He cued the microphone. “This is Research Station Bravo calling Delta Fox One, over.”
He paused and they heard nothing but static. Once again, Mick cued the mike and repeated his message. This time, there was a slight pause followed by a new voice.
“Delta Fox One. Go ahead Bravo.”
“We need an emergency pickup down here. Scramble a rescue bird STAT.”
“Are you aware of the weather pattern over your area right now Bravo?”
“Roger that,” said Mick. “Relay this message to MacDill Air Force Base, General Stoner. ‘Alpha One One Five Tango Charlie Foxtrot.’”
“You’re on a civilian band, Bravo.”
Mick keyed the mike once again. “Not anymore, Delta. Relay the message and await Stoner’s instructions. Relay to me once you confirm the message. Bravo out.”
He leaned back. Julia put a hand on his shoulder. “You think they’ll relay it?”
“They have to. Standard orders for them if a military message comes through to relay it according to instructions given by the sender. They’ll get Stoner out of bed for it and he’ll tell them go ahead and scramble a bird for us. They won’t like it, but they’ll do it. And that’s all that counts right now. Us getting the hell out of here.”
Julia nodded.
“Something wrong?”
She sighed. “I was just thinking about the next people to come back down here. I mean, eventually, they’ll have to, right?”
“I’d assume so, yeah.”
“What’s that going to be like? I mean, knowing you’re coming back to a place that was attacked by aliens? It’d weird me out. I wouldn’t be sure if I could ever feel safe again.”
“You were all abductees though according to Kendall. So, it really wouldn’t have mattered where you ended up. The aliens would have found you.”
Julia hugged herself. “And what about now? They can still find me, can’t they? They could still come for me. I’ve probably got some sort of transponder inside my body giving off signals or something. Christ.”
“There’s a difference,” said Mick. “Between then and now.”
She looked up at him. “What’s that?”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Before you didn’t have me around to protect you. Now you do.”
She hugged him. “You mean it?”
“Yeah. I do.” He pulled away from her. “And besides, I think I have some friends who might be able to help you out with that transponder. We’ve know about them for years and we’ve successfully removed them before from other abductees.”
“Really?”
“Sure thing.”
Julia fell into his arms. “Mick, I can’t tell you how glad I am that we made it out alive.”
“I could say the same thing.”
She looked up and kissed him again. “How about that shower now?”
He grinned. “I thought you’d forgotten.”
She eyed him. “Me? Forget about getting you naked and soapy? Not a chance of that.”
He laughed.
“Well, isn’t this just the most darling and nauseating thing I’ve ever seen.”
Julia felt Mick’s body stiffen. She looked around him at the entrance to the radio room.
Kendall.
Holding a pistol.
“I thought you had the good sense to die,” said Mick.
“Not a chance.”
“How’d you get here?” asked Julia.
“You two were kind enough to give me a lift back. Lots of room in the trunk of the Snowcat. Not all that comfortable mind you, but cozy enough. Although your conversation made me want to retch repeatedly. I’m surprised at my own iron will.”
“What do you want?” said Mick.
Kendall sighed. “You two ruined my plans. Seems the least I can do is return the favor by killing you both.”
34
“You don’t want to kill us,” said Mick.
Kendall laughed. “No, in fact, I genuinely do want to kill you both. Very badly, I might add. If you had even the vaguest idea of how much trouble you’ve put me through, you’d understand why I’m so upset.”
“So, tell us,” said Julia.
Kendall waved the pistol. “Nice try. But I won’t fall for the usual bad-guy spouts off on an hour-long diatribe about what his plans happen to be and how he’s going to rule the world. No, I’m afraid it’s just going to be me killing the two if you.”
Julia looked at Mick but he only shrugged. “I’m out of ideas. I don’t know what else to do.”
“There is nothing else to do,” said Kendall. “Except die.”
“You’ve really got us this time,” said Mick quietly.
“Yes.”
“We really underestimated you. How was I to know that you were as capable as this? I mean, I’d heard rumors of humans in cahoots with aliens but I never would have believed it possible for someone like you to care so little about his comrades that you’d sacrifice each and every one of them so you could achieve your goals.”
“My comrades meant nothing to me.”
“That’s pretty obvious.”
“You mean nothing to me,” said Kendall. “As you’re about to see.”
“Pity you have to use that gun, though,” said Mick.
Julia watched him. What was he up to? Why was he baiting Kendall like this? What did he know?
“Why shouldn’t I use the gun?” said Kendall.
“Why don’t you let your hair down, Kendall. I mean, really let it down. Show us both what we’ve been missing for this entire trip. Go ahead.”
Kendall eyed Mick. “You know-?”
Mick shrugged. “Only now. Makes sense though doesn’t it? Vikorsky slept in your room. And judging by the distance it took to get to the mountains, there was no way the dinocreature that came in through the roof that first night when Julia and I were on watch could have traversed the terrain back and forth without freezing to death. No, it had to be you, didn’t it? Made it nice and easy for you to get us all riled up and exert enough influence on us to make the trip to the mountains even when you seemed the least bit excited by it.”
Kendall said nothing.
“So, you outsmarted us all,” said Mick. “I definitely should have suspected someone among the group was up to something, but I think the whole thing seemed so spectacular to me, I just couldn’t see it.”
“But you fought aliens before,” said Julia.
Mick nodded. “Yeah, but not up close enough like what we’ve run into on this trip. The times I battled the suckers, we were decked out in full chemical and biohazard suits. We weren’t up close where you could smell their breath and hear them screech. No, this is different. Much different.”
Julia shook her head. “I don’t know if I understand exactly what’s going on.”
Mick pointed at Kendall. “This is our inside man on the job. He’s not a human anymore. I don’t know if he ever was. Maybe he made some sort of sick deal with the aliens to transform him into one of them. Whatever the case, he’s one of them. He can disguise himself, sure. But underneath it all, he’s a gray-skinned freak.”
“I am not a freak!” Kendall’s words flew out covered with spittle. His face turned red and he shoved the gun at Mick. “I’ll kill you right now you overgrown muscle-bound soldier boy. You watch me.”
Mick’s voice stayed low. Even. “Show us, Kendall. Show us what they did to you. Show us what you wanted them to do to you.”
Kendall took a deep breath and began to change. Julia watched horrified as his face elongated, drawing out the frame of his jaw into an almost diamond shape. Then his skull began to grow like some bulbous entity on its own, stretching back and fanning out like half a sea shell.
She could tell the transformation hurt, too, because Kendall moaned long and low as if his very skeleton ached from its bones being twisted and turned in new directions. His clothes ripped and shredded themselves as his body began to grow and flesh out. At once, his back burst through his coat. And then Julia gasped when a large tail abruptly split his pants.
At the end of the long tail, were six long and seemingly deadly spikes.
But Mick didn’t wait for Kendall to finish changing. As soon as Kendall’s hands became unable to hold the pistol any longer, Mick charged him, knocking them both back and out of the communications room and onto the floor of the corridor outside.