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"A phanto the word that Copperfield had introduced with so

"A phantom, yes," Bryce said "We haven’t yet encountered the real ene that just plain likes to kill It can kill quickly and silently, the way it took Jake Johnson But it killed Harkerhim scream Because it wanted us to hear those screams Harker’s murder was sort of like what you said about T-139: It was a deeant Harker away, It got hiot hi for a corpse"

Copperfield was silent for a moment Then he said, "But the voice we heard It was your man, Jake Johnson"

"No," Bryce said, "I don’t think it really was Jake It sounded like hiainst so that’s a terrific mimic"

"Mimic?" Copperfield said

Jenny looked at Bryce "Those anis, birds, rattlesnakes, the crying child… It was al: "Hey, look what I can do; look how clever I am" Jake Johnson’s voice was just one more i?" Copperfield asked, "So supernatural?"

"No This is real"

"Then what? Put a name to it," Copperfield demanded

"I can’t, damn it," Bryce said, "Maybe it’s a natural ineering lab so about that, General? Maybe the areneticists creating biological fighting hter and terrorize, creatures stitched together froenetic structure of the tarantula and coenetic structure of the crocodile, the cobra, the wasp, enes for huence just for the hell of it Put it all in a test tube; incubate it; nurture it What would you get? What would it look like? Do I sound like a raving lunatic for even proposing such a thing? Frankenstein with a one that far with recombinant DNA research? Maybe I shouldn’t even have ruled out the supernatural What I’ That’s why I can’t put a naination run wild, General Noyou conjure up, we can’t rule it out We’re dealing with the unknown, and the unknown encohteant Harper’s suit and hel from the meat hook He turned to Pascalli and Fodor, "We won’t search the alley The sheriff is probably right Sergeant Harker is lost, and-there’s nothing we can do for him"

For the fourth time since Copperfield had arrived in town, Bryce said, "Do you still think it looks as if we’re dealing with just a siht be involved," Copperfield said "As you observed, we can’t rule out anything But it’s not a siht about that, Sheriff I’ and-"

"Apology accepted," Bryce said

"Any theories?" Jenny asked

"Well," Copperfield said, "I want to start the first autopsy and pathology tests right away Maybe on’t find a disease or a nerve gas, but we still ive us a clue"

"You’d better do that, sir," Tal said, "Because I have a hunch that ti out"

Chapter 25 – Questions

Corporal Billy Velazquez, one of General Copperfield’s support troops, clih he hadn’t exerted hi hard Because he was scared

What had happened to Sergeant Harker?

The others had co stunned Old man Copperfield said Harker was dead He said they weren’t quite sure what had killed Sarge, but they intended to find out Man, that was bullshit They must knohat killed him They just didn’t want to say That was typical of the brass, h a short section of vertical pipe, then into the main horizontal drain Billy reached the bottom His booted feet made hard, flat sounds when they struck the concrete floor

The tunnel wasn’t high enough to allow hiht around

Gray concrete walls Telephone and power cous here and there Nothing else

Billy stepped away from the ladder as Ron Peake, another member of the support squad, caht Harker’s body back with them when they’d returned froht around and glancing nervously behind hi the need to be watchful and careful down here?

Sir, what’re we supposed to be on the lookout for? Billy had asked

Copperfield had said, Anything Everything I don’t know if there’s any danger or not And even if there is, I don’t know exactly what to tell you to look for Just be da moves down there, no et your asses out of there fast

Nohat the hell kind of ansas that?

Jesus

It gave him the creeps

Billy wished he’d had a chance to talk to Pascalli or Fodor They weren’t the daive hiot a chance to ask them about it

Ron Peake reached the bottom of the ladder He looked anxiously at Billy

Velazquez directed the flashlight all the way around the to worry about

Ron switched on his own flash and smiled self-consciously, ean to feed a power cable through the open manhole It led back to the two mobile laboratories, which were parked a few yards from the entrance to the drain

Ron took the end of the cable, and Billy, shuffling forward in a crouch, led the way Cast On the street above, the other men paid out more cable into the drain

This tunnel should intersect an equally large hole perhaps larger conduit under the ht to be a power company junction box where several strands of the town’s electrical ere joined together As Billy proceeded with all the caution that Copperfield had suggested, he played the bea for the power conia

The junction box was on the left, five or six feet this side of the intersection of the two conduits Billy walked past it, to the Skyline Road drain, leaned out into the passageway, and pointed his light to the right and to the left,around The Skyline Road pipe was the same size as the one in which he now stood, but it followed the slope of the street above it, plunging down thedownhill, into the dwindling gray bore of the tunnel, Billy Velazquez was reo in a horror cootten the title of it The tale was about a bank robber who killed two people during a holdup and then, fleeing police, slipped into the city’s stor tunnel, figuring it would lead to the river, but where it had led, instead, was to Hell That hat the Skyline Road drain looked like as it fell down, down, down: a road to Hell

Billy turned to peer uphill again, wondering if it would look like a road to Heaven But it looked the same both ways Up or down, it looked like a road to Hell

What had happened to Sergeant Harker?