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Jessica's heartbeat accelerated at the thought of what was about to happen.
Cadma
Eleven feet of fang and gray scales and claws and spiked tail lay in that sling. A grendel. Type 6 was the color of gray mud; otherwise not very different from the now extinct Camelot grendels, but with a down-turned double hook at the tail... and a solemn, brooding mouth, where holos of the Camelot horrors showed a demon's grin. Chaka strode up to it, hunkered down, and peered into its eyes.
They were open, staring, sightless.
Or were they? Could anyone really say what was happening in the depths of its quasi-reptilian mind? They knew enough to be certain that a few volts of electricity trickling through its sleep centers would keep it quiescent.
"The jaw," Chaka said. "The hinges. See what I meant? Its bite gets more powerful leverage than the Camelot grendel, but it takes a smaller bite."
Her father was holding his breath as he examined the grendel. Given any excuse, he would kick the grendel, shoot it, inflict some indignity upon it that would be one one-millionth as devastating as what had happened to him all those years ago.
But it wouldn't happen-her father was not a man for futile gestures.
The grendel slumbered on.
Chaka nodded, and Cadma
This dome was twenty feet in diameter and seven feet high, made of prefabricated sections that slotted together in minutes. They had spiked and chained it into the rock.
Cadma
"Any problems?" Cadma
"No. Not really," Aaron replied. A slight edge of anxiety belied his words. "She's been on ice for seven hours, waiting for your call. Cassandra identified the grendel hole, and then we just trapped the bitch."
Bitch? Jessica thought. He's never called a grendel bitch before. He said that for Dad.
Cadma
Skeeter II swung into position. Its winch distended, to lower a second grendel into the shelter. They detached the wire.
They sealed the shelter, closed the door, and bolted it shut. Skeeter II landed.
Jessica noticed Cadma
There was no hesitation. Chaka climbed in with Evan. Cadma
"Cassandra," Cadma
A square of holographic window opened. Suddenly, they were peering into the dome.
The two sleeping grendels were curled in their nets, looking almost peaceful. The larger one was gray, the smaller a mossy greenish brown. That one was a Type 3. Her tail was a crown of spikes. Her long toes were built for climbing trees. Unusual: most grendels couldn't climb.
She looked to be easy meat for the gray.
Cadma
"Yes, Cadma
"Terminate current."
"Yes, Cadma
Cadma
"Trigger speed," he said.
A small aerosol can on the inside of the dome began to spray a pink mist.
Speed was the grendel secret. It was an oxygenating agent rivaling rocket fuel in potency, a chemical secreted in sacs in the grendel's back. Grendels ru
And the smell of speed was the smell of a challenger. It triggered a territorial response, a hyperexcited combat readiness more powerful than any mere hunting mode. It drove grendels insane.
The can hissed as its contents were released.
Above the dome, the humans hovered in their skeeters. Waiting.
The smaller grendel woke first.
They watched its eyes widen. Its tongue darted in and out twice.
"It should have flashed." Cadma
The green grendel should have flown instantly to the attack. Instead, the first thing it did was retreat, banging into the wall, thrashing and hissing. It scrabbled, seeking a way out, finding none. Finally, it turned and faced the larger beast, its spiked tail raised a little from the ground almost, like a scorpion's.
"That's very odd," Aaron said quietly. "It almost seems to be thinking, doesn't it? Judging the odds?"
"It knew it couldn't win," Jessica said.
Cadma
Then the gray grendel woke.
Its eyes snapped onto the green one, and in that moment the smaller grendel sprang.
The screen became a blur of blood and fang. Blood clotted the camera.
They could see nothing.
"Cassandra. Aerial view." From above, the walls shuddered and shook, but held.
"Take us down," Cadma
By the time that they touched down, the screams from within the shelter were almost as loud as the rotor.
Cadma
The noises from the shelter were dying down now. One last sobbing roar rose to a hissing crescendo. Then there was a crack, followed by a series of wet crunching sounds. Then a single, dying hiss.
Jessica stared at the holographic image. "Good God."
"When two tigers fight," Cadma
Aaron nodded. "What now?"
"Open the gate," Cadma
Aaron approached the dome. Scarlet oozed from between the cracks at the bottom of the dome. Something within the dome made a rhythmic wheezing sound.
"Open it, dammit."
Aaron unbolted the door, and swung it open.
The air thickened with the blended stench of speed and scorched alien blood.
The interior of the dome was smeared with viscera. The smaller grendel was reduced almost to chunks. The larger had been ripped open. Her intestines spilled out in gray coils. She bit at them, snapping and chewing with a blunt, bloodied snout. She made crying sounds.
The grendel raised its head unsteadily, staring directly at Jessica.
Jessica raised her rifle and shot it once in the head with an explosive dart. With a short, sharp, ugly sound the grendel's head splashed open, spattering blood and brains for meters in every direction. The ruined body quivered once, and then was still.
Cadma
"Every joint held," he said calmly. "This dome is officially pronounced grendel-proof."
Jessica bent over and vomited.