Authors: Christopher Pike
“
Not
yet,”
Jim
said. He raised his right hand and struc
k
Kevin
, hard, on the side of the head. Kevin didn't have a
chance to react
.
He slammed into the wall and crump
l
ed on
to the floor, unconscious.
Jim
turn
ed to Angela who
w
as
frozen in horror
.
“
Have you had anything to eat today?
”
Jim
asked.
Angela ran. She didn't know where she was going
and
as a result didn't get fa
r. One of the others tripped her
and she sprawled on to the floor. Back on her knees,
ready
to make another
dash for it,
she was struck by some
thing
hard and powerful on the side of the head. Like
Kevin
she was slammed int
o the wall, and she crumpled to the floor.
She didn't immediate
ly
lose consciousness,
though.
Rolling on to her back, she saw them gathered
round
her
, t
en-foot-tall statues from the wax museum of horro
rs.
Sticky warm fluid slid over the side of her face. J
im knelt and
touched her head. When he withdrew his fingers they
were red. He touched them to his li
ps, tasting her.
“Almost ready,”
he said.
Angela blacked out.
Mortici
an Kane met Lieutenant Nguyen at the back door
of his establishment.
Kane resembled a corpse more than
a live
man, Nguyen thought
. The man was elderly, white-haire
d, with an unnaturally smooth red face
–
he had on
a t
hick
layer of make-up
–
and smelled heavily of cologne.
Better
than embalming fluid
,
Nguyen figured. He had big,
moist
pale blue eyes;
t
hey appeared to be made of glass.
Nguyen
didn't understand how someone could grow up
want
ing to be a mortician. But he supposed it was good
someo
ne
had such an
inclination.
“I’m so happy you could come,”
Kane said, using both
palms to shake Nguyen's hand.
Nguyen had called him a
few
minutes earlier and
told him he was on his way. He wa
s alone because he had told Kenny Williams to go home
to his
wife and kids. If he could help it, he wasn't going to
lose
any more men this weekend.
“
No problem
,” Nguyen said, stepping into the man's lab
oratory. Twin stainless steel tables glistened beneath
harsh white lights
. The body of an old lady lay on the far
one.
She was dressed in a long white wedding dress and
ha
d on ruby-coloured slippers. Kane had obviously been
do
ing her make-up when
he stopped to answer the door. Kane
led him past the woman.
“
That's Mrs
. Bevin,” Kane said. “
She made a vow to
her
husband to re-enact their wedding once
they were in heaven.”
“Her husband approved of this?”
Nguyen asked, gestur
ing t
o the white gown.
“I d
on't know. He'
s dead. He died many years ago.”
“I see,” Nguyen said. “What did you want to show me?”
“T
hese,
”
Kane said, stopping in front of twin metal con
tainers s
et on a waist-level table. They were cylinder-shaped,
both a
bout four feet tall and a foot in diameter. Even before
Kane removed the lid of the one on the right
,
Ng
uyen
got a whiff
of
the repulsive odour. It w
as
unlike
any
thing he had smelt
before,
and yet it reminded h
im of
a smell he'd experienced
many
times in Nam.
The
stench
of death, of decay, of life lost. Yet this was
worse
tha
n any rot
ting body on the battlefield.
“
My Lord
,”
Nguyen said, taking a step back
.
“I
should have warned you
,”
Kane apolo
gize
d. “I use
these containers to hold the blood I drain from bodi
es
before
I
embalm them.
I
used this particular container for the blood
of
both of the
teenagers who
were
killed
at the party
.
I understand that you are in charge of
that
case?”
“
That is corre
ct.”
“
Has the girl said why she did it?
”
Kane asked.
“
The matte
r is still under investigation.”
“I understand,”
Kane said quickly
. “
Anyway,
I
drained the blood
of
both
these
young peop
le and put it in this container. That
was on Monday, the day before th
e
funerals. Ordinarily
I
dispose of t
he blood
immediately –
the same
day.
Bur I was
unexpectedly
called ou
t of town
on a business appointment and was late taking
c
are
of
the
matter. In fact, it was only today, while working on M
rs.
Bevin
,
that
I
remembered I had yet to ge
t
rid of th
e
material
.”
He frowned and nodded to the container h
e had uncovered a moment ago. “
But when
I
went to pour it away it was gone.”
“
The blood?
” Nguyen asked.
“Yes.”
“
Perhaps
you disposed of it and forgot.”
“Impossible,”
Kane said. He cleared his thro
at. “I
belie
ve
the blood was stolen. The lock on my back door had b
een
forced open
when
I returned
from my business trip on Thursday.”
“I
hadn
't
noticed.”
“I
had the
lock
fixed immediately.
I
cannot ha
ve my
establishment
unlocked
at any time. If I w
ere to have one
body
stolen, it would permanently rui
n
my
reputation
.”
“I can imagine,” Nguyen said. “
Were there any bodies
here while you were gone?”
“No.”
“Wh
o do you think took the blood?
”
Kane was disappointed. “
I was hoping you might be able
to shed
some
l
ight on the matter
.”
“I’m
sorry
, I can't,”
Nguyen gestured to the empty con
tainer. He assumed it was empty;
he couldn't se
e
over the
top of
it
. “
What's making that awful smell?
”
“T
hat's th
e other reason I called you out.
There was
some
thing in the blood of those kids who were killed.
”
“
Wha
t do you mean?”
“I’ll show you.”
Kane took a pair of gloves from his
back
pocket and
put them on. He reached up and ti
lted
the cont
ainer slightly, being careful not to let it topple.
A mass
of what could have been dark green algae was
growing
inside –
the stench unbelievable
.
Nguyen felt his
eyes burn
i
ng and took another step back.
“What
is that
?”
he asked, repulsed
.
“I don’t know,”
Ka
n
e said grave
ly. “In forty ye
ars of
exper
ience
I
have never seen anything
l
ike it
. I tell you those t
eenagers' blood was contaminated.
”
“With
what
?” Nguyen demanded.
“I don't know.”
“Some
kind of organism must have grown in the con
tainer
on the blood that remained.
”
K
ane was firm. “No. I realiz
e my leaving the blood in
the c
ontainer for so long before disposing of it must give
you
the impression that I am careless. But I assure you
that I a
m
seldom anything but a perfectionist
. I steriliz
ed
these two
con
ta
iners before
I
embalmed the two teenagers
. There
were no organisms in the containers at that time.
I coul
d swear to that in court. Also, whatever is growing
in here
is very unusual
.”
Kane
ti
lted the can more on its
side, r
evealing a portion of
the bottom. A narrow trail of the g
reen stuff had made its way down the rear of the
contain
er. The trail led across the short distance to the
second
container. Nguyen had to
l
ean over to see where
it
was heading and was surprised to find it ha
d al
re
ady
crawled halfway up the back of the second conta
iner,
which appeared to be well sealed
.
Crawled? It's not
an
animal
.
Nguyen didn't like to think it was an animal.
“What's in this other container?”
Nguyen asked.
“
Mrs
. Bevin's blood.”
“Interesting.”
“Y
es, indeed
.”
Kane was grim.
“It's as if this green matter
is hunting her blood
.”
He leaned closer
. “
Whoever
stole
the blood from this container want
ed it for some special purpose.”
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Angel
a dreamed of the alien world. The day the World
died.
The World remembered it well. Yes, even its own
end.
Because the World was unique. It could die and be
reborn.
The mind of the World
t
ook birth in Angela's mind
in the
nightmare
. She saw what it saw. She felt
its shock,
its t
error, as the men from the third planet, the one they
calle
d Earth, appeared to erect their mighty machine.