'It's an interesting coincidence really. The Golem is reported to be an inhuman creature. He was supposedly the attack dog of a Russian mobster, an old Soviet General, here in Prague. They say the Golem can't be killed, that his skin is made of stone. There are stories of bullets bouncing off his skin. They say he's the result of some Soviet experiments on soldiers, experiments that went horribly wrong.'
'That's where the coincidence grows interesting. I have been asked to find another freak, like the Golem. The freak I have been asked to acquire is a monster from South America, where you have just come from. The creature, ape-man describes him best, was just recently seen in Manaus. It's strange because I believe that is precisely where you have just come from. So, you tell me Razmik, what are the odds of your Jew servant hunting for one veritable monster in Prague while you are basically in the same neighbourhood as another one in Brazil?'
Razmik was speechless.
The voice continued, 'that's what I thought. You know where the creature is. I want to know where the creature is.'
'I need to know that Abraham is alive. I want to see him.'
'Very well,' said the voice, 'I will show you your Jew. Then you will tell me where to find the creature. After I have acquired the specimen I will release the Jew.'
'No. If I tell you where to look I want Abraham released then. It's none of my responsibility if you find it or not.'
'No Razmik, you forget. I don't necessarily need you. I already know the location of the last sighting. I also have no love for your Jew. You need me more than I need you. We do it on my terms or we do it over your man's dead body.'
Razmik looked at Ardia, his expression helpless.
O'Connor came forward with the plan. Razmik clearly looked suspect and the Kokoureks simply thought it madness. Ardia was cautiously interested. Homer, as ever, didn't care for the talking. He just waited.
'No,' David said, 'we are as, how do they say, gung-ho as anyone. Look at room of guns that made you so unhappy. We like to fight. We are good at fighting. But this thing, it cannot be done.'
Marek nodded his agreement and said, 'you are talking about the Russians. You cannot go into Prague and beat the Russians. You really, really cannot go into Russian, ah, neighbourhoods and win. There are only few of us. There will be tens of them. They very strong here in Prague, ever since old days.'
O'Connor asked, 'and you don't have any... you know, any associates out in these parts that can help you?'
David nodded, 'yes. No. Sort of. Me and Marek, we handle the things here. Sometimes we get help. But these things, they have to be...decided...arranged before. It needs time to get help. We don't have time if we are going tonight.'
Marek joined him, 'yes, we know you are priest and don't mean disrespect but you not know what is to happen here. This thing, it is crazy. There are six of us if we count...' Marek pointed to Homer. The Kokoureks had not adapted well to Homer's presence, they seemed to think of him as a particularly intelligent pet.
'If we are going to include you, we are going to include me,' Homer growled, breaking what had been a long silence on his part. He did not enjoy the Kokoureks. Their attitude towards him made him feel less than they were. He did not enjoy that sensation at all. In contrast he was impressed by how little his introduction and continued presence had effected Razmik and Ardia.
Razmik turned to O'Connor, 'I appreciate the thought. And I appreciate your willingness to help. But as the boys here have said, there could be twenty men in that warehouse. We can't storm that with six.'
O'Connor smiled, 'I follow you mathematics. You have added two and two and two and have gotten six. It makes sense. But you're adding is flawed, Razmik. I add Homer. I don't know what to call him myself. What I can tell you is that in the right circumstances, Homer alone is worth twenty men. Granted, this is not the jungle. But if we can find a way to get Homer close to them then that's the whole show on its own. Believe me, I've seen it. Then there's your very special and talented lady here. I saw her stand up to Homer on that rooftop. She is not your normal fighter either. You certainly can't add her to any equation and see it increase by just one. Then there's me.'
Razmik raised an eyebrow, 'are you going to call down the wrath of God on our enemies?'
'No', said Ardia, interupting them, 'he is going to open that travel chest he carted along. He's going to open it and it's going to contain a rifle. And he's going to shoot that rifle well. Very well.'
Razmik turned back to look at O'Connor, his eyebrows raised in question.
O'Connor's face was an expression of surprise, 'very impressive, Ardia. That is exactly what I am going to do. And, just as it is vital to find a way to put Homer in the correct position, if you can find the right place for me to shoot from then I can change the equation as well.'
Razmik considered. He asked Ardia, 'you fought Homer. Is he really as good as our new friend here says he is.''
Ardia nodded entusiastically, 'at least that good. Maybe a lot better. If we can get him close to the Russians it's very hard to imagine anything being able to stop him.'
Homer smiled.
Razmik thought long and hard for most of a minute. Nobody spoke. Then he looked back up at his companions with a smile of his own.
Then he shrugged.
Chapter 39
Homer was free again. The last few days had been difficult and stressful. First the crate, then that hardly bearable, seeming eternity in the van. The confines had been hard on Homer, but their trial was nothing compared with the people. So many people. There had been a time not so long ago when his entire world had been the jungle and his adopted father. Now though, now things were moving quickly and that world was rapidly expanding to contain new faces, new personalities.
Homer glided over the rooftops. The night was dark and concealing, his massive feet and incredible bulk hardly seemed to make contact with the surfaces of the buildings as he moved with incongruous stealth. His role in the coming confrontation was unclear but he expected to be needed. When he had asked his father when and how he should intervene O'Connor had said that Homer would know when he was needed. When O'Connor saw the burning enthusiasm in his ward's eyes he had added, 'best to stray on the side of caution though...'
Homer had been with them in the van when they had driven past the meeting place. Razmik had pointed to where he should conceal himself in preparation for the meeting. The tree was big and old with twisted branches and a heavy canopy of leaves. Homer would be invisible there. They had released him from the confines of the van further away where there would be fewer eyes. Now that he was trying to find the spot of the rendezvous he found himself struggling. It had never been like this in the jungle where he came from. He had always known which way to turn. This new concrete jungle had impaired his judgement.
Homer was comfortable with Razmik. He was not sure how to deal with him, or any of the other new faces for that matter, but he was comfortable with the man. He reminded him a lot of his own adopted father. Practical, steady and commanding. He felt Razmik understood what he was doing and that was good. Homer certainly did not understand the actions that were needed and was content to have his movements guided by the man.
Ardia was a different story entirely. His feelings towards her were very mixed. He could appreciate her positive qualities. She was like Razmik as well in many ways. She was practical and level headed. There was a passion in her though that he had not encountered in his other limited interactions with humans. It was like his own intensity but at the same time it was not. Homer understood that his impulses were foreign to the others. They didn't seem to understand his urge to act immediately in response to a stimulus. While Ardia was less prone to surrendering to these instincts, he could see that she shared them. She just seemed to be able to suppress them more readily than he could. Perhaps that was something he could learn.
Homer swept up the side of a pitched roof until he was crouching above the sprawling urban landscape. He surveyed the land that spr
ead out of front of him and then he saw it, only a few hundred yards away. The warehouse was adjoined by an open space of rough stone. Razmik had called it a yard. The tree, his tree, was standing near to the door of the warehouse. It was an excellent position. Even now there were men walking along the front of the building. He could detect from their body language and stance that they were sentries. They bothered him very little. Their poor human senses would have no chance at discovering him as he made his way into the safety of the branches. Just looking at the tree made him feel a longing for home. He set off once more.
It was not Ardia's reign over her emotions that troubled Homer. It was who she was. Yes, she was a woman and that in itself was difficult. Homer had never dealt with women before and her presence filled him with mixed and confusing emotions. He was not sure how to address her gender, how to treat her. He could feel that there was something different, something dazzlingly, terrifically and terribly different about her because of her gender but he could not understand the basis for the feeling. He had read about this feeling in books his adoptive father had given him but he could not associate the sensation with his own mind.
Then there was her strength, her speed, her power. Her existence upset his own notion of self. In Homer's entire universe to this point he had been apart from all others. From humans to jaguars to snakes there had been nothing in his idea of the world that compared with his physical talents. Humans and beetles were almost one for all the threat they posed to him physically. Ardia though, she was the same as he was but different. She was strong, stronger than any other being he had ever encountered. Not as strong as he was, true enough, but strong. The word that came to his mind to describe her strength was inhuman. She was fast as well. In this regard maybe she was his equal or better. But with all of that she could do something he could not. Joining her other talents, she knew how to use the guns. She joined powers comparable to his own with the one thing that made humans vaguely threatening. She could shoot guns. Homer could not even fit his clumsy fingers into the trigger guard of any of the weapons he had ever handled. He both enjoyed and loathed her for her power. He felt he had both a peer and a rival in this woman.
Homer dove across the rooftops. All around him were more warehouses, sheds and factories. This was an industrial area barely on the outskirts of the city. At this hour in the night there were no eyes to find him as he leapt and ran. The cold continental air ripped in and out of his lungs as he exerted himself. In moments he landed on the rooftop of the warehouse where they were to meet with the Russians.
Homer descended the slope of the roof that faced the yard. He padded briskly down the decline and pushed off, leaping out, far out, into the eternity of the night sky. For a fraction of a second he just hung there, rotating in the air, feeling once more like the most powerful creature in the jungle. And then, as quickly as he had joined the stars suspended in the black canopy of the night, he was in the tree. He twisted around rapidly to face the warehouse and the men who were patrolling. Not so much as an eyelash was out of place. He had arrived, undetected.
Homer ran a hand over the smooth matte surface of the tree trunk and smiled. This was where he wanted to be. This was where nature had always wanted him to be.
Homer sank to his haunches, tucked in against trunk, his feet gripping a stout branch. Homer waited.
Chapter 40
They waited in the van.
Ardia withdrew each pistol from the holsters under her jacket, ejected each magazine to inspect it, racked the slides to feel the action of the guns, and then returned them to their holsters once again. She had selected an AMT .45 calibre Hardballer and a Beretta M9 9mm pistol from the vast arsenal on display at the Kokoureks' bat-cave. The Hardballer was her intended primary, but holding only 8 rounds (including one already chambered), and having only one spare magazine, Ardia had also decided to bring the M9 with its much larger 15 round magazine. She would have liked a rifle but Razmik had insisted they not appear with an outward appearance of aggression. His hope was still to find a way to negotiate for Abraham's release. He said they could leave the heavy firepower to Marek if it was needed. Marek would wait in the van and had brought an assortment of big and ridiculous guns from the armoury.
Razmik had a revolver holstered under his jacket while David had come armed with two fully automatic Glock pistols.
Razmik looked at his watch as they sat in the back of the van. David was still sitting in the cab, Marek was leaning up to the grill to talk to him.
'Soon, Ardia,' Razmik said, 'just another few minutes.'
Ardia nodded her acknowledgement and said, 'has O'Connor signalled you yet?'
Razmik smiled, 'yes. He sent a text message from the cellphone David gave him. I can barely decipher it. I don't believe the old-timer has ever sent a text before in his life.'
Ardia smiled in return, 'Raz... I haven't had to chance to ask you... Well, why did you bring them? It's not like you to be impulsive like this. We don't know either of them and Homer, well, travelling with Homer is a huge risk.'
Razmik shrugged, 'I don't know, Ardia. It's hard to say. Call it a feeling. Homer is like you. You might be marginally prettier', he winked, 'but he is the only other individual I have ever encountered that is like you, that is so different. If you want to know where you came from then I am willing to bet that you have a similar history to Homer. And there's the resemblance he shares with the figure we saw on the roof of your mother's house. And besides, I saw how he challenged you on that rooftop. He is an exceptional talent. He may be very raw, but you can help him with that.'
'I can help him?' Ardia asked.
Razmik nodded matter of factly, 'yes Ardia. You know how to fight. Homer simply knows how to wave those big fists. If not for that difference I think you would have stood little chance against him in Manaus.'
'Then why should I help him get better? Don't get me wrong Raz, I have a good feeling about them as well. But we don't know them. We have no idea how long we will be together or if the time will come when we will be trying to kill each other again.'
Razmik smiled distantly and looked at his watch, 'it's time to go.'
When David drove the van into the yard they were not challenged by either of the men standing at the gate to the yard. There was a stout gate but it was left open. There was clearly a lack of concern for the threat that could be posed by the passengers of a single van. They pulled up and stopped a few dozen yards from the rear of the warehouse. Homer's tree stood a stone's throw from the door to the warehouse. Try as they might, none of them could detect if he was actually in the tree. At this point, they had to presume.
David exited the cab and came around to open the back doors of the van so that Razmik and Ardia could dismount.
The long wall of the warehouse that faced them was littered with men. None of the men were concealing their weapons, which consisted of an assortment that ranged from tiny old revolvers up to sub machineguns and assault rifles. If shooting began then there was precious little cover to be had. It was only at that point that Ardia realized how they had put their lives in the hands of O'Connor and Homer. O'Connor's Almighty rifle and Homer's terrible brute force would be needed in a heartbeat if a fight really broke out. Without them in this situation then the trio, standing in the open like, would not stand a chance. It was unlike Razmik to take risks, especially taking such risks with unknowns. In the last few days he had taken many chances that ranged from taking O'Connor and Homer into their fold to joining up with the Kokourek Brothers. There was something happening in usually calculated mind. When the smoke settled after this encounter she would need to poke out the reason for this strange behaviour.
She tapped Razmik on the shoulder and said, 'we should abort this. We can't take them on. There are too many. They are way to well armed. We have zero cover. We need to get out of here while we still can.'
Razmik shook his head sadly, 'we can't. We might not have another chance like this. Abe is meant to be here right now. If we le
ave then, even if he is kept alive, we won't know where to find him. This is the way it has to be. Have faith in the Almighty, Ardia.'
Ardia sighed, 'the man is in his seventies, Raz, how much faith can we have in his abilities?'
Razmik didn't repy, he just started towards the warehouse. He was flanked by Ardia on one side and David on the other. Marek sat in the van with armed with a heavy machine gun and a grenade launcher. The trio walked across the gravel yard. The Russians stood on a raised concrete platform that ran the length of the building.
Both of the Kokourek Brothers had been cautioned not to dare to fire a round until either Ardia or Razmik had started shooting already. Marek had then been lectured extensively about knowing where his grenades might land relative to where one of his companions might be standing.
Razmik moved towards the short series of steps that would lead to the platform. He was about mount the first step when the figure appeared from a side door of the warehouse alongside the main loading doors.
'Shit,' he breathed.
Ardia's eyes widened with amazement. The figure that had emerged looked like a gargoyle carved from blackened stone. His skin was as black as tar, hard, rough and angular. His eyes were sunken black orbs that sat deep in his eyes sockets. And he was big. Not Homer-big, but linebacker big. He was incongruously dressed in a grey suit with a flamboyant pink tie that looked to be worth thousands of dollars.
'What the hell?' she breathed to Razmik.
Before he could reply the figure spoke. Razmik recognized the rough voice from the phone.
'Welcome,' it said.
Razmik's shock was very short-lived. Immediately he said, 'where is my man?'
The creature looked dissappointed, 'my apppearance is not worth a little more awe? Right to business is it?'
Razmik said, 'I didn't come here to gape. I came here to confirm that my man is alive and well.'
The creature rolled its head from side to side and said, 'well, he is alive but he's not all that well.'
Episode 4: The Golem (The New Breed Chronicles) Page 4