Transylvania's Most Wanted (30 page)

The
Dauntless
shook from the blast and
shockwave, but the explosion came from the ground just below them.
Titan had thrown the right bag out!

Red smiled then. Colonel Popov crossed the
room toward him. They shook hands as the ship’s captain put his gun
back in a drawer and pulled out a small bottle of vodka. He turned
his back to them while he took a quick drink. Rollo and Stone shook
hands even. Red went and hugged Miss Kensington. Count Vasili came
toward Tom, and Tom went to shake hands with him, but Count Vasili
embraced him instead. Colonel Popov and Tom smiled at one another
and shook hands then.

When Tom turned to look at Mr. Slang, he had
vanished.

“He’s gone,” Tom said. Tom rushed down the
stairs after him. Count Vasili was right behind him. They saw Mr.
Slang turn the corner at the end of the hallway headed downstairs.
Colonel Popov was just behind them and then Rollo. They spotted
drops of blood in the hallway. Tom was also bleeding, pressing his
hand against his rib cage, but he followed after Mr. Slang still.
They blood trail led into the cargo hold. Count Vasili was the
first to the door, but Mr. Slang had barred it shut with something,
it would not budge.

“Bust the door down,” Tom ordered Rollo.

Rollo kicked it with his foot and the door
broke off its hinges and shot across the cargo room floor. They
rushed in the room. The cargo hold door had been thrown open. A
rope was tied to the handle there. They looked down and saw Mr.
Slang sliding down the rope despite his wound. They were only
eighty feet in the air. Colonel Popov fired at him, but missed as
the rope swayed and dangled Mr. Slang in the air. Mr. Slang slid
all the way to the ground. They could no longer see him then as the
falling snow obscured their view behind the airship.

The End of one story and
the beginning of another

Queen Alexi was able to bring about the end
of the civil war dividing her country with the promise of reforms.
She rules now with the full support of all her subjects. It helps
that Count Vasili is her Counselor, Colonel Popov her Captain of
the Queen’s Guard and Titan as her personal bodyguard. Things look
promising.

Anna lives in the Royal Castle with her.
Marko accepted a position as Ambassador for the U.R.R.K. and seems
more than content to let his cousin rule.

Stone returned to Transylvania City and was
granted amnesty for all his previous crimes. Presently he is
training boxers at Dempsey’s Gym. Havel is locked away in the
King’s Tower, nobody visits him much, not even his wife. Dino was
sentenced to twenty years in the dungeons of the castle. He claims
he was under Esmeralda’s spell, but no one believes that. She is
locked up near him if they want to talk about it.

Krakov was sentenced to ten years
imprisonment in the U.R.R.K. but his wife and son are allowed to
visit him regularly and someday he will be a free man once again in
his homeland. He’s promised to change his ways.

What vampires and goblins that wished to
return to the U.R.R.K. were allowed to do so. A number of them did,
but Fixx was not one of them. He was enjoying his celebrity status
too much.

Mr. Slang was never found, but there are
rumors he was seen here or there.

Of course Tom did not quit the TCPD since
Red never had endangered Rebecca’s life, but he may have considered
it if he’d known what was going to happen after he got back.

He got a call from Detective Rohev with the
Vampire Force asking if Tom would meet him. So Tom met him at the
hotel bar inside the Fountain Hotel and after Tom told him about
his trip across the pole, Rohev laughed, but then said that was not
the reason he had got in touch with him. Detective Rohev had
discovered something in the woods of Draculia and he asked Tom for
his help with it.

“I’m afraid something very vile has
happened,” he said. “My life is in danger. As will be yours if you
choose to help me, but there is no one I can trust inside my own
department.”

Tom considered walking away, but that was
not why he had become a policeman. He told Rohev he would help
him.