Hellboy: Unnatural Selection(57)

Hellboy drifted, but he did not sleep. Every few minutes he woke up and glanced out the window, expecting to see little green men working on the wing joints with wrenches, or great beasts flying out of myth and memory to bring the jet down. Beside him Liz slept fitfully, frowning and mumbling her way through unknowable dreams. At one point light blue flames played across her eyelashes like Saint Elmo's fire, and Hellboy held his hand above her face and smoothed the flames away.



* * *



Later Hellboy slept, and he dreamed of the Lear jet's crew turning into ghosts and melting away, leaving him and Liz to wait until the fuel ran out. He dreamed of Liz erupting into flames beside him, a long-feared self-immolation that seared away everything he knew and loved and left her reborn, more of a mystery than ever. He dreamed of Abe, off on his own and so vulnerable, and Abby Paris, a werewolf the BPRD had tried to tame but who was untamable. He woke up and opened his eyes, and his right hand had twisted itself into something unknown, blood-red and ready to fulfill whatever destiny Hellboy knew he must have been born for. But then he woke again and sat up, startling the copilot, who had come back from the cabin to say that they were beginning their descent. Hellboy nodded his thanks, turned to Liz, and watched her sleep. She seemed more at peace now — no flames on her face, no twitching and mumbling — and as the Lear dropped slowly out of the sky, Hellboy wondered whether anyone ever truly woke up.

They broke through the cloud cover over southern England and began their approach into Heathrow, and Tom called to tell Hellboy the world was at war.



* * *





PART TWO



New Memories





Statement broadcast by major TV and radio networks across the globe — 1997



"MY NAME IS PROFESSOR Benedict Blake.

"I am a man whom many will grow to hate, but everything I do and have done is out of love. I want to tell you that now, because for the next few days that may be difficult to believe. Years down the road perceptions may change, but now ... all I can say is that love is harsh, and it consumes. And more than anything, it demands sacrifice.

"The love I feel will be familiar to many: love for my dead wife; love for my sons, for whom all I want is a better world; and an endless love for the world I live in. Its multifarious wildlife, its varied geography, the smell of a rainforest after a storm, and the feel of desert sand between my toes. Many people love our world, and as individuals they worship it and call it home. But as groups — as a species — that love is beaten down by money and a desire for betterment. Call me cynical if you may; I've been called worse.

"You may feel that I have been bent out of shape — that what I have started here is madness — but sometimes harsh measures are necessary to protect those you love. I have been planning this for a long, long time.

"I am a scientist and a magician. Many of you will laugh at that or fail to understand, either because you do not believe that the two can be one or because you do not believe in magic. That does not concern me, as what I am doing requires no faith but my own. I do not ask for your faith. I do not ask for your understanding or even your blessing. Consider this an education.

"Twenty-five years ago I was wronged by people I trusted, shunned by fellow scientists, and my family was destroyed by murderers sent by my own government. My wife was killed, our home burned down, and my sons and I were forced to flee for our lives. I was blamed for their deaths, and in my absence — and without my being able to defend myself — my name was made dirt. My wife was buried without my being there, and only once have I visited her grave. She is a memory now, nothing more, though the memory is a rich and vibrant place indeed. My sons and I have been in hiding ever since. I suspect most people believed that I was dead as well. More fools they.

"Few recognized the warnings I gave, and yet now many have come true. Humankind is destroying the world. I predicted this, I foresaw the dirtying of the atmosphere and the poisoning of the seas, the death of crops and the spread of disease. Nobody appreciated the powers I had fashioned within myself — born of a melding of pure science and pure magic, the unsullied potential of nature realized at last — and yet the fear I instilled in people is still there.

"It is time for that fear to be turned back upon the world. It is time for me to take action, where governments have not.

"In recent days the world has seen its purest and most natural inhabitants return to their rightful homes. I brought them here, and soon I will introduce more. The world is about to change. I am proud to be the originator of the glorious new age that will arise, an age where myth again becomes reality, and the earth itself will be renewed and refreshed by its new inhabitants and rulers. These are creatures that love their home. A dragon will not dump toxic waste in deep caves. A troll will never rape the land of oil and minerals. A rukh will respect the air, not pollute it.