“Between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown…some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God.”
-Gen. George S. Patton
“Okay,” Hendricks said aloud to himself, trying very hard not to panic. “So now you’re separated. Oh, God…well, she knows what she’s doing, right? You just need to find some way back inside and find her…or should you go straight to the boat, since she’ll be heading that way too? No, you need to find her first. Uh, this…this might lead somewhere…”
He was walking parallel with the facility, looking for an entrance. He thought that if he could only get back in soon, they might just run into each other. But the longer he walked without seeing any, the less likely this appeared.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic,” he muttered to himself as he went. Finally, after what felt like at least a quart of a mile (though of course it was much less), he found a door and threw it open, only to find that there was someone standing right on the other side of it.
“Ralph!”
“Hullo Mr. Hendricks!” Said Ralph cheerfully. “I am glad to see you still in one piece. But where is Ms. Marshall?”
“We got separated,” said Hendricks. “I’m trying to find her. Have you seen her?”
“No, not recently” Said Ralph. “Come along; let us search together. Back inside!”
“So, where’s Hogan?” Hendricks asked as they hurried down the corridor back (as well as he could judge) towards the garage.
“We ran into Anansi and were obliged to separate,” said Ralph. “Last I saw he was headed back towards one of the old silos.”
“What about Anansi?”
“Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about him; if I’m not mistaken he was on his way to the docks while we leaving them.”
“What, do you think the spider’s going to hop a boat and leave?”
“Nonsense; there probably isn’t a functional vessel left by now. I imagine judicious use of his webbing might solve the problem, though.”
“So…you think he’s going to make a raft for himself?”
Ralph shrugged. “It’s not impossible.” He said. “That’s what I would do in his place.”
“But you’re not a spider.”
“Yes, well, he’s no ordinary spider either, is he? In any case, I doubt we’ll run into him again. I couldn’t vouch for the snakes or any of the other creatures, though.”
“Not Boa,” said Hendricks. “Python just killed her.”
And, since Ralph seemed interested, Hendricks described the fight as well as he could.
“Ah,” said Ralph when Hendricks explained how Python had killed Boa. “Not so armored on the inside, are they?”
“I…guess…not,” said Hendricks, who couldn’t understand Ralph’s interest.
“Fatal flaw,” said Ralph. “All monsters have one.”
“Do you have a lot of experience with monsters?”
“I wouldn’t say a lot,” said Ralph. “But everyone knows that; haven’t you read anything about dragons or gorgons or the like?”
“But…those are just myths!” Hendricks pointed out.
“Are they?” said Ralph with an odd smile. “Are you entirely sure?”
Hendricks didn’t know what to say to that. Ralph was acting stranger than ever; he wondered whether he was starting to crack under the pressure.
“You surprise me, Mr. Hendricks!” said Ralph, catching the expression on his face. “Surely you don’t think that all monsters are the product of science, do you?”
Hendricks remembered the Giant Squid, and the unknown terrors in the sewers, and shook his head.
“Excellent! It’s a very troublesome thing; men have a very odd tendency to assume that they have a complete picture of reality, when in fact they’ve only been staring at a single thread of the great tapestry all their lives. Dr. Prosser is a man like that; he’s brilliant on his own field, but he’s working under the illusion that his field is the sum total of reality…”
The facility suddenly shook with a tremendous explosion.
“…Which, as you can see, has not worked out very well for him. ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophies,’ and woe to the man who forgets it!”
“What was that?” Hendricks asked.
“Hamlet, of course…”
“No, I mean the explosion.”
“Hmm, hazard a guess,” said Ralph after thinking for a moment. “Dr. Prosser is preparing to abandon Matoul and is attempting to destroy as much as he can prior to leaving. Of course, I believe he intends to destroy the whole island eventually, but…”
Another explosion, even stronger than the last, cut him off.
“…But he wants to make especially sure of these things, in case that doesn’t work. He tries to plan ahead, you know.”
“Why didn’t he have a plan to deal with, well, all this then?” asked Hendricks.
“He did,” said Ralph. “It didn’t work. There are circumstances that render even the best conceivable plans little more than words. In such cases, I recommend a blend of improvisation and prayer.”
Hendricks opened his mouth to respond to this, but they were interrupted. The handle of a door they were passing on their left suddenly wobbled noisily. Hendricks felt a thrill of anticipation:
“Helen?” he called.
The door suddenly dented outward from a powerful blow.
“I do not think so,” said Ralph. “Let us run.”
Hendricks felt as though he had run himself out, but Ralph seized his arm and dragged him along as he took off down the corridor, moving with alarming speed for a man of his size. Behind them, the door was blasted off its hinges as Hank Voyeur stepped into the corridor, looked about him, and strode after them.
When Helen had run out of the garage, she paused for a second to consider. Her first priority, she knew, would be to meet up with Hendricks again so they could make the run to the boat. But since they were both planning to head in that direction anyway, the smart thing, presumably, would be to head that way and take the first door leading outside, then skirt the building until she found him. In any case, that was the best she could think of in the brief moment she paused just outside the room where the two giant snakes were fighting.
This decided, she tore off down the hallway, looking for a left turn that might lead her outside. She didn’t find any for a long time, and when she did, someone was already there.
“You again?” said Ulla Orlich. “What an unpleasant surprise.”
Helen stopped dead.
“It might interest you to know,” Ulla went on. “That Donny and I have come to a moderately satisfactory arrangement.”
“I know,” Helen said automatically.
“Don’t be stupid, girl,” said Ulla dismissively. “You couldn’t possibly know that.”
“What? ‘Donny’ didn’t tell you?” Helen said with a derisive smile (for a moment her loathing of this woman overrode her fear). “I know all sorts of things. For instance, I know that your children are still alive, no thanks to you.”
“You say that like you expect me to care,” said Ulla, glaring at her. “By the way, Donny reminded me of something; if you get away, that might be awkward for me. Do you know what that means?”
Helen’s maniacal defiance faded. She looked into the older woman’s cold, cruel face for one more moment…then turn and ran for it.
“Oh, don’t be childish!” Ulla said, starting after her. “You can’t get away, you know.”
Helen did know, but she didn’t care. This seemed far from the most hopeless situation she had been in over the past couple days. She raced down the hall as fast as her tired legs would take her, neither knowing nor caring where she was going. Ulla raced behind her, but as she did Helen noticed something rather encouraging; unlike Charles or Hank, Ulla couldn’t move inhumanly fast. She was fresher than Helen, but she was older too. The race was as close to even as any she had made recently. Through the halls, up a flight of stairs, and on deeper into the facility they ran, Helen ahead, Ulla following about ten yards behind.
“Slow down, you damn girl!” Ulla gasped as they rounded yet another corner and down another hall, one which terminated in an open door. Hope surged in Helen’s chest; Ulla was tiring. If she could just maintain her lead for a little longer, she might, after all, escape…
She ran through the door and found herself at the end of a narrow catwalk that stretched the length of a huge, empty missile silo. Without pausing to consider, she started to cross it. It shook under her feet.
Suddenly, when she was about half-way across, another explosion rocked the facility, causing the already-trembling catwalk to sway dangerously. Helen stumbled, tripped, and fell forward onto her face.
She began to pick herself up, but then she noticed something that momentarily distracted her even from her current plight. The floor of the silo was only about twenty feet below, and it appeared to be moving. The next second she realized that they were cockroaches; thousands and thousands of them all crawling and buzzing around below her. She didn’t think she had ever seen anything more revolting, even on Matoul.
“Disgusting, aren’t they?”
Helen flipped over to see Ulla striding carelessly onto the catwalk behind her, gasping for breath, but looking at the roaches with an expression of extreme contempt.
“You know,” she said, still trying to catch her breath. “Just for making me run all over this goddamn facility I really ought to just throw you down there and let them settle you.”
Helen began to crawl backwards away from Ulla, who kept coming at the same slow, careless pace.
“But,” she went on. “If you give up now, I’ll just kill you quickly, how’s that?”
Helen didn’t answer, but kept backing away, breathing hard, her heart pounding painfully in her chest.
“Listen, honey,” said Ulla, quickening her pace. “Those things work by burrowing under your skin through your mouth and eyes and…other places. They’ll eat you from the inside out and you’ll be awake and aware the whole. Time. I’ve seen it happen. Trust me, you don’t want that.”
Helen suddenly staggered to her feet and tried to make a break for it. Ulla was after her in a second and seized her by the hair before she had gone more than a couple paces.
“Too late,” Ulla hissed. “You really ought to have take me up on my offer.”
Helen struggled, but there seemed to be something more than just Ulla’s hand gripping her; she felt as though her whole head had become encased in something warm and soft, but very solid. So solid that wherever it touched her, she couldn’t move an inch against it. She reached back to try to wrest herself free, but that only caused her hands to become encased in the same invisible substance as well.
Ulla pulled her sideways so that she was leaning dangerously far over the edge of the railing, looking down into the swarming, sickening mass below.
“No, no wait, please…” Helen gasped.
“I gave you a chance,” said Ulla. “But now you’ve been too much trouble just to kill quickly. I hope they take a long, long time with you. Good…”
But at that moment, another explosion tore through the facility, and this one burst through the wall of the silo itself. Ulla looked up and Helen at once found herself free from the strange force that had held her. Stumbling on the rocking catwalk, she ran for it. Ulla cursed and started after her again, but a terrible creaking noise caused them both to pause and look up in horror.
A huge girder had been blasted free from the silo wall and was falling like an enormous tree at right-angles to the catwalk. Bits of the wall, ceiling, and God-knows-what-else fell around it, but it drew the eye irresistibly as it swung out and down.
Helen and Ulla recovered their wits at the exact same moment. Helen made a mad dash for the door, and Ulla tried to follow, but before either could get very far the girder struck, smashed straight through the catwalk as though it were a twig, and crashed onto the swarming roaches.
Helen, by instinct or good fortune or both, had leapt forward just as the girder hit, and for what felt like a long time she flew through the air clawing and trying to find something, anything solid to grab onto. She finally landed back on the catwalk, which was now hanging ominously at a steep angle, and clung to it with all her strength.
Behind her Ulla gave a terrible scream. The girder had landed almost directly on top of her, and she had fallen straight down along with it. Helen looked back over her shoulder, but all she saw was a writhing, vaguely humanoid shape that was already completely hidden by the swarming roaches. She turned away, feeling sick.
No one, she thought to herself. Not even she deserves to die like that.
But Helen couldn’t dwell on it. She had to escape. Very carefully, but as quickly as she could, she climbed up the hanging catwalk. Miraculously enough, it held long enough for her to reach the far end.
Once in the room beyond, she slammed the door and leaned against it, struggling to catch her breath. There was a painful stitch in her chest, but she barely felt it: she was too busy savoring the relief of her latest very narrow escape.
Okay, she thought after a few minutes. Got away from that one. Now what?
That was a very good question, as she now had very little idea where she was or which way to go. The first thing to do was to find a way out of this room, which was dark and crowded with large pieces of unidentifiable equipment. She picked her way carefully through, trying to pierce the gloom.
Suddenly, a hand closed around her mouth and someone jammed the barrel of a gun to her chin. She gave a muffled scream and tried to twist away.
“Don’t move,” hissed her captor. “And don’t scream or I’ll blow your head off, understand?”
But she knew that voice.
“Hmhn?” she said.
“Now, I’m going to take my hand away,” he went on. “And you’re going to tell me who you are, got it?”
He let go of her mouth.
“H-Hogan?” she gasped.
“What…Helen? Oh, God, I’m so sorry!”
“Believe me, I completely understand,” she said, turning around. It was too dark to see, clearly, but there was no mistaking the voice.
“Where’s Hendricks?” he asked.
“That is a very good question,” she said. “We got separated, but look; we know where there’s a boat that we can use to get off the island…”
“The villa, right? Secret escape boat?”
“Exactly. So right now, we both should be heading in that direction, so if we go that way…”
“We’ll run right into him,” said Hogan.
“At least, that’s what I’m hoping,” she added. “Do you know where we are?”
“Second level,” he said. “But from the sound of it, there’s no way back through the silo, am I right?”
“You are,” she said.
“Then we’ll have to head out that way,” he said, gesturing off in the gloom. “I was about to go myself when the explosions happened, then you came in and…well, you know.”
“Yeah. Well, lead the way, captain.”
Chapter Twenty-Four: Man and Superman
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