Slimer

filled the room:. ‘and so I must admit that my initial confidence in our resuming control of the situation seems to have been misplaced. Subsequent events have proved correct the misgivings of Doctors Soames, Jameson and Eng-lefields about our ability to subdue “Charlie”. Or should we refer to it as Phoenix?’ He shook his head wearily. ‘In a sense it is the Phoenix unit that is behind all this…’

He paused and groaned as if in pain. Then he closed his eyes and began to rub the sides of his temples. Eventually he continued, ‘I feel so tired. But then we all do. No one has dared to sleep fpr the last forty-eight hours now. It can move so fast… We’ve lost eleven more people since this morning alone. At this rate how much longer will it be before it gets all of us? Durkins, of course, still wants us to call for help but I definitely agree with the others on this — it must be kept isolated at all costs. We cannot risk offering it the means to reach the outside world. Though what will happen if it does destroy us all doesn’t bear thinking about..

‘But so far everything we have tried has failed. It appears to be invulnerable, thanks to us. Fire, bullets, electricity, poison, acid, all have proved futile. We were too successful. We have created the ultimate survivor — and the ultimate destroyer. What was supposed to have been a boon to mankind has become a terrible threat. Possibly the most terrible threat it has ever faced. We must overcome it.’

Then the screen went blank.

Paul and Mark looked at each other. ‘What do you make of that?’ asked Mark.

Paul said slowly, ‘I think we can forget about bugs designed to eat oil-slicks. Whatever they made here was in a different league altogether.’ He thumped his fist on the console top. ‘If only he’d said what it was!’

‘Run the tape on further. There might be something else.’ There was. Shelley reappeared on the screen. He seemed to have aged a great deal during the intervening period. His face was drawn and haggard and there was a bruise over his right eye. He now looked very different to the man they’d seen in the lab last night, which made Paul wonder again just how much time had elapsed since the events Shelley was describing had taken place.

Shelley’s voice was weaker too. ‘This may be the last chance I get to use this machine. There are only a few of us left now. Dr Soames, Durkins, a couple of the guards, and it can only be a matter of time before it achieves complete victory. Durkins was right. We should have tried to send out a warning before it was too late but the transmitter has been destroyed. It is much more intelligent now but that’s not surprising under the circumstances.

He stopped suddenly and looked away from the camera towards, presumably, the door. He had obviously heard something. As he turned they got a brief glimpse of a pistol he was holding.

After a while he relaxed and faced the camera again. ‘I’m determined it won’t take me alive. I’ll use this on myself first…’ He brandished the gun at the camera. ‘But even so I fear that being dead may not be protection against… against…’ He swallowed noisily and didn’t finish the sentence. For a few moments his self-control deserted him and they saw the face of a man who was profoundly terrified. Paul felt a wave of unease sweep over him as he stared at Shelley’s face. What could it be that could scare a man so badly? That scared him even more than dying?

Shelley regained control of himself with a visible effort. ‘My only hope is that someone finds these records before it’s too late. I’ll have to hide them somewhere so that it can’t get them and yet where they’ll be found by whoever comes here next. But where?’

There was a noise ofT-screen and Shelley spun round again. The door had apparently opened. They saw him raise the gun then heard him say, still facing away from the camera ‘Oh, it’sjyou, thank God… for a moment I thought it was…’

The screen went blank again.

Paul kept the tape running but there was nothing else on it. Shelley didn’t reappear.

‘Think there’s any chance of repairing one of those boats?’ asked Mark quietly.

‘Take it easy. We saw Shelley last night so he obviously survived. And he certainly looked in better shape then than he did on that tape. Whatever it was, or is, must have been overcome by Shelley and his pals.’

‘You want to make a bet on that?’ said Mark. ‘And what was all that stuff about being dead not a protection. Protection against what, that’s what I want to know.’

Paul gestured at the racks of tape. ‘The answer has to be there somewhere. We keep searching.’

‘Hey!’ Mark was staring at one of the monitors. ‘Look!’ Paul looked and saw the figure of a woman walking down a corridor withjher back to the camera. He glanced immediately at the screen showing the view of the recreation room and saw that all three girls were still playing cards. His pulse quickened. So there was someone else on the rig apart from Shelley.

‘Which level is that picture coming from?’ he asked excitedly. ‘Can you tell?’

Mark shook his head. ‘They all look alike to me.’

The woman, who was walking with a fast, purposeful stride, reached the end of the corridor and disappeared from view. Paul swore and started pressing buttons on the camera controls, hoping to pick her up on another screen. Finally he succeeded, but again she had her back to them and was rapidly moving away from the camera. This time, however, they could make out a sign on a nearby wall. It read ‘Level Two’.

‘She’s on this floor,’ cried Paul, leaping up. ‘I’m going to find her. You try and keep track of her with the cameras in case I lose her.’

Paul hurried out of the room. Mark opened his mouth to call after him but realised he had no idea what he wanted to say. All he knew was that he didn’t care for suddenly being on his own…

He scanned the bank of monitors for the woman. There was no sign of her so he started punching buttons at random, cutting to new cameras. Then he spotted her again. This time she was walking towards the camera. She was wearing a white lab coat and had short blonde hair but he couldn’t make out her face.

Mark frowned as he stared hard at the screen. The woman was getting closer now but her face remained indistinct. Blurred even. Was there something wrong with the camera? A smear on the lens perhaps?

The woman continued to approach the camera. Then she was directly under it…

Mark screamed.

As the woman had walked by the camera she had looked briefly up at it. There had been no way for Mark to avoid the horrible truth…

She had no face.

She had eyes. The round, staring eyes of a fish. Eyes straight out of a nightmare. But that was all. The rest of her face was completely smooth.

Paul caught a glimpse of her ahead of him as she turned a corner. ‘Hey!’ he called and started walking faster. He hurried round the corner and saw that she was now only ten yards or so in front of him. He called out again but she didn’t give any indication of hearing him. She continued on at her same fast pace.

Paul broke into a run and caught up with her just before she reached the next corner. ‘Hey, I want to speak to you,’ he said, grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her around.

Then he gave a gasp of surprise.

Seven

Mark groaned. Someone was shaking him roughly by the shoulder and he wished they wouldn’t. Reluctantly he opened his eyes. Where was he? Oh yes, on the floor of the video room. But why? What had happened?

He focused his eyes and saw Paul bending over him with a concerned expression. Behind him there was someone else. A woman in a white coat. With short blonde hair…