The Adventures of Lazarus Gray (28 page)

"You must be joking,"
Walther muttered, turning to look at Mobius. "You’re going to pay
good money to… that
thing
?"

"I’m surprised at you,"
Mobius replied. "You’ve seen demons that slithered up from the
shadows and you’re that disturbed by The Claw? I think you owe him
an apology. I won’t abide rudeness."

Walther started at Mobius
with barely disguised loathing. Mobius had personally choked the
life from children and now he was protesting a bit of rudeness? It
was enough to drive Walther to near madness. Even so, he knew his
place and didn’t want to risk himself any further than he already
had. With forced kindness, he addressed The Claw, trying to ignore
the look of smug satisfaction on the hideous creature’s face. "I
hope that I didn’t offend you. It wasn’t my intent. I merely meant
that we have so many resources of our own that it troubles me to go
to an outsider."

When The Claw spoke, his
voice was strangely high-pitched and disconcerting. "I know exactly
what you meant, Mr. Lunt. You think me nothing more than a monster,
capable of scaring children with the way I look. But I’m far more
than that. Catch me when the moon is right and I’m capable of
things that would boggle your mind."

Walther could no longer
hide his disdain. It bubbled forth in the words, "I highly doubt
that. Perhaps you have no idea who you’re dealing with."

The Claw took several steps
toward Walther and with each step he grew in height. By the time he
reached the German, he was well over twelve feet tall, his head
scraping against the ceiling. He looked down at a shaken Walther
and grinned, baring all his fangs. "Have you ever seen anything
like me?" he asked.

Walther swallowed and
managed to find his voice. "No. I have to admit… I
haven’t."

The Claw’s form seemed to
shimmer as he once more assumed his normal size. He turned to
Mobius, dismissing Walther as no longer a concern. "I will kill
this Lazarus Gray but I want assurances that my payment will be
delivered on time."

Mobius nodded. "Thirteen
virgin girls, all aged 12 to 17, just as you requested. We’ll make
sure their ethnicities are mixed, as per your requirements. We’ll
deliver them to Ricca within six hours of Gray’s confirmed
death."

The Claw’s tongue flicked
out like a snake’s, brushing across the tips of his teeth. "Then I
will make arrangements to travel to Sovereign City. Do you have any
problem with me causing massive destruction in the pursuit of my
goal?"

Mobius laughed. "Burn the
city to the ground if it suits you."

While Mobius and The Claw
bargained, Walther caught Miya’s eye. Though the two of them had no
real love lost between them, both were thoroughly disgusted by The
Claw. Still, while Miya had feelings for their enemy, Walther did
not. If The Claw were able to rid them of Gray, then Walther would
deem all this as worthwhile.

***

Mr. Dinkins studied the
entrails spread out on the table before him, a pensive expression
on his face. He ignored the steady back-and-forth pacing of Muggsy
behind him, focusing all of his attention on understanding the
future laid out in front of him. He saw signs that indicated that
he’d finally find Monique… but there were other figures present as
well, and Dinkins couldn’t be sure who they were. He hoped that it
wasn’t Lazarus Gray and his aides. It had been a terrible mistake
to approach Morgan Watts but, as he’d said, he’d heard much about
the man’s employer and thought he might be a kindred spirit.
Everyone else in Sovereign was corrupt so why not Gray?
Unfortunately, that hadn’t proven to be the case.

Dinkins straightened up and
rubbed his eyes. His chest ached where she’d stolen his heart and
he’d found that his magical means for staying alive were beginning
to take their toll. He looked around the shabby hotel room in which
they were staying and felt a sudden yearning for New Orleans. "I’m
going to die here," he said aloud and the words surprised him, for
he hadn’t realized he was going to say them.

The Axeman shifted,
studying him from behind his mask.

Dinkins waved a hand at
him. "Ignore me. I’m just thinking out loud."

The room’s telephone rang
and Dinkins crossed the floor to pluck it up with slender fingers.
"Yes?"

The hotel clerk came on
briefly, letting him know that he was connecting an outside call.
After a brief pause, the voice of Monique came through the line,
surprising Dinkins. "I want to see you," she said
breathlessly.

"You’ve led us on a merry
little chase," Dinkins answered. "I thought Muggsy was going to
have to carve up most of the city’s young girls before we found
you."

"I know. I saw the papers.
Listen, I’m sorry about what happened. I thought I could get by
without you, but I don’t know enough to really use your heart. I’m
willing to submit to you in any way you want if you’ll just take me
back."

Dinkins was glad she
couldn’t see his face because he knew his expression was an ugly
one. "Why would I take you back and train you any more? You’d just
turn on me again later on."

"I wouldn’t! I swear! I’ve
learned my lesson."

"This wouldn’t be a trap,
would it?"

Monique paused. When she
continued, her voice had taken on a chastened tone. "I deserve
that. I tried to kill you after you’d done so much for me. I was a
bitch for that and you’d be right to hate me forever. But I think
we were good together before that… and I know what you like. I can
do those things for you again."

Dinkins felt some of his
anger subside. He didn’t want to admit it but his desire for her
body made him a very weak man. It had led him to lower his
defenses, allowing her to strike at him in the first place. Even
now, when he’d sought her punishment for so long, he couldn’t stop
thinking of the things he could now demand of her… all the
depravities he could imagine could be his. She could refuse him
nothing!

Monique seemed to sense
that his silence meant that he was considering her offer. "Could we
get together tonight? I could show you how obedient I can
be."

Dinkins exhaled, feeling
tightness in his chest. "Where?"

Monique gave him the
address to a hotel located on the outskirts of the harbor region.
Dinkins scribbled it down on a piece of paper, his hand shaking
with lust. "Don’t disappoint me," he warned.

"I won’t, my love. Never
again." Monique hung up the phone, leaving Dinkins with a hungry
smile on his face.

***

Eun tried to keep from
pacing but it was difficult. He was a young man of boundless energy
and it was sometimes hard to channel all of that into being
stealthy. It simply wasn’t his nature. He was crouched on the
rooftop of the Reich Hotel, a German-owned establishment that
catered to sailors and sea captains.

Christopher Reich was the
man behind the hotel and he was an ardent admirer of Lazarus Gray.
Reich had run afoul of a blackmail scheme a few months back and
Assistance Unlimited had managed to capture the villains behind it
all, earning Reich’s eternal trust. The blackmail had been linked
to Reich’s sexual tastes, which ran toward athletically built young
men. The entire incident had been somewhat embarrassing for Eun,
since it skirted very close to his own-closeted secret.

When he’d first joined
Assistance Unlimited, Eun had gone carousing with Morgan in an
attempt at bonding. It had gone well enough and Eun had even forced
himself to engage in some harmless flirting with Samantha… but he
still suspected that the others knew that he was a homosexual. If
they did, they weren’t ones to let it affect how they viewed him
and he respected that. Eun hadn’t told his parents before they’d
died, knowing how they would have reacted. It was the way most
people in the world would have, with disgust and worry. But Eun
couldn’t change who he was… and truth be told, he didn’t want to.
He’d been quietly dating a dockworker named Edward Lee for about
six weeks now and they were very happy together. Combine that with
the pleasure he derived from working with Assistance Unlimited and
Eun was relatively happy, despite the anger that often drove him to
acts of impetuousness. Even so, it was hard sometimes, facing
prejudice both because of his race and his sexual
orientation.

A yellow cab that pulled up
in the front of the hotel drew Eun’s attention. He leaned over the
rooftop’s edge, pulling out a small spyglass that allowed him to
study the two men who emerged from the rear of the vehicle. One of
them was a Negro dressed in ratty clothes and a top hat, matching
the description given by both Monique and Morgan, who had finally
awakened just before being taken to the hospital. The other fellow
was a monstrous brute who wore a mask to cover his face. The big
man held an axe in his left hand and even without the spyglass, Eun
would have recognized the gore that caked the blade.

Turning quickly away from
the rooftop’s edge, Eun sprinted back inside the building. He
entered the hotel room they’d set aside for their trap, only
slightly out of breath thanks to his incredible physical
conditioning. "They’re on the way up. The Axeman has his blade with
him."

Samantha and Lazarus were
the only ones in the room. Monique and her Slasher were both being
held in containment cells back at headquarters, though Eun wasn’t
sure what would happen to them later. So far, neither of them had
committed any kind of crime that would hold up in court: It was
true that Monique had attacked the man who had become her Slasher
but the sheer weirdness of the crime would confuse most
judges.

Samantha, dressed in
jodhpurs and a cream-colored blouse, looked at Lazarus with
surprise on her pretty face. "I can’t believe he’s just carrying
his weapon like that."

Gray nodded. "It’s a good
thing we evacuated the hotel. Reich is manning the front desk and
will be the only person who has to see them before they make it up
here."

"Should I go downstairs and
make sure he’s okay?" Eun asked.

"No. I installed a panic
button behind the clerk’s counter. At the first sign of danger,
Reich can summon us. He’s quick enough on his feet to be able to
make it to the office behind him and lock the door if he needs
to."

Eun nodded and moved to
take his spot behind the door. The plan was simple: lure Dinkins
and Muggsy into the room and then take them down. The Assistance
Unlimited crew had them outnumbered three to two and all three of
them were well trained in personal combat. Gray and Samantha also
had pistols on them but the hope was to avoid a firefight in these
close quarters.

Heavy footsteps in the hall
made them all tense and Samantha moved to take up a position in the
small doorway that led into the washroom. Gray remained where he
was, in plain view of anyone who entered the room. The first to do
so was The Axeman, who stopped in confusion at the sight of someone
besides Monique. Eun reached out and gave the big man a hearty
shove, pushing him further into the room. He then spun into the
hallway, where he came face to face with Dinkins. A hard punch to
the old man’s throat sent him to his knees and Eun finished him off
with a hard driven knee to the forehead.

Muggsy, however, was not
going to be so easily beaten. He raised his axe and swung it at
Gray’s head. The team’s leader ducked under the blade even as
Samantha moved from her hiding place. She expertly swung one of her
long legs between The Axeman’s and, by timing her motion with the
big man’s lumbering, caused him to lose his balance. He crashed
down atop a small table, shattering it.

Gray drove the heel of his
shoe against the back of The Axeman’s head but Muggsy managed to
swing his axe out and the blade caught the back of Gray’s leg,
drawing blood.

"Chief!" Samantha cried out
as a small river of red flowed out from her employer’s
pants.

"I’m fine," Gray answered,
moving away from the axe-wielding brute. Gray knew that Muggsy was
more resistant to pain in his current state and that there was no
way to undo the mental and physical damages that had been done to
him. Gray waited until The Axeman was facing him, the killer’s back
toward the large window that overlooked the harbor. Gray lowered
his shoulder and sprinted toward the big man, ignoring both Eun and
Samantha, who uttered expressions of disbelief. Lazarus barreled
into The Axeman and grunted in pain. It felt like slamming into a
tree trunk. Still, his momentum was enough to force the big man
backward and they slammed into the window, which shattered under
their combined weight. The two men toppled out of the fifth story
room, vanishing from the sight of Gray’s employees.

Eun jumped over the
shattered table and arrived at the windowsill a millisecond before
Samantha. Their shoes crunched on broken glass and Eun leaned out
of the window, heart thudding at the possibility of seeing Lazarus
broken and dead on the ground below. To his tremendous relief, that
wasn’t what he laid eyes on.

The Axeman lay shattered
and broken on the city street but Gray himself was hanging for dear
life onto a large flag pole that jutted out from the hotel’s
façade.