Frank Wood vs Robot Monster vs Plan 10 From Outer Space - Chapter Seven

Welrod

Frank Wood pulled up in his silver 1959 Cadillac Cyclone outside the White Horse public house on the outskirts of Harpenden. He popped the domed lid of the car, slid back the door and clambered out. Wood wore a dark blue three button single breasted suit. The trousers were of a fashionable cut and his black suede desert boots were made specially for him by a forward thinking tailor’s off Carnaby Street. A thin black woollen tie adorned his freshly pressed button-collared shirt. His socks were mid-grey and his underwear was hidden from view.

Just down an extremely dark lane that cut through the woods lay the back route to the research station. Instead of checking into a bed and breakfast and beginning the investigation in the morning, his curiosity had been piqued by the ray of light that had shot from the woods towards some indeterminate destination. The wood way would be the way Wood would walk.

Some preparatory map work had informed Wood that the dark lane he stumbled down was bounded on one side by woods and on the other by a field of crops, tested by scientists for the effects of soil acidity, worm-usage and bird beak. The lane went around the field toward Rothamstead. Wood could see in the distance that a light was on in one of the laboratories. Feeling the reassuring shapes of the two components of the Welrod 9mm ‘assassin’s pistol” in the inside pockets of his jacket he resolved to cut across the field.

An indeterminate crop grew waist high as Wood pushed his way through. The night air had a charge about it, of expectation probably but also something electrical. Was it his imagination or was an electronic whining pulse becoming increasingly audible? He was grateful for the light that the full moon gave, illuminating the field almost as if it were day.

What was that? At the edge of the field to Wood’s right someone or some… thing had stepped into the field. It was man-shaped and strode purposefully toward the building Wood was aiming for. He estimated its height to be approximately 6’8” and seemed to be wearing a cloak. Its eyes glowed redly. Wood started fumbling with the parts of his Welrod.