"New Faces While You Wait"
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dochermes"New Faces While You Wait"
5/1-5/3/1998
I.
Since it was nearly impossible to calculate the relationship of time between the real world and the adjacent realms, Jeremy Bane had settled himself that morning for a long wait. He stood on the roof of the old ten-story KDF building and gazed down at East 38th Street. Still gaunt and active as ever, wearing the invariable all-black uniform of slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket, he remained the same Dire Wolf he had always been. Watching the traffic struggle with itself, studying the complex dance of the pedestrians weaving past each other on the sidewalks, Bane drifted into reflection. He had resisted starting a new team for so long...
The silent flare of pale blue light behind him made him jump and swing around. Where no one had been standing an instant before, a Chujiran youth swayed uncertainly as he got his bearings. It had been almost two years since Bane had seen Sheng Mo-Yuan and he noticed the boy had filled out a bit across the chest and shoulders. Eighteen now, the youth who called himself Argent stood five feet five and was solidly built. He had the skin tones and eyelid fold and thick black hair of a Northern Chinese, but the hawklike nose and high sharp cheekbones seemed out of place. The people of Chujir were supposedly the ancestors of the Han people from thousands of years previously.
Sheng was wearing simple off-white cotton trousers and long-sleeved tunic, with low soft slippers. In one hand, he carried a canvas travel bag. As he got his bearings and looked around him, his expression dropped from awe to severe disapproval. He saw Bane approaching. In Chujiran, he blurted, >"This city stinks! Is something burning? It makes my eyes sting. And it is so noisy! Why are all those horns blaring that way?"<
>"You'll adjust in a little while,"< the Dire Wolf replied in the same language. >"Manhattan does take some getting used to."< He gestured to an open trap door in the roof nearby and moved Sheng toward it. >"Sifu Tang must have described what you would find here."<
>"Well, yes. But it still is foul. What an awful odor. No. I am sorry for my manners."< Shifting to English, he said, "Good morning, Mr Bane. I am pleased to meet you again."
"Hello, Sheng. Your English is very good." Bane offered a hand, which Argent shook firmly.
"Thank you. Sifu Tang had been coaching me with... errr, serious? Seriousness? She has been most kind."
"Let's get inside so we can talk the situation over." The Dire Wolf led his guest down wooden steps inside the trap door. They went past the closed door of the hangar where the CORBY sat, descended more steps and entered the elevator which dropped them to the first floor of the building. "This is a box we are in, strong iron cables lower us quickly to the ground."
"Ah. Elevator. I was told they are quite safe," Sheng said, although the alarm on his face contradicted his words. They emerged into the front hall, with its long rows of bookcases along the walls. The marble staircase leading back upstairs, a framed painting of the Northern Lights and some bronze statuary, the gleaming dark wood paneling under recessed lighting, all lent a quietly impressive air. As he stood taking in that hallway, Sheng grinned. "This is more...comfort? The smell is better. It is quiet."
"Yeah, the air-conditioning is on low and the building is largely soundproofed," Bane said. He ushered his visitor into the office facing the elevator and got Sheng comfortably seated on the leather couch. He himself pulled a chair over to drop down facing the Chujiran. "Welcome to the real world. First, some good news. I have been talking with the Teachers and they agree to consider you as a student at the Order of Tel Shai. There will be a week or so of them getting to know you, judging your character and arguing with each other whether or not you're Tel Shai material. But honestly, not one person in a million is even considered, so you're already ahead of the game."
"I wish Sifu could have be here with us," mumbled Sheng.
So do I, Bane thought. Having his old teammate Tang Ming present with her tactfulness would have made everything much easier. He continued, "You already know about the KDF. I'm gathering possible members to start a new team. You're on the list."
"I am told many fine things about your KDF," Sheng said. "I will do my best to bring new honor to the name. As Argent, I can become strong enough to lift a horse overhead, swift enough to run past a deer, hard enough that arrows glance off me. With the right training, I am sure I can be a great Tel Shai knight!"
The Dire Wolf could not entirely repress a smile. Had he himself ever been so eager and enthusiastic? Ming had said that Sheng showed many character flaws, mostly excess pride and rashness. "You will find there is always much to learn," he said quietly. "What is even harder about life, you'll discover that you often will have to learn things over and over again to fully understand. But first, let's get out in the field today and you can start to explore the city. I think we have a mission to begin."
"Aha!" Sheng leaped to his feet, with one fist raised. "Already! Let us go, Mr Bane, I will tackle bandits and wild beasts without fear."
"Please, call me 'captain' or Jeremy," Bane said. "It's our custom. " He stood up as well. "And I am not certain there will be immediate fighting. We seem to be faced with a mystery to be solved."
"You will find my wits as sharp as needed," Sheng replied. "Tell me more."
"Sure. For the past few months, gangsters in the area have been turning up with entirely new faces. But they seem to get this way within a day or so, instead of the long recovery period needed for extensive surgery. They are starting second lives in anonymity and the police are having a rough time even identifying them. We're going to look into this problem."
Argent slumped in such instant disappointment that it was comical. "Oh. Is that all?"
"Well, I suspect there is something involved you might find interesting," Bane said. "You remember when we met, how the Smiling Brethren were managing their disguises?"
"Of course. The 'Meng-Lei' serum which softens bone." Sheng's expression changed again into fierce interest. "Someone has smuggled the Meng-Lei to this world, then?"
"New faces while you wait," Bane added.
II.
The day before, using the sizes estimated by Tang Ming, Bane had purchased a beginning wardrobe for Sheng. Socks, underwear, two pairs of jeans and four T-shirts of various colors, plus a lightweight tan windbreaker. Everything fit better than expected. The young Argent would not know how to tie shoelaces yet, so the sneakers had been chosen to have velcro fasteners.
Getting used to the feel of the garments, Sheng stretched and twisted experimentally. "Sifu Tang told me that Humans will assume I'm Asian, probably Chinese. What do you think?"
"Yeah, that's fair enough," Bane answered. "Most Americans can't tell one East Asian from another. If anyone speaks to you in Mandarin or Cantonese, you should smile and say, 'sorry.' Plenty of Chinese-Americans only speak English."
"I am ready to begin!" Sheng announced. "The Midnight War will never be the same after Argent tackles it. Where do we start?"
"Let's walk across town while I give you what information I have." Bane escorted his visitor out through the front door and down five stone steps to stand on the sidewalk. Behind them, Trom alarms clicks and buzzed as they automatically armed themselves. Moving slowly up East 38th Street toward Park Avenue, the Dire Wolf was pleasantly surprised that Sheng did not gawk open-mouthed at the crowds and buildings as he had feared the Chujiran would. By the time they reached 50th Street and Park, he realized that the youth was adaptible and he told the boy so.
With a sheepish grin, Sheng admitted he was keeping a straight face only with difficulty. Everything was overwhelming to someone who had never been out of his farming village before and who had never seen crowds of people with such a variety of coloring and hair types. "I am trying not to show my confused," he said. "Confused is right word?"
"Almost. 'Confusion' is a better word for what you mean," Bane said. As they talked, he often resorted to speaking Chujiran to clarify points. He was beginning to see that Sheng was intelligent and flexible. The kid might not have experience but he was open to learning; Bane began to feel confident this new recruit would work out.
Walking more briskly, the Dire Wolf explained about his network of observers. For the past twenty years, Bane had not accepted rewards for rescuing people from Midnight War threats. Instead, he had asked that the grateful people keep an eye out for anything weird or inexplicable and to let him know. This had worked out well, and tips from his grateful observers had led to many of his most important missions. Several of the observers had become enthusiastic researchers and actively sought out paranormal events in the area to tell him about.
"That's how I got a few tips about Dr Muelbach acting funny lately," Bane said while they waited at an intersection for the light to change.
"Mule-bock...Mule-bock. These names are going to give me trouble," grumbled Sheng.
"Yeah, Dr Jeffrey Muelbach. He specializes in laser removal of moles, warts, extraneous hairs, that sort of thing. He works out of his office on 54th. Muelbach is from Germany and buys his produce fresh at a small store at the corner. As it happens, the owner of the grocery is Darrin, one of my observers. I helped him out when a few Winter Snow thugs were shaking him down for protection money. He said that Muelbach is still making his usual purchases but he had also started buying a lot of short-grain yellow rice, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and so forth. And the doctor started asking for some exotic herbs and spices that the grocer had never heard of."
"I am confused," Sheng admitted with a frown. "What does this mean?"
"Maybe nothing," said Bane. "Darrin called me about it because he felt bad he had never had any information for me before and he thought it might be significant. He could be right. Maybe Dr Muelbach is only curious about Asian cooking suddenly, but it's also possible that he has a secret guest staying with him..."
Argent clapped his hands together much too loudly, getting a startled glance from a passerby. "Ah! I see. A Chujiran! Here in the world. There are not many of the old Fang-shih sorcerers left but I know one or two who might be able to arrange travel to this world."
"It's worth checking out," Bane said. "That was a few weeks ago. I asked Darrin to notice what sort of clients Muelbach was receiving and things got more intriguing. The doctor seems to have dropped his usual parade of middle-aged women and is seeing a number of obvious gangsters. Well-dressed, mean-looking guys who usually come with one or two companions... bodyguards."
"Hah! It seems so obvious when you explain it."
"Well, it may turn out to be nothing," the Dire Wolf told him. "Nearly all the leads I follow fizzle out. That's the nature of investigation. But we should check it out any way." He stopped in front of a dignified office building which had a bronze plaque in front listing the various doctors, travel agencies and financial consultants to be found inside. "Don't look around suddenly," he told Sheng in a low voice, "Turn your head barely enough. But do you see those two men pretending to read newspapers on the bench across the street?"
"Yes. They have bandit-faces."
"Well put. Those are goons who have a long record of arrests which didn't stick because witnesses suddenly vanished. I know they're hired guns. One of them works for a lunatic named Loomis. Seeing them loitering around guarantees to me we're on the right track."
III.
In the tiled-floor lobby with its flanking elevators and solid bench by the entrance, two doors greeted them on either side. The frosted glass panel on the nearest one said simply, DR JEFFREY MUELBACH - BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Bane took a small metal device from an inside jacket pocket and pressed it to the door's lock. Watching closely, Sheng could not tell that the Trom gadget extruded fine wire filaments which stiffened themselves inside the lock and then rotated to open it. The device worked so quickly that it looked as if Bane had simply used a key.
The Dire Wolf swung the door open and strode inside as if he had ever right to be there. This was his usual approach. As he and Sheng entered, four men in that waiting room gave violent starts and swung to stare at the unexpected intrusion. In that split-second, Bane's long experience in the MIdnight War enabled him to judge the situation.
At the rear of the waiting room were two solid-looking wooden doors, one marked OFFICE and the other EXAMINATIONS. There was a reception desk with a phone and neat stacks of forms and papers, with ledger arrayed on a shelf on the wall behind. High up on a bracket, a small TV was set to the local news channel with the sound off. Two potted plants hung in opposing corners and a rack held assorted magazines. There was nothing unusual about the room. It was the four men who were a colorful assortment.
Most imposing was an individual in a tan business suit, not tall but wide and stocky. The big hairy-backed hands looked strong enough to rip telephone books in half. He had the wide, sullen face of a gangster long set in his ways. The narrow eyes under shaggy brows were openly hostile but his most noticeable feature was a snub, upturned nose inevitably suggesting the snout of a pig. Bane recognized Doug Loomis at once. The racketeer had a small but profitable business running a few floating gambling rooms and some fast houses staffed with trafficked Mexican women; he was not ranked among the city's bigger crooks but he had found a secure niche.
Standing near Loomis, one hand reaching behind himself under his coat to obviously gasp a gun, was his bodyguard. This was a curly-haired dark man evidently of South American extraction, with a head nearly shaved and a beartrap of a mouth. As tough and belligerent as this goon was, he did not have the intense air of authority that Loomis did and Bane relegated him to a lesser threat status .
Off to one side, a stout middle-aged man wearing a white lab smock was holding a plaster mold of a human head and shaping its still soft interior with latex-gloved fingers. He had the same features and coloring as Sheng, and any observer might have concluded they had come from the same nationality. As he spotted the young Chujiran, the smocked man dropped his jaw and stared openly. Next to him, a younger man in a white dress shirt and dark slacks was writing on a clipboard and he also blinked in surprise.
"Bane...." growled Loomis. "Still poking around and sticking your nose where it don't belong. Stand back, Ortega. Don't think of trying anything."
The bodyguard grudgingly straightened up and brough his hand around to be visible. "He doesn't look like anything special, boss."
Loomis shook his head. "Ortega, this is the Dire Wolf. We'd be safer if an actual starving wolf had walked into this room. Okay, Bane, what's the idea? What do you want?"
"You're not my concern at the moment." Bane answered easily. "You know I don't go after mundane crime. I hunt the things that stalk dark streets in the middle of night. Dr Muelbach, your 'new faces for old' racket caught my attention and now that I see your partner, I'm really interested."
Speaking in Chujiran, Sheng said to the the man in the lab smock, >"Peng Liu-Po! We have not met but I know who you are. The magistrate trusted you to store and regulate the sacred Meng-Lei serum. And you betrayed his trust in him. I find you here in the Cities of Men with the serum..."<
>"So? I have heard of you, so-called 'Argent.' Tang Ming speaks of you with praise. But you are just a boy who does not understand what danger he walks into."<
"Hey, hey, ENGLISH, you guys!" yelled Loomis. The gangster's face had flushed red with barely controlled rage. "Goddam it! No conversations I can't follow."
Speaking in Chujiran himself, Bane spoke to Peng as if Loomis had not blown up. >"You are becoming wealthy by helping bandits and thieves escape justice. I am disappointed to find an Imperial officer selling the Meng-Lei to outsiders."<
>"I was tired of owning nothing, of eating drab meals, of always answering for my every move,"< retorted Peng Liu-Po. >"Here I have found luxury not even a prince in Chujir could enjoy."<
"What, you too with that jabbering? Dammit, Bane, knock it off! English only. We don't have to fight, mister. This is not your Midnight War turf," Loomis said.
"Settle down," the Dire Wolf advised. "I'm not sure your little game is within my mission. Maybe we can just cross paths and go about our business."
"Yeah, that's more like it," said the gangster. "Ease up, Ortega. Everything is going to be chill. So, Bane, you probably know I'm in a death-struggle with a guy called Outre. He's some piece of work. He doesn't handle anything that doesn't involve torture, murder, mutilation. His boys have been gunning for me for weeks now with shoot-on-sight orders."
"And your own thugs have the same instructions for handling him," Bane said. "I saw them watching this building."
"And I've had a few close calls. Too close. Dr Muelbach and his partner here will give me a new face for a while. I'll have some breathing space to plan how to eliminate Outre once and for all. So, you see," he told the Dire Wolf, "This is only business between two rivals. Nothing to trouble you."
Bane seemed to relax as he folded his arms across his chest. This was deceptive to anyone who knew him. He was placing his hands within reach of the hilts of the silver daggers strapped beneath his sleeves. "I wouldn't mind seeing Outre get killed. God knows he deserves it. But you've got some blood on your own hands. Loomis. More than a few of your sex slaves have been found drowned in the harbor. If you and Outre snuffed each other, the city would be a better place."
"Yeah, save the sermons. It's an ugly world. Mr Peng, are you ready to work on me?"
The Chujiran man examined the plaster face mold. "A few more minutes, sir. I wanted to give you an undistinguished face that will not draw attention. Come with me into the examination room, I will rub in the Meng-Lei and clamp this mask on tightly. In an hour, no more, your own family will not recognize you."
"I'll go with you two," Bane broke in unexpectedly. "I want to see this procedure out of curiosity. Then I'll move on. There's other stuff I need to be doing today."
"Well... I guess." Loomis studied the Dire Wolf suspiciously. "Why not? Whatever keeps things civil. Ortega, stay out here with Bane's buddy and Dr Muelbach. I don't have to tell you to not let anyone in."
"Sure, boss."
As he opened the door to the examing room, Peng said, "Mr Loomis, first I will inject your face with a local anesthetic. The Meng-Lei transformation is quite painful but the shot will put you in a slight daze for the time required..."
Left behind in the waiting room, Sheng Mo-Yuan frowned with indecision. He was certain his new captain had devised a strategy to deal with this situation but he could not figure it out. With a sigh, he crossed over and sat down to watch the news. Dr Muelbach went behind the desk and began sorting through papers while the bodyguard Ortega positioned himself where he could watch the outer door and Sheng at the same time. His ferocious glower was wasted. Sheng immediately became lost in learning about what was going on this real world. Apparently, there were floods in some place called 'Louisiana"...
IV.
Ninety minutes crawled by while Muelbach worked on his paperwork and Ortega stood his ground. As for Sheng, he was fascinated by commercials. He had no idea Americans suffered from so many ailments that they desperately needed to demand new drugs from their physicians. Despite himself, he began to wonder if he showed any of the symptoms that these people displayed. He did not have back or knee pain, and his bowel movements were regular but what was 'plaque psoriasis?' It sounded horrendous.
After the first hour, Dr Muelbach spoke to Sheng for the first time. "That didn't sound like Chinese you two were speaking. Longer words, not as inflected. Where are you two from exactly?"
"A realm called Chujir. We are the source from which the Han race sprang," Argent replied. "You will not have met any of us before."
"Chujir? Haven't heard of it. A province in China, maybe?"
"Hah. No, my homeland is farther away than miles can measure. One may not travel there without leaving the borders of this world." Sheng stood up and stretched, swinging his arms back behind him. "It is not easy to explain."
"I'm going to see what's going on in there," burst out Ortega. "It was supposed to take an hour and here it's been almost two!"
Even as he spoke, the examination room door swung outward. Bane steered the dazed Loomis out with a hand on the man's shoulder. The gangster was unsteady on his feet and swayed from side to side.
"Boss, you okay?" demaned Ortega.
"He needed extra anesthetic," Bane explained. "Give him a minute. I'll unstrap this mold and see how his new face turned out."
The big bodyguard made a rumbling noise. "Something's not right. Where's the Chinese guy? What's going on here?"
In Chujiran, Bane spoke a short sentence. Instantly, Sheng shifted the focus in his body to enhanced speed. Gralic force crackled unseen through his muscles and nervous system, accelerating him up to the limits to Human ability. Argent plunged across the waiting room and blasted a barrage of left-right hooking blows to Ortega's torso. The breath was driven out of the big man's lungs and a final looping backfist spun Ortega around to drop him stunned and helpless to the tiled floor. He gasped and fought to recover but would be preoccupied with the pain for the immediate future.
"Nice work," Bane said. "Teacher Chael is going to love instructing you in Kumundu." He reached behind Loomis' head and began unfastening the cords that held the plaster mask on so tightly. "Let's have a look."
"Where IS Peng?" said Dr Muelbach in sudden alarm. "What have you done to him?'
"He's fine. He's sleeping off an anesthetic dart. Doctor, Sheng and I are going to drag him back to Chujir. Stealing the Meng-Lei is a serious offense. I don't know if the Magistrate will let him keep his head on his shoulders or not."
As Muelbach began to protest, Sheng stepped in front of him and raised a single admonishing finger. "You have seen what I can do, Mule-bock. Be quiet and do not move."
As the hard clay mold was tugged off, a radically different appearance was revealed. Loomis now had a vulture-like face with a sharply beaked nose and weak chin, high cheekbones and deep vertical creases in the cheeks. His hair was unchanged, but it was unremarkable mousy brown in any case. The man still seemed out of it and not fully aware of the situation. His mouth worked a few times but no words came out.
"Oh my God! That's not the face Peng had designed for him!" yelled Muelbach.
"I know. After I knocked Peng out, I did a little remodelling." The faintest of smiles touched Bane's narrow face. "Never claimed to be an artist, but I think the results will be good enough." He removed Loomis's tie and took a hat hanging from a hook by the front door to cram it down on the stupefied gangster's head.
As he began pushing Loomis toward the front door, the Dire Wolf said, "If I were you, Doctor, I'd relocate right away. Take your money out of the bank and move to Florida or something. Some violent characters might be coming around to ask you questions."
"What? How dare you..? I don't get it..."
Bane gave the man an unsympathetic glance as he opened the front door. "Hey. You've made millions helping crooks and murderers escape each other and from the law. You knew you were palling around with the scum of the earth." He got behind Loomis and gave the man a hard shove out onto the sidewalk, then immediately swung back around out of sight.
Outside there was some excited yelling, a burst of sharp gunfire and a scream of agony. Then a heavy wet thump as something hit the ground. Bane peered cautiously outside. "Yep. His own boys plugged him. They're running toward their car. Looks like Loomis caught a few slugs right in the heart and lungs."
Coming over to stand beside his new leader, Sheng Mo-Yuan scowled. "I think I understand, captain. It was the new face you gave him that made his own henchman shoot him?"
"Exactly," Bane said. "I was working from memory of course, but it was enough to fool his thugs. I made him look as much like his mortal enemy Outre as I could."
9/6/2018
5/1-5/3/1998
I.
Since it was nearly impossible to calculate the relationship of time between the real world and the adjacent realms, Jeremy Bane had settled himself that morning for a long wait. He stood on the roof of the old ten-story KDF building and gazed down at East 38th Street. Still gaunt and active as ever, wearing the invariable all-black uniform of slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket, he remained the same Dire Wolf he had always been. Watching the traffic struggle with itself, studying the complex dance of the pedestrians weaving past each other on the sidewalks, Bane drifted into reflection. He had resisted starting a new team for so long...
The silent flare of pale blue light behind him made him jump and swing around. Where no one had been standing an instant before, a Chujiran youth swayed uncertainly as he got his bearings. It had been almost two years since Bane had seen Sheng Mo-Yuan and he noticed the boy had filled out a bit across the chest and shoulders. Eighteen now, the youth who called himself Argent stood five feet five and was solidly built. He had the skin tones and eyelid fold and thick black hair of a Northern Chinese, but the hawklike nose and high sharp cheekbones seemed out of place. The people of Chujir were supposedly the ancestors of the Han people from thousands of years previously.
Sheng was wearing simple off-white cotton trousers and long-sleeved tunic, with low soft slippers. In one hand, he carried a canvas travel bag. As he got his bearings and looked around him, his expression dropped from awe to severe disapproval. He saw Bane approaching. In Chujiran, he blurted, >"This city stinks! Is something burning? It makes my eyes sting. And it is so noisy! Why are all those horns blaring that way?"<
>"You'll adjust in a little while,"< the Dire Wolf replied in the same language. >"Manhattan does take some getting used to."< He gestured to an open trap door in the roof nearby and moved Sheng toward it. >"Sifu Tang must have described what you would find here."<
>"Well, yes. But it still is foul. What an awful odor. No. I am sorry for my manners."< Shifting to English, he said, "Good morning, Mr Bane. I am pleased to meet you again."
"Hello, Sheng. Your English is very good." Bane offered a hand, which Argent shook firmly.
"Thank you. Sifu Tang had been coaching me with... errr, serious? Seriousness? She has been most kind."
"Let's get inside so we can talk the situation over." The Dire Wolf led his guest down wooden steps inside the trap door. They went past the closed door of the hangar where the CORBY sat, descended more steps and entered the elevator which dropped them to the first floor of the building. "This is a box we are in, strong iron cables lower us quickly to the ground."
"Ah. Elevator. I was told they are quite safe," Sheng said, although the alarm on his face contradicted his words. They emerged into the front hall, with its long rows of bookcases along the walls. The marble staircase leading back upstairs, a framed painting of the Northern Lights and some bronze statuary, the gleaming dark wood paneling under recessed lighting, all lent a quietly impressive air. As he stood taking in that hallway, Sheng grinned. "This is more...comfort? The smell is better. It is quiet."
"Yeah, the air-conditioning is on low and the building is largely soundproofed," Bane said. He ushered his visitor into the office facing the elevator and got Sheng comfortably seated on the leather couch. He himself pulled a chair over to drop down facing the Chujiran. "Welcome to the real world. First, some good news. I have been talking with the Teachers and they agree to consider you as a student at the Order of Tel Shai. There will be a week or so of them getting to know you, judging your character and arguing with each other whether or not you're Tel Shai material. But honestly, not one person in a million is even considered, so you're already ahead of the game."
"I wish Sifu could have be here with us," mumbled Sheng.
So do I, Bane thought. Having his old teammate Tang Ming present with her tactfulness would have made everything much easier. He continued, "You already know about the KDF. I'm gathering possible members to start a new team. You're on the list."
"I am told many fine things about your KDF," Sheng said. "I will do my best to bring new honor to the name. As Argent, I can become strong enough to lift a horse overhead, swift enough to run past a deer, hard enough that arrows glance off me. With the right training, I am sure I can be a great Tel Shai knight!"
The Dire Wolf could not entirely repress a smile. Had he himself ever been so eager and enthusiastic? Ming had said that Sheng showed many character flaws, mostly excess pride and rashness. "You will find there is always much to learn," he said quietly. "What is even harder about life, you'll discover that you often will have to learn things over and over again to fully understand. But first, let's get out in the field today and you can start to explore the city. I think we have a mission to begin."
"Aha!" Sheng leaped to his feet, with one fist raised. "Already! Let us go, Mr Bane, I will tackle bandits and wild beasts without fear."
"Please, call me 'captain' or Jeremy," Bane said. "It's our custom. " He stood up as well. "And I am not certain there will be immediate fighting. We seem to be faced with a mystery to be solved."
"You will find my wits as sharp as needed," Sheng replied. "Tell me more."
"Sure. For the past few months, gangsters in the area have been turning up with entirely new faces. But they seem to get this way within a day or so, instead of the long recovery period needed for extensive surgery. They are starting second lives in anonymity and the police are having a rough time even identifying them. We're going to look into this problem."
Argent slumped in such instant disappointment that it was comical. "Oh. Is that all?"
"Well, I suspect there is something involved you might find interesting," Bane said. "You remember when we met, how the Smiling Brethren were managing their disguises?"
"Of course. The 'Meng-Lei' serum which softens bone." Sheng's expression changed again into fierce interest. "Someone has smuggled the Meng-Lei to this world, then?"
"New faces while you wait," Bane added.
II.
The day before, using the sizes estimated by Tang Ming, Bane had purchased a beginning wardrobe for Sheng. Socks, underwear, two pairs of jeans and four T-shirts of various colors, plus a lightweight tan windbreaker. Everything fit better than expected. The young Argent would not know how to tie shoelaces yet, so the sneakers had been chosen to have velcro fasteners.
Getting used to the feel of the garments, Sheng stretched and twisted experimentally. "Sifu Tang told me that Humans will assume I'm Asian, probably Chinese. What do you think?"
"Yeah, that's fair enough," Bane answered. "Most Americans can't tell one East Asian from another. If anyone speaks to you in Mandarin or Cantonese, you should smile and say, 'sorry.' Plenty of Chinese-Americans only speak English."
"I am ready to begin!" Sheng announced. "The Midnight War will never be the same after Argent tackles it. Where do we start?"
"Let's walk across town while I give you what information I have." Bane escorted his visitor out through the front door and down five stone steps to stand on the sidewalk. Behind them, Trom alarms clicks and buzzed as they automatically armed themselves. Moving slowly up East 38th Street toward Park Avenue, the Dire Wolf was pleasantly surprised that Sheng did not gawk open-mouthed at the crowds and buildings as he had feared the Chujiran would. By the time they reached 50th Street and Park, he realized that the youth was adaptible and he told the boy so.
With a sheepish grin, Sheng admitted he was keeping a straight face only with difficulty. Everything was overwhelming to someone who had never been out of his farming village before and who had never seen crowds of people with such a variety of coloring and hair types. "I am trying not to show my confused," he said. "Confused is right word?"
"Almost. 'Confusion' is a better word for what you mean," Bane said. As they talked, he often resorted to speaking Chujiran to clarify points. He was beginning to see that Sheng was intelligent and flexible. The kid might not have experience but he was open to learning; Bane began to feel confident this new recruit would work out.
Walking more briskly, the Dire Wolf explained about his network of observers. For the past twenty years, Bane had not accepted rewards for rescuing people from Midnight War threats. Instead, he had asked that the grateful people keep an eye out for anything weird or inexplicable and to let him know. This had worked out well, and tips from his grateful observers had led to many of his most important missions. Several of the observers had become enthusiastic researchers and actively sought out paranormal events in the area to tell him about.
"That's how I got a few tips about Dr Muelbach acting funny lately," Bane said while they waited at an intersection for the light to change.
"Mule-bock...Mule-bock. These names are going to give me trouble," grumbled Sheng.
"Yeah, Dr Jeffrey Muelbach. He specializes in laser removal of moles, warts, extraneous hairs, that sort of thing. He works out of his office on 54th. Muelbach is from Germany and buys his produce fresh at a small store at the corner. As it happens, the owner of the grocery is Darrin, one of my observers. I helped him out when a few Winter Snow thugs were shaking him down for protection money. He said that Muelbach is still making his usual purchases but he had also started buying a lot of short-grain yellow rice, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and so forth. And the doctor started asking for some exotic herbs and spices that the grocer had never heard of."
"I am confused," Sheng admitted with a frown. "What does this mean?"
"Maybe nothing," said Bane. "Darrin called me about it because he felt bad he had never had any information for me before and he thought it might be significant. He could be right. Maybe Dr Muelbach is only curious about Asian cooking suddenly, but it's also possible that he has a secret guest staying with him..."
Argent clapped his hands together much too loudly, getting a startled glance from a passerby. "Ah! I see. A Chujiran! Here in the world. There are not many of the old Fang-shih sorcerers left but I know one or two who might be able to arrange travel to this world."
"It's worth checking out," Bane said. "That was a few weeks ago. I asked Darrin to notice what sort of clients Muelbach was receiving and things got more intriguing. The doctor seems to have dropped his usual parade of middle-aged women and is seeing a number of obvious gangsters. Well-dressed, mean-looking guys who usually come with one or two companions... bodyguards."
"Hah! It seems so obvious when you explain it."
"Well, it may turn out to be nothing," the Dire Wolf told him. "Nearly all the leads I follow fizzle out. That's the nature of investigation. But we should check it out any way." He stopped in front of a dignified office building which had a bronze plaque in front listing the various doctors, travel agencies and financial consultants to be found inside. "Don't look around suddenly," he told Sheng in a low voice, "Turn your head barely enough. But do you see those two men pretending to read newspapers on the bench across the street?"
"Yes. They have bandit-faces."
"Well put. Those are goons who have a long record of arrests which didn't stick because witnesses suddenly vanished. I know they're hired guns. One of them works for a lunatic named Loomis. Seeing them loitering around guarantees to me we're on the right track."
III.
In the tiled-floor lobby with its flanking elevators and solid bench by the entrance, two doors greeted them on either side. The frosted glass panel on the nearest one said simply, DR JEFFREY MUELBACH - BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Bane took a small metal device from an inside jacket pocket and pressed it to the door's lock. Watching closely, Sheng could not tell that the Trom gadget extruded fine wire filaments which stiffened themselves inside the lock and then rotated to open it. The device worked so quickly that it looked as if Bane had simply used a key.
The Dire Wolf swung the door open and strode inside as if he had ever right to be there. This was his usual approach. As he and Sheng entered, four men in that waiting room gave violent starts and swung to stare at the unexpected intrusion. In that split-second, Bane's long experience in the MIdnight War enabled him to judge the situation.
At the rear of the waiting room were two solid-looking wooden doors, one marked OFFICE and the other EXAMINATIONS. There was a reception desk with a phone and neat stacks of forms and papers, with ledger arrayed on a shelf on the wall behind. High up on a bracket, a small TV was set to the local news channel with the sound off. Two potted plants hung in opposing corners and a rack held assorted magazines. There was nothing unusual about the room. It was the four men who were a colorful assortment.
Most imposing was an individual in a tan business suit, not tall but wide and stocky. The big hairy-backed hands looked strong enough to rip telephone books in half. He had the wide, sullen face of a gangster long set in his ways. The narrow eyes under shaggy brows were openly hostile but his most noticeable feature was a snub, upturned nose inevitably suggesting the snout of a pig. Bane recognized Doug Loomis at once. The racketeer had a small but profitable business running a few floating gambling rooms and some fast houses staffed with trafficked Mexican women; he was not ranked among the city's bigger crooks but he had found a secure niche.
Standing near Loomis, one hand reaching behind himself under his coat to obviously gasp a gun, was his bodyguard. This was a curly-haired dark man evidently of South American extraction, with a head nearly shaved and a beartrap of a mouth. As tough and belligerent as this goon was, he did not have the intense air of authority that Loomis did and Bane relegated him to a lesser threat status .
Off to one side, a stout middle-aged man wearing a white lab smock was holding a plaster mold of a human head and shaping its still soft interior with latex-gloved fingers. He had the same features and coloring as Sheng, and any observer might have concluded they had come from the same nationality. As he spotted the young Chujiran, the smocked man dropped his jaw and stared openly. Next to him, a younger man in a white dress shirt and dark slacks was writing on a clipboard and he also blinked in surprise.
"Bane...." growled Loomis. "Still poking around and sticking your nose where it don't belong. Stand back, Ortega. Don't think of trying anything."
The bodyguard grudgingly straightened up and brough his hand around to be visible. "He doesn't look like anything special, boss."
Loomis shook his head. "Ortega, this is the Dire Wolf. We'd be safer if an actual starving wolf had walked into this room. Okay, Bane, what's the idea? What do you want?"
"You're not my concern at the moment." Bane answered easily. "You know I don't go after mundane crime. I hunt the things that stalk dark streets in the middle of night. Dr Muelbach, your 'new faces for old' racket caught my attention and now that I see your partner, I'm really interested."
Speaking in Chujiran, Sheng said to the the man in the lab smock, >"Peng Liu-Po! We have not met but I know who you are. The magistrate trusted you to store and regulate the sacred Meng-Lei serum. And you betrayed his trust in him. I find you here in the Cities of Men with the serum..."<
>"So? I have heard of you, so-called 'Argent.' Tang Ming speaks of you with praise. But you are just a boy who does not understand what danger he walks into."<
"Hey, hey, ENGLISH, you guys!" yelled Loomis. The gangster's face had flushed red with barely controlled rage. "Goddam it! No conversations I can't follow."
Speaking in Chujiran himself, Bane spoke to Peng as if Loomis had not blown up. >"You are becoming wealthy by helping bandits and thieves escape justice. I am disappointed to find an Imperial officer selling the Meng-Lei to outsiders."<
>"I was tired of owning nothing, of eating drab meals, of always answering for my every move,"< retorted Peng Liu-Po. >"Here I have found luxury not even a prince in Chujir could enjoy."<
"What, you too with that jabbering? Dammit, Bane, knock it off! English only. We don't have to fight, mister. This is not your Midnight War turf," Loomis said.
"Settle down," the Dire Wolf advised. "I'm not sure your little game is within my mission. Maybe we can just cross paths and go about our business."
"Yeah, that's more like it," said the gangster. "Ease up, Ortega. Everything is going to be chill. So, Bane, you probably know I'm in a death-struggle with a guy called Outre. He's some piece of work. He doesn't handle anything that doesn't involve torture, murder, mutilation. His boys have been gunning for me for weeks now with shoot-on-sight orders."
"And your own thugs have the same instructions for handling him," Bane said. "I saw them watching this building."
"And I've had a few close calls. Too close. Dr Muelbach and his partner here will give me a new face for a while. I'll have some breathing space to plan how to eliminate Outre once and for all. So, you see," he told the Dire Wolf, "This is only business between two rivals. Nothing to trouble you."
Bane seemed to relax as he folded his arms across his chest. This was deceptive to anyone who knew him. He was placing his hands within reach of the hilts of the silver daggers strapped beneath his sleeves. "I wouldn't mind seeing Outre get killed. God knows he deserves it. But you've got some blood on your own hands. Loomis. More than a few of your sex slaves have been found drowned in the harbor. If you and Outre snuffed each other, the city would be a better place."
"Yeah, save the sermons. It's an ugly world. Mr Peng, are you ready to work on me?"
The Chujiran man examined the plaster face mold. "A few more minutes, sir. I wanted to give you an undistinguished face that will not draw attention. Come with me into the examination room, I will rub in the Meng-Lei and clamp this mask on tightly. In an hour, no more, your own family will not recognize you."
"I'll go with you two," Bane broke in unexpectedly. "I want to see this procedure out of curiosity. Then I'll move on. There's other stuff I need to be doing today."
"Well... I guess." Loomis studied the Dire Wolf suspiciously. "Why not? Whatever keeps things civil. Ortega, stay out here with Bane's buddy and Dr Muelbach. I don't have to tell you to not let anyone in."
"Sure, boss."
As he opened the door to the examing room, Peng said, "Mr Loomis, first I will inject your face with a local anesthetic. The Meng-Lei transformation is quite painful but the shot will put you in a slight daze for the time required..."
Left behind in the waiting room, Sheng Mo-Yuan frowned with indecision. He was certain his new captain had devised a strategy to deal with this situation but he could not figure it out. With a sigh, he crossed over and sat down to watch the news. Dr Muelbach went behind the desk and began sorting through papers while the bodyguard Ortega positioned himself where he could watch the outer door and Sheng at the same time. His ferocious glower was wasted. Sheng immediately became lost in learning about what was going on this real world. Apparently, there were floods in some place called 'Louisiana"...
IV.
Ninety minutes crawled by while Muelbach worked on his paperwork and Ortega stood his ground. As for Sheng, he was fascinated by commercials. He had no idea Americans suffered from so many ailments that they desperately needed to demand new drugs from their physicians. Despite himself, he began to wonder if he showed any of the symptoms that these people displayed. He did not have back or knee pain, and his bowel movements were regular but what was 'plaque psoriasis?' It sounded horrendous.
After the first hour, Dr Muelbach spoke to Sheng for the first time. "That didn't sound like Chinese you two were speaking. Longer words, not as inflected. Where are you two from exactly?"
"A realm called Chujir. We are the source from which the Han race sprang," Argent replied. "You will not have met any of us before."
"Chujir? Haven't heard of it. A province in China, maybe?"
"Hah. No, my homeland is farther away than miles can measure. One may not travel there without leaving the borders of this world." Sheng stood up and stretched, swinging his arms back behind him. "It is not easy to explain."
"I'm going to see what's going on in there," burst out Ortega. "It was supposed to take an hour and here it's been almost two!"
Even as he spoke, the examination room door swung outward. Bane steered the dazed Loomis out with a hand on the man's shoulder. The gangster was unsteady on his feet and swayed from side to side.
"Boss, you okay?" demaned Ortega.
"He needed extra anesthetic," Bane explained. "Give him a minute. I'll unstrap this mold and see how his new face turned out."
The big bodyguard made a rumbling noise. "Something's not right. Where's the Chinese guy? What's going on here?"
In Chujiran, Bane spoke a short sentence. Instantly, Sheng shifted the focus in his body to enhanced speed. Gralic force crackled unseen through his muscles and nervous system, accelerating him up to the limits to Human ability. Argent plunged across the waiting room and blasted a barrage of left-right hooking blows to Ortega's torso. The breath was driven out of the big man's lungs and a final looping backfist spun Ortega around to drop him stunned and helpless to the tiled floor. He gasped and fought to recover but would be preoccupied with the pain for the immediate future.
"Nice work," Bane said. "Teacher Chael is going to love instructing you in Kumundu." He reached behind Loomis' head and began unfastening the cords that held the plaster mask on so tightly. "Let's have a look."
"Where IS Peng?" said Dr Muelbach in sudden alarm. "What have you done to him?'
"He's fine. He's sleeping off an anesthetic dart. Doctor, Sheng and I are going to drag him back to Chujir. Stealing the Meng-Lei is a serious offense. I don't know if the Magistrate will let him keep his head on his shoulders or not."
As Muelbach began to protest, Sheng stepped in front of him and raised a single admonishing finger. "You have seen what I can do, Mule-bock. Be quiet and do not move."
As the hard clay mold was tugged off, a radically different appearance was revealed. Loomis now had a vulture-like face with a sharply beaked nose and weak chin, high cheekbones and deep vertical creases in the cheeks. His hair was unchanged, but it was unremarkable mousy brown in any case. The man still seemed out of it and not fully aware of the situation. His mouth worked a few times but no words came out.
"Oh my God! That's not the face Peng had designed for him!" yelled Muelbach.
"I know. After I knocked Peng out, I did a little remodelling." The faintest of smiles touched Bane's narrow face. "Never claimed to be an artist, but I think the results will be good enough." He removed Loomis's tie and took a hat hanging from a hook by the front door to cram it down on the stupefied gangster's head.
As he began pushing Loomis toward the front door, the Dire Wolf said, "If I were you, Doctor, I'd relocate right away. Take your money out of the bank and move to Florida or something. Some violent characters might be coming around to ask you questions."
"What? How dare you..? I don't get it..."
Bane gave the man an unsympathetic glance as he opened the front door. "Hey. You've made millions helping crooks and murderers escape each other and from the law. You knew you were palling around with the scum of the earth." He got behind Loomis and gave the man a hard shove out onto the sidewalk, then immediately swung back around out of sight.
Outside there was some excited yelling, a burst of sharp gunfire and a scream of agony. Then a heavy wet thump as something hit the ground. Bane peered cautiously outside. "Yep. His own boys plugged him. They're running toward their car. Looks like Loomis caught a few slugs right in the heart and lungs."
Coming over to stand beside his new leader, Sheng Mo-Yuan scowled. "I think I understand, captain. It was the new face you gave him that made his own henchman shoot him?"
"Exactly," Bane said. "I was working from memory of course, but it was enough to fool his thugs. I made him look as much like his mortal enemy Outre as I could."
9/6/2018
