Right near Nissa’s head.
And now she knew what was making that noise. Claws against the metal floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Nissa!” Adrenaline surging, Justyn moved fast, focusing his light on where she went down.
She was already sitting up.
“You okay?” He crouched, running his gloves over her. Her suit looked intact.
“I’m fine.” She gently pushed his hands away. She was staring at the shadows, her face wary.
“What happened?”
“Something hit me.”
What the hell?He looked around. He didn’t see anything except the cylinder holding the Constitution lying on the floor. He leaned over and grabbed it.
And saw eyes glowing in the shadows.
Two sets of eyes, glowing blood red.
“What the fuck!”
The creature sprang.
Justyn fell backward, the animal at his throat. He gripped its jaws, holding the gnashing rows of teeth away from his helmet.
“Justyn!”
He heard Nissa moving, her heavy breathing coming through the comm line.
The creature let out an ear-piercing growl. Justyn shoved it back enough to get a look at it. It was about the size of a dog, but its body was long, sinuous and covered in metallic, overlapping scales. It had a multitude of spiny legs, two sets of eyes, and a large mouth filled with rows of wicked-looking sharp teeth.
And it wanted his blood.
Moving faster than he could have thought possible, the creature came at him again. He caught the beast’s jaws again, wrestled with it, all the while praying those teeth wouldn’t pierce his spacesuit.
Suddenly, something smacked into the animal’s body, knocking it away. It let out another scream and tumbled onto its back, flashing a smooth belly that glowed bright green. In a blink, it righted itself and shot into a ventilation duct, leaving a smear of green on the floor.
Justyn snatched up the Constitution cylinder and let Nissa help him to his feet. He saw she clutched the lamp off the desk in her other hand. It was dripping green goo.
“What the hell was that?” she asked.
“No idea.” He stared at the duct. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s something that’s been mutated by the radiation.”
“Maybe they had animals on board?” She shook her head. “Whatever it is, let’s leave it here and go.” She glanced at her Sync. “We only have twenty-two minutes of safe radiation exposure time left.”
He hitched the strap on the cylinder over his shoulder. “Then let’s get out of here. Back to theNomad.”
They headed back into the corridor, part floating, part jumping toward the bay where they’d left the skimmers.
He activated his earpiece. “Nomad, this is Phoenix 3. You there, Ry?”
“Nomadhere. How’d your trip go?”
“Excellent. We found the goods.”
