1. Between three to five feet in height.
2. Erect-standing biped. Short thin legs.
3. Gracile skeletal structure.
4. Cranium larger than normal human proportions.
5. Absence of auditory lobes (external ear apparatus).
6. Absence of body hair.
7. Large, tear-shaped eyes, generally opaque black with vertical slit pupils.
8. Eyes slanted approx. thirty-five degrees.
9. Small straight mouth, thin lips.
10. Disproportionately long arms.
11. Tough gray epidermis.
.12 Internal organs similar to humans’, but developed and arranged differently.
13. Blood type is RH (re Basque people).
14. Significant secondary findings after permitted study indicates the PTBEs require human blood plasma and other human biological substances to survive. In extreme circumstances, they can subsist on other animal fluids, such as cattle or other domesticated animals
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BRIGID FELT AS IF HER entire mind were immersed in soggy cotton wadding. Intellectually she could conceive of extraterrestrial life-forms, but emotionally she felt a visceral, xenophobic cringing. She wanted to blank out the screen, to convince herself that what she read was part of an elaborate predark fantasy, or better yet, a hoax. It was too late for that; the text was imprinted indelibly within her eidetic memory. For as long as she lived, no matter how hard she tried, she would never forget it.
A plaintive wail echoed from deep within her mind. Kane, what have you stumbled into? What have I stumbled into?
She pushed the keys to begin the copying sequence, her hands moving with a numb slowness that shocked her. And then as if from far away, she heard someone speak. “There. There she is.”
Brigid gradually turned her head in the direction of the voice. In the archway stood Lakesh. For a long heartbeat, she couldn’t understand why he looked so sad, so desperately old, so crushed by the weight of his years. Then her eyes swept over the three black-coated men with him, and her near paralyzed thought processes identified them. They were Magistrates, and Lakesh was pointing her out to them.
Fear flowed through her like a floodtide of icy water, stimulating her frozen reflexes. She quickly broke the data link, or tried to do so. The incriminating text still glowed on the screen, white against amber. The copying process continued without interruption.
Terror was pushed aside by a sudden onslaught of nausea, of the sickening realization she had been found out, that Kane had used her for the sole purpose of betraying her. The taste of the realization was so bitter she nearly gagged. She had been manipulated into breaking the cardinal rule of life in the villes trust no one .
A man suddenly loomed over her, a flat-faced, thin-lipped man with short, thin hair. Brigid looked up at him.
His eyes, masked by dark glasses, were unfathomable, but she saw her own face dimly reflected in the lenses. She smiled at her face, a small smile of resignation and defiance.
The man tilted his head slightly, toward the screen and the information glowing there. He smiled, too.
Then, with a clenched gloved fist, he struck her in the face.
Chapter Sixteen
Two Mags from Intel were sitting in the bare-walled room, saying nothing and trying to keep awake. Kane occupied a chair at a table across from them, waiting for Salvo to arrive to take his statement. He tried to believe that a statement would make a difference. His head wound, treated at the scene by a medic, felt like a wag tire with multiple ruptures. A thin, flesh-colored film covered the bullet graze, adhering tightly to his forehead. The liquid bandage contained nutrients and antibiotics, and since its chemical composition was very similar to real epidermal tissue, his body would absorb it as the injury healed.
Boon would never heal. He was the first Mag in decades to be chilled while on a Pit patrol, and Kane hadn’t likewise chilled all the chillers or even called for backup.
It was hours past his off-shift time. Upon returning to the division, Grant and Kane were immediately separated. Since then, he had been sitting, waiting and wondering how long it would take Salvo to arrive and how bad things would beeome.
On the table lay Dos’s mini-Uzi, retrieved from the wreckage of the squat. That and the strong-arm’s body were the only pieces of evidence incriminating Guana Teague as the mastermind. Except Kane didn’t and couldn’t accept the concept of Teague as the master of anything, even his own soul.