Children of Cthulhu, The [S.S. Col.] by Various (Pelan John / Adams Benjamin - Ed.)

Author:Various (Pelan, John / Adams, Benjamin - Ed.) [Various (Pelan, John / Adams, Benjamin - Ed.)]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Anthologies (various), Cthulhu, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Lovecraft, Short Stories
ISBN: 9780307555038
Publisher: Del Rey / Ballantine
Published: 2002-11-15T02:00:00+00:00

9

An eerie dusk had settled on Long Meg and Her Daughters. The woods and hills were turning purple, the sky a misty metallic-gray. The great stone obelisks became twisted, tortured shapes as a spectral miasma rose from the surrounding grassland. There was neither sound nor movement.

Nick stood silently by the wrecked Toyota, watching. It was miraculous the SUV had gotten him this far, though he doubted it would go any further. Not that it mattered. Only one thing mattered now: The gateway was still closed, and that was how it had to stay, by fair means or foul. He moved forward, the rifle slung at his shoulder, his arms loaded with the explosives and their detonator kit. A moment later, he was kneeling beside the inside face of the nearest megalith. Break the circle, Cusani had said. Break it.

As carefully as he could, Nick peeled the waxed paper away from the two blocks of dynamite. A brownish black substance was visible beneath, clammy and plastic to touch. Nick wiped a sheen of sweat from his brow, then gingerly compressed the blocks together, melding them into a single glutinous blob. Once he had done that, he pushed it into place at the base of the megalith. God alone knew how much the piece of granite weighed, but his much dynamite ought to blow it to smithereens, to completely erase it from the English map.

Next he unraveled the detonator leads. There was more of them than he'd imagined… eighty yards at least, which gave him some idea how far away he'd have to stand once he threw the switch. He checked to make certain the socket pins weren't in contact with the charge box, then inserted the two electrodes into the gel, and, paying out the cable as he went, began to retreat across the circle.

He'd reached halfway when something stopped him.

A voice.

“Nick?” it said, baffled.

Nick turned sharply. Andy McClaine was standing there, hands in his coat pockets, gazing at his colleague with something like total bewilderment. “What's going on?”

Nick walked around him, continuing to lay out cable. “Can't tell you, Andy. Just trust me.”

It briefly occurred to him that he must look an incredible sight… wild-eyed, filthy, ragged, bleeding from a dozen gashes. It was obvious that Andy's incredulity was growing steadily. He was gazing at the detonator cords. “There's been a nasty robbery,” he said slowly. “The watchman at Gilderdale Quarry got shot, the blackguard made off with a pile of…” His words trailed away.

“Good news travels fast,” Nick grunted. “Came over the air, did it?”

“Mel … Mel Toomey told me.”

Nick laughed crazily. “Don't trust a word that bitch says!”

“Nick—what the fuck's going on?”

“What do you think?” Nick snapped. “While you've been swanning around the country, I've been trying to sort things out.” He continued to lay out cable.

“What… er, what's this for?”

“Just get over there 1o the SUV, where you'll be safe.”

“Why shouldn't I trust Mel Toomey?”

“Why don't you ask her?”

Andy nodded. “Alright. Why shouldn't I trust you, Mel?”

It

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