Moulding motioned to the soldiers as McShay approached. "What are this lot doing here? This isn't a military establishment."

McShay brushed his question aside with an irritated flap of his hand. "You're a month late for practical jokes, Rex."

"It's no joke. Look here." Moulding pointed to the bank of monitors.

McShay examined each screen in turn. They showed various views of the most secure and dangerous areas around the reactor. "There's nothing there," he said eventually.

"Keep watching."

McShay sighed and attempted to maintain his vigilance. A second later a blur flashed across one of the screens. "What's that?"

The fogginess flickered on one of the other screens. "It's almost like the cameras can't get a lock on it," Moulding noted.

"What do you mean?"

There was a long pause. "I don't know what I mean."

"Is it a glitch?"

"No, there's definitely someone in there. You can hear the noises it makes through the walls."

McShay's expression dared Moulding not to say the wrong thing. "It?"

Moulding winced. "Bob Pruett claims to have seen it before it went in there-"

"Where is he?" McShay snapped.

As he glanced around, a thickset man in his fifties wearing a sheepish expression pushed his way through the military.

"Well?" McShay said uncompromisingly.

"I saw it," Pruett replied in a thick Scots drawl. He looked at Moulding for support.

"You better tell him," Moulding said.

"Look, I know this sounds bloody ridiculous, but it's what I saw. It had antlers coming out like this." He spread his fingers on either side of his head; McShay looked at him as if he had gone insane. "But it was a man. I mean, it walked like a man. It looked like a man-two arms, two legs. But its face didn't look human, know what I mean? It had red eyes. And fur, or leaves-"