Blood Red City by Justin Richards

Author:Justin Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466863781
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER 23

‘Well, he certainly didn’t look like that when we saw him,’ Sergeant Green said.

The photos from the journalist’s camera were spread out across the table in the conference room back at the Station Z offices. The three photographs that Blithe had held back till last were arranged together off to one side of the others.

Leo Davenport picked up one of the pictures, examining it closely. ‘And these were developed in the normal way?’

Miss Manners nodded. ‘Mr Blithe assures us that’s exactly how they were taken.’

‘The film was still in the camera and no one’s tampered with it,’ Sarah said.

‘Curious,’ Leo said.

‘That’s one word for it,’ Green agreed.

Leo put the photo back down with the others. Each of them showed a general view of the reception J.D. Sumner had held. At the edge of one of the photos, Sarah herself appeared – half in and half out of the shot.

The common factor was that each of the three pictures showed the Ubermensch. In one, he was half hidden behind several other people at the back of the room. In the second he was visible between a waiter and one of the guests. In the third shot, the Ubermensch was off to one side, but very much in the foreground.

And in all three pictures, it was clear that the man wasn’t human.

The clothes the creature was wearing looked normal enough. But in place of hands and head, there was a web-like network of interconnected lines, as if these areas had been scribbled over by a small child.

‘Some sort of nervous system, do you think?’ Miss Manners said.

‘Or the fungus stuff that seems to replace the internal structure of the body,’ Davenport said.

‘But I don’t understand why he looks like that here in the photos when we saw him as a normal human being,’ Green said.

‘Maybe it’s to do with the way film works,’ Sarah suggested. ‘I don’t really know much about it, but isn’t it to do with light levels?’

‘It is,’ Miss Manners said. ‘Perhaps the infected skin reflects light into the camera lens in a different way from other solid objects.’

‘Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,’ Leo said quietly. ‘Hamlet,’ he added for anyone who was interested. ‘There is another explanation. Well, probably several, but one that springs to mind.’

‘Oh?’ Sarah prompted.

‘I assume your photographer used a flash gun?’

‘You think this is due to exposure to the flash?’ Miss Manners asked.

‘Anyone close by would be blinded for a split second. The split second in which the Ubermensch was visible in this form. Well, as I say, it’s just a possibility.’

‘The important thing is we have a way of recognising them,’ Green pointed out. ‘We should tell the colonel.’

‘He’s rather out of touch at the moment,’ Miss Manners pointed out. ‘But it’s certainly worth telling Elizabeth Archer. She may have some ideas.’

‘Hang about,’ Green said. ‘She’s got the body of one of these things in her collection.’

‘It’s badly damaged, almost charcoal the way it was burned,’ Leo said.

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