“I don’t know what happened,” she told him. “Like it came out of nothing. I saw that horrible creature appear out of the darkness, grab Ednund. Rip him apart. You get that, Cinque? It tore him in two!” She heard the terror rising in her voice. “And then it started for me. And . . . and . . .”

“The world just faded?” He gave her a knowing glance. “You can read the reports all you want. Think you understand. But until you’re face to face with it?”

She rubbed her nervous hands together. “Ednund had been with me all of my life.”

“Yeah.” He sniffed, ran his fingers down his rifle’s stock. “I’m taking Charlotte. She needs someone. The rest of Chad’s people can go home.”

“What about Tamala? She’s your valet. Been with you for years.”

“We got tired of each other. She understands.” Cinque smiled. “It was being cramped up in Turalon. Like you and Kramer . . . things happened.”

She nodded, figured he knew it was calculated on her part. “So we wait here?”

“That’s what Talina told me. No uncertain terms: ‘Get your ass in there. Lock the door. Shoot anything that isn’t human that comes in after you.’” He chuckled. “And then she, that girl Kylee, and Dek, they charge off into the darkness. Just the three of them. Going quetzal hunting. Out there in the dark, can you imagine?”

“What about the vaunted plan?” Falise asked. “The organized search they made such a big thing of at that supposed orientation.”

“That’s happening, too. Allison left at a run to get to the Admin dome. They start at the south end of town. Sweep north.” He wiped a finger under his nose. “Wong told me that with the new marines, it’s going to be a lot quicker. Maybe even more so if Tal, Dek, and that girl don’t get eaten.”

“My brother is out there in the dark, hunting one of those things.” Her reeling thoughts—after taking too many hits and still whiskey-fogged—struggled to understand.

And Ednund is dead?

She wanted to hang her head and weep.

“What kind of hell have we gotten ourselves into?” she asked.

“They have a saying, Falise. People come here to leave, to die, or to find themselves.”

“Yeah,” she whispered while her heart ached. “What’s left of Ednund is out there on the street. Guess we know which one he came for.”

Chapter 41

  41  

As the airtruck settled on the aircar field by the west gate, Kalico checked her pistol in the morning light that shone through the side window. Port Authority had been conducting a quetzal hunt for half the night and was still in the process of searching for any of the beasts that might have managed to elude the sweeps.