Two headlamps bounced as we both went after it, ready to stomp the unlife out of the horrid thing. There was nothing there. “What!” The floor was nothing but a tangle of stained copper wires. Breathing hard, I whipped my head around, searching…“Where—”

Franks was scanning too. “It’s gone.”

Gone? “What the hell?” It hadn’t gone up the ladder. We were in a solid metal tank with only one exit. The burning cold in my extremities began to subside, replaced by the hot flush of adrenalin. “Let’s get out of here.”

For once, Franks didn’t disagree.

The desert night that had seemed so bitterly cold before seemed welcoming after the unnatural chill of the tank.

“Where did that thing come from?” The two of us were in the dead circle, scanning the desert with our headlamps. “What was that?”

“Ice ghoul,” Franks said. “Mummified undead.”

“They common around here or something?”

“Only in polar latitudes.”

Dugway, Utah, wasn’t pleasant by any means, but it certainly wasn’t the arctic. “They teleport?”

“No. Glorified tough zombie on ice.”

Now I was really confused. It hadn’t come down the ladder. It had appeared out of thin air, jumped on me, got the hell beat out of it, then disappeared. “I’ve never even heard of those before.”

“Rare. Haven’t seen one since…” Franks trailed off. “Interesting…”

“What?”

“Classified.”

After all that…“Screw you, Franks! You rotten son of a bitch! Take your stupid ‘classified’ and shove it up your—”

“Everything okay, Agent?” the major had waddled back to the circle.

“We’re done here.”

“And the containment unit?”

Franks took one last look at the hole. “Bury it.”

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I had been taken in the back of the pickup to a portable shower, sprayed with foam, scrubbed with brushes, then taken out of my suit, sprayed with hot soapy water, then sprayed with freezing water, then given my clothing, armor, and weapons back. Since there was no indication of any actual chemical or biological agents in that particular containment unit, and there was no sign that any of the surrounding units had been breached, it was probably overkill, but I liked not puking blood or having brain damage, and wanted to keep it that way.