“I know you can see this thing!” Walker shouts into her satellite phone, probably blowing out the eardrum of whoever she was having a hushed conversation with just moments ago. “Air support! Get me some goddamn air strikes!”

The Mogasaur tilts its flat face towards the sky. The viscous membranes that I take to be nostrils start to twitch. Then it opens its eyes—each one milky white, arranged in a diamond pattern on the beast’s broad forehead. It’s hard to make out at this distance, but I could swear I see a glimmer of cobalt blue in each of those eyes. From the center of each eye, where the pupil would be, I can definitely see a ripple of bluish energy firing into the creature.

The color, the energy—it reminds me of our pendants. Could this be the result of what Setrákus Ra was doing when I glimpsed him on board the Anubis? But what does that mean? Besides being as big as a building, what can this monster do that the others we’ve faced can’t? Are the stolen pendants powering it somehow? Or are they doing something else entirely?

Still standing just off the shore, the Mogasaur swings its head around and looks directly at us.

“Shit,” Nine says, stepping back. “Is it coming this way?”

“Now!” Walker screams into the phone, backing up as well. “It’s a goddamn giant!”

“I think it can sense us,” I say. “I think—I think Setrákus Ra left this here to hunt us.”

“Okay,” Daniela replies. “I gotta go.”

As if in answer, the Mogasaur lets out a deafening roar in our direction, spraying mist from the river and its rotten-fish breath all over us. Then, it lifts one of its front arms out of the river muck and brings it crashing down on the dock. Wooden beams explode in splinters and the concrete walkway caves in, two of the ferry boats pushed underwater like toys.

It’s coming this way.

I lob a fireball at the Mogasaur. Quickly, I realize it’s too small to do any damage. The fireball sizzles and leaves a scorch mark in the monster’s hide, but it doesn’t even notice.

“Run!” I shout. “Fan out! Use the statue as cover!”

Nine, Daniela, Walker and Murray all run back towards the grass and the statue. But Sam stays rooted in place, even as the Mogasaur takes another booming step towards us.

“Sam! Come on!” I shout, grabbing him by the arm.

“John? Do you feel that?”

I stare at Sam. Both of his eyes are changed—filled up with crackling energy. They look almost like two out-of-tune TVs, except the light Sam’s eyes gives off is bright azure.

“Sam? What the he—?”

Before I can finish my question, Sam spasms once and collapses. I manage to catch him and try to drag him backwards. Daniela and Nine see this happen and stop in their tracks.