'Is it all right?' Cameron asked, surprised by the concern in her voice.
Rex pushed through the others to Diego's side, staring down into the cruise box. The larva squirmed along the bottom, wriggling like an eel as Diego tried to grab it.
'Wait,' Tank said, pointing. 'Look.'
Rex grabbed Diego's arm, pulling it back. Derek signaled Tank to step back to let the firelight through. The larva's thrashing slowed. 'Pull it out,' Derek said. He looked worried, almost upset. 'Pull it out.'
'No, wait,' Diego said. 'It's breathing. Look.' He pointed to the larva's gills, which fluttered underwater. 'Holy shit. The gills must feed an air bladder, or versatile lungs of some sort.'
'Holy shit is right,' Tucker said. 'This thing gonna fly too?'
'Maybe that's what it was doing when we discovered it,' Diego said. 'Heading for the ocean.' He grasped the larva firmly around the base of the head and pulled it from the water. It dangled before him, squirming in the air, its abdomen curling. Its obsidian eyes glowed in the firelight, its spiracles emitting the cooing sound.
Diego set the larva on the ground. It sputtered, expelling water from its gills, its body humping and straightening against the dirt.
'I think we should kill it,' Szabla said. 'Take it apart, see what it is.'
Derek, Diego, and Cameron glared at her with outrage. 'Exterminating species went out with rail barons and the Third Reich,' Rex snapped.
'I agree with Szabla,' Savage said. He flashed a dramatic thumbs-down, Roman-emperor style.
Justin stood up, knocking his hands together angrily. 'Now that's a big fuckin' surprise.'
'Nobody's gonna kill this thing,' Derek said.
Szabla ran her fingers along the raised line of bruises on her neck. 'Or what, LT?'
They broke up, heading for their respective tents. Though the larva had shown no sign of straying, Diego emptied the cruise box and placed it inside. 'I'll keep an eye on it tonight,' he announced. Closing the lid, he began to drag the cruise box toward his tent.
Diego heard the larva's fluttering coo as he pulled the box through the flap and lit the hurricane lamp. He set it in the corner, then sat on his bed, staring at the closed container. A simple rectangular box, containing per-haps the most startling aberration of nature to be discovered in his life-time. And he was the discoverer. Maybe his surname would even find its way into the animal's taxonomic nomenclature.
The canvas flap whispered and he glanced over and saw Derek hulking just inside his tent. He started, almost falling off the bed. 'You star-tled me,' Diego said.
Derek did not reply. The light from the lamp played across his face, the flame reflecting in his bloodshot eyes. He'd let his beard go several days, and it rasped beneath his fingers when he ran his hand up across a cheek. 'I want to take a look at it,' he said, jerking his head toward the cruise box. 'Alone.'
Diego placed his hands on his knees, feeling himself start to sweat. 'I thought we agreed we weren't going to hurt it.'
Derek looked at him, his eyes finding sudden focus. They were sharp, offended, but the look quickly faded. 'If you want to keep this thing in my base camp with my men, I need to take a closer look at it.'
Diego crossed his arms. 'Why do you have to be alone?'
'Maybe you'd prefer to leave the larva outside and take your chances that it'll still be there in the morning?'
Diego stood and headed hesitantly for the flap. Derek did not move out of his way, and he had to squeeze past him to get out of the tent. He halted outside, tilting back his head and taking a deep breath, then turned and peered through a gap in the flap.
Derek waited a moment before crossing to the cruise box, slowly lifting the lid. The interior was bathed in darkness. He raised the lamp, leaning over to peer inside.
The larva's head rose slowly from the darkness, tilting. For a few moments, Derek stood quietly, the larva regarding him and cooing from its spiracles. Finally, he leaned forward and lifted the larva out of the cruise box as he would a baby from a crib, gripping it around the thorax. Its abdomen curled and loosened, dangling beneath it. It may have just been the light, but its head looked remarkably anthropomorphic-the large, round eyes, the mouth closed into a clean line, mandibles retracted.
Derek pressed the larva against his chest. Spreading his large hand awkwardly on the back of its thorax, he walked with it, its bottom abdomen segments tapping against his stomach. Then he cupped its head, rocking his hand gently so the antennae swayed.
Unable to contain himself any longer, Diego ducked through the flap, clearing his throat angrily. Derek quickly held the larva out away from him. He placed the larva brusquely back in the cruise box, handling it now with an objective expediency.
The larva rustled in the darkness, then squirmed up the side of the cruise box, its thin antennae bobbing ever so slightly as its head broke into the light.
Derek watched it for a moment, as if resisting the impulse to rest his hand on its head. He snapped Diego a quick nod on his way out of the tent.
Chapter 38
Something about the humidity made Szabla come alive. The air was a blend of moisture and warmth. Sex, heat, and danger were indistinguishable from one another in the tropics, separate movements of the same dance. The rain started, slow, warm, and building, pasting a few wayward strands of hair to her cheeks.
Alone, she sat on the log, keeping an eye on the night. The larva and Derek's violent behavior had thrown her for a loop; she'd found it diffi-cult to settle into sleep. She wasn't the only one with insomnia-Tucker lay on his sleeping pad behind the tents, charting the constellations in a spare log book, and she could see Derek's silhouette shifting around in his and Cameron's tent.
Having sat on her shoulder in the hot sun all day, the solar cell was fully charged. Szabla removed it from her shoulder, the Velcro giving with a tear, and snapped it into a clunky, olive-drab elbow light. They'd brought only non-tactical lights; despite its interchangeable lenses, the unit gave a broad, bright signature.
Tilting back her head, she let the rain fall into her mouth. Her cam-mies and tank top were molded against the curves of her body. She was as wet as if she'd just stepped out of a shower, the rainwater pouring over her face, drenching her hair, even pooling in her jungle boots.
She flipped the light and caught it by the end. The sound of the rain was soothing and ineffably exciting. She was oddly aware of each muscle in her body-the ripples of her stomach, the solid curve of her thighs, the divot that split her deltoid when she raised her arm. She jerked her neck to one side, and it cracked all the way from the base. The wet tank top clung to her chest, forced out by the points of her nipples.
She thought about Savage's body, hard and untan. The thin patch of hair across his chest. She'd caught him looking at her a few times, staring at her mouth until she could almost feel it growing hot under his eyes. She bent her head to the top of her biceps, licking the beads of water.
They were salty with the ocean mist, even up here in the highlands. She lowered a hand, pressing it down the slope of her stomach.
She rose suddenly and walked to Savage's tent, ducking inside. He was sleeping peacefully on his Therm-a- Rest. Szabla pulled her shirt over her head, quietly removed her boots, and then stepped out of her pants, one leg, then the other.
Savage's eyes remained closed, his breathing constant.
She crossed naked to the sleeping pad and sealed his mouth, pressing her palm firmly over it. He struggled awake, one hand shooting to his knife like a reflex, but she was already working at his pants and had him out. He was hard from sleep.
His eyes widened as he recognized her, and he froze, blade pushing against the soft flesh of her bruised neck. She sat on him with a shudder, arching her back. She saw herself from far away, her knees pushing into the pad on either side of him, her hand clamped down over his lips, her teeth biting the inside of her cheek. She worked on him quickly, vio-lently, the blade against her throat, her hand pressed over his mouth the entire time.
He was pinned down so tight he couldn't even react to her move-ments, but she felt him building as she
