Julia stumbled away from Sawyer, her face burning, explanations and apologies on the tip of her tongue. The way he had looked at her, his expression—she’d been glad when Hardy interrupted them and blew the moment out of the water, saving her the humiliation of embarrassing herself again. Tears pricked her eyes.

Sawyer hadn’t forgiven her. His face said it all. She was trapped in an emotional vice. She’d damaged something between them and didn’t know if it was fixable anymore. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, composing herself. I’ve been stupid but it’s done now. She sucked in a shaky breath.

There were aliens to kill.

The stench of long-abandoned sewer invaded her nostrils as she hurried after Hardy’s wide shoulders. She might have messed things up with Sawyer but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do a good job with the Sweeper.

She caught up with Hardy who was doing his best to ignore Bailey’s wheezing. Hardy’s face was tight with irritation as she drew near and fell into step behind him. He massaged his temples in a fidgety movement clearly distracting his hands from popping Bailey on the nose as his rattling exhalations continued.

Despite aid from the headlights, it was tricky going and their pace slowed the deeper they progressed into the sewer. Julia inched carefully forward, feeling with the toe of her boots, ensuring her steps were secure in the darkness. Stones rolled under her soles, unbalancing her and forcing her to grab at the slimy brickwork while mud worked under her nails and ground against the palms of her hands. She gritted her teeth. She was not going to complain.

Hardy’s headlamp cast a glow on the dripping walls. Slick orange algae sprouted from jagged corners of the broken masonry. They jostled for foot hold with crowded alien clusters of tiny red-fronded plants like anemones, huddled in clumps at eye level, their tendrils waving in the still air as if deep under the ocean.

Julia peered at the slow, hypnotic dance of the alien plants. “These things are getting more prolific the closer we get,” she muttered.

Bailey leaned past, extending his hand to touch the delicate organisms.

“Don’t.” Julia slapped his hand away. “They’re all innocent and pretty looking, but many are carnivorous. They bite and sting.”

Bailey snorted. “Yeah. Right.”

Hardy swung between the red plants and Bailey, his voice raised. “Let’s focus on the task at hand and try not to get killed by tiny vegetation before we even find the nest.”

Bailey backed off, but he flashed Julia a sour expression before stomping away, grey water thrashing under his feet.

Julia ignored his posturing and re-adjusted the metal cartridge of the Sweeper on her shoulder. It still wasn’t as portable as she would have liked, clunking uncomfortably against her hip. Both Hardy and Sawyer had offered to carry it, but she’d been adamant she’d carry it herself. It was her prototype and her responsibility. She glanced back at Anna and Sawyer as she shifted the weapon. Anna smiled but Sawyer’s face was set in stone. Julia gave Anna a quivering smile and then turned her back on them both, blanking out the dull ache in her chest.

The water deepened to her knees as she sloshed on, Bailey’s snotty breathing fading as he moved ahead. Everything resisted her steps, and her thigh muscles ached with the effort. She glanced back frequently, unable to help herself, catching sight of Sawyer every time, the beam from his pulse rifle dotting the wet walls in a reassuring, rhythmic monotony.

In her mind, she tried to work out the location of Garrick and the others, anything to distract herself from thinking about the hundreds of tons of earth and concrete suspended above her head. She didn’t remember feeling so claustrophobic when she’d been down here in her twenties.

Anna huffed closer, monitoring her radio headset for a signal. Crackles and buzzes filled the echoing chambered roof above their heads.

“That’s loud,” Julia hissed. She stopped and swiveled, blinking in the red beam of Anna’s headlamp.

“I know. I’m struggling to pick up Foster. He keeps fading in and out of range,” Anna snapped.

“It might pick up when we’re closer to the nest. Then we’ll be nearer to each other.”

“It’d better. I don’t see how we’re going to coordinate detonation of the charges otherwise.”

A stream of expletives from ahead interrupted them as Hardy stopped and slammed the digital map he wore against his thigh with a smacking noise. His voice was clipped. “Bloody map’s given up the ghost.” He lifted it close to his face, pressing the reset button on the side repeatedly to no avail.

“Let me see.” Julia waded forward and took hold of his wrist. The display remained silent and blank. She fiddled with a combination of the reset and power buttons, but nothing happened. Damn.

Anna and Bailey crowded in. Sawyer hovered on the edge of the group, his gun raised, searching the darkness.

“It’s dead,” Julia said.

“How the hell are we going to do this without the map? I thought you people were organized. This is crazy,” Bailey blurted.

Julia ignored the accusatory note in Bailey’s voice, but she made a mental note to slap him in the face if he didn’t shut up.

Think.

“When the Sweeper’s activated, it does two things. It tracks acoustics to identify a target and discharges a lethal sound wave. They can be operated separately. We can use it to track. We can only use it for short bursts because the battery has limited capacity. But we can use it to track the Chittrix because any movement creates sound.”

Bailey whined, “Fucking shit, man. You seriously want us to creep around in the dark hunting these things by listening for them? Jesus.”

Julia fired him a steely smile, and he backed off, stepping away from the group in disgust, his face disappearing into the murk.

“What if you’re wrong?” Hardy asked.

“I’m not wrong. I know this crap back to front,” Julia said, more brusquely than she intended. “I can track if you’ll let me.”

Anna squeezed Julia’s upper arm. “I’m with Julia. Besides, we don’t really have any other options.”

Sawyer’s voice came out of the darkness. “If Julia says she can do it, we’re good.”

Julia started slightly. He was right behind her, and she hadn’t even heard him approach. His presence soaked into her back, her body attuned to the same wavelength as his, even now. She closed her eyes for a second, allowing his presence to ease the knotted muscles at the base of her neck.

Then he shifted, inching away from her, breaking the connection and she stiffened her trembling knees.

“Okay. Julia, you lead, and I’ll cover.” Hardy withdrew from the conversation satisfied, his voice low.

Julia flipped the main power switch with her thumb, feeling the Sweeper waken in her arms as it powered up with muted vibration. After the doubt and worry of the past week, she knew this would work, and it felt more right to her than any of the other recent thoughts she’d had, except perhaps the one where she realized she’d dumped the best thing that ever happened to her.

She moved forward, Sawyer a sentinel at her side. She risked a glance out of the corner of her eye but he was staring resolutely forward. Ignoring her? Or concentrating? She couldn’t tell.

They continued as a single unit, tracing the contours of the tunnel. An animated blue blob on the control screen indicated the shifting mass of the nest, two hundred feet ahead. Its edges were a fluctuating blur of subtle noise and movement that turned her knuckles white.

Breathe, Julia.

Sawyer halted in front of her, raising his hand, signaling her to stop. She froze, swiping her forehead to get rid of the cold sweat.

Hardy was at her side a second later.

“Fucking hell,” he whispered.

Thirty feet ahead, filling the entire floor of the tunnel, was a deep, heaving sea of Scutters.