Our friends. Something inside him began to glow with pleasure. Delight spread through Felix’s stomach, sent a thrill of anticipation through him. His hands began to sweat and tickle. He really wanted to grab Sheena and Felicity’s hands, share the explosive and remarkable surge of pleasure. Looking their way, they were smiling, staring at the monitor with as much excitement as he was.

Soon.

It all made so much sense. Of course. Just a few things to do now.

“Got to break the com,” Felicity said with finality, and handed Felix the ax. “Then we can go turn the Song loose. Then we can be the Song.”

73

“This is as good a time as any to bring this up,” Kel called from his end of the table. “When it became apparent that the slime had flowed into the Underwater Bay, I figured maybe I ought to take a look at where it’s been coating the pilings.”

Michaela, face in her hands as she sat at the head table, looked at him through her spread fingers. Was there any good news? Anything that might give them a ray of hope? “And?”

The others shifted uncomfortably, expressions running from panicked to a sick-to-the-stomach countenance on Iso’s face. Had to be hard knowing that her husband was in the last stages of being digested down in the UB.

God, when did I get so numb that I can’t even share the horror?

The cafeteria might have been a morgue rather than a meeting room. Everywhere Michaela looked was a reminder of just how depressing their situation was.

Kel pulled up his pad, called up an image. He turned the screen so the rest of the team could see. “This what the piling should look like. Each of the supports is a duraplast pillar thirty centimeters in diameter, and it’s sunk five meters into the bedrock. What you are seeing is a view of the piling before the slime.”

Kel tapped the screen. “This is an image I took this afternoon. Notice any difference?”

Like a maestro, Kel tapped the screen, alternating the images back and forth.

Michaela gaped. “That can’t be the same piling!”

“Yeah? Well, surprise, it is.”

“How is this possible?” Michaela spoke for them all. “That’s half the diameter, including however thick the slime is that’s coating it.”

“Let me help you with the math, Director.” Kel looked around the table, a weary inevitableness in the set of his ruddy features. “As close as I can figure, about two thirds of the duraplast has been eaten away.”

“Eaten away how?” Casey demanded, her fist clenched on the table before her. “That’s goddamned duraplast! Not sialon, maybe, but it’s still tough stuff!”