Imperium (Caulborn) (27 page)

I started backing away. “Well, I’m terribly sorry about that, Pest. Better luck next time.” The Horseman screamed in rage and drew his sword. The sound of his horse’s hooves echoed down the sewers. The tunnels weren’t wide, but Pestilence was warping them so he could fit the horse through. I used the last of my faith to reach out to the horse’s mind.

Rear up and run,
I commanded. The horse neighed and reared. Pestilence, completely unprepared for the horse’s move, was thrown from the saddle. His head cracked against a pipe and he fell to the tunnel floor with a dull thud. I didn’t stick around to see if he got up. I ran as fast as I could down the tunnel. A moment later, I heard footsteps sloshing behind me, and raspy breathing. And they were getting closer.

Damn. For a wheezy, sick guy, Pestilence could move pretty fast.

I heaved myself up the ladder and poked my head up into fresh air. I scrambled out onto the pavement, rolling and lurching as fast as I could. Pestilence surged up through the manhole. He hadn’t even bothered with the ladder, he’d just leapt up. Which was exactly what I was hoping for.

“Now, Jake!” I hollered. Jake, clad in a bright yellow hazmat suit and wielding a weapon that reminded me of the Ghostbusters’ proton packs, unloaded a thick stream of white foam onto Pestilence. I gave a satisfied grin as Pestilence howled in pain and rage. That foam killed disease and bacteria on contact, and the handful of nasty things it can’t kill aren’t from this planet.

Pestilence’s body smoldered as Jake emptied his canisters, then quickly backed away from the Horseman. Pestilence stood there, his body steaming, his eyes glowing red. He looked smaller, like he’d lost forty pounds and about a foot of height, but he was still there, and now he was really pissed. Damn, I’d thought the hazmat stuff would’ve done it. My mind raced. I was out of tricks.

Pestilence pointed his sword at Jake. “I will deal with you in a moment,” he snarled. His sword swung around to point at me. “But you are first.”

“Horseman!” A voice boomed. All heads turned to see Galahad XI stride purposefully from the building. “It is not your time to have this Earth. Leave us.”

Pestilence stared for a moment, then started to laugh. The laugh had a phlegmy sound to it, and made my skin crawl. “And who are you, mortal, who would defend the son of Janus?”

“I am Galahad XI, knight of Christ and paladin of the one true God. This man and this city are under my protection. I offer you this chance to walk away and end this conflict.”

Pestilence sneered. “You should not challenge a Horseman, human.” He charged forward, his sword rising above his head. To my shock, Galahad met the charge. The sword of blazing white light appeared in Galahad’s hands and he knocked Pestilence’s sword aside. The corroded blade shattered as Galahad struck it. Pestilence was thrown to the ground. The Horseman regarded the remains of the sword in his hand and looked up at Galahad.

The former priest looked down at Pestilence, sword of light shining in his hand. “You will have this world when God deems it time, and not one second before,” Galahad said. “Leave now.”

Pestilence stood and, to my surprise, gave Galahad a short bow. “As you say, paladin.” Then he disappeared in a haze of greasy smoke. Doc Ryan appeared in his own hazmat suit.

“Gentlemen,” he said. “If you’ll kindly step over here.” Galahad was decontaminated, and I shed the hazmat suit and boots. Galahad caught up with me a few minutes later.

“That was a clever idea, Vincent, using the decontamination foam against Pestilence.”

“It didn’t work quite the way I’d hoped.”

“No, but it was very brave.”

“Me? You’re the brave one, boss. You went toe-to-toe in a swordfight against a Horseman of the Apocalypse. That’s pretty cool.”

Galahad only shrugged.

Doc Ryan led us into medical. I’d been spending a lot of time in this room lately. As the Doc did some scans, I slapped my hand to my forehead.

“Doc, is Megan okay? She was exposed to a really nasty supernatural virus that turns people into zombies. Please tell me you’ve done something to make sure she’s okay.”

The Doc looked at me like I had three heads. “Supernatural virus? She had some zombie cuts, but between Mrs. Rita’s decontamination and a false tooth she swallowed, she seemed fine. She’s been under observation for the last few hours, Vincent. There weren’t any traces of a supernatural virus that I could see.”

I told him what had happened to me. The Doc lit a cigarette and puffed thoughtfully for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers. “That flower. It pumped a lot of botanical magics into her, and we haven’t gotten a full picture of everything it might have done. But botanical magic typically counteracts undeath magic, so there’s a very good chance the flower managed to serve as an antidote to this zombie virus you’re talking about. I’ll need to run some more tests on Megan once she’s up and about again.”

As if on cue, Megan came in. She looked perfectly healthy, save for the missing tooth. “I missed some action, huh?”

I quickly filled her in. When I finished, I said, “We still need to deal with Dr. Leevan.”

Megan nodded. “Gearstripper got some results back on Leevan’s fingerprints. Turns out her real name is Sandra Lochman. She was barred from practicing medicine in Europe because of some unethical cloning experiments.”

“And now we have gremlin clones running around.”

She nodded. “I think that explains why they kidnapped Axlesnapper. I’ve got a few more things I need to check on, so give me twenty or so and we can work out a plan.”

“Better make that an hour or so,” the Doc said. “Sorry, Megan, but I’ve got a few more tests I need to run on you.”

Megan’ shoulders slumped. “More? For crying out loud, Doc.” The Doc shot her a stern look and she stopped talking. She looked irritated, and I certainly couldn’t blame her.

“All right, Meg, I’ll come find you in about an hour.” I walked back up to Gearstripper’s workshop and blinked at what I saw. Petra’s marble body was reassembled, held together by some strange golden glue. Gears was asleep on top of her. I touched him gently on the shoulder. A short scalpel dropped from his hand. He didn’t move.

“Gears?” I picked him up. He hung limply in my hands. “Shit, Gears!” I carried him like an infant and rushed him down to medical. “Doc, something’s wrong with Gearstripper.”

The Doc came out of one of the adjacent examination rooms as I laid the gremlin down on a bed, and the Doc looked him over. Gears’ skin was too pale and I couldn’t tell if he was breathing. The Doc asked me some questions about how I’d found him and I answered as quietly as I could. I didn’t want Megan to know Petra’s story; it’s not my secret to give away. The Doc quickly hooked up an IV to Gears, making a tiny cut on the gremlin’s forearm. Gold blood seeped from the vein and solidified around the IV tube.

My breath caught. The glue Gears had used on Petra wasn’t glue, it was his own blood. I quickly relayed this to the Doc, who dashed for the medical wing’s other fridge. He came back with a small bag of golden blood and hooked it up to Gears’ IV. Almost immediately, the little gremlin’s color improved.

“You know how fast gremlins heal, Vincent,” Doc said to me. “He’ll be fine.”

“I don’t get it. If you had a bag of his blood lying around, why didn’t he just use that?”

“Wouldn’t work.” Gears’ voice was weak, and his eyes weren’t open yet. “Has to be fresh. Otherwise, won’t take.”

“Jesus, Gears, don’t talk. Rest. You can tell me everything when you’re better.”

“Food,” Gears said. “Please.”

“You’ve got an IV of sugar water and protein right now, Gearstripper,” Doc said. “Once that’s gone, you can have solids.”

Gears frowned. His eyes were still shut. “Can’t taste that. Twinkies would be better.”

“Gears, I’ll buy you a case of Twinkies as soon as you’re better, okay?”

“Make it two cases and you’ve got yourself a deal, Vinnie.” He smiled.

“Rest, pal.” I patted his shoulder. I looked at Doc Ryan, who gave me a thumbs-up sign. I sighed. Gears would be okay.

I went back to his workshop. The golden “glue” had faded completely from Petra’s body, and the marble was whole again. I stared at her in amazement. Had Gears done this with just his blood? Was there more to it? I wanted to touch her, to see if Petra could move or hear me, but I was scared that I might disrupt something. Once Gears was back on his feet, I’d learn more.

For now, though, I really needed a Pepsi. I went down the hall to the vending machine, then sat down in my office. I jolted as something moved in my breast pocket. I fumbled out Commander Courageous, who beamed up at me with his “I’m a hero, dammit” smile. Petra must’ve tucked him into my shirt before we left for the Bright Side.

“Glad to see you’re up and about,” Commander Courageous said. “How do you feel?”

I gripped him around the waist and held him up to my face. “I’d be doing a lot better if I knew Petra was going to survive, Commander.” I shook the action figure. “Why did you send her to the Bright Side with me?”

The Commander glared at me. “I didn’t send Petra to the Bright Side with you, Vincent. I kept you from taking Gearstripper. If the gremlin had accompanied you, he would’ve been crushed by the envikan.”

“The what?”

The Commander rolled his plastic eyes. “The crystal soldiers, Vincent. They’re called envikan. There are some things even Gearstripper can’t heal from, and being crushed to a pulp by a five hundred pound crystal warrior is one of them. Because you kept Gearstripper back, there was a chance for him to revive Petra.”

“You knew she’d be shattered and Gears would use his blood to fix her? How? Is it going to work?” No response. The Commander had gone quiet again. I shook him violently. “Dammit, is it going to work?” I demanded. The Commander’s confident plastic smile never wavered. I waited in silence for what seemed a long time.

Chapter 23

Brothers, I have detected two temporal anomalies coming from the Boston area, within mere hours of one another. Both disturbances occurred in the vicinity of Vincent Corinthos, son of Janus. The godling must be monitored to ensure he does not disrupt the time stream and alter history in any way.
-Missive from Brother Abraham Webb, Chronicler of the Fifth Circle, to the Chronicler order at large.

When it was obvious Commander Courageous wasn’t going to say any more, I slammed the toy down on my desk and stalked back to the vending machines. I bought a package of Twinkies and went down to medical.

Gears was already sitting up in bed, sipping orange juice. Doc Ryan was checking his temperature. I glanced around, then made a big deal about “surreptitiously” giving Gears the Twinkies. The Doc rolled his eyes at me.

“A down payment on the case,” I said.

He grinned at me and tore open the package.

I lowered my voice in case Megan was still within earshot. “Gears, is Petra going to be okay? When will you know if what you did worked?”

“It won’t be long,” Gears said around a mouthful of Twinkie. “Last time around, it only took her a few minutes to revive. The damage was a lot more extensive this time, so it might take hours, maybe a few days. I’m really not sure, Vinnie.”

“Is that how you fixed her last time?” I asked. “With your blood?” Gears nodded. “How did you even know to try that?”

Gears hesitated. “During the war, the Mother made lots of golems. Sometimes the golems would get damaged, and she used gremlin blood to repair them. It was part of the reason we healed so quickly, to always be able to provide medical support to the golems. So if a golem had an arm or a leg blown off, three or four gremlins would cut themselves and smear blood on the damaged golem parts, and then reaffix the limb. Then the gremlins would heal, and we were back in the fight.

“In some ways, Petra is a lot like a golem. She’s living rock, an animated statue. The golems were kinda like that, so I tried the healing trick when we first found her. I didn’t need to use so much blood back then, though.”

I thought about that for a moment. Gears and Petra had always been close. I had thought it was because Gears had a crush on her. Now, I thought I might understand things a little better. Gears finished his Twinkies with a contented sigh.

“Hey Doc,” he called. “Can I get out of here? I’ve got work to do.”

Doc Ryan shuffled back into the room and smiled. “Go ahead, Gearstripper. But I’m going to call your workshop every thirty minutes for the next six hours. If you don’t answer, we’re bringing you back to medical and you’ll stay here for the same amount of time I’d keep a human patient.”

Gears nodded. “Got it. C’mon, Vinnie, let’s go.” We went back up to the workshop. Petra’s body was changing color, from stone to flesh tones. Her eyes were glassy, but I could see she had pupils again.

“Petra, baby, can you hear me?”

“Vincent?” Her voice was slurred, and her mouth wasn’t moving. I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Shh. Petra,” Gears said. “You’re fixed, but you haven’t finished reviving yet.”

“Stiff,” she said.

“Yeah, it’ll probably be a while before you’ve got full range of motion back. You’ll get there. Don’t push. Wait a sec.” He rushed over to a file cabinet and pulled out a portable DVD player. He mumbled to himself as he flipped through a binder of DVDs and selected one. Then he popped in the disk and set the player down next to Petra’s head and turned it on. A moment later, Firefly appeared on the screen.

“It’s the Jaynestown episode,” Gears smiled. “Your favorite.”

“Thanks,” Petra said. Gears positioned the player so it was in Petra’s line of sight and then turned back to me.

“She’s going to be okay, Vinnie.” He smiled. “She’s going to be okay.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. I picked the gremlin up and hugged him. He smelled like WD-40 and Twinkies.

“Gears, thank you,” I whispered. Tears were coming into my eyes and I blinked them back. “I’d be totally lost without her.”

Gears’ tiny arms hugged me back. “What can I say, Vinnie? She’s special to me, too.” He gave me a squeeze and I set him down on the table. A computer chirped and Gears scampered over to it. “Bingo,” he said triumphantly as he pumped his arms in the air. “I just cracked the rest of Axle’s files.”