Her hair was swept up around her face and was laced with silver bubbles. The sunlight filtered down with bright yellow light, looking peaceful and lovely.

  At the bottom of the river she lingered. She knew she was quietly drowning herself, but was too afraid to rise up and catch a breath.

  Her vision dimmed after a minute passed. She wasn’t an Olympic swimmer, and she hadn’t had time to suck in as much air as she might have. Her state of near panic hadn’t helped either, she knew her adrenaline had caused her body to burn more oxygen than it otherwise would have if she’d been relaxed.

  Her mind raced, knowing she didn’t have much time left. She would suck in a lungful of water soon, and that alone might be fatal. She had to decide if dying down here in the peaceful river was better than facing what might be hovering above. Perhaps it was, she had to admit, but she couldn’t let herself die. Not yet.

  “No,” she mumbled, her voice muffled in the water. A few bubbles floated away, which was a good thing, because it gave her a clear direction to go. She’d been losing her mind slowly down here, and now was the time to follow the bubbles to the world of life and sunlight again.

  Her head came up, running with water. Her lungs sucked in air with desperate gulps. Some river water got in with it, and she choked and coughed. When she had control over herself, she forced her breathing to slow, and looked around.

  Her hair was black and pasted across her face, but she didn’t move to push it away, not wanting to give the thing tracking her any more data than it already had. With one terrified eye she looked slowly around herself.

  Everything seemed peaceful. There were no aliens, no nightmarish machines, no Cuban troops. Just green reeds, moss-choked trees and blue sky.

  She ducked down again into the water, just to be sure. She counted to one hundred, allowing herself to float farther downstream. When she came up again and saw nothing, she carefully paddled to the bank and dragged herself into the cool mud. She felt bugs on her hands and arms, but didn’t bother to brush them off. Feeling bugs was good, she told herself. They indicated she was still alive, and that she’d escaped the flying machine.

  She sat in the reeds for a minute or so, recovering. When her breathing had slowed to normal and she could think again, she crouched in cover and listened carefully. Nothing came for her. The immediate danger seemed to have passed. The alien had apparently tired of trying to catch her with a damaged arm and had vanished.

  Malena took stock of her situation. She was alone now, and she’d lost her pistols somewhere in the river. She still had her survival pack, however, and her headset had stayed on her head as if glued there.

  She closed her eyes and used the headset to search for the thing that had caught them. She felt a contact nearby. It was still close, but moving northward, back toward the force dome. She couldn’t be sure it was the same one, of course, but she figured the odds were pretty good. She turned her head around slowly, feeling for contacts in every direction. She found that if she did it that way, by thinking about the region directly in front of her as she turned, she could get a clearer picture of where the contacts were.

  She could sense a number of them to the south—toward the coast. She waited until they moved, and then she was sure. There were aliens roaming around south of her, between her position and the force dome. They weren’t far.

  Malena wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the river. She knew she had options. The easiest would be to float down the river to the shore. Eventually, someone would come pick her up. XCU had sent three teams—why not a fourth? She could call for pickup on her headset, if nothing else.

  But there was Tanner. He hadn’t looked too good hanging there in the machine’s arms. If she had to guess, she’d say he was alive, if only because of his suit. It would have stiffened up and kept the tentacle from crushing him. But she couldn’t be sure of that. It was only a hunch.

  She knew she was pretty much surrounded. There was no easy retreat. More importantly, she couldn’t leave Tanner to have his brains sucked out for some bizarre experiment. She got to her feet and walked up the river. She was heading north, back into the swamp.

  As she picked her way through the thickets, she thought to herself she must be crazy. But she didn’t want to leave Tanner to a horrible fate. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been alive and flailing. She was sure he wouldn’t have abandoned her out here if she’d been caught instead.

  When she reached the spot where the monster had taken Tanner, she found his accelerator lying in the mud. She took it, brushed it off and looked it over. It was still in operating condition. According to Tanner, it could use sand for ammo if that was all that was available.

  She carried the big weapon cradled against her chest and marched along the river banks, feeling resolved. She’d seen this weapon damage the flying machine. Maybe by aiming carefully at the heart of it, maybe by putting a burst right through one of those strange stick-like eyes, she could kill the operator she felt sure was hiding inside.

  The thought put a grim smile on her face.

  -13-

  Malena proceeded cautiously, following the river northward. She found that walking alongside a waterway was particularly difficult in a swamp. The banks were overgrown with dense vegetation. Rather than traveling along the stream’s edge, she chose a drier path some distance away. Now and then, she caught a glimpse of the dark water. The day was oppressively hot and she hoped it would rain later to cool things off.

  When she took breaks to rest, she scanned the area with her headset, trying to make sure she didn’t walk into an alien. She knew it might happen anyway, as they were able to move so much faster than she could. She was crawling like a bug while they glided quietly over the densely overgrown treetops.

  During her first break, she tried to figure out how to operate Tanner’s weapon. There wasn’t much to learn. She found a sliding panel on the back of the unit, which when pulled caused a dark opening to appear. Inside, pellets rattled. A few rolled out when she opened the magazine. She scrambled in the dirt, picking them up and putting them into her pockets. Tanner had said the gun would fire anything, but she didn’t want to test that theory just yet.

  Besides the loading aperture, there was the cocking bolt and trigger. That was it. No real sights existed to aim with. The gun was too bulky for that. She figured she would have to lift it with both hands and direct her fire as if shooting a rifle. But without a butt to put against her shoulder, it would not be as accurate.

  Still, she wasn’t that worried after having witnessed the firepower this thing was capable of. Her targets would be quite large and any hit would do serious damage. It was like having a cannon in your hands.

  On her second break, she chewed some rations and decided to report in to XCU. It was late afternoon, but the way she understood the system, Ostlund should still be on watch until Burke came in at around six.

  “Ostlund, this is Marin. Do you read me, Ostlund?”

  “Agent Marin? Can you hear me?”

  “Yes. Go ahead.”

  “Why have you been ignoring my requests for communication?”

  Surprised, Malena reached up and tapped her headset. “I didn’t know you were trying to reach me. Maybe this thing only works when I call you.”

  There was no response for several seconds. She thought maybe they’d lost contact.

  “Ostlund?”

  “You will address me as Chief Ostlund.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes sir.”

  “Apparently, your lack of com skills is showing. You are able to converse only when you initiate the conversation. From now on, I will require that you report in on an hourly basis.”

  “Excuse me, sir, but that might not be possible. I’m in the field, and I’m surrounded by hostiles. Even though I’m whispering now, they might hear me.”

  “You’re speaking out loud?” he asked in exasperation. “That is totally unnecessary, Marin. You’re forbidden to—”

  Can you hear this, you pompous ass? She said in her thoughts, squinching her eyes together.

  Apparently, Ostlund couldn’t hear her, because he kept prattling on: “—using a verbal crutch is a first-year rookie habit. It’s dangerous, and—”

  “Excuse me, Chief,” she interrupted. “Over the last few seconds, I’ve been trying to send you my thoughts directly, but you clearly aren’t getting them.”

  Malena thought she heard a grumbling, indistinct set of syllables that didn’t add up to any real words. The emotion, however, came through loud and clear: frustration.

  “Look Chief, I’m not properly trained. I’m not really a qualified field agent, but I’m doing the best I can. You guys recruited me yesterday out of a strip mall and then promptly dropped me into a swamp in Cuba.”

  “Are you raising your voice?”

  She realized with a guilty start that she had been.

  “Don’t do that,” he said, trying to sound soothing now. “I’m sorry, I apologize. The Director was very displeased to learn three teams had been virtually wiped out within a few days. Now, please report the details of your contact with the enemy.”

  She did so in a series of whispers. She found that the volume of her speech didn’t matter, he still seemed to be able to hear her. That at least was a relief. She explained her situation, what had happened to Tanner, and gave him her approximate position.

  “Now,” she said as she scanned the area and began moving again. “I want to know something from you.”

  “What is it?”

  “How can these visitors move back and forth through their force dome? I mean, if it prevents movement through it, why are they able to do it freely?”

  “We’ve witnessed this behavior before on a single occasion. Hot sites are rare, usually the visitors are all killed or long-dead before we get there. But we have theories. Possibly, they turn off the dome for a second in order to pass through. Or, their conveyances allow them to pass through it. Those are our best two guesses.”

  “There must be another way,” she said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have sent the third team. They must be able to bypass the dome.”

  Ostlund hesitated. “You’re asking for classified information. Why do you want to know about the force dome?”

  “I’m the only active asset you have in the area, and I plan to enter the dome.”

  “I’m stunned by your bravery. While I can’t ask this of you—I will accept your sacrifice on behalf of everyone at XCU. This will go down on your service record, Agent Marin.”

  She frowned. He made it sound as if she were already dead. Perhaps he figured going up against the visitors alone was suicide. She shook herself and kept moving. She found that she was able to walk and whisper over the headset at the same time now. It was rather like walking with a cellphone pressed to your ear. She felt as if she were in two places at once.

  “I want more than that,” she said. “If I get in there and retrieve Tanner, I want a promotion to full Agent.”

  “Done. But I request one more thing: bring back an artifact. Anything will do, but it must be something we don’t have yet. You’ve seen most of our equipment. Bring back something I haven’t seen before and you’ll be promoted instantly.”

  His tone almost sounded greedy to her. She corrected herself: she could feel the greed within him. Talking mind-to-mind wasn’t like a normal conversation. You didn’t get the cues two conversationalists were so familiar with. There were no facial expressions, tiny gestures or voice tones. Instead, she could feel the other’s emotions directly. It was an odd sensation, but useful.

  Ostlund really wanted some new alien tech—anything he’d never seen before. She imagined that would save his butt the next time the Director came calling. If he could turn around and show he had retrieved something new, maybe he could cover himself with the brass and keep his job.

  “You still haven’t answered my question, Ostlund. How did the third team plan to get through the barrier?”

  “You’re going the wrong way if that’s your goal. You must get to the Dutch team and salvage their equipment to get through the barrier.”

  “The third team is Dutch?”

  “There are many nations interested in X. Do you understand your instructions?”

  Malena stopped walking, turned around and looked westward, toward the tip of the Zapata Peninsula.

  “The coast is overrun with contacts. There will be more Cubans down there, too.”

  “Yes, isolated groups of humans attract them,” he said. “The visitors will be there in force, harvesting. If you make it to the Dutch team, contact me. They have equipment to penetrate the barrier. I’ll brief you despite your lack of proper clearances.”

  “Glad to know you’re thinking of me, sir,” she said, and disconnected.

  Somehow, the man had never filled her with confidence. He always seemed to have his own agenda, even more so than Chief Burke. Overall, she was beginning to prefer that control freak to this strange man.

  Almost groaning aloud, she turned west and began marching through the swamp in a new direction. As she recalled, this way had a lot more gators to contend with.

  She had to wonder about the international nature of the teams involved in this hunt for new tech. The Cubans, the Americans and the Dutch? Who else was down here, trying to steal whatever they could?

  Tanner had mentioned the Gamma Team was not XCU, but allied. Now that made sense to her. It was a Dutch team, led by a man called Haak. She’d thought it was an odd name. She supposed it must be natural-sounding in Amsterdam.

  How friendly would the Dutch be, she wondered, if some of them had survived? She’d gathered that they were allied with XCU, but shady international spy rings didn’t always play by the same rules that NATO alliance troops did.

  Over the next several hours, Malena moved toward the coast as quietly and quickly as she could. The land began to show signs of habitation, mostly in the form of dirt roads and occasional huts. She stayed in overgrown areas and managed to avoid the few people she passed near.

  As she walked, she began to doubt her plan. She was supposed to find a decimated team, gather unfamiliar equipment, then walk it back to the enemy stronghold. All this to save a guy who was probably dead by now anyway. She was having serious thoughts about quitting when she finally found the remains of Gamma Team.

  After sneaking around the site for several minutes in the darkness, she felt it was safe to go in for a closer look. She snapped her light on, cupping it in her hand. The scene wasn’t pretty. There were bodies everywhere, she counted six of them. At least they weren’t arranged in a circle with their skulls opened up. Instead, they lay where they fell. There were signs of bloodshed on the other side as well. Shell casings and scorch marks were everywhere.

  The Cubans had done it, she was certain. This didn’t look like the work of a visitor. The team had been encircled, and an explosion took them out. Might have been a mortar hit or a lucky grenade. Whatever it was, they’d been killed as a group.

  The bodies had been stripped of their specialized equipment. They had guns and packs, but no headsets or accelerators. Muttering curses, she left the area and headed back into a thicket. She planned to call Ostlund with the bad news.

  A voice out of the night stopped her. “Who are you?”

  She froze, looking around. It had been a male voice, but she didn’t recognize the accent. She used her headset and sensed a contact. She crouched and aimed her accelerator in the direction of the voice.

  “Hold on!” he said. “Don’t fire on a friend! We’re both lost out here, no? What are you, XCU?”

  She could hear his accent clearly now. It sounded very European, as if a German was imitating an Englishman. She kept her weapon aimed into the darkness in his direction. She gathered that he must be able to see her somehow. Maybe he could sense her the way she was able to sense him. It was odd, knowing you were aiming a gun at someone you could not see.

  “XCU, yeah,” she said quietly. “Stop yelling.”

  “We’re alone out here for now. We can talk.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Haak—Gamma Team leader. You’ve heard of me, yes?”

  Malena lowered her weapon. “I’m here to find you. I’m psi-agent Marin. Bravo Team.”

  “Where’s the rest of your squad, Agent Marin?”

  “Mostly dead. One captured.”

  She filled him in on current events while she crept closer to him. When they were within a half-dozen feet he turned on a light for a few seconds, shielding it with his cupped hand. He ran it over her face quickly, then clicked it off again.

  “My, you’re a pretty one!” he chuckled in the darkness. “Glad you made it. I find it excellent to meet you.”

  She took his hand and shook it warily. “Are you the only one left from Gamma Team?” she asked.

  “Yes. We were wiped out. A true shame. I liked these people.”

  She thought about asking him if they had smart-armor as she did, but held back the question. For all she knew, the clothing she wore was a state secret. During the briefing, she was told not to reveal anything to anyone. Survival sometimes dictated exchanges of information, but she decided Haak didn’t need to know about her equipment. She kept quiet about it.

  “You need something special, right? Something to penetrate a force wall? We have that, my people do. We don’t have everything you have. Like that headset—we don’t have any of those.”

  Malena frowned, not quite sure what Haak was suggesting. She thought he might be hinting at a trade, but she had no orders in that regard. She didn’t say anything.

  “I can see in the dark, you know,” he said. “Not perfectly, but better than a sniper scope that turns the world green.”

  “Good,” she said. “You can lead the way to the dome. We can keep moving at night.”

  Haak was quiet for a moment. “Don’t you want to know why everyone else in my team died, and I’m still here, talking to you?”