Lawless said, from the back seat, "What'd he say?"

She covered the phone with her hand. "He's says they're getting the ball rolling and that the captain's given the green light for whatever he needs."

Although he should have considered that good news, he frowned. "Tell him we need men on the canals, now. It could attack at any second and if we don't have people in place it'll get away again."

To Baskel: "He says we need men on the canals right away." Then she handed the phone to Lawless and said, "You talk to him."

"Hey," Lawless said into the phone. "What's going on?"

He listened, didn't look impressed, repeated what he'd said earlier about getting men on the canals, grunted at Baskel's reply, clicked off.

He tossed the phone down, disgusted. "Baskel's not going out on the canals, he's going to the police station. They're gonna' have a meeting, 'get organized.' Meanwhile, the monster will kill someone else, or maybe two or three this time. They should get their asses out of the station and onto the canals where they might actually be able to do something."

"Hey, it's the party girl!" Nick called from up on the canal bank. Britney could see Josh and Brandon peeing into the canal. They didn't seemed to care that she was there. She climbed up and joined Nick.

The moon was bright, she could see a grocery bag sitting on the ground. Nick reached in and pulled out a red and white can, tossed it to her. She was a klutz and dropped it.

"Butterfingers," Nick said, laughing. She picked the can up and saw that it was beer. They have beer? How could they have beer? They're only in eighth grade. And why did they bring it here? They were going to a party, they didn't need to bring beer here. Surely they didn't think she was going to drink beer, she couldn't stand the smell of it let alone drink any.

"Aren't we going to a party?" she asked Nick.

"The party's here, babe. You're the party." His dirty smile was dirtier.

Josh and Brandon finished peeing, zipped up, joined Nick, opened fresh beers, and looked at her the same way Nick looked at her.

The three of them leered at her in the moonlight, and she knew she had made a mistake. She should not have sneaked out of her house this late at night and met these boys on the canal bank, boys she didn't really know. She should put the can of beer down, crawl back through the loose board in the fence, and get back in bed. Where it was safe.

That was exactly what she was about to do when Nick grabbed her and kissed her on the mouth. He didn't ask her if he could or if she wanted him to, he just grabbed her and kissed her. He rammed his tongue into her mouth, probing and jabbing. He tasted yeasty, like the bread dough her mother left to rise on the kitchen counter that Britney sometimes sneaked a piece of. His breath smelled like beer. Yuck.

But the touch of his lips on hers lit her up. She kissed him back, put her arms around his neck and held him close, not letting him break the kiss. It was the most wonderful, exciting thing that had ever happened to her and she had no intention of ever letting it end.

He did want her to be his girlfriend! He just had to act macho in front of his friends. That was why he was so cool; he always knew how to act and what to say.

Josh and Brandon started hooting.

"She a good kisser, dude?"

"You gettin' some tongue?"

Nick finally broke the kiss and pulled back, grinning the biggest grin she had ever seen. But still, it wasn't quite the right grin.

"Nice kisser," he said, taking her beer out of her hand and popping the top for her. Beer sprayed onto her clothes, but she didn't notice.

He had kissed her, and liked the way she kissed back; everything would work out, just like she dreamed it would.

She took the beer out of his hand and sipped; it was awful and she made a face. They laughed at her. She took a bigger sip, a drink, and fought the urge to spit it out. It warmed her stomach and made her feel a little giddy.

"Party on!" Josh said, raising his can.

She lifted her can and said, "Party on."

With the boy's constant encouragement, she finished her beer in five minutes. She was woozy and giggled at everything they said. Ten minutes later she finished her second beer and was drunk. The boys were drunk, too, stumbling around, pushing and shoving like boys do, telling dirty jokes.

Nick handed her another beer and she said, "I don't think I want another one, Nick."

He kissed her on the mouth again, rough, mashing her lips.

They parted and she took another drink. She would do anything to get Nick.

The creature drifted with the current, concentrating on the vibrations passing through the water and over its hide, sensing.

It was learning that the very acts of hunting and killing could be so much more than just the manner in which it obtained nourishment.

When the creature had torn its prey out of its machine, it felt something it had never experienced before, a feeling close to what humans call excitement. Its species had never killed for excitement, but then they had never been on this planet before, where the prey was so easy to take.

The creature had evolved and adopted an emotion of its preferred prey.

And it was dangerously close to losing control over its hunger, close to abandoning stealth and secrecy in favor of thrill seeking and gluttony.

Drifting with the swift current, it passed on the opportunity to feed on several single humans. It was looking for something different, eager to kill in a new way.

Following its senses, it quickened its pace, anxious, craving.

At just after eleven, nine patrol cars and eighteen police officers made their way through town, heading out to the canals.

The gunner, armed with a pump-action shotgun, sat behind the driver. With the canal to their left and the driver on the spot, both officers could keep their eyes on the canal, watching for any sign of the creature. They felt prepared and determined, and were confident their shotguns could blow it away.

Everyone knew what had happened to Billy Poloosa and his patrol car, and knew that Vijay Williamson was missing, surely taken by the monster.

They were determined, but they were also frightened.

"Why don't we go somewhere else. I'm sick of the smell of grease," Lawless said, closing the back door.

They drove south on Tully, intending on going to the same shopping center parking lot they'd been in earlier. On a whim, Jensen turned right at the next light and pulled in behind a standalone building occupied by two chiropractors. She had received a series of treatments there for a lifting injury and knew their parking lot would be secluded this time of night. It was.

She stopped the car directly behind the building and shut off the engine. Lawless was quiet and Jensen enjoyed the break from his grumbling. She didn't take it personally, knew it was more about frustration and helplessness. She was worried, though, about the effect one or two more visions might have on him. He was grouchy now, later he might be enraged or insane.

She wasn't sure what to say, or if anything needed to be said.

As it turned out, there was no time for small talk and it was good she had stopped instead of driving on, for his eyes were opened again and he saw.

"Ah ..." he said, laying down on the seat.

"What do you see?" Jensen said, starting the routine while reaching for his cell phone to dial Baskel.

"It's dark. Young boys, teenage maybe, drinking beer. Looks like they're already drunk. The one I'm in's having a problem standing still. Whoops! Fell on my butt. Oh yeah, another drink's going to help. Kids are such poor drinkers, no wonder it's illegal."

Jensen said to Baskel, when he answered, "It's started."

He said, "Damn," and she thought she could see him starting to rub his chin.

"I'm going to leave the line open so you can hear," Jensen told him.

"Right. Good idea. We have people in place. We're ready to go."

"Who're you talking too?" Lawless asked. "You're on the phone, now?"

"It's Baskel."

"Oh. Whoa!"

Jensen heard Baskel cover his phone, could just make out his muffled voice telling someone, "Lawless is having another one of his, things. We may need to move some men around."

He was back. "Okay. Let's do it."

Jensen held the cell phone over the back seat, a foot or so above Lawless's head.

"What do you see around you?" she prompted.

"Canal to my right. Fences on the other side of the canal."

"Wood fences or brick walls?"

"Wood."

"How wide is the canal?"

"Not very, narrower than the last one."

To Baskel, "Are you getting this?"

"Loud and clear. Any idea where he is?"

"That's your job this time, and you know we don't have hours to figure it out."

She moved the phone back over Lawless, heard Baskel say something but couldn't tell what, so she put it on speaker.

"Whoa!" Lawless shouted, waving his arms; he knocked the cell phone out of Jensen's hand and it fell onto his chest. She grabbed it and held it up again, a little higher this time, and closer to her.

"I hope I'm a girl because one of the boys just laid one on me. Close your eyes, I don't want to see this."

"Yes you do," Jensen said. "What else do you see?"

"Nothing. I closed my eyes."

Britney put her arms around Nick's neck again as he kissed her, this time more to hold herself up than to stop him from breaking the kiss. She jabbed and poked with her tongue, she thought, but as she was drunk for the first time in her life she couldn't really tell what her tongue was doing.

A hand grabbed her butt. She'd seen kids grabbing each other's butts at school dances, even in the hallway between classes, and had always wondered how it felt; it was kinda' nice. She pushed her pelvis into Nick without knowing why. It just felt like the right thing to do.

Nick thrust back, and that's when she felt it: Nick had something hard in his pants pocket. A stick? A flashlight? Then she figured it out, drunk as she was.

She broke the kiss and stumbled back, looking down at his crotch; his pants were bulging.

The boys howled with laughter.

She didn't know what to do. One part of her, the little bit that was still sober, wanted to run and find the loose board in the fence. She knew it might take her a while because she wasn't seeing too straight, but she would find it eventually.

But the drunk majority was in control and it said she would do whatever she needed to do to get Nick Hall for a boyfriend. And really, how bad was this anyway? They were just kissing. It wasn't like they were having sex.

She finished her beer, threw the can in the canal, and went to him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him hard, pushing with her pelvis again.

Nick kissed back. Josh and Brandon hooted and she felt Nick grab her butt again. She didn't care if Nick's friends were watching her kiss her new boyfriend, they probably wished she was kissing them. She spun inside and jabbed her tongue as far into his mouth as she could.

A hand groped at her breasts, squeezing and pinching. It hurt, but it also felt good. Her new boyfriend could touch her breasts, he probably couldn't get enough of her. Besides, it wasn't like they were having sex.

The creature lifted its head to look; multiple prey stood in a group. Strong emotions bathed it, fed it. The prey were excited. It considered striking now, but discarded the thought. It could strike anytime it wanted.

It idled in the water, and watched and fed.

The officers assigned to search Lateral No. 4 were Muscle Cop, Brett Howard, and Lady Cop, Trish Stoveson. Stoveson drove and operated the spot, Howard handled the shotgun from the back. Lateral No. 4 breaks off Lateral No. 3 west of the intersection of Coffee and Briggsmore, near Memorial Hospital. Their assignment was to search it from its origin until it passed under Hwy 99, approximately three miles of canal.

They began at 9th instead of Briggsmore and worked their way back. Had they started at Briggsmore they would have found four teenagers drinking beer up on the canal, and would have chased them away.

As fate would have it, the teens were on their own.

"What I think we have here is three horny boys and one girl, and alcohol: not a good scenario for the girl."

"What else do you see? Any large trees or houses?"

Jensen was trying to keep him focused but it was proving to be more difficult this time. His attention seemed locked on the people; fatigue and emotional strain had taken its toll.

"Come on, Danny. What do you see?"

"He's groping her, sick little bastard."

"No, what else do you see? We need to find out where they are so we can stop the monster from killing them."

"Right, right. Let's see." He paused for a few seconds and moved his eyes, searching for clues. "I can't see anything different. Just wood fences and the narrow canal. It's pretty dark."

"Can you see trees?"

"She finished her beer and he's coming in for another kiss."

"Trees, Danny, trees! Can you see any trees?" Jensen was desperate, afraid too much time had passed.

"Stop yelling. I see trees, big shade trees. I can't tell you what kind they are because I don't know trees."

She didn't care about the trees, she just wanted him focused on the surroundings instead of the action.