(ALICE ALICE NOW IS THE TIME NOW I COME FOR YOU YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR DESTINY)

“Fuck you!” Javy screamed. “Leave us alone, you miserable fucking witch! You cunt! You fucking bitch go away go away! GO THE FUCK AWAY!”

Hubbs pulled himself to his feet, using the console to steady himself, backing as far away from Javy as he could get. “It’s her! It’s her!” he cried. “She called it! She summoned it out of the city!”

The habitat was hit again and more rivets went shooting in every which direction. Through one of the ports, she saw a huge white tentacle that had to be as big around as a telephone pole slap against the window, its suckers and their attendant hooks tearing at the glass. The Neptune groaned and creaked. It seemed like it might crush like an aluminum can in a fist…then, the attack stopped.

Everything was quiet save for alarms which died out one after the other.

Water dripped.

Steam hissed.

There was nothing on the sonar screen.

All the exterior lights came back on as well as the ones inside. Everyone slowly, carefully, got to their feet. Their faces were sweaty, eyes bulging, mouths trembling.

“What in the hell was that?” Bell finally managed to say.

Hubbs chuckled with a derisive sound. “Ask Javy. She knows. Oh, she knows very well.”

But that was impossible: she had gone out cold.

25
BIG BROTHER

Bell, of course, was more adamant than ever about scrubbing the op. He wanted his people out of the Neptune and up to Kharkov Station. It seemed a perfectly reasonable idea, but Orr was hesitant. He had reasons to be. And all of them were locked up in the operational orders in his safe. He wanted to tell Bell what the contingency plan was, but, of course, that would have been a violation of protocol.

And let’s face it, he thought then. Communications between the LSB and the Neptune are probably being monitored.

If the ONI found out that he was scrubbing the mission without their permission, they just might decide to execute the contingency plans from their end. Something which was certainly possible. No doubt they’d already run a detailed threat analysis and had a strategy in place in case Orr (or anyone else) compromised the mission.

You’re swimming in very murky seas. Don’t forget that. And the people behind this are extremely ruthless.