The Frankenstein Factory Read Online Free PDF Page A

destroyed.”
    “Can’t you check on it?”
    “I intend to,” Freddy said. “This morning. I’ll run a scope test. It’ll tell me if any blood vessels in the brain are blocked off.”
    “He’d better be fit,” Lawrence Hobbes rumbled, perhaps thinking of lawsuits. “I’m not paying you to deliver half a man!”
    “Hell, that wouldn’t be much good for your news conference, would it?” Freddy replied, regaining his old irreverent spark.
    For some reason Hobbes resented the flippancy at that moment. He took a step toward O’Connor and seemed about to strike him until Tony Cooper came out of his chair and stepped between them. “Let’s give it some time, Dr. Hobbes,” he reasoned. “We’ll know soon enough about Frank.”
    Hobbes retreated a step. “And don’t call him Frank! We’re not actors in some third-rate horror movie! We’re scientists—and that’s a human being down there!”
    Hilda reentered the room with coffee for everyone, Vera Morgan passed it by and asked for tea, then said, “I knew someone was missing. Where’s Miss Watson?”
    “It was a late night for her,” Hobbes said, regaining his composure.
    “But didn’t you say she usually breakfasts with you?”
    “Not every day.”
    “Maybe somebody should check to see if the old dame’s all right,” Freddy O’Connor suggested. “At that age you never know. The excitement might have been too much for her.”
    “I’ll go,” Vera said.
    “It’s not necessary,” Hobbes told them. “She’s all right.”
    But Vera was already up from the table, starting for the door. “I’ll just be a minute.”
    Earl saw Hobbes shoot a look of alarm at the kitchen door, where Hilda stood with the tea. For just an instant there was an undercurrent of something he couldn’t quite catch. Then Vera was gone and Hobbes settled back in his chair. “The old lady’s probably asleep. Or out strolling on the beach.”
    “You know something?” Dr. MacKenzie said. “Your sand out here is an unusual sort. I watch things like that since the moon trip. What’s underfoot can be very interesting at times.”
    “I suppose it’s the high humidity from the cooling machines. You can see what it’s done to the rest of the island, with all our trees and grass. The place has changed a great deal since I purchased it thirty years ago.”
    MacKenzie was staring out the window. “What sort of tree is that—”
    He broke off as Vera Morgan reentered the dining room. Her face was white and she spoke quickly. “I … something’s happened to her! There’s blood—”
    Earl Jazine was first on his feet. He followed Vera out of the room, with the others close behind. By the time they reached the second floor he was ahead of her. He went through the open door to Emily Watson’s room, not knowing what he might find.
    The rumpled bed was empty and there was a smear of blood on the sheet. Her cane lay on the floor near the window.
    “The bathroom!” Tony Cooper said, behind Earl. He ran to check it; it was empty.
    “She has to be somewhere,” Earl said. “We’ll search the house.”
    Phil Whalen entered the room and frowned at the bed. “It could be menstrual blood.”
    “In a woman her age?” Hobbes snorted. “Don’t be silly! Jazine’s right—we’d better search the house.”
    Earl found himself with Whalen and Cooper as they moved through the other second-floor bedrooms. He suddenly remembered the tiny pistol he’d seen strapped to Whalen’s leg, and he tried to determine if it was still there.
    “Nothing up here,” Cooper said. “We’ve searched the closets and bathrooms and even looked under the beds.”
    Earl looked up at the ceiling. “Is there a floor above this? An attic?”
    Tony Cooper shook his head. “Rat roof, except for that TV and microwave equipment.”
    “Let’s look outside,” Whalen suggested.
    “She wouldn’t have gone out without her cane,” Earl said. But he followed the others downstairs.
    While they went