A pause, but Beth trusted her instincts. She opened the door slightly to allow him in. Then she closed it and locked it again as the old man sat tiredly upon a chair. He seemed fatally fatigued. Although Beth didn't know what he wanted, she didn't fear him.
“Do you know anything yet?” she asked.
“No, my dear.” Hoffman shook his head, holding his pipe close. “No, we do not know anything. This – ” He gestured to the cathedral's ceiling, “ – cavern has shut itself down, so to speak. All the corridors are locked, so we cannot go anywhere. And as you well know, the phone lines are down. We cannot communicate with the outside world. Nor do we know what has happened to the rest of the men. They may very well be alive, you know. Colonel Chesterton is quite resourceful.”
Beth said nothing, but her face tightened. Without looking down she stroked Jordan's hair. Hoffman was silent for a long while, his pipe making an occasional, soft whistle as he pulled puffs from the large black bowl. He appeared to want to talk but gazed somberly at the tile floor, as if uncertain of whether he was welcome or not. Beth was touched by his sense of sadness. She sniffed, looking up.
“You seem like a good man,” she said quietly.
Hoffman looked at her. His face slowly relaxed. “I try to be a good man.”
With a harder gaze, Beth looked into the wall. She shook her head. “What were you people doing down here, Doctor? What did you create in that cavern? I still don't understand it.”
Hoffman's face was almost frightened, his aspect still, silent. “Something that ... that should be feared, Mrs. Connor,” he answered slowly. “It has no place in this world.”
“Then how could you let something like this happen?”
Hoffman lowered his hand to his knee, his pipe forgotten. “It began rightly, I believe. Peter, or Dr. Frank as you know him, invented a process called Electromagnetic Chromosomal Manipulation. It is a method of altering the genetic makeup of a living organism. And hearing of his research, I joined him. Our intentions were good, you know. We wanted to perfect the process so that it could be used to correct genetic abnormalities such as muscular dystrophy or a host of other genetic illnesses.” He gestured vaguely. “But we could not obtain adequate funding. It conceivably would have cost millions. And it appeared that we would never be able to achieve our goal until we were contacted by a privately owned defense company which wanted to perfect the process. They wanted to know if Electromagnetic Chromosomal Manipulation, or ECM, could be used to enhance certain vertebrates, like dolphins, for purposes of war. The American Navy had for years been using dolphins to plant mines on foreign ships, to locate underground sonar, and such. And they wanted to enhance the controllability of the creatures. So, in return for our assistance they promised to generously fund ECM for ten years.”
Hesitating, Hoffman glanced down at his suddenly dead pipe. “That much funding would have enabled us to cure a host of genetic abnormalities, I am certain,” he continued. “I did not want to use ECM to alter living creatures to make them weapons for war. But I saw no other means of funding the research. It was ... a compromise.”
Beth's tone was final. “They corrupted you.”
A short laugh escaped him. “Yes, my dear. They corrupted me. They corrupted me as any man is corrupted. Little by little, piece by piece. Until I could no longer remember what I had been.” He nodded. “Yes. And in the end we took a Komodo dragon and placed it in a perfected electromagnetic field. And then we watched until it became something the world was never meant to endure. Until they had what they wanted.”
“And what is that, Doctor?”
A heavy breath. “The end of the world, Mrs. Connor. The ultimate beast of prey.” He frowned. “A doomsday beast so terrible that it would bring the entire world to its knees. And I tell you honestly that we succeeded too well. Peter and I, we knew what was happening but we did not resist them. We did what they wanted us to do.”
“I want to know exactly what's locked in this cavern with us,” Beth said, stronger.
Compassion glistened on Hoffman's face. “Do you remember, Mrs. Connor, when you were a child? When your brothers or sisters played games with you, hiding in the dark only to leap out and frighten you?”
Beth nodded.
“Yes,” the old man smiled, “and so do I. I remember those frightful moments quite well. Even today I still remember the long, haunting fear of knowing that there was something beside me in the dark. Something I could not see. Could not find. But I knew it was there, and that my moment had come.” He paused, staring at her. “And in that moment, Mrs. Connor, whatever was crouching beside me in the depthless darkness could have been anything. It could have been a monster. A ghost. A demon. Even Satan himself. But in my heart I knew that he had finally come for me.”