Infestation (Harbingers)

Episode 6

Frank Peretti

• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781441231369
• Print ISBN:
  9780764219757

Unleashed from caves used for occult rituals, a microscopic evil invades the world--an infestation that deceives, blinds, kills, and then spreads and kills again. Is it natural, supernatural, or both? An embittered Professor McKinney must rejoin the Harbingers team in order to discover the truth and confront a monster bent on destroying humankind.

CHAPTER
1

The Dolphin

The teeming waters and the chatter-filled trees of the Indian River Lagoon put his mind at ease. He belonged here, wading waist-deep through the shallows, peering through the tangled roots of the mangroves, feeling the sandy give of the sea bottom through his waders. His skiff followed close behind him, tethered by a rope around his waist. The short little box of a boat carried his camera, binoculars, notebook, and lunch. It also served as a quick resort should an alligator come too close—which so far had not been a problem. Alligators preferred the freshwater streams and culvert outlets, and those he’d seen in the lagoon were largely indifferent and safely distant.

All in keeping with the goodness of the day: the Florida sun, the aliveness of the leaves and blooms, the constant flitter and flash of every color of bird, lizard, and fish in every direction.

Life. He was here to record and observe it, count and preserve it, and how he loved it.

He’d already spotted two manatee females with their calves, newborn this year, and four new pelican nests, three with eggs, one with hatchlings. Very good signs. At last, after so many mysterious deaths in this place—dolphins, manatees, pelicans—life was returning.

A ripple offshore alerted him. He reached for the skiff, drew it close. Alligators were stealthy, and the lagoon was no place for inattention.

But . . . no. A silvery gray dorsal fin broke the surface, a sight that made him grab his binoculars. He peered through the lenses, focused, anticipated the next breach—

The fin broke the surface again, dipped below, then broke again, this time with a puff of air and a gray arched back that glimmered in the sun.

A dolphin!

He laughed in joy. How long had it been since he’d seen a dolphin in this part of the lagoon? And where there was one, there were sure to be more. He scanned the placid waters, then set the binoculars in the skiff and watched.

The dolphin seemed to be alone, and now it was circling back, coming closer, a nice bit of luck. He might get a chance to judge the size, age, and health. Viral outbreaks among the dolphins in the past had made him and his fellow biologists careful to observe and record any anomalies—such as this particular dolphin’s behavior: not playful or vigorous, but sluggish, and oddly single-minded. It was still coming his way on a straight course.

Cautious, he yanked the skiff in close and watched as the dolphin approached, then slowed and circled no more than ten feet away. It was an adult, average size. That it would come in so close suggested it might be habituated to humans and was either curious or expecting a handout.

But the sheen and color of the skin and the listless behavior looked all too familiar. This dolphin was ill, probably dying. His heart sank.

He chanced a very slow movement toward it.

Rather than shying away, it drifted closer.

Habituated. Had to be. No wild dolphin would act this friendly.

Standing next to it now, he observed a greenish tint on the skin, possibly an algae. The dolphin allowed a gentle brush of his hand; a green residue clouded the water.

He leaned close to check the eye—

The eye was gone, nothing but an empty socket oozing green.

“What the—!”

The dolphin sidled closer, and he could sense the rules of the encounter changing. Now the dolphin was pressing into his space and he was the one feeling timid. He fought off the feelings, reached to examine the flank—

His hand passed through the skin as if it were sodden newspaper. The flesh within felt like goo between his fingers. When he yanked his hand away, it was coated in green slime. A cloud of green billowed out of the dolphin’s flank, fouling the water.

What was this? Another algae? Another plague of phytoplankton? He clambered in the skiff for a sample jar, dipped it into the green cloud . . .

The dolphin rolled lazily onto its side. The movement drew his attention. He turned his head, looked into the wound his hand had made.

The wound tore open, and green slime exploded into his face. All he saw was oozing, shimmering green.

And then nothing.

CHAPTER
2

A Recluse

To be left alone.

All I wanted was to be left alone in the quiet of my condo, my universe, the door locked, the phone turned off, safely sequestered against any more high-minded talk of adventure, especially of—oh, a plague on the notion!—saving the world. To hear such themes, to even think of them, brought a visceral twisting I feared would destroy me, and only served to remind me how futile and illusory life can be and what a fool I’d been.

I trusted. I believed.

So I was used and played for a fool.

The story of my life.

The doorbell startled me as if it were a clap of thunder. I had been enjoying an hours-long stupor, sitting in my easy chair, staring at the opposite wall. Having expended any reason I ever had to go on living or thinking, it seemed a reasonable behavior, and besides, at least I could be confident the wall was really there. I could turn away, then look again, and it would still be there. I thought I would start with that.

But then came this, this invasion! “Go away or die!”

“Professor! Come on, McKinney, open up!”

Yes, I thought with a deflating sigh, now let death come. It was Brenda Barnick.

I shattered my own stillness. “You are uninvited, unwelcome, and unliked, so be on your way!”

“Well kiss my—!”

I won’t repeat it, but she did say it, and having heard it, I couldn’t let it go. I bolted from my chair, crossed the room, and opened the door to the defiant tattooist. She was leaning on my doorpost, unruffled—save for her dreadlocks. They were always that way.

“I’m sure this isn’t a social call,” I said.

She thought a moment, then conceded, “No, I guess not.”

“Then state your business.”

She arched her eyebrows and asked, “Where’s Andi?”

Andi Goldstein, my young assistant, still remained in my employ despite my exile from the world. Every other morning I would slip a grocery and errand list under the door. That evening, I would retrieve groceries, mail, laundry, whatever was on the list, from the front walk, and all without a word or disturbance. “At this precise time, I wouldn’t know.”

Barnick waved some lists in my face, about a week’s worth. “And you haven’t seen her in a while, have you?”

I took the lists from her. Had Andi missed that many days? I was getting low on milk and whole-grain bread; since most of the mail was junk I hadn’t fretted over that. The days all ran together. “No, I haven’t seen her.”

Barnick searched the sky with wide, rolling eyes and asked, “So don’t that bother you?”

“It most certainly does. I’ll have to have a word with her.”

While the forsaken lists diverted my attention—yes, I’d listed dish soap and mouthwash and now, come to think of it, I’d run out—Barnick slipped past me and into my living room, waving her arms with agitation. “Man, what is up with you?”

I stood aghast at the trespass, and had it been anyone else I suppose I would have taken action—which in itself surprised me. Of all people, I was extending grace toward Barnick? It couldn’t be for her coarse manners; perhaps it was for the reliability of her gift. “You have to ask? You’re the one who drew the picture. Remember? Cardinal Hartmann’s chair?”

She remembered, all right. She was still carrying that drawing in her back pocket like unfinished business, and as she pulled it out and unfolded it, it still spoke the truth. She’d drawn a blue velvet armchair with peeling gold paint on the arms, but the main point of the drawing was that the chair was empty. She looked at it, then at me, and as I expected, she knew. “He was never there.”

“Exactly.” I’d been over and over our hapless venture into the Vatican for our supposed meeting with my oldest and dearest friend, and every revisit brought the same pain, the same anger. We’d all been had. To offer my evidence, I went to my desk and brought back the note handed to me by Hartmann’s withered little assistant. “You’ve been wanting to see this.”

She took it from my hand. Though she read silently, I could discern her reaction to each little phrase because I had it memorized: Dear Dr. McKinney: I regret that I cannot be present. You are to give the spear to my assistant. Many thanks to you and your team for a job well done. Cardinal Hartmann.

She looked up at me, and I could see the dots connecting. “Hartmann didn’t write this.”

“Cardinal Justus Hartmann was my mentor, my wisdom, the only man who stood by me during my personal Inquisition and the only man I ever fully trusted. I came to address him as Cardinal Justus, or Justus, he came to address me as James, and in any correspondence he ever sent me, he addressed me as James and signed it Justus.”

“It’s a kiss-off!” she exclaimed. “Thanks, good-bye, don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

“Which never could have happened with my old friend unless he were dead . . . and someone used my adoration for the man against me, against all of us.”

“Oh man. Ohhh man . . .” I could see the downward spiral in her eyes, the falling of the dominoes as she sank into a chair at the table. “All that trouble we went to . . .” She evoked the sacredness of manure and looked to me for help.

But what could I give her other than the truth? “We were talking to a holographic image projected from—where? The other universe we bought into? The skinny old assistant was from that other universe; you could tell by the shifting color of his eyes, the same as we saw with Helsa, the Girl.” Nausea took hold of me, and I sank into a chair, as well. “Which means the scroll went full circle. It was brought to us by the Girl, and of course it needed translating, as every mysterious scroll does, so haplessly, naïvely, we—that is, I—brought it to a phony Hartmann and his assistant, both from the same other universe, which means we brought it to the same people who sent it in the first place. It was a scam to rope us in. The Vatican was never expecting us. We were never invited to a real meeting with real people and had no real appointment scheduled. If I’d stopped all my blustering and listened to the receptionist, he would have been able to tell us there was no Cardinal Hartmann because Hartmann was no longer living. It’s all to my shame.”

“So that’s why security bounced us out of there.”

I could feel the bitterness in my soul; I could taste it in my mouth. “Because, without permission or appointment, we sneaked our way up to that meeting . . . guided entirely by young Daniel.”

Yes, her turn of mood was expected. “Hey, now wait a minute.”

“Daniel Petrovski, a lad with supernatural insight, who freely communicates with unseen people, be they angels or denizens of another universe . . . knew exactly where to take us—twice!—and yet, strangely enough, had no clue that the whole thing was a fraud, that we were being deceived.”

“That is not fair!”

“I’ve had time to think about it. Once you’ve taken the time—”

“Daniel wouldn’t do that!”

She was raising her voice. I determined not to raise mine, though I couldn’t help the steely tone. “Daniel was working for them.”

She was getting too uncomfortable to remain seated. “I ain’t listening to this!”

“The puppeteer operating that hologram already knew where the spear was: ‘The feast is in the kitchen.’ All these multi-universe charlatans needed was someone to do their dirty work. So they concocted a scroll to convince us we were a team, and now, thanks to us, they have the spear to do with as they will.”

She glared at me, which, I suppose, was all she could do.

I could feel the twisting of my viscera, the pain and chagrin as I made my confession. “I trusted. I believed. That was my fatal error. And that, Ms. Barnick, is ‘what’s up with ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• Selected Books by Frank Peretti