Transylvania's Most Wanted (22 page)

“
I believe she’s in
the
Dauntless
there,” he told Tom as he started the car and began backing
up. “Go home and pack a bag now. At noon you and I are going to
escort Count Vasili onto the
Dauntles
s and stay on board until we
finally take off for a ride across the pole to the U.R.R.K. Bring a
warm coat. But before you go home I want you to see a magician
friend of mine. Since he ain’t got any real magic about him he has
to perform some pretty tough tricks.”

“What do you want me to see your magician
friend about?”

“He does this trick where he is locked
inside a safe and then the safe is lowered into a vat of freezing
cold water. You’ll see. He knows you’re coming. He learned the
trick from Houdini.”

“That an order?”

“It is.”

Red dropped Tom off at a small theater just
off Appian Way.

“Meet me at the station at 11:45 sharp. Not
a minute later,” he said as Tom climbed out of the car.

Tom looked at the playbill
on the theatre as Red drove away. The magician he’d sent him to see
had third billing. Tom figured Red was just having him kill some
time before they headed out to the
Dauntless
. Tom went inside the
theater then to see
The Great and
Spectacular Vincelli
.

At precisely 11:45, Tom
appeared just outside Red’s office carrying his suitcase. His hair
was still wet from his visit to
The Great
Vincelli
. Red might have been thinking the
cold water Tom had been dunked in repeatedly would cool him off
some, but Tom was still mad, and even if Rebecca was perfectly
okay, he planned on quitting the force.

Count Vasili, wearing handcuffs, sat across
the desk from Red, and Inspector Jones sat next to him. Other than
the handcuffs, he was dressed sharply, wearing an expensive suit,
matching scarf and a long, lined raincoat.

“Let’s go,” Red said grabbing his suitcase
from where it sat next to his desk. Inspector Jones grabbed Count
Vasili with one arm and his luggage with the other and led him out
the office. All four men headed downstairs and out the front of the
building. A photographer snapped their photograph as they came out
the building.

Red must have called for a cab already,
because a yellow one was waiting for them right outside with its
trunk open. Inspector Jones placed Count Vasili in the backseat as
Red and Tom placed the luggage in the trunk.

“Keep your eye on him,” Jones said as Tom
climbed in the backseat next to the count. Red took the front
passenger seat and told the driver to head for the field where the
two zeppelins were docked. The driver, a big golem wearing his
yellow cabbie hat pulled down over his brow and the collar of his
coat turned up, grunted and pulled away from the curb in a
hurry.

“We may be on board a couple of days
waiting,” Red said. “Until this ordeal with the princess is wrapped
up.”

“You don’t mind being out of the loop on
that?” Tom asked smartly.

“Chief Rogers and Commander Gates can handle
it.”

Just before they turned onto the dirt road
that led out to the field, a truck, like the kind the army uses to
transport soldiers, turned onto the road before them. Tom looked
and saw a bunch of golems in back of it.

A pair of constables stopped the truck as it
approached the field where the zeppelins were docked, but as soon
as they saw Sergeant Hightower behind the wheel they waved it on.
They stopped their taxi next, but waved them on after spotting
Red.

They passed by some more officers and then
followed the truck out onto the grassy field where a few cows
grazed between the two airships. The field was just north of the
Black River and a mist came off the river and hung over the
field.

Colonel Popov was waiting
for them at the bottom of the platform the
Dauntless
was moored to. He seemed
more interested in seeing them arrive than the truck ahead of them,
but then the mayor of Transylvania City jumped out of the truck and
approached him.

It seemed the mayor was personally
delivering a dozen crates of Vamp’s as a goodwill gesture. The
golems climbed out of the truck and began grabbing the heavy
crates, which were nearly as long as a coffin, and carrying them up
the steps toward the other end of the platform where the cargo
doors of the zeppelin were located.

“The cab driver will take care of the
luggage,” Red told Tom as he climbed out of the taxi. “Just head on
over to the ship.”

Red walked up to the mayor and asked him
what was going on.

“Good to see you again Red,” the mayor said.
“Just delivering some Vamp’s as a parting gift.”

Colonel Popov smiled at Count Vasili as Tom
led him, in handcuffs, toward him. A few TCPD constables were
stationed at the bottom of the platform and Tom waited by them as
Colonel Popov went and thanked the mayor for his gift.

A moment later he returned
and gestured for Red and Tom to follow him up to the top of the
platform. The cab driver came behind them carrying the luggage,
stacked in his arms so that all that showed of his head was the
yellow cap he wore. At the top of the platform, Colonel Popov
turned around and seemed surprised to see the mayor had followed
them there as well. Tom thought the mayor seemed to be angling for
a tour of the
Dauntless
.

Colonel Popov said something in Russian to
the sergeant stationed at the end of the gangplank that led into
ship and the sergeant looked at the mayor before disappeared inside
the airship. Colonel Popov went and apologized to the mayor saying
he had other matters to attend to, but that someone would come out
and meet him in just a moment. He shook the mayor’s hand and then
came back and gestured for Red and Tom, as well as Count Vasili to
follow him inside.

“Good day mayor,” Red said tipping his hat
at him just before heading across the gangplank.

Once inside the great airship, they followed
Colonel Popov down a hallway lined with wood paneling, up some
marble steps toward another deck, and then down another hallway. At
the end of the hallway two guardsmen were stationed in front of an
elaborate wood door, but Colonel Popov led them down another
hallway before they reached there.

They went just a little ways then and
entered a suite of rooms. Coming off the main room was a couple of
very small bedrooms. There was a window that looked out the side of
the ship and Tom went there and looked down at the platform they
had just been standing on. The sergeant had returned and the mayor
was just then shaking hands with the royal butler. The crew of
golems was still carrying in the crates of Vamp’s and setting them
down inside the cargo hold under the close supervision of some of
Colonel’s Popov’s men.

“These will be your rooms while you are on
board,” Colonel Popov said making a sweep of the room with his
hand. The colonel noticed the cab driver dumping their luggage
right at the doorway then and seemed surprised he’d followed them
inside the ship.

All Tom could see of the golem, as he stood
just outside their room, was his hand. He expected a tip and Red
stepped out the room and put a couple of bills in it. The driver
grunted then, still holding out his hand out, and Red reluctantly
gave him a couple more bills. The driver left then.

“Wait, I escort you out,” Colonel Popov
shouted after him, but the driver ignored him and started down the
hallway. Colonel Popov followed him out the room and watched him
heading back down the hallway. He shouted for him to wait, but when
the golem failed to stop, the colonel started after him.

“So do we have free run of the ship?” Red
asked and Colonel Popov stopped and turned back around.

“No,” the colonel said glancing at the golem
turning the corner then. “Please remain in your room. I’ll have
lunch brought to you in a while,” he said as he closed the doors to
their room. He locked them in then.

“Since we are locked in,” Count Vasili said,
“would you mind taking these handcuffs off me?”

Tom looked at Red who was headed for the
window. “Sure,” Red said. “Take them off him.”

Tom freed Count Vasili from his cuffs and
then went over by the window also. He spotted the cab driver going
down the steps of the platform just as Colonel Popov came across
the gang plank. The colonel stood on the platform watching the cab
driver in his yellow cap headed back toward his cab. Then the other
golems, having finished delivering the Vamp’s from out the truck,
left also.

Chapter 46

By noon, Mr. Slang already
had had a busy day. At six that morning his alarm clock went off
and he rose, showered and had breakfast downstairs in the lobby of
the Monte Christo. Then he headed for the Shadows Hotel and let
himself into Stone’s room and packed a bag for him. That way Stone
would appear to be all set to head to the U.R.R.K. along with
Pandora, Titan and the princess. Stone had been instructed to act
like he was too slow getting onto the
Tempest
once its mooring lines were
untied.

After slipping out of the Shadows, Mr. Slang
stole a car and headed out to the spot in Draculia where he had
prearranged to meet Stone. He gave him his bags and went over their
plan one last time.

After that he ditched the car and made his
way back to Transylvania City. The first thing he did back in the
city was ask a gentleman where he might find a delicious sandwich.
Several places were recommended and Mr. Slang headed for the
nearest of them. At a small deli just off Royal Street, Mr. Slang
purchased two dozen sandwiches. He told the deli owner he had
plenty of time to wait for them to be prepared. He also asked where
the location of the nearest TCPD police station might be. He was
told there was a small station nearby.

After his order was ready, Mr. Slang walked
there and scouted the place. He found just what he needed, and then
looking at his watch, saw he needed to kill just a little time
still, so he ate a sandwich while sitting near the Vlad the Impaler
Statue on Appian Way. As he sat there, he thought over if there was
anything else he needed to do, but it seemed he had just the few
remaining items that he was about to take care of. He had already
arranged for Inspector Flynn to be one of the detectives escorting
Count Vasili back to the U.R.R.K. He was not surprised when he
heard back that Inspector Meriwether would be coming along
also.

Having finished his sandwich, Mr. Slang went
and bought a copy of the local paper. In fact he bought several
copies and then he walked down the street to a tall building.
Looking up he spotted a few gremlins on the highest ledges of the
building. He went inside and took the elevator to the top floor and
then unlocked the door that led out onto the roof.

He placed the papers down and lit them on
fire, along with some trash he found. He quickly left then and took
the elevator down to the street.

He was not the only one to look up and point
at the fire burning atop the building. Gremlins were blamed. As Mr.
Slang walked toward the TCPD station then, a fire engine roared
past and then two police cars came roaring out of the station
headed toward the fire. He slipped in the TCPD station then and
found it empty. He found the keys to their paddy wagon and helped
himself to a policeman’s uniform in a locker there.

The most risky part of his plan was to cross
the Executioner’s Bridge before the paddy wagon was reported
missing. He wasn’t quite sure what he would do if the bridge
constable stopped and questioned him, but the constable only waved
at his fellow TCPD officer, driving a TCPD paddy wagon across the
bridge.

Just a few minutes before 1 o’clock, Mr.
Slang approached the field where the two zeppelins were docked,
driving a TCPD paddy wagon, wearing a TCPD uniform and bringing out
there with him a box full of delicious deli sandwiches. The pair of
constables stationed at the gate stopped him and asked what he was
doing there, but they asked more out of curiosity than suspicion.
He told them he’d been sent there to deliver sandwiches as he held
out the box of sandwiches toward them. They each took one and
thanked him without asking anything more. These officers, in this
proper realm, he thought, were not a very suspicious lot and they
accepted his sandwich as well as his word.

Mr. Slang drove out onto
the field then and parked not far from the
Tempest
. He got out carrying the box
of sandwiches and started toward the constables stationed at the
bottom of the platform. As they were busy choosing their
sandwiches, a dark mist suddenly arose from out of thin air right
at the eastern edge of the field. The mist, like a heavy fog bank,
began rolling toward them.

It was much heavier than a
fog though, and it moved against the wind. As the cloud or mist as
it was, moved toward the
Tempest
, it spread out and grew
darker still. Finally the constables noticed it. They pointed at it
and asked each other what it was. They backed away from it when its
leading edge began creeping up over their shoes, but the sergeant
over the detail there told them to ‘Stay at their posts’. The dark
mist completely covered the constables as Mr. Slang retreated to
his paddy wagon.

The constables could no
longer be seen, but they could be heard shouting. Mr. Slang watched
with much interest as the mist rolled, like the tide coming in,
toward the
Tempest.
He was much amused when the first constable came flying out
of the mist and landed on the ground. The constable was groggy, but
not seriously hurt, having landed on the soft, wet grass of the
field.