Excerpt of The Dreamwalker's Child by Steve Voake
(Page 2 of 5)
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Sam sighed and turned back towards his bedside table, where
The Field Guide to European Insects & Spiders lay open at the ‘Bees, Ants
& Wasps’ section.
He reached out his hand to pick up the book, and at that
moment his eyes fell upon the small grey shape on his bedpost. Moving slowly and
carefully, he crouched down to take a closer look.
It was a grey, thuggish-looking fly about the size of his
thumbnail, with a slight speckling of the abdomen. Its wings were smoky brown
and on either side of its broad head were slightly bulging, brightly coloured
eyes. Protruding from the front of its head were sharp, blade-like mouthparts
shaped like a V.
Sam recognized it immediately as a horsefly.
Keeping a watchful eye on it, he picked up the insect book
and flipped through the pages until he found the section entitled ‘Horseflies
(Family Tabanidae)’.
Beneath a small illustration he read: ‘Female horseflies
need a meal of blood for their eggs to develop. Their bite is painful, and they
readily attack people in the absence of livestock. Their preferred habitat is
near woodland, streams and marshes.’
‘You’re in the wrong place,’ said Sam.
Picking up an empty tumbler from his desk, he put it over
the horsefly, slid a postcard underneath and held the glass up to the window.
He peered at the glittering eyes, watching him through the
glass.
‘You’re a biter all right,’ he said, studying the
spiky, beak-like mouthparts and the blunt, stubby head, ‘but not a very smart
one. I’d better let you get back to where you belong.’
He shook the tumbler and the horsefly disappeared off at
speed over the hedge at the end of the garden.
Sam watched it fly away into the distance. ‘Don’t make
any more wrong turns!’ he said, and closed the window.
But the fly had not taken any wrong turns.
On the contrary, it was a good deal more intelligent than
Sam realised.
CHAPTER TWO
Somewhere in Aurobon, deep beneath the city of Vermia,
General Hekken stood in the middle of a white, brightly lit laboratory and
looked at the clear liquid that filled the glass tank in front of him. His long,
black leather overcoat and peaked cap contrasted sharply with the sterile glare
of his surroundings and his boots creaked as he leant forward to get a better
view. Suspended inside the tank was a translucent bag filled with a dark liquid.
Within the bag he could make out the movements of many small, yellow objects.
Hekken grimaced. Watching deadly viruses swim around inside
the detached stomach of a mosquito was not his idea of a good time. But, he
supposed, these things had to be done.
The thin man in the white coat next to him tapped his watch
and nodded at the contents of the tank. ‘That’s the longest they’ve
survived so far,’ he said, with a definite hint of pride in his voice.
‘Nearly an hour.’
Hekken watched as the strange, yellow organisms floated
slowly past on the other side of the glass. Each consisted of a spongy, bulbous
growth which tapered down into five thin tentacles waving behind like the fronds
of a sea anemone.
‘An hour,’ repeated Hekken. ‘Am I supposed to be
impressed by this?’
A worried expression appeared on the face of the other man.
‘An hour represents good progress,’ he said nervously. ‘Survival rates
were virtually nil when we first injected them.’
As he spoke, the bag inside the tank ruptured and the
darker fluid began to leak out into the surrounding liquid, forming black clouds
that swirled and spiralled down towards the bottom of the tank. Hekken noticed
that the viruses had stopped moving. He sighed heavily and took off his cap.
Copyright (c) April 2006, Bloomsbury Press (USA). All rights reserved.
