The Frankenstein Factory Read Online Free PDF Page B

Cooper volunteered to climb up the metal ladder attached to the rear of the house and have a look. “I’m in better shape than you guys,” he said. “I’ll go.”
    “If you fall off,” Freddy called after him, “I’ll take good care of Miss Vera.”
    Earl saw Vera Morgan twist away as he tried to circle her waist with his arm. She was obviously having none of him. By the time Tony had reached the roof she’d turned away from the group completely and was walking down toward the water.
    “Nothing up here,” Cooper called down. “No bodies.”
    Freddy O’Connor snorted. “If he killed the old gal himself and hid her up there, naturally he wouldn’t admit finding her.”
    “I’ll go up too,” Earl decided.
    He climbed the metal ladder quickly, without effort, remembering all those times he’d done something like it in government training. He didn’t really expect to find anything on the roof, and when he reached Cooper’s side he saw that he was right, but the gesture had needed to be made.
    “That loud-mouthed bastard,” Tony muttered, looking down at the others. “It’s time somebody shut him up for good.”
    “He said you two were friends.”
    “Remind me sometime to tell you what sort of friends we were.” He left Earl standing there and started down the ladder.
    When they were all assembled again on the ground, it was Dr. MacKenzie who put their thoughts into words. “There’s only one place left, you know. The sea.”
    “But how could she get out of her room?” Cooper asked.
    “This morning, early, after the alarms were off. Either she went by herself or—”
    “She’d never go by herself,” Hobbes insisted. “The whole purpose of her pouring money into ICI was to insure her own immortality. Even if she felt she was dying— especially if she felt she was dying—she’d never have thrown her body into the sea.”
    “Then somebody must have killed her and thrown her body in there,” Freddy said.
    “Somebody?”
    He glanced around at the circle of faces. “One of us.”
    Who? And why?
    They sat around in the living room discussing it for the next hour and got nowhere. Freddy went downstairs with Harry Armstrong to finish his tests on Frank, but the rest of them simply sat and talked. After a time Hobbes pushed a button to summon Hilda from the kitchen and announced that the cocktail hour would be somewhat earlier than usual.
    “But it’s barely noon!” Vera pointed out.
    “Those who think it’s too early don’t need to drink,” Hobbes assured her. He was a man whose dream was beginning to crumble before his eyes and Earl felt oddly sorry for him.
    “Whatever happened to Miss Watson needn’t affect the experiment,” he told the man, trying to cheer him up. “If Frank lives—”
    “Don’t call him Frank!”
    “All right. If the patient lives, you’ll have all the fame and money you need.”
    “And all the lawsuits,” Dr. MacKenzie commented. “Bringing people back to life is a damn sight more complicated than walking on the moon.”
    “Lawsuits?” Earl repeated, not understanding at first.
    “Of course! And not just from what’s his name, either! We used body parts from five different people last night—all without the permission of their families.”
    But Hobbes shook his head. “That’s no problem. I have a signed contract in each case giving ICI sole and exclusive rights to the bodies in its care if any of the perpetual upkeep payments are missed. Since the initial payment at time of freezing covers only twenty-five years of care, I now have a number of bodies in my personal possession. You’d be amazed how many sons and daughters and nieces and nephews lose interest in paying the upkeep after twenty-five years.”
    “That’s disgusting!” Vera said and stalked out of the room. The others merely sat there in silence.
    “I thought there were insurance policies for that sort of thing,” MacKenzie said, recovering himself.
    “There are. The wiser of my