Monster (24 page)

“I
believe many organisms might have survived
the
impact
of the meteor
.”

“Why?”

“B
ecause
I
have resear
ched the history of both lakes. Of c
ourse
,
I
don
't
believe in the horror stories that have
grown up around them.
But
I
feel there must be something unsa
voury about the water in the lakes. The Mantons and
the
Ropans both got s
ic
k from drinking
it.
There has
even
been
recent history concerning the dangers of Point L
a
ke
– from the early settl
ers in this area. To this day, in Chile,
Lak
e
Curro
is
completely shunned. It is seen as
a
source
of illness.
No one even lives near it. Also, there is
the
fact
that
there
are
no
fi
sh in
ei
ther
lake. But if you ask
me
if
it is
the organism or the magnetism that causes all these
problems
, I'd h
av
e to say
I
don't know for sure. If you
ask
me
if
the
organism is from the
fifth
planet,
I
don't
know.
They are all intriguing theories. But I do know this
for fact: the kids who drank the most wa
ter from Point
Lake
were the
ones who got sick.”

“
What
do you mean, the most water?”
Angela asked.

“
It was hot last fall. The football team and the
cheer
leading squad practised in that heat. They drank sub
s
t
ant
ia
ll
y more of that water than anybody else, and they
were
the ki
ds who got sick.”

“
That'
s right.”
Ang
ela had never put that together be
fore, and it had been staring her right in the face.
“So
we have
two
possible
sources
of contaminants
here – the magnetism and the organism.”

“
That's correct
,”
Spark said.

“
Is it possible th
ey work together?”

“
I
don't understand your question.”

“
You said water that had been exposed to
a
strong magnet was bad for plants and fish. Is it possible that
the
organism thrives in such water?”

“
I never thought
of that before, but I doubt it.”

“Why?”

“
Because living things
don't appear to like such water.”

“
Living things on this planet
,” Angela said.

Spark was uncomfortable.
“I
would
be
extremely
reluc
tan
t to put the two ideas together.”

“
Why? If the organism came here from an
exploded
planet, then it came here on a piece of home
.
Ma
ybe
the whole surface of the fifth plane
t was magnetic.”

Spark was surprised at her wild postulating,
although
impressed.
“
You talk as if you've been there.
”
He glan
ced at his watch. “I
wish we
could talk more, but a student of
mine will be here in a few minutes. Before you go I
’
d
like
you to describe briefly
what is happening at Point High.”

Angela stood and thought for a minute. She had
believed Mary was insane –
even when she found the blood
caked
into the crack in the floor of the ware
house.
Even
when
Jim
had mingled his blood with he
rs
and given her
an
appetite for red meat that couldn't
be
satisfied.
It
had
n’t
escaped her notice that there was more iron in red m
eat than in practi
cally any other food. What was her
bo
dy
doing? Trying to change her into one huge polar
ized
alien micr
o-o
rganism? It sure felt that way.

Angela now believed
everything Mary had said was true.

“
We've got a few monsters on the loose,
”
Angela told Pro
fessor
Spark. “
Their numbers grow daily. I might be turning
into
one myself. I sure hope not, but I've got cravings no
teenage
girl should have. I'm so hungry right now I could
eat you
al
i
ve.
I
know you'll think that's crazy, but remember
how
people thought you were crazy to connect the two
lakes?
Don't toss out those stories ab
out the KAt
uu and
the Kalair t
oo quickly. There's a lot of truth in them
.”

Spa
rk was stunned
. “
Are you saying you're sick, too?
”

Angela threw her head back and laughed.
“I
had a dream
last
night that I was an astronaut who came back to Earth
after
a visit to the fifth planet and ate my best friends.
T
hen I
changed into a huge bat-
l
ike monster and was
eventually
hunted down by men with laser guns. Sounds
prett
y
corny, huh? Except my new boyfriend's a mem
ber
of
Point High's football team. He's the quarterback
.
H
e d
rank a lot of that bad water.
I
think he might be
quart
erbacking the whole show. His
name's
Jim
Kline, and
he’s the guy Mary
Blanc was trying to kill when the police
stopped her.
I helped them, for God's sake. I saved
Jim
's
life.
But you know what?
”
She leaned c
los
er.
“
I wish now
I had l
et her kill the bastard
.”

“Angela—”
Spark began.

“T
hank
you for your time,
Professor
,”
Angela said, turn
ing away. “
I've got to go
.
I've got to eat
.”

Sh
e ran from the room, and it was well for him that
he d
idn
’
t try to stop her. All of a sudden he had be
gun to smell t
oo good to resist.

CHAPTER
TEN

Angela heard on t
he radio
–
of all places
– t
hat Ma
ry
Blanc had been releas
ed on half a million dollars' ba
il. On
a Sunday for God's sak
e
,
Angela thought
.
Nguyen
had
been
r
ight about how good her lawyer
was.
Angela
was
si
t
ting in a McDonald's eating three extremely rare
Big
Macs
–
and finding them far from satisfactory
– w
hen
she
got
the news. A couple of fourteen-
year-old boys sat
across
from her with a ghetto blaster. She grabbed it out of t
h
eir hands when she heard Mary's name. But the newsca
ster
made no mention of where Mary was going, except to say that she had to remain in the area.

“Hey,”
one of the boys protested.
“
That
's ours
.”

She smiled. They were both rather plump, which s
he
thought made them more attractive somehow. It migh
t
be fun to
–
squeeze them. She handed them back the
ir
boom box and gave the one who had spoken a pat on
the
head.

“
Eat your food and keep your mouth shut, lit
tle boy,”
she said sweetly.

Angela got back in her car and drove to the expressw
ay.
She had an idea
where Mary would be hiding out.
H
er
family owned a cabin in
a forested area outside of Kemp,
which lay roughly between the University of Michigan
and
Point. Angela had been there twice. It wouldn't be t
oo
far out of her way to swing by the cabin and have
a
long talk with Mary about the KAtuu and the
missing
fifth planet and the long kiss
Jim
had given her
in the
middle of the lake. They could join forces. They could
be
a team. They could save the world.

B
ut
Mary might
k
ill me when it's
all
over.

Angela
would not put
it
past her.

She found the door to Mary's cabin lying wide open
when
she came to a halt at the end of the long gravel driveway. The cabin was nes
tl
ed in the midst of a thick
for
es
t. The nearest neighbour was half a mile away. Flies
buzzed
round Angela's
head as she got out of her car.

“
Hello?
”
she called.
“
Mary?
”

God.

The
re was a foot inside a black shoe lying in the cabin
doorw
ay. It was a man's leg, and it was attached to a
man’
s
body. Angela took a step closer, then stopped and
grim
aced
.
Already, with only half the body in view, she
cou
l
d see a dark puddle of blood had formed round the
guy. Yeah, h
e was real dead, like the two at the party last
week.
Another step closer and
she
could see that he had
a hole
in his chest that only a close-range shotgun blast
could have caused. He lay on h
is back with his mouth
and
eyes open a
nd flies crawling all over him.
Angela
rec
ogni
z
ed the man
–
Officer Martin, one of the cops
who h
ad helped Nguyen capture Mary. Mary obviously
had not appreciated his efforts.

B
ut the obvious was not always right. She had assumed
Mary
had done the
guy
so she could escape and go after the
mo
nsters. But another step into the cabin showed Angela a
sight
that outdid all the horrors she had witnessed in the
last
few days.