The Devil's Assassin (5 page)

Linus smiles, “Ah, what a friend. Let me know what happens,
okay?”

“Will do, Linus.
Take care.”

The two men hang up the phones and Linus is still smiling,
confident his friend will go to bat for him with June and Van Houten. He
continues petting Sava, who is greatly appreciative of the attention. Linus
looks over to the wall on which the picture of the Jersey Devil leers menacingly
out at him. He gets up and pulls it off the wall and puts it into the coat
closet in the hallway. He’d hung it there in the living room as a conversation
piece, and considering his location in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, an apt
piece of historical memorabilia. Kitschy, in the same way as 1950s horror
flicks were anything but horrifying. Though the picture has never bothered him
before, for a reason that he can’t explain at the moment, he is relieved not to
have to look at it.

Dr. Mike Huggins is attempting to take a blood sample from
the creature as it lies strapped to an examination table at the Princeton
Primate Research Lab in Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. June Dituro is there as well
as a young woman scientist. The three wear gloves and surgical masks and caps.
The restrained animal reacts violently when it sees the needle, as if afraid
for its life. The three scientists back away and Huggins puts the syringe out
of sight.

Attempting to calm the frightened animal he shows it his
empty hands. “Okay.
Gone, see?”

The animal settles down slowly and then
starts
to get groggy again as it falls
back into its drug-induced stupor.

“I’ve never seen an animal react so violently to a syringe
before,” says June. “You’d think he had a previous bad experience with one.”

“It doesn’t seem possible,” says Dr. Huggins.  “To get
him in the cage initially we shot him with a dart and since it was in his back
he never saw it. Maybe he’s hallucinating from the effects of the ketamine.
What are we going to do now? We need to have a blood sample.”

“We’ll have to give him more ketamine,” say June. “When he’s
asleep we can get blood, weigh him, do some x-rays, stuff he won’t let us do
when he’s awake.”

Sahar, a female scientist with brown hair and Egyptian ancestry
scoffs at the idea that he’s any problem. “I don’t think we should tranquilize
him so soon after the last dose. He could go into a coma. Anyway, he’d been
pretty docile until he saw the needle.”

The creature is quiet now, and half-awake.

“June’s right, Sahar,” says Dr. Huggins. “Even though he
hasn’t given any other indication that he’s dangerous, he could injure himself
if we allow him to get that frightened again.”

Though she is a junior scientist, Sahar is still not
convinced. “But can’t we put off the blood test until tomorrow?”

“No,” says June. “We have direction from the DOD to get
answers about this animal as quickly as possible, and I don’t like to argue
with a source of significant funding for my laboratory. They especially want
the DNA test ASAP.”

Sahar is disappointed but realizes where the funds for her
job come from. She and the other two scientists go about preparing to put the
animal to sleep again. June and Dr. Huggins agree to use the Hauptner syringe,
as it looks more like a hot glue gun than a typical needle. The two women
scientists distract the creature while Dr. Huggins administers the dose to the
animal’s shoulder from behind.

›

The creature’s arms and legs are still belted to an
examination table and the scientists have given the animal enough time to be
sure he’s asleep. EKG wires are hooked up to him and an electrocardiograph
displays his heart’s vital statistics. Huggins is drawing blood from the prone
animal. Sahar moves a portable x-ray machine near the table. The scientists step
away and she shoots two or three pictures. Once the x-rays are done, Huggins
pulls a hook down from the ceiling which he attaches to the table. He presses a
button and it lifts the top portion of the examination table and the animal up
an inch or two.

“Thirty-seven kilograms,” he says.

June writes this down on a clipboard she is holding. She
starts removing EKG contacts. “Looks like we’re finished,” she says. “At least
he cooperated and stayed asleep. Let’s get him back into his cage before he
comes to.”

“If he comes to,” says Sahar under her breath.

June pretends not to have heard but a slight smile crosses
her face that Sahar cannot see. Sahar reminds June of her younger self. She
really appreciates how much Sahar cares for the animals that come through this
lab.

Sahar moves the x-ray machine away. Huggins moves the
portable tray table away from the examination table,
then
positions himself near the head of the creature, June goes to the feet. Sahar
is near the belts with the Hauptner syringe.

“Ready?” asks Sahar.

June looks at Huggins, who nods. “Okay,” she says. “Unstrap
him.”

Sahar does so and the other two scientists pick up the
animal carrying it quickly to the cage. Huggins takes over once in the cage and
places the animal down as gently as possible. He comes out, relieved. “Well,
that went okay.”

“He’ll probably have a headache when he wakes up,” say June.

Huggins closes the cage and locks it. “He’ll get over it.
Anybody up for Pizza Hut?”
He pulls off his mask and cap
showing his gray-streaked black beard and hair. June and Sahar do the same.

“I’ll go,” says June. “I’m famished.”

“I’ll get something later,” says Sahar. “I’m going to stay
and make sure he wakes up all right. I can get started on the blood work.”

“That can wait until we get back, Sahar,” says June.

Sahar is firm. “I’ll stay. Thanks for the invite though.”

“We’ll bring you something,” says Huggins.

Sahar smiles her thanks and watches as June and Huggins
leave. She wanders closer to the cage. Looking at the sleeping creature, she
regards him with quiet wonder. He is the most amazing animal discovery in two
hundred years and they have pumped him with enough ketamine to put a horse to
sleep for a week. They had no idea even how the tranquilizer would affect the
animal before they used it.

After a few moments she walks over to a lab bench, puts on a
clean pair of surgical gloves, and pulls a vial of the creature’s blood for
testing.

›

An hour later, Sahar stands up from her lab work, stretches
and yawns. She lets her long, black hair free from the hair clip she’d had it
in now that she was done with her work. She looks at the lab clock on the wall
and sees the time. Suddenly, she looks over at the animal and becomes worried.
She walks over to his cage.

“I hope they haven’t overdosed you, little guy. You may be
asleep for days with the amount of ketamine in you.” She notices that his water
bottle in the cage is low. “Let me get some water and some food for you while
you’re still asleep.”

Sahar goes to the cage, unlocks it and opens it. She walks
in to get his food dish and water bottle, pausing to look at his face. He’s
sleeping. When she turns her back, the creature’s eyes suddenly open wide and
he watches her leave the cage. He is not the least bit sleepy.

As she walks away from the cage, she not only leaves it
unlocked, but wide open. The creature doesn’t waste a moment seizing this
opportunity to gain his freedom.

He leaps up quietly, but quickly, and runs after her as she
heads to fill the food dish and water bottle. As he gets very near her back he
extends his needle. Sahar turns around partway to the left as she hears
something behind her. She sees the needle extended from the moving creature and
stumbles in surprise at seeing the animal up and out of his cage. The stumble
is away from the creature and she falls backward. As she falls, she drops the
dish and plastic bottle and the dish lands with a metallic clatter. Sahar hits
her head on a lab bench on the way to the ground, losing consciousness.

The creature moves in on her as she lays there. He reaches
down and feels for a heartbeat with his right hand on her neck. He finds a
pulse and quickly injects his drawn needle into her lung. He then draws the
needle out and cleans the blood from it with a ritual lick.

Satisfied that she is dead, he moves to the door, opens it
slowly and peeks outside to the hallway. It’s clear. He sees a dark window at
one end of the hallway and moves toward that. The creature moves unsteadily
through the hallway, weaving a little from the effects of the drugs. When he
gets to the window, he sees that he is one story up from the ground. To his
left are a door and a staircase. He pushes open the door, goes down the stairs
and ends up near a door at the bottom of the stairs. He pushes that door open,
peeks out, and runs away from the lab, disappearing into the New Jersey night.

›

Mike Huggins and June Dituro are returning to the lab from
dinner. An ambulance and four police cars are in the parking lot outside the
Princeton Primate Research Lab as they drive up. They look at each other with
concern.

“Was there anybody else in the lab when we left?” asks June.

Huggins wants to be positive. “There were people in other
labs in the building.” But he speeds his car toward the front door, parking as
near to it as he can. The two of them jump out and run through the building
door, sprinting up the stairs toward their lab. As they round the top of the
stairs they see medical technicians and police officers.

June lets out a horrified squeak. “Oh my God, Mike.”

They arrive at the door and are intercepted by a detective.
“
Hooolllld
it there.
What’s the
rush?”

Detective Randy Maas is in his fifties, balding and carries
some weight around his midsection. The bifocals he wears sit on the end of his
nose, and he often takes them off completely, unless he is inspecting something
closely. Now he peers at them through the glasses.

“This is our lab,” says Huggins. “What’s happened, Officer?”

“I am Detective Maas. May I have your names please?” He
pulls a small notebook out of his jacket’s breast pocket.

“Yes. This is June Dituro, the chief scientist here, and I’m
Mike Huggins, also a scientist here.”

Detective Maas takes off his glasses when he finishes
writing down their names and positions. “I’m sorry to say this, but according
to Security this young woman worked here. He’s
ID’d
her as Sahar Franklin.”

June’s knees buckle and she nearly faints, but Huggins is
quick to catch and support her. When she gets some of her steadiness back she
speaks weakly.
“Sahar…ah, God.
Where’s the animal?”

“No animal,” says Detective Maas. “Your security guy told us
you had some kind of ape in there. It’s gone.”

June and Huggins respond as one. “Gone?!”

June’s knees start to give way again. Detective Maas nods.

“How?” asks Huggins.

Maas shrugs. “His cage was open.”

He goes into the lab to show them. They follow, and though
June is devastated, she waves off Mike’s help and tries to regain some control.

“It should have been locked,” she said. “Mike locked it when
we left.”

“What it looks like is, Miss Franklin was feeding the animal
and it got out. She appears to have hit her head pretty hard, though at this
point we don’t know the cause of death. She may have been frightened by the
animal and fallen. We won’t know for sure until the medical examiner gets a
close look at her. I have Green checking over the surveillance camera tapes
now.”

June wanders closer to the gurney which holds a covered
body. “Can I see her please?”

Detective Maas hesitates due to this woman’s earlier
weakness and looks to Huggins who reassures him with a nod. Then Maas shoves
his glasses into place and pulls the sheet back for June to see. Huggins also
moves in. June grabs onto Huggin’s arm as if to steady herself but she remains
in control. A tear rolls down her cheek and onto the sheet.

Mike puts a reassuring arm around June; it is as much for
himself
as for her.

“She was scared,” says June. “It must have attacked her.”

Detective Maas shrugs again. “Well, let’s wait until we see
your surveillance video. She doesn’t show any evidence of mauling.”

June turns toward the door and moves out into the hallway.
She leans against the wall and slides down to the ground, sitting with her head
in her knees. Huggins goes over and sits down against the wall close to her.

“Why?” she asks.
“Sahar…Why?”

›

In the security office of the Princeton Primate Research Lab
are Detective Maas, another detective, Mike Huggins, June Dituro, Dr. Van
Houten, and Jasper Green, a fit, older man in his mid-fifties who is head of
security.

“Okay. If you’ll all watch the center screen here I can show
you some shit—Excuse me Dr. Dituro. You won’t believe your eyes. Well, maybe
you scientist
types’ll
believe it, but I sure as hell
didn’t.”

“Just get on with it,” Detective Maas says impatiently.

“Right,” says Green. The security guard hits a switch and an
image of one of the labs appears on one of the security screens in front of the
group. In it Sahar stretches and yawns, then lets her hair down. She looks over
at the animal in the cage and then walks over to it. After a moment she opens
the cage door. She goes in and comes out with the food dish and the water
bottle.

As she is walking away from the cage she suddenly turns and
surprise and fear grip her face. She stumbles, falls, and hits her head on the
hard lab table. She crumples to the linoleum and is quickly approached by the
creature. He looks for a pulse in her neck. The creature’s left hand suddenly
has a bone-white needle sticking out from it. He wastes no time in sticking it
into Sahar’s chest. June gasps. The creature licks the needle and then leaves
the body, heading for the door. The hall cameras watch as he finally makes his
escape out the building door.