Minutes To Burn Part 27

"Szabla," Cameron said. "If you're altering orders, I think we should wait for Derek to-"

"Zip it, Cam," Szabla barked.

Justin stepped forward and helped Diego to his feet.

Cameron pointed to the larva. "That's an entirely new creation," she said. "Something that's never lived before. Ever. I don't think you can just decide unilaterally to kill it."

"I'm the senior officer right now," Szabla said. "I can decide whatever the f.u.c.k I want."

"Look, Szabla, I'm only saying-"

"Why are you having such a reaction to this, Cam? To this thing?"

"Back off, Szabla," Justin said. "She's just arguing chain of com-mand."

"Not with that face, she isn't. This ain't her normal stain-in-her-school-dress-following-orders c.r.a.p. This is different."

"You don't have a right-the authority or the right-to do this," Cameron said.

Szabla turned sharply and faced Cameron. "Step back, girl," she said. "That's a direct order from your superior officer. Need I be more explicit?"

Cameron felt her face growing flushed with the heat from the fire and her blossoming anger.

"Step back," Szabla repeated.

Cameron stepped back.

"G.o.dd.a.m.nit," Rex said, glaring at Cameron. "Why can't you think for yourself?"

"It's not my job to think for myself," Cameron said, her voice sound-ing distant and foreign. "We're a military squad, not a think tank."

The larva raised itself up, its thorax nearly perpendicular to the ground, its head tilted and attentive. Cameron felt a wave of nausea wash through her and her knees buckled, just slightly. Justin steadied her with an arm around her waist, which he dropped once she got her legs under her again.

"Mammy! Bring Miss Scarlet her smelling salts," Szabla said derisively.

Rex glared up at the stars, his hands on his hips. Tank ran a hand over his sunburnt scalp.

"Who's gonna..." Justin's words were choked with phlegm. He cleared his throat and started over. "Who's gonna do it?"

Savage studied the fire, knowing the answer before he even raised his head. He closed his eyes in a long blink, bouncing his head once in a nod, then rose.

When he seized the larva around the base of its head, air escaped it in a screech, and Cameron felt herself sucking shallow breaths to keep from breaking. Savage walked right in front of her, the larva squirming and squealing in his grip, and seized the spike leaning against the log beside her.

A figure cut from the shadows and a hand fell across his wrist, pale in the darkness. Savage jerked away and dropped the larva, drawing back the spike until he saw it was Derek.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked, stepping over the log. His eyes were cold and gla.s.sy, the skin on his face stretched tight with stress and fatigue.

His eyes narrowed on Szabla's until she looked away. He crouched above the larva and ran his hand along its side, over the b.u.mps of its abdominal segments.

Derek looked at Diego, and Diego shook his head.

Rex said, "I didn't want them to...They wouldn't listen."

The pulse in Derek's temple worked like a spasm. His fingers, thin and pale in the moonlight, continued to stroke the larva's back.

"Derek," Szabla said, attempting to soften her voice. "We can't afford to follow scientists' orders anymore. We're playing in a different game here."

Derek stood and walked to Szabla, leaning forward until his face was inches away. Cameron did not recognize his eyes at all. Savage took a step over so that he was standing behind Szabla.

Cameron rose uneasily to her feet. "Easy, LT," she said.

The scientists watched quietly. It was as if a spell had been woven around the camp, and everyone hesitated to speak for fear of shattering it.

Szabla finally took a small step back, not giving up much ground. She turned and faced Cameron, and then Cameron noticed Derek's eyes on her as well, and she realized that everyone was looking to her, waiting for her move.

She inhaled the sharp island air, gazing at the perfect black beyond the edges of the fire. Something small fluttered overhead. The seconds stretched themselves out into what seemed like hours.

Cameron stepped over and stood behind Derek, her shoulders squared, her elbow brushing his. Justin followed suit, and then Tank, and then Szabla took another step back and sat on the log. Savage twirled the spike around his hand like a bandleader's baton and turned his back. Szabla's mouth contracted in a straight line and she scowled at Cameron, her eyes lit with disappointment and anger.

Derek exhaled deeply, his shoulders settling. "Rex?"

Rex turned to him, his face ashen.

"The first order of business is putting the larva in a safe place," Derek said. He glared at Szabla. "For us and for it. Then, we secure the island and determine if there are any more adult creatures here. Are we agreed?"

Rex started to speak but had to clear his throat and start over. He spoke in a brisk, scientific voice; that seemed to help him regain control. "Yes. Whatever occurred here in the formation of these animals was anomalous enough that I believe we can proceed cautiously with the a.s.sumption that there is only one lineage. Of the ten surviving offspring that Frank noted, he captured eight, and Savage killed one. That means there could be another out there somewhere, if it survived."

"Don't female mantises eat the males after they mate?" Cameron asked.

"Some," Diego said. "Not all. Female Galapagia obstinati have been known to."

"Well, let's hope we got a Gloria Steinem motherf.u.c.ker," Szabla said.

"Would it have metamorphosed?" Cameron asked. "The surviving larva?"

Rex said, "I would think so. Especially since they evidently mated."

"Gentlemen," Cameron said, looking at the two scientists. "You're gonna have to help us out here. What are we up against? If there's another one out there, we need to know its habits, strategies, any weak-nesses we can exploit."

Diego and Rex exchanged a long look. "Neither of us are entomolo-gists," Diego said. "Do you have any way of contacting one?"

"Yes," Rex said. "I can ask Donald to."

"We don't have time to wait," Cameron said. "In the meantime, what do you know?"

"Well," Diego began slowly, "we'll have to continue to a.s.sume these animals have behavioral traits in common with the mantid the virus infected and altered."

"And?" Cameron urged. Derek stood silently beside her.

"They don't hear as humans do. They can only detect ultrasound, which filters to them through a slit on the mesothorax, so they generally need movement or vibration to sense prey. They tend to be stationary hunters. They await their prey, taking advantage of camouflage and their lightning strike."

"So if we move to pursue it, we'd be the ones at a disadvantage?" Cameron asked.

Diego nodded.

"We might have to risk that," Justin said.

Cameron waved him off. "We'll argue later. What else?"

"They need the shade," Rex said. "They're hesitant to leave the forest understory during the day. Especially to hunt-they have a hard time in the hot sunlight. I'd imagine that's truer now than ever before, given the UV. But at night, they'll roam anywhere. They'll also be attracted to light at night, like most insects."

"How about the eyes?" Cameron asked. "Will blinding it help?"

"I'm not going to help you figure out how to maim this animal," Diego said.

"You bet your a.s.s you are," Szabla said.

"We need this knowledge," Cameron said. "We'll decide later if and how we're going to deploy it."

"Yes," Rex said. "Blinding it will help. And taking out a single eye will compromise its depth-of-field perception. Their antennae are also strategically essential."

Szabla took a breath and exhaled deeply. "Couldn't we poison it? Use some venom from indigenous snakes or something?"

They looked at Diego. "There is one poisonous snake here," he said reluctantly. "But it's a sea snake and quite rare."

"Anything else that could harm it? Or that it'd be afraid of?"

"Well, aposematically colored insects-red and black ones-often sequester unpalatable substances from their host plants, so animals seek to avoid them. But I don't know. If we're basing this a.s.sessment on the physiology of mantids, we have to remember mantids have iron diges-tive systems. They can eat anything-paint, rubber, lighter fluid. In lab, I even saw one eat an insect straight from a cyanide jar."

Rex nodded. "I'd guess we'd need something stronger than snake venom."

"So how would we kill it?" Szabla asked. She glanced down at the spike at her side. "I mean, how'd you take it, Savage?"

Savage told them.

"What's so funny, Szabla?" Cameron asked.

"Nothing. It just figures," she said. "It just figures."

"If there is another," Rex said, "let's hope it's a male. They're smaller, and they tend to be less aggressive. It's too bad they're such a solitary order. If it was a bull seal, we could just round up a bunch of females and it'd come running."

"Could we lure it with bait?" Cameron asked.

Rex grimaced. "Well, we've just figured out why we haven't run across any feral dogs or goats since we arrived. And even though mantids are known for eating prey larger than themselves, I'd guess a cow would be too large. It could kill one, probably, but would have a hard time eating it."

"Sea lions?" Tank asked.

"They've wisely retreated off the island to the tuff cones," Rex said. "Plus we'd have a b.i.t.c.h of a time dragging one up near the forest. I'd say the only reasonably sized prey is us." He smiled. "I volunteer Savage."

"Anything else you can think of?" Cameron asked. "Anything at all?"

"They'll only eat live bait," Savage said. They all looked at him, surprised. "I've seen one eat a deer mouse. Started with the whiskers. Ate its whole face off before it got through to the brain and killed it."

"Imagine that," Justin murmured. "An insect eating a f.u.c.king mam-mal."

Cameron looked to Rex, hoping to gauge the accuracy of Savage's story. He nodded. "I once saw one devour a gecko from the tail up. Hard, tireless mastication-combing the flesh, grinding the bones. Took over an hour. The gecko was alive for at least half of it."

Justin was pale. "Let's hope there aren't any more adults."

"Let's keep busy while we're hoping," Cameron said.

"We'll sweep the forest at first light." Derek swayed on his feet, then caught himself.

"Why not now?" Cameron asked.

"You want to go trekking through a predator's natural environment in the dark with bright lights to attract its attention? Use your G.o.dd.a.m.n head, Cam. We'll wait for first light, then see if there's another adult kick-ing around."

"If we locate it, are we cleared to kill it?" Szabla asked.

"Yes." Diego started to protest but stopped as soon as Derek held up a hand.

"But none of you are to lay a finger on any of these," Derek contin-ued, walking over to the larva and picking it up. "I'll be keeping him with me tonight. Safely locked in a cruise box. Szabla, since you have so much excess testosterone to burn, you can stand first guard." He disappeared through the flap of his and Cameron's tent.

"We're a.s.suming that there's only one lineage of mantids, but remem-ber that's only an a.s.sumption," Rex said. "We have to be observant of the wildlife, see if we notice anything else that appears abnormal." He pressed his fingertips to his closed eyes. "We'll need to keep our eyes peeled for the four remaining larvae as well. Bring them back and keep them under observation."

"How do you know they haven't metamorphosed already?" Justin asked.

Savage raised the spike and pointed to the enormous slumped corpse beside the fire pit. "We'll know soon enough," he said.

CHAPTER 48.

--------------------- F loreana woke up screaming.

Ramn was on his feet instantly, as if he'd levitated out of bed. Flore-ana's screams had a different timbre to them, high-pitched and lined with panic. Her thighs were wet and sticky; her water had broken.

She was gasping for breath, the large sphere of her belly heaving with her respiration. Crying her husband's name over and over, she tore at the sheets, balling them in her fists. Ramn knelt beside her, resting his fore-head on her sweaty temple, trying to soothe her with his voice.

"Already, carinito?" he asked, his voice shaking. "How close? How close?" He took her hand and her nails left red lines down his palm.

The sheets around her had darkened with sweat. He spread her legs and looked, but he couldn't see the baby's head. He wanted to be pre-pared when it first showed so that he could support its neck and squeeze below his wife's v.a.g.i.n.a to make sure her flesh didn't tear.

"The blanket," Floreana gasped. "Do you have the blanket?"