"The Conquering Rats"
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dochermes"The Conquering Rats"
8/21-8/22/1994
I.
At ten minutes to two in the morning, the phone on the nightstand rang. Jeremy Bane was a light sleeper at best, and he sat up instantly awake as his hand jumped to the receiver. Beside him in the double bed under the light linen sheet, Cindy mumbled darkly and rolled over away from the noise.
"Yeah. Hey, Ace. What's the matter?" The Dire Wolf sat up on the edge of the bed and wiped his face with one hand. "Slow down, you're not making sense. Why can't you talk right now? Sure, come right over. You're what, an hour north of here? Okay. We'll be waiting."
Cindy Brunner had crawled out of bed and padded naked across the floor to the bathroom. The door closed behind her with a bit more emphasis than was strictly necessary. Hanging up the phone, Bane stood up as he clicked on the bedside lamp. In his late thirties, the Dire Wolf was at a physical peak. Years of Kumundu training had stripped his naturally lean body to a hard mass of muscle and bone with zero fat. Glancing over at the light from under the bathroom door, Bane smiled faintly. He seldom needed more than four or five hours sleep out of twenty-four because of his enhanced metabolism but Cindy wanted a solid eight hours in a row and didn't enjoy having it interrupted.
Crossing over to the dresser with its huge mirror across the top, the Dire Wolf got fresh white cotton socks and underwear on, then took down a suit of what looked like wet silk. The flexible Trom armor covered his body, arms and legs to leave only hands, feet and head exposed. As he tugged the armor on, it tightened a bit by itself to fit him snugly.
Emerging from the bathroom, drying her hands on a washcloth, Cindy Brunner watched him with pride. Only an inch over five feet tall and just over one hundred pounds, she had the same wiry definition he had and from the same cause. They had been Tel Shai knights for more than fifteen years and were in better condition than most Olympic athletes. Cindy was a natural blonde, with hair the color of goldenrod in a thick ponytail, lightly freckled skin and dark blue eyes in a usually impudent face. Right now, that face was completely serious. She got her white flannel bathrobe off its hook on the bathroom door and wrapped it around her.
"You know what's going on?" he asked as he went over to the walk-in closet.
"No. You're thinking too fast," the little telepath said. "All I'm getting is worry and urgency."
Bane paused and turned to face her. In the subdued lighting of the bedroom, his grey eyes seemed almost colorless. "That was Ace Elmendorf. I don't think you've met him. He was one of Mike's friends, I don't know him that well. Ace is a sort of shady adventurer in the Midnight War, always getting in and out of trouble. Sometimes he retrieves stolen artifacts, sometimes he steals them himself."
"Huh." She sat down on the edge of the bed and searched for her slippers. They were fuzzy and light blue, and she found one but the other eluded her. "Does he have any gralic powers or anything?"
"No. He does own an Eldar travel crystal. It's small but it gets him into most of the adjacent realms. He told Mike once he was going to donate the crystal to the KDF in his will." Bane had gotten one of his standard outfits from the closet and started climbing into the black slacks, long-sleeved turtleneck and sports jacket as he talked.
Before he pulled on the turtleneck, though, Bane took two leather harnesses from where they had been hanging by the bed and strapped one to each forearm. The sheaths held a matching pair of short throwing daggers without crossguards... daggers with blades of silver blessed by the immortal Eldarin ages ago. These had been given to him by Kenneth Dred at their first meeting, and they were the most prized possessions Bane had ever owned. With the shirt and jacket on, he adjusted the hilts facing out toward his wrists to be sure he could reach them quickly.
Automatically, Bane patted the dozen concealed pouches and pockets built into his clothing. All the tiny Trom-devised gadgets were in place. The oxygen membrane, the flares no bigger than pencil stubs, the tear gas/smoke bombs the size of grapes, the flexible hacksaw blade and the hooked lockpick tools.. everything was where it should be.
"Now your thoughts are getting organized," Cindy said. She normally kept a very light surface contact between their minds when they were near each other. "This guy Ace is on his way here?"
"So he said. He sounded almost hysterical, Cin, and that bothers me. Ace has been in Khebir, Perjena, Signarm, even Chyl, and he always got back safely. He said he once even snuck into Ulgor wearing an aqualung. It's disturbing to hear him so frightened by something "
The blonde came over to touch him on the arm as she went toward the hallway door. "Whatever it is, hon, the two of us can handle it. This is the best place on Earth for him to head when there's trouble." She went out into the hall and swung right into her own adjoining room. Most nights she spent next to her lover and partner, but Cindy's own room held her wardrobe, books and albums, hanging plants and framed photos and assorted knick-knacks. His room was so bare and Spartan it hardly seemed anyone lived there.
Waiting for her, pacing restlessly, Jeremy Bane fretted about Ace. He had only met the man twice, but Elmendorf had seemed so experienced, so confident, that it was hard to imagine anything could rattle the man. Bane had no way of knowing that, right at that moment, Ace Elmendorf's car had smashed head-on into a telephone pole by the side of a back road at over ninety miles an hour.
II.
By three-twenty that morning, Ace had not arrived at the old building on 38th Street nor called again. Bane and Cindy had made toast and tea and settled down in the front office to wait. She had changed into red sneakers, denim jeans and a maroon sweatshirt that said SCARAB WORLD TOUR on front and back. They spent time catching up on paperwork, writing out checks and tearing up junk mail, then called Ace's home without getting an answer. Eventually Bane slapped his open palm on the desk.
"He should have been here long ago!" the Dire Wolf snapped. "Cin, one of us should stay here in case he does show up but the other one should rush up there."
The little blonde folded the bills marked PAID into an envelope and slid them into a drawer of the huge oak desk. "Welllll... logically, you should go to his home. If there is trouble, you're the partner best suited to handle it. If he turns up after you're on your way, I'll keep him entertained until you get back. Sound fair?"
"Yes," Bane said as he headed for the door.
Behind him, Cindy called, "Just out of curiosity, do you know what his last adventure entailed?"
Bane paused in the doorway. "He took a commission in Okali a month ago. Something to do with bringing back a specimen or two. Why do you ask?"
"Ugh, Okali!" was her answer. "That place is a Wild Kingdom like nobody's business. Speaking Apes. Griffins. Unicorns, manticores, real Dire Wolves. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Tyrannosaur or two still stomping around there."
"Well, anyway, he made it back. Contact me on the Links if there are developments, Cin." With that, he rushed across the hall and into the walk-in closet, through the false wall panel in its rear, and down steep cement steps. The Dire Wolf almost ran down the narrow walkway that led to their underground garage just big enough for two cars at the same time. He snatched up the keys to the dark green Subaru Outback and hopped in. Heading up the steep cement ramp to street level, he managed the sharp turn at the top and eased out of the dead-end alley onto Lexington Avenue. A murky humid night greeted him.
Up by the Feldston area, right on the edge of Westchester County where he considered "the City" to end, Bane pulled over on the side of the road and faced two adjoining houses. Both were set back behind expansive well-manicured lawns and both were sitting up on a small rise. They looked as if they had been built at the same time, as did a similar house a bit further down the road.
Bane got out and felt all his sense of alarm warning him. There was serious danger in the immediate area, all his instincts were tugging at him to be alert. He reached behind his left hip and loosened the long-barrelled Smith & Wesson 38 in its holster. The worst aspect was that he couldn't see anything wrong. It was a peaceful, well-tended neighborhood and so deep in the night yet that no one seemed to be stirring.
Next to the road was a wooden frame that held two adjoining mailboxes. The one to his left read ELMENDORF and marked the house he had been seeking. But the other mailbox said SCHUSSLER and for some reason this was what drew his attention. Bane had long ago learned to trust his instincts for trouble. Maybe it was just his subconscious picking up details he had not consciously spotted yet. Slowly, warily, he walked up the narrow paved driveway toward the Schussler house. The front door hung wide open and a light still burned in a ground floor window.
As he approached, the Dire Wolf reached into an inside pocket of his jacket and drew on a pair of black latex gloves. If he was entering a crime scene as he suspected, he did not want to leave any prints. Stepping up onto the porch of the Schussler home, he cautiously swung the front door open further and stared inside. Lying right at his feet was a skeleton, with bits of tattered clothing still draped on it. Judging by the shoulder and hip proportions, the victim had been an adult female. The bones had separated as the ligaments were gone in most places and the skull had rolled two feet to one side. Bane bent lower. The bones showed hundreds of deep tooth marks. The woman had been gnawed to death. The Dire Wolf stared across the living room and saw a smaller skeleton in a similar condition. A child. Some long dark hair still clung to that skull.
Backing out of the house without touching anything, the Dire Wolf took slow deliberate breaths to keep calm. Just what the hell had Ace Elmendorf brought back from Okali anyway? It was time to call the NYPD. Bane stood with one foot on the bottom step of the porch and reached to his belt for his Link. He would patch into the normal phone system and see if he could roust Inspector Klein. It was getting light out and an occasional car went past.
From the corner of his eye, he caught movement nearby. Bane swung around, hand jumping to the butt of his revolver. What was that dark shadow covering most of the Schussler's yard? Why was it bristling? Why was it moving quickly toward him? With a cold jolt of fear, he realized it was a mass of thousands of rats heading right toward him.
III.
Bane had seldom moved faster in his life. Spinning on one heel, he sprinted downhill full-blast toward his car. The wave of furry brown bodies still caught up with him rapidly. Even as he seized the door handle of his Subaru, rats were climbing up onto his body. Their savage incisors slashed through his jacket and trousers but could not penetrate the Trom armor beneath. One started biting furiously on the back of his exposed neck and Bane reached up to seize the repulsive creature in an iron grip that crushed it. Flinging the dying animal away, the Dire Wolf threw himself into the front seat and slammed the door shut behind him. At least a dozen of a wriggling horrors had gotten inside with him in that instant that the door was open. They were biting at his hands and face, digging deep, drawing blood. The pain was intense.
Fighting to stay in control, Bane dug into the lower hem of his sport jacket, yanked out a metal ovoid the size of a large grape, and twisted its two halves in opposite directions. Released from under pressure, a jet black cloud of gas exploded out to fill the interior of the car with choking tear gas. Even though he had taken and held a quick breath, Bane inevitably inhaled some. The rats fell away off him, squealing furiously. The inside of the car was a solid boiling mass of stinging blackness.
From the left inside pocket of his jacket, Bane drew out one of the oxygen membranes and strapped it over his mouth and nose. It resembled a surgeon's mask of clear material, held on by tabs which fit over the ears. Now he was breathing clean air and could function, although his eyes were still burning. Unable to see, the Dire Wolf slid one of the silver daggers from its sheath and set to work, finding the rats by touch and stabbing them deeply. It was ugly work, he was bleeding from a dozen bites on his face and hands before he decided he had killed the last one inside the car.
With all he had experienced in two decades of the Midnight War, this still shook him badly. His pulse was racing and he fought to bring his awareness down to a useful level. Finding his keys in his pants pocket, Bane started up the Subaru and cranked the AC on full blast. In a minute, all the smoke had been pumped out and fresh air brought in. He blinked hard, trying to clear his eyes and wondering why the inside of the car was so dark.
Then he realized the windshield and windows were covered with crawling rats. The small furry bodies were climbing over each in their efforts to get at him. He saw hunger and hatred in those dozens of red eyes. What terror the Dire Wolf was feeling was abruptly replaced by a cold furious anger. All his natural instincts were to fight back and survive. He wanted to kill all those little monsters. As he glared out through the darkened windshield, some of the brutes spread out to leave an open space. Standing on the hood of his car, reared up on its hind legs, was the Emperor Rat.
The creature was considerably larger than the normal rats, covered with dirty white fur that had yellow tones. Its head was misshapen, too, with a bulging frontal lobe behind the red eyes which gave the beast an unnaturally human expression. The white beast stood just beyond the windshield, glaring in at its intended prey and Bane returned that stare with equal ferocity.
He remembered now, from notes Kenneth Dred had left behind. The Conquering Rats of Okali. Once every few years, the little horrors experienced a population surge that drove them out in an army of thousands to swarm over anything in their path. Even the largest and strongest animals fled when the Conquering Rats came pouring over the ground. The Skullhunters and the Speaking Apes hid in fortified areas in the mountains where they had laid in supplies. After a week, perhaps two, the rats died out for some reason and their population dropped back down to usual levels.
The pack leaders were Emperors, large white-furred individuals who seemed to exert some quasi-telepathic influence over their followers. It had been the Darthim who had experimented on normal animals ages ago, most likely it was Darthan sorcery that had created these pale leaders of the Conquering Rats.
Seeing one of these white-furred Emperors watching him from just inches away filled Bane with such a potent loathing and revulsion that he drew his Smith & Wesson. But the windshield was made of special bullet-resistant glass he realized soberly, and would barely get a chip even at point-blank range. Instead, there would be a 38 slug ricocheting around inside the car. He took his finger off the trigger with a shudder. Then the Link on his belt buzzed and he gave a violent start. Annoyed at how panicky he had become, the Dire Wolf took a deep breath and unclipped the electronic device. "Yeah, Cin?"
"Jeremy! I'm on my way," came her voice. "Inspector Klein actually called us a few minutes ago. I'm sorry to tell you but Ace Elmendorf is dead. He hit a pole going like hell, but that wasn't the worst part."
Bane scowled at the white Emperor Rat just on the other side of the windshield. The damned thing seemed to be listening. "Yeah, yeah, go on," he said.
"Are you okay? You sound funny. Anyway, poor Ace was all chewed up and bleeding to death when he crashed. The police found four dead rats in the vehicle and suspected there had been more than a dozen when the crash occurred. That's what made Klein think it was in our area of interest."
"Yeah, he's got good instincts. Listen, Cin. I'm sitting in the Subaru right now. Every rat in the Tri-State area has met here and they're climbing all over the car."
"WHAT! Lock the doors, no wait, that's stupid, they can't open doors, can they? Jeremy, I'll be there in a moment. Hang in there!" She broke the connection. As Bane clipped the Link back to his belt, he tried to come up with some way to fight back. The idea of calling the fire department, who might have used high-pressure hoses on the rats, never occured to him. Nor did he consider phoning the police. He was used to the Midnight War, where battles were kept secret from the public.
What were the little monsters up to? He could see they were working on something. Suddenly he realized they were chewing relentlessly to get at the rubber gasket which held the car's windshield in place. If they got the windshield off, he would be eaten alive in a few minutes. Bane wound down the driver's side window just an inch and immediately the gap was filled with quivering muzzles forcing their way in. Using his silver dagger like an ice pick, the Dire Wolf began stabbing at the noses. The rats dropped off, hacked up and bleeding from the deep wounds but dozens more climbed up to take their place. He could not kill enough of them this way to make a difference but at least it was a distraction and kept their attention.
This seemed to go on forever. As his hand began to ache from the taut grip, he shifted the dagger to his other hand and kept stabbing. All around him, he could hear the grinding of chisel-edged teeth on the outside of the car. Every window was covered with the hideous little bodies, all climbing over each other and struggling to find a way to get at him. With his free hand, Bane tugged the other tear gas/smoke pellet from his jacket. If he could force an open space in the gap for just a second, he would drop it outside and maybe get a respite.
Then he heard a car horn blowing furiously behind him. Something like an electric jolt ran through his head, stunning him, and he saw the rats falling limply off his car. Bane realized vaguely through his daze that Cindy had arrived and blasted out a telepathic attack on the creatures. The shock that had disoriented him was just the bare edge of that mental assault which had grazed against him. He knew how powerful her abilities were when she unleashed them. Through the suddenly uncovered windows of his car, dawn light came in. He saw hundreds of confused rats wriggling and convulsing in all directions.
There on the hood of his car, standing on its hind legs and still defiant, stood the Emperor Rat. Its muzzle was parted in a wicked grin. In a long career, Bane had seldom been more enraged. In one unbroken movement, he slammed the car door open, seized the white beast in one hand and sliced its head clean off with the dagger in his other hand. The Emperor did not even have time to squeal. Throwing the small corpse as far away as he could, the Dire Wolf slowly lowered his bloody weapon and glared around him.
The rats were fleeing as fast as they could, up the hill and into the woods or down onto the street in blind panic. He turned to see Cindy standing next to the Mustang, fists on her hips and feet well apart. Waves of unseen telepathic force radiated from her.
"Yeah, you'd better run!" she screamed. "I'll burn your brains out!"
Despite the pain, Bane had to smile at her fury. The only times Cindy Brunner showed how dangerous she really was were when she was protecting someone. He took a deep breath and came down to normal adrenalin levels. He could not remember the last time his legs had felt so rubbery. Bending down, he plucked a handful of grass to wipe the blade of his dagger. "You know, Cin, I'm always glad to see you but man..! If a guy ever needed a friend."
The blonde telepath ran up, got a glimpse of his condition and hurried back to the Mustang to fetch the first aid kit from the back seat. Bane did not even try to stop her as she cleaned him up with Neosporin and gauze pads.
"I know, I know," she said soothingly. "Because of our tagra tea diet, we don't have to worry about infections or rabies. But still, getting chewed up like that means you need some attention, my dear."
"Ouch. Thanks, hon. Look at my car. The tires are all ripped up, and I smell coolant on the ground. We'll have to have it towed. Those little bastards did their best to eat their way through the car to get to me." Bane gingerly touched the back of his neck where the bandages were thickest. "Damn."
"Well, now we know what your friend Ace brought back from Okali. Although what anyone would WANT with an Emperor Rat is beyond me." Cindy snapped the first aid kit shut and surveyed her work without enthusiasm. "You've looked better, dear."
"With Ace dead, we'll probably never know the whole story," Bane said. "You haven't heard yet but that house up there? With the door open? The family in there was killed by the Conquering Rats. Now we have to call the police and see what they make of it."
"Jeremy...."
Something in her voice alarmed Bane. He felt an unexplained cold frisson at that tone. "What?"
"It just occurred to me. We don't know how long the Emperor Rat was free. Maybe not long, maybe just today but suppose he escaped a few days ago. Plenty of time to impregnate a few normal rats. There may be a generation of Emperor Rat embryos gestating right now."
7/1/2016
8/21-8/22/1994
I.
At ten minutes to two in the morning, the phone on the nightstand rang. Jeremy Bane was a light sleeper at best, and he sat up instantly awake as his hand jumped to the receiver. Beside him in the double bed under the light linen sheet, Cindy mumbled darkly and rolled over away from the noise.
"Yeah. Hey, Ace. What's the matter?" The Dire Wolf sat up on the edge of the bed and wiped his face with one hand. "Slow down, you're not making sense. Why can't you talk right now? Sure, come right over. You're what, an hour north of here? Okay. We'll be waiting."
Cindy Brunner had crawled out of bed and padded naked across the floor to the bathroom. The door closed behind her with a bit more emphasis than was strictly necessary. Hanging up the phone, Bane stood up as he clicked on the bedside lamp. In his late thirties, the Dire Wolf was at a physical peak. Years of Kumundu training had stripped his naturally lean body to a hard mass of muscle and bone with zero fat. Glancing over at the light from under the bathroom door, Bane smiled faintly. He seldom needed more than four or five hours sleep out of twenty-four because of his enhanced metabolism but Cindy wanted a solid eight hours in a row and didn't enjoy having it interrupted.
Crossing over to the dresser with its huge mirror across the top, the Dire Wolf got fresh white cotton socks and underwear on, then took down a suit of what looked like wet silk. The flexible Trom armor covered his body, arms and legs to leave only hands, feet and head exposed. As he tugged the armor on, it tightened a bit by itself to fit him snugly.
Emerging from the bathroom, drying her hands on a washcloth, Cindy Brunner watched him with pride. Only an inch over five feet tall and just over one hundred pounds, she had the same wiry definition he had and from the same cause. They had been Tel Shai knights for more than fifteen years and were in better condition than most Olympic athletes. Cindy was a natural blonde, with hair the color of goldenrod in a thick ponytail, lightly freckled skin and dark blue eyes in a usually impudent face. Right now, that face was completely serious. She got her white flannel bathrobe off its hook on the bathroom door and wrapped it around her.
"You know what's going on?" he asked as he went over to the walk-in closet.
"No. You're thinking too fast," the little telepath said. "All I'm getting is worry and urgency."
Bane paused and turned to face her. In the subdued lighting of the bedroom, his grey eyes seemed almost colorless. "That was Ace Elmendorf. I don't think you've met him. He was one of Mike's friends, I don't know him that well. Ace is a sort of shady adventurer in the Midnight War, always getting in and out of trouble. Sometimes he retrieves stolen artifacts, sometimes he steals them himself."
"Huh." She sat down on the edge of the bed and searched for her slippers. They were fuzzy and light blue, and she found one but the other eluded her. "Does he have any gralic powers or anything?"
"No. He does own an Eldar travel crystal. It's small but it gets him into most of the adjacent realms. He told Mike once he was going to donate the crystal to the KDF in his will." Bane had gotten one of his standard outfits from the closet and started climbing into the black slacks, long-sleeved turtleneck and sports jacket as he talked.
Before he pulled on the turtleneck, though, Bane took two leather harnesses from where they had been hanging by the bed and strapped one to each forearm. The sheaths held a matching pair of short throwing daggers without crossguards... daggers with blades of silver blessed by the immortal Eldarin ages ago. These had been given to him by Kenneth Dred at their first meeting, and they were the most prized possessions Bane had ever owned. With the shirt and jacket on, he adjusted the hilts facing out toward his wrists to be sure he could reach them quickly.
Automatically, Bane patted the dozen concealed pouches and pockets built into his clothing. All the tiny Trom-devised gadgets were in place. The oxygen membrane, the flares no bigger than pencil stubs, the tear gas/smoke bombs the size of grapes, the flexible hacksaw blade and the hooked lockpick tools.. everything was where it should be.
"Now your thoughts are getting organized," Cindy said. She normally kept a very light surface contact between their minds when they were near each other. "This guy Ace is on his way here?"
"So he said. He sounded almost hysterical, Cin, and that bothers me. Ace has been in Khebir, Perjena, Signarm, even Chyl, and he always got back safely. He said he once even snuck into Ulgor wearing an aqualung. It's disturbing to hear him so frightened by something "
The blonde came over to touch him on the arm as she went toward the hallway door. "Whatever it is, hon, the two of us can handle it. This is the best place on Earth for him to head when there's trouble." She went out into the hall and swung right into her own adjoining room. Most nights she spent next to her lover and partner, but Cindy's own room held her wardrobe, books and albums, hanging plants and framed photos and assorted knick-knacks. His room was so bare and Spartan it hardly seemed anyone lived there.
Waiting for her, pacing restlessly, Jeremy Bane fretted about Ace. He had only met the man twice, but Elmendorf had seemed so experienced, so confident, that it was hard to imagine anything could rattle the man. Bane had no way of knowing that, right at that moment, Ace Elmendorf's car had smashed head-on into a telephone pole by the side of a back road at over ninety miles an hour.
II.
By three-twenty that morning, Ace had not arrived at the old building on 38th Street nor called again. Bane and Cindy had made toast and tea and settled down in the front office to wait. She had changed into red sneakers, denim jeans and a maroon sweatshirt that said SCARAB WORLD TOUR on front and back. They spent time catching up on paperwork, writing out checks and tearing up junk mail, then called Ace's home without getting an answer. Eventually Bane slapped his open palm on the desk.
"He should have been here long ago!" the Dire Wolf snapped. "Cin, one of us should stay here in case he does show up but the other one should rush up there."
The little blonde folded the bills marked PAID into an envelope and slid them into a drawer of the huge oak desk. "Welllll... logically, you should go to his home. If there is trouble, you're the partner best suited to handle it. If he turns up after you're on your way, I'll keep him entertained until you get back. Sound fair?"
"Yes," Bane said as he headed for the door.
Behind him, Cindy called, "Just out of curiosity, do you know what his last adventure entailed?"
Bane paused in the doorway. "He took a commission in Okali a month ago. Something to do with bringing back a specimen or two. Why do you ask?"
"Ugh, Okali!" was her answer. "That place is a Wild Kingdom like nobody's business. Speaking Apes. Griffins. Unicorns, manticores, real Dire Wolves. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Tyrannosaur or two still stomping around there."
"Well, anyway, he made it back. Contact me on the Links if there are developments, Cin." With that, he rushed across the hall and into the walk-in closet, through the false wall panel in its rear, and down steep cement steps. The Dire Wolf almost ran down the narrow walkway that led to their underground garage just big enough for two cars at the same time. He snatched up the keys to the dark green Subaru Outback and hopped in. Heading up the steep cement ramp to street level, he managed the sharp turn at the top and eased out of the dead-end alley onto Lexington Avenue. A murky humid night greeted him.
Up by the Feldston area, right on the edge of Westchester County where he considered "the City" to end, Bane pulled over on the side of the road and faced two adjoining houses. Both were set back behind expansive well-manicured lawns and both were sitting up on a small rise. They looked as if they had been built at the same time, as did a similar house a bit further down the road.
Bane got out and felt all his sense of alarm warning him. There was serious danger in the immediate area, all his instincts were tugging at him to be alert. He reached behind his left hip and loosened the long-barrelled Smith & Wesson 38 in its holster. The worst aspect was that he couldn't see anything wrong. It was a peaceful, well-tended neighborhood and so deep in the night yet that no one seemed to be stirring.
Next to the road was a wooden frame that held two adjoining mailboxes. The one to his left read ELMENDORF and marked the house he had been seeking. But the other mailbox said SCHUSSLER and for some reason this was what drew his attention. Bane had long ago learned to trust his instincts for trouble. Maybe it was just his subconscious picking up details he had not consciously spotted yet. Slowly, warily, he walked up the narrow paved driveway toward the Schussler house. The front door hung wide open and a light still burned in a ground floor window.
As he approached, the Dire Wolf reached into an inside pocket of his jacket and drew on a pair of black latex gloves. If he was entering a crime scene as he suspected, he did not want to leave any prints. Stepping up onto the porch of the Schussler home, he cautiously swung the front door open further and stared inside. Lying right at his feet was a skeleton, with bits of tattered clothing still draped on it. Judging by the shoulder and hip proportions, the victim had been an adult female. The bones had separated as the ligaments were gone in most places and the skull had rolled two feet to one side. Bane bent lower. The bones showed hundreds of deep tooth marks. The woman had been gnawed to death. The Dire Wolf stared across the living room and saw a smaller skeleton in a similar condition. A child. Some long dark hair still clung to that skull.
Backing out of the house without touching anything, the Dire Wolf took slow deliberate breaths to keep calm. Just what the hell had Ace Elmendorf brought back from Okali anyway? It was time to call the NYPD. Bane stood with one foot on the bottom step of the porch and reached to his belt for his Link. He would patch into the normal phone system and see if he could roust Inspector Klein. It was getting light out and an occasional car went past.
From the corner of his eye, he caught movement nearby. Bane swung around, hand jumping to the butt of his revolver. What was that dark shadow covering most of the Schussler's yard? Why was it bristling? Why was it moving quickly toward him? With a cold jolt of fear, he realized it was a mass of thousands of rats heading right toward him.
III.
Bane had seldom moved faster in his life. Spinning on one heel, he sprinted downhill full-blast toward his car. The wave of furry brown bodies still caught up with him rapidly. Even as he seized the door handle of his Subaru, rats were climbing up onto his body. Their savage incisors slashed through his jacket and trousers but could not penetrate the Trom armor beneath. One started biting furiously on the back of his exposed neck and Bane reached up to seize the repulsive creature in an iron grip that crushed it. Flinging the dying animal away, the Dire Wolf threw himself into the front seat and slammed the door shut behind him. At least a dozen of a wriggling horrors had gotten inside with him in that instant that the door was open. They were biting at his hands and face, digging deep, drawing blood. The pain was intense.
Fighting to stay in control, Bane dug into the lower hem of his sport jacket, yanked out a metal ovoid the size of a large grape, and twisted its two halves in opposite directions. Released from under pressure, a jet black cloud of gas exploded out to fill the interior of the car with choking tear gas. Even though he had taken and held a quick breath, Bane inevitably inhaled some. The rats fell away off him, squealing furiously. The inside of the car was a solid boiling mass of stinging blackness.
From the left inside pocket of his jacket, Bane drew out one of the oxygen membranes and strapped it over his mouth and nose. It resembled a surgeon's mask of clear material, held on by tabs which fit over the ears. Now he was breathing clean air and could function, although his eyes were still burning. Unable to see, the Dire Wolf slid one of the silver daggers from its sheath and set to work, finding the rats by touch and stabbing them deeply. It was ugly work, he was bleeding from a dozen bites on his face and hands before he decided he had killed the last one inside the car.
With all he had experienced in two decades of the Midnight War, this still shook him badly. His pulse was racing and he fought to bring his awareness down to a useful level. Finding his keys in his pants pocket, Bane started up the Subaru and cranked the AC on full blast. In a minute, all the smoke had been pumped out and fresh air brought in. He blinked hard, trying to clear his eyes and wondering why the inside of the car was so dark.
Then he realized the windshield and windows were covered with crawling rats. The small furry bodies were climbing over each in their efforts to get at him. He saw hunger and hatred in those dozens of red eyes. What terror the Dire Wolf was feeling was abruptly replaced by a cold furious anger. All his natural instincts were to fight back and survive. He wanted to kill all those little monsters. As he glared out through the darkened windshield, some of the brutes spread out to leave an open space. Standing on the hood of his car, reared up on its hind legs, was the Emperor Rat.
The creature was considerably larger than the normal rats, covered with dirty white fur that had yellow tones. Its head was misshapen, too, with a bulging frontal lobe behind the red eyes which gave the beast an unnaturally human expression. The white beast stood just beyond the windshield, glaring in at its intended prey and Bane returned that stare with equal ferocity.
He remembered now, from notes Kenneth Dred had left behind. The Conquering Rats of Okali. Once every few years, the little horrors experienced a population surge that drove them out in an army of thousands to swarm over anything in their path. Even the largest and strongest animals fled when the Conquering Rats came pouring over the ground. The Skullhunters and the Speaking Apes hid in fortified areas in the mountains where they had laid in supplies. After a week, perhaps two, the rats died out for some reason and their population dropped back down to usual levels.
The pack leaders were Emperors, large white-furred individuals who seemed to exert some quasi-telepathic influence over their followers. It had been the Darthim who had experimented on normal animals ages ago, most likely it was Darthan sorcery that had created these pale leaders of the Conquering Rats.
Seeing one of these white-furred Emperors watching him from just inches away filled Bane with such a potent loathing and revulsion that he drew his Smith & Wesson. But the windshield was made of special bullet-resistant glass he realized soberly, and would barely get a chip even at point-blank range. Instead, there would be a 38 slug ricocheting around inside the car. He took his finger off the trigger with a shudder. Then the Link on his belt buzzed and he gave a violent start. Annoyed at how panicky he had become, the Dire Wolf took a deep breath and unclipped the electronic device. "Yeah, Cin?"
"Jeremy! I'm on my way," came her voice. "Inspector Klein actually called us a few minutes ago. I'm sorry to tell you but Ace Elmendorf is dead. He hit a pole going like hell, but that wasn't the worst part."
Bane scowled at the white Emperor Rat just on the other side of the windshield. The damned thing seemed to be listening. "Yeah, yeah, go on," he said.
"Are you okay? You sound funny. Anyway, poor Ace was all chewed up and bleeding to death when he crashed. The police found four dead rats in the vehicle and suspected there had been more than a dozen when the crash occurred. That's what made Klein think it was in our area of interest."
"Yeah, he's got good instincts. Listen, Cin. I'm sitting in the Subaru right now. Every rat in the Tri-State area has met here and they're climbing all over the car."
"WHAT! Lock the doors, no wait, that's stupid, they can't open doors, can they? Jeremy, I'll be there in a moment. Hang in there!" She broke the connection. As Bane clipped the Link back to his belt, he tried to come up with some way to fight back. The idea of calling the fire department, who might have used high-pressure hoses on the rats, never occured to him. Nor did he consider phoning the police. He was used to the Midnight War, where battles were kept secret from the public.
What were the little monsters up to? He could see they were working on something. Suddenly he realized they were chewing relentlessly to get at the rubber gasket which held the car's windshield in place. If they got the windshield off, he would be eaten alive in a few minutes. Bane wound down the driver's side window just an inch and immediately the gap was filled with quivering muzzles forcing their way in. Using his silver dagger like an ice pick, the Dire Wolf began stabbing at the noses. The rats dropped off, hacked up and bleeding from the deep wounds but dozens more climbed up to take their place. He could not kill enough of them this way to make a difference but at least it was a distraction and kept their attention.
This seemed to go on forever. As his hand began to ache from the taut grip, he shifted the dagger to his other hand and kept stabbing. All around him, he could hear the grinding of chisel-edged teeth on the outside of the car. Every window was covered with the hideous little bodies, all climbing over each other and struggling to find a way to get at him. With his free hand, Bane tugged the other tear gas/smoke pellet from his jacket. If he could force an open space in the gap for just a second, he would drop it outside and maybe get a respite.
Then he heard a car horn blowing furiously behind him. Something like an electric jolt ran through his head, stunning him, and he saw the rats falling limply off his car. Bane realized vaguely through his daze that Cindy had arrived and blasted out a telepathic attack on the creatures. The shock that had disoriented him was just the bare edge of that mental assault which had grazed against him. He knew how powerful her abilities were when she unleashed them. Through the suddenly uncovered windows of his car, dawn light came in. He saw hundreds of confused rats wriggling and convulsing in all directions.
There on the hood of his car, standing on its hind legs and still defiant, stood the Emperor Rat. Its muzzle was parted in a wicked grin. In a long career, Bane had seldom been more enraged. In one unbroken movement, he slammed the car door open, seized the white beast in one hand and sliced its head clean off with the dagger in his other hand. The Emperor did not even have time to squeal. Throwing the small corpse as far away as he could, the Dire Wolf slowly lowered his bloody weapon and glared around him.
The rats were fleeing as fast as they could, up the hill and into the woods or down onto the street in blind panic. He turned to see Cindy standing next to the Mustang, fists on her hips and feet well apart. Waves of unseen telepathic force radiated from her.
"Yeah, you'd better run!" she screamed. "I'll burn your brains out!"
Despite the pain, Bane had to smile at her fury. The only times Cindy Brunner showed how dangerous she really was were when she was protecting someone. He took a deep breath and came down to normal adrenalin levels. He could not remember the last time his legs had felt so rubbery. Bending down, he plucked a handful of grass to wipe the blade of his dagger. "You know, Cin, I'm always glad to see you but man..! If a guy ever needed a friend."
The blonde telepath ran up, got a glimpse of his condition and hurried back to the Mustang to fetch the first aid kit from the back seat. Bane did not even try to stop her as she cleaned him up with Neosporin and gauze pads.
"I know, I know," she said soothingly. "Because of our tagra tea diet, we don't have to worry about infections or rabies. But still, getting chewed up like that means you need some attention, my dear."
"Ouch. Thanks, hon. Look at my car. The tires are all ripped up, and I smell coolant on the ground. We'll have to have it towed. Those little bastards did their best to eat their way through the car to get to me." Bane gingerly touched the back of his neck where the bandages were thickest. "Damn."
"Well, now we know what your friend Ace brought back from Okali. Although what anyone would WANT with an Emperor Rat is beyond me." Cindy snapped the first aid kit shut and surveyed her work without enthusiasm. "You've looked better, dear."
"With Ace dead, we'll probably never know the whole story," Bane said. "You haven't heard yet but that house up there? With the door open? The family in there was killed by the Conquering Rats. Now we have to call the police and see what they make of it."
"Jeremy...."
Something in her voice alarmed Bane. He felt an unexplained cold frisson at that tone. "What?"
"It just occurred to me. We don't know how long the Emperor Rat was free. Maybe not long, maybe just today but suppose he escaped a few days ago. Plenty of time to impregnate a few normal rats. There may be a generation of Emperor Rat embryos gestating right now."
7/1/2016
