The silence stretched.

“Whatever is doing them.” General Decker paced toward him. “Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? What the hell is doing them?” He folded his arms, scanning the room. “Anyone?” He waited. He lifted his hands. “Well, come on, people: thoughts, ideas, theories, anything? You’re supposed to be my best and brightest. That’s why you’re all here, goddamnit.”

“Anyone know what an ant lion is?” Andy looked around the room at the blank faces. “It’s a little critter, a bug, with massive jaws, that creates a pit in the soil, and lies at the bottom of it. What makes its trap unique is that the ant lion softens the soil so that any ants unfortunate enough to fall into the pit can’t climb back out. They get grabbed by those massive jaws, and are pulled below the ground, where they’re torn apart and eaten alive.” Andy sat back feeling drained as he worked at trying to shut out his friend’s screams – pulled apart and eaten alive. He knew he’d never really be able to shut them out.

Decker stared at him. Andy stared back. “Bugs.” Decker looked from Abrams to Tania. “Well, Captain, is that what you’re telling me you think it is? Bugs?”

“No sir,” Tania said. “We’re still analyzing the samples we found, but we’re not ready to suggest any basis for the sinkholes or the other anomalies just yet.” She shot Andy a warning glance.

Andy shook his head. “I didn’t say it was bugs, I’m just saying that something weird is going on down there, and something did pull my friend into the hole – right into the freaking rock and soil, damnit.” Andy was on his feet leaning on his knuckles and trying hard to rein in his frustration.

“The birds.” He looked up. “Birds…Are there dead birds at all the sites? Suiciding?”

“Yes.” Abrams said. “All of them…And that’s another mystery. We’re actually using the birds as an indicator now. The ground seismic sensors are useless at predicting these things. There’s no initial disturbance, and even during an occurrence, there is little vibration. But hours before an event, the birds gather overhead, and then just minutes prior to the land dropping, they simply fall out of the sky.”

“Begging your pardon, sir, but no, they don’t fall…They dive bomb the site,” Tania said quickly. “As Mr Bennet said – they suicide.” Tania moved to the computer. “And that’s not all.” She called up another image of birds circling an area over water, and then in the next image, they were seen flying straight into it. “These are not sea birds, and they are drowning themselves. We’ve sent down divers and mini-subs where this happened, and we saw evidence of seafloor drop. It’s happening on both land and at sea, and, once again, no vibration.” She turned to Andy. “They couldn’t possibly see it, but they knew.”

The seconds stretched, and everyone in the room continued to stare at the image of the birds. Decker broke the silence. “How? How do they know?”