Ultimate Thriller Box Set - Crouch Blake - Страница 33

“I'll telllllllll them,” Bub said,

“Tell them what, Bub?”

“Telllllllllll them that you let me oooooooout.”

Belgium turned away from the monitor and faced Bub. He couldn’t believe how scared he felt.

Don’t show fear, he said to himself.

“I made a mistake letting you out. Twice. I won't do it again. If you want Internet time, you'll have to talk with Race. I'm sure he'll give you the world, after what you did with Helen.”

Bub laughed. This confused Belgium, who wasn't aware he'd said anything funny.

He decided to finish up in Green 4. There was a computer there, and he could access the Cray without having to deal with Bub.

“Enjoy the time you haaaaaaaaaave,” Bub said as Frank left.

Belgium didn't know what that meant, but he didn't like the sound of it. Not one bit.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“That was the last one,” Sun said. “For a scientist, his organizational skills suck.”

She and Andy had been in Red 4, fast forwarding through the surveillance DVDs of Bub since he'd been put into the habitat.

They’d just zipped through Bub’s first feeding, which was gory even at 32X speed. After the horrifying meal, Bub appeared to say something. Andy shuttled back and let it play at normal.

“Messy eater,” Race said on the monitor.

“Ba'ax u k'aat u ya'al le t'aano?” Bub replied.

Andy translated the Mayan dialect in his head. “Bub was asking Race What does that expression mean?”

“So he didn’t know English yet?”

“Apparently not.”

They fast-forwarded through the two times Race went into the dwelling, changed discs, and sped through more eating and sleeping.

The discs were not labeled and they weren't in sequential order. This was annoying, because Sun and Andy had to go through each disc to find the current one, and it turned out that one was missing.

An hour wasted. Andy picked up the phone and dialed Red 14.

“No answer,” he said.

He tried Dr. Belgium's room, Blue 10. The doctor wasn’t there, either.

“Maybe he's the one that took the disc,” Sun said. “He's in charge of them.”

“Could be. But it could have been anyone. At least now we can be fairly certain that the disc is intentionally missing. Someone is trying to cover something up.”

“So what does it prove?”

“More proof that Bub was lying, I guess. I don't know, I'm an interpreter, not a detective.”

“Why would someone be helping Bub lie?”

Andy leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. “Isn’t it obvious? People make deals with the devil all the time.”

Sun could see his point. She’d only been here a week, but she’d seen enough to accurately describe the Samhain staff as dysfunctional. She stood up and stretched.

“I'm going to Red 3, put some time in. I recall reading something in there that didn't make sense. I can't remember what the hell it was.”

Andy said, “I'll be in Red 6 with the capsule. I want to check the Maya glyphs against the Egyptian ones, see if they say the same thing.”

“I've got to feed Bub soon. Wanna meet me in Orange 12 in say, forty minutes?”

“Sure. I'm hungry myself. We can grab a bite.”

Andy held open the door for Sun, something that Steven used to do for her all the time. She smiled. The memory no longer hurt.

“Hi, Dr. Harker,” Andy said. The physician was standing in the hall, outside the door.

      Eavesdropping? Sun wondered.

“Did you examine Helen yet?” Andy asked.

Dr. Harker looked briefly at Andy, surprise on her face. Then she looked at the floor.

“Not yet,” Harker said.

“What's with the video camera?” Sun pointed at Harker’s hand.

Harker was holding a palm-sized camcorder, one of the ultra-small models with the flip out screen. She was trying unsuccessfully to put it into her lab coat pocket.

“I borrowed it from the AV room. I was going to take some footage of Bub and analyze it.”

“Analyze it,” Sun intoned. She made no attempt to keep the incredulity out of her voice.

Harker nodded.

“That blinking green light.” Andy pointed to the camera. “That means it's taping.”

Harker brought the camera up to eye level and stared at it as if it were an alien. Andy pressed the red button on the grip and the green light stopped blinking.

“Thanks,” Harker mumbled. “When does Bub eat?”

“We're going to feed him at noon,” Sun answered.

“Bub said... he told me... that he was very hungry and he wanted two sheep for lunch.”

Harker wasn't speaking to Sun. She was speaking to a point over her right shoulder. How could anyone become a doctor with people skills that were this bad?

“Okay,” Sun said. “We'll bring him two.”

Andy briefly touched Sun's arm, and then walked across the hall and disappeared into Red 6. Harker avoided looking at Sun and made her way to the gate, fumbling with the code.

Sun watched her go. She disliked Harker, but now dislike had turned to outright suspicion. Harker did the barest minimum to get by at Samhain. She'd also taken a less than active interest in Bub, when everyone else had been buzzing like bees since the demon awoke. Why, all of the sudden, did she want to videotape him? Could this have something to do with the missing surveillance disc?

After almost a minute of fumbling, Harker made it through the gate. Perhaps I  should tell Race about Dr. Harker's new video fetish, Sun thought. Whether Race would care or not was anyone's guess, but it was his show and he should be kept informed on what everyone was doing.

Unless Race was the one helping the demon out. After all, Bub just cured his wife. Or at least, he seemed to.

Sun tried to clear her mind and concentrate on the latest problem at hand; Red 3. Somewhere, in all of that paperwork, she'd seen something that was important. It tugged at her subconscious—perhaps one of the tests run on Bub. There was something that she'd missed and she was determined to find it.

Sun passed Dr. Harker again, heading into the Octopus, and subconsciously noted that once again the green light was flashing on Harker’s camcorder.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Bub had to die.

Rabbi Shotzen pondered and prayed and pondered and prayed, and that was the conclusion he came to. That was G-d's will. It was also a matter of survival.

Whether Bub was a demon or not didn't matter. If he were Lucifer, as he claimed, then Shotzen would be doing the world a favor by destroying him. If he were something else, at the very least Shotzen would be saving Judaism. Father Thrist was proof.

Thrist was the most skeptical man Shotzen had ever met. If Bub had won him over that easily, he would have little difficulty convincing the rest of the world. All Bub had to do is go on television and talk about Jesus being the messiah. The Jews, the chosen people of God, would again be persecuted in the name of Christ, this time to extinction.

The Rabbi knew what would happen. There were two billion Christians in the world, three hundred million in North America alone. Muslims numbered over one billion. Jews? Fourteen million worldwide. The opposition outnumbered them two hundred to one. If Bub were to go public, spouting off about Jesus Christ, the repercussions would be enormous. The US might cease support of Israel, which could very well mean its destruction. In America, the vandalism of synagogues and the harassment of Jews would escalate and violence would no doubt erupt.

Shotzen couldn't let that happen. Christ was not moschiac. It was impossible. The messiah was to be of Davidic lineage. If Christ were the son of G-d, how could he be descended from David? G-d was one being, not a trinity as the Catholics said. That was sacrilege.