“It’s coming into the picture now, Jon. Be advised there’s a forty-three-second delay.”
Abruptly, without warning, a reptilian head appeared. It was as white as the snowfield. “My God,” he said. “How big is that thing?”
“The head is almost a meter across.”
“Where’s Matt? And the others? Are they back on the lander?” He’d followed the first few minutes of the conversation between Matt and Hutch, had gotten bored, and shut it down.
“Matt, Antonio, and Rudy dug their way into the buried building. They are in there now. If you look carefully, directly ahead, you’ll see where they entered.”
He saw the hole and the shovels. The snake was moving directly toward it, and as it passed the lander, he got a better sense of its size. “Is Hutch getting this?”
“Yes.”
“That thing’s a monster.”
“It is large.”
“Jim, put me through to Matt.”
“Unable to comply. The link won’t penetrate into the building.”
The creature reached the hole and paused. It looked in. Then, to his horror, it started down.
“Jon,” said the AI. “Hutch is on the circuit. Audio only.”
“Hutch,” he said. “You see this?”
“I’m headed for the lander now.”
“Pick me up. I’ll go with you.”
“No time, Jon. I’ve got a window, but I have to hustle.”
“Hutch, you can’t take that thing on alone.”
“There’s no time, Jon. We should be all right. I’m armed.”
“They’re armed, too. But I doubt they’re all right.”
“I’m moving as fast as I can.”
“Hutch, this is not a good idea.”
“Which part of it?”
He’d told Matt that he didn’t think going down was very smart. Just checking groundside, Matt had called it. Jon had refused to use the official terminology. There was a pretense there somewhere, with Matt behaving as if he’d been doing this sort of thing all his life. Matt had heroic inclinations built in, but the truth was nobody here had any training in this sort of thing. Except Hutch, and she’d been away from it too many years.
“Twenty minutes away,” she said. Her voice carried no inflection. And he knew she feared the worst. What sort of chance did they have, a real estate agent, a foundation director, and Dr. Science, against that monster?
He couldn’t remember what he said, but she caught something in his voice. “Don’t give up,” she told him.
The last of the giant snake disappeared into the hole.
He waited.
Marked the time. Watched the snow and the shovels.
Occasionally he talked to Hutch. She assured him she’d be careful. Wouldn’t get herself killed. Try to relax.
It’ll be okay.
The minutes dragged past. Everything was happening in slow motion.
He didn’t know what he wanted to see. Whether having the thing come back out into the daylight would be a hopeful sign or not.
Hutch’s shuttle dropped into the clouds. “We were lucky,” she said. “Couldn’t have hoped for a better window.”
He was frustrated, having to sit there while the woman took her life into her hands. Damn. What was he supposed to do if she went down the hole and didn’t come out again?
“Hutch?”
“Yes, Jon?”
“How about directing the AI to bring up the other lander? So I can get down there, too?”
There was a long hesitation. “Not a good idea.”
“You might need help.”
“You can’t get here in time to do anything. All you’d do is put yourself at risk.”
“Damn it, Hutch, you can’t expect me to just sit here.”
“There’s an outside chance they’ll need the lander as a shelter.”
“Hutch, damn it—”
“Let it go, Jon. I’ll get to you as soon as I know something.” She was below the clouds now, descending toward the plain. Mountains in the distance.
The hole had become a gaping wound. He watched it, stared at it, wished he had a better angle, wished he could look down into it.
They continued up. Matt tried to pick up the pace, tried to do it without stumbling. He kept his eyes on the stairs because Antonio was right behind him, crowding him. Or maybe he didn’t want to look fearful. He was almost at the top when the journalist screamed. A pair of glittering green eyes had appeared at the top of the staircase. Enormous eyes. He threw himself back as the head rose, large and reptilian, wide and big and grinning with dripping incisors.
He was falling back down the stairs and suddenly everything was dark again. The head was gone, and he was grasping for the handrail and simultaneously trampling somebody, probably Antonio.
One of the lights hit it again. The thing was white as the snow outside.
They were all tumbling, scrambling, screaming, back down, hopelessly tangled in one another’s arms and legs. The thing came after them, slow and deliberate and watching, mouth wide, big enough to take any of them down whole. Matt lost the rhino gun. The thing’s jaws kept opening wider. He could have driven a truck into its mouth.
Then there were no more stairs, and he crashed hard onto the floor. And there was the rhino, just the barrel, sticking out from under somebody. He made a grab for it but it vanished again. And a small voice somewhere whispered to him, Captain Rigel, Captain Rigel.
The thing’s eyes stayed locked on him. So much for the lightbender. Light swept across the scene, and he saw a long python body, absolutely white, silver as starlight, wide as a small train, stretching up the stairway, across the landing, disappearing into the darkness.
He was groping for the gun, trying to find it in the chaos. But it was Antonio who came up with it finally, who fired a charge into the creature’s mouth. Right between those cavernous jaws and down its throat. Its tongue flicked, red and glistening. Then the round exploded, and the head was gone. Red mush blew past him, got all over him. The body slithered past, slammed past, knocked him down, kept coming, kept jerking and thrashing, and began to pile up. Antonio couldn’t fire a second charge because Matt had the projectiles. But it wasn’t going to matter.
The convulsions slowed. And stopped. For a long time no one said anything.
Finally, in a voice that was barely a squeak, Antonio asked if it was dead.
“I think so.” Matt shuddered. He was under the goddammed thing. It had piled up on him and he’d been too terrified to move.
Antonio gave him a hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“I don’t think Rudy is.”
Oh.
Matt got clear, finally, and went to look at Rudy. “He took a bad fall, Matt.”
They extricated him from the beast. His head hung at an odd angle. His eyes were wide-open, locked in terror. The book he’d been carrying was still gripped in his right hand.
Matt couldn’t find a pulse.
Antonio handed over the rhino gun, and Matt fired another cartridge into the thing.