The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One (89 page)

CHAPTER X

The Gifted

Nathaniel and Rachel saw their surroundings slowly come into view and both of them gasped aloud. The two garishly garbed men in front of them were recognizable enough, for both had been featured in numerous newspapers: the Peregrine and Doctor Satan, though both of them were typically found in the United States.

Satan, still gripping his knife, was the first to speak. He studied the green uniforms worn by the new arrivals and abruptly decided to sheathe his blade. His tone was decidedly wary as he asked “You’re the Gifted, aren’t you?”

Rachel blinked in surprise. She felt her natural inclination to enter the minds of the two men would be failures, for both seemed to radiate the kind of shielding she’d associated with trained telepaths. As the Peregrine knelt to examine a fallen woman on the floor, Rachel stared into the eyes of Doctor Satan. “Are you working with Bane?” she asked, refusing to answer his question. She would be in control here, she decided, not him.

Satan, however, merely answered her with a laugh. He turned his attention to Nathaniel and said, “I don’t know why I bothered with the girl. You’re obviously the important one around here. That uniform you’re in… that hasn’t been seen in quite some time. The last Catalyst was killed just after the turn of the century, I believe.”

Nathaniel stared hard at the madman. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re both Gifted,” Satan answered, mockingly taking on the tone of a professor addressing a classroom full of dullard students. “Humans with the capacity to sense and manipulate magic. But only once a century does a true Catalyst emerge… a High Mage. A man or woman with the natural ability to tap into the most primal forces in existence. That’s why you’re wearing that uniform. It takes different forms, depending on the era… but it’s always the same basic look. Very recognizable.”

Despite herself, Rachel felt curiosity overwhelming her. “Why do my clothes look like his?”

“You’re his mate, you stupid little cow.”

Rachel nearly lunged for the villain but Nat caught her by the arm. “You insulting little git!” she barked. “How dare you…?”

“No insult was intended,” Satan answered with apparent sincerity. “But it’s true. Surely the two of you have noticed. Every Catalyst has a designated genetic mate, one that he can recognize instantly. Your children, should any of them live to maturity, will be great forces for change in the world.” Satan pointed a red-gloved finger at Nathaniel. “Some people think that all Gifted ones are evolutionary shifters for humanity, the next stage. That’s not true. You are. And you,” he gestured to Rachel, “the only woman on Earth who can bear the kind of children you’ll need to truly introduce new stock into the cattle that is humanity. A pity that no Catalyst in centuries has managed to do that… either they or their mates end up dead first—or their children.”

“Don’t listen to him. Everything he says might be a lie.” The Peregrine had pulled his wife to safety and was now approaching Doctor Satan, fury still etched on his features. “This madman killed one of my best friends and just attacked my wife. He’s wanted for more crimes than I can count and—”

“I know,” Nathaniel said, stopping the Peregrine. Max noted that the one dubbed Catalyst was regarding him with nearly as much distaste as Max himself had directed at Satan. “I know who he is. And I know who you are. Both of you are preening fools who don’t care that innocent people get caught in the line of fire! You dress up like mystery men and fight your little wars and it’s the rest of us who have to clean up the mess!”

Rachel flinched at the anger in her lover’s words. She’d caught glimpses of his past when their minds had mingled and she felt his pain now, knowing what it meant. She reached out for Nathaniel’s hand but he pulled away from her, taking a step towards Satan and the Peregrine, green fire dancing around the corners of his eyes.

“Someone needs to teach all the people like you,” Nathaniel warned, “That humanity isn’t going to take it anymore.”

Before either Doctor Satan or the Peregrine could react, a wall of pure psionic force slammed into both of them, knocking them back so hard that they tore right through the walls of the warehouse. Both men landed hard in the street, bones crunching as they struck the ground.

Rachel moved in front of Nathaniel, blocking his path. “Calm down. You’re doing exactly what you accused them of.”

“What do you mean?” Nat demanded, looking past her at the colorfully garbed figures who were slowly rising from their backs.

Rachel reached up and gripped his face in her hands, turning him to see Evelyn, laying amidst the debris cast off by the wall’s destruction. “You could have killed her, Nat.”

“I… You’re right. I’m acting like a bloody idiot.” Nathaniel looked down at his cloak and uniform, tears welling up in his eyes. “And now I’m
one
of them.”

While Rachel tried to soothe her lover, Doctor Satan was back on his feet. He wasn’t badly hurt from the attack but he was too light-headed to encounter combat with the young man. The Catalyst was a powerful, if untrained foe, and Satan wanted to be at the top of his game if it came to battle. The villain felt a hand firmly grip his arm and turned to see the Peregrine facing him.

“I hope you don’t think I’m going to let you get away,” Max hissed.

Satan glanced skywards, where a dark bird-like shape was hurtling through the clouds, aiming directly towards them. The villain shoved the Peregrine away, acting surprisingly quickly. “I have bigger fish to fry at the moment, Peregrine—but I’m sure we’ll cross paths again soon.”

The Peregrine saw it now: a solid black creature that looked like it was carved from pure shadow. The horror seemed to grow in size as it approached and a claw jerked out to grip Satan by the wrist, lifting him bodily into the air.

The Peregrine drew his pistols, firing with unerring aim. The bullets tore through Doctor Satan’s cloak but did no real damage.

As he was carried away by the monster he’d summoned, Doctor Satan laughed mockingly. “You’ll never be my match, Peregrine! The sooner you learn that, the better off we’ll both be!”

Max cursed under his breath when Satan disappeared behind the clouds. He didn’t bother holstering his guns when Nathaniel and Rachel approached. “You know,” he began, “I was actually on your side.”

Nathaniel sighed, looking a bit uneasy about the situation. He was a handsome young man, but his shaggy hair and the dark rings about his eyes made him look far older than he should have. “I’m sorry. I hope your… wife, was it?… wasn’t too badly hurt by what I did.”

Max silently hoped for the same. As he pushed past them and began examining Evelyn for any new injuries, he asked “So… mind filling me in on what’s going on here? I have half the story but I’m sure there’s lots I’m missing out on.”

Rachel spoke up, allowing Nathaniel to collect his thoughts. She told the Peregrine about the dangers in destroying the Un-Earth, about their conflicts with the strange triplets who belonged to Lamar Bane and their desires to end the entire affair by toppling Bane.

The Peregrine, who lifted Evelyn into his arms, carried her out to his waiting car. With the others following, he mused aloud “You couldn’t have been the only one powering that thing… if you were, it shouldn’t still be functioning as well as it is. There have to be other living batteries out there. We need to find them. At least one, to start.”

“I think I can do that,” Nathaniel said.

“The Peregrine placed Evelyn on the back seat of the roadster, looking over at Catalyst. “You sure?”

“No,” Nathaniel admitted. “But I think… I think I might just be able to do nearly anything, if I tried hard enough.”

The Peregrine nodded towards the warehouse. “There will be more men coming, I guarantee it. We need to get out of here.”

Rachel slid into the car, pulling Nathaniel in with her. “Let’s go, then. I can find them while you’re driving. And… thanks for agreeing to help us.”

The Peregrine smiled at them both, his sincerity making Nathaniel feel even guiltier about his earlier actions. “It’s what I do.”

“Why?”

The Peregrine’s smile faltered at her question. Nathaniel recognized what he saw in the man’s eyes, for he had felt it often enough himself: it was raw pain at a never-to-be-forgotten memory. “My father was killed in front of me when I was 8 years old,” Max admitted, sharing more than he usually did with strangers… but knowing that they needed to trust him. “I swore then and there that I wouldn’t let anyone else suffer the way I did. My powers… well, it’s a little complicated. But even without them, I’d still do this. I’d still help people.”

Catalyst was silent but he knew that he’d learned something valuable: that he could take the pain of what he’d lost and use it as a vehicle for self-improvement… rather than for useless hatred of those responsible.

CHAPTER XI

The Black Zeppelin

Lamar Bane stood next to the young boy who was locked away in his battery tank, the youth’s mental energy serving as a gateway key between worlds. Bane felt no pity for the boy—he was a tool to be exploited and used. For a Jew like this young man, it was an honor to serve the Reich in some fashion.

Theodora was nearby, talking with several Nazi scientists. Bane ignored her for the most part. Like the imprisoned youth, she was simply another tool in Bane’s arsenal. For the last decade, Bane had been a hardcore devotee of Hitler’s agenda… he had adopted the Fuehrer’s philosophy as his own. In the late 1930s Hitler had sent out the call for volunteers to become members of his new occult program, agents who would push the Nazi agenda around the world, sparring frequently with men and women such as the Peregrine, Dan Daring and the Domino Lady.

Bane had been one of those volunteers. While Werner Richter had become the Grim Reaper and Kirsten Bauer had been trained as the Iron Maiden… but both of them had proven to be failures, in one sense or another. But Lamar Bane had become the Black Zeppelin… and he would be the one to bring the Fuehrer his ultimate victory: by controlling the Un-Earth, Hitler would become God.

The Black Zeppelin now wore a black button-up shirt and dark jodhpurs. A long black cloak and a small mask that left his mouth and hair exposed completed the attire. His leather boots sounded loud against the floor as he moved out of the room and into an adjoining one. This base was in Cardiff, just a few miles from one of the housing units where all those refugees displaced from London during the Blitz were housed. Many of them, children mostly, were sent to stay with people in the countryside, but some of the unluckier ones were placed together in large open-interior buildings filled with cots. Bane had hated seeing London destroyed so—he still loved his homeland and wanted to see it flourish as a Nazi state—but he was also involved in the Un-Earth project and knew that the perfect, pristine London would live again on that world.

The Zeppelin saw two men standing over a table, looking over photographs of dozens of men and women. The two men wore German military uniforms but they were physically very different. One was a portly man with thinning hair, in his late fifties. The other was young and firm, with blond hair and green eyes. They were Helmut and Johann, two of the military scientists associated with the Un-Earth project.

“We have a problem,” Bane said, speaking in fluent German.

His unexpected arrival made both men jump. They stood at attention, fully aware that despite the fact that they were both decorated officers and Bane was an English civilian, he had been given special powers as the Black Zeppelin and had the Fuehrer’s ear.

“Herr Bane,” Helmut said, giving the traditional Heil Hitler salute. “We did not expect you so soon.”

“Obviously,” the Black Zeppelin said, looking at the mess that lay on the various tables. “The prophecies seem to be true. The One is loose.”

Johann tried to hide his disbelief but the Zeppelin saw it clear enough. “If you’re speaking about the London police officer who freed Rachel Winters… there’s no proof that he’s anything more than a powerful Gifted.”

“He wears the uniform,” Bane pointed out. “In every century, one Gifted appears who wears some variation on it. Winters is wearing something that makes it clear she’s his chosen mate. We need to find them… bring them in and keep them drugged. Let them reproduce if possible… it could be the beginning of the true Aryan Ubermensch.”

Helmut looked like he was giving the Zeppelin’s more credence than the younger man at his side. “Can Theodora find them?” he asked. “If so, we can mobilize a strike force and bring them back here, kicking and screaming.”

On cue, Theodora Sturm entered the room. She regarded the two soldiers with thinly disguised disdain. She felt that most of those around the Zeppelin were beneath him and she hated that he had to drag himself through their slime. She loved and worshipped the Zeppelin, having offered him her body and soul. “I believe I can, gentlemen. But we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that he has help.”

“What do you mean?” Johann asked.

The Black Zeppelin moved around the table, looking at a few photographs tacked on the wall. They showed a variety of well-known figures, all of whom were regarded as potential enemies of the Reich. Some of them were known members of the Gifted, others only suspected. He tapped a photo showing a bird-masked man wearing a long overcoat. “The Peregrine.”

That brought a look of surprise even from Theodora. She glanced back at Helmut and Johann, explaining “We had prepared a trap for Nathaniel Caine and Rachel Winters on Un-Earth but they were saved by a dimensional portal. We don’t believe that either of them opened the gateway—it was opened by someone on this side.” She stepped up next to the Zeppelin, lowering her voice. “What makes you suspect the Peregrine?”

“A hunch, more than anything else. He was involved in both the Iron Maiden affair and the recent death of the Grim Reaper. It only makes sense for him to come after me next. He’s obviously moving up the food chain.”

“If that were the case, there are others he would go after before he got to you. You’re the most powerful of the Fuehrer’s soldiers.”