[MISSION DAY 2, FEBRUARY 17, 2033]
[0710 hours local time]
[Big Diomede Island, Bering Strait]
There was a face above him, human, male, perhaps in his twenties. The face was broad and flat, giving him an Asian appearance.
He spoke, but the words made no sense. It was not a language that Monster knew.
Monster shook his head. He was still shivering, but not as violently.
“I don’t understand,” he said in English.
“You speak English, demon?” The man seemed surprised.
“I am no Demon,” Monster said. “I am Angel.” How did this man know about Recon Team Demon?
The man looked at the lumps on Monster’s forehead and almost laughed. “I see no halo,” he said.
The man did not know about the Demons, or the Angels, Monster realized. He meant something else.
“I am human,” Monster said.
“That does not appear to be true either,” the man said.
“It is true,” Monster said. “I wear a disguise.”
The man said nothing, but his eyebrows rose slightly.
“There was another with me,” Monster said, trying to stop his teeth from chattering.
The man shook his head and glanced away at something Monster couldn’t see.
“Is he okay?” Monster asked.
The man shook his head again. “The other boy was much smaller than you, and not as strong. He was already gone when we found you. It was touch and go, even for you.”
Monster closed his eyes and lay still, racked every few seconds by bouts of shivering.
It was Emile’s first mission. It was supposed to have been a simple reconnaissance task. But the fun-loving little Lebanese kid, the new puppy in the team, was not going home. Emile had risked, and lost, his life to save the other Angels, even though he barely knew them. He had wanted to be a hero, and he had paid the ultimate price for his dreams.
“When I found you, you were lying on top of him, trying to protect him from the cold,” the man said.
Monster could not remember that. Perhaps he had just fallen on top of Emile. He did not say so. Either way it had made no difference. He sat up, pulling the furs around his shoulders for warmth. He was naked. “Who are you?” he asked.
“I am Nukilik,” the man said. “Of the Inupiat.”
“My name is Janos,” Monster said. “But everyone call me Monster.”
Nukilik smiled briefly at the nickname.
“Where are we?” Monster asked.
“Imaqliq,” Nukilik said.
“Big Diomede?” Monster asked. “But it is deserted.”
“Not as deserted as you might think.” Nukilik smiled. “Now tell me how a demon was freezing to death on our island. Be careful with your answer or you may yet end up at the bottom of the Bering Sea.”
“I told you, I am no demon,” Monster said, still unsure what Nukilik meant. “I am human.”
“Yet you come in the guise of a demon,” Nukilik said.
“If you mean Bzadian, then you are right,” Monster said. “I am a recon soldier. I am disguised as Bzadian so that I can move behind enemy lines.”
“I see no enemy here,” Nukilik said.
“They are here,” Monster said. “Hundreds of Bzadian tanks. I saw them.”
The good nature on Nukilik’s face changed to a flinty hardness. “Again,” he said.
“They use snowstorms for cover, creeping toward Alaska,” Monster said.
“If you are human, then your story makes sense,” Nukilik said. “Or this could be just some kind of trickery. Are you a demon?”
“Nukilik, I am not demon, also not alien. I am human,” Monster said. “So was my…friend. Our skin was colored, our tongues split, and lumps added to our heads.” He touched the bony protrusions on his skull. Strange how natural they had become to him. As if they were normal.
There were sounds from the far side of the room and a woman appeared from a trapdoor in the floor. She had the same broad face and smiling eyes as Nukilik. A baby was strapped to her chest in some kind of fur swaddling clothes. She seemed cold, and every few minutes she shivered violently.
A dog was at her side, a malamute, unrestrained. It sniffed at Monster and growled.
“He says his name is Monster,” Nukilik said.
The woman shrugged and shivered once more.
“This is Corazon,” Nukilik said. “My wife.”
“Hello,” Monster said. Corazon stared at him without emotion.
“He says he is human,” Nukilik said.
Corazon shrugged. “As a demon would say.”
Nukilik wrinkled his nose. “I have tested him.”
“What test?” Monster asked.
“I asked you three times.” Nukilik smiled. “An evil spirit may answer twice, but on the third time will leave, or refuse to answer.”
“It was test?” Monster asked.
“One of them,” Corazon said, with a glance at the malamute. “Asungaq was another. He does not like demons.”
Asungaq barked, a strange sound halfway between a woof and the howl of a wolf.
Monster said, “I think he does not like me also.”
“Your throat is in one piece,” Nukilik said. “He likes you. It was Asungaq that found you in the snow.”
Asungaq barked again, as if agreeing.
“Then please help me,” Monster said. “I must contact my people and warn them of invasion. Do you have radio?”
“No. We do not use them, for fear of discovery,” Nukilik said.
“Do you have way of communicating with mainland?” Monster asked.
“Yes,” Nukilik said. “A boat.”
“What about the phone?” Corazon asked.
“There is phone?” Monster asked.
Nukilik looked surprised. He nodded. “This island used to be Russian. They ran cables to the island and installed phones. They still work, but they connect to the Russian phone system.”
“You can call anywhere in the world through it,” Corazon said. “I called my mother once.”
“You called your—” Nukilik broke off with a narrow sideways glance at his wife, and a short heated discussion followed in their own language.
“Where is nearest phone?” Monster asked during a break in the argument.
“There is an abandoned Russian guard post, about a kilometer away,” Corazon said.
“Can you take me?” Monster asked.
Nukilik shook his head. “We are still bringing your body heat back up. You cannot go out in the cold so soon.”
“It cannot wait,” Monster said.
He pulled the covers around him. Muscles in his shoulders seemed to have a life of their own, jerking in short spasms. He felt weak and nauseous but managed to raise himself to his feet.
“Please, may I have my clothes?” he said.