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Jonas returned to the interrogation room, stopping right outside the door. When he had left Cain, Jonas’ anger had taken him to a very dark place, a place where he could kill a man without a second thought or any remorse, and it was a place where he had not ventured in over forty years. He had never expected to ever feel that way again.
People like Cain didn’t deserve to live, and for some reason, Jonas had discovered that the only justice those types of criminal minds understood came from someone else getting down on their level and inflicting pain like they’d never felt before.
A prison term wouldn’t teach Cain anything. The battering that Boony had instructed Jessica to inflict upon Cain did little more than bruise his sociopathic ego. And yet, Cain remained smug, unfaltering, and without any remorse. Regardless of the punishment, Cain would never have the compunction to admit his faults. Those like Cain never repented. Sadists thrived on reaping pleasure through others’ misery, whether mentally or physically. They didn’t view the damage as occurring to another human being. They simply never cared.
Jonas entertained the idea of letting Cain wait for several hours before he returned to finish the interrogation. Jonas had seen the fear in Cain’s eyes, the slight crack in the guard’s exterior. The longer Jonas left him to wait in solitude, the greater Cain’s uncertainty grew. Regardless of an apology or a plea for leniency, Cain understood his impending punishment would be severe. That alone was enough to keep him worried.
Jonas’ rage had softened from his relief of seeing Derek alive. Shedding tears of joy had mellowed him and crying about anything was never a part of his nature. He almost wanted to berate himself for letting his emotions bring him to tears, but he realized that he shouldn’t feel any shame because Derek knew without any speck of doubt how much Jonas loved him.
Jonas stared at the closed interrogation room door. Delving back to his previously heated anger wasn’t easy, and he’d rather avoid it. But he couldn’t be rational and calm with someone as unrealistic as Cain. Anything less than fiery indignation allowed Cain to entertain the idea that Jonas had merely tried to frighten him with an all bark and no bite routine. So Jonas needed to appear more seething when he entered than when he had left, vanquishing any doubts Cain might have about how ironfisted Jonas really was.
He cleared his throat and opened the door.
Cain was leaned partway over the table with his head tilted down. His body swayed slightly, like he was nearing sleep. When Jonas slammed the door shut, Cain jerked and glanced up.
The moment they made eye contact, anger surged afresh inside of Jonas. It wasn’t an act or a bluff. He recalled what Cain had intended to do to Jessica, like he had done on many occasions before.
Jonas pulled the knife from its sheath in one quick flash. The blade gleamed as he approached the table, looking down at Cain. “Now, where were we?”
***
Dr. Lee stood at a bed inside the infirmary and watched the nurses attending to Roy, whose paralysis had not lessened. “What happened to him?”
The nurse hooking up the I.V. shook her head. She pointed to the guard.
The guard told him about the insects in Mine Shaft 15. Dr. Lee listened with great intent and genuine concern. Fear furrowed his brow.
“Thousands of them? There are thousands of them? We need some specimens to get some of the toxin and analyze it.”
“Clark has taken them to the lab.”
“So they have some of them?”
The guard nodded. “And a few dead ones, too.”
“Good,” Lee said. “That’s good. Maybe they can get it analyzed soon. We need a strong antitoxin, in case this happens again.”
***
Clark stared at the three strange insect-like creatures. Encased inside the thick glass, the creatures had never made any attempt to escape. They were quite intelligent beings, for what most people considered only insects.
When he had first stepped into the lab and set the glass box on the table, the creatures tapped the glass, trying to get his attention. Two of them joined their center legs together and formed the letter, H. The other one formed the letter, I.
“Hi?” Clark asked. He shook his head. That was a far stretch of the imagination, even for him. It was nothing less than a bizarre coincidence.
Anna, a chemist, approached the table where he stood, looking at the insects. She was five foot four, slender, and her black hair was pulled into a tight bun.
The three insects slightly tipped their heads in a small bow and repeated forming the letters.
“What the hell are those?” Anna asked, leaning closer to see them.
“I found them in Mine Shaft 15.”
“Cre-e-epy looking,” she replied.
The trio formed the word, HI, again.
“What is that they’re doing?” she asked.
“Looks like they’re trying to spell.”
Anna laughed and shook her head. “Ah, now, don’t be ridiculous. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Look for yourself. See? Those two have formed the letter H with their legs, and the other one has made a capital I.”
“Coincidence. Nothing more.” She chuckled.
“They’ve done it three times consecutively,” Clark said. “The first time, sure, even I considered it an accident or a coincidence, but this seems deliberate on their part. They want to communicate with us.”
Anna frowned at him. “What kind of scientist are you?”
“A geophysicist.”
“You study rocks and rock formations, right?”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that.”
“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You ever check the rocks inside your head?”
The statement perplexed him. He didn’t see any reason for her to become verbally abusive and insulting toward him. After all, geology was a science, too. He often wondered why scientists outside his field viewed geoscience beneath theirs. But a geophysicist wasn’t someone who simply collected rocks. They studied so much more.
After her insulting remark, the three creatures tapped against the glass wall sharply, catching her attention. When she looked at them, they formed an F and a U. Her face reddened, and Clark burst into laughter.
“I suppose that’s a coincidence, too?” he asked.
“Go play with your little space bugs, boy, and leave me the hell alone.”
“You know what’s really weird about what they did?”
“No, what?” she asked, already giving him a heavy brow.
Clark smiled. “They can read minds.”
“Oh, really?” Anna rested her hands on her hips. “You give them that much credit?”
“Yep. Because after your rude comment that was exactly what I was thinking right before they made those letters.”
Anna grunted and turned to walk away, mumbling under her breath.
“You don’t have to hate me because of my profession.”
“That’s not why I hate you.”
“Look,” Clark said in a softer tone. “There are several other dead creatures like these. We brought back their corpses. Their toxin is quite potent. They have killed several of the miners. One of the guards who was working with me died as well. It would be quite helpful if you could extract some of the toxin to find out the derivatives so we can try to formulate a proper antitoxin. Whether or not you like me or my degree, you need to understand these insects outnumber us by perhaps tens of thousands.”
Her eyes widened. “Now, you’re being serious?”
Clark nodded. “Deadly serious. Jonas has men working to block the hole where these bugs entered into the corridor. But if that attempt fails, you and I might as well be a victim like Shad. Hell, we all could die.”
“Where are those dead bugs?”
He pointed toward the cardboard box the guard had left on a different table.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry for my rudeness.”
“As a geophysicist, I’ve heard far worse. Believe me. We tend to be the butt of other scientists’ jokes.” He shrugged. “Why? I’ll never know.”
Anna smiled. “I promise from now on I’ll try really hard not be condescending. Your field does have benefits for us, here and on earth. I suppose finding these creatures will help your career, too?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible.”
“Now, you’re being overly modest. If I discovered a new element on Mars that we don’t have back on Earth, I’d be leaping and shouting about it. I’d be getting my groove on.”
Clark chuckled, watching her do a few moves. “I imagine so. That’s what makes being on Mars so exciting.”
She smiled. “It has its moments, but once my term here is over, this lady is heading back to Earth.”
“You don’t like Mars?”
“Honey, we left so much behind. Good food, theaters, concerts. We have nothing here that compares. Red dust if you look out the bay windows. Hell, the brochure they gave me failed to include the misery part of being here into the proper perspective. And the cold—” she hugged herself and shivered. “I’m tempted to go back and snuggle any one of my old ex-boyfriends.”
“It’s that bad?”
“When you consider I came here to get away from those deadbeats, and now they are starting to look attractive? Yeah, baby, it’s that bad.”
Clark turned his attention to the three insects. The first creature returned to standing on all six legs but kept its attention strictly on him. Although it did seem strange to him, he believed they were actually trying to communicate. He went to a counter and rummaged through several drawers until he found a notepad and a pen. Then he unhooked a keyboard from a foldable computer tablet.
He took the items to the tabletop where the insects were caged. He held the keyboard upright with the space bar against the tabletop so the insects could see the letters. The trio of insects studied the letters with keen interest, their little heads tilting back and forth. Finally, the one that seemed to be the leader of the group tapped its right foot against a letter. Clark wrote it down. The insect continued picking letter after letter and the space bar after each completed word, and to Clark’s amazement, it did actually spell out a message:
Beware. Only us three, your allies be.