“You want us to go down there?” asked Malena incredulously.

  “You can take Dekker with you,” he said. “Carl and I will stay here to guard the X. Now get going, it’s only a matter of time until our hosts return with reinforcements.”

  -29-

  Dekker went first, followed by Malena then Tanner. She climbed fearfully down the shaft, more nervous than ever now that she’d encountered one of the aliens personally. Watching them from above, Carl and Haak spoke amongst themselves in their native language. It seemed that everyone from the Netherlands spoke several languages fluently. She wondered what they were talking about up there. She suspected they were speculating how likely she was to die during this task, or their plan to ditch her at some critical point in the process.

  Dekker reached the crashed crab machine first and reached up to her, rubbing his fingers together. She handed him the four X batteries. He didn’t even look at her while he climbed over the wrecked machine, looking for the slots Haak had described.

  Malena looked at the machine critically. At first, she couldn’t even understand why it hadn’t fallen all the way to the bottom of the shaft. Then she saw it had clamped onto a ring on the wall and hung itself there. The single claw was the only thing keeping it from falling to the bottom of the ship, however far down that was.

  “Dekker,” she said, “I don’t know about this. Maybe we should secure the entire thing with lines before we try to activate it.”

  He glanced at her, but then made a dismissive gesture with one gloved hand.

  The first slot he opened ejected a marble-sized battery. He caught it neatly and stuffed a new one into it.

  The machine’s reaction was alarming. It twitched and revved, making whining sounds. For a moment, Malena thought he’d awakened it somehow. After a brief moment it stopped moving. But even after it quieted, she could hear and feel a thrumming sensation inside it somewhere.

  Dekker moved over the creature to another limb and repeated the process. This time, nothing happened.

  The third time was the charm, however. Dekker opened the third slot and nothing fell out. He reached a tentative finger inside—but still found nothing. He took out one of the marble-like spheres and put it into the empty slot. The reaction was dramatic.

  The machine heaved up under them. As Malena had feared, it released its grip on the wall. But instead of falling, it revved and began rising up the shaft.

  Dekker laughed and stood triumphantly on the back of the thing. He rode it up toward the others, smiling down as he passed Malena and Tanner.

  “Ha!” he shouted. “You were both useless.”

  Malena saw something then—a shadow of movement behind the man. The shadow gleamed suddenly as one of its geometric surfaces caught the light.

  “Dekker, behind you!” she shouted.

  The commando moved quickly. He was so fast, she found it shocking. He had his rifle unslung and he managed to turn halfway around before the claw gripped him, pinning his arms to his sides. Another limb rose up over his head. This appendage was thinner and the tip of it came to a pencil-like point.

  Malena aimed and fired, but after firing three rounds, she only managed to clip it. Sparks showered Dekker, who was clamped into place. His eyes bulged as the tip lowered. The end was a tube of steel, and it punched into his skull effortlessly.

  Tanner had clambered into a better position and now leapt onto the back of the rising machine. He struggled with the claw that held Dekker pinned. Horrible sounds were coming from the Dutchman’s injury and from his mouth. He gurgled and rasped, then had a seizure. Malena joined him on the back of the crab, but could do nothing.

  “He’s gone,” she said, “we have to jump off or it will do the same to us.”

  Tanner glanced upward. Soon they would be in reach of Carl and Haak.

  “Let’s take that last battery out and see what happens,” he said, crawling over the machine’s back.

  While the contents of Dekker’s skull were being drained, they found the slot, opened it and ripped out the battery. The machine shuddered and began drifting. Dekker was released. He toppled and fell into the dark shaft below them.

  “This isn’t quite what I expected,” Haak said from nearby. He’d been watching the entire affair.

  Before the machine could sink to the bottom again, Haak and Carl looped wire lines around its claws and when it went limp they crawled over it, inspecting the monster.

  “I see what happened,” Haak said a last. “Dekker was a fool. I’ve said it a dozen times, and nothing’s changed. See here? He didn’t follow my instructions. He put a battery into an empty slot and activated the higher functions. Give a fool the wrong task and he’ll cost you a fortune.”

  Malena left the blood-splattered machine’s back and stood with the others in the passageway. She was badly shaken by the experience. It was one thing to find bodies, but quite another to watch a man being killed horribly while she was helpless to aid him.

  “Let’s see you do it then,” she said when she was again capable of calm speech.

  Haak’s brow furrowed with displeasure. “Never mind. The machine isn’t going to work out.”

  She didn’t answer, but she thought she understood the situation. Haak had miscalculated, not Dekker. Either that, or he didn’t like the idea of taking chances with his own skin.

  “So much wasted time,” Haak complained.

  “Sir?” Carl said suddenly. There was a note of alarm in his voice, and everyone looked at him immediately.

  Carl unslung his weapon as he spoke. Without hesitation the rest of them did the same. There was an uncertain tone in Carl’s voice that everyone knew. His fear was barely masked.

  “What is it, man?” asked Haak. Like the rest of them, he was looking in every direction at once. At the intersection of passages, a threat could come at them from almost any direction.

  “I’m getting movement on my screen. Lots of movement.”

  “Machines? Visitors?”’

  Carl shook his head as if uncertain. He was staring down into a device Malena had never noticed before. By its shape and structure, she guessed it was an alien artifact. She hadn’t see them all yet, she supposed. The device was spherical, resembling a smooth steel coconut with a strap at the bottom. It had a slit in the side of it, and out of this slit shined a reddish light. Carl stared into the device as if fascinated.

  “They’re too small and slow to be machines,” he said. “It’s either another salvage team or the visitors themselves. But I didn’t think there were so many of them left.”

  Tanner crouched on one knee, aiming his gun down the passageway. “We’re assuming these contacts are hostile?”

  “Everything is hostile in this ship,” Carl said.

  “We should move back into the vault where you found us,” Malena said. “They won’t blast their way into that for fear of hitting their own kind.”

  Haak came to Carl’s side and stared into the machine he was cradling. “This is very upsetting. I can’t get a fix on them. They seem to be all around, but I can’t see anything approaching.”

  Malena closed her eyes and activated her headset. She sensed a sickening number of sources of X nearby. The bag of smaller batteries in Haak’s possession was bad, but the sphere was overwhelming. She tried to breathe and focus. She reached out farther and made out fainter contacts nearby. To her mind, they had an artificial smell that reminded her of a fresh coat of varnish on an old piece of furniture.

  “Carl’s right, they’re right here.”

  Haak swung his accelerator in an arc. He was as confused as the rest of them. “Shh,” he whispered suddenly. “Quiet everyone.”

  They fell silent for a long moment. Then they heard something—the click and slap of a dozen stealthy feet. Suddenly, Malena figured it out.

  “They’re in the walls. I mean, they’re in rooms, the chambers all around us. They’ll come out at once and hit us from every direction. We have to get into the vault, now!”

  “No!” Haak said, hissing the word. “We stand here. We can’t roll the X to safety fast enough. If we leave it here, they’ll take it again. Everyone spot a nearby hatch and aim your weapon at it. They’ll come in a rush.”

  Malena looked at him in shock. Her first thought was that he was mad. If she thought she could survive without every gun they had, she might have shot him in the head on the spot. Her next thought was to run for the vault and hide there. But she couldn’t bring herself to leave them to stand against the aliens. She was no coward.

  Besides, if it came down to the end, she didn’t want to be the last human alive in this ship.

  -30-

  Out of the corner of her eye, Malena saw a latch begin to twist. It scraped and squeaked as it revolved around. Something was opening it from the inside.

  She checked her pistol and flicked the safety on and off twice to make sure.

  “There’s one right here,” she whispered.

  “I’ve got one, too,” Carl said to her left. “On the other side of the shaft.”

  A moment later the ripping sound of automatic rifle fire made her jump. She didn’t have time to look at what Carl was shooting at. The hatch closest to her feet was flung open and a creature climbed out of it. An impossibly long arm shot out toward her. The huge hand at the end of the arm wrapped leathery fingers around her ankle.

  She felt the monster squeeze and pull her forward. The strength was impossible to resist. Knowing she was about to die, she unloaded her gun into its face and misshapen body.

  After six shots at close range, most of them into the pumpkin-size head, it stopped coming out of the hatch. All around her, the other men were shouting and firing as well.

  Haak’s accelerator was by far the most effective. He could blow a hole through an alien with every shot. It didn’t take a full magazine to stop one with his weapon.

  When the passage was clear in her direction, Malena took a moment to look the opposite way. As she did, incoming blue bolts splattered the ceiling, scoring it. Hot metal dripped down.

  “Some of them have accelerators,” Haak shouted. “Stay low crew!”

  Around them were a half-dozen bodies. None of them were human. Both sides traded fire for a moment longer before it fell silent again.

  “I think they’re retreating,” Carl said, looking into his crystal ball. “I only see the six dead contacts at our feet, and they aren’t moving.”

  The group breathed more easily and took a moment to reload. After a minute or so had passed, they investigated the scene cautiously, playing lights in every direction. They expected to see big staring eyes, but the passages were empty.

  “Okay team, back to work,” Haak said. “We’re going to have to haul the X up to the next level by hand.”

  “We can’t do that, commander,” Carl said. “Not without splitting up.”

  “Don’t trust our friends? All right, then you and Malena can go up to the top. Tanner and I will come up with a harness. We can use some fabric from—”

  Carl’s big hand moved quickly. He grabbed Haak by the collar. His lip lifted into a snarl. “You aren’t listening sir. We can’t split up our firepower with these aliens all around us. More of them are coming at us each time. They’ll get armed, organized—”

  Haak’s accelerator was in Carl’s face. Carl released his commander.

  “All the more reason to get moving quickly,” Haak said. He seemed remarkably unruffled. “They won’t attack again immediately after getting slaughtered the last time. We have to make use of every precious second we’ve bought for ourselves.”

  “We should use the time we have to run for the exit,” Malena said. “We don’t have the time to drag the X out of here. They aren’t going to stop coming at us. I think the big sphere powers their ship. The aliens need it if they’re going to escape Earth.”

  Haak glared at her. “Your speculations aren’t appreciated, junior agent.”

  “She’s right,” Tanner said. “It makes too much sense. Has anyone else sensed any other larger power sources on this ship? If this is the biggest, it has to power their drive systems. They’re willing die for it. They might even want it more than you do, Haak.”

  Haak’s teeth were showing now. He waved his accelerator. “People, this isn’t a debating society. Get moving.”

  No one else moved. Sensing that if Carl was with them, this might be the perfect moment to stop cooperating with Haak, Malena and Tanner stood firm.

  Haak pushed past Carl with a snarl. He headed for the big ball of X and gave it a push with his foot. It rolled a few feet, sparking hotly as it touched the deck. He turned back to look at them all, breathing hard.

  “Fine, Carl. You can follow me and help or you can stay here and die. But don’t bother to come home if you abandon me now. Our organization doesn’t take mutiny lightly. You’d do better flying into space with your alien friends because there won’t be a safe place on this planet to hide.”

  This last statement seemed to break through Carl’s resolve. With a grunt of frustration, he stepped forward to help.

  Malena and Tanner watched the Dutchmen go to the sphere and begin working on it. When Haak’s back was turned they exchanged glances—it had been a close thing. For a moment, they’d thought Haak was going to see reason and flee this place.

  Tanner caught Malena’s eye with a tilt of his head. He lifted his thumb and made a jabbing gesture toward the shaft behind them that led up and out of the ship. He looked at her questioningly.

  Malena knew in an instant what he was suggesting: that they should slip away while the other two were preoccupied. She thought about it seriously for a moment. It made too much sense to her now. If the aliens wanted the X so desperately, they would keep coming at whoever had it. Maybe that’s what they’d wanted all along. It seemed that when Tanner and she had disconnected the X and tried to remove it from the ship they’d inadvertently awakened the aliens.

  She looked at Tanner and gave him a nod in return. Already, in her mind, she was planning their escape. They would slip away to the intersection, step around a corner, and once they were out of sight they’d run down a passage to the left or right. With luck, they’d make it to the next shaft before Haak and Carl even noticed they were gone.

  When the Dutch finally did realize they’d been abandoned, they probably wouldn’t follow the Americans. Trying to hunt down the deserters would be very risky, not to mention pointless. Worse, they would have to leave their precious X behind to do it. Malena didn’t think Haak would willingly let his prize out of his sight again.

  Haak and Carl were trying to slip a tarp under the spheroid now to cradle it. If they could wrap it up, they could haul it up the shafts. It was a good idea, but their prize was heavy and unwieldy. It got away from them and rolled down the deck, sparking and flashing.

  Haak cursed as the two men thumped after it.

  Tanner put his hand on Malena’s elbow.

  “This is the moment,” he said.

  She nodded and the two of them stepped toward the shaft behind them, away from the others. A roaring sound stopped them in their tracks.

  They both turned around, eyes wide, lifting their weapons again. A hulking shadow stood in the passage in front of the two Dutchmen. Malena saw its ruined face. The monster was the very one she’d shot. Somehow, it had survived.

  Watching in shock, she saw it rise up to its full height, its head nearly touching the ceiling. One eye still operated and rolled in its socket. It picked up the sphere of X with one massive hand as if it were a baseball. Its other hand was missing. It was then that Malena recognized the creature. She was certain it was the first one they’d met. Perhaps it was the captain of this strange vessel.

  The creature hurled the sphere at the two Dutchmen. They stood no higher than its waist, and the X flew like a cannonball. Carl moved to dodge quickly, but not as quickly as Haak. Haak ducked behind Carl and grabbed the bigger man by the shoulders, shoving him into the path of the hurtling ball to shield himself.

  There was a flash of blue-white light as contact was made. Carl’s body jerked and slumped down. A tongue of flame licked up from his hair, which was instantly set alight. The X fell to the deck, sparking and clanging. The sound of its fall was incredibly loud in the enclosed space.

  The creature advanced toward Haak to finish the job, but all three of the surviving humans shot it down before it could cause further damage. Its body sagged down and lay smoldering and twitching at their feet.

  “Dammit,” said Haak, standing over the mess on the floor. He toed Carl and the alien carefully. Both appeared to be quite dead. “He must have received a massive shock. I felt it right through his body. My fingers are still tingling. It arced right through his chest and down to the decking. I hadn’t expected one of them to throw the damned thing. Getting hit by that sphere must have been like the touch of lightning.”

  Malena stared at the scene in mute horror. She forced herself to step forward and check Carl’s pulse. There was nothing. His flesh was hot to the touch.

  Haak put his hands on his hips and sighed. “This is going to be a lot harder with only three,” he said. “Tanner, take—”

  That was as far as he got. Tanner had finally snapped. He punched Haak in the face, knocking him to the deck where he rolled beside Carl’s steaming corpse.

  “What is wrong with you?” Tanner demanded. “Carl was a loyal agent. He gave his life for you, like all the others.”

  Malena reached for the accelerator, but Haak grabbed it first. Haak aimed his accelerator at them. In turn, they lifted their own weapons, aiming at his head. Tanner and Malena took a step back toward the intersection where moments ago they’d planned to escape.

  “Where are you two going?” Haak asked, climbing slowly to his feet. Blood welled up from his mouth. His breathing could be heard coming through broken lips. “Desertion is grounds for execution in the field, I hope you realize that.”

  “We’re leaving,” Tanner said. “You can sit here and hope another team finds you before the aliens do—but I wouldn’t bet on it.”