Mick messing things up.'
Mick grinned. 'Glad to oblige.'
'I'll bet you were,' said Kendall. 'Especially given what the nature of this assignment entailed.'
Mick's eyes squinted. 'What are you talking about?'
Kendall grinned. 'It's all coming out now, Mick. There's really no sense in hiding it anymore, is there?'
'Hiding what?' asked Julia.
'Weren't you even the least bit curious about how Mick came to join the team? Or were you too enamored of him to question the replacement.'
Julia shook her head. 'He filled in when Jenkins got appendicitis. We were lucky he was around.'
'You were about as lucky to get Mick on your team as you were to be selected to head this little jaunt up, sweetie. That is to say you were manipulated. Once again.'
'He's lying,' said Mick.
Julia looked at him. Mick's face seemed harder now. She glanced at Kendall. 'You'd better explain yourself.'
'Jenkins never had appendicitis.'
'Sure he did,' said Wilkins. 'We were all with him when he got the pains. Lucky the damned thing didn't rupture.'
'You were all out eating wings and drinking a few beers that day, weren't you?'
'Yeah. So what?'
'Do you remember the waitress?'
Julia frowned. 'What does she have to do with anything?'
'She has everything to do with it because of the drug she slipped into Jenkins' beer. A little dab will do you — it gave him all the symptoms of acute appendicitis. Pains, vomiting, fever — all of it. But it wasn't legitimate. Just a little drug cocktail cooked up to get Mick here inserted on the team in his place.'
'But why?'
Kendall's smile reminded Julia of a slimy slug trail. 'Because our good friend Mick here isn't retired from the Air Force at all.'
'He's not?'
'He's active duty,' said Kendall. 'Isn't that right, Mick?'
Mick didn't say anything. He just kept looking at Kendall with murder in his eyes.
'You see, Mick's unit is several times removed from what most folks would call normal special operations. Mick's unit is attached to the Space Command. And you know what they deal with? Alien incursions. Mick's a member of a top-secret squad of alien killers. A real pro, too. I think he's been at it for almost ten years now.' Kendall smiled at Mick. 'Jump in any time and clarify things for me.'
Mick didn't move.
So he had lied to her. Julia wanted nothing better than to curl up and wish this entire mess away. She wanted to be back home. She wanted to never have met any of these people. Lies. All lies.
Kendall nodded. 'You see? The game is up. And you Julia have been duped on so many fronts, it's a wonder you still have any shred of shame left. Now give me that gun and let's be done with this.'
Julia jerked the laser rifle up. 'So what? That doesn't change the fact that you've killed a lot of people Kendall. In my book, that's fair cause for me to send you off to the other side now.'
'Do that and you'll never get out of here alive.'
Something about the way he said it made Julia pause.
Kendall pointed at the door. 'You think I would come in here to talk to you without making sure I had a reasonable chance of getting out alive? You think I'd be foolish enough to actually trust you?'
'Make your point,' said Julia.
'Shoot me and this entire chamber will be vaporized by my friends outside. And they can do it, too. You wouldn't live another second.'
'And what if we do surrender?'
Kendall smiled. 'Already thinking a bit clearer, aren't you?' He nodded. 'Give up this foolish charade and you may go free, Julia. You alone. Mick stays here. As does Wilkins. But you're welcome to leave here.'
Julia frowned. 'And why would they let me walk out of here?'
'Because they think they impregnated you with their new hybrid species,' said Mick, his voice cutting through the air.
'But they-'
'— didn't,' said Mick. 'No. I stopped them just before they were able to.'
Kendall sighed. 'So that's why she still looks remarkably well. At least that's solved.'
'I killed the alien shits doing it to her,' said Mick. He looked at Julia. 'What Kendall said about me, it's true. I'm sorry.'
Julia shook her head. 'Whatever.'
'But there's one thing he neglected to include.'
'What?'
'The reason why it was so important for me to be on this expedition.'
'Why-?'
But then the door exploded inward.
And Mick's reply was drowned out as the screaming began.
28
Julia brought her gun up on instinct and starting shooting at the doorway. She could see the first dinocreatures duck back as the laser bolts impacted nearby. One of the bolts caught a creature square in the chest, lifted him back and away, and brought him down in a bloody mess.
Return fire came back at them while Kendall screamed at everyone to stop shooting. But the dinocreatures seemed to have other ideas rather than following Kendall's orders. They kept shooting.
'Mick!'
Julia shouted for him. Even if he'd lied, she'd at least need his help to get the hell out of here.
But what about Wilkins?
She looked up at the table.
And grimaced. One of the laser bolts had caught Wilkins' body and turned it into bloody goo. Bits of his entrails dripped over the edge of the gurney. His eyes, cold and white and full of death, stared at the doorway.
Julia frowned and turned back to squeeze off some more bolts at the door. She caught another dinocreature in the chest. That was for Wilkins, she thought.
'Julia.'
Mick's voice appeared in her ear. She turned and saw him crouched down low next to her. 'We can't stay here!'
Julia nodded. 'You lead, I'll follow.'
'There's a door in the back. Another way through. We've got to get the hell out of here. No more stops.'
'Okay!'
Mick tugged on her sleeve and led her back to the doorway. Julia kept aiming the laser rifle at the doorway, but she couldn't see any more dinocreatures.
Kendall was gone, too.
Wonderful.
Mick triggered the door release and it slid up with a hiss.
'In here!'
Julia followed him through.
Another room almost like the one they'd just left opened up before them. Julia swung the rifle around,
