Mutation (36 page)

     Victor was still debating with himself whether to go in or not when the door to the police station opened and Sergeant Cerullo came barging out, bumping into Victor.

     Cerullo juggled his hat, which had been jarred from his head, then excused himself vehemently before he recognized Victor. "Dr. Frank!" he said. He apologized again, then asked, "What brings you into town?"

     Victor tried to think of something that sounded reasonable but he couldn't. The truth was too much in his mind. "I have a problem. Can I talk to you?"

     "Geez, I'm sorry," Cerullo said. "I'm on dinner break. We gotta eat when we can. But Murphy is in at the desk. He'll help you. When I get back from supper, I'll make sure they treated you right. Take care."

     Cerullo gave Victor's arm a friendly punch, then pulled the door open for him. Whether he wanted to or not, Victor found himself inside.

     "Hey, Murphy!" Cerullo called. His foot held the door open. "This here is Dr. Frank. He's a friend of mine. You treat him good, understand?"

     Murphy was a beefy, red-faced, freckled Irish cop whose father had been a cop and whose father's father had been a cop. He squinted at Victor through heavy bifocals. "I'll be with you in a minute," he said. "Take a seat." He pointed with his pencil to a stained and scarred oak bench, then went back to a form he was laboriously filling out.

     Sitting where he was advised, Victor's mind went over the conversation he was about to have with Officer Murphy. He could see himself telling the policeman that he has a son who is an utter genius and who is growing a race of retarded workers in glass jars and who has killed people to protect a secret lab he built by blackmailing embezzlers in his father's company. The mere fact of putting the situation into words convinced Victor that no one would believe him. And even if someone did, what would happen? There would be no way to associate VJ with any of the deaths. It was all circumstantial. As far as the lab equipment was concerned, it wasn't stolen, at least not by VJ. As far as the cocaine was concerned, the poor kid was coerced by a foreign drug lord.

     Victor bit his lower lip. Murphy was still struggling with the form, holding the pencil in his meaty hand, his tongue slightly protruding from his mouth. He didn't look up so Victor continued his daydream. He could see VJ shuffled through the legal system and out the back door. He'd have his fully modern lab up and running with a capability of almost anything. And VJ had already proven his willingness to eliminate those who dared to stand in his way. Victor wondered how long he and Marsha would live under those circumstances.

     With a sense of depression that bordered on tears, Victor had to admit to himself that his experiment had been too successful. As Marsha had said, he hadn't considered the ramifications of success. He'd been too overwhelmed with the excitement of doing it to think of the result. VJ was more than he'd bargained for, and with the constitutional constraints of law enforcement, the social system was ill-equipped to deal with an alien like VJ. It was as if he were from another planet.

     "Okay," Murphy said as he tossed his form into a wire mesh basket on the corner of his desk. "What can we do for you, Dr. Frank?" He cracked his knuckles after the strain of holding the pencil.

     Without much confidence, Victor got up and walked over to the duty desk. Murphy regarded him with his blue eyes. His shirt collar appeared too tight and the skin of his neck hung over it.

     "Well, watcha got, Doc?" Murphy asked, leaning back in his chair. He had large heavy arms, and he looked like just the kind of guy you'd like to have arrive if kids were stealing your hubcaps or removing your tape deck.

     "I have a problem with my son," Victor began. "We found out that he'd been skipping school to-"

     "Excuse me, Doc," Murphy said. "Shouldn't you be talking to a social worker, somebody like that?"

     "I'm afraid the situation is beyond the ken of a social worker," Victor said. "My son has decided to associate with criminal elements and-"

     "Excuse me for interrupting again, Doc," Murphy said. "Maybe I should have said psychologist. How old is your boy?"

     "He's ten," Victor said. "But he is-"

     "I have to tell you that we have never gotten a call about him. What's his name?"

     "VJ," Victor said. "I know that-"

     "Before you go any further," Murphy said, "I have to tell you that we have a lot of trouble dealing with juveniles. I'm trying to be helpful. If your son had done something really bad, like expose himself in the park or break into one of the widows' houses, maybe it would be worth involving us. Otherwise I think a psychologist and maybe some old-fashioned discipline would be best. You get my drift?"

     "Yeah," Victor said. "I think you are entirely right. Thanks for your time."

     "Not at all, Doc," Murphy said. "I'm being straight with you since you're a friend of Cerullo's."

     "I appreciate it," Victor said as he backed away from the desk. Then he turned and fled to his car. Once inside his car, Victor felt a tremendous panic. All of a sudden he realized that he alone had to deal with VJ. It was to be father against son, creator against creature. The comprehension brought forth a feeling of nausea that rose up into Victor's throat. He opened the car door, but by shuddering he was able to dispel the nausea without vomiting. He closed the car door and leaned his forehead against the steering wheel. He was drenched in sudden sweat.

     From Old Testament studies as a child, the plight of Abraham came to Victor. But he knew there were two huge differences. God wasn't about to intervene in this instance, and Victor knew that he could not kill his son with his hands. But it was becoming progressively clear that it would be VJ or Victor.

     Then, of course, there was the problem of Marsha. How was he to get her out of the lab? Another wave of panic settled over Victor. He knew that he had to act quickly before VJ's intelligence could become a factor. Besides, Victor knew that if he didn't act quickly, he might lose his nerve and commitment.

     Victor started the car and drove home by reflex as his mind struggled with coming up with some kind of plan. When he arrived at home, he first went to the root cellar and checked Jorge. He was sleeping like a baby, comfy and cozy beneath his mound of blankets and rags. Victor filled an empty wine bottle with water and left it by the man's head.

     Coming into the house, the phone again frightened Victor. Victor looked at it and debated. What if it were Marsha? As it started its fourth ring, Victor snatched up the receiver. He said hello timidly, and for good reason. The voice on the other end was a man's voice with a heavy Spanish accent. He asked for Jorge.

     Victor's mind momentarily went blank. The voice asked for Jorge again, a bit more insistently.

     "He's in the john," Victor managed.

     Without understanding the Spanish, Victor could tell there was no comprehension. "Toilet!" Victor shouted. "He is in the toilet!"

     "Okay," the man said.

     Victor hung up the phone. Another wave of panic spread through his body like a bolt of electricity. Time was pressing in on Victor like a runaway train approaching a precipice. Jorge could only be in the john for so long before an army would be sent out like the one that visited Gephardt's home.

     Victor pounded his hand repeatedly on the counter top. He hoped that the violence of the act would shock him into getting hold of himself so that he could think. He had to come up with a plan.

     Fire was Victor's first thought. After all, the clock tower building was ancient and the timber dry. He wanted to come up with some sort of cataclysmic event that would get rid of the entire mess in one fell swoop. But the problem with fire was that it could be extinguished. Half a job would be worse than nothing because then Victor would face VJ's wrath, backed up by Martinez's muscle.

     An explosion was a much better idea, Victor decided upon reflection. But how to pull it off? Victor was certain he could rig a small explosive device, but certainly not one capable of demolishing the entire building.

     He'd think of something, but first he had to get Marsha out. Going into his study, Victor took out the photocopies he'd made when he had been searching for a way into the building's basement. He hoped he might get Marsha out through one of the tunnels. But from studying the floor plans, it immediately became clear that none of the tunnels entered the clock tower building anywhere near the living quarters where she was being held. He folded the plans and put them in his pocket.

     The phone rang again, further jangling Victor's frayed nerves. Victor didn't answer a second time. He knew he had to get out of the house. VJ or the Martinez gang were sure to get suspicious if Jorge remained incommunicado for long. Who could tell when they might show up to check for themselves?

     It was well past dark now, as Victor pulled out of the garage. He turned his lights on and headed for Chimera, praying to God he might come up with some sort of strategy for getting Marsha out and ridding the world of this Pandora's box of his own creation.

     Victor suddenly jammed on his brakes, bringing his car to a screeching halt at the side of the road. Almost miraculously, a plan began to form in his mind. The details began to fall into place. "It might work," he said through clenched teeth. Taking his foot from the brake, he stomped on the accelerator and the car leaped ahead.

     Victor could barely contain himself as he went through the rigmarole of gaining entry to Chimera. Once in, he drove directly to the building housing his lab and parked right in front of the door. Because of the late hour, the structure was deserted and locked. Victor fumbled with his keys and unlocked the door. When he got into his lab, he forced himself to stop for a moment to calm down. He sat down in a chair, closed his eyes, and tried to relax every muscle in his body. Gradually, his heart rate began to slow. Victor knew that to accomplish the first part of his plan he needed his wits about him. He needed a steady hand.

     Victor had all the things he needed in the lab. He had plenty of glycerin and both sulfuric and nitric acids. He also had a closed vessel with cooling ports. For the first time in his life, all the hours he'd spent in chemistry lab in college paid off. With ease he set up a system for the nitrification of the glycerin. While that was in progress, he prepared the neutralization vat. By far the most critical stage was carried out with an electrical drying apparatus which he set up under a ventilation hood.

     Before the drying was complete, Victor got one of the laboratory timing devices and a battery pack and hooked up a small ignition filament. The next step was the most trying. There was a very small amount of mercury fulminate in the lab. Victor carefully packed it gently into a small plastic container. Carefully, he pushed in the ignition filament and closed the cap.

     By this time the nitroglycerin was dry enough to be packed into an empty soda can that he'd retrieved from the wastebasket. When it was about one quarter full, Victor gently lowered the container with the ignition filament into the can until it rested on the contents. He then added the rest of the nitroglycerin and sealed the can with parrafin wax.

     Taking everything back to his lab office, Victor started a search for some appropriate container. Glancing into one of the technicians' offices, he spotted a vinyl briefcase. Victor opened the latches and unceremoniously dumped the contents onto the individual's desk. He carried the case back to his office.

     With the empty briefcase on his desk, Victor wadded up paper towels to create a cushioned bed. Carefully he laid the soda can, the battery pack, and the timing device on the crumpled paper towels. He then wadded up additional paper towels to fill the briefcase to overflowing. With gentle pressure, he forcibly closed and latched the lid.

     From the main part of the lab, Victor got a flashlight. He took out the plans that showed the tunnel network. He studied them carefully, noting that one of the main tunnels ran from the clock tower to the building housing the cafeteria. What was especially encouraging was that close to the clock tower, a tunnel led off in a westerly direction.

     Carrying the briefcase as carefully as possible, Victor crossed to the cafeteria building. Access to the basement was in a central stairwell. Victor went down into the basement and opened the heavy door that sealed the tunnel to the clock tower.

     Victor shined his flashlight into the tunnel. It was constructed of stone blocks. It reminded Victor of some ancient Egyptian tomb. He could only see about forty feet in front of him since the passageway turned sharply to the left after that. The floor was filled with rubble and trash. Water trickled in the direction of the river, forming black pools at intervals.

     Taking a deep breath for courage, Victor stepped into the cold, damp tunnel and pulled the door shut behind him. The only light was the swath cut by his flashlight beam.

     Victor set off, determined but cautious. Too much was at stake. He couldn't fail. In the distance he could hear the sound of water running. Within a few minutes he'd passed a half dozen tunnels that branched off the main alley he was in. As he got closer to the river he could feel the falls' throb as much as hear it.

     Victor felt something brush by his legs. Forgetting himself, he leaped back in terror, flailing the briefcase precariously. Once he'd calmed himself, he flashed a beam of light behind him. A pair of eyes gleamed in the beam of the ray. Victor shuddered, realizing he was staring at a sewer rat the size of a small cat. Summoning his courage, he pressed on.

     But only a few steps past the rat, Victor slid on the floor's suddenly slippery surface. Frantic to maintain his balance, he had the presence of mind to hug the briefcase tightly as he fell against the wall of the tunnel. Victor stayed on his feet; he did not fall to the ground. Luckily, his elbow had slammed into the stone, not the case. If the briefcase had hit instead, or if he had fallen, it would undoubtedly have detonated.