Out of Nowhere by Gerard Whelan

pistol.
    ‘Take this,’ he said. ‘It’s easier to carry than a shotgun. There’s not much of a punch to it, but if you shoot anything with it they’ll know that they’re hit.’
    Stephen stared at the wicked-looking little gun. It was only a baby thing compared with the big pistol Philip carried, but it was a real gun nonetheless. So, Philip had two pistols – at least two pistols. It was very strange that he should have one; that he should have more was positively bizarre.
    He looked up again into Philip’s face. The monk was watching his reaction carefully. Stephen badly wanted to know what was going through his mind, but there was no way to tell. He took the proffered weapon.
    ‘We’ll find most of what we need either in the supermarket or in the cash and carry,’ Philip said. ‘We should do those together. We can pick up the fuel we need from the petrol station on the way back. But there’s a hardware shop around the corner where I need to get some things. So I’d like you and Fräulein Herzenweg to do a job for Paul while I do that.’
    ‘Of course. What is it?’
    ‘I want you and the Fräulein to go to the library.’
    Stephen blinked at him in disbelief. The library ? A Viking raid for library books ?
    Philip pointed at a venerable-looking building that took up one side of the square.
    ‘In there,’ he said. ‘Up the stairs. You can’t miss it.’
    ‘But–’
    Philip held his hands up in front of him.
    ‘Don’t blame me,’ he said. ‘It’s Paul’s idea. He’s a great man for books, is Paul. He asked me specifically to get you two to do the job. Maybe he thinks it’s the safest place for you – I don’t think Paul believes anything dangerous can happen in a library.’
    Stephen was still looking at him in disbelief.
    ‘There are two black plastic bags under your seat in the truck,’ Philip said. ‘You take them in, and you fill them with books – a selection. It’s very straightforward.’
    Stephen shrugged. The idea seemed daft, but to tell the truth he quite fancied the idea of being in a place where nothing dangerous could happen. Or at least of keeping Kirsten in a place like that.
    ‘Whatever you say,’ he said.
    Philip looked at him, considering. Suddenly he lowered his voice and spoke urgently, finally showing his masked unease nakedly.
    ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘That body back there.’
    Stephen had been trying not to think about that body. Here in this very ordinary town – even if it was deserted – dead bodies seemed a long way away.
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘It wasn’t … right .’
    Stephen wasn’t sure what he meant. The body had been murdered, of course that wasn’t right.
    ‘In what way, not right? ’
    ‘It was all cut up, stabbed and slashed. But there was no blood.’
    ‘No blood?’
    ‘Not a drop.’
    ‘You mean something had drained it all out?’
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe it was hacked about after it was dead – you don’t bleed when you’re dead. But even then there’d be something , some stain or something. But there was nothing . You’d have got more blood out of a tailor’s dummy.’
    ‘But isn’t that weird?’
    ‘ Weird ? It’s impossible! But that’s how it was.’
    ‘What could it mean?’ Stephen asked.
    ‘All I can think of,’ Philip said, ‘is that the body wasn’t human. It was … something else.’
    Stephen stared at him blankly.
    ‘Something else?’
    ‘Don’t ask me what, because I don’t know. But between thelack of blood and the way it just disappeared … I can’t believe it was human at all.’
    ‘But what was it then?’
    Philip snorted. ‘If I knew that,’ he said, ‘I’d be a happier man.’
    Stephen looked down at the little silver gun. It wasn’t a toy, he reminded himself, even though it looked like one. He was frightened of the unknown threat now abroad in the world, but he was almost more frightened of the gun. Then he thought of Kirsten. He couldn’t leave her undefended because of his