“Yes,” Ryker answered calmly.
Wendell stood up and walked toward the door. “Will you see us out?” Ryker asked.
Ishbelza scowled and stood up. As she passed, Ryker grabbed the back of her dress and pulled as hard as he could. The dress ripped loudly and Ishbelza shrieked as her midsection was revealed. Strapped onto her stomach was a black mask that resembled Clive’s and Caroline’s. “I knew it!” Ryker shouted.
He ripped the mask from her body and she shrieked again. She reached into her pocket and there was a flash of light. The room filled with thick, white smoke that choked them. Ryker and Wendell coughed and rubbed their eyes as the smoke cleared.
“Where did she go?” Wendell asked frantically between coughs and chokes. He pulled his rifle from his shoulder and cocked it.
“I don’t know,” Ryker answered. He vigilantly scanned the room, looking for any sign of where she may have gone.
“How did you know the mask was there?” Wendell asked.
“I saw it when she swung the door open.” He slid the mask into the back of his belt.
“That’s an odd place for her to keep a mask.”
Ryker swung open a large crate and aimed his revolver inside. “Well,” he began. He turned and faced Wendell. “She’s an odd individual.”
A shutter pounded loudly against the side of the house in the common room. “This way,” Ryker said. They ran into the common room and Ryker looked out the open window. A strip of Ishbelza’s ripped dress lie in the alley behind her house. “Come on,” he shouted as he climbed out the window.
“Confound it, wait for me!” Wendell cried. He jumped and grabbed the bottom of the window, pulled himself up, and then fell out the other side. He crashed into the ground and grunted as he stood up. “Bloody-hell,” he grumbled as he chased after Ryker.
Ryker sprinted down the alley. He saw another strip of the dress hooked on a chipped brick in the adjacent alley and ran across the road. He ran down the alley, jumped over a passed-out drunk and grabbed onto an awning over a large window at the back of the butcher’s shop. He pulled himself up and grabbed onto the bottom of a steel fence of a second-story terrace. He pulled himself up and looked as far down the alley as he could see.
Ishbelza ran as fast as she could. She looked back and saw Ryker climbing down from the terrace and running down the alley. He was much faster than she was and caught up to her quickly.
Ryker followed her down the street and then she dove into another alleyway. Ryker drew his revolver and stood in the entrance to the alley. She was gone.
He panted heavily as he stepped cautiously into the alley. A puddle splashed quietly under his feet. He looked down the sights of his revolver as he walked, ready to shoot at the first thing that moved.
A strong kick knocked his revolver from his hand, and he was tackled. Ishbelza was mounted on top of him. She held a large knife with a curved, snake-like blade high over her head and jabbed it down at Ryker.
Ryker grabbed her wrists and pushed back as hard as he could. She was surprisingly strong and forced Ryker’s hands down. The razor-sharp point neared Ryker’s throat. Ishbelza had a terrifying sneer on her face, and her eyes were wide with madness.
A gunshot rang out and Ishbelza was knocked back. She looked at her right shoulder and pressed two fingers to it. When she removed them, she licked the blood from them and screamed an ear-shattering scream. She dropped the dagger and ran down the alley.
Ryker sat up and looked back. Wendell stood at the entrance to the alley, his rifle still smoking as he held it up.
Wendell smiled. “This isn’t the first time I’ve saved your ass you know,” he said.
Ryker returned to his feet and smiled. “And it won’t be the last.” He picked up the wavy dagger and observed it closely. “I’ve never seen a dagger like this before. Hey, I saw this symbol tattooed on Clive’s wrist.”
“Let me see,” Wendell said. He reached up and took the dagger. “I’ve seen this symbol before.” He ran his finger over an engraved picture of a coiled snake on the hilt. “Partum Chaos,” he said.
“What?” Ryker questioned. He looked at the symbol on the dagger.
“I heard Clive and Caroline talking about it while you were still passed out. It’s the name of the order they’re part of. I didn’t think about it until just now.”
“Did they mention anything about a leader?”
“They mentioned someone known as Caiden, their ‘Overlord.’ But that’s all they said.”
“This just keeps getting worse,” Ryker said. “We’d better get back to Celia and Shamus.”
“What about Victoria?”
Ryker looked deeper into the dark alley. “Victoria is dead. Ishbelza is who we’re after.”
Chapter 15
Ryker and Wendell entered the League lobby. It was vacant, but the trap door was open. They descended into the lounge, and then entered Shamus’s lab where they all sat around his table and chatted casually.
“Our problem may be bigger than we originally thought,” Ryker said as he walked through the door. He glanced at Celia. Sadness was still present on her face.
“So, tell me my sister is a murderer,” Celia snapped. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair.
“Well, she actually may be,” Ryker answered.
Celia stared at him for a moment. Rage overtook her face and she stood up and walked to the back of the lab. She pounded a powerful fist on the counter and turned back around with a sigh. “I know,” she said quietly.
Everyone stared at her and Wendell’s mouth hung open. “What do you mean you know?” Ryker questioned. There was a hint of anger in his tone. “You know your sister is a murderer?”
“Well, now I know for sure,” she answered. “Victoria—”
“Victoria is dead,” Wendell interrupted irritably.
Celia glared at him. “Ishbelza,” she corrected. “I don’t know what happened to her when she disappeared, but something definitely changed in her. She had developed a fascination for death and dying. She always smiled whenever it was brought up, and she always watched from the back of the crowd at a hanging.
“She told me she loved the smell and reveled in the fragrance of death. I just didn’t want to believe that my little sister would end up as a murderer.”
The redness was beginning to drain from Wendell’s face as his anger was replaced with sympathy for Celia.
“Unfortunately, there’s more to it than that,” Ryker said.
“What do you mean?” Shamus asked. He had taken his revolver off of his mechanical arm and replaced it with the mechanical hand. He appeared to be making some modifications to the gun.
“Ishbelza, Clive, and Caroline appear to be part of an order known as Partum Chaos.”
Shamus looked up from his work. “That’s Latin for creating chaos,” he said. “But, I’ve never heard of them before.”
“They must be very secretive,” Livvy said.
“Or very new,” Ryker replied. “Crime organizations like to make themselves somewhat known so they can accrue fame, instill fear, and create a following. If none of us have heard of Partum Chaos, maybe they’re a new crime organization.”
“Excuse me, Creator Shamus,” a new voice said from the doorway.
“What is it, Mills?” Shamus asked.
“I need you to take a look at something for me. It’s of vital importance.”
“I’m a little busy. Can it wait?”
“No, sir,” the inventor answered.
Ryker looked at the inventor. He noticed the inventor’s right hand twitched every four to five seconds. Once, he thought he saw the inventor grab onto the handle of the small pistol at his side.
“Fine,” Shamus answered, annoyed. He dropped his tool and followed the creator out of the lab and up into the lobby.
“What do you suppose he needs?” Wendell asked.
“I’m not sure,” Livvy answered. “Hopefully it’s nothing that co
uld put us in danger.”
“Mills, what are you doing?” Shamus’s voice cried from the lobby. The cries of three other inventors followed, and then five gunshots.
Ryker and the others scrambled into the lobby and stared in awe.
Blood was sprayed everywhere and pooled under the bodies. Empty cartridges discharged from the guns were scattered on the floor, and a blood-covered knife lay next to a dead body.
“What happened?” Livvy shrieked. She ran to Shamus who lay on the floor holding a knife wound on his thigh. She grabbed her brown jacket from the back of her chair and tied it around his wound.
“That bastard tried to kill us!” Shamus shouted. He tried to stand up but his wounded leg prevented him from doing so. He cried out and fell back to the floor.
“It looks like he succeeded, to some degree,” Ryker said. Creator Mills and one other Head Inventor lay dead on the floor.
“Help!” a voice shouted from inside the first lab.
Ryker and Wendell ran to the door and kicked it open. A Head Inventor was pinned against the wall by a mechanical feline. “Help!” the inventor cried again.
Ryker and Wendell drew their weapons, but the mechanical feline opened its jaws and grabbed ahold of the inventor’s throat with its razor-sharp teeth.
The inventor’s eyes widened and he produced a dreadful gurgling sound as blood poured down his chest, and he fell to the ground, dead.
The feline whirled around and beeped loudly as it charged Ryker and Wendell.
They opened fire on the charging metal creature, but the bullets glanced off and pierced into the walls.
The feline leaped into the air and Ryker grabbed it by its head, spun around, and used the momentum to throw it across the room. The feline crashed into a generator and bolts of purple electricity danced around the mechanical body. The feline beeped and buzzed as the power from the generator overloaded it and threw it onto the ground. All that remained of the mechanical creature was a pile of deformed smoking wreckage.
“What happened?” Shamus asked as Livvy helped him into the lab. He stared at the blood-covered inventor’s body, and then looked at the motionless body of the mechanical feline. “No, not another one,” he said quietly. Livvy helped him to the inventor’s body. He stared at it and clenched his fists. “How is this possible?”
“That blasted feline killed him, and then tried to kill us!” Wendell answered as he slung his rifle over his shoulder.
Livvy assisted Shamus to the destroyed mechanical feline. “This isn’t one of mine,” he said.
“Where did it come from?” Livvy asked.
“I’m not sure. Whoever made this created an exact replica of one of my felines.”
“Are they usually bulletproof?” Ryker asked.
Shamus sighed. “No,” he answered.
“I find it hard to believe that someone could create something better than the League of Inventors,” Ryker said sarcastically.
Shamus limped around to face Ryker. “This is no time for your jokes,” he said angrily. “Three more of my Head Inventors are dead because, somehow, someone got a feline in here.” He switched his eyes to Celia. “I wonder who,” he said.
Celia looked at him for a moment. “You can’t possibly think I had something to do with this?” she asked, surprised. “I’ve been here the whole time!”
“But what about that crazy sister of yours?” Shamus asked. “Surely you have a soft spot for her. Maybe you decided to help her out. Maybe you gave her blueprints to one of my felines? Maybe you let it in here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ryker interjected. “Celia hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Except not tell us her sister is a bloodthirsty murderer!” Shamus shouted.
“Stop it!” Livvy yelled. Her voice echoed across the large lab, silencing it. “Do you really think that fighting about this right now is going to bring these inventors back? We’re spending too much time on the defensive. We need to figure out who did this and where they are so we can dispose of them.”
Everyone stared at her, surprised. “She has a point,” Wendell said. “I really doubt Celia had anything to do with this. She’s far too loyal.”
“Thank you,” Celia said, still enraged. “Clearly this has been an act of Partum Chaos. Why else did it target the inventor?”
“Okay, that explains this dead inventor,” Shamus said. “But what about Mills? He would never do such a heinous thing.”
“Maybe he just snapped under the pressure,” Ryker said.
“No, not Mills. He was the most level-headed out of all of us. After the first two murders he’s the one who talked me out of going out and cracking some skulls.”
“Well I don’t know what caused it,” Ryker said. “But now we’re down to two inventors, and, if it really is Partum Chaos, they’ve figured out a way to infiltrate the lab despite the Spear Bot defenses.”
“So, nowhere is safe now,” Livvy said. Her voice was low and unhappy.
“Where is Adelina?” Shamus asked. “Livvy, would you—”
“Already on it,” Livvy interrupted. She took out her communicator and opened a call with Adelina.
“Who is Adelina?” Ryker asked.
“She’s number two. My second in command if you will; an amazing inventor. She joined us when she was only fifteen.”
A moment later, a woman’s face, appearing no older than 20 years old, appeared on the circular screen. “Adelina, where are you? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Adelina answered. She had an Italian accent. “What’s going on? I thought I heard some commotion.”
“It’s bad news, Adelina.”
“Is another one of us dead?” Adelina asked grimly.
“Three, actually,” Livvy replied.
“What?” she yelled. “How can that be?”
“It’s a long story, Adelina. I need you to get to the lobby as quickly as you can.”
Adelina nodded and the call was ended.
They returned to the lobby and a few moments later Adelina arrived. She immediately stopped and stared at the bloody bodies on the floor.
Shamus stepped in front of her, blocking her view of the corpses. “I’m glad to see you’re still alive,” he said. He put his mechanical hand on her shoulder.
“How can this be happening?” Adelina asked sadly. Her eyes dropped to the floor. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Why is this happening?”
“I don’t know, Adelina. But we’re going to figure it out. We believe that the order known as Partum Chaos is behind these murders.”
“But why are they targeting us?” she asked. She ran a tan hand through her long, thick, black hair. She wore gray trousers, a black and gray striped shirt, and a black waistcoat.
“We’re not really sure,” Shamus answered. “But we’re going to figure this out. However, we need to find someplace safe, someplace where the order can’t find us.”
“I know where we can go,” Adelina said. “We can go to my grandfather’s lab. It’s been abandoned for a few years, but I’m pretty sure no one knows where it is.”
“How far is it from here?” Shamus asked.
“Not far. Gather up what supplies you may need. There are some things in the lab, but nothing of the quality we have here.”
“Alright. We’d better take the Spear Bots with us,” Shamus suggested. “The last thing we need is this order getting their hands on them. Ryker, you go with her just in case there are any more surprises waiting around here.”
“What about the rest of the inventors?” Celia asked.
“I’ve already contacted them and told them not to report to the lab until otherwise specified,” Livvy answered. “While they’re doing that, I’m going to patch up that leg of yours.”
Ryker followed Adelina through the four labs, and down into the secret lab where the Spear Bots were manufactured.
The five Spear Bots sat chained to the table on the far side of the room, near the records room. Adel
ina approached one of the Bots, unchained it, opened up a panel, and twisted a knob three times. The knob ticked and slowly rotated back the opposite direction. When it finished, it pushed out, and the bot began shaking. Steam shot out of the pressure release pipe, and the circular bot began folding into itself, gathering at the center. Adelina unchained the rest of the Bots, and then grabbed the heavy folded Bot by the propeller blades and began carrying it.
Ryker opened the panel of another Bot, and within a few minutes he had it folded just as Adelina did. He followed her back to the lobby with the Bot.
Ryker and Adelina hauled up the rest of the Bots while Shamus and Wendell went and got a wagon to load them in to. “Are we going to be able to pull this?” Celia asked as she covered the top of the wagon with a black blanket. “You won’t be able to help us with that leg of yours.”
Shamus thought for a moment. “Aha! Adelina, go get my wheel device.”
Ryker followed Adelina to the side of the lab. She and Ryker pushed a large steel base with a metal wheel beneath it out from the lab. On top of the base was a large engine. Shamus attached the wheel device to the front of the cart and turned a cog-shaped lever several times. The lever slowly twisted back, and began turning the other cogs, gears, and belts in the engine. The machine lurched forward as the engine rotated the wheel, and in turn pulled the cart. Despite the convenience of the machine, it pulled the cart quite slowly.
“How far is it?” Wendell whined.
“At this rate, nearly an hour,” Adelina answered as she stared at the slow-moving machine.
Shamus shrugged. “You all can pull it yourselves if you’d like.”
Ryker looked at his bandaged hand and arm. “No thanks,” he replied.
The hour seemed to go by painfully slowly. In fact, it was quite painful for Shamus. On several occasions he was forced to sit on the cart, weighing it down even more and slowing their progress.
They finally stopped in front of an abandoned apartment building. “Here we are,” Adelina said.
The building was nearly in shambles. The windows were broken, the door was smashed in, and it gave off a terrible odor that nearly made them all, except Adelina, vomit.
London Darkness- Infernal Inventions Page 10