Hellboy: Unnatural Selection Read Online Free PDF

maybe seconds in which to act.
    He spread his fingers and toes and stopped dead in the water. Turned. Kicked out at the shadow bearing down on him. The impact sent him spinning, but he felt the grumble of pain from the lizard as his foot glanced from its nose and scraped across its eyes. His kick had been lucky, and maybe he would not find that luck the next time. He struck upward and, with two powerful strokes, broke surface. He held onto the side of the barge for a couple of seconds until he felt the pressure wave of the alligator rising toward him, then hauled himself up onto the boat.
    An immensely fat woman with purple hair and wearing a bright yellow dress screamed, and Abe screamed back.
    Water erupted behind him and then settled again, and he closed his eyes, relieved that the gator had not simply come up out of the lagoon for him. It had tried to second-guess him, as he had hoped ... but he was way ahead.
    "Detective! Get ready!" Abe shouted as he crossed the barge, almost slipping in the bloody mess on the deck. Marini and his men aimed down at the water on their side, Marini glancing up nervously at him.
    This was make or break.
    Abe grabbed up the remains of one of the dead tourists — a bloody torso minus limbs and head — and lobbed it into the lagoon between the barge and the police launch.
    A second later the alligator rose up and clasped the torso in its jaws, probably wondering why it did not taste fish-man flesh.
    "Marini!" Abe shouted, but there was no need.
    Marini and his men fired. The reports were tremendous, sounding over the water and echoing back from the surrounding buildings. Five shots each, six, and by the time the alligator sank out of sight, the echoes were crossing each other. One of the men continued firing until his rifle clicked on an empty chamber, and Marini had to press the man's arms down gently. The young officer was crying. He looked up at Abe and this time did not look away. Perhaps having faced the monster, he could recognize humanity when he saw it.
    Abe nodded, and the man returned the gesture.
    "Do you think we got it?" Marini shouted. "Is it over?"
    The echoes of gunshots faded away, but the fat lady still screamed.
    "Ask her to sing instead of screaming in my ear, and it will be."
    Venice. Abe Sapiens favorite city. Damn.
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Air Crash Investigation Center, Lausanne, Switzerland — 1979
    "I T'S A PREDICTION more than anything," Richard Blake said. "The Book of Ways was written so long ago that Zahid de Lainree obviously couldn't have been specific, but he's quite clear in the implications." He and his brother sat on the hillside overlooking the acres of hangars and smaller buildings. Lake Geneva glittered in the distance, and the air was crisp, cool, and clear. And still. Waiting for something to happen. Richard had the Book of Ways opened on his lap, his hands shading it from the sun. Such old parchment, so brittle, found exposure inimical.
    "So there's no way of saying for sure that they're the cause of every crash?" Galileo Blake said. "And it's all just supposition anyway?"
    "No way at all. And yes, it's prediction and supposition on de Lainree's part. But why is that a problem? We've been chasing myths for years, and what are they if not supposition written down or passed on through word of mouth?"
    Gal leaned back, raised his face to the sun, and sighed. "Nobody likes a smart-ass."
    Richard ignored him and scanned the page of the Book of Ways. He closed his eyes and muttered a spell of course, and when he looked again, the words seemed to have altered. They led this way instead of that, said one thing and not another, and Richard smiled as he started relaying the relevant information to Gal.
    "Small spirits, and minor," he said, "and yet possessed of flesh and blood and bone. Helpful to most, merely mischievous to others, they know the way of metals and powers, the stretch of tools and the magic of fixings. Their pleasure is in building, and in helping humans