Event

out when the tracer he had placed on Mendenhall's hand had led him straight here. He and his men had dodged a search team twice as they searched the town for stragglers that they could hustle off to that bar and grill and detain. He and his men had come inside one of the now quarantined helicopters shortly after the arrival of the first American C-130 this morning.

Farbeaux was dressed casually and was waiting for his phone to ring, which he knew it would, and this time he decided he would answer. He only had to wait another minute. He looked down at the incoming number, then placed the cell phone in the portable scrambler.

'Legion' was all he said.

'May I be so bold as to ask what it is you are doing?'

This was the man the Frenchman was hoping for, Hendrix himself.

'You fool, if you go in without Centaurus expertise to back you up, you and whatever idiots you have following you will be chewed to pieces. You have eliminated two of my teams, that I can forgive, but if you fail to satisfy me in this matter, there won't a safe place where I can't get to you. Now fulfill your contract to Centaurus!'

'I wouldn't have lived long enough to say thank you for the bullet you placed in my brain. I will collect what I can of the technology and--'

'You dumb son of a bitch, is it technology you think we are after? We have all that we need.' Hendrix laughed. 'The thing that may be out there is far more than even you have bargained for. Even if you live through this without getting mauled, I will burn everything in your private collection right in front of you, and then I will personally put that bullet in your brain, do you unders--'

Farbeaux pushed the button on the scrambler and ended the call.

No, my friend, you won't be doing that. And please, 'mauled'? Besides, I have learned enough about you and your little basement secrets that it should make interesting reading to a certain senator, he thought to himself as he picked up a handheld electronic computer and started writing his 'get-out-of-jail-free card.'

Eight Miles South of Chato's Crawl, Arizona

July 9, 13.00 Hours

Billy turned the ATV off and coasted the final ten feet. The four-wheeler had enough forward momentum to roll through the scruffy yard to barely bump the rotting slats of the wooden front porch before coming to a full stop. The boy removed his helmet and looked around. The chicken coop was full of chickens, but unlike on Billy's previous visits they were all huddled together in one corner of the pen with a large Rhode Island Red rooster walking guard in front of them. He then looked at Buck's stall and noticed the mule was gone, and that meant Gus was still up in the mountains.

He was just about to put his helmet back on when he saw out of the corner of his eye a flash of movement at the kitchen window. He swallowed and wondered who, or what, was watching him. The boy knew without a doubt eyes were on him because the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Gus once told him that usually meant danger to a man attuned to the desert. Billy tried to slide the helmet on, but it seemed his arms wouldn't work anymore. He turned slowly and looked at the window. It was empty.

He shook his head, still trying to build up the bravery he needed to get out of there. It was for reasons like this his mom never let him watch those old horror movies she sat up late watching on television. She told him kids of today didn't have the patience to be frightened as she had been when she was young. Billy had thought that was just about the dumbest statement he had ever heard. He shook his head, unable to believe he was actually as afraid as he was, so he guessed he had learned patience.

Instead of placing the helmet on his head, he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He wouldn't let the fear of something that wasn't there scare him. What would Gus think? He sure wouldn't think Billy was ready to accompany him to the mountains to prospect, that was for sure.

Billy placed the helmet on his handlebars and looked at the house. It looked normal.

'Hey!' he shouted bravely at the house.

His eyes roamed over the front windows quickly, looking for any signs of movement. He took another breath. He didn't see motion but he felt he was still being watched. Then a horrible thought struck him: What if Gus was hurt? Maybe Buck was still in the desert, but Gus had come back and had a stroke or something?

That helped him find his bravado. He jumped from the ATV and ran to the porch, and that was when he saw through the old screen door that the front door had recently been repaired. Nails were crudely pointing this way and that, and a few were even bent over. Billy stopped and examined the situation again.

'Hey, I know you're in there!'

Still nothing. He took one step and then another. He placed one foot on the first step and then evened it out with the other foot. He swallowed and watched the door, and then he suddenly looked to the window that sat above Gus's old cot in the corner. Did that window shade move? He started to back away, then thought about Gus again. He took the next step, and then he was at the front door. He placed his hand on the screen door and easily pulled it open, flinching every time the spring made that popping noise. Then he placed his shaking hand on the glass doorknob and closed his eyes. He turned the doorknob, but stopped and thought, what kind of an idiot was he? He had put one over on his mom on occasion and seen too many movies where a door had been the only thing separating a stupid kid from the horrors of a slasher that waited just the other side of that door. Then he looked down and saw that the wooden door's center panel hadn't been nailed down all the way and one corner was sticking out.

Billy swallowed and backed away a step and examined the repair job. Yeah, it was Gus's work alright. Bob Vila he wasn't. With one hand holding the screen door open he leaned over and peered through the crack. All he saw was darkness. He knew then that he was being silly, but still wasn't in a hurry to throw open the door. He looked behind him to make sure nothing was sneaking up there, then went to one knee and looked again. This time the space seemed even darker. So Billy leaned closer--and saw the huge black eye blink. Billy stood straight up and the screen door slammed him in the ass, knocking him against the door. He stood motionless as he heard something move on the other side of the door.

Suddenly the windows started shaking and the door was rattling in its frame. The screen was flapping like a bird's wing, and that made him move, almost tearing the screen door off its old hinges when it slammed back on him. He stumbled and fell backward, rolling down the steps of the porch, and then a hurricane of wind and dirt and dead grass started pummeling him. The noise came from the back of Gus's house, hesitated there, then started forward, seemingly coming from over the roof. Billy screamed, but no sound came out of his mouth as the world became a swirling storm of desert sand and wind. Finally one of Gus's front widows shattered and glass flew everywhere. Then a shadow fell over the porch and front yard as the horrible noise and vibration not only continued but increased twentyfold. Suddenly he felt the evil was out here and not in the house, so he quickly gained his feet, but it was like one of his horrible dreams where you try to run but your shoes are sticking in syrup or something equally thick and sticky. He finally pulled the screen door open, and it flew back with a crash as it hit the house and the spring snapped. Then to his horror the screen door went flying away off the porch.

'Oh God, oh God, oh God,' he cried as he turned the doorknob and opened the front door and ran in.

He was halfway through the kitchen when he saw Gus's back door crash in and a large, dark forbidding shape crouch and then stand motionless. His mouth widened to scream, but again nothing came out. And then to top off his day, he saw something rise up off the floor and go screaming away from the menacing dark figure. It was small and wearing a white shirt that caught the wind from the open front door and flew back like a cape.

Billy finally managed a loud and convincing scream as a small green creature ran right for him with the taller black thing in the shadows starting forward into the house. Billy immediately turned with both pursuers screaming after him. The smaller of the two hit his back and they both crashed onto the porch and right into the arms of another figure that towered over him. Billy screamed and then Matchstick screamed as they both fell onto the porch after bouncing off the thing standing before them.

'Hey, hey, easy,' the tall figure said as it removed its black face and head.

'Ahhhh!' Billy screamed again.

'Ahhhhhh!' Matchstick screamed behind him.

Billy turned back toward the scream and his eyes widened when he saw what was there. Matchstick's eyes went from Billy to the taller figure and then back to Billy, and they both cried out simultaneously.

'Hey,' a voice called among the wind and debris. 'Billy, Matchstick?'

Billy stopped screaming and looked up and finally saw the first sane thing he had seen since arriving. Gus was