“Faster! Now!” she cried, and she and Valerian sprinted even harder.
It was a Megaptor, and it was the stuff of nightmares.
The thing was gargantuan. Four times the size of the largest Pit-Ghor that had been snapping at Valerian’s heels, it was even uglier than they were. Laureline had not imagined such a thing possible. A third of its reptilian, bulky body appeared to be its head, and at least half of its head was teeth. It seemed too big, too muscular to be as fast as it was. And yet it was closing the distance, propelled forward by giant forepaws with claws easily large enough to close about Laureline’s slender frame. Black, sharp spikes jutted up from the ridge of its spine, and Laureline could only pray that it was her imagination when she could have sworn she felt the heat of its breath.
She forced herself to focus on the rapidly approaching metal door of the Eastern Gate. The portion of it that had been opened for the day’s round of tourists was far too small to permit such a monster to follow.
And she and Valerian were not alone. She heard Major Gibson give the order to fire. While Zito blazed away at the other towers attacking the pair, the remaining commandos closed ranks around Valerian and Laureline, firing at the monstrous creatures. The bus had almost completed its transformation; by the time the two dusty, sweaty, adrenaline-saturated spatio-temporal agents reached it, all that was vulnerable was the folding door through which Laureline and Valerian flung themselves.
The others were not far behind. The door closed and barricaded itself with four-inch-thick metal.
“Let’s get out of here!” Gibson barked at the driver. He obeyed immediately. The plated vehicle peeled off and, exhausted and shaking with relief, Laureline and Valerian tumbled into the seats.
They’d done it! They’d—
A terrible sound reached their ears.
Laureline brought her eye to one of the small holes. The bus-turned-tank was wheeling around, and in the center of the gate’s metal door, she saw not the tidy, small exit through which she and Valerian had escaped, but a jagged circle of sharp metal edges. She turned to Valerian. They stared at one another, eyes wide.
Then there was another loud, frightening sound, and the bus lurched violently.
The Megaptor was on the roof.
Laureline heard the rat-tat-tat of the gun mounted on the roof as it swiveled and began to fire at nearly point-blank range. But judging by the violent rocking of the bus and the terrible noise of claws tearing metal, and the angry, deep bellows of the creature, the powerful weapon was having little-to-no effect.
“Get that thing off our backs!” Gibson had to shout to be heard over the din.
The driver yanked the bus this way and that, jouncing everyone inside, but his serpentine maneuvering appeared to be as ineffective as the weapon that was still spitting bullets at the thing. Suddenly the desert landscape glimpsed through the rear windshield was filled with the horrifying sight of mottled yellow-brown skin, a single baleful golden eye, and then a mouthful of teeth bared in a furious roar.
Three of the soldiers opened fire through the bars, trying to concentrate on that awful eye and the open mouth. The Megaptor clung on with its hind legs and one of its gigantic forepaws and brought the other one back, then slammed it forward. The bars bent as easily as if they had been made of saplings. The black claws closed around one of the soldiers, piercing his body effortlessly. He screamed and jerked as blood spurted. The Megaptor hauled him out, bit at him, then tossed the body back inside as it reached in for more, murderously swiping at the men with a forepaw now dripping scarlet.
Over the screams and the firing, Valerian shouted into his mic, “Alex! We need you!”
“On my way, Major,” Alex replied. Laureline thought she had never been so happy to hear a computer’s response in her life.
The Megaptor appeared to be unstoppable. It turned its attention from the windshield to the roof, rending it with teeth and claws until, with a protesting groan, the roof at the rear of the bus peeled back, as if the beast were opening a metal can. It let out a higher pitched cry of pleasure, shoving its arm in and again plucking out a hapless soldier. Laureline thought for an instant that it was all over now, but the creature stopped only partway inside. Its roaring turned to growls of frustration as it realized it could only get the one arm and its bulbous head through the gap it had created.
Everyone had clustered toward the front of the bus and was firing at the beast, but their bullets seemed to simply bounce off its hard skin.
Laureline, who was doing her best to fire while using a bus seat as cover, noticed the play of shadow over the bloody scene and risked a glimpse back through the front windshield. It was the Intruder—the cavalry coming over the hill. Just in time, too.
“I’m out of ammo!” shouted Laureline to Valerian, panic creeping into her voice.
“Me too!” Valerian replied.
“Go on!” shouted Gibson. “Take the converter and get out of here!”
The two agents shared a quick glance. They didn’t like the idea of leaving everyone else behind to be ripped to pieces by the slavering Megaptor.
“That’s an order, agents!” Gibson shouted. “Go!”
Valerian’s lips pressed into a thin line as he grabbed the converter. “Alex?” he called out.
“I’m in position, Major.”
Seizing a gun from the lifeless fingers of one of the fallen commandos, Valerian shot out the glass in the windshield as the driver slammed a button. The metal bars retracted. The way was clear.
Slightly ahead of them was the Intruder, matching their speed and dropping down to their level as Alex extended the ramp. The two tossed their weapons aside and crawled through the broken windshield, balancing precariously on the front of the speeding bus. Behind them they heard screams, roars, and an awful crunching sound.
The Intruder and the ramp to safety drew closer… closer…
They leaped, flinging themselves forward. Laureline felt hot breath on her exposed legs, which this time absolutely was not her imagination, and heard a ripping sound and the bellow of a thwarted monster.
Valerian and Laureline hit the ramp hard, got to their feet, and charged up into the cockpit. Alex retracted the ramp behind them. Laureline leaped into her seat. A horrible fear seized her, but eased as she saw Valerian set the converter down in one corner in its carrying case. Her gaze fell to her lap as she exhaled in relief.
Her dress was in tatters. “Dammit!” she exclaimed. “He ruined my last dress!” And then she thought about Gibson and the others, and felt horrible about being even remotely upset about a stupid dress. She began decoding their coordinates.
“Thanks for the rescue, Alex,” Valerian said, ignoring Laureline, “I’ll take over on manual.” He checked the monitors, tapping quickly on the controls. “Prepare to enter exospace.” He glanced over at her. “You have the coordinates for the rendezvous?”
“I’m just deciphering them,” Laureline replied.
A sudden jolt ran the length of the spaceship.
“Alex?” Valerian asked. “What was that?”
Alex’s voice was anxious as she replied, “I fear we have a stowaway.”
Laureline didn’t feel quite so bad about Gibson and his team anymore.
The Megaptor was no longer the commandos’ problem.
It was theirs.
“Shit!” Valerian swore, then to Laureline he said, “Hold on!”