The Keep (Adversary Cycle, #1)

by F. Paul Wilson

“May I see the paper?" "Certainly." Kaempffer took the proffered slip and read the two lines. Then he read them again. "Was this decoded properly?" "Yes. I thought the wording rather odd myself, so I had it double-checked. It's accurate." Kaempffer read the message again: Request immediate relocation. Something is murdering my men.

This is a book equivalent of the "In Space no one can hear you scream" from the opening scene of "Alien".

But what bothered Kaempffer even more was the choice of words. Woermann was intelligent and precise. He knew his message would pass through a number of hands along the transcription and decoding route and must have been trying to get something across to the High Command without going into detail. But what? The word "murder" implied a purposeful human agent. Why then had he preceded it with "something"? A thing – an animal, a disease, a natural disaster – could kill, but it could not murder.