He was watching the new arrival closely.
‘What the hell’s he talkin’ about?’ the theory-spinner wondered.
‘Fucker’s crazy,’ his companion declared with conviction.
‘What you want here, man? When did they let you out of the infirmary, anyway?’
‘It’s all right.’ Golic’s face shone with beatific determination.
‘I just need to go in there and see the Beast. We got a lot of shit to talk over.’ he added, as if that explained everything. ‘I gotta go in there. You understand.’
‘No, I don’t understand. But I do know one thing. Neither you nor anyone else is goin’ in there, dickhead. Big motherfucker’d eat you alive. Plus, you let that fucker out, and you can kiss our collective ass good-bye. Don’t you know nothin’, brother?’
‘You wanna commit suicide,’ declared his companion, ‘go jump down a mine shaft. But you’re not doin’ it here. The super’d have our butts.’ He started toward the intruder.
‘The Superintendent is dead,’ Golic announced solemnly as he brought out the club he’d been holding behind his back and used it to mash the skull of the man coming toward him.
‘What the fuck?. . Get him—!’
Golic was much faster and far more agile than they imagined, but then this time he was driven by something a good deal more powerful than a simple lust for food. The two men went down beneath the club, their heads and faces bloodied. It was all over very quickly. Golic didn’t pause to see if his companions were still alive because he didn’t really care.
All that mattered to him now was the obsession which had taken complete control of his mind, his emotions, his very being.
He regarded the two bodies sprawled at his feet. ‘I didn’t really want to do that. I’ll talk to your mothers. I’ll explain it.’
Dropping the club, he walked up to the door and ran his fingers over the dented alloy. Pressing one ear to the smooth surface, he listened intently. No sound, no scraping, nothing.
He giggled softly and moved to the control box, studying it thoughtfully for a long moment, much as a child would examine a complex new toy.
Chuckling to himself, he began fiddling with the controls, running his fingers playfully over the buttons until one clicked home. Deep within the surrounding ceramocarbide, mechanisms whined, metal brushed against metal. The door started to slide aside.
Only to halt as one of the big dents banged up against the jamb.
Frowning, Golic put his body into the narrow gap and pushed against the reluctant barrier, straining with his bulk.
Motors hummed in confusion. The door opened a little wider, then stopped completely. The whir of the motor died. Silence reigned once more.
His body blocking the opening, Golic turned to peer into the blackness within. ‘Okay, I’m here. It’s done. Just tell me what you want. Just tell me what to do, brother.’ He smiled.
The darkness ahead was silent as a tomb. Nothing moved within.
‘Let’s get this straight. I’m with you all the way. I just want to do my job. You just gotta tell me what to do next.’
Though it lingered in the still air for quite some time, the two unconscious, bleeding men sprawled on the floor did not hear the singular high-pitched scream.
Dillon relaxed on his cot, engaged in his thousandth or ten thousandth game of solitaire. Idly he turned over another card and fingered his one long dreadlock as he spoke to the woman who stood before him.
‘You’re tellin’ me they’re comin’ to take this thing away?’
‘They’ll try,’ Ripley assured him. ‘They don’t want to kill it.’
‘Why? It don’t make no sense.’
‘I agree completely, but they’ll try anyway. I’ve gone around with them on this before. They look on the alien as a potential source of new bioproducts, perhaps even a weapons system.’
Dillon chuckled, a deep, rich sound. But he was clearly disturbed at the idea. ‘Man, they’re crazy.’
‘They won’t listen. They think they know everything. That because nothing on Earth can touch them, this thing can’t either. But it doesn’t care how much power, how many politicians the Company controls. They try to take it back for study and it’ll take over. The risk is too great. We’ve got to figure out some way to finish it off before they get here.’
‘From what you’re tellin’ me they ain’t gonna like that much.’
‘I don’t give a damn what they think. I know better than anyone, better than any of their so-called specialists, what these things can do. Sure you can build a cell that’ll hold one. We’ve proven that here. But these things are patient. And they’ll exploit the slimmest opportunity. Make one slip with them and it’s all over. That doesn’t mean a lot here, or on an isolated little outcolony like Acheron. But if these things ever get loose on Earth, it’ll make Armageddon seem like a school picnic.’
The big man fingered his dreadlock as he puffed away on his relaxer. ‘Sister, I lost a lot of the faithful trappin’ the motherfucker. Men I’d known and lived with for some long, hard years. There weren’t many of us here to begin with and I’m gonna miss them.’ He looked up. ‘Me and my brothers ain’t gonna be the ones goin’ in there and hittin’ it with a stick.
‘Why do we have to kill it anyway, if the Company’s coming for it? Let them worry about it.’
She held her temper. ‘I told you. They’re going to try to take it back to Earth.’
He shrugged indifferently. ‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘It’ll destroy them. They can’t control it. I told you, it’ll kill them all. Everyone.’
He lay on his back, eying the ceiling and puffing contentedly. ‘Like I said, what’s wrong with that?’
Footsteps came pounding down the corridor outside the big man’s room. He sat up curiously as Ripley turned.
Morse halted, breathing hard. His gaze darted from one to the other. Clearly he hadn’t expected to find Ripley there.
‘Hey, Dillon!’
The big man removed the smoker from his lips. ‘You’re interrupting a private discussion, brother.’
Morse glanced anew at Ripley, then back to his fellow prisoner. ‘Put it on hold. I think we got a very large fucking problem, mate.’
Aaron was no medical tech, but it didn’t take a doctor to see how the two men had been killed. Their heads had been bashed in. That wasn’t the alien’s technique. The bloody club lying nearby only confirmed his suspicions. As for the one who’d killed them, he hadn’t profited by his deed. Golic’s mutilated corpse lay nearby.
Aaron rose to join the others in gazing numbly at the gap in the toxic storage chamber’s doorway. Dillon had stuck a torch inside, confirmed that it was empty.
‘This cuts it,’ the acting superintendent muttered angrily.
‘Miserable son of a bitch let it loose. Crazy fucker. Got what he deserved, by God. Now what the fuck are we gonna do?
Andrews was right. We should’ve kept the dumb shithead chained up or sedated. Stupid-ass rehab “experts”.’ He paused, eying Ripley with some concern. ‘What’s the matter? Side effects again?’
She was leaning against the wall for support, sucking air in long, awkward gasps and holding her stomach with her other hand.
‘Piss on her,’ Morse growled. ‘The fuckin’ thing’s loose out there.’ He looked around wildly. ‘Now what the fuck are we gonna do?’
‘I just said that,’ Aaron growled. ‘You’re the dumb prick that let Golic go. You miserable little shit, you’ve killed all of us!’
For a man of undistinguished physique he packed an impressive punch. Morse went down hard, blood streaming from his nose. As the acting superintendent loomed over him he was grabbed from behind. Dillon easily lifted him off the floor and set him aside. Aaron glared back at the big man, panting.
‘Cut that shit out,’ Dillon warned him.
‘Watch yourself, Dillon! I’m still in charge here.’
‘I ain’t disputing it. But you don’t be doin’ that. You get me?
