‘Yeah, Ro’s right,’ said Alex, who was bringing up the rear.
‘Perhaps Paul didn’t shoot it after all,’ said Chris nervously. ‘He might have missed completely.’
‘Please don’t say that,’ said Linda and shuddered.
‘If I missed where are those thirteen bullets?’ asked Paul.
At the top of the stairs they paused. The sounds had stopped. Ahead of them another of the pristine, brightly-lit corridors stretched into the distance. There was no sign of any animal, large or small. There was no sign of anything.
They all jumped as something heavy, like a filing cabinet, crashed to the floor. The sound appeared to come from a room about twenty yards down the corridor.
Paul checked to see that the safety catch was off on the Ml6. He noticed that the palms of his hands were slippery with nervous sweat. He gripped the weapon tighter. ‘Let’s go,’ lie whispered.
As they approached the door Paul kept expecting it to burst open and God knows what to fly out straight for him. He thought of the claw marks in the bedroom door…
But it stayed shut. Silently he indicated to Alex that he take up position on the other side. Reluctantly Alex obeyed. His face was white with strain. Paul had never seen him like this before.
Then, when the others were in position too, guns at the ready, Paul took a deep breath and reached out for the door handle. Deep down he was praying that it would be locked. He didn’t want to admit it but he would have given anything not to have to open that door…
His prayers were answered but not in the way he expected.
Just as his fingers were about to touch the round, polished handle the door suddenly opened.
Paul almost pulled the trigger on the M16 but stopped himselfjust in time. He stared with amazement at the figure in the doorway and then almost burst out laughing with relief.
The man was small, plump and balding. With his white coat and glasses he looked like the scientist in The Muppet Show. He stared at them all with an expression of mild surprise, as if coming unexpectedly face-to-face with six armed strangers was an everyday experience for him. ‘Oh, hello,’ he said, in a thin, high-pitched voice, ‘I was just on my way to see you. Sorry I wasn’t able to meet you earlier — I was unavoidably detained…’ He gave a brief smile.
Paul was trying to peer past him into the room. It was a lab of some kind. It was littered with smashed equipment but it seemed empty. Where was the animal?
‘Who the hell are you?’ Paul asked brusquely. ‘And where’s the thing that was making all that noise?’
‘My name?’ He frowned, then his face brightened, ‘I’m Dr Shelley. Dr Gordon Shelley.’ He sounded pleased to have remembered his own name. ‘And as for the thing, I suppose you’re referring to Charlie. But don’t worry, we’ve got him under control again. He won’t bother you any more tonight, that I promise you.’
‘Who the fuck is Charlie?’ growled Alex, rising from his crouch beside the door. '
‘Who is Charlie?’ said Shelley. ‘Ah, that’s a little difficult to explain right now. Why don’t you return to your rooms and get some sleep. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Yes. The morning…’ He frowned again. ‘Tell me, what day is it today?’
‘Uh, Wednesday, I think,’ said Paul. He looked at Linda for confirmation. She nodded.
‘And the month?’ asked Shelley anxiously.
‘June, of course,’ said Paul.
‘Still June?’ Shelley looked surprised. ‘It seems so much longer since… since…’ His voice trailed away and his face went blank. Then he suddenly smiled at them and said, ‘Please forgive me. I’m not myself these days. Oh, not myself indeed!’ He started to laugh. ‘Ah, amazing that one can still retain a sense of humour in spite of everything — at least I think it’s my sense of humour…’ He stopped smiling and blinked at them in surprise as if he was just seeing them for the first time. ‘We’ve got to get you off the rig. Yes, as soon as possible. For your own sakes.’
Alex took a step forward and grabbed Shelley by the front of his coat. ‘Listen, professor, cut the bullshit and tell me what’s goin’ on here! And where is that goddamn animal that made such a racket earlier?’
Calmly, Shelley reached up, took hold of Alex’s wrist and pushed his hand away. He did it without any visible effort and Paul noted the look of surprise on Alex’s face.
‘The animal is where it can’t disturb you again, I assure you. Now please return to your rooms. I’ll explain everything tomorrow. Goodnight.’
Before they could react he ducked back into the lab and closed the door. They heard the click of a lock and then silence. Angrily, Alex began to bang on the door. ‘Hey, professor! We’re not finished with you yet! Open this goddamn door!’
But there was no response from inside and finally he gave up. ‘Now what do we do?’ he growled at Paul.
Paul shrugged. ‘Do what he said, I guess.’
‘But how can we be sure that animal won’t come back?’ asked Chris.
‘We’re just going to have to take his word for it. Nothing else we can do until morning. But we stay on our guard.’ ‘Well, I don’t trust that mother,’ said Alex. ‘He sounded crazy to me. Completely off his rocker. I mean, what kind of scientist doesn’t even know what friggin’ month it is?’ ‘There was something very weird about him,’ said Chris in a hushed voice. ‘Didn’t you all feel it? The vibrations he was giving ofT — I’ve never experienced anything like it before.’ ‘Screw your vibrations,’ sneered Alex, ‘I’ll tell you one thing about the little creep, he’s strong…’ Alex rubbed his wrist. ‘He almost broke my goddamn arm.’
The next morning Dr Shelley had disappeared. The door to the lab was open but there was no sign of him. They wandered around for awhile calling his name then went back to the level below and had a breakfast of baked beans and coffee in the kitchen they’d used the night before.
No one had slept much during the night and they all looked pretty tired though Paul was relieved to see that Mark seemed to have made a recovery. His face had lost its unhealthy pallor and he no longer appeared feverish.
‘So who’s got any bright ideas?’ asked Rochelle as she spooned the last of her large helping of beans into her mouth. She had the biggest appetite of them all but never put on any weight.
‘We go and have another look for Dr Shelley,’ said Paul.
‘I don’t trust him,’ said Alex sullenly. ‘He’s up to something.’
‘Well, he was right about the animal — this “Charlie” thing,’ said Linda. ‘It didn’t come back again last night.’
‘I’d still give anything to know what it is,’ said Paul. ‘It must be one of their lab animals but what kind? The sound it made — I never heard any animal make a sound like that before, and we used to live near a zoo when I was a kid.’
‘Perhaps it’s a new kind of animal,’ said Chris.
They all looked at her. ‘What do you mean?’ asked Linda.
‘This place is a secret laboratory, right? Well I think they were carrying out illegal genetic experiments here. And that thing that tried to break into your cabin last night was one of them.’
‘You mean it could be a mutated rat or a giant guinea pig? Hey, come on Chris, that’s crazy. You’ve been reading too much science fiction,’ said Mark.
Paul said carefully, ‘I think Chris might have something. I think they were doing genetic engineering experiments here — ones they didn’t want anyone to know about. And whatever they made here got out of control.’