Phantoms

by Dean Koontz

If he was seeing what he thought he was seeing, the thing at the window was a moth as large as an eagle. Which was madness.

My dear Mr. Sandler, the competiton among power-mad politicians and the Machiavellian backstabbing of junior executives in a major corporation are as nothing, in terms of ruthlessness and spitefulness, when compared to the behavior of academic types who suddenly see an opportunity to climb the university ladder at the expense of one of their own. They spread rumors without foundation, scandalous tripe about my sexual preferences, suggestions of intimate fraternization with my female

students. And with my male students, for that matter. None of those slanders was openly discussed in a forum where I could refute them. Just rumors. Whispered behind the back. Poisonous. More openly, they made polite suggestions of incompetence, overwork, mental fatigue. I was eased out, you see; that’s how they thought of it, though there was nothing easy about it from my point of view. Eighteen months after the publication of The Ancient Enemy, I was gone. And no other university would have me, ostensibly because of my unsavory reputation.

The true reason, of course, was that my theories were too bizarre for academic tastes. I stood accused of attempting to make a fortune by pandering to the common man’s taste for pseudoscie...

History is filled with mysterious mass disappearances for which historians and archaeologists can provide no viable explanation.”

December 10, 1939,” Flyte said, “outside the hills of Nanking, an army of three thousand Chinese soldiers, on its way to the front lines to fight the Japanese, simply

vanished without a trace before it got anywhere near the battle. Not a single body was ever found. Not one grave. Not one witness. The Japanese military historians have never found any record of having dealt with that particular Chinese force. In the countryside through which the missing soldiers passed, no peasants heard gunfire or other indications of conflict. An army evaporated into thin air. And in 1711, during the Spanish War of Succession, four thousand troops set out on an expedition into the Pyrenees. Every last man disappeared on familiar

and friendly ground, before the first night’s camp ...

On a grander scale,” the professor continued, “consider the great Mayan cities of Copán, Piedras Negras, Palenque, Menché, Seibal, and several others which were abandoned overnight. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of

Mayans left their homes, approximately in A.D. 610, perhaps within a single week, even within one day. Some appear to have fled northward, to establish new cities, but there is evidence that countless thousands just disappeared. All within a shockingly brief span of time. They didn’t bother to take many of their pots, tools, cooking utensils . . . My learned colleagues say the land around those Mayan cities became infertile, thus making it essential that the people move north, where the land would be more productive. But if this great exodus was planned,

why were belongings left behind? Why was precious seed corn left behind? Why didn’t a single survivor ever return to loot those c...

Emigrants don’t set out on long, arduous journeys without preparation, without taking every tool that might assist them. Besides, in some of the homes in Piedras Negras and Seibal, there is evidence that families departed after preparing elaborate dinners—but before...

sudden. No current theories adequately answer these questions—except mine, bizarre as it is, odd as...

I was accused of trying to explain every mysterious disappearance from the Mayans to Judge Crater and Amelia Earhart, all with a single theory. That was most unfair. I never mentioned the judge or the luckless aviatrix. I

am interested only in unexplained mass disappearances of both humankind and animals, of which there have been literally hundreds throughout history.”

Sandler said, “If subsequent to the publication of your book, there had been a new, startling mass disappearance,

it would have lent considerable credibility—” “Ah,” Flyte interrupted, tapping the table emphatically with one stiff finger, “but there have been such disappearances!” “But surely they would have been splashed all over the front page—” “I am aware of two instances. There may be others,” Flyte insisted. “One of them involved the disappearance of masses of lower lifeforms—specifically, fish. It was remarked on in the press, but not with any great interest.

Politics, murder, sex, and two-headed goats are the only things newspapers care to report about. You have to read scientific journals to know what’s really happening. That’s how I know that, eight years ago, marine biologists noted a dramatic decrease in fish population in one region of the Pacific. Indeed, the numbers of some species had been cut in half. Within certain scientific circles, there was panic at first, some fear that ocean temperatures mig...

be the case. Gradually, sea life in that area—which covered hundreds of square miles—replenished itself. In the end no one could explain what had happened to the millions...

Pollution,” Sandler suggested, between alternating sips of orange juice and champagne. Dabbing marmalade on a piece of croissant, Flyte said, “No, no, no. No, sir. It would have required the most massive case of water pollution in history to...

accident on that scale could not go unnoticed. But there were no accidents, no oil spills—nothing. Indeed, a mere oil spill could not have accounted for it; the affected region and the volume of water was too vast for that. And dead fish did n...

You said you were aware of two mass disappearances since the publication of your book,” Sandler said,

The other was in Africa in 1980. Between three and four thousand primitive tribesmen—men, women, and children—vanished from a relatively remote area of central Africa. Their villages were found empty; they had abandoned all their possessions, including large stores of food. They seemed to have just run off into the bush. The only signs of violence were a few broken pieces of pottery. Of course, mass disappearances in that part of the world are dismayingly more frequent than they once

were, primarily due to political violence. Indeed, back in those bad old days, Cuban mercenaries, operating with Soviet weaponry, had been assisting in the liquidation of whole tribes that were unwilling to put their ethnic identities second to the revolutionary purpose. But when entire villages are slaughtered for political purposes, they are always looted, then burned, and the bodies are always interred in mass graves. There was no looti...

inexplicable decrease in the wildlife population. No one connected it to the missing villagers; it was reported as a separate phenomenon.” “But you know differently.” “Well, I suspect differently,” Flyte said, putting strawberry jam on a last bit of croissant. “Most of these disappearances seem to occur in remote areas,” Sandler said. “Which makes verification difficult.” “Yes. Th...

the largest part of the earth. The sea can be as remote as the moon, and much of what takes place beneath the waves is beyond our notice. Yet don’t forget the two armies I mentioned—the Chinese and Spanish. Those disappearances took place within the context of modern civilization. And if tens of thousands of Mayans fell victim to the ancient enemy whose existence I’ve theorized, then that was a case in which entire cit...

No question about it!” “—in a place like New York or even here in London?” “Certainly! It could happen virtually anywhere that has the geologic...

HOUK. “It’s much too early to tell anything for certain, but it seems as if we could be dealing with a neuroleptic toxin. And there are some things about this—most

So what’s this T-139?” “One of the primary nerve gases in the Russian arsenal,” the general said. “The full moniker is Timoshenko-139. It’s named after Ilya Timoshenko, the scientist who developed it.”

Most nerve gases cause death within thirty seconds to five minutes after skin contact,” Houk said. “But T-139 isn’t that merciful.” “Merciful!” Frank Autry said, appalled. “T-139 isn’t just a killer,” Houk said. “That would be merciful by comparison. T-139 is what military strategists call a demoralizer.” Copperfield said, “It passes through the skin and enters the bloodstream in ten seconds or less, then migrates to the

brain and almost instantly causes irreparable damage to cerebral tissues.” Houk said, “For a period of about four to six hours, the victim retains full use of his limbs and a hundred percent of his normal strength. At first, it’s only his mind that suffers.” “Dementia paranoides,” Copperfield said. “Intellectual confusion, fear, rage, loss of emotional control, and a very strongly held feeling that everyone is plotting against him. This is combined with a fierce compulsion to commit

violent acts. In essence, Sheriff, T-139 turns people into mindless killing machines for four to six hours. They prey on one another and on unaffected people outside the area of the gas attack. You can see what an...

T-139 isn’t a disease,” Houk said quickly. “It’s a nerve gas. And if I had my choice, I’d rather this was a nerve gas attack. Once gas has dissipated, the threat is over. A biological threat is considerably harder to contain.” “If it was gas,” Copperfield said, “it’ll have dissipated long ago, but there’ll be traces of it on almost everything. Condensative residue. We’ll be able to identify it in no time at all.”

Jenny said, “Dr. Houk, in regards to this T-139, you mentioned that the ambulatory stage lasts four to six hours. Then what?” “Well,” Houk said, “the second stage is the terminal stage, too. It lasts anywhere from six to twelve hours. It begins with the deterioration of the efferent nerves and escalates to paralysis of the cardiac, vasomotor, and respiratory reflex centers in the brain.”

Jenny said, “It means that during the second stage of the illness, over a period of six to twelve hours, T-139 gradually reduces the brain’s ability to regulate the automatic functions of the body—such as breathing, heartbeat, blood vessel dilation, organ function. . . The victim starts experiencing an irregular heartbeat, extreme difficulty in breathing, and the gradual collapse of every gland and organ. Twelve hours might not seem gradual to you, but it would seem like an eternity to the victim. There would be vomiting, diarrhea, uncontrollable urination, continuous

and violent muscle spasms. . . And if only the efferent nerves were damaged, if the rest of the nervous system remained intact, there would be excruciating, unrelenting pain.” “Six to twelve hours of hell,” Copperfield confirmed. “Until the heart stops,” Houk said, “or until the victim simply stops breathing and suffocates.”

Finally, Jenny said, “I still don’t think a nerve gas could’ve played any part in this, not even something like T-139 that would explain these beheadings. For one thing, none of the victims we found showed any signs of vomiting or incontinence.” “Well,” Copperfield said, “we could be dealing with a derivative of T-139 that doesn’t produce those symptoms. Or some other gas.” “No gas can explain the moth,” Tal Whitman said. “Or what happened to Stu Wargle,” Frank said.

As scientists, they were supposed to be receptive to new ideas and unexpected possibilities. Instead, they appeared determined to force the evidence to conform to their preconceived notions of what they would find in Snowfield.

Didn’t the first British colony in America vanish without a trace?” “Yes. The Roanoke Island colony.” “Be sure to mention it.” “But I can’t say conclusively that the disappearance of the Roanoke colony is connected with the ancient enemy.” “Is there any chance whatsoever that it might’ve been?” Fascinated, as always, by this subject, Timothy was able, for the first time, to wrench his mind away from the suicidal behavior of the cabdriver. “When a British

expedition, funded by Sir Walter Raleigh, returned to the Roanoke colony in March of 1590, they found everyone gone. One hundred and twenty people had vanished without a trace. Countless theories have been advanced regarding their fate. For example, the most popular theory holds that the people at Roanoke Island fell victim to the Croatoan Indians, who lived nearby. The only message left by the colonists was the name of that tribe, hastily slashed into the bark of a tree. But the Croatoans professed to know nothing about the disappearance. And they were

peaceful Indians. Not the least bit warlike. Indeed, they had initially helped the colonists settle in. Furthermore, there were no signs of violence at the settlement. No bodies were ever found. No bones. No graves. So you see, even the most widely acc...

It occurred to me that the word the colonists had carved into that tree—Croatoan—might not have been intended to point an accusing finger. It might have meant that the Croatoans would know what had happened. I read the journals of several British explorers who later talked with the Croatoans about the colony’s disappearance, and there’s evidence the Indians did, indeed, have some idea of what had happened. Or thought they knew. But they were not taken seriously when they tried to explain to the white man. The Croatoans reported that, simultaneously

with the disappearance of the colonists, there was a great depletion of game in the forests and fields in which the tribe hunted. Virtually all species of wildlife had abruptly dwindled drastically in numbers. A couple of the more perceptive explorers noted in their journals that the Indians regarded the subject with superstitious dread. They seemed to have a religious explanation for the disappearance. But unfortunately, the white men who talked with them about the missing colonists were not

interested in Indian superstitions and did not pursue that avenue of enquiry.” “I gather you’ve researched Croatoan religious beliefs,” Burt Sandler said. “Yes,” Timothy said. “Not an easy subject, for the tribe has been extinct itself for many, many years. What I’ve found is that the Croatoans were spiritualists. They believed that the spirit endured and walked the earth even after the death of t...

wind. earth, fire, water, and so forth. Most important of all—as far as we’re concerned—they also believed in an evil spirit, a source of all evil, an equivalent to the Christians’ Satan. I forget the exact Indian word for it, but it translates roughly as He Who Can Be Anything Yet is Nothing.” “My God,” Sandler said. “That’s not a bad description of the ancient enemy.” “Sometimes there are truths hidden in superstitions....

Yet is Nothing. So . . . while I cannot say conclusively that the ancient enemy had something to do with the disappearance of the Roanoke Islanders, it seems to me s...

Goldstein noted indications of possible suffocation, as well as even more evident signs of severe allergic reaction to an unidentified substance, but he could not fix a cause of death.

Then her attention came to rest on one of the first pathology tests. It was a light microscopy examination of unstained bacteria in a long series of hanging-drop preparations that had been contaminated by tissue and fluid samples from Gary Wechlas’s body; darkfield illumination had been used to identify even the smallest microorganisms. They had been searching for bacteria that were still thriving in the cadaver. What they found was startling.

The print-out continued to list bacteria for which the computer and Dr. Bettenby had searched, all with the same results.

Strange,” Jenny said. Bryce said, “It doesn’t mean a thing to me. Translation?” “Well, you see, a cadaver is an excellent breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria—at least for the short run. This many hours after death, Gary Wechlas’s corpse ought to be teeming with Clostridium welchii, which is associated with gas gangrene.”