Transylvania's Most Wanted (12 page)

Mr. Slang watched the carriage drop Krakov
off and then he looked toward Goblin Park. Just at the entrance to
the park, right before the footbridge, was a large, illuminated
clock. It read 8:15. If everything went as planned, Krakov should
enter the ballroom by 8:20.

Mr. Slang sat in the chair tapping his
fingers on the arm rest and then he picked up his binoculars and
looked at the ballroom through them. There were nearly four hundred
people there, many of them standing still as the prince and
princess made their way through them. If Krakov was stopped as he
entered the ballroom, Mr. Slang expected to see the TCPD detectives
and some of the King’s Guard rushing out the room toward the area
outside the ballroom.

He kept watching, and became more and more
at ease as nothing happened. Then he spotted Krakov stepping out on
the balcony holding a glass of champagne. Mr. Slang smiled. He
could relax for a few minutes now. Krakov came to the railing and
tipped his glass his direction, wisely keeping his distance from
the other guests, but not so far off that he stood out for being
off by himself. He stood by some others along the railing sipping
champagne, enjoying himself.

“Very good,” Mr. Slang said lowering his
binoculars. He looked toward Goblin Park again. The clock read
8:22. The fireworks would begin precisely at 8:30.

Mr. Slang sat down again, waiting for the
lights to be dimmed in the ballroom and for the first fireworks to
be launched into the night sky. From where he sat, he would have an
excellent view of both the night’s premier entertainment.

Chapter 17

For a few minutes Mr. Slang enjoyed sitting
in the dark and looking out the window at the well-lit ballroom,
but he stood up and stepped closer to the window when he heard a
siren coming from down Madness Street.

As the siren grew louder, he spotted the
fire engine’s flashing lights approaching and then the fire truck
sounded its horn as it pulled into the grand, circular driveway
that encircled the fountain and statue of Perseus in front of the
Hotel Triumph. At the same time, the fireworks show began, and
rockets began soaring high into the sky north of the city, before
exploding brilliantly in colors of red, blue and frequently orange,
as it was Halloween. Mr. Slang was not watching them though, as he
was more interested in why the lights in the ballroom had not been
turned down and why the fire engine had been called there.

He looked into the ballroom and saw the
prince and princess had made their way through the crowd and taken
their seats at the far end of the ballroom out of his view. He
searched along the balcony and spotted Krakov moving through the
crowd coming out onto the balcony, as he made his way toward the
other end of the balcony. Mr. Slang looked back and saw the tall,
French doors there open and the prince and princess stepped out
onto the balcony.

Chapter 18

Tom and Rebecca remained at the table as
Inspector McElroy and Edit headed out the French doors to watch the
fireworks along with much of the ballroom crowd. The lights in the
ballroom were brought down, but still remained on. Tom reached over
and took Rebecca’s hand as fireworks exploded all across the sky to
the north. He figured the prince was safe in the hands of the
King’s Guard.

At that same time Princess Alexi and Prince
Marko headed out to the balcony. The area just outside the last set
of French doors was roped off from the rest of the balcony and a
few guardsmen awaited them there.

A moment later, Tom noticed Miss Wembley
tapping Inspector McElroy on the shoulder as she pointed at
something further down the balcony. Inspector McElroy leaned in
closer to hear what she was saying and then he abruptly came back
to their table and stooped to whisper in Red’s ear. Red stood up
and motioned for Tom to approach them.

“Miss Wembley thought she spotted Pandora on
out on the balcony,” Red told him. “Let’s have her point her out to
us and then we’ll approach her. The trick is to grab their arms and
hold them down, that way a witch can’t pull any trick off.” Red
turned to Inspector McElroy then. “Mac you go find Dunne and Jones.
Tell ‘em I need one of their belts to strap her arms down.”

Red and Tom walked over to Miss Wembley
where she was standing by one of the French doors. Red instructed
Tom to wait there a moment, and then he and Miss Wembley started
through the crowd that stood four deep along the balcony watching
the fireworks. Tom soon lost sight of them.

Just a minute later, Miss Wembley returned
alone. She walked up to Tom and told him that Pandora was wearing a
red dress, standing near a potted tree and Red was waiting for him
before approaching her. She pointed toward where Tom would find
Red, and he started toward there just as a siren could be heard
approaching, coming closer and closer and then a woman screamed as
electricity shot through the air like a bolt of lightning. Sparks
and broken glass rained down upon the crowd as the electricity
passing through the air struck the chandeliers and then the
ballroom went dark.

Chapter 19

Mr. Slang was watching the fire engine pull
up to the hotel when a jolt of electricity appeared from out of
thin air. It originated from one spot but spread out then, like
tentacles, down the balcony and into the ballroom. As it passed
through the crowd, the electrical currents caused the people to
drop as if they’d all suddenly fainted. And when it reached the
ceiling of the ballroom, all the bulbs in all the light fixtures
exploded, causing a shower of glass and sparks to fall down upon
the crowd.

The power to the hotel failed then and the
Hotel Triumph went completely dark. The only light coming from
there now was the flashing lights of the fire engine, the candles
inside the Halloween pumpkins on the tables in the ballroom and the
fireworks exploding in the sky.

Mr. Slang raised his binoculars and spotted
Krakov among the few people still standing upright on the balcony,
but just as he spotted him, so did Pandora. He watched her extend
her arms and point her fingers toward him, but then someone began
shooting.

Mr. Slang looked toward the blast of the gun
and saw a young detective firing his gun at Pandora. He was fairly
certain the detective was Inspector Flynn, having seen his picture
in the paper. The bullets did Pandora no harm, but they did cause
her to turn away from Krakov. She pointed her fingers toward the
detective and a single electrical current shot across the balcony
and struck the detective in the chest, throwing him through the
air. He landed on top of a table and lay there.

Mr. Slang could not help but smile. He had
not foreseen this, but it was exciting none the less. He doubted
the blast was meant to kill the detective. Probably no witch in
Transylvania was practiced enough to produce a charge powerful
enough to stop a heart, but he suspected Pandora only wanted the
detective out of her way. It was obvious her real aim was to stop
Krakov.

Pandora turned toward Krakov again as he
moved down the balcony, stepping over the dazed, but not seriously
hurt people. Pandora sent an even more powerful charge toward him,
one meant to cause serious harm, but Krakov simply grounded himself
by placing a hand down on the stonework of the balcony railing.
Possibly no one from Transylvania knew this trick, but coming from
a small village in the outer most part of the U.R.R.K., Krakov did,
and the electricity swirled around him like a small twister, but
did him little damage.

The electrical charge dissipated quickly,
Krakov started down the balcony again and Mr. Slang saw him draw
his weapon. Pandora blasted Krakov a second time, but again he
grounded himself as king’s guardsmen rushed out onto the balcony
and grabbed hold of Prince Marko, who lay face down just next to
the railing. They picked him up and rushed him back into the
ballroom and then out a side door into the hallway.

Pandora grabbed a knife from a nearby table
then and ran toward Krakov. She threw something down at the ground
just before she came to him that produced a momentary flash of
blinding light and then a dark puff of smoke. For a moment after
that, nothing could be seen of either of them, but then Pandora
fell backwards out of the cloud, Krakov having punched her.

Two firemen were climbing up the fire engine
ladder that had been extended toward the balcony, as Krakov stepped
out of the smoke and started down the balcony again. He made his
way over fallen bodies and then under the rope at the far end of
the balcony. Krakov shot one of the guardsmen protecting the
princess in the shoulder and then aimed at her lying nearby, but
before he could pull the trigger, a bullet struck him and he
stumbled into the railing.

Mr. Slang watched Krakov and Inspector Flynn
exchanging gunfire then, the detective having recovered and figured
out what was happening. Krakov was near the railing and Inspector
Flynn was inside the ballroom, having flipped a table over to
shield himself behind. They both emptied their guns at one another,
the blasts coming out the barrels lighting up that end of the
balcony and ballroom, and then the shooting stopped.

A half-dozen firemen, all of them of
abnormally large size, had jumped out of the fire engine and had
gone to work building up pressure inside the tank that pushed water
out the hoses. The two firemen stepping out onto the balcony, both
wearing heavy coats and firemen’s hats, turned the hoses they were
carrying on then, and blasted Krakov and Inspector Flynn with
them.

Mr. Slang looked for Krakov again. It seemed
he’d been hit a number of times, but a vampire, unless shot in the
head or heart, can take a number of bullets and keep going. He’d
been knocked down by a blast of water, but he got back up and began
reloading his weapon. When he had, he aimed toward the princess
again, but now a man came out the ballroom toward him. It was Count
Vasili.

Krakov seemed to hesitate a moment, but then
he shot Count Vasili twice and he stumbled and fell. Krakov aimed
at the princess then. There was much commotion inside the dark
ballroom as guests tried to escape the mayhem. The King’s Guard had
been fooled into thinking the prince was the target and now there
was nothing to stop Krakov.

“Kill her!” Mr. Slang yelled.

Krakov was about to, but then, a mass of
water struck him again and he was blown across the balcony all the
way to the far end of the balcony.

One fireman continued to aim his hose at
Krakov, until some King’s Guard, including Colonel Popov, coming to
rescue the princess, appeared and then they were blasted with
water. They were sent sliding across the ballroom floor, upending
tables and knocking down guests trying to flee. A second fireman
sprayed Inspector Flynn as he ran toward Krakov and he was also
thrown back into the ballroom. The two firemen kept the spray
going, shooting water at anyone who moved. Mr. Slang watched in
fascination and glee as table after table was overturned by the
blasts of the fire hoses.

He looked again toward the princess and saw
the first fireman drop his hose and grab her and then begin
carrying her toward the ladder. Another fireman stepped off the
ladder and went and picked up Pandora and carried her away
also.

Mr. Slang was so excited that he put his
hands on the window there and banged on it with delight, despite
the fact that his painstakingly-crafted, long-contemplated plan had
failed.

“Pandora you magnificent witch!” he screamed
as the firemen hurried down the ladder carrying both the princess
and Pandora.

When the last fireman climbed back on the
ladder, the fire engine began backing away from the hotel. Some
constables and a pair of detectives came rushing out of the hotel,
but were met with a blast of water that threw them backwards onto
the sidewalk.

As the fire engine backed onto the street,
both hoses were abandoned and were left to thrash about, spraying
water every which way, smashing into windshields and the side of
cars. Mr. Slang looked back toward the balcony and saw a most
awesome display of courage. Inspector Flynn, standing atop the
balcony railing, jumped and caught hold of the end of the ladder.
He was climbing up onto it as the fire engine backed down the
driveway, sideswiping a number of cars parked there, but then one
of the firemen pulled a lever and the ladder swung sideways and
Inspector Flynn was thrown into the fountain’s pool.

He rose from there and started chasing after
the fire truck soaking wet. He fired his weapon at the driver as
the truck made the turn onto Royal Street and the fire engine
veered and crashed into a car, but it kept going, heading down
Royal Street, pulling a pair of thrashing fire hoses behind it.

When a flash of gunfire came from the
balcony again, Mr. Slang’s attention was brought there again.
Krakov had reached the rope that he was to use to climb up to the
room above and was firing at the King’s Guard, but suddenly Krakov
dropped five feet when the bed slid across the room.

Fireworks exploded in the sky, whistles were
being blown all around the hotel, the fire engine’s siren and horn
were blasting as they made their escape, and constables were
rushing all about as Krakov fired down from the hotel room at one
of the King’s Guard who had spotted him climbing in the window. The
guardsman returned fire and then did Inspector Meriwether also,
having recovered from Pandora’s initial blast, but Krakov
disappeared inside the hotel room.

Mr. Slang almost forgot that he needed to
head for Goblin Park, but before doing so, he put the two chairs
back, picked up his suitcase and hat box and started out the
building with a smile on his face, even though things had not gone
as planned. He would have to answer for that, but you just don’t
get to see such excitement every day. It was days like this that
made his job enjoyable.