Prey

She moved ahead, dropping now to her hands and knees to peer in the tightly woven stems. She could almost imagine the stalks entangling a human body and slowly devouring it like some type of giant Venus flytrap.

But that was silly.

Wasn't it?

"Find anything?"

Julia jumped. Mick. Behind her. She breathed.

He smiled. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"That's okay." Julia sighed. "You just caught me daydreaming is all."

"Anything good?"

"Nope."

Mick thumbed over his shoulder. "There's noting back that way."

"Where's Wilkins?"

Mick turned. "I don't know. He oughta be up where we saw him last."

Julia stood and followed Mick back to the main throughway. "Wilkins?"

His head appeared among some corn stalks further up. "Yo."

Julia relaxed. For a minute she'd almost thought that Wilkins would disappear. That wouldn't have been good. Not at all.

"Find anything?"

Wilkins shook his head. "Nothing. You guys?"

Mick frowned. "Nada."

Wilkins nodded and pointed skyward. "What about the roof?"

Julia frowned. "What about it?"

"Those panels up there, they're individually locked into place. What if one of the is loose?"

"You think there might be?"

Wilkins shrugged. "Never know until we check it out."

Mick shrugged. "Do we have a ladder?"

"In the corner when we came in. Oughta be a magnesium ladder. Nice and light."

Mick got the ladder and opened it up. Julia braced it again the wall. "How will you be able to check all the panels?"

"There's a gridwork up there I can maneuver around on," said Mick. He glanced at Wilkins. "You stay close in case I fall?"

Wilkins grinned. "I'm touched you want me to catch you."

"I was thinking you'd break my fall."

"Get up there."

It wasn't that far to climb. The roof itself was only twenty feet high with the gridwork underneath it by four feet. Mick reached the gridwork and left the ladder behind, easing onto the gridwork in a sort-of crawl. Julia watched him move around, slowly checking each panel.

From her vantagepoint, she couldn't help but appreciate the outline of his body. There was obviously a lot of muscle underneath his clothing. A quick image flashed through her mind and she cleared her throat quickly, chasing it away. Stay focused, she thought.

Maybe there'd be time for that later.

Mick had covered half of the greenhouse roof when he stopped suddenly.

Wilkins exhaled. "What's wrong?"

Mick looked down. "Panel up here. It's open."

"You mean it's unlocked?"

"Yeah. It's closed but it's unlocked."

Julia frowned. "Can you lock it?"

Mick peered at the panel. It must have been tough contorting his body to examine the panel's edging. But he never complained. Julia thought it marked him as a real professional but didn't say anything.

"Lock's gone," said Mick. "Looks like it's been torn off."

"Torn off?"

"I'm coming down," said Mick. He eased himself back toward the ladder. His feet reappeared first and then the rest of his body followed.

Julia saw a sheen of sweat coating his face. "Hot up there?"

"Heat rises." Mick thumbed skyward. "That's a real funny piece of work up there."

Wilkins started for the ladder. Mick stopped him. "Hang on. If we're going back up there, we ought to at least have something we can lock it down with.

Julia looked at him. "You think Vikorsky might have climbed out of the window? That doesn't make any sense. He could have simply walked out the front door. Besides, even if he did get out on to the roof, he'd have to get down to the ground somehow and that doesn't make any sense at all — "

"Julia." Mick stopped her.

"Yes?"

"I don't think he climbed out."

"No?"

Mick shot a glance at Wilkins who frowned and looked back at the roof. Mick looked back at Julia. "I think something might have come into the station through the open panel up there."

"And what — grabbed Vikorsky? While the rest of us slept nearby?"

Mick shrugged. "I'm open to alternate theories."

"But that would mean someone would have had to climb on to the roof, pry open the roof panel, and then shimmy in through that opening, open the door to the greenhouse and make their way through the station to where Vikorsky was sleeping." She looked at Mick. "Doesn't that strike you as an awful lot of work?"

"Sure does."

"Do you know anyone who could do that sort of thing and not be heard?"

Mick looked away.

Wilkins cleared his throat. "We might be looking at another possibility here."

"That being?"

"What if it's not a 'who' at all?"

Mick nodded. "That's what I was thinking."

"What if," said Wilkins, "it's a 'what'?"

"You mean some sort of…creature?"

"I don't know anyone who would have done something like this," said Wilkins.

"Yeah, but do you know of any animals that could?" said Julia.

"No."

"And besides," said Julia, "the indigenous animal population of Antarctica is limited to penguins and a few seabirds."

"Those are the animals we know about," said Mick.

Julia cocked an eyebrow. "You think there might be a few species we don't know about?"