'I guess you could call them that.'
'Can they communicate telepathically?'
'Receive only. They aren't bred to transmit. The visitors can understand their rudimentary screeches and chirps as language.'
'I don't suppose they eat through straws as well?'
Kendall smiled. 'Tragically no. The hybrids require an enormous amount of food. A somewhat bothersome carryover from their reptilian ancestors.'
'Antarctica never struck me as having much in the way of food supplies.'
'No. It doesn't. That's why their food supply gets imported from other places.'
'Other places?'
'Not all abductees return home with missing time. Some find their time gone on a more permanent basis.'
'They're used as food?'
Kendall nodded. 'Like I said, a necessary cost to maintain the security force.'
Julia tried to bite back the rise of bile in her throat. It wasn't easy to do so. 'Vikorsky?'
Kendall nodded. 'I think he was yesterday's breakfast.'
'Havel?'
'Served earlier today.'
'Darren?'
Kendall looked at his watch. 'I think they're just digging into him right now.'
Julia retched and a dribble of vomit spilled out of her mouth. Kendall shook his head. 'Get a grip on yourself. It's part of the price of conducting the exhaustive research going on here. You've really got to see the big picture and appreciate what they've worked so hard to create.'
'What about Nung?'
Kendall shook his head. 'I told you, Nung was recovering from his operation.'
'What did they do to him?'
Kendall smiled. 'Seems as though they've been getting a little impatient with the current generation of dino hybrids. Something about them being a bit bothersome to work with. Small brains and all.'
'So Nung…?'
'A newer generation of hybrid. But this time, it's a tri-species version: visitor, dinosaur, human. They think it will make a marked improvement over the past generations.'
Julia felt like crying but she wouldn't give Kendall the satisfaction. 'And what about me?' she asked finally.
'You?' Kendall nodded. 'I wondered if you'd be brave enough to ask. I'm impressed.'
'Just answer the question.'
'Well, Nung was the experiment as far as cutting and pasting limbs on and off. He was the patchwork experiment. But you, you're something else entirely.'
Julia bit down on her lip. Blood flowed into her mouth as she heard Kendall speak again.
'You'll be fertilized. And the gestation period will be rapidly accelerated.' He smiled. 'Congratulations, boss. You'll be the first woman in history to give birth to an entirely new species.'
23
It sounded too horrible to be true. But as she lay there looking up at the sickening expression on Kendall's face, Julia knew it had to be true. She hated Kendall at that moment more than she'd ever hated anyone else in her life. She never would have thought it possible to so utterly loathe someone. But Kendall fit the bill.
Perfectly.
'How…?' Her words trailed off. She wasn't really sure how to ask the question. There she was naked on the gurney. Completely vulnerable. The question seemed almost ridiculous.
Kendall was obviously enjoying himself. 'Not the way I'd hoped. I volunteered to fuck you with their goop injected into my scrotum so when I came, it would impregnate you.'
Julia fought back another wave of nausea. 'How romantic of you.'
'Isn't it?' He frowned. 'They rejected my offer, though. Something about needing the conditions to be absolutely sterile for the injection to take properly. Apparently, their sperm frappe is extremely volatile. Any disturbance could very well kill off all those precious little swimmers.'
Julia frowned. 'I'm not ovulating.'
Kendall sniffed. 'Bullshit. You are well within your fertile window. Don't try to lie to these guys, Julia. They know everything about you. Why do you think we came down here at precisely this time? They've been charting your cycles for years.'
'And you were the one-'
'Who insisted on this schedule. Yes. You're absolutely correct. My little contribution to the program. It wouldn't have done much good to bring you down here during your period.'
'This whole thing was designed to get me down here?'
'More or less. They've experimented on other women for some time now, but none of those operations took. The results were rather horrific. The visitors claimed it was because the mothers weren't stable enough. That's one of the bad side effects of abductions, you see. People start abusing substances to try and forget the pain of the experiences they've gone through.'
'You turn them into junkies.'
'Some. Most of the women the visitors took have become chain smokers. Some drink to try and quell the pain. Others get a bit more hardcore with narcotics.' He smiled. 'But every once in a while, they find a specimen that doesn't cave in. Someone made of a stiffer core than the others. Some type of inner strength, I'd guess.' He pointed at Julia. 'And that's you.'
'Me?'
'Believe it or not, you've never dwelled in the depths of despair. And while you might not have been conscious of the fact that you were an abductee, you always had a hole in your life. But never once did you ever think about trying to hide from that hole through drugs or other substances. Not you. You rose above it. And you've got a supremely healthy body for all your hard work.' Kendall licked his lips. 'You make my mouth water just looking at you.'
'The feeling's not mutual.'
'No. I suppose not.' Kendall smirked. 'Holding out for your solder boy, aren't you?'
'Who?'
'Mick.'
The tone of his voice made Julia scared. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
Kendall shook his head. 'Please spare me the theatrics. You two didn't exactly do much to conceal the fact that you had a thing for each other. I saw the way you looked at him. Naked lust so brazenly apparent on your face. You looked like you'd just crossed a desert of sexless years and Mick was the first oasis you'd come upon.'
'Where is he?'
Kendall shrugged. 'I honestly don't know. If he's smart, he went back to the base, called a plane to come down, hopped on it, and left you all far behind.'
'He wouldn't do that.'
'No,' said Kendall. 'He wouldn't. Which is why the visitors have their entire dinocreature force out searching for him.'
'In the tunnel?'
'Tunnel, the jungle, even outside in the snow.'
'How can they survive in those cold temperatures?'
'Part of the hybridization process. They flushed the warm blood out of the dinosaurs and left the visitors' own circulatory system. Don't ask me how they did it. Their technology is light years beyond our own. And even an
