glowed with the same unnatural good health as her face.
Wilson glanced at Kimberley, trying to give her a silent warning to let him do all the talking. Then, to Jane, he said, “Earth Mother?”
Jane gestured at the fungus clinging to the outside of the windows. “There is her blessed manifestation. All around you. We are in her womb.”
“Jane,” he said gently, “that stuff is poison. It’s killing people right across the country. It has to be stopped.”
She gave him a pitying look. “For a time, I didn’t understand, either. When it began I thought I’d done something terrible. But then the Earth Mother showed me the truth: that I was the instrument chosen by her to transform the world into her image. To bring about the end of man’s evil domination of the planet and allow the Earth Mother to regain what is rightfully hers.”
“Jane, the fungus is causing suffering wherever it spreads.”
“There is always pain at the time of birth. But once man has been cleansed from the world the Earth Mother will protect and sustain her children. We will become one with nature instead of fighting against her. There will be no more hunger or pain. We will be enfolded and nourished by her forever.”
“I see,” he said softly. It was hopeless. Unable to cope with the enormity of what she had unleashed, her mind had become completely unhinged. She had convinced herself that she had somehow achieved her original objective—that her fungus would end world hunger.
“And what is this work you mentioned that you had to finish?” he asked.
“I must find a way of overcoming the inhibiting factor that is preventing the fungi from sporing, and I must also alter the fungi so that the few unfortunate people who resist infection will be able to succumb to the Earth Mother’s embrace.”
He nodded, maintaining his outward calm while his blood turned to ice water. “And have you had any success yet?”
“I am close to solving the sporing problem, I feel sure of it.” She indicated a row of incubators that followed the curve of the outer wall. “And when I have succeeded I will take the new spores to the roof and release them into the air. They will also include the new genetic factor to enable the fungi to embrace the few who are naturally immune.
“Why do you think
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “That’s the reason you’re here. Why else would the Earth Mother have permitted you to reach here? If you weren’t under her protection my disciples would have killed you. She let you pass through their ranks unmolested.”
Wilson glanced down at the nozzle of the flame-thrower and then at the bloody spike Kimberley was holding. Jane had pointedly ignored both weapons. She refused to consider the possibility that they may have fought their way to her. Nothing could be allowed to shake her self-delusion of divinity. He decided the only course of action was to humor her, to let her keep believing that she was still in control of the situation, and that her followers were still alive.
He said, “And how could we help you?”
“I admit I was puzzled when you first entered. Because neither of you bear any sign of the Mother’s embrace. But now, of course, I understand why. One of you is obviously immune—a simple test will tell me which one. I need another immune specimen for the final series of tests. My other specimen is of no further use to me. His tissues have been exhausted.”
“What other specimen? Where is he?” demanded Wilson, looking around the room.
She ignored the question. “No doubt you will prove to be the immune one,” she continued, pointing at Kimberley. “Barry’s role will be to act as my assistant. After all, he was a mycologist.” She shook her head in wonder. “How truly wise is the Earth Mother, sending me a trained laboratory technician at the crucial moment. And how fitting her choice in you, Barry. Though a man, you will be instrumental in her ultimate victory. Your final actions will atone a little for all the terrible sins of your sex against her. Just as your son also helped atone for his maleness.”
She moved backward. “He’s here, Barry. Come and see him. He’s a glorious sight.” She turned and walked over to a large glass cabinet into which a series of tubes were plugged. Wilson hurried after her, followed by Kimberley.
The other side of the cabinet was transparent. It was filled with something soft. Jane tapped the glass. The softness moved. In the midst of it a pair of eyes suddenly opened. They were bright blue.
“Our son,” said Jane proudly.
Wilson stared into his son’s eyes. They stared back imploringly. There was, Wilson saw with horror, still intelligence in them.
In a strangled voice Wilson said, “And Jessica? What have you done with her, you murdering bitch?”
“Jessica is fine,” answered Jane, sounding puzzled by his reaction. “She is happy within the embrace of the Mother. She guards this sacred place with the rest of my followers. I’m surprised you didn’t see her on the way up here.”
Wilson dropped the nozzle of the fire extinguisher. It fell to the floor with a clatter as he spun round to face Jane. “Jessica was among those
She gazed at him calmly, her expression self-satisfied and smug. “All will be clear to you when the Mother finally takes you into her embrace,” she told him, and gave a beatific smile.
He slammed his right fist into her mouth as hard as he could, following through with all his weight. He expected to knock her unconscious. He didn’t expect her head to fly from her shoulders with a dry
Kimberley screamed.
Headless, Jane’s body tottered in front of him. No blood spurted from the end of the neck. Instead green fluid began to trickle out. He could see that her whole body was riddled on the inside with fungus.
The body, still upright, lurched past him, its arms flailing. Kimberley screamed again as it seemed to move straight for her. She struck out at it with her spiked rod. The make-shift spear went through Jane’s chest without meeting any resistance and protruded from her back. Kimberley ran screaming away from it.
The thing lurched about for several more steps then fell, twitching, to the floor.
Wilson turned his back on it and stared once again at the shape which had been his son. “Simon,” he said, helplessly. The blue eyes blinked.
He freed himself from the harness of the flame-thrower and let the hideous weapon drop with a crash. Then he bent down and began pulling the tubes out of the cabinet. Liquid spilled from them across the floor. He heard Kimberley approaching. She was crying.
“You killed her,” she sobbed. “You killed her and now we’ll never know the secret of her enzyme.”
He said nothing. He pulled the rest of the tubes out of the cabinet, then stood again. As he hoped, the pair of blue eyes soon began to glaze over.
“Are you listening to me?” demanded Kimberley, grabbing him by the arm. “We’ve got no hope now of getting what we came for. You’ve ruined every. “ She paused, then gasped, “Oh God, look!”
He turned and saw what had alarmed her.
It was Jane’s head. It had rolled to the base of one of the nearby incubators and now, as it lay there, it was slowly cracking open.
Almost incuriously Wilson walked over to it. He gazed down at Jane’s eyes, which were wide-open and startled-looking. A large fissure ran down her forehead to the bridge of her nose and as he watched the crack widened. Then suddenly the skull snapped entirely into two halves, revealing a white, spherical fungus. It continued to expand.
Kimberley cried, “Look, her body too!”
He turned and saw that Jane’s headless corpse was undergoing a transformation as well. It was being shaken by a series of convulsions, as if it were trying to sit up. Then, from the stump of the neck, hyphae began to
