Justice, Unfinished Business, To Help - Dizzy Dolphin
Started as a short Halloween story, then
just kept going.
Warning for
violence and some gore, but neither excessively described.
“What do you mean you need to borrow Captain
Crane? Why him? You have lots of full-time agents, use one of
them.” Admiral Nelson bellowed over the vid
phone at Admiral Jones of ONI.
Jones sighed to himself, ever since a rather explosive
meeting with Nelson awhile back, he’d tried to stay
away from using Crane. He didn’t need
another broken nose.1
“Look Nelson, you know ONI has the authority to use
Crane, it was part of the deal when the Navy released him to you. He doesn’t object to taking assignments for
us. I’m just honouring your request that
I tell you first. I don’t understand why
we have to go through this conversation every damn time!”
“We go through it every damn time because when I get
my Captain back it’s usually 2 weeks to 2 months before he’s healed up enough
to resume duties here. Hell it can be
that long before you even find him after you’ve sent him out,” Nelson fumed at
Jones.
“This isn’t one of those types of missions, and we do
not lose him nor are we responsible for the fact that he occasionally gets in
the way of bullets, knives or bombs. It’s
uncanny the way he can ferret out the ‘hot spots’ and get inside of them. The places he’s been and the things he’s
done, it’s amazing that he’s still alive.”
In retrospect Jones realized that was probably not the
best comment to have made.
“And I intend to keep him alive, Jones, despite you
and frequently him. If you want my
Captain I need a whole lot more information about the mission to judge it’s danger level to him.”
“You don’t get to judge anything. If you aren’t using him he’s ours for the
asking. Like I said before, this is a
courtesy call, not a ‘mother may I’.”
“Well he’s busy here, I am ‘using him’, as you put
it.”
“Bullshit Nelson.
Seaview isn’t going out again
for a month, there’s no reason we can’t have Crane.”
“He has other duties here at the Institute when Seaview is docked.”
“Yes, I know.
Someone else can push the paper around his desk for him, this is more
important.”
Nelson glared at the screen, he had a feeling he
wasn’t going to win this one.
*****
Chip sat on the edge of Lee’s bunk on the Vanora2, and watched him
stuff various items into a duffel bag.
He took some comfort in the fact that he didn’t see Lee’s black ops
clothes going in.
Lee had been trying to reassure him that there wasn’t
anything to worry about this time. Not that he doesn’t tell me
that every time.
“A simple meet and greet, Chip. Honest.
No flying bullets, knives or bombs, nothing to worry about.”
“You’ll manage to dig up some sort of trouble to get
yourself into, you always do.”
Lee sighed.
“Look, only normal clothes, not even packing a weapon. ‘Piece of cake’
assignment.”
“They don’t send a top agent out for ‘cake’. If you aren’t taking a weapon that just means
that it’s been arranged to stock you up wherever you’re headed.”
Lee couldn’t very well deny that, he knew there would
be a Glock waiting for him, or possibly a Walther PPK/E. Even though either of the handguns were relatively
easy to conceal it could be quite awkward if he had to try to explain having a
gun to airport or border security.
While tucking the last item into his bag he paused and
looked over rather speculatively at Chip.
“What? Why are
you looking at me that way?”
Hmm, it is an easy assignment;
I am allowed some discretion as to how I want to handle it. Could really piss off both of the Admirals
though, oh well, nothing like living dangerously!
“Tell you what Chip, if you want to, and if you can
pack fast enough, you can come with me.”
“I can! You mean it?”
“Yes I mean it.
Two friends going to the Fair will be less conspicuous than me wandering
around on my own.”
“Fair, what Fair?”
“I’ll fill you in on the way, that
is if you’re coming.”
“Hell yes I’m coming!
Someone has to watch your back.”
Lee shook his head and rolled his eyes as he picked up
his bag.
“Fine, let’s get to your place, there isn’t much time
before we need to be at the airport and I still have to get you a ticket.”
*****
“What do you mean no one can find Mr. Morton? I realize he’s on leave but he can’t be that
far away.” Nelson grumbled at his admin
assistant, Angie. When Lee was off on an
ONI assignment Nelson frequently liked to talk to Chip about this or that, right
now he didn’t care if Chip was on leave or not.
He always felt closer to an absent Lee when Chip was around. At least Chip was someone who worried about
Lee the same as he did, not to mention that occasionally Chip would hear from
Lee first.
Angie squared her shoulders. He gets
as grumpy as a bear with a sore paw when Lee’s away. “Well Sir, apparently Mr. Morton left
word that he would be out of contact for awhile. Seems for about the same period
of time that Captain Crane is, ah, ‘busy’. Duck
and cover time.
Nelson frowned, HUH,
that’s suspicious. He wouldn’t be.....nah.....would he? Lee
wouldn’t....would he?
“Angie, get me Admiral Jones on the line, NOW!”
“Right away, Sir.”
*****
Chip had been surprised when Lee told him where they
were going. He’d accused Lee of using
the yacht race3 he’d invited the Admiral and himself to crew in a few
months back as a cover to prepare for the mission, but Lee had insisted that it
was a total coincidence.
Well mostly, I knew that
Todd was on assignment in the area but it didn’t have anything to do with me,
at the time.
“Honest Chip, I think that Admiral Jones just decided
to send me because I’d been up here and knew the area. Todd and I have worked together before so it
just made sense.”
*****
They travelled to Vancouver Island by a different
route than when they were there in the yacht race. Instead of the ferry from Port Angeles to
Victoria Harbour, they flew into Lynden, Washington and picked up a coal black Jeep
Liberty that was waiting for them.
“Nice ride Lee, we going off road?”
“Not that I know of, but it looks like we could if called for. Mostly I think they gave us this to blend in;
there are a lot of them around the area.”
“There seems to be some stuff in the back
already.” Chip reached back and took a
couple of Western hats out of a bag, one black, one brown. He tossed Lee the black one, “Yeehaa
pardner.”
“I don’t think they really talk like that, Chip.”
Chip grinned at him then pulled the brim of his hat
down over his eyes and reclined his seat.
“Let me know when we get there.”
O no you don’t. Lee pushed a button on the console and Chip’s
seat sprang back into the upright position.
“Hey, 007, warn a guy before
you hit eject will ya!”
“I don’t believe he ever has.”
The two of them bantered back and forth about various
Bond movies during the 30 minute drive to the Peace Arch border-crossing into
Canada. From there they drove to the
Ferry terminal and caught the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay ferry and 1 hour 35 minutes
and 24 nautical miles later, they arrived at the Swartz Bay terminal. A short drive from there brought them to
their lodging for the next few days.
Chip threw his bag down on the bed at the motel.
“So when do we meet Todd?”
“‘We’ don’t.
He’s only expecting me and I don’t want to spring you on him without
warning. The Fall Fair starts tomorrow, the meet is set up to happen there.”
“You’re not going without me, Lee. That’s the whole reason I came.”
“Don’t worry Chip, you can come to the Fair, I’ll even
buy you some cotton candy and take you on a ride or two.”
Chip lobbed a pillow from one of the beds at Lee,
“Smart ass, you know what I mean.”
“Todd likely won’t show himself if he thinks I have a
tail. I’ll park you someplace
inconspicuous until I can explain things to Todd, then you can join us.”
“OK, but the ‘parking spot’ had better be where I can
keep an eye on you.”
Lee figured he’d be able to conceal Chip in the crowd
somewhere, although Todd had a bit of a 6th sense when it came to
being watched.
“I’ll do my best, in the meantime I’m hungry and I
don’t need to ask if you are. I’m told
that the Prairie Inn has the best food around here. What say I buy you their Belly Buster
Burger?”
“Sound like a good starter.”
As they were about to leave Lee reached under the
mattress of one of the beds, and pulled out a Glock and shoulder holster. He motioned for Chip to check under the other
mattress, where he found a Walther PPK/E and shoulder holster.
“This place has a hell of a maid service, Lee. How’d they know which room to leave these
in?”
“Trade secret, you ok with that one or do you want to
switch?”
“Oh, I think I’ll be just fine with the 007 model,”
Chip smirked.
The men pulled their jackets on and headed for their
vehicle.
“You know it’s not exactly the same model as James’,
Chip.”
“Close enough Lee, close enough.”
*****
Angie could hear Admiral Nelson quite clearly from her
desk, she suspected she wouldn’t have had any trouble
hearing him from halfway down the hallway.
“He did
what? On whose authority?”
Jones wasn’t sure if Nelson was referring to Crane or
Morton.
“As I said Nelson, Morton went with Crane on the
assignment. I gather it was a bit last
minute, but Crane can choose to take someone with him if he feels it’s
required. I haven’t got all the particulars;
we’ll both have to wait until they get back to find out the details.”
“It would have been nice to have been informed that
you were taking my XO as well as my Captain.”
“You’re not listening Nelson. I didn’t know about it until they were flying
out, a memo came across my desk that Crane had requested and received a second
ticket for the flight, for Morton. I
gather Morton is on leave so can go where he likes.”
Jones couldn’t figure out why Crane took Morton with
him. The mission was nothing that would
have required a backup, and if it did, Crane should have requested a trained
agent. Crane can be damned annoying, but he knows what he’s doing, damn fine
agent. Guess he had his reasons, they’d
better be damn good ones.
“Given the situation Jones, I think you’d better tell
me where my men are and what they are doing.
Don’t bother arguing with me, if I have to, I’ll fly to Washington, and
we can discuss it, face to fist.”
Jones thought about the last time he’d met with Nelson
and quickly decided that there was really no reason not to fill Nelson in. Hell,
if Nelson wants to follow after them he can, Crane can just jolly well deal
with the consequences of his actions himself.
*****
We’ve been waiting a long
time, wonder when this Todd guy is going to show up.
Chip felt someone bump against him not that that was anything
unusual in the crowd, but he also felt something hard and pointed pressing into
his lower back. A voice whispered in his
ear. “Don’t move a muscle. You seem
awful interested in that fellow on the other side of the ring. I can’t help wondering why.”
Chip gulped.
“Don’t know what you mean, I’m just watching the draft horse teams.”
“Un huh, sure you are, tell
you what, we’re just going to move nice and slow over to the side here, then
over to the exit gate.”
Chip couldn’t think of a move he could make at the
moment, anything he did would end up with the knife shoved deep into his
back. He had lost sight of Lee shortly
after the man behind him had made his presence known. He scanned the crowd on the opposite side of
the ring hoping to see Lee and that Lee would see that he was in trouble. He couldn’t spot him anywhere.
Just as he was about to do as he’d been instructed the
knife was gone and he heard the man behind him give a surprised low grunt of
pain.
Chip heard Lee’s very welcome voice. “You’re slipping Todd, used to be I couldn’t
come up behind you like this. I see
you’ve met my very good friend, Chip.”
Chip took a step forward and turned around. Lee had his arm around the man’s neck, in
what could have been a playful greeting, except Chip could see the tightly
bunched muscles in Lee’s arm, he also noted that Lee held the other man’s right
wrist, bent inward between them, concealing what the man was holding in his
hand.
Lee spoke again in a friendly tone, “So, we all good
here Todd?”
“You vouch for him?”
“Like I said, he’d my very good friend.”
“Ok, then, we’re good.”
Lee released Todd who quickly flipped the switchblade
closed and pocketed it. Then he swung
his left arm around Lee’s neck, pulled him down, and messed his hair with his right
hand, “You’ve been practising, bucko!”
“Well it wasn’t really that hard with all the people
milling around. I was hoping to talk to
you before you and Chip met, should have known better. In any case, Todd, Chip,
Chip, Todd.”
They shook hands, each taking the measure of the other
and decided that despite the unconventional first meeting, they liked each
other. Todd was older than both Lee and
Chip, his hair brown, speckled liberally with white, his face deeply lined
around the eyes and mouth and well tanned.
Todd gestured to his left, “Let’s find us some space.” The three men moved off together. As they walked, Todd asked Chip how long he’d
known Lee.
“Off and on for a number of years, but the last
five....” Todd gave Chip a quick elbow to
the diaphragm.
“What the Hell!” Chip gasped and glared at Todd,
barely suppressing his urge to punch him.
Todd looked over at Lee, who was shaking his head, and
trying hard not to laugh.
“I take it, Lee, that this pup isn’t, ah, trained
yet?”
“Not in the way you mean, Todd.”
Lee moved between Todd and Chip and curled an arm
around each of their necks and the three continued walking.
“Chip, Todd was just stopping you from saying what
we’ve been doing the last few years.
Certain words could cause certain ears to prick up if there’s anyone ‘cruising’ the crowds looking for us. So, no references to
anything that could identify us with specific people, places or activities.”
Chip looked a little chagrined, he hadn’t thought
about that. “Right,
got it. Although, Todd, I think
you could have picked a better way to shut me up than elbowing me in the gut.”
“Worked didn’t it?”
Todd grinned at him.
“Don’t feel bad Chip.
I’ve learned a lot from Todd over the years, and he used the same
method. Believe me; he never has to make
the same point twice.”
Chip had absolutely no problem believing Lee.
They headed over to the larger of the horse show rings
and climbed up to the top of one of the bleachers.
“Always can count on having a bit of
privacy up here, most of the folks aren’t willing to climb up to the
top.”
They had the top row to themselves and between the
announcer, the horse noises and the person hollering at the riders in the warm-up
ring to get ready for their class, whom Chip learned was called the ‘whipper
in’, the three men could say what they needed to say without worrying about
been overheard.
Their conversation might not be overheard but they
could be seen, especially by the man standing at the corner of one of the barns
behind the bleacher, and the one much further away with a telephoto camera. He took one shot of all three men, then
close-ups of each of them.
Todd pointed to one of the horses entering the ring,
“Will you look at that, must be 17 hands and just a little kid on him. Pretty gutsy.”
“Looks like a draft cross, maybe with a Quarter
Horse. This is an open show so lots of
variety.”
Chip looked at the horse and rider. Yeah,
it’s a big horse and a little kid, no clue how they can tell what kind of
horse. They all look the same to me,
head, tail and four legs.
“What do you think, Chip?” Lee asked his friend.
“I think the kid had better not fall off.”
Both Todd and Lee laughed. “I’m sure he’ll try hard not to.” Lee responded.
After a few more general comments about the horses and
their riders, Lee brought the conversation around to the matter at hand.
“So what’s got you hanging out here, Todd?”
“Oh a little of this and a little of
that, and right now a whole lot of nothing.”
Lee continued to watch the horses in the ring while they
talked, “That’s too bad, I was sort of hoping you’d
have something for me.”
“That was the plan, seems things are a little tight
right now so can’t give you what I owe you.”
“You going to need a little
help?”
“Naw, I’ll work things out, if you don’t mind waiting
a bit.”
“How long we talking?”
“Maybe a month or two.”
“I see, well Chip and I can’t
hang around here that long, have to come back later. Got a date in mind?”
“I’ll get back to you on that, probably end of
October.”
Lee nodded his head.
The three watched the horse show for a bit more then
climbed down.
“Sounds like the country band is getting revved up,
let’s head over to the stage and have a listen.” Todd nudged Lee, “Who knows, maybe you two
can pick up a couple of dates for the rest of the Fair.”
Lee chuckled at the suggestion,
Chip was thinking that things were looking up.
He’d seen plenty of pretty girls go by, and more than one of them had
given Lee the once over. His friend’s
tall, lean, muscular form was attired in a pair of tight fitting distressed
jeans, a snazzy shirt featuring narrow stripes of white, alternating between
wider multi-toned blue and multi-toned orange stripes, the first three buttons
down the front were open, and the sleeves were cuffed back to mid arm. That, plus his black cowboy hat and leather
boots, and it wasn’t surprising the female heads turned. Doesn’t
really matter what he wears, he’s a chick magnet.
Chip was oblivious to the fact that an equal number of
females were checking him out as they passed.
He was dressed in butt hugging distressed jeans, a blue and white chequered
shirt, open partway down the front like Lee’s, a tan cowboy hat, and leather
boots. Add to that his blond hair, blue
eyes and solid muscular build, and you had another male that would never be
overlooked by the female population.
The band turned out to be pretty good and when they
started Boot Scoot Boogie a couple of young women tried to get Lee and Chip to
join them in a line dance. Todd gave both of the men a shove. “Don’t be so bashful you two, go.”
Chip wasn’t sure of the steps but the women on each
side of him were more than happy to show him what to do. He looked over to where Lee was, When and where did he learn to line dance! Lee was doing just fine with the steps and by
the end of the song Chip had the hang of it too. They headed back to where they had left Todd
but there was no sign of him. Lee didn’t
appear surprised.
“Lee, you’re not worried that something has happened
to him?”
“No, I was a bit surprised that he hung around as long
as he did.”
The two men each suddenly felt a firm hand grip one of
their shoulders. They turned and came
face to face with Admiral Nelson. He was
wearing a slightly worn farmers straw hat, green chequered shirt, and jean overalls.
Lee nodded to Nelson, “Wondered how long it would be
before you came over. I spotted you in
the crowd a while back.”
Nelson understood why Lee didn’t end the comment with a
formal ‘Sir’ or ‘Admiral’.
Chip, who had had no idea that Nelson was there,
almost blurted out ‘Admiral Nelson’ when he turned and saw him, but the memory
of Todd’s elbow was a lesson well learned.
“Nice to see the two of you, bit of a surprise though,
finding you both here.”
Lee and Chip had no trouble understanding the subtext
of the comment.
“Are you about finished here?” He noticed Chip sending Lee a sideways look; he
had to cover his smile with a fake cough.
“We’re done with the essentials I
guess.” Lee answered him, looking down
and shuffling his feet a bit.
“I take it you still had plans
though.” Let them sweat a bit, Nelson
grinned to himself.
“Sort of.”
Nelson watched Chip squirm at Lee’s
side, obviously hoping that Lee was going to work this out.
“Oh go on with you. I can see those two young ladies waiting for
you!”
Chip didn’t need any more
encouragement than that, he grabbed Lee’s arm and starting tugging him towards
the two women, the same ones that had pulled them into the line dance earlier. They had been standing together whispering to
each other and throwing looks and smiles at the two men. Looks Nelson had obviously noticed.
As they reached the women, they heard
Nelson call after them, “Just don’t be too late getting home, I’ll be waiting!”
Lee and Chip looked back and replied
together with a smile, “Yes sir.”
The two women, whose names were
Sandra and Jennifer, giggled, and Jennifer asked, “Is that your
Dad?”
Lee and Chip shared a glance and with
a big grin answered, “Yep, darned strict too!”
The foursome headed over to the ticket booth for the
carnival rides.
Their dates proved to be just as interested as they
were in going on the more challenging rides.
After riding the Hellevator4, Revelation,
Drop Zone, Corkscrew and finally the Atmosfear they tried some of the games. Lee won a huge stuffed giraffe for his date fairly
quickly, Chip was having some trouble with the games. When Sandra and Jennifer left briefly to use
the facilities, Lee motioned for Chip to follow him over to a relatively quiet
area.
“OK, Chip here’s how you win. The games are rigged, sort of. For the Balloon Dart Throw, the balloons are
under inflated and the dart tips are dulled, so throw them as hard as you can
with an arc. Don’t aim
for the middle balloons, most people do that so the better prize tags are under
the balloons on the outside edges. On
the Basket Toss, throw the softball gently and put on some backspin, aim for
the inside upper lip of the basket. For
Basketball Free Throw, the ball is over-inflated, the
hoop is smaller than regulation size and slightly oval. The backboard is plywood making it extra
bouncy, don’t try to rebound it, you need to do a perfect swish. Milk Bottle Throw, the bottles are leaded,
super heavy. Don’t go for the middle,
take out the bottom two. Climb the
Ladder and Ring the Bell, push your feet against the ropes between the rungs, don’t
climb directly on the rungs themselves, pull yourself up with your arms.”
All through Lee’s rushed instructions, Chip was
looking at him with his mouth slightly agape.
“Where on earth did you pick all that up Lee?”
“Long story, look here come
the gals back.”
Keeping in mind Lee’s advice, Chip quickly racked up
some impressive wins at the games and some suspicious glares from the
operators. At the last game the carny5
kept staring at Lee.
“Hey bud, don’t I know you from somewhere? Weren’t you a flyer6 with.....”
“Nope, you gonna give my friend his prize or not?”
“Yeesh, chill, have to score it first.” The carny tried to do a fast count7
on Chip but Lee was on to him.
“Oh no you don’t Gazoonie8,
he high scored.”
“Who you calling names?”
“You don’t really want to start a clem9 do
you? Give him his prize.”
The carny muttered something under his breath but gave
Chip his choice of the high score prizes.
“Wow, you really know how to talk to these guys, Lee,”
observed Jennifer.
“Want to tell us how that is, Lee?” Chip asked as he
handed Sandra the giant stuffed seahorse.
“I think we should blow this place and head into town for
dinner.” Lee neatly avoided answering Chip’s question.
It was after midnight before the two returned to the
motel. They didn’t know which room the
Admiral was in, or if they were expected to check in with him. There was only one room with a light on when
they pulled up. The light went out as
they climbed up the stairs to their room.
*****
Two months later word had come through to ONI that
Todd had requested another meet with Lee. Admiral Jones hoped that this one would be
more successful than the last time. Now to tell Nelson that I’m
taking his Captain again. Wouldn’t you know it,
they just have to be at sea.
“Admiral, Sparks here, I have a top level call for you
from Admiral Jones, he requests Captain Crane be present as well.”
Nelson punched the button on the com unit on his
desk. “Thank you Sparks, I’ll take it
here, in my cabin.” He double clicked
the unit to open a channel to the Control Room.
“Nelson to Control Room.”
“Aye Sir, Morton here.”
“Chip would you have Lee come to my cabin please.”
“Yes, Sir. He’s already on his way.”
“Fine, Nelson out.”
It didn’t come as any surprise to the Admiral that he
barely had time to close the com link than he heard Lee’s knock.
“Come.”
Lee entered and was about to sit in the chair in front
of Nelson’s desk when the Admiral motioned for him to bring the chair around to
sit beside him.
“I don’t imagine you need to be told who’s on the
line.”
“No Sir, I’ve been expecting the call any day now.”
Nelson harrumphed and hit the button to open the call
on the monitor. Admiral Jones appeared
on the screen, looking a little miffed, he didn’t like being kept waiting.
Nelson didn’t wait for Jones to begin. “Ok, when do you want him
and for how long?”
Well this is going better
than I thought it would. Jones thought.
“A Seahawk chopper will rendezvous with you in two
days to get him. He shouldn’t be gone
longer than 3-4 days.”
“You mean the chopper will be here to get ‘them’.”
“Them?”, both Jones and Crane echoed.
“Mr. Morton went with Captain Crane the first time; I
want him along this time as well.”
Lee beat Jones to the protest, “Sir that’s not
necessary, I don’t....”
Nelson cut Lee off, “I wasn’t asking your permission
Captain, and before you start Jones, I’m not asking yours either. If you want Captain Crane, you get Mr. Morton
as well.”
“You might want to rethink that Nelson,
this isn’t quite the simple meet the last one was.”
“In that case I most definitely want Mr. Morton with Captain
Crane.” Nelson glared at Jones through
the screen. Jones couldn’t see it but Nelson
had also gripped Lee’s knee giving it a firm squeeze to warn Lee to keep quiet,
he wasn’t going to change his mind and he wouldn’t appreciate Lee arguing with
him in front of Jones.
Jones was obviously not happy but appeared to accept
the condition. “Fine, have it your way
Nelson. I need to talk to Crane now; you
might as well stay where you are to save me repeating it all to you later.”
Appears the man is
learning. Nelson smiled to himself.
“Captain Crane.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Nelson moved his chair back so that Lee could centre
himself in front of the screen.
“As you heard, you...and Morton will be airlifted from
Seaview Sunday, October 30th. You’ll be transferred to a commercial flight
for Victoria, there will be a vehicle waiting for you at the Victoria airport. The usual ‘accoutrements’ will be concealed
in the back. This is where things get a little odd.”
Nelson leaned forward in his chair.
“You are to go to Galey Farms Festival of Fear that
night and go into 3 attractions, in the following order: Cornfield of Horror, Madam Isabella’s séance
and Carnevil. You will be contacted with
further instructions at one of those. Any questions?”
“No, Sir.” Lee
answered, At least not that I’m asking
you. This is not how Todd typically sets
up a meet, something is up.
“Good, Jones out.”
Nelson noted, with amusement, that he hadn’t been
asked if he had any questions.
Lee looked at Nelson, “So, does Chip know anything
about coming with me?”
“Not yet, but I don’t anticipate he’ll balk at the
idea.”
“Have you thought about the fact that both your Captain
and the XO will be off the sub while she’s out on a mission?”
“Are you implying that I can’t handle my own boat on a
simple charting mission, a boat that I designed and oversaw the building of,
Captain?”
Lee looked a little uncomfortable, “No Sir, I’d just
feel better if Chip were here with you.”
“More importantly Lee, I’ll feel better knowing he’s
with you.”
*****
Chip was in the radio shack, he’d been talking to
Sparks about a proposed improvement to the equipment when he happened to look
up in time to see Lee striding through the Control Room. His blue eyes met Lee’s golden, green flecked
ones, he had just opened his mouth to say something to
Lee when Lee barked an order at him.
“Mr. Morton, with me, now.” Lee kept walking.
“Aye, aye Sir. Mr. O’Brien you have the con. The Captain and I will be...” Chip realized he didn’t know where Lee was
taking him.
“In my cabin, Mr. O’Brien.” Lee supplied as he headed up the forward
ladder. Chip had to move smartly to
catch up with him.
Once they were inside his cabin Lee gave an
exasperated sigh, running his hand through his hair and rubbing at his temple,
all signs that he was unhappy and stressed about something. Chip knew those signs well.
“Not a pleasant meeting?”
“The meeting was ok, at least no one was yelling this
time. Todd is ready to meet again.”
“So we’re here in your cabin because.....”
“According to the Admiral, I need a babysitter. He insists you come with me.”
Chip was a bit surprised; he wanted to go with Lee, had
been trying to figure out how to get invited along again but hadn’t expected
Nelson to insist on it. I really don’t think the Admiral would have
called it ‘babysitting’.
“Lee is that what the Admiral actually said?”
“About you coming with me,
yes. He didn’t exactly call it
babysitting.”
“So what’s the problem, you suddenly tired of my
company?”
Lee started to pace, another bad sign.
“Chip the meet just doesn’t feel right, there’s
something wrong. Either Todd’s in trouble
or he suspects he’s about to be.” Lee
hadn’t shared his misgivings with the Admiral, he
didn’t want to worry him.
“All the more reason you shouldn’t go alone. Todd and I have met; he won’t be surprised to
see me with you. I can be useful
you know.”
“Ya I know, sometimes.”
“Excuse me, ‘sometimes’?”
Lee was grinning as his XO stalked towards him, along
the way grabbing a pillow from the bunk...
As Nelson strode along the corridor and passed Lee’s
cabin, he heard a loud thump against the cabin door, followed by the sound of
something or someone landing on the floor.
He paused to listen.
“Get off me.”
“Not till you admit that I’m always useful.”
There was another thud and then the sound of someone landing
heavily on the cabin’s bunk.
Ah, appears a little
stress reduction therapy is taking place. He might not have told me that he was
worried about something, but I could tell.
Seems Chip is dealing with it.
Whistling quietly to himself Nelson continued down the corridor.
*****
Nelson watched from the Sail as Lee and Chip were
hoisted aboard the Seahawk from Seaview’s
deck. Lee still hadn’t said anything
to him about what was bothering him about the mission.
At least he has Chip with him, with them looking out for each other maybe I have a
chance of getting them both back in one piece.
*****
The trip back to Victoria was uneventful, they checked
into a Motor Inn in Sidney. This time,
rather than retrieving guns from under the mattresses they removed them from
the hidden compartment in the Jeep, it was the same Jeep model and colour as
the one they had last time.
Chip hooked their laptop up to the station in their
room. He tapped out a quick message to Seaview, ‘Ghost Rider and Phantom Boy
have arrived’.
“Last time I let you pick code names, Morton.”
“Aw come on Lee, it’s
Halloween, well almost, they’re perfect.”
“We don’t need to get to the farm until 2100, want to
do anything until then?”
“Eat, I’m hungry.”
“When are you not! I’d recommend you go light, we don’t know how
much activity might be involved tonight.”
Lee seldom ate much on missions, between the adrenalin
and the need to be at his sharpest he wanted his blood in his brain, not his
stomach. Still, Chip managed to nag him
into having a salad and coffee.
*****
They pulled into the farm’s parking lot and managed to
find a spot even though the place was packed.
As they approached the ticket shed, they noticed that there were men
scattered here and there with jackets that had the word ‘Security’ emblazoned
on them. Two of them were patting down a
couple of teenage boys. This could be a problem,
if they check us they’ll find the guns.
“Lee?”
“Try to look innocent.” Lee replied in a low voice.
“Right, cause that always works.”
They purchased their tickets and headed towards the
entrance for the Cornfield of Horror. As
they passed the two security men who had checked the teens out Lee paused.
“Having any trouble tonight, noticed you checking out
two boys?”
Way not to draw attention
to us Lee.
The guards smiled, the one Lee had looked at when he
spoke, answered him, “No, no problems but we always randomly check the teens
for firecrackers or ‘sacred herbs’, keeps ‘em honest. You two enjoy your evening.”
“Thanks, we plan to.”
Lee saw Chip giving him a puzzled look.
“Sometimes, Chip, the best way to not draw attention
to yourself, is to go say Hi. Obviously we aren’t hiding anything, or we wouldn’t
have approached them. As a bonus we
learned that they are checking the teens, not the adults.”
“Uh Huh,” Chip responded, rather dubiously.
They could hear shouts and screams coming from the
corn maze as they approached. The ticket
takers wore black robes, skeleton masks and gloves. As they took Lee and Chip’s tickets one of
them whispered, “Beware the hollow men! Shape without form, shade without
colour...”
“Ah, ya sure, ok, thanks,” Chip muttered back.
They stood for a minute looking at the maze; there
were a number of entrances.
“Lee, did you hear what that...whatever, said?”
“Uh huh, from a T.S. Elliot poem called ‘The Hollow
Men’.
“So that wasn’t some kind of message to us?”
“Not that I know of, but keep an eye out for hollow
men, just in case.”
“Sure, funny Lee, very funny.”
Lee threw Chip a grin and shrugged his shoulders. “Pick an entrance buddy,
I’ll just follow along behind you. That
way you can be first to find anything that goes ‘boo’.”
Chip wasn’t sure he wanted Lee behind him, lord only knew what stunt Lee might pull.
He watched a young couple go dashing past one of the
entrances and decided that it was as good a one as any to enter the maze.
There had been dim lighting at the entrance, but in the
maze the only light was from the nearly full moon, which sporadically disappeared
as clouds scudded across it.
The pathways were trampled cornstalks, somewhat slippery,
as they were damp from the recent rain.
The maze’s cornstalk walls rose at least 8 feet high. People of all ages intermittently ran past
them, some going their way, some the other way.
“Lee isn’t there some sort of trick to get through a
maze?”
“Don’t know if it’s a trick but there are various
methods, marking, string, left-hand10 etc. I think the glow sticks we’ve seen tied here
and there to a stalk is someone trying to mark their path. I suspect we’ll do just fine with the ‘Random
Wandering Around’ method. The maze isn’t designed to be difficult to
get through.”
It was taking a little longer than Lee thought it
would to find the other side and at one point he and Chip got separated when a
crowd of kids ran into them at a cross-point and they each ended up going
different directions in the confusion.
Where the hell is Lee, he
was right beside me when that pack of kids ploughed into us. I don’t want to start hollering his name,
dead giveaway, unless....
Lee cringed when he heard Chip’s call.
“Hey, Phantom Boy, were did you get lost to?”
I’m so going to kick Ghost
Rider’s butt when we get back to Seaview.
Chip was just going to call again when he felt a hand
close over his mouth. He twisted in
response and lost his footing on the slippery stalks, landing hard on his
backside. He looked up and saw Lee
standing in front of him with his hands on his hips.
“You called oh nimble footed one?”
Lee gave him a hand up. “Mind keeping the noise
down.”
“I didn’t know what had happened to you, besides
everyone is yelling and screaming, one more isn’t
going to matter.”
Lee knew Chip was right, but it was the principle of
the thing.
“Fine, follow me.”
Lee turned back the way he had come.
“What’s wrong with my direction?”
“Nothing if you want to keep wandering around. I spotted the exit down this path.”
In a few short minutes they came out into the Ghost
Town. They saw another corn maze on the
other side. They’d arrived at the
centre. There was a bridge of sorts in
the town. Climbing up it they had a view
of the maze they’d just come through and the second half. Lee made a mental note of the quickest way
through it. There was a graveyard at its exit point.
They took a quick wander through the Ghost Town; there
were vampires, witches, ghouls and blood aplenty.
They both jumped when looking into the ‘butcher’ shop
as a huge axe chopped down with a thunderous thwack, hitting the wall just
above their heads.
Taking a few steps back and a good look they spotted a
guy-wire running from the corner of the butcher shop to the haunted mansion across
the street, they’d already gone through it.
They watched as some new people examined the butcher shop they saw the
ghoul at the entrance to the mansion pull a lever and the axe, which had
retracted up the wire, shot forward again and a board slapped against another
one creating the exaggerated sound effect.
The people jumped back, and giggling, ran off to the next
‘display’. The ghoul gave Lee and Chip a
nod and placed a finger to his lips.
The two sent him a nod in return, they’d keep the
secret. Something caught their eye as
they walked down the lane to get to the entrance of the next half of the
maze. Looking up they saw a billowing
ghost floating high above their heads, crossing the lane.
“Hey Lee, why did the ghost cross the
road?”
“I’m going to regret this, ok why?”
“To get to ‘THE OTHER SIDE’. What kind of street does a ghost like best?”
“I give up.”
“A dead end.”
“You’d better start running Morton.”
Chip sprinted to the maze entrance with Lee in hot
pursuit, both of them laughing.
They made much better time through the second half of
the maze. As they moved through it, they
could hear soft singing in the distance, the voices of children:
One, two, Freddy's
coming for you.
Three, four, better lock
your door.
Five, six, grab your
crucifix.
Seven, eight, gotta stay up
late.
Nine, ten, never sleep
again.11
The song floated eerily over the corn stalks and gave
both men the shivers.
They soon came out at the wire-fenced graveyard. Lee thought he spotted some motion behind a
broken down mausoleum and pressed up against the fencing trying to get a better
look. As he was concentrating, there was
a whoosh as a decaying corpse suddenly flew up out of the ground to stare him right
in the face. He jumped back and bumped
into Chip who once again found himself on his butt on the ground.
“Geesh Lee, I thought your nerves were better than
that.”
The people standing to the side snickered at the
comment.
“Ya, well next time you can get up close and personal
with whatever.”
Lee again helped Chip up. They looked over the rest of the graveyard, keeping
a safe distance back from the fence.
Numerous other ‘things’ popped into existence but neither Lee nor Chip was
taken unawares again.
To get to Madam Isabella’s they had to go back they
way they had come but this time they skirted the maze.
Inside the séance room was a round table and 4 chairs.
Something was in the middle of the table,
concealed under a cloth. Lee and Chip
sat beside each other; there was a mother and her young teenage daughter at the
table with them.
They listened to the instructions from the operator, “Do
not leave your chairs no matter what happens, you are
only safe as long as you remain seated.
Take each other’s hand, and do not let
go.”
The man then closed the door to the room with a resounding thunk.
Lee thought he’d leave out the hand holding part but
the girl grabbed his hand and her mother’s, the mother had taken hold of Chip’s
left hand so Lee shrugged and took hold of his other hand. Chip ducked his head, trying to conceal his
smirk.
The girl looked at her mother, “There’s really nothing
to be afraid of right Mom, it’s all just fake?”
Lee could tell she was nervous, the mother looked a
little uncertain as well.
He was about to reassure both of them when the lights
started to flicker and went out. The
table began to vibrate, suddenly the cover in the middle flew off revealing a
garishly lit plastic dome containing a cadaverous, swivelling female head with
bulging eyes and wearing a grey turban with a silver pentagon pin attached to
the front of it.
“Hellooo Madam Isabella,” Chip murmured with a grin.
The head stopped swivelling and started to shriek,
“They are coming, they are coming.” She
continued on with a tale of murder most foul and restless spirits. Madam Isabella’s story came to its end and
she fell silent, the dome went dark. Suddenly
the pictures in the room started to bang rapidly against the walls making an
incredible racket. The girl started to
whimper. The room was now bathed in red
light.
“It’s just a lot of noise, there’s nothing to worry
about.” Lee tried to console her.
“Oh my god, look,” the mother yelled.
One of the marble busts in the room had started to
spin, it elongated into the form of a woman and stilled. The pictures stopped their banging.
I’m guessing the deceased
lady of the house. Like to know how they
did that. Lee wondered to himself.
Chip nudged him and he looked over his shoulder and
saw that there was now a similar figure forming behind him, but this one was
male.
The girl starting saying that she wanted to leave but
kept a tight hold on his hand.
The figures began to speak, how their time together
had been cruelly cut short, that they were doomed to forever wander in spirit
form. Lee didn’t catch the rest of it, the girl had climbed up onto her chair claiming that
something under the table was trying to grab her. Lee hadn’t felt anything but there was fog
coming up out of the floor. He looked at
Chip, who shrugged.
The red lighting went out, the normal lights began
flickering and the pictures resumed their banging, that settled the girl back
in her chair.
Then it was over.
Apparently none too soon for the mother and daughter
who hastily departed as soon as the door opened.
“Lee, did you get any sort of message out of all
that.”
He shook his head no and the two of them left.
They were down to the last venue, Carnevil. If Todd didn’t contact them here then either
they’d missed his message somewhere along the way, or Todd hadn’t made it to
the farm.
*****
Lee felt like an idiot, this was the second wall he’d
walked into. Should have brought night vision goggles. He swatted at something that he felt dangling
around his head, then it was gone. He’d either walked into something suspended
above him or something had been dropped down and pulled up again.
He wasn’t the only one having his ‘moments’ in
Carnevil. He chuckled at the memory of Chip’s
reaction to the gigantic striking cobra, mouth spread wide, fangs glistening
and dripping with venom. It had reared
up and out of a suddenly lit up alcove. Lee
had quickly sidestepped as Chip leapt back, smacking himself into a wall, which
had a concealed drop window that opened allowing a ghoul to pop out, shrieking
and reaching boney, flailing arms out to grab Chip. That was why he was now in the lead instead
of Chip. Turns out Chip didn’t much like
snakes or surprises in walls. Lee had a
feeling that his friend had been one second away from pulling out his gun and
shooting both of the things to pieces.
He recalled that he’d been one step away from taking the head off the
gruesome clown that had jumped out at them earlier. He didn’t like regular clowns, much less
those covered in fake blood and swinging bloody knives at him.
Fine pair of agents we
are, stumbling around in the dark, scared by a few monsters that aren’t even
real. Of course part of the damned
problem is that if someone did want to kill us, this would be a great place to
do it. By the time we realised the
attack was for real probably be too late.
They paused in one section; the ‘dancing’ skeletons in
the pit were actually quite beautiful under the ultraviolet light. Not to mention that Lee found Chip’s hair
colour to be quite interesting.
As they moved out of that area, the dark column at the
end suddenly morphed into a zombie who grabbed Lee. Lee was about to throw him when a voice he
recognized growled into his ear, “Inside Glamorgan’s Last Stand, 2200
tomorrow.” The ‘spook’ then pushed Lee
away. Chip reached out to steady him,
“You ok Lee? What was that about?”
“Later Chip.”
Just then, as they passed a door, a white robed and
blood spattered figure ran out brandishing a chainsaw, apparently intent on
cutting them into bits and pieces. They
dashed through the door in front of them, which turned out to be the exit.
“Well that was fun but not what we came for. I hope Todd is ok.” Chip remarked as they headed for their Jeep.
“Oh he’s just fine Chip and probably quite enjoying
himself.”
“Huh?”
“That was him at the skeleton pit,
we have another rendezvous tomorrow night.”
*****
On their way back to the Inn they stopped at a local pub
for a couple of beer and something to eat.
Chip watched as Lee pushed his french fries around on his plate.
“Something bothering you Lee?”
“Can’t shake the feeling that
something is off. Some sort of 6th
sense keeps nagging at me.”
Chip knew better than to discount Lee’s ‘feelings’
about these things.
“Is there any way you can contact Todd before tomorrow
night?”
“No, wouldn’t risk it even if I knew where he was.”
“Well then buddy there’s nothing we can do but wait
until tomorrow. Of course we still have
to figure out where or what Glamorgan’s Last Stand is. I don’t suppose there’s any chance that it’s
a whiskey distillery.”
Lee snorted, “I highly doubt it Chip.”
*****
The man ran the video tape once more, watching the
Skeleton Pit and the brief interaction between the zombie and one of the two men
passing through. He turned the volume
up; just to be extra sure he had it right.
He heard again where the man was told to go and when, but couldn’t hear
if anything else was said as the skeletons started making a ruckus, banging and
clacking bones around. He switched the
recording off and looked over at the man in blood-spattered clothes, watching
him sluice the blood off his chainsaw to run across the floorboards. He wasn’t pleased with the complication that his
overly enthusiastic lackey had caused.
His conversation with the man was short.
“Get anything useful.”
“Nothing.”
“Ok, we know from the tape where those two are
heading, we’ll be waiting.”
*****
As soon as they got back to the Inn Lee jumped in the
shower and Chip fired up the laptop. He
wasn’t encouraged by what he found.”
“Whatever it is Lee, it’s run
by something called BrainEaters.” he called to his friend.
Lee came out of the bathroom in only his PJ bottoms,
hair towel dried, damp and curly. “Your turn.”
As Chip headed to the bathroom, Lee took his seat to
look through the website.
“Swell, looks like we’re
spending another night with ghosts and ghouls.”
Lee said as Chip came back into the bedroom, also dressed only in PJ
bottoms. While he didn’t have Lee’s
curly hair gene his blond locks were a damp, messed snarl on his head.
“Well after all Lee, it is...”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
“Really and what will you do if I do finish it...Lee?”
It was an open invitation and Lee pounced on it, quite
literally.
He tossed Chip onto a bed and gained a headlock that
Chip squirmed out of before Lee could give him a proper noogie12. Chip grabbed Lee trying for an arm lock but
Lee twisted away going for a leg scissors.
That didn’t quite work out and in the process of getting loose Chip’s PJ
bottoms came down.
“Ooops, full moon is a little early,” Lee teased as
Chip tugged them back up.
Lee had turned around to give Chip some privacy but he
soon found himself grabbed around the waist and flung onto the other bed, unfortunately
his head banged into the wall. There was
a loud answering thump from the other side of the wall. Lee and Chip both turned red and thanked
their lucky stars that it wasn’t the Admiral next door.
“Ah, guess we’d better quiet down and hit the sack.”
Chip nodded his agreement.
*****
They spent the morning and early
afternoon of the next day looking around Sidney and Victoria. They both enjoyed going through the Ocean
Centre and learning about the ecosystem of the Salish Sea. Lee made a mental note to mention it to the
Admiral, might be worth bringing Seaview up for a look around.
As hard as he tried Chip couldn’t get
Lee to tell him who he’d purchased the lovely necklace for in the Mineral Shop.
They drove the scenic loop around
Victoria and stopped at Willow’s beach to eat, having picked up some takeout
sandwiches from a bistro near there. They
arrived back at the Inn around 1500 and decided to try to sack out to be well
rested for the evening. Lee knew he wouldn’t
be able to sleep but was amused at how fast Chip dropped off.
Lee rested for a couple of hours and
then quietly slipped out.
*****
Chip was awake when Lee got back, toting
in a couple of shopping bags, one quite a bit larger than the other.
“Whatcha got there, Lee?”
Lee tossed the larger bag to Chip,
who pulled out a Rastafarian wig, a bead necklace colored black, green, yellow
and red, black face paint, a black shirt and black cargo pants.
“What’s with this stuff?”
“Call me overcautious but we need to
do something about that blond mop of yours.
Wig should take care of it, face paint will take care of your oh so
Nordic skin. Tonight, you’re Bob
Marley.”
“Wouldn’t Jacob Marley be more
appropriate?”
“I did give some thought to the Igor
costume.”
Chip made a rude noise at Lee.
Lee relied in kind and emptied his
own bag, which contained a set of camo fatigues and black and green face pain.
“So how come I can’t be Commando
Rambo?”
“Cause you need to wear a wig and I
don’t. Now shut up and change, then I’ll
put the makeup on you.”
“Hey mon, all fruits ripe!”13
Lee rolled his eyes and started to
put on his ‘costume’.
There was a brief
‘discussion’ over the application of Chip’s face paint.
“I can do it myself.”
“It’ll look better if I do it, it’s easier for someone else to get it on evenly.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s even, it’s dark out.”
“Stop squirming and let me do this.”
“Only if I
get to put yours on you.”
“I can make it an order.”
“Like to see
you try.”
“OK, fine, you can put mine on me,
now sit still.”
*****
As they were leaving the Motor Inn, Lee
heard an eerie voice chanting softly in the lobby.
Ghostly whispers fill the
air,
Chanting
omens to beware.
Shadows stir in
candlelight,
Then rise to prowl the
dead of night.
Spirits lurk within these
walls
And wander these
unhallowed halls,
Cursed to haunt this dark
domain,
Where
mortal woe and sorrow reign.
“You hear that?”
“Um, ya, why wouldn’t I, Lee?”
“Just
checking.”
“You feeling
a little ‘spooked’ tonight?” Chip
teased.
The girl at the lobby desk was
dressed as a black kitten with a pink bow.
She smiled at the two men, “Do you like Nox Arcana? It’s what’s playing on the sound system right
now, their Darklore Manor CD. Super spooky stuff.”
“Oh ya, ah great choice,” Chip
commented to her. He glanced at Lee and
could have sworn he detected a faint shudder.
The girl watched the two men
leave. Interesting face paint job on the commando
guy.
Once inside the Jeep Chip asked Lee
if he’d heard of Nox Arcana before.
“Ya, I know their stuff, just drop
the subject.”
That’s odd,
but a discussion better left for another time, he clearly doesn’t want to
discuss it right now.
“Lee, why are we leaving for the
place so early? We aren’t meeting Todd
until 2200.”
“I want to have a real good look around. Get the layout so we know what to expect.”
“Isn’t the point of a Haunted House
or in this case barn, to have stuff that’s unexpected?”
“Yes, and a good agent always expects
the unexpected, a ‘great’ agent finds it out before it happens.”
Chip mulled that over for a
minute. “So how do you explain all the
‘unexpected’ injuries you’re usually sporting when you come back from an
assignment?”
“Never said I was a ‘great’ agent, or
that knowing about it coming means you can prevent it from happening.”
Chip decided to drop this subject too,
before he got Lee mad. Lee tended to be
a bit touchy on the subject of his many injuries.
Chip squirmed in the seat; his gun
was pinching him under his costume. He
envied Lee in his Commando outfit; he had his gun out in plain sight, along
with a nasty looking knife. Chip was
pretty sure that it wasn’t the ‘prop’ plastic Rambo knife that came with the
outfit. Looks like a KA-BAR14,
don’t remember seeing that in the back of the Jeep.
Lee turned off the highway onto a
lonely stretch of road; there was deserted farmland on both sides. There wasn’t
much around in the way of street lights. They both noticed the scarecrows, very
easy to spot in the desolate, harvested fields.
The wind had come up and the ‘hollow men’ shook and rattled on their
stakes.
“Great place for ghosts and
ghouls.” Chip remarked.
A stanza from an old poem passed
through Lee’s mind and he spoke it aloud:
Have you ever heard the
wind go “Yooooo”?
‘Tis a pitiful sound to hear!
It seems to chill you through and through
With a strange and speechless fear.
‘Tis the voice of the night that broods outside
When folk should be asleep,
And many and many’s the time I’ve cried
To the darkness brooding far and wide
Over the land and the deep:
Who do you want, Oh lonely night,
That you wail the long hours through?
And the night would say in its ghostly way:
“Yoooooooo! Yoooooooo! Yoooooooo!”15
“Yeesh Lee, that’s a little creepy!”
“Seemed to fit,” Lee replied, “looks
like we’re almost there.”
The road, deserted up until now, had
cars parked along both shoulders. Lee
slowed down as they passed a long, winding driveway. There were flickering, lighted pumpkins lining
it and something dark huddled at one corner of the entrance.
They found a parking spot a little
further up the road, pulled into it and sat for a minute.
“Something on
your mind, Lee.”
“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to stay
in the Jeep?”
“Uh…no. Where you go, I go.”
Lee hadn’t been able to shake his unease, Todd was a ‘one stop shop’ agent. To have to go to multiple spots before
getting the ‘item’ did not bode well.
Lee stared at Chip for a moment more,
seeing in his eyes only resolute determination to stick right by his side.
Lee reached over and poked at Chip’s
head.
“Hey, stop that.”
“Bit of blond hair sticking out, try
not to scratch your head.”
“Can’t help
it, the wig itches.”
“Self control Chip, keep your hands
away from it.”
Lee opened his door and got out, Chip
did likewise, and then they headed back down the road to the entrance of the
evening’s entertainment.
As they approached, they saw that the
dark lump at the entrance was a figure robed in black, sitting in a chair. The figure stirred sluggishly, leaned forward
and extended a withered, shaking hand towards them.
“Lasciate
ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate! Turn back, turn back, while there is still time.”
The figure settled back into the
rickety chair.
Chip nudged Lee, “I got the last
part, what was the first?”
“Italian, from Dante’s Divine Comedy,
it’s the inscription over the gates of Hell. ‘All hope abandon, ye who enter in,’ often
mistranslated as ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here.’”
“Charming. You know Lee, it scares me sometimes, the stuff you know.”
Lee gave a shrug as his only response.
“These pumpkins aren’t the
friendliest I’ve ever seen,” Chip commented, as they walked down the driveway
toward the barn. He pointed to one that
had its ‘guts’ spewing out of a snarling mouth, and another fanged one that was
chewing on a smaller screaming pumpkin.
“Geesh Lee, what sort of twisted minds carved these things?”
“The kind
that have rigged that, to scare the pants off of people.”
Lee pointed to the large, dilapidated
looking barn that they were approaching.
They could hear screams coming from inside, along with other noises. What appeared to be blood was running down
the weather bleached and cracked boards of the structure.
As they came closer a previously
concealed door burst open and 3 people came running out, the first one, a young
man, stumbled and fell, the two girls behind him tripped over him. All three lay sprawled on the damp earth. Maniacal laughter came from the doorway, ‘muahahaha, watch your step, it
could be your last muahahaha’ and was quickly followed by a
snarling, crazed, deformed ‘thing’. It
was clothed in tattered, blood soaked rags and waved a roaring chainsaw through
the air, ‘fresh meat, fresh meat, drink
their blood and gnaw their bones’, it
screamed as the three scrambled to get to their feet and run. It then backed up through the door, going
back into the barn and the door slammed shut.
“That answer
your question about the pumpkins, Chip?”
“Ya, pretty
much.”
“OK, let’s have a look around.”
“Uh huh.” Chip, not thinking, scratched under his wig,
a few strands of blond hair peaked out.
They scouted around the perimeter of
the barn, it was barricaded on the sides but they slipped past the two teens
that were supposed to be preventing people from doing just that. There was nothing unusual in the back, they spotted some ‘ghouls’ obviously taking a
break. There were some tall trees off to
one side; otherwise empty farm fields surrounded the place.
Todd watched Lee and Chip from the
trees, it was too risky to try and make contact outside, and he wasn’t strong
enough yet, once they were inside it would be easier.
Lee’s doing
what a good agent does, having a look around before committing to going
in. Checking for ways
out or places to hide if needed.
Yep, he’s a good agent alright,
better than good, sure going to miss him.
Wish I could warn him, he’ll make it, he’ll take
care of Chip too. I’ll do what I can to
help them. For now I have to wait.
*****
The man stationed to watch the people
buying tickets was getting bored. So far
he hadn’t even had to look at the picture, the people showing up were mostly
teens, a few older people and one or two families that had thought better of
taking their kids inside once they’d got a look at the place. He was sitting behind the young man selling
the tickets, supposedly there in case he needed help. At least that’s what he’d told him, the kid
hadn’t questioned it.
As Lee and Chip approached to buy
their tickets the man got a little more interested. Hmmm,
the tall guy looks about right, same build, but he should be with a blond
guy. As Lee and Chip walked away he
noticed the few strands of blond hair that had come out from under the back of Chip’s
wig. He told the kid he was going for a
break and went around to the rear. He
took out his cell phone and quickly punched in a number. Boss, I
think I’ve got them, or at least as close to the picture as I’ve seen all
night. One of them has a wig on but
there’s blond hair under it, and he’s the right size and with a taller, dark
guy. He listened for a moment. Ya,
they bought tickets, they’re in line now.
He listened again and then closed his phone and returned to the front.
“Hey, kid, I’ve got some great news
for you and the others.”
The young man looked up, “Ya, what’s
that?”
“Boss says you guys get to leave early. He’s sending another crew in so you can all
go and have some fun.”
“Really, wow, that’s great! I’ll let everyone know.”
“Ya, you do that kid.”
Damn good
thing you don’t want to check with the owner, would
have been real unfortunate for you, all of you.
*****
Lee and Chip were now the next in
line to go in. The people were admitted
at timed intervals and there had been quite a long line-up. Lee glanced at his watch, coming up 2200, that’s when Todd said to be
here.
The burly guy from the ticket shed
came over and spoke briefly to the kid at the entrance door. The kid left and the burly guy smiled at Lee
and Chip. “Just be
a couple more minutes dudes, making a little adjustment inside.”
Inside the regular ‘cast’ was exiting
through the back and handing over their costumes to a group of men. The men had their own ‘accessories’, which
one kid thought looked a whole lot more real than his.
Once the kids were gone a man exited
a black sedan and the motley group of men, some tugging on bits of the
costumes, gathered around him.
“OK, you know the drill but here’s a
reminder. Don’t kill them,
if the ‘item’ is in there we need them to find it for us, if they don’t then we
need to find out what they know about where it is. They stay alive until I say otherwise, just
make all scary but hands off.” He sensed
a ripple of disappointment among the group.
Well it is Halloween. “Fine, you can rough them up a bit, once I
have what I need then you can kill them any way you like.” The mood of the men lightened considerably.
*****
Lee heard a cell phone go off, the
guy at the door pulled his out and listened for a minute. “OK, you two can go in now.”
As he closed the door behind Lee and
Chip he pretended to listen to his cell phone again. He looked at the people waiting in line. “Sorry folks, just
got told that those two are the last for tonight. You can come back tomorrow or get a refund
later. There were disappointed murmurs
but the people left. They noticed as
they walked out to the road that the ‘greeter’ was now sitting in the middle,
stopping anyone from coming in. There
was a big CLOSED sign up.
*****
“Bit dark in here Lee.” Chip was tapping on the walls around
them. “Seems like
we’re in a box of some sort, and not a very big one.”
Lee’s warning senses were tingling
like crazy. “Chip I want you to stay behind
me. I mean it, something isn’t right.”
“Geesh Lee, we’re in a haunted barn, I don’t think the
plan is for things to feel ‘right’. Not
to mention that I can’t see you or a door, so no clue if I’m in front of you or
behind you.”
With a loud snick a panel slid open in one of the
walls, they stepped through it into a brightly lit room. It was rough finished; there was a painted, white
door on the far side, with a ratty flower basket hanging off it.
“Well seems plain enough what we are supposed to
do.” Chip walked up to the door, turned
the handle and gave a tug. Nothing happened.
“I thought I told you to stay behind me, Morton.” Lee walked up to him as he gave the door a
tug.
“Don’t see what you’re worried about, empty room, one
door, and it won’t open.” Chip yanked on
the doorknob one last time, and it flew open.
Chip stumbled back. A gaudy,
leering clown leapt out and swung a long bladed, serrated knife at him. Lee shoved Chip hard and as Chip spun away
Lee felt the clown’s knife slash down his left upper arm and felt the flow of hot
blood begin. He quickly turned and
grabbed the clown’s wrist giving it a sharp twist and was rewarded with the
sound of snapping bones. The knife fell
to the floor. Pivoting he drove his
right elbow hard into the clown’s solar plexus, turned again and landed a powerful
right uppercut, knocking the clown against the far wall, unconscious.
Chip rushed to Lee, he heard him muttering, “Damn Pennywise wanna be.
Always have hated clowns, can’t trust them.”
“Lee, let me see your arm, it’s bleeding pretty bad.”
There was no time for Chip to see anything further,
the room was plunged into darkness, another snick sounded and over in the left
corner they could tell that the blackness wasn’t quite so black.
“Looks like another panel has opened,
this time Chip stay back. Let me lead.”
“Not bloody likely Lee and I do mean bloody. You’re wounded; if anyone leads it’s me.”
Lee would have argued further but Chip started moving
towards the new opening. Along the way
he ripped off his irritating wig and tossed it aside, along with the beads.
“Chip, keep low, the walls will have sliding panels;
anything could come out of them.”
Their eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness and Chip looked
towards Lee, noticing that he was holding his left arm tight to his body and
bent across his stomach. Chip stopped
and looked pointedly at Lee’s stomach.
“You hurt anywhere else besides your arm?”
“No, it’s just across my stomach because it hurts less
that way.”
Chip nodded.
He’d accept what Lee was telling him, for now.
They could hear ghostly moans and groans as well as
chains rattling.
As they moved carefully forward Chip felt Lee grab his
shirt and pull him back, at that moment the walls exploded in shaking skeletal
figures, somehow springing out of the wood and accompanied by blood curdling
screams. A soft chant started and grew
louder. Blue tinged flames suddenly
seemed to dance among the walled skeletons:
From the
beginning of Time,
To the threshold
of Death, and beyond,
Hell calls upon
Hell—
Out of the
darkness,
Remnants of an
ancient flame burn anew—
By the rite of
Blood,
You must die, so
that I may live eternally—
You are dust,
you shall return to dust—
Behold the way
of Death,
And endure the
inheritance of the Damned—
Chip looked at Lee with raised eyebrows.
Lee whispered to him, “More Nox Arcana stuff. Seems the walls along here are made up of
rotating panels, at least these are just animatronics. I thought I felt us trigger a pressure pad in
the floor. If we keep to the side we
might be able to avoid triggering any more of that type of stuff.”
So keeping low and to the side they continued.
Lee wasn’t sure if Chip realized it or not, but he was
sure they were being tracked by cameras.
There was always overhead surveillance at these places to spot any
problems that might occur. While he and
Chip could possibly avoid triggering the automatic stuff, the bad guys would
still know exactly where they were.
They came to a heavy black curtain hung across the
hallway, carefully moving it aside they saw that the next section was fairly
well lit, it appeared to be empty. That
is empty if you didn’t count the portraits of rather deranged looking people
cluttering the walls.
“This doesn’t look to bad Lee; let’s get to the
middle, the light is brightest there. I
need to get a look at your arm.”
Moving as cautiously as possible, they made it to the
midway point without incident.
Chip gently pulled the ripped fabric away from the
gash on Lee’s arm. “It’s still bleeding
pretty badly, I need to wrap it.” Chip
noticed the trail of blood on the floor of the hallway. Damn,
he’s been bleeding like this all the way along, no telling how much blood he’s lost.
Chip ripped Lee’s sleeve all the way off and used it
to tie up the wound, crossing the material back and forth along the length of
the ragged gash, trying to close it and stop the bleeding as best he could.
“There, at least now you’re only seeping blood.”
“Thanks Chip, I’m fine.”
Chip snorted and looked around. “You notice anything peculiar about these portraits?”
“Aside from the fact that the eyes have
tracked us ever since we entered and are staring at us now, no not a thing.”
Chip was glad to see that Lee hadn’t lost his sense of
humour, however misplaced he might think it was at the
moment.
Chip replaced Lee’s arm across his
stomach, prodding gently as he did so, just to be sure there wasn’t anything
amiss there.
Lee glared at him, “What, you don’t
believe me that there’s nothing else wrong?”
“Of course I do, it’s not like you’ve
ever lied about being hurt before.” Chip
smarted back at Lee. Lee dipped his head
at the reproof, he did have a bit of a reputation for
downplaying or denying injuries.
They started to move again. When they got to the end of the hallway they saw
that the ‘door’ was actually another curtain, patterned to look like a regular door.
“Any guesses what’s next, Lee?”
“Nary a one,
Chip. Are you sure you don’t want me
to go first?”
“Very amusing. Stay close.”
They moved through the curtain and
were instantly disoriented. Strobe
lights flashed and they could only get glimpses of where they were. They tried to go back through the curtain but
discovered that a wooden panel had closed over the opening. There was no way to get back into the
hallway. The background noise in the
barn had, up until now, been mostly sound effects. In this room Lee recognized the theme music from
the movie ‘Halloween’. He spotted
movement off to his right but before he could say or do anything, something
slammed into him, knocking him into Chip.
They both went down. Lee felt
himself being dragged up by his injured arm and tried not to yelp in pain. A fist connected with his stomach, once,
twice. He felt his right wrist being twisted
and heard a voice snarl, “This is for the clown.” He knew that the man intended to break his
wrist and he brought his left knee sharply up, in what he hoped was the man’s
groin. He was rewarded by hearing a loud
“&(*%^”16 and a thump as the man hit
the floor.
He spotted Chip, briefly, in the strobbing
light, he was struggling with his own adversary. Lee moved in that direction but tripped over
something on the floor and went sprawling.
It turned out to be advantageous as Chip’s attacker tripped over him and
hit his head hard enough on the floor to knock himself out. Lee couldn’t get a good look but it appeared
that the man he’d decked was still curled in a tight ball on the floor.
“Lee,
where are you?” Chip called, slightly panicked.
“Right here Chip, at your feet, no
need to yell.”
They found the exit to the room by
accident as they felt along the wall and came to another thick curtain. They stumbled out and Lee almost barfed.
They were standing on a mesh metal
walkway that ran through a rotating tube.
At least it appeared to be rotating.
Various coloured circles of light travelled swiftly counter clockwise around
the surface of the curved ceiling, walls and floor. Standing on the walkway it was as if they
were suspended in the middle of a rapidly spinning tunnel.
“Chip I’m gonna be sick.”
“No you’re not, close your eyes, keep
your hand on my back and follow me.”
Lee decided that now was not the time
to argue about who should be in front.
Closing his eyes helped but as he suspected his stomach wasn’t rebelling
just from the visual effects, the punches to it and his throbbing arm were
making their own contributions to his nausea.
“Lee, when we get out of this, I
think you should have a talk with your friend about his choices for meeting
places.”
“Amen to that, Chip”
Lee was wondering just where the hell
Todd was. Had he been caught, or worse?
“We’re out; you can open your eyes
now.”
As Lee did he saw Chip grinning at him.
“Don’t know what you’re so happy
about, looks like you’re going to have one heck of a black eye. Probably need a couple of stitches to close
that cut on your cheek.”
“I was just wondering what ONI would
think of their ‘wonder agent’ having to close his eyes so he wouldn’t puke while
I led him through a tunnel.”
“Extenuating
circumstances.”
“Uh huh. Lee let me look at your arm, the bandage has
been ripped loose, you’re bleeding like a stuck pig
again.”
“You have such a great way with
words, Morton.”
Chip quickly redid the wrap but this
time, when he pressed the arm to Lee’s stomach, he heard a grunt. He looked quizzically at his friend.
“Just a bit
sore, nothing to worry about.
Took a couple of punches is all.”
Chip added it to his list of things
to tell Jamieson about when they got back to Seaview. He couldn’t wait.
They moved quickly through what
appeared to be a small bedroom, an emaciated hand darted out from under the
bed. Lee and Chip both stomped on it, it
was plastic and they didn’t really accomplish much but they felt a bit better
for doing it. They also tossed the bed
across the room just in case there was someone under it, but the hand had been
on a spring-loaded metal rod.
They stepped through the next doorway
into darkness, after a couple of steps the floor beneath their feet began to
shift and slide, try as he might Lee couldn’t keep his balance. He instinctively reached out with his left
arm to break his fall and yelped in pain both from the sudden movement and from
his arm making contact with the rollers that had replaced the floorboards.
“Lee, you ok? Lee?” Chip called as he too lost his balance
and went down.
“Define ok.” Lee responded, “Who the hell thinks this
stuff up!”
They both managed to maneuver into a
sitting position on the rollers just before they shot through an open doorway
and skidded to a stop on their butts in another room. The room was filled with fog that was pumping
down from overhead nozzles. The only
illumination was a red light, pulsing in time to a thumping heartbeat. There was a definite chill to the air.
Wonderful,
anything could be in here with us and we wouldn’t know it until it was too
late, ran through both men’s minds.
Lee had wondered why the thugs hadn’t
just shot them, there had certainly been enough
opportunities.
“Chip, why do you think these goons
haven’t just killed us?”
“The question has occurred to me too Lee,
but been a bit too distracted to dwell on it.”
“Seems they want us alive, that has
to mean that they don’t have what they are after yet. They must be waiting for our contact to show
up, and then they’ll grab all of us.
Right now they are just playing with us.”
“That makes me feel all warm and
fuzzy. Todd isn’t coming is he,
Lee. He knows it’s a trap or we’d have
seen him by now.”
“I’m not so sure of that. He could still be undercover with these guys,
maybe….”
Lee noticed the fog to his right
moving in an odd way. “Chip I think
something is moving around in here with us.”
“Ya, I spotted it too Lee.”
With the pulsing red light they
couldn’t track the movement very well.
It seemed at times to be everywhere and then nowhere.
They rose to a crouch, ready to move
but still wanting to use the fog for cover
as much as possible.
Lee felt an icy chill run down his
spine.
“Lee
I’m here, don’t turn around.” It was
Todd whispering into his ear.
“Todd, I’ve got a lot of questions
but not now. Do you have the ‘package’?”
“No. Listen carefully, there’s not much time. Go to the cemetery, find Nevermore, look below the anchor.
Hurry, you’ve one more room to get through, ware17 the
chainsaws.”
“Todd, what
about you?” but Lee could sense that Todd had left, just as mysteriously
as he’d arrived.
“Lee, who are you talking to?”
“Todd was just here.”
“Lee I think you’re losing it buddy. I didn’t see anyone
or hear anything.”
“Would you, in this fog, I can’t even
see you most of the time.”
“Good point, but I would have heard
him.”
“No, he was whispering pretty softly,
even I had a hard time hearing him with that blasted heart thumping away. He said there’s one room left, then we have to go somewhere, I’ll explain later.”
“He’s not coming with us?
“No, my best guess is that he’s still
undercover with them and playing along.
He’ll break away as soon as we’ve completed the pickup.”
“Don’t suppose he mentioned where the
next door is?”
“Nope. He did mention that we should watch out for
chainsaws.”
Just then a breeze moved through the
room, parting the fog briefly to show a door to their left with the next blood pulse
of red light.
“Ready, Mr. Morton?”
“As I’ll ever be, Captain Crane.”
The two men barrelled through the door, tucked and
rolled and came up fighting. Or would
have if they’d found anyone in the room.
Damn, another strobe room,
hate them. Lee grumbled to himself.
“O Fortuna”
“What did you say Lee?”
“That’s the name of the music
playing, it’s from Carmina Burana.”
“Lee I’m never going to understand
the way your mind works. Who cares what
the music is.”
Before he could come up with a suitable reply Lee
heard the angry roar of chainsaws. It
seemed to come from all around them but he couldn’t see where they were. Then he heard a deafening shrieking sound and
saw sparks flying everywhere. Sounds and looks like they’re running those
things against metal.
“Chip.”
“Right beside you Lee.”
They stood back to back.
“Chip I don’t know about Glamorgan but I get the
feeling this might be our ‘last stand’.
Don’t take this the wrong way but I wish you hadn’t come.”
“It’s ok Lee, I love you too bro.”
The shrieking and sparks stopped and the two men
watched in morbid fascination as three figures approached in broken stop
action, circling and swinging their roaring chainsaws up and down, back and
forth. In an odd way, it worked quite
well with the crescendoing music.
Only a matter of time,
even if we can dodge them for a bit they are bound to get us. Chip reached for Lee’s hand and gave it a
squeeze, “Been a pleasure, Captain.”
“Likewise, Mr. Morton.”
The three approaching figures gunned their saws, they
didn’t care what their boss wanted, they wanted blood, they were taking these
two apart, piece by bloody piece.
“OK boys, let’s make hamburger!”
Lee thought he recognized the voice as being the guy
he’d ball busted earlier.
The lights stopped their strobbing and stayed on. Undoubtedly adjusted from a
main control room somewhere so that the chainsaw-wielding attackers wouldn’t
have any trouble seeing their quarry.
Lee and Chip were preparing to dodge as best they
could when one of the men looked up, swore and took a step backwards. The other two did the same. Neither Lee nor Chip cared what the problem
was, they moved and moved fast.
Lee swept the legs out from under one of the chainsaw-wielding
attackers; the saw flew from the man’s hands and caught the leg of one of the
other men. He howled as it gnawed deep
into his thigh. He collapsed grabbing at
the spurting wound. Lee’s sledgehammer
punch to the jaw of the first man put him out for the count.
Chip was grappling with the third man. His chainsaw lay on the floor, the chain
spinning wildly. Lee wondered what had
happened to the safety feature that should have stopped the chains when the lockout
switches were released.
Chip landed a solid punch to his adversary’s nose and
the man stumbled back, lost his balance and fell face down....his stomach landing
on the spinning chain. Blood and tissue
spattered over the floor and walls.
Lee grabbed his friend, “Come on, there’s nothing we
can do for any of them. We have to get
out of here.”
They ran for the exit to the outside, which was now
standing open. Chip didn’t care why it
was suddenly open, he was just happy to get out.
As they dashed out Lee glanced up in the direction
that their attackers had looked in. He
thought he saw someone but then was out the door.
Must be a catwalk up there.
*****
“Imbeciles, I’m surrounded by imbeciles,” the man
raved as he watched the chainsaw debacle on the monitor. He motioned to the three men with him to
follow as he dashed from the surveillance room.
If we can get there fast enough
maybe we can still catch them before they get away.
He skidded to a stop in the final room and took a
brief look around. One of his lackeys
was obviously dead, although the body was still bucking as the saw continued its
grisly work. He glanced at the other two
and then sprinted to the door. Damn, there they are at the end of the
driveway. He watched for a moment
while Lee and Chip made short work of the man on guard there and headed down
the road.
“Get the car, hurry.
We have to catch them.”
“What about Jason and Freddy, they’re still alive? We gonna just leave them here?” one of the
men asked while the other two ran to get the car.
The leader took out his gun, and fired twice, putting
a bullet through each of the downed men’s heads.
“I can’t stand subordinates who don’t follow
orders. Leave them. Probably make the place twice as popular next
year.”
*****
“Lee give me the keys, you’re in no shape to drive.”
“I’d love to be able to argue the point but you’re
right.”
Lee tossed Chip the keys, hurried around to the
passenger side, and climbed in.
Chip gunned the motor and gravel flew as they took
off.
“Where am I going?”
“Todd said to find Nevermore
at the cemetery and look under the anchor.”
Chip headed for the highway. He had a vague idea where the cemetery was as
they had driven past it when driving around the day before.
“Lee do you know where to find whatever Nevermore is?”
“Other than it’s in the cemetery, no. How many anchors can there be, probably
better off looking for that.”
Chip kept checking his rear view mirror.
“I think we have a tail, Lee.
When he didn’t get an immediate response he glanced
over at his friend, he didn’t like what he saw. Most of the face paint had rubbed off. You’re
paler than a real ghost. How much blood
have you lost, how badly are you hurt?
“Lee, you with me?”
“Ya, just thinking. Take the next left, then the second right.”
Chip left the highway, following Lee’s directions.
“OK Chip, now go left at the light, run it if you have
to I don’t see any cop cars. Turn right
at the next road, ok, see the mall on the left, head into it and drive through
to the other side and exit right.”
Chip thought they might have lost the other car but
then he saw a dark sedan pull into the mall parking lot.
“Lee, they are still with us.”
“It was a long shot, not much traffic but I’d
hoped.....”
Chip turned right leaving the Mall.
“What the HELL!”
Chip yelped.
“Shit, I forgot about this. This stretch of the road is supposed to have
a haunted vortex.”
“What ‘suppose to’!
We’re on a gravel road surrounded by fields, where’d everything go, what
do I do? I don’t freaking believe this!”
“Just keep going Chip, it’s
only for two blocks.”
Practically before Lee finished speaking they were
back on a paved surface with houses again lining the street.
“Quick, make another left here! If our tail got caught in the same vortex
they won’t know which way we went.”
*****
The black sedan skidded to a stop on the gravel
road.
“Boss, you ain’t gonna believe this!”
“Why did you stop you moron!”
“The road’s gone boss, everything is gone.”
The man looked up from the map he’d been studying in
the back of the car.
“How’d you get us in the country, we were in the city
a minute ago?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, it
just....disappeared.”
“He’s telling the truth boss, I was looking out the window
and, poof, it all changed,” the man sitting beside the driver confirmed.
The driver was thankful he had a witness, he wasn’t
sure he believed it himself.
“What do you want me to do, boss?”
“Drive you idiot, I don’t know what’s going on but
those two agents must have driven through this, and so will we, NOW GO!”
“OK boss.”
Just as it had for Lee and Chip the roadway popped
back to its expected appearance in another block.
“I don’t see them anymore. They must have turned off.” At this point the driver would have been
quite happy to give up the chase and get gone.
“Slow down, check the side streets, they can’t be far.”
“Yes, sir. Wait, there, I think I saw rear lights making
a turn off that side street.”
“There aren’t many cars around so it’s likely
them. Follow, but not so close this
time, turn off the lights. I don’t want
them spotting us again.”
*****
“Lee, we’re getting close, where do you want to leave
the Jeep? Lee?”
Chip wasn’t sure if his friend was sleeping or
unconscious.
“Damn.”
He drove slowly past the cemetery, noting that there
were cars pulled into the blocked entrances.
Probably patrolled regularly
tonight, that’s a complication.
He drove along the street for a couple more blocks
then parked.
“Lee,” he reached over and gently shook his friends
good arm. He was tempted to leave Lee in
the car and find the box himself.
Trouble with that plan was that he had to wake Lee up first to make sure
he wasn’t unconscious, if he was then as far as Chip was concerned he was
blowing off the mission and taking Lee straight to a hospital. Might
not be a bad plan to do that anyway.
Lee groaned and squirmed uncomfortably in the seat.
“Chip, we there?”
“Yes Lee, we’re here.
There are guards patrolling the grounds.
Maybe we should call it a night, and get you to a doctor. I can come back tomorrow,
it will be easier to find in daylight.”
“No, the other side could find it before then.”
“Lee we don’t know that they know where to look.”
“And we can’t be sure they don’t. We need to retrieve the box now.”
Chip sighed. I was right, should have left him sleeping
and just gone to a hospital.
“Have you seen any sign of our tail, Chip?”
“No, but I’m not convinced that they aren’t around
here somewhere.”
“Then let’s get moving. You said there were patrols?”
“Uh huh. They have their cars parked in front of the
posts blocking the entrances.
“OK, there are no vehicle entrances along the South
side by the water. I think I saw a dead
end lane the other day on the East side.
They’ll probably patrol most frequently on the East and South sides
where they’d expect people to try and sneak in.
So we’ll go in the ‘front door’, the North side.”
“Wait, isn’t that the side where the Blue Angel18
is?”
“Good memory.
We’ll go down to the other end, away from it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the guards will be
busy with some kids sneaking in to leave a gift for the Angel.”
Chip saw Lee grimace and hold his arm when he started
to get out of the Jeep.
“You sure you’re up to this, Lee? I can go in by myself.”
“Not a chance Chip.
My arm is just a little stiff and sore, didn’t notice it so much when
the adrenaline was pumping. I’m fine.”
Sure you are, I bet there are a few other things you didn’t notice
before either.
Chip was careful to stifle his own groan when he got
out. Seems
I’m a little stiff and sore too, but at least all my blood is where it belongs,
inside me.
The two crossed the street and walked along the
sidewalk as if they were just out for a walk, a very late walk. They saw a couple of security guards in the
small shopping plaza they were walking past, the guards were leaning against
their car chatting to a pair of teens.
Lee suddenly grabbed Chip’s arm and pulled him into some bushes beside
the plaza’s Pub. In a minute a dark
sedan with its lights off cruised by.
“They are bound to spot the Jeep, Lee.”
“Let’s move it, it’ll take a few minutes for them to
find it and then they have to figure out where we might have gone. With any luck they’ll go the wrong way.”
They moved out of the bushes and after going a few
more feet down the sidewalk, slipped over to the other side and slinking along
beside one of the security cars, entered the cemetery grounds. Luck was not on their side, or so they
initially thought. They heard voices and
saw light coming from a very small building.
“Great,” whispered Chip, “we’re right beside the
caretakers building.”
The door started to open and the two men moved quickly
to the back of the structure and sat with their backs pressed hard against it,
their knees up.
They listened
as two people began talking in the doorway, “Do you think we’ll see any ghosts
tonight, Eric?”
“Well you never know, Eddy swore that last Halloween
he saw the fellow that was murdered on Christmas Eve in 1890, floating around.”
“Ya, I heard that Edna saw an elderly couple all
dressed up in Victorian attire floating along the western side last year too.”
Lee and Chip heard them chuckle. Then a woman’s voice joined the conversation.
“Just what do you two find so funny? I saw what I saw, you’re welcome to take the
west side, Eddy and I will go East then along the south side and meet you.
They heard the door shut and peering around the corner
saw two sets of people heading off in opposite directions, flashlights scanning
the ground as they went.
“Well that worked out well,
at least we know where they are going to be for the moment. So let’s have a look around here and see if
we can spot an anchor.”
“Or a Nevermore,”
whispered Chip.
*****
“That’s their Jeep, I’m sure of it, boss, doesn’t look
like they’re in it though.”
The sedan pulled over and the four men got out. They took a quick look inside the Jeep
noticing quite a bit of blood on the passenger side.
The boss looked at his map and then scanned the
area. “There’s a park, a small plaza and
the cemetery. Spread out and check out
the park and the plaza but my money is on the cemetery. I’ll wait here in case they come back.”
The three lackeys started off to the park at a jog, it
wasn’t large and checking it out wouldn’t take long. A quick sweep and then they passed through
the gas station beside the park and crossed the side street to the plaza. They spotted a couple of guards in a
car. They went over and made friendly,
asked if it had been a quiet night and had the guards seen anything suspicious?
“A couple of teenagers wandered by, we sent them on
their way. Otherwise it’s been nice and
quiet.”
“Well that’s just changed,
one of the thugs remarked as he pulled open the door and dragged the guard out,
the other guard was receiving similar treatment on the other side.”
They pushed the unconscious guards back into their
car, shut the doors and did a quick check all around the plaza, front and back,
nothing. They returned to the Jeep.
The boss wasn’t surprised that they didn’t find the
agents. “OK, Norman, you stay at the car
in case they get away from us, you other two, with me. We’re going to pay a visit to the dearly
departed.”
*****
Lee and Chip were criss-crossing the cemetery,
watching for the guards on their rounds.
Chip was the first to find an anchor, a small one etched into a
gravestone, neither he nor Lee could see any sign that something had been
hidden around it. Moving on they found a
few more markers which featured anchors, and again no sign that any of them
were the anchor they were looking for.
“Well I guess gravestones with anchors wouldn’t be all
that unusual for a cemetery next to the ocean, on an island.” A weary Chip sighed.
Lee touched his arm and pointed to a set of
flashlights coming in their direction.
Before they could move the lights winked out. “Odd.
I think we may have more company than the guards, Chip.”
“Not like we weren’t expecting them, Lee.”
“Hope the guards are OK, wouldn’t put it past the
bastards to have killed them.”
They were at the South side of the cemetery and through
the bushes could hear the waves lapping on the shore just across the road. The scent of the tangy salt air was better
than any perfume to both men.
As Lee looked in the direction where he’d seen the
flashlights the full moon broke out of the clouds for a moment.
“Chip, look over there, about 1100, what does that
look like to you?”
Chip strained his eyes, “You’ve got to be
kidding. Is that a big black bird on a
pedestal?”
In answer he heard Lee whisper, “Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'”
“Go Chip, go.”
They covered the distance in record time. Crouching beside the bird they saw a large,
black anchor off to the right, not more than 15 feet away. It was set in a raised bed surrounded by a
rectangle of black sea chain. Vines
covered the ground around the anchor. The scurried over to it and started to hunt through the vines.
“Wait a minute Chip, there’s a large stone here with a
cross engraved on it.”
“He wouldn’t have, that’s just too tacky.”
“Well, they do say X marks the spot.”
They pulled the vines away from the rock and between
the two of them nudged it out of the way, they could tell that the earth
underneath had recently been disturbed.
Glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone was headed their way Lee
began to dig, Chip as well. They soon
unearthed a small metal box, about the size of a DVD tape.
“Has to be it, quick fill in the hole and let’s move
the stone back.”
“Hey boss,
over here, looks like they found something!”
Lee shoved the box at Chip, “RUN!”
A flash of light and a bullet ricocheted off the
anchor.
Lee pulled his own gun out and returned fire. He pushed at Chip who hadn’t moved from his
side, “Will you get going, don’t go back to the Jeep, head
for the road, through the bushes. MOVE!”
Another shot rang out, Lee
fired back and started to run in the opposite direction he’d told Chip to go in.
Damn it Lee, why do I
never get a choice in these things.
Chip headed for the bushes and the road, not wanting Lee’s diversion to
have been for nothing.
More shots rang out, both in his direction and
Lee’s. Lee saw Chip stumble as he dived
into the bushes. Please don’t let him have been hit.
Lee ran, hunched over as if carrying something.
“Boss, which one do you want us to go after?”
“Take out the guy still in the cemetery; I want
everything he’s got on him. Make it fast; the cops are probably on their
way. I’ll get the other one.”
The two henchmen lunged after Lee, what they lacked in
finesse they tried to make up for in bullets.
They scored a hit as Lee ran towards a tree that seemed to have at least
10 different trunks.
Great, left arm ripped
open by a knife and now I’ve collected a bullet in my right shoulder. I’m never going to hear the end of this.
He wondered why the plaza guards hadn’t come to
investigate all the gunshots. Probably sitting tight until
the cops get here. He could
hear sirens in the distance. Shouldn’t be much longer,
just have to keep away from these guys for a few more minutes.
“Jack, you hear those sirens, we gotta get this guy
now.”
“What’s that other sound, a jet or something?”
“Who cares, you go right and I’ll go left, we’ll get
him in a crossfire.”
Carl yelled to his partner in crime.
“Just be careful where you’re shooting.”
“Ya ya, just get going, there isn’t much time.”
*****
“Lee, Lee, wake up.”
“Huh, Todd? What are you doing here?”
“Come on Lee, you can’t stay here.”
Lee shivered, he felt icy cold. Must be
getting shocky, guess I lost focus there for a minute.
“Follow me Lee, come on, move your butt, bucko.”
Lee attempted to follow Todd, must
be worse off than I thought, everything is sort of hazy, can hardly make Todd
out.
Lee lurched to his feet, barely
keeping upright as the graveyard seemed to spin around him. Tombstones, tree trunks, grass, went round and
round as if he was on a macabre carousel, a carousel he knew from old. Words he’d thought were long forgotten
bubbled up in his mind, "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to direct your attention
to center stage where you will bear witness to terrifying sights that will
haunt you till the day you die. Behold the Circus Diabolique, and let the
nightmare begin..."19
He leaned into one of the trunks of
the weird tree, his left arm made contact with it and pain flared, razor sharp,
slicing up and down his arm and across his chest and back. He felt himself slipping downwards. He tried to move away to follow Todd but in
turning caught his bullet-punctured shoulder on another of the trunks, sending
fresh shards of agony through his body.
“Todd, I can’t…Todd,” he whispered
through the pain, trying to let his comrade know that he couldn’t follow
him. Todd heard Lee and quickly turned,
“Lee you’ve got to try. I can’t carry
you.”
“Todd, find Chip, help Chip. Leave me, I …..” Lee slipped down to the ground, in his mind
hearing the music of a calliope, seeing a black stallion, eyes ablaze with hellfire.19 Why am I thinking of that mission, lord I hate clowns. His mind wandered briefly down the shadowy
lane of missions past.
He opened his eyes, Todd was kneeling
beside him, a wind had sprung up, he heard the dried
fall leaves crackling as they skittered to and fro over the ground and scrapped
along the paved paths. The wind moaned
softly through the branches of the tree where Lee huddled, an eerie, sinister
sound. Suddenly all was still, the wind
gone as quickly as it had arrived. Lee
saw tendrils of fog creeping between and over the granite headstones, lovingly
entwining around them, caressing them with cold, damp fingers. The fog seemed to be slinking and slithering
from all directions at once, coming to him, for him.
Lee tried again, “Todd, go, find
Chip, help him.”
“Lee, Chip is fine, he’s safe.”
Lee nodded, he didn’t know why or how
Todd would know, but he believed him.
“I’m really cold Todd.”
“I know Lee, I know.”
The fog now billowed along the
ground, growing thicker and thicker, coming closer and closer. Forms rose up from the cold ground, floating
within the fog. The first tendrils
reached Lee, encircled him and wrapped gently around him. It entered inside him as he breathed and his
pain faded away. The billows arrived, covering and concealing him, enfolding
him in sea mist.
“Todd,” Lee called sleepily to his
friend, “can you see the people?”
“Yes Lee, they won’t hurt you, rest
now, rest.”
*****
Carl and Jack were trying to find
Lee, but all they could see was fog.
Damnest stuff
I’ve ever seen, I can’t see a thing below it.
“Can you see him anywhere?”
“No, but he has to be around the tree
somewhere, fog seems to be extra thick there for some reason. If we both fire a couple of clips all around
the tree we’ve got to hit him.”
“OK, let’s get at it then, cops are
sounding way to close.”
As they were preparing to saturate
the area with bullets, they suddenly noticed people in the fog. A couple embraced in a waltz, hearing music
only they could hear, floated past.
“What the hell was that?” they both
screeched, taking identical steps back.
Other ethereal figures floated
towards them, arms outstretched. They
felt something trying to wrap itself around their ankles.
A figure rose up out of the fog in
front of the tree.
They opened fire.
*****
Chip dived for the bushes just as a
bullet caught him in the thigh. He
tumbled down the embankment, regained his feet and made a hobbling dash across
the road. Just as he was going over the low
sea wall, he heard someone crash through the bushes and a bullet ricocheted off
the wall on his left. He dropped down
from the wall onto the rocky shoreline and dived behind some logs that lay
jumbled together on the shore. He drew
his weapon and cautiously peered around the end of one of the logs. A bullet flew into the rocks on his right and
he returned fire. The clouds that had
been passing over the full moon cleared away and he was able to get a look
around. Other than the logs there wasn’t
much in the way of cover. He spotted
some motion on the sea wall and fired another round.
At least with
the moonlight I’ll see him if he comes over the wall.
Chip heard a familiar whine pass
overhead. He didn’t have time to ponder
the how’s or why’s of it as a bullet buried itself in the log close to his head.
Damn, he’s
moved along behind the wall until he’s above me.
Chip crawled closer to the logs and
tried to dig down a bit into the sand and rocks. He kept a close watch, the next time the guy
popped up to take a shot he planned to be ready. However, it was a long wall and he couldn’t
watch all of it all of the time. It was
possible the shooter would get over the wall and he wouldn’t see it. He heard shots from the cemetery and briefly
glanced in the direction of the sound, he prayed that Lee was ok.
He heard rocks crunching to his right
and turned just in time to see a silhouetted figure aiming a gun straight at
him. He also heard that distinctive
whine again and suddenly the beach lit up from a strong overhead
spotlight. The gunman instinctively
raised his arm to shield his eyes and Chip took his moment. His shot was true and the man crumpled to the
ground. The spotlight was gone as
suddenly as it had appeared; Chip saw FS1 circle, preparing to land in the bay.
Suddenly there was heavy gunfire from
the cemetery, Chip tried to get up to go help Lee but his leg buckled under him,
dropping him to the sand on his rear. Getting to be a habit.
He hadn’t really noticed his wound
much before but now it was throbbing painfully.
He saw that his left pants leg was soaked in blood from mid-thigh all
the way down, including his shoe. He
tried to get up again and made it with the help of the logs to lean on. He didn’t get far however before two men came
flying over the seawall, ran right past him and waist deep into the frigid water. They stopped suddenly, and seemed to be
confused about where they were. They
spotted Chip, and sobbed, “Please help us, don’t let him get us!”
Huh? What the hell did you do in there Lee?”
Chip desperately wanted to climb the
sea wall and find Lee but between his leg and having to keep an eye on his two
‘prisoners’, who had finally come out of the water, he wasn’t able to do
anything but sit back down again. He
hoped that Lee would find him but so far there had been no sign of his friend.
In a very short time, Chip saw a
rubber raft heading towards him. The
Admiral, Sharkey and Kowalski were in it, all three paddling to get to shore as
quickly as possible.
The Admiral was the first out of the
raft, “Chip, are you alright? Where’s
Lee? Who are these two?”
Chip had to laugh at the rapid
questions. He wasn’t sure if he found it
funny that that they were asked with no time given for him to answer them, or
if he was just so relieved to see the three rescuers that he was a bit
hysterical. He figured it was likely a mix of both.
“Sir, I’m fine, maybe need a bit of
stitching in my leg. Lee is probably
still in the cemetery, it’s over the sea wall and across the road, I don’t know
what kind of shape he’s in. He picked up
a knife wound in his left arm earlier tonight.
I’ve been trying to get these two to make some sort of sense.” Chip nodded his head in the direction of the
two shivering captives. “They just keep
babbling about ghosts appearing out of the fog and floating body parts.”
While Chip was talking Nelson had
motioned to Kowalski to have a look at Chip’s leg. Kowalski helped Chip into a more comfortable
position and then ripped the pant leg open, swabbing away some of the blood to
get a look at the injury.
“Whoa Mr. Morton, you’re going to
need more that ‘a bit’ of stitching. At
least the bullet isn’t still in there, you’ve got entrance and exit wounds,
Sir.”
Chip felt a bit dizzy and wobbled
slightly, a hand closed on his shoulder, steadying him and gave a comforting
squeeze.
“Easy Chip, we’ll have you patched up
in no time,” Nelson reassured him.
“Yes Sir, but I’ve got to find
Lee. If he was alright he’d be here by
now.”
Chip tried to get up but Nelson and
Kowalski held him sitting.
“Chip you let Kowalski do what he can
for you. Sharkey and I will find Lee.”
Ski opened the first aid kit he’d
brought from the raft and began flushing the wounds with sterile water, then quickly dried the areas. He applied two pressure dressings and started
to wrap a bandage around the leg to hold them in place.
Sharkey came over just as the Admiral
was turning to go get him. He’d been
trying to question the frightened men.
“Sir, it’s like Mr. Morton said. Those two aren’t making any sense. They say the cemetery is full of fog and all
sorts of dead people were chasing them.
There’s no fog here that I can see.”
“Fog, dead people or whatever else is
in there, we’re getting Captain Crane out.”
“Yes Sir, my
thoughts exactly.”
“Let’s go, Chief. Kowalski you stay with Mr. Morton and keep an
eye on those two.” Nelson inclined his
head towards the two men huddled on the beach, eyes still wide with fright.
“Aye, Sir.”
“Admiral, wait, take Kowalski with you, I’m fine. I’ll watch the prisoners, it’s a big cemetery
you’ll need him to help search for Lee.”
As much as Ski wanted to go help find
his Captain, he knew that Mr. Morton wasn’t up to being left alone, especially
if either of the two prisoners decided to cause trouble. From behind Chip he shook his head ‘no’ to
the Admiral.
“Kowalski stays Mr. Morton.”
“Aye Sir.” Chip knew better than to argue, and he had to
admit, if just to himself, that he was starting to feel dizzy again.
“Chief.”
“Aye Sir.” Sharkey double-timed it to keep up with
Nelson.
The two climbed over the wall and
surveyed the bushes. They could see
where they had been pushed through by someone making a hasty and none to
careful exit.
Without a word Nelson started in,
Sharkey close behind him, both with weapons drawn and safeties off.
*****
“Lee, Lee, time to wake up bucko.”
“Hmmmm, what?” Lee opened his eyes slowly, then blinked several times as everything seemed to be
blurred. Fog, that’s right, I saw the fog come in.
“Todd?”
“Right here Lee.”
“Who are the other people?”
“New friends
Lee, nothing to worry about.”
The answer didn’t make much sense to
Lee as he watched the ‘new friends’ floating around in the swirling, pearlescent,
moonlit vapor.
Lee was feeling a little
light-headed. “The fog looks kind of
like liquid silver in the moonlight, doesn’t it? I like your friends costumes, very
Victorian.”
Lee watched as an elderly couple
‘floated’ by and nodded a greeting to him.
He saw two older men in top hats and tails going towards a mausoleum,
they seemed deep in discussion. He saw
others, some were children playing, then they all seemed to become part of the
fog, then the fog slowly began to thin and sink down into the ground.
“Todd, that was really strange, did
you see….Todd, we’d you go?”
Lee looked around as best he could
but he couldn’t see any sign of his friend.
He heard voices and saw flashlights
in the distance, and then he heard voices that were closer, voices very
familiar and welcome to him. Geeesh I know Todd doesn’t like being seen
by a lot of people, but you’d think he’d of at least stuck around until they
found me.
“Admiral,
over here.” Lee called
out, although it wasn’t much more than a loud whisper as he gasped for breath. With the disappearance of the fog the pain
from his wounds had returned full force.
He tried to push himself up, using one of the tree trunks for support,
“Admiral, here.”
*****
As they entered the cemetery, Nelson
instructed Sharkey to move off to his left but to keep him in sight. From the sounds of the sirens the police
would be entering the grounds soon and he really wanted to find Lee first. He called Lee’s name but there was no
response, he heard Sharkey calling as well.
“Captain, Captain Crane, where are you?”
There was no fog around, Nelson
wondered just what the two men on the beach had seen, or thought they saw.
Not trusting that all the ‘bad guys’
were out of the cemetery Nelson and Sharkey kept a keen watch for any movement
and strained to hear any sound out of the ordinary. At one point Nelson paused as he thought he
heard an answer to his call for his friend, but he heard nothing more so
continued on. The moonlight was both
friend and foe. While it did provide
some light, the headstones, markers and trees cast ink black shadows where
anything could be concealed.
It was while peering behind one
rather large headstone that Nelson heard Sharkey give a yelp.
Nelson headed over to the Chief,
“Sharkey, you ok?”
Feeling rather embarrassed, Sharkey
nodded, “I’m fine, just that this big bird startled me. Didn’t really notice it
until I was right beside it.”
Nelson had to agree that it was
rather fierce looking. He saw a large
anchor just a few feet from the bird. He
walked over to it, having noticed something about it.
“Sharkey, over here, look. That looks like a fresh bit of damage, maybe
a bullet hitting it.”
“Yes Sir. The ground is kind of chewed up around here. It has definitely seen some action tonight.”
Nelson called again, “Lee, Lee can
you hear me?”
Lee raised his head, Nelson sounded
close but he had no strength left to answer him.
What the
hell, what’s one more loud bang tonight.
Lee lifted his gun, pointed it
straight up and pulled the trigger.
Sharkey and the Admiral dove for
cover, but not before they’d seen the flash of fire from the gun’s muzzle.
Taking a chance Nelson got up and
running low, headed for the oddly shaped tree where he’d seen the fire
flash. Sharkey followed. There were no further shots.
They could hear sirens and voices
from the far east end of the cemetery and a dog’s
eager, harsh barking.
Damn, police
dog, that’s all we need.
As he circled the tree Nelson thought
he could make out a body on the ground in the shadow. He didn’t waste any time.
He skidded to his knees, “Lee!” He dropped his gun and placed the finger tips
of his shaking right hand to the side of Lee’s neck, just beside his windpipe,
seeking a pulse.
Sharkey was crouched beside him,
holding his breath.
“There’s a pulse Francis, but it’s way too fast and weak, he’s in shock.”
Nelson noticed that the hand he had
rested on Lee’s shoulder felt wet, when he held it up in the moonlight it
looked black. A quick check told him
that Lee was soaked in something, and he could guess what that something
was. There wasn’t time to investigate
further.
“You,
under the tree, put your hands up where we can see them. Do it now or we
release the dog.”
The police had arrived. A handheld spotlight lit the tree area. What the police saw did not bode well for
Nelson and Sharkey. Two men, one with a
gun in his hand, leaning over a third, covered in blood.
Nelson almost lost the contents of
his stomach when he saw Lee in the light.
Lee’s camo top was saturated in blood, his face devoid of all colour,
except for some smeared face paint and the blue tinge to his lips. A truly ghoulish sight.
Looking at Lee he only vaguely heard
the police telling Sharkey to drop his gun and for the two of them to lie face
down on the ground. The command was
repeated and he felt rough hands shove him down.
As he felt the cuffs go on, he heard
one of the officers requesting an Advanced Life Support unit, “for all the good
it’s likely to do him,” the officer muttered.
He continued to speak into his mic as he looked Lee over, “appears to be
a deep laceration to his left arm, crude bandage over it, it’s still
bleeding. He has a bullet wound to his right
shoulder, looks like it bled a lot but has slowed down, the
bullet is still in him. Pulse is 130 and
weak. Lips and nail beds cyanotic,
doesn’t look good. You’d better get here
fast.” One of the other officers brought
over a first aid kit and opened it up. Dressings
were applied to the wounds and a mask with a small oxygen cylinder
attached to it by tubing was placed over Lee’s face.
Nelson and Sharkey had been brought
up to their knees, hands cuffed behind their backs. Sharkey was trying to explain to the police
who they were.
“Look you guys, this is Admiral
Harriman Nelson. Look at our uniforms.”
“Ya ya, real nice leather jackets and
his even has boards, amazing what costume stores sell
these days.”
Nelson shook his head and regained
some equilibrium. He’d been watching the
limited medical care that Lee was receiving.
Realizing that it was the best that could be done at the moment, he
hoped and prayed that it would be enough until the ambulance arrived.
“Officer, if you’ll look in my pocket
you’ll find my Navy ID. Check Chief Sharkey as well.”
“Uh huh. Doesn’t prove squat mister, ID can be
faked. We’ll find out who you are when
we get you back to the station.”
“NO, I’m not leaving Lee!”
“That the poor guys name that you
tried to kill?”
“We didn’t try to kill anyone; we
were trying to help him.” Sharkey ground
out.
Another officer walked over, “ah Sarge,
you might want to have a look at what they found on the beach. We’ll need another ambulance.”
“Great, and
it was looking like a quiet Halloween for once.
You two, take these men and get them in a squad
car and down to the station.”
As they hauled Nelson and Sharkey to
their feet, the paramedics arrived. The
police had taken down the pole barricades and moved the car that had been in
front of the poles so the ambulance was able to enter and stop within a few
feet of where they were.
Nelson started to struggle, “Get your
hands off me, I told you, I’m not leaving Lee.”
Sharkey also started to resist, “Take
your hands off the Admiral, you can’t do this!”
“You can come with us the easy way or
the hard way, but you’re coming.” One of
the officers held up a hand stunner.
*****
On the beach the Sergeant looked
around, not quite believing what he saw.
Another wounded man, black face paint smeared all over his face, two men
scared out of their wits and begging to be arrested and taken someplace safe,
and a guy in a black leather jacket and red jumpsuit that had had to be
wrestled to the ground. There was also a
dead body. However, the strangest thing was the yellow craft bobbing in the
water just offshore.
As he contemplated all this his radio
went off again, “Sarge, we’ve found a bunch more people, four of them look like
the cemetery watch, they were knocked out but seem to be coming around. One of them is mumbling something about
ghosts. We’ve got a couple of
unconscious mall guards in their car at the plaza and we’ve also picked up a
guy that was down the road trying to make a run for it.”
“And a partridge in a pear tree,” the
Sergeant mumbled into the mic.
“Pardon Sarge, didn’t quite catch
that.”
“Roger that, we’ve got two ambulances
on the way, guess you’d better request a third and the coroner. Send a car down to the beach now and one of
the ambulances when they arrive and radio the coroner to come down the road by
the water. Out.”
Holy cow, I
don’t get paid enough for a night like this one. Admiral Harriman Nelson, oh
boy. Now the uniforms and IDs can
be faked, but that baby out there on the water that has to be the real deal.
I’ve read about it, seen pictures. Just
great, I cuffed and stuffed THE Admiral Harriman Nelson. I soooooo don’t want to know what has gone on
here tonight.
As he considered just where his
career might be headed after this night he heard two ambulances
arriving at the cemetery and one leaving.
“Officer Bennet, let that man up. Ski shook the officer’s hand off his arm and
scowled at him.
You,” he pointed at Chip, “how do you
fit into all this?”
Chip wasn’t sure how to reply, he
decided that until he could figure out if they were still undercover he’d
better say as little as possible.
“Not at liberty to say.”
The police car he’d requested
arrived, followed by an ambulance.
“OK, well we’ll take you to the
hospital under guard and sort things out from there. Bennet take the
other three down to the station.”
“Sergeant, did you find a man by the
name of Lee in the cemetery?”
There was no mistaking the concern
with which the blond asked the question or the look of appeal in his eyes.
“Yes we did. He’s in pretty bad shape, already headed to
the hospital. Before you ask, we found
two other men as well, friends of yours?”
“Maybe.”
“Real talkative type
aren’t you.”
The Sergeant headed back up to the
cemetery.
As he was being loaded into the
ambulance, Chip looked over toward the logs.
He didn’t know what he should do about the box. He’d buried it as well as he could. Do I
leave it here and hope for the best? It’s well concealed, but there’s always a
chance someone will find it.
The decision was made for him, as one
of the paramedics gave him a shot of something and the world faded away.
*****
By the time the Sergeant got to the
station there were more than police uniforms in attendance. Must have half the naval brass from the base here.
As he entered, one of the police
Lieutenants beckoned to him. “The Chief
wants to see you in his office, now.”
Wonderful, 1330
and the Chief is here.
As he walked towards the stairs
leading up to the Chief’s office a man, that he was now sure was indeed the
Admiral Harriman Nelson, was coming down, he was flanked by two Admirals from
the local base. The man that had been
apprehended with him and the one in the red jumpsuit from the beach were following
behind him. He also saw, coming up from
the cells below, the other two men from the beach and a third, all heavily
chained and being escorted out by Naval MPs.
Oh ya, my
butt’s in a sling alright.
He moved well back, hoping to go
unnoticed.
Nelson had seen the Sergeant slink
out of his line of sight. Not his fault, only doing his duty, but if
anything has happened to Lee or Chip while I’ve been held up here…
*****
The three Admirals, Chief Sharkey,
Kowalski and a couple of naval Lieutenant Commanders arrived at the emergency
entrance of the hospital as if storming a beachhead.
The emergency staff, while quite used
to dealing with upset, irate, unreasonable family members and friends, was not
quite prepared for a military invasion.
The Admiral hit the desk first,
followed closely by the others.
“Two of my men were brought in a
short while ago, Commander Lee Crane and Lieutenant Commander Chip Morton. Where are they and how do I get there?”
“Are you family, sir?” the young
nurse asked. She wasn’t sure what
information she could release to this man, or the others. She was saved from Nelson’s explosion when a
senior staff member stepped forward. She
had a husband in the forces and recognized brass when she saw it. There was a lot of it in front of her right
now. Must be quite the story, two of our
Admirals, a US Admiral and an assortment of others.
“Excuse me,
you’re an American Admiral I believe?”
“Yes, and I want to see my men NOW.”
The authority in the voice was
unmistakable. He’s an Admiral all right.
She looked over at the other nurse,
“Do we have anyone admitted under those names?”
“No, Nurse Chapel. We’ve had the usual for Halloween. Fireworks burns, a couple of knifings, kids
with upset stomachs, and two unidentified men with gunshot wounds. They had a police escort.”
“That’s them. Where are they?” Nelson leaned formidably
through the reception window.
Nurse Chapel noticed that hospital
security had turned up, in force, and was keeping a close eye on how things
were going.
“I’m sorry Admiral, without proof
that these men are under your authority, I cannot release any information to
you.”
Nelson felt a hand on each of his
shoulders, restraining him. The two
Canadian Admiral’s stepped forward.
“Nurse, we would like you to take a
close look at our credentials,” they both withdrew ID wallets and held them
up. Nurse Chapel wasn’t sure if she had
the knowledge to authenticate the IDs.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to wonder for long, security decided things
were now in their ballpark.
The head of security stepped forward
and examined the IDs. He looked at
Nelson, who took the hint and displayed his.
While he desperately wanted to get to Lee and Chip, he had wisely
decided that a brawl between hospital security staff and naval brass would not
be the best way to accomplish it.
However, he hadn’t totally ruled it out.
“Nurse, this looks to be all in
order. I’m satisfied that they are who
they say they are.”
The Chief of Security couldn’t
override hospital regulations around the release of patient information, but it
was a relief to Nurse Chapel to have the Chief take
care of authenticating their identities.
Now if someone could just confirm
their association to the two patients. I guess I could just take their word for
it, being Admirals…
Again, the nurse was in luck. The police officer that had been assigned to
remain with Lee and Chip exited the elevator and spotted the ‘contingent’ at
the desk. Wow, that doesn’t look like a happy bunch. He’d heard about the mess around arresting a
US Admiral. Seeing an opportunity to
score some points with his own ‘brass’, he approached the group. Singling out Admiral Nelson by the difference
in his uniform he addressed himself to him.
“Excuse me, Sir. Would I be correct in believing that you are
Admiral Nelson?”
Nelson ran his hand through his
hair. Now what!
“Yes, but I’m in no mood for further
discussion of my status. That’s been
settled at your headquarters.”
“Yes, Sir. I’m aware of that. I’ve just been notified to report back as
your two men are not under detention. I
thought you’d like to know. We’re very
sorry for the mix-up.”
Nurse Chapel interrupted, “Officer,
can you confirm that the men you brought in are under Admiral Nelson’s
command?”
“Yes Ma’am, that’s what I’ve been
told.”
“Thank you, you’ve been a big help.”
The officer looked pleased, nodded
and again spoke to Nelson, “I hope your men are alright, Sir.” He left anticipating telling the Chief that
he’d been of some help to the US Admiral.
Nurse Chapel punched in a code and
some additional keystrokes on the computer keyboard.
“Admiral all I can tell you right now
is that your two men were taken straight into surgery. One for a serious gunshot wound to his thigh,
the other for a gunshot wound to his right shoulder and a deep knife laceration
to his left arm.” She frowned and hit a
couple of more keys. “The surgery on the
man with the leg wound is going well, he should be out of surgery soon…there
appears to be some complications with the other man.”
Nelson felt the blood draining from
his face and his breathing became shallow. Sharkey and Ski moved up to stand
beside him, having noticed the sudden loss of colour in his face and the slight
tremble of his hands.
“What sort of complications, Nurse?”
Nelson asked.
“I have nothing specific here, other
than that they have stopped their procedure and have requested an orthopedic
surgeon. Shoulder wounds are never
simple. At the moment your man is stable
and being kept on the operating table.”
“How long before the surgeon is
here?” The thought of Lee lying in a
cold, sterile operating room, likely with his shoulder sliced open, while
everyone waited for a specialist, was pure agony for Nelson.
As the nurse was about to answer a
man came flying though a set of automatic doors and
ran past them to a waiting elevator.
“Admiral, I’d say that Dr. Simmonds
should be there in about 30 seconds.”
“I take it that was Dr. Simmonds?” He
looks younger than Lee.
“Yes it was your man is very
fortunate that Dr. Simmonds is our specialist on call tonight. He’s an excellent orthopedic surgeon.”
“Lee Crane.”
“Pardon Sir.”
“That’s who you’re talking about; his
name is Lee Crane, Commander Lee Crane.”
Nurse Chapel updated the record with
the name, “and the name of the other man?”
“Chip Morton, Lieutenant Commander.”
She nodded and recorded the
information.
While she was doing this one of the
other Admirals suggested that Admiral Nelson might like to come back to the
base with them now that he’d located his men and knew that they were being
treated.
“We have very nice visitor’s
quarters, I’m sure after a night like this you’d like to rest, maybe have something to eat.
We’ll quarter your Chief and senior rating as well. The hospital can contact the base if they
need any other information. We’ll have
one of the secretary’s call for an update on their
condition for you in few hours.”
Sharkey and Ski took a judicious step
back behind Nelson.
The Admirals were somewhat taken
aback by the Nelson shocking blue glare they found themselves the focus of.
“Thank you for your kind offer. I
will be remaining here. I will not be
leaving until Comander Crane and Mr. Morton are both out of surgery and I have
had a chance to see and speak with them.”
Nelson told them with clipped formality.
The two Admirals glanced at each
other, they had heard about the unusual devotion among the members of Seaview’s crew. Still, an Admiral shouldn’t be waiting around
in a hospital just because two command crew members were injured. They started to voice a protest, thinking
that Admiral Nelson just needed a little encouragement to come with them. They hesitated when they saw his facial
expression set like granite and his eyes go cold, glacial blue. They might be Admirals as well, but neither
of them was willing to take Nelson on over this.
“Ah yes, well, ummmm, Conners here
will stay with you in case you need anything.”
The Admiral indicated one of the aides, who saluted and fell in behind
Nelson.
“Your Chief and seaman...”
“Will be staying right here with
Admiral Nelson, Sir,” Sharkey provided.
He knew he was speaking out of turn but wanted to make the point to ALL
the Admirals present, that neither he nor Ski was leaving.
Nelson, smiled, he had expected
nothing less.
Once the two Admirals had left,
Nelson, his men and Conners were taken to a waiting area by one of the hospital
staff.
“Someone will come to update you as
soon as there is anything to report. As
you know, Mr. Morton is expected to be out of surgery soon. Mr. errrr, rather Commander
Crane, will be a little longer.”
“Thank you. Can you tell me how soon after that we will
be allowed in to see each of them?”
“It will be up to their doctors, I
believe the expectation is that Commander Crane will be in ICU for a while and
likely not conscious for several hours after surgery. That doesn’t mean that you can’t see him
while he’s there, but it will be a longer wait than for your other man. He will likely go from recovery to a regular
room.”
Nelson nodded his understanding. He took out his cell phone to make a call but
was politely reminded that cell use was not permitted in the hospital. Fortunately, there was a courtesy phone in
the waiting area.
*****
Two hours and numerous cups of coffee
later, Nelson was finally able to see Chip.
Sharkey and Ski were allowed in as well, Conners declined. He didn’t know Chip and wanted to give the
Admiral and his men as much privacy as possible.
Nelson laid his hand on Chip’s right
arm, he was still out from the medications but Nelson hoped that somehow he’d
feel his presence. He had the customary
IV line in his hand, feeding him fluids.
So pale and
still, but they said he’d be ok, just take time, rest and lots of good
food. He’ll like that last part.
A nurse was taking his vitals.
“He should regain consciousness soon
but he won’t be very coherent, probably not until tonight. You can stay awhile if you want. We’ll let you know about your other man as
soon as we can.
Nelson thanked her and pulled up a
chair. Before sitting down Sharkey and
Ski each spoke a word or two of encouragement to Chip, just to let him know that
they too were there.
“Francis.”
“Yes, Admiral?”
“Would you please tell Conners that
he’s dismissed, there’s no need for him to be stuck here.”
“Aye aye,
Sir.” Sharkey left but was soon back.
Nelson wasn’t sure how much time had
passed when he heard a soft moan from the bed.
He watched as Chip moved his head slightly. Sharkey and Ski immediately came over.
“Easy Chip, it’s
Nelson. You’re in the hospital.”
Chip moaned again, louder this time
and raised his arm slightly, then it dropped back down
onto the bed.
“Chip, don’t move your arm, you’ve
got an IV line in.” Nelson put his hand
on Chip’s arm to stop him from moving it again.
Admiral’s voice. Hospital, IV. Lee,
where is Lee?
Chip forced his eyes open, everything
seemed blurry at first but eventually Nelson, Sharkey and Ski came into focus.
In a voice barely above a whisper he
asked, “Admiral, Lee ok? Here?”
He started to panic when Nelson
didn’t answer him right away.
“Easy Chip,
easy. Lee is here. There have been…complications, as far as we
know he’s still in surgery. He’ll be
fine Chip.”
Chip squirmed a bit and the men noticed lines of pain
on his face.
Nelson pushed the call button by the bed and a nurse
was quickly there.
“He’s awake and in pain, can you give him something?”
“Soon.” The nurse picked up the phone and punched in
a code and paged Chip’s attending physician.
In a matter of moments the Doctor was there.
“Well I see you’re finally with us. I’m just going to ask your visitors to leave
for a few minutes while I have a look at how you’re doing. Then I’ll give you something for the pain and
you’ll take a little nap, ok?”
Chip merely nodded and Nelson and the others took the
doctor’s hint and left the room, assuring Chip that they wouldn’t be far away.
As they entered the hallway, they saw a familiar and
very welcome figure striding towards them.
“I got here as quickly as I could Admiral; thankfully
I was in Seattle, so not far away.”
Sharkey and Ski were beaming.
“Chip has just woken up Jamie,
his doctor is in with him now. We…”
Nelson had to clear his throat, “we don’t know much about Lee, other than that there
were problems during his surgery and they had to call in a specialist for his
shoulder.”
“I see, is he still in surgery?”
“As far as we know.”
“What happened to them? Your phone message didn’t give much information
just that they’d been injured and needed me.”
“Chip took a bullet in his thigh. Lee a bullet to his right shoulder and a
knife wound to his left arm.”
“I’ll try and find out just what’s going on with
him. You stay with Chip. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Thanks Jamie.”
Sharkey and Ski had been quiet while Doc and the
Admiral talked but now added their own sincere words of welcome and relief that
Jamie was with them.
As Jamieson left Sharkey turned to Nelson, “You’ll see
Admiral; everything will be just fine now that Doc is here.”
“I hope so Francis, I hope so.”
*****
They’d been back in Chip’s room for about an hour
before Jamieson was back. Chip was still
sleeping so they kept their voices low.
Jamie began his report without preamble.
“Lee’s out of surgery and in recovery. The knife wound needed irrigation and
debridement. It required a lot of careful
stitching to repair the damage. The
shoulder wound was the most serious.
There was both good and bad news there.
The bullet entered high on his shoulder, angled down. It miraculously missed the joint and the
major arteries and nerves in the shoulder but it did fracture his clavicle and
imbedded itself in the scapula, cracking it. That’s why they needed the
specialist, to get the bullet out without doing further damage and set the
fracture. It’s not a quick procedure,
great care must be taken to avoid damaging nerves, and blood vessels, there was
also some ligament damage that needed to be repaired, a very fine, delicate
procedure.”
Jamie paused to allow the men to absorb what he’d
detailed so far. He was glad they were
all sitting as Nelson didn’t look to steady, come to that Sharkey and Ski were
on the pale side as well.
Nelson spoke first, “You haven’t said if he’ll be ok,
he will be, won’t he?”
“In time Admiral. He’s lost a great deal of blood and both
wounds are very serious. He’ll need
therapy for both his shoulder and arm but he should regain full function of
both. The shoulder wound will be giving
him quite a bit of pain for some time.”
There was a soft groan from Chip,
the men looked over to find him staring at them with not quite focused eyes.
Jamie stepped quickly up to him and began to check his
vitals.
“You, Mr. Morton, are not supposed to be with us for
some hours yet. Go back to sleep.”
“Lee...”
It wasn’t a question or a statement but more a plea
that Chip uttered.
“As I just told your visitors, Lee is now out of surgery,
and expected to fully recover. That’s
all you get for now. Sleep.”
Chip’s eyes lost what little focus they’d had as his
lids slid slowly over them and he slipped back into dreamland.
“I wish I knew how he and Lee do that. They are never as out as they should be. Lee especially claws back to consciousness
amazingly quickly. I really should
mention that to the staff here.”
Sharkey, not known for shyness around officers,
stepped forward, “Doc, how long before we can bring them home?”
Ski chimed in, “Ya, you know they’ll want to be out of
here as soon as they are all the way awake.”
Nelson tried to hide his smile, “They’re right
Jamie. What do you think?”
Jamie sighed, “Mr. Morton,
probably could be moved within a couple of days, very carefully, but the
Captain...that’s going to take longer. Maybe in 4 or 5 days, if things go well. There’s still the risk of infection for both
of them. Gunshot wounds can be dirty
things. They are both receiving
antibiotics in their IVs.”
Nelson laid his hand on Chip’s forehead.
“He feels a little warm to me. A bit flushed as well.”
“That’s just a post-op fever, normal and nothing to
worry about. They’ll be watching him closely, it should be gone in a day or two. Lee will have one as well.”
The door to Chip’s room opened and a nurse came in.
“Dr. Jamieson, you wanted to know when we were moving Commander
Crane. He’s going to be shifted to ICU
in about 15 minutes.”
“Thank you, Nurse.
I’d like to be with him when he’s moved.
I’ll be along shortly.”
She nodded and left the room.
“Jamie, it never ceases to amaze me that whatever
hospital we end up in, in whatever country, you always seem
to be able to make yourself at home. Not
that I’m not grateful for that, but it does puzzle me some.” Nelson couldn’t help but chuckle as he made
the observation.
Jamie turned slightly red, “The medical community is a
chatty one, Admiral, and we tend to keep tabs on each other. I seem to come across doctor’s I’ve met at
symposiums or other hospitals who are willing to vouch for me wherever we go,
so far. The computer age helps too; my medical
practice and insurance records can be checked quickly.”
“I imagine you have quite an impressive record Jamie,
they probably would like to make you an offer once they see it.”
Jamie flushed brighter red.
“Oh, I see.”
Nelson grinned at his friend.
“I might have had one or two along the way. I’ve got
to head over to Lee; I take it you will all be staying with Chip awhile yet?”
At the unanimous affirmative response, Jamie opened
the door to leave.
“I’ll let you know as soon as Lee is settled and you
can see him.”
*****
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Oh ya, I know that sound,
heart monitor, sounds ok, nice and regular.
Shoulder feels funny. Nothing
hurts much. Someone just touched me.
“Lee, Lee, can you hear me?”
I know that voice, the
Admiral.
“Lee, don’t try to move but can you open your eyes?”
Different voice, Jamie???
“Dreaming,” they heard Lee mumble.
“No Lee you aren’t dreaming. You’re in the hospital. Admiral Nelson is here, I’m here, Sharkey and Kowalski are outside.”
Lee tried to draw a deep breath, the pain he didn’t
think he was in made itself known. A startled moan escaped from him and he tried
to roll onto his side. He felt two sets
of hands steady him, preventing the movement.
“Not a good idea Captain. I said don’t move.”
“Chip, where.....”
He didn’t get the question finished before another
spike of pain hit him and he sucked air in through his teeth in a hiss. The pain succeeded in bringing him the rest
of the way awake. His opened his eyes
and he saw Jamie and Nelson leaning over him.
Jamie nodded to a nurse standing by the IV line and
Lee saw her inject something into it.
“The pain will be gone in a minute Lee, you’ll be
going back to sleep as well.”
“Don’t want to
sleep....questions...where...how...” Lee
felt the pain ebbing away and a pleasant lassitude start to envelope him.
Nelson stroked his hand through Lee’s hair; he knew
what Lee needed to hear in order to rest.
“Chip is fine Lee.
He’s here, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Chip, ok...you’re here, I’m fine,” Lee muttered as he
gave up the battle to stay awake.
“Interesting Admiral, the way he processed that
information. I thought it would at least
be another day before he started claiming he was fine.”
Nelson continued to slowly stroke Lee’s head, loath to
break physical contact with the man that had come to mean so much to him. He hoped that his touch imparted some comfort
and reassurance to Lee.
“You know what he really meant, don’t you, Harry?”
Jamie only used his first name when what he was about
to say was going to be very personal.
“He’ll never come out and say it, any more that you
will but you both feel the same way. You
love each other, trust each other completely, and feel that as long as you’re
together, you can make it though anything.”
Harry saw no point in denying the statement. If he’d had a son he could have done no finer
than Lee, couldn’t have loved him more than he did Lee. He felt, hoped that Lee regarded him as much
more than a good friend.
Jamie left Harry with Lee,
one of the staff had brought a chair over for him. Jamie knew from experience that it would be a
long time before Harry could be cajoled away from Lee’s side.
Sharkey and Ski greeted the news with great joy that
their Skipper had been awake briefly, and knew they were there. Jamie knew that they wouldn’t stray far until
they were sure their Captain was well on the way to mending.
*****
Lee had a mystery visitor the second day after his
surgery, it was a brief visit and the Admiral was in attendance. The Admiral and the man then went to see
Chip, after which the man left.
“You buried it under the logs on the beach?”
“Yes Sir, seemed like the best plan at the time.”
“You could have mentioned it when we arrived.”
“Yes, Sir, had other things
on my mind.”
“Hmmmmm. Well ONI can dig it up for themselves. Any idea what was in the box?”
“No, Sir. I
don’t think Lee knows either. We were
just supposed to get it from Todd and hand it over in Washington. Guess we sort of messed up.”
“Things messed up alright, but not from anything you
or Lee did. Todd’s cover was blown. They knew he was the one that took whatever
it was, they had people watching him to see who he contacted, they were planning
to get the item back and kill some ONI agents as a bonus.”
“Swell, has anyone heard from Todd, did he get away
clean?”
Nelson didn’t have time to answer as two nurses came
in and wheeled out the other bed that was in Chip’s room. It was a double room but so far Chip had been
the only occupant.
“Hmm, looks like you might be getting a roommate
Chip.”
Jamie strode in, “Yes he is Admiral. Hopefully he won’t feel to put out about it.
The hospital is a busy place and we can’t always have a room to ourselves.”
Chip was about to point out that he’d never said he
had to have his own room when his roomy was wheeled in. He couldn’t see the person as there were a lot of staff clustered around the bed, making sure it
didn’t bang on anything and the IV didn’t get tangled. One of the nurses pulled a curtain across
between the beds to provide some privacy.
Chip noted that Jamie was on the other side of the curtain. There was only one reason that Chip could
think of that Jamie would be involved with the new person.
“Admiral, is that who I think it is?”
“Jamie didn’t say anything to me Chip but I think it
is.”
Nelson and Chip stared intently at the curtain,
watching the shadows go about the business of checking vitals and arranging
medical equipment. It looked to Chip
like someone emptied a syringe into the IV line where it connected to the
hanging bag. Finally Jamie popped back
to Chip’s side and pulled the curtain back.
Chip grinned but then looked solemn. Jamie and the Admiral had assured him that
Lee was making good progress but this was the first time he’d had a chance to
see his friend. He could get a good look
as Lee wasn’t wearing a hospital shirt and the sheet and blanket were folded
down to Lee’s waist. Lee’s right arm was
secured across his chest and the shoulder was heavily swathed in bandages. His left arm from the elbow to the shoulder
was also fully bandaged, but it was lying by his side, an IV fed into the top
of his hand
“Lee, buddy, can you hear me?” Chip called softly.
“He’s been sedated Chip, you’ll have to wait awhile
before you two can start conspiring to get out of here.”
“No he won’t Jamie,” Lee groggily muttered, without
opening his eyes.
“Damn I wish you’d stop doing that Lee. You should be out like a light.”
“Yes, mother.”
Chip tried unsuccessfully to stifle a chuckle.
Nelson was having trouble keeping a straight face himself. “Lee, Jamie told you to go to sleep, I
suggest you do so. You can visit with
Chip later.”
Lee yawned, “Yes, Dad.
Sleeeppp.”
Nelson knew it was the meds confusing Lee’s mind, but
he couldn’t help the warm feeling that blossomed through him when Lee called
him ‘Dad’, or the moisture that gathered in his eyes. Coughing to hide his reaction, he swiped his
eyes clear. Neither Jamie nor Chip was
fooled.
Jamie looked at Chip, “Chip you should be resting as
well. Admiral what say that you and I go
out for dinner, I don’t know about you but I’m tired of the hospital cafeteria
food.”
“Sounds good to me, Chip I’ll be back later to say
good night.”
“Yes, Sir. Enjoy your dinner.”
The two men departed, but first Nelson had rested his
hand on Lee’s head and given his hair a gentle ruffle. He’d then bent down and whispered something
in Lee’s ear that neither Jamie nor Chip could hear, not that they would try
to, it was obviously personal.
Chip looked over at his sleeping friend, or was he?”
“Lee, you called the Admiral ‘Dad’ on purpose, didn’t
you?”
“Uh huh.” Lee answered, albeit quite groggily.
“Meant a lot to him, you mean a lot to him.”
“So he said,” Lee smiled, then let go of his tenacious
hold on consciousness and allowed the sedative to pull him under.
*****
The next day Lee was much more alert and queried Chip
about what had happened to him when they’d parted company in the cemetery.
Chip gave him a blow-by-blow account.
“It was the craziest thing, Lee, those two thugs
leaping over the wall and running into the sea, yelling about how ghosts were
after them and how the arms of one of the ghosts separated from its body and
flew through the air trying to grab them.”
Lee shook his head, “It was a strange night alright, did you tell the Admiral about the road changing?”
“Ah, no. I’m not sure I really believe it myself. There must be some sort of explanation. What happened to you after we split up? Did you see ghosts in the graveyard?”
Just then Nelson entered the room.
“Ghosts? What are you two talking about?” He pulled a
chair over so he could sit between the two beds. They
are both looking a lot better today, even if they are still flat on their
backs.
“I was just asking Lee what happened to him in the
cemetery, Sir.”
"I think it's time I heard all about your and Lee's
experience, right from the time you arrived in Victoria. If you’re both up to it.”
Chip told the bulk of the story; Lee interjected pertinent
details now and then, both men skipped over the ‘road vortex’ experience. Nelson could tell that there was something
missing in the account of their journey from the barn to the cemetery. Have to
pry that out of them later.
Lee yawned, “That’s about the whole story up to the
cemetery. I didn’t make the connection
between Nevermore and Poe until I
spotted the bird. I was looking for a
headstone with Nevermore, carved on
it, or maybe a mausoleum. Once we found
the bird the anchor was easy to see.”
Nelson smiled at Lee and quoted:
Then this ebony bird
beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern
decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be
shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient
raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly
name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth
the Raven, "Nevermore."
Lee nodded, “I don’t think it really was a raven, but in
the moonlight it did look like a big, black bird, guess Todd figured it was
close enough for me to figure it out. We
found the box and then all hell broke loose.
I gave the box to Chip and ordered him to leave.”
Chip sent Lee a glare, which Lee ignored as he carried
on with his account.
“The bad guys shot at me, I shot at them. You know the results of that. I’m afraid some of the headstones are a bit
worse for wear. I don’t remember much after I got to the tree, I was pretty
woozy. Good thing Todd arrived and the
fog.”
“There wasn’t any fog at the beach or the road, are
you sure you weren’t sort of hallucinating it?” Chip asked.
“To tell you the truth I’m not really positive of
much. At one point, I could have sworn
that there were hands in the fog, caressing the gravestones, there seemed to be
people moving around in it too. Todd
said I should go to sleep, that everything would be all right. There was something very restful about the
fog, it made the pain go away. I know it
was just my imagination, but as covered me, it felt like, you’re going to think
I’m nuts, but it felt like arms wrapping around me, I felt safe.”
The Admiral cleared his voice, “You say Todd was there
Lee, I didn’t see him.”
“He’s not big on hanging around, Sir.”
“You haven’t asked yet why I was there.”
“We have been wondering, Sir.” Lee inclined his head towards Chip.
“Admiral Jones called to tell me that Todd’s cover had
been blown, that you and Chip were in danger.”
“I was worried about that but in the haunted barn when
Todd told me where to find the box, he didn’t leave
with us so I thought he was still ok.”
“Lee, I’m sorry but that’s just not possible, Todd’s body
was found in a cornfield in the early morning of that day.” Nelson didn’t feel it was necessary at this
time to add that the body had been strung up as a scarecrow, the arms barely
attached to the body. The coroner had
speculated that a chainsaw had been used.
Lee deserves to know what happened
to his friend, but that can wait until he’s further along the road to recovery.
"That can't be right Admiral. ONI has got their intel wrong. On the night of the 31st I saw Todd
twice, once in the barn and again in the graveyard.”
Nelson looked both sad and speculative. “Lee, I know you think you saw and talked to
Todd after the 30th, but son, there’s just no possible way. ONI has a positive DNA match on the remains
that were found.” While he was speaking,
he reached out to gently stoke Lee’s lower left arm, his hand travelling slowly
up and down. He gave Lee’s arm a
comforting squeeze, waiting for Lee’s reaction.
Lee looked perplexed, “I hear what you’re telling me
Admiral, but.....Chip you saw Todd too, didn’t you?”
“Lee, I’m sorry but no, I didn’t. You told me he was there and what he’d told
you, but I didn’t see him.” Chip looked
at Nelson, “Of course Admiral I was somewhat distracted and the room was full
of fog, I could have missed seeing Todd.
As you know I was already out of the cemetery when Lee says Todd was
with him in there.”
“Lee, Chip, we’ve seen some astonishing things on our
missions. I’ve heard it said that when a
person dies a violent death that their spirit may remain until their attacker
is found and brought to justice, that some spirits can be trapped here if they
have unfinished business, or they may want to convey useful information to the
living, to try to help them. There are a
million theories, and who’s to say which if any, are right or wrong.”
“He stayed to help us, to see the mission through.
“Maybe Lee, who knows.” If it helped Lee deal with Todd’s death then Chip
was willing to go along with it. Like the Admiral said, we’ve seen some
mighty strange things...
Sharkey and Ski had flown the Flying Sub back to Seaview to resume their duties on board
once it had been clear that both Captain Crane and Mr. Morton were
recovering. Nelson now had some good
news for both of his officers, Seaview
had arrived and they were being transferred, under Dr. Jamieson’s care, to the
sub’s Sick Bay.
There would be a period of convalescence for both men,
but they would recover from their injuries.
By the time they reached Santa Barbara Dr. Jamieson
felt that Chip was well enough to be released into the tender care of the
Morton family.
Lee protested that he, himself, was ‘just fine’ and
quite well enough to be on his own on Vanora,
but neither Nelson nor Jamieson were having any of that. They didn’t trust Lee
to go easy on either of his injuries and certainly didn’t feel that letting him
hightail it to his sailboat was a good idea.
While Lee wouldn’t be physically able to hoist the sails and take off on
one of his jaunts, they didn’t put it past him to try. Not to mention the fact that Lee shouldn’t be
driving yet either.
“Lee, you can either spend time in the Institutes
medical facility until Dr. Jamieson assures me you can be on your own, or you
can come home with me. Those are your
only two choices, Captain. Pick one.”
Lee sighed inwardly; it’s really a no-brainer, heck the Admiral’s place is practically my
second home. Be nice to spend some
personal time with him. Don’t want to be
too obvious though. Reputation
to protect and all that.
“I really don’t
see the problem in letting me go home, but if that isn’t an option,” he paused.
The Admiral filled the silence, “It’s not.”
“Then home with you Sir, if you’re sure you can stand
having me around.”
Nelson smiled broadly, “That will never be a problem Lad,
you know I enjoy your company. I still have a couple of questions about
things that happened on your assignment, and you can help me brainstorm on a
couple of upcoming projects.”
Jamieson interrupted, “Just make sure he takes it
easy, gets lots of rest, eats properly, shows up for
all his physio sessions and check-ups.
Well you know the drill Admiral; you’ve been through it enough times
before.”
Lee frowned at Jamieson in mock indignation.
“Indeed I do Doc.
Let’s get you home then Lee.”
“Aye aye, Sir.”
As he couldn’t clap Lee on either shoulder without
causing him pain he settled on a gentle pat on the back as they exited Sick
Bay.
To be continued.
As I was walking up the
stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today.
I wish, I wish he’d go away.
- Hugh Mearns
1 My story Thunder Rolls. Nelson loses his temper with Jones and belts him in the nose.
2 Lee is currently living on his 39 foot cutter sailboat, moored in a secluded bay along the Santa Barbara coastline.
3 My story By The Lee.
4HELLEVATOR - 4.5 G's of total fun! Riders are secured in seats, surrounding a 202-foot vertical tower, where the seat cart shoots upward at 75 kph and then free falls back towards the ground, providing an added free-falling force of negative 1 G on the way down.
REVELATION - Designed like a giant airplane propeller, the Revelation holds two to four riders comfortably in the cockpit seats at each end of its 160-foot arm. Riders take off quickly spinning up to 100 kph and experience the same intense "G" forces as fighter pilots! The combination of the rotation, tremendous height, high speed and the rush of wind will definitely reveal the intensity of the ride. Not for the faint of heart, the Revelation is for the ultimate thrillseeker!
DROP ZONE - The 100-foot free fall of the Drop Zone will definitely get your adrenaline pumping. Riders wear specially designed flight suits that connect to cables suspended from two steel archway towers. Fliers are lifted to the top of the towers and are in charge of pulling their own ripcord, hurling themselves into an unforgettable free fall. Fly solo, in a pair, or a threesome.
CORKSCREW - High velocity rollercoaster ride, features a thrilling double helix inversion as it twists and turns around its track.
ATMOSFEAR - swings 360°, while going 70km/hr, at 218 feet high!
5 Carny - someone who works in a carnival.
6 Flyer (flier) - Trapeze performer.
7 Fast Count - A score
tallied so quickly that the player cannot confirm the result.
8 Gazoonie - The lowest form of carny.
9 Clem - fight between ‘townies’ and
‘carnies’. Can also
refer to a mark, gullible rural local.
10 The Left-hand Method
- If you place
your left hand on
the left-hand wall upon entering a maze, and follow that wall all the way
around, never removing your hand, you will, after a tour of numerous
culs-de-sac, arrive at an exit.
11 Freddy Krueger’s song from the movie
Nightmare on Elm Street.
12 Noogie, rubbing of knuckle, fist, or hand to someone’s head. Generally causing hair displacement and mild cursing.
13 Jamaican slang for everything is great.
14 The contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 Combat Knife (later designated the USMC Mark 2 Combat Knife or Knife, Fighting Utility), and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy Utility Knife, Mark 2.
15 The Night Wind - Eugene Field poem.
16 Expletive of your choice.
17 Verb - ware (third-person singular simple present wares, present participle waring, simple past and past participle wared)
18 Full angel made from marble with spread wings. Rumoured to cry during a full moon. Victim of a blue paint bomb many years ago and became known as the Blue Angel. Popular meeting spot and it is said that if you leave gifts for her she will comfort the lovelorn. Young girls frequently visit her with flowers or candy. Halloween being the most popular night to do so.
19 NOX ARCANA - Carnival of Lost Souls
For those that noticed, and those that didn’t. Where the names of the bad guys came from.
Pennywise the Clown- IT (Stephen King)
Jason - Friday the
13th
Freddy - Nightmare on Elm Street
Norman - Psycho
Jack - The Shining
Carl - Re-Animator
The boss, remains nameless.