Chris targeted the dark, tumorous thing on its chest and fired, pulling the trigger five times in rapid succession, three of the rounds finding their mark. The other two were within an inch of the pulsing redness—
• and the creature didn’t even slow down.
“Scatter!” Barry yelled.
The S.T.A.R.S. split, Jill pulling Rebecca to the farthest corner from the towering monster, Chris sprinting toward the southern wall. Barry stood his ground, pointing his Colt at the approaching beast. Three .357 rounds slammed into its belly, the thundering shots echoing against the high concrete walls.
The creature suddenly sped up, running toward Barry, drawing its giant claw back—
• and as Barry dove out of the way, the thing swept past him in a running crouch, bringing its claw up as if throwing a ball underhand. Its talons gouged the asphalt, ripping through it as though it was no more solid than water.
As soon as the monster was past, it stopped run-ning, turning almost casually back to watch Barry
scramble to his feet and fire again.
The bullet took out a fleshy chunk of its right shoulder. Thick blood coursed down its wide chest and joined the dripping, open mass of its stomach. Overhead, the Alpha ‘copter still circled, unable to land—and there was still no sign that the immense creature felt the injuries. It started its run again, dropping its terrible, inhuman hand down as it went for Barry—just as his revolver clicked on empty. Barry sprinted away, but the charging monster veered with him—
• and its sweeping claw glanced against his side, tumbling him to the ground. Barry!
Chris raced toward the creature, firing into its back as it bent down over the fallen Alpha. Barry was scrambling backwards, his vest shredded, his eyes wide with terror—
• and it must have felt the sting of the bullets because it turned, fixing its emotionless stare on Chris. Barry staggered to his feet and limped quickly away.
We don’t have any time!
Chris emptied the clip, the last several rounds hitting it in the face. Pieces of tooth flew from the creature’s lipless mouth, spattering to the asphalt in a rain of white and red. The creature didn’t seem to notice as it started to run toward him at incredible speed.
Jill and Rebecca were both firing, shouting, trying to turn its attention away from Chris but it was already fixated, pounding toward him and drawing its claw back—
• wait for it—
He dove to the side at the last possible second and the monster went flying past, its claw mulching the asphalt where he’d just been standing.
Chris ran, the horrible awareness dawning on him that the seconds were slipping past and that they couldn’t kill it in time.
Barry felt blood seeping from his thigh, the top several layers of his skin sliced neatly away by the Tyrant’s brutal swipe. The pain was bearable; the knowledge that they were going to die wasn’t. We ‘II blow up if we don’t get chopped to pieces first—
Tyrant turned its attention to Jill and Rebecca, both of them firing again at the seemingly invulnerable monster. It started its smooth, easy walk toward them, still indifferent to the bloody holes in its body. Shotgun blasts hit it in the legs and chest, nine millimeter bullets speckled its pasty flesh, and it didn’t falter, kept on walking.
Wind whipped down over Barry as the roar of the helicopter’s blades suddenly got louder. He heard a screaming shout come from above.
“Incoming!”
Barry stared up at the ‘copter, hovering only twenty feet from the ground—
• and saw a heavy black obj ect fly out of the open door on the side, hitting the tar with an audible thud. Chris was closest. He ran for it.
The Tyrant had almost reached Jill and Rebecca. The two of them split, each headed in a different direction and the creature turned toward Jill without hesitating, tracking her with its strange, fixed gaze. “Jill, this way!” Chris screamed.
Barry spun—and saw that Chris had the bulky rocket launcher propped on his shoulder. Yes!
Jill veered toward Chris, the Tyrant close behind.
“Clear!”
She leaped to one side and rolled as Chris fired, the whoosh of the rocket-propelled grenade almost lost to the thundering beat of the ‘copter’s rotors. The explosion wasn’t. The grenade hit the Tyrant square in the chest—and in a burst of incendiary light and deafening sound, it blew the monster into a million smoking pieces.
Even as tattered shreds of flesh and bone hailed down over them, Brad lowered the ‘copter back toward the ground and the four S.T.A.R.S. ran for it. The rails hadn’t touched yet as Jill dove into the open cabin, Chris and Rebecca and Barry all throwing themselves in after her.
“Go, Brad, now!” Jill screamed.
The bird lifted into the air and sped away.
TwEntY-OriE
THE CALM, FEMALE VOICE FELL ONLY ON inhuman ears.
“You have five seconds, three, two, one. System activation now.”
A circuit that ran the length and width of the estate connected.
With an earth-shaking thunderclap of motion and sound, the Spencer estate exploded. Devices went off simultaneously in the basement of the mansion, beneath the reservoir, behind a plain, uninterest-ing fireplace in the guardhouse and in the third level of the basement laboratories. Marble walls tumbled down over the disintegrating floors of the fine old mansion. Rock collapsed and concrete blew into a fine blackened dust. Massive fireballs rose up into the early morning sky and could be seen from miles away in their few brief seconds of brilliant life.
As the incredible peal of booming sound rolled across the forest and died away, the wreckage started to burn.
EPILOGUE
THE FOUR OF THEM WERE QUIET AS BRAD piloted the ‘copter back toward the city, and though he had a million questions, something about their silence didn’t invite conversation. Chris and Jill were both staring out the hatch window at the spreading fire that had been the estate, their expressions grim. Barry was slumped against the cabin wall, looking down at his hands like he’d never seen them before. The new girl was quietly moving among them, treat-ing their wounds without saying a word. Brad
kept his mouth shut, still feeling crappy about taking off earlier. He’d been through hell since then, flying around in circles and watching the fuel gauge slowly drop. It had been a total nightmare, and he had to take a piss like nobody’s business.
And then that monster—
He shuddered. Whatever it had been, he was glad it was dead. It had taken all of his nerve not to fly away the second he’d laid eyes on it—and as far as he was concerned, he deserved a little consideration for man-aging to kick the launcher out the door. He glanced back at the silent foursome, wondering if he should tell them about the weird call he’d gotten over the radio. Right after the rookie had screamed something about a heliport through the static, a clear, solid signal had come in, a male voice calmly giving him the exact coordinates. The guy had been listening in, which was weird—but the fact that he knew the location well enough to give Brad directions was downright spooky.
He frowned, trying to remember the mystery man’s name. Thad? Terrence?
Trent. That’s it, he said his name was Trent.
Brad decided that it would keep for another day.
For now, he just wanted to go home.