Eventually, Freyr put her pistol back in it’s holster and manually bolted the door. She wandered back into the living area, her eyes transfixed on the now empty armchair. Her breaths arrived in ragged gulps, and she realised her heart was racing. She shakily picked up the canister of pills and examined the prescription label. It had her name, address and dose instructions all printed out. Take one daily, with food. She opened the lid and shook a pill out. Water wasn’t going to cut it, Freyr decided, so she pulled a bottle of dark red wine from the rack, poured a large glass and took the pill with a big slug of that. She had no idea if the medication was really as they’d described, but at this point she didn’t care.

Taking a few more sips from her wine, Freyr sat down on her sofa and wondered what to do. Sleep seemed impossible at the moment. As horrific as today had been, she felt an undercurrent of inspiration struggling to break free. She’d had the first piece of evidence that her family may be alive. The creature had practically said so. She just needed to piece together all the information she had, and carry on building up a picture. Her thoughts drifted back to Vreta, the alien she’d found talking to that thing with David’s face. Why [i]had[/i] he been there at exactly that time? Had he been looking for something too? The alien had obviously witnessed something, something Freyr needed to know.

With night falling on Babylon and rain still pattering against her tall windows, Freyr activated her comms implant while absently sketching the legs and body of the ant creature and sipping her wine. Now, what was the name of the hotel Vreta had said he was staying at. Syna something? She began trying combinations and quickly found it. She put in a call request with the hotel AI who forwarded it to Vreta’s room. 

She grew nervous as she waited for him to pick up, not quite sure what to expect. When he finally did, she began talking quickly. “Hi, Mr Sori? It’s Freyr Lang here. Sorry to disturb you, but i can’t stop thinking about that moment back in the warehouse. Can we talk? As you may have realised, the reason I barged in like that was because it...it looked like my husband. He was abducted along with my daughter a few months ago and I've been searching for them. I’m not really sure what I'm looking for, but I believe any information you have about the creature could be useful. I’m a xeno-biologist, you see… I realise i’m gabbling now, but could we please just start from the top?”