Race cringed.
Cochrane leered at the petite German woman with a bully's confidence. It was as if his gun—dripping with its laser sights, M-203 grenade, grappling hook launcher and barrel-mounted flashlight—and his combat uniform somehow made him Mr Irresistible.
Race hated him for it.
'Satellite imagery is coming through,' Van Lewen said.
At that moment, another computer screen on the wall of the ATV glowed to life.
The image on it was in grainy black-and-white, and at first Race couldn't tell what it was.
The extreme left-hand side of the screen was completely black. To the right of that was a section of blurry grey hash, and next to that was something that looked like an inverted horseshoe in the centre of which was a series of small square dots and one large round dot near the apex of the horseshoe.
At the base of the screen was a wide band of darker grey. Next to the wide band of dark grey was a small dark box-like object. Two tiny white blobs moved away from the small box toward the large round dot at the apex of the horseshoe.
And then it hit him.
He was looking at the village of Vilcafor.
The horseshoe shape was the gigantic moat that encircled the village, the dots inside it the huts and the citadel. The large section of blackness on the left was the rocky plateau that housed the temple. The blurry grey hash—the rainforest between the plateau and the village. And the band of dark grey at the base of the screen—the river itself.
The small dark box beside the river, Race realized, was the ATV in which he now sat, parked alongside the western log-bridge.
He looked at the two blobs on the screen hurrying from the ATV to the citadel. Then he spun around and looked out through the door and saw Lauren and Krauss trotting quickly through the fog toward the citadel.
Oh—my—God, he thought.
This was a picture of Vilcafor taken from a satellite hundreds of miles above the earth—in realtime.
This was now.
Nash spoke into his throat mike. 'Lauren, we're all set over here. You in yet?'
'Just a second,' Lauren's voice replied over their intercoms.
On the viewscreen, Race saw the two white blobs that were Lauren and Krauss disappear inside the round dot that was the citadel.
“All right. We're in,” Lauren said. “You sending Will over?'
'Right now,' Nash said. 'Professor Race, you better get on over to the citadel, before it gets fully dark.'
'Right,' Race said, moving for the door.
'Hold it a second…” Van Lewen said suddenly.
Everybody froze.
'What is it?' Nash said.
'We got company.'
Van Lewen nodded at the viewscreen.
Race turned, and on the harsh black-and-white viewscreen saw the dark blob that was the mountain-plateau and the horseshoe-shaped village.
And then he saw them.
They were in the section of blurry grey hash to the left of the horseshoe—the rainforest in between the village and the plateau.
About sixteen of them.
All coming from the direction of the plateau.
Sixteen ominous white blurs each one possessed of a long slinking tail—stealthily making their way through the foliage toward the village.
The rapas.
The thick steel door of the ATV slid along its rail and slammed with a loud thud.
'They're early,' Nash said.
“It's the storm clouds,” Krauss's voice said over the speakers. 'Nocturnal animals don't use clocks, Doctor Nash, only the level of ambient light around them. If it's dark enough, they emerge from their hiding holes—“
'Whatever,' Nash said. 'So long as they're out, that's all that matters.' He turned to face Race. 'Sorry, Professor. Looks like you're staying with us. Lauren, seal up the citadel.”
Over at the citadel, Lauren and Copeland grabbed hold of the fortress's big six-foot doorstone and rolled it into a groove that had been cut into the floor of the structure's doorway.
The doorstone was roughly rectangular in shape, but with a curving rounded base that allowed it to be rocked easily in and out of its groove inside the doorframe. The fact that it was set in a groove on the inside of the
