by Peter Knyte
It was fascinating to watch how Truant led his dog over to where the officer stood, and then knelt down to point his dog straight at the grouping of blood stains on the ground.
The dog for his part seemed to require no more than the quickest of sniffs before sitting down again and looking back up to his master for further instructions, at which Truant simply uttered the word ‘Go!’ and the dog was off, circling the blood stains to begin with in all directions. First to the wall where it again sat and looked back at its master, only to be told to ‘Go!’ again, at which it circled once more and started to follow the scent in the other direction down the alley. It only went a few yards though, before doubling back along the trail for few yards and sitting down again and looking back at Truant.
Satisfied that his dog was now heading in the right direction, Truant immediately walked over to his dog, but this time attached the long leash to the waiting animal before again telling it to ‘Go!’.
I wasn’t quite prepared for how quickly the dog would move once it got started, but quickly realised that when the scent was strong as it evidently was here it veritably ran along the trail, just slowing once in a while to confirm it was still on the right track, before heading off again.
Truant clearly accustomed to this speed of movement just jogged along behind, letting out more leash as his dog got ahead and then gathering it up as it slowed.
We quickly moved through the industrial area southwards to begin with and closer to the coast and the airport, and then zig zagging through the back streets and alleyways. Eventually the inevitable happened and the trail lead up to the edge of another building, and for a second I thought we were going to have to find a way up onto the roof, but this was obviously a familiar scenario for Truant and his dog.
After standing up against the wall for a moment the dog simply sat down again and looked back at its master, who again just told it to ‘Go!’ at which it set off around the edge of the building much slower this time searching for a sign of where the creature had climbed down.
All the while the patrol car either followed us, or if it couldn’t follow our direct route it went around and met us at the other side. The driver regularly on the radio to apprise Platt of where we were headed.
While we weren’t jogging behind the dog I took the opportunity to ask Riley if he knew where we might be headed.
‘Perhaps,’ he said, thinking. ‘There’s a derelict old boat yard over this way that hasn’t been used in years, since it’s owners moved premises up to Manorhaven. That place is a quiet as it gets in these parts.
A few minutes later and the dog had clearly found the scent where the creature had climbed down, and we were off at a jog again.
We were still ducking in and out of back alleys, so we crossed paths with very few of the locals.
As we continued to move in the direction of the old boatyard I heard Riley telling Shelby to drop back and convey his suspicions to the radio car the next time we went past it.
A few minutes later as we came to gap in the fence that surrounded the boatyard there could be no mistaking our destination.
Before we went in though, Riley stopped us all to tell us how to proceed.
‘It’s still the middle the day,’ he began. ‘So I’m hoping this thing is going to be asleep or at least holed up somewhere, so we go in quietly, no noise and definitely no gunfire until I give the word unless it’s to defend yourselves.
‘You’re the one most likely to be able to see this thing Mr Hall, so if you wouldn’t mind following Mr Truant and letting us know as soon as you see something. I’m trusting you to use your judgement. If you’ve got a good shot, take it, and maybe if you can wound it again we’ll be able to see and join in the party, but if you can tell us where to move before you start all the better.’
‘Finally,’ Riley continued. ‘The radio car has relayed where we are to the three other search teams, so be sure you know what you’re firing at, because there will be friendlies in there with us. And if they find what we’re after first, we close in on the gunfire at the double.’
I nodded to indicate I’d understood, as did all the others including Truant, and then we stepped through the fence.
CHAPTER 16 – REVELATION
The boatyard was a substantial size, and would probably have been big enough to have several dozen craft moored on the water, and another hundred up on the foreshore being built or repaired.
The boats were all gone now barring the odd rotten carcass, but the yard was still filled with the rubbish and odds and ends that couldn’t be moved to the new yard, all interspersed amongst an assortment of sheds and semi derelict outbuildings.
I set my lensing rig to automatically move through the standard combinations again, so that I’d spot anything not normally visible, and then stepped quickly but quietly after Truant and his dog.
While the sheds and random junk in the yard might have provided excellent cover on any other day, to the nose of Truants bloodhound the yard could just as well have been an open field.
Without even slowing his pace the dog lead us straight to a big old warehouse that had an office block built onto the side. It had probably been closed up properly at some point, but the side door that the dog lead us to had clearly been forced open quite some time ago.
The creature must’ve found somewhere inside to hole up, so there was no point risking Truant or his dog by asking them to go any further, instead as we’d agreed out by the fence he now retreated with his dog to direct the other search teams to take up positions around the building.
With my heart pounding, Riley moved up behind the door, and then when we were all ready he slowly inched the door open without making a sound.
As soon as the gap was wide enough to get my head and shoulders through I peeked around the door frame and looked around the warehouse.
It was a large space easily big enough to get a couple of large J-class sized racing yachts, or big cruising yawls inside, and at the front of the building it was a single unobstructed space right up to the roof, so boats could be brought in with their masts still in place.
Toward the back of the building and along one side I could see three floors of offices which reached almost up to the roof. I couldn’t tell how big or how deep these offices were but I could see how to get to them, via two staircases.
There was also no sign of the creature anywhere to be seen.
As soon as I’d had a good look around I ducked my head back out of the door, and whispered what I’d seen to the others.
There was still several hours of good light left before the night would start to draw in, but there was no point hanging around, so as soon I’d updated them, Riley indicated we should move in and slowly start to search through the building. I would again go first, backed up by Riley, then Shelby and finally Blake at the rear with the lensing scope.
The interior of the warehouse wasn’t cluttered exactly, but there was enough smallscale rubbish, lengths of wood, rope, cardboard, loose stones, bits of broken glass and the like, lying around to make moving silently that little bit harder.
We started by scouting around the ground floor and checking out a couple of large cupboards that might’ve been big enough for the creature to hide in, then we moved over to one of the entrances into the office structure.
There were two ways in or out of the offices, one right in the corner of the building that allowed access to all the different floors of the structure both along the back of the warehouse as well as along the side which extended forwards almost to the big front doors. This corner entrance looked like it had a nice wide staircase, which two of us could walk up at the same time. The second entrance to this office structure was at the end of the rooms that ran along the side, this entrance also contained as set of stairs, albeit much narrower single person width like a fire escape.
The entrance in the corner of the building looked a bit bigger and more open, so I decided to head in that way. We managed a fairly noiseless appr
oach to the offices through all the debris, and then carefully opened and entered through the doors. Inside the floors were much clearer so it was easier to move around silently.
We checked the rooms out along the back of the building first, which seemed to comprise a locker lined changing room, conveniences and a small first-aid bay. None of the lockers were big enough for the creature to hide in so it was straight-forward for the most part. As the only one who could be sure of seeing the thing I invariably lead the way, quietly opening the doors with one hand while scanning the room with my loaded Webley in the other hand.
As soon as we’d cleared the offices along the back of the building, we moved back to the corner, past the stairs and across into the offices that were attached to the side of the building. These rooms seemed to consist of a large cafeteria area with counter and checkout area, space for the usual dining tables and chairs, most of which were now missing, and then behind these a set of kitchens and pantries, where the food would’ve been cooked and prepared.
Once we were sure the floor was clear, we went back to the wide staircase and slowly and quietly ascended to the next floor.
This was more lushly fitted out, with carpets throughout, and quality wood panelling on the walls that made me think this must’ve been the area where the boatyard owners or managers worked. We followed the same pattern as before and checked out the offices on the back wall first. These seemed to contain what would’ve been an open office area with a couple of smaller side offices sectioned off them, and then a much larger main office come boardroom. Again all the furniture barring a few filing cabinets had been removed, and there was a conspicuous hole in the wall from which a small safe had clearly been removed.
Once we cleared the offices across the back of the building, we slowly moved across to the offices along the side, where it was clear a lot of the design work had been done within the business. This must’ve have been one of the areas along with the boardroom that the owners liked to show off, as it had also clearly been remodelled not long before the business moved premises.
Unlike the boardroom though several of the fixtures and fittings still remained, including a couple of large built in drawing boards, a large light-table in the centre of the room and what I could only guess were several glass display panels that drawings or other papers could’ve been fixed to for reference while the designers worked on their boards. Even after the several years that the site had been abandoned this room still looked surprisingly modern.
That was when it happened. The rooms had looked so undisturbed I think we’d started to relax.
It was so easy to forget we were looking for a deadly creature that was considerably stronger than a man and had butchered any number of people. As I stopped examine one of the drawing boards, Riley silently stepped past me to go and examine the light-table where the designers would have been able overlay several thin sheets of paper with design details on in order to seem them all together.
It was such an innocent thing to do, but just as I was turning back to centre of the room I saw Riley through one of the glass display panels extend his hand and flip the switch on the table to see if the light beneath would still come on.
Even as I watched I saw the scaled razor-claw of the Lamphrey slowly appear from beneath the table and take hold of the edge on the far side, followed by a second and third claw and then the head, its black eyes looking straight at Riley, who couldn’t even see it.
Time slowed to a crawl in that instant. The creature clearly hadn’t seen the rest of us because of the glass panels which it couldn’t see through.
As it extracted itself from beneath the light-table and raised itself up to its full height just a few feet away from where Riley stood still looking down at the flickering glass surface.
My gun was in my hand and I had a relatively clear shot at the thing. I saw Riley absently brush his hand across the surface of the table and start to turn away, and then just as I was squeezing the trigger, Blake must have caught sight of me and misunderstood.
‘Watch out,’ he shouted to Riley, thinking I was aiming at him, and lunging for me at the same time, hitting me just as my gun went off.
My bullet shattered the display panel that had hidden me from the creature, but between Blake’s shout startling the creature and the fact he just managed to nudge my arm as I fired my shot missed its chest where I’d been aiming and fortunately hit it in the face, shattering half the creatures face plating to expose raw pale coloured flesh.
This caused the thing to scream in a way I’d never heard before, and flickered out of the invisible light spectrum to where we could all see it.
I bodily threw Blake off against the wall with a curse as I tried to bring my gun back up for another shot, but the creature was faster. Having recovered from the wound to its face, it ripped the light-table up from the floor and flipped it across the room burying the stunned Riley beneath it. The monster then started to move away from us down the room toward the exit at the far end.
I just couldn’t get around the drawing board and up ended light-table to get another shot in, but just as I thought it was going to get away again, I heard three shots being fired in quick succession off to my side. It was Shelby, who was shooting through another glass display panel straight at the fleeing creature.
I don’t know where he hit it, but it screamed again, and loosing it’s balance slightly it ploughed into the edge of another drawing board and then straight through one of the glass panels.
It gave me enough time to get around the drawing board to where I could fire again.
It clearly wasn’t going to stay down, but as it rose from the floor again I noticed that in addition to the bullets a large shard of glass had also impaled it through the chest as it had fallen. It barely looked at us as it picked itself up and tried to continue its flight, but we had it in our sights now, and before it had taken another step I’d emptied my five remaining Manstoppers straight into its back, while Shelby added his other three bullets.
With each of the Manstoppers it seemed large pieces of the things carapace armour splintered and fell away or cracked to reveal pale bloody flesh beneath.
The force of the combined firepower floored the thing, knocking it across the room to hit the windows at the end of office overlooking the warehouse below.
The thing was done for. But I was taking no chances, as I walked toward it I calmly reloaded with another six Manstoppers, and as the creature dragged itself painfully up the wall, I fired all six straight into it at point blank range.
The massive force of the bullets hammered the thing into and through the wall and glass windows that separated it from the open air of the warehouse.
Even as it fell my hand was retrieving another reload from my belt, but then something stopped me dead in my tracks.
As the thing had crashed out of the window and started to fall, I’d finally seen its face where my first bullet had smashed its face plate off.
And in the centre of the exposed pale flesh was an eye that flickered open involuntarily, a pale blue human eye, surrounded by dark lashes and a brow.
A human eye that was exactly the same shape and colour which Ariel Shilling’s eyes had been, before she’d fallen to her death from our ship when we’d first arrived.
The story continues in:
‘Through Glass Darkly – Episode 2’
THANKYOU
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Thank you for reading this book.
Peter Knyte
SAMPLE
And finally:
In the next few pages you’ll find a taster of one of my other stories also set in the 1930s ‘The Flames of Time’.
Here’s the back page blurb, followed by a sample chapter.
‘Africa keeps its secrets well,
and its ancient secrets best of all.
Untouched by the crash of '29 Kenya is the glamourous and exotic retreat for many seeking to escape the privations of the western world.
But when a group of friends get drawn into a strange shamanic ritual that reveals tentative clues to the existence of an ages old secret. A secret which threatens to re-write the history of the known world as well as the future destiny of mankind, they find themselves on a path they cannot help but follow.
To re-discover this long buried truth, they must search some of the world’s most ancient sites and seek clues contained within some of the oldest writings known to man.
However, there are those for whom keeping such secrets buried is not only a responsibility, but also a solemn duty. Powerful individuals who will apparently stop at nothing to protect the world as we know it from such things being found.’
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CHAPTER 7 – STEPPING STONES
Mkize was scrambling out, helped by some of the others, but there was no sight or sound of Harry from the abyss as I called out his name.
