“But where are the damned bodies?” asked Wilkins.
Mick sighed. “This doesn’t make any sense. We had our targets, we found them, we should have bodies.”
“We’ve got another problem,” said Nung.
Julia turned. “What is it?”
Nung chewed his lip. “Havel’s gone.”
“What?”
Mick came over. “What did you say?”
“Havel’s gone. When the firefight started, it was all I could do to keep shooting at those damned things. I heard a scream-”
“I heard it, too,” said Julia.”
“— and just now when we got the lights on, I looked over. Havel’s gone. His rifle is still here. But he’s gone.”
Julia leaned against the cave wall. Another team member missing. And not one indication that their bullets and all that commotion had done one lick of good at warding off their attackers.
Mick let his rifle slide down to his side. “Dammit.”
Julia looked at him. “What the hell just happened here, Mick? Why didn’t our bullets work? What the hell are these things? I need some answers here. I’m missing another team member and I’m not at all happy about it.”
“I wish I had something to tell you,” said Mick. “Fact is, I’m as stumped as anyone else. Way I figured it, we had ourselves a slaughter going on. Even if they did know we were there, we still should have killed a bunch of them.”
“Why did you call a cease fire?”
“I could see them shrinking back the way they came.”
“Shrinking?”
Mick nodded. “Looked like they were retreating.”
Julia frowned. “What if-?”
“What?”
Julia shook her head. “Is it possible? What if it was some type of hologram?”
“You mean the entire attack was just an illusion?”
“Yeah.”
“It could happen I suppose,” he said.
Kendall nodded. “Sure, why not?”
“Seems like the only thing that makes sense,” said Darren. “I’m no Rambo, but I know I brought down some of those bastards.”
“Some hologram,” said Wilkins. “Had me fucking convinced, that’s for sure. I was scared shitless.”
“I think we all were,” said Julia. “I still have to go to the bathroom.”
“So they — whoever they are — do this hologram for what purpose? To make us waste ammo?” Mick frowned. “Strange tactic.”
“Not so strange,’ said Nung. “Actually kind of ingenious.”
“How do you figure?”
Nung sat down on a rock. “Figure they send up this hologram thing. We see it coming, complete with audio and figure it for the real attack. So, of course, we let loose and hose the place down.”
“Which reminds me,” said Julia. “Was I the only one concerned about ricochets?”
“I thought about it,” said Mick. “Not much choice, though.”
“While we’re hosing the place down, convinced as we were that they were all over us,” Nung grinned. “They slip in behind us and grab Havel.”
“So the attack was a feint,” said Kendall. “Smart bastards these things, huh?”
“Why take Havel?”
“Was he reloading his gun then?” Mick looked serious. “If he was, then it makes sense. Grab him while he can’t shoot.”
“Which means the things that grabbed him were here,” said Julia. “But not in the numbers we thought they were.”
“And,” said Mick, “if they were waiting until someone reloaded, it might also mean they are vulnerable to our weapons. That’s good news. If they hadn’t waited but simply stormed in, I might be more concerned right now.”
“Cripes,” said Wilkins. “I changed mags twice. They could have grabbed me just as easily.”
“Me too,” said Nung.
“I had to change magazines as well,” said Kendall.
“We all did,” said Julia. “It could have happened to any of us. Or maybe they had their eye on Havel all the time. I don’t know. I don’t know what makes sense anymore.”
“I’m not sure anything does at this point,” said Mick.
“Well, I’m still concerned,” said Julia. “After all, they’ve still got Havel.”
“Yeah,” said Wilkins. “What the hell are we going to do about that?”
Julia looked down the tunnel at the darkness. “The only thing we can do,” she said. “We go and get him back.”
14
Mick wanted to leave immediately. “Better to hit them now while they think we’re recuperating from their pseudo-attack.”
Julia stopped him. “Does that really make a lot of sense? We’re not even sure how to get to wherever it is they came from. If we make a half-hearted stab at finding them now in the darkness, we might just wind up in some sort of nasty ambush.” She lowered her voice. “And I certainly don’t want to lose another man.”
Mick sighed, his breath spilling over her like a hot wave of steam. “You’re probably right. After that firefight, most of them will need some rest.”
“What about you?”
“I could use a few zzz’s myself.”
Julia looked around. “Are we safe here? I mean, now that they know where we are?”
“Not much of a choice otherwise. If we go back toward the mouth of the cave, we’ll have to deal with the colder air. That’ll make an uncomfortable sleep period for everyone.” He glanced around. “We can either stay here and take our chances or move back. It’s your call, of course.”
“But you vote we stay here.”
“It’ll be easier going when we do wake up if we’re already positioned closer to the spot of the light.”
“You think that’s where they’re coming from?”
Mick frowned. “Let’s just say I’m damned interested in prying up that rock and seeing where that light is coming from.”
“I’d expect we all are,” said Julia. “You want to handle posting the guards? You coordinate with Wilkins.”
“Sure.” He started to turn away and then stopped. “Hey.”
Julia looked at him. “What?”
“You did good back there.”
She grinned. “So, did you.”
His smile cut through the darkness. Julia watched him leave and then leaned back against the rocks closest to her. She was exhausted. The adrenaline spike had supercharged her for the firefight, but the dump was now coming over her like a heavy wet blanket. She felt like she’d just swum a river in all her clothes, dragged down by the extremes in her environment in so short a time.
Firefights with strange creatures weren’t on the programming schedule for this trip. She smirked, but then got serious. And neither were two missing men.
Not to mention the entire other crew of the station. What had happened to them? It would be easy to imagine they’d all wandered off into the barren ice and got swallowed by Mother Nature.
But this wasn’t Mother Nature. Not at all.
And damned if I know what it is, thought Julia.
Wilkins sat down beside her. “You okay, boss?”
She nodded. “Just tired.”
“Yeah, the after effects of being so jacked up on your body’s natural fight or flight response can really take the wind out of your sails. Had it happen to me a lot of times.”
“You’ve been in a lot of firefights, Wilkins?”
He shrugged. “Grew up in Boston. Dorchester neighborhood. Wasn’t exactly white picket fence suburbia. I lived on Corbett Street. You ever hear of it?”
“No.”
“Rough place. One of the worst gangs in Boston’s history took their name from that street. Bunch of drug dealing crazy ass kids who thought the world would cave to them if they waved a gun and a dimebag.”
“That sounds suspiciously like personal experience.”
He smiled. “Damned straight. I ran with ’em. Nearly lost my life more times than I care to remember. Got so bad, I lost five friends in the space of two weeks. Used to be a time in Boston when there were more kids dying under the age of sixteen than anyone else. It was a horrible waste of life. But we didn’t know any better.”
“Most kids don’t.”
“It took a drive-by outside of my house — with me getting about five rounds pumped into my legs, stomach, and back, for me to finally realize there had to be a better way to make a living.”