A knock interrupts the question. Mick looks up to see Vice President Ennis Chaney enter, followed by a shorter, older gentleman with a pencil-thin mustache and warm smile.

“Welcome aboard, sir. I’m sorry you couldn’t visit us under more auspicious circumstances.”

“Captain, this is Dr. Marvin Teperman, an exobiologist on loan to us from Canada. And who is this gentleman?”

Mick extends his hand. “Dr. Michael Rosen.”

“Dr. Rosen claims to have entered the object below us in his minisub.”

Chaney sits down at the conference table. “Update us.”

Captain Loos refers to his notes. “Dr. Rosen has described a layout that resembles something out of Dante’s Inferno. He says the emerald glow is being emitted from a powerful energy field, originating from within this subterranean chamber.”

Chaney stares at Mick through intense, raccoon eyes. “What happened to the Scylla?”

“The oil rig,” Loos clarifies. “It was a sensory observational post positioned above the hole.”

“The energy field created a powerful vortex. The whirlpool must have destroyed the rig.”

Loos’s eyes grow wide. He strikes the switch of an intercom. “Bridge.”

“Aye, sir, Commander Richards here—”

“Release sensor buoys, Commander, then move the ship one kilometer due east of our present position.”

“One kilometer due east, aye sir.”

“Double-time that order, Commander.”

“Understood, sir.”

Mick looks from Captain Loos to the vice president. “Moving your ship’s not good enough, Captain. We’re in terrible danger. There’s a life-form down there—”

“A life-form!” Marvin practically leaps across the table. “Something’s still alive down there? How can that be? What did it look like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you see it?”

“It remained concealed within an enormous pod.”

“Then how do you know it was alive? Did it move?”

“It communicated with me—telepathically. It has the ability to access our thoughts, even our most subconscious memories.”

Teperman is on his feet, unable to contain his excitement. “This is incredible. What thoughts did it communicate?”

Mick hesitates. “It accessed a memory of my deceased father. It—it wasn’t a very good memory.”

Chaney leans forward. “You said we’re in terrible danger. Why? Is this life-form a threat to us?”

“It’s more than a threat. Unless we destroy the being and its vessel, every man, woman, and child on this planet will be dead by 4 Ahau … uh, by December 21.”

Marvin stops smiling. Chaney and the captain look at each other, then back at Mick, who can almost feel the tension behind the vice president’s eyes as they bear down on him.

“How do you know this? Did the being communicate the threat?”

“Did you see a weapon of some kind?” the captain asks.

“I’m not sure. Something was released. I don’t know what it was. It looked like an enormous, deformed bat, only it didn’t flap its wings, it just sort of rose out of this pool of liquid silver energy—”

“Was it alive?” Marvin asks.