Through Glass Darkly Episode 1 (11 page)

‘I don’t know if it’s relevant,’ began the leader of team two, another Sergeant by the name of Stoker. ‘We were questioning some of the rough sleepers a few blocks over from where this thing struck last night, and they mentioned some young woman in a fancy uniform that had been hanging around.

‘One of the tramps thought she must work at a big hotel somewhere, because she was dressed like a bellhop or lift operator or something.

‘He was probably drunk, but he swears he woke up with her leaning over him like she was going to rob him or something, that’s when one of our patrol cars came round the corner and she ‘melts away’. His words not mine.’

‘Could this be someone else from your ship?’ Asked Jenkins, looking a bit confused.

‘I don’t see how it could be.’ I had to answer, a bit nonplussed. ‘If it were someone from the Khan why wouldn’t they have come forward and made themselves known . . . unless.’

‘Unless what Mr Hall.’ Jenkins urged. ‘If you’ve thought of something, we need to know what it is so we can at least rule it out.’

‘Could it be a saboteur from the ship?’ I asked as much as suggested. ‘We’d imagined they’d all been killed trying to defend the ship when it was attacked in the Expanse. But what if one of them was still closeted away when the Captain discharged the Arc capacitors. They had an antidote to the poison they used on the rest of us, so would’ve been fully mobile. But could they have descended in one of the cradles without being seen by the people on the ground, or got off the ship in some other way?’

My mind was racing to figure out whether it could be possible, but there were just too many unknowns.

‘And what about the melting away?’ Stoker reminded us all. ‘How do you explain that?’

‘Perhaps for now we should just put this report to one side,’ suggested Captain Platt, bringing us back to the topic at hand. ‘Even if this woman is one of your saboteurs, she’ll just be trying to hide out until the heat dies down. She was probably just after the homeless guys overcoat to disguise herself with, but she’s not the priority right now.’

He was right of course, for the moment whoever this young woman was it wasn’t relevant to our search. We had to focus on getting the creature first, we could worry about catching a traitor later.

The dog handlers had arrived while we’d been talking, and after the usual introductions we outlined the situation to them.

They were aware of the manhunt going on already from the press and the details that had been mentioned over the phone when arranging for them to bring in their dogs to help out, but they didn’t know the city, so we had to spend a while going over the maps and talking about how we could best utilise their time.

They’d brought a bloodhound and a coonhound with them, both of which would work best alone, and had been trained to follow a trail no matter where it lead. If the trail lead up to a rooftop we just had to get the dogs up there and they’d keep on tracking. And if they lost the scent they’d immediately start casting around until they found it again, all we had to do was keep up.

With so many people there I was expecting the meeting to drag on while everyone had their say or asked questions, but as soon as Jenkins was sure we all knew what was going on and who was going to be where we were ready for the off.

Platt had somehow managed to get nearly a dozen of the city’s radio patrol cars temporarily allocated to the hunt, and now he outlined how he intended to use them to throw a net around the creature in order to ensure there was no repeat of it escaping again. Both of the dog handlers would be supported by one search team, and that team would relay where the dog was leading them to the nearest radio car, which would in turn relay to Captain Platt who would then coordinate the other search teams in the area in order to try and head the creature off if it tried to make a run for it.

One dog would start with the murder scene, the other would start with the blood trail where it had come down from the warehouse roof. If we were lucky all eight teams would gradually converge until we had the thing surrounded.

It sounded like a good plan, and as we headed out of the meeting to make our way over to where the dogs would try and pick up the creatures scent I was hopeful that we’d have it this time.

As it was Riley’s team who had come closest to getting the thing the previous night, it had been decided he should have first try at following the creatures trail from the warehouse where its blood had been discovered. This was considered the freshest trail and the most likely to lead to the creature, so it was a pat on the back for Riley for his team to get to follow it. I didn’t question whether I’d be allowed to go along with them again, I just quietly joined Riley and his men as though I never doubted my presence would be wanted.

The dog handler, a man by the name of Truant or Trent, I couldn’t tell which from the way he said it, had a farm truck that looked older than he was, which he indicated he’d follow us to the scene in.

I thought nothing more of this as we all got into our own car, but I had to smile when we pulled around in his truck in order to follow us, and we saw Truant behind the wheel while his dog sat upright in the passenger seat beside him, looking out through the windscreen at us like it was the most normal thing in the world.

In no time we were back on the scene, and I was pleased to see that an officer had been stationed next to where the blood had been found in order to make sure it was preserved as well as possible until the dog got there.

I was feeling a bit edgy again as we got out of the vehicles, eager to find the creature and hopefully finish the job this time. But I was still curious to see how the dog handler was going to get his dog going after the scent.

As it turned out, it was all in the leash. As we got out of the cars I turned to watch Truant for a second, and after both him and his passenger had gotten out of his truck. He simply reached into the back of his truck to get a long leash out, at which his dog went from being a sleepy eyed and slow moving thing, to suddenly being the picture of rapt attention and energy. It immediately came over to Truant’s feet and sat bolt upright looking straight up at his masters face. Truant in turn stood with the leash behind his back for a moment to return his dogs gaze for a second, before bringing the leash back into sight and encouraging his dog to follow.

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.