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."He dropped his gaze, but not before she saw aflicker of interest - confused and self-conscious, butdefinitely interest.Which made it all the more sur-prising when he stepped away."Well, you did.Don't do it again, okay? I may notbe much of a cop, but I'm trying - and God onlyknows what we're going to run into down here."He met her gaze again, speaking softly."I camewith you because I want to help, I want to do myjob - and I can't do that if you go charging ahead.Besides," he added, smiling a little, "if you run off,who's going to help me?"It was Ada's turn to look away.Leon was playing itstraight with her, openly admitting to his fears andhis response to her not-so-subtle flirtation had been tostep back and tell her that he wanted to be a good cop.Interested, but not a fool for his tool.and manenough to tell me that he's unsure of his abilities.She was forced to smile back, but it was a shakyaffair."I'll do my best," she said.Leon nodded and turned to inspect the hallway,letting the conversation drop - much to Ada's relief.She wasn't sure what she thought of him, but wasuncomfortably aware that her respect for him wasgrowing; not a good thing, considering the circum-stances.There wasn't much to see in the damp, poorly lithall; two doorways and a dead end.The boiler room,where she'd tossed the keys - or plugs, rather - wasdirectly in front of them, the sewer disposal entrancein a back comer; according to the sign on the wall, theother door opened into a storage closet.Ada followed as Leon walked to the closest of thetwo doors, the storage room, hanging back as hepushed it open with his Magnum and stepped inside.Boxes, a table, a trunk; nothing important, but at leastno creepy-crawlies.After a quick search, he steppedback into the hall and they moved toward the boilerroom."How'd you learn to shoot like that, anyway?" Leonasked as they stopped in front of the door.His tonewas casual, but she thought she detected more thancasual curiosity."You're pretty good.Were you in themilitary or something.?"Nice try, Officer.Ada smiled, falling into her carefully rehearsedcharacter."Paintball, believe it or not.I mean, I wenttarget-shooting some when I was a teenager, with myuncle, but never got into it much.And then a fewyears ago, a friend at work - we're both buyers at anart gallery in New York - dragged me to one of thoseweekend survival retreats, and we had a blast.Youknow, hiking, rock-climbing, stuff like that - andpaintball.It's great, we go up every couple ofmonths.although I never thought I'd have to use itfor real."She could actually see him buy it, see that hewanted to buy it.It probably answered a few ques-tions that he'd been hesitant to ask."Well, you're better than a lot of the guys I gradu-ated the academy with.Really.So, you ready to get onwith this?"Ada nodded.Leon pushed the door to the boilerroom open, scanning the ancient, rusting machineryin the wide empty space before ushering her inside.She made a point of not looking down, wanting Leonto find the small wrapped package that she'd tossed ina few moments earlier.She hadn't gotten a good look before.The room,shaped like a sideways "H," was fitted with corrodedrailings and two massive old boilers, one on eitherside.Fluorescent lights sputtered overhead, the fewthat still worked casting strange shadows across themetal pipes that ran down the water-marked walls.The door that led into the sewer system was in the farleft corner, a heavy-looking hatch next to an insetpanel."Hey." Leon crouched down, picking up thebundle of plugs that would open the hatch."Lookslike somebody dropped something."Before Ada could go through the charade of askinghim what he'd found, she heard a noise.A soft,slithery noise, coming from the area in the right backcorner, neatly blocked from view by one of theboilers.Leon heard it, too.He stood up quickly, droppingthe bundle and raising the shotgun.Ada pointed herBeretta toward the sound, remembering how the doorhad been slightly ajar when she'd come up from thesubbasement.Oh, hell.The implant.She knew it even before it crawled into sight - andwas shocked anyway.The little bugger had grown, andit had grovmfast, easily twenty times its former size inhalf as many minutes - and it was still growing,apparently at an exponential rate.In the few secondsit took for the creature to move into the middle of theroom, it went from the size of a small dog to thesize - and bulk - of a ten-year-old child.The shape had changed, was changing, too.It wasno longer the alien tadpole that had chewed its wayout of Bertolucci.The tail was gone, and the creaturethat inched its way across the rusting floor haddeveloped limbs, stretching arms folding out of itsrubbery flesh.Claws popped out of the tan andswimming skin that swirled over its body, accompa-nied by a sound like gristle being punctured.Muscu-lar legs unfurled, liquid that snapped into sinewyshape as its stuttering crawl became smoother, almostfeline.The shotgun and Beretta sounded at the same time,a string of massive blasts peppered with the higherwhine of the nine-millimeter.The creature was stillshifting, standing, mutating into a humanoid shapeand its response to the booming shots that smackedinto its twisting flesh was to open its mouth andvomit, a grunting projectile scream of rotten greenbile that hit the floor and started moving.The streamthat gushed from its wide, flat face was alive and thedozen or so crab-like creatures that tumbled out of themonster's gaping mouth like liquid seemed to knowexactly where the threat was to their fetid, mutantwomb.The skittering, multi-legged animals swarmedtoward Ada and Leon in a silent wave as the implantmonster took one massive step forward, pulsing cordsstanding out on its impossibly long, thick neck.Leon had the heavier firepower."Got 'em!" Adashouted, already targeting and shooting at the closestof the tiny, bilious green crabs.They were fast, but shewas faster; she pointed and squeezed, pointed andsqueezed, and the baby monsters exploded into smallfountains of dark, ichorous fluid, dying as silently asthey'd come.Leon blasted again and again with the shotgun, butAda couldn't spare a glance to see how he was faringwith the mother beast.Five of the crawling babies left,three more rounds and she'd be dry.and she heard the shotgun clatter to the floor,heard the deeper but less powerful fire of the.50 AErounds resounding through the metal room as shepicked off" two more of the spidering creatures, andher weapon clicked empty.Without stopping to think, Ada let go of the Berettaand dropped to the floor.She grabbed the shotgun bythe barrel, rolling up into a crouch beneath Leon'sline of fire, and swung the weapon down, hard.Two ofthe mutant animals were smashed into goo by theheavy stock, but the third, the last of them, sprangforward in an unexpected burst of speedand landed on her thigh, catching hold withneedle-sharp claws.Ada dropped the shotgun, cryingout as the animal scuttled up her leg, the warm, dampweight of it making her frantic with disgust.Off get it OFF [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]