That’s when I heard the gun cocking behind me.
“I suggest you keep your hands where I can see them, Miss Wilson,” said Dr. Halder. His gun was smaller than the one Phelps had carried, which I had foolishly left on the table below, but his hand was also a great deal steadier. “Step away from my test subject, if you please.”
“Test subject?”
“He’s a parasite, Miss Wilson.” Halder’s lip curled. “No different than any of the others that I study. Step away, please. I don’t want to tell you again.”
Unlike Phelps, I was pretty sure that Halder wouldn’t hesitate to shoot me. I stepped away. Saul stood framed in the doorway, swaying slightly on his feet. “Halder,” he said.
“You’re looking better, Saul. Been feeding, then? Perhaps on Miss Wilson, here?”
“I haven’t touched Miss Wilson.”
“Doctor,” I said, thinking that it was just my luck that I would have to negotiate with two men with guns in the same day, and that I hadn’t learned nearly enough the first time. “Doctor, we don’t have to do any of this. Just let us walk away, and we won’t tell anyone. No one would believe us anyway.”
And, God willing, we’ll be out of range when you discover Phelps’s body.
“Don’t be fooled, Miss Wilson,” Halder said. “He may look human, but that’s simply mimicry at work.”
“Mimicry?” I said. Comprehension worked slowly through my brain. “Like those caterpillars that look like bird droppings?”
“Caterpillars again?” murmured Saul. I shot him a sharp look.Was he not taking this seriously?Of course, ifhegets shot, he’ll heal up fine.Someof us aren’t so lucky.
“More like the fireflies that pretend to be females of a different species. Then they devour the males who respond to their flashes. Saul, don’t even think about it. You know that I’ll shoot your knees out if I must.”
Whatever Saul had been thinking, he must have stopped. I tried again. “Doctor, Phelps believed in devils, but I know you’re a man of science. Surely you can’t believe—”
“It is because I am a man of science that I believe, Miss Wilson. I have observed, I have tested, and I know that my logic is sound. This is not a human being. He—it—is a member of a species that evolved to prey upon ours. Darwin himself could not deny it.”
“It doesn’t follow that—”
“Do you know how they reproduce?” asked Halder pleasantly, as if I hadn’t spoken. “Just like wasps, as it happens. They deposit their children inside a woman, and those children devour their host. Just like the wasp, they save the vital organs for last, so that they can grow as large as possible. I suspect the females have ovipositors for just that purpose, but sadly those fools burned the single female specimen we encountered before I could dissect it.”
“I tracked their father down, if that makes you feel any better,” said Saul, never taking his eyes off the gun. “He won’t do it again. Or anything else either.”
“Which hardly changes the fact that your species requires us as hosts,” said Halder. “You are parasites upon us, in every sense. Without us, you would die out in a single generation.” He gestured with the gun, and both Saul and I twitched. “With the information that I have gathered, I think it likely that they can be eradicated.” He paused, eyes flicking briefly to my face. “You could help me, Miss Wilson.”
“What?”
Saul’s hand pressed briefly against my back. A message ofsome sort, I thought, though I wasn’t sure what. “Help you?” I asked.
“Indeed. Phelps assumed that you’d go to the authorities. I think he was wrong. You understand the importance of my work, don’t you?”
I took another half step away from Saul, moving slowly. “It’s very important, yes. Just as you said, if we know enough about screwworms, we can find a way to stop them.”
“Exactly!” The lantern light flashed off his spectacles. “And this, Miss Wilson, is far worse than screwworms. Imagine how many of them there may be, living among us, devouring us…”
“There aren’tthatmany,” said Saul.
Halder’s gaze swung back to him. “So you say. But I can hardly trust you, can I?”
I took another step forward and tried to compose my face. It wasn’t easy. Dealing with Mistress Silverton had been one thing, but she had never held a gun on me. Fortunately, Halder expected me to look horrified. “Are you saying that there are more of them out there? Killing women to… to reproduce?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Miss Wilson. Did you see him feed on Phelps?”
So he suspected Phelps was dead. I didn’t have to fake my shudder. “I did. It was horrible.”
“That bastard deserved it,” growled Saul.
