Blish’s lower lip was quivering so badly that for a second Mosh thought the old man was having a seizure. “We never intended for the project to end this way. We were the best and brightest, the superior scientific minds of our day. I was the youngest member of the team, but my theories on disembodied entities were considered revolutionary. Our goals were noble. We were trying to end the war with the smallest loss of life possible. The host subjects were all volunteers. They knew the risks going in. We simply never could have imagined this outcome. We would never have sacrificed those men. Only he doesn’t know that. He thought that I lied to him. I swear that I didn’t.”

Mosh was confused. “Host subjects?”

Blish wiped his nose with his sleeve. “You don’t even know about them?”

“Enlighten us. Back up a little.”

“The being that is terrorizing your friends is only half the issue. The destruction is merely the manifestation of one man’s anger over his betrayal. However hopelessly they are entwined, we are facing two separate foes, a human test subject and the disembodied creature which was bonded to him. The creature that is farming nightmares is merely an alp.”

“Bull,” Holly said. “There’s no way. Alps are pathetic.”

The only thing Mosh knew with that name was a mountain range. The skiing was awesome, and the nights were cold, but the women were beautiful…But he was fairly certain that wasn’t what they were talking about. “What’s an alp?” Mosh asked.

“They’re parasites. Little floaty ghost bastards. We only spend like thirty minutes on them in Newbie training. They’re the monster under the bed that gives little kids nightmares and then feeds on their terror. A really strong one can give an adult bad dreams, maybe. That’s it. Ignore them long enough and they get hungry and go away. They’re not even PUFF applicable because they don’t have a corpse to turn in. You’re telling me this thing that’s killing professional Hunters and sucking giant buildings into other dimensions is an alp?”

“Yes, in part. It is the driver, but it is not the engine. The goal of my original experiment was to capture one of these nightmare feeders and find a way to magnify its strength.”

“Your goal was to make the boogieman stronger?” Mosh was incredulous. “Are you nuts?”

“Shhh.” Holly put her hand on his arm. “The boogieman is different.”

The doctor sighed. “I will try to keep it simple for our sideshow freak.”

“Now that’s just unnecessary—”