Rhane said.
The animals snorted and gulped, nipping at one another as they fought for scraps of food. Colt watched as one tore a hunk of flesh away and swallowed it whole, scales and all. His stomach churned and he tried to look away, but he couldn’t.
Distracted, Colt didn’t see the broken glass on the sidewalk. The sounds of shards crunching under his boots echoed across the too-empty street, and the animals turned to stare at him. Their long snouts were stained with blood, and their lips were curled back to reveal wicked teeth.
“Nice and easy,” Rhane said. “All they want to know is that we aren’t interested in their kill.”
“Trust me, we’re not.”
“Over there.” Rhane was crouched behind what looked like a trash bin. “See that barge?” He pointed down the street to a rusted boat scarred by scratches and dents. “That’s the canal that will take us to the reactor station.”
There was a sound like a turbine engine, and Colt looked up between the buildings to see one of Koenig’s hovercraft approaching.
“This way!” Rhane pulled him into what looked like an old butcher shop, and the other three members of Phantom Squad followed. Colt stood next to the front window and watched as the hovercraft descended until it was only ten feet off the ground. The roar of the turbines shook the walls as garbage spun through the air like it was caught in a tornado.
“Do you think they saw us?” Danielle asked.
“If they did, they’d be shooting,” Rhane said.
Colt could feel his heart beating in his throat as he waited for the hovercraft to fly away. It seemed like hours even though it had only been a few minutes, but it finally left them alone.
“Let’s go,” Rhane said. “If they have search teams out, that means they think we’re close. Everybody keep your eyes open.”
Like Venice, Dresh was known for its intricate system of canals, but instead of gondolas there were rusted-out barges. The water was reddish-orange, and a disgusting froth clung to the surface along the cement walls that lined the canal.
“Not exactly the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, is it?” Rhane said. Suddenly his face started to contort, and there was a sound like bone cracking. His skin bubbled and his muscles flexed, and a moment later he was standing there in his native Thule form.
At nearly eight feet tall, he looked a bit like a bearded dragon. He had massive shoulders and a powerful tail, and his body was covered in scales the color of honey. He had a short snout, and his back was lined with row after row of spikes. There were even clusters of spiny scales covering his throat.
Pierce took a step back, his index finger wrapped around the trigger of his assault rifle as he pointed the barrel at Rhane.
“If you think I’m ugly, wait until you run into Koenig,” Rhane said as he wrapped his long toes around the edge of the canal. Nails like talons sank into the crumbling cement as he flexed them, his eyes now locked on the murky water.
“Is that sewage?” Danielle asked.
“Better you don’t know,” Rhane said, his tone flat.
“It doesn’t matter, because it’s our only way inside,” Colt said as he removed his pack and took out his breathing apparatus.
“Just mind the Gorem and you’ll be fine,” Rhane said.
“Nobody said anything about Gorem,” Oz said.
A chill ran down Colt’s spine as he thought back to the enormous sea monster that had attacked Oz and him in the waterways beneath Trident Biotech. It had looked like a cross between an eel and an alligator, but it had three sets of arms and each one ended in a clawed hand.
“Are there really Gorem in there?” he asked.
It looked like Rhane smiled, though it was hard to tell with his reptilian face. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
: :
CHAPTER 46 : :
Even with fins it was difficult keeping up with Rhane, who used his tail to propel himself through the murky water like an alligator.
Visibility was practically nonexistent as they made their way through the underwater labyrinth. On more than one occasion Colt thought that he saw the silhouette of something enormous, but they managed to make it through the tunnel system without running into anything that could swallow them whole.
Rhane led them into a drainage system where a grate opened up into a storage room inside the facility. Once inside, Colt checked his backpack to make sure the detonators hadn’t gotten wet while Rhane