The Peregrine Omnibus, Volume Two (108 page)

Käthe reached down and unsnapped the holster at her hip. She drew out her own Mauser and took careful aim at Evelyn. The masked woman was standing up now and had turned to face Käthe. The rifle was pointed at the ground but Käthe knew it could be directed upwards very quickly.

“Step away from him,” Evelyn said. “Or you’re going to join your friends.”

“There is no negotiation,” Käthe said, tears stinging her eyes. She fired twice, the bullets slamming into Evelyn’s chest. Evelyn swayed on her feet for a moment before landing beside Imelda.

“You bitch,” The Peregrine said, suddenly yanking on the whip himself. Käthe’s grip on it had loosed as he dealt with Evelyn, allowing Max to both regain his breath and take control of the situation. Käthe landed on her rump beside him and Max threw both hands around her head. He was surprised that she didn’t struggle in the end. It was as if she knew what was coming and accepted it. The only words she said were “I loved him,” and then she was dead, her life ended as The Peregrine twisted her head with incredible strength.

The Peregrine sagged back and then forced himself to his feet. He felt dizzy, both from the loss of blood and from the multiple blows he’d taken to the head. He crouched beside Evelyn and nudged her. “You okay?” he asked.

Evelyn sat up, looking surprisingly well for having taken two bullets. She pulled open her shirt, revealing the padding she wore beneath. The slugs were there, embedded in the fabric. “You’re a genius, Max. I just wish my gloves offered the same protection.” She held up a blood hand and winced in pain. “Feels horrible.”

“Looks just as bad,” Max deadpanned.

“Oh my god,” Evelyn said. “Look.”

Max turned and saw something straight from his nightmares: A powerful beam of solar energy was headed towards Washington, D.C. It was the scene he’d witnessed before and he’d failed to stop it. Sun Koh was about to rain death down upon the nation’s capital.

* * *

The Man of Destiny knew that his Furies were dying but he could not save them. He had to put his priorities in order and the most important thing—the thing he had promised his beloved he would do—was to drive a stake through the heart of The Allies.

As soon as he’d witnessed the detonation in the air, he’d known what was going to happen. Talented young Elsa Mayen was dead and The Furies would have to delay The Peregrine so that Sun Koh could begin the final phase of his plan. Ever since Käthe had told Sun Koh that the American vigilante was searching for him, the Heir to Atlantis had begun studying all that he could find on The Peregrine. He had tapped the minds of all three of The Furies, plus Grin, and had pieced together what he believed was an accurate portrayal of his enemy. Like himself, The Peregrine was a master of multiple disciplines, foremost amongst them being all manner of hand-to-hand combat and mechanical engineering. He believed that The Peregrine was, in so many ways, his opposite number… it would be fitting that such a man would rise up now, when Sun Koh’s victory was so close at hand. Sun firmly believed that a man could be judged not just by the quality of his friends but also by the skills of his enemies. Great men eventually found great opponents for it was in the defeating of such foes that true growth was attained.

And so Sun had asked Käthe and the others to deal with The Peregrine. They had seemed excited by the task and he knew that all three considered the fact that The Peregrine was still alive as a personal slight to their prowess. Perhaps, he mused, they would find a way to defeat him. They had, after all, captured The Peregrine once before… but somehow, Sun didn’t believe that likely. Götterdämmerung had come and there was no turning back—The Peregrine would know this and would come fully prepared to fight his way to Sun Koh.

The Solar Cannon had fired its first deadly burst into the air and Sun Koh had felt a sense of great elation. The Peregrine was going to be too late… Washington was going to burn. Even if The Peregrine had somehow managed to warn the residents of the great city—and that seemed very likely, since The Peregrine had inexplicably managed to trace them to this location—there would be no time for everyone to be evacuated. Thousands were going to die and The White House would smolder in ruins.

After Sun Koh had attacked the cannon to the amplification device, he threw the switch that caused it to hum to life. The Solar Cannon’s ray then shot high into the air, ionizing the upper atmosphere until a solid sheet of white light came crashing back down. It tore into Pennsylvania Avenue, ripping up asphalt and steel, destroying cars that had been left behind on the city streets and eradicating fences and yards. Benson had been good to his word about rushing people away from the major tourist spots. Right now, men, women and children were huddled together in various shelters, having been told of a possible Fifth Columnist attack on the heart of Washington, D.C. Not everyone had been pushed to the shelters and the screams of the dying could be heard, even over the crashing din of the solar attack.

Sun Koh made sure that the Solar Cannon was locked in place and he pushed hard on a switch that would ensure that it continued to fire even though no one was directing it. He stepped back from the Solar Cannon and flexed his mighty muscles, rolling his head around in a circle. “They were good women,” he said aloud, speaking in fluent English. “When the war was over, I would have found them good men for breeding purposes… if I had not chosen that honor for myself. Even the Oriental and the Gypsy could have added strong bodies to the Aryan cause. I shall make sure that they are never forgotten.”

The Peregrine stood nearby, a pistol in each hand. “Turn off that machine. Now.”

Sun turned to face The Peregrine, a coolly confident smile on his lips. “No. I shall not do that.”

The Peregrine pointed both guns at the Solar Cannon and fired. The explosive shells ricocheted off the Cannon, flying in all directions. Sparks flew wherever they touched the weapon but aside from a few scratches, they did nothing to damage the machine.

“Did you really think I’d build an inferior device? There is only way to stop the Solar Cannon.” He gestured towards the controls located at the back of the unit. “You have to go through me.”

The Peregrine pointed the smoking barrels of his guns at Sun Koh. “Then that’s what I’ll do.”

“You won’t shoot me.”

“What makes you think that?” The Peregrine asked, cocking both pistols.

“Because both you and I need to settle this. We need to know who is truly the stronger and more deadly.”

“I’m not going to let people die while we thump our chests. Turn off the Solar Cannon or I’ll see if you’re as bulletproof as that weapon of yours.”

Sun Koh’s smile faltered a tiny bit and he shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps I misjudged you. I think you mean what you say… but something has kept you from shooting me, so I think my words have some truth to them.” Koh reached over and turned off the Solar Cannon, stopping the deadly beam that had destroyed nearly half a city block, reducing it to rubble. “I will reactivate it once you are dead,” the Aryan superman declared.

The Peregrine lowered his guns and holstered them, quickly discarding the long coat he usually wore. This left him in his shirt, tie and slacks. He pulled off the gloves that covered each hand and tossed them to the ground. He would have kept his promise, shooting Sun Koh in cold blood if he’d had to. But he was glad it had gone this way… just as Sun had said, there was a part of him that relished this.

The Peregrine had faced “opposite numbers” before but never quite like this. Even though The Warlike Manchu had found a man whose back-story mirrored Max’s own and had trained him to be the murderous Shinigami, The Peregrine had never truly felt that he’d encountered his true reflection. And The Warlike Manchu deserved a special sort of hate on Max’s part… but they were as different as they were alike.

But Sun Koh… as his father had pointed out, there was something deeper at work here. It was truly the clash not just of two men but also of two ideologies: the power of the self-made man versus the theory of eugenics. Which was, in the end, the correct path to follow?

“No weapons,” Sun Koh said, reaching behind his back to retrieve a dagger he’d kept in the waistband of his pants. He held up the blade and then flung it aside. The Peregrine nodded and undid the set of holsters that held his guns. They, along with The Knife of Elohim, were set in the grass.

“One of us is going to die,” The Peregrine said. “Are you sure you don’t want to rethink this? You’re brilliant… there’s so much we could accomplish together. We could end this war and find a way to build a lasting peace.”

“You’re to be commended for making me such an offer… but you know as well as I that alliance between us would be doomed from the start. We are fundamentally different and there is no enduring union that can be forged. Let us dispense with falsehoods. You and I both know that we have waited for this from the moment we heard of the other. You have chased me halfway round this globe. And now we shall see who is the greater man.”

The Peregrine sighed, dropping into a fighting stance. Sun Koh mimicked the pose exactly and both men gave the other a silent nod, reflecting that they appreciated the skill and grace the other possessed. Then, without preamble, they rushed towards one another. Birds took off from nearby trees and the ground itself seemed to shake. Two of the deadliest men ever birthed in this or any other world were now locked in mortal combat.

The Peregrine caught Sun on the side of the head with an open-fist blow and almost simultaneously the Aryan jammed an elbow into The Peregrine’s ribcage. Both men were silent as they exchanged more blows: The Peregrine ran a fist under Sun’s chin and followed with backhand that sent spittle and a bit of blood spraying from the Atlantean’s mouth. Sun was just as precise with his own attacks: he hit The Peregrine with the strongest blow to the midsection that The Peregrine had ever felt, making Max wonder for several breathless seconds if the force of the impact had actually stopped his heart. Then the blood began flowing again, pounding in his ears. Sun had also kicked with the heel of his boot, catching The Peregrine in the left knee, causing it to buckle long enough for Sun to shove The Peregrine onto his back. The advantage was short-lived, however, as The Peregrine managed to spring back up with a gymnastic move that would have wowed any Olympic judge in history.

The Peregrine then barely ducked out of the way of another powerful roundhouse from Sun Koh and he reached up to grab the slightly larger man’s arm. He used Sun’s own momentum to carry him forward, flipping him hard to the ground. The vigilante then slammed his foot down, hoping to crush Koh’s windpipe. But the Atlantean threw up his hands in time, catching The Peregrine’s foot and giving it a terrible twist. The snapping of bone echoed in the clearing and The Peregrine cried out for the first time since the battle had begun. He pulled free of Koh’s grip but found piercing pain shooting through his entire leg whenever he tried to put weight on it. Sun rose almost leisurely, well aware of how badly hurt his enemy was now.

“Do you wish to yield? I will make your death quick and painless if you do.”

The Peregrine resisted the urge to spit in the other man’s face. “I thought we were dropping the lies,” Max responded. “If I did give up, you’d make an example out of me… my death would be something the Nazis back home would be talking about for years.”

Sun nodded, spreading his hands out wide in an apologetic gesture. “You are right, my friend. I suppose I felt obligated to play the part. Still,” he said, gesturing to The Peregrine’s injured foot. “You are no match for me now.”

“Even with one leg, I can still beat you.”

Sun appeared impressed by The Peregrine’s resolve. “I would expect nothing less of you,” he said with obvious respect. “Even though you were on the wrong side, we will remember your name in the days to come, as well. You are a symbol of our ultimate nemesis.”

The Peregrine gritted his teeth as Sun Koh came at him again, moving so fast that he seemed almost a blur. The Peregrine managed to block a blow to his head but quickly realized his error: the headshot was simply meant to disguise Sun’s true intent. Even as The Peregrine threw his arms up in protection, Sun was whipping his leg behind his foe’s, taking him off his feet. Max landed hard on his side and he was grateful that his injured ankle ended up on top of the other foot and not the other way around.

Sun threw himself towards The Peregrine, slamming his knee into The Peregrine’s ankle. The pain that shot through Max’s body was enough to cause him to temporarily black out. Even though it only lasted a few seconds, it was enough to put him into dire straits. When he was regained his focus, he saw that Sun was now crouching on his chest, knees holding his shoulders to the ground. Sun reached out and gripped the sides of The Peregrine’s head. Max had a sudden vision of Käthe’s final moment, when her own neck had been snapped.

“She said she loved you,” The Peregrine blurted out.

Sun paused. “What are you saying?”

Max kept his eyes fixed on Sun Koh’s face but was sure that he recognized where he’d landed. He couldn’t risk looking to make sure but if he was right, he might have found his salvation. “The blonde. The German. She said she loved you right before she died.”