Caliban Cove - By S. D. Perry Page 0,3

filled with the scuffed and well-worn furnishings that epitomized family.

"Chris and Jill should be here any time. You want some coffee?"

He seemed tense, scruffing nervously at his short red beard.

"No, thanks. Maybe some water." "Yeah, sure. Go ahead and introduce yourself, I'll be back in a minute." He hurried off to the kitchen before she could ask him if anything was wrong.

Introduce myself? What's going on?

She walked through the hall's arched opening into the cluttered, comfortable living room and stopped, a little startled to see a strange man sitting in one of the recliners. He stood up as she entered the room, smiling-but she could see by the way his dark gaze narrowed slightly that he was sizing her up. Even a few weeks ago, the careful scrutiny would have made her horribly self-conscious. She was the youngest S.T.A.R.S. member ever to be accepted for active duty, and knew that she looked it-but if anything positive had come from the incident at the Umbrella lab, it was that she no longer cared much about things like social embarrassment. Facing down a house full of monsters tended to put things in perspective that way. Besides which, being stared at had gotten pretty routine since then. She gazed back at him impassively, studying him in return. Jeans, a nice shirt, running shoes. He also wore a hip holster with a nine-millimeter Beretta, the

S.T.A.R.S. standard-issue sidearm. He was tall, may- be a full foot over her five-foot three-inch frame, but slender, with a physique like a swimmer's. He was almost movie-star handsome, a high, weathered brow and finely chiseled features, short, dark hair and a piercing gaze that sparkled with intelligence. "You must be Rebecca Chambers," he said. He had a British accent, his words clipped and somehow polished. "You're the biochemist, is that right?"Rebecca nodded. "Working on it. And you are..." He smiled wider, shaking his head. "Forgive my manners, please. I hadn't expected... that is, I..."

He stepped around Barry's low coffee table and extended his hand, flushing slightly. "I'm David Trapp, with the S.T.A.R.S. Exeter branch in Maine," he said.

Rebecca felt cool relief wash over her, the

S.T.A.R.S. had sent help instead of calling, fine by her. She shook his hand, stifling a grin, knowing that her appearance had thrown him. Nobody expected an eighteen-year-old scientist, and while she'd gotten used to the surprised looks, she still took a kind of mischievous pleasure at catching people off guard. "So, are you like the scout or something?" she asked. Mr. Trapp frowned. "Sorry?" "For the investigation-are there other teams al-ready here, or did you come to check things out first, get the dirt on Umbrella..."

She trailed off as he shook his head slowly, almost sadly, his dark eyes glittering with an emotion she couldn't read. It came out in his voice, heavy with frustrated anger-and as the words sank in, Rebecca felt her knees go watery with a sudden anxious dread.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Ms. Chambers. I have reason to believe that Umbrella has gotten to key members of the S.T.A.R.S., either by bribery or blackmail. There is no investigation-and no one else is coming."

A look of confused terror passed through the girl's light brown eyes and just as quickly was gone. She took a deep breath and blew it out.

"Are you sure? I mean, did Umbrella try to get to you, or... are you positive?"David shook his head. "I'm not absolutely certain, no-but I wouldn't be here if I wasn't... concerned about it."

It was a bit of an understatement, but David still wasn't past the shock of seeing how young she was, and felt an almost instinctive desire not to alarm her any further. Barry had mentioned that she was some- thing of a child genius, but he hadn't really expected a child. The biochemist wore high tops and cut-off denim shorts rolled at the knee, topped by a shapeless black T-shirt.

Get past it; this child may be the only scientist we have left.

The thought rekindled the anger that had been burning in David's gut for the past few days. The story that had been unfolding since Barry's call wasn't a pretty one, filled with treachery and lies-and the fact that the S.T.A.R.S., his S.T.A.R.S., were in-volved... Barry walked into the room with a glass of water and Rebecca took it from him gratefully, swallowing half of it in one gulp. Barry shot him a glance and then turned his atten- tion to Rebecca. "He told you, huh?"