Shifting his foot less than an inch toward the edge of the ledge, Hunter tried to engage whatever mind it possessed. "Why did you kill those people?"
"Because they are prey. You … are prey. You have always been prey."
That left nowhere to go; Hunter tried something else.
"So where did you come from?" he asked, closely watching its eyes. "You haven't always been here. I know that much. Before you kill me, you can at least tell me that."
"From inside you."
Hunter assumed his shock must have been revealed.
It laughed, genuinely amused.
"Oh, yes," it whispered. It held up its talons. "Look at these hands. Monstrous… are they not?" Dark laughter. "What would your hands be like if you had my freedom? My strength! My power!" Silence. "Let me tell you. Then you would be like me! Yes! What do you see when you look at me? What do you see?” It nodded with a whisper, “You see yourself."
Hunter shook his head, almost brought into the conversation, though his mind was flying behind his calm countenance.
"I would never be like you."
"You are already like me," it rasped, bending as if to charge. "The beast within you… is all that I am. You think you are so noble — so righteous. But you are nothing more than me beneath what you call 'human.' ' Its laughing found expression in a grating growl. "Yes, I am what you truly are. And you know it's true… I am only what you are deep inside… what you fear you are. What you know you are."
Hunter's foot was at the edge.
"You're insane," he said, calm. "Listen… listen carefully to me: Let me take you in safely. We will not hurt you. But if you don't come with me, others will come for you. More men. More weapons. You are strong. But they will hunt you down. You can't beat the entire world. Sooner or later, they will corner you. And they will kill you. Don't be insane."
Roaring in a black and measureless mirth, it threw its head back, lost in the glory of its matchless might. "No, no…" It lowered its head, smiling malevolently. Then it exhaled, releasing an impression of terrifying power. "No…not insane…"
Hunter remembered what he had discovered at the research station, what he had suspected all along with the repeated attacks. Take a chance, he thought.
"What are you searching for?" he asked, giving no indication that he was split seconds from making a desperate attempt at escape. It stared at him a long moment, as if Hunter had abruptly distracted it from its intended thoughts.
"The other," it rumbled.
Hunter stared. "The other? The other… the other one like you?"
The red eyes dimmed. "Yes."
Silence.
"And… where is the other one like you?"
The fanged visage seemed to withdraw, somehow, within itself. The alien glow in its scarlet eyes verged on madness.
"I must find him. I must… find him."
"Why?" Hunter never expected a chance question to carry him this long.
"To be complete."
A strange, wild theory struck Hunter. "Who did this to you?" he asked, himself incredibly caught up for a split second. He stared intently with the question, as if to read the truth in its eyes. "They did this to you, didn't they? They made you into…this. You were a man, weren't you. And now…you're this."
A blazing roar of laughter caused the corded neck muscles to bulge like hot iron. Hunter saw the veins, twice as thick as a man's, pulsing fiercely with that savage blood, and then it stared upon him once more, seeming to revel in the garish moment of mirth.
"Foolish, foolish mortal," it whispered with spite. "No… they did not do this to me… I did this to me!” Its chest rumbled with a strange growl. “I had the power to become a god and so … I became God!"
Now, with true horror, Hunter understood.
"What was your name?" he asked, somehow enlivened with an even sharper revulsion. He couldn't imagine that this monstrosity, with all its viciousness and blood thirst, had once been a human being.
"My name… was Luther."
"Luther… why did you do this? You're not a god. Nobody lives forever.
Fangs parted in laughter, but it was silent. No sound, not even breath, whispered forth for a still moment.
"To become as them" it answered finally, with a short bark of laughter. "To become as god on the earth. Unkillable. Because I am the strongest. Yes, the strongest. Nothing can destroy me. And I will live forever."
It was insane.
Hunter knew he couldn't reason with it.
"So you sacrificed your humanity for this," he said, edging toward the drop. But there was a trace of contempt. And remarkably, it noticed.
It smiled, and taloned fingers clicking once in that eerie, uncanny flexing that made them flicker and relax. Although subtle, it was horrifyingly threatening.
Hunter knew he was out of time, it was about to attack. Almost because he had to know, because he knew how this would end, he said what he truly felt.
"You're an animal now, Luther. Not a god."
Hunter steadily held its contemptuous stare.
As it paused, Hunter suddenly saw Bobbi Jo, the rest, moving silently from the far end. His heart raced but he concealed his alarm. He raised his eyes, measuring; they would need fifteen seconds at a full run to clear the tunnel. He had to stall it for at least ten.
It shook its head, and Hunter could sense something volcanic building within it; a tightening of its chest, the slight rising of the enormous shoulders and an almost invisible shift of balance. It didn't come closer, but it was only seconds away.
"If you only knew the power," Luther growled, despising. "You consider yourself… human. Not… animal. But I am more human than you. I am only what you are… in the darkness. I am what you hide in the light. I did not lose my humanity. My humanity is purer, and stronger, than yours. Because I do not hide what I really am."
Bobbi Jo and the rest were almost directly beneath, and the creature seemed not to have yet noticed. He was too involved with Hunter.
"I only wanted you to know this," Luther continued, and breathed deeply, as if the intellectual labor of speech had fatigued it. "I will kill you. I will kill all of you. And I will live long. Far, far longer than men. And when your children are dead… I will still rule this world…"
Bobbi Jo and the rest passed beneath.
"Now," it said, smiling, "you die."
"One last thing!" Hunter shouted, knowing he had to demand its full attention. "I want you to know something!" It paused.
"This!" Hunter roared, cocking and firing the Marlin in a single one-handed motion.
The creature recoiled, almost as much from the blast of light as the impact. Hunter leaped into him, viciously swiping across its ribs with the Bowie and then descending into the darkness.
He kicked the wall to send himself across, striking the granite hard, and again kicked to take another four feet out of the fall by bouncing back, and then he was sliding, falling, lashing out once with the Bowie for a grip — a terrific stabbing blow that struck sparks from the granite, grinding, before he crashed numbingly hard.
He was dimly aware of torches vanishing at the far end of the tunnel— they understood, were running. Then he was on his feet, ignoring the numb feeling in his side, staggering forward knife in hand as a colossal weight crashed onto the path behind him with a vengeful roar.
Light was before Hunter, the end of the passage. He pulled the cord on the satcheclass="underline" five seconds!
He heard it charging with the force of a rhino.
"Shoot it!" he screamed.
Instantly Hunter dropped and in the next heartbeat five .50-caliber rounds from the Barrett laced a destroying path down the crevice, powering above Hunter's prone form. He heard them hit with a sound like an ax being buried in flesh and then he was on his feet again, running.