She’d already inspected Aberash’s armor. Ran her fingers over the dents in the sialon, rubbed at the bloody smears. Whatever had smashed it had done so from two sides. Like a hammer on an anvil. And it had to be big.

Which could be anything. The scope of human knowledge when it came to the planet’s biosphere was like a drop in an ocean of the unknown. Kalico had been correct. They should all be scared shitless that Southern Diggings could end up like the Maritime Unit. That creatures—big intelligent creatures—could be stalking just behind the line of curious trees. Looking up at her with alien eyes, wondering.

“Yess,” Demon hissed down in her gut. “Danger here. Sniff.”

Talina tipped her head back, scenting the breeze that drifted in from the forest. Catching . . . what was it? That faint scent of something. . . .

Not even quetzal memory could tag it.

Dek appeared behind her, placing his reassuring hands on her shoulders. “Raya’s still in surgery. Kalico’s pacing. Never seen her so unsettled.”

“She has a right to be,” Talina told him. “Down there. Out in the forest. I got just a faint whiff. It tickles the quetzal memory, but it doesn’t. That make any sense?”

“Unfortunately, yeah.” He did his own sniffing, letting his enhanced sense of smell filter the breeze. “Got to tell you, Tal. It’s all new. Maybe that taint? Or what we think is a taint? Might just be some new variety of plant in bloom.”

“I think it’s animal.” She made a face. “No idea why, but I do.”

“I’ll trust you for that.” He rubbed her shoulders, his strong hands massaging some of the stress out of her too-tense body.

She told him, “Part of it is Soukup. Knowing that the IG is second-guessing every decision Kalico’s made, she’s ready to pull the plug. She may not know it yet, but she is. The disaster at the Maritime Unit is haunting her like the ghosts in Freelander. She won’t let Southern Diggings suffer the same fate.”

“Hard to blame her.”

“You know what has to happen, right? The only way we’re ever going to know what went wrong out there?”

“Yeah,” he told her sourly. “We’ve got to go out. Find the rest of the marines. Figure out what killed them. And not get killed ourselves.”

“There’s always a hitch, isn’t there?”

“How are we going to do this?” Dek asked.

Talina laughed, turned, and kissed him. As she pulled back, she looked into his yellow-green oversized eyes. “We’re going to do this the only way we can.”

He chuckled. “Let me guess: Very. Very. Carefully?”

“Always knew you were the smartest man alive.”

Chapter 57

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