“You know a lot about Philly,” Herk joked. “Are you from here?”
“Wilmington,” Linda explained, “but I used to come up here when I was a kid. Now let’s see what we can do about changing up our appearance. I don’t want that thing to know the same people it tangled with this afternoon followed it here.”
In a few minutes, she’d changed into a light jacket from her travel bag and slapped a ball cap on Herk’s shaven head. He changed out of his business suit and into a muscle shirt and jeans.
“You’d fool me,” Linda said with a whistle as she looked him over. “Wow, you look pretty good in that shirt.”
Herk smiled at her reaction to his appearance. He’d worked hard to keep it up while in the facility and it paid off. “So what makes you think our beast man came back to this spot?” he asked as they shone some light around the curb with flashlights.
“Something I noticed as we drove in,” she said. “Look!” She aimed her flashlight at the ground.
Below them was a fresh tire track, which led off the road. Someone tried to hide it with a cover of brush, but it was still there. Herk pulled the brush aside and noticed the tracks followed a narrow trail beyond which vanished into the woods.
“Bingo,” she told him. “My mother always did say I had a weird way of finding things. Maybe she was right.”
They followed the trail back into the woods. Herk felt back in his old environment. This was why he spent years in training. It was the one time he felt alive, with his senses fully activated. Herk stayed a step behind Linda as she trained her flashlight on the ground and looked for more signs of their quarry. In the distance, he heard the other police vehicle roar around the unlit roads of the old asylum grounds. Clearly, the Philly cops had trouble finding their way in the dark. Soon they would locate their car. Linda needed to find the beast’s lair soon.
The flashlight she held illuminated the path before them. It gave Herk a chance to stay back and see if anything moved in the dark. Even with his kill-suit damaged, Leon would still be aware someone was after him. From all the reports he read, Herk knew the beast hadn’t encountered an opponent who could cause him trouble. Right now, he was probably in his hideout trying to figure why he’d nearly been bested by an ordinary man without a gun. Soon it would occur to Leon the suit had vulnerability in the neck department and he’d be forced to fix it.
The soft earth under his boots softened and he watched Linda’s tight dress as she continued to follow the tracks in front of her. Herk turned his light off to allow him to see better. He admired the rear profile of Linda. It was a long time since he’d been with a woman and she was quite attractive. He’d dealt with nurses the size of refrigerators for the last six months. A nurse less than oxen size would be useless in a mental facility for violent inmates. He tried hard not to think about his former fiancé.
As he watched Linda step further away from him, it struck Herk that she might be offering herself up as bait. Was she trying to lure the beast out into the open? It was possible; they had no idea where the thing was or even if Leon was still in his kill-suit. Herk guessed he’d dropped it once he was in the car. There was enough time between the moment Leon escaped in beast form to the when the police back up arrived to get out of his kill-suit.
The answer came two minutes later when the beast leaped on the trail, grabbed Linda and pulled her into the woods. Herk had his head in the other direction and saw it happen out of the corner of his eye. Before he could come to her rescue, they were gone. All he could see was the flashlight bouncing in the distance.
Herk ran after the beast and its captive, but the creature had a head start on him, knew the land and ran faster than he did. Herk was held back by the brush in the woods. He tripped constantly over branches and rocks on the ground. When he reached the flashlight, he found it lying in the soil.
Herk picked up the flashlight, turned it off and thought for a moment. The creature was too big to vanish without leaving a trace. He dimmed the light to the point where he could see the trail it left and not interfere with his night vision. Herk looked at the ground and saw the telltale passage of a large object as it had ran through the woods. He flexed his arms and followed the trail of the beast.
Even when he heard Linda scream, he concentrated on following the trail. Herk did not make a sound as he went along and noted which branch was out of position or what rock was over-turned by the beast. He didn’t worry much about Linda; Leon in his kill-suit had abducted her to get him to follow. By now, he probably figured out they were the same people who nearly took him out in Philly. Somewhere was the car Leon used to travel from this location to the places where he’d brought a reign of terror to the locals. Only by a steady pace could he defeat the beast when he found him. Herk felt the drug tap on his mind again, but he ignored it.
The drug was persistent. Shouldn’t it have worn off after one use? He asked the doctors at the clinic about this and they told him the drug turned something on inside him that caused Herk to transform into a total psychopath. What it was, they still didn’t know. So long as he kept the drug away from the switch, Herk maintained control. However, there might come a point when he’d let the drug flip the switch and then he’d have to be ready to turn it off again.
The moon was on its way down when he found the lair of the beast. It was a set of concrete steps that went down into an underground tunnel. Herk looked around and saw the outlines of several buildings ready to collapse. This had to be the passageway the old asylum once used to transfer inmates from one building to the next. From the stagnant water at the bottom, it wasn’t in good shape. Part of the entrance was hidden by a pile of wood. Leon must’ve found the tunnel after he fled the military weapons lab and concealed the entrance the best he could.
Herk stared down at the tunnel and Linda screamed his name. The beast wanted him to come down there to play. Leon had to know Herk didn’t carry a gun by now. He wanted a real match-up with someone who could present him with a decent challenge. Eventually the police or feds would learn that the kill-suit could be damaged by constant gunfire. The protective surface it grew would not be able to repair itself fast enough if a full automatic weapon was turned on it. Herk doubted Leon had any future plans; this was all fun to him. He’d seen this before; a kid kicked around in school grew up to be a mean son-of-a-bitch who would unleash his growth spurt on the bullies who made his young life hell. Leon wanted him to come down there and meet him.
Fine, thought Herk, you want to play, so do I. He walked down the stairs and pushed leaves out of the way.
The tunnel was dark, but there was a light at one end. It was from the light’s direction he heard Linda scream. Herk raced down the tunnel as he climbed over junk on the floor that blocked his way. It was not easy to be quiet down there. Herk didn’t know if the kill-suit gave Leon enhanced sensory powers, but if it did, he would know Herk was in the tunnel on his way. He counted on the beast’s knowledge he was there. It was when Linda quit screaming Herk grew worried.
The tunnel was quiet and the light went out in the distance. Herk stopped and waited. He smelled the dampness in the tunnel and the moisture in the air brushed wetly over his skin. It reeked of mold and fungal growth, the perfect place to hide from any kind of bomb-sniffing device.
There was a slight sound in front of him; could be anything from Leon to a damn mouse. Herk noted a rabbit scatter when he approached the tunnel. He brought up his flashlight, aimed it at the ground and turned on the lowest setting.