Page 58 of Monstrous Baby
:He bought me some time,:Natalie whispered in my head.:He’s also right about the contamination fears. That’s why we’re not physically off Earth.:
Dread crystalized like solid ice in my core.:They plan to exterminate the planet to ensure all mrion contamination is contained. That’s why they waited until the pod was so close. They want to kill everything in one blast.:
:Exactly. Only a remnant would survive. They knew. They kept telling me to use them.:Her breath caught in a soft gasp.:Of course. I can still feel them, the same as I can feel Kroktl.:
Her excitement burned brighter, heating away some of the foreboding chilling my chest.
The agent waved his hand again, and my implements went slack. “All specialists, in fact. There. That’s better, isn’t it?”
I tried to open my mouth. Move my arm. Breathe.
But my body was no longer mine to control.
Panicked, I rolled my eyes, trying to get Natalie’s attention. Wriggle a finger. Something.I have to warn her.
The agent’s finger swiped in the air, and everything shut off into darkness.
25
KROKTL
Icrouched in the shadowed roots of a large, partially uprooted tree. Akylla matched my stance, her nose tipped up into the wind, though her eyes flared with red light.
:Control the flash,:I reminded her.:The light might betray our location.:
Her eyes still glowed red but the spinning signals banked.:Sorry, Daddy.:
:That’s how you learn, baby girl. Which one should we get first?:I pointed a claw to the dynos on our right, a long-necked sauropod blasting a torn, bloody chunk of Balaenoptera with fire. Then the other dynos, a heavy armored, horned Stegosaurus with a scorpion-like tail. Its tip crackled with lightning, but he didn’t have any new targets to shoot nets at. Yet.:The ISPD, or the NSTG?:
:I don’t like fire. It’s hurting Mama’s friends.:
The ISPD was trying to incinerate all of the mrions hidden inside the pod, but every blast simply released fine particles into the air. A purple haze glowed above the lawn, swirling in eddies driven by the incoming storm. The rain seemed to dampen someof its spread but with this much contamination, it’d take a dozen squads…
I caught myself before I could finish the thought. Old programming insisted the mrions were our enemies that must be terminated immediately. Meanwhile, my precious mate’s mrions flowed through me, carried by her blood, and evolved our youngling at a startling exponential rate. Every time I looked at Akylla, she was bigger, smarter, and faster.
I fired off a script to revise all outdated SOP programming regarding mrion contamination and turned my attention to the ISPD.
:Hungry, Daddy.:Eagerness burned in her little body.:I want to hunt.:
I allowed strategies to rapid fire in my head—while she watched each one unfold. Advantages, disadvantages, likelihoods of success. The smartest, safest option would be to stash Akylla somewhere out of harm’s way and take the ISPD myself. However, the reality was she’d never agree to stay hidden. I could attempt to force her. Lock her in a cave like Axxol had done to Natalie in a foolish attempt to safeguard her. But Akylla was already too big—and bloodthirsty—to ever lie down and go to sleep in a baby crib when we had enemies to hunt.
Her eyes burned bright. Her claws glistened, as brutal and sharp as mine, if a bit smaller. She might be half human, but my killer instinct burned inside her. The predator’s hunger couldn’t be denied.
So I might as well embrace it. Though there’d be hell to pay when Natalie heard about this escapade.
I can’t fucking wait.
:I can do it, Daddy. Pleeeeease.:
:If you’re going to help, you have to take orders, just like the squad.:
:Yes, Daddy. I’ll do whatever you say.:
:You have to stay focused. Don’t let anything distract you.:
She quivered with excitement.:Okay. What can I do?:
I let our plan roll through the grid like a video, showing her all the angles and contingencies.:Got it?:
