Dean Koontz - Phantoms

It seemed to Frank that there was almost something comic about the scene: all these spacemen lumbering up the narrow stairs, their faces theatrically grim behind plexiglass faceplates, the sound of their breathing amplified by the closed spaces of their helmets and projected out of the speakers on their chests at an exaggerated volume, and ominous sound. It was like one of those 1950s science fiction movies-Attack of the Alien Astronauts or something equally corny-and Frank couldn't help smiling.

But his vague smile vanished when he entered the apartment kitchen and saw the dead man again. The corpse was where it had been last night, lying at the foot of the refrigerator, wearing only blue pajama bottoms.

Still swollen, bruised, staring at nothing.

Frank moved out of the way of Copperfield's people and joined Bryce beside the counter where the toaster oven stood.

As Copperfield again requested silence from the uninitiated, the scientists stepped carefully around the sandwich fixings that were scattered across the floor. They crowded around the corpse.

In a few minutes they were finished with a preliminary examination of the body.

Copperfield turned to Bryce and said, "We're going to take this one for an autopsy.”

"You still think it looks as if we're dealing with just a simple incident of CBW?" Bryce asked, as he had asked before.

"It's entirely possible, yes," the general said.

"But the bruising and swelling," Tal said.

"Could be allergic reactions to a nerve gas," Houk said.

"If you'll slide up the leg of the pajamas," Jenny said, "I believe you'll find that the reaction extends even to unexposed skin.”

"Yes, it does," Copperfield said." We've already looked.”

"But how could the skin react even where no nerve gas came into contact with it?”

"Such gases usually have a high penetration factor," Houk said." They'll pass right through most clothes. In fact, about the only thing that'll stop many of them is vinyl or rubber garments.”

Just what you're wearing, Frank thought, and just what we're not.

"There's another body here," Bryce told the general." Do you want to have a look at that one, too?”

"Absolutely.”

"It's this way, sir," Frank said.

He led them out of the kitchen and down the hall, his gun drawn.

Frank dreaded entering the bedroom where the dead woman lay naked in the rumpled sheets. He remembered the crude things that Stu Wargle had said about her, and he had the terrible feeling that Stu was going to be there now, coupled with the blonde, their dead bodies locked in cold and timeless passion.

But only the woman was there. Sprawled on the bed. Legs still spread wide. Mouth open in an eternal scream.

When Copperfield and his people had finished a preliminary examination of the corpse and were ready to go, Frank made sure they had seen the.22 automatic which she had apparently emptied at her killer." Do you think she would have shot at just a cloud of nerve gas, General?”

"Of course not," Copperfield said." But perhaps she was already affected by the gas, already brain damaged. She could have been shooting at hallucinations, at phantoms.”

"Phantoms," Frank said." Yes, sir, that's just about what they would've had to've been. Because, see, she fired all ten shots in the clip, yet we found only two expended slugs-one in that highboy over there, one in the wall where you see the hole. That means she mostly hit whatever she was shooting at.”

"I knew these people," Doc Paige said, stepping forward.

"Gary and Sandy Wechlas. She was something of a markswoman. Always target shooting. She won several competitions at the county fair last year.”

"So she had the skill to make eight hits out of ten," Frank said." And even eight hits didn't stop the thing she was trying to stop. Eight hits didn't even make it bleed. Of course, phantoms don't bleed. But, sir, would a phantom be able to walk out of here and take those eight slugs with it?”

Copperfield stared at him, frowning.

All the scientists were frowning, too.

The soldiers weren't only frowning, they were looking around uneasily.

Frank could see that the condition of the two bodies especially the woman's nightmarish expression-had had an effect on the general and his people. The fear in everyone's eyes was sharper now. Although they didn't want to admit it, they had encountered something beyond their experience. They were still clinging to explanations that made sense to them nerve gas, virus, poison-but they were beginning to have doubts.

Copperfield's people had brought a zippered plastic body bag with them.

In the kitchen, they slipped the pajama-clad corpse into the bag, then carried it out of the building and left it on the sidewalk, intending to pick it up again on the way back to the mobile labs.

Bryce led them to Gil Martin's Market. Inside, back by the milk coolers where it had happened, he told them about Jake Johnson's disappearance." No screams. No sound at all. Just a few seconds of darkness. A few seconds. But when the lights came on again, Jake was gone.”

Copperfield said, "You looked”

"Everywhere.”

"He could have run away," Roberts said.

"Yes," Dr. Yamaguchi said." Maybe he deserted. Considering the things he'd seen…”

"My God," Goldstein said, "what if he left Snowfield? He might be beyond the quarantine line, carrying the infection”

"No, no, no. Jake wouldn't desert," Bryce said." He wasn't exactly the most aggressive officer on the force, but he wouldn't run out on me. He wasn't irresponsible.”

"Definitely not," Tal agreed." Besides, Jake's old man was once county sheriff, so there's a lot of family pride involved.”

"And Jake was a cautious man," Frank said." He didn't do anything on impulse.”

Bryce nodded." Anyway, even if he was spooked enough to run, he'd have taken a squad car. He sure wouldn't have walked out of town.”

"Look," Copperfield said, "he'd have known they wouldn't let him past the roadblock, so he'd have avoided the highway altogether. He might have gone off through the woods.”

Jenny shook her head." No, General. The land is wild out there. Deputy Johnson would've known he'd get lost and die.”

"And," Bryce said, "would a frightened man plunge pellmell into a strange forest at night? I don't think so, General.

But I do think it's time you heard about what happened to my other deputy.”

leaning against a cooler full of cheese and lunchmeat, Bryce told them about the moth, about the attack on Wargle and the bloodcurdling condition of the corpse. He told them about Lisa's encounter with a resurrected Wargle and about the subsequent discovery that the body was missing.

Copperfield and his people expressed astonishment at first, then confusion, then fear. But during most of Bryce's tale, they stared at him in wary silence and glanced at one another knowingly.

He finished by telling them about the child's voice that had come from the kitchen drain just moments before their arrival.

Then, for the third time, he said, "Well, General, do you still think it looks like a simple incident of CBW?”

Copperfield hesitated, looked around at the littered market, finally met Bryce's eyes, and said, "Sheriff, I want Dr. Roberts and Dr. Goldstein to give complete physical examinations to you and to everyone who saw this… uh… moth.”

"You don't believe me.”

"Oh, I believe that you genuinely, sincerely think you saw all of those things.”

" Damn," Tal said.

Copperfield said, "Surely, you can understand that, to us, it sounds as if you've all been contaminated, as if you're suffering from hallucinations.”

Bryce was weary of their disbelief and frustrated by their intellectual rigidity. As scientists, they were supposed to be receptive to new ideas and unexpected possibilities. Instead, they appeared determined to force the evidence to conform to their preconceived notions of what they would find in Snowfield.