Maggie on the Bounty (9 page)

I
t took quite a bit of doing, but we
finally unshackled Mortimer thanks to my lock pick set and Killian's ability to
talk me down when I was ready to find a fire ax and chop the thing to bits. 

As soon as Mortimer was out and
stretching, I took the opportunity to examine this thing he was chained to so
as to figure out how it worked. 

"What's so special about this
organ?" I asked him.

"I am the only one who can
play it," he replied.

"And some days, not even
that," I muttered under my breath as I poked at one of the keys.  No sound
came out.  "So how comes it doesn't work for me?"

"It knows my blood."

Killian and I exchanged glances.  I
crouched down to get a good look at the under-carriage.  There it was.  You had
your normal foot pedals down there, but on either side, there were two spikes
that looked like they were covered in some old, rust-colored something.

"Shit."

Killian got down to look with me. 
"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yep."

We had run into this kind of magic
before.  There was a door in Vaclav's castle that barred fairies and vampires
from opening it.  The spike needed human blood to open.  Looked like Vaclav had
done some research and development and figured out how to upgrade his door
design to make an organ that ran on blood magic, too.

I looked at Mortimer. "Are you
human?"

He shook his head, "No. 
Siren."

I gave him the old fisheye.
"Sirens are girls."

He shrugged, "And therein is
the eternal tragedy of my life.  My sisters sit upon the cliffs, calling the
sailors to dash themselves upon the shore.  But as a male, my vocal cords do
not possess the power of the hunter.  My voice will lure no food stuff to throw
itself upon our rocks for harvest.  But I have been told my organ playing is
magical.  And so, I play for the enjoyment and amusement of all, since my
prowess is ill-fitted for any other use."

"While I'm sure it sucks to be
you, I'm actually kind of glad you are what you are," I replied.  "So
we have ourselves a magical organ and a magical creature playing it." 
There was a tube attached to the wall.  I pointed at it. "What does that
do, Mortimer?"

He looked at it.  "The pipe is
connected to the smokestack.  When I play the right notes, it takes the music
and opens the doors."

"What do you mean it opens the
doors?"

"Three times tonight, upon the
hour, I was to give a command performance, and the notes would play
simultaneously across three times and three dimensions to open the doors so
that they can come through."

I looked at Killian.
"Harmonics to open portals?"

He shrugged, "You tell me,
Maggie."

"Vaclav is using harmonics to
open portals," I told him.  "There was the portal in the swimming
pool, but that was naturally occurring.  I mean, someone obviously gave folks a
hand to open it, but the veil was willing."

"But, if we were to hazard a
guess, this more likely has to do with that large portal you observed in the bulkhead,
does it not?"

Killian and I locked eyes.

"Shit."

I picked up our stacks of clothes,
remembering one of the reasons why Killian and I had been skulking around in
the first place.  "If we survive all this, remember that we hid our stuff
behind the homicidal musical instrument that may or may not cause the collapse
of the dimensional wall."

"I shall make note,"
remarked Killian dryly.

I turned to Mortimer.  "Hey! 
Mortimer, we need to go find out how much trouble we're all in.  You wanna
come?  Stay?  What're you feeling like?"

He rubbed his wrists and looked
longingly at the organ.

I reached out and grabbed his hand,
steering him towards the doors so that Killian could take over babysitting
duties.  "Sorry, that just turned rhetorical.  You're coming with
us."

I did one last idiot-check around
the room to make sure we hadn't forgotten any lifesaving magical artifacts, and
then smoothed out my apron and straightened my cap.  "Alrighty.  Let's get
this party swinging."

Killian and I took off for the
stairs with Mortimer in tow and started racing down the hall.  I suddenly
stopped and slapped my forehead.  "Jackie.  We need to find Jackie."

This time Killian grabbed me and
pushed me in front of him:  "After we save the world."

"What if she is the key to
saving the world?"

"If what we think is down in
that hull is down in that hull, the safest place for that child will be 'not
with us,' I believe."

"You have a point."

We reached the stairway and just
headed down.  Down, down, down until there was no more down to go.  The sounds
of the engines thrummed.  We crept out onto the shadowy catwalk where we could
get a good look at the bottom of the boat without anyone seeing us.

The hole was glowing white hot with
fire.  I had never seen a portal that huge in my entire frickin' life.  And
there were vampires pouring through. One after another, they were filling up
the ship, marching in lock step one after another.

Killian, Mortimer, and I crouched
down and got really still, like prairie dogs spotting a hawk.  Fortunately,
there was enough chaos that no one was looking our way.  But it wasn't much
comfort knowing 'there was enough chaos going on' to keep a vampire from
looking our way.  There was a guy who seemed to be in charge.  He had a
clipboard, so I was just guessing.  He was marking off passengers as they came
through.  All of the vampires were dressed like modern day folks, which raised
a couple concerns in my brain, along the lines that these travelers weren't too
concerned with blending into this particular decade.

"Fuck," I whispered.

"Can you close the
portal?" asked Killian.

I shook my head, "I'm good,
but I'm not that good.  That thing is huge."

I crept back and motioned for the
fellas to follow me.  There was nothing we could do here besides turn ourselves
into a snack from some hungry passengers, so we retreated up the stairs to
regroup and strategize.

"Okay, what do we know?"
I asked.

"The one smokestack became
illuminated and we were transported to this other time," said Killian. 
"It also opened this portal door, allowing the vampire army to come
through."

"And how many smokestacks does
this boat have?"

"Three."

I pointed at Mortimer.  "We
have the one guy who can play the organ that can open up these portals."

"This is a positive on our
side."

I started getting a little
excited.  "So that means they must have to take several jumps."

"Inform me how this is good
news...?"

I looked at him.  I swear that elf
never listened.  "Dimensions are like pieces of paper.  They stack one on
top of the other.  If you are at the bottom of the stack and want to get to the
top, you have to punch through all of the dimensions in between.  So they need
to do three jumps before they can invade."

"And so...?"

"So, we have two opportunities
to stop them from reaching present time, which means, that while there might be
hundreds of them, it takes a whole lot longer for them to jump, and with the
three of us, we can jump higher and faster.  We might be small, but we are
mighty!  Let's get to that swimming pool."

K
illian guided us through the maze
of hallways, all of us slowing down as if everything was perfectly normal
whenever we passed passengers or someone who looked like maybe they could haul
us off for a good scolding for our unprofessionalism.  But the moment we were
out of their sight, bam, off we ran.

I knew we had made it to the
swimming pool by the sound of splashing.  No one was borrowing towels from
their room and wandering down in their flip flops.  

Killian, Mortimer, and I stopped. 
Killian and I flanked either side of the door while Mortimer stood there like
some country bumpkin on his first trip to the big, bright city.

"Try to pretend you belong
here," I hissed at him.

He managed to close his mouth so
that his jaw wasn't hanging open, but he was still looking around in wonder like
Oliver Twist in a sweet shop.

I whispered at Killian, "Okay,
we're not doing big heroics or anything like that.  We barge through these
doors and head straight for the vortex."

Mortimer looked disappointed. 
"No dip in the pool?"

"I promise to get you a
membership to the YMCA as soon as it looks like we aren't going to die," I
hissed.

Killian and I locked eyes and on
the count of three, we pushed the doors open and ran inside.

Guys and dolls, or whatever they
referred to fancy ladies and gents in the 1930's, were splashing about in the
water.  Most were hanging to the edges and yakking up a storm, but a couple
were doing laps and taking advantage of the diving board.

I looked over and there was Jackie
playing with her family.  Poor kid, it looked like something she might have
done before.  As in, done in an eternal loop before.  I wondered how long these
people had been stuck on this boat, thinking that one day they were eventually
going to arrive at their destination.  From the look on Jackie's face, it had
been awhile. 

I scoped out the place to see if
the coast was clear, and, as our luck would have it, that was when the doors
opened on The Other Side of the room revealing our favorite vampire tour guide
and a group of four people who looked like they were in serious need of a spray
tan.

Jackie screamed as the woman in
black came through, then shouted at everyone around her, "Run away!  It is
not safe!  Run away!"

Everyone in
the pool seemed to have been through this part of the drill enough to know what
was coming next and how they did not want to be a part of it.  They scattered
like someone had shouted "Fire!" in a movie theatre.

All except
for our party.

"Yoohoo!  Barbara!"
Mortimer called out to her, waving as if he was so excited to see an old
friend.  "I am not going to be playing organ any more for you!  I hope we
can work together in the future, though!  I appreciate the opportunity!"

"Son of a bitch," I said
as I tried to push him behind a column before our lady in black realized
someone was not locked up where he was supposed to be.  But Barbara was smarter
than she looked.  And, may I state for the record, she was looking like an
idiot, fangs out and hissing in public.  Vampires these days.  There is no
shame.  No skulking around corners.  Just full on attack-mode, even if there
are children present.  No wonder The Other Side kept them under such tight
wraps.

I took off my maid hat and handed
it to Killian. "Hold this.  I'm going in."

Killian handed it to Mortimer as he
took off after me. "Right behind you, partner."

I pulled my stakes out of my
sleeves.  Killian pulled out his pole from God only knows where.  Someday I was
going to have to ask him about that.  Preferably, I'd have an opportunity after
we finished killing these stowaways.

We were on the vampires in a
second.  The humans in the pool were still screaming and scattering, taking
their time to get out as they put on their socks and shoes and blouses and
pants and skirts and whatever else they felt they needed to do to maintain
their modesty as death breathed down their necks.  I felt the boat shake when I
staked the first vampire.  This little time/space bubble didn't seem to like
when someone came along and messed with its rhythm.  I was more than happy to
drop this beat.

Barbara was pissed, though.  She
looked over at where Mortimer was standing.  Here, as we were fighting for life
and death, he was apologetically explaining that he couldn't play the rest of
the night, but he hoped to work again with her in the future and hoped this
decision wouldn't reflect poorly upon his professionalism and dedication to the
organ.  Musicians.  Always looking for the next gig.  I could tell Barbara was
looking for several organs she could remove him from.

"Mortimer!  Get behind that
column!" I shouted as a vampire came at me.  His fangs banged right up
against my neck guard.  I made sure to twist my stake as I pushed it through
his chest, the fucker.

Barbara seemed like she was really
torn with whether to go after Mortimer or hop through the portal.  So, she did
what any desperate villain will do.  She took a hostage.  She grabbed our
Jackie and jumped.  She made sure to leave us with some company so that we
weren't lonely, though.

By this time, all of the human
types had fled the pool.  The room was shaking in and out of reality, giving
everything a fuzzy edge.  This bubble was getting pretty darn unstable, which I
was thrilled to pieces about.  Nothing like a collapsing dimension to put a
little hustle in your bustle.

Only two more vampires remained. 
The one came flashing at me with his fangs gleaming like the mother-of-pearl
ceiling overhead.  He might not bleed when he flossed, but he bled just fine
when I stuck him through the heart.  I leaned over and rested my hands on my
knees, breathing deep.  I was tuckered.

"Maggie, behind you!"
Killian shouted.

Someone forgot to tell this new
vamp that the #1 rule of the swimming pool is no running on the deck.  I didn't
even look.  I just raised my arm and let the vampire stake himself as he rushed
me.  I yanked it out and let him fall to the ground.

"She took Jackie!" I
shouted at Killian.

"I know!" Killian
replied, moving towards the portal like maybe we should make our way through.

"I told you that kid was going
to end up being the lynchpin to the world's survival!"

"You did.  You were right.  I
was wrong.  Are you happy enough that we can go save her now?" asked
Killian.

"Say that you were wrong once
more."

"I was wrong."

I stood up.  "Cool.  Let's
go."

I jogged over to Mortimer and
grabbed his arm.  He clung to the column.

"It's okay to come out
now," I said.

He instantly relaxed.  "Well,
why didn't you say so?  I was just following orders.  Hide, Mortimer.  Run
away, Mortimer.  Stop playing organ so the world does not end, Mortimer.  It is
hard to keep all the rules straight all at once."

I clapped him on the shoulders.
"Don't you worry that pretty little ginger head of yours, I'll do all the
thinking for us."  I motioned to the portal. "Right now, we are going
to go jump through there, try to save a little girl, and hopefully stop the end
of the world.  Ready?"

He straightened his jacket and
fixed his tie.  He pulled down his shirt cuffs and smoothed his hair.  He gave
me a nod and then informed me, "I am ready now."

"Fantastic."  I looked at
Killian.  "How about you, partner?"

He nodded, "After you."

I leapt through the portal.

And landed in the middle of the
same room.  I mean, same room, different time.  The vampire corpses had
disappeared and the pool was filled with a bunch of shirtless menfolk with neat
haircuts. 

They looked at me like I had grown
horns.  Guess they don't see too many women in the middle of the ocean,
whatever bizarre in-between-worlds ocean we were floating in.

"Hey boys!" I said,
giving them a little finger wave and edged towards the exit.  "Just
stopped by to see if you needed any fresh towels.  How's the water?  Peachy,
I'm sure. Anyone seen a woman dressed in black with a little girl in tow?"

And at that moment Barbara decided
to show her ugly face.  She flew at me out of the men's dressing room. 

"Hey!  Since when did this
become a co-ed joint?!" I shouted as I got my foot between me and her
chest and kicked her back.  One of the gents, dressed in a 1940s dough boy
uniform, had a hold of Jackie and was dragging her out of the room.

"Where is Mortimer?!"
Barbara hissed as she came at me all claws and nails.  She was strong.  Wicked
strong.  And the men around me seemed pretty content to sit back and watch the
catfight. 

"Aren't any of you going to
help me?" I asked them as I struggled to get Barbara off me again.

Now, I know that there are plenty
of men who pay good money to see two chicks battle it out, but these guys
suddenly bared their teeth and looked very upset about the fact I suggested
breaking this party up.

And that's when I realized I was in
a swimming pool of the undead.

"What the hell is going on
here?" I asked.

"Just some of Uncle Sam's boys
returning home from Europe," Barbara announced as she tried to slam my
head against the pool tiles. 

"This would go a whole lot
easier if we could sit down and discuss this like rational adults."  I
rolled away, picked up a heavy deck chair, and tossed it in her general
direction.  She danced easily out of its path as it flew by, but I took the
opportunity of that momentary distraction to get back on my feet.

Barbara ran out of the room.  The
vampires around us just leaned back and went back to a state of droneness.

"Why aren't you
attacking?" I asked as I walked close to one of them.  He didn't even
flinch when I staked him.

That's when Killian and Mortimer
decided to finally show up.

"Sorry," Killian
apologized.  "Mortimer was worried about traveling without his
toothbrush."

Mortimer gave a shrug.  "Your
body only produces one set of adult teeth.  If you do not take care of them,
you will lose them."

I rolled my eyes.  "I should
have left him shackled to that organ."

"What did we miss?" asked
Killian.

I waved at the room. "Well, we
landed in a pool filled with vampires, but they don't seem hungry."

Killian crouched down and looked at
them.  He even reached over and opened up one of the guy's eyes, which is far
braver than I'll ever be.  He shook his head.  "They must be dying.  Or
starving.  Or in a state of suspension."

"You are not helping at
all," I mentioned.

Killian wiped his hand on his
porter's jacket and pointed at all the uniforms folded up and stacked around
the edges of the room.  "My guess is that they are soldiers from this time
that have been turned, for whatever reason.  They look to be in day one or two
of the three-day transformation.  Perhaps men who were in the wrong place at
the wrong time and saw too much."

"Sucks to be them," I
said.

"So to speak."

I looked at them. "Well, do we
stake them now or wait for them to turn mean and stake them later?"

"If they live to see The Other
Side of transformation, there is the possibility of future employment
opportunities if we wait for later..."

"Are you saying why stake for
free when you could be paid?"

"There is that whole
'survival' aspect of it to consider..."

"Overrated."  I rubbed my
shoulder.  I was feeling beat to hell from all of this and didn't feel the need
to go for any Exceeds Expectations gold stars.  "Okay," I pointed at
the door, "she got away, which doesn't make me feel too good about life
right now.  Usually when people run away, they're running to something, and I'm
betting her destination involves dangerous things that could be used to make
our lives miserable.  Or short.  Or miserable AND short."

"That would not be
ideal," replied Killian.

I took Mortimer's hand and drug him
across the pool as far away from the vortex in the dressing room that I could
manage.  "We need to get Jackie, keep Mortimer safe, and destroy that
organ."

"Sounds like a typical day at
K&M Tracking."

"That's M&K
Tracking," I corrected.

"We shall discuss."

"How about whoever stakes the
woman in black gets to decide?"

Killian put out his hand. "You
have yourself a wager."