The Devil's Assassin (6 page)

Detective Maas is stunned, as are the other people in the
room. “What the hell was that?”

“That,” says Dr. Van
Houten,
“is
one hell of a problem.”

“
Mmhmm
.
Maybe you can be a little more specific than that.”

No one speaks for a moment as Jasper Green rewinds the
video.

“We’re digesting this too, Detective. It’s a shock and a
tragedy for us,” says Van Houten.

“All right, take a moment. But I need answers.”

Van Houten takes a few seconds to absorb what he’s seen and
then speaks in a measured way, careful of what he says, “Jasper, freeze the
camera on the animal. Yes. Detective, this animal is a new species which was
being studied here. It was only discovered this week. We had no idea or
indication that it was dangerous. I never would have guessed it could be so
ruthless from our contact with it until now. Clearly, however, Miss Franklin
should never have left the cage open, or even opened it while in the lab
alone.”

“Does this lab often work on undiscovered species?” asks
Maas.

“Not of this magnitude. Once in a while we’ll study some
newly discovered monkey from the depths of the Amazon, or Congo, but they’re
usually small creatures, and only minimally different from the animals that we
already know about. This particular creature is a revolutionary discovery, and
when our funder’s at the DOD found out about it, we received a call from the
NSA telling us to keep it secret and to send them the DNA results as soon as we
have them.”

Mike Huggins addresses Jasper, “Can you rewind it back to
where the needle comes out? And then advance it frame by frame.”

“Sure.”

Green rewinds the tape and starts it from where the creature
is feeling Sahar’s neck, frame by frame. June, seeing this animal feeling
Sahar’s neck for a pulse lets out a mournful sigh. “Is he doing what we think
he’s doing, Doctor? Could he be that intelligent?”

“Let’s not jump the gun, Doctor Dituro,” says Van Houten.
“Despite what our eyes see. There may be another explanation. It certainly has
the appearance of intelligence.”

The film continues to advance frame by frame, though on this
system, which records at one frame per two seconds, they are not able to see
enough detail. One moment the needle is not there, the next moment it is.

“Can’t you get more of the needle than that?” asks Mike
Huggins. “We can’t see where it came from.”

“This isn’t the movies, Doc.” says Jasper. “We have to
record at a low frame rate because we have a lot of labs and limited storage
capacity. Some stuff that
happens
you won’t see. The
idea with security video is to get an idea of what is happening, generally, and
maybe catch a glimpse or two of the perp. We have that, I’d say.”

The film is already to the point where the creature is
licking off the needle. Then it’s gone and he’s moving toward the door again.

“Well,” says Detective Maas. It would seem that we have an
unfortunate situation with that animal, Doctor Van Houten.
One
that concerns the safety of the public.”

Van Houten is uneasy. “I agree that we have a problem.
However, that animal is at the moment a top government secret, Detective Maas.”

“That animal is clearly dangerous,” says an angry Maas. “I
hope the next words out of your mouth are something more constructive.”

Van Houten becomes more confident, after all, he has the
highest levels of the government behind him. “Of course we’ll do everything we
can to find it, you can rest assured. But it will, in the short term at least,
be a federal operation.”

Detective Maas knows a bureaucratic wall when he sees one
and that’s what he’s sensing now. “I strongly suggest you let me put out an APB
on him. It’s the quickest way to find him – casts the biggest net.”

“That’s exactly the opposite of what we can do. He wouldn’t
remain a secret very long that way, Detective.”

“To hell with your secret, Doctor!
What’s so important about this animal that it has to remain top secret, even
when we know now that it’s a danger to the public?”

Van Houten doesn’t want to discuss it, but he feels that if
he doesn’t tell the detective something he will only cause trouble. “This is an
unusual animal.
Very unusual, as you can see yourself.
It is unusual in this day and age to find an absolutely new species as large as
he is, and a hominid! New species are found quite often, but they are generally
very small, ranging from insects and worms to small rodents and small monkeys.
This is an unprecedented find! But believe it or not, the government has
protocols for discovery of an animal like this … One as seemingly intelligent
as this one is.”

Van Houten hopes this is enough to placate the detective,
but sees that it isn’t by the confused look on the detective’s face.
“Detective, we must establish his
terrestrial
lineage before we can
release news of his discovery to the public. It’s a government mandate that I
cannot do anything about.”

Van Houten emphasized “terrestrial” by saying it more
slowly. Detective Maas thinks this over. He is just as surprised as he can be
when he puts two and two together. “You mean to tell me that that thing might
be an alien?”

Van Houten shrugs and bobs his head noncommittally. “It just
needs to be ruled out as part of the protocol. Once the DNA tests are done and
the results are shared with the NSA, we should get the go ahead to go public.”

There is silence while Maas digests this. “Detective Smith
and I already know about this, so we’ll be an integral part of the government
effort to find
the
. . . animal.
Unless
you want to go with the all-points bulletin.”

Van Houten shows a small smile of relief. “Not yet. Thank
you, Detective.”

›

June gets up and leaves the security office. The others
watch her leave but seem to have more talking to do. She walks down the long
hallway from the security office to her office which is separate from the lab
but adjacent to it. She closes the door and sits down at her desk to think.
Closing her eyes she finds that she is haunted by frightening images of Sahar
and the beast that killed her. She opens her eyes again and shakes the images
away.

She picks up the phone and dials it. “Is this Linus Hather?”

Linus answers the phone but doesn’t recognize who it is.
“Yep.”

“Hi, um, this is June Dituro. I was one of the scientists
who came to your house to take the animal off your hands.”

“I remember you. What’s up?”

June pauses and takes a deep breath, steeling herself to say
what she has to say.
“The animal… it’s killed Sahar – one of
our scientists, and escaped from the Primate facility.”

Linus is dumbfounded for a moment. “Good God, June . . . I’m
sorry.”

“I wanted to let you know because . . . I said some things
that . . .”

“June, please,
don’t
worry about
it. I’m more concerned with how you’re holding up.”

“It was gruesome, Linus. We watched the surveillance video
just now. He licked his needle clean when he was done
ins
—“

Her emotions are too heavy for her to say what the animal
did to Sahar, but she continued speaking to Linus because she needed to talk,
to stay in control of her emotions. “The needle looks like a bone appendage.
I’ve only had the one quick look at the videotape, so I can’t be certain.”

Linus is surprised, “A hidden appendage? That explains why I
couldn’t find anything after having seen it on my security tape. Are the police
looking for him?”

“Van Houten is planning a search right now. The two
detectives who are investigating insist on being part of the search, but Van
Houten says it’s going to be a government operation; that the creature must
remain a secret.”

“Why? Why should any new species remain a secret?
Especially a dangerous one.”

June lowers her voice a little. “I’ll tell you something if
you don’t repeat it.”

She waits for his assurance and Linus considers saying he
won’t make any assurances, but he finally gives in because of what this woman
has gone through this evening. “Okay. I won’t repeat it.”

“The higher-ups at NSA want to be sure that this is an
animal of terrestrial origin before going public.”

There is silence again as Linus thinks about it, but just
for a moment. “Wait, you think it’s an alien?!”

“I don’t,” says June. “NSA wants to rule it out. And I agree
with the principle, at least.”

“And while we’re waiting, more people might be killed.”

“I know,” says June somberly. “But it’s not like we’re not
doing anything, Linus. And once the DNA tests are in and we establish his
lineage, we can rule out that issue and go public.”

June pauses as her mind is accosted again by what she’d seen
on the video. “I’ll never forget the image of him licking his weapon, or
casually jabbing it into Sahar. I failed her, Linus. She was just out of grad
school and I already loved her like a sister. We used to go out all the time.
The fact that she is gone isn’t even real to me yet.”

He knows he may come across as uncaring, but in the interest
of moving forward, he tries to steer her away from her pain. “June? I’ve been
searching for all the information I can about references to any similar animal.
Something close has come up a couple of times. One legend is of a smallish,
man-like creature that hunts and kills only one
prey—
man—and
when he is at his most vulnerable, at night. It’s something of a ghost story in
that culture, passed down by storytellers. The description is striking. The
Europeans have a similar story, but the description’s a little different and
the weapon it uses is a short rapier or sword.”

“It’s intriguing,” says June. “But do you think it will
help?”

“Legend is often just exaggerated fact,” replies Linus. “We
might learn something useful about the creature because some of these legends
might actually be based upon the creature.”

“You’re right. We may be able to help each other. Keep me
posted on what you find out, and again, I’m sorry I was so quick to doubt you
before.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just get those DNA tests done so you
can go public. I’m sure Sahar would want that.”

“Yes, she would. Keep up the research, okay? You know as
much or more about this animal than anyone, and that
ain’t
sayin
’ much.”

“Right.
Well, take care, June.”

“Okay. Bye, Linus.”

Linus Hather is in his dining room, at his computer
searching the Internet for mysterious or unexplained deaths. He finds three
recent deaths in China, Canada, and Argentina that fit the creature’s MO. He
reads the brief Canadian article.

The police of Haliburton County,
Ontario are investigating the mysterious death of Miss Bobbie Rohan, aged 42.
Initially, it was believed that Miss Rohan had died of natural causes. However,
a small spot of blood found later on her chest forced police to consider an
autopsy. The autopsy showed that Miss Rohan’s lung had been punctured by
“something like a needle”. The police have no leads in the case which they have
today classified as a murder.

Linus opens another window on his screen and reads a little
of that article.

Police in Villa Huidobro are questioning
a gaucho in connection with the death of another gaucho in this small ranching
community. The death had been viewed as from natural causes until an autopsy
was ordered and a small puncture wound found in the dead man’s lung. Police
won’t say if they’ve charged the man or not.

Linus also reads the article from China that is similar to
the other two. He stares off beyond his computer and notices Sava who is
sleeping on the back of the sofa. He thinks about what he should do. As June
has said, he probably knows more about this creature than anyone on Earth. It
would be irresponsible for him to sit on that knowledge and wait for the
government to do its work. More people may die as a result, an outcome which he
would have a hard time living with.

“How would you like to go stay with a friend for a few days,
Sava?”

The lemur hears Linus’s voice or perhaps his name and wakes
up to look at Linus. Nothing interesting happens though, so he goes back to
sleep.

›

June is standing behind her desk, looking out the small
window there. She is lost in thought. The morning sun pours into the office,
warming her. There’s a clutter, but it’s an organized clutter. The door is open
and she turns to face Linus when he knocks. She brightens when she sees him.

“Hello, Linus.” He is carrying a cat carrier. “And hello to
you, too, Sava. You’ll have a fine time here with me.”

Linus smiles.
“Thanks for agreeing
to take him on such short notice.”

“It’ll be a treat for me. But remember, I said it was on
condition that you tell me how you came to have him.”

Linus sets the carrier down and sits in the chair in front
of June’s desk. June remains standing by the window not aware of the aura of
beauty that the sunlight streaming in gives her. Linus, however, does notice
and looks at her with amazement for a moment. She blushes slightly and sits
down in her chair behind her desk.

A little flustered
himself
, Linus
begins his story.
“Right.
Well, as you know, I’m a
prison guard in south Jersey, and there was this prisoner who was locked up for
life for murder. We were talking one day and he begged me to save his lemur. I
asked him how I was supposed to do that. He said Sava had nowhere to go and he
was lucky he had at least found a place for the animal at the apartment of a
heroin addict friend of his. This was supposed to be temporary, the prisoner
said, because an addict’s home was no place for a wild animal that is very
sensitive health-wise.”