Case File 13 #2 (11 page)

Nick looked around the room for something to defend himself with. The only thing he could find was the kind of rubber hammer doctors tested your reflexes with. Even if it was ten times as big, there was no way it could stop the hulking creature bending down to look in through the doorway.

Angie reached into her pack and pulled out her pepper spray. Nick didn't think that was going to work either. The creature's shoulders were nearly as wide as a small car.

Cody backed against one of the carts, shaking so hard he rattled the surgical equipment.

“Get out of the way, Carter!” Dana yelled, swinging a metal bar she must have taken from one of the trays.

“What are you doing?” Carter shouted. “Leave my friend alone.”

Nick thought Carter was yelling at the monster until he held out his arms, shielding the creature behind him.

“Your . . .
friend
?” Angelo asked.

“Of course,” Carter said, as if it should have been obvious. “What did you
think
I saw in the bathroom?”

The creature opened its mouth wide, revealing a set of surprisingly white teeth, and made a
huck-huck
sound that Nick realized was laughter. “Is putting he the watering on the pantsies.”

Carter looked at the front of his jeans, which had several spots, and flushed. “I kind of had a little accident. But you would too, if you were getting ready to go to the bathroom, when a giant suddenly asked, ‘What be you doings?'”

The giant covered his mouth and giggled.

Nick lowered his hammer. “He's friendly?”

“Oh, yeah.” Carter put a hand on the creature's knee which came nearly up to his waist. “Come in and say hi.”

The giant had to duck and turn sideways to get through the door.

Dana shook her head. “He's huge. No wonder they won the football game.”

Nick was sure this guy was even bigger than the Sumina Prep players he'd seen on the field Friday night. He was like some kind of freak of nature.

“Is fine timing to being . . .” The creature scratched the back of his head with a thick finger and paused before breaking into another wide grin. “To being greeting friendsies.”

Despite his size, he didn't look much older than fifteen or sixteen. But beyond how big he was, there was something else odd about him Nick couldn't quite place. The giant held out his hand.

Nick hesitantly took it. He was sure the giant would crush his fingers to a bloody pulp, but his grip was surprisingly gentle. “Nice to meet you, um . . .” He looked to Carter, realizing he didn't know what to call the giant.

“He doesn't seem to be big on names,” Carter said. “So I just call him Jake.”

“Nice to meet you, Jake.”

The giant grinned so wide, it looked like his face was going to split in half.

“Why does he talk like that?” Cody asked. He was no longer shaking now that he realized the creature wasn't a threat.

“He doesn't speak much English,” Carter said. “I think maybe he's from Iceland or something.”

“Iceland?” Dana asked skeptically. “What makes you think he's from Iceland?”

“You should feel his hands. Cold as ice. And look at the size of him. He's got to be from Russia.”

“Iceland isn't
in
Russia,” Angelo said, writing and drawing furiously in his journal.

“He looks kind of . . . um, lumpy,” Angie said.

That's what he'd been missing, Nick thought. The lumpiness. Jake wasn't just big, he was misshapen, too. As if he'd worked out some parts of his body hard and others not at all. His chest was broad, but his arms were almost spindly. His legs were big, but his rear was absolutely huge. And he had odd bumps on his shoulders, knees, and other joints.

Jake's face drooped.

“Don't say that kind of stuff!” Carter hissed, livid with anger. “You hurt his feelings. How would you like it if someone said you looked lumpy?”

Tiffany walked cautiously forward and looked up into the giant's face. “Come down here where I can see you.”

Jake knelt in front of her so that his face was only a little above her head. He sniffed. “Flowersies.”

“At least someone likes my perfume,” Tiffany said. She ran her fingers through the giant's thick black locks. “You have nice hair. But you're doing nothing with it. Let me see now.”

Nick watched, amazed, as Tiffany rooted through her purse, pulling out a circular brush, a pick, and a small can of styling mousse. “Well, you've got lots of body. But whoever cuts your hair should be shot.” She reached into her purse again, pulled out a small pair of scissors, and cut, brushed, and moussed, until even Nick had to admit Jake looked pretty good.

“What do you think?” Tiffany asked, holding up a compact.

Jake's eyes went wide as he looked at himself in the mirror. “Pret-ty,” he crooned, clapping his plate-sized hands.

“Make sure to use a high-quality conditioner,” Tiffany said, putting the mirror back in her purse. “Or those split ends will be back in no time.”

The giant nodded, watching her with big, green puppy-dog eyes.

“Not to be a jerk or anything,” Nick said, “but what exactly are we doing? We've gotta go back and tell the police what's happening here.”

“Right,” Cody agreed.

Carter eased up next to him and whispered, “What are you talking about?”

“These people are stealing dead bodies and cutting them up,” Nick whispered back. “And your friend probably knows all about it.”

Carter sniffed. “I'm sure Jake wouldn't have anything to do with something like that. Have you actually seen these so-called bodies?”

“We saw a brain,” Angie said.

“And what do you think all this stuff is for?” Dana asked, pointing to the operating tables and surgical equipment. “You can't tell me he doesn't know.”

Nick turned to Jake, who was still staring at Tiffany. “Do you know somebody called the Pale One?”

The giant immediately ducked his head and covered his face as though expecting to be hit. “Not are badding being,” he cried, trembling. “No master seeing.”

“You scared him.” Carter rushed to Jake and hugged him—his arms going less than a third of the way around the giant's shoulders. “It's okay.”

“I'm thinking he doesn't like the Pale One,” Angelo said.

Nick nodded. If a guy this big was scared of the dude, he must be pretty nasty.

Outside, thunder crashed. Blue light flashed through the open door. Another crash came a moment later. And another blue flash. Jake buried his head in his hands and howled. “No-o-o-o-o.”

“Guess he's not too crazy about the storm either,” Angie said.

Dana titled her head, looking into the hallway outside the classroom. “How are we seeing lightning flash from inside the school when all the downstairs windows are covered?”

Angelo stuck his head through the door and glanced down the hallway. “There's something going on down that way,” he said.

Nick followed him out of the classroom. At the far end of the hall a door was halfway open. Blue light flashed from the room, accompanied by a crashing sound they had taken for thunder.

“What is that?” Angie asked, coming up behind them.

Angelo shook his head. “An arc welder, maybe?”

Quietly, they crept down the hall. “It smells weird,” Dana said. “Like some kind of chemicals.”

They stopped just outside the door. Angelo eased it all the way open so they could look inside. He gasped and stepped back.

“What is it?” Nick asked, moving around to get a better look. Immediately he saw what had frightened Angelo.

Leaning over a table at the far end of the room was the Sumina football coach. Only he didn't look anything like a coach now. He was absolutely terrifying. Everything about him was white, from the wild hair that shot out from his head in every direction to his skin, which looked like it had never seen a day of sun. The only things not white were his pink eyes, which glowed like burning embers.

The man seemed to be performing some kind of operation. Nick could see a pair of legs sticking out from a white sheet. Blue bolts of electricity danced around the man's fingers, but Nick couldn't see any kind of equipment. It was almost like the man was creating the electricity himself. Sparks crackled from some sort of metal knobs at the sides of his jaws. His long white lab coat was stained with some dark liquid.

“What is that?” Angie said.

Nick didn't know, but all at once he wanted to get out. This was turning into way more than he had bargained for.

Cody elbowed his way forward. “That guy looks like some kind of mad scientist,” he said.

At that moment the man moved and Nick could swear the legs were attached to nothing. Just above where the thighs should have been, the sheet lay flat on the table.

The Pale One looked toward the door as though he sensed someone was there. Nick backed away as the terrible pink eyes met his. The crazed man grinned at Nick and blue sparks shot out of his mouth.

At the same time, Dana yelled, “Run!”

Nick spun around to see a horde of hulking figures in football uniforms racing down the hallway toward them.

“We have visitors!” The mad scientist cackled. “Give them a special welcome.”

Angelo grabbed Nick's arm. “We have to go.”

Nick didn't need a second warning. “Out the door!” he yelled, pelting down the hall. In the dark it was hard to tell who was where. Bodies jostled against one another. People screamed. Nick felt a hand on his elbow and jerked away.

Something rammed into Angelo and his glasses flew from his face. He started to fall, but Nick grabbed his arms and pulled him forward. Then Nick was at the door, pushing, screaming, racing into the street as he felt the cold rain hit his face. He looked back to see Angelo and Dana rush out the door. Angie was a few feet to their right. Carter sprinted past, catching up with Tiffany, who was in front of them all.

Because they didn't dare to look back for fear the football players were right behind them, it wasn't until they reached the train station at the bottom of the hill that they all stopped to catch their breath.

“I didn't see that,” Carter repeated over and over. “I did
not
see that.”

“It's not scientifically possible,” Angelo muttered, squeezing his monster notebook until his fingers turned white.

“It has to be some kind of trick,” Dana agreed. “Like in those haunted houses you see at Halloween. Or a movie effect of some kind.”

Angie was standing with her hands on her knees, panting. “Whatever it was, at least we got away. We're all safe.”

Nick looked around, taking a quick count, and his gut clenched in a hot ball of fear. “Not all of us,” he whispered. “Cody's gone.”

“We have to go back,” Nick said. Although the idea of going anywhere near the crazed man in the white lab coat made him want to puke his guts out, they couldn't leave Cody behind. Who knew what those freakazoids might do to him?

But Carter grabbed Nick's elbow as he turned to head up the hill. “Did you fry some brain cells in there? Going back to that school again is insane.”

“For once, the mouth that eats all is right,” Tiffany said.

Dana rubbed a bruise on her left arm she'd somehow gotten in their escape and chewed her lower lip. “We don't know for
sure
that he's still in the school. Things were crazy. For all we know he turned a different direction than the rest of us. He might be heading for another train station right now. Or calling someone to get a ride.”

The rain that had been falling all evening was finally coming to a stop, but the parking lot was filled with puddles. Nick stomped his foot in one, sending a spray of water onto a nearby car. “You're saying we leave him there? Am I the only one who saw what that crazy dude was doing in his lab?”

Angelo rubbed his eyes. He looked like a completely different person without his glasses. “If you want to go, I've got your back,” he said to a parking meter.

“Over here.” Nick sighed.

Angelo turned and squinted. “Oh, sorry.”

Nick pressed his hands to his face. Of course they were right. Sneaking into the school had been crazy enough when no one was expecting them. If they tried it again now, they might as well be handing themselves over to the crazy dude with the pink eyes.

Cody might have forced his way into the group, and he might not be as close a friend as Carter, Angelo, or even the girls, but it still felt wrong to leave him there. “We could call the police,” Angie suggested.

Nick took his hands from his eyes. “What would we say? We broke into a school and saw some crazy guy doing experiments on random body parts? They'd either throw us in jail or an insane asylum.”

“We have proof,” Angie said. “Tiffany's got pictures.”

Tiffany fished around in her purse. “Oh, no,” she moaned after several minutes of frantic looking. “I think I dropped my phone in the school. And it's got my name and address in it.”