Avatara

The thing coming towards them out from the dark into the light loomed large. It breathed heavily. Brian thought of Spector as the leader of Sheldrake enterprises since the death of Byron Grimm, the former director. That's what the reports he obtained on Sheldrake had doc.u.mented. But now Spector made him accountable to something else. Something terrifying. Even the mercenaries stepped back as it came forward. As it emerged into the light, Brian caught his own breath in terror, unable to move. Facing the most horrible being he'd ever seen. More frightful than his worst imaginations.

"Heerrrerrrrrrr," it breathed in a hiss.

With rotting flesh as skin, it stunk. But from the top, Brian saw a half open skull, at the forehead, on the right side with exposed brain tissue. The brain wiggled like jelly as it walked forward. By its miscalculation, it exposed its red bulging eyes directly to the light.

"Arrrrrggggh." Turning its head left, in pain, revealed, the right side of the skull was missing right down to the level of the cheekbone. Its right ear hung off, like it could completely fall of its head at any moment. The right half of its face sagged like falling curtain. Skin meant to be round its eyes had fallen to the level of its cheek. The left side of the face and skull were complete but had a metallic device hammered into the top of the forehead. A small diode in it, flashed a green light. In its left hand it carried a gun, at the end of a metallic arm.

"Lord Grimm, please take it easy," said Spector. "If you exert yourself the host body will collapse completely."

This reception jolted Brian completely. Grimm actually being alive, flipped the script for him. The investigations after Grimm's death revealed that the supposed strong man was a malignant, psychopathic, despot, with a consummate d.e.s.i.r.e to dominate and kill. Our department was wrong, he thought. Sheldrake remained a most dangerous threat, Byron Grimm is alive and deadly.

"How many times have I told you," hissed Grimm. "My name is Knightmare-Grimm."

Knightmare-Grimm's appearance differed from the avatara form he was last seen in. The real body form he had now, made from the body parts of a deceased human welded with mechanic parts, had a Frankenstein nature about it. Almost too horrible to describe, internal organs hung wide open and exposed at the torso, only held back by metallic plates which formed a scaffold around the body. These organic parts pulsed with material going through them, the parts covered by skin looked like the weak parts of a tent, stretched and thin, ready to fall apart. The skin colour, grey and rotting, looking more like the colour sheepskin that has been soaked in hot water for several hours. He looked like a monstrosity; an abomination.

"You failed to collect Grace?" he croaked. The voice box of the original host clearly damaged in the reappropriation of it as part of a half-dead cyborg. He had the voice of someone forced to speak via a hole in their throat, because of getting cancer from smoking too much.

"Yes, my Lord," said Spector. "Mr Burnside, failed in his mission to bring her here."

Knightmare-Grimm twisted his head slowly towards Brian's direction. "Who are you?" he said.

"I'm Brian Burnside," said Brian, still trembling with fear, part of him probably wishing he could escape his real body somehow.

"Spector, I did not hire this man, who is he?"

"He's a police officer my Lord," replied Spector.

"Hmmm," Grimm grunted. "A police officer." He staggered slightly and leaned on a beam for support.

"My Lord!" said Spector.

"Stay back," said Grimm. "I know what my problems are."

Spector appeared puzzled. Perhaps, he thought Grimm would punish Mr Burnside severely. Yet his master did not seem angry with him.

"I overheard you met Grace's mother?" said Grimm.

"Yes I did, my Lord," said Spector.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know," said Spector.

"Didn't you have her followed?"

"I did at first but we lost two men to Suno Sadayuki's henchmen. I considered that bad luck and I thought it best to leave her out of this my Lord. She is not involved in any of this and I believe innocent bystanders, should not be hurt as part of my plans."

"What?" said Grimm.

"I just thought she was a pleasant lady, and I didn't want to make this all more complicated than it needs to be. It's just not efficient to--."

An accurate shot. Spector though light in frame, met the ground of the room with a heavy thud. His bulbous head smacking the floor with force, the sound of the impact like an egg cracking open. The bullet had gone straight through his red visor and right eyeball. He lay there, flat out with little resistance. His left leg twitched a few times and then stopped moving.

Brian Burnside's mouth hung open, aghast with the gradual acceptance, letting it sink in, that Rylan Spector, the director of Sheldrake Enterprises died, right in front of him.

"It appears Rylan Spector has been suitably taken care of," said Knightmare-Grimm. What scared Brian Burnside the most is that he expressed no emotion when he said this.

Two of the mercenaries, who flanked Spector on his entrance to the room, stepped forward to inspect his body. Inspection being a strong word, they actually picked at it in the way that hyenas would do when scavenging a dead carcass.

"Take him away for incineration," said Knightmare-Grimm. "But keep his brain and have it frozen. I could find a use for it."