Thrilled to Death

by James Byron Huggins

  Beth leaned her head back, her entire soul in the single tear that touched the corner of her eye. “Such a heart,” she whispered, shaking her head as the tear moved softly down her cheek. “Such a heart ...”

  Pain was all there was, but Beth refused to release it. It came and it went through her, hot and wet and burning and she couldn’t stop it. But she gave nothing to it, either. She would give nothing at all until she knew whether Connor was dead or alive. Until then she would hope. And wait.

  A soft knock at the door.

  Beth opened her eyes, considering. Then there was another soft knock, and she rose to her feet, walking forward. Hesitantly she cracked the door to see the old scientist, the one called Hoffman, standing demurely. The old man held a pipe in his pale hand, a gray stream of lazy smoke spiraling through the red emergency light.

  “Mrs. Connor?’’ he asked gently.

  Beth blinked. Nodded.

  “I don’t wish to disturb you.” Hoffman motioned behind himself; the guard could not be seen. “I have been waiting for a chance to speak with you. I hope you are successful in what you are attempting.”

  Beth said nothing, but something in the old man’s bent stance raised her affection.

  “Might I come in for a moment?” Hoffman asked, a tired smile. “I have very, very few allies in this cavern. I thought that we might speak for a moment as friends.”

  A pause, but Beth trusted her instincts. She opened the door slightly to allow him in. Then she closed it and locked it again as the old man sat tiredly upon a chair. He seemed fatally fatigued. Although Beth didn’t know what he wanted, she didn’t fear him.

  “Do you know anything yet?” she asked.

  “No, my dear.” Hoffman shook his head, holding his pipe close. “No, we do not know anything. This – ” He gestured to the cathedral’s ceiling, “ – cavern has shut itself down, so to speak. All the corridors are locked, so we cannot go anywhere. And as you well know, the phone lines are down. We cannot communicate with the outside world. Nor do we know what has happened to the rest of the men. They may very well be alive, you know. Colonel Chesterton is quite resourceful.”

  Beth said nothing, but her face tightened. Without looking down she stroked Jordan’s hair. Hoffman was silent for a long while, his pipe making an occasional, soft whistle as he pulled puffs from the large black bowl. He appeared to want to talk but gazed somberly at the tile floor, as if uncertain of whether he was welcome or not. Beth was touched by his sense of sadness. She sniffed, looking up.

  “You seem like a good man,” she said quietly.

  Hoffman looked at her. His face slowly relaxed. “I try to be a good man.”

  With a harder gaze, Beth looked into the wall. She shook her head. “What were you people doing down here, Doctor? What did you create in that cavern? I still don’t understand it.”

  Hoffman’s face was almost frightened, his aspect still, silent. “Something that ... that should be feared, Mrs. Connor,” he answered slowly. “It has no place in this world.”

  “Then how could you let something like this happen?”

  Hoffman lowered his hand to his knee, his pipe forgotten. “It began rightly, I believe. Peter, or Dr. Frank as you know him, invented a process called Electromagnetic Chromosomal Manipulation. It is a method of altering the genetic makeup of a living organism. And hearing of his research, I joined him. Our intentions were good, you know. We wanted to perfect the process so that it could be used to correct genetic abnormalities such as muscular dystrophy or a host of other genetic illnesses.” He gestured vaguely. “But we could not obtain adequate funding. It conceivably would have cost millions. And it appeared that we would never be able to achieve our goal until we were contacted by a privately owned defense company which wanted to perfect the process. They wanted to know if Electromagnetic Chromosomal Manipulation, or ECM, could be used to enhance certain vertebrates, like dolphins, for purposes of war. The American Navy had for years been using dolphins to plant mines on foreign ships, to locate underground sonar, and such. And they wanted to enhance the controllability of the creatures. So, in return for our assistance they promised to generously fund ECM for ten years.”

  Hesitating, Hoffman glanced down at his suddenly dead pipe. “That much funding would have enabled us to cure a host of genetic abnormalities, I am certain,” he continued. “I did not want to use ECM to alter living creatures to make them weapons for war. But I saw no other means of funding the research. It was ... a compromise.”

  Beth’s tone was final. “They corrupted you.”

  A short laugh escaped him. “Yes, my dear. They corrupted me. They corrupted me as any man is corrupted. Little by little, piece by piece. Until I could no longer remember what I had been.” He nodded. “Yes. And in the end we took a Komodo dragon and placed it in a perfected electromagnetic field. And then we watched until it became something the world was never meant to endure. Until they had what they wanted.”

  “And what is that, Doctor?”

  A heavy breath. “The end of the world, Mrs. Connor. The ultimate beast of prey.” He frowned. “A doomsday beast so terrible that it would bring the entire world to its knees. And I tell you honestly that we succeeded too well. Peter and I, we knew what was happening but we did not resist them. We did what they wanted us to do.”

  “I want to know exactly what’s locked in this cavern with us,” Beth said, stronger.

  Compassion glistened on Hoffman’s face. “Do you remember, Mrs. Connor, when you were a child? When your brothers or sisters played games with you, hiding in the dark only to leap out and frighten you?”

  Beth nodded.

  “Yes,” the old man smiled, “and so do I. I remember those frightful moments quite well. Even today I still remember the long, haunting fear of knowing that there was something beside me in the dark. Something I could not see. Could not find. But I knew it was there, and that my moment had come.” He paused, staring at her. “And in that moment, Mrs. Connor, whatever was crouching beside me in the depthless darkness could have been anything. It could have been a monster. A ghost. A demon. Even Satan himself. But in my heart I knew that he had finally come for me.”

  Beth was silent.

  “Yes,” Hoffman continued, somber. “I knew it had finally come for me. But it never came, you see. It was only my darkest fears. My darkest, darkest fears. There was never really a monster in the darkness.’‘

  “And now there is,” Beth said quietly.

  Hoffman paused. “Yes, Mrs. Connor. Now there is. Now it is truly there in the darkness. And it is coming for us.”

  Beth closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall. After a while she heard Hoffman finally rise, sensed him standing in the red glowing gloom, staring. Then his soft steps reached out to her across the room. When she opened her eyes again, he was gone. The door was closed.

  She looked down at Jordan, and a startling moment passed as she saw the soft blue eyes staring up at her, so bright and beautiful. The child was widely alert, watching. Beth smiled down, gently caressing his head, comforting, finding comfort.

  “Mommy,” he asked quietly, “is the monster going to get me?”

  Beth caught a painful breath, smiling.

  “No, honey. The monster’s not going to get you.”

  Jordan stared. “I’m scared.”

  Beth smiled, cradled his head in her lap. “That’s okay, honey,” she whispered. “It’s okay to be scared.”

  A long silence.

  “Will you sleep with me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, “I’11 sleep with you.”

  His eyes began to close.

  “Okay,” he whispered.

  Beth cradled him and watched him until he was fast asleep.

  And then she watched the darkness.

  ***

  In a wild conclave under the red li
ghts, circled like a primitive war council, they huddled in the middle of the cavern. Chesterton rested wearily on a crate but Connor stood on his feet, not allowing himself to relax.

  With a tired expression Chesterton spoke. “All right, we’ve got to get organized.” He turned his head sharply. “Barley, station men at the three entry points of this cavern and resupply everyone with as much ammo as they can carry. Issue phosphorous grenades, antipersonnel grenades, whatever anybody wants. I don’t care if they’re qualified or not. And give everybody a LAW. One of those will take a little steam out of its stride.”

  “Yes sir,” Barley said, was gone.

  “Now, Doctor,” Chesterton focused on Frank, “I want to know why that thing didn’t use fire when it came down that corridor. It had us dead to rights. It could have blown us all to Kingdom Come with that flame-throwing stuff. Why didn’t it?”

  “It was exhausted,” Frank answered. “Leviathan had used all its flammable gel defeating the tank.”

  “How long before it can do it again?”

  “A few hours. Maybe less. I don’t know for certain.”

  “Can it melt that vault?”

  “No. There’s no way it can melt niobium-titanium alloy.”

  “That’s good, son,” Chesterton growled, wearily wiping his face. “It’s about time we had a little piece of good news.” He sighed. “That brings a little joy to my old battle-weary heart.”

  “But titanium is brittle,” Connor said, stepping forward.

  Chesterton stared up gloomily. “What?”

  “I mean,” Connor continued, “that titanium can withstand heat and compression better than steel. I know all about it because I used to work in a pipe plant. Titanium’s half the weight of steel but twice as strong and that’s why they use it in aircraft and ships. Or pipes. But titanium is brittle. That’s why they don’t use it to make knives or drill bits. It won’t hold an edge. It chips and cracks too easily.”

  “Niobium-titanium is different,” Frank interjected. “It has a higher means ratio. It can withstand stress and impacts a lot better than normal titanium, Connor. That’s why it was created.”

  “But it’s still basically titanium, Frank.” Connor leaned forward. “And titanium can be broken a lot more easily than steel. It was a mistake to use it in those vaults.”

  “All right, all right,” Chesterton broke in. “Let’s just calm down a little. We’ll deal with all that later. Right now we need to cover something else.” He paused. “Frank, let’s deal with this cause I’m not sure. Is there any way for Leviathan to escape this cavern?”

  “Only through Crystal Lake.”

  Chesterton shook his head. “I thought so,” he mumbled.

  “What do you mean?” Connor asked.

  Frank spoke quickly. “Don’t you know about Crystal Lake?”

  “Yeah, I know about it,” Connor said, scowling. “Crystal Lake is located in a cavern just past the power plant. You have to go through the power plant to reach it. It’s a ninety-acre lake with underground streams that connect to the Atlantic Ocean.” Connor stared. “Oh no ...”

  “Exactly, Connor,” Frank responded. “This entire facility was designed as a holding pen for Leviathans. It was meant to be a place where Leviathans were housed and programmed and set loose to accomplish certain missions. The same way the Navy uses dolphins to attach mines to enemy vessels; except Leviathans would be capable of tearing the hulls out of battleships or of searching out and destroying enemy submarines by ripping out their buoyancy systems.”

  Connor frowned. “Go on, Frank.”

  Frank paused, morose. “As you’ve probably guessed, Connor, Crystal Lake was the path Leviathans were supposed to take to reach the Atlantic Ocean. According to the specs of the proposal, a Leviathan would submerge itself in the lake and swim into Crystal Lake’s underground stream. Within a few minutes it would find its way into an Atlantic current and begin its mission. Then, when the mission was completed, the Leviathan would return to the island through the ocean current and the island’s underground stream and come back up through the lake where it would be put back into a Containment Cavern.”

  Connor stood in silence. “The perfect plan, huh?” He waited, receiving no answer. “And how is Crystal Lake defended, Frank? Can this thing get to the lake any time it wants?”

  Frank nodded.

  There was a long pause and Connor continued, “Well tell me this, Doctor. Is Leviathan going to try for the lake first? Or is it going to try and kill all of us? What’s it going to do?”

  “First, Leviathan will try and kill everyone in this cavern,” the scientist replied plainly, eyes open. “Because Leviathan believes that it has to kill everything in this cavern in order to survive. But when it gets through killing us, it’ll go for the lake and the Atlantic.”

  “So nobody gets out of here alive,” Connor said grimly.

  “No,” the scientist said, staring. “Nobody gets out of here alive, Connor. Not us. And not Leviathan. Because there’s something you still don’t know about. And it’s something you need to know.”

  “Well I know about it, Doctor,” Chesterton said, head bent. “And maybe you don’t need to be talking about it.”

  “Well, Connor doesn’t know about it and he has a right.”

  “Know what, Frank?”

  Frank turned to him. “GEO was programmed to ultimately prevent something like this from occurring, Connor. If Leviathan ever escaped from the Containment Cavern, a total lockdown of the vaults was supposed to be the first level of intervention. And GEO was supposed to remain in Lockdown Mode until it registered Leviathan as dead.”

  “And so?”

  “And so there’s another safety intervention.”

  “Well, what is it?”

  Chesterton threw it in. “A fifty-kiloton nuclear device, Connor, a fifty-kiloton nuclear weapon that will vaporize this entire island. It’s built into the lowest level of the cavern and it’s designed to activate automatically if this supercomputer of Frank’s ever tracks Leviathan moving into Crystal Lake without authorization to escape into the Atlantic.”

  Connor stared. “You people are crazy.”

  “It wasn’t my call, Connor,” Chesterton responded, lifting a hand toward Frank. “Dr. Frankenstein here insisted on it.”

  “It was the only way to ensure total containment,” Frank responded, suddenly defensive. “We couldn’t risk Leviathan escaping into the Atlantic! If Leviathan ever reached the ocean, it would find an endless food supply! It would kill and eat whales, sharks, whatever. It would attack the mainland! It might live for hundreds of years It would—”

  Connor slammed the scientist against a wall. “Defuse the fail-safe!”

  “I can’t!” Frank grabbed without effect at Connor’s wrists. “There’s no way to get past GEO’s frontline defenses!”

  “You designed the thing! Shut it off!”

  “No! GEO is still a computer! It’s going to do what it’s designed to do!” He pulled frantically against Connor’s unbending arms. “There’s no way to defuse the fail-safe!”

  Connor paused, teeth locked. His breath was leaving him in hard, angry blasts. “So what are we supposed to do?”

  “We’ve got to kill Leviathan!” Frank replied, pained. “If GEO ever tracks Leviathan entering the lake, it’ll detonate the fail-safe immediately! We’ve got to keep it down here! We’ve got to kill it down here!”

  “Didn’t you people ever worry about what it would look like to have a nuclear explosion in the Arctic Circle?” Connor grated. “Didn’t that little problem ever occur to you?”

  “The bomb was designed to look like a volcanic eruption,” Frank replied, breathless. “And there’s something else!”

  “What?”

  Frank gasped. “Once Leviathan ruptured the containment cavern, GEO initiated a countdown!”r />
  Even without asking, Connor knew.

  “A countdown?” he snarled. “A countdown?”

  “Twenty-four hours!” the scientist shouted. “If Leviathan is still alive and loose in this facility in twenty-four hours, GEO is going to initiate the fail-safe anyway! There’s no way to stop it!”

  With a curse Connor threw the scientist back. “You’re crazy!” he snarled again, turning with wild hostility toward Chesterton. “You’re both crazy! You put the lives of my family in danger, and you never told us about any of this!” His voice grew colder. “I should kill both of you.”

  “Don’t make me pull rank on you, Connor,” Chesterton replied, turning full into him. “This is still a military operation.”

  “Don’t even try it, Chesterton.” Connor walked away.

  “Where are you going?”

  Connor turned back.

  “You heard him, Colonel. We’ve got twenty-four hours to kill that thing. That’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”

  Chapter 15

  Chaos and frantic cries for assistance dominated the spot-lit camp as Thor rode through the unmanned gate on Tanngrisner. It was obvious that some catastrophic event had shattered the usually peaceful and relaxed atmosphere of the facility.

  Grabbing his hunting rifle, Thor dismounted and walked purposefully toward the men at the elevator shaft. As Thor neared the entrance they turned together, staring at him. There were no Army personnel.

  “What has happened?” Thor rumbled.

  Speaking at once, they stumbled over one another. Maybe a cave-in, a natural gas explosion, a volcanic eruption ... The cavern’s vault had shut, locking everyone underground . . . They had lost all communication ... And the only way to reach the cavern was to make the dangerous 1,000-foot climb down through the elevator shaft ...

  Thor asked, but he knew. “Where is Connor?”

  A burly electrician, the one Thor had lifted during the wrestling match, Tom Blankenship, spoke nervously. “He went down into the cavern about four hours ago, Thor. And that crazy colonel came up and got Beth and Jordan earlier in the day. They’re all down there, and there ain’t no way to get to them! There ain’t no way out!”