Enemy Unbound by Kevin Partner

Author:Kevin Partner [Partner, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

NATE SAT AND WATCHED as Sophie ate. He could probably have blagged a second meal out of the kitchen, but he had a little more self-respect than that. And Karl was there, anyway.

Frankly, Sophie’s MRE chicken curry looked pretty unappetizing, though his nose told him otherwise. Opposite her, Victor picked at his lentil casserole as if his mind was elsewhere, while Nate and Karl tried to ignore their own lingering hunger.

“Did you get your report written in time?” Nate asked as Sophie put down her fork.

She looked quizzically at him. “Of course.”

He loved and loathed that about her. She could be sarcastic without trying, or even being aware of it. “And did you learn anything useful from dissecting the one I shot?”

“We did,” Viktor said, even though Nate had asked the question of Sophie. “Though our tools are rudimentary. We need a DNA sequencer to get complete answers.”

“What would that tell you?”

This time, Sophie answered, Viktor having returned to his food as if Nate was too stupid to be bothered with. “We want to know where they come from so we can, maybe, predict what we’re going to face next.”

“That’s my girl, assume the worst,” Nate said, with a grim smile.

She shrugged. “It’s only logical. So far, we’ve seen three species, two animal forms and one plant or fungus. There are some similarities between what we call the squid and the scorpions, and a DNA analyzer would allow us to work out how closely they’re related, and what might come next. And how to kill them.”

“I’ll tell you what I don’t get,” Karl said.

Nate groaned inwardly. Good grief, he knew he was no intellectual giant, but compared to Karl, he was a genius. The last thing they needed was to get bogged down with his idiotic ramblings.

“What is it?” Sophie said, reaching out and touching his hand.

“Where are they coming from?”

Oh good grief. Wasn’t he listening?

“I mean, I heard talk about another dimension and all,” he added, cocking an eye in Nate’s direction, “but they gotta come from somewhere in this world, like? See what I mean? One minute the squid weren’t here, then they were. Right?”

Sophie nodded. “You mean where is the interface between their dimension and ours?”

“Yeah.”

Liar. You’re just trying to keep up, and look good to your girlfriend. Or whatever she is to you.

“That’s what we’ve been working on,” Sophie said. “Doctor Koenig’s been correlating all sightings of the scorpions.”

Viktor nodded and grunted in case Sophie stole his thunder. “I have map on my desk, but there is no obvious pattern.”

He led them back to the basement of the Capitol and into his office. Nate found himself wondering whether Colonel Hayes had been in here. He imagined she’d have a fit if she saw the mess in here. Books, papers, clothes and other junk littered every surface and the floor. But on the desk, a map had been laid out.

It was a tourist map of downtown Denver. Superimposed on top of the garish illustrations were crosses that marked the positions where scorpion attacks had been recorded.

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