Ultimate Thriller Box Set - Crouch Blake. Страница 43

On the end of one, Harker spotted her skewered big toe.

Harker bit her lower lip to keep from screaming again. Shirley appeared to be asleep. Maybe she still had a chance to make it out of there alive.

She looked around the room. The phone was on the nearby dresser, but talking might wake the creature. Instead, she twisted toward the door, only a few feet away.

Harker pulled herself along the soggy carpet, using her arms and her remaining leg. She felt no fear. She was remote, detached from the situation. And cold. So cold.

I'm going into shock, she thought, shivering. The edges of her world began to blur and slip away. She bit the inside of her cheek to stay awake.

Almost there. Just a little more.

She made it!

Julie reached up at the door knob, turning... turning...

“MaaaaaMaaaaaa.”

Harker screamed as Shirley sprung from the bed, scurrying over to her on many legs.

The demon climbed atop Harker and hissed.

“All I wanted was to love you,” Harker moaned.

Shirley began to eat again. Harker closed her eyes, unable to put up a fight. She gave in to shock, grateful that the cold was overtaking her.

At least she wouldn't feel any pain anymore.

As it turned out, Harker was able to feel more pain. For quite some time, in fact.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Andy leaned back in a chair, doing his best to fight exhaustion and one whopper of a headache. A search of the desk drawers had uncovered a bottle of Tylenol. They all took several. They hadn’t found any water, and Andy felt like the tablets were still caught in his throat.

“How long can Bub go without food?” he asked Sun.

“I don't know.”

“I’m immoooooortal,” Bub answered through the bars of the titanium gate.  The demon giggled again, making all the hair on Andy’s body stand on end.

“In his claws!” Dr. Belgium shouted, springing to his feet. He'd been scrutinizing one of the squashed little demons. “Yes yes yes. The sheep's leg had a puncture wound. I didn't know where it came from. But now I know.”

“Know what, Frank?”

Andy and Sun came over and looked. Belgium spread the claw open, and a tiny needle came out the center of the palm. When he released the pressure, the needle retracted.

“How Bub reproduces. No sex organs. When he fixed Helen and brought the sheep back to life, he touched them with his talons.”

Sun said, “Go on.”

“Bub uses the syringe in his palm to inject organic matter with some kind of serum, something probably containing hormones and enzymes. This serum can restructure DNA; restriction enzymes cut the DNA up, then it's put back into any order Bub wants it to be in. Maybe he uses a virus, or a retro virus, to take over the cells operating machinery—that's how we splice genes—and then during mitosis the cells change into whatever Bub preprograms.”

“That's how Helen changed into that monster.” Sun said, nodding. “And how Rabbi Shotzen became those batlings.”

“Right right right. Remember, humans are 90 percent intron genes—genes that don't code for protein. But they could be cut up with enzymes and patched back together so they can code for protein. There's a wealth of raw material in DNA, if it could only be activated by enzymes or hormones.”

“That could also explain Bub's rapid healing abilities, and why he doesn't age,” Sun agreed.

“He can program his own DNA to heal itself.”

“So why are the batlings so easy to kill?” Andy asked. “Why can’t they heal themselves?”

Belgium shrugged. “Not mature enough yet. Their systems haven’t fully developed. They’re a generation removed from the host. I’m not sure. But there’s a scientific explanation.”

Andy stared at Bub and scowled. “Not a miracle at all.”

Bub growled, his eyes becoming malevolent yellow slits.

“Did you get a work-up of the proteins involved?” Sun asked Belgium.

“Not yet. Didn't have time.”

“How about the mitochondrial DNA?”

“Hmm? Oh, that. Yes yes yes. The Short Tandem Repeat got a hit on that.”

“And...?” Sun asked.

“His mitochondria encompassed 70 percent of the genome for Methanococcus jannaschii. An archaean.”

Andy blinked. “I speak thirty languages, and I don't know what the hell you just said.”

“It's a microscopic life form,” Sun answered. “It isn't quite a bacteria, isn't quite a plant or animal, and probably predates both, making it one of the oldest and maybe the first life forms on earth.”

“Archaea is an extremophile,” Dr. Belgium added. “It's found in some of the harshest areas on the planet. It thrives in boiling water, in geysers, near black smokers at the bottom of the ocean, in extremely salty brines. We've also discovered archaea that live in rock, more than a mile deep in the earth's crust. Think of it, bacteria living in solid stone.”

The scientist began to pace around the room.

“Archaea can also withstand below freezing temperatures. It doesn't need oxygen. Many archeaens are autotrophic; they get their energy from inorganic sources; iron, sulfur, hydrogen. It's suspected that there may be archaea on Mars, or on Callisto, a moon of Jupiter. Because it can survive in extreme environments, scientists expect archeae to be the first alien life form found in the universe.”

Belgium stopped pacing, and his eyes got very big.

“What is it, Frank?” Sun asked.

“Panspermia!” the biologist exclaimed. “Francis Crick!”

Belgium began to pace, eyes wide with excitement. “Crick won the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. He had an idea called directed panspermia. What if an alien race shielded a microbe in some kind of spaceship and sent it to all corners of the galaxy, where it was likely to grow? Crick postulated it could be how life on earth began. It was planted here.”

Sun said, “If archaea was the first life form on earth, and it didn't need oxygen—”

“Which is exactly what earth's early environment was like, no oxygen,” Belgium interrupted.

“—it could have hitched a ride here in a meteorite made of iron, which would not only be a food source but also protect if from radiation. It could survive the deep cold of space—”

“Archaea has been found in five million year old Siberian permafrost,” Belgium exclaimed.

“—and it could also survive the tremendous heat when it entered the earth's atmosphere. So if Bub has archaea in his genes...”

They all looked at the demon. Bub grinned wide and giggled.

“I created yoooooooou,” the demon cooed. “I’m yoooooour god.”

Andy was slack-jawed. He noticed similar expressions on his companions.

“This isn't happening.” Andy shook his head. “Life on earth isn't some garden planted by this bastard.”

“It’s truuuuuuuuue.”

Sun said, “So where's your spaceship?”

“Einstein proved interstellar travel was impossible,” Dr. Belgium concurred. “The nearest star is more than twenty four trillion miles away. That's over four years travel if you were moving at light speed, 186,000 miles a second, and light speed is impossible to attain. The faster an object moves, the heavier it becomes.”

Bub didn’t answer.

“His capsule,” Sun said, snapping her fingers. “It had iridium in it.”

Belgium gasped. “Oh my goodness.”

Andy asked, “Iridium? What's that?”

“It's not commonly found on earth. But it's abundant in meteorites, or other objects that come from space.”

“That gray thing is a spaceship?” Andy said, incredulous.

Sun put a hand on his arm. “Did you figure out the Egyptian glyphs?”

Andy's shoulders slumped. He rubbed his eyes.

“Yeah. They told the story of a god who fell from the sky and helped them build the pyramids.” The linguist shook his head. “I don't believe this.”