Read Prodigal for Free Online

return into dead-channel static—but within that blizzard of digital snow, Nathan picked out a recognizable outline.
    A head. A torso.
    Arms and legs.
    A body.
    “Move,” he ordered.
    The location was only steps away, though the tunnel seemed to extend itself in advance of their march. The entire time, Nathan used his eyes to confirm what the scanner plainly showed. It was impossible to pick out details in the swaying helmet lights, but that did nothing to dispel his certainty. In the confined space, he felt it closing around him like dark matter.
    Flesh and bone. Somebody here.
    Nathan slowed as the beeps sounding off in his helmet reached a fever pitch, finally stopping when he could hear nothing else. He turned his head from side to side, following the sweep of his scanner as he searched through the gloom for physical evidence of what the device told him. But the proof would not reveal itself—not until he accidentally bumped against it and felt something yield to his touch.
    “I’ve got something!” he yelled.
    The thing was slumped against the wall, disguised in a mimicry of color and shadow. It only materialized when Nathan kicked it, the resulting deformation bending light and allowing shapes to spring out of nothingness—the same shapes he had seen on the scanner.
    “Camochrome,” he pronounced.
    Nathan knelt down and felt along the outline of a human form that shimmered in and out of view. He worked his way over the chest plates, eventually finding the smooth, rounded shape of a helmet. Gripping it with both hands, he gave it a hard pull and plucked it off.
    A desiccated face stared back.
    With no organisms to feed on it, the corpse was remarkably well preserved. Milky eyes, still wide open in amazement, topped pallid cheeks crisscrossed by blue capillary trails. Below that, the jaw stood rigid and open, a desiccated tongue poking from the back of the throat. The close-cropped hair and rank insignia made the dead man easily identifiable—as did the pulse rifle lying at his side.
    “I think we found one of your missing soldiers, Kellean,” Pitch said.
    Nathan stepped aside as the specialist came forward. She approached the body with trepidation, caught between professional curiosity and revulsion. “He was a lieutenant,” Kellean said. “Full grade—probably a squad commander.” Gingerly, she brushed her fingers against the dead man’s lips, tracing a white powder that had caked against his skin. “Looks like poison. Could have been self-inflicted.”
    “So much for having a plan,” Pitch remarked.
    “I’m not so sure,” Nathan interjected. He had ventured a few meters past the others, into what appeared to be a tangle of debris littering the cave floor. The lieutenant’s body, however, made those contours take on more ominous dimensions. Nathan nudged his foot against a few of them, exposing more camochrome—more bodies and body parts, silhouettes leaping out at him before retreating back into the dark. There was no telling how many.
    “My God,” Kellean said, rising to her feet.
    “ These guys didn’t kill themselves,” Nathan told them. “Poor bastards were blown to pieces.”
    Pitch carefully stepped around the remains as he walked toward Nathan. Along the way, he pointed his helmet light at several jagged holes carved out of the cave walls. “Definitely some heavy fire in here,” he said. “Must’ve been one hell of a fight.”
    “Looks pretty one-sided to me,” Nathan said, examining the area around him. “I don’t see any other weapons.”
    Pitch turned back toward the dead lieutenant. “Blast patterns indicate the shots originated from back there,” he speculated. “Our friend could have been the only one shooting.”
    “Which means he killed his buddies, then killed himself.”
    “I don’t get it,” Kellean said, a rising tension in her voice. “A squad leader wouldn’t turn on the rest of his men. The SEF code demanded absolute loyalty to the unit. There’s