Transylvania's Most Wanted (26 page)

“Dante and Figaro will be here soon.
Unfortunately I had to jump out the zeppelin before I’d originally
meant to. So that Stone could drop you near this river.”

“Are you out of your freezing head? What are
you talking about? Who are Dante and Figaro?”

“My cousins,” Count Vasili said standing up.
“I sent them a cable to meet me here,” he said helping Tom to his
feet. “Here they come now,” he said pointing.

Tom looked. Off a ways he could see
something black coming toward them. It was a sled, a large one,
pulled by four horses. Count Vasili waved toward there. Tom would
have too, if he’d been able to lift his arm, but it was completely
numb.

“Our job is nearly done
now,” Count Vasili said knocking small blocks of ice off Tom’s
shoulders and out of his hair as Tom rose to a sitting position.
“Other than having to over-run the defenses at the Vladivostok
Station and take control of the
Dauntless
, there is little else that
needs be done.”

“You and Red set this up?”

“Yes.”

“You knew they’d give me the truth serum,
didn’t you?”

“We figured they would want to know what you
knew.”

“What about the bomb on
the
Tempest
?”

“Already been taken care of,” Count Vasili
said helping Tom to his feet. “Mr. Slang tried to smuggle it aboard
using Krakov’s casket, but Inspector Meriwether removed it before
you two delivered it.”

“How’d he know it was in there?”

“Krakov is not dead,”
Count Vasili told him. “He pointed Mr. Slang out at the courtroom
and some of your fellow detectives followed him everywhere he went
up to the time he placed the bomb at the Hotel Triumph. Inspector
Meriwether knew there had to be a second bomb though, because we
knew Mr. Slang’s true target was the princess, and in order to kill
her he would have to place a bomb on the
Tempest
somehow. When he learned
that Krakov’s body was to be returned to the U.R.R.K. he figured he
knew how Mr. Slang would accomplish this. He wanted to make sure
though, so he had Rebecca follow him from the Hotel Triumph,
thinking Mr. Slang would not expect a young woman to be following
him. Sure enough she followed him to the Sokoloff Funeral Home
where Krakov’s body lay. Mr. Slang spotted Rebecca though after he
left the bomb there, but Red knew he would not hurt her and instead
would use her as bait to bring you onto the
Dauntless
without any trouble. We
figured they would administer the truth serum to you to find out if
we knew about the second bomb.”

“That’s why Red didn’t tell me
anything.”

“Exactly,” he said as the sled with Dante
and Figaro reached them.

Dante approached Count Vasili with a pair of
bolt cutters and freed Count Vasili from his handcuffs and then
they embraced. They spoke in Russian and then Dante helped Tom into
the sled as Figaro and Count Vasili hugged one another. Dante
placed a heavy coat over Tom and stuck one of those Russian hats
with the fur lining on top his head. Then Count Vasili climbed in
next to him.

“We do have another surprise or two in store
for you, but you’ll just have to wait a while yet,” he told Tom as
Tom began to warm up to him.

Chapter
53

As they rushed toward the
Vladivostok Station, Count Vasili explained how Red had set Stone
up to be a double agent. How Rollo was the cab driver who had
driven them to the
Dauntless
and was hidden on board now. Another golem, part
of the crew bringing Vamp’s onto the
Dauntless
, had placed a yellow cap
on his head and pretended to be the cab driver headed back to his
cab.

Rollo, hidden on board, had sabotaged the
rudder cable so the zeppelin could not regain lift after coming
across the pole and had caused the alarms to go off so Mr. Slang
would rush out the cargo hold, leaving Tom in Stone’s hands.

As Tom sipped from a warm bowl of soup,
Count Vasili went on; telling him Stone’s job was to drop him near
the river, not in it, and how this whole complicated mess had begun
twenty two years ago when King Nikola called his two sons, as well
as his trusted advisor, Count Voorhees, to his deathbed. A Mr.
Jordan was present also.

King Nikola decreed then that Yuri would
succeed him as king. He signed the document stating so and sealed
it with his ring. The document was handed over to Count Voorhees
for safe keeping until it could be announced throughout the
kingdom.

Prince Havel knelt, kissed his brother’s
hand and promised his everlasting loyalty. That very night, King
Nikola died.

The following day, as the King’s Guard
searched throughout the Royal City for Count Voorhees in the hours
after Prince Yuri’s murder - a cloaked messenger came and bid Count
Vasili follow him. Count Vasili was led down into the city’s
underground storm tunnels to meet with his father.There Count
Voorhees told his son what really had happened.

Headed for Prince Yuri’s room to tell him
that King Nikola had died, Count Voorhees came upon Prince Havel
stabbing his brother in the back. Count Voorhees ran to the aid of
Prince Yuri and fought with Prince Havel, managing to disarm him of
the knife he’d used to murder his brother, but then several
soldiers arrived and Prince Havel shouted that Count Voorhees had
murdered Prince Yuri. Count Voorhees knew he looked guilty holding
the knife, and he tried to explain, but the captain of the guard
went to slash him with his sword and Count Voorhees fled through a
secret panel.

He fled to Anna’s room and told her what had
happened, warning her that her life was in danger now, as well as
the life of the child she carried inside her. Since that child
inherited the right to rule the kingdom that Prince Havel so
desperately wanted for himself.

As Count Voorhees talked with Anna, from
down the hall, came the screams of Diana, who was going into labor.
Count Voorhees fled then.

Anna went to check on Diana, learned she had
passed out, and helped the midwife deliver her child. The child did
not live.

“They will blame me,” the midwife claimed.
“At the very least my family will be banished. I may even be
beheaded.”

“No,” Anna said lying down on the bed. “I
know what must be done now. I will cast a spell over myself that
will cause me to go into labor this night. Lock the door,” she
instructed the midwife, but before the midwife did, there came a
knock upon the door. The midwife opened the door and there stood
Mr. Jordan. Mr. Jordan explained that Count Voorhees had come to
him and asked that he go and meet with Anna. Thus, an hour later,
when Anna gave birth to a daughter, Mr. Jordan was witness. When
the midwife went to hand the child to her, Anna refused.

“Wake Diana,” Anna said. “Tell her she has
given birth to a beautiful child.” Anna, with Mr. Jordan helping
her, crossed the room and picked up the body of the other child
born that night.

“I will take this child to my room. In a few
hours I will give birth, but my child will not live. Do you
understand?” Anna asked the midwife.

“Yes. I’ll do as you wish.”

“
Someday, not for many
years, the truth of what happened here tonight will be made known,”
Anna told Mr. Jordan.

Mr. Jordan promised Anna then that he would
do what he could to help her.

“
So Pandora has possession
of the document restoring Prince Yuri’s right to follow King Nikola
as king?” Tom asked when Count Vasili was done telling the
story.

“Yes,” Count Vasili said. “She kept it safe
in the Mouth of Hell cave.”

“You knew all this?”

“Not until this morning.”

“Who told you?”

“Anna told Inspector Meriwether just this
morning,” Count Vasili said.

“He met with her?”

“Yes,” he said. “My father did not know
about Princess Alexi and he did not tell me about the decree - just
in case I was questioned about it.”

“Where is it now?”

“She delivered it to Mr. Jordan.”

“We are all set then?” Tom asked.

“We just have to take
control of the
Dauntless
.”

Count Vasili leaned in closer then. “The
messenger that night that had led me to my father was Mr. Jordan.
There was nothing he could do to make things right. It was
forbidden for a member of the Administration to interfere in the
affairs of the king. My father was soon captured but he would not
reveal to Havel what had happened to the decree King Nikola had
signed. Havel didn’t think it mattered then anyway. He did not know
then that Princess Alexi was not his child.”

Count Vasili went on then, telling Tom how
Mr. Jordan suggested Anna be sent to Transylvania City to live
among her own kind, but really he knew she would never be safe as
long as Havel was king.

The black horses dashed
across the snow-covered tundra at a furious pace and then they came
to a small village. A fresh set of horses awaited them, and they
were quickly hitched to the sled and then they took off again.
Count Vasili told Tom they needed to change horses several times,
and each time the men or vampires, a goblin even, who had brought
the horses there, joined their group. Count Vasili said they needed
to beat the
Dauntless
to Vladivostok and he had, using coded messages sent by way
of transrealm cable, arranged all this ahead of time.

Chapter 54

A few minutes before 2 o’clock, Mr. Slang
knocked on the door of the king’s suite of rooms. Dino opened it
and he went in. Esmeralda was there and then King Havel stepped
into the room.

They looked out the window
toward the
Tempest
flying a mile ahead of them. Mr. Slang looked at his watch.
It was a minute until 2.

“I sent a cable from Londonium using Count
Vasili’s name and account,” Mr. Slang told the king. “It’s in the
same code he’s been using.”

“What’s its say?”

“It’s from him to the
president of the United Vampire Association of the U.R.R.K., the
coded part reads. ‘I have chosen course of action certain to cause
great deal of chaos. Look for event aboard
Tempest’s
return home.’”

“Wait until we show that cable to the
papers,” King Havel said gleefully.

“Here we go,” Mr. Slang
said looking at his watch, “3..2..1,” he counted down as he looked
out the window toward the
Tempest
expecting a great ball of fire to appear in the
sky.

Nothing happened.

King Havel looked at Mr. Slang.

Mr. Slang looked at his
watch and then toward the
Tempest
again. “How did they…,” Mr. Slang said confused.
He looked at Dino then. “Bring me Inspector Meriwether. Make sure
you take his gun from him. And that woman too,” he said. “Take
Trunk with you and search his luggage. Don’t let Colonel Popov see
you dragging either of them up here. Don’t worry,” Mr. Slang said
turning to King Havel then. “This isn’t over.”

Dino shoved Inspector Meriwether into a
chair as he handed Mr. Slang Inspector Meriwether’s gun and then a
clock with sixteen sticks of dynamite strapped to it. “I found that
in his suitcase,” Dino told Mr. Slang.

When Dino let go of Inspector Flynn’s wife,
she went and sat next to Inspector Meriwether as Mr. Slang grinned
at both of them.

“How’d you know?” he asked Inspector
Meriwether.

“
I knew Prince Marko was
not your target. I knew you had taken a second clock from the shop
there in Transylvania City. I knew you’d find a way to place a bomb
on board
the Tempest
.”

“How you’d know about the second clock?”

“The shopkeeper called me
and reported one was stolen. Thought I’d like to know. It just made
sense you’d want to smuggle a bomb aboard
the Tempest
.”

“You never had any
intention of stopping Anna from hi-jacking the
Tempest
did you?”

“None at all.”

“How did you know that I knew I was being
followed?”

“Since Princess Alexi was your target all
along, you had no reason to leave a bomb at the Hotel Triumph. When
you did, I figured you must have spotted my men following you.”

“I knew they were following me from the
start.”

“How?”

“The last five words Krakov spoke were not –
‘I’m working for Count Vasili’,” Mr. Slang explained. “Although
that caused quite a stir inside the courtroom,” he said nodding his
approval.

“Thank you,” Inspector Meriwether said, “but
Krakov was certain those were his last five words.”

“He must have forgot that he hailed a cab to
take him up to the Triumph. I saw him telling the driver to take
him there.”

“Oh,” Red said. “He must have figured you
would not have known that.”

“And you had her follow me from the
Triumph,” Mr. Slang said pointing at Inspector Flynn’s wife.

“Yes.”

“You wanted me to see her heading for the
call box.”

“Not necessarily,” Inspector Meriwether
said. “But if you did spot her, I figured you’d stop her from
calling me and that way you’d think you’d succeeded in planting the
second bomb without the TCPD’s knowledge.”

“Took a bit of risk there, didn’t you? I was
ready to cut her throat and hide her body somewhere.”

“I was counting on you turning it to your
advantage when you saw it was Inspector Flynn’s wife.”