Alex knew that Dr. Silex was becoming a liability to the group. Normally, he would simply sedate the scientist and carry him out, but circumstances made that option impossible. His behaviour was creating an added burden—he would have to be watched and kept under control. Usually, Alex would send one of his men after Silex to return him—against his will if necessary. But given the scientist’s fragile state, he was liable to go screaming down the black beach if Tank went near him. And if it was Alex who went after him . . . well, best if he stayed away from the man for a while. Alex looked at the small group; Matt Kerns looked the most harmless, he could go. He’d have to be quick, though; they needed to be under cover and Alex figured things would probably get a lot worse for all of them before they got better.

Alex’s senses prickled. Since the small explosion he knew they were being watched by a thousand eyes. If they thought they might have been able to sneak along the shoreline undetected before, they had announced their presence with a loud ringing bang now. He hoped it wasn’t a dinner bell. He looked down at the smoking hole one last time. Blood and gore had begun to ooze to the surface and wash down towards the water. He knew what that meant.

“Everyone move, double time.”

Aimee felt like she was floating, disconnected. Tom and his party seemed to have run down into these low caves and they still hadn’t found any trace of them. If this place could kill the HAWCs, how could Tom have survived down here? He was no outdoorsman and she doubted he had ever slept rough in his life. Her eyes were beginning to blur from tears when Alex came up beside her and spoke softly.

“So, what do you think that thing was?”

Aimee pushed thoughts of Tom out of her mind and tried to focus again on where she was. Wondering where he was and what happened to him wouldn’t get any of them out of this alive. “Impossible to know exactly. Nothing like that exists up on the surface, and as far as I’m aware nothing in the fossil records indicate anything like it ever has. It could be some form of tubeworm below the surface of the sand with a modified fan that acts like a trap across the surface. In effect it was like a giant tongue spread over the sand that was triggered by the sea scorpion and Takeda stepping on it. One thing I do know, it was a very large ambush predator designed to catch very large prey.”

Alex expelled a breath through his lips. “Hard to tell people to keep a look out when we don’t know what to look out for. I could sit on a rock that turns out to be some creature’s nose.”