It was five nights before the full moon, and even beneath the trees there was more than enough light to see by.

Privately, the young doctor wished that it were darker. Then his mind might have been able to gloss over a few of the more distressing details regarding the body on the ground. Instead, the silvery light of both moon and stars perfectly illuminated the whole scene.

At least in this light the blood looked grey, not red.

‘Has anyone moved the body?’

The doctor looked up to find Ehren standing over him, staring down at the body. A patch of shadow hid the older man’s face, but his voice seemed unnaturally calm, as if it would take a lot more than violent death to faze him.

The young doctor shook his head, swallowing hard as the movement made his vision swim. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No-one’s moved him.’ He could personally testify to that, because he had been one of the first people to arrive on the scene. The last thing that any of them had wanted to do was to poke around in the mess of torn skin and pulped flesh that had once been a human being.

Ehren sighed heavily. ‘Who is it, Seth?’

‘He’s wearing Sykes’s passcard. If we wanna be more sure than that we’ll probably have to fall back on dental records.’

Ehren grunted noncommittally, then turned and strode away a few paces. Seth straightened up slowly, half-afraid that the world would start spinning again, and then followed him.

‘How long have they been missing?’ Ehren asked him.

Seth checked his watch. ‘Six or seven hours at least. No-one’s seen them since the check-post reported them leaving this evening. Yesterday evening, that is,’ he corrected himself, since it was now just after half past two in the morning.

‘All right.’ Ehren stared down at the ground for a very long moment, the corners of his mouth turning downwards thoughtfully. ‘Seth, I’d appreciate an honest answer to something.’

‘Sure.’ Seth already knew what the question would be.

‘This was done by a wolf, wasn’t it?’

Seth wanted to say no, to somehow find some other explanation, but he couldn’t. Sykes had been torn open from throat to navel, his throat ripped out and half of his face chewed off, making him practically unrecognisable. There were obvious teeth marks on several of the exposed ribs, and the most cursory glance inside the open thorax revealed that many of the organs had been removed or partially eaten. It had been a wolf.

Slowly, Seth nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘All right.’ Ehren straightened, as if Seth’s answer had brought him to a decision. ‘I need you to contact Brac. I want to know exactly where everyone was tonight. Everyone.’

Seth knew that that applied to him as well, and he nodded again.

‘We’re going to have to organise a search team,’ Ehren went on. ‘We’ve still got another person missing.’ He looked up at the waxing moon above the black trees. ‘The boat’s going to be here in two days, and I want this all sorted by then.’

‘I’ll call Brac, sir.’

‘Good. And we’ll have to clear this mess up quickly as well, before it starts attracting more wildlife.’

Seth felt the bile rise in his throat again, and he turned away quickly. He didn’t look back at the body of Sykes as he walked to the jeep, and he was glad that the shifting shadows would mostly hide his face from the other people.

He wondered if Ehren knew exactly how much the sight of the corpse had affected him.

He picked up the radio from the jeep and called back to base. Brac wasn’t going to be happy to be woken at this hour, and he would be even less happy once he’d heard the news.

Seth glanced back at the body without really meaning to. The silvery quality of the light made the scene look even more unreal, and he could almost believe that the shape beneath the trees was just a tumbled mass of branches and rocks. Almost… if it hadn’t been for the thick smell of recently spilt blood and offal, which still hung heavily in the air. Seth squeezed his eyes shut.

He wondered how Ehren would react if he knew the exact cause of the young doctor’s discomfort. The smell of the torn, ruptured flesh had made Seth dizzy, because he’d wanted more than anything to plunge his face into it; to have that sweet, intoxicating smell surround him.