“Let me check first.”
He stepped out into the light?—
And froze.
“Well.” The voice was familiar, smug, dripping with satisfaction. “Dr. Falkner. I was hoping you’d choose this particular rabbit hole.”
Martin Reece stood fifteen meters from the cave entrance, flanked by two GenCon guards in full tactical gear. Their weapons—pulse rifles, military-grade—were already raised and aimed directly at the opening where Rhyx stood silhouetted against the darkness.
Alina’s blood turned to ice.
“Martin.” She pushed past Rhyx, ignoring his hiss of protest, placing herself between him and the weapons. “How did you?—”
“Find you?” Martin smiled, that cold, triumphant smile she’d grown to hate. “Please, Alina. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice the discrepancies in your research data? The unusual power draws from the lab’s equipment? The way you kept redirecting survey teams away from this particular mountain range?” He shook his head, almost pitying. “You were never as clever at deception as you thought.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t insult my intelligence.” His gaze shifted past her, and she saw his expression change—the smugness faltering, replaced by something that looked almost like shock. “What… what is that?”
Rhyx stepped forward, moving to stand beside her despite her attempt to keep him back. In the pale Martian light, he was unmistakably alien—the golden scales, the inhuman angles of his face, the vertical slits of his pupils. There was no hiding what he was, no passing him off as a large cyborg or an unusual colonist.
He was other, and Martin could see it clearly.
“That,” Alina said, her voice steady despite the terror clawing at her chest, “is none of your concern.”
“None of my—” Martin’s voice cracked with incredulous rage. “You’ve been hiding an alien in the survey zone? An actual non-human life form? Do you have any idea what this means? What this is worth?”
“He’s not a commodity.”
“Everything is a commodity, Alina. That’s what you’ve never understood.” Martin’s eyes were bright with avarice now, the shock giving way to calculation. “GenCon will pay a fortune for this. Hell, Earth Government will pay a fortune. The first confirmed extraterrestrial intelligence since humanity left the Earth? This is the discovery of the century.”
“He’s not a discovery. He’s a person.”
“He’s a specimen.” Martin gestured sharply to the guards. “Take it alive. GenCon wants intact samples?—”
“No.” Rhyx’s voice cut through the thin Martian air like a blade. He hadn’t raised his voice, hadn’t moved aggressively, but something in his tone made the guards hesitate, their weapons wavering slightly. “I am not a specimen. I am not a sample. I am Rhyx of the Var’thaal, and I belong here.”
Martin stared at him.
“It speaks.”
“He speaks,” Alina snapped. “He thinks, he feels, he has memories and hopes and a right to exist without being dissected by corporate scientists. You can’t do this, Martin.”
“I can do whatever I want. GenCon has full authorization to secure any anomalous biological materials found in the survey zone, and your… friend… certainly qualifies as anomalous.” Martin’s lip curled. “Where did he come from, Alina? What else have you been hiding from us?”
She said nothing. Let her silence speak for her.
Martin’s face darkened.
“You’ll tell us eventually. They all do.” He nodded to the guards again. “Secure the creature. Stun setting—we need it alive for transport.”
“I would not recommend that course of action.”
Rhyx’s voice was still calm, almost conversational, but Alina could feel the tension radiating from him now—coiled potential energy, like a predator preparing to strike. She grabbed his arm, her fingers digging into the hard muscle beneath his borrowed shirt.
“Rhyx, don’t. Please. They have weapons?—”
“Their weapons are not enough.” He covered her hand with his own, his touch gentle even as his body remained primed for violence. “I have seen technology far more advanced than theirs, Alina. I have fought enemies who would crush these humans like insects beneath their feet. Two men with pulse rifles are not a threat to me.”
