He thought for a while and then turned to her. “I can’t say this is exactly how I saw things unfolding, Aimee, but we’ve got to keep moving forward. If we do that we have a chance.”

“Even though I said that the nematodes were only attracted to Mike because of his bleeding, I can’t know that for sure. They’re a species that has been isolated down here for millions of years and I don’t know exactly how they are going to behave. Though none of us are as severely wounded as Mike was, there are other entrances to the human body.” She paused for a moment, looking over her shoulder at the group. “Alex, no one wants to go back in that water. We already know those worms are not top of the food chain and I certainly am not keen to meet any more links in that chain.”

Alex expelled a breath of air between his lips. “Aimee, we’re still a long way from home and things might get even rougher before they get better. I don’t want to go in the water again, but we can’t go back and we’re not dying on this beach, either. I’ll need your help to keep everyone’s spirits up. Despair—that’s our main danger now.”

Aimee gave a weak smile, nodded and went to rejoin the small group. Alex called Takeda in close and also Tank, who still looked morose and withdrawn.

“Lieutenant! Tank, there’ll be plenty of time for giving Mike a proper send-off when we’re on the surface. Right now we need to get these people back into the daylight.” Tank nodded, still not yet trusting himself to speak. “Takeda, give me a forward recon down that beach and report in on what you see. Take Ms. Jennings with you. Tank, you go back to the upstream end of the beach and give me a secure rear perimeter. I don’t want anything else sneaking up on us—report back in T-minus twenty minutes.”