Slither - Edward Lee [122]
But 'Dent glared at Slydes. "I told you to never come here without my permission! I told you I was escorting a photo shoot! I specifically instructed you to stay away until it was over!"
"Jonas got more buyers," Slydes said, "and ran out. We needed to come out here to get more product. We'd planned to be in and out real quick but ... things didn't work out."
"You're not kidding they didn't work out!" Trent yelled.
Nora looked mystified. "You know this guy?" she asked Trent.
"Yeah, I know him all right. The dumb son of a bitch is my brother, and so is Jonas. I gave them the key to these two head shacks."
"What for?"
Trent frowned. "For hydroponic marijuana. Jonas, my other brother, is a pot grower, and Slydes brings him back and forth in his boat. I've been letting them use these facilities for the past two years."
Nora looked deflated by the information. "I've read all about it," she said. "Hydroponic pot is twice as potent, and has double the street value. The only problem is the need for constant electric light and fresh waterbut that's not a problem out here, is it?"
"No," Trent said. "It's all unmonitored and it's all free."
"And you get .a cut of the profits ..."
"Of course I do. It's just pot, for Christ's sake, it's not like it's heroin," he tried to justify. "I didn't see any real harm. The RTG'll be producing electricity for the next fifty years. And since I'm the only one who checks the island ..."
"What the army doesn't know won't hurt them, huh?" Nora goaded.
"Something like that." Trent shook his head. "Shit."
"The army'll know now," Slydes spoke up, "'cause this bitch'll tell 'em." He whipped out his Buck again. "Lemme just kill her right now."
Trent drew his gun. "You're not killing anyone, Slydes."
"Can't believe you're pointing a gun at your own brother!" Slydes growled.
"Speaking of brothers, where's Jonas?"
"He's dead," Slydes said.
Trent looked astonished. "Dead? Are you sure?"
"He was sure as shit dying when I left him. Them yellow things got him. They're, like, eggs. He was coughing them up, and turnin' yellow. He told me to split before his mind went and he tried to infect me."
"Same thing'll happen to you," Nora interrupted. "Soon."
"Bullshit! I'll cut your skinny throat!"
"Just shut up!" Trent yelled. "I've got to think!"
"There's nothing to think about," Nora said. "One brother's dead and this one's dying of the same thing."
"Don't listen to the bitch! She's lyin', tryin' to turn you against me!"
Nora's face lit up in a cynical grin. "Lieutenant, he just passed a pound of ova out his bladder." She quickly pointed to the mound of dead ova.
Trent stared at it, then at Slydes. "You fucked everything up, Slydes. You should never have come here. I don't know what I'm going to do now."
"First thing you can do is let me turn this bitch into cold cuts. Then we can get out of here."
"Where's that girl with the funny lips you always got with you?"
"Dead, too," Slydes told him.
"No big loss there."
"Some big guy got her. He was all yellow, looked like he was rotting. Even looked like he was changing underneath his skin."
"Mutagenesis," Nora cut in. "It's not an uncommon trait among certain nematodes. Their ova will attack a potential host with a DNA-changing virus, to make the host's living body more habitable for the worms." She pointed to Slydes again. "That'll be happening to you real soon. It's already happening."
Slydes stepped toward her with the big knife. "I'm skinnin' her right now, so help me!"
"Back off, Slydes." Trent cocked his pistol. "I'm not thinking too clearly right now, so just ... back ... off."
Slydes stepped back, grinding his teeth.
"Did you examine the body of the man that Loren shot?" Nora asked.
Trent looked grim. "Yeah....."
"And it was no man from this planet, was it?"
"You know?"
"Loren and I got into the old control station. It was full of all kinds of alien shit," she said. "They turned the place into a field lab and were implanting worms into humans. And