“What are you doing?” Andy’s brow creased in utter confusion, and his mind refused to make sense of what he was seeing. “What’s happening?” He spun back to the woman. Her face was devoid of any emotion or sensation. It was as if she were an unresponsive machine that had somehow speared the SEAL like a fish, and was now…reeling him in.

Hartogg made agonized gurgling sounds. As Andy watched, the SEAL dropped one hand to reach for his sidearm and lift it free. Immediately, the glistening tendril in his chest widened. Hartogg dropped the gun, throwing his head back in agony. The sickening sound of ribs popping and splintering filled the dark room, even drowning out the SEAL’s grunts of pain. Andy rushed to him, but the man was already gurgling blood.

Andy went to take hold of the arm-thick pipe, but saw that Hartogg already had his hands wrapped around it, and where he had gripped it, the black mass was now spreading over his fingers.

Andy’s hands hovered, indecision almost causing a short-circuit in his mind.

“Matt!” he screamed. “Major Abrams!” His voice bounced away down the dark passageways without response.

He picked up the handgun, ran back and grabbed at Tania. She was at least four inches shorter than he was and he guessed he outweighed her by sixty pounds, but he might as well have been trying to tug on a block of stone. Then he felt the pain – where his hands grabbed at the woman, there was a burning sensation that felt both hot and toxic, like a marine jellyfish sting. Andy looked at Tania’s face, and saw she was still facing Hartogg, but, grotesquely, one of her beautiful blue eyes had slid around to be positioned where her temple should be – and it was watching him.

Andy’s heart thumped so hard in his chest, it made him feel physically sick. He let her go, and backed away, his head shaking. “What’s – happening – to you?”

Another dark tendril of oily-looking flesh shot from a newly opened hole in her belly, this one wrapping around Andy’s neck. It tightened immediately.

Andy’s eyes watered from the pain and the despair. Just then, beautiful Tania burst apart, revealing the bloated creature inside.

Andy’s fingers involuntarily tightened, and the gun went off in his hand. The shots and his last screams echoed along the ancient walls.

*

“Did you hear something?” Matt stopped and half turned.

Abrams came back and joined him, tilting his head.

“It’s gone now,” Matt said. “But it sounded like gunfire.”

Abrams grimaced. “Maybe.” He checked his watch. “If we head back now, it’ll still take us fifteen minutes to reach them – whatever is happening will be long over by then. Don’t worry about it. I trust Hartogg; that guy can deal with anything. We’ve got another few minutes, and then we can turn back. One way or the other, we’ll find out what the noise was then.” He waved Matt on. “Come on, let’s finish our search…and pick up the pace.”