Page 33 of Wrath

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Varnog muttered, while staring at the gland in disbelief.

We all muttered our discontent in agreement with him. At such an intense temperature, using the arms in the chamber was too risky. The probability of the joints melting was too high, not to mention the metal of the arms themselves. It was only once the temperature reached 1300°C that the first cracks appeared on the gland. Then everything else happened quickly.

Within five seconds, a few more cracks fanned over the slick surface of the gland. After the ten-second mark, hissing sound accompanied geyser-like steam coming out of the fissures. Around the sixteenth second, the pituitary gland cracked open—although it reminded me of popcorn. Its hard shell split open, and its contents appeared to puff outward. It sizzled and steamed under the searing heat, struggling to maintain its integrity. Although it appeared to last an eternity, by the twenty-fifth second, the entire gland had turned into ashes, shell included.

Victorious shouts emanated from all of us. Sure, we were a long way from having this whole deal in the bag, but this marked a positive step forward.

“Let’s feed it some oxygen to see if it regenerates after this,” Wrath said.

Linette shut down the incinerator then opened its door. A brutal heat wave slapped us even from the three-meter distance we were standing at. Heart pounding, we all stared with bated breaths at the broken remains of the creature’s head. It didn’t show the slightest signs of foaming the head previously had while trying to regenerate.

“Let’s move it to a secure container,” Dread suggested.

Using some V-jaw tongs, Dread removed the bottom tray of the incinerator on top of which the fragments of bone, teeth, and ashes of the Jadozor’s head rested. He carefully spilled its contents into a small holding chamber, this one with multiple little openings to allow oxygen through. As soon as it was secured, Nathalie ran a scan over it. My heart soared at the sight of her grin.

“Not picking up any signs of zogesterone, or of anything organic left, to be honest,” our medical officer said with enthusiasm.

“So, that shit is properly dead?” Varnog asked.

“It appears to be,” Nathalie said with a nod. “But I don’t know if there are sufficient airborne nutrients in this room for it to regenerate.

“What if we bring one of the Jadozor corpses here?” I suggested. “Even if it’s just a limb, we would see if what’s left of the pituitary gland tries to absorb them to rebuild itself like it did in the earliest tests you guys ran.”

“Great idea,” Dread replied. “I’ll go fetch something.”

Varnog followed him out, but not before his gaze landed on Wrath’s arm possessively wrapped around my waist. A discreet smile stretched his lips, and my face heated with the shyness of a teenager getting caught by her father while she was kissing her boyfriend.

“Assuming this works,” Wrath said pensively, “we still have a major problem. How do we create this much heat throughout the base?”

“An incendiary grenade would take care of it,” I said with confidence. “The Vanguard’s Blazers are quite similar to Earth’s M14s. They burn at 2,800°C for forty seconds. That’s more than twice the heat we needed to achieve for this gland to burn, and it lasts fifteen seconds longer than required.”

“Right now, there’s no oxygen in the base,” Wrath countered. “Isn’t that going to reduce the burn time?”

I shook my head with a grin. “No. The incendiary agent that fills the grenade produces its own oxygen—or more specifically, it uses iron oxide instead of oxygen. That’s why it can burn underwater. So, the lack of oxygen in the base is not going to be a problem.”

“Look at you being a little weapons expert,” Wrath said with undisguised pride and admiration.

I beamed at him, puffing out my chest.

“That could work,” Myriam said with enthusiasm. “The problem would be making sure the creatures are in the blast radius within that time frame.”

“Which is going to be nearly impossible,” Wrath said with a frown. “We should have no problem making sure that the Jadozors that managed to get out of the stasis chamber are nuked. It’s the ones buried under the rubble I’m worried about.”

“Either way, you guys need to get back inside. Between the nanobots Myriam has been coding, and the incendiary grenades, I’m confident we can obliterate them,” Nathalie said.

“We still have to test the nanobots,” Myriam cautioned. “But I agree that between those two methods, we should be good.”

My stomach knotted upon hearing those words. I’d known it all along, especially considering it had been my task to find a way to deliver the solution to the creatures. But things didn’t look too promising in terms of the guys making it back out in one piece. Sure, we would have no problem catching their souls if things went south, but I hated the thought of Wrath dying again, however brief it was.

Dread and Varnog returning with the wing of a Jadozor inside a sealed container as well as with a second head in a containment chamber put an end to our conversation. To our delight, the burnt pituitary gland still hadn’t begun reforming itself. Dread removed the wing from its container and placed it on the floor next to the casing containing the gland.

For the first minute or so, nothing happened. Then, a very subtle bubbling at the surface of the wing indicated it was decaying into nutrients. The same worry appeared on our collective faces while Nathalie ran scans.

“Okay, everyone relax,” Nathalie said, relief flooding her voice. “The wing is decaying but the particles aren’t flocking to the burnt gland. This thing is truly dead. Varnog, open your containment chamber. Let’s see what happens with that whole head.”

My stomach dropped, and my innards twisted at the immediate reaction that prompted. No sooner had Varnog opened the container than the butchered neck of the creature began to foam. At the same time, the sizzling of the wing went into overdrive. It all but disintegrated within seconds, the particles flying to the severed head as if drawn by a powerful magnet.

“Fucking hell,” Linette said, watching in horror as the neck quickly rebuilt itself, extending into part of the shoulders.

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