About 08:45, Orba Organics research centre, somewhere in the Pacific, Friday the 16th of April, 2055.

About 08:45, Orba Organics research centre, somewhere in the Pacific, Friday the 16th of April, 2055.

While languishing somewhere deep in the all-enveloping darkness of my sub-conscious I hear Yuki calling my name and my consciousness fights its way back to the surface. I open my eyes to find that she is crouched beside me looking concerned. "Louis, are you okay", she asks. "I think so", I reply. She slides me over to the wall and helps me sit up and the ringing in my head slowly begins to subside.

As my awareness returns, I realise there is still gunfire raging outside. "Was I out long", I ask our guardian angel. "You can't have been", she says, "I heard the explosion and came straight out to see what had happened and found you laying there unconscious".

Our conversation is interrupted by an enormous metallic crunch. There's a loud grinding and shattering sound and the noise from the AV-4's engines stops. A strong smell of fuel wafts up the stairwell.

Yuki checks once more that I'm okay and helps me to my feet. She says she's going to check downstairs to see if anyone needs help, now the gunfire has stopped. I tell her I'll escort the women out the back of the building and ask her to be careful as we don't know who won. She smiles at me and then heads off down the stairs.

Having got everyone from upstairs safely outside the rear of the building, I carefully make my way, gun first, around to the front of the building.

The scene that confronts me when I get there certainly explains all the sounds and smells from a few minutes earlier. Both AV-4s lay silently on the ground, the maintenance techs covering them both in white fire-suppressant foam. In my mind, for the briefest of moments, the vista becomes the first snows of Winter covering the carcasses of two wolves who fought and died for their packs in a fight over territory in some remote wilderness. Must be due to my concussion.

I head into the building, where Yuki is treating the wounded. Sykes has come down from his lucky window and the only people who I haven't seen since the end of the fight are Shen and Crash. Roland says Crash pulled him from the AV-4 before going back to his chalet for a rest. Sykes reckons he saw Shen outside at some point, but he's not certain. I'm sure Shen'll turn up at some point, if only to tell us what colour the boathouse is, back at HQ in Hereford.

I help to clear up the mess around what remains of the stairs. It's a good job the upper floors can be accessed from the back of the building too.

And finally, Sheila comes up with the background information on Janet. Going through the files, the events on the island over the last few weeks begin to be explained. Here's the edited highlights:

Janet Fletcher

Born in Windsor, UK, in 2001.
Graduated from New Eton in New Milton Keynes, aged 24.
She started work almost straight away as a researcher for Orba Organics.
In 2046 she began working on a project here on the island. She fell in love with and married the head researcher at the facility, Dr McGough.
During 2048 she was assigned to another project, back on the orbital station. Her husband remained on the island, but they both were granted special leave, which allowed them to visit each other regularly.
Early in 2052 the project on the island came to a sudden halt following an accident and at about the same time Dr McGough died. The island facility was cleansed and before the end of the year, a new building was ready for use and Janet was sent down to head the research projects taking place there. The initial research was into using nanotechnology to enhance the cellular growth of plants, but that study finished and then the current project, involving the manipulation of plant genetics, began.

Well, that's a summary of the publicly acknowledged record of events. Sheila also gave us access to some more privileged information about events on the island leading to the death of Dr McGough:

Prior to his death, he was studying the long-term effects of exposure to genetically modified foods, using chimps and pigs as test subjects. The 'accident' that brought the project to a halt was actually an attempted extraction of Dr McGough, by a company not formally identified, but assumed to be Biotechnica.

The extraction didn't go well. Several members of the research team were killed, but most of them fled into the island's jungle, using their local knowledge to avoid capture. Apparently, some form of limited guerrilla warfare ensued for about two weeks. The remaining members of the extraction team gave up at the point and left the island.

Why the research team appear to have been left to their own devices, by Orba Organics, for those two weeks is something I'd like to know, but I suspect that information will not be made available to us. I also wonder why the extraction team hung around for so long, but that could simply be due to having to fix their transport if it had been damaged in the initial attack.

A full two weeks after the extraction team left, a supply drop was made to the island. The supply team sweep the island and found the survivors, and the graves and bodies of those less fortunate.

Only one person, Dr McGough, is not found and when a more thorough search of the island fails to locate him, he is listed as missing, presumed dead. A company death report is filed, but no official record is made. Apparently Orba know that Biotechnica didn't get him, but how they know isn't specified in the files. Corporate espionage is a wonderful thing, isn't it!

I think it's fairly safe to assume at this point that the 'creature' which has been running around the island killing, was actually, until a few years ago, Dr McGough. Exactly how he changed and when are questions we can't answer at this time, though Yuki might be able to, if she's given enough time with the creature's body.

She's not going to get that time though, as Sheila tells us that we're being picked up from the island tomorrow morning. I wonder if Christene would like some company tonight. I could offer her some 'comfort' following a rough day...