Transylvania's Most Wanted (8 page)

“He’ll be happy to have these back,” Red
said taking the ring also and putting both items in his pocket.
“Whatever reason Pandora had for kidnapping Pierre, it must have
something to do with this cave,” he said looking there.

They walked up to the cave, which looked
dark and damp inside, and not inviting at all for someone to
explore.

“You ever been inside there?” Tom asked.

Red pointed to a sign nearby warning
visitors not to go inside. “People have gotten permission to go
inside, I never cared to, but I hear tell its gets pretty hairy in
there. Lots of holes to fall in. Supposedly there are a lot of
passageways leading off all directions,’ Red said pulling out of
his pocket the small flashlight he carried with him. He shined it
around inside the cave.

“Look,” Tom said pointing at the ground just
in front of them and Red shined his light there. Lying on the
ground was a rope and Tom went and picked it up. He started pulling
on it, but it was soon pulled taunt as the other end must have been
tied to something inside. “Someone must have gone spelunking inside
here recently,” he determined seeing the rope did not seem to have
much wear and grime on it, especially if it had been inside a damp
cave where thousands of bats made guano every day. “Wonder what a
witch would want from inside there?”

“Gone what?” Red asked.

“Spelunking,” Tom repeated. “You know cave
exploring.”

“Is that an American word?” Red asked. “I
never heard it before.”

“Maybe it came to be called that after you
left,” he said.

“Maybe,” Red said taking the rope from Tom’s
hand and pulling on it. “I don’t know if we’d learn anything
following this rope to the other end, but I’ll have some firemen
follow it and see where it leads to.”

They drove back to town then.

Chapter 7

Pawn Takes Queen

Tom slept until noon, then got up, got
dressed, ate breakfast and started walking toward the TCPD
building. Some construction workers were coming in and out of the
hole in the north wall of the building, working to shore up the
building. As Tom stood there watching them a moment, he noticed,
one block up Mulberry Street, a fire engine with lights flashing
and he started toward there.

In the middle of the block, right where the
alley came out, there was a constable holding back a crowd of
onlookers. Tom made his way through them and asked the constable
what had happened.

“A wall collapsed,” the officer said
pointing down the alley behind him and Tom looked and saw a huge
pile of bricks, like a small pyramid, halfway down the alleyway. It
looked like a bomb had gone off in the building next to the alley
and thousands of bricks had landed there. There were half-dozen
firemen with shovels scooping up the bricks. Red was there too,
watching the firemen’s progress. Tom hurried toward him standing
just next to the pile of bricks, which was probably ten feet tall
still even after much of it had been removed.

“Have you out in a couple of minutes,” Red
yelled at the stack of bricks just as Tom arrived.

“Are their people under there?”

“Just Rollo,” Red said and Tom noticed that
they were standing outside the back door of the Rock Bottom and two
of Rollo’s employees - A bridge troll and a goblin, where helping
remove bricks. “He shouted out that he was fine, but even this much
weight is too much for him to lift off.”

Red and Tom watched for the next few minutes
while the firemen worked to dig Rollo out, and finally, when the
load was reduced some, the pile of bricks shifted as Rollo rose up
and climbed out. It was quite a sight to see, him standing up and
hundreds of bricks tumbling down. The crowd at both ends of the
alley clapped as he came stumbling out. His hat was smashed, his
suit torn to shreds, his hand pressed to his rib cage because of
some soreness there, his face scratched and chipped, but overall
Rollo didn’t seem too worse for wear.

“What happened?” Red asked.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Rollo said
clearly upset. “It was Stone and Titan; they jumped me here in the
alley. I gave them hell too, but finally they both got a hold of me
and shoved me hard enough into the side of the building here that
the whole wall collapsed on top of me.”

“Stone did this?”

“Yeah, last thing I heard him say was; we
were even now.”

“Well I’ll add it to his list of offenses,”
Red said, pulling his notebook out.

“I sure could use a beer,” Rollo said.

“You don’t want to go see a doctor?” Tom
asked.

“Doctors can’t do much for us golems,” he
said dusting himself off. “A stone mason might patch me up some,
but there’s nothing a doctor could for me that a beer couldn’t do
better and cheaper,” he said. “Let’s go in my place here and have
one. Besides I got something to tell you guys.”

Red and Tom followed Rollo inside the Rock
Bottom and lined up at the counter as the bridge troll poured them
each a beer.

“Thanks,” Rollo said and then he proceeded
to down half his mug. He wiped his chin and turned toward Red and
Tom. “Both Stone and Titan looked like they’d been run through a
meat grinder.”

“You got some licks in aye?” Red said
holding up his beer toward Rollo.

“No,” Rollo said shaking his head. “I mean
they had scratches all over their face and hands already, before
they blindsided me. I don’t know what they were up to before they
came looking for me, but it must have been something nasty.”

Red looked at Tom and then back at Rollo.
“We might have an idea where they got those.”

“Where?’

“A werewolf might have done it to them.”

“Really?” Rollo said. “Well that’s exactly
what it looked like.”

“
Say,” Red said. “You
don’t know what interest some witch might have going inside the
Mouth-of-Hell cave do you?”

“Maybe,” Rollo said ordering himself another
beer, but Red and Tom waved off the offer of a second one, since
they were on duty. “Use to be, after they outlawed many of the
herbs them witches use in their potions, some witches hid some
contraband items inside there. Not too far in, as its get pretty
dangerous inside there, but finally the Administration sent some
firemen in there with orders to burn the place out and destroy
anything hid in there. And then some gates were installed at the
entrance so nobody could go inside there anymore.”

“What happened to the gates?” Red asked.

“Oh they finally tore them down about forty
years ago.”

Red looked at his watch then. “I need to be
going. Chief Rogers wants to go over our security plans for the
ball tonight.”

“Why didn’t they come here on one of them
zeppelins?” Rollo asked. “I would have like to seen one of
them.”

“I guess because the king didn’t come along.
I guess the invite to Transylvania was a last minute thing and he’s
staying in Londonium for some meetings.”

“Too bad,” Rollo said picking his mug
up.

Red picked his hat up off the counter. “I’m
glad you showed up,” he told Tom. “Why don’t you come to this
meeting with me?”

“If you want.”

“Let’s get going,” he said. “Thanks for the
beer Rollo.”

Red and Tom headed for the TCPD building to
meet with Chief Rogers. Just outside the Chief of Police’s office
at the end of the hallway, sat a vampire and Tom shot him a look as
he walked into the chief’s office. Several people were already
there, Commander Gates who was in charge of the regular constables,
Captain Clarke of the Fire Brigade and sitting with his back to the
door as Tom entered the room was another man.

“Inspector Meriwether…” Chief Rogers said as
Red stepped into his office, “You are of course familiar with Count
Vasili,” he said gesturing toward the man.

“Just by reputation,” Red said as Count
Vasili stood and turned around.

He was not a man though, but a vampire and
while all vampires are rather good-looking, this one put all others
to shame. There was not a flaw to him, not a feature that could
have been improved. His hair was dark, thick, shiny and perfectly
combed. His eyes were so dark; it seemed you were looking down a
hole that had no bottom. His teeth were as white as snow and
glinted like metal. His suit and overcoat with scarf were
immaculate and fit his tall, trim build perfectly.

“I am pleased to meet you Inspector
Meriwether,” he said extending a hand toward Red. His accent, not
British or anything Tom recognized, was never-the-less charming and
the way he spoke betrayed confidence and good manners. For all
these reasons, and more, Tom did not like him.

“Thank you,” Red said.

“You must excuse my appearance,” Count
Vasili said gesturing toward his clothing with a sweep of his hand.
“It is of course early in the day for a vampire.”

Tom did not know what possibly could be
forgiven, his clothing, without any imperfection or even a single
wrinkle hung perfectly.

“Count Vasili is to be the princess’s date
tonight,” Chief Rogers explained. “He met her while he was visiting
Londonium and invited her to visit Transylvania and Draculia and
attend the ball tonight.”

Count Vasili was the only vampire Tom had
heard of that was allowed to travel around Britannia.

A tall, fit man entered the room then. He
must have stood six foot six, and might have been the toughest
looking man Tom ever saw. Not just because of his muscles, his
uniform or the military-like way he carried himself, but because of
his many scars.

“I am Colonel Popov,” he announced in a
Russian accent, clicking his heels together. “I believe you are
expecting me.”

“Yes. Welcome,” Chief Rogers said. “Have a
seat,” he said waving Colonel Popov toward a chair.

“I will stand.”

“All right, Chief Rogers
said unc
o
mfortably. “Colonel Popov is head of security for the prince
and princess,” he informed the rest of them. “Let me introduce you
to…”

“That is not necessary,” Colonel Popov
interrupted. “My security personnel supplied me with full
backgrounds on each of you including photographs. Please let us get
started.”

“We already have a contingent of constables
stationed at the Triumph Hotel,” Chief Rogers said.

“Fine,” Colonel Popov said. “But only my men
will be stationed outside the rooms of the prince and princess. I
will allow your men to be stationed by the stairs and by the
elevator.”

“
We’ll also have some
detectives in the ballroom tonight, dressed in tuxedos,” Chief
Rogers said. “And I’m afraid I’ve been withholding something from
all of you. Shut the door,” he said gesturing at Tom and Tom
reached over and closed the door. “We may want to cancel the prince
and princess’ appearance at the ball tonight, but I will let you,
Colonel Popov, decide that.”

“What is it?” the colonel demanded.

Chief Rogers opened his desk drawer and
pulled out a letter. “We received a death threat on the prince’s
life a few hours ago. This is the first chance I’ve had to tell you
about it,” he said holding the letter out toward Colonel Popov.

Colonel Popov snatched it out of Chief
Rogers hand so abruptly; Chief Rogers suffered a paper cut. Colonel
Popov read it while Chief Rogers sucked on his bleeding finger and
Tom was certain Count Vasili was looking at the blood there.

“I will talk to the prince about the
matter,” Colonel Popov said handing the note back. “In light of
this, in addition to the incidents here in Transylvania City the
past couple of days. I’m referring to the jail escape, the incident
at Goblin Park and now the assault and destruction of property that
happened just an hour ago not more than two blocks from the police
building,” he said, “I will recommend the prince and princess not
attend the ball, and that they immediately return to Londonium as
soon as arrangements can be made, but it will be their
decision.”

While Colonel Popov was listing the failures
of the TCPD the last few days, Chief Rogers glared at Red and
Commander Gates.

“Well if you could let us know what they
decide,” Chief Rogers asked.

“Of course,” Colonel Popov said. “Is there
anything else you need of me?”

“Just one more thing,” Chief Rogers said. “I
wanted Commander Gates and Chief Inspector Meriwether to know that
your men have been given permission to carry weapons while they’re
here in Transylvania City.”

“
I didn’t know that,” Red
said concernedly. “I hope they’ll not be wandering around town
then.”

“They will be confined to the hotel,”
Colonel Popov said. “It should not be a problem.”

“It would be nice if we had a way to
recognize them,” Red said.

Colonel Popov seemed to think about this a
moment. “I will require them to all wear white handkerchiefs in
their breast pockets. You will be able to recognize them from the
red star on their handkerchiefs, but please do not let anyone know
this that does not need to.”

“I think I can keep it a secret,” Red
said.

“In fact could you have your men, the ones
attending the ball anyway,” Colonel Popov said. “Wear something
too, so we’ll recognize them?”

“I’ll have all my men attending the ball
wear black armbands.”

“Very good,” Colonel Popov said, and then he
smiled for the first time since he’d entered the room. He excused
himself then and left.

“May I see that letter?” Red asked.

Chief Rogers handed him it.

Red looked at it a moment, read it, flipped
it over and then held it out toward Tom. “Look at the z here,” he
said and Tom looked where he was indicating.

“It’s backwards.”

“Yes,” Red said. “Just like someone from the
U.R.R.K., having learned English as their second language, might
make the mistake of doing.”