"Small Rider"
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dochermes"Small Rider"
6/20/1999
I.
Tears filled Cindy's eyes unexpectedly and one drop slid down her cheek as she watched Unicorn tug on the black field jacket. Ashley looked like a baby to her suddenly, so young and eager. Even though she herself had been even younger when first entering the Midnight War, Cindy still felt a sudden pang at the sight.
Standing in front of the full-length mirror in the front hall, Ashley Whitaker twisted her head to check out how the snug black trousers fit. At nineteen, just over five feet tall and barely one hundred pounds, she was slim but curvy and naturally gorgeous. The new Unicorn had platinum blonde hair that hung straight past her shoulders, pale unblemished skin and crystal blue eyes in a doll-like face that was now grinning with wicked appreciation of herself. Ashley had always been attractive and had long since taken it for granted. In the black field suit, with its high boots, trousers and waist-length jacket, she looked great and she was pleased to acknowledge it.
Then she glanced up and the smile faltered as she saw the wistful expression on Cindy's face. "What?" she asked.
The same size as Ashley, Cindy Brunner had hair that was more a dark gold, lightly tanned skin with freckles across the bridge of a snub nose and darker blue eyes that were now moist. The telepath was almost forty, although she looked about ten years younger because she was in such perfect health and condition from her Tel Shai training. Now she sniffed and wiped her cheek with a finger. "Nothing," she said. "I just... You remind me so much of how young I was when I was first started."
Unicorn shrugged and fastened the front of the field suit jacket. "Awww. Well, I hope I do half as well as you did, Cindy. My mom has been training me since I was ten to be the new Unicorn and I've already gone on a few missions."
"I know," the telepath said. She held out what looked like a black motorcycle helmet. "Here. Try this on."
Ashley lowered the helmet and touched the right ear pod. With a hiss, the visor slid down into place within the jawbar. On the inside of that visor, light enhancers clicked on and small readouts appeared on the heads-up display. "Hmm. Fits fine. Everything seems to be working. It feels so light, it can't weigh more than a few ounces."
"Trom technology," Cindy answered. "Everything is more advanced than the best Human tech. You have two helmets and two field suits with all the equipment. Officially, you won't be a KDF member until December but we have to test everything first."
Ashley laughed easily. "It feels great. Even with the flexible armor and everything, I can move like I'm naked. This is so cool." She unfastened the helmet and tugged it off, being careful not to muss her hair. "Can I get a suit made in white? I always wear all white."
"White? I don't know. We'll see." Cindy reached to take the helmet. "You might as well get back in your regular clothes and we'll stow this in a locker by the CORBY. The other suit will be in your room on the third floor..."
Cindy's voice broke off as Bane appeared in the door behind them. They were standing in the front hall of the KDF headquarters and he had been in the reception room doing the paperwork he hated. At forty, the Dire Wolf had not visibly changed since he had been Ashley's age. He was still gaunt and wiry at six feet tall, wearing his invariable outfit of black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket. For once, the grey eyes were not cold and watchful but amused.
"You might want to keep the field suit on," Bane said. "I think we have a possible mission. I was just talking to our observer in Key West."
"Townsend? I was wondering if he was still down there," said Cindy as she put the helmet down on one of the waist-high bookcases that lined the front hall.
"Yes. He told me there hasn't been anything to report until recently. But in the last few months, a lot of wild rumors have been circulating and he himself has done a little investigating. It sounds like Midnight War and I was going to fly down there and dig around myself."
Cindy frowned. "I can't go. This afternoon I'm tied up meeting with Taylor Worth to sign all kinds of legal documents. That'll take forever."
"But I could go...!" Ashley chirped. "Look, I'm already suited up. All I need is to grab my horn, be right back!" She spun on one heel and trotted up the wide staircase to the second floor, quick as a squirrel.
Bane met Cindy's amused gaze. "She's eager. Were we ever that young and gung ho?"
"I was just thinking that," the telepath answered quietly. "Well, she's ready for it. I've read some of the adventures she's already had on her own. Her mother has been grooming her for this life."
"Mary Cassidy did work on a Tel Shai level. As the Unicorn, she had a fine record. I'm a little worried because Ashley has no innate powers. Without that unicorn horn, she's a normal Human. All our other candidates have some special ability."
Cindy nodded slightly. "I've thought of that, too. The talisman is potent, she can take away the gralic force in everything from a Ghoul to a Darthan Kje. That is invaluable. But without the horn...?"
"I guess we'll see how it works out." Bane touched the lapels of his jacket. "I'm going like this but I'll stow my field suit in the CORBY. Maybe this will turn out to be a false alarm, after all"
Unicorn came galloping back down the stairs, with a leather cylinder three feet long strapped across her back, its pointed end down. "All right! Let's go right now. I'm all set."
Cindy smiled. "You'd run down there on foot if we let you."
II.
The black stealthcopter came in to Uneasy Cay from the east, skimming the waves and impossible to spot from the big house on the other end of the island. The end of the Florida Keys was as far as you could go and still be in the United States, and Uneasy Cay was almost the last island on the chain. Bane landed on the rocky beach and taxied in under a cluster of palm trees before shutting down the Trom impulse engines and letting the rotors slow to a halt.
Beside him in the co-pilot seat, Ashley Whitaker unfastened the straps across her chest and over her calves. "I've watched my mom fly a Bell helicopter," she said. "This bird seems a lot easier to handle, to be honest. It's so stable, you hardly seem to need to do the constant fiddling and adjusting."
"The CORBY is more advanced than anything else in the air," Bane replied as he turned off a series of switches and watched the dim pastel lights in the cabin wink off. He started getting out of his own seat restraints and glanced over at Unicorn. "You'll be trained in flying a CORBY in the first month of your KDF membership. We have a new Trom signing on."
"Great, love it, can't wait." Ashley twisted to reach behind her and fetched the sheathed horn from the compartment behind them. She opened her hatch, heard the hissing as the pressurized cabin let in warm muggy Florida air, then hopped lightly out. Stepping away from the CORBY, she removed her helmet, got a short-handled brush from her field jacket and began getting her platinum hair to her liking. "Helmet head, never a good look for your hair," she muttered.
From a storage compartment, Bane hauled out a tough sheet of camouflage fabric and began unfolding it. "Here, give me a hand," he said. Together, they covered the stealthcopter with the tarp and fastened its ends into the ground with pegs. He took his time making sure the craft was secured and Unicorn started getting fidgety. Her attention span was not particularly long.
"So, captain, we're here to visit this couple that sort of works for you, reporting anything gruesome or weird, right? I get the impression you have an army of these observers running all over for you."
Bane was surprised how comfortable he was with Ashley. Never friendly at best, it usually took him a long time to warm up to a new colleague but this girl was so unselfconscious and straightforward that it was hard not to like her. Also, she seemed genuinely interested in everything and listened with total attention, which are endearing traits. As he started leading her along the beach, the Dire Wolf explained, "When I first started in the Midnight War, I decided not to accept rewards from people I helped. Instead, I asked them to keep their eyes open for anything mysterious or creepy, and to let me know about it. Over the years, many of my most important cases started with an observer letting me know something odd he had seen."
They were hiking quickly, but Unicorn had no difficulty keeping up with him. "Sounds like a cool set-up. So, what exactly did this Townsend guy report to you about? Giant bats carrying off people's pets? Skinwalkers? I know, carnivorous mermaids, right?"
"Something more down to Earth," Bane answered. "Three human heads have been found on neighboring islands in the past month."
"Just.. the heads? Well, that's funny. Usually, it's the heads that are missing to prevent identification." She frowned as she marched along beside him. "So it's not a normal crime for normal motives. Some nut collecting heads as trophies would make twisted sense, but bodies without heads...?"
"You don't seem upset at the prospect of finding a severed head or two," he said.
"Aw, my mom raised me to be the new Unicorn. I've been exposed to gruesome and grisly before I hit puberty. I've seen stiffs in stacks." She chuckled throatily. "You couldn't call it a NORMAL childhood but I loved it."
"Good to know," Bane told her. "See those lights through the trees? That's got to be Townsend's house. I've only been here once before and that was years ago." They stepped onto a gravel path that led to a well-kept white frame house with a deck that ran its length. Nearby was a dock extending out into the ocean, with a gleaming Navy blue speedboat tied up to it. RETIREMENT was written along its side in gold script. Bane veered over to get a good look at it, then rejoined Ashley.
"Lights on the ground floor," she told him in hushed tone. "I saw a shape go past a window, looked like a big man."
"That couldn't be Lew," Bane replied. He gave Unicorn a stern look. "All my instincts are warning me. Something's wrong here. Be on guard, Ashley." With that, he leaped up the wide redwood steps to the dock and pressed the small white doorbell. Unicorn saw a visible change had come over Bane, he moved with a quick certainty and he was alert in a feral way. Dire Wolf, she thought.
At once, the door opened and a short thin man was framed in the doorway with the light behind him. "Jeremy? It is you! Oh thank God, of all people to turn up out of nowhere when you're needed the most."
III.
Bane introduced Ashley to Lew Townsend, who been for thirty-seven years a bank loan officer and recently retired. Townsend wore dark blue slacks and a white dress shirt neatly tucked in but with the cuffs rolled back. He had an unimpressive mousy face and build, and the fact he was clearly frightened didn't make him any more imposing. Townsend drew them into the brightly lit living room, with the furniture arranged to face a large screen TV and sound system, and he seemed to want to keep Bane as near as possible.
"Okay, Lew, settle down," the Dire Wolf said. "I can see you're agitated. Take a deep breath. Now, what's the situation?"
"Those heads! Four of them, all on the beaches of the nearby islands. Now there is one here at Uneasy Cay. I saw it. It's a man's head with long blond hair, like a surfer." Townsend gripped Bane's arms up near the shoulder with a tightness that suggested it would not be easy to get loose. "It's out there now."
"Did you call the police?"
"I can't! Jorik won't let me!" With that shriek, Townsend unexpectedly swung Bane around to one side. The Dire Wolf had been concentrating on trying to calm the man down and for once was taken off guard as a wooden club cracked across the back of his head with murderous force. Bane fell to one knee, shaking loose of Townsend's grasp and getting ready to jump again when a second impact on his head drove him senseless to the carpeting. He didn't even try to break his fall.
Unicorn had stepped back and drawn her anesthetic dart gun from its holster beneath her jacket, but she froze. A Glock 19 was pointed directly at her face from five feet away. Even more than having that barrel facing her directly, she was stunned by the horrible apparition that was pointing the gun at her. The body was that of a tanned, athletic young man in baggy floral trunks and flip-flops but his neck was a ragged mess of torn tissue. Sitting on that neck was not his own head, but a dark object no bigger than a grapefruit, with long black lank hair hanging down. The shriveled face was grinning and the dark eyes fixed on her with wicked glee.
A shrunken head.. riding on the neck of a headless body. Ashley had seen a lot in her young life but this was so unexpected and so grisly that she could only stare. From behind her, a big hand wrested the dart gun out of her grip. Ashley swung around only to be shoved brutally back by a towering man with coppery skin and short black hair cut in a tonsure. He was wearing only a pair of jeans, evidently going shirtless to show off his muscular development. To Ashley, he looked very much like a South American native from maybe Brazil or Venezuela.
"Ah, she was not prepared to meet Small Rider," came a thin squeaking voice from the monster behind her. "Let her go, Diogo. I have her covered although I would hate to kill her so soon."
The giant Indian glared suspiciously at Unicorn as he pocketed her dart gun, but he did not move toward her. Just then, Bane grunted and shifted on the floor as he partly returned to consciousness. The Dire Wolf rolled over onto his stomach and took some deep breaths.
"I would have sworn he was dead," squeaked Small Rider. "I certainly intended to kill him. Quick, Diogo, that rope. I will help you." Keeping a wary eye on Ashley, the horror assisted Diogo as they bound the Dire Wolf's wrists together with rough hemp rope, then tied that to his ankles. They made the knots tighter than was really necessary, and not a moment too soon. As they finished, those cold grey eyes snapped open and stabbed out at the two of them.
Bane seldom made threats and he didn't do so now. "Unicorn?"
"I'm okay, captain. This... thing calls itself Small Rider. Maybe I'm losing it, but he seems to be a shrunken head that's somehow alive and is sitting on the neck of a headless corpse... which is also alive." Despite the situation, her voice was remarkably calm and assured. "I have to admit, this is a new one for me."
"Me, too," the Dire Wolf said. Despite the way he was tied up, he exerted himself and flipped over into a seated position with his arms and legs connected behind him. He had two razor blades hidden in the tops of his boots and he had cut himself free several times with them. But the way he had bound, he couldn't reach the blades. Bane was thinking through other ways to get loose when Small Rider swung the Glock toward him.
"I believe I have heard of you. The Dire Wolf! You have slain many children of the night, haven't you, Mr Bane? Oh, yes. My name is Jorik. I'm from a tiny East European country struggling not to be absorbed again into Russia. I was a leader of a small coven of sorcerers who studied Darthan lore. We have fragments of REVELATIONS OF TOLLINOR to study."
Bane had decided his best bet would be to break his own thumb so he could get one hand loose. He wasn't happy about the prospect. With his enhanced healing from decades of a Tagra regimen, his thumb would be usuable again in less than an hour and he could deal with pain but it still was not something he wanted to do if he could find another way. Staring up at Small Rider, he said, "Let me guess. That Indio there, Diogo. It was his tribe that shrunk your head, right? You did something to annoy the chief, I bet."
The hideous head stared with clouded white irises at Bane. "Yes. I learned a few too many of their secrets. The witch doctor turned the chief against me. Diogo is one of the Acerimos. Perhaps you have heard of them. They cut my head off while I screamed curses at them. Fools. They did not realize how great my own powers were!"
Standing off to one side, Ashley Whitaker had regained her usual impudence. With fists on slim hips, she scoffed. "So your head stayed alive by gralic force. You hypnotized Diogo and made him bring you to the States. Right? But you needed a body just to move around on without being carried everywhere, so you forced him to kill a few random people and cut off their heads."
Jorik swung around to face her. He could not swivel his head, so he had to turn his entire stolen body. "I thought you would be in hysterics at seeing me, little girl. There is more to you than meets the eye."
"Ha! Look who's talking."
"Enough of this! Diogo, drag this man into the storeroom with the other bodies. I will not cut off his head just yet, this body has a few good days left to it." As the giant Indio seized Bane by the ropes binding him, the Dire Wolf did not resist. He was hauled along the carpeting to a door in the far wall and rolled into darkness. Diogo closed the door and came back to sullenly watch the Small Rider.
Ashley caught the resentment and smiled slightly. "He doesn't like being enslaved, pal. You better watch him, he's going to rebel at some point."
With an ugly attempt at a smile, the shrunken head said, "Diogo's wife is missing. She came with us to this place but we haven't seen her since we arrived. I think she must have tried to swim to the next island but it's much too far."
"I want to search again," grumbled the big Acerimo. "Release me."
"Very well. Later. But first, go to the boat and bring the rest of the supplies in. Go now." As Diogo stalked out and slammed the door behind him, Small Rider went over to an easy chair and lowered himself into it wearily. He was still holding the Glock, but now he rested it in his lap.
"You've got limits," Unicorn said, still standing defiantly where she was. "You can only control one or two minds at a time, am I right? Of course I'm right. Otherwise, you would be telling me what to do right now."
Jorik did not answer for a long time. He was staring at the little blonde thoughtfully. "I think I will keep you alive. You are attractive. These Steeds I ride seem to function well for a few days before they degenerate. I have a few in storage, preserved by my spells until I mount them. Perhaps I will mate with you, if these Steeds are capable of it."
"Never gonna happen," Ashley told him sharply. "Forget it. Your head is going down the toilet as soon as I can manage it."
The Small Rider chuckled unpleasantly, then turned to face Townsend. The owner of Uneasy Cay had been standing silently during all this, watching in a daze. "Go lie down in your bedroom," the shrunken head ordered. "I don't need you right now."
Ashley went over and dropped down in another chair. She was wearing her unicorn horn across her back, and she shifted it around to one side. "You're some piece of work, Jorik. Nothing is too awful for you, is it? Here's what I think. You want some decapitated bodies around as spares. That big headhunter won't find his wife because you've got her corpse hidden somewhere-"
"Enough!" hissed the monster. "Your life hangs by a thread as it is, little girl. Be silent."
IV.
In foul-smelling darkness, Jeremy Bane finally managed to get his fingers to the top of one boot and drew out the single-edged razor blade stored in a slit. His field suit was loaded with hidden gadgets, most of which he never got to use but this one had been a life-saver more than once. As he began slicing away at the ropes holding his hands and feet, his night vision kicked in. This was a benefit of the Tagra diet from Tel Shai. He saw he was in a room where the furnishings had been taken out. Three human bodies were stretched out on white sheets on the floor, and their heads had been roughly cut off, with dark stains on the sheets showing where blood had dried. All three bodies were male, two of them white men wearing T-shirts and jeans. The third had been a black man in middle age, and that corpse was dressed in khaki shorts and a bright Hawaiian shirt.
It took ten minutes to get loose, and he cut his hands quite a bit in the process but finally he was able to stand up and get his circulation going again. Bane scowled in the darkness, rubbing his hands until the tingling stopped. He had been listening all the time, and he heard conversation from the living room with Unicorn's voice sounding calm and assured. So at least Jorik had not harmed her yet. She did have her talisman with her, he remembered. The Dire Wolf bent over to examine the corpses and figured the mystery of all the severed heads turning up had been solved, although he doubted the answer would ever reach the media. He headed for the door to the living room, then paused.
Set in the opposite wall was a narrow closet door and he could smell something there other than the sickly-sweet death odor. Odd. He decided to take a second to investigate. The door was locked, so he set himself, drew back his elbow and drove the heel of his hand forward six inches. Metal snapped with a click, and he opened the door and peer inside.
V.
Diogo came in with two boxes of canned food and jugs of water, which he brought into the kitchen before reporting to Jorik. The Acerimo stood in front of the monster with an obvious rebellion boiling just under the surface, held back by the Small Rider's hypnotic spell. "I will search for my Inez now," he declared.
"Wait," said Ashley. "Good-Looking here has something he wants to tell you first."
The Glock swung up toward her. "I told you to be still, girl!" hissed the shrunken head on the mismatched tanned body. Before he could fire, though, the door to the storeroom slammed open and everyone snapped their heads around to see Bane appear.
The Dire Wolf was carrying the headless body of a young woman, copper-skinned and slim, wrapped in a colorful one-piece sarong-like garment. Without a word, he lowered the corpse to the floor and straightened up again. In the next few seconds, Jorik realized his game was up and he fired three times at the charging Indio. Struck in the chest and stomach, the big man still lunged and seized the shrunken head to tear it loose from where it had been growing onto the stolen body with tendrils of new flesh. The Small Rider could not scream as its air supply had been cut off, and the tanned surfer's body convulsed and was still.
Diogo flung the hideous head to the floor to stomped one booted foot down on it with all his weight. The Small Rider burst in a gory splatter, and even Bane winced at the sight. He had come over to stand beside Unicorn, who had gotten to her feet at his entrance. The Acerimos started to move toward where his wife's body lay, but stumbled and fell to his knees, struggling to breathe.
Bane went over and lowered the man to the floor, examining him with long experience. "One lung collapsed," he said, more to Ashley than to Diogo. "Bad internal bleeding. He's not going to make it- there he goes." The Dire Wolf straightened up, then thought again and dragged the dead man over to lie beside his wife.
"That's where he was trying to go," Unicorn said almost in a whisper. "My God, what a nightmare."
"You're okay?" Bane asked.
"Me? Of course. I wasn't in much danger. All I had to do was yell, 'with this horn, you know, my phrase' and that creature would have its gralic force removed so fast it wouldn't even be funny. I was just waiting to find out more about what his plans were." She grimaced at the sight of the crushed head on the floor. "That's a mess."
"If anyone deserved it, he did." Bane looked around. "We can't bring the local police in on this. They'd have no idea what to do. I'm afraid I have to call 21 Black. I don't like dealing with the FBI, even their special department, but they'll make all this disappear and the public will never know what happened."
"Captain, what about your friend? Mr Townsend? The monster told him to go to sleep in his room and he's still snoozing in there."
"Hopefully, he won't remember too much of this," Bane said. "He was in a gralic trance. But we'll take care of him. If we have to, Cindy can erase some of his recent memory. What about you? Do you want some of this memory eliminated?"
Unicorn shrugged. "Nah, I'm fine. I'll probably see worse than this when the new team starts up." She slung the unicorn horn over across her back and tightened its strap. "The kids at school thought there was something wrong with me, because nothing grossed me out. They thought I was weird. If they only knew what 'weird' really is!"
6/4/2015
6/20/1999
I.
Tears filled Cindy's eyes unexpectedly and one drop slid down her cheek as she watched Unicorn tug on the black field jacket. Ashley looked like a baby to her suddenly, so young and eager. Even though she herself had been even younger when first entering the Midnight War, Cindy still felt a sudden pang at the sight.
Standing in front of the full-length mirror in the front hall, Ashley Whitaker twisted her head to check out how the snug black trousers fit. At nineteen, just over five feet tall and barely one hundred pounds, she was slim but curvy and naturally gorgeous. The new Unicorn had platinum blonde hair that hung straight past her shoulders, pale unblemished skin and crystal blue eyes in a doll-like face that was now grinning with wicked appreciation of herself. Ashley had always been attractive and had long since taken it for granted. In the black field suit, with its high boots, trousers and waist-length jacket, she looked great and she was pleased to acknowledge it.
Then she glanced up and the smile faltered as she saw the wistful expression on Cindy's face. "What?" she asked.
The same size as Ashley, Cindy Brunner had hair that was more a dark gold, lightly tanned skin with freckles across the bridge of a snub nose and darker blue eyes that were now moist. The telepath was almost forty, although she looked about ten years younger because she was in such perfect health and condition from her Tel Shai training. Now she sniffed and wiped her cheek with a finger. "Nothing," she said. "I just... You remind me so much of how young I was when I was first started."
Unicorn shrugged and fastened the front of the field suit jacket. "Awww. Well, I hope I do half as well as you did, Cindy. My mom has been training me since I was ten to be the new Unicorn and I've already gone on a few missions."
"I know," the telepath said. She held out what looked like a black motorcycle helmet. "Here. Try this on."
Ashley lowered the helmet and touched the right ear pod. With a hiss, the visor slid down into place within the jawbar. On the inside of that visor, light enhancers clicked on and small readouts appeared on the heads-up display. "Hmm. Fits fine. Everything seems to be working. It feels so light, it can't weigh more than a few ounces."
"Trom technology," Cindy answered. "Everything is more advanced than the best Human tech. You have two helmets and two field suits with all the equipment. Officially, you won't be a KDF member until December but we have to test everything first."
Ashley laughed easily. "It feels great. Even with the flexible armor and everything, I can move like I'm naked. This is so cool." She unfastened the helmet and tugged it off, being careful not to muss her hair. "Can I get a suit made in white? I always wear all white."
"White? I don't know. We'll see." Cindy reached to take the helmet. "You might as well get back in your regular clothes and we'll stow this in a locker by the CORBY. The other suit will be in your room on the third floor..."
Cindy's voice broke off as Bane appeared in the door behind them. They were standing in the front hall of the KDF headquarters and he had been in the reception room doing the paperwork he hated. At forty, the Dire Wolf had not visibly changed since he had been Ashley's age. He was still gaunt and wiry at six feet tall, wearing his invariable outfit of black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket. For once, the grey eyes were not cold and watchful but amused.
"You might want to keep the field suit on," Bane said. "I think we have a possible mission. I was just talking to our observer in Key West."
"Townsend? I was wondering if he was still down there," said Cindy as she put the helmet down on one of the waist-high bookcases that lined the front hall.
"Yes. He told me there hasn't been anything to report until recently. But in the last few months, a lot of wild rumors have been circulating and he himself has done a little investigating. It sounds like Midnight War and I was going to fly down there and dig around myself."
Cindy frowned. "I can't go. This afternoon I'm tied up meeting with Taylor Worth to sign all kinds of legal documents. That'll take forever."
"But I could go...!" Ashley chirped. "Look, I'm already suited up. All I need is to grab my horn, be right back!" She spun on one heel and trotted up the wide staircase to the second floor, quick as a squirrel.
Bane met Cindy's amused gaze. "She's eager. Were we ever that young and gung ho?"
"I was just thinking that," the telepath answered quietly. "Well, she's ready for it. I've read some of the adventures she's already had on her own. Her mother has been grooming her for this life."
"Mary Cassidy did work on a Tel Shai level. As the Unicorn, she had a fine record. I'm a little worried because Ashley has no innate powers. Without that unicorn horn, she's a normal Human. All our other candidates have some special ability."
Cindy nodded slightly. "I've thought of that, too. The talisman is potent, she can take away the gralic force in everything from a Ghoul to a Darthan Kje. That is invaluable. But without the horn...?"
"I guess we'll see how it works out." Bane touched the lapels of his jacket. "I'm going like this but I'll stow my field suit in the CORBY. Maybe this will turn out to be a false alarm, after all"
Unicorn came galloping back down the stairs, with a leather cylinder three feet long strapped across her back, its pointed end down. "All right! Let's go right now. I'm all set."
Cindy smiled. "You'd run down there on foot if we let you."
II.
The black stealthcopter came in to Uneasy Cay from the east, skimming the waves and impossible to spot from the big house on the other end of the island. The end of the Florida Keys was as far as you could go and still be in the United States, and Uneasy Cay was almost the last island on the chain. Bane landed on the rocky beach and taxied in under a cluster of palm trees before shutting down the Trom impulse engines and letting the rotors slow to a halt.
Beside him in the co-pilot seat, Ashley Whitaker unfastened the straps across her chest and over her calves. "I've watched my mom fly a Bell helicopter," she said. "This bird seems a lot easier to handle, to be honest. It's so stable, you hardly seem to need to do the constant fiddling and adjusting."
"The CORBY is more advanced than anything else in the air," Bane replied as he turned off a series of switches and watched the dim pastel lights in the cabin wink off. He started getting out of his own seat restraints and glanced over at Unicorn. "You'll be trained in flying a CORBY in the first month of your KDF membership. We have a new Trom signing on."
"Great, love it, can't wait." Ashley twisted to reach behind her and fetched the sheathed horn from the compartment behind them. She opened her hatch, heard the hissing as the pressurized cabin let in warm muggy Florida air, then hopped lightly out. Stepping away from the CORBY, she removed her helmet, got a short-handled brush from her field jacket and began getting her platinum hair to her liking. "Helmet head, never a good look for your hair," she muttered.
From a storage compartment, Bane hauled out a tough sheet of camouflage fabric and began unfolding it. "Here, give me a hand," he said. Together, they covered the stealthcopter with the tarp and fastened its ends into the ground with pegs. He took his time making sure the craft was secured and Unicorn started getting fidgety. Her attention span was not particularly long.
"So, captain, we're here to visit this couple that sort of works for you, reporting anything gruesome or weird, right? I get the impression you have an army of these observers running all over for you."
Bane was surprised how comfortable he was with Ashley. Never friendly at best, it usually took him a long time to warm up to a new colleague but this girl was so unselfconscious and straightforward that it was hard not to like her. Also, she seemed genuinely interested in everything and listened with total attention, which are endearing traits. As he started leading her along the beach, the Dire Wolf explained, "When I first started in the Midnight War, I decided not to accept rewards from people I helped. Instead, I asked them to keep their eyes open for anything mysterious or creepy, and to let me know about it. Over the years, many of my most important cases started with an observer letting me know something odd he had seen."
They were hiking quickly, but Unicorn had no difficulty keeping up with him. "Sounds like a cool set-up. So, what exactly did this Townsend guy report to you about? Giant bats carrying off people's pets? Skinwalkers? I know, carnivorous mermaids, right?"
"Something more down to Earth," Bane answered. "Three human heads have been found on neighboring islands in the past month."
"Just.. the heads? Well, that's funny. Usually, it's the heads that are missing to prevent identification." She frowned as she marched along beside him. "So it's not a normal crime for normal motives. Some nut collecting heads as trophies would make twisted sense, but bodies without heads...?"
"You don't seem upset at the prospect of finding a severed head or two," he said.
"Aw, my mom raised me to be the new Unicorn. I've been exposed to gruesome and grisly before I hit puberty. I've seen stiffs in stacks." She chuckled throatily. "You couldn't call it a NORMAL childhood but I loved it."
"Good to know," Bane told her. "See those lights through the trees? That's got to be Townsend's house. I've only been here once before and that was years ago." They stepped onto a gravel path that led to a well-kept white frame house with a deck that ran its length. Nearby was a dock extending out into the ocean, with a gleaming Navy blue speedboat tied up to it. RETIREMENT was written along its side in gold script. Bane veered over to get a good look at it, then rejoined Ashley.
"Lights on the ground floor," she told him in hushed tone. "I saw a shape go past a window, looked like a big man."
"That couldn't be Lew," Bane replied. He gave Unicorn a stern look. "All my instincts are warning me. Something's wrong here. Be on guard, Ashley." With that, he leaped up the wide redwood steps to the dock and pressed the small white doorbell. Unicorn saw a visible change had come over Bane, he moved with a quick certainty and he was alert in a feral way. Dire Wolf, she thought.
At once, the door opened and a short thin man was framed in the doorway with the light behind him. "Jeremy? It is you! Oh thank God, of all people to turn up out of nowhere when you're needed the most."
III.
Bane introduced Ashley to Lew Townsend, who been for thirty-seven years a bank loan officer and recently retired. Townsend wore dark blue slacks and a white dress shirt neatly tucked in but with the cuffs rolled back. He had an unimpressive mousy face and build, and the fact he was clearly frightened didn't make him any more imposing. Townsend drew them into the brightly lit living room, with the furniture arranged to face a large screen TV and sound system, and he seemed to want to keep Bane as near as possible.
"Okay, Lew, settle down," the Dire Wolf said. "I can see you're agitated. Take a deep breath. Now, what's the situation?"
"Those heads! Four of them, all on the beaches of the nearby islands. Now there is one here at Uneasy Cay. I saw it. It's a man's head with long blond hair, like a surfer." Townsend gripped Bane's arms up near the shoulder with a tightness that suggested it would not be easy to get loose. "It's out there now."
"Did you call the police?"
"I can't! Jorik won't let me!" With that shriek, Townsend unexpectedly swung Bane around to one side. The Dire Wolf had been concentrating on trying to calm the man down and for once was taken off guard as a wooden club cracked across the back of his head with murderous force. Bane fell to one knee, shaking loose of Townsend's grasp and getting ready to jump again when a second impact on his head drove him senseless to the carpeting. He didn't even try to break his fall.
Unicorn had stepped back and drawn her anesthetic dart gun from its holster beneath her jacket, but she froze. A Glock 19 was pointed directly at her face from five feet away. Even more than having that barrel facing her directly, she was stunned by the horrible apparition that was pointing the gun at her. The body was that of a tanned, athletic young man in baggy floral trunks and flip-flops but his neck was a ragged mess of torn tissue. Sitting on that neck was not his own head, but a dark object no bigger than a grapefruit, with long black lank hair hanging down. The shriveled face was grinning and the dark eyes fixed on her with wicked glee.
A shrunken head.. riding on the neck of a headless body. Ashley had seen a lot in her young life but this was so unexpected and so grisly that she could only stare. From behind her, a big hand wrested the dart gun out of her grip. Ashley swung around only to be shoved brutally back by a towering man with coppery skin and short black hair cut in a tonsure. He was wearing only a pair of jeans, evidently going shirtless to show off his muscular development. To Ashley, he looked very much like a South American native from maybe Brazil or Venezuela.
"Ah, she was not prepared to meet Small Rider," came a thin squeaking voice from the monster behind her. "Let her go, Diogo. I have her covered although I would hate to kill her so soon."
The giant Indian glared suspiciously at Unicorn as he pocketed her dart gun, but he did not move toward her. Just then, Bane grunted and shifted on the floor as he partly returned to consciousness. The Dire Wolf rolled over onto his stomach and took some deep breaths.
"I would have sworn he was dead," squeaked Small Rider. "I certainly intended to kill him. Quick, Diogo, that rope. I will help you." Keeping a wary eye on Ashley, the horror assisted Diogo as they bound the Dire Wolf's wrists together with rough hemp rope, then tied that to his ankles. They made the knots tighter than was really necessary, and not a moment too soon. As they finished, those cold grey eyes snapped open and stabbed out at the two of them.
Bane seldom made threats and he didn't do so now. "Unicorn?"
"I'm okay, captain. This... thing calls itself Small Rider. Maybe I'm losing it, but he seems to be a shrunken head that's somehow alive and is sitting on the neck of a headless corpse... which is also alive." Despite the situation, her voice was remarkably calm and assured. "I have to admit, this is a new one for me."
"Me, too," the Dire Wolf said. Despite the way he was tied up, he exerted himself and flipped over into a seated position with his arms and legs connected behind him. He had two razor blades hidden in the tops of his boots and he had cut himself free several times with them. But the way he had bound, he couldn't reach the blades. Bane was thinking through other ways to get loose when Small Rider swung the Glock toward him.
"I believe I have heard of you. The Dire Wolf! You have slain many children of the night, haven't you, Mr Bane? Oh, yes. My name is Jorik. I'm from a tiny East European country struggling not to be absorbed again into Russia. I was a leader of a small coven of sorcerers who studied Darthan lore. We have fragments of REVELATIONS OF TOLLINOR to study."
Bane had decided his best bet would be to break his own thumb so he could get one hand loose. He wasn't happy about the prospect. With his enhanced healing from decades of a Tagra regimen, his thumb would be usuable again in less than an hour and he could deal with pain but it still was not something he wanted to do if he could find another way. Staring up at Small Rider, he said, "Let me guess. That Indio there, Diogo. It was his tribe that shrunk your head, right? You did something to annoy the chief, I bet."
The hideous head stared with clouded white irises at Bane. "Yes. I learned a few too many of their secrets. The witch doctor turned the chief against me. Diogo is one of the Acerimos. Perhaps you have heard of them. They cut my head off while I screamed curses at them. Fools. They did not realize how great my own powers were!"
Standing off to one side, Ashley Whitaker had regained her usual impudence. With fists on slim hips, she scoffed. "So your head stayed alive by gralic force. You hypnotized Diogo and made him bring you to the States. Right? But you needed a body just to move around on without being carried everywhere, so you forced him to kill a few random people and cut off their heads."
Jorik swung around to face her. He could not swivel his head, so he had to turn his entire stolen body. "I thought you would be in hysterics at seeing me, little girl. There is more to you than meets the eye."
"Ha! Look who's talking."
"Enough of this! Diogo, drag this man into the storeroom with the other bodies. I will not cut off his head just yet, this body has a few good days left to it." As the giant Indio seized Bane by the ropes binding him, the Dire Wolf did not resist. He was hauled along the carpeting to a door in the far wall and rolled into darkness. Diogo closed the door and came back to sullenly watch the Small Rider.
Ashley caught the resentment and smiled slightly. "He doesn't like being enslaved, pal. You better watch him, he's going to rebel at some point."
With an ugly attempt at a smile, the shrunken head said, "Diogo's wife is missing. She came with us to this place but we haven't seen her since we arrived. I think she must have tried to swim to the next island but it's much too far."
"I want to search again," grumbled the big Acerimo. "Release me."
"Very well. Later. But first, go to the boat and bring the rest of the supplies in. Go now." As Diogo stalked out and slammed the door behind him, Small Rider went over to an easy chair and lowered himself into it wearily. He was still holding the Glock, but now he rested it in his lap.
"You've got limits," Unicorn said, still standing defiantly where she was. "You can only control one or two minds at a time, am I right? Of course I'm right. Otherwise, you would be telling me what to do right now."
Jorik did not answer for a long time. He was staring at the little blonde thoughtfully. "I think I will keep you alive. You are attractive. These Steeds I ride seem to function well for a few days before they degenerate. I have a few in storage, preserved by my spells until I mount them. Perhaps I will mate with you, if these Steeds are capable of it."
"Never gonna happen," Ashley told him sharply. "Forget it. Your head is going down the toilet as soon as I can manage it."
The Small Rider chuckled unpleasantly, then turned to face Townsend. The owner of Uneasy Cay had been standing silently during all this, watching in a daze. "Go lie down in your bedroom," the shrunken head ordered. "I don't need you right now."
Ashley went over and dropped down in another chair. She was wearing her unicorn horn across her back, and she shifted it around to one side. "You're some piece of work, Jorik. Nothing is too awful for you, is it? Here's what I think. You want some decapitated bodies around as spares. That big headhunter won't find his wife because you've got her corpse hidden somewhere-"
"Enough!" hissed the monster. "Your life hangs by a thread as it is, little girl. Be silent."
IV.
In foul-smelling darkness, Jeremy Bane finally managed to get his fingers to the top of one boot and drew out the single-edged razor blade stored in a slit. His field suit was loaded with hidden gadgets, most of which he never got to use but this one had been a life-saver more than once. As he began slicing away at the ropes holding his hands and feet, his night vision kicked in. This was a benefit of the Tagra diet from Tel Shai. He saw he was in a room where the furnishings had been taken out. Three human bodies were stretched out on white sheets on the floor, and their heads had been roughly cut off, with dark stains on the sheets showing where blood had dried. All three bodies were male, two of them white men wearing T-shirts and jeans. The third had been a black man in middle age, and that corpse was dressed in khaki shorts and a bright Hawaiian shirt.
It took ten minutes to get loose, and he cut his hands quite a bit in the process but finally he was able to stand up and get his circulation going again. Bane scowled in the darkness, rubbing his hands until the tingling stopped. He had been listening all the time, and he heard conversation from the living room with Unicorn's voice sounding calm and assured. So at least Jorik had not harmed her yet. She did have her talisman with her, he remembered. The Dire Wolf bent over to examine the corpses and figured the mystery of all the severed heads turning up had been solved, although he doubted the answer would ever reach the media. He headed for the door to the living room, then paused.
Set in the opposite wall was a narrow closet door and he could smell something there other than the sickly-sweet death odor. Odd. He decided to take a second to investigate. The door was locked, so he set himself, drew back his elbow and drove the heel of his hand forward six inches. Metal snapped with a click, and he opened the door and peer inside.
V.
Diogo came in with two boxes of canned food and jugs of water, which he brought into the kitchen before reporting to Jorik. The Acerimo stood in front of the monster with an obvious rebellion boiling just under the surface, held back by the Small Rider's hypnotic spell. "I will search for my Inez now," he declared.
"Wait," said Ashley. "Good-Looking here has something he wants to tell you first."
The Glock swung up toward her. "I told you to be still, girl!" hissed the shrunken head on the mismatched tanned body. Before he could fire, though, the door to the storeroom slammed open and everyone snapped their heads around to see Bane appear.
The Dire Wolf was carrying the headless body of a young woman, copper-skinned and slim, wrapped in a colorful one-piece sarong-like garment. Without a word, he lowered the corpse to the floor and straightened up again. In the next few seconds, Jorik realized his game was up and he fired three times at the charging Indio. Struck in the chest and stomach, the big man still lunged and seized the shrunken head to tear it loose from where it had been growing onto the stolen body with tendrils of new flesh. The Small Rider could not scream as its air supply had been cut off, and the tanned surfer's body convulsed and was still.
Diogo flung the hideous head to the floor to stomped one booted foot down on it with all his weight. The Small Rider burst in a gory splatter, and even Bane winced at the sight. He had come over to stand beside Unicorn, who had gotten to her feet at his entrance. The Acerimos started to move toward where his wife's body lay, but stumbled and fell to his knees, struggling to breathe.
Bane went over and lowered the man to the floor, examining him with long experience. "One lung collapsed," he said, more to Ashley than to Diogo. "Bad internal bleeding. He's not going to make it- there he goes." The Dire Wolf straightened up, then thought again and dragged the dead man over to lie beside his wife.
"That's where he was trying to go," Unicorn said almost in a whisper. "My God, what a nightmare."
"You're okay?" Bane asked.
"Me? Of course. I wasn't in much danger. All I had to do was yell, 'with this horn, you know, my phrase' and that creature would have its gralic force removed so fast it wouldn't even be funny. I was just waiting to find out more about what his plans were." She grimaced at the sight of the crushed head on the floor. "That's a mess."
"If anyone deserved it, he did." Bane looked around. "We can't bring the local police in on this. They'd have no idea what to do. I'm afraid I have to call 21 Black. I don't like dealing with the FBI, even their special department, but they'll make all this disappear and the public will never know what happened."
"Captain, what about your friend? Mr Townsend? The monster told him to go to sleep in his room and he's still snoozing in there."
"Hopefully, he won't remember too much of this," Bane said. "He was in a gralic trance. But we'll take care of him. If we have to, Cindy can erase some of his recent memory. What about you? Do you want some of this memory eliminated?"
Unicorn shrugged. "Nah, I'm fine. I'll probably see worse than this when the new team starts up." She slung the unicorn horn over across her back and tightened its strap. "The kids at school thought there was something wrong with me, because nothing grossed me out. They thought I was weird. If they only knew what 'weird' really is!"
6/4/2015
