“We had a team go into the mine, down to the depths where ASO-One penetrated. Down to where the creature lived.”

“The gaiaphage,” Dekka said, and swallowed hard after the word. The gaiaphage, that seething, inhuman evil that caused so much fear, so much pain, resulting finally in the birth of the monstrous child Gaia.

“Yes, the gaiaphage,” Peaks said. “The unholy mix of alien meteorite, uranium, and human DNA. We sent a team of six. One of the women on that team went mad and attacked her fellow team members with a pickax. She killed two, injured two more. They had to beat her down with sticks and stones. She’s a patient here, as a matter of fact, raving mad. A complete psychotic break.”

Dekka sat, silent.

“So we sent a second team, this time with two armed Marines. The Marines killed the team, and then themselves.”

“Jesus.”

“So we sent robots, modified bomb-disposal robots, and we were able to retrieve samples of what had been the gaiaphage. Just rock now, or so we thought. Dead. Inert. Then we tried a sample on test animals, chimpanzees. One of the chimps tore the face off her handler. And one of the chimps . . . Wait, I have the video.”

He tapped his keyboard and turned his monitor for Dekka to see. There was no sound, just video, showing a chimpanzee in a cage, and suddenly . . . the chimp was outside the cage.

“Teleportation. Taylor’s power,” Dekka said.

“We had to kill the chimps.”

Monster, Chapter 13