Insequor Read Online Free Page B

took some glasses out of his inside pocket. “About five miles south of here, where we picked you up. The army had us evacuate the area.”
    “What are they going to do?”
    “Stop it,” said Jones, with a sense of finality. “Now, I need you to tell me exactly what you saw so we can get it down whilst it’s still fresh in your head.”
    “Fresh in my head? It walked through my office building. I’m not going to forget that.”
    “But before that,” said Jones, once holding up a soothing palm. “Did you see or hear anything?”
    “No.”
    “What were you doing?”
    “I was at work in the office with everyone else.”
    “And when did you first see it?”
    “I was at my desk when I noticed everyone had gone to the window. It was coming through the car park. Nobody knew what it was. They thought maybe an earthquake.”
    Jones sucked on his pen. Daniel continued, “The fire alarms went off. We went outside and stood there, waiting. And then it just…walked through the building. There’s no other way to describe it.”
    Jones hadn’t been writing; his eyes had barely moved and the pen hung inches from his mouth. “Go on.”
    “Well, when we saw it come through we all ran out of the car park. Everyone was stood in the middle of the road, the traffic had all stopped. I was further down, near the fast food place. Everyone was watching the car park entrance. But it didn’t come out of the entrance. It came through a wall, right near me and kept on walking toward me.”
    There was a sudden influx of phones ringing and shouting. Mobiles, desk phones, radios…everything seemed to go off at once.
    “You sure it was walking toward you? Not someone else, something nearby.”
    “No. It turned. As I ran it turned. Then followed me until I took the car. The last I saw of it was in my rear view mirror.”
    A young curly haired policeman came through the room, stopping at each of the desks and updating people. He got to theirs. “Detective, we have orders to evacuate. It’s heading this way.”
    Jones looked at Daniel. “Thank you.” He stood up, and grabbed his coat. “You’d best come with me.”
    The curly haired officer proceeded to the next desk to despatch the news. “How long have we got, officer?” said Jones.
    The young cop looked back, his eyes a kind of crazy, “About a half hour, sir. But they’ve plotted its course and it’s heading straight here.”
    Jones led Daniel outside to his car; it was a black saloon and looked pretty new. Inside, paperwork and books were scattered across the back seat. He started the engine and drove off, picking up his walkie-talkie with one hand.
    “Control, this is Jones. I’m taking my witness to Langcroft. Will check in, over.”
    The hollow voice at the other end confirmed they understood and Jones switched off the unit. Then he turned on the radio.
    “’…where an army M1 Abrams tank attempted to halt the entity. Reports indicate at this point the creature pushed aside the tank. The tank returned fired at the entity, or robot as some people are now calling it, but it was not damaged; our sources confirm it was a direct hit. Again, I must state the robot has not retaliated in any way. Tom, what are we dealing with here?’
    ‘Well, Sally… –‘”
    Jones switched it off. “Quite a day,” he said, almost casually.
    For a while they drove on; the late sun threatening to abscond behind the mountains. As they headed out of town they noticed a lot of the streets were empty. Cars lay abandoned with their doors wide open and groceries on the floor. But then, equally, some roads had people stood outside their houses talking, looking up to the sky…even carrying shotguns.
    Once they hit the main road Jones seemed to relax, he put his foot down and they coasted along the straight corridor.
    “How close did you get?” he asked.
    “I don’t know,” said Daniel. “I guess maybe ten feet?”
    “You sure it was trying to attack you?”
    “Yes, I’m sure!”