Transylvania's Most Wanted (13 page)

Chapter 20

Tom soon gave up chasing after the fire
engine. Like a dog chasing after a car, he didn’t know what he
would have done if he’d caught up to a fire engine full of golems
and bridge trolls anyway. He watched them ram their way past a
squad car that tried to block their escape and then they turned at
the next intersection, headed toward the Executioner’s Bridge.

When more gunfire erupted from behind him,
Tom turned around and started running back toward the hotel.
Inspectors Dunne and Jones were in front of the hotel looking up at
the balcony, their clothing soaking wet from having taken a blast
from the fire hose, but then they rushed inside. Tom yelled at a
constable to call an ambulance there, shouting that several people
had been shot inside the ballroom, and then he rushed inside also.
His first thought was to head upstairs, but then thought that
Krakov would have some escape planned and he rushed through the
kitchen and out the back of the hotel.

He heard a woman scream as soon as he came
out the kitchen door and he ran toward the pool area. Tom flashed
his badge at the people standing there and asked what had happened.
A woman pointed down the boardwalk and said a man had just run past
with a gun.

Tom ran toward the river as fireworks
continued to burst in the sky north of Goblin Park, but it was too
dark ahead of him to see much, except for the area underneath a
lamp just at the start of the pier.

He saw Krakov run through the light there
and he, but Krakov disappeared into the darkness again.

Tom approached the pier cautiously, looking
for Krakov. He looked down at the tall reeds lining the riverbank,
listening for someone moving through them, but he heard nothing. He
ran to the end of the pier then and looked for Krakov hiding there,
but he was not there. Looking out onto the river, which was bathed
in moonlight, but also a heavy fog, he spotted a few rental boats
drifting down the river. Just a little ways downstream the river
took a sharp turn as it meandered toward the footbridge that
crossed over the river into Goblin Park.

He was alerted when a young woman screamed,
but it was just a young girl in one of the boats shrieking because
the young man with her had splashed her. He looked at the other
boats floating down the river and noticed something different about
one of them. Only one boat did not carry a couple, instead there
was just a single man in the boat.

Tom ran back toward the hotel. A pair of
constables coming down the boardwalk with guns draw yelled at him
to stop and drop his weapon and he thrust his hands up and yelled
that he was Inspector Flynn.

They approached him, still pointing their
weapons at him, but then one of them recognized him.

“Go find Chief Inspector Meriwether. Tell
him to meet me by the footbridge that leads into Goblin Park,” Tom
ordered one of the constables. “You come with me,” he said to the
other. “I know you,” he said as they jogged across the hotel
grounds.

“Yes,” said the constable, “I was the one
who dove in the river to retrieve that sack a few weeks back.”

“That’s right,” Tom said as they hurried
toward the corner of the hotel. “What’s your name?”

“Officer Andrews.”

Tom stood in the shadows at the back corner
of the hotel. Just across from him was the river and he could see
the boats coming around the bend from there. He spotted Krakov,
despite Krakov having thrown a raincoat over his tuxedo to hide
it.

“That’s our man,” Tom said pointing him out
to Constable Andrews.

Constable Andrews and Tom remained in the
shadows alongside the building as they made their way toward the
front corner of the hotel. From there they watched as Krakov
floated under the footbridge. Tom tapped Constable Andrews on the
arm then and they started across Royal Street toward the park,
walking under the clock tower by the footbridge, waiting for
Krakov’s boat to emerge from under the bridge just below them.

Instead Tom spotted him coming through the
reeds up the slope or the riverbank on the other side and then
Krakov started walking briskly toward the north end of the park,
where the woods began. Just overhead fireworks exploded in the
night sky still.

Tom started across the footbridge, maybe
forty yards behind Krakov as people were coming across the bridge
the other way, to see what was going on at the hotel.

“As soon as we get to the end of the bridge,
you stop there and when I yell at the suspect to stop walking,
start ordering these civilians to get down on the ground,” Tom
whispered to Constable Andrews. “Then you take up a firing position
behind me.”

“Yes sir,” Andrews said.

When Tom came to the end of the bridge, he
stepped off the path onto the grass. He followed Krakov a little
ways out onto the field, wanting to put some distance between him
and the people behind him on the bridge. Krakov was maybe forty
yards ahead of him still, when he aimed his gun at his back.

Chapter 21

Bishop Takes
Pawn

Mr. Slang stood just a few feet into the
dark woods watching Krakov coming toward him. Vampires do not smile
easily, but despite that being their nature and having been shot a
couple of times, Krakov had a slight grin on his face. Another
hundred yards and he would reach the safety of the woods. Mr. Slang
had a car waiting just the other side of the forest, just a ten
minute walk away. He had Krakov’s coat with him, but he’d disposed
of everything else. He noticed Krakov had not thrown his weapon in
to the river. He was still carrying at his side.

Then Mr. Slang noticed Inspector Flynn and a
constable coming across the footbridge. The constable stopped at
the end of the footpath, but the detective continued out onto the
field after Krakov. He was about forty yards behind him when he
lifted his gun and aimed at Krakov.

“Krakov,” he shouted. “Stop walking and drop
your weapon.”

Mr. Slang watched as the constable behind
Inspector Flynn started ordering everyone atop the bridge down on
to the ground.

Mr. Slang looked at Krakov and saw he had
not stopped walking, he was still coming toward him, but he had
lost his smile. The detective fired and the bullet landed just next
to Krakov’s shoe.

“Next one’s in your head,” the detective
yelled and Krakov stopped walking then. Behind the detective on the
bridge, people screamed. The constable there got down on one knee
and aimed at Krakov too, but the detective was in his line of
fire.

Krakov stood still. His back remained to the
detective, but he was looking right toward Mr. Slang. He seemed
like he just wanted to collapse now. He’d thought he’d escaped, but
returning to his wife and child now had just been robbed of him,
unless…

Mr. Slang looked back toward the bridge and
saw a woman hurrying across it. “Tom,” she yelled, but the
detective could not turn around. The young constable on the bridge
hurried and caught her and brought her down to the ground.

“I want you alive,” the detective yelled,
“but unless you drop that weapon by the count of five. I will kill
you,” he yelled matter-of-factly. The eyes of every man and woman
lying on the bridge, or standing near the grandstands were riveted
upon the detective and the man he was attempting to arrest. When
the detective yelled out the number one, a few people gasped. Then
he yelled ‘two’ and a lady by the grandstands fainted. When he
yelled ‘three’ Krakov swung around so quickly, his raincoat swished
around his body like a bullfighter’s cape. He swung his gun around
toward the detective and there was an exchange of gunfire, but the
detective fired first and his aim was true. Krakov fell back, but
still he fired… bam, bam, bam went his gun and Mr. Slang saw a
bullet strike the ground and kick up dirt just between the feet of
the detective. The detective fired his second and third shots, bam,
bam went his gun and Mr. Slang heard a sound like the flap of large
bird passing close by just before a bullet struck the tree next to
him. When he looked back, Krakov lie flat on his back, not
moving.

Inspector Flynn’s wife shouted again and he
briefly glanced toward her. She rose up off the ground then and ran
toward him. When she reached him, he grabbed her and hugged her
with one arm, but the other still held his weapon at Krakov. The
young constable ran past them, gun drawn, toward Krakov.

Right then another, older man, came running
across the bridge shouting. The detective glanced back at him, but
the man ran past him to where Krakov lay. Mr. Slang recognized the
man then – he was Chief Inspector Meriwether. Mr. Slang stepped
back further into the woods, but he remained watching as the young
constable reached down and took the gun out of Krakov’s hand. When
Inspector Meriwether reached Krakov he knelt next to him. He seemed
to check his pulse and then Inspector Meriwether looked right
toward where Mr. Slang stood in the woods.

He could not possibly see me, Mr. Slang
thought, but he must figure that Krakov was going to meet someone.
Mr. Slang walked quickly away when Inspector Meriwether ordered the
young constable to draw his weapon and check out the edge of the
woods. The last thing Mr. Slang observed was Inspector Meriwether
placing his raincoat over Krakov’s body.

Chapter 22

Early the next morning, as Tom came into the
inspectors’ offices, he popped his head into Red’s office. Red was
on the phone, but he gestured for Tom to stay.

“A ransom note just arrived,” he said
hanging up. “Let’s you and me go downstairs.”

“What are her demands?” Red asked as they
came into Chief Roger’s office.

“She wants all the expatriates from the
U.R.R.K. to be allowed to go home,” Chief Rogers said. “She’s
demanding both zeppelins be brought here. King Havel is on his way
here already.”

“If both zeppelins are coming here we’ll
have to construct some kind of docking platform.”

“I’ve got Captain Clarke of the Fire Brigade
working on that already.”

“Have you told Colonel Popov of her
demands?”

“Not yet.”

“Mind if I take a look at the note?”

Chief Rogers handed him it. Red read it, and
as he did Tom saw something in his eye.

“Looks like she had Stone write this note
for her,” Red said. “There’s nothing on here about how to respond
back to her,” he told Chief Rogers as he handed the note to Tom. He
tapped on the top corner of it then and Tom looked there. Printed
onto the note was a small drawing of a wolf snarling.

“I expect she’ll get in touch with us again
when she sees two zeppelins coming floating into the valley,” Chief
Rogers said.

“All right then. Anything you want me to do
right now?” Red asked just as Chief Roger’s phone rang.

“You could find Pandora and arrest her,” he
said rudely. “You could locate some evidence that Count Vasili and
her were in on this together,” he said. He picked up the ringing
phone then.

“I just might do all that before lunch,” Red
muttered as him and Tom left.

“What was that drawing?” Tom asked as they
went down the hallway.

“The pad of paper they must have ripped that
sheet off must have come from a tavern out in Draculia called The
Wolf’s Fang. The best thing we have going for us right now is that
Pandora has Stone and Titan working for her.”

“What are we going to do?”

“You are going to drop Fixx off at The
Wolf’s Fang. I’ll let you negotiate how much money is in for him,
but don’t be too generous. I’d have you poke around out there, but
Fixx won’t draw attention to himself sitting inside there all day.
It’s the king of place that caters to goblins, golems and trolls
and besides you have to be at the courthouse by one to testify at
the hearing.”

“Okay.”

“Take someone from wardrobe with you to the
Shadows Hotel. They can slip a disguise on Fixx before you drive
him out there. I got the feeling Stone can’t stay away from a beer
too long. I’d bet a Vlad note to a schilling Stone shows up there
again before lunch.”

“What are you going to be doing?” Tom
asked.

“I have to go talk to Count Vasili
upstairs,” Red said. “Make sure you give Fixx some coins for the
pay phone. And make sure he only talks to me.”

Chapter 23

As Red came through the steel door to the
cells on the fifth floor, Count Vasili was sitting on his bunk
looking at small metal object in the palm of his hand.

“At noon you’ll be taken over to the Royal
Court building for your hearing,” Red told him.

Red had arrested Count Vasili the night
before at the insistence of Colonel Popov and others of the
U.R.R.K. delegation.

Count Vasili nodded. “Are you a man who is
more interested in enforcing the law or are you more interested in
doing that which is right?” he asked.

“I believe they are the same thing.”

“Most times, yes,” Count Vasili said, “but
not always.”

“What are we talking about?” Red asked. “You
don’t think you’ll get a fair hearing?”

“The outcome of the hearing has already been
determined,” Count Vasili said. “You have not answered my
question.”

Red stared at Count Vasili. “I suppose if I
could be shown how enforcing the law was not the right thing to do,
then I would not enforce the law.”

“Do you have men in your squad that will
carry out your orders, no matter if they do not understand why you
ask them to do these things?”

“Yes,” Red said.

“I would like to speak to you alone,” Count
Vasili said glancing toward the guard by the door. Red waved at the
guard, who stood up and went out, closing the steel door behind
him.

“I believe I am being framed,” Count Vasili
said.