Relic

= 55 =

Cuthbert checked the door again. It was locked and rock solid. He flicked on the flashlight and shined it in the direction of Wright, slumped in his chair and looking morosely at the floor. Cuthbert switched off the flashlight. The room reeked of whisky. There was no noise except for the rain splattering and drumming against the barred window.

“What are we going to do with Wright?” he asked in a low tone.

“Don’t worry,” Rickman replied, her voice tight and high. “We’ll just tell the press he’s sick and pack him off to the hospital, then schedule a press conference for tomorrow afternoon—”

“I’m not talking about after we get out. I’m talking about now. If the beast comes up here.”

“Please, Ian, don’t talk like that. It scares me. I can’t imagine the animal is going to do that. For all we know, it’s been in the basement for years. Why would it come up here now?”

[394] “I don’t know,” said Cuthbert. “That’s what worries me.” He checked the Ruger once again. Five shots.

He went over to Wright and shook the Director’s shoulder. “Winston?”

“Are you still here?” Wright asked, looking up hazily.

“Winston, I want you to take Lavinia and go into the Dinosaur Hall. Come along.”

Wright slapped Cuthbert’s arm away. “I’m fine just where I am. Maybe I’ll take a nap.”

“The devil with you, then,” said Cuthbert. He sat down in a chair opposite the door.

There was a brief noise—a rattle—at the door, as if the doorknob had been turned, then released.

Cuthbert jumped up, gun in hand. He walked close to the door and listened.

“I hear something,” he said quietly. “Get into the Dinosaur Hall, Lavinia.”

“I’m afraid,” she whispered. “Please don’t make me go in there alone.”

“Do as I say.”

Rickman walked over to the far door and opened it. She hesitated.

“Go on.”

“Ian—” Rickman pleaded. Behind her, Cuthbert could see the huge dinosaur skeletons looming out of the darkness. The great black ribs and yawning rows of teeth were suddenly illuminated by a streak of livid lightning.

“Damn you, woman, get in there.”

Cuthbert turned back, listening. Something soft was rubbing against the door. He leaned forward, pressing his ear against the smooth wood. Maybe it was the wind.

Suddenly he was slammed backward into the room by a tremendous force. Cuthbert could hear Rickman screaming within the Dinosaur Hall.

Wright stood unsteadily. “What was that?” he said.

His head ringing, Cuthbert picked the gun off the floor, scrambled to his feet, and ran to the far corner of [395] the room. “Get into the Dinosaur Hall!” he shouted at Wright.

Wright sagged heavily against the chair. “What’s that disgusting smell?” he asked.

There was another savage blow to the door, and the crack of splitting wood sounded like a rifle shot. Cuthbert’s finger instinctively tightened on the trigger, and the gun fired unexpectedly, bringing down dust from the ceiling. He lowered the weapon momentarily, his hands shaking. Stupid, one wasted bullet. Bloody hell, he wished he knew more about handguns. He raised it again and tried to take aim, but his hands were shaking uncontrollably now. Got to calm down, he thought. Take a few deep breaths. Aim for something vital. Four shots.

The room gradually returned to silence. Wright was slumped against his chair, as if frozen into place.

“Winston, you idiot!” Cuthbert hissed. “Get into the Hall!”

“If you say so,” Wright said, and shuffled toward the door. He seemed finally frightened enough to move.

Then Cuthbert heard that soft sound again, and the wood groaned. The thing was pressing against the door. There was another horrible cra-ack and the door split wide open, a piece of wood spinning crazily end over end into the room. The table was thrown to one side. Something appeared in the gloom of the hallway, and a three-tined claw reached through the opening and gripped the broken wood. With a tearing noise the remainder of the door was pulled back into the darkness, and Cuthbert saw a dark shape in the doorway.

Wright lurched into the Dinosaur Hall, almost toppling Rickman, who had appeared in the doorway, choking and sobbing.

“Shoot it, Ian, oh please, please kill it!” she screamed.

Cuthbert waited, sighting down the barrel. He held his breath. Four shots.

¯

The commander of the SWAT team moved along the roof, a catlike shape against the dark indigo of the sky, while the spotter on the street below guided his progress. Coffey stood next to the spotter, under a tarp. They both held rubberized waterproof radios.

“Dugout to Red One, move five more feet to the east,” the spotter said into his radio, peering upward through his night-vision passive telescope. “You’re almost there.” He was studying Museum blueprints spread out on a table under a sheet of Plexiglas. The SWAT team’s route had been marked in red.

The dark figure moved carefully across the slate roof, the lights of the Upper West Side twinkling around him; below, the Hudson River, the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles on Museum Drive, the high-rise apartment buildings laid out along Riverside Drive like rows of glowing crystals.

“That’s it,” the spotter said. “You’re there, Red One.”

Coffey could see the Commander kneel, working swiftly and silently to set the charges. His team waited a hundred yards back, the medics directly behind them. On the street, a siren wailed.

“Set,” said the Commander. He stood up and walked carefully backward, unrolling a wire.

“Blow when ready,” murmured Coffey.

Coffey watched as everyone on the roof lay down. There was a brief flash of light, and a second later the sharp slap of sound reached Coffey. The Commander waited a moment and then eased forward.

“Red One to Dugout, we’ve got an opening.”

“Proceed,” said Coffey.

The SWAT team dropped in through the hole in the roof, followed by the medics.

“We’re inside,” came the voice of the Commander. “We’re in the fifth-floor corridor, proceeding as advised.”

[397] Coffey waited impatiently. He looked at his watch: nine-fifteen. They’d been stuck in there, without power, for the longest ninety minutes of his life. An unwelcome vision of the Mayor, dead and gutted, kept plaguing him.

“We’re at the Cell Three emergency door, fifth floor, Section Fourteen. Ready to set charges.”

“Proceed,” said Coffey.

“Setting charges.”

D’Agosta and his group hadn’t reported in for over half an hour. God, if something happened to the Mayor, no one would care whose fault it really was. Coffey would be the one that caught the blame. That’s the way things worked in this town. It had taken him so long to get where he was, and he’d been so careful, and now the bastards were just going to take it away from him. It was all Pendergast’s fault. If he hadn’t started messing around on other people’s turf ...

“Charges set.”

“Blow when ready,” Coffey said again. Pendergast had fucked up, not him. He himself had only taken over yesterday. Maybe they wouldn’t blame him, after all. Especially if Pendergast wasn’t around. That son of a bitch could talk the hind legs off a mule.

There was a long silence. No sound of explosion reached Coffey’s ears as he waited outside beneath the sodden tarp.

“Red One to Dugout, we’re clean,” the Commander said.

“Proceed. Get inside and kill the son of a bitch,” said Coffey.

“As discussed, sir, our first priority is to evac the wounded,” said the Commander in a flat voice.

“I know! But hurry it up, for God’s sake!”

He punched savagely at his transmit button.

The Commander stepped out of the stairwell, looking carefully around before motioning the teams to follow him. One by one, the dark figures emerged, gas masks [398] pushed high on their foreheads, fatigue uniforms blending into the shadows, their M-16s and Bullpups equipped with full-tang bayonets. In the rear, a short, stubby officer was carrying a 40mm six-shot grenade launcher, a big-bellied weapon that looked like a pregnant tommy gun. “We’ve gained the fourth floor,” the Commander radioed the spotter. “Laying down an infrared beacon. Hall of Lesser Apes directly ahead.”

The spotter spoke into his radio. “Proceed south seventy feet into the Hall, then west twenty feet to a door.”

The Commander took a small black box from his belt and pressed a button. A ruby laser shot out, pencil-thin. He moved the beam around until he had the distance reading he needed. Then he moved forward and repeated the procedure, shining the laser toward the west wall.

“Red One to Dugout. Door in sight.”

“Good. Proceed.”

The Commander moved ahead to the door, motioning his men to follow.

“The door’s locked. Setting charges.”

The team quickly moulded two small bars of plastique around the doorknob, then stepped back, unrolling more wire.

“Charges set.”

There was a low whump as the door flew open.

“The trapdoor should be directly in front of you, in the center of the storage room,” the spotter directed.

By moving aside several flats of scenery, the Commander and his men exposed the trapdoor. Undoing the latches, the Commander grasped the iron ring and heaved upward. Stale air rushed up to greet them. The Commander leaned forward. In the Hall of the Heavens below, everything was still.

“We’ve got an opening,” he said into the radio. “Looks good.”

“Okay,” came Coffey’s voice. “Secure the Hall. Send down the medics and evac the injured, fast.”

“Red One, roger that, Dugout.”

[399] The spotter took over. “Tear out the drywall in the center of the north wall. Behind it you’ll find an eight-inch I-beam to anchor your ropes to.”

“Will do.”

“Careful. It’s a sixty-foot drop.”

The Commander and his team worked swiftly, punching through the drywall, looping two chains around the I-beam, attaching locking carabiners, a block and tackle. A team member hooked a rope ladder to one of the chains and dropped it through the hole.

The Commander leaned over once again, shining his powerful light down into the gloom of the hall.

“This is Red One. We’ve got some bodies down here,” he said.

“Any sign of the creature?” Coffey asked.

“Negative. Looks like ten, twelve bodies, maybe more. Ladder’s in place now.”

“What are you waiting for?”

The Commander turned to the medic team. “We’ll signal when ready. Start lowering the collapsible stretchers. We’ll take ‘em out one by one.”

He grabbed the rope ladder and started down, swinging over the vast empty space. The men followed, one by one. Two fanned out to provide suppressing fire as necessary, while two others set up tripods with clusters of halogen lamps, hooking them to the portable generators being lowered by ropes. Soon the center of the hall was flooded with light.

“Secure all ingress and egress!” shouted the Commander. “Medic team, descend!”

“Report!” Coffey cried over the radio.

“We’ve secured the Hall,” the Commander said. “No sign of any animal. Medic team deploying now.”

“Good. You’ll need to find the thing, kill it, and locate the Mayor’s party. We believe they went down the stairwell back by the service area.”

“Roger, Dugout,” said the Commander.

[400] As the Commander’s radio buzzed into silence, he heard a sudden report, muffled but unmistakable.

“Red One to Dugout, we just heard a pistol shot. Sounded like it was coming from above.”

“Dammit, go after it!” cried Coffey. “Take your men and go after it!”

The Commander turned to his men. “All right. Red Two, Red Three, finish up and secure here. Take the grenade launcher. The rest of you come with me.”