Justin Richards - The Death Collector

Eddie was furious. Why should he be the one to risk his life creeping up on Lorimore’s killers and the monster? ‘No way!’ he protested.

He felt a gentle touch on his shoulder, and turned to find Liz looking down at him. Her eyes were wide and appealing.

‘Please,’ she said softly, ‘we need your help, Eddie.’

Eddie crept towards Lorimore’s men. The problem was, that if he was close enough to see them clearly, then they could see him. He edged as close as he dared — until their voices were audible through the fog. Then he dropped to the ground and crawled slowly forwards.

There were four men. He could already tell that one of them was Blade. He was talking to a tall, spindly figure who seemed to be directing them — Lorimore himself, Eddie guessed. The other two were further off, standing by the shed. The door, Eddie saw, was open. With the figures outside to show how big it really was, the building looked more like a coach house.

‘It’s gone down the tunnel,’ one of them said. ‘But it’s on its way back now.’

‘It comes when I call,’ Lorimore said in his high-pitched whine. He sounded smug and self-important.

‘Expecting to be fed, probably,’ Blade replied. ‘It’ll be a bit agitated after all the excitement.’ Something was draped over his arm, but Eddie could not make out what it was. ‘You sure this will work, sir?’ Blade asked.

‘Your incompetence has left us few options, Mr Blade,’ Lorimore replied caustically. ‘But the olfactory systems remain preserved and should function, at least well enough for our purposes. The idiot’s brain I put in it should manage that. You say yourself that you believe the boy was in the street outside, possibly even in the grounds when you retrieved Wilkes. Find the boy and we find his friends. Find his friends and we find what remains of Glick’s last diary. Or at the very least someone who can apprise us of its contents.’

Blade nodded, but if he spoke the sound of his voice was drowned out by the roar from the open shed behind him. It was a sound that Eddie had heard several times before. The fog round the shed door swirled and thickened as smoke or perhaps steam billowed out. Slowly, terrifyingly, the grotesque shape of the creature’s head appeared as if from the ground inside the shed. The monster was hauling itself out of a huge pit that was hidden inside the building.

Eddie could see now that two men were standing either side, holding heavy chains that reached up and round the creature’s neck as it emerged into the open. Its head swung to and fro as if it was sniffing the air, as if it was searching for food.

‘Gently now,’ Lorimore said. His voice was soft as if he was talking to a child. ‘There’s nothing to worry about, my beauty. Mr Blade has a small task for you to perform.’ He turned to the big man. ‘Mr Blade?’

Blade handed him the thing that had been draped over his arm. As Lorimore took it and opened it, Eddie could see through the gusting smoke that it was a jacket. Lorimore held it out at arm’s length.

After a moment, the monster’s head dipped down. Steam erupted from its nostrils. It nudged the jacket with its nose, teeth glinting in the suffuse light.

‘Fetch,’ Blade said, and laughed. His men laughed too, until Lorimore turned on them.

‘That’s enough,’ he said. ‘It has the scent. Lead it to the gates and let it pick up the trail there.’

‘What if it’s seen?’ Blade wondered.

‘There won’t be many people out in this. And those who are won’t be certain. They will just see shapes and shadows, unless they get very close. And if they do …’ Lorimore laughed now — a nasal whine of amusement.

But Eddie hardly heard. He was staring at the jacket, now lying discarded on the ground at Lorimore’s feet as the smoke and steam swirled round it. The jacket that the monster had sniffed at to get the scent of its prey.

Eddie’s jacket.

In front of him, the monster was lowering its head to sniff at it again. Eddie shuddered as he remembered the creature’s own oily, acrid smell. He sniffed, expecting to catch a whiff of it again. But there was nothing. Just the bitter, smut-filled smell of the smog.

The creature slowly raised its head and swung round. Towards Eddie. Towards the scent it was picking up on the breeze. It looked like an enormous skeleton, papered over with thin metal plates. Metal and bone glinted through the mist that shrouded it.

With a colossal roar and the sudden snap of teeth, the creature lunged. One of the men was swept off his feet as the chain went tight. The other fell backwards, the chain wrenched from his grasp. Blade leapt back, pulling Lorimore with him.

But Lorimore seemed elated. ‘It has the scent!’ he shouted with delight. ‘Already. Just think how much more efficient my next prototype will be.’

‘Prototypes again,’ Eddie mumbled, bracing himself ready to run.

‘That vermin must have been here that night, in the grounds,’ Lorimore was saying to Blade. ‘Wait until I see Higgins again — he was supposed to be keeping guard. When I catch up with him …’

Eddie did not wait to hear what would happen to Higgins. He was already scrambling to his feet and running for all he was worth back towards the wood and his friends.

Behind him, claws slashed through the foggy air as the monster roared in triumph. The ground shook as it stamped its way towards Eddie.

Eddie’s only thought was to get away. His only hope was that the huge creature lumbering after him would be unable to follow into the trees. He looked back once — a quick glance over his shoulder. The thing must be twenty feet tall, but as it ran, its head was down almost level with Eddie’s. Steam snorted out of its nostrils and mouth and even the fog shrank away from it.

He dived into the trees, stumbling, falling. Strong hands pulled him to his feet.

‘This way,’ George said. ‘Quick!’

Liz and George ran with him into the deepest part of the wood. As he risked another look back, Eddie saw Sir William standing at the edge of the wood watching the foggy shape of the monster with interest. He turned slowly, and made his way unhurriedly towards them. Amazingly, the monster did not seem to be following, but had crunched off down the driveway.

‘Hurry up,’ Liz hissed. ‘It’ll be after us in a moment.’

‘Oh I don’t think there’s any rush just now,’ Sir William said. He was smiling thinly. ‘What an extraordinary creature. I should like to take a closer look at it. Examine it properly.’

‘You will if you hang about here,’ Eddie told him. ‘It’s sniffing me out. They gave it my coat to smell.’

‘And you have been here before,’ Sir William said, nodding. ‘It isn’t you it’s after Eddie. Or rather it is, but at the moment it is following the trail you left on your last visit.’

As if to confirm the point, a distant roar split through the foggy wood.

Sir William smiled, and patted Eddie on the shoulder. ‘You know, it may not have fancied struggling through these trees, but actually I don’t think its sense of smell is quite what it should be, my boy. Now why is that, eh? I should very much like to find out.’

‘Let’s hope it keeps going along the old scent for a while,’ Liz said.

‘Giving us time to get away,’ George agreed.

‘Good gracious me, no.’ Sir William seemed astonished at the suggestion. ‘Giving us time to take a look at this shed where it lives.’

‘There’s a tunnel,’ Eddie said. ‘I heard them mention it.’

‘A tunnel.’ Sir William clapped his hands together in delight. ‘Then perhaps that is how they transport it from place to place without being seen. Right then, we’ll give them another minute to get clear with their pet monster, then we’ll take a look shall we?’