Cabrera grimaced. “Not the driver; no, sir. I’ve already identified his truck; we’ll pick him up within the hour. The cowboy’s a tougher nut to crack. I have to reconstruct his route from a dozen sources.”

“Anything you need to make this go faster?”

“Uhm….” Cabrera thought about it for a moment then grinned hopefully. “Lots of coffee with lots of sugar?”

“You got it.” Young took a step back and turned to Butler. “As soon as we have a location, I’m moving out. What can you tell me about the host?”

he asked, glancing at the grainy still of the man lying flat on his face next to his truck.

“Except that he appears to be male and is wearing a hat?” Butler frowned, confused. “Nothing.”

“Is he likely to be aware of what’s happening to him?” the general clarified, stifling an involuntary shudder at the thought. “Do you think we’ll be able to talk to him when we get to him, convince him to come quietly?”

Butler took a moment to think about it but ended up shaking her head.

“No. I really don’t think so. As far as we can tell, the entity hooks into the brain stem and nervous system, which means it’ll be able to take over its host completely, wrangling motor control from him, causing hallucinations and extreme pain. If the man’s lucky, he’s in a sort of coma and unaware of what’s happening. If he’s not….” She cleared her throat. “I think it’s safe to say he’s already collateral damage, General.”

Young’s face tightened with displeasure. “So your recommendation regarding our approach to this is?”

“I believe that, for all intents and purposes, you can consider the host already dead, sir,” she told him bluntly, not a hint of uncertainty in her voice. “If you decide to negotiate, keep in mind that whatever he says will probably be the entity speaking. Maintain a safety distance of at least six to ten feet and remember that his reflexes will be seriously jacked up even when the armor is not visible. Consider wearing a hazmat suit in case the entity tries to jump you. It might offer a modicum of protection, but I wouldn’t rely on it. We know it’s capable of cutting through Kevlar; a facemask certainly won’t stop it. If it wants in you, I don’t see how anything but distance or another one of the 742s can stop it.”

Well, that was going to make things interesting. More interesting.

“On the bright side,” Butler continued, “the way it seems to be linked to the host’s senses is a weakness. If you manage to surprise it, a series of concussive blasts should slow it down considerably or even stun it for a while. No telling how long, though.”

Young nodded, unsurprised. Negotiations, he figured, were about as probable as a peaceful surrender. After that first contact debacle, the alien had to consider them enemies and Young expected it to act accordingly.