"At the time." Hunter opened his eyes wider. "But with what I've seen, I believe I understand, at last."
"Really?" Hamilton was openly amazed. "Well, why don't you tell me? Because, as much as I would like to believe you, I find it an incredible suspension of reason to imagine that you could somehow deduce the purpose of a substance that you have never seen or studied. In truth, the only means by which you could understand the properties of HD-66 would be through a diagramed molecular synthesis. Which, of course, you do not possess."
"There are two ways to understand something, Doctor. You can know the thing itself. Or you can understand the world around it."
Hamilton seemed abruptly lost.
"I don't quite…"
"It was you, Doctor."
Hesitation.
"You say it was I?" Hamilton repeated. "How so?"
"Your pride was your downfall, Doctor. Your arrogance. Your self-righteousness. Your greed. Your self-serving satisfaction of your dreams of grandeur. Your maniacal pursuit of scientific glory at the expense of human dignity."
Hunter could determine by the furrowed brow and utterly confused expression that the eminent Dr. Arthur Hamilton was dumbstruck. He decided to end the mystery.
"While you were sleeping last night, Doctor, you weren't the only one in your rather opulent bedchamber. The fact is, I was with you for quite some time."
For the first time, fear was visible in the scientist's pale eyes.
"Yeah, I was there," Hunter repeated calmly and matter-of-factly. "And I searched the entire room, but I didn't find any solid clues. You're quite disciplined at leaving all research materials in the laboratory."
"Yes," the scientist acknowledged, recovering from the shock of Hunter's unknown intrusion. "I am, indeed. And what did you find during your nocturnal skulking, Mr. Hunter? There is no documentation whatsoever in my personal quarters."
"That's what I mean." Hunter almost smiled, but restrained the impulse. "But it's like I said, everything leaves a trace of where it's been, where it's going, what it's thinking. And you're no different from the rest of us. A person just has to know how to read the signs."
"And what was this trace of the truth that you keep mentioning with such obscurity?"
"You, Doctor."
Slight surprise glimmered in the narrow eyes.
"Please elucidate," he said.
Hunter half-laughed. "Like I said, I already knew a great deal. I knew that you had somehow created this thing — a creature that once belonged on the earth, but doesn't anymore. And I knew that it was searching for the rest of the serum. The only question left to answer was why." A pause. "After searching your room, I was about to leave when I noticed the book you'd been reading before you'd fallen asleep."
There was concentrated remembrance, and then the scientist slowly nodded. "Yes," he mused, a thoughtful pursing of the lips. "Heart of Darkness. How observant."
"One of my habits."
"Of course." He laughed with a mocking mirth. "But, please, continue. I am fascinated with your deductive abilities and am well on my way to genuine admiration."
Hunter sensed the shadow glide another few inches. It appeared to be slowly working a path through the computers and desks to a flanking position on the guards.
"So," he added, "I saw that you were reading Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad. And that was curious to me, considering the gravity of our situation. Because usually, in times of crisis, a man will focus his entire energy and attention on the situation until it's resolved. Especially a man such as yourself. A man consumed with his work, and with himself. So I picked it up and paged to a well-worn section that had a single sentence underlined. And in that entire book it was the only sentence emphasized. I know, because I checked." Hunter recited from memory: " ‘The mind of man is capable of anything because everything is buried inside it — all the past as well as all the future.' "
Hamilton's smile was approving. "And then you knew."
"Yeah, I knew," Hunter said, with no tinge of pride. "I had decided a while back that HD-66 was a serum. But for what, I didn't know. Just like I didn't know why the creature wanted it so badly. All I knew for certain was that it wasn't going to stop until it found it. And then, with that, I understood why."
Hunter, although he was virtually unarmed and outnumbered, controlled the atmosphere now with the straightforwardness of his will, his utter lack of fear, and his unflinching moral courage in the face of insurmountable odds. He could read their reluctant respect in their posture and silence, though he knew it would not alter their intentions for him. He finished his thought.
"That thing out there, which you're responsible for, wants to remember all that it was because its past is somehow genetically remembered in its DNA coding," he concluded. "But the serum that transformed your colleague wasn't only imperfect, it was incomplete, wasn't it?"
Hamilton shrugged. "It was…experimental. At that stage, we were still fundamentally unaware of what, exactly, we were dealing with."
"I know. So, not only did the experimental formula transform your friend into something that was neither animal nor man, the DNA had insufficient coding to fully restore the creature's genetic memory." Hunter was so confident of his reasoning that Hamilton's assertion, or a dispute if it had come, would have meant nothing at all. "Its genetic memory is and always has been incomplete, and it knows that. So it wants the part of itself that's missing. And whatever remains of your colleague knows where to find it. And that's why it's been destroying the research facilities. It's searching." He shook his head. "Yes, Doctor, it wants HD-66, its own heart of darkness, so that its cellular memory will be restored. It wants the serum so that the transformation is absolute."
Hamilton stared for a moment, a condescending grin spreading slowly, before he clapped his hands. "Bravo, Mr. Hunter!" He laughed. "And I had categorized you as a base wild man filling an inconsequential existence with inconsequential thoughts. But you have truly astounded me— a rare pleasure for a man such as myself." He nodded curtly, dropping hands to his sides. "I congratulate you. This was a remarkable intellectual accomplishment."
Despite the steel reasoning required to assimilate all he had learned into a definitive explanation, despite the haughty harassment of Hamilton, despite the finely focused attention of the guards, Hunter had not failed to follow the shadow of the still-unknown intruder as it maneuvered into position behind the masked soldiers. He knew from the lack of overt aggression that it was not the creature; the beast used no subtlety in attacking. So he felt certain that it was someone from upstairs. But whether that person intended to assist him, or not, remained a mystery.
"And now" — Hamilton turned his head to the guards, nodding curtly—"I am afraid that—"
Hunter moved.
Exploding in a violent movement not telegraphed at all, he leaped forward and collided hard with Hamilton to take them together over a computer dais — a wild and twisted tangle of arms and legs — to the other side. Paper and laboratory materials scattered chaotically at the impact and reckless descent, and Hunter was first on his feet, volcanically heaving the scientist around as a shield, his Bowie knife already at Hamilton's throat. Before Hunter spoke a single word Hamilton's upraised hands halted the onrushing guards.
"Stay where you are, you fools!" he bellowed, suddenly graceless. Hunter was amazed he had swung the situation around with a single dynamic move. He pushed the old man forward, hoping to control the situation by ruthlessly taking advantage of their temporary confusion and emotional shock.
Then the large figure of Brick erupted on the far side of a bookcase— the soundless shadow Hunter had followed so long.
The big man held the large, double-barreled Weatherby in both hands with pistols and grenades and extra ammo attached to his brown vest. A leather bandoleer of huge bullets was slung from shoulder to hip, and in a flashing glance Hunter registered yet another rifle — some kind of semiautomatic — slung across his back.