As amazing as the coincidence of the names.
“Which planet is that?” Angela asked.
“The fifth planet from the sun right now is Jupiter. But the Kalair definitely could not have come from there. Jupiter is a gas giant. It has a poisonous atmosphere and a crushing gravitational field. Life as we know it could not evolve there. But…” Spark hesitated.
“What?”
“You have to understand that talk like this has little to do with scientific theory. It is more in the region of wild speculation.”
“That doesn't bother me. This whole subject is wild.”
“You have a point there,” Spark said. “It is likely that in the past just the fifth planet from the sun was not Jupiter, but another planet.”
“Do they often switch places with each other?”
Spark chuckled. “No. But between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt. It is commonly accepted that the asteroids are what is left of the original fifth planet.”
“What happened to it?”
“No one knows. For one reason or another it blew up.”
“When?” Angela asked.
“Most astronomers would say it was millions if not billions of years ago. They base that estimate on the time when many meteors hit the Earth. These ancient meteors, both large and small, are believed to have hit the Earth when the original fifth planet broke up.”
“Do you believe that?” Angela asked.
“I believe that when the fifth planet exploded it threw good-size rocks our way. Most must have landed in the oceans. We see evidence of a few on land, however.”
“Wait a second,” Angela interrupted. “You said in your article that Point Lake was formed less than a hundred thousand years ago. You said that the Lake in South America was formed at the same time.”
“At about the same time, yes.”
Angela saw what he was driving at, even though he was reluctant to say it aloud. “So you believe the fifth planet blew up then – not millions of years ago, but only a hundred thousand years ago. You think these two meteors came from that planet's breaking up.”
Spark nodded in admiration. “You're perceptive. Yes, I think the main meteoric bombardment of our planet was from another source, at a time near the formation of our solar system. But I think Point Lake and Lake Curro were formed by meteors that came from a planet that had life on it.”
Angela almost jumped out of her chair. It was all coming together. “Because of the micro-organisms?” she exclaimed.
Spark sighed. “Yes.”
“Because it doesn't look as if they came from here!”
Spark sighed again. “Yes.”
“Why does that depress you?”
“You have to understand the scientific view of life in the solar system. Besides Earth, Mars was the only planet thought to have a chance of having evolved life. But the findings of the Voyager probes made it appear unlikely that the place is anything but dead. My esteemed scientific colleagues would, therefore, be reluctant to sanction the theory that life had evolved on a world even further from the sun than Mars, such as our original fifth planet.”
“But it could have,” Angela said.
“Yes, I think so. If the atmospheric conditions were ideal the surface of the original fifth planet could have been every bit as warm as Earth is today.”
“Then what's the problem? Why did they hound you out the door?”
“Because of what I mentioned a moment ago. That the fossilized micro-organism has an extraterrestrial origin.” Spark stopped and cleared his throat. “I made the mistake of suggesting the possibility in the wrong circle of people.”
“But it seems a reasonable theory to me. Especially since the micro-organism has only been found in the vicinity of these two meteor hits.”
“I appreciate your support, believe me. But you have to understand the context in which these theories of mine were brought up against me. I was warning against using Point Lake as a source of drinking water for high school students. I had already published my article connecting Point Like to Lake Curro. I had already spoken about the similar micro-organisms located at the two places, although I had not written about them. The supporters of the school location – particularly the contractor who was to build the school – used that information to portray me as a charlatan. Little green bugs from outer space – they made it into a circus. They even tried to demolish the theory that a meteor had originally formed the lake, which of course was ridiculous.” Spark paused to smile. “But that same contractor changed his mind when he tried to dig the foundation for the school. He could hardly cut into the ground, it was so hard. I heard he lost a lot of money on the job.”
“I’d like to backtrack for a second,” Angela said. “You said the experts were not concerned about the micro-organism because it was dead. But you were concerned. Why?”
“I believe many organisms might have survived the impact of the meteor.”
“Why?”
“Because I have researched the history of both lakes. Of course, I don't believe in the horror stories that have grown up around them. But I feel there must be something unsavoury about the water in the lakes. The Mantons and the Ropans both got sick from drinking it. There has even been recent history concerning the dangers of Point Lake – from the early settlers in this area. To this day, in Chile, Lake Curro is completely shunned. It is seen as a source of illness. No one even lives near it. Also, there is the fact that there are no fish in either lake. But if you ask me if it is the organism or the magnetism that causes all these problems, I'd have to say I don't know for sure. If you ask me if the organism is from the fifth planet, I don't know. They are all intriguing theories. But I do know this for fact: the kids who drank the most water from Point Lake were the ones who got sick.”
“What do you mean, the most water?” Angela asked.
“It was hot last fall. The football team and the cheerleading squad practised in that heat. They drank substantially more of that water than anybody else, and they were the kids who got sick.”
“That's right.” Angela had never put that together before, and it had been staring her right in the face. “So we have two possible sources of contaminants here – the magnetism and the organism.”
“That's correct,” Spark said.
“Is it possible they work together?”
“I don't understand your question.”
“You said water that had been exposed to a strong magnet was bad for plants and fish. Is it possible that the organism thrives in such water?”
“I never thought of that before, but I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“Because living things don't appear to like such water.”
“Living things on this planet,” Angela said.
Spark was uncomfortable. “I would be extremely reluctant to put the two ideas together.”
“Why? If the organism came here from an exploded planet, then it came here on a piece of home. Maybe the whole surface of the fifth planet was magnetic.”
Spark was surprised at her wild postulating, although impressed. “You talk as if you've been there.” He glanced at his watch. “I wish we could talk more, but a student of mine will be here in a few minutes. Before you go I’d like you to describe briefly what is happening at Point High.”
Angela stood and thought for a minute. She had believed Mary was insane – even when she found the blood caked into the crack in the floor of the warehouse. Even when Jim had mingled his blood with hers and given her an appetite for red meat that couldn't be satisfied. It hadn’t escaped her notice that there was more iron in red meat than in practically any other food. What was her body doing? Trying to change her into one huge polarized alien micro-organism? It sure felt that way.
Angela now believed everything Mary had said was true.
“We've got a few monsters on the loose,” Angela told Professor Spark. “Their numbers grow daily. I might be turning into one myself. I sure hope not, but I've g
ot cravings no teenage girl should have. I'm so hungry right now I could eat you alive. I know you'll think that's crazy, but remember how people thought you were crazy to connect the two lakes? Don't toss out those stories about the KAtuu and the Kalair too quickly. There's a lot of truth in them.”
Spark was stunned. “Are you saying you're sick, too?”
Angela threw her head back and laughed. “I had a dream last night that I was an astronaut who came back to Earth after a visit to the fifth planet and ate my best friends. Then I changed into a huge bat-like monster and was eventually hunted down by men with laser guns. Sounds pretty corny, huh? Except my new boyfriend's a member of Point High's football team. He's the quarterback. He drank a lot of that bad water. I think he might be quarterbacking the whole show. His name's Jim Kline, and he’s the guy Mary Blanc was trying to kill when the police stopped her. I helped them, for God's sake. I saved Jim's life. But you know what?” She leaned closer. “I wish now I had let her kill the bastard.”
“Angela—” Spark began.
“Thank you for your time, Professor,” Angela said, turning away. “I've got to go. I've got to eat.”
She ran from the room, and it was well for him that he didn’t try to stop her. All of a sudden he had begun to smell too good to resist.
CHAPTER TEN
Angela heard on the radio – of all places – that Mary Blanc had been released on half a million dollars' bail. On a Sunday for God's sake, Angela thought. Nguyen had been right about how good her lawyer was. Angela was sitting in a McDonald's eating three extremely rare Big Macs – and finding them far from satisfactory – when she got the news. A couple of fourteen-year-old boys sat across from her with a ghetto blaster. She grabbed it out of their hands when she heard Mary's name. But the newscaster made no mention of where Mary was going, except to say that she had to remain in the area.
“Hey,” one of the boys protested. “That's ours.”
She smiled. They were both rather plump, which she thought made them more attractive somehow. It might be fun to – squeeze them. She handed them back their boom box and gave the one who had spoken a pat on the head.
“Eat your food and keep your mouth shut, little boy,” she said sweetly.
Angela got back in her car and drove to the expressway. She had an idea where Mary would be hiding out. Her family owned a cabin in a forested area outside of Kemp, which lay roughly between the University of Michigan and Point. Angela had been there twice. It wouldn't be too far out of her way to swing by the cabin and have a long talk with Mary about the KAtuu and the missing fifth planet and the long kiss Jim had given her in the middle of the lake. They could join forces. They could be a team. They could save the world.
But Mary might kill me when it's all over.
Angela would not put it past her.
She found the door to Mary's cabin lying wide open when she came to a halt at the end of the long gravel driveway. The cabin was nestled in the midst of a thick forest. The nearest neighbour was half a mile away. Flies buzzed round Angela's head as she got out of her car.
“Hello?” she called. “Mary?”
God.
There was a foot inside a black shoe lying in the cabin doorway. It was a man's leg, and it was attached to a man’s body. Angela took a step closer, then stopped and grimaced. Already, with only half the body in view, she could see a dark puddle of blood had formed round the guy. Yeah, he was real dead, like the two at the party last week. Another step closer and she could see that he had a hole in his chest that only a close-range shotgun blast could have caused. He lay on his back with his mouth and eyes open and flies crawling all over him. Angela recognized the man – Officer Martin, one of the cops who had helped Nguyen capture Mary. Mary obviously had not appreciated his efforts.
But the obvious was not always right. She had assumed Mary had done the guy so she could escape and go after the monsters. But another step into the cabin showed Angela a sight that outdid all the horrors she had witnessed in the last few days.
Mary, dressed in blue jeans and a bloodstained T-shirt, was hanging by the neck from a thin wire. She had on brown leather boots; the right one was beginning to slip off her foot. The blood was from the gaping wound the wire had cut into her neck. Darn, tied that thing too tight while I was trying to commit suicide. That's what the evidence was supposed to tell everybody. Killed the cop, then felt guilty and decided to buy the big one by going for a swing after jumping off the nearby couch. Why, the shotgun was lying right there on the floor beneath Mary. Angela bet it even had Mary's fingerprints on the trigger.
Angela moaned. “No. Mary.” She closed her eyes and cried. “No.”
Angela didn't believe the evidence. In the last few days she had learned a thing or two about those who had drunk too deeply from the lake. They had unique appetites. Angela reopened her eyes. The puddle round the cop was not big considering the extent of his wound. The stain on Mary's shirt was not that wide given the incision in her neck. The KAtuu couldn't resist having a little snack – drinking a little blood – in the midst of business.
Angela wished she hadn't thought about food right then. The next tragedy started with good intentions. She decided she couldn't just leave her friend hanging there. She fetched a chair from the kitchen and placed it below Mary's feet. She didn't believe she'd have the strength to lift enough of Mary's weight off the wire in order to pull the noose off her friend's head. But either Mary had lost more weight in prison than either of them had realized or else Angela Warner was now one strong babe. Angela had the wire off in seconds. She cradled Mary in her arms as they slumped to the carpeted floor. Beautiful Mary – Angela had always been so jealous of her shiny brown hair, her huge green eyes. At least Mary had had a chance to close them before the end had come. Angela buried her face in Mary's face and washed her friend's blood with her tears.
You were the brave one. You went after them alone. You didn’t ask for help, and when you were stopped you didn’t complain. You were great. I will always remember you as great, even if the world will always despise you. I'm not you, I can’t be you, but I swear I will not rest until what you began is finished. Until every one of those blood-sucking bastards is lying in the dirt with a hole in his heart.
“Mary,” Angela cried, uncontrollable sobs shaking her body. But these tremors had another cause besides grief. Angela couldn't stop shaking because she was hungry. She was holding her dead friend, her dead best friend, and she couldn't stop thinking about how good it would be to lean over and open her mouth and...
“I won't do it!” she screamed.
Still she couldn't let go of Mary. She couldn't get up and run from the cabin and save what was left of her sanity. She closed her eyes and felt the edge of the incision in Mary’s neck with her fingertips. Then she took the bloody fingers and pressed them to her own lips. And the thrill that went through her body was sexual in intensity. An incomparably ancient longing quenched for an instant in time. She sighed with pleasure and touched Mary's wound again – lightly and with respect – and lifted the fingers once more to her lips. The elixir Jim had let her taste. She sucked on her fingers hungrily. Harder and harder. Wanting to get the last drop.
So hard she began to eat her own hand.
“Angela,” a voice said.
She opened her eyes with a start. Lieutenant Nguyen stepped into the room. Funny, she hadn't heard him drive up. Quickly she wiped the blood off her mouth.
Don't mind me, I was just drinking my friend's blood.
“Hello,” she said.
Nguyen surveyed the scene and was forced to close his eyes. When he reopened them he was the colour of chalk. He stepped to her side and peered down at her.
“What happened here?” he asked.
“Jim Kline was here,” she said.
“You saw him?”
“No.”
“How do you know, then?”
“It’s a long story.” She eased Mary off her lap and on to the floor. She woul
d have liked to kiss her friend goodbye, but not with company in the room. Nguyen helped her to her feet. “Have you been following me?” Angela asked.
“Yes. Did you know?”
“No.”
“Tell me what happened,” Nguyen repeated.
Angela stared him in the eye, and suddenly she felt a power go up her spine and into her head and out from her as if she were a magnetic field with claws. The strange thing was that it didn't surprise her when it happened. It was as if it were a psychic muscle that had always been there, even before the madness had started, and she had simply never used it before. The power gave her new sensitivity; she felt as if she held Nguyen's mind in her palm. She couldn't read his thoughts, but she could touch them as if they were made of matter. She suspected she could make him believe what she wanted him to believe just by holding his eye and talking in a certain way.
“I can't,” she said simply.
Nguyen blinked. “What's happened to you, Angela?”
She swiped at her mouth again. She had missed a bit of the blood. “I've become a naughty little girl. I think I lost my virginity last night. I lost something, that's for sure.” Her eyes bored into him – inside his brain she could actually feel his confusion, his horror of her – and he took an involuntary step back. “Let me go, Nguyen,” she said softly. “Quit following me. Let me do what I have to do. By the time you know enough to believe what is happening you'll be dead.”
He was sweating heavily. He gasped, “I don't know what you're talking about.”
Staring down at Mary one last time, she said, “For your sake I hope you never do.”
Angela left the cabin. Nguyen didn't try to stop her.
When she got home Plastic was waiting for her at the front door. She ran inside without pausing to shut the door behind her and went into the bathroom, where she saw in the mirror someone she hardly recognised. Wild blue eyes, the colour of Earth's sky. But what colour would the sky be that she would look out from tomorrow? She still had Mary's blood all over her, on her nose, in her hair.