by John Saul
“Is something wrong?” Steve asked anxiously.
“I don’t know,” Wiseman replied. “At the moment it doesn’t look like it, but I want some tests run on his blood. Also, it appears that Jason may have an unusual ability, which I’m testing right now.” He glanced at his watch. Two minutes had elapsed since he had withdrawn the needle from Jason’s arm. “Just sit tight a minute.”
He returned to the examining room and smiled at the boy. “All right,” he said. “Let’s have a look and see if you’re bleeding.”
Jason unfolded his arm, and Wiseman removed the cotton wad from the small wound.
Except that there was no wound there.
He examined the skin very closely, but nowhere could he find so much as a mark indicating that the skin had recently been punctured.
Chewing his lip thoughtfully, Wiseman led Jason back to the office, then sent him on out to the waiting room. “I want to talk to your father for a few minutes. Okay?”
Jason, glad that the examination was over, grinned happily. “Okay” Then something occurred to him. “I always get a sucker from Dr. Malone.”
“Well, I’m afraid I don’t have any,” Wiseman told him. “But maybe, if you’re a good boy, I can go down to Dr. Malone’s office in a few minutes and find one. How’s that?”
“Okay.”
Jason disappeared into the waiting room, and Wiseman closed the door behind him.
“Well?” Steve asked.
“Well,” Wiseman said softly, “I just don’t know. It appears to me that Jason heals at an abnormally fast rate.”
“What does that mean?”
Wiseman shrugged helplessly. “I can’t tell you. It would seem to me that it means Jason has some kind of abnormality in his body, and it’s manifesting itself in an accelerated regeneration of tissue. But I can’t be sure what else it might be doing.”
Steve frowned. “I don’t follow you.”
Wiseman wondered what to say, and finally decided to say as little as possible. His fingers began their habitual drumming on the desk top.
“I think perhaps it might be wise to keep Jason here for a day or two,” he began. “Jason seems to have some kind of abnormality, and until we find out just what it is and just what its effects are, I’d like to keep him under observation.”
“You mean here?” Steve asked. If nothing was wrong with Jason, why should he stay in the hospital?
“Here,” Wiseman agreed. Then, after a slight hesitation, he added, “Or perhaps in a diagnostic clinic.” He began carefully explaining to Steve exactly what he had in mind.
As he listened to the older man, Steve began to feel as if he had lost control over his life and the lives of his family. First Julie, then Sally, now Jason. What had happened? What was happening? He could understand none of it, and as Wiseman continued talking, it all began to sound more and more unreal. By the time Wiseman had finished, Steve’s resistance to the idea of putting an apparently healthy child in the hospital had begun to erode. Perhaps, he had begun to think, Jason should be put under observation. At least for a while …
Randy Corliss stood uncertainly outside the fence. The howling of the dogs grew louder. He wondered how many of them there were.
He’d never heard them before, or seen them. Had they been there all the time? But where? Maybe they’d been kept locked up in the basement. But what did it mean that they were loose now? Did they already know he had escaped, or were they loose every night, guarding the grounds. And then he saw them—three of them—moving steadily along his trail to the point where he’d gone into the water. They paused there; their baying stopped suddenly while they sniffed curiously around, first at the ground, then at the air. And then they turned and began moving toward him. Randy stood still, fascinated by the huge beasts, his fear eased by the high fence that separated him from them.
As he watched they discovered the fourth dog, lying dead near the fence, and suddenly their snuffling and sniffing gave way to whining. They poked at the corpse, pawing at it almost as if they were uncertain of what it was. And then, as one, they caught Randy’s scent. Their dead companion suddenly forgotten, they turned toward the fence, fangs bared, and began snarling. The ugly sound grew until the night was once again filled with their terrifying voices.
Randy fled into the woods.
For the first few minutes he simply ran, but then, as the baying of the dogs faded slightly, he paused. He had to think.
If they knew he was gone, they would turn the dogs loose in the forest. Not only that, but they would find the dead dog and know exactly where to let the live ones hunt. And as soon as they caught his scent, he wouldn’t have a chance.
And then an image of the dogs at the edge of the stream came to his mind.
His trail had ended there, and they hadn’t known what to do.
He must get back to the stream.
It was off to the right somewhere.
Or was it?
He’d been so frightened, he hadn’t paid much attention to where he was going. He thought he’d run in a straight line, at least as straight as he could while still threading his way through the trees, but had he really?
He stood still. The blackness seemed to close in around him, shutting out everything—even the howling dogs—and he felt the first ragged edges of panic reaching out for him. It was like when he was learning to swim, and he’d gotten into deep water for the first time. His mother had been there with him, only a couple of feet away, but still he had begun thrashing at the water, terrified that he was going to die.
And then he’d heard his mother’s voice calmly telling him not to panic, to let himself float. And now, as that strange sense of terror began flooding over him, he repeated his mother’s words.
“Don’t panic,” he said out loud. Then, again, “Don’t panic.”
And it worked. The terror eased. The rushing sound in his head that had momentarily blocked out the sounds of the night disappeared, and once more he could hear the dogs. He turned, so the sound seemed to be coming from behind him. And then, slowly and deliberately, he turned to the right and began walking through the woods. He moved slowly, pausing every few minutes to listen.
Finally, he heard it. Ahead of him was the soft, gurgling sound of running water. He began to run.
He came to the brook and waded in, turning left to begin making his way upstream. The bottom was covered with water-smoothed rocks, and even the rubber soles of his sneakers failed to find a firm purchase on them. Randy found himself slipping and sliding, falling into the water, only to pick himself up and keep going.
He waded on and on, with no idea of the direction in which the stream was leading him or what his goal might be. All he knew was that he had to get away from the Academy, or he would die. And in order to get away, he must stay in the water, where the dogs couldn’t follow him.
Suddenly the noise of the water increased. Randy searched the darkness ahead. Vaguely he could see that he was approaching a fork; the brook he had been wading in was only an offshoot of a larger stream. What if it was too deep, or the current was too fast? And yet he knew he had no choice. Doggedly, he made his way into the larger stream, and began battling against the current. The water was over his knees now.
He came to a small waterfall, and his path was suddenly blocked. He stopped, staring at the four-foot cascade, and wondered what to do.
To the left there seemed to be a path.
Should he leave the stream?
But what if the dogs came this way and found his scent on the path? ‘
He stayed in the water and began groping for a hand hold that would allow him to pull himself up directly through the torrent At last his right hand found the slippery surface of a branch that had lodged in the rocks. He clung to it while his feet battled the current to find a toehold. And then, for just a moment, his right foot caught and he hauled himself over the ledge to lie gasping and choking in the stream. He looked up. Just ahead of him a large rock rose out of the w
ater. He heaved himself back to his feet and struggled toward it, not sure he had the strength to get to it, but unwilling to sink back into the cold water.
And then he was there. He sank down onto the rock, his breath coming in a series of heaving gasps. He was soaked through, and cold, and his teeth were chattering.
But, for the moment, he was safe.
He had no way of knowing how long he sat on the rock, but it seemed like hours. And then, finally, his teeth stopped chattering, and his breath came easily and evenly. He listened, straining to hear the baying of the dogs, but if it was there, the rushing water made it indistinguishable from any other sound.
At last he got to his feet and continued wading. The stream leveled out, and the rocky bottom was replaced by sand. The wading became easier, and Randy was no longer even tempted to leave the stream.
Ahead a light flashed.
Randy stopped and stood stock-still, staring into the darkness.
Was someone out there with a light, looking for him?
Once again the light flashed. Suddenly, Randy knew what it was.
Ahead of him there was a road, and the flashes of light were cars. He redoubled his efforts and forged ahead, splashing through the water, his mind filled with the memories of the previous summer, when he had been alone in the dark, then seen lights, and finally come to a road. Maybe it would happen like that again, and someone would find him and take him home.
He came to the bridge that carried the road over the stream. He was about to scramble up the bank to wave at the first car that came along, when he suddenly stopped.
What if Dr. Hamlin was out there in a car looking for him? Or Miss Bowen? Or any of them?
He couldn’t Just climb out.
But he couldn’t just keep wading up the stream either. He listened carefully. Here, where the stream slid quietly over a smooth bottom, the night was silent No matter how hard he tried, he could hear no dogs barking, no sounds of animals crashing through the forest toward him.
Maybe, if he was very careful, it was safe to leave the stream.
He tried to figure out which way the Academy might be. Behind him, he thought, and to the left.
Reluctantly, Randy left the water and made his way up the right bank, then, staying well back from the road, he began moving through the woods, making sure every few steps that the road was still in sight.
To pass the time he began counting his steps.
He had counted to six hundred and thirty-four, when he suddenly became aware of a light flashing in the distance.
Not the headlight of a car, for it wasn’t moving.
No, it was the light of a sign. He began running, and in a few moments he was able to read it.
The sign was for a diner, and its flashing message pulsated through the darkness:
OPEN ALL NIGHT
At last, Randy was safe.
Chapter 24
GEORGE HAMLIN GLANCED UP at the clock on the wall of his office. It was nearly ten, he was tired, and a long night of work stretched ahead of him. It was work he hated to have to do. Nevertheless, it had to be done. Now he faced his staff, and wondered if he looked as bad as they did. The five of them sat nervously in a semicircle around his desk, their faces drawn, their eyes furtive. Louise Bowen, upon whom Hamlin placed full responsibility for what was about to happen, sat with her head down, her fingers twisting at the fringe of a woolen shawl that was draped over her shoulders.
She looks old, Hamlin thought irrelevantly. She looks old and tired. Then he took a deep breath and began speaking.
“You all know what’s happened. This evening’s unfortunate events leave me no choice. The God Project is going to be suspended.”
A low murmuring rippled through the room, and the laboratory technician raised a tentative hand. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”
“I wish there were,” Hamlin replied. “But Randy Corliss is gone, and we have no way of recovering him. The dogs—the dogs lost his scent when he went into the stream. He’s gone, and that’s that. We have to assume that he’s alive, and that he’s going to get home, and that he’s going to talk about where he’s been.”
“But what about the burn-out?” someone asked.
Hamlin responded to the question with a twisted smile. “I suppose a miracle could be happening, and Randy could be lying dead out there somewhere right now. But I don’t think we can count on that, can we? We have to assume the worst—that Randy Corliss is alive. And so we are going to close the Academy. Tonight.”
Louise Bowen’s head came up, and she stared at Hamlin with a dazed look. “Tonight?” she repeated. “But—but what about the—”
Hamlin’s eyes fastened on her, their icy blue matching the coldness of his voice. “All the subjects will be destroyed. Please bring them to the lab.”
“But—” Louise started to protest.
“Now.” The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and then Louise rose and made her way out of the suddenly silent room. When she was gone, Hamlin turned his attention to the others. The four of them had been with the project since the beginning, and no matter what happened, he knew he could count on their loyalty. But what about Louise Bowen? Could he count on hers? Probably not. It was one more thing he would, in the end, have to deal with himself. He sighed and began issuing orders. “Well pack all the records and as much of the equipment as we can. Paul Randolph is sending three trucks from Boston.” A note of sarcasm crept into his voice as he watched his staff exchange doubtful glances. “They’ll have to be enough, since they’re all we have.” He paused for a few seconds, then began speaking again, his voice as bitter as his words. “I told Randolph this was a stupid idea. We should have moved to the desert somewhere or out of the country. Using this place was asking for trouble.” His voice rose dangerously. “Ten years of work—ten years! And after six months out here it’s gone. Gone! It makes me—” Hearing the tone of his own voice, he bit back his words. “Never mind,” he said, forcing himself to hold his emotions in check. “Let’s get started. It’s going to be a long night.”
Louise Bowen climbed the stairs slowly. She had made a mistake, and now the price for that mistake was going to have to be paid.
It didn’t seem right: the mistake had been so small, and the price was so high.
All she had done, really, was hesitate. She had found Randy’s room empty and started for the stairs, intent on telling Hamlin that Randy was gone. But then she had hesitated.
Instead of going downstairs, she had gone up to the attic, certain that she would find Randy there. The attic had been empty, but the ladder, normally folded up against the roof, was down, and the skylight was propped open. She had climbed the ladder and looked out over the roof just in time to see Randy slip, catch himself, and start down the tree.
At that point Louise had hesitated no more. She had hurried downstairs to report what had happened, but it was already too late. Randy was gone, and now the others would have to follow.
Louise opened the door to Adam Rogers’s room. Adam, his unruly hair falling over his forehead, was propped up in his bed. He looked at Louise apprehensively. “Did they find Randy?”
“No,” Louise admitted. Now came the hardest part. “But since everyone is up, we’ve decided to have a little party. We’re all going down to the dining room, and then we have a surprise for each of you.”
Adam’s face broke into an eager grin, and he scrambled off the bed. “Shall I get dressed?”
“No,” Louise said quietly. “You’ll be fine just the way you are.”
Then, as Adam scampered down the stairs, Louise continued along the hall, stopping at each room to repeat what she had told Adam to Jerry Preston and Billy Mayhew. And both of them, their eyes glowing with anticipation, had followed Adam down the stairs. Her heart breaking, Louise, too, made her way to the dining room, forced herself to smile at the three boys, then went on through the kitchen and into the lab. George Hamlin turned to look at her.
“
Are they ready?”
Louise nodded and tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. “I—I told them we were going to have a party,” she said, her voice shaking. “Can I make them some cocoa?”
Hamlin scowled in barely contained fury. “Cocoa? You want to make cocoa for them?”
Louise’s expression hardened with determination. “They don’t have to know what’s going to happen,” she said. “Can’t they at least think it’s a party? It will only take a minute.”
Hamlin glanced at the clock, then back at Louise. Then, realizing it would take as long to argue with her as it would to let her have her way, he shrugged indifferently. “All right,” he said. “You have fifteen minutes.”
As Louise set about making the cocoa, she used the time to compose herself. Whatever happened, she must not let the children see how upset she was. It would be easier for them if they suspected nothing. Forcing a smile, she carried a tray with the pot and four cups into the dining room.
“Here we are,” she said as brightly as she could. The three little boys grinned happily.
“What’s the surprise?” Jerry Preston asked.
Louise hesitated only a split second. “It’s from Dr. Hamlin. Hell tell you all about it.”
She poured the cocoa and passed the cups around. And then, four minutes later, George Hamlin appeared at the door as if on cue.
“Jerry?”
Pleased to be the first selected, Jerry Preston grinned at his friends and got up to follow Hamlin out of the dining room.
Once more Hamlin came back, and then Louise Bowen was alone with Adam.
“How come I’m always last?” the little boy complained.
“Are you?” Louise said, not really listening.
“It must be because I’m youngest,” Adam said thoughtfully. “When I’m older, will I get to do things first?”