Prey

But why?

'What kind of an animal could survive down here? How could they live in this environment?'

'Maybe it's not an animal at all.'

'Well, it couldn't be a person. There are no other facilities within a thousand miles of this one.'

He glanced her way, but only for the briefest second. 'Julia, do you truly believe that we are masters of this planet? That we know everything there is to know about our home?'

She paused. 'We haven't fully explored the oceans yet.'

He nodded. 'Nor have we explored all the regions we claim to have, either. There are still frontiers out there. Places we know little about. And those frontiers sometimes border other frontiers. Frontiers we might only visit in the depths of our worst nightmares.'

'What are you saying, Mick?'

'Just this: don't discount anything. Keep yourself open to every possibility. Only when you do, will you be able to see things as they really are.'

She nodded and went back to watching the doorway. They'd left the door open so the humidity had spilled out into the hallway. A cool sweat draped over Julia and she simultaneously felt too warm and too cool.

Keep open to every possibility. Mick's words echoed inside her head like some sort of warning. But wasn't that why Julia was here in the first place? Hadn't she kept herself open and found her way to heading up a research team on the last great continent?

And right now, keeping herself open to possibilities didn't really seem like the greatest idea, either. After all, she might be exposing her team to annihilation if they couldn't figure out what the hell was happening down here.

'What do you think happened to the others?'

Her voice sounded loud in the hallway. Mick didn't seem affected by it, though. He simply shrugged. 'Probably dead.'

The finality of his statement shocked her. Again she found herself wondering how he could be so detached. So stalwart and unaffected by the implications of what he'd said.

'Who are you?'

He glanced at her again. This time, a small grin crept across his face. 'I'm a friend, Julia. That's all you need to know.'

'I've got the feeling that there's more going on here than I know about.'

'What's going on here is some type of creature is hunting humans.' Mick gestured to the doorway. 'Worse, we're virtually defenseless here. We've got no weapons.'

Julia frowned. 'We've got the spotlights.'

'Yeah.'

'How come we didn't switch them on?'

'Because if we did, then whatever this thing is wouldn't want to come in here.'

'You want it in here?'

'Yes.'

'What on earth for?'

'So we can figure out what it is we're fighting. When it comes, we'll hit it with the lights and test out that theory that it's vulnerable to bright light.'

'What if it's not?'

Mick grinned. 'Then we're in serious trouble.'

How could he think this was funny? Julia shook her head and wished she could be back in the warmth and comfort of her home. Back in the real world where the only dangers she could remember involved homicides and drug dealers and car wrecks.

'Try to relax.'

She looked at him. 'Sorry?'

'Relax. I can smell the fear coming off you in waves. Just let it go. I'm not even sure this thing will even show up tonight.'

'Easier said than done.'

'I know it.'

'You've done this before.'

He shrugged. 'Some things aren't all that tough to figure out.'

'You mentioned you were ex-military. What did you do in the service?'

'It's classified.'

She stared at him. 'I don't think there's a big danger of someone hearing us and running to the papers, Mick. Level with me.'

He looked at her, this time for longer. 'Are you sure you want to open that box?'

'There's nothing else to do.'

'We could sit here and play word games. We could pretend none of this is real.'

'We'd have to wake up eventually.'

'Yeah.'

She watched him wrestle with it. Eventually he sighed. 'I worked in special operations.'

'What — like a SEAL?'

'I was in the Air Force. SEALs are Navy.'

'I didn't even know the Air Force had special operations.'

'Not many people do. That's the way we like it.'

'You saw combat.'

'I saw it. Yeah. Hell, I slogged through some of the worst fighting you could ever imagine. House-to-house stuff in Kuwait. Jungle warfare doing drug interdiction down in South America.' His voice trailed off.

There's more, thought Julia. But how far could she push him?

'I lost a lot of friends,' said Mick. 'It comes with the job. Specops is all-volunteer. No one gets drafted into the units. You want in, you know the cost might be your life. We all knew it. But we wanted in anyway.'

'Why?'

Mick shrugged. 'Who knows? Maybe some of us are simply programmed for it. Hard-wired for warfare. We know we can't fit in anywhere else in society so we find the one thing that makes us feel complete. The one thing that no one else can touch or take away from us.' He sighed. 'There's a moment, you know. In combat. When the bullets are flying and you look over at your teammate and you know he's right there feeling the fear and the anger and the rage and the desire to get it done and over with. You look and see that and you make a vow to never let your teammate down. You carry on for each other. The rest of the world can go fuck itself. You live and die for each other. It's the most pure form of loyalty there is.'

The air felt heavier. Julia could tell the words Mick spoke were true. He'd leveled with her after all.

He shrugged. 'A lot of us paid a heavy price for serving in the units. Doesn't matter what branch, we all know the same shit. We all know buddies who died defending what we all believed in.'

'How long were you in?'

'Long enough.'

'That's not an answer.'

Mick smiled. 'Julia, I've told you too much already. You keep pressing me for information you won't like the answers you get. Trust me.'

'I trust you.'

'Then let it go. There are some things I won't talk about. No matter how pretty you happen to be.'

Julia smiled now. 'Flattery?'

'Call it what you want.' Mick shrugged again. 'I call it like I see it.'

'Unless it's classified.'

He smiled. 'Don't ruin the moment.'

'Are we having a moment?'

He chuckled. 'Why not? We're on some barren icescape. It's the middle of the freaking night. And we're waiting for some kind of creature to show up and carry off one of our teammates. Seems like the perfect time for a