Robert Charrette - Arthur 03 - A Knight Among Knaves (40 page)

"Do not underestimate him, Elizabeth," Carter admonished. "You will need great power to oppose him."

"We stopped Quetzal," John pointed out. How bad could a wannabe be?

Carter gave a sharp intake of breath at John's mention of the name. "An impressive feat, but you were lucky. The mage who holds the talisman of the worm may not be the equal of the feathered serpent, but he has allied himself with a monster of the outer darkness. And he controls the talisman. A very dangerous combination. You will need help."

Need help? "What makes you think we're going after him?"

"Hush, John. Of course we are." John gaped. His reaction went unnoticed by Dr. Spae; her attention was focused on Carter. "Go on, Mr. Carter. You say we'll need help. Do you have any particular help in mind?"

"Yeah, like are
you
going to do something?" If Dr. Spae wanted help, this guy and his friends were prime material. Hadn't they been the ones to open the can of worms in the lirst place? "What about your St. Lazarus guys? You gonna help us or what?"

"I'm glad you're in, John," Dr. Spae whispered to him.

So she had noticed. And,
hell,
he had said
us,
hadn't he? Somewhere along the line he had gotten involved. He was angry with himself for losing his detachment. Well, he couldn't let the doctor face this creepoid alone, could he? It had taken both of them to bury Quetzal.

John shot his anger at Carter. "If this mage is so bad, we'll need all the help we can get. We need more help than your damned riddles. What are you going to
do
to help?"

Carter didn't stir. "As you, I fear to face this mage, John. Among the servants of St. Lazarus there are neither arcane nor mundane warriors of sufficient stature. You and Elizabeth have fought the agents of the worm before, you must fight them again."

"Not the right answer," John told him.

"Only too truly the right answer," Carter countered. "We servants of St. Lazarus serve as we can, according to our gifts. We have offered you knowledge in the hope that you— both of you—as proven warriors, will do what we cannot. Yet we fear that the two of you are not strong enough, and so we tell you this: there is, free upon the land, another talisman of power, one more benign in nature. It is strong. It is near. And you, both of you, have brushed against its power and not been seared. It may be possible that one of you may be given the grace to wield the talisman. The cause is just, and each of you has resisted corruption by the darkness. Shoulder your burden. Face the worm. Do what must be done. Be the heroes that the world needs."

John had always dreamed of being a hero. So why was he terrified of getting the chance?

"Where do we find this talisman?" Dr. Spae asked. She might have been asking for directions to the local mall for all that she sounded concerned about the course of action she was committing them to.

"As I said, Elizabeth, it is near. In fact, it is in a building in this very city. I take its presence as a sign. Yet it is not my place to offer its use. Go to the seeker of secrets of whom I spoke before. He knows not the keeper of that most potent of talismans, but he knows the path to where it lies. Ask his aid. I can say no more."

The babble of voices poured into the squad room, overwhelming the ordinary bustle and noise.

"What about the Kennedy Plague aircraft? Any truth about a new strain of bubonic coming out of Boston?"

"The Proper Order rumbled last night. Are you investigating the cult aspects of the gang?"

"Is it true that the mayor of Pawtucket has been abducted by a UFO?"

"Word is that the Holyoke Horror has struck again. Any truth to that?"

"Is it true that you have apprehended the
Wisteria
killer?"

"I've got a source who says that you have Anton Van Die-man's mummified body in the morgue. Is that true?"

"Is it true that the Newport oil spill has been quarantined because it's really an extradimensional toxic waste dump?"

"Is it true that—"

"Is it true—"

"Is it—"

Manny got out a final "No Comment" as he shut the door and cut off the ruckus.

"Jeez, I hate it when a day starts this way," he said to anybody in the squad room who was listening. Most weren't; someone had leaked where the Special Investigations Unit had set up its headquarters; and every detective on the squad had run the gauntlet themselves as they came on shift.

Manny joined Charley at the coffee machine. "What stirred up the piranha?"

Charley understood the attitude, having only come through the crowd of reporters a few minutes ago. "Phase of the moon? Who knows?"

"More like a ratings sweep. A good weird happening is worth a point or two." Manny poured himself a cup of coffee. "One of those esteemed fourth-estaters shouted something about the Proper Order being out last night."

"Yeah. District 30. Vuong and Falerio got liaison with Gang Related."

"Better them than us."

Charley had to agree. Crimes related to the Proper Order gang were currently being shuttled back and forth within the department. The gang, while responsible for a lot of typical violence, didn't fit the mold in a lot of ways—not least that it had seemed to come out of nowhere last year. The gang's soldiers perpetrated vicious acts of violence and had so far eluded all pursuit as if they could vanish into thin air. That insubstantiality, along with their gang members' appearance and reported "abilities," were what kept getting SIU dragged in. Some of the other guys speculated that the gang was from . . . somewhere else . .. and Charley was afraid that they might be right. Worse, the gang was getting more active and starting to attract media attention. He was just as glad as Manny that this latest incident hadn't landed in their laps. They had enough to deal with.

When he got to his desk, Charley found a priority message flasher on his terminal. The source line was missing, and when he logged on and pulled up the call, he understood why. Casper, the friendly ghost in the machine, had dropped by.

>>22.10.29 * 07.23.18.79 * xxxxx.xxx log #10 29.1 PRIORITY 1 TO: GordonC@NECPOLNET*0004.13.00*874334 FROM: UNKNO WN> RE: Duty. Modi unnumbered.

MESSAGE:

Introduce Spae to Pend Foundation. Pers. Atten.

While Charley was pondering the implied connections and meaning, he got an incoming call from Dr. Spae's synth secretary. Coincidence? Charley would have loved to think so, but he was just too sure that this apparent coincidence was connected on strings that he couldn't see. The secretary wanted an appointment for him to meet with Spae, suggesting Heddie's restaurant downtown. Curious, he agreed.

He was a little late getting there, having gotten tied up trying to square away the paperwork on a case. He still hadn't finished with it. Soon as the meeting was over, he'd be heading back to the office. Charley didn't want to have to explain to Captain Hancock why the report wasn't waiting for him when he arrived in the morning.

Heddie's was gearing up for the happy-hour crowd, enough people to keep the place busy but not so many that lie and Spae wouldn't be able to talk. He spotted her while he was waiting for the hostess. She was sitting with a kid who looked like streetlife. Charley abandoned his wait for the hostess and headed over. Just in case, he popped on his Tsurei Seeing Eyes™ so he'd have a recording of the meeting.

"Who's your friend?" he asked as he arrived.

Spae hesitated. "John Bennett. He is something of a student of mine. John, this is Detective Gordon."

The kid might be a student of hers, but Charley was sure that she hadn't given his real name.

"John." Charley gave the kid a friendly nod. This was Spae's show and he was willing to allow some leeway, but he still made sure to get some good frames of the kid on the Tsurei, in case he needed to run him down later. Charley took one of the empty seats. "So what did you want to talk to me about, Doctor?"

Spae looked surprised. "What do I want to talk about? You set up the meeting."

It turned out that Spae had found the meeting on her schedule and assumed that Charley had set it up. Fair assumption, but wrong. "Somebody has gone through a lot of trouble to get us together."

"I was planning on contacting you anyway."

"Oh? Why?"

Again the hesitation. "I've got a lead on the
Wisteria
killer. It's a being called a harbinger."

He'd thought this meeting might have something to do with that case, since it was the only thing he'd worked with Spae on. He'd expected her to bring up the killing at Kennedy Airport. Maybe she didn't know about that. It came as no surprise to him that she was still working on the killer. So she'd found a name to pin on it; that piqued Charley's curiosity. Not that he could do anything about it. Whatever her harbinger was, it had moved on. Besides ... "You're talking to the wrong man. The whole thing was kicked upstairs to the feds, and you know what? It's not a problem anymore. Read the papers, check the nets. The whole thing was just a hoax."

"We both know that the creature is real and must be stopped."

"You're not the first to suggest that." He'd already been offered an opportunity to go along on a cowboy action to settle the
Wisteria
killer, courtesy of Mitsutomo. The offer had even come over the chop of Pamela Martinez, but Charley had said no thanks. One reason was that he'd already done cowboy work for Martinez, and this summons didn't have her flavor. The other big reason he was happy to share with Spae. "What you're talking about is way too far beyond the law. A man's got to know his limitations."

The kid at Spae's side smirked and spoke for the first time. "Gotta keep the commonwealth's coin coming in, eh?"

"What are you talking about, kid?" The kid just grinned at him. Charley turned to Spae. "What's he talking about?"

"Ignore him," she said.

"More than happy to," Charley said. "But there are some things I can't ignore. So if there's nothing else, I have to be getting back to my job."

Charley wasn't really surprised that Spae wasn't ready to let him go. She'd been holding something back; his attempt to leave had been designed to get her to the point.

"Actually, there is another matter," she said, as if cued. But then she hesitated. Reluctance, or was she just groping for a place to begin? She found her start point. "Last year there was an incident in the old Providence railroad tunnel. A cave-in. I'm told you know something about that."

The Quetzal affair. He'd been acting on the edge of the law then. Was she going to pressure him to go along on this
Wisteria
killer hunt? "Suppose you tell me first how you know about that business?"

"I-—" Spae started, then looked at the kid. "The two of us were in the area at the time."

The kid didn't look happy to be included. "Just how much are you going to tell him, Doctor?"

"He needs to know that we have an honest interest in this, John." To Charley she said, "You do know about the incident?"

"I know something about it." Having been there—not officially, mind you. Apparently they didn't know he had been there, but they had some clue that he'd been involved. So what was their angle?

Charley remembered the two streeters who had gone into the tunnel against his warning. A woman and a tall skinny guy. He looked across the table at Spae and Bennett. A woman and a tall skinny guy. They hadn't been found inside and it had been assumed that they were buried in the cave-in along with the monster. If Spae were wearing ragged street clothes instead of her suit she might look like—"Are you telling me that you were there?"

"Yes," Spae said. "We—John mostly—were responsible for the cave-in."

Quite a claim. Charley took another look at the kid. If what Spae was saying was true, ignoring him wouldn't be bright. And if what Spae was saying was true, Charley and a lot of other people had a lot to thank him—and her—for. But the tunnel had been guarded at both ends and searched from front to back. The only people the search had turned up had been dead. "You couldn't have been there."

"Why? Because
you
didn't see us?" the kid asked.

"Yeah," Charley said. He realized that he had just admitted to being there.

"Let's just say we left by another route," Spae said.

"A side tunnel?"

Spae sighed. "I really think you would prefer not to know."

People who caused cave-ins and disappeared into thin air? Maybe she was right. Then again, maybe not. Clearly they knew about Quetzal and what had gone down. Charley had been left with a lot of questions that night. If he answered their questions, they might answer a few of his. "What is it you want to know?"

"Was something brought out of the tunnel?" Spae asked. "A small object, sort of an abstract sculpture."

"Maybe." Charley remembered the thing he and Hagen had found. He wanted to shiver, recalling the way it had seemed to vanish in the Sight of their flashlights. "What's this sculpture supposed to be?"

"It's—it's connected to what Quetzal—do you know that name?—was trying to do."