"Let Sleeping Dragons Lie"
May. 15th, 2022 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"Let Sleeping Dragons Lie"
8/28/1987
I.
When Kwali and Gornak leaped at each other and began pounding away, the clash should have come as no surprise.
Their explosion of tempers had been building up for weeks. As Gornak's mating season neared, he grew increasingly tense and jumpy. Since there were no female Kulan in the real world and he dared not return to Fanedral to court one, he found no outlet for his reproductive urges. Gornak was unusual among Kulan in that he was able to restrain his impulses at all; back in Fanedral, most of his demon brethren were constantly being punished for their ferocious outbursts.
As for Kwali, his admittedly humorless personality had little patience for anyone taking liberties. His own marriage to his cousin Kisura had been arranged by the elders, more a part of his duties as the holder of the Cat's-Claw than a romantic relationship. Lately he had been under pressure from her and from the elders to produce offspring. His reluctance was criticized sharply, which put him in a foul mood most of the time.
More and more frequently, the two Tel Shai knights quarreled with each other. As their captain, Jeremy Bane kept an eye on them but as neither Gornak nor Kwali were short with their other teammates, he decided not to intervene yet. Then, late on a hot August afternoon, the explosion came.
"Jeremy, you'd better get up to the hangar," Cindy blurted as she rushed into the office on the first floor. As soon as she spoke, the Dire Wolf was up out from behind his desk and following her. There was no one alive he trusted more than the little blonde telepath. It was her perceptions and insights in the members' minds that made a team of such strongly independent individuals as workable as the KDF had been.
As they hopped into the high-speed elevator which shot them up to the tenth floor, Cindy turned a worried face on her longtime lover and partner. "It's the two you-know-whos at it again," she said. "Talk about cats and dogs!"
There was more truth than poetry in that expression, the Dire Wolf thought. Kwali had become strongly feline in both mind and body after wearing the potent Claw of the Black Lion day and night for years. Strikingly in a sub-Saharan African face, his irises had turned bright green. As for Gornak, the dog-headed Kulan demons did live and hunt in packs as both dogs and before them wolves did. Cindy's theory was that Gornak had subconsciously accepted Bane as his new Alpha Male pack leader, which did seem to ring true.
As the elevator reached the top floor, Bane wondered if maybe he should have taken the friction between the Kulan and the Cat's-Claw more seriously, maybe not assigned them to work as a pair so often.
The door opened onto the hangar which took up the entire top story of the headquarters building. Standing at the opposite end, its landing gear clamped down, the black stealthcopter CORBY waited under cool fluorescent lights. Banks of electronic equipment and benches loaded with tools lined the walls.
When he stepped into that hangar, Jeremy Bane was stunned to see Kwali crash upside down against a wall, scattering tools and machine parts. The big Danarakan was too agile and too resilient to be harmed even by such an impact, though. He rolled, dropped lightly to his feet and plunged directly at his opponent.
Only a handful of Humans from any realm would have dared confront an enraged Kulan as Kwali was doing. Gornak was a nightmarish figure seven feet in height, covered with a leathery red hide. His batlike wings were folded against his back, but the barbed tail whipped back and forth and the talons on his hands were fully extended. The Kulan had the head of a great hound, with upright ears and a long muzzle armed with fangs.
Gornak roared in his fury, but amazingly Kwali was not intimidated. The Danarakan warrior lunged in close and smacked a vicious backhand that slapped the demon's head to one side. Tall and muscular as he was, the African champion had no weapons and seemed to be defenseless against the formidable beast. Wearing only a plain T-shirt, dark slacks and slippers, Kwali nevertheless ducked under a swipe of one clawed hand and struck a second looping roundhouse blow to the demon's head.
"Knights of Tel Shai!" yelled the Dire Wolf from the doorway. "Both of you, freeze where you are!"
That was a tone of voice that they had never heard before from him. Gornak and Kwali indeed stopped dead and even held their poses for a second before turning to face their captain. Even as their rage toward each other faded, both were uneasy at realizing the Dire Wolf was actually angry at them. They felt as if they were unexpectedly in real danger.
When Bane stepped toward the two combatants, Cindy was more than content to fall back behind him.
"Two knights of the Order... fighting? Are you imposters? Are you under some mind control or the effects of a drug trance? Turn to face me. Brothers, your memberships in both the Kenneth Dred Foundation and the Order of Tel Shai are in jeopardy. Cindy, I want you to listen in with your full powers. Gornak, you explain first. I saw you throw your teammate against the wall with force that would be fatal to a normal Human."
The Kulan demon straightened from his feral crouch with effort. "He said that I should be neutered. Like a pet! Captain, in Fanedral I would have eaten the tongue that spoke such words."
"You are not in Fanedral now," Bane replied. "You have been given refuge with us and you agreed to live by our ways. And you, Kwali, what do you have to say?"
The big African warrior lowered his fists and unclenched them as if it was the most dificult act he had ever done. His deep baritone with the Danarak accent responded quietly, "I have endured all the affronts my honor can bear, Jeremy. Do you know what this beast asked? He wanted to know if any of the women of my tribe would be willing to mate with him! And he offered to pay in gold. Wakimbe be my judge, I have reached my limits."
Bane turned the infamous pale grey eyes on Gornak, and they had never seemed colder. "I think you MUST have known better than that. What were you thinking?!"
"Humans cannot understand," growled the demon. His wings snapped open and beat slowly behind him, great ribbed membranes like the wings of a bat. "My blood boils through my veins. My heart pounds like a bass drum in my chest. Kwali mocks me because he has a mate and I do not."
"I have not mocked you," the Cat's-Claw muttered.
"So often has he bragged how strong the women of his tribe are, what tireless runners and fierce fighters they are. Is it beyond reason that one could be undaunted by a night with me?"
"Wakimbe's Soul!" yelled Kwali. "I will not suffer such blasphemy a moment longer." He stabbed an accusing finger at Bane. "Much as I value your respect and much as I revere the Teachers of Tel Shai, I cannot sleep under the same roof as.. as a Kulan of Fanedral!"
Before Bane could respond, everyone gave a start as cold yellow flame rushed up over Gornak and the demon seemed to become Human. A tall blond man with a sardonic face stood there in a black business suit with a white shirt and knitted silk tie... or seemed to. This was an illusion granted to Gornak when he had first fled to the world.
The guise was intended to allow the Kulan to move around in public without causing panicked stampedes from people. He did not physically change, the Human form existed only in the minds of those who saw him. 'Christopher Pagan,' with his forged IDs and fictitous backstory, was a convenience that Gornak only used when he had to.
"I will inflict myself on you no longer," said Pagan in a voice not quite that of Gornak. "I was wrong to think I could be accepted by you Humans. I quit! I resign! Burn what few belongings I have gathered, for I shall never return for them."
"Hold it," Bane said. "Wait a second. You can't make a hasty decision like that...."
"I can do whatever I think best," snapped Pagan as he spun on his heel and headed for the door. "The three of you might be able to kill me. But you cannot make me stay any other way." He broke into a lope and slammed the door behind him.
Left behind in the hangar, Cindy and Kwali turned to their captain in shock. It was the first time they had seen Jeremy Bane uncertain how to react.
II.
Night was settling over Manhattan. Only one light burned in the conference room on the second floor. In the circle of light from a reading lamp, the Dire Wolf sat at the head of the long oak meeting table. In front of him was a stack of manila folders and a dozen hardbound books with a scraps of paper marking pages. Most recent was a bound transcript of the lengthy interviews given by Gornak a year earlier.
Bane closed that file and leaned back in his chair, palms flat on the surface of the table. For someone with his hyperactive metabolism, sitting still and reading for hours was more difficult than any physical exertion. His head hurt and his eyes ached.
Silently, Cindy Brunner entered the room and walked up behind him. She folded her arms across his chest, pressing her breasts against the back of his head and resting her chin in his hair. Neither spoke as they enjoyed the rapport between their minds.
Finally, Bane exhaled and came back from his reverie. "Cindy," he said finally. "Do you realize how important you are to me?"
"Oh, sure. But it's always nice to hear."
"I didn't realize how alone I was until I met you," he said as if realizing it for the first time.
"Our minds have been in sync since we met," Cindy replied. "It's this telepathy thing. You're my man, Jeremy. Nothing can shake that. But we have to think about Gornak right now. He hasn't called. It's getting dark out. I worry his wild side will take over."
Bane slapped the pile of reading material. "I've been going over all this again, thinking I might spot something that would be a clue where he might go."
"Any luck?" She disengaged herself and slid down into the chair to his right. A battered old volume caught her eye and she opened to its title page. UNEXPLAINED VISITORS, puplished in Boston from 1874, written by Dr Mercado Vitarius. "Huh, that guy is even older than I thought."
"Well," Bane said, "At least we don't have to worry about Gornak trying to find a woman to have sex with. According to the tests that Len ran when Gornak joined, Kulan pheromones are just too different from ours to interact. The genitals of the two species aren't compatible at all."
"Well, I was relieved to see that Kulan equipment retracts into their lower abdomen when not in use," she said. "Otherwise I guess we would have forced him to wear shorts with a hole cut in back for his tail. There's an image."
Bane smiled over at her. "What no one knows is why Gornak is so different emotionally from the rest of his kind. Kulan have been bred for ages by Draldros to be aggressive and territorial to the point where they only function as troops under heavy discipline. But Gornak has an awareness and a capacity for self-control that's unheard of in Kulan."
"He must have been miserable in Fanedral."
"Sure. He planned his escape to our world and took the first opportunity he saw. What a gamble. Cin, he would be tortured to death if he returned to Fanedral. He trusted us when we offered him sanctuary and membership. We have to find him."
The little blonde put a hand on his forearm. "Hon, we know someone else who is feeling miserable right now."
"You're right." Bane took the Link from his belt and thumbed a button.
"Yes?" came the deep resonant voice they knew so well.
"Kwali, report to the conference room," Bane said in a neutral tone.
"Understood." The single word was all before the contact was broken.
Watching Bane thoughtfully, Cindy asked, "Are you going to call our other members? I know Garrison is in town. With the Eyeless Helmet, he could locate Gornak in a second."
"No. I want to keep this restricted to those involved if I can."
Bakwanga Kwali loomed up in the doorway. He was wearing shorts and a plain white T-shirt, with a towel around his neck. The rich brown skin glistened with beads of sweat. "Excuse my appearance," he said. "I have been doing my DohRa form."
"This is not a formal meeting," the Dire Wolf told him. "Have a seat. Right now, our priority is locating Gornak."
"Is it not our right to resign at any time?" Kwali asked. "I understood both Tel Shai and the KDF are voluntary leagues."
"You're right," Bane said. "Nothing holds us except our choice to be here. And to be honest, if it was anyone but Gornak, I would just let him go to think things over before cancelling his membership. But he IS a Kulan, he's only been in the world less than a year and he doesn't understand people that well."
"Let's face it," Cindy put in. "That's New York City out there on a muggy summer night. Humans themselves have a rough time keeping out of trouble among our own species."
"I understand," the holder of Cat's-Claw said. He looked from Cindy to Bane, scowling more than usual. "We should be as much concerned for his safety as we are for the civilians around him."
"Yeah. This is a hard decision to make, Kwali. But he's here in the world because of us and we have to take some responsibility for his actions. If he goes berserk in a crowd or if the police try shotguns on him..."
Kwali lifted a broad hand, palm up in beseeching. "Captain, my heart is heavy. Please accept my apologies and lift this burden from my shoulders."
In turn, Bane waved one hand in dismissal. "It's forgotten. Let it go. None of us are perfect. Right now, we are going to begin the search. Cindy, you were going to check his quarters?"
"I did a quick search," she said. "Under the circumstances, I felt justified. All he took was his shoulder bag, apparently with the cash he kept on hand and the VISA card we supplied. He left his Link behind, so we can't contact him. Gornak never bought clothes or much of anything else. He didn't need much."
Bane stood up and faced his teammates. "We'll split up. Kwali, I want you to take one of the cars and use the tracking power of the Cat's-Claw. Cin, you go to the roof and send your mental probe out in widening circles. I'm going to start basic detective work to see if he left town."
III.
Leaving the hangar, Cindy Brunner climbed up through an access hatch and came out on the flat expanse of segmented steel which made up the roof of the headquarters building. She walked over the sliding panel which gave the CORBY exit. The telepath was still wearing her favorite faded denim jeans and a longsleeved green pullover but she had snatched up a cardigan from her locker in case it turned out to be a long vigil.
Leaning on the waist-high railing around the edge of the roof, she gazed down at the traffic. Manhattan, craziest place in history, she thought. For whatever reason, more Midnight War weirdness went on here than anywhere else on Earth. It was the only logical place for the KDF to be headquartered. She watched lights wink on in skyscrapers as shifts changed and the city switched gears for another night.
She had work to do. Cindy was only an inch over five feet tall and usually not more than a hundred pounds even, but circling within her mind was immense power. Only a few telepaths had ever matched her in range or intensity, and there were none active none who could surpass her in control.
Standing back with feet well apart, she folded her arms across her chest and lowered her head. In a few seconds, she had shut out the traffic noise and the hum of all the minds hurrying by on the sidewalks below. She focused her awareness into receiving. It was like trying to follow a single conversation across a crowded party but she opened up and listened for a single restless non-Human mind out there somewhere... Gornak.
In his quarters on the third floor, Kwali took a quick shower and changed into his ritual stalking outfit. A thin black cotton tunic and pants that left his forearms and calves unbuttoned, it was the garb he had worn since he had earned the right to carry the Cat's-Claw. To pass without drawing attention on the steets, he pulled on dark slacks and a Navy blue dress shirt. As he picked up his soft slippers, Kwali took a moment.
On a fine-linked ensalir chain around his neck, the Claw of Wakimbe always hung. The ancient talisman gave him several abnormal abilities that were all dwarfed in comparison to the transformation in a gralic semblance of the Black Lion itself. As the sigil dangled, he felt it grow warm and tug in his grasp by itself. It was calling him to another battle.
He felt a twinge and wished he could phone Kisura. There was no romantic love between them in their arranged marriage but he had come to welcome her support and counsel. In many ways, she was wiser about human nature than he was. Their relationship was not unusual in their society. Many Danarakan men and women left their families for months or years at a time to work abroad. They send most of their wages home and returned when they could.
Kwali had not seen Kisura face to face for six months, nor had he had a chance to socialize with his relatives and friends back home. When the current crisis was past, he would apply for a week's leave to return home and refresh his spirit.
Leaving his rooms, the Cat's-Claw headed down to the underground garage where the KDFD kept two cars at the ready. Once he was out on the streets, the Claw of Wakimbe would steer him in the right direction. Now that his temper had cooled, Kwali had enough self-awareness to realize that Gornak was like him... a stranger in a foreign land.
Leaving the KDF by the front door, Bane swung right and started for Times Square. He walked as quickly as most people could run, and most of the time he covered ground as quickly as someone in a car might. Wearing his trademark outfit of black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket, the Dire Wolf was recognized by many who prowled the underworlds of both crime and the occult. Most drew back and were content not to draw his attention.
First on his agenda was to check the Port Authority building. Gornak did not have any gating ability and could not leave to another realm by himself. Certainly, he was capable to flying under his own power away from the city but Bane thought Gornak would want to remain seemingly Human while thinking things over.
The Kulan had a drivers license and was competent behind the wheel, although he could not fit in anything less than an SUV but he had not taken one of the cars. If it came to it, Bane figured he might have to check car dealerships but first he wanted to ask at the bus and train stations. With his PI license and intimidating presence, the Dire Wolf expected to get quick answers about someone answering the 'Christopher Pagan's description.
IV.
Coming out of GROSSMAN'S DELI on Eleventh Street, Pagan opened the white waxed paper wrapped around a pound of raw hamburger. The aroma made his stomach rumble audibly. The disguised Kulan had been wandering aimlessly for hours lost in an emotional storm. He was not tired but hunger finally won his attention.
Gornak could not modify the Christopher Pagan illusion. It was always the blond young man in a rather nice business suit with polished shoes and it made him stand out in this seedy neighborhood. He hardly gave it a thought. Concern about his next step preeoccupied his thoughts.
There was no prey for him to snatch up in the city. He understood that dogs and cats were something called 'pets' and were taboo. The only other creatures he might have caught were the squirrels and pigeons but he could smell that they were diseased and held parasites. Bane had explained to him anyway that people would not understand a man grabbing up squirrels or rats for that matter with his hands. Most likely the police would be summoned to determine if he was mentally ill.
Finding a doorway to a boarded up store, he placed his back against it and began to roll up the hamburger into little balls to eat. It could have been better. All the blood had been drained out and of course meat was best was still warm. Still, it was flesh and his digestive system craved protein. He thought he would need some clear water to drink as well, maybe he would go back to the deli for a bottle.
He was being watched. The disguised demon dropped into a crouch and glared across the street to find an elderly man staring. This was what Humans called "Asian,' judging by the hair and skin tones and that bit of skin at the inner eye. The man was evidently quite old and bent, his hair was completely white and deep wrinkles surrounded his eyes and mouth. Certainly he could be not threat to a Kulan in its prime.
And yet Gornak was defensive about his food. If the Asian man had approached or shown any interest in the hamburger, the demon would have growled a warning. noticed the man seemed to be impoverished. His clothes were ragged and the white sneakers were held together with black duct tape. But why was the ancient fool watching him with such interest?!
A woman's voice called his name. He knew at once it was not anyone physically near him. Telepathic contact could not be confused with hearing an actual voice speaking, it was more like remembering what such a voice had said a few minutes earlier. Telepathy did not enter through the ears but was received directly into the short-term memory area of the brain.
In this case, it was the familiar and welcome mind of the Human who had been the kindest and most accepting of him since he had come to this world. He sent the thought back of an image of her smiling face and felt their contact strengthen.
Cindy's thoughts were reassuring and unjudgemental. He could tell she wanted him to return to the KDF building on 38th Street as if nothing had happened. But he rejected that. His mind hardened and pushed her thoughts back slightly in defense. Cindy's mind was not deterred. Her empathy swept over him like an embrace.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted four young men moving stealthily toward him. Bandits of the streets, he thoughts. Pirates who looted not from ships but on sidewalks. A low rumble sounded deep in his chest.
Sensing his sudden anger, Cindy tried to maintain contact with Gornak's mind, sending out a wave of calming imagery. But it was no use. Her peaceful thoughts were swept away by a surge of readiness to fight.
Through his eyes, she saw four young men swaggering up toward the meek-looking 'Christopher Pagan.' They were in their late teens and early twenties. Black or of Hispanic descent, thin and hungry and desperate despite the expressions of confidence on their faces, they approached the blond Anglo in the business suit.
Gornak's houndlike sense of smell alerted him. Beyond the tang of stale sweat and unwashed clothing, one element stung his nose above all others. Adrenalin. These pups were eager to attack and his natural response was to ready himself to slay them all. In the back of his mind, he realized that the illusion around him was of a man in an expensive suit, who might be expected to carry credit cards or cash. But that did not seem important right now.
On the roof of the headquarters, Cindy Brunner abruptly shivered. She had picked up a presence so potent and so malicious that she felt threatened even miles away. But who...? She picked up an image of that elderly Japanese man in the area and recoiled. He was not what he seemed. Immense destructive power and immortal hatred blazed within that frail Human shell. She knew Gornak was concentrating on the wrong threat.
V.
Smiling pleasantly at the four young thugs, Gornak finished the last of the raw hamburger and over a few steps so that he was entering the mouth of an alley between two buildings. Bloodlust rose in him in a surge that filled him with eagerness. No. He had to use restraint. Gornak reminded himself that his pact with the Dire Wolf and with Tel Shai required that he never take Human life even in self-defense.
The young men approached Pagan in a semi-circle. "Hey, mister, listen," began one. "Mebbe we can help each other out, okay?" With his back to any passers-by, the boy tugged up his shirt to reveal the butt of a cheap .32 revolver.
Beneath the Christopher Pagan guise, Gornak licked his fangs and grinned. It was tempting to simply rip these barbarians apart, to slash at them with the bone hooks on his elbows so that their innards spilled out, to seize them in his taloned paws and rip into their throats with his fangs... But no. He was under a vow. He restrained himself with immense effort.
Misinterpreting the intended victim's inner conflict for fear, the thug said, "Hey, chico. Maybe you not hear so good, eh?" He jabbed a forefinger at the blond man's chest and hesitated as he felt a surface hard as stone.
Gornak dropped the Christopher Pagan illusion. Just like that, a towering red-hided beast snarled at the four thugs. The wings opened and flapped, the tail lashed from side to side. Those amber eyes narrowed with clear predatory eagerness.
And the man with the gun wet himself. It was a reflex of feeling more shock and terror than he had ever dreamed possible. Behind him, his three friends stumbled back and got tangled with each other.
Gornak let them have the barest flicker of demon-flame. Pale yellow fire sprang up over the four bandits, creating no heat but causing unbearable agony within the nervous system. The men shrieked and convulsed at the unexpected pain. Two of them fell and knocked the others down, then they all lurched back up and ran for their lives.
The demon-flame was a gralic effect which made its victims suffer terribly but left no mark. It was a weapon granted by Draldros to the Red Slashers for use on enemies or to discipline insubordinate lesser demons. Gornak had retained this power even far from Fanedral.
As he watched the two thugs stumble away in their mind-numbing fear and confusion, Gornak threw back his hound's head and laughed. Perhaps he might still find purpose even without Tel Shai or the KDF. He might be a solitary hunter of evil Humans....
Something crashed against the side of his head harder than he had ever been struck before. Lights flashed in his head. Confused by the blow, the Kulan dropped to his knees and barely broke his fall with his hands. In an instant he recovered. Gornak leaped back up with his talons extended and a challenge roar rumbling in his throat but again he was struck down without being able to defend himself.
This time, the world remained a vague blur as his vision fought to clear. He could taste his own hot acidic blood in his mouth and he spit it out. Who was there in the world of Men who could smite with such force? Getting over on hands and knees, barbed tail whipping furiously, he glared up and saw the Were-Wyrm for the first time.
This grey-scale covered beast was like no Dragon he had ever seen. No taller than a tall Human but much broader and more solidly built, the monster had stout arms and legs, a thick tail and ribbed batwings like Gornak's own. The massive head was horselike in shape, but with a raised forehead and a bony crest that ended in two backward-sweeping horns.
Where had this beast come from? Why hadn't Gornak smelled that bitter serpentine Dragon odor? The Kulan was too confused and foggy from the blows to think straight. He tried to rise but fell on his side.
Passers-by had drawn far back in terror at seeing these two nightmarish creatures. The Dragon bent over Gornak and sniffed audibly. "Little cousin! We must talk. How many years have I lost imprisoned in that Human body? Come. We will get away from these gawking fools."
The huge brute lifted Gornak in both arms without evident effort. The great wings unfurled to a full fifteen-foot spread and they shot straight up to be lost from sight into the darkening sky.
The stupefied crowd stared upward long after both creatures had vanished. As it happened, only one person had been holding a camera and he had been so paralyzed at the sight he had not taken a photo.
VI.
Standing on the roof of the KDF building on 38th Street, Cindy Brunner had experienced the brutal confrontation through her telepathic contact. As Gornak was beaten unconscious, she shuddered convulsively and broke contact. The tiny blonde spun on one heel and sprinted to the trap door in one corner of the roof.
Scuttling down the ladder to the ninth floor, Cindy reached out to contact the one mind she knew better than any other. She could reach her lover and partner under almost any conditions. Her telepathic summons went out not in discrete words but as a more general emotional message. She urged Bane to return at once, with the underlying tone that she herself was not in danger. The immediate fierce confirmation echoed in her head as she broke contact.
Running across the hangar toward the CORBY, Cindy vaulted up lightly into the co-pilot seat and began the readiness procedure. Switch after switch was thrown in the correct sequence. The cabin lit with the subdued pastel blue and green glow of dials and gauges, as well as the row of small monitor screens. The Trom impulse thrusters which actually powered the craft warmed up within seconds.
Leaping back out again, ducking low as the rotors had begun to slowly turn, the telepath checked again that the clamps still held the landing gear immobile. She snapped the Link from her belt and opened Kwali's channel. The deep voice responded instantly, "Yes?"
"Cindy here. You figured that, right? Get back here as quick as you can. I made contact with Gornak but some kind of monster has taken him. We'll be in the hangar."
"I'm on my way," the voice replied and clicked off.
Still agitated, she hurried over to the row of green metal lockers along one wall. From her own one, she hauled out her field suit and stripped down to bra and panties. There was no one else in the hangar at the moment, but going on long missions with her teammates had pretty much eroded her modesty in any case. First, she tugged on the nylon-thin Trom armor which covered her body and closed it on its hidden paramagnetic seams. This left only her hands, feet and head exposed.
Cindy got into the heavy boots, snug pants and long-sleeved jersey with the ease of long practice. The waist-length jacket, with its own inner layer of the armor, already had all the miniature gadgets and weapons in its numerous pockets and pouches. Around narrow hips, Cindy buckled the belt with its holstered dart gun. She had just reached up to the shelf in the locker which held her helmet when Bane hurried towards her.
Seeing she was wearing the field suit, he immediately opened his own locker and started to change as well.
"How about filling me in?" he asked as he ripped his civilian clothing off.
"Sure. Gornak has been smacked around and abducted by some big old creature. I couldn't quite get an image of him but he seems to be, well, a Human Dragon."
That made Bane pause as he was grabbing his field jacket. "A what?"
"Sort of like a werewolf. Only this shape-shifter turns into a anthropomorphic Dragon," she said.
"Sounds like Mardrak," Bane told her. "The only known Were-Wyrm. But he was killed forty years ago."
"Yeah, right," she said. "We've heard that before."
Bane had to smile. "True. Quite a few of our enemies have faked their deaths. Either to continue their work in secret or to get out of the Midnight War while they could."
In the open doorway, the massive form of Kwali silently appeared. "I have something to report. The Claw of Wakimbe pulls me north. It knows some great evil is stirring."
The Dire Wolf pressed the wall switch which retracted the clamps holding the CORBY in place. With his teammates beside him, he hauled himself up into the pilot seat. "Cin, you take co-pilot. Kwali, status post. Wheels up in one minute."
He ran through the checklist of blue and green indicator lights once more, studied the row of four monitor screens linked to cameras on the hull and seemed satisfied.
The rotors began to turn faster. Bane pulled back on the combined cyclic/cyclic stick and the stealthcopter rose up off the hangar floor. The landing gear retracted flush to the underside.
"Roof cameras and radar give us all-clear," Cindy said. "Good to go."
Overhead, the segmented roof rolled open to reveal a dark overcast sky. The CORBY shot straight up with startling acceleration, hitting a thousand feet within a few seconds. Far below them, the roof closed up automatically.
As always, they broke over a dozen FAA laws and regulations. Bane had not filed a flight plan or contacted the nearest control station to clear with traffic in the area. The CORBY had no exterior lights on, remaining a dark shadow in the night. Few if any passersby on the steets of Manhattan caught even a glimpse of the silent shape passing far overhead.
In the cabin, the Dire Wolf worked the stick and the foot pedals. With its advanced Trom systems, the CORBYs were much more stable in flight and easier to control than standard helicopters. "Cin," he said as soon as he felt they were not near any other craft, "Do you have a lead on Gornak or this Dragon?"
"Only a vague idea," she confessed. "Gornak seemed dazed. Either he's drugged or he's taken some pounding. A hostile non-Human mind is functioning near him."
Turning his head toward the clear sliding partition behind the cabin, Bane asked. "Kwali, how about you?"
The rear compartment had one wall filled by metal drawers stocked with equipment and supplies. A bench along the opposite wall, next to the right rear hatch, was long enough for three people to sit on comfortably. On that bench, Bakwanga Kwali pulled the Claw of Wakimbe out from under his shirt and dangled it on its ensalir chain. The ancient talisman swung by itself in a tight circle.
Five inches long, glossy black from ages of wear, this was the only remaining Cat's-Claw. It had been passed down from the founder of the Bakwanga tribe, Wakimbe himself, who had dared attend the Corruption on the isle of Ulgor. There the most potent mytic secrets of the Midnight War had been imparted to Humans by the Sulla Chun.
"Yes, yes, we must continue North," he said. "Be warned! We are approaching some force more dangerous than any Human sorcery."
"I hear you," Bane replied. "Let us know if anything changes."
"Say, Jeremy," interrupted Cindy. "I picked up a Channel 7 news chopper a few miles to our port side. They're going the other way. But I've always wondered what would we do if we were challenged by a police copter? We have no clearance, no ID numbers, no official standing. We're kinda 'air pirates,' you know?"
Bane shrugged the question off. "We have no heat signature and the Trom radar aligment keeps us from making a blip. At night, we're almost impossible to detect."
"Sure, but I still want to know. I'm sure you have a plan, you always have a plan."
"We can simply outrun any pursuit," the Dire Wolf said. "With the Trom impulse thrusters, we can break Mach-One easy. No police chopper can possibly keep us with us."
The telepath agreed reluctantly. "Oooo-kay. But what if we were caught by a couple of cop copters with searchlights? We couldn't fight them, could we? They could force us down."
"No, Cindy Lee. We'd use the Eldar crystal to vanish in a gralic gate and reappear either back in our hangar or somewhere fifty miles away. Right now, let's concentrate on our currrent mission. Kwali, what have you got?"
From the rear compartment, the big Danarakan said, "I sense intense gralic force. The images I glimpse suggest Central Park."
"Got it." Bane slowed the CORBY to a near hover as they passed over the sudden green rectangle of trees and grass far below. "Here's the plan. Cindy, I want you to take the controls when we land. Keep the CORBY ready to take off again instantly. But I also want you to clear the area of civilians. Can you give you a working space of say, half a mile?"
"Not a problem," she replied. "I can send a thought wave out that will make everyone apprehensive and uneasy for at least a mile around us. No one will stick around to see what we're up to."
"That'll do it. Kwali, you and I will disembark and handle the situation. Our agenda is to rescue Gornak and capture or destroy this Mardrak."
"Mardrak?" said Kwali. "That's unexpected. The Were-Wyrm? He has not been reported since the end of World War Two. It was believed he had died."
"Yeah, well, this is the Midnight War," the Dire Wolf replied. "You can't take much for granted. How close are we getting?"
"We are directly over the gralic beings, captain." He tucked the Cat's-Claw back inside the tunic of his stalking suit. "You see that pond?"
"Yeah. Here we go." He brought the CORBY sharply down to a silent landing at the edge of a clearing in the center of the Park. The three-wheel landed gear extended to take the craft's weight but the rotors continued to turn at a reduced rate.
Kwali leaped from the rear compartment, the hatch closing behind him. He had left the civilian outer clothes behind. Wearing the skin-tight black cotton tunic and tights which left his forearms and lower legs bare, he was almost invisible in the murk. Standing beside him in the black field suit, the Dire Wolf placed a hand on the butt of the resonance gun holstered at his left hip.
"What's your talisman saying?" he asked.
"It burns against my skin," Kwali answered. "I feel it pulling me. We go to challenge a powerful foe, Jeremy."
VII.
Beside the pond, the Were-Wyrm had dropped to his knees and lowered his muzzle to lap at the cloudy water. He had folded the great wings flat against his back. Rising again, the creature turned his lambent red eyes to stare down where Gornak sprawled.
"Roust yourself, little cousin," Mardrak rumbled in a bass so deep as to be almost unintelligible. "We must start our journey soon."
"Cousin? Are we kin, then?" The demon had managed to get up on his knees, propping himself up with stiff arms. "I did not know that."
"Oh yes. You Kulan are descended from immortal Dragons. Ages ago, Draldros himself began to breed and shape your kind to suit his purposes. He wanted soldier beasts halfway between Dragons and Humans."
"And you can assume a Human guise as I do?" asked Gornak. "I thought at first you were a mortal Man. An Asian Human."
The monster watched Gornak for a long thoughtful moment. The horns which swept up and back from his crest gave him a distinctly diabolical appearance.
"How long have I slept in timeless Void, that the terror of Mardrak has been forgotten?" he rumbled at last. "Oh, my vengeance is too long delayed. Listen, little cousin. I am not one who casts a mere illusion of change as you do. Nay, I change my flesh and blood and sinew in truth. I was born Satoru Kajima and my home for thirty years was Kyoto. Near the end of the Great Pacific War, when American bombs fell like hail on the home islands, I was desperate to turn the tide."
The giant head lowered so those amber eyes were level with Gornak's. "I made a pact with dread Draldros himself. I became that rarity, a Were-Wyrm. As Mardrak, I ran amok among the Western troops who were approaching Japan and slew them by the scores. So many barbarians fell before my avenging flame... until I was tricked by Mark Drum."
The Kulan demon gave a start of surprise. "Drum!"
"Ah, his name you remember," Mardrak hissed. "Yes, here in the decadence of America itself, I clashed with Drum and was snared by his deceptions. My Human body returned and I was chained within it with my thoughts and memories submerged." The Dragon rose again to his full height, tail lashing from side to side. "Long did I sleep...."
"More than forty years," Gornak said. "Forty years thinking you were Human."
"What does it matter now?" The Were-Wyrm slapped a fist against his broad chest with a thump like a drum. "As Mardrak, I am immortal. Perhaps Kojima aged and grew frail, but I am beyond the reach of time. Come, little cousin. Join me. This degenerate nation will burn to the ground and the flag of the Rising Sun will fly over its ruins!"
Struggling to his feet, snapping open his own ribbed wings, Gornak faced the much bigger creature defiantly. "Oh, you have much to learn, Dragon. Japan is America's ally and trading partner. Your country has become Westernized. I do not think you will feel much at home there today."
As he spoke those words, the Kulan lifted clear of the ground and dove headlong at the monster. He managed to grapple and slashed his fangs across the Were-Wyrm's neck. Even the razored sides of those canines scraped harmless across the tough scales without drawing blood. Before he could use the fighting hooks on his knees or elbows, Gornak was seized by the throat in an unbreakable grip.
His air was cut off. Gornak fought like a whirlwind of talons and beating wings and whipping barbed tail, but he could not harm the Dragon. Holding the Kulan steady, Mardrak drew back an open hand as wide and steely as an shovel and crashed it to the side of Gornak's head, then again with a savage backhand.
Flinging the stunned demon to the ground, the Dragon rumbled deep in his barrel chest. "Do not force me to slay you, little one."
Gornak could not rise. His vision was clouded and his ears rang. But he would never yield. "Kill me if you will, Mardrak. I will have decided my loyalty is to the Humans who have taken mne in and offered me friendship. I forsake Draldros! I forsake his minions like you. I stand with my brothers and sisters of Tel Shai and I will die defying you!"
After saying those words, Gornak spat a mouthful of blood at the Were-Wyrm's four-toed foot but missed. "Feh! Why don't you go to Fanedral? I'm sure Draldros would have use for your kind!"
"Yes," replied Mardrak. "I see by your hide that you are one of the elite Red Slashers. Here, let me make your skin a bit more crimson." As he spoke, the Dragon bent over and struck a vicious hammer blow down to the back of Gornak's head. Groaning despite himself, the Kulan tried to creep back out of the way.
"Perhaps I do not need you, little one." Mardrak studied the battered demon and smiled. "After all, I can easily turn into Kojima again and spend some time in the public library. Well? I offer you one last chance to stand with me. What say you?"
"I say... burn as you deserve!" The Kulan called on the gift of demon-fire given him by Draldros. Cold yellow fire rushed up from nowhere to engulf the Dragon. The monster roared and thrashed at its head in agony. Demon-fire did not create heat, only torture. Midnight War theorists thought that it affected nerve endings to simulate being burned alive.
Wrapped in a crackling golden aura, Mardrak bellowed and drew back his fist for a killing blow. The only way he could see to stop the pain was to slay its creator. Still unable to rise, Gornak tried to crawl backwards out of reach.
The sharp concussive crack against Mardrak's chest echoed through the night. The Were-Wyrm was driven by a step by the unexpected impact and a second detonation knocked him off his feet entirely. The ancient Dragon found himself sprawled in an undignified position, half sitting and half on one
Seeing this, Gornak let the demon-fire fade into scattered flickers. He turned his head and
saw with immense relief the figures of Jeremy Bane and Bakwanga Kwali racing full tilt toward them.
Stopping with feet braced well apart, both hands holding the air gun in a marksman's grip, the Dire Wolf yelled, "Hold it right there! I've got a dozen more like that ready for you." Even as he spoke, a blindingly bright stream of raw gralic force hissed straight at him.
Bane's enhanced reflexes had never been more evident. As the Dragon-flamed seared away the grass where he had been standing, he was already ten feet to one side and launching two more resonance caps. The blasts exploded without effect against the Were-Wyrm who was braced and ready for them.
In a deadly calm voice, Bakwanga Kwali placed a hand on Bane's shoulder and pushed him further aside. "Enough, captain. This monster must be my responsibility."
"No argument there," the Dire Wolf answered. "Go get 'em."
Stalking in closer, the Danarakan champion caught Mardrak's eye. Somehow the Dragon recognized a threat in what seemed to be merely another Human. Something about the talisman hanging from this man's neck...
VIII.
Kwali drew on the power of the Cat's-Claw, the ancient sigil handed down from the same Wakimbe who had been on Ulgor before it was thrown beneath the waves thirty thousand years ago. He dropped to all fours. In an instant, his body swelled and erupted outward to become a cat larger than a horse.
The Black Lion gave its whiplash snarl and charged. The lambent green eyes shone the same as Kwali's own. Human intelligence showed in the expression on that gigantic beast. As the dumbfounded Were-wyrm froze into position at the unexpected sight, the Black Lion swatted out a massive paw that hurled the Dragon Man far back across the ground. No living thing not reinforced by gralic energy could have survived that impact. Even Mardrak was shaken.
Rising to his feet, his tail whipping furiously from side to side, the Dragon fired a stream of that white-hot flame from his muzzle. The Black Lion leaped aside as nimbly as any real cat and the grass was seared where he had been standing. If they had been closer to the trees, the Dragon-flame would have started a raging fire.
Moving closer in a crouch, the Black Lion gave out a deep roar that was heard miles away. Across the city, people paused and wondered with an instinctive shudder what they had heard. Not since prehistoric times had that spot heard a challenge that primal.
Two deadly creatures regarded each other with uncompromising hostility. In another second, they would leap at each other. Either the Dragon-flame would char the great cat to a husk or the Lion's claws and fangs would sink deep into the reptilian monster's flesh. Red eyes locked with green eyes in a stare that meant only one would live.
Then an interruption came in the form of two resonance caps exploding directly on the Dragon.
The concussive impact of those shells struck the huge head with force that would have shattered bone of a normal creature. Jeremy Bane was rushing forward, raising his weapon again. Furious, the Black Lion rushed at its enemy but the Were-Wyrm was no longer there.
Mardrak unfurled its leathery wings and hurtled upward in an instant. The ancient creature was not easily cowed but the explosive resonance shells were something new. Even as the Dragon Man rose, the Black Lion leaped up entirely off the ground. Those deadly claws drew blood as they raked across one scaly leg. Then the giant cat thudded back down to Earth and the Were-Wyrm was gone.
Bane holstered the resonance gun. That creature had gotten out of range too quickly. He snapped the Link from his belt and said, "Cin, bring the CORBY over here and pop the hatches for us!"
Turning to where the Black Lion stood glaring, even Jeremy Bane felt a twinge of alarm at meeting those luminous eyes. "Change back, Kwali," he ordered firmly. "I need you to carry Gornak while I take the pilot seat."
Without waiting to see if he would be obeyed, the Dire Wolf stared upward and barely caught sight of the winged shaped high overhead. There was still a chance to catch that brute.
The Black Lion shuddered, shrank and reverted to Human form. Kwali lifted Gornak in both arms and lifted the heavy demon without visible effort.
Spitting acidic blood to the grass, the Kulan said, "You came for me... Thank you. Kwali, I am so sorry for everything."
The Cat's-Claw smiled in the gloom. "We arrived in time to hear what you said to that monster's offer. Well done, brother!"
In a few seconds, the CORBY came skimming toward them, its underside barely clearing the grass. Even this close, the rotors could barely be heard. Cindy did not lower the landing but knew that her partners were able to swing up through the open hatches.
As Kwali brought the dazed Gornak into the back compartment, Bane dropped into the pilot seat and strapped the restraints across his chest and around his waist. "Nice flying, Cin," he said.
"You take over now," she answered and flicked the toggle switch by the stick. The CORBYs had duplicate controls and a single cyclic/collective stick between the pilot and co-pilot seats. With the touch on that one switch, command of the stealthcopter went over to the pilot seat. Cindy was a fine pilot but if there was going to be combat, she wanted Bane at the stick.
The Dire Wolf pulled back on the stick. Aided by Trom impulse thrusters, the CORBY rose rapidly straight up. Wheeling the stealthcopter around, he pressed a button on the panel in front of him and activated weapons mode. Both panels slid open on the short horizontal vanes and the chain guns came out.
The CORBYs were not heavily armed. Bane worried that if he had started adding missiles that there would be too much temptation to use them when better options were available. The copters had directional nozzles at the front and rear which could spray the anesthetic gas or combined tear/smoke gas under his pressure. For more lethal attacks, he had installed twin 30mm M230 chain guns which offered a variable rate of but he stopped there.
Of course, it was a Federal offense to have machine guns mounted on a civilian helicopter. But this would be just one more felony added to a long list of crimes which Bane committed on a regular basis.
"Kwali," he said over one shoulder, "Give me a lead on the Were-Wyrm. I've lost visual track."
A long silence followed as the Cat's-Claw tried to read the gralic responses of his ancient talisman. Finally, reluctantly, he admitted, "I can not find him, captain. He must have reverted to his Human form."
An exasperated sound escaped Bane's control. "Damn. He got away. All right, we'll call a blue alert back at headquarters and get available members searching. First, Gornak could use some medical attention." He brought the CORBY two thousand feet higher in a few seconds, above the range where police and TV news helicopters operated.
When no one spoke, the Dire Wolf announced quietly, "I'm going to enter today's events in our official log as that Gornak was on a personal leave day when he was contacted by this Dragon and engaged him until we could arrive. I think that covers everything, agreed?"
In the co-pilot seat, Cindy replied in a relieved tone, "I'll type up the report myself and open a file on this Mardrak character. And don't fret, Jeremy, you know there'll be another shot at this Were-Wyrm guy. We'll meet again."
Standing in the shadows of a doorway far below, watching the vague outline of the black helicopter with coldly hateful eyes, Satoru Kojima was thinking the same thing.
M 2/12/1990- Rev. 3/28/2018
8/28/1987
I.
When Kwali and Gornak leaped at each other and began pounding away, the clash should have come as no surprise.
Their explosion of tempers had been building up for weeks. As Gornak's mating season neared, he grew increasingly tense and jumpy. Since there were no female Kulan in the real world and he dared not return to Fanedral to court one, he found no outlet for his reproductive urges. Gornak was unusual among Kulan in that he was able to restrain his impulses at all; back in Fanedral, most of his demon brethren were constantly being punished for their ferocious outbursts.
As for Kwali, his admittedly humorless personality had little patience for anyone taking liberties. His own marriage to his cousin Kisura had been arranged by the elders, more a part of his duties as the holder of the Cat's-Claw than a romantic relationship. Lately he had been under pressure from her and from the elders to produce offspring. His reluctance was criticized sharply, which put him in a foul mood most of the time.
More and more frequently, the two Tel Shai knights quarreled with each other. As their captain, Jeremy Bane kept an eye on them but as neither Gornak nor Kwali were short with their other teammates, he decided not to intervene yet. Then, late on a hot August afternoon, the explosion came.
"Jeremy, you'd better get up to the hangar," Cindy blurted as she rushed into the office on the first floor. As soon as she spoke, the Dire Wolf was up out from behind his desk and following her. There was no one alive he trusted more than the little blonde telepath. It was her perceptions and insights in the members' minds that made a team of such strongly independent individuals as workable as the KDF had been.
As they hopped into the high-speed elevator which shot them up to the tenth floor, Cindy turned a worried face on her longtime lover and partner. "It's the two you-know-whos at it again," she said. "Talk about cats and dogs!"
There was more truth than poetry in that expression, the Dire Wolf thought. Kwali had become strongly feline in both mind and body after wearing the potent Claw of the Black Lion day and night for years. Strikingly in a sub-Saharan African face, his irises had turned bright green. As for Gornak, the dog-headed Kulan demons did live and hunt in packs as both dogs and before them wolves did. Cindy's theory was that Gornak had subconsciously accepted Bane as his new Alpha Male pack leader, which did seem to ring true.
As the elevator reached the top floor, Bane wondered if maybe he should have taken the friction between the Kulan and the Cat's-Claw more seriously, maybe not assigned them to work as a pair so often.
The door opened onto the hangar which took up the entire top story of the headquarters building. Standing at the opposite end, its landing gear clamped down, the black stealthcopter CORBY waited under cool fluorescent lights. Banks of electronic equipment and benches loaded with tools lined the walls.
When he stepped into that hangar, Jeremy Bane was stunned to see Kwali crash upside down against a wall, scattering tools and machine parts. The big Danarakan was too agile and too resilient to be harmed even by such an impact, though. He rolled, dropped lightly to his feet and plunged directly at his opponent.
Only a handful of Humans from any realm would have dared confront an enraged Kulan as Kwali was doing. Gornak was a nightmarish figure seven feet in height, covered with a leathery red hide. His batlike wings were folded against his back, but the barbed tail whipped back and forth and the talons on his hands were fully extended. The Kulan had the head of a great hound, with upright ears and a long muzzle armed with fangs.
Gornak roared in his fury, but amazingly Kwali was not intimidated. The Danarakan warrior lunged in close and smacked a vicious backhand that slapped the demon's head to one side. Tall and muscular as he was, the African champion had no weapons and seemed to be defenseless against the formidable beast. Wearing only a plain T-shirt, dark slacks and slippers, Kwali nevertheless ducked under a swipe of one clawed hand and struck a second looping roundhouse blow to the demon's head.
"Knights of Tel Shai!" yelled the Dire Wolf from the doorway. "Both of you, freeze where you are!"
That was a tone of voice that they had never heard before from him. Gornak and Kwali indeed stopped dead and even held their poses for a second before turning to face their captain. Even as their rage toward each other faded, both were uneasy at realizing the Dire Wolf was actually angry at them. They felt as if they were unexpectedly in real danger.
When Bane stepped toward the two combatants, Cindy was more than content to fall back behind him.
"Two knights of the Order... fighting? Are you imposters? Are you under some mind control or the effects of a drug trance? Turn to face me. Brothers, your memberships in both the Kenneth Dred Foundation and the Order of Tel Shai are in jeopardy. Cindy, I want you to listen in with your full powers. Gornak, you explain first. I saw you throw your teammate against the wall with force that would be fatal to a normal Human."
The Kulan demon straightened from his feral crouch with effort. "He said that I should be neutered. Like a pet! Captain, in Fanedral I would have eaten the tongue that spoke such words."
"You are not in Fanedral now," Bane replied. "You have been given refuge with us and you agreed to live by our ways. And you, Kwali, what do you have to say?"
The big African warrior lowered his fists and unclenched them as if it was the most dificult act he had ever done. His deep baritone with the Danarak accent responded quietly, "I have endured all the affronts my honor can bear, Jeremy. Do you know what this beast asked? He wanted to know if any of the women of my tribe would be willing to mate with him! And he offered to pay in gold. Wakimbe be my judge, I have reached my limits."
Bane turned the infamous pale grey eyes on Gornak, and they had never seemed colder. "I think you MUST have known better than that. What were you thinking?!"
"Humans cannot understand," growled the demon. His wings snapped open and beat slowly behind him, great ribbed membranes like the wings of a bat. "My blood boils through my veins. My heart pounds like a bass drum in my chest. Kwali mocks me because he has a mate and I do not."
"I have not mocked you," the Cat's-Claw muttered.
"So often has he bragged how strong the women of his tribe are, what tireless runners and fierce fighters they are. Is it beyond reason that one could be undaunted by a night with me?"
"Wakimbe's Soul!" yelled Kwali. "I will not suffer such blasphemy a moment longer." He stabbed an accusing finger at Bane. "Much as I value your respect and much as I revere the Teachers of Tel Shai, I cannot sleep under the same roof as.. as a Kulan of Fanedral!"
Before Bane could respond, everyone gave a start as cold yellow flame rushed up over Gornak and the demon seemed to become Human. A tall blond man with a sardonic face stood there in a black business suit with a white shirt and knitted silk tie... or seemed to. This was an illusion granted to Gornak when he had first fled to the world.
The guise was intended to allow the Kulan to move around in public without causing panicked stampedes from people. He did not physically change, the Human form existed only in the minds of those who saw him. 'Christopher Pagan,' with his forged IDs and fictitous backstory, was a convenience that Gornak only used when he had to.
"I will inflict myself on you no longer," said Pagan in a voice not quite that of Gornak. "I was wrong to think I could be accepted by you Humans. I quit! I resign! Burn what few belongings I have gathered, for I shall never return for them."
"Hold it," Bane said. "Wait a second. You can't make a hasty decision like that...."
"I can do whatever I think best," snapped Pagan as he spun on his heel and headed for the door. "The three of you might be able to kill me. But you cannot make me stay any other way." He broke into a lope and slammed the door behind him.
Left behind in the hangar, Cindy and Kwali turned to their captain in shock. It was the first time they had seen Jeremy Bane uncertain how to react.
II.
Night was settling over Manhattan. Only one light burned in the conference room on the second floor. In the circle of light from a reading lamp, the Dire Wolf sat at the head of the long oak meeting table. In front of him was a stack of manila folders and a dozen hardbound books with a scraps of paper marking pages. Most recent was a bound transcript of the lengthy interviews given by Gornak a year earlier.
Bane closed that file and leaned back in his chair, palms flat on the surface of the table. For someone with his hyperactive metabolism, sitting still and reading for hours was more difficult than any physical exertion. His head hurt and his eyes ached.
Silently, Cindy Brunner entered the room and walked up behind him. She folded her arms across his chest, pressing her breasts against the back of his head and resting her chin in his hair. Neither spoke as they enjoyed the rapport between their minds.
Finally, Bane exhaled and came back from his reverie. "Cindy," he said finally. "Do you realize how important you are to me?"
"Oh, sure. But it's always nice to hear."
"I didn't realize how alone I was until I met you," he said as if realizing it for the first time.
"Our minds have been in sync since we met," Cindy replied. "It's this telepathy thing. You're my man, Jeremy. Nothing can shake that. But we have to think about Gornak right now. He hasn't called. It's getting dark out. I worry his wild side will take over."
Bane slapped the pile of reading material. "I've been going over all this again, thinking I might spot something that would be a clue where he might go."
"Any luck?" She disengaged herself and slid down into the chair to his right. A battered old volume caught her eye and she opened to its title page. UNEXPLAINED VISITORS, puplished in Boston from 1874, written by Dr Mercado Vitarius. "Huh, that guy is even older than I thought."
"Well," Bane said, "At least we don't have to worry about Gornak trying to find a woman to have sex with. According to the tests that Len ran when Gornak joined, Kulan pheromones are just too different from ours to interact. The genitals of the two species aren't compatible at all."
"Well, I was relieved to see that Kulan equipment retracts into their lower abdomen when not in use," she said. "Otherwise I guess we would have forced him to wear shorts with a hole cut in back for his tail. There's an image."
Bane smiled over at her. "What no one knows is why Gornak is so different emotionally from the rest of his kind. Kulan have been bred for ages by Draldros to be aggressive and territorial to the point where they only function as troops under heavy discipline. But Gornak has an awareness and a capacity for self-control that's unheard of in Kulan."
"He must have been miserable in Fanedral."
"Sure. He planned his escape to our world and took the first opportunity he saw. What a gamble. Cin, he would be tortured to death if he returned to Fanedral. He trusted us when we offered him sanctuary and membership. We have to find him."
The little blonde put a hand on his forearm. "Hon, we know someone else who is feeling miserable right now."
"You're right." Bane took the Link from his belt and thumbed a button.
"Yes?" came the deep resonant voice they knew so well.
"Kwali, report to the conference room," Bane said in a neutral tone.
"Understood." The single word was all before the contact was broken.
Watching Bane thoughtfully, Cindy asked, "Are you going to call our other members? I know Garrison is in town. With the Eyeless Helmet, he could locate Gornak in a second."
"No. I want to keep this restricted to those involved if I can."
Bakwanga Kwali loomed up in the doorway. He was wearing shorts and a plain white T-shirt, with a towel around his neck. The rich brown skin glistened with beads of sweat. "Excuse my appearance," he said. "I have been doing my DohRa form."
"This is not a formal meeting," the Dire Wolf told him. "Have a seat. Right now, our priority is locating Gornak."
"Is it not our right to resign at any time?" Kwali asked. "I understood both Tel Shai and the KDF are voluntary leagues."
"You're right," Bane said. "Nothing holds us except our choice to be here. And to be honest, if it was anyone but Gornak, I would just let him go to think things over before cancelling his membership. But he IS a Kulan, he's only been in the world less than a year and he doesn't understand people that well."
"Let's face it," Cindy put in. "That's New York City out there on a muggy summer night. Humans themselves have a rough time keeping out of trouble among our own species."
"I understand," the holder of Cat's-Claw said. He looked from Cindy to Bane, scowling more than usual. "We should be as much concerned for his safety as we are for the civilians around him."
"Yeah. This is a hard decision to make, Kwali. But he's here in the world because of us and we have to take some responsibility for his actions. If he goes berserk in a crowd or if the police try shotguns on him..."
Kwali lifted a broad hand, palm up in beseeching. "Captain, my heart is heavy. Please accept my apologies and lift this burden from my shoulders."
In turn, Bane waved one hand in dismissal. "It's forgotten. Let it go. None of us are perfect. Right now, we are going to begin the search. Cindy, you were going to check his quarters?"
"I did a quick search," she said. "Under the circumstances, I felt justified. All he took was his shoulder bag, apparently with the cash he kept on hand and the VISA card we supplied. He left his Link behind, so we can't contact him. Gornak never bought clothes or much of anything else. He didn't need much."
Bane stood up and faced his teammates. "We'll split up. Kwali, I want you to take one of the cars and use the tracking power of the Cat's-Claw. Cin, you go to the roof and send your mental probe out in widening circles. I'm going to start basic detective work to see if he left town."
III.
Leaving the hangar, Cindy Brunner climbed up through an access hatch and came out on the flat expanse of segmented steel which made up the roof of the headquarters building. She walked over the sliding panel which gave the CORBY exit. The telepath was still wearing her favorite faded denim jeans and a longsleeved green pullover but she had snatched up a cardigan from her locker in case it turned out to be a long vigil.
Leaning on the waist-high railing around the edge of the roof, she gazed down at the traffic. Manhattan, craziest place in history, she thought. For whatever reason, more Midnight War weirdness went on here than anywhere else on Earth. It was the only logical place for the KDF to be headquartered. She watched lights wink on in skyscrapers as shifts changed and the city switched gears for another night.
She had work to do. Cindy was only an inch over five feet tall and usually not more than a hundred pounds even, but circling within her mind was immense power. Only a few telepaths had ever matched her in range or intensity, and there were none active none who could surpass her in control.
Standing back with feet well apart, she folded her arms across her chest and lowered her head. In a few seconds, she had shut out the traffic noise and the hum of all the minds hurrying by on the sidewalks below. She focused her awareness into receiving. It was like trying to follow a single conversation across a crowded party but she opened up and listened for a single restless non-Human mind out there somewhere... Gornak.
In his quarters on the third floor, Kwali took a quick shower and changed into his ritual stalking outfit. A thin black cotton tunic and pants that left his forearms and calves unbuttoned, it was the garb he had worn since he had earned the right to carry the Cat's-Claw. To pass without drawing attention on the steets, he pulled on dark slacks and a Navy blue dress shirt. As he picked up his soft slippers, Kwali took a moment.
On a fine-linked ensalir chain around his neck, the Claw of Wakimbe always hung. The ancient talisman gave him several abnormal abilities that were all dwarfed in comparison to the transformation in a gralic semblance of the Black Lion itself. As the sigil dangled, he felt it grow warm and tug in his grasp by itself. It was calling him to another battle.
He felt a twinge and wished he could phone Kisura. There was no romantic love between them in their arranged marriage but he had come to welcome her support and counsel. In many ways, she was wiser about human nature than he was. Their relationship was not unusual in their society. Many Danarakan men and women left their families for months or years at a time to work abroad. They send most of their wages home and returned when they could.
Kwali had not seen Kisura face to face for six months, nor had he had a chance to socialize with his relatives and friends back home. When the current crisis was past, he would apply for a week's leave to return home and refresh his spirit.
Leaving his rooms, the Cat's-Claw headed down to the underground garage where the KDFD kept two cars at the ready. Once he was out on the streets, the Claw of Wakimbe would steer him in the right direction. Now that his temper had cooled, Kwali had enough self-awareness to realize that Gornak was like him... a stranger in a foreign land.
Leaving the KDF by the front door, Bane swung right and started for Times Square. He walked as quickly as most people could run, and most of the time he covered ground as quickly as someone in a car might. Wearing his trademark outfit of black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket, the Dire Wolf was recognized by many who prowled the underworlds of both crime and the occult. Most drew back and were content not to draw his attention.
First on his agenda was to check the Port Authority building. Gornak did not have any gating ability and could not leave to another realm by himself. Certainly, he was capable to flying under his own power away from the city but Bane thought Gornak would want to remain seemingly Human while thinking things over.
The Kulan had a drivers license and was competent behind the wheel, although he could not fit in anything less than an SUV but he had not taken one of the cars. If it came to it, Bane figured he might have to check car dealerships but first he wanted to ask at the bus and train stations. With his PI license and intimidating presence, the Dire Wolf expected to get quick answers about someone answering the 'Christopher Pagan's description.
IV.
Coming out of GROSSMAN'S DELI on Eleventh Street, Pagan opened the white waxed paper wrapped around a pound of raw hamburger. The aroma made his stomach rumble audibly. The disguised Kulan had been wandering aimlessly for hours lost in an emotional storm. He was not tired but hunger finally won his attention.
Gornak could not modify the Christopher Pagan illusion. It was always the blond young man in a rather nice business suit with polished shoes and it made him stand out in this seedy neighborhood. He hardly gave it a thought. Concern about his next step preeoccupied his thoughts.
There was no prey for him to snatch up in the city. He understood that dogs and cats were something called 'pets' and were taboo. The only other creatures he might have caught were the squirrels and pigeons but he could smell that they were diseased and held parasites. Bane had explained to him anyway that people would not understand a man grabbing up squirrels or rats for that matter with his hands. Most likely the police would be summoned to determine if he was mentally ill.
Finding a doorway to a boarded up store, he placed his back against it and began to roll up the hamburger into little balls to eat. It could have been better. All the blood had been drained out and of course meat was best was still warm. Still, it was flesh and his digestive system craved protein. He thought he would need some clear water to drink as well, maybe he would go back to the deli for a bottle.
He was being watched. The disguised demon dropped into a crouch and glared across the street to find an elderly man staring. This was what Humans called "Asian,' judging by the hair and skin tones and that bit of skin at the inner eye. The man was evidently quite old and bent, his hair was completely white and deep wrinkles surrounded his eyes and mouth. Certainly he could be not threat to a Kulan in its prime.
And yet Gornak was defensive about his food. If the Asian man had approached or shown any interest in the hamburger, the demon would have growled a warning. noticed the man seemed to be impoverished. His clothes were ragged and the white sneakers were held together with black duct tape. But why was the ancient fool watching him with such interest?!
A woman's voice called his name. He knew at once it was not anyone physically near him. Telepathic contact could not be confused with hearing an actual voice speaking, it was more like remembering what such a voice had said a few minutes earlier. Telepathy did not enter through the ears but was received directly into the short-term memory area of the brain.
In this case, it was the familiar and welcome mind of the Human who had been the kindest and most accepting of him since he had come to this world. He sent the thought back of an image of her smiling face and felt their contact strengthen.
Cindy's thoughts were reassuring and unjudgemental. He could tell she wanted him to return to the KDF building on 38th Street as if nothing had happened. But he rejected that. His mind hardened and pushed her thoughts back slightly in defense. Cindy's mind was not deterred. Her empathy swept over him like an embrace.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted four young men moving stealthily toward him. Bandits of the streets, he thoughts. Pirates who looted not from ships but on sidewalks. A low rumble sounded deep in his chest.
Sensing his sudden anger, Cindy tried to maintain contact with Gornak's mind, sending out a wave of calming imagery. But it was no use. Her peaceful thoughts were swept away by a surge of readiness to fight.
Through his eyes, she saw four young men swaggering up toward the meek-looking 'Christopher Pagan.' They were in their late teens and early twenties. Black or of Hispanic descent, thin and hungry and desperate despite the expressions of confidence on their faces, they approached the blond Anglo in the business suit.
Gornak's houndlike sense of smell alerted him. Beyond the tang of stale sweat and unwashed clothing, one element stung his nose above all others. Adrenalin. These pups were eager to attack and his natural response was to ready himself to slay them all. In the back of his mind, he realized that the illusion around him was of a man in an expensive suit, who might be expected to carry credit cards or cash. But that did not seem important right now.
On the roof of the headquarters, Cindy Brunner abruptly shivered. She had picked up a presence so potent and so malicious that she felt threatened even miles away. But who...? She picked up an image of that elderly Japanese man in the area and recoiled. He was not what he seemed. Immense destructive power and immortal hatred blazed within that frail Human shell. She knew Gornak was concentrating on the wrong threat.
V.
Smiling pleasantly at the four young thugs, Gornak finished the last of the raw hamburger and over a few steps so that he was entering the mouth of an alley between two buildings. Bloodlust rose in him in a surge that filled him with eagerness. No. He had to use restraint. Gornak reminded himself that his pact with the Dire Wolf and with Tel Shai required that he never take Human life even in self-defense.
The young men approached Pagan in a semi-circle. "Hey, mister, listen," began one. "Mebbe we can help each other out, okay?" With his back to any passers-by, the boy tugged up his shirt to reveal the butt of a cheap .32 revolver.
Beneath the Christopher Pagan guise, Gornak licked his fangs and grinned. It was tempting to simply rip these barbarians apart, to slash at them with the bone hooks on his elbows so that their innards spilled out, to seize them in his taloned paws and rip into their throats with his fangs... But no. He was under a vow. He restrained himself with immense effort.
Misinterpreting the intended victim's inner conflict for fear, the thug said, "Hey, chico. Maybe you not hear so good, eh?" He jabbed a forefinger at the blond man's chest and hesitated as he felt a surface hard as stone.
Gornak dropped the Christopher Pagan illusion. Just like that, a towering red-hided beast snarled at the four thugs. The wings opened and flapped, the tail lashed from side to side. Those amber eyes narrowed with clear predatory eagerness.
And the man with the gun wet himself. It was a reflex of feeling more shock and terror than he had ever dreamed possible. Behind him, his three friends stumbled back and got tangled with each other.
Gornak let them have the barest flicker of demon-flame. Pale yellow fire sprang up over the four bandits, creating no heat but causing unbearable agony within the nervous system. The men shrieked and convulsed at the unexpected pain. Two of them fell and knocked the others down, then they all lurched back up and ran for their lives.
The demon-flame was a gralic effect which made its victims suffer terribly but left no mark. It was a weapon granted by Draldros to the Red Slashers for use on enemies or to discipline insubordinate lesser demons. Gornak had retained this power even far from Fanedral.
As he watched the two thugs stumble away in their mind-numbing fear and confusion, Gornak threw back his hound's head and laughed. Perhaps he might still find purpose even without Tel Shai or the KDF. He might be a solitary hunter of evil Humans....
Something crashed against the side of his head harder than he had ever been struck before. Lights flashed in his head. Confused by the blow, the Kulan dropped to his knees and barely broke his fall with his hands. In an instant he recovered. Gornak leaped back up with his talons extended and a challenge roar rumbling in his throat but again he was struck down without being able to defend himself.
This time, the world remained a vague blur as his vision fought to clear. He could taste his own hot acidic blood in his mouth and he spit it out. Who was there in the world of Men who could smite with such force? Getting over on hands and knees, barbed tail whipping furiously, he glared up and saw the Were-Wyrm for the first time.
This grey-scale covered beast was like no Dragon he had ever seen. No taller than a tall Human but much broader and more solidly built, the monster had stout arms and legs, a thick tail and ribbed batwings like Gornak's own. The massive head was horselike in shape, but with a raised forehead and a bony crest that ended in two backward-sweeping horns.
Where had this beast come from? Why hadn't Gornak smelled that bitter serpentine Dragon odor? The Kulan was too confused and foggy from the blows to think straight. He tried to rise but fell on his side.
Passers-by had drawn far back in terror at seeing these two nightmarish creatures. The Dragon bent over Gornak and sniffed audibly. "Little cousin! We must talk. How many years have I lost imprisoned in that Human body? Come. We will get away from these gawking fools."
The huge brute lifted Gornak in both arms without evident effort. The great wings unfurled to a full fifteen-foot spread and they shot straight up to be lost from sight into the darkening sky.
The stupefied crowd stared upward long after both creatures had vanished. As it happened, only one person had been holding a camera and he had been so paralyzed at the sight he had not taken a photo.
VI.
Standing on the roof of the KDF building on 38th Street, Cindy Brunner had experienced the brutal confrontation through her telepathic contact. As Gornak was beaten unconscious, she shuddered convulsively and broke contact. The tiny blonde spun on one heel and sprinted to the trap door in one corner of the roof.
Scuttling down the ladder to the ninth floor, Cindy reached out to contact the one mind she knew better than any other. She could reach her lover and partner under almost any conditions. Her telepathic summons went out not in discrete words but as a more general emotional message. She urged Bane to return at once, with the underlying tone that she herself was not in danger. The immediate fierce confirmation echoed in her head as she broke contact.
Running across the hangar toward the CORBY, Cindy vaulted up lightly into the co-pilot seat and began the readiness procedure. Switch after switch was thrown in the correct sequence. The cabin lit with the subdued pastel blue and green glow of dials and gauges, as well as the row of small monitor screens. The Trom impulse thrusters which actually powered the craft warmed up within seconds.
Leaping back out again, ducking low as the rotors had begun to slowly turn, the telepath checked again that the clamps still held the landing gear immobile. She snapped the Link from her belt and opened Kwali's channel. The deep voice responded instantly, "Yes?"
"Cindy here. You figured that, right? Get back here as quick as you can. I made contact with Gornak but some kind of monster has taken him. We'll be in the hangar."
"I'm on my way," the voice replied and clicked off.
Still agitated, she hurried over to the row of green metal lockers along one wall. From her own one, she hauled out her field suit and stripped down to bra and panties. There was no one else in the hangar at the moment, but going on long missions with her teammates had pretty much eroded her modesty in any case. First, she tugged on the nylon-thin Trom armor which covered her body and closed it on its hidden paramagnetic seams. This left only her hands, feet and head exposed.
Cindy got into the heavy boots, snug pants and long-sleeved jersey with the ease of long practice. The waist-length jacket, with its own inner layer of the armor, already had all the miniature gadgets and weapons in its numerous pockets and pouches. Around narrow hips, Cindy buckled the belt with its holstered dart gun. She had just reached up to the shelf in the locker which held her helmet when Bane hurried towards her.
Seeing she was wearing the field suit, he immediately opened his own locker and started to change as well.
"How about filling me in?" he asked as he ripped his civilian clothing off.
"Sure. Gornak has been smacked around and abducted by some big old creature. I couldn't quite get an image of him but he seems to be, well, a Human Dragon."
That made Bane pause as he was grabbing his field jacket. "A what?"
"Sort of like a werewolf. Only this shape-shifter turns into a anthropomorphic Dragon," she said.
"Sounds like Mardrak," Bane told her. "The only known Were-Wyrm. But he was killed forty years ago."
"Yeah, right," she said. "We've heard that before."
Bane had to smile. "True. Quite a few of our enemies have faked their deaths. Either to continue their work in secret or to get out of the Midnight War while they could."
In the open doorway, the massive form of Kwali silently appeared. "I have something to report. The Claw of Wakimbe pulls me north. It knows some great evil is stirring."
The Dire Wolf pressed the wall switch which retracted the clamps holding the CORBY in place. With his teammates beside him, he hauled himself up into the pilot seat. "Cin, you take co-pilot. Kwali, status post. Wheels up in one minute."
He ran through the checklist of blue and green indicator lights once more, studied the row of four monitor screens linked to cameras on the hull and seemed satisfied.
The rotors began to turn faster. Bane pulled back on the combined cyclic/cyclic stick and the stealthcopter rose up off the hangar floor. The landing gear retracted flush to the underside.
"Roof cameras and radar give us all-clear," Cindy said. "Good to go."
Overhead, the segmented roof rolled open to reveal a dark overcast sky. The CORBY shot straight up with startling acceleration, hitting a thousand feet within a few seconds. Far below them, the roof closed up automatically.
As always, they broke over a dozen FAA laws and regulations. Bane had not filed a flight plan or contacted the nearest control station to clear with traffic in the area. The CORBY had no exterior lights on, remaining a dark shadow in the night. Few if any passersby on the steets of Manhattan caught even a glimpse of the silent shape passing far overhead.
In the cabin, the Dire Wolf worked the stick and the foot pedals. With its advanced Trom systems, the CORBYs were much more stable in flight and easier to control than standard helicopters. "Cin," he said as soon as he felt they were not near any other craft, "Do you have a lead on Gornak or this Dragon?"
"Only a vague idea," she confessed. "Gornak seemed dazed. Either he's drugged or he's taken some pounding. A hostile non-Human mind is functioning near him."
Turning his head toward the clear sliding partition behind the cabin, Bane asked. "Kwali, how about you?"
The rear compartment had one wall filled by metal drawers stocked with equipment and supplies. A bench along the opposite wall, next to the right rear hatch, was long enough for three people to sit on comfortably. On that bench, Bakwanga Kwali pulled the Claw of Wakimbe out from under his shirt and dangled it on its ensalir chain. The ancient talisman swung by itself in a tight circle.
Five inches long, glossy black from ages of wear, this was the only remaining Cat's-Claw. It had been passed down from the founder of the Bakwanga tribe, Wakimbe himself, who had dared attend the Corruption on the isle of Ulgor. There the most potent mytic secrets of the Midnight War had been imparted to Humans by the Sulla Chun.
"Yes, yes, we must continue North," he said. "Be warned! We are approaching some force more dangerous than any Human sorcery."
"I hear you," Bane replied. "Let us know if anything changes."
"Say, Jeremy," interrupted Cindy. "I picked up a Channel 7 news chopper a few miles to our port side. They're going the other way. But I've always wondered what would we do if we were challenged by a police copter? We have no clearance, no ID numbers, no official standing. We're kinda 'air pirates,' you know?"
Bane shrugged the question off. "We have no heat signature and the Trom radar aligment keeps us from making a blip. At night, we're almost impossible to detect."
"Sure, but I still want to know. I'm sure you have a plan, you always have a plan."
"We can simply outrun any pursuit," the Dire Wolf said. "With the Trom impulse thrusters, we can break Mach-One easy. No police chopper can possibly keep us with us."
The telepath agreed reluctantly. "Oooo-kay. But what if we were caught by a couple of cop copters with searchlights? We couldn't fight them, could we? They could force us down."
"No, Cindy Lee. We'd use the Eldar crystal to vanish in a gralic gate and reappear either back in our hangar or somewhere fifty miles away. Right now, let's concentrate on our currrent mission. Kwali, what have you got?"
From the rear compartment, the big Danarakan said, "I sense intense gralic force. The images I glimpse suggest Central Park."
"Got it." Bane slowed the CORBY to a near hover as they passed over the sudden green rectangle of trees and grass far below. "Here's the plan. Cindy, I want you to take the controls when we land. Keep the CORBY ready to take off again instantly. But I also want you to clear the area of civilians. Can you give you a working space of say, half a mile?"
"Not a problem," she replied. "I can send a thought wave out that will make everyone apprehensive and uneasy for at least a mile around us. No one will stick around to see what we're up to."
"That'll do it. Kwali, you and I will disembark and handle the situation. Our agenda is to rescue Gornak and capture or destroy this Mardrak."
"Mardrak?" said Kwali. "That's unexpected. The Were-Wyrm? He has not been reported since the end of World War Two. It was believed he had died."
"Yeah, well, this is the Midnight War," the Dire Wolf replied. "You can't take much for granted. How close are we getting?"
"We are directly over the gralic beings, captain." He tucked the Cat's-Claw back inside the tunic of his stalking suit. "You see that pond?"
"Yeah. Here we go." He brought the CORBY sharply down to a silent landing at the edge of a clearing in the center of the Park. The three-wheel landed gear extended to take the craft's weight but the rotors continued to turn at a reduced rate.
Kwali leaped from the rear compartment, the hatch closing behind him. He had left the civilian outer clothes behind. Wearing the skin-tight black cotton tunic and tights which left his forearms and lower legs bare, he was almost invisible in the murk. Standing beside him in the black field suit, the Dire Wolf placed a hand on the butt of the resonance gun holstered at his left hip.
"What's your talisman saying?" he asked.
"It burns against my skin," Kwali answered. "I feel it pulling me. We go to challenge a powerful foe, Jeremy."
VII.
Beside the pond, the Were-Wyrm had dropped to his knees and lowered his muzzle to lap at the cloudy water. He had folded the great wings flat against his back. Rising again, the creature turned his lambent red eyes to stare down where Gornak sprawled.
"Roust yourself, little cousin," Mardrak rumbled in a bass so deep as to be almost unintelligible. "We must start our journey soon."
"Cousin? Are we kin, then?" The demon had managed to get up on his knees, propping himself up with stiff arms. "I did not know that."
"Oh yes. You Kulan are descended from immortal Dragons. Ages ago, Draldros himself began to breed and shape your kind to suit his purposes. He wanted soldier beasts halfway between Dragons and Humans."
"And you can assume a Human guise as I do?" asked Gornak. "I thought at first you were a mortal Man. An Asian Human."
The monster watched Gornak for a long thoughtful moment. The horns which swept up and back from his crest gave him a distinctly diabolical appearance.
"How long have I slept in timeless Void, that the terror of Mardrak has been forgotten?" he rumbled at last. "Oh, my vengeance is too long delayed. Listen, little cousin. I am not one who casts a mere illusion of change as you do. Nay, I change my flesh and blood and sinew in truth. I was born Satoru Kajima and my home for thirty years was Kyoto. Near the end of the Great Pacific War, when American bombs fell like hail on the home islands, I was desperate to turn the tide."
The giant head lowered so those amber eyes were level with Gornak's. "I made a pact with dread Draldros himself. I became that rarity, a Were-Wyrm. As Mardrak, I ran amok among the Western troops who were approaching Japan and slew them by the scores. So many barbarians fell before my avenging flame... until I was tricked by Mark Drum."
The Kulan demon gave a start of surprise. "Drum!"
"Ah, his name you remember," Mardrak hissed. "Yes, here in the decadence of America itself, I clashed with Drum and was snared by his deceptions. My Human body returned and I was chained within it with my thoughts and memories submerged." The Dragon rose again to his full height, tail lashing from side to side. "Long did I sleep...."
"More than forty years," Gornak said. "Forty years thinking you were Human."
"What does it matter now?" The Were-Wyrm slapped a fist against his broad chest with a thump like a drum. "As Mardrak, I am immortal. Perhaps Kojima aged and grew frail, but I am beyond the reach of time. Come, little cousin. Join me. This degenerate nation will burn to the ground and the flag of the Rising Sun will fly over its ruins!"
Struggling to his feet, snapping open his own ribbed wings, Gornak faced the much bigger creature defiantly. "Oh, you have much to learn, Dragon. Japan is America's ally and trading partner. Your country has become Westernized. I do not think you will feel much at home there today."
As he spoke those words, the Kulan lifted clear of the ground and dove headlong at the monster. He managed to grapple and slashed his fangs across the Were-Wyrm's neck. Even the razored sides of those canines scraped harmless across the tough scales without drawing blood. Before he could use the fighting hooks on his knees or elbows, Gornak was seized by the throat in an unbreakable grip.
His air was cut off. Gornak fought like a whirlwind of talons and beating wings and whipping barbed tail, but he could not harm the Dragon. Holding the Kulan steady, Mardrak drew back an open hand as wide and steely as an shovel and crashed it to the side of Gornak's head, then again with a savage backhand.
Flinging the stunned demon to the ground, the Dragon rumbled deep in his barrel chest. "Do not force me to slay you, little one."
Gornak could not rise. His vision was clouded and his ears rang. But he would never yield. "Kill me if you will, Mardrak. I will have decided my loyalty is to the Humans who have taken mne in and offered me friendship. I forsake Draldros! I forsake his minions like you. I stand with my brothers and sisters of Tel Shai and I will die defying you!"
After saying those words, Gornak spat a mouthful of blood at the Were-Wyrm's four-toed foot but missed. "Feh! Why don't you go to Fanedral? I'm sure Draldros would have use for your kind!"
"Yes," replied Mardrak. "I see by your hide that you are one of the elite Red Slashers. Here, let me make your skin a bit more crimson." As he spoke, the Dragon bent over and struck a vicious hammer blow down to the back of Gornak's head. Groaning despite himself, the Kulan tried to creep back out of the way.
"Perhaps I do not need you, little one." Mardrak studied the battered demon and smiled. "After all, I can easily turn into Kojima again and spend some time in the public library. Well? I offer you one last chance to stand with me. What say you?"
"I say... burn as you deserve!" The Kulan called on the gift of demon-fire given him by Draldros. Cold yellow fire rushed up from nowhere to engulf the Dragon. The monster roared and thrashed at its head in agony. Demon-fire did not create heat, only torture. Midnight War theorists thought that it affected nerve endings to simulate being burned alive.
Wrapped in a crackling golden aura, Mardrak bellowed and drew back his fist for a killing blow. The only way he could see to stop the pain was to slay its creator. Still unable to rise, Gornak tried to crawl backwards out of reach.
The sharp concussive crack against Mardrak's chest echoed through the night. The Were-Wyrm was driven by a step by the unexpected impact and a second detonation knocked him off his feet entirely. The ancient Dragon found himself sprawled in an undignified position, half sitting and half on one
Seeing this, Gornak let the demon-fire fade into scattered flickers. He turned his head and
saw with immense relief the figures of Jeremy Bane and Bakwanga Kwali racing full tilt toward them.
Stopping with feet braced well apart, both hands holding the air gun in a marksman's grip, the Dire Wolf yelled, "Hold it right there! I've got a dozen more like that ready for you." Even as he spoke, a blindingly bright stream of raw gralic force hissed straight at him.
Bane's enhanced reflexes had never been more evident. As the Dragon-flamed seared away the grass where he had been standing, he was already ten feet to one side and launching two more resonance caps. The blasts exploded without effect against the Were-Wyrm who was braced and ready for them.
In a deadly calm voice, Bakwanga Kwali placed a hand on Bane's shoulder and pushed him further aside. "Enough, captain. This monster must be my responsibility."
"No argument there," the Dire Wolf answered. "Go get 'em."
Stalking in closer, the Danarakan champion caught Mardrak's eye. Somehow the Dragon recognized a threat in what seemed to be merely another Human. Something about the talisman hanging from this man's neck...
VIII.
Kwali drew on the power of the Cat's-Claw, the ancient sigil handed down from the same Wakimbe who had been on Ulgor before it was thrown beneath the waves thirty thousand years ago. He dropped to all fours. In an instant, his body swelled and erupted outward to become a cat larger than a horse.
The Black Lion gave its whiplash snarl and charged. The lambent green eyes shone the same as Kwali's own. Human intelligence showed in the expression on that gigantic beast. As the dumbfounded Were-wyrm froze into position at the unexpected sight, the Black Lion swatted out a massive paw that hurled the Dragon Man far back across the ground. No living thing not reinforced by gralic energy could have survived that impact. Even Mardrak was shaken.
Rising to his feet, his tail whipping furiously from side to side, the Dragon fired a stream of that white-hot flame from his muzzle. The Black Lion leaped aside as nimbly as any real cat and the grass was seared where he had been standing. If they had been closer to the trees, the Dragon-flame would have started a raging fire.
Moving closer in a crouch, the Black Lion gave out a deep roar that was heard miles away. Across the city, people paused and wondered with an instinctive shudder what they had heard. Not since prehistoric times had that spot heard a challenge that primal.
Two deadly creatures regarded each other with uncompromising hostility. In another second, they would leap at each other. Either the Dragon-flame would char the great cat to a husk or the Lion's claws and fangs would sink deep into the reptilian monster's flesh. Red eyes locked with green eyes in a stare that meant only one would live.
Then an interruption came in the form of two resonance caps exploding directly on the Dragon.
The concussive impact of those shells struck the huge head with force that would have shattered bone of a normal creature. Jeremy Bane was rushing forward, raising his weapon again. Furious, the Black Lion rushed at its enemy but the Were-Wyrm was no longer there.
Mardrak unfurled its leathery wings and hurtled upward in an instant. The ancient creature was not easily cowed but the explosive resonance shells were something new. Even as the Dragon Man rose, the Black Lion leaped up entirely off the ground. Those deadly claws drew blood as they raked across one scaly leg. Then the giant cat thudded back down to Earth and the Were-Wyrm was gone.
Bane holstered the resonance gun. That creature had gotten out of range too quickly. He snapped the Link from his belt and said, "Cin, bring the CORBY over here and pop the hatches for us!"
Turning to where the Black Lion stood glaring, even Jeremy Bane felt a twinge of alarm at meeting those luminous eyes. "Change back, Kwali," he ordered firmly. "I need you to carry Gornak while I take the pilot seat."
Without waiting to see if he would be obeyed, the Dire Wolf stared upward and barely caught sight of the winged shaped high overhead. There was still a chance to catch that brute.
The Black Lion shuddered, shrank and reverted to Human form. Kwali lifted Gornak in both arms and lifted the heavy demon without visible effort.
Spitting acidic blood to the grass, the Kulan said, "You came for me... Thank you. Kwali, I am so sorry for everything."
The Cat's-Claw smiled in the gloom. "We arrived in time to hear what you said to that monster's offer. Well done, brother!"
In a few seconds, the CORBY came skimming toward them, its underside barely clearing the grass. Even this close, the rotors could barely be heard. Cindy did not lower the landing but knew that her partners were able to swing up through the open hatches.
As Kwali brought the dazed Gornak into the back compartment, Bane dropped into the pilot seat and strapped the restraints across his chest and around his waist. "Nice flying, Cin," he said.
"You take over now," she answered and flicked the toggle switch by the stick. The CORBYs had duplicate controls and a single cyclic/collective stick between the pilot and co-pilot seats. With the touch on that one switch, command of the stealthcopter went over to the pilot seat. Cindy was a fine pilot but if there was going to be combat, she wanted Bane at the stick.
The Dire Wolf pulled back on the stick. Aided by Trom impulse thrusters, the CORBY rose rapidly straight up. Wheeling the stealthcopter around, he pressed a button on the panel in front of him and activated weapons mode. Both panels slid open on the short horizontal vanes and the chain guns came out.
The CORBYs were not heavily armed. Bane worried that if he had started adding missiles that there would be too much temptation to use them when better options were available. The copters had directional nozzles at the front and rear which could spray the anesthetic gas or combined tear/smoke gas under his pressure. For more lethal attacks, he had installed twin 30mm M230 chain guns which offered a variable rate of but he stopped there.
Of course, it was a Federal offense to have machine guns mounted on a civilian helicopter. But this would be just one more felony added to a long list of crimes which Bane committed on a regular basis.
"Kwali," he said over one shoulder, "Give me a lead on the Were-Wyrm. I've lost visual track."
A long silence followed as the Cat's-Claw tried to read the gralic responses of his ancient talisman. Finally, reluctantly, he admitted, "I can not find him, captain. He must have reverted to his Human form."
An exasperated sound escaped Bane's control. "Damn. He got away. All right, we'll call a blue alert back at headquarters and get available members searching. First, Gornak could use some medical attention." He brought the CORBY two thousand feet higher in a few seconds, above the range where police and TV news helicopters operated.
When no one spoke, the Dire Wolf announced quietly, "I'm going to enter today's events in our official log as that Gornak was on a personal leave day when he was contacted by this Dragon and engaged him until we could arrive. I think that covers everything, agreed?"
In the co-pilot seat, Cindy replied in a relieved tone, "I'll type up the report myself and open a file on this Mardrak character. And don't fret, Jeremy, you know there'll be another shot at this Were-Wyrm guy. We'll meet again."
Standing in the shadows of a doorway far below, watching the vague outline of the black helicopter with coldly hateful eyes, Satoru Kojima was thinking the same thing.
M 2/12/1990- Rev. 3/28/2018
