

As those on the roof watched, all the animals save for one dove into the earth and started heading away from the town, at least ninety of the animals, Collins quickly counted. The one remaining had stopped swaying and was looking straight up at them. As they watched, a blackened tongue shot out of its mouth and it lowered itself closer to the ground.

"Son of a bitch is going to spring!" Collins shouted, taking aim with his weapon.

The animal crouched, gathering and bunching its muscles for the short leap to the rooftop. The huge tail coiled behind it for use in tandem with its legs to shoot itself toward its next feeding.

The men gathered quickly, raising their rifles, and a few pulled the pins on grenades.

"Get ready to repel boarders," Ryan said, quoting the famous naval order, only half-jokingly.

The animal launched itself.

Things of a terrifying nature sometimes seem to happen as mere snapshots of the event, creating a slide show for the observers. None of the gathered soldiers would ever remember how the pickup truck had gotten so close without any of them seeing it or hearing it. And with that surreal slowness to it, they watched as the animal just cleared the ground and the front bumper struck it. The truck sent the beast in a headlong tumble ending in a crunching impact on the street, with the pickup careening into the Ice Cream Parlor. The creature hit in the middle of Main Street and skidded. It was hurt, but had not been killed. It slowly gained its feet and looked at its attacker and roared, then started forward, slowly making its way to its assailant. But it never made it. None of the people on the rooftop of the Broken Cactus saw or even heard the scream and thump of the hovering air force Pave Low III as the twenty-millimeter cannon at its rear ramp opened fire, sending two thousand rounds hurtling at the creature. The weapon was fed ammunition by a giant hopper attached next to it and wasn't going to run out soon. The large bullets struck the animal, sending it forward until it slammed into the protruding back end of the truck. Stuck there, it was slowly pounded to nothing by the Pave Low and her Gatling gun.

Five minutes later several happy men pulled the drunken Tony from the front seat of his battered pickup. He'd received a rather large cut to his forehead after smashing into the beast, but smiled as Julie handed him a fresh bottle she'd grabbed on her way back down from the roof. She hugged him and admonished the older man for disappearing on them and for doing something as stupid as saving them, but Ryan pulled her away as everyone to a man wanted to pat him on the back.

Only after they had been loaded up on the huge Pave Low did Tony venture any comment.

"I guess I don't have a truck anymore, Miss Dawes, so I can drink all I want," he said, looking at the smiling Delta and Ranger troops.

Farbeaux waited for the big helicopter to leave the roof of the cafe and then made his way out of the Texaco station where he had holed up while the town was under attack. He was the only one of his team to make it out of the tunnel and he felt lucky at best. He had a canteen full of the eggs of the creature, but he wouldn't even be able to sell that if he couldn't leave the town.

He took the last swallows from a bottle of warm Coke, then slowly made his way toward one of the six remaining helicopters lining the road across town.

The Frenchman's liftoff was noticed by the orbiting AWACS, but it was paid no mind as it was thought to be an army Kiowa helping to evacuate the remaining ground teams.

Colonel Henri Farbeaux had managed to survive the impossible once again, only now he was on his own and dangerous as he was in a flight for his life.

Jack, Everett, Ryan, Mendenhall, and the remaining tunnel team were on a Pave Low III that had diverted to Chato's Crawl on its way to refuel. As medics started treating the wounded and Ryan helped Julie, Billy, and Tony, who in turn assisted Hal into a corner out of the way, Jack was surprised to see Virginia Pollock standing before him with a grave look on her face.

"We heard about the base camp," Jack said, tiredly looking from Virginia to Carl.

"That's not it," she said, leaning down so he could hear over the turbines. "We finished the analysis on the creature's exoskeleton, Jack. Your plan won't work. No matter what weapon you use, it won't penetrate their armor. Unless they are right on top or just below an underground detonation, the heat and X-rays won't kill them."

Collins, his face filthy and body hurting, closed his eyes. "There was no luck on the analysis of the chemical in the cage tanks that reduced the creature in '47?"

"No, it's not even an acid that we can tell. We did identify a minuscule amount of an agent that is found here on earth in the largest of the three tanks. Alkali, it was alkali-based, but that's a base, Jack, not an acid," Virginia said as she patted his leg. "I wish I had better news." She straightened and looked from Jack to Everett and placed her hand on Carl's shoulder. "Lisa..." Virginia started to say, then stopped, putting a finger to her trembling lips. "She... saved my life, Carl," she finally said, then turned away.

Everett looked at Jack and nodded, as he finally heard it officially.

"Wait a minute," Jack said as he struggled to his feet. "Virginia, what in the hell is potash anyway? Is it used for planting or something?"

Virginia swallowed and stared at Collins with a questioning look.

"It is, well, lime, potash, they're both used as soil enrichment, they're both alkali..."

"Did you test alkali against the exoskeleton?" Jack asked.

"No, we only found trace amounts in the one canister..."

"In the tunnels, I was about to die at the hands of one of those beasts when it stopped suddenly. I couldn't figure why it didn't attack me through the remains of the hardware store that had fallen through to the tunnel. I looked around me and I must have been in the garden section of the store, fertilizer, plant food... and potash."

Virginia didn't respond at first.

"It was an entire pallet of potash, Virginia. The fifty-pound bags were all busted open and the stuff was everywhere. That's why the beast didn't come after me, and when it got some of the stuff on it, it flew into a rage, rolling in the dirt and slamming into walls, and then I dropped it with a few rounds. They penetrated its weakened armor because it was dusted with the stuff. Dammit, Virginia... the potash!"

"Alkali," she said to herself. "Alkali was the catalyst that allowed the acid to work in the cages!"