Jim, Ravyn and I stepped from the Shadow into the shadow of the enormous oak tree in the southwestern corner of Jim’s backyard.
The night was dark, since the sliver of the waning moon was obscured by thick, low hanging clouds. It was a quiet, quaint neighborhood of faculty and administrator’s homes for the nearby college. A dog barked in the distance, but not at us.
Jim looked pensive as peered through the night towards his darkened home. “I don’t see any damage.” He was whispering as he leaned forward.
Ravyn nodded, her hands clenching the cuffs of her sweatshirt to keep herself from calling fire out of habit. “I doubt they were worried about the outside of your house, Jim.” She kept her voice to a low whisper as well.
I reached out and touched each of them on the shoulders as I leaned towards them. “I’ll pop inside to get a quick look around. I want you guys to stay here.” I looked directly to Ravyn. “Keep a sharp eye out, but try to burn the neighborhood down, will ya?”
She gave me a withering look before leaning back against the trunk of the tree. “Be careful, Rusty. Let us know as soon as you find anything.”
I nodded and glanced over to Jim. “Do you want my sword again? Just in case?”
He swallowed hard before shaking his head. “No. You keep it. You might need it in there.”
I stepped back and summoned the Shadow.
***
Once in the Shadowland, I took a moment to examine the area for any foes unique to that realm before moving towards Jim’s house.
The only Spirits of note besides Jim and Ravyn were those of an alley cat and the rat it was stalking.
I slipped up to the porch and then through the wall next to the door. The house, like most real world constructions was no more substantial than a shimmering mirage. It was substantial enough to block out my view from outside of anyone or anything that might be hanging out inside, but I passed through the wall like a proverbial ghost.
As I did so, I thought back to the war council that had taken place only a few hours before…
***
“So, it is decided then.” Herne’s voice carried an air of easy authority. “We will send out teams to find surviving ORC’s and associate members and either bring them back here or give them the resources to go to safely into hiding until they are needed.”
Ravyn leveled her gaze at each member of the council before she spoke. “And it has been decided that Herne will be our Commander in this struggle. He’ll be in charge as far as security goes in this facility. The Frau will serve as Steward, handling the daily operations and directing. Jim will remain as Treasurer, handling all of our finances. Alana will be our Spokesperson and handle our computer network. I’m sure that each of these folks will have our unconditional support and assistance, however it is needed.”
“I appreciate the honor.” Herne nodded towards Ravyn as he spoke. “I still think that Ravyn should have accepted the mantle of overall leader, but I understand her reasons for not doing so.”
Ravyn had rejected all titles or positions of authority that the group had wanted to bestow on her, stating that for her this struggle was now far too personal. She had argued that the only true leader of the ORC’s was Alexa, when she was ready for that position and that the Frau would be a far better Steward than she would ever be. No one had been able to persuade her otherwise. Instead, she insisted that her skills would be better used in the classroom to teach the younger ORC’s how to use their powers more offensively and on the battlefield, when needed.
Herne looked from Ravyn to me. “Now that this essential business of leadership has been resolved, we have some additional business. Rusty, I believe that you had something you wanted to tell us about this facility and how it came to exist?”
I stepped forward and told the tale of how Drake and John Red Bear had been secret allies for decades. I also explained how this facility had been a Cold War relic that had become more or less obsolete after the fall of the Berlin Wall and had been mothballed by the military. John had come to learn of the now abandoned facility in what was considered the sacred lands of the Black Hills of South Dakota and that it was safely tucked away in a little visited area of a National Forest Park. He had known that Drake was looking for a safe haven in the United States. Working together with Zulu and through the Bureau, Drake had managed to have the deed to the facility transferred first over to the Department of Justice and then the Bureau and finally was handed over to Drake personally as the Director of the Omega Project. It was then made to disappear from all government records by careful redaction and deletion over a period of many years. Drake had assured me that there was no known remaining reference to this facility ever having existed.
The faces of John’s closest friends among the ORC’s showed the same sense of betrayal and sadness that I had felt.
Ravyn’s eyes glowed with anger, her jaw set as she clenched her teeth. “How did John fool all of us for so long?”
The Frau’s face showed more concern than anger. “If Drake and John were allies all this time, why did John allow himself to be killed by Drake’s servant in Miami?”
Anger flashed in Cerrydwen’s eyes, her voice quivered with rage. “Why? Why the ruse?” She threw her hands up in anger. “I don’t know. There are too many unknowns here. I don’t know that we can really trust this place for too long.”
I held up my hand to the group. “Look, I know how difficult this news is. It has taken me awhile to come to terms with it myself. I didn’t believe any of this until I spoke with John himself. He confirmed Drake’s tale, for the most part, and provided additional details that Drake wasn’t aware of. John had his reservations about the way Drake went about creating me. He honestly cared about each of you and the work that you all did as ORC members. His biggest regret was that he couldn’t be fully honest with any of us.” I looked directly at the Frau. Her question needed a direct answer. “As to why John allowed himself to be killed as part of this whole charade, he freelanced that without Drake’s knowledge. John did that place himself fully within the Spirit World and to work with secret allies that even Drake didn’t know existed at the time.” I looked down to the floor as I shuffled a boot over the hard stone of the floor. “I can’t say that I agree with John that it needed to be done that way, but after meeting with him this last time, I can understand why he did what he did. Ravyn, Zenny, did you guys find a set of ten or so matched pendants in the vault?”
Zenny nodded. “Yes, we did. I could tell that they were items of power, but they resisted my attempts to discover what they do.”
“I’m not surprised. Those amulets are tied in with a very powerful obelisk that is located on the summit of the mountain that this facility is located inside of, but the obelisk itself can only be seen in the Shadowland. It is an ancient artifact that controls who and what can travel through the Shadowland in this area. Those pendants give their bearers the ability to use a special transportation chamber that is hidden inside this facility. I can show you guys how to use them so that we can get people in and out of here without being seen. The obelisk prevents anyone who doesn’t have one of these charms from using the Shadowland to come anywhere near here.”
Herne’s eyes narrowed. “So how did you open a portal inside, Rusty?”
I reached inside my shirt and pulled out my amulet. “Drake retrieved one of these when he took control of my body. He also spent considerable time in getting this place ready to receive us. That’s why the food is all fresh and the technology is as current as it is.”
***
There was a chaotic energy swirling throughout that was immediately noticeable as I entered Jim’s house through the Shadowland. I flexed my hands, dropping my batons down into my palms as I looked about at the disarray of the items in the house. Summoning the Shadow again, I slipped back into the real world to get a better look around.
Whoever had been here had spent a lot of time tearing the place up. Every bookshelf had been toppled. Every drawer and cupboard had been opened and emptied. The place was a disaster zone. I stood stock still as I listened for any sounds of life or other trouble, but I heard nothing.
I walked to the door and pulled it open, pushing debris with it as I did so. I waved an arm towards Ravyn and Jim before heading towards the stairwell that led upstairs where Kenny usually slept in the guest room.
I intended to slowly move up the stairs, but the shadow of a prone body lay stretched across the threshold to the second floor. I pounded up the stairs with a reckless abandon. “Kenny!”
Ravyn and Jim were just coming in the back door as I reached the top and saw that the body was not that of Kenny, but was instead the decaying form of what might have been a doppelganger. A small voice called out from the guest room. “Is that you, Dad?”
“Kenny! Are you alright?” I stepped over the corpse, noting that it was wearing the uniform of a local cop.
Kenny emerged from the shadows clutching a small, silver handgun. It was pointed in my direction, but not with any kind of conviction. “Dad!” He brought the gun down to his side and moved towards me. “I had to do it. I had to shot that guy! They were trying to take me away!”
I held him in my arms, trying to soothe him. “It’s OK, Kenny. I’m glad you shot him, he wasn’t a real cop. It was a creature that would have killed or hurt you.”
He was shaking as I held him, sobbing.
I heard Jim cursing down below as he began to survey the damage done to his home.
Ravyn eased her way up the steps to join us. “Kenny, do you have anything that you need to collect? We can’t wait around long. We’ll take you to your mom and your sister. They’re both OK.”
Kenny nodded as he disengaged from me. He looked down at the gun in his right hand as he wiped away tears and snot with his left hand. “Jazz gave me this gun, Dad. It was one of the guns in your old collection. She told me that I should carry it with me and that she had done something to the bullets so that they could hurt some of the creatures you had been fighting.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “That was good thinking on her part. I’m not a big fan of guns, but I’m glad you had it when it was needed. Let’s get your things and get out of here.”
Jim was still cursing when the three of came down to collect him. He looked up from the debris field near his desk as we entered the office area. He shook his fist at the sky and called out in his best Foghorn Leghorn voice. “This…I say…this means war!”
Showing posts with label Zenny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zenny. Show all posts
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
Starting over...
…is never easy.
The band of ORC’s that arrived in the Bat Cave was a tired, wounded, ragged bunch of shell-shocked survivors. The assault by El Diablito’s forces and An’girasii allies had come as a total surprise. Every ORC safe house, stronghold and academy across the United States had been hit in some way on the same night. All told, hundreds ORC members and students had been slain; dozens more were badly injured or missing.
By the time the final tally of escapees and survivors was taken—several days later—fewer than three hundred full fledged members and associates of the ORC’s survived that deadly night. The last census prior to that deadly night had put the membership rolls at just over a thousand members and associates. Forty of those survivors came with me to the Bat Cave.
After a close inspection by Cerrydwen, Ravyn or myself, I created a portal of Shadow that established a link between El Diablito’s dark tower in the Shadowland and another place of relative darkness—the entrance hall to the Bat Cave.
The hall was actually a natural cavern that had been worked on and expanded extensively by the military in the early part of the Cold War. The hall was easily wide and smooth enough for two vans to pass in opposite directions and long enough to hold a whole caravan of vehicles—in fact several aging but otherwise non-descript vehicles were parked along one of the walls facing the opposite direction. They were facing a set of heavy metal blast doors that opened to the outside world. I knew from Drake though that those doors were concealed from casual observation by what appeared to be a storage facility for salt for local highways.
Looking ahead, our way into the Bat Cave itself was barred by a smaller, but equally formidable set of steel doors that were secured both by lock and key and by a combination key pad set bear the handle of the left door.
Between the keys Drake had sent to Ravyn and the combination codes that I had memorized, we were able to open the doors to the incredible refuge that Drake and John Red Bear had secretly spent nearly four decades creating.
Beyond that sealed door was a decommissioned underground military base that was easily large enough to house several hundred people. The facility was comprised of several sections. It was also fully stocked with food and water. But the true bounty of the Bat Cave was found deep inside, beyond the living quarters. The Command Center was a fully operational, if slightly outdated control room full of computers and communications equipment. The Inner Sanctum was even more amazing as it included a vault that held the hundreds of weapons and other items of power that Drake had taken or acquired through his existence.
The Frau, Ravyn and Herne quickly took control of situation.
The Frau immediately drafted most of the able-bodied folks and began to set up a sick ward in one of the larger rooms in the dormitory part of the complex. She gently clucked out her orders to those that could carry them out while she coddled those who were still too shocked to act independently just yet. Moira, though wounded herself, helped out.
Ravyn, Cerrydwen and Zenny Al Farhan had set up shop inside the vault as they began to identify and catalog the surprising large cache of weapons and items that Drake had amassed.
Herne, the Professor, and the pretty gal from the San Diego Circle, Alana Danae, began the process of firing up the computers and communications equipment in the Command Center. Between Herne’s intimate knowledge of the military, the Professor’s computer tech skills and Alana’s expertise in software and network systems, they had the place humming to life in no time.
As everyone else set down to the task of getting the Bat Cave up and running, I finally had time to search out my ex-wife Katherine and our daughter, Jasmine. Katherine was sporting an improvised sling for her left arm, which had been broken in the initial struggle at the Coop, but she was still one of the people helping the Frau to tend to others. Jasmine appeared to be physically unharmed, but her nerves had been badly shaken.
I had come up from behind Jasmine and touched her gently on the shoulder. “Jazz, are you alright?”
She flinched at my touch, but whirled around for a fierce hug when she heard my voice. “Dad!” She was sobbing. “I was so scared!”
“I know, honey. I wish you never had to experience that.” I put my hand on the bottom of her chin to get her to look into my eyes. “Did anyone hurt you?”
She swallowed hard, her gaze glazing over as she looked through me rather than at me. “I…I…think I killed someone, Dad, with my…my…magick.”
“Was it someone who was trying to harm you?”
She nodded. “One of those shape-shifter things grabbed me from behind, it looked like Mom at first, but it just didn’t feel right. The eyes didn’t look right, so when it tried to take me away from the others, I pushed it away. I saw it’s face change for just a moment. I was so scared. When it grabbed for me again, I just sort of felt the magick flow through me. I killed it with a blast of lightning from my hand.” She was looking down at her right hand. Her fingertips were still blackened by soot. “I just did what Mistress Fyre had taught me to do.”
I nodded and pulled her close in another hug. “It’s alright, Jazz. Those things aren’t really people. They’re monsters. That thing would have probably taken you away and stolen your memories before killing you. You did the right thing.”
Katherine stood watching me console our daughter. She gave me a tight little smile and small nod of approval before giving me that look that she had always given when she wanted to talk, in private.
I disengaged from Jasmine and pointed her towards where the Frau was. “Jazz, do you think that you can go see if the Frau needs any help? Sometimes you just need to stay busy to keep from thinking of nasty things like the attack for awhile. We’ll have more time to talk later.” I gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I’m sure Ravyn will be very proud that you were able to summon and control that kind of energy.”
As Jasmine shuffled off to go help the Frau, Katherine and I took a small walk back out into the large area where we had first come in, the garage area.
“Thanks, Jason, Jasmine needed that from you.”
I nodded. “It was the least that I could do. Has anyone heard from Kenny?”
Her face tightened up. This was why she wanted to talk to me. “No. He was away at school. I don’t know if he is safe or not. Can you try to find him?”
I nodded. “As soon as I can make sure this place as safe as it seems and Herne and Ravyn give me the all clear signal, I’ll go check on him. I think he’ll be safe enough at that school since it didn’t have anything to do with the ORC’s.”
Katherine didn’t look very reassured. “I don’t know, Jason, the Professor teaches there and I know that Kenny often stays at his house when the Prof is away. He could be in all sorts of danger.”
I reached out and grabbed her healthy hand, giving it a quick squeeze. “I’m worried too. If he’s in danger or has been harmed in any way, I will find out and get him to safety. You can count on that.”
She squeezed my hand hard. “I know, Jason. I have faith in you. I better go see if my help is needed inside.” She released my hand and went back to the infirmary.
I made my way back to the Command Center.
Herne looked up from a monitor as I walked into the room. The previously quiet room was not a hub of beeping, buzzing, and chattering activity.
“Rusty, come check this out. This stuff looks vintage but it was top of the line equipment not that long ago.”
I walked over to stand behind him. The monitor was an older clunker, with a resolution level that would’ve given me a headache if I had actually had any optical nerves left to be irritated.
Despite its age and its low level of resolution, it was clearly accessing the internet. Herne had pulled up a newswire service.
“It looks like there is a strong PR campaign going on to characterize the ORC’s as some sort of New Age death cult. All of the news agencies have picked up on the various attacks, although the attacks aren’t being depicted as attacks at all, but as some sort of suicide pact.” He looked up at me. “They’ve got to have agents in the government and maybe even the Bureau to have tied all of this up so neatly so quickly.”
The Professor sat at another workstation with his own unique laptop that had somehow survived our bizarre journey. Alana was standing behind him, a look of concern on her face.
Jim looked up form his computer. “They’ve acted very quickly to shut down all of our corporate accounts as well—none of my attempts to access any of them have been successful.”
That reminded me of something else Drake had given me. I pulled out a small notebook that Drake had used to record several account numbers and passwords for the off-shore accounts that he had held in reserve. I held it out towards Jim. “Try looking up these accounts. I think you will find that we’ll have the financial resources to put up one hell of a fight.”
He nodded and took the notebook.
Within minutes, he had logged into the first of the accounts. He whistled in appreciation. “Yeah, there’s more money in this account alone than the ORC’s have ever had in all of our other accounts. It’s a Swiss account too, so we will have absolute privacy with what we do with it. I can make this work quite well.”
I watched as Herne bounced from website to website checking out all of the stories about the attacks. El Diablito and his allies had done a very thorough job of destroying and discrediting the ORC’s.
Ravyn and Zenny soon joined us, notebook in hand. They had heard some of the news already from Herne before. Ravyn’s face was quite grim.
“Rusty, we’ll need to have an executive council meeting as soon as the Frau has seen to the last of the wounded. We’re going to need to take stock of who’s here and what resources we have at our disposal. I think we’ll want to gather as many of our members and associates to us as possible, but we’ll have to screen anyone we bring back to ensure that we aren’t bringing any Doppelgangers or other spies back to our little haven here. I’m afraid we’re going to be working long and hard over the next few days to take full stock of what’s left of the ORC’s and what can be salvaged.”
Herne nodded. “We also need to come up with a plan of action. We need to show these bastards that while they’ve won this battle, they’re going to have a long, hard war on their hands.”
There was no disagreement with Herne’s statement.
The band of ORC’s that arrived in the Bat Cave was a tired, wounded, ragged bunch of shell-shocked survivors. The assault by El Diablito’s forces and An’girasii allies had come as a total surprise. Every ORC safe house, stronghold and academy across the United States had been hit in some way on the same night. All told, hundreds ORC members and students had been slain; dozens more were badly injured or missing.
By the time the final tally of escapees and survivors was taken—several days later—fewer than three hundred full fledged members and associates of the ORC’s survived that deadly night. The last census prior to that deadly night had put the membership rolls at just over a thousand members and associates. Forty of those survivors came with me to the Bat Cave.
After a close inspection by Cerrydwen, Ravyn or myself, I created a portal of Shadow that established a link between El Diablito’s dark tower in the Shadowland and another place of relative darkness—the entrance hall to the Bat Cave.
The hall was actually a natural cavern that had been worked on and expanded extensively by the military in the early part of the Cold War. The hall was easily wide and smooth enough for two vans to pass in opposite directions and long enough to hold a whole caravan of vehicles—in fact several aging but otherwise non-descript vehicles were parked along one of the walls facing the opposite direction. They were facing a set of heavy metal blast doors that opened to the outside world. I knew from Drake though that those doors were concealed from casual observation by what appeared to be a storage facility for salt for local highways.
Looking ahead, our way into the Bat Cave itself was barred by a smaller, but equally formidable set of steel doors that were secured both by lock and key and by a combination key pad set bear the handle of the left door.
Between the keys Drake had sent to Ravyn and the combination codes that I had memorized, we were able to open the doors to the incredible refuge that Drake and John Red Bear had secretly spent nearly four decades creating.
Beyond that sealed door was a decommissioned underground military base that was easily large enough to house several hundred people. The facility was comprised of several sections. It was also fully stocked with food and water. But the true bounty of the Bat Cave was found deep inside, beyond the living quarters. The Command Center was a fully operational, if slightly outdated control room full of computers and communications equipment. The Inner Sanctum was even more amazing as it included a vault that held the hundreds of weapons and other items of power that Drake had taken or acquired through his existence.
The Frau, Ravyn and Herne quickly took control of situation.
The Frau immediately drafted most of the able-bodied folks and began to set up a sick ward in one of the larger rooms in the dormitory part of the complex. She gently clucked out her orders to those that could carry them out while she coddled those who were still too shocked to act independently just yet. Moira, though wounded herself, helped out.
Ravyn, Cerrydwen and Zenny Al Farhan had set up shop inside the vault as they began to identify and catalog the surprising large cache of weapons and items that Drake had amassed.
Herne, the Professor, and the pretty gal from the San Diego Circle, Alana Danae, began the process of firing up the computers and communications equipment in the Command Center. Between Herne’s intimate knowledge of the military, the Professor’s computer tech skills and Alana’s expertise in software and network systems, they had the place humming to life in no time.
As everyone else set down to the task of getting the Bat Cave up and running, I finally had time to search out my ex-wife Katherine and our daughter, Jasmine. Katherine was sporting an improvised sling for her left arm, which had been broken in the initial struggle at the Coop, but she was still one of the people helping the Frau to tend to others. Jasmine appeared to be physically unharmed, but her nerves had been badly shaken.
I had come up from behind Jasmine and touched her gently on the shoulder. “Jazz, are you alright?”
She flinched at my touch, but whirled around for a fierce hug when she heard my voice. “Dad!” She was sobbing. “I was so scared!”
“I know, honey. I wish you never had to experience that.” I put my hand on the bottom of her chin to get her to look into my eyes. “Did anyone hurt you?”
She swallowed hard, her gaze glazing over as she looked through me rather than at me. “I…I…think I killed someone, Dad, with my…my…magick.”
“Was it someone who was trying to harm you?”
She nodded. “One of those shape-shifter things grabbed me from behind, it looked like Mom at first, but it just didn’t feel right. The eyes didn’t look right, so when it tried to take me away from the others, I pushed it away. I saw it’s face change for just a moment. I was so scared. When it grabbed for me again, I just sort of felt the magick flow through me. I killed it with a blast of lightning from my hand.” She was looking down at her right hand. Her fingertips were still blackened by soot. “I just did what Mistress Fyre had taught me to do.”
I nodded and pulled her close in another hug. “It’s alright, Jazz. Those things aren’t really people. They’re monsters. That thing would have probably taken you away and stolen your memories before killing you. You did the right thing.”
Katherine stood watching me console our daughter. She gave me a tight little smile and small nod of approval before giving me that look that she had always given when she wanted to talk, in private.
I disengaged from Jasmine and pointed her towards where the Frau was. “Jazz, do you think that you can go see if the Frau needs any help? Sometimes you just need to stay busy to keep from thinking of nasty things like the attack for awhile. We’ll have more time to talk later.” I gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I’m sure Ravyn will be very proud that you were able to summon and control that kind of energy.”
As Jasmine shuffled off to go help the Frau, Katherine and I took a small walk back out into the large area where we had first come in, the garage area.
“Thanks, Jason, Jasmine needed that from you.”
I nodded. “It was the least that I could do. Has anyone heard from Kenny?”
Her face tightened up. This was why she wanted to talk to me. “No. He was away at school. I don’t know if he is safe or not. Can you try to find him?”
I nodded. “As soon as I can make sure this place as safe as it seems and Herne and Ravyn give me the all clear signal, I’ll go check on him. I think he’ll be safe enough at that school since it didn’t have anything to do with the ORC’s.”
Katherine didn’t look very reassured. “I don’t know, Jason, the Professor teaches there and I know that Kenny often stays at his house when the Prof is away. He could be in all sorts of danger.”
I reached out and grabbed her healthy hand, giving it a quick squeeze. “I’m worried too. If he’s in danger or has been harmed in any way, I will find out and get him to safety. You can count on that.”
She squeezed my hand hard. “I know, Jason. I have faith in you. I better go see if my help is needed inside.” She released my hand and went back to the infirmary.
I made my way back to the Command Center.
Herne looked up from a monitor as I walked into the room. The previously quiet room was not a hub of beeping, buzzing, and chattering activity.
“Rusty, come check this out. This stuff looks vintage but it was top of the line equipment not that long ago.”
I walked over to stand behind him. The monitor was an older clunker, with a resolution level that would’ve given me a headache if I had actually had any optical nerves left to be irritated.
Despite its age and its low level of resolution, it was clearly accessing the internet. Herne had pulled up a newswire service.
“It looks like there is a strong PR campaign going on to characterize the ORC’s as some sort of New Age death cult. All of the news agencies have picked up on the various attacks, although the attacks aren’t being depicted as attacks at all, but as some sort of suicide pact.” He looked up at me. “They’ve got to have agents in the government and maybe even the Bureau to have tied all of this up so neatly so quickly.”
The Professor sat at another workstation with his own unique laptop that had somehow survived our bizarre journey. Alana was standing behind him, a look of concern on her face.
Jim looked up form his computer. “They’ve acted very quickly to shut down all of our corporate accounts as well—none of my attempts to access any of them have been successful.”
That reminded me of something else Drake had given me. I pulled out a small notebook that Drake had used to record several account numbers and passwords for the off-shore accounts that he had held in reserve. I held it out towards Jim. “Try looking up these accounts. I think you will find that we’ll have the financial resources to put up one hell of a fight.”
He nodded and took the notebook.
Within minutes, he had logged into the first of the accounts. He whistled in appreciation. “Yeah, there’s more money in this account alone than the ORC’s have ever had in all of our other accounts. It’s a Swiss account too, so we will have absolute privacy with what we do with it. I can make this work quite well.”
I watched as Herne bounced from website to website checking out all of the stories about the attacks. El Diablito and his allies had done a very thorough job of destroying and discrediting the ORC’s.
Ravyn and Zenny soon joined us, notebook in hand. They had heard some of the news already from Herne before. Ravyn’s face was quite grim.
“Rusty, we’ll need to have an executive council meeting as soon as the Frau has seen to the last of the wounded. We’re going to need to take stock of who’s here and what resources we have at our disposal. I think we’ll want to gather as many of our members and associates to us as possible, but we’ll have to screen anyone we bring back to ensure that we aren’t bringing any Doppelgangers or other spies back to our little haven here. I’m afraid we’re going to be working long and hard over the next few days to take full stock of what’s left of the ORC’s and what can be salvaged.”
Herne nodded. “We also need to come up with a plan of action. We need to show these bastards that while they’ve won this battle, they’re going to have a long, hard war on their hands.”
There was no disagreement with Herne’s statement.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Little Keep on the Borderlands... Epilogue
Cerrydwen waved us forward. “Come, let me take you to the others. I can explain things bit as we walk.”
Despite the appearance that these two were who they seemed to be, I was more than a little nervous as we came up closer to them.
Ravyn showed no such inhibitions and gave each of the women a big hug. She exchanged quiet, unheard words with each of them and seemed more than satisfied with the responses that each gave her.
The Frau padded up and gave both Ravyn and Zenny a long sniff and single wet lick on the cheek.
Jim took the more cautious approach of a small wave and a nod of acknowledgement to each.
Cerrydwen turned and nodded back in the direction from which she had come. “Well, let’s start our little tour of the mad man’s little tower of horrors.” The massive stone door grated open with a wave of her hand. “This whole place is a tapestry of tightly wound spells that must have taken years to craft. This lower level is where he houses a small army of the trolls that you have seen so much of.” She motioned for us to follow her into the gaping maw that led into the dark tunnel where the war trolls had retreated to.
I couldn’t resist breaking into the narrative. “Cerrydwen, how did you gain control of those things?”
Cerrydwen returned my look with a steely gaze. “Sorcery, Rusty. I don’t like practicing it in our world, but I am, unfortunately, quite talented in its use.”
“How is Sorcery any different than the magick that the Frau or Ravyn use?”
She gave a harsh little laugh before she answered. We continued shuffling down the long, curved corridor as she spoke. “You’ve seen me engage Papa Locks and others before in a battle of wills, where I try to make those folks face all of their various Karmic mistakes and dark misdeeds to get them to reform, yes?”
I nodded.
“That is something that I learned from John Red Bear, so that I would have magickal tools that would be a little less lethal and a tad less evil than my natural powers.” She stopped and looked at me deeply for what seemed like the very first time since we had met. “You see, the magick that comes most naturally to me is a very dark and twisted form of magick that is often referred to as sorcery. Sorcery gives me as much mastery over the bodies of other beings as I want. The problem is that this control can only really be used to bring them harm and pain. It is one of the reasons that you me very reluctant to form close attachments or to interact with other people very much. When I get frustrated or angry, it takes an enormous amount of control not to break bones or to choke them with a glance and a twist of my Will.”
“Wow.”
She nodded. “Yes, I was not a very good person when I was younger. I hadn’t learned how to properly restrain myself and I got frustrate very easily. If it hadn’t been for the Frau and her intervention when I was a teenager, I likely would’ve gone down an even darker road and ended up working with someone like El Diablito.” She turned away and started walking again. “So to answer your original question, Rusty, I got the trolls to follow me by demonstrating on a few of them that they couldn’t hurt me nearly as much as I could hurt them. There really aren’t that many left anyway, they aren’t what you would consider to be fast learners.”
The Frau swiveled her massive head towards Cerrydwen and licked an ear before projecting her thoughts to all of us. “Cerry dear, are you going to be alright?”
Cerrydwen nodded without looking back. “Yes, I’m in full control of myself. It’s easier this time because this place is so different and for the most part, the trolls deserved their fates. They are dark, hate-filled creatures that only serve those who they see as stronger. I’ve just allowed them to see my stronger side.”
We came to an intersection in the hall. We could have turned either right or left down similar type hallways, but instead went straight which soon led us to a large stairwell the curved upwards and to the left with long, shallow steps that seemed to stretch on forever.
Cerrydwen led us up the curving stairwell that ended at a large landing and a smashed wooden door. Picking her way through the debris of the door, she led us down a long hall, passing several doors that began to look familiar. It wasn’t until I saw the dark door with glowing rose emblem that recognized this place from the Nick’s memory globe. Passing the door marked with the palm tree only confirmed it.
Cerrydwen ignored all of these doors, taking us all of the way to the end of the hall where we encountered another broken door. This door had been crafted of metal and lay to side of the doorway, twisted and wrenched from its hinges. Beyond the door was an enormous room filled with towering book cases, scattered tables that were buried in scrolls, books and pieces of paper. Huddled around a large square table in the middle of the room was a group of about twenty bedraggled looking people, some of whom I recognized.
Ravyn bounced into the room, nearly skipping with joy at seeing so many familiar faces. She called out names as danced forward. “Moira! Herne! Alana!”
The faces of the obviously tired—and in many cases injured—ORC’s lit up as they saw the ever cheerful Ravyn moving towards them. She was closely followed by the Frau and Jim. I hung back, still nervous of some sort of trap.
Cerrydwen had stepped into the room and then slid to the side, hanging back in the shadows herself.
Zenny had shuffled quietly after Ravyn and the others, leaving Cerrydwen and I to our quiet shadows.
I looked over to her, studying the pained look on her face. “Cerrydwen, you don’t seem to happy to see us all together again.”
She shook her head, looking form the joyful group of long time friends and survivors to me, her expression remained stoic. “Rusty, you perhaps more than anyone else here understand how difficult it is to hold something dark and terrible inside, hoping to keep it buried forever. Tonight, I had to use abilities that I long ago sworn never to use again.”
I nodded. “I do. You can bury those abilities again, if you want to. I’m sure it wasn’t something that you enjoyed doing.”
Her lips quivered ever so slightly into the briefest of chilling smiles before she regained her stoic expression. She turned to watch the reunion as she responded in a quiet whisper. “That’s the problem Rusty. I really like it. It makes me feel so alive when I use those powers. I enjoy the pain that my victims feel. That is why those surviving trolls feared me enough to serve me. They recognized a kindred spirit when they saw me torturing and killing their companions.”
I reached out to touch her on the shoulder. She flinched as I did so. “I understand.”
Ravyn had finished her round of hugs. She turned to wave in my direction. “Hey Rusty! Come here!”
I moved from the shadows to join the group. I recognized a number of Ravyn’s students from the Coop as well as Moira and Herne. The others were strangers.
Jim was standing with Herne and a shorter, dark haired woman with an easy laugh and a slightly raspy voice.
As I approached, she came forward, offering her hand. “Rusty, I’m Alana Danae from the San Diego Circle. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
I nodded as I shook her offered hand. “Likewise. I hear you’re pretty handy with computers.”
Ravyn interrupted with an impatient clap of her hands. “OK folks, I’m so glad to see each of you alive, but we really need to know where Alexa and Naomi are right now.” She glanced at each face in the gathered circle. “Do any of you know what happened to them? Cerry? What happened?”
Cerrydwen had joined with circle with little fanfare. Her face hardened as she took one step forward into the group and spoke up. “When we transported from Michigan to the safe house, we were attacked the moment we finished the transport. I was out of it before I realized who had attacked us, although I presume it was Papa Locks and El Diablito. I never saw what happened to Alexa or Naomi. Did anyone else see anything? Zenny?”
Zenny fidgeted with her hijab before lifting her eyes to look at everyone. “I saw the dark giant you call Papa Locks strike Cerrydwen with his fist before she could react. Naomi tried to escape with Alexa back through the portal but one of the doppelgangers grabbed her and prevented her from leaving. The one you call the Little Devil cast some sort of enchantment on me that caused me to lose consciousness at that point.”
Moira nodded. “A group of doppelgangers must have slipped into the safe house with the refugees from the San Diego Circle, because just as we were tending to the wounded and getting ready to call you, several of those that we thought were our allies attacked. The fight was over before we knew it.”
Herne coughed. “They were unbelievably quick. Once the doppelgangers had us subdued, El Diablito and Locks came through the portal with several armed goons and that freaky female, Rose. Moira and I had been paralyzed by some poison that the doppelgangers had used on us, but we were able to watch all of it.” He looked down at the floor, ashamed. “Once the doppelgangers had Naomi and Alexa, El Diablito turned to the largest of them and said: ‘There, you have your prize, now, I expect you and your masters to hold up your end of the bargain.’ The thing snarled at him and said: ‘The Fire Witch was slain as promised, it is not our fault that she was brought back. Our bargain is now complete.’”
“So that crinkled old man needed those things to take me down, did he?” Ravyn snorted derisively as she spoke. “OK, so do we have any idea where the doppelgangers took them and why they wanted Alexa in the first place?”
Herne nodded again. “Even as I was paralyzed, Alexa looked over to me and I heard what must have been her older self speaking to me. She said, ‘Herne, let the others know that this is what must happen. I am in no imminent danger from the An’girasii or their servants. They need me alive and unharmed. Don’t try to rescue us—it will only cause us harm if you do. When the time is right, we shall return. Until then, gather our friends, help them to heal and grow strong once again, and prepare to weather the coming storms. El Diablito and his new organization must be stopped from gaining too much control.’ Then they disappeared through the portal and I lost consciousness.”
I stepped forward. “Look, I don’t think we have much more time before El Diablito and Papa Locks recover from Ravyn’s surprises and come looking in on things here. We need to get out of here fast.” I looked at everyone’s faces. They all appeared eager to be quit from this place as well. “I know of a place that El Diablito doesn’t. It is a safe place the Drake had created to store all of the things he had collected over the millennia to fight the An’girasii. I can take us there now so that you all can recover, heal up and take stock of where we are as an organization. We’ll have all of the resources we’ll need to regroup and take on El Diablito when we’re ready.”
The nods of agreement and smiles of relief that greeted my recommendation were overwhelming. So with little more debate or discussion, I summoned the Shadow and opened a portal to our new, secret destination.
For the first time in a long, long while, a plan of ours was enacted without any changes or major surprises. The ORC’s disappeared from El Diablito’s stronghold and went into hiding while we regrouped.
Despite the appearance that these two were who they seemed to be, I was more than a little nervous as we came up closer to them.
Ravyn showed no such inhibitions and gave each of the women a big hug. She exchanged quiet, unheard words with each of them and seemed more than satisfied with the responses that each gave her.
The Frau padded up and gave both Ravyn and Zenny a long sniff and single wet lick on the cheek.
Jim took the more cautious approach of a small wave and a nod of acknowledgement to each.
Cerrydwen turned and nodded back in the direction from which she had come. “Well, let’s start our little tour of the mad man’s little tower of horrors.” The massive stone door grated open with a wave of her hand. “This whole place is a tapestry of tightly wound spells that must have taken years to craft. This lower level is where he houses a small army of the trolls that you have seen so much of.” She motioned for us to follow her into the gaping maw that led into the dark tunnel where the war trolls had retreated to.
I couldn’t resist breaking into the narrative. “Cerrydwen, how did you gain control of those things?”
Cerrydwen returned my look with a steely gaze. “Sorcery, Rusty. I don’t like practicing it in our world, but I am, unfortunately, quite talented in its use.”
“How is Sorcery any different than the magick that the Frau or Ravyn use?”
She gave a harsh little laugh before she answered. We continued shuffling down the long, curved corridor as she spoke. “You’ve seen me engage Papa Locks and others before in a battle of wills, where I try to make those folks face all of their various Karmic mistakes and dark misdeeds to get them to reform, yes?”
I nodded.
“That is something that I learned from John Red Bear, so that I would have magickal tools that would be a little less lethal and a tad less evil than my natural powers.” She stopped and looked at me deeply for what seemed like the very first time since we had met. “You see, the magick that comes most naturally to me is a very dark and twisted form of magick that is often referred to as sorcery. Sorcery gives me as much mastery over the bodies of other beings as I want. The problem is that this control can only really be used to bring them harm and pain. It is one of the reasons that you me very reluctant to form close attachments or to interact with other people very much. When I get frustrated or angry, it takes an enormous amount of control not to break bones or to choke them with a glance and a twist of my Will.”
“Wow.”
She nodded. “Yes, I was not a very good person when I was younger. I hadn’t learned how to properly restrain myself and I got frustrate very easily. If it hadn’t been for the Frau and her intervention when I was a teenager, I likely would’ve gone down an even darker road and ended up working with someone like El Diablito.” She turned away and started walking again. “So to answer your original question, Rusty, I got the trolls to follow me by demonstrating on a few of them that they couldn’t hurt me nearly as much as I could hurt them. There really aren’t that many left anyway, they aren’t what you would consider to be fast learners.”
The Frau swiveled her massive head towards Cerrydwen and licked an ear before projecting her thoughts to all of us. “Cerry dear, are you going to be alright?”
Cerrydwen nodded without looking back. “Yes, I’m in full control of myself. It’s easier this time because this place is so different and for the most part, the trolls deserved their fates. They are dark, hate-filled creatures that only serve those who they see as stronger. I’ve just allowed them to see my stronger side.”
We came to an intersection in the hall. We could have turned either right or left down similar type hallways, but instead went straight which soon led us to a large stairwell the curved upwards and to the left with long, shallow steps that seemed to stretch on forever.
Cerrydwen led us up the curving stairwell that ended at a large landing and a smashed wooden door. Picking her way through the debris of the door, she led us down a long hall, passing several doors that began to look familiar. It wasn’t until I saw the dark door with glowing rose emblem that recognized this place from the Nick’s memory globe. Passing the door marked with the palm tree only confirmed it.
Cerrydwen ignored all of these doors, taking us all of the way to the end of the hall where we encountered another broken door. This door had been crafted of metal and lay to side of the doorway, twisted and wrenched from its hinges. Beyond the door was an enormous room filled with towering book cases, scattered tables that were buried in scrolls, books and pieces of paper. Huddled around a large square table in the middle of the room was a group of about twenty bedraggled looking people, some of whom I recognized.
Ravyn bounced into the room, nearly skipping with joy at seeing so many familiar faces. She called out names as danced forward. “Moira! Herne! Alana!”
The faces of the obviously tired—and in many cases injured—ORC’s lit up as they saw the ever cheerful Ravyn moving towards them. She was closely followed by the Frau and Jim. I hung back, still nervous of some sort of trap.
Cerrydwen had stepped into the room and then slid to the side, hanging back in the shadows herself.
Zenny had shuffled quietly after Ravyn and the others, leaving Cerrydwen and I to our quiet shadows.
I looked over to her, studying the pained look on her face. “Cerrydwen, you don’t seem to happy to see us all together again.”
She shook her head, looking form the joyful group of long time friends and survivors to me, her expression remained stoic. “Rusty, you perhaps more than anyone else here understand how difficult it is to hold something dark and terrible inside, hoping to keep it buried forever. Tonight, I had to use abilities that I long ago sworn never to use again.”
I nodded. “I do. You can bury those abilities again, if you want to. I’m sure it wasn’t something that you enjoyed doing.”
Her lips quivered ever so slightly into the briefest of chilling smiles before she regained her stoic expression. She turned to watch the reunion as she responded in a quiet whisper. “That’s the problem Rusty. I really like it. It makes me feel so alive when I use those powers. I enjoy the pain that my victims feel. That is why those surviving trolls feared me enough to serve me. They recognized a kindred spirit when they saw me torturing and killing their companions.”
I reached out to touch her on the shoulder. She flinched as I did so. “I understand.”
Ravyn had finished her round of hugs. She turned to wave in my direction. “Hey Rusty! Come here!”
I moved from the shadows to join the group. I recognized a number of Ravyn’s students from the Coop as well as Moira and Herne. The others were strangers.
Jim was standing with Herne and a shorter, dark haired woman with an easy laugh and a slightly raspy voice.
As I approached, she came forward, offering her hand. “Rusty, I’m Alana Danae from the San Diego Circle. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
I nodded as I shook her offered hand. “Likewise. I hear you’re pretty handy with computers.”
Ravyn interrupted with an impatient clap of her hands. “OK folks, I’m so glad to see each of you alive, but we really need to know where Alexa and Naomi are right now.” She glanced at each face in the gathered circle. “Do any of you know what happened to them? Cerry? What happened?”
Cerrydwen had joined with circle with little fanfare. Her face hardened as she took one step forward into the group and spoke up. “When we transported from Michigan to the safe house, we were attacked the moment we finished the transport. I was out of it before I realized who had attacked us, although I presume it was Papa Locks and El Diablito. I never saw what happened to Alexa or Naomi. Did anyone else see anything? Zenny?”
Zenny fidgeted with her hijab before lifting her eyes to look at everyone. “I saw the dark giant you call Papa Locks strike Cerrydwen with his fist before she could react. Naomi tried to escape with Alexa back through the portal but one of the doppelgangers grabbed her and prevented her from leaving. The one you call the Little Devil cast some sort of enchantment on me that caused me to lose consciousness at that point.”
Moira nodded. “A group of doppelgangers must have slipped into the safe house with the refugees from the San Diego Circle, because just as we were tending to the wounded and getting ready to call you, several of those that we thought were our allies attacked. The fight was over before we knew it.”
Herne coughed. “They were unbelievably quick. Once the doppelgangers had us subdued, El Diablito and Locks came through the portal with several armed goons and that freaky female, Rose. Moira and I had been paralyzed by some poison that the doppelgangers had used on us, but we were able to watch all of it.” He looked down at the floor, ashamed. “Once the doppelgangers had Naomi and Alexa, El Diablito turned to the largest of them and said: ‘There, you have your prize, now, I expect you and your masters to hold up your end of the bargain.’ The thing snarled at him and said: ‘The Fire Witch was slain as promised, it is not our fault that she was brought back. Our bargain is now complete.’”
“So that crinkled old man needed those things to take me down, did he?” Ravyn snorted derisively as she spoke. “OK, so do we have any idea where the doppelgangers took them and why they wanted Alexa in the first place?”
Herne nodded again. “Even as I was paralyzed, Alexa looked over to me and I heard what must have been her older self speaking to me. She said, ‘Herne, let the others know that this is what must happen. I am in no imminent danger from the An’girasii or their servants. They need me alive and unharmed. Don’t try to rescue us—it will only cause us harm if you do. When the time is right, we shall return. Until then, gather our friends, help them to heal and grow strong once again, and prepare to weather the coming storms. El Diablito and his new organization must be stopped from gaining too much control.’ Then they disappeared through the portal and I lost consciousness.”
I stepped forward. “Look, I don’t think we have much more time before El Diablito and Papa Locks recover from Ravyn’s surprises and come looking in on things here. We need to get out of here fast.” I looked at everyone’s faces. They all appeared eager to be quit from this place as well. “I know of a place that El Diablito doesn’t. It is a safe place the Drake had created to store all of the things he had collected over the millennia to fight the An’girasii. I can take us there now so that you all can recover, heal up and take stock of where we are as an organization. We’ll have all of the resources we’ll need to regroup and take on El Diablito when we’re ready.”
The nods of agreement and smiles of relief that greeted my recommendation were overwhelming. So with little more debate or discussion, I summoned the Shadow and opened a portal to our new, secret destination.
For the first time in a long, long while, a plan of ours was enacted without any changes or major surprises. The ORC’s disappeared from El Diablito’s stronghold and went into hiding while we regrouped.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 4
I was up and running towards the third troll before his spear stopped skidding behind us. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got to him, since I didn’t have a weapon in hand.
It had already turned its attention so fray between the Frau and his companion, so my leaping kick landed squarely on the side of his enormous kneecap. I felt and heard the crunching of the bone. His leg buckled and collapsed on itself.
I tucked and rolled out of the way of a massive fist that sought to crush me as the thing lashed out n a blind rage at its sudden immobility.
By the time I had tumbled to safety and regained my bearings, I saw that Jim had already found his own footing and was racing to help the Frau in her struggle.
Ravyn was striding forward towards the troll that was now trying to hobble towards me. She smiled as she sent a lancing bolt of flame into the back of its skull, ending his miserable life before his smoldering corpse hit the floor.
I turned to see how Jim and the Frau were faring just in time to see Excalibur slash downwards in a fatal stroke across the already tattered throat of the final troll. The Frau had rolled clear in time and stood on all fours, panting with exertion. Her fur was torn and bloody in several spots, but it wasn’t entirely clear how wounded she might be. Most of the blood seemed to be darker ichor of the troll.
I jogged back to pick up my batons and joined the rest of them near the mangled body of that final victim.
Jim mopped the sweat off of his forehead and nodded as I approached. “I can’t wait to give you back this damn sword and let you play at being the hero Rusty. I’ll be more than happy to resume my roles as a counselor, researcher, and treasurer.”
I chuckled at that. “Yeah, this sort of stuff is a lot less worrisome when you’re already dead.”
Before anyone else could join in the banter, there was a loud grating of stone on stone as a very large doorway opened in the back of the chamber. Several more armored, well armed trolls marched into the chamber, their hobnailed boots echoing in a strange unison as they lined up four to a side on each side of the doorway. The strangest part of this scene was the two smaller, hooded figures that emerged from the shadows behind the trolls. They looked to be human and seemed to have a distinctly feminine aspect to them that was not entirely concealed by the heavy cloaks that obscured their faces. One of the women was clearly taller and heavier than the other, but neither carried any weapons in their hands.
We all turned to face these new foes, each of us wondering how we would be able to face eight trolls and these two women of unknown strength.
Jim broke the silence first. “Fuck! Why would this damn sword choose now to go quiet?”
I glanced over at the blade in his hands, which was now no longer glowing. It had cooled and quieted as the women had entered the room.
The larger of the women gave a short, throaty laugh as she reached up and pulled back the hood to reveal her face. “Maybe that blade doesn’t want you to swing at a friend by mistake.”
Ravyn gasped. “Cerry? Is that really you?”
Cerrydwen nodded before turning to the trolls that now seemed to be under her command. She grunted an order in their guttural tongue that sent the guards trooping back from whence they had come.
I had my doubts. I had seen Excalibur go quiet on me at inconvenient times before. “Careful everyone, she may be a Doppelganger. And we don’t know who the other one is yet either.”
The smaller of the women stepped closer and brought her gloved hands up to her own hood. Zenny Al Farhan’s soft, musical voice spoke from within. “Rusty, we are not shapeshifters. You can touch me if you would like to confirm that.” She pulled the hood back to reveal her face.
“How is this possible? We had heard that you were captured by El Diablito and Papa Locks.!”
Cerrydwen walked forward slowly. As she came closer, we could each see that her face was badly bruised. “We were caught by surprise at the safe house and were captured with Alexa and Naomi. It’s a long tale though and I don’t think we have the time to tell it here. We need to leave before either El Diablito or Papa Locks return. My control over those trolls will not survive long if they comeback. I’ve found out though, that the trolls can tell who the Doppelgangers are. They are very efficient at hunting them, when they choose to do so.”
“Wait, where are the others? Where is Alexa?”
Her face clouded over in obvious pain. “I don’t know where Alexa or Naomi are right now. But almost all of our other allies who had been taken in the raids and were brought here are safe. Herne and Moira are watching over them on the next floor up since some of them were badly wounded. Let’s go get the others and get out of here. We can tell our respective tales once we are safely away from this place.”
It had already turned its attention so fray between the Frau and his companion, so my leaping kick landed squarely on the side of his enormous kneecap. I felt and heard the crunching of the bone. His leg buckled and collapsed on itself.
I tucked and rolled out of the way of a massive fist that sought to crush me as the thing lashed out n a blind rage at its sudden immobility.
By the time I had tumbled to safety and regained my bearings, I saw that Jim had already found his own footing and was racing to help the Frau in her struggle.
Ravyn was striding forward towards the troll that was now trying to hobble towards me. She smiled as she sent a lancing bolt of flame into the back of its skull, ending his miserable life before his smoldering corpse hit the floor.
I turned to see how Jim and the Frau were faring just in time to see Excalibur slash downwards in a fatal stroke across the already tattered throat of the final troll. The Frau had rolled clear in time and stood on all fours, panting with exertion. Her fur was torn and bloody in several spots, but it wasn’t entirely clear how wounded she might be. Most of the blood seemed to be darker ichor of the troll.
I jogged back to pick up my batons and joined the rest of them near the mangled body of that final victim.
Jim mopped the sweat off of his forehead and nodded as I approached. “I can’t wait to give you back this damn sword and let you play at being the hero Rusty. I’ll be more than happy to resume my roles as a counselor, researcher, and treasurer.”
I chuckled at that. “Yeah, this sort of stuff is a lot less worrisome when you’re already dead.”
Before anyone else could join in the banter, there was a loud grating of stone on stone as a very large doorway opened in the back of the chamber. Several more armored, well armed trolls marched into the chamber, their hobnailed boots echoing in a strange unison as they lined up four to a side on each side of the doorway. The strangest part of this scene was the two smaller, hooded figures that emerged from the shadows behind the trolls. They looked to be human and seemed to have a distinctly feminine aspect to them that was not entirely concealed by the heavy cloaks that obscured their faces. One of the women was clearly taller and heavier than the other, but neither carried any weapons in their hands.
We all turned to face these new foes, each of us wondering how we would be able to face eight trolls and these two women of unknown strength.
Jim broke the silence first. “Fuck! Why would this damn sword choose now to go quiet?”
I glanced over at the blade in his hands, which was now no longer glowing. It had cooled and quieted as the women had entered the room.
The larger of the women gave a short, throaty laugh as she reached up and pulled back the hood to reveal her face. “Maybe that blade doesn’t want you to swing at a friend by mistake.”
Ravyn gasped. “Cerry? Is that really you?”
Cerrydwen nodded before turning to the trolls that now seemed to be under her command. She grunted an order in their guttural tongue that sent the guards trooping back from whence they had come.
I had my doubts. I had seen Excalibur go quiet on me at inconvenient times before. “Careful everyone, she may be a Doppelganger. And we don’t know who the other one is yet either.”
The smaller of the women stepped closer and brought her gloved hands up to her own hood. Zenny Al Farhan’s soft, musical voice spoke from within. “Rusty, we are not shapeshifters. You can touch me if you would like to confirm that.” She pulled the hood back to reveal her face.
“How is this possible? We had heard that you were captured by El Diablito and Papa Locks.!”
Cerrydwen walked forward slowly. As she came closer, we could each see that her face was badly bruised. “We were caught by surprise at the safe house and were captured with Alexa and Naomi. It’s a long tale though and I don’t think we have the time to tell it here. We need to leave before either El Diablito or Papa Locks return. My control over those trolls will not survive long if they comeback. I’ve found out though, that the trolls can tell who the Doppelgangers are. They are very efficient at hunting them, when they choose to do so.”
“Wait, where are the others? Where is Alexa?”
Her face clouded over in obvious pain. “I don’t know where Alexa or Naomi are right now. But almost all of our other allies who had been taken in the raids and were brought here are safe. Herne and Moira are watching over them on the next floor up since some of them were badly wounded. Let’s go get the others and get out of here. We can tell our respective tales once we are safely away from this place.”
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Enemies Mine...The Clean-up
As soon as Papa Locks’ portal closed up, a collective sigh of relief was released by my three companions.
Jim’s face turned a pale shade of green as he looked about the room for a garbage can. When he spotted it, he grabbed the thing and hobbled out of the room, mumbling something about coming back in a few minutes.
Ravyn shot a look of concern Jim’s way, but decided that he preferred to be alone, so she pulled out a chair and sat down. “I can’t believe that Papa Locks is back! How did they manage that? Cerrydwen is not going to be happy at all when she learns about this.”
I grabbed the head of the doppelganger from where I had last placed it and then walked over to where the hand was laying on the floor. I knelt down to pick that up as well. “You know, I don’t know why I didn’t think of the possibility of his return previously. He was a very powerful priest in his own right, and it just makes sense that they would have taken some sort of precautions to be able to bring themselves back from the dead if they were going to do it for the local cops like me who they had snared into the Project.”
Zenny reached down to the table and picked up the Soulscope that she had placed on it to show El Diablito. “Rusty, it seemed like you were the only one in the room who knew what was going on. This encounter didn’t go anything like we expected. How did you know they would back down like that?”
I shook my head as I dropped the head and the hand of the doppelganger next to the main carcass. “I had no idea that Papa Locks would be here, or even that Chandler was a doppelganger until he led us out of that elevator. Something about the way he moved and the way he noticed me looking at him in the Shadowland reminded me of the doppelganger on South Beach, although I don’t think this one was as strong as the other one. As to knowing that they would back down like that, I didn’t. Once I saw how shocked they were that Chandler wasn’t who he said he was, I took the bit in my mouth and bluffed like I had never bluffed before.”
Zenny cocked her head. “Bluffed? What does that mean?”
I grinned. “It is sort of like pretending to be in stronger position than you really are. It is something you do a lot in a casino like this. I used to play a lot of poker when I was alive.”
Slightly less green about the gills than he was, Jim limped back into the room, making a point of not looking at the still smoldering body on the floor. “Well from what I saw Rusty, you might have a future in playing poker again. I was pretty impressed by how you handled that after the surprise of the…creature.”
Ravyn got up impatiently and walked over to Jim, showing him to a seat where the body wasn’t in view. “So how could you tell that the butler was a doppelganger Rusty? If these things serve the An’girasii, then we are going to need to know how to spot them in the future. You won’t always be around to deal with them for us.”
“Well, first I noticed how calm the guy was down in the lobby when he was waiting for us. He seemed to be keeping himself supernaturally still, and then kind of came alive when he noticed us approaching. I’m sure Chandler was a very good butler, someone who had a cool, calm demeanor, but I don’t know too many humans who can keep themselves that calm.
“Second, in the elevator, I noticed how he moved. The first doppelganger that I met in South Beach was super fast. It moved way faster than I ever could, unless I was using magick of some sort to enhance my speed. In the elevator, the butler moved with such speed and grace that I began to have my doubts at that point. That’s when I slipped into the Shadowland to take a glance at his Spirit form. His Spirit form reflected a sense of power and calmness that I didn’t quite think was appropriate for a human. What sealed the deal though was when he gave me a slight nod of acknowledge in the Shadowland, like he sensed me looking at him there. I have yet to meet a normal human being who can sense things simultaneously in both the physical world and the Shadowland and distinguish between the two places. I knew then that he was either a very powerful Caster or something else.
“The final straw was when he exited the elevator and didn’t touch anyone as he slipped past all of us to get ahead again. That was simply inhuman. I’m betting that at least some of these creatures only have the power to fool human sight, but not the sense of touch. I think the doppelganger in South Beach was stronger, that it could fool other senses, but not this one. That’s probably why he chose to impersonate a servant who would not be required to get that close to anyone else—he had a reason to keep his distance from other people.
“It will be very hard to distinguish these creatures from the people they are trying to impersonate. Agent Wilson and her crew will be taking the body back to Quantico and conducting an autopsy of it in the hopes of discovering some of their secrets.”
Agent Jennifer Wilson walked through door to the room just as I mentioned her name. She was followed by several agents in bio-hazard suits, two of whom were carrying a stretcher sheathed in a plastic of some sort.
She glanced at the corpse on the floor, wrinkled her nose at the smell of things and started giving orders to her team to gather up the body. A second crew followed the first, this crew pushing a cart with all sorts of bottles filled with liquid and various cleaning tools. She put those folks to work cleaning up all of the droplets and puddles of liquid that I had helped to create.
“I want this room roped off until we’ve got the task done. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get this done in good time.”
Once she had finished giving her orders and the body had been flipped onto the stretcher and the other parts collected and covered, Agent Wilson let her guard down a bit as she gave Ravyn a big hug. “It’s been too long Mistress Fyre.”
“Oh, stop that. Call me Ravyn. You aren’t my student any longer. So you’re leading a team now, I see.”
Agent Wilson stood slightly taller than the diminutive Ravyn, but it was almost like she still looked up to her. “Yeah, this team was Rusty’s idea, actually. He pulled some strings at HQ to let me form a special response team. Each of the team members has some measure of Talent that most of them were unaware of until I tested them using those techniques you had taught me back at the Coop. I’ve been bringing them along slowly, showing them evidence from our files that had been previously disregarded as unexplainable or as anomalies. I was just about to give you a call actually, before Rusty gave me the heads-up to show up here with the team.”
“Oh, what about?”
“I was wondering if we could set up a sort of intern program with you at the Coop. I’d like some of these agents to really hone the Talents they have, some of them could become decent Casters, if they had the training. It might also help you out to have a couple of agents in residence, in case more creatures like this thing come calling.”
I walked over to them. “That sounds like a good idea, actually. By the way Jennifer, what have you decided to call the team?”
She grinned and looked down at her feet sheepishly. “Zulu recommended that I call it the Omega Team.”
That brought a groan from my lips. “It figures. Well, why not use the designation for something positive?”
Jim stood up now that the body had been removed. He was close to his normal color again. “Well, that might be a good idea for the Coop. However, I would have to see whether or not we could increase the budget to allow for the extra expenses.”
Jennifer shook her head. “No worries there, Sir. If Ravyn agrees to host the agents, I’ve been given the green light to authorize a per diem expense at the going rate for the Chicago area for their living expenses, which should more than cover any expenses incurred by the extra agents in residence.”
Jim nodded. “Yeah, I think you are right. I don’t have any objection then. Do you, Ravyn?”
Ravyn shrugged. “I have no objection, so long as they know who the boss around there is! They can’t be any worse than this dumb zombie of ours is!”
Jim’s face turned a pale shade of green as he looked about the room for a garbage can. When he spotted it, he grabbed the thing and hobbled out of the room, mumbling something about coming back in a few minutes.
Ravyn shot a look of concern Jim’s way, but decided that he preferred to be alone, so she pulled out a chair and sat down. “I can’t believe that Papa Locks is back! How did they manage that? Cerrydwen is not going to be happy at all when she learns about this.”
I grabbed the head of the doppelganger from where I had last placed it and then walked over to where the hand was laying on the floor. I knelt down to pick that up as well. “You know, I don’t know why I didn’t think of the possibility of his return previously. He was a very powerful priest in his own right, and it just makes sense that they would have taken some sort of precautions to be able to bring themselves back from the dead if they were going to do it for the local cops like me who they had snared into the Project.”
Zenny reached down to the table and picked up the Soulscope that she had placed on it to show El Diablito. “Rusty, it seemed like you were the only one in the room who knew what was going on. This encounter didn’t go anything like we expected. How did you know they would back down like that?”
I shook my head as I dropped the head and the hand of the doppelganger next to the main carcass. “I had no idea that Papa Locks would be here, or even that Chandler was a doppelganger until he led us out of that elevator. Something about the way he moved and the way he noticed me looking at him in the Shadowland reminded me of the doppelganger on South Beach, although I don’t think this one was as strong as the other one. As to knowing that they would back down like that, I didn’t. Once I saw how shocked they were that Chandler wasn’t who he said he was, I took the bit in my mouth and bluffed like I had never bluffed before.”
Zenny cocked her head. “Bluffed? What does that mean?”
I grinned. “It is sort of like pretending to be in stronger position than you really are. It is something you do a lot in a casino like this. I used to play a lot of poker when I was alive.”
Slightly less green about the gills than he was, Jim limped back into the room, making a point of not looking at the still smoldering body on the floor. “Well from what I saw Rusty, you might have a future in playing poker again. I was pretty impressed by how you handled that after the surprise of the…creature.”
Ravyn got up impatiently and walked over to Jim, showing him to a seat where the body wasn’t in view. “So how could you tell that the butler was a doppelganger Rusty? If these things serve the An’girasii, then we are going to need to know how to spot them in the future. You won’t always be around to deal with them for us.”
“Well, first I noticed how calm the guy was down in the lobby when he was waiting for us. He seemed to be keeping himself supernaturally still, and then kind of came alive when he noticed us approaching. I’m sure Chandler was a very good butler, someone who had a cool, calm demeanor, but I don’t know too many humans who can keep themselves that calm.
“Second, in the elevator, I noticed how he moved. The first doppelganger that I met in South Beach was super fast. It moved way faster than I ever could, unless I was using magick of some sort to enhance my speed. In the elevator, the butler moved with such speed and grace that I began to have my doubts at that point. That’s when I slipped into the Shadowland to take a glance at his Spirit form. His Spirit form reflected a sense of power and calmness that I didn’t quite think was appropriate for a human. What sealed the deal though was when he gave me a slight nod of acknowledge in the Shadowland, like he sensed me looking at him there. I have yet to meet a normal human being who can sense things simultaneously in both the physical world and the Shadowland and distinguish between the two places. I knew then that he was either a very powerful Caster or something else.
“The final straw was when he exited the elevator and didn’t touch anyone as he slipped past all of us to get ahead again. That was simply inhuman. I’m betting that at least some of these creatures only have the power to fool human sight, but not the sense of touch. I think the doppelganger in South Beach was stronger, that it could fool other senses, but not this one. That’s probably why he chose to impersonate a servant who would not be required to get that close to anyone else—he had a reason to keep his distance from other people.
“It will be very hard to distinguish these creatures from the people they are trying to impersonate. Agent Wilson and her crew will be taking the body back to Quantico and conducting an autopsy of it in the hopes of discovering some of their secrets.”
Agent Jennifer Wilson walked through door to the room just as I mentioned her name. She was followed by several agents in bio-hazard suits, two of whom were carrying a stretcher sheathed in a plastic of some sort.
She glanced at the corpse on the floor, wrinkled her nose at the smell of things and started giving orders to her team to gather up the body. A second crew followed the first, this crew pushing a cart with all sorts of bottles filled with liquid and various cleaning tools. She put those folks to work cleaning up all of the droplets and puddles of liquid that I had helped to create.
“I want this room roped off until we’ve got the task done. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get this done in good time.”
Once she had finished giving her orders and the body had been flipped onto the stretcher and the other parts collected and covered, Agent Wilson let her guard down a bit as she gave Ravyn a big hug. “It’s been too long Mistress Fyre.”
“Oh, stop that. Call me Ravyn. You aren’t my student any longer. So you’re leading a team now, I see.”
Agent Wilson stood slightly taller than the diminutive Ravyn, but it was almost like she still looked up to her. “Yeah, this team was Rusty’s idea, actually. He pulled some strings at HQ to let me form a special response team. Each of the team members has some measure of Talent that most of them were unaware of until I tested them using those techniques you had taught me back at the Coop. I’ve been bringing them along slowly, showing them evidence from our files that had been previously disregarded as unexplainable or as anomalies. I was just about to give you a call actually, before Rusty gave me the heads-up to show up here with the team.”
“Oh, what about?”
“I was wondering if we could set up a sort of intern program with you at the Coop. I’d like some of these agents to really hone the Talents they have, some of them could become decent Casters, if they had the training. It might also help you out to have a couple of agents in residence, in case more creatures like this thing come calling.”
I walked over to them. “That sounds like a good idea, actually. By the way Jennifer, what have you decided to call the team?”
She grinned and looked down at her feet sheepishly. “Zulu recommended that I call it the Omega Team.”
That brought a groan from my lips. “It figures. Well, why not use the designation for something positive?”
Jim stood up now that the body had been removed. He was close to his normal color again. “Well, that might be a good idea for the Coop. However, I would have to see whether or not we could increase the budget to allow for the extra expenses.”
Jennifer shook her head. “No worries there, Sir. If Ravyn agrees to host the agents, I’ve been given the green light to authorize a per diem expense at the going rate for the Chicago area for their living expenses, which should more than cover any expenses incurred by the extra agents in residence.”
Jim nodded. “Yeah, I think you are right. I don’t have any objection then. Do you, Ravyn?”
Ravyn shrugged. “I have no objection, so long as they know who the boss around there is! They can’t be any worse than this dumb zombie of ours is!”
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Enemies Mine...Part 5
El Diablito’s eyes narrowed and his voice took on a harder edge as he looked from the red-faced Ravyn to Zenny. “Speaking of pets, is this Bernstein’s little pet? I’ve heard and read so much about her. I must say, I can see what drove him to distraction.”
Zenny stepped up from behind me, her own face a mask a barely hidden pain. “I am no one’s pet, you butcher. Your words cannot harm me any worse than others have already done with their deeds. I have found something you probably wish had remained lost to the sands of time.” She reached into a pocket and drew out the Soulscope. She placed it on the table with the stark Nazi swastika facing up.
El Diablito sat back in obvious shock. “Wherever did you find that?”
I moved forward to the edge of the conference table, placing both hands on the edge and leaning onto it. “Let’s just say that we’ve been digging into your past, Dr. Klimm, and we’re not done yet.”
Dick Arnold finally recovered enough of his wits about him to glance up from the head of the doppelganger that still sat directly in front of him to El Diablito. “Lito, why do these crazy people keep calling you by this other name? Who is Dr. Klimm?”
The Professor finally made his way past the smoking corpse of the doppelganger, moving to Ravyn’s left side. He plopped his backpack on the table, reached in and pulled out a plain manila folder, less than half an inch thick. He tossed the folder to land just to the left of the head and its small pool of sizzling black liquid, on the other side of the head from El Diablito.
“Mr. Arnold, in that folder, you will find copies of the evidence to show that the man sitting at your side was previously known as Juergen Klimm, a German scientist during Hitler’s Third Reich. He is a wanted war criminal. The photos and articles inside that folder should be all the proof that you need that the man you have listed as D. B. Lito in all of your SEC filings for Bone Financial and the Mercury-Unlimited Group is a known and wanted war criminal. This information has not yet been made public, but additional copies of that folder are safely in the hands of those who will ensure that every major newspaper in America will have this information if anything should happen to us tonight. I don’t think your stock holders and investors will like the idea that the man known as the Zombie King in Nazi Germany is up to some of his old tricks with their money.”
El Diablito had recovered from his shock, his face taking on the expression of someone who was thinking hard to come up solutions to an unexpected problem.
During this whole exchange, Papa Locks had stood motionless between and slightly behind both of the sitting men. His arms were crossed, his face still obscured by the enormous hood of the cloak.
Dick Arnold’s expression became one of a businessman engaged in a serious negotiation. He licked his thin lips, intertwined his fingers and looked from the folder, still untouched, back up to Jim.
“So, what is it that you want from us? You obviously could have gone public with this information, but have chosen not to use it yet. Why not?”
That was my cue. I stood up straight again and nodded in El Diablito’s direction while looking Dick Arnold directly in the eyes. “We know who you have working for you.” I glanced up at Papa Locks. “And what you have been doing with his knowledge and expertise. We also know that Dr. Klimm here is building an organization of Caster’s of questionable ethics and character.” I strode down the length of the long table until I approached where the two men were sitting.
The guards behind them nervously fingered their weapons, trying to decide if I was posing a threat to their charges.
I got close enough to Dick Arnold to reach down and palm the top of the head of the doppelganger. In the same motion I picked the head up, droplets of acidic black ichor trailing across the table as I did so.
“As much as we’d like to dedicate the time and resources to putting you and your little undead factories out of business, there are greater enemies out there right now.”
I turned the head of the doppelganger so that I look into its vacant eyes for a moment before turning its dead gaze back on the lesser foes sitting before me.
“This creature, this doppelganger, is but a minor servant of an enemy of all of humanity that sees Casters like Dr. Klimm and Ravyn as threats to be eliminated so that they can take control easier. They see beings like myself, and now apparently Papa Locks, as well as any other undead you dumbasses have managed to create as possible tools to taken and used and discarded at will.
“Dick, you were surprised to see that your longtime manservant, Grimes, was actually a monster in disguise. How long do you think you have been making your plans in front of that servant, not knowing that he served another more powerful master? How many other such spies are around you?”
I brandished the head, letting the little droplets spray around as I did so. “These creatures can take any damn form that they want to, shifting their bodies and their Spirits to match the forms of the person they are killing. They can take your voice, your mannerisms, and enough of your memories to pass as you so well that your own mama wouldn’t know the difference. How much longer do you think you would have lived if this doppelganger had decided that he wanted to be you, instead of your poor servant?”
Dick Arnold sat back and gulped at the thought.
I wasn’t done yet, however. “We agreed to come here tonight to see you in the hopes of getting you to pay attention to the real enemy that we all are facing right now. The An’girasii have been awakened. They are taking stock of the world and gathering their forces.”
I slammed the head back down on the table for emphasis. It landed with a thick, wet splat, droplets spraying all over. Arnold and his guards jerked back in reaction to the spray.
“Finally, we are here to give you warning.” I leaned down and picked up the folder, now splotched and smoldering in a couple of spots. “We don’t expect a lot of help in facing this enemy from the likes you and your cronies, but if we think for one minute that you have decided to throw your lot in with that enemy, or you hinder us in any way—everything that you have built up, your fortune, your reputation, and your companies will all be destroyed without mercy.”
I was looming over Dick Arnold now, his guard having shrunk back in fear at the way I was moving and carrying myself. “And, Dickie boy, I will hunt you down like the dog that you are, and there is not a damn thing you, or any of your servants and stooges will be able to do to stop me. Do I make myself clear?”
His mouth was moving up and down again, but no intelligible sounds were coming out of it.
I turned my attention to El Diablito. He was trying to glare back at me with defiance, but it came across more like petulance.
“You and I have some unfinished business, Klimm. If we both survive the coming struggle against Drake’s ancient foes, you will have much to answer for. I am looking forward to that day. In the meantime, you had better keep a civil tongue in your head, or I’ll make time to deal with you sooner rather than later.”
Finally, I looked straight up into the darkness created by the hood of Papa Locks cloak. He stood unmoving, unimpressed.
“I’m not sorry to see you back, Locks. Now I’ll have that chance to settle my own score with you. But that too, can wait for now.”
I stepped back and made a dismissive wave with my left arm. “I would recommend that you all take your leave now. A team of specially trained investigators and field agents from the FBI will be here shortly. I don’t think it will be a good idea for you to be here when they arrive. The body stays.”
Papa Locks nodded. “I have taken my measure of you anew, Bones. You have grown into your powers impressively.” His laugh rumbled forth from his body again. “I am looking forward to our next encounter, it shall be most interesting.” His hood shifted slightly as he looked down as El Diablito and then Dick Arnold. “Come, my little friends. We have seen and heard enough tonight.”
His skeletal right hand emerged from within his cloak and drew on the power of the Shadow to create a portal. The guards were the first to step through, then El Diablito, his lips pursed in thought. Dick Arnold reached down and took the folder that had been given to him before he too stepped through.
Papa Locks was the last one left. He glanced back in my direction and raised his left hand in either a salute or a challenge. “Until we meet again, Bones.”
Zenny stepped up from behind me, her own face a mask a barely hidden pain. “I am no one’s pet, you butcher. Your words cannot harm me any worse than others have already done with their deeds. I have found something you probably wish had remained lost to the sands of time.” She reached into a pocket and drew out the Soulscope. She placed it on the table with the stark Nazi swastika facing up.
El Diablito sat back in obvious shock. “Wherever did you find that?”
I moved forward to the edge of the conference table, placing both hands on the edge and leaning onto it. “Let’s just say that we’ve been digging into your past, Dr. Klimm, and we’re not done yet.”
Dick Arnold finally recovered enough of his wits about him to glance up from the head of the doppelganger that still sat directly in front of him to El Diablito. “Lito, why do these crazy people keep calling you by this other name? Who is Dr. Klimm?”
The Professor finally made his way past the smoking corpse of the doppelganger, moving to Ravyn’s left side. He plopped his backpack on the table, reached in and pulled out a plain manila folder, less than half an inch thick. He tossed the folder to land just to the left of the head and its small pool of sizzling black liquid, on the other side of the head from El Diablito.
“Mr. Arnold, in that folder, you will find copies of the evidence to show that the man sitting at your side was previously known as Juergen Klimm, a German scientist during Hitler’s Third Reich. He is a wanted war criminal. The photos and articles inside that folder should be all the proof that you need that the man you have listed as D. B. Lito in all of your SEC filings for Bone Financial and the Mercury-Unlimited Group is a known and wanted war criminal. This information has not yet been made public, but additional copies of that folder are safely in the hands of those who will ensure that every major newspaper in America will have this information if anything should happen to us tonight. I don’t think your stock holders and investors will like the idea that the man known as the Zombie King in Nazi Germany is up to some of his old tricks with their money.”
El Diablito had recovered from his shock, his face taking on the expression of someone who was thinking hard to come up solutions to an unexpected problem.
During this whole exchange, Papa Locks had stood motionless between and slightly behind both of the sitting men. His arms were crossed, his face still obscured by the enormous hood of the cloak.
Dick Arnold’s expression became one of a businessman engaged in a serious negotiation. He licked his thin lips, intertwined his fingers and looked from the folder, still untouched, back up to Jim.
“So, what is it that you want from us? You obviously could have gone public with this information, but have chosen not to use it yet. Why not?”
That was my cue. I stood up straight again and nodded in El Diablito’s direction while looking Dick Arnold directly in the eyes. “We know who you have working for you.” I glanced up at Papa Locks. “And what you have been doing with his knowledge and expertise. We also know that Dr. Klimm here is building an organization of Caster’s of questionable ethics and character.” I strode down the length of the long table until I approached where the two men were sitting.
The guards behind them nervously fingered their weapons, trying to decide if I was posing a threat to their charges.
I got close enough to Dick Arnold to reach down and palm the top of the head of the doppelganger. In the same motion I picked the head up, droplets of acidic black ichor trailing across the table as I did so.
“As much as we’d like to dedicate the time and resources to putting you and your little undead factories out of business, there are greater enemies out there right now.”
I turned the head of the doppelganger so that I look into its vacant eyes for a moment before turning its dead gaze back on the lesser foes sitting before me.
“This creature, this doppelganger, is but a minor servant of an enemy of all of humanity that sees Casters like Dr. Klimm and Ravyn as threats to be eliminated so that they can take control easier. They see beings like myself, and now apparently Papa Locks, as well as any other undead you dumbasses have managed to create as possible tools to taken and used and discarded at will.
“Dick, you were surprised to see that your longtime manservant, Grimes, was actually a monster in disguise. How long do you think you have been making your plans in front of that servant, not knowing that he served another more powerful master? How many other such spies are around you?”
I brandished the head, letting the little droplets spray around as I did so. “These creatures can take any damn form that they want to, shifting their bodies and their Spirits to match the forms of the person they are killing. They can take your voice, your mannerisms, and enough of your memories to pass as you so well that your own mama wouldn’t know the difference. How much longer do you think you would have lived if this doppelganger had decided that he wanted to be you, instead of your poor servant?”
Dick Arnold sat back and gulped at the thought.
I wasn’t done yet, however. “We agreed to come here tonight to see you in the hopes of getting you to pay attention to the real enemy that we all are facing right now. The An’girasii have been awakened. They are taking stock of the world and gathering their forces.”
I slammed the head back down on the table for emphasis. It landed with a thick, wet splat, droplets spraying all over. Arnold and his guards jerked back in reaction to the spray.
“Finally, we are here to give you warning.” I leaned down and picked up the folder, now splotched and smoldering in a couple of spots. “We don’t expect a lot of help in facing this enemy from the likes you and your cronies, but if we think for one minute that you have decided to throw your lot in with that enemy, or you hinder us in any way—everything that you have built up, your fortune, your reputation, and your companies will all be destroyed without mercy.”
I was looming over Dick Arnold now, his guard having shrunk back in fear at the way I was moving and carrying myself. “And, Dickie boy, I will hunt you down like the dog that you are, and there is not a damn thing you, or any of your servants and stooges will be able to do to stop me. Do I make myself clear?”
His mouth was moving up and down again, but no intelligible sounds were coming out of it.
I turned my attention to El Diablito. He was trying to glare back at me with defiance, but it came across more like petulance.
“You and I have some unfinished business, Klimm. If we both survive the coming struggle against Drake’s ancient foes, you will have much to answer for. I am looking forward to that day. In the meantime, you had better keep a civil tongue in your head, or I’ll make time to deal with you sooner rather than later.”
Finally, I looked straight up into the darkness created by the hood of Papa Locks cloak. He stood unmoving, unimpressed.
“I’m not sorry to see you back, Locks. Now I’ll have that chance to settle my own score with you. But that too, can wait for now.”
I stepped back and made a dismissive wave with my left arm. “I would recommend that you all take your leave now. A team of specially trained investigators and field agents from the FBI will be here shortly. I don’t think it will be a good idea for you to be here when they arrive. The body stays.”
Papa Locks nodded. “I have taken my measure of you anew, Bones. You have grown into your powers impressively.” His laugh rumbled forth from his body again. “I am looking forward to our next encounter, it shall be most interesting.” His hood shifted slightly as he looked down as El Diablito and then Dick Arnold. “Come, my little friends. We have seen and heard enough tonight.”
His skeletal right hand emerged from within his cloak and drew on the power of the Shadow to create a portal. The guards were the first to step through, then El Diablito, his lips pursed in thought. Dick Arnold reached down and took the folder that had been given to him before he too stepped through.
Papa Locks was the last one left. He glanced back in my direction and raised his left hand in either a salute or a challenge. “Until we meet again, Bones.”
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Enemies Mine...Part 3
Seizing on the opportunity created by the surprise of seeing Papa Locks standing across the room, I stretched my right hand up to my right shoulder and seized ahold of the hilt of Excalibur.
In a blindingly fast move that I had been practicing ever since that nasty encounter on South Beach, I drew the blade and lashed out with it. Even with surprise, however, I would have missed my target if the blade hadn't adjusted itself in mid-swing.
The magickal blade whizzed out faster than the human eye can see, taking Chandler's head and the hand that he had brought up in an attempt to ward off the blow that no one else knew was coming. Hand and head went flying up in the air as tremendous energies and a fountain of blackish ichor were unleashed in a gushing flood. The lights of the room flickered as the Spirit of the creature was destroyed by the blade's deadly magick.
Dick Arnold sat stunned, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. His hands clenched to the table as he watched the head of his long time servants head go flying, only to see the head of a monster land on the table with a thud. The empty eyes of an alien creature stared back at him.
El Diablito had the presence of mind to kick back from the table and stand up, a ball of powerful energy gathering around his right hand, ready to smite any who threatened him. "Bones, what is the meaning..."
The two guards reached for weapons at their sides, the guard on the right side ducking down to use the table as cover as he drew a weapon. The guard on the left had his pistol up and out in a standing postiion.
Only Papa Locks didn't react in utter surprise. Even though his head was obscured by the dark hood of the cloak, I saw it tip back as a laughter echoed forth, his shoulders shaking in mirth. "You see, Little Devil, I told you that butler was not who he seemed to be!"
I heard Zenny gasp in surprise, while Jim uttered a series of curses that would have shocked his students. I could feel Ravyn gathering her own power, whether in response to El Diablito or to my actions, I wasn't sure.
I reached down to the oozing form of the doppleganger on the floor, hooked my left hand into the hole at the top of its neck and pulled the body up for all to see. Excalibur still smoking in my right hand, I looked to my other enemies across the table.
"We need to talk."
(To be continued tonight...)
In a blindingly fast move that I had been practicing ever since that nasty encounter on South Beach, I drew the blade and lashed out with it. Even with surprise, however, I would have missed my target if the blade hadn't adjusted itself in mid-swing.
The magickal blade whizzed out faster than the human eye can see, taking Chandler's head and the hand that he had brought up in an attempt to ward off the blow that no one else knew was coming. Hand and head went flying up in the air as tremendous energies and a fountain of blackish ichor were unleashed in a gushing flood. The lights of the room flickered as the Spirit of the creature was destroyed by the blade's deadly magick.
Dick Arnold sat stunned, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. His hands clenched to the table as he watched the head of his long time servants head go flying, only to see the head of a monster land on the table with a thud. The empty eyes of an alien creature stared back at him.
El Diablito had the presence of mind to kick back from the table and stand up, a ball of powerful energy gathering around his right hand, ready to smite any who threatened him. "Bones, what is the meaning..."
The two guards reached for weapons at their sides, the guard on the right side ducking down to use the table as cover as he drew a weapon. The guard on the left had his pistol up and out in a standing postiion.
Only Papa Locks didn't react in utter surprise. Even though his head was obscured by the dark hood of the cloak, I saw it tip back as a laughter echoed forth, his shoulders shaking in mirth. "You see, Little Devil, I told you that butler was not who he seemed to be!"
I heard Zenny gasp in surprise, while Jim uttered a series of curses that would have shocked his students. I could feel Ravyn gathering her own power, whether in response to El Diablito or to my actions, I wasn't sure.
I reached down to the oozing form of the doppleganger on the floor, hooked my left hand into the hole at the top of its neck and pulled the body up for all to see. Excalibur still smoking in my right hand, I looked to my other enemies across the table.
"We need to talk."
(To be continued tonight...)
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Enemies Mine...Part 2
We were met in the lobby by a thin, tall, middle-aged black man wearing a black tuxedo, highly polished shoes, and white gloves. He had been waiting in the middle of the room, calmly ignoring the never-ending stream of humanity that simply parted around him as they sought the golden spawning grounds in the gaming rooms behind him.
As we approached however, he came to life as if having been turned on. His spoke as we came near and bowed his head ever so slightly in my direction. “Agent Rusty Bones, I presume?” His accent distinguished as someone who trained or lived in England for a very long time.
I stopped. “Yeah. I’m Agent Bones. What can I do for you?”
He tilted his head again in the faintest hint of a bow of deference. “My name is Chandler Grimes. I have been asked to take you to your party.”
“Have you now? And just what party is that Chandler?” I stared directly into his eyes, trying to gain his measure, quite aware that many people found it hard to look directly at me for any significant period of time.
He returned my gaze, unfazed and unblinking as he replied. “I am in the personal employ of Mr. Richard Arnold. He has asked me to meet you and your party and to escort you to his private chambers.”
I extended my right arm, palm up and open. “Well then, my good man, why don’t you lead the way?”
He bobbed his head one more time, looked directly at my three companions for the first time. He bowed more substantially to Raven and Zenny while he barely acknowledged Jim’s existence. He turned on a dime and began a slow, march through the ever changing stream of customers, effortlessly avoiding contact with any of them as made his way towards a roped off elevator just off the side of the main lobby.
As we moved to follow, Ravyn leaned over to me. “What happened with meeting him in a public place?”
Jim’s quizzical look asked the same question without any words.
I brought my hand up to my mouth to prevent anyone from reading my lips while I pretended to cough. “It’s OK. Trust me.”
She arched an eyebrow at that, but didn’t otherwise respond.
A security guard pulled the velvet rope to the side, allowing us to follow behind Chandler into the elevator.
“Chandler, is an elevator necessary? This place can’t have more than four floors?”
The butler bobbed his head again before he spoke. “I am following my instructions, Agent Bones.”
The door closed as Jim brought up the rear of the party. It was just us and Chandler in the spacious elevator. I decided to take a chance and shifted in my vision into the Shadowland.
Chandler’s Spirit form was a very calm, deep blue in color and matched the shape and size of his body. His form looked right at me as I looked at him. It seemed that he gave me the same sort of slight nod that he had given me before. I shifted back into normal vision just as the elevator reached the third and top floor. The door opened with a chime.
Chandler somehow found a way through us and into the hall beyond before anyone could even shift out of his way. He didn’t seem to move that fast, but he was effortlessly leading the way again down a quiet, deserted hallway full of closed doors.
He stopped in front of a set of double doors, waiting for us to catch up to him. As we approached, he pulled open both doors so that they clicked into place and remained open without anyone holding onto them and stepped inside the beautifully appointed conference room.
Once inside, his announced in a loud, clear voice. “Mr. Arnold, it is my pleasure to announce the arrival of Agent Rusty Bones and party.” He turned to wave us into the room with his gloved left hand.
Stepping inside the large room, I saw Dick Arnold and El Diablito seated next to each other at the end of a long conference table. Standing behind them were three figures. Two of the figures, one to each side, were clearly guards, although they didn’t seem to be the same kind of goons that Drake and Dick Arnold had employed in the past. These two guys were clearly not your average soldier turned mercenary types.
But it was the third figure that caused me to stop in my tracks. I couldn’t make out any actual physical features because he was shrouded in a hooded dark cloak that obscured his face. But there was no mistaking that aura as soon as I saw him, I recognized him.
“Papa Locks!”
As we approached however, he came to life as if having been turned on. His spoke as we came near and bowed his head ever so slightly in my direction. “Agent Rusty Bones, I presume?” His accent distinguished as someone who trained or lived in England for a very long time.
I stopped. “Yeah. I’m Agent Bones. What can I do for you?”
He tilted his head again in the faintest hint of a bow of deference. “My name is Chandler Grimes. I have been asked to take you to your party.”
“Have you now? And just what party is that Chandler?” I stared directly into his eyes, trying to gain his measure, quite aware that many people found it hard to look directly at me for any significant period of time.
He returned my gaze, unfazed and unblinking as he replied. “I am in the personal employ of Mr. Richard Arnold. He has asked me to meet you and your party and to escort you to his private chambers.”
I extended my right arm, palm up and open. “Well then, my good man, why don’t you lead the way?”
He bobbed his head one more time, looked directly at my three companions for the first time. He bowed more substantially to Raven and Zenny while he barely acknowledged Jim’s existence. He turned on a dime and began a slow, march through the ever changing stream of customers, effortlessly avoiding contact with any of them as made his way towards a roped off elevator just off the side of the main lobby.
As we moved to follow, Ravyn leaned over to me. “What happened with meeting him in a public place?”
Jim’s quizzical look asked the same question without any words.
I brought my hand up to my mouth to prevent anyone from reading my lips while I pretended to cough. “It’s OK. Trust me.”
She arched an eyebrow at that, but didn’t otherwise respond.
A security guard pulled the velvet rope to the side, allowing us to follow behind Chandler into the elevator.
“Chandler, is an elevator necessary? This place can’t have more than four floors?”
The butler bobbed his head again before he spoke. “I am following my instructions, Agent Bones.”
The door closed as Jim brought up the rear of the party. It was just us and Chandler in the spacious elevator. I decided to take a chance and shifted in my vision into the Shadowland.
Chandler’s Spirit form was a very calm, deep blue in color and matched the shape and size of his body. His form looked right at me as I looked at him. It seemed that he gave me the same sort of slight nod that he had given me before. I shifted back into normal vision just as the elevator reached the third and top floor. The door opened with a chime.
Chandler somehow found a way through us and into the hall beyond before anyone could even shift out of his way. He didn’t seem to move that fast, but he was effortlessly leading the way again down a quiet, deserted hallway full of closed doors.
He stopped in front of a set of double doors, waiting for us to catch up to him. As we approached, he pulled open both doors so that they clicked into place and remained open without anyone holding onto them and stepped inside the beautifully appointed conference room.
Once inside, his announced in a loud, clear voice. “Mr. Arnold, it is my pleasure to announce the arrival of Agent Rusty Bones and party.” He turned to wave us into the room with his gloved left hand.
Stepping inside the large room, I saw Dick Arnold and El Diablito seated next to each other at the end of a long conference table. Standing behind them were three figures. Two of the figures, one to each side, were clearly guards, although they didn’t seem to be the same kind of goons that Drake and Dick Arnold had employed in the past. These two guys were clearly not your average soldier turned mercenary types.
But it was the third figure that caused me to stop in my tracks. I couldn’t make out any actual physical features because he was shrouded in a hooded dark cloak that obscured his face. But there was no mistaking that aura as soon as I saw him, I recognized him.
“Papa Locks!”
Enemies Mine...Part 1
We pulled into the unlighted parking lot on the edge of Detroit’s Greektown district. Jim backed the large white Co-op van into the spot the attendant had indicated, but not until the man had collected a $10 bill from the grumbling Jim.
Turning off the van, Jim turned to face the rest of us in the van. “I still think you should have agreed to meet him outside. Nothing good happens in a casino unless you happen to own the thing.”
“Yeah, well I was actually trying to keep everyone from freezing to death when we met with them. Plus the crowds will hopefully keep things from coming to blows between us and minimize any possible dirty tricks they can try to pull on us.”
Jim shook his head as he pocketed the keys to the van. “I don’t know about that, with Arnold’s money and influence, I’m worried that we’ll be walking into a trap.”
“Hey, they’re on my turf now, Jim. Trust me. I’ve got it all under control.”
Ravyn looked back from the front passenger seat, incredulous. “Trust you? After all of the times you’ve walked blindly into danger? Yeah, right. We’re not all dead, you know, and we’d rather not get that way! Let’s go.”
The four of us got out of the van, our boots crunching in the crusted snow that hadn’t been cleared in the week since the last storm. The cold winter air had enough bite in to show the breath of each of the other three in the party.
Zenny pulled her hijab closer to her forehead with her gloved hands. She stomped her feet and shivered as she waited for Ravyn and Jim to join us.
“How can people live in such a cold place?”
I shook my head. “Detroit’s not bad. A lot of your fellow Iraqi’s live here too.”
She looked down at her feet, pushing the snow side to side with her left boot. “I don’t know what could have brought them here.”
Happy to have a chance to talk about my native community and show a little of my local lore I decided to expound a little bit in her native tongue. “Well, Henry Ford and his $5 a day work day brought a lot of immigrants to this area starting about 80 years ago, including a lot of laborers from Yemen and Lebanon. I think the Iraqi’s are mostly refugees from Saddam though, they didn’t start coming in large numbers until the Iran/Iraq war started. The Detroit area is home to the largest concentration of Arabs outside of the Middle East. When we’re done here, we can probably get some good food for you from a really good bakery.”
Zenny replied in Arabic. “This is one Arab who wishes that it was warmer here in the winter.” She cracked a small smile and switched back to English. “Thank you, Rusty. It is always nice to hear you speak Arabic.”
As Jim and Ravyn joined us, we began the short walk to the casino. Jim carried a small backpack that he slung over his shoulder.
Ravyn walked silently next to him, her eyes darting between abandoned buildings and nearly empty lots. “This is downtown Detroit? I thought it would be a little more alive than this.”
Our crunching steps and hushed words were just then overshadowed by a siren as an ambulance screamed down a nearby street. “It’s actually better now than a few years ago. This entire area was empty, except for a few Greek restaurants. Before the casinos and the new stadiums, this entire section of the city was a wasteland.”
Jim harrumphed, waving his free right hand about as he spoke. “But how much public money was spent to attract and build those things here? I’ll bet that those tax dollars would have been better spent on something more productive than helping the wealthy get wealthier.”
I glanced over to Jim. “At least now there is something for people to do when they come to this city. Before this stuff, there wasn’t anything to bring them here.”
We rounded the corner and saw the glitzy signs of the casino and the bustle of patrons going in and out.
I stopped. “So is everyone ready? Any questions on the plan of action?”
All three shook their heads.
“OK, then, let’s get in, do our business, and get out.”
Turning off the van, Jim turned to face the rest of us in the van. “I still think you should have agreed to meet him outside. Nothing good happens in a casino unless you happen to own the thing.”
“Yeah, well I was actually trying to keep everyone from freezing to death when we met with them. Plus the crowds will hopefully keep things from coming to blows between us and minimize any possible dirty tricks they can try to pull on us.”
Jim shook his head as he pocketed the keys to the van. “I don’t know about that, with Arnold’s money and influence, I’m worried that we’ll be walking into a trap.”
“Hey, they’re on my turf now, Jim. Trust me. I’ve got it all under control.”
Ravyn looked back from the front passenger seat, incredulous. “Trust you? After all of the times you’ve walked blindly into danger? Yeah, right. We’re not all dead, you know, and we’d rather not get that way! Let’s go.”
The four of us got out of the van, our boots crunching in the crusted snow that hadn’t been cleared in the week since the last storm. The cold winter air had enough bite in to show the breath of each of the other three in the party.
Zenny pulled her hijab closer to her forehead with her gloved hands. She stomped her feet and shivered as she waited for Ravyn and Jim to join us.
“How can people live in such a cold place?”
I shook my head. “Detroit’s not bad. A lot of your fellow Iraqi’s live here too.”
She looked down at her feet, pushing the snow side to side with her left boot. “I don’t know what could have brought them here.”
Happy to have a chance to talk about my native community and show a little of my local lore I decided to expound a little bit in her native tongue. “Well, Henry Ford and his $5 a day work day brought a lot of immigrants to this area starting about 80 years ago, including a lot of laborers from Yemen and Lebanon. I think the Iraqi’s are mostly refugees from Saddam though, they didn’t start coming in large numbers until the Iran/Iraq war started. The Detroit area is home to the largest concentration of Arabs outside of the Middle East. When we’re done here, we can probably get some good food for you from a really good bakery.”
Zenny replied in Arabic. “This is one Arab who wishes that it was warmer here in the winter.” She cracked a small smile and switched back to English. “Thank you, Rusty. It is always nice to hear you speak Arabic.”
As Jim and Ravyn joined us, we began the short walk to the casino. Jim carried a small backpack that he slung over his shoulder.
Ravyn walked silently next to him, her eyes darting between abandoned buildings and nearly empty lots. “This is downtown Detroit? I thought it would be a little more alive than this.”
Our crunching steps and hushed words were just then overshadowed by a siren as an ambulance screamed down a nearby street. “It’s actually better now than a few years ago. This entire area was empty, except for a few Greek restaurants. Before the casinos and the new stadiums, this entire section of the city was a wasteland.”
Jim harrumphed, waving his free right hand about as he spoke. “But how much public money was spent to attract and build those things here? I’ll bet that those tax dollars would have been better spent on something more productive than helping the wealthy get wealthier.”
I glanced over to Jim. “At least now there is something for people to do when they come to this city. Before this stuff, there wasn’t anything to bring them here.”
We rounded the corner and saw the glitzy signs of the casino and the bustle of patrons going in and out.
I stopped. “So is everyone ready? Any questions on the plan of action?”
All three shook their heads.
“OK, then, let’s get in, do our business, and get out.”
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The Soulscope
The stethoscope head sat on the table between the professor and me. We had commandeered this room, the library at the Coop from the couple of drowsy young students who had still been pretending to be studying, and shut the doors while Ravyn helped get Zenny to her room.
The larger, flatter side of the piece was plain and unremarkable. That side was made entirely out of dull but unstained steel. Its shallow cone shape appeared to be designed to be placed directly on the skin of the victim, much as the flat side of a normal stethoscope would be placed on a patient to enable a doctor to hear the patient’s heartbeat.
The darker, more sinister-looking part of the device was the hard, enameled knob on top of it. That’s where the swastika sat staring back up. There was a pair of small nozzles onto which I presumed small rubber hosing could be attached. If this thing were a normal stethoscope, those nozzles would feed the sound of the patient’s heartbeat up to the pieces that the doctor would insert into his ears. I had no idea why the nozzles would be needed on this device, or what it actually did.
Jim shifted in his chair first, causing it to groan and creak as he did so. “So, what is thing? I know what it looks like, but I get the feeling that it isn’t really what it looks like. And why did El Diablito leave the thing there? It seems like it would have some value to him.”
“When I took it from Zenny, just touching that thing awakened the Voices inside me that have been pretty dormant for a while. This thing looks old enough to have been used by the Nazis. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if El Diablito himself hadn’t worked with the Nazis. Drake had originally told me that a lot of the secret stuff that the Allies took from the Nazis related to magick. He also said that a lot of those practitioners escaped to different parts of the world.”
The door opened and closed quietly behind me. I saw Jim’s eyes and face light up for the briefest of moments before his features settled back into a look of concern. “How’s Zenny doing, Ravyn?”
“She was protesting the whole way to her room, but she collapsed into a deep sleep as soon as she hit her pillow.” Ravyn pulled a chair up to the table, turned it around and sat on it backwards, looking intently at the device that lay on the table. “I don’t like the feelings I’m getting from that thing one little bit. When we’re done with it, I want it taken far away from here. I don’t want to risk any students getting a little too curious.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ll take it with me when we go to see the bastard in Detroit, tomorrow night.”
Jim’s lips pursed in thought. “Are you sure that’s wise? What if he left it there for just such a possibility? He did have that phone set up for you guys.”
Ravyn placed her hands on the table and leaned in for a closer look without actually touching the thing. “Zenny did manage to tell me that she felt that something was in that room, but that she had to dig around for it the corner of the room. I don’t think he left it there on purpose. There’s no way he could have known someone with Zenny’s sensitivity would have been in the group to check that place out.”
Jim watched as Ravyn leaned in real close to the thing and then backed away. He finally breathed when she was far enough away not to touch it by accident. “Then if it is something that he lost, are we really sure that we want to take it with us? He might want the thing back, and I don’t think this is something we want in his hands.”
I shook my head. “He’s not going to get the thing back. That much is for sure. What’s this ‘we’ stuff anyway, Jim?”
He cleared his throat and crossed his arms as he sat up straight again. “I’m going with you to Detroit.”
“Just like that, huh? No discussion about possible dangers or who else we might ask to come along?” I looked to Ravyn for some support. “I don’t think that they’ll let us take any visible weapons into the casino, Jim.”
Ravyn glanced from me to Jim, then reached out and touched Jim on the shoulder with her right hand, giving him a reassuring squeeze. “I think Jim should go too. We’re not planning on fighting in any event. But even it comes down to that, Jim can hold his own, even without his Louisville Slugger.”
Looking between these two, I saw that they had a united front against me, so I shrugged my shoulders and gave up. “OK, it just means I’ll have to watch out for another person.”
Jim’s brow furrowed at that. “I can take care of myself, Rusty.”
I shrugged again and reached out to touch the device on the table. “I just think we need to puzzle out what this thing actually is before we go…”
Behind us the door opened again, this time with a bang. As we turned to look back at who would interrupt us, we saw the slight figure of Zenny standing in the doorway, her head uncovered and barefoot in a heavy white bathrobe instead of the black outfit she had on previously.
Ravyn was already standing up and starting towards the door. “Zenny, dear, you should be getting some…”
Zenny brushed a stray strand of black hair from in front of her face and dismissed Ravyn’s concern with a shake of her head. “No. I’m OK.” She entered the room, closing the door behind her. She kept one hand on the front of the bathrobe, near her neck, keeping it closed more than it would have been if she had relied on the belt at her waist.
We all watched as she walked up to the table where the device still sat, she stood across from Ravyn.
There were dark splotches under her eyes and her cheeks were still moist with tears, but her mouth had a determined set about it as she stared down at the Nazi symbol.
When she spoke, her voice sounded hollow and distant. “That device was called a Soulscope. It was the first one of its kind. The man you call El Diablito designed it around seventy years ago as a Nazi researcher.”
Jim cocked his head. “A Soulscope? What does it do?”
Zenny choked back a sob as she remembered her intimate contact with the device. “In the hands of someone like El Diablito, it can be used to suck the soul out of living bodies, in part or in whole. In the hands of lesser talented individuals, its uses are more limited.”
“How so?”
Zenny shuddered pushed back another bunch of stray hair before answering. “Professor, you would probably only be able to ‘listen’ to the soul of another person, but you might know if that person were telling you the truth, or you might even hear what their darkest fears were.” She turned her head away from the thing, even as she still stood there. “That particular device was used both by El Diablito to conduct some of his early experiments and was later given to some SS guards at a death camp to learn more about what manner of death or torture scared the victims more. It had been lost in the war and was only recovered in the last five years. Even that heartless man couldn’t stand the way it feels now. That’s probably why he didn’t look too hard for it when his office was packed up.”
She looked back down at the device before reaching out to pick it up in a move that surprised all of us. She had it in her palm before any of could move to stop her.
Ravyn gasped, “Zenny, what are you…?”
Jim pushed back from the table as if getting ready to stand up.
I just sat there watching her with keen interest.
Zenny, one hand still holding the neck of her robe closed held the item up for all of us to see with her right hand. “I’m alright now. I was simply caught off guard by the evil of this thing and what it had been used for. This device is crude compared to the tools that he uses now, but he will not be amused to see that we have one of his early prototypes.
“I’m going to Detroit with you as well, and I think I should hold onto this for safekeeping. It has no more power over me.”
The larger, flatter side of the piece was plain and unremarkable. That side was made entirely out of dull but unstained steel. Its shallow cone shape appeared to be designed to be placed directly on the skin of the victim, much as the flat side of a normal stethoscope would be placed on a patient to enable a doctor to hear the patient’s heartbeat.
The darker, more sinister-looking part of the device was the hard, enameled knob on top of it. That’s where the swastika sat staring back up. There was a pair of small nozzles onto which I presumed small rubber hosing could be attached. If this thing were a normal stethoscope, those nozzles would feed the sound of the patient’s heartbeat up to the pieces that the doctor would insert into his ears. I had no idea why the nozzles would be needed on this device, or what it actually did.
Jim shifted in his chair first, causing it to groan and creak as he did so. “So, what is thing? I know what it looks like, but I get the feeling that it isn’t really what it looks like. And why did El Diablito leave the thing there? It seems like it would have some value to him.”
“When I took it from Zenny, just touching that thing awakened the Voices inside me that have been pretty dormant for a while. This thing looks old enough to have been used by the Nazis. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if El Diablito himself hadn’t worked with the Nazis. Drake had originally told me that a lot of the secret stuff that the Allies took from the Nazis related to magick. He also said that a lot of those practitioners escaped to different parts of the world.”
The door opened and closed quietly behind me. I saw Jim’s eyes and face light up for the briefest of moments before his features settled back into a look of concern. “How’s Zenny doing, Ravyn?”
“She was protesting the whole way to her room, but she collapsed into a deep sleep as soon as she hit her pillow.” Ravyn pulled a chair up to the table, turned it around and sat on it backwards, looking intently at the device that lay on the table. “I don’t like the feelings I’m getting from that thing one little bit. When we’re done with it, I want it taken far away from here. I don’t want to risk any students getting a little too curious.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ll take it with me when we go to see the bastard in Detroit, tomorrow night.”
Jim’s lips pursed in thought. “Are you sure that’s wise? What if he left it there for just such a possibility? He did have that phone set up for you guys.”
Ravyn placed her hands on the table and leaned in for a closer look without actually touching the thing. “Zenny did manage to tell me that she felt that something was in that room, but that she had to dig around for it the corner of the room. I don’t think he left it there on purpose. There’s no way he could have known someone with Zenny’s sensitivity would have been in the group to check that place out.”
Jim watched as Ravyn leaned in real close to the thing and then backed away. He finally breathed when she was far enough away not to touch it by accident. “Then if it is something that he lost, are we really sure that we want to take it with us? He might want the thing back, and I don’t think this is something we want in his hands.”
I shook my head. “He’s not going to get the thing back. That much is for sure. What’s this ‘we’ stuff anyway, Jim?”
He cleared his throat and crossed his arms as he sat up straight again. “I’m going with you to Detroit.”
“Just like that, huh? No discussion about possible dangers or who else we might ask to come along?” I looked to Ravyn for some support. “I don’t think that they’ll let us take any visible weapons into the casino, Jim.”
Ravyn glanced from me to Jim, then reached out and touched Jim on the shoulder with her right hand, giving him a reassuring squeeze. “I think Jim should go too. We’re not planning on fighting in any event. But even it comes down to that, Jim can hold his own, even without his Louisville Slugger.”
Looking between these two, I saw that they had a united front against me, so I shrugged my shoulders and gave up. “OK, it just means I’ll have to watch out for another person.”
Jim’s brow furrowed at that. “I can take care of myself, Rusty.”
I shrugged again and reached out to touch the device on the table. “I just think we need to puzzle out what this thing actually is before we go…”
Behind us the door opened again, this time with a bang. As we turned to look back at who would interrupt us, we saw the slight figure of Zenny standing in the doorway, her head uncovered and barefoot in a heavy white bathrobe instead of the black outfit she had on previously.
Ravyn was already standing up and starting towards the door. “Zenny, dear, you should be getting some…”
Zenny brushed a stray strand of black hair from in front of her face and dismissed Ravyn’s concern with a shake of her head. “No. I’m OK.” She entered the room, closing the door behind her. She kept one hand on the front of the bathrobe, near her neck, keeping it closed more than it would have been if she had relied on the belt at her waist.
We all watched as she walked up to the table where the device still sat, she stood across from Ravyn.
There were dark splotches under her eyes and her cheeks were still moist with tears, but her mouth had a determined set about it as she stared down at the Nazi symbol.
When she spoke, her voice sounded hollow and distant. “That device was called a Soulscope. It was the first one of its kind. The man you call El Diablito designed it around seventy years ago as a Nazi researcher.”
Jim cocked his head. “A Soulscope? What does it do?”
Zenny choked back a sob as she remembered her intimate contact with the device. “In the hands of someone like El Diablito, it can be used to suck the soul out of living bodies, in part or in whole. In the hands of lesser talented individuals, its uses are more limited.”
“How so?”
Zenny shuddered pushed back another bunch of stray hair before answering. “Professor, you would probably only be able to ‘listen’ to the soul of another person, but you might know if that person were telling you the truth, or you might even hear what their darkest fears were.” She turned her head away from the thing, even as she still stood there. “That particular device was used both by El Diablito to conduct some of his early experiments and was later given to some SS guards at a death camp to learn more about what manner of death or torture scared the victims more. It had been lost in the war and was only recovered in the last five years. Even that heartless man couldn’t stand the way it feels now. That’s probably why he didn’t look too hard for it when his office was packed up.”
She looked back down at the device before reaching out to pick it up in a move that surprised all of us. She had it in her palm before any of could move to stop her.
Ravyn gasped, “Zenny, what are you…?”
Jim pushed back from the table as if getting ready to stand up.
I just sat there watching her with keen interest.
Zenny, one hand still holding the neck of her robe closed held the item up for all of us to see with her right hand. “I’m alright now. I was simply caught off guard by the evil of this thing and what it had been used for. This device is crude compared to the tools that he uses now, but he will not be amused to see that we have one of his early prototypes.
“I’m going to Detroit with you as well, and I think I should hold onto this for safekeeping. It has no more power over me.”
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Opening Gambit...Postscript
I slammed the phone down. “That bastard has something up his sleeve.”
Ravyn nodded. “I’m very interested in what Zenny discovered about him just by touching that front door.” She glanced over to where Zenny had been standing moments ago and did a double take as she realized that Zenny wasn’t there any more. “Hey, where did she go?”
I looked around as well. “Zenny? Where are you?”
No response.
Ravyn shook her head and turned in a circle, looking about the empty room. “She can’t have gone very far.”
I nodded over toward the farthest door in the room, shifting my vision partially into Shadowland. “What’s that over there? I think she’s in there.”
My boots scuffed the cement floor as I walked, stiff-legged to the door, Ravyn close behind.
I pushed the door in, revealing a small back office that I hadn’t seen in my last visit to this shop.
Inside the cramped office, Zenny was kneeling on the floor and rocking back and forth in a rhythmic manner. Her bare hands were clasped together. Her eyes were clenched as tightly as her hands while her lips were moving in sync with her body. Zenny’s gloves lay stacked on the floor next to her. The office itself was lacking in any major furniture, but there was a blizzard of paper scattered about.
Ravyn slipped around me as I stopped at the doorway. She knelt down next to Zenny without actually touching her. “Zenny, what’s going on?”
No response. She continued to sway, her eyes remained closed, and her lips continued to move silently as if deep in meditation or prayer.
I stepped into the room. I reached deep inside the captured memories from Ma Grendel, looking for words in her native tongue. I spoke to her in Arabic. “Do you need help?” I reached out to touch her.
Ravyn stopped me from interrupting her. “No, Rusty. I think she needs to do this. There is powerful magick taking place right now. If we break her trance, there’s no telling what may happen.”
I stood back up and retreated. I let slip the connections between my body and Spirit form and slipped spiritually into the Shadowland. There I saw Ravyn’s fiery red form now focused back on the kneeling form of Zenny.
My attention was immediately drawn to Zenny’s form. Normally, Zenny’s Spirit form ranged from soft, dark violet to deep blue. Right at the moment, however, her colors had shifted to vibrant, pulsating hues of orange and yellow. The glow was strongest at her clasped hands, as if she were trying to contain something very powerful within them.
Using a portion of my essence, I stretched out a tendril towards her hands, getting as close as I could without actually touching her. It was quite difficult to do, because there are unseen fields of resistance between different individual Spirit forms. The resistance can be overcome through force of Will but it is exceptionally hard to push very close to another form without actually completely overpowering that resistance.
The closer I got though, the more I sensed something desperately wrong. I felt an overpowering sense of evil emanating from that source between her hands. I could also tell that she was trying desperately to shield us from the pain that she was so clearly experiencing.
That was enough for me. I snapped back into my body and dropped to my knees in front of her and took her still clasped hands in mine.
“Rusty, what are you doing? What’s wrong?” Ravyn’s voice was cracking with concern.
“She’s got a hold of something. Whatever it is, it isn’t good.” Her fingers were clenched tight. Gently at first, I began to pry her fingers away from whatever it was that she was holding.
Zenny gasped in pain as both her rhythm and her grasp was broken. Her left hand loosed and went limp as I managed to reach inside and grab the object. She collapsed into Ravyn’s arms, her chest heaving, tears running down her face. Her choking sobs were loud at first, but were quickly soothed by a deliberately calm Ravyn.
I opened my own palm and looked at what had caused all of this fuss. It seemed innocuous enough—the small metal head of what looked to be a stethoscope. But turning it over in my palm, the back side of it showed something far more sinister. A small symbol was engraved on the backside. It was symbol that even I recognized. It was a swastika.
“What is it, Rusty?”
Even without slipping into the Shadowland, I could feel the power of the thing. Deep inside of my being, the dark whispers of entities slain and consumed long ago by Ma Grendel awakened once again. Their voices ate at my consciousness, calling out in glee at the discovery of this evil tool.
“Feed us!”
“Let us take them!”
“We hunger!”
I closed my hand around the object and tamped the whispers back down into the bowels of my soul. The realization at what I had in my hands had shaken me to my very core. “It’s something from the Nazi’s. I think it was used by El Diablito in the concentration camps for something, but I can’t open myself to it just yet. It is stirring up things inside me that I can’t risk letting loose right now.”
Zenny had stopped sobbing now and seemed to be resting Ravyn’s arms.
“We need to get back to the Coop and find out what she has seen, both from this damn thing and from the door.”
Ravyn nodded. “Let’s get back there quickly.”
I shoved the stethoscope head into my pocket and reached down to pick up Zenny. “We’re taking the express road back, babe. Don’t forget her gloves.”
I stood up and waited for Ravyn to collect her gloves and join me. I called the Shadow as soon as she was ready. This time, Zombie Air provided direct, door-to-door service right back to Ravyn’s study.
Ravyn nodded. “I’m very interested in what Zenny discovered about him just by touching that front door.” She glanced over to where Zenny had been standing moments ago and did a double take as she realized that Zenny wasn’t there any more. “Hey, where did she go?”
I looked around as well. “Zenny? Where are you?”
No response.
Ravyn shook her head and turned in a circle, looking about the empty room. “She can’t have gone very far.”
I nodded over toward the farthest door in the room, shifting my vision partially into Shadowland. “What’s that over there? I think she’s in there.”
My boots scuffed the cement floor as I walked, stiff-legged to the door, Ravyn close behind.
I pushed the door in, revealing a small back office that I hadn’t seen in my last visit to this shop.
Inside the cramped office, Zenny was kneeling on the floor and rocking back and forth in a rhythmic manner. Her bare hands were clasped together. Her eyes were clenched as tightly as her hands while her lips were moving in sync with her body. Zenny’s gloves lay stacked on the floor next to her. The office itself was lacking in any major furniture, but there was a blizzard of paper scattered about.
Ravyn slipped around me as I stopped at the doorway. She knelt down next to Zenny without actually touching her. “Zenny, what’s going on?”
No response. She continued to sway, her eyes remained closed, and her lips continued to move silently as if deep in meditation or prayer.
I stepped into the room. I reached deep inside the captured memories from Ma Grendel, looking for words in her native tongue. I spoke to her in Arabic. “Do you need help?” I reached out to touch her.
Ravyn stopped me from interrupting her. “No, Rusty. I think she needs to do this. There is powerful magick taking place right now. If we break her trance, there’s no telling what may happen.”
I stood back up and retreated. I let slip the connections between my body and Spirit form and slipped spiritually into the Shadowland. There I saw Ravyn’s fiery red form now focused back on the kneeling form of Zenny.
My attention was immediately drawn to Zenny’s form. Normally, Zenny’s Spirit form ranged from soft, dark violet to deep blue. Right at the moment, however, her colors had shifted to vibrant, pulsating hues of orange and yellow. The glow was strongest at her clasped hands, as if she were trying to contain something very powerful within them.
Using a portion of my essence, I stretched out a tendril towards her hands, getting as close as I could without actually touching her. It was quite difficult to do, because there are unseen fields of resistance between different individual Spirit forms. The resistance can be overcome through force of Will but it is exceptionally hard to push very close to another form without actually completely overpowering that resistance.
The closer I got though, the more I sensed something desperately wrong. I felt an overpowering sense of evil emanating from that source between her hands. I could also tell that she was trying desperately to shield us from the pain that she was so clearly experiencing.
That was enough for me. I snapped back into my body and dropped to my knees in front of her and took her still clasped hands in mine.
“Rusty, what are you doing? What’s wrong?” Ravyn’s voice was cracking with concern.
“She’s got a hold of something. Whatever it is, it isn’t good.” Her fingers were clenched tight. Gently at first, I began to pry her fingers away from whatever it was that she was holding.
Zenny gasped in pain as both her rhythm and her grasp was broken. Her left hand loosed and went limp as I managed to reach inside and grab the object. She collapsed into Ravyn’s arms, her chest heaving, tears running down her face. Her choking sobs were loud at first, but were quickly soothed by a deliberately calm Ravyn.
I opened my own palm and looked at what had caused all of this fuss. It seemed innocuous enough—the small metal head of what looked to be a stethoscope. But turning it over in my palm, the back side of it showed something far more sinister. A small symbol was engraved on the backside. It was symbol that even I recognized. It was a swastika.
“What is it, Rusty?”
Even without slipping into the Shadowland, I could feel the power of the thing. Deep inside of my being, the dark whispers of entities slain and consumed long ago by Ma Grendel awakened once again. Their voices ate at my consciousness, calling out in glee at the discovery of this evil tool.
“Feed us!”
“Let us take them!”
“We hunger!”
I closed my hand around the object and tamped the whispers back down into the bowels of my soul. The realization at what I had in my hands had shaken me to my very core. “It’s something from the Nazi’s. I think it was used by El Diablito in the concentration camps for something, but I can’t open myself to it just yet. It is stirring up things inside me that I can’t risk letting loose right now.”
Zenny had stopped sobbing now and seemed to be resting Ravyn’s arms.
“We need to get back to the Coop and find out what she has seen, both from this damn thing and from the door.”
Ravyn nodded. “Let’s get back there quickly.”
I shoved the stethoscope head into my pocket and reached down to pick up Zenny. “We’re taking the express road back, babe. Don’t forget her gloves.”
I stood up and waited for Ravyn to collect her gloves and join me. I called the Shadow as soon as she was ready. This time, Zombie Air provided direct, door-to-door service right back to Ravyn’s study.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Opening Gambit...Conclusion
The narrow doorway led directly into a cramped area that was still crowded with bookshelves, although these were now empty, except for dust, cobwebs, and a number of the small, green lizards that were so common to South Florida. They little critters scurried away as I entered.
Bob’s glow shed soft, yellow light upon the room, which only served to highlight how long it had been since any humans had been here. Ravyn and Zenny followed closely behind Bob.
I pushed past the rows of empty bookshelves towards the short hallway that led back to the room where in some small way I had lost a part of my humanity. It was back there that I had succumbed to the drugs in the tea and cookies that El Diablito had given me, only to wake up in the morning to discover the Chakra necklace handing around my neck.
There had been a small envelope with an airline ticket back to Washington and instructions to leave the necklace on at all times. I wouldn’t learn of the true importance of wearing that cursed thing for several more years, but that story has been told elsewhere on this blog.
At the moment, I was more concerned about any surprises the bastard may have left for unplanned visitors than I was about my own checkered past. Collapsed baton still held firmly in my right hand, I edged down the hall, ready for anything…or so I thought anyway.
A second curtained doorway obscured the large room that I knew to be in the back of the shop. I stepped up to the curtain, flicked out my baton to its full extension, and used it to brush aside the raggedy curtains. The only sounds to be heard were the heavy, expectant breaths of Ravyn and Zenny, the skittering of tiny clawed feet as the little lizards sought their refuge and Bob’s happy chirping sounds as he floated above us, happy to be exploring new environs.
When I had last been here, this room had been furnished with a number of mismatched, battered couches lined up along three walls, while the fourth wall had been taken up by a curtained off stage set between two doorways. The center of the room had been occupied by a cluttered table and its own mismatched wooden chairs. Now when I looked in the barren room, I was impressed with its size. It easily took up over half of the room of the entire shop. But what immediately drew my attention was the telephone sitting in the middle of the floor of the vast room.
It was one of those old rotary phones. It was deep red in color, reminiscent of the phones shown in old Cold War movies that sat on the desk of the President of the United States and in the Kremlin.
Bob floated into the room above me and naturally gravitated towards the center of this vast new space to explore, while Ravyn and Zenny slipped to either side of me.
I stood there unmoving, just inside the doorway, staring at that damn phone. There was something very odd about that phone sitting there, but I couldn’t place it immediately.
Ravyn was the first to break the silence of our group. “What is it Rusty?”
“That phone. It wasn’t here before.”
“So?”
“There something wrong with it. But I just can’t place it.”
Zenny touched my shoulder with her right hand and pointed with her left hand. “Why would someone leave an unplugged phone sitting in the middle of the floor?”
I smacked my forehead with my left hand. “That’s it. There’s no line leading up to. It’s not plugged in. They must have just left the old thing sitting there since it probably couldn’t be used anymore.”
Relieved at having figured out what had me so unsettled, I moved towards the phone.
It rang.
It was loud, bell clanging ring that caused both of the gals to jump back and catch their breaths.
It rang again.
I scanned the room with normal vision and then again with eye towards the Shadowland, just to be sure there wasn’t some hidden trap. The only thing that registered as out of the ordinary was that phone. As it rang a third time, I noticed that it glowed with a magickal energy that perhaps explained how it could be ringing without being connected to any actual phone line.
I moved to the center of the room, standing over the phone.
It rang a fourth time.
I reached down to pick it up, reasonably certain that I would be talking to an old foe. “Yeah?”
That familiar cackling laughter came through loud and clear over the phone’s hand set. “So you’ve finally come back home, eh Bones?”
“What do you want, old man?”
His voice took on a serious tone. “We need to talk, Bones.”
“What about?”
“We have many things to discuss, Jason. I understand that you don’t trust me right now, but we need to come to an understanding. I’m not Drake. He’s gone now, so there is a new order to be established.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed audibly. “Drake was driven by certain things from his past. You know about those things as well as I do now. I don’t have that same baggage that he did. I can acknowledge my failures in dealing with you and your friends in the past and I can move on from them. I would like us to arrange a meeting where we can hash out our differences in an amicable way. I have no desire to keep you as an enemy, Jason; we can do so much more together than we can separately.”
Ravyn and Zenny had both moved in close enough to me now to be able to listen in on the conversation as well.
I looked from Zenny to Ravyn to see if either of them had any input. Zenny pursed her lips in concentration, but just shrugged her shoulders. Ravyn’s eyes were narrowed in concentration as she motioned with one hand that I should keep talking.
“OK, I can see some possibilities. Where would you want to meet with me?”
He laughed. It was a hearty, deep laugh that sounded disturbingly normal for this crazy old coot. “Well, I doubt that saucy, red-headed wench friend of yours will allow me to set the meeting place. Why don’t you ask her where she’d like us to meet?”
Ravyn’s mouth dropped open as she heard that. “Why I never…”
“I think she should come along for our little meeting. I look forward to showing her my hand, thanks to that dreadful bird of hers.”
I waved Ravyn quiet with my right hand, letting the baton slip to the ground next to the phone. “Look, old man, where do you want to meet with us then? It should be somewhere nice and public. I don’t want any damn surprises.”
He sighed again. “Fine, take all of the fun out of this, will you? How about we meet near your hometown, in one of those casinos in Detroit? You name the particular place and time. That should be public enough for all of us.”
I nodded. “Fine. Let’s meet in Greektown exactly 24 hours from now, bring that prick Dick Arnold with you as well.” I looked at my watch to fix the time in my head.
“Done.” The phone went silent.
Bob’s glow shed soft, yellow light upon the room, which only served to highlight how long it had been since any humans had been here. Ravyn and Zenny followed closely behind Bob.
I pushed past the rows of empty bookshelves towards the short hallway that led back to the room where in some small way I had lost a part of my humanity. It was back there that I had succumbed to the drugs in the tea and cookies that El Diablito had given me, only to wake up in the morning to discover the Chakra necklace handing around my neck.
There had been a small envelope with an airline ticket back to Washington and instructions to leave the necklace on at all times. I wouldn’t learn of the true importance of wearing that cursed thing for several more years, but that story has been told elsewhere on this blog.
At the moment, I was more concerned about any surprises the bastard may have left for unplanned visitors than I was about my own checkered past. Collapsed baton still held firmly in my right hand, I edged down the hall, ready for anything…or so I thought anyway.
A second curtained doorway obscured the large room that I knew to be in the back of the shop. I stepped up to the curtain, flicked out my baton to its full extension, and used it to brush aside the raggedy curtains. The only sounds to be heard were the heavy, expectant breaths of Ravyn and Zenny, the skittering of tiny clawed feet as the little lizards sought their refuge and Bob’s happy chirping sounds as he floated above us, happy to be exploring new environs.
When I had last been here, this room had been furnished with a number of mismatched, battered couches lined up along three walls, while the fourth wall had been taken up by a curtained off stage set between two doorways. The center of the room had been occupied by a cluttered table and its own mismatched wooden chairs. Now when I looked in the barren room, I was impressed with its size. It easily took up over half of the room of the entire shop. But what immediately drew my attention was the telephone sitting in the middle of the floor of the vast room.
It was one of those old rotary phones. It was deep red in color, reminiscent of the phones shown in old Cold War movies that sat on the desk of the President of the United States and in the Kremlin.
Bob floated into the room above me and naturally gravitated towards the center of this vast new space to explore, while Ravyn and Zenny slipped to either side of me.
I stood there unmoving, just inside the doorway, staring at that damn phone. There was something very odd about that phone sitting there, but I couldn’t place it immediately.
Ravyn was the first to break the silence of our group. “What is it Rusty?”
“That phone. It wasn’t here before.”
“So?”
“There something wrong with it. But I just can’t place it.”
Zenny touched my shoulder with her right hand and pointed with her left hand. “Why would someone leave an unplugged phone sitting in the middle of the floor?”
I smacked my forehead with my left hand. “That’s it. There’s no line leading up to. It’s not plugged in. They must have just left the old thing sitting there since it probably couldn’t be used anymore.”
Relieved at having figured out what had me so unsettled, I moved towards the phone.
It rang.
It was loud, bell clanging ring that caused both of the gals to jump back and catch their breaths.
It rang again.
I scanned the room with normal vision and then again with eye towards the Shadowland, just to be sure there wasn’t some hidden trap. The only thing that registered as out of the ordinary was that phone. As it rang a third time, I noticed that it glowed with a magickal energy that perhaps explained how it could be ringing without being connected to any actual phone line.
I moved to the center of the room, standing over the phone.
It rang a fourth time.
I reached down to pick it up, reasonably certain that I would be talking to an old foe. “Yeah?”
That familiar cackling laughter came through loud and clear over the phone’s hand set. “So you’ve finally come back home, eh Bones?”
“What do you want, old man?”
His voice took on a serious tone. “We need to talk, Bones.”
“What about?”
“We have many things to discuss, Jason. I understand that you don’t trust me right now, but we need to come to an understanding. I’m not Drake. He’s gone now, so there is a new order to be established.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed audibly. “Drake was driven by certain things from his past. You know about those things as well as I do now. I don’t have that same baggage that he did. I can acknowledge my failures in dealing with you and your friends in the past and I can move on from them. I would like us to arrange a meeting where we can hash out our differences in an amicable way. I have no desire to keep you as an enemy, Jason; we can do so much more together than we can separately.”
Ravyn and Zenny had both moved in close enough to me now to be able to listen in on the conversation as well.
I looked from Zenny to Ravyn to see if either of them had any input. Zenny pursed her lips in concentration, but just shrugged her shoulders. Ravyn’s eyes were narrowed in concentration as she motioned with one hand that I should keep talking.
“OK, I can see some possibilities. Where would you want to meet with me?”
He laughed. It was a hearty, deep laugh that sounded disturbingly normal for this crazy old coot. “Well, I doubt that saucy, red-headed wench friend of yours will allow me to set the meeting place. Why don’t you ask her where she’d like us to meet?”
Ravyn’s mouth dropped open as she heard that. “Why I never…”
“I think she should come along for our little meeting. I look forward to showing her my hand, thanks to that dreadful bird of hers.”
I waved Ravyn quiet with my right hand, letting the baton slip to the ground next to the phone. “Look, old man, where do you want to meet with us then? It should be somewhere nice and public. I don’t want any damn surprises.”
He sighed again. “Fine, take all of the fun out of this, will you? How about we meet near your hometown, in one of those casinos in Detroit? You name the particular place and time. That should be public enough for all of us.”
I nodded. “Fine. Let’s meet in Greektown exactly 24 hours from now, bring that prick Dick Arnold with you as well.” I looked at my watch to fix the time in my head.
“Done.” The phone went silent.
Opening Gambit...Part 3
I stopped just before I touched the door, hand still extended. “What?”
Ravyn reached out and brushed my arm aside. Her voice grew louder in her impatience. “Don’t you see the damn door isn’t locked? Do you think a Caster of El Diablito’s ability is going to leave one of his haunts completely unprotected? Sheesh! After all of this time and after everything you’ve been through, you were just going to barge in there without thinking, weren’t you?”
I raised my hands in surrender. There was certainly no arguing with her when she was this fired up. “OK, OK. Do whatever you think you need to do to make it safe, I’ll be a good little zombie and wait for the mighty Caster to do her work!”
Ravyn’s eyes flashed as she turned to respond. Her mouth opened as if she were about to respond when Zenny slipped in between us, her back to Ravyn.
She looked up at me with disappointment in her eyes as she placed a hand on my forearm. “That was uncalled for, Rusty. Ravyn is thinking only of our safety.”
Her almond shaped brown eyes reflected a level of sadness that drew me up short. I looked away from her in shame. “I’m sorry Ravyn. I don’t know why I said that.”
Zenny turned to Ravyn and spoke in a very soft voice before Ravyn could reply to me. “Please, allow me.” She nodded towards the door.
Ravyn alternated looking between Zenny and me as she backed away from the door to allow Zenny to use her skills.
Zenny pulled the thin deerskin glove off her right hand and stepped to the door. She leaned in close to the door, placing her palm flat on the door at about ear height. She turned her head to the side as she did and closed her eyes. Her lips parted ever so slightly as she began to concentrate on what the door could tell her.
Ravyn watched her with concern, her own hands clenched with the tension of the unknown that hung heavy in the suddenly silent and still night air. Even the creaking of the sign had finally stopped. It was as if all of south Florida was waiting for the results of Zenny’s contact with the door.
After several tense moments, Zenny stepped back from the door with a sigh. As she turned to face the two of us, she brushed a stray strand of her dark hair back under her hijab. “This door has not been opened in nearly a year. The last people to use it were manual laborers of some sort. I don’t sense any about the door that would be of concern in opening it.”
Ravyn nodded. “That’s good. At least we know it’s safe to open the door.”
Zenny shuddered. “I did get a feel for this person you have called El Diablito.” She looked directly at me. “Rusty, I don’t think that I will ever be able to think of you as Shaitan again. That man has truly earned that name.”
Concerned, I put a hand on her shoulder. “What did you see?”
She shook her head. “That is something we can discuss at another time. Let’s see what awaits us inside.”
Zenny moved to the side, allowing me to reach out to the door as she carefully put her glove back on. She wore them almost all of the time since her talent was always active—giving her impressions and information about everything that she touched, unless she was wearing something as familiar and safe as those gloves.
With my left hand on the handle, I glanced back at Ravyn to make sure that she was ready and then flicked my right wrist to allow that baton to drop into my palm. I let it stay in its collapsed form for the moment.
At Ravyn’s nod, I yanked the door open and slipped into the doorway just in case there was a surprise waiting for us. The dark, dusty interior of the empty shop greeted me with bored indifference.
I recognized the skeleton of the once cluttered shop that I had visited those many years before. But the racks and shelves that had once been full to the point of bursting now stood empty like the bones of a long dead beast picked clean by scavengers.
“It looks abandoned.” I walked in towards the counter where the cashier used to stand. The light switch on the wall next to the ancient cash register was unresponsive.
Behind me, I heard Ravyn whisper. “Bob, you stay close, OK?”
I heard the cheery warble of ‘Bob’ reply as I looked back to see Ravyn on one knee at the doorway of the shop. She had taken her small backpack off and was holding the top flap open so that Bob could float out.
The soft yellow glow that Bob gave off when he was happy to be exploring a new place helped to illuminate the shop further. As Bob floated happily to the top of the room, the harsh, skeletal shadows retreated to their corners.
Ravyn stood up and swung the now empty pack back across her shoulders as stepped into the shop. Zenny followed behind her, smiling in wonder at the bizarre, orb-like creature that was now happily whistling as he drifted along the ceiling.
After taking stock of the clearly empty and abandoned shop, Ravyn turned to me. “You were here once before, can you lead us back to any office he might have had? That’s probably the place where we are most likely to find anything he left behind that Zenny might be able to get a reading off of.”
I nodded and pointed towards the curtain hanging just to the left of the cashier’s counter. “If go through there, we’ll pass through the used book area that he had and down a hall towards the back. There’s a large ceremonial room where he drugged me when he was making my Chakra. There’s a small office and kitchen area back there as well. If he’s been here in the last year, that’s where he’s most likely to have been.”
Ravyn pushed back the holey curtains, putting her hand to her face to protect herself from the dust cloud that act generated, and waved me through. “After you.”
(Conclusion of Opening Gambit due tonight…)
Ravyn reached out and brushed my arm aside. Her voice grew louder in her impatience. “Don’t you see the damn door isn’t locked? Do you think a Caster of El Diablito’s ability is going to leave one of his haunts completely unprotected? Sheesh! After all of this time and after everything you’ve been through, you were just going to barge in there without thinking, weren’t you?”
I raised my hands in surrender. There was certainly no arguing with her when she was this fired up. “OK, OK. Do whatever you think you need to do to make it safe, I’ll be a good little zombie and wait for the mighty Caster to do her work!”
Ravyn’s eyes flashed as she turned to respond. Her mouth opened as if she were about to respond when Zenny slipped in between us, her back to Ravyn.
She looked up at me with disappointment in her eyes as she placed a hand on my forearm. “That was uncalled for, Rusty. Ravyn is thinking only of our safety.”
Her almond shaped brown eyes reflected a level of sadness that drew me up short. I looked away from her in shame. “I’m sorry Ravyn. I don’t know why I said that.”
Zenny turned to Ravyn and spoke in a very soft voice before Ravyn could reply to me. “Please, allow me.” She nodded towards the door.
Ravyn alternated looking between Zenny and me as she backed away from the door to allow Zenny to use her skills.
Zenny pulled the thin deerskin glove off her right hand and stepped to the door. She leaned in close to the door, placing her palm flat on the door at about ear height. She turned her head to the side as she did and closed her eyes. Her lips parted ever so slightly as she began to concentrate on what the door could tell her.
Ravyn watched her with concern, her own hands clenched with the tension of the unknown that hung heavy in the suddenly silent and still night air. Even the creaking of the sign had finally stopped. It was as if all of south Florida was waiting for the results of Zenny’s contact with the door.
After several tense moments, Zenny stepped back from the door with a sigh. As she turned to face the two of us, she brushed a stray strand of her dark hair back under her hijab. “This door has not been opened in nearly a year. The last people to use it were manual laborers of some sort. I don’t sense any about the door that would be of concern in opening it.”
Ravyn nodded. “That’s good. At least we know it’s safe to open the door.”
Zenny shuddered. “I did get a feel for this person you have called El Diablito.” She looked directly at me. “Rusty, I don’t think that I will ever be able to think of you as Shaitan again. That man has truly earned that name.”
Concerned, I put a hand on her shoulder. “What did you see?”
She shook her head. “That is something we can discuss at another time. Let’s see what awaits us inside.”
Zenny moved to the side, allowing me to reach out to the door as she carefully put her glove back on. She wore them almost all of the time since her talent was always active—giving her impressions and information about everything that she touched, unless she was wearing something as familiar and safe as those gloves.
With my left hand on the handle, I glanced back at Ravyn to make sure that she was ready and then flicked my right wrist to allow that baton to drop into my palm. I let it stay in its collapsed form for the moment.
At Ravyn’s nod, I yanked the door open and slipped into the doorway just in case there was a surprise waiting for us. The dark, dusty interior of the empty shop greeted me with bored indifference.
I recognized the skeleton of the once cluttered shop that I had visited those many years before. But the racks and shelves that had once been full to the point of bursting now stood empty like the bones of a long dead beast picked clean by scavengers.
“It looks abandoned.” I walked in towards the counter where the cashier used to stand. The light switch on the wall next to the ancient cash register was unresponsive.
Behind me, I heard Ravyn whisper. “Bob, you stay close, OK?”
I heard the cheery warble of ‘Bob’ reply as I looked back to see Ravyn on one knee at the doorway of the shop. She had taken her small backpack off and was holding the top flap open so that Bob could float out.
The soft yellow glow that Bob gave off when he was happy to be exploring a new place helped to illuminate the shop further. As Bob floated happily to the top of the room, the harsh, skeletal shadows retreated to their corners.
Ravyn stood up and swung the now empty pack back across her shoulders as stepped into the shop. Zenny followed behind her, smiling in wonder at the bizarre, orb-like creature that was now happily whistling as he drifted along the ceiling.
After taking stock of the clearly empty and abandoned shop, Ravyn turned to me. “You were here once before, can you lead us back to any office he might have had? That’s probably the place where we are most likely to find anything he left behind that Zenny might be able to get a reading off of.”
I nodded and pointed towards the curtain hanging just to the left of the cashier’s counter. “If go through there, we’ll pass through the used book area that he had and down a hall towards the back. There’s a large ceremonial room where he drugged me when he was making my Chakra. There’s a small office and kitchen area back there as well. If he’s been here in the last year, that’s where he’s most likely to have been.”
Ravyn pushed back the holey curtains, putting her hand to her face to protect herself from the dust cloud that act generated, and waved me through. “After you.”
(Conclusion of Opening Gambit due tonight…)
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Opening Gambit...Part 2
Ravyn, Zenny and I walked through the cold Chicago air, our feet crunching the crusted snow cover as we moved towards the small stone circle behind the Phoenix Coop. Jim followed behind.
Zenny hugged her arms tightly about her body, her teeth chattering as she shivered. “Why must it be so cold in this place?”
Ravyn reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’m sorry dear, I forgot. This will help.” Ravyn closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, uttering a word under her breath that was lost to the whipping winds. A soft red glow slipped from her hand and spread from Zenny’s shoulder to cover her entire body, fading gently as it did.
Zenny brightened up considerably as the glow disappeared. “That’s so much better. I wish I knew how to do that.”
Ravyn threw back her head in laughter, the sound echoing in the still night air. “We all have our own talents dear. Remember, there are things that you can do that I wish I could do as well. But the key is that we all use the abilities that we do have to their best effect. My affinity with fire does come in very handy in these drearily cold Chicago winters. I can’t wait to someplace where I don’t need to worry about making myself or others warmer!”
I led the way into the circle, passing the large, rounded boulder that I always remembered for the way that Betsy had introduced herself to me by killing and devouring a dark wolf-like Spirit that had followed me back from the Underworld into the Shadowland. I had used this place several times since then as a transit point, but that image stuck with me.
Zenny followed close behind, arms still held about her torso as if she were expecting the cold to return at any moment.
Ravyn was the last to enter, but only after she had turned to give Jim a hug. They exchanged a few whispered sentences between themselves in the darkness, but again the bitter, whipping winds rolling in off of the not so distant Lake Michigan claimed those words, preventing me from hearing what was said.
I leaned over to Zenny and quietly posed my own question. “So how long have these two been acting like this with each other?”
“That is none of my, or your, business, Shaitan.”
I looked at her in surprise, until I saw the sly smile cross her face.
‘Shaitan’ was the name that she had first called me when I had rescued her in the Jordanian desert from a bunch of mercenary contractors hired by Dr. Geek. She had been nearly delirious after having been severely damaged by multiple rapes and by a lack of food and water. She had believed me to be an avenging spirit that she had been praying for. Unfortunately for those mercenaries, that was one expectation that I had lived up to.
She had not called me by that name in many months. She hadn’t, in fact, spoken directly too me very much at all in the months since she had been with Ravyn healing and learning to harness her own magickal talents. The fact that she was willing to now joke with me was very promising.
Ravyn bounced through the edge of the circle and came to a stop directly in front of me, fists planted on her hips. “And just what did you mean by that quip?”
I looked up from Ravyn to Jim, who had his own arms folded across his chest as he looked down at us over his glasses. I saw no support there at the moment.
“I…uh…was just wondering…ah…never mind.”
“Good idea. Now, are you done gawking, or do you a question to ask me directly?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
She glanced back at Jim briefly, a knowing look passed between them. “Good, then let’s go to Hialeah.”
As previously instructed, both Zenny and Ravyn took one of my hands. I summoned the Shadow, opening the path to the Shadowland, and stepped through.
In that place, this stone ring looked almost exactly the same as it did in the world of the living. Now though, I could see a dark stain on the rock where Betsy had dropped and then consumed that wolf-spirit. Jim’s Spirit form stood there watching us as well. His Spirit form was nearly as large and tall as he was in life, roughly in the shape of a bear, standing on his hind legs. The colors of his form shifted slowly from dark blue to a more violet color as he began to worry about us.
I knew that Jim didn’t have the conscious ability to see into the Shadowland, but it was hard to resist one last nod of acknowledgement as I shifted my concentration from getting to the Shadowland to now moving through it to where we needed to go.
Even though the Shadowland was almost a mirror copy of the world of the living, the world in which we experience on a daily basis, time and distance are different concepts here. Moving from place to place within this realm was both much easier and much more difficult than in the traditional world of human experience.
Here in this transitory place, there are portals to many, many different worlds. Not all of these portals, however, work in both directions. It takes a special skill and recognition of the different kinds of portals and where they might lead that can only be acquired through trial and error.
Luckily, I have a well-spring of hard won knowledge of the Shadowland that I gained first from the remnants of Ma Grendel that I still hold within me, and from my own hard-won experience.
I must admit that being (un)dead helps me to overcome almost all of the mistakes I make when traveling through this place.
When John Red Bear taught me to free myself from the bounds of my Chakra by slip my spirit form into the Shadowland and through this place into the Underworld, he taught me to travel as a Shaman, spiritually.
It wasn’t until later, when I was able to observe Papa Locks use the Shadow in this way that I realized that real physical bodies, living and otherwise, could travel here as well. Upon discovering that I had this ability after my confrontation with Ma Grendel, my existence fundamentally changed.
Once in the Shadowland, I could, as a matter of Will send myself flying at such extraordinary speeds that I could arrive in Hialeah within moments. But by flying through the Shadowland that quickly, there would be a risk of passing through some random portal to a world that I would rather not go to. Because I was traveling with Ravyn and Zenny, and because the places we might end up in were just as likely to be inhospitable to living beings, I couldn’t take that chance, unless it was an emergency.
So instead of a single, speed of thought flight through the Shadowland, I drew a cocoon of Shadow about our bodies to keep us hidden from any of the nasty critters and unassociated Spirit forms (those Spirit forms no longer tied to living bodies—but who have been unable or unwilling to seek the next stop in their Spiritual journey—often called ghosts) and made our journey in dozens of shorter, bouncing flights along paths I felt to be safe.
The whole journey took less than half an hour, although it felt like much more by the time I dismissed the bubble of Shadow and we emerged in the dark alley outside the entrance to El Diablito’s old metaphysical shop, NextWorld in the heart of the warehouse district of Hialeah, just a few miles north of Miami International Airport.
Ravyn was the first to let go of my hand as she stepped away, brushing away the fleeting tendrils of dark Shadow substance that still clung to her clothing as if were stray pet hair. “OK, I like my way a LOT better.” She gave me a wicked grin and winked at Zenny. “Remind me again why we decided to travel by Zombie Air?”
Zenny steadied herself against the hard brick wall of the warehouse with both hands, trying to regain her balance. Her normally dark complexion had whitened considerably, but was now beginning to regain her normal hues. “Is there a better way than this? I did not like that very much.”
I shrugged, brushed myself off and grinned back at Ravyn. “Well, coming into the middle of Metro Miami with either a great big flash of fire and smoke or on the back of a flaming Phoenix might have brought a little more unwanted attention than my way did, but hey, I’m open to better suggestions.”
Ravyn stuck her tongue at me before going over to Zenny and helping her.
Having no tongue to stick back out at her, I turned to check out the door to the old shop. It looked very much like I had left it, several years before, when I first received my Chakra. The Cuban-born cabbie who had dropped me off here seemed to have been quite afraid of this place, or the neighborhood, or both.
I crossed the alley and came to the door that led into the front of the shop. The metallic sign hanging overhead creaked as it swung reluctantly in the stiff night breeze. The door had a simple pull handle, no key hole for a lock and no hooks or latches for a padlock of any sort.
As the gals came up behind me, I reached out to the handle.
Ravyn called out in a hushed whisper. “Rusty, wait!”
(To be continued)
Zenny hugged her arms tightly about her body, her teeth chattering as she shivered. “Why must it be so cold in this place?”
Ravyn reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’m sorry dear, I forgot. This will help.” Ravyn closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, uttering a word under her breath that was lost to the whipping winds. A soft red glow slipped from her hand and spread from Zenny’s shoulder to cover her entire body, fading gently as it did.
Zenny brightened up considerably as the glow disappeared. “That’s so much better. I wish I knew how to do that.”
Ravyn threw back her head in laughter, the sound echoing in the still night air. “We all have our own talents dear. Remember, there are things that you can do that I wish I could do as well. But the key is that we all use the abilities that we do have to their best effect. My affinity with fire does come in very handy in these drearily cold Chicago winters. I can’t wait to someplace where I don’t need to worry about making myself or others warmer!”
I led the way into the circle, passing the large, rounded boulder that I always remembered for the way that Betsy had introduced herself to me by killing and devouring a dark wolf-like Spirit that had followed me back from the Underworld into the Shadowland. I had used this place several times since then as a transit point, but that image stuck with me.
Zenny followed close behind, arms still held about her torso as if she were expecting the cold to return at any moment.
Ravyn was the last to enter, but only after she had turned to give Jim a hug. They exchanged a few whispered sentences between themselves in the darkness, but again the bitter, whipping winds rolling in off of the not so distant Lake Michigan claimed those words, preventing me from hearing what was said.
I leaned over to Zenny and quietly posed my own question. “So how long have these two been acting like this with each other?”
“That is none of my, or your, business, Shaitan.”
I looked at her in surprise, until I saw the sly smile cross her face.
‘Shaitan’ was the name that she had first called me when I had rescued her in the Jordanian desert from a bunch of mercenary contractors hired by Dr. Geek. She had been nearly delirious after having been severely damaged by multiple rapes and by a lack of food and water. She had believed me to be an avenging spirit that she had been praying for. Unfortunately for those mercenaries, that was one expectation that I had lived up to.
She had not called me by that name in many months. She hadn’t, in fact, spoken directly too me very much at all in the months since she had been with Ravyn healing and learning to harness her own magickal talents. The fact that she was willing to now joke with me was very promising.
Ravyn bounced through the edge of the circle and came to a stop directly in front of me, fists planted on her hips. “And just what did you mean by that quip?”
I looked up from Ravyn to Jim, who had his own arms folded across his chest as he looked down at us over his glasses. I saw no support there at the moment.
“I…uh…was just wondering…ah…never mind.”
“Good idea. Now, are you done gawking, or do you a question to ask me directly?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
She glanced back at Jim briefly, a knowing look passed between them. “Good, then let’s go to Hialeah.”
As previously instructed, both Zenny and Ravyn took one of my hands. I summoned the Shadow, opening the path to the Shadowland, and stepped through.
In that place, this stone ring looked almost exactly the same as it did in the world of the living. Now though, I could see a dark stain on the rock where Betsy had dropped and then consumed that wolf-spirit. Jim’s Spirit form stood there watching us as well. His Spirit form was nearly as large and tall as he was in life, roughly in the shape of a bear, standing on his hind legs. The colors of his form shifted slowly from dark blue to a more violet color as he began to worry about us.
I knew that Jim didn’t have the conscious ability to see into the Shadowland, but it was hard to resist one last nod of acknowledgement as I shifted my concentration from getting to the Shadowland to now moving through it to where we needed to go.
Even though the Shadowland was almost a mirror copy of the world of the living, the world in which we experience on a daily basis, time and distance are different concepts here. Moving from place to place within this realm was both much easier and much more difficult than in the traditional world of human experience.
Here in this transitory place, there are portals to many, many different worlds. Not all of these portals, however, work in both directions. It takes a special skill and recognition of the different kinds of portals and where they might lead that can only be acquired through trial and error.
Luckily, I have a well-spring of hard won knowledge of the Shadowland that I gained first from the remnants of Ma Grendel that I still hold within me, and from my own hard-won experience.
I must admit that being (un)dead helps me to overcome almost all of the mistakes I make when traveling through this place.
When John Red Bear taught me to free myself from the bounds of my Chakra by slip my spirit form into the Shadowland and through this place into the Underworld, he taught me to travel as a Shaman, spiritually.
It wasn’t until later, when I was able to observe Papa Locks use the Shadow in this way that I realized that real physical bodies, living and otherwise, could travel here as well. Upon discovering that I had this ability after my confrontation with Ma Grendel, my existence fundamentally changed.
Once in the Shadowland, I could, as a matter of Will send myself flying at such extraordinary speeds that I could arrive in Hialeah within moments. But by flying through the Shadowland that quickly, there would be a risk of passing through some random portal to a world that I would rather not go to. Because I was traveling with Ravyn and Zenny, and because the places we might end up in were just as likely to be inhospitable to living beings, I couldn’t take that chance, unless it was an emergency.
So instead of a single, speed of thought flight through the Shadowland, I drew a cocoon of Shadow about our bodies to keep us hidden from any of the nasty critters and unassociated Spirit forms (those Spirit forms no longer tied to living bodies—but who have been unable or unwilling to seek the next stop in their Spiritual journey—often called ghosts) and made our journey in dozens of shorter, bouncing flights along paths I felt to be safe.
The whole journey took less than half an hour, although it felt like much more by the time I dismissed the bubble of Shadow and we emerged in the dark alley outside the entrance to El Diablito’s old metaphysical shop, NextWorld in the heart of the warehouse district of Hialeah, just a few miles north of Miami International Airport.
Ravyn was the first to let go of my hand as she stepped away, brushing away the fleeting tendrils of dark Shadow substance that still clung to her clothing as if were stray pet hair. “OK, I like my way a LOT better.” She gave me a wicked grin and winked at Zenny. “Remind me again why we decided to travel by Zombie Air?”
Zenny steadied herself against the hard brick wall of the warehouse with both hands, trying to regain her balance. Her normally dark complexion had whitened considerably, but was now beginning to regain her normal hues. “Is there a better way than this? I did not like that very much.”
I shrugged, brushed myself off and grinned back at Ravyn. “Well, coming into the middle of Metro Miami with either a great big flash of fire and smoke or on the back of a flaming Phoenix might have brought a little more unwanted attention than my way did, but hey, I’m open to better suggestions.”
Ravyn stuck her tongue at me before going over to Zenny and helping her.
Having no tongue to stick back out at her, I turned to check out the door to the old shop. It looked very much like I had left it, several years before, when I first received my Chakra. The Cuban-born cabbie who had dropped me off here seemed to have been quite afraid of this place, or the neighborhood, or both.
I crossed the alley and came to the door that led into the front of the shop. The metallic sign hanging overhead creaked as it swung reluctantly in the stiff night breeze. The door had a simple pull handle, no key hole for a lock and no hooks or latches for a padlock of any sort.
As the gals came up behind me, I reached out to the handle.
Ravyn called out in a hushed whisper. “Rusty, wait!”
(To be continued)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
