"At the same time, the anger's still there. The closer we draw to the kid, the hotter it burns. We've reached the bottom of the dive and pulled up; we're streaking over the underbrush. The kid's completely oblivious to the fact that his b.l.o.o.d.y dismemberment is fifty feet away and closing fast. I'm so close to the thing, I can feel the way its fangs push against one another as they jut from its mouth. We're on top of the kid; the thing's preparing to retract its wings, slice him open, and drive its face into him. The kid is dead; he's dead and he just doesn't know it, yet.

"Only, it's like-I'm like-I don't even think, No, or, Stop, or Pull up. It's more . . . I push; I shove against the thing I'm inside and its arms move. Its f.u.c.king arms jerk up as if someone's pa.s.sed a current through them. Someone has-I have. I'm the current. The motion throws off the thing's strike, sends it wide. It flails at the kid as it flies past him, but he's out of reach. I can sense-the thing's completely confused. There's a clump of bushes straight ahead-wham."

The Lieutenant had adopted his best you'd-better-not-be-bulls.h.i.tting-me stare. He said, "I take it that severed the connection."

Davis shook his head. "No, sir. You would expect that-it's what would have happened in the past-but this time, it was like, I was so close to the thing, it was going to take something more to shake me loose."

"And?" the Lieutenant said.

Lee shoved his tray back, toppling his super-sized Dr Pepper, whose lid popped off, splashing a wave of soda and ice cubes across the table. While Davis and the Lieutenant grabbed napkins, Lee stood and said, "What the f.u.c.k, Davis?"

"What?" Davis said.

"I said: What the f.u.c.k, a.s.shole," Lee said. Several diners at nearby tables turned their heads toward him.

"Inside voices," the Lieutenant said. "Sit down."

"I don't think so," Lee said. "I don't have to listen to this s.h.i.t." With that, he stalked away from the table, through the men and women swiftly returning their attentions to the meals in front of them, and out the side door.

"What the f.u.c.k?" Davis said, dropping his wad of soggy napkins on Lee's tray.

"That seems to be the question of the moment," the Lieutenant said.

"Sir-"

"Our friend and fellow is not having the best of months," the Lieutenant said. "In fact, he is not having the best of years. You remember the snafus with his disability checks."

"I thought that was taken care of."

"It was, but it was accompanied by the departure of Lee's wife and their two-year-old. Compared to what he was, Lee is vastly improved. In terms of the nuances of his emotional health, however, he has miles to go. The s.h.i.t with his disability did not help; nor did spending all day home with a toddler who didn't recognize his father."

"He didn't-"

"No, but I gather it was a close thing. A generous percentage of the wedding flatware paid the price for Lee's inability to manage himself. In short order, the situation became too much for Shari, who called her father to come for her and Douglas."

"b.i.t.c.h," Han said.

"Since then," the Lieutenant said, "Lee's situation has not improved. A visit to the local bar for a night of drinking alone ended with him in the drunk tank. Shari's been talking separation, possibly divorce, and while Lee tends to be a bit paranoid about the matter, there may be someone else involved, an old boyfriend. Those members of Lee's family who've visited him, called him, he has rebuffed in a fairly direct way. To top it all off, he's been subject to the same, intermittent feast of blood as the rest of us."

"Oh," Davis said. "I had no-Lee doesn't talk to me-"

"Never mind. Finish your story."

"It's not a story."

"Sorry. Poor choice of words. Go on, please."

"All right," Davis said. "Okay. You have to understand, I was as surprised by all of this as-well, as anyone. I couldn't believe I'd affected the thing. If it hadn't been so real, so like all the other times, I would have thought I was hallucinating, on some kind of wish-fulfillment trip. As it was, there I was as the thing picked itself up from the jungle floor. The anger-my anger-I guess it was still there, but . . . on hold.

"The second the thing was upright, someone shouted and the air was hot with bullets. Most of them shredded leaves, chipped bark, but a few of them tagged the thing's arm, its shoulder. Something was wrong-mixing in with its confusion, there was another emotion, something down the block from fear. I wasn't doing anything: I was still stunned by what I'd made happen. The thing jumped, and someone-maybe a couple of guys-tracked it, headed it off, hit it in I can't tell you how many places-it felt as the thing had been punched a dozen times at once. It spun off course, slapped a tree, and went down, snapping branches on its way.

"Now it was p.i.s.sed. Even before it picked itself up, the place it landed was being subject to intensive defoliation. A shot tore its ear. Its anger-if what I felt was fire, this was lava, thicker, slower-moving, hotter. It retreated, scuttled half a dozen trees deeper into the jungle. Whoever those guys were, they were professionals. They advanced on the spot where the thing fell and, when they saw it wasn't there anymore, they didn't rush in after it. Instead, they fell back to a defensive posture while one of them put in a call-for air support, I'm guessing.

"The thing was angry and hurt and the thirst-" Davis shook his head. He sipped his c.o.ke. "What came next-I'm not sure I can describe it. There was this surge in my head-not the thing's head, this was my brain I'm talking about-and the thing was looking out of my eyes."

"It turned the tables on you," the Lieutenant said.

"Not exactly," Davis said. "I continued watching the soldiers maybe seventy-five feet in front of me, but I was . . . aware of the thing staring at the DVD still playing on the TV. It was as if the scene was on a screen just out of view." He shook his head. "I'm not describing it right.

"Anyway, that was when the connection broke."

Davis watched the Lieutenant evade an immediate response by taking a generous bite of his Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and chewing it with great care. Han swallowed and said, "Soldiers."

"What?"

"Soldiers," Han said.

Through his mouthful of burger, the Lieutenant said, "He wants to know what happened to the soldiers. Right?"

Han nodded.

"Beats the s.h.i.t out of me," Davis said. "Maybe their air support showed up and bombed the f.u.c.ker to h.e.l.l. Maybe they evac'd out of there."

"But that isn't what you think," the Lieutenant said. "You think it got them."

"Yes sir," Davis said. "The minute it was free of me, I think it had those poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds for lunch."

"It seems a bit much to hope otherwise, doesn't it?"

"Yes sir, it does."

When the Lieutenant opted for another bite of his sandwich, Davis said, "Well?"

The Lieutenant answered by lifting his eyebrows. Han switched from McNuggets to fries.

"As I see it," Davis began. He stopped, paused, started again. "We know that the thing f.u.c.ked with us in Fallujah, linked up with us. So far, this situation has only worked to our disadvantage: whenever one of us is in sufficient discomfort, the connection activates and dumps us behind the thing's eyes for somewhere in the vicinity of three to five minutes. With all due respect to Lee, this has not been beneficial to anyone's mental health.

"But what if-suppose we could duplicate what happened to me? Not just once, but over and over-even if only for ten or fifteen seconds at a time-interfere with whatever it's doing, seriously f.u.c.k with it."

"Then what?" the Lieutenant said. "We're a thorn in its side. So?"

"Sir," Davis said, "those soldiers. .h.i.t it. Okay, yes, their fire wasn't any more effective than ours was, but I'm willing to bet their percentages were significantly higher. That's what me being on board in an-enhanced way did to the thing. We wouldn't be a thorn-we'd be the G.o.dd.a.m.ned bayonet Han jammed in its ribs.

"Not that we should wait for someone else to take it down. I'm proposing something more ambitious."

"All right."

"If we can disrupt the thing's routine-especially if we cut into its feeding-

it won't take very long for it to want to find us. a.s.suming the second part of my experience-the thing has a look through our eyes-if that happens again, we can arrange it so that we let it know where we're going to be. We pick a location with a clearing where the thing can land and surrounding tree cover where we can wait to ambush it. Before any of us goes to ruin the thing's day, he puts pictures, maps, satellite photos of the spot on display, so that when the thing's staring out of his eyes, that's what it sees. If the same images keep showing up in front of it, it should get the point."

The Lieutenant took the rest of his meal to reply. Han offered no comment. When the Lieutenant had settled into his chair after tilting his tray into the garbage and stacking it on top of the can, he said, "I don't know, Davis. There are an awful lot more ifs than I prefer to hear in a plan. If we can access the thing the same way you did; if that wasn't a fluke. If the thing does the reverse-vision stuff; if it understands what we're showing it. If we can find a way to kill it." He shook his head.

"Granted," Davis said, "there's a lot we'd have to figure out, not least how to put it down and keep it down. I have some ideas about that, but nothing developed. It would be nice if we could control our connection to the thing, too. I'm wondering if what activates the jump is some chemical our bodies are releasing when they're under stress-maybe adrenaline. If we had access to a supply of adrenaline, we could experiment with doses-"

"You're really serious about this."

"What's the alternative?" Davis said. "Lee isn't the only one whose life is f.u.c.ked, is he? How many more operations are you scheduled for, Han? Four? Five?"

"Four," Han said.

"And how're things in the meantime?"

Han did not answer.

"What about you, sir?" Davis said. "Oh sure, your wife and kids stuck around, but how do they act after you've had one of your fits, or spells, or whatever the f.u.c.k you call them? Do they rush right up to give Daddy a hug, or do they keep away from you, in case you might do something even worse? Weren't you coaching your son's soccer team? How's that working out for you? I bet it's a lot of fun every time the ref makes a lousy call."

"Enough, Davis."

"It isn't as if I'm in any better shape. I have to make sure I remember to swallow a couple of tranquilizers before I go to work so I don't collapse in the middle of trying to help some customer load his fertilizer into his car. Okay, Roch.e.l.le had dumped me while I was away, but let me tell you how the dating scene is for a vet who's p.r.o.ne to seizures should things get a little too exciting. As for returning to college, earning my BS-maybe if I could have stopped worrying about how G.o.dd.a.m.ned exposed I was walking from building to building, I could've focused on some of what the professors were saying and not f.u.c.king had to withdraw.

"This isn't the magic bullet," Davis said. "It isn't going to make all the bad things go away. It's . . . it is what it f.u.c.king is."

"All right," the Lieutenant said. "I'm listening. Han-you listening?"

"Listening," Han said.

X.

4:11 AM.

"So where do you think it came from?" Lee said.

"What do you mean?" Davis said. "We know where it comes from."

"No," Lee said, "I mean, before."

"Its secret origin," the Lieutenant said.

"Yeah," Lee said.

"How should I know?" Davis said.

"You're the man with the plan," Lee said. "Mr. Idea."

The Lieutenant said, "I take it you have a theory, Lee."

Lee glanced at the heap of coals that had been the fire. "Nah, not really."

"That sounds like a yes to me," the Lieutenant said.

"Yeah," Han said.

"Come on," Davis said. "What do you think?"

"Well," Lee said, then broke off, laughing. "No, no."

"Talk!" Davis said.

"You tell us your theory," the Lieutenant said, "I'll tell you mine."

"Okay, okay," Lee said, laughing. "All right. The way I see it, this vampire is like, the advance for an invasion. It flies around in its pod, looking for suitable planets, and when it finds one, it parks itself above the surface, calls its buddies, and waits for them to arrive."

"Not bad," the Lieutenant said.

"Hang on," Davis said. "What does it do for blood while it's Boldly Going Where No Vampire Has Gone Before?"

"I don't know," Lee said. "Maybe it has some stored in its coffin."

"That's an awful lot of blood," Davis said.

"Even in MRE form," the Lieutenant said.

"Maybe it has something in the coffin that makes blood for it."

"Then why would it leave to go hunting?" Davis said.

"It's in suspended animation," Lee said. "That's it. It doesn't wake up till it's arrived at a habitable planet."

"How does it know it's located one?" Davis said.

"Obviously," the Lieutenant said, "the coffin's equipped with some sophisticated tech."

"Thank you, sir," Lee said.

"Not at all," the Lieutenant said.

"I don't know," Davis said.

"What do you know?" Lee said.