-NS
End Coded Transmission
I had my cell phone out and was calling Thad before Megan had started the Tercel. He picked up on the fourth ring.
“Antiquated Treasures, where the past makes lovely presents,” he said.
“Thad, it’s Vincent. The guy who’s been ordering all the antique weapons and reading glasses, what was his name?”
“Robert Maxwell, why?”
“I think he’s doing something very bad with those antiques, Thad. Can you stop that last shipment of glasses to him?”
“Bad? Like illegal, bad?”
“Like evil scientist, bad.”
“That bastard,” Thad hissed. “After all the legwork I’ve done—”
“Thad,” I interrupted. “Can you stop that shipment?”
“Sorry, Vincent, but he just left here half an hour ago. Took the last batch of glasses with him. I can stop selling him stuff if you want.”
“Definitely. Also, please pull an inventory sheet of everything he’s purchased, and can you give me his address?”
“Sure thing, sweetie.” He paused. “Can I do anything else to help?”
“Yeah, actually. What’s he look like?”
“Oh he’s a strapping one, Vincent,” Thad replied. “Almost as tall as me, tan, shaved head and the most piercing blue eyes you can imagine. He’s got this intricate tattoo of a sun on the left side of his neck, too.”
“Thanks, Thad. Call me back on my cell once you’ve got that list.” Thad rattled off Maxwell’s address, which I jotted down in a small notebook I kept in my coat pocket. We hung up and I called Leslie. “I need to talk to the boss immediately.”
Her response, as always, was terse. “Mr. Corinthos, Galahad XI is extremely busy—”
“Les, Nathan Singravel is out of Ashgate.”
There was a pause, then the phone started ringing again. “Yes?” Galahad sounded tired.
“Boss, did you know Nathan Singravel was out?”
There was a longer pause and for a moment I thought we’d lost our connection. When he spoke again, his voice was calm, the dangerous calm. “I was not aware of this. Are you sure?”
“Gattwood said that Singravel came by the other day, posing as an agent, and commandeered some books on golem crafting.”
Galahad’s voice was calmer still. “I am going to call Warden Garside now, Vincent. When you get back to headquarters, please join me in the conference room, and bring Megan.”
“Sure thing, boss.” We hung up and I tucked my phone back in my pocket.
“What next?” Megan asked.
“We head back to the office. Galahad’s looking into Singravel’s release now.”
“Do you think Singravel’s the one behind the disappearances?”
I shook my head. “Doesn’t seem like Nathan. He sells knowledge, not people. So he’s probably supplying the real threat with information. Just the same, that’s really bad. Nathan knew a lot, and what he didn’t know he had access to. He told me once that he wanted to be the Codex someday.”
Megan pursed her lips. The Codex was the Care Taker’s main advisor, a person who knew almost every secret the Caulborn had. “How do you think Galahad will handle it?”
I shrugged. “Tough to say. Galahad took Nathan’s betrayal personally. They all did. They were all pretty close, and no one saw it coming.”
“You said ‘they,’ not ‘we.’”
“I was recently recruited when Nathan went bad. I didn’t know him very well. But he, Miguel and Kristin had worked together for years. It was very hard for them.” On our way back to the office, I stopped at a convenience store and picked up a carton of cigs for the Doc. Megan watched my transaction with disapproval, but she didn’t say anything about it as we walked back to the office.
When we reached the office, I gave the cigs to Jake and asked him to pass them on to the Doc, then we took the elevator to the third floor. I stopped at Leslie’s desk. “How’s the boss?” I asked.
Leslie looked at me over the tops of her glasses. “I’m amazed you didn’t hear him all the way outside, Mr. Corinthos,” she said. “I haven’t heard him that angry in a long time. He’s calmed a bit, but I think he’s going to be upset for a while.” I thanked her and Megan and I walked to the conference room. Galahad was already there. He motioned for us to sit down. His hair was neatly parted as always and his clothes were tidy, but he looked exhausted. It was his eyes, mostly. They were bloodshot and there were deep hollows spreading beneath them.
“I just spoke with Warden Garside. He informed me that Nathan Singravel was released about six weeks ago.” Galahad spoke the last part through his teeth, but his voice remained steady. “Ashgate is operating at maximum capacity, and so the Care Taker decided to let some of the less threatening inmates go.”
“Less threatening? Boss, Nathan had access—”
Galahad put up a hand. I stopped speaking. “I concur with you, Vincent.” His voice was still steady. It was getting calmer with every word. I shrank back in my chair a little. “Our office was to be notified of Nathan’s release, but due to a clerical error we were not.” He paused and took a sip of water from a cup. “Regardless, Nathan is out. He was supposed to be monitored, but again, a clerical error prevented this.”
“That’s an awful lot of clerical errors,” Megan said.
“Yes, Megan,” Galahad said. “I had the same opinion. I suggested to the warden that perhaps he needs to re-evaluate his current staff and their intellectual capabilities.”
“Wait, six weeks?” I asked. “That would put Nathan getting out just before the Delions went missing. And if Nathan wanted revenge on Mikey for exposing him in the first place...”
“Exactly where I was going with this, Vincent. Put Nathan under surveillance and see if he’s involved with what’s going on.”
“If he is, we’ll take care of it, boss,” I said. Galahad nodded and stood. As Megan headed for the door, I caught Galahad by the arm. “Boss, are you okay?”
Galahad XI smiled at me. “The Lord never gives us more than we can handle, Vincent. Although sometimes, I think he tests us. This is one of those times for me. I appreciate your concern, but thank you, I’m fine.” His tone told me that I should drop it. I nodded and left the room. Leslie caught us in the hallway. “Just got this from Warden Garside’s people,” she said. “It’s Nathan’s Singravel’s new address.” I thanked Leslie and we stopped off in my office so I could grab my coat.
“So how did you catch Nathan Singravel the first time?” Megan asked.
“Miguel had noticed that Nathan’s quality of life was improving beyond what his Caulborn salary should allow. It was little stuff really; new computer, new tech toys, new TV, stuff like that. On their own, they wouldn’t have meant much, but there were so many of them in such a short period of time that Mikey noticed.” I took my leather bomber from the back of my chair and shrugged into it.
“Singravel was that obvious?”
“No, Miguel was that observant. Nathan didn’t flaunt his new toys, didn’t even talk about them. But Mikey would see them on Nathan’s desk, would see Nathan ordering stuff online. Lots of stuff. And as that was happening, some of the Caulborn’s enemies started being able to dodge us, like they knew what we were planning. Mikey got permission from Galahad and did some digging. A Swiss bank account had been opened in Nathan’s name and it had seven figures in it. Gears installed an electronic monitoring device on Nathan’s PC at work and at his apartment. We found that Nathan was sending coded transmissions to several less than reputable individuals.”
Megan whistled. “So what happened?”
“Miguel, Kristin and I went to Nathan’s apartment. The confrontation was short. Nathan has a Fylgiar and he sent it at us while he tried to run. Kristin sent Mist to intercept it. Miguel ran after Nathan and tackled him. Nathan pretty much broke on the spot and told us everything.”
“That seems too easy,” Megan said as we started back into the hall.<
br />
“That’s what I thought. Thing is, Nathan had been selling info for months while trying to stay under the radar. The shrinks say that his mind was getting close to breaking from the stress of that, so once he finally got caught, it was a relief to unload everything.”
Megan stopped. “Wait. Nathan has a Fylgiar?”
“Yeah, its name is Smoke.”
Megan shook her head. “Then you can’t be involved with this. I spent a lot of time talking with Kristin about Fylgiar yesterday. One of the people I worked with in New Mexico had an ancestral guardian, and I wanted to see if they were the same kind of thing. Smoke will be able to pick up on your scent from up to a mile away. If he thinks you’ve been poking around Nathan’s apartment, Nathan will be on alert.”
Crap. She had a point there. “Okay, so what do you suggest?”
“Let me take some surveillance photos of his apartment, and tail him for a time. I should be able to see who he meets with.”
“All right. But you be careful. Do you have the lifeline’s phone number in case you run into trouble?”
She nodded.
“Okay, while you do that, I’ll see if I can dig up anything on this Robert Maxwell.” Megan left and I went back to my office and jotted some notes on the whiteboard. That done, I looked up directions to Robert Maxwell’s house using the address Thad had given me and decided to go check his place out. My phone buzzed and I looked down to see an email from Thad with a list of items Maxwell had purchased. I couldn’t help but smile; Thad’s timing has always been impeccable.
I took the train to the address and found Maxwell’s apartment building. I went up to the third floor and knocked. No answer. I waited a minute and tried again. Still no answer.
I glanced up and down the hallway, and when I was sure no one was watching, I touched the door and Opened it. My father was a god of doors and I was lucky enough to inherit that particular domain. The door unlocked itself and swung open for me. I’d have done this at the Delion’s place, but Megan seemed so excited to use her picks.
I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. The apartment opened on a living room smelling of fresh paint. A quick glance showed me a TV, a couch, recliner and coffee table. While the furniture was new, everything looked cheap; the coffee table was one of those flimsy pressboard jobs, the recliner and couch were the overstuffed kind you find at bargain basement outlet stores, and the TV was a no-name brand.
This certainly didn’t match the profile of a person who shopped at a place like Antiquated Treasures. I stepped through into the kitchen and found a small table and two chairs. I opened the cabinets and saw they were completely empty. So was the fridge. There was no garbage can in the kitchen either. I opened the oven and found the little tag that told how to use a gas range.
Two doors were off the living room. The first was the bathroom. The medicine chest was completely empty; there wasn’t even a toothbrush. I opened the second door, which I guessed should’ve been the bedroom. Inside I found a handful of empty cardboard boxes, some of them with the Antiquated Treasures logo on them. There was no bed, no dresser, and no clothes in the closet. Robert Maxwell didn’t actually live here. The place was made up just enough so that a delivery person or someone looking in from the hall would see a normal looking apartment.
I found the shipping list from one of the boxes that didn’t come from Antiquated Treasures. It listed a medieval ball and chain for contents. There were a few other boxes from a nursery. These had no packing slips, but I suspected they’d contained wolfsbane. I looked around again. There were no photos, no books, no notes next to the telephone. The TV wasn’t even plugged in. I copied down the items Maxwell had ordered and names of the other shops into my notebook and headed out.
I got back to the office and found Megan skipping toward the building’s door. Her eyes were bright and her dimple was prominent. “Good news?” I asked.
“Yep.” We opened the office door and stepped into the lobby. “I’ve got a photo of the guy Nathan Singravel has been selling information to.” She patted her camera.
I gawked. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That was fast.”
She smiled. “Just lucky, I guess. Come on, I’ll show you in my office.”
We went upstairs and Megan popped the flash card from her camera into the computer. She scrolled through some images and brought up one of Nathan Singravel speaking with a tall man with a shaved head. He was dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans, and had a tattoo of a sun on the left side of his neck. “Recognize him?” Megan asked.
“No, but he matches a description Thad gave me.” I had Megan email the photo to Thad with a quick message asking if it was Robert Maxwell. Thad responded less than thirty seconds later with a message simply saying, “Yes.”
Megan’s extension rang and she picked up. “Megan Hayes.” There was a brief pause. “Okay, we’ll be right down.” She hung up. “Doc Ryan and Mrs. Rita have turned up some information on that corpse you brought in.”
We headed down to Medical where we found the Doc lighting a cigarette. He blew the smoke out his nostrils and shook his head. “Incredible. This is incredible. This thing looks like someone tried to clone a gremlin and then alter the clone’s DNA.” He pointed to a computer screen. There were a bunch of chemical equations that probably wouldn’t have made sense to me back when I was in college. The Doc rolled his eyes at my blank look.
“That looks like the chemical formula for chlorpromazine,” Megan said, squinting at the screen.
The Doc’s face brightened. “That’s right. Nice to know someone around here was paying attention during chemistry class.” The Doc took another puff. “For the underachievers in the room,” the Doc looked directly at me, “chlorpromazine is an extremely powerful tranquilizer. These ‘neo-gremlins’ secrete it naturally and deliver it via poison glands that line their mouths. One bite from one of these little bastards and you’d be out for a week.”
“What else is different about them?” I asked.
“They’re bigger and stronger than the original gremlins, probably so they can subdue their prey better. Their brains are about thirty percent smaller, though, so I don’t think they’d be as intelligent as the gremlins we know and love.” The Doc glanced at the corpse on the table across from him. “They also have chameleon-like pigmentation, so they’ve got situational camouflage that would be very effective in sneaking around.” The Doc finished his cigarette and crushed it out in an ashtray. I thought about the creatures that had taken a swipe at me the other night and how I hadn’t been able to see them. I shuddered.
“Anything else?” I asked.
The Doc looked at me. “Well, yeah,” he said as he put another cigarette to his mouth. “They’re uglier, too.”
Leslie’s voice came over the intercom system. “Doctor Ryan, Agent Hayes, Agent Corinthos, please come to the conference room.” We started for the door when one of the computers played a soft chime. “Finally,” the Doc said. “I’ve been running a facial reconstruction simulation on that zombie Kristin brought in the other day. This scan was to match up and give us a picture of what the poor cuss looked like before he got all runny.”
The image rendered onscreen confirmed Kristin’s initial suspicions. I was looking at Seamus McElery.
Chapter 11
Begin Coded Transmission
The hobgoblins and trolls, frustrated that one of the most docile of peoples had suddenly risen up against them, launched a final, full-scale attack against the Urisk. Fourteen war clans made up of soldiers, mages and shape shifters were deployed into Urisk territory. They did not return. The hobgoblins claim that the Urisk are cursed, and the trolls have refused any further contact.
While it may be unorthodox, I suggest that a portion of the Urisk population be killed by envikan to reduce Corinthos’ overall powers, defeat him, and thus make conquest possible. The Urisk population can then be replenished via breeding programs.
-NS
End Coded Transmission
I rushed up to the conference room with Doc Ryan and Megan in tow. Galahad and Mrs. Rita were already there. “Mrs. Rita informed me that you have discovered a new breed of gremlin,” Galahad said as we sat down. He pulled a keyboard up from below the table and tapped on it. The giant plasma TV on the far wall flashed to life as Galahad logged into our secure systems.
“What I am about to share with you is classified information. It is not to leave this room.” Galahad keyed in a few more commands and we were looking at a black and white photograph of Adolph Hitler surrounded by a group of men and women.
“Some of you may know that Hitler was a bit of a fanatic about the occult. During World War II, he recruited many men and women who claimed to have mystical powers in order to give his soldiers an edge in battle. Luckily for the Allies, the majority of these people were frauds. This one, however, was not.” The image zoomed in on a young woman four people to the right of Hitler. Her dark hair was cut short and she wore a plain black dress. Her eyes had the hard edge of determination in them. I could tell this was a woman who did what she set out to, no matter what.
“This is Millie von Hassen. Her father was an expert on folklore who took her throughout Europe when she was a child. She was exposed to dozens of cultures, their superstitions, and their magics. She dabbled in magic herself, and from the intelligence I have, became quite good at it. She joined Hitler’s inner circle here about a year before the war ended.”
“What did she do?” Megan asked. “Put hexes on Allied soldiers? Give the Nazis potions to make them supermen?”
“Nothing so mundane,” Mrs. Rita said. “Von Hassen learned how to create golems from Hebrew traditions and created many artificial soldiers. She expanded on the golem making techniques and improved them. Ultimately, she created an entire race of creatures designed to infiltrate and sabotage Allied airplanes, convoys and boats.”
Imperium (Caulborn) Page 10