Strange City

by Anth

  Be Larry Talbot, then: the wolfman, the power­house. Except that that would make me ten feet tall and very easy to spot. Okay, then be the troglodyte. Alley Oop. At least I'd be a little stronger. I crouched behind a purple-flowered glorybush and willed myself to transform.

  When i did, I got another nasty surprise. I'd hoped Oops high-performance metabolism would burn off the lingering effects of the drug It didn't Apparently the stuff was Wyrm-tainted.

  Well, no use worrying about it It wasn't as if I had much of a chance in any case. It occurred to me that if there was a tall tree growing near the fence, I could climb it and jump over the barrier without getting fried. I dashed to the edge of the property,

  No dice. There'd been big trees here once, but somebody had cut them down. Somehow, I wasn't surprised.

  Behind me, I heard doors opening, the hunters spreading out into the night. Afraid of being pinned against the fence, I ran back toward the hospital, hun­kered down behind a fragrant eucalyptus, and strained to come up with another idea.

  After a minute, I got one. [ could at least screw up the enemy's night vision Concentrating, i tried to activate one of my Gifts.

  It was hard. The tranq didn't just throw off my bal­ance and coordination; it made me feel drunk, under­cut my ability to focus my will Finally, just when I was about to give up and move on, I felt the power kick in, like a key turning inside my head.

  Through the darkness sounded a quick succession of pops, like a bunch of inflated paper bags being swatted all at once. Small fires burst into existence in bushes and trees. Unfortunately, with only green growth to consume, most would gutter out quickly, but I hoped that at least a few would burn for a while.

  Startled hunters cried out. Grinning, I slunk on, shoes swished through grass.

  I lunged behind an oak, flattened myself against the rough bark The footsteps continued toward me

  One man murmured and another replied- It was hard to believe they didn't hear my heart pounding.

  Obviously they didn't, because they walked right past me; two of them, with assault rifles, Kevlar jack­ets, and helmets equipped with modular nightvision goggles and radios. I eased out of my hiding place to attack them from behind,

  I clawed the first one's carotid arteries. Blood spurted, suffusing the air with its copper scent, and he dropped- As I pivoted, the other guy, a burly Chicano with two tattooed tears, did the same, bring­ing his weapon to bear. Feeling horribly slow and clumsy, I barely managed to slap the rifle out of line, then punched him in the jaw. His neck snapped and he fell, too.

  For the first time, I though I might have an outside chance of surviving Now that I'd taken down the gun­men, I could seize a weapon for myself. Not only would it narrow the long odds against me, but I could use it to blast open the gate in the fence.

  I wrenched the Chicano's rifle out of his deathgrip With its box magazine and folding steel butt, it looked a tot like an AKMS with some extra bells and whistles; probably the latest design from one of Pentex's muni-tions companies Wishing that the one of the helmet and jacket sets would fit Oops beetle-browed, anthro­poid body, I crept back toward the edge of the grounds.

  I knelt behind a bush, held my breath until four goons went by, moved on, swinging left to avoid the halo of light cast by one of my fires. I sensed motion at my back.

  I pivoted Nothing there. I did my best to blink the haze out of my eyes and still couldn't see anything.

  Maybe my nerves were playing tricks on me. After all, I wasn't even sure I'd heard anything. I just had a feeling, Backing up, I took a last look around, then turned and stalked on.

  For four paces, it was all right- Then the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end I spun around

  For a second. I stili didn't see him. Then he was right in front of me, a piece of the night molded into human form. A more prosaic description: he was a guy in black pajamas, hood, gloves, and shoes, wear­ing black pigment on his upraised samurai sword.

  Damn my cloudy vision! Still, it was all right. I'd spotted him in time, and now he was going to wish he'd brought a gun instead of relying on this ninja crap. I pulled my rifles trigger. Nothing happened. Maybe the gun was Wyrm-tainted, too. At any rate, it was gimmicked somehow so a Garou couldn't fire it— one more way this game was rigged against me.

  For one precious instant, I froze in shock. By the time I recovered, the sword was whizzing at my head, Frantically I jerked up the gun to block. The blade swooped around my guard and slashed my shoulder. The ninja whirled past me.

  No pain yet. Ordinarily, that would come in a moment, but I invoked another Gift and shut it out. At the same time, I wheeled to keep the swordsman in front of me.

  He lunged, cutting, feinting, bellowing kais, He was a better swordsman than I was, or might have been even if I hadn't had the tranq slowing me down. Over the next few seconds, my superior strength and reach barely sufficed to hold him off. Meanwhile, blood streamed down my arm-, the gash wasn't closing. Evidently, the blade was silver-coated.

  Finally I got lucky. Swinging with all my might, I managed to bash the sword out of his grip. Spinning end over end. it vanished into the shadows. I rushed in, trying to brain him, but he sidestepped and tripped me. By the time I scrambled to my feet, he had a dagger in each hand.

  I suspected he was as proficient with those as he was with a sword. Still, he'd have to get in close to score with them, and that might give me the chance I needed.

  [ dropped the rifle, brandished my hands in a your-knives-against-my-claws gesture, then swayed, trying to rhake it appear that my wound was draining what was left of my strength. Since it wasn't that far from the truth, I figured I'd look reasonably convincing.

  He pounced at me. I jabbed my talons at his face, a feeble thrust, and he brushed the attack aside with his forearm.

  I guessed Cooper hadn't taught the class about the Gift that lets certain Garou drop an opponent with the slightest touch Or maybe Sho Kosugi here had been absent that day. At any rate, his feet flew out from under him. I threw mysetf on top of him, ripped through cloth, flesh, and cracking ribs to shred his heart and lungs.

  Afterwards, I needed to lie still, gasping in chests-ful of air. But I could already hear running footsteps pounding toward me The ninja's shouts and the clan­gor of sword and rifle had drawn the other hunters

  My shoulder throbbed, My gaze fell on the useless gun, and a black, despairing rage welled up inside me. Suddenly, I didn't care about eking out another few fear­ful, painful minutes of life. I wanted to turn and charge my tormentors, kill and kill until they brought me down My spine and limbs lengthened My teeth grew points and my jaws began to stretch into a muzzle.

  Shuddering, ! clamped down on my fury. I refused to go berserk, not when it would mean losing, not with so much at stake, After several moments, my head cleared, and the shift to wolfman form reversed itself. Clutching my wound, hoping I wasn't leaving a trail of blood, I jumped up and ran.

  A gun barked. I threw myself flat, then realized that the bullet hadn't come anywhere near me. Someone had fired at a shadow, or maybe at one of his fellow goons For the time being, I was in the clear

  Which meant it was time to hatch Plan C. Much to my surprise, I finally did dredge up one last idea. It was a long shot; it meant trying something I hadn't done in years, and hadn't been good at even when in practice, but it also looked to be the only shot left.

  Unfortunately, I couldn't take it out here in the dark, I got up and headed for the hospital.

  After a minute, the black pile of the building loomed out of the night. I crept toward the door I'd entered through before. Guns banged and chattered. Bullets split the air around my head

  I sprinted, zigzagging, certain every instant that the next shot would take me out, But the gunmen kept missing. Chalk it up to the dark and the fact that the clowns were still trainees

  Knowing the door had reiocked itself when it closed, I hurled my weight against it. it crashed inward and I fell on top of the wreckag
e, jarring a burst of pain through my injured shoulder. I scram­bled up and ran on

  I was afraid the lobby would be full of hunters, but it wasn't. The only people there were the two atten­dants I'd first seen, still manning the nurses' station Since I didn't want them telling my pursuers which way I'd gone, I charged the enclosure.

  One guy frantically locked the door, so i leaped at a window instead. As the glass exploded, I noticed the other man had a red left eye. I wondered fleetingly what that was all about, but by the time I touched down, Id forgotten about it. I had more pressing things to think about.

  I tore red eye's face off, then pivoted to kill his partner. No need. A flying shard of glass had opened his throat for me. I smashed a console that looked like it monitored an alarm system, then grabbed a piece of window. Then, [ dashed up two flights of stairs, around a corner, and stopped, panting, under a light.

  Below me, radios crackled and voices called back and forth- Knowing I'd reentered the hospital, the hunters would seal and sweep it. I was treed.

  So I'd better get to work, [ thought.

  I held the shard up, tilted it to reflect the maximum amount of light, stared into the sheen, tried to push fear, anger, and pain aside so I could slip into the proper meditative frame of mind.

  I felt the power stir inside me, but nothing tangible happened. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been any reason to panic. On my best day, I'd never done this trick in less than fifteen minutes. But now I didn't have fifteen minutes to spare.

  I concentrated harder Drops of blood plopped from my elbow onto the linoleum. Footsteps clumped from the first floor to the second.

  I kept straining, heard the hunters ascend again, and felt the world shift.

  The ceiling fixtures went dark and turned to spider webs, deepening the gloom. Now, the only light was a sourceless gray phosphorescence. The linoleum changed into wood, while the antiseptic tang in the air gave way to a faint stink of excrement and rot.

  I laughed. I'd done it, stepped sideways into the spirit world. The enemy couldn't get at me anymore.

  Or so I thought. Then two riflemen stalked around the corner.

  One Carou can lead a band of comrades through the Gauntlet. Though it was supposed to be impossi­ble, somehow I'd drawn my pursuers after me. Which meant my last ploy had crapped out, and I guessed I was going to die. Still laughing. I charged the riflemen as they drew beads on me. I saw that I wouldn't close with them in time-

  But before they could shoot, a ring of giggling shadows materialized around them, clutched at them with gray translucent fingers. The humans squawked, punched, and thrashed, but feebly, as if the phantoms touch had sucked away their strength. In seconds the shadows disarmed them, then hustled each into a dif­ferent cell

  I dropped into a fighting stance, but the spooks didn't attack me, After a few seconds, shrieks and gunfire began echoing through the building.

  It sounded as if the hunters suddenly had bigger problems than bagging me. Emboldened, ! sneaked toward the stairs to check out the situation.

  Down the hall, another band of wraiths was stomping a fallen goon. On the second floor, they were wrapping the hunters in straitjackets. A few yards away, cell doors swung open by themselves. Startled gunmen pivoted toward them, then found themselves unable to look away Sobbing and shuddering, resist­ing with all their might, they shuffled through. The doors slammed behind them.

  Meanwhile, still unmolested, I tried to figure out what was going on.

  Nikos said the hospital had been an asylum since the I800s. Maybe it had been a snake pit, and the old-time inmates who'd suffered here were getting their revenge. Not that the shadows were their souls, trapped in this place for generations (or at least I hoped not). But Umbral sites remember their histo­ries, and sometimes create emanations to reenact them. Or to settle somebody's old score.

  Evidently, my step sideways had somehow enabled the spooks to pull my enemies into their reach. Not that I was complaining, but [ wondered why they weren't messing with me as well. Maybe it was because I wasn't human and had never held anyone prisoner here Unlike the Pentex guys, I didn't have much in common with the people the inmates once hated.

  So I guessed I was home free. Then someone yelled, "Hendricks!" It took me a second to remember that that was the alias Ed given, but I didn't have any trouble recognizing the voice—now shrill with fear— of Howard Cooper. Perhaps, hoping to witness the kill, he'd been following some of the goons around, and so had been yanked into the Umbra along with them.

  "Come out!" the scientist shouted. I've still got the girl! Tell him!"

  A shaky female voice cried, 'Yes! I'm here, too!"

  At last I understood why Cooper had taken lennifer out of her cell: to use her as a hostage, just in case, against all probability. I somehow managed to turn the tables on him and his men. He was either remark­ably farsighted or astonishingly gutless. "Where?" I called.

  "In the lobby!" she replied.

  "Don't be afraid," I said. "I'm coming down to help you."

  They were standing by the front door Cooper had a snub-nosed .38 revolver pressed to Jennifer's temple. He had choked up on the rod-leash to hold her in front of him human-shield fashion. Maybe that was why none of the shadows had taken him out.

  The girl's eyes widened when she saw me.

  "I thought you'd be interested in learning about another difference between us inferior Garou and you godlike humans," I said, advancing. "We can open the way into a place called the Umbra—"

  "I know where we are!" Cooper yapped. "Stay back!"

  "Or else what?" I kept walking forward. "If you understand what I did, then you know you need me to take you back to the physical world."

  "It doesn't matter. I'll shoot her anyway!"

  "All right," I growled, "I guess you win." Then charged.

  Cooper shoved the hostage at me, I tumbled her out of the way. The revolver pointed at my chest I dove trying to get under the shot. The gun banged once as it plowed into him, taking him down with a flying tackle.

  As soon I got my claws in him, it was over, but I'd grown to hate him so much that ] felt an urge to keep mangling his corpse

  Instead, I got up and turned to lennifer. She was cowering with her back against the wall—scared, but not terrified, which made sense when I thought about it. On the one hand, I was a naked, blood-spattered ogre who'd just torn a guy into cold cuts, but on the other, my victim was the doc who'd been torturing her. To some extent, it ought to balance out.

  Hoping it would reassure her, I shifted back to human form. Jennifer gasped and recoiled, but once the change was done, her trembling abated. "I'm a friend," I said. "Really. I came to take you out of here,"

  "But you," she swallowed, "you didn't stop when he said he'd shoot me."

  "Yeah, well, even doped up like I am, I'm pretty fast, Cooper couldn't count on having enough time to kill you and turn the gun on me. I hoped he'd realize that and be more interested in protecting his ass than carrying out his threat.

  "I admit it was a gamble, but what was the alterna­tive? I could have stood a safe distance away from him and tried to shift us all back across the Gauntlet, but since Cooper wasn't a Carou, ordinarily it wouldn't even work. Then again, I got the two of you here, so who knows? Say it worked. Next thing, he shoots me and locks you back in the brainwashing gizmo. I couldn't see much percentage in that"

  Jennifer's lips quirked into a fleeting smile. "Easy for you to say. I'd still have been alive, Maybe the next rescuer would have gotten me out."

  "Maybe," J said, "but there was another side to it, too. Cooper claimed he couid destroy my people, who are your people, too, even if you don't know it yet. That made killing him more important than saving your life or mine. I couldn't even risk simply maroon­ing him here because his organization has agents who could cross over and bring him out. Can you under­stand that?"

  "Kind of," she said. "Could you be a little more vague?"

  I grinned- "I still have w
ork to do. Ill explain things as we go. That is, if you feel up to helping me."

  "You mean, help you free the other kids?" I nodded, "Sure," she said.

  The mop-up took some time, but it was easy, Despite the fact that my companion had yet to come into her powers, I had no trouble carrying her back to mundane reality. Maybe the shadows helped me, I don't know. Afterwards, I killed the noncombatant Pentex staffer I found hiding in the building. Jennifer bandaged my shoulder. Together we found clothing. Then we trashed Cooper's files, drugs, and equip­ment.

  Finally, we walked mumbling, stumbling teenagers around until they came to, then parked them in the lobby. Some couldn't stop crying; others wouldn't speak; many flinched at any noise or sudden move­ment. Though they weren't emaciated, their demeanor reminded me of photos I'd seen of death-camp sur­vivors,

  "You wimps make me sick!" I bellowed in my best drill-sergeant snarl, The teenagers jumped, "Don't you know why Cooper picked you to hurt? Because you're special! You have magic powers and a heroic destiny, Fate has chosen you to defend the world. So act like it, damn it! Stop sniveling. Stand up straight, and don't huddle together."

  It worked to a degree. I jolted some of them out of their funk. A chunky black girl said, "What are you talk­ing about? What's going to happen to us?"

  And I realized it was a good question.

  I didn't doubt that Nikos's pack would take them in Like most troops, Nikos's pack was almost certainly eager for new blood. In fact, a mass recruitment might shore up the crippled leaders shaky position consider­ably. The problem was what would happen after that.

  Garou aren't known for coddling their young. Certainly, the grim, cold Shadow Lords didn't. The kids would face a grueling series of tests, and for all [ knew, they weren't up to it There was no way to guess how much damage Cooper's experiment had done.