Minutes to Burn

Something dripped from one of the corpse's legs. Cameron ran a hand lightly over her head to make sure nothing had landed in her hair.

Rex snapped his fingers. "In Frank's notebook, he tallied a nine count, meaning, I think, that he'd located nine of the ten offspring that had hatched and made it into the wilderness." His eyes clouded. "He must have kept one alive to observe, and it mated with the tenth one that he didn't find."

"So, the million-dollar question is: What did the one he kept look like?" Szabla asked, eyeing the empty hook over by Cameron. "Why did he keep it alive?"

The freezer door banged loudly behind them with the wind and they all jumped, the air thick with bodies. The larva cooed and squirmed in Derek's arms. When the door swung open again, they could see Savage's silhouette crouching just outside on the grass. They watched him through the corpses. Steam rose off his body in the mist.

"Why did God make puppies cute?" his outline grumbled.

They watched him expectantly.

He spit once to the side and wiped his mouth. "So we don't kill 'em."

Chapter 47

Wordlessly, Derek handed the larva off to Diego and split off from the others. "I'm gonna check out the purse seine," he called over his shoulder. "Which farmhouse?"

"It's got a healthy tear," Justin said. "Plus the rope is old and cracking."

Derek stopped but did not turn around. "Which farmhouse?" he repeated.

Justin was silent for a moment before answering. "Last one down on the west side of the road."

Derek started walking again. Cameron followed him a few steps toward the road, but when Derek still didn't turn around, she realized he wanted to be alone and fell back.

Rex walked by her side, several feet behind the others. "Something is going on with your squad," he said softly. "And things on this island are going to get more complicated."

Cameron looked dead ahead, her face blank.

"I'd like to know I can count on you," Rex continued.

"You can count on me to uphold my orders, and to act in the best interests of my-"

Rex waved her off, his arm painting a short, angry stroke in the night air. He pulled ahead, leaving her to walk alone.

They reached base exhausted. Justin collected an armful of wood, sticking close to the tents, then dumped it next to the fire and tried to wipe the grime off the front of his shirt. Tank stoked the flame with the freezer bolt. He raised a branch in front of him, gripping it tightly at the ends, and snapped it in half with a grunt. He added the two pieces to the fire.

They all tried to ignore the enormous corpse to the side of the logs. Somewhere inside it were the mangled remains of Tucker.

The larva cooed in Diego's arms as he set it down near the fire. "It's getting heavier," he said quietly.

When he straightened up, Szabla was standing right beside him, tap-ping the spike in her hands, her eyes gleaming. Aside from Cameron, the others didn't yet notice; they clustered around the far log, talking in hushed voices.

Diego eyed the spike, taking a step back. Szabla stepped toward the larva and Diego snatched it quickly away. He tried to sidestep Szabla, but suddenly Savage was there in his way.

Cameron looked at Savage's eyes, gone dull in the night, and was alarmed by what was lacking in them. She walked over, the others fol-lowing.

"I'm not dealing with another one of those." Szabla pivoted and pointed the spike at the large body.

Diego stood quietly for a long time, holding the larva and staring off into space. It pulsed in his arms, squirming through the crook of his elbow. Its true legs pinwheeled in the air, searching for footing, and he turned it to his chest, the soft prolegs clinging to his shirt.

"Even your boy Frank judged the offspring to be dangerous," Szabla continued, more calmly. "He was picking them off one by one. But he didn't kill one because it was cute, because it appealed to him and amused him. That's a benefit of its appearance. You coddle it until it metamorphoses. Why do you think it was so easy to spot? It doesn't hold us to be a threat."

Diego set the larva behind him on the grass and stood before it pro-tectively. His face had the hard, grim cast of a statue's. Rex shifted on his feet, intense discomfort clouding his features. Diego made a noise of disgust from deep down in his throat.

"A lot of animals exist in symbiotic and parasitic relationships in nature," Rex said. "Flying in under the radar, taking advantage of other species' needs and weaknesses."

"Like those feeder fish that hang out on sharks?" Justin asked.

"Or like cuckoo birds," Rex added softly. "Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other birds' nests. The parasite egg usually requires less incubation and hatches first. Then the chick throws the other eggs out of the nest so it can get the foster parents' full attention."

"And the mom takes care of that motherfucker since she doesn't know it's not hers," Szabla said. "I was bio queen undergrad, so don't be pullin' no wool on my ass."