Gopalan opened a cabinet and handed a pair of flashlights to Nick. “I will wait for all of you here. Do not worry, I promise not to leave you.”
Quentin had been thinking of bringing the boat driver along with them, but he looked silently towards Nick instead, expecting him to decide.
Nick didn’t seem to care if they could trust the man or not. “I hope so.”
Cathy shook Gopalan’s hand before she got onto the dock. “Thank you for helping us.”
Quentin took the large yellow searchlight with the handgrip from Nick’s outstretched hand and activated it, the device’s powerful halogen beam illuminating the gold trim of the power catamaran docked beside him. “This is Emeric Morgenstern’s boat.”
Scott had been quiet the whole time since they had left the bungalow. He didn’t want to tell them he was scared, so he just huddled close to his mother instead, holding her hand as tight as he could while his other hand clutched at the charm around his neck.
43
THE EVENING’S HUNT had been much easier than expected. Most of the prey were caught unawares, and they hardly put up a struggle. Many of the black-clad hated ones were dead, for it prioritized killing those ones first before it could range freely over the others in its new, expanded territory.
It had managed to drag a half dozen captured hosts into the once feared power building and was about to lay the eggs when it sensed two men approaching its nest. Without the vast currents of energy surrounding the place it could easily track the pair’s exact location by sensing their electrical fields. With every movement they made, their muscles generated small impulses that it could detect in the air.
Two others had come before, and it concluded that this was the place where they could blind it, and so it chose the area for its den in order to keep them from harnessing the energy currents it didn’t want them to have.
Pulses of anger flashed through its cerebrum, sending extra spurts of adrenaline down along the neural synapses while the muscles swelled with enhanced strength. How dare they disrupt the egg laying! This was no longer about territory; the even greater concern was its young. With this interruption, the intruders would throw the entire purpose of its existence into jeopardy.
It could hear the twisting of the lock. The intruders were attempting to get into the nest through another way, but it was already prepared for that eventuality. The previous ones it killed had been piled up along the other tunnels so that any invader would have to go through those obstacles, giving it either enough time to bring the egg hosts to another lair for safety or to fight back and kill those who dared to venture into its sanctum.
The two electrical fields intruding into its lair had become panicked the moment they got close to the obstacles. It could now sense their fear rising with each step. An abstract thought quickly formed in its mind, and it felt a slight sense of pity, for these interlopers seemed more like sacrificial prey than anyone who could actually threaten it with physical harm.
But what mattered most were the young, for they were the vulnerable ones, and it would fight back with everything it had in order to safeguard its offspring. Retracting the ovipositor back into the thick body sheath between its legs, Proteus moved quickly into the adjoining tunnel and waited, ready to ambush the invaders.
For long minutes nothing seemed to happen as it continued to sense the electrical fields coming ever closer. The blinding lights the two carried were a distraction, but the enemy had thankfully pointed the beams in another direction, and it had just enough opportunity to reach out from the bend of the tunnel to snap the first one’s hand, sending the accursed radiating tool onto the wet floor.
The first one’s hand was clearly broken, and all it could do was make a soft cry as he got down to his knees. The second one managed to distract it when he suddenly aimed the second beam of light into its eyes, blinding Proteus for a few moments. Just as it was about to lash out against this second intruder, the succeeding moments made it pause.
Instead of fighting back or trying to run away, the second one seemed to kneel down and raise his hands in the air, allowing Proteus to regard it with some curiosity as the hated shaft of light was pointed away. This second man seemed to act like the kind one it had left behind in its old territory, for he seemed to respect it.
Proteus couldn’t help but silently observe as the second one began chanting, trying to lull it into docility. It had thought about letting these two go when it sensed something else in the air. A new sensation borne not out of the here and now, but rather some distance away, back to its old lair.
Danger flashed in its mind as it used its front paw to crush the second man’s head into the side of the tunnel. The first one kept whimpering and Proteus killed him too, for daring to intrude upon such an important task.
The sense of concern came about a second time as it lapped up the hot flowing blood from the floor with its serrated tongue. There was a slight confusion in its instinctual list of priorities before it drew up and sniffed the air. The coalescing thoughts instantly made its gill cloak stand on end.
Its senses quickly picked up the shrill whine of an outboard motor, moving towards its old nesting grounds.
Yes, the first home was now in danger! New intruders were heading towards its old territory, and it needed to go back there or else all would be lost.
44
THE CONCRETE STEPS up the dock led to a side door by the main house that was slightly ajar. No lights of any kind could be seen from the outside of the Morgenstern estate, and it felt like they were about to enter a vast, silent tomb of wood, concrete, and steel. The young boy clung to his mother, while the two men with flashlights stood in front of them, peering into the shadowy interior with shafts of yellowish light.
Moving the beam of his flashlight from side to side, Nick Dirkse could see the inside was some sort of gaming room. A billiard table occupied the center, with two pairs of pool sticks still laying on its green woolen surface. All along the walls were dart boards and unpowered flat-screen TVs. Three sets of couches and low coffee tables had been placed strategically along various alcoves of the large room. A mini-bar surrounded by four stools stood at the opposite end.
Quentin Everett was the first to step inside. There was a slight odor, a combination of acidic urine and dried fish guts, permeating the air. The normally smooth tile floors seemed to get rougher in some spots as he walked over it, and when he aimed the flashlight downwards, a few brownish stains were evident.
Cathy stood just behind the two men as she too peered inside. She had taken out her smartphone from the bag slung over her shoulders and already activated the device’s flashlight. “Is that blood?”
Quentin knelt down and examined it further. The stains seemed to have dried out over several days. “It very well could be.”
“Human blood?” Scott asked.
“I’m not sure, lad,” Quentin said.
Nick walked slowly over to the mini-bar. All the glasses seemed to be in place, and the various bottles and canned beverages still inside the unpowered refrigerator were unopened. There was another door past the counter, and it seemed to lead into a kitchen area.
After seeing the stains on the floor, Cathy started to get agitated. “Kim, it’s us! Where are you? Kim!”
Her shouts instantly put everyone on edge. Scott inched closer to his mother, hoping her physical touch would quell the ever-growing fear at the bottom of his soul.
Nick turned and shook his head at her. “Not so loud,” he half whispered.