The Abomination picked Christopher up and the man hung in the air, kicking his feet up onto the desk to try to keep from hanging. The creature whipped the char aside with a heavy claw.
“How did you get in here?!’.Christopher felt himself being turned over, and all at once the Abomination 'learned him down on the top of the great desk and pressed him there. Oh God oh God oh God....
“Shh. Don’t shout,” growled the creature. “Don’t reach for any alarms, or I’ll eat you.” Christopher saw the head of the Abomination, like a scaly, finned, cat, come to Christopher’s own face, hot, rank breath blowing against his cheek, ill’ll eat you a piece at a time. Shhh.”
“What do you want?”
A giant, green claw rested on Christopher’s chest pressing him down. The creature put a clawed finger under the buttons of Christopher’s double-breasted coat and began to pull. Christopher listened to the fabric slowly rip away. Then the claw dug into the front of his shirt, and he looked down and saw the green claw slowly tearing its way up, white cotton ripping and falling aside until his chest lay bare. The Abomination stopped, their eyes locked, a clawed forefinger tapping almost idly on Christopher's sternum
“Ask,” rasped the Abomination,
‘What?”
“Aren’t you curious?” The Abomination tilted his head, gargoyle teeth bared each time he opened his mouth.
"What?”
“Ask, Christopher. You’re a smart fellow,” rumbled the voice of the demon.
The note. (There is something missing.) “What is— missing?” He spoke, hopefully, ashamed to sound so snail, ashamed to be so small, so weak. Please don't kill me. If I get out of this 1 will hunt you down and destroy you. Please don’t kill me.
“Y?eesss,” the Abomination said. “What is missing? What is missing is a heart.’ ’ The claw tapped on his sternum a bit more forcefully, hammering away, a bruise forming. Then the claw came away and up to Christopher’ s Adam’s apple, resting just under his silk tie, which hung to the side. The claw began to lower and Christopher felt a stabbing pain, something ripping, and then something new entirely.
“The tingling sensation you are feeling,” the creature said, the hot breath still on his face, that demon face still intimately close, a new wetness on his chest, “is the skin of your chest ripping, just a tiny bit, just so much as I want.”
You want.. '.r-The creature growled. “I want to rip your heart out, I really do.!^~
“But...”
“But that would not suit you. Why illustrate the obvious?”
“I’ll do anything, anything. ..
“You will be silent and you will listen to me,” continued the Abomination.^‘The tightening you are feeling about your chest is not merely the weight of my hand pressing on your rib cage. The tightening is on the inside. ’
Christopher blinked, feeling the warm blood flow, the claw slowly moving down his sternum. ‘Inside?”
*_G£A special gift from me to you,” said the creature, “Tincture 6, some call it. On my claws. In your blood.” The demon mouth curled up and smiled, almost singing, I ‘Swimming in your blood, to your heart. Weakening you. Grabbing that empty heart of yours and tightening it, squeezing it...
Christopher gasped. Please, get off of me, I feel... He became aware of the swish of blood in his ears, his heartbeat, pounding, compressed. He opened his mouth and sucked in air and heard it rattle in his throat.
- . “Now you are going to suffer a massive cardiac arres:, Christopher. You are a very fit man,’’ he smiled again, “so I think you might'make it.”
What is missing is a heart... What is missing is a heart... my heart my heart my heart...
“Yes. If I let you go now,” continued the creature, lifting his claw away from Christopher’s belly, the end of his cut, “you might make it to the hospital in time. If you are fast. I suspect you will.”
“Oh, God,” Christopher said, clasping his chest. The Abomination came around to his side and lowered down to whisper in his ear. Please, please...
“But, Christopher,” rasped the Abomination, “you will live in fear. The emergency room will be a regular part of your existence. From here on out.”
Missing ... missing... missing a beat...
“This is what I have done,” spoke the demon voice in his ear, “to your wicked heart, Wulf Christopher^S Christopher stared at the ceiling and heard the crash of the window as the creature leapt through it. He stared at the ceiling and tried to cry out, heard the guards running in as the world went black.
ClHlAIPTiR 1
y Morgan nodded grimly, as did Jo Carlin. The photos showed Wulf Christopher on a hospital bed, a series of plastic tubes running to his arms and nose. ‘Well, he’ll live.”
Bruce looked out the large office window at the clouds high on the New York skyline. He had decided to come onto the Helicarrier after the message about Christopher. No sense playing shy. “I have to say it doesn’t exactly grieve me to see him in that condition.”
he Hulk put the post-op photos back on Morgan’s
desk. “You seem to be collecting a lot of these.”
“We know that,” said Carlin. “We’re not tom up about Christopher, either.” .
“He played us all for saps,” said the Hulk. “Christopher got the police to go down there and I was right in front, down there to clean out the Abomination and his followers, or whatever. I attacked Christopher myself after that. This is the only move the Abomination has made that comes as no surprise at all;”_
“I agree,” Morgan said. “This was to be expected. Maybe we should have put guards on Christopher.’^ ‘What a shame,” the Hulk nodded gravely.
“I’ll say,” Morgan clasped his fingers and stared over them at the Hulk and Carlin. ■* ‘But I want to know what you think will happen next.*^
“What did the note say? Something is missing?” Bruce asked.
“Mm-hm, We managed to get out of Christopher that the ‘something missing’ was a heart.”
“In Wulf Christopher's case,” the Hulk observed, “I could have told you that.”
Carlin shook her head. “So what, then? The Abomi-
■ation is picking off personal enemies? With the cops and "ristopher—”
“But tie didn’t hit Nadia,” said the Hulk.
“No, but he hit around her pretty hard, ’ Morgan said. The Hulk thought back to the e-mail message;?,“The nessage I got from Emil said that now Nadia would see only pain. So in a way, he did hit her. But the fact that he's aiming at others makes him a whole lot more dangerous.”
“What does he want?%’;. :
The Hulk watched the buildings and listened to the distant whooping of the great rotor blades above them. “When I met the Abomination last, he made a threat.” “Which was?’ Carlin asked.
“He said that by letting him get away, whatever he did, whoever he allied himself with, I brought it on myself. He said he had tried to fit into this world, even under ft, and next time he returned, he wouldn’t stop until he’d brought it down around us.”
Morgan tapped his desk. “But these targets have been personal.”
“And a little too smart, sometimes.”
“Hm?”
“That thing at the theater was way too advanced foi Emil. Emil kicks and bites.”
“True,” Morgan said.
“He bccame the Abomination by stepping in front of a gamma gun I designed. Deliberately hit himself with a massive dosage, he says, unoer orders from the Kremlin. This is a guy who’s admittedly a brilliant strategist and spy, but he was never a stickler for technical details.”
“I don’t know,” said Carlin. “Maybe we’re underestimating him. He could be on his own. There’s no telling what he might familiarize himself with.”
“I see what Dr. Banner is getting at, though,” said Morgan. “Like the fact that he knew we were coming down below. You think there’s someone working with him.”
“Maybe a lot of someones.”
&n
bsp; Carlin shook her head again. “But why would such someones want to help Emil pick off his personal enemies, harass his ex-wife, et cetera?”
“Widow,” corrected the Hulk. “Nadia doesn’t know Blonsky isn’t dead. But in answer to your question, I don’t know.”
“Emil doesn’t like working with teams any more than you do.”:>_.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” the Hulk smiled wryly.
Morgan stood up and walked over to the window to stand next to the Hulk. “Whenever I recruit someone, if we’re going to have a long relationship, I like to make sure a few problems of their own get cleaned up. If you want to work with someone, the best thing in the world is to share a few objectives, make them mesh.”
“What next?” the Hulk asked, hand under his chin. “What are you going to do next?”
“Well,” said Morgan, “there is a pattern.”
Carlin listed them as she walked over to a slate on the wall where they had been scribbling with a magnetic pen. “Eyes, with Nadia. Hands. Now Christopher’s heart. Body parts.”
“Not much, is it?” Morgan said tightly.
“It’s a lot,” said the Hulk. “I just don’t see it yet.” Morgan turned around and went to the coffee maker by his desk. As he poured himself a cup, he asked, ‘ ‘So— all of this poetry. Has Emil ever been this cryptic before with you?”
“Not in my experience,” said Bruce. “But I remember he found a great deal of peace, down below. He did always have something of a poetic soul. I have to say I think he was a bit gullible. But this is like a new Blonsky we’re seeing. A new Abomination.”
“It’s new to me, too,” said Carlin. :And I’ve been
_ him for a couple of years now. Maybe I haven’t Hfcp you have, but I’ve been watching. I don’t . - i. There's such rage, and yel such sentimentality.”
- rt to be sentimental while you’re cutting people's t - _ and stringing them up,” said Morgan.
■ 1 agree,” the Hulk said. “But not impossible.” The
- fcbu
!S5SCV
Morgan sipped his coffee.
7 -ice he said that. Then he said, ‘Who can recall
-r ~ ..*** **
H ’« many times have you met?’ ’ Carlin asked. k ~tz.. of a lot more than that.”
M -set his cup down and looked at his watch. Bisaer, you may not believe this, but this isn’t : : . we’re working. Let’s meet again later and i... - _ - : - look. Let me know if anything occurs to
. door to Morgan’s office slid shut behind the Hulk _ . j Carlin as they walked down the hall. The woman . rapid stride, and she had no difficulty keeping up
■ - gamma giant. “When’s the funeral?” Bruce said,
■ - £ readied the lift down to the hovercraft bay.
“Six o'clock this afternoon,” said Carlin. “One !»r.
The Hulk was pleased that she hadn’t called it eigh-r en-hiuidred hours. “Look after him,” frowned Bruce. “I will,” she said. “He’s the only Morgan we have.”
Til Bruce go: home, Betty was just sitting down to watch Rick and Mario. “I noticed your friends dropped you off at the next block.”
“Yes.”
“Kind of them.”
“What’s on?”
Betty had a quart of Haagen-Dazs in front of her and gestured with a scooper. “Rick’s got Senator Hill today A real hoot-and-holler. Want some?” She indicated a second bowl, which already was lined with slices of pea;h.
“Absolutely,” the Hulk said. “How was school?---'He sat down on the reinforced couch and it gave out the same whine every other piece of steel-reinforced furniture they had did.
‘ ‘Carla the Brain showed up for the second time and we worked on her paper^T: Betty said, scooping ice cream into Bruce’s bowl. She licked the scooper and continued. “I’ve seen this kid’s writing. Excellent methodology, good diction. I think she can publish it if I can guide her correctly.”
Bruce smiled broadly.
“What?”
“I just—I just like hearing you so content.”
“Well, it’s a change for the better,” she said, although her voice dropped a bit. “How goes the hunt?”
Rick was on TV now, next to Mario, his wife, seated in their chairs. Rick was introducing Terence Hill, saying he was going to run a campaign clip. The thin, gray form of Senator Hill came on after that, giving his usual speech.
“Eyes,” said Bruce, poking at his ice cream with a spoon. “Hands. Heart. Body parts. What do you think?jf* ‘ ‘Huh.'' Betty laid down her spoon and popped a slice of peach in her mouth, turning to him on the Couch. “Well, there’s other extremities to go for. Feet, for instance.”
“Yeah. And every connection so far is personal. Nadia, Emil’s wife. The cops who killed his people down below. The billionaire who sent them. ’
“Who else does he hate?” Betty asked.
“He hates me,” Bruce said, staring through the TV. She nodded, gravely. “Yes. He does. But he hasn’t come after you yet.”
think he knows where I am. He sent me his od the Internet.”
fc," she said. Betty pulled a printout of the e-±. m under her bowl of ice cream. “I’ve been think-that ‘I will be what I am. What are you?’ ” 'jca nodded. “Underground, he listed Abomina-Trinjs that are Abominations to the Lord.”
“‘E-... is an Abomination.”
~Diah- '
N I mean, look. ‘I will be what I am.’ Let’s not
■ ■ the simple parts. What is Emil?’ ’
LI e you said,’ Bruce hit the mute button and Sen-Wl shut up. “ 'An Abomination.” b s — ihe Religious Studies instructor looked back at
- thing reprehensible to God or to men. A spiritual ii;. or a spiritual accident. A hole where there should r'cfiiiag good.”
The Hulk stood up and got behind the couch to read
- Message over Betty’s shoulder. “ ‘Nadia had haughty eye io* she sees only pain.’ ‘I will be what I am, what >.. What will [ make you see?’ ”• He was whisper. . -.hip to wring it out. “Hands that shed innocent : are an Abomination. A wicked heart is an Abomi-
Bt&y looked up. “Can’t figure this guy out. Where is j fiom?”
‘Former Soviet Union.”
“No, what state?”
The Hulk thought for a moment, the wheels turning, pages flipping back in his head. “Georgia.”'
The instructor chewed her thumbnail. “You know, the Georgians managed to maintain their Christianity even af-: the October Revolution.”
“I thought all that was, ah, stamped out.”
She shrugged. “That’s what people say, but it’s a hard thing in practice. It was a sticking point, but Georgia continued to observe religious holidays fairly regularly. If
Emil was bom at the height of Soviet Communism, he would have grown up serving two masters,”
“The Church and the State.”
“And probably constantly balancing between the two.”
The Hulk tapped his chin and began to pace. “ ‘What are you?’ That’s an identity question. Struggling with your identity,” he whispered, the words tripping over themselves. “ ‘What are you?’ ”
“A spy. ’
“Yes,” Bruce said, “before that, a child; after being a spy, a monster. A monster people call the Abomination.”
“What happened to Emil after the change?”
“The KGB hung him out to dry,” Bruce said. “He’s been on his own, rejected even by his own people.”
‘ ‘ ‘O God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ That state was like a religion in itself, or tried to be.’tj^
“Yes,” said the Hulk. “Yes! And he’s been cast out of both of those, but now he’s talking about what he is, affirmatively. Not searching. ‘I will be what I am.’ It’s for the rest of us to realize ourselves, he knows what he is.”
The Hulk paced back and looked at the sheet again. “Yes, he’s going to show us. He said in the tunnel he’d given me everything.”
“I think he has,” Betty said. “Numbers are very important to someone with a spiritual bent. Names, too. Numbers and names are magical, they have reasons for being. Numbers and names are never an accident.” She stood up and disappeared into the study. Bruce pounded after her as she continued, “You just have to know where to look! Lordv, what kind of morons are we?”
“Hey, gimme a break, a few years ago I didn’t use articles and spoke about myself in the third person.”
She was sitting down at Bruce’s computer and smirked at him as he came in the study. “I remember. ‘Hulk hate stupid purple corduroys. Hulk need fresh pair.’ ”
“Don’t remind me."
“Hey, you put ’em on. Thank God we got married or you’d never have discovered Dockers.
Bruce grinned as Betty moved the mouse and the modem began to dial.
- .-“Six or seven times,” Betty said. “That’s too obviously a clue. Emil’s not trying to be secret here, he just wants you to work for it. He wants you to notice him while you get to the answers.”
“Okay,” said Bruce. She had connected to their online service and she clicked a few more times to bring up a search engine, then typed a series of words. “What are you getting?”
The Bible,’ she said, shaking her head as one of the many on-line translations came up. “Amazing, when you think aoout it. Used to be there was a skill called recall that made professors rich and famous for their ability to recognize patterns and find them in a stack of books.”
I -‘Don’t you have a concordance?” Bruce asked.
“Oh, sure. And I can look up a word like Abomination and get every verse with the word in it. But that’s as intelligent a search as you could do. That recall skill was still the lifesaver. Now, look at this, I can do a search smarter than I am.” She brought up a search screen and typed +six +seven + abomination.
Something came up. “I could have done this on paper,” Betty said. “But not in ten seconds.”
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