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Because of the ripe stink, Travis first thought the o But on closer inspection, the corpse proved to be neither bloated with the gas of decons of decay, so it could not have been there for very long Perhaps only a day, perhaps less The hideous stench had two other sources: for one thing, the landlord had been disemboweled; furthermore, his killer had apparently defecated and urinated on and around the body

Ted Hockney’s eyes were gone

Travis felt sick, and not only because he had liked Ted He would have been sickened by such insane violence regardless of who the dead nity whatsoever and sorowling gave way to ugly snarling punctuated with hard, sharp barks

With a nervous twitch and a sudden ha of his heart, Travis turned fro into the nearby dining room The shadoere deep in there because the drapes were drawn shut over both s, and only a thin gray light passed through froet out, leave! an inner voice told him

But he did not turn and run because he had never run away froht, that was not quite true: he had virtually run away froet the best of him His descent into isolation had been the ultimate cowardice However, that was behind him; he was a newto run again, daid He arched his back, thrust his head down and forward, and barked so furiously that saliva flew fro-room arch

The retriever stayed at Travis’s side, barkingto take confidence from the powerful weapon, Travis eased forward another step, treading cautiously in the treacherous rubble He was only two or three steps fro rooh the house until it sees must be loose in the place

Travis took oneroo moved Had it been a phantoray and black crepe

He wasn’t sure if he had seen et out, now! the inner voice said

In defiance of it, Travis raised one foot, intending to step into the archway

The thing in the dining rooain This time there was no doubt of its presence, because it rushed out of the deepest darkness at the far side of that chaht at Travis, elooht-gave an i off the table, straight at hie it, but Travis tried to step back and gain an extra second in which to squeeze off a shot As he pulled the trigger, he slipped on the ruined books that littered the floor, and fell backward The revolver roared, but Travis knew he hadFor an instant, as Einstein scra ator jaws and crack open an i wickedly hooked teeth

"Einstein, no!" he shouted, for he knew the dog would be torn to pieces in any confrontation with this hellish creature, and he fired again, twice, wildly, from his position on the floor

His cry and the shots not only brought Einstein to a halt but gave the eneainst an ar turned- it was quick, far quicker than a cat-and crossed the unlighted dining room to the kitchen doorway For a ht fro that had never beenwith a ht to have been, a hunched back, ararden rake

He fired again and came closer the mark The bullet tore out a chunk of the door frame

With a shriek, the beast disappeared into the kitchen

What in the name of God was it? Where had it come from? Had it really escaped from the same lab that had produced Einstein? But how had they made this monstrosity? And why? Why?

He was a well-read man: in-fact, for the last few years, an to occur to hi the, facing the doorhere the thing had vanished

Lurching to his feet in the living roo back to his side, and Einstein returned quickly, eagerly

He shushed the dog, listened intently He heard Nora frantically calling his na in the kitchen

For Nora’s benefit, he shouted, "I’ht! Stay out there!"

Einstein was shivering

Travis could hear the loud two-part thudding of his own heart, and he could al down his face and down the s whatsoever to pinpoint that escapee froone out the back door into the rear yard For One thing, he figured the creature did not want to be seen by a lot of people and, therefore, only went outside at night, traveled exclusively in the dark, When it could slip even into a fair-sized town like Santa Barbara without being spotted The day was still light enough toleery of the outdoors Furtherht sense that soht sense an onco sky It was out there, all right, waiting in the kitchen, ready and waiting

Cautiously, Travis returned to the archway and stepped into the half-dark dining roorowling nor barking The dog seemed to realize that Travis needed coht h the kitchen door, he could see a corner of the table, the sink, part of a counter, half of the dishwasher The setting sun was at the other end of the house, and the light in the kitchen was di shadow It ht have climbed onto the counters from which it could launch itself down at hi to trick the creature, hoping that it would react without hesitation to the first sign of movement in the doorway, Travis tucked the revolver under his belt, quietly picked up one of the dining-room chairs, eased to within six feet of the kitchen, and pitched the chair through the open door He snatched the revolver out of his waistband and, as the chair sailed into the kitchen, assumed a shooter’s stance The chair crashed into the Forainst the dishwasher

The lantern-eyed ene aina curious sound, a quiet shuddery huffing, and after a ’s uncontrollable shivering

No question about it: the intruder in the kitchen was the very thing that had pursued the the intervening weeks, it hadmostly in the wildlands to the east of the developed part of the state, relentlessly tracking the dog by some means that Travis could not understand and for reasons he could not even guess

In response to the chair he had thrown, a large white-enameled canister crashed to the floor just beyond the kitchen doorway, and Travis ju off a wild shot before he realized he was only being taunted The lid flew off the container when it hit the floor, and flour spilled across the tile

Silence again

By responding to Travis’s taunt with one of its own, the intruder had displayed unnerving intelligence Abruptly Travis realized that, co a product of related experiht be as smart as the retriever Which would explain Einstein’s fear of it If Travis had not already accoence, he ht have been unable to credit this beast with more than mere animal cleverness; however, events of the past few months had pri

Silence

Only one round left in the gun

Deep silence