Trin Dee slept fitfully on her bunk. Her blanket had already been cast onto the floor, and sheets twisted up around her legs as they kicked about. Strangled noises came out from under her pillow and a hand flailed upward, fingers outstretched, to grasp the darkness and shadows that fell away regardless. Sweat beaded up across the fit body, her muffled cries of helplessness rose despite the pillow over her face, and her agitation ratcheted steadily. Then with a furious yowl of pain, her hand threw the pillow across the room and her back arched up as she tried to leap from her bed. Her red-lined eyes finally flew open and the noises she made became clear at last.
“DAVID!”
She lay there after that primal blast, panting, gasping helplessly as her limbs threw off the fatigue. She shivered a bit now in the cool dark of night. She was in her room in the monastery, with the Fellowship of the Full Circle, and she'd been having the nightmare again. Fingers fumbled in the dark, and found the felt of his hat, and her emotions bubbled out of her again. She could feel the man called Midnight fall away from her, into the depths of nothing, to his doom and she could do nothing.
She'd spent her life in the Fellowship's care, mastering the arts of combat, becoming peerless in the hunt of the monstrous vampires that her family had long warred against. Ice ran through her veins, stone encased her heart, steel enforced her focus. In all her twenty-four years, she'd never bonded to another person. She never allowed it, she knew the weakness it meant. She never allowed the word love to enter her heart or mind. So when it struck, she found herself defenseless, and now that it had abandoned her, she felt like a lost child again. She sobbed and her hands gripped the rolled fedora while she lay on her back, in the dark, alone.
“Yes, my child,” the voice whispered in the dark, ice-blue eyes crystalizing from the furthest shadows. “Let it out. Pour it out.” The figure coalesced around the piercing, haunting gaze. It was tall and gaunt, with ashen skin and limbs like gnarled sticks out of proportion to the lean sickly chest. It grinned, a lipless grin that peeled back to reveal charcoal-gray gums but gleaming white teeth that fairly glowed in the half-light. “Your tears fill you. Let them out, empty yourself out, my dear.” The voice was an ill rasp, sandpaper scraping over sandpaper as one crooked arm reached out with a strange vial in its talon-like fingers.
“Trin, are you well?” The heavy bang on the door distracted the odd creature and twisted Trin's head in its direction, eyes clearing from its slumber. “I heard you cry out, are you well? Please answer me!”
Concerned for his friend, the Gorilla Knight Nmura twisted the knob and pushed into the room. His reddish-black bulk filled the lit doorway and cast such a surreal shadow over the weird scene. He saw Trin's compact body sprawled and twisted in sheets, eyes staring back at him without really understanding, while over her hovered the strange mockery of a man, oblong head turning also to stare at the newcomer.
“What are you?” Nmura snarled as he lumbered toward the alien being.
“You see me? As I am?”
The creature recoiled now, shifting back into the furthest shadow in the furthest corner. The vial in his hands held a few of Trin's tears, but not nearly enough for its needs, but it was unprepared to be seen. Instead it sunk into those shadows, and when Nmura turned Trin's lamp on, those shadows and the intruder were gone.
“Nmura?” Trin asked, rubbing her eyes of tears and sleep, looking so vulnerable. “Wh-what happened?”
The gorilla crouched down next to her now, using a handkerchief to dab at her damp brow and smooth out the rumpled mop of black hair. “I do not know, Trin. You were dreaming again, another nightmare. It was so powerful, I could not help but watch it. I am sorry.” He reached out and poured a cup of water for her, and she took it eagerly to her parched lips. “When I came to tend to you, there was...something here. Something strange, disturbing. I suspect, by its reactions, it is in fact some form of astral being.”
“Here? With me?” She sat up and hugged her legs to her chest as she drained the mug. “Why? Why me? Why am I unable to get control of myself, Nmura? Loss happens in this world, why is this...” She heaved and a powerful sob broke her words.
Nmura's powerful arm wrapped around her shoulders and brought her into his warm, furry embrace. “Relax. It is never so easy to take such a personal blow. You were never prepared for this, how can you hope to recover as if it were a mere cut?”
“These dreams feel so strange,” Trin said, with her breathing now recovered again. “Can it be these dreams that are making it so hard?”
“Aye, it could be. I think it is. They do project from you, and I can sense them.”
“Sorry about that. No one else should be having a hard time because of me.”
“Do not be silly, friend Trin. It is the way of things.” He gave a smile to her and she nodded. “But also, these dreams are too powerful to be normal nightmares. It might be what drew that...thing as well.” She felt the way his powerful body shuddered at remembering the invader.
“I should be fine now,” Trin said after several long, silent minutes. “I am stronger than this. And now I suspect it is not just a normal reaction to the loss.” She turned away as her hand put the tattered hat back on her nightstand. “Hard as it is. And it's hard. I just never expected to...”
“To let yourself open. It is a good thing,” he assured her with a last caress of her hair. “It is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all.”
“That's profound.”
“It's Shakespeare. He'd have been an excellent gorilla.” He chuckled. “In the morning, we will begin our investigation of this intruder. We will contact our other friends. And you will become whole again in the process.”
She nodded, the assurances filled her spirit and she straightened up her bunk. She turned the light out, and lay there on her side, eyes on the hat. She just wanted to hear David Clark's voice again, she thought and breathed heavily before slipping back to fitful sleep.
In the gray recesses of early morning, in that time just before pale orange fingers stretch out to shake off the night, Nmura wandered into the music room seeking out the source of the quiet notes from the harp. Andrew Bennett sat in position, plucking the strings to a slow and somber requiem with which the gorilla was unfamiliar. The vampire's graceful pale fingers drew the quiet music out from the antique piece to fill the room, eyes closed while he tried to be one with his efforts.
When at last the music ended, Nmura gave subdued applause and stepped up to the vampire. “That was beautiful. I like to think I am well-versed in the great works of art, but that piece is unknown to me.”
“It is my own composition, that's why,” Andrew said. He nodded appreciatively to his audience and turned to face the gorilla. “I wrote it during the Great War, just before the United States made their entrance. It was a particularly low moment in my existence, as my wife made great use of the slaughter to advance her cause.” He gave a breathless sigh. “I call it 'Requiem per una Mattina Rosso.'”
“Requiem for a Red Morning. It captures the music well.”
“I wasn't aware you spoke Italian?” Bennett rose up now, preparing to leave the room.
“I can not, but I do read minds, and you can not help but project when you talk of this piece.” Nmura stroked his jaw. “Trin needs our help.”
“Does she now? In what way?” Andrew immediately grew concerned. “The nightmares plague her, but I have no answers for tragic love, sadly.”
“There was some manner of haunt when I went to her room this time.” Nmura explained what he had witnessed as the pair walked down toward the library. They noticed the monks starting to rise, the very first activities of the day taking place, as they spoke. They were respectful to the two strange guests in their midsts, but both vampire and gorilla knew that neither truly belonged in the monastery.
“I must admit to ignorance in this creature,” Andrew said as they looked around the room, the modest number of books and scrolls piled about. “It sounds truly dreadful however. And it might be making Trin's pain worse?”
“Aye, I think it is,” Nmura said. “I thought we could begin our research here, but I suspect we will have to expand our search before too long.”
As the odd couple began their initial work, Trin made her way into the dining room for breakfast. Her face looked worn, dark eyes circled by darker rings as she dropped heavily onto a bench. Without focus, she drank her juice, and toyed at her oatmeal, but in truth she just stared off at nothing. She stifled a yawn and then trudged back out of the room when she'd managed to eat her fill.
“May I speak with you a moment, Trin Dee?”
The voice came from an older man with long straight salt-and-pepper hair and gentle green eyes, hunched under the gray robe of the order, and leaned heavily on a thick cane. He smiled at the sight of her and beckoned toward his office.
“What can I do for you, Honored Teacher?” she asked as she entered and sat when he gestured. He poured them each a cup of tea then settled down across from her.
“You can leave.”
Shock filled her face, and the cup rattled in shaken fingers. He chuckled as he shook his head, then took a long sip of the hot brew. “No, I am not casting you out, Trin. This place is not going to help you, Trin. Nor will it help your two friends who even now seek out the truth of the Tear Collector.”
The name made her shiver and she held her cup in both hands to warm herself. “Tear? Collector?”
“You must return to where you were trained. Where you were raised. You must return to Quietus and regain your harmony at his feet once more.”
“Quietus.” She echoed the name and let her mind return to her mentor, the father that replaced her father Steffan all those years back. “You mean I should go back...” Her voice trailed off, fatigue and memory derailing her train of words.
“Yes, my dear. Your friends will have their opportunity to get their answers. You will have your opportunity to heal, and regain your center. You have come as far as you can here in this isolated place. You must now return home.”
The name resonated in her and she nodded. She drained her cup and stood now, proud and straight again, some of her fatigue gone. “Back home. Thank you, Honored Teacher.”
She left the office and headed out into the halls, with purpose now, a plan forming in her mind. She searched out the compound for her friends, at last crossing their paths as they came to find her.
“We have found little on last night's intrusion,” Nmura admitted. “But we are going to send word to our friends in America to help us.”
“Speed Saunders will doubtless have some notion of where to look, or what to look for,” Andrew concurred.
“Good. Tell them to meet us in Tibet. We're leaving. Get your trunk ready, Mr. Bennett. We travel to the roof of the world, and to a place you would never have hoped you could reach.” She gave the first hint of a satisfied smile at his reaction.
Nmura sensed the feeling of direction that strengthened his friend and smiled as well. “Where might this be, Trin?”
“Nanda Parbat.” The Gorilla Knight noticed how Andrew breathed the word reverently at the same time, and felt his fur bristle in reaction.
“Very well then.”
---DT---
“Your guest, Mr. Saunders,” announced the Maitre d'Hôtel of the Windsor Club in Georgetown. He'd managed the front of house for this exclusive club for five years now, having worked his way up the hierarchy, and was justifiably proud of his subordinates and the manner of its clientele. Thus, he stared down at the young rapscallion with all his posh airs and tailored suit in contrast to all the reliable whispers about his behaviors, and gave a subtle sniff. “Mr. Faraday.”
“Thanks, Hobie,” Speed Saunders replied as he rose to his feet and extended a hand out to his friend. “Heya, King, how have you been doing?”
“I'm fine, Speed,” King Faraday said. He shook hands and settled into his chair. He twisted at his tie a bit, then took a moment to glance around in the low-lit dining room. “Did we really--?”
He paused when a young man came up to pour out glasses of water, and an older waiter stepped up to ask if either of the gentlemen (Faraday was sure there was a note of contempt when the waiter's eyes turned on him) would care for a drink, then the table was left alone so the patrons could review the evening's offerings.
“Have to meet here?” Speed picked up from where Faraday had cut himself off. “Yes. Let's face it, King, old bean, you always have the upper hand. It's nice, for once, to be the one with the advantage.”
Faraday's gaze narrowed. “Always good to be respected, I guess.”
“Besides, when you become a spy, you'll need to handle yourself in these kinds of places. Better get used to them,” Speed said as he leaned in and whispered.
“I'm not a spy. I'm an agent for the Secret Service. I investigate counterfeiting, forgery and fraud, other similar crimes, and if I work hard, play my cards right, I might make a protection detail.” Faraday seemed rather distraught at being called a spy, which further added to Speed's mischievous smile.
“If you say so,” Speed countered and then the waiter came back to take their orders. Then the two were alone again. “But I've got my friends that say the things differently. They know what you've been doing, and they know where you've gone to do it. You're getting connections, and experience they can't just pass up. And the Brits, they've been beating their gums an awful lot about how we need to goose our efforts in the spy game.”
“These friends do a lot their own gum beating then,” Faraday countered as the two fell silent again when salads were delivered to the table, each by a separate young man, the older server delivering the drinks.
“If you say so,” Speed repeated himself to cut off Faraday's further protests. “Listen, you got your Major backing you in all this. All I'm saying is, I have my friends who want to see me help get you ready. So it's supper at the Windsor.”
“How do you know about Trevor?”
“Derek? Oh, good man,” Speed said with a quiet laugh. “It had to be a major, that's the rank for this kind of liaison. You gave me the name.”
Faraday grunted at the wink from Speed. He made a note of his mistake and thoughtfully sipped at his own glass of Scotch. “I see.”
“America's not going to take the spy jazz seriously unless and until they're hip deep in the next big war,” Speed explained, his voice low. “And it is coming. You have to see it. Everyone who doesn't want to stick their heads in the sand can see it. Who it's against, who's gonna be on our side, who knows? But the fighting's already taking place all over, and it's just a match away from blowing everything up. That's where you come in.”
“Where I come in?” Faraday paused once more as their meals were delivered, and a flurry of servers followed, dishing out potatoes, then vegetables, another with a pot of mustard, a fourth pouring out wine for the course. He tugged at his tie again, but kept quiet. When they had left, he continued. “You're crazy. I'm a glorified cop who wants to be a glorified bodyguard.”
“You're also a patriot,” Speed said as he started in on his main course. “You'll do what you need to in order to protect Old Glory and Uncle Sam and all that. We both know that.”
“How are you getting all this? Who are these friends you talk about?” Faraday grew frustrated, especially since he couldn't fight this latest argument. If someone above him told him he needed to be a spy to help the country, of course he'd do it.
“You figure that out on your own.” Speed drained his wine glass with a satisfied look on his face.
“Have it your own way. I'm not here to talk about my career path anyway, I'm here to talk to you about Cooper.” Faraday let himself grin wickedly at his friend's deflation. “Yeah, thought that might get your attention.” He held his glass up and cut through the subdued sounds of dining to call for another Scotch.
“What about her?” Speed finally asked.
“We have a sighting,” King said bluntly. He forked some more of his prime rib, chewed on it to build suspense, enjoying the chance to get some of his own back. “One of the Astors is out in the Orient when his wife mentions having met up with Cooper. Talked about the big coincidence of meeting up out there, and all of that. We don't have much, it's gone through more than a few hands. The name Chengdu came up.”
“In China?” Saunders leaned back in his chair, ruffling the back of his neck with his hand as he considered the information. “This has to have taken some time to get here too, right?”
“At least a month, I'd bet,” Faraday confirmed. “I took some leave time.”
“You want to go on a wild goose chase with me? Over Harriet?” The offer genuinely touched Saunders.
“She's associated with one, or more, criminal elements,” Faraday said. “Even if it's a headache trying to figure out what Savage's crimes might be. She's also seen classified information. I have to reel her back in.”
Saunders chuckled now as the waiters came back to clear the table, setting glasses of brandy and cigars in place.
“What's so funny?” Faraday ignored the smoke but swirled his brandy glass. “Cooper's not a laughing matter.”
“And you say you're not a spy.” Saunders winked, then lit his cigar and mused over the information as the smoke drifted up into the air.
---DT---
The hulking shape hunched into the heavy woolen coachman's cloak, tugged the edges of a hood around his face, and kept to the shadows. The figure skirted the edge of the bustling city, avoided those avenues and alleys that beckoned him into the warm light of society, and kept its own company. Deep-set dark eyes peered out from a heavy brow, and gazed upward, to take in the vast mountains that loomed over this tiny cradle of life. As the sun faded and twilight spread over the sky, the cold turned even more brutal; not that the figure would notice. Instead, he keenly stared out into the gathering gloom, sought out something that kept him on his slow march.
Slush and gravel crunched under heavy boots as the figure walked slowly. He was much too focused to notice the boy dash out of an alley and crash off of the leg. The young one peered up over the bulk in the shadows and gibbered in his language, but the stranger didn't care. He just walked away, and let the boy run even faster for home.
He stopped on the main road now, a quarter mile from Lhasa, his gaze swinging from one direction to another. He tugged back the hood now, and let the misshapen, monstrous face appear. Adam, creation of Victor Von Frankenstein, felt the winds pick up, and lazy flakes of snow begin to flutter down to the earth. Something else nagged at him though, something that prickled at the base of his thick scarred neck.
“Show yourself, demon,” he growled into the darkness. “I know you are out there! I have followed you this far, and I will continue to hunt you down! There will be no rest, no surcease, so reveal yourself!”
The winds blew in a thick mist now, one that swirled and writhed, but then defied the increasing gale. Instead it spun together, majestically rising up to its feet and then he stood there, noble and unbowed by the menacing weather or blasphemous monster.
“Your hunt ends here then, Adam,” Andrew Bennett announced in his reserved voice. “I do not know, nor do I care, why you have chosen to hunt me. Indeed, I have been ignorant of this hunt until this moment. But I will not allow you to endanger anyone else in this insane quest of yours!”
“Vampire!” Adam stared at the undead on the road. He had been unaware of this, he had expected some other creature. Almost any other creature. “How is it that you come to alter your feasting?” The curiosity inherited from his creator forced him to ask even as he drew forth his pistols and aimed them at Bennett.
“Make sense, abomination!” Bennett said as he evaporated back into his mist and let the wind rush him to Adam's back. When he had reformed, he had drawn forth his short sword from the cane and lunged.
Adam twisted around, and diverted the blade with one pistol while he lifted the other up and fired into Bennett. The brittle metal ball broke apart and spilled its acidic volume into the vampire's chest, forcing a hiss that made Bennett step back. “Tell me or not, I will not be distracted by your insults, fiend!” Adam brought the second pistol back up but failed to strike his target, who moved with preternatural speed to avoid the bullet. “I will bring your terror to an end, I will bring peace back to your victims!”
When Bennett had repositioned himself, Adam had already drawn his own sword, a hefty broadsword that seemed to give a golden shimmer. He had heard rumors that the weapon came from the Archangel Michael, and had no desire to find out the truth of the matter. “What terror do you speak of, monster?” Bennett focused his gaze, eyes glowing red, burning in the darkness and holding Adam's gaze.
Adam forced himself to look away after several long moments, and threw off the hypnosis, but then felt his body hurtling through space. He looked again just in time to crash into a heavy stone milepost, pieces tearing into him. “Do not feign ignorance! Just tell me how to return to these people what you have stolen! Use your last moments to do this repentance!” Frankenstein's monster rose up and threw the thick stone base of the ruined marker at Andrew.
The vampire staggered back but shook off the blow, in time to see Adam charge toward him. The monster moved with lumbering speed, Bennett had to admit. He felt the immense strength smash into him, drive them both into a stone wall. He saw Adam heft the sword high into the air. “I am Lord Andrew Bennett, and I do not answer to demands nor do I terrorize the innocent! Unlike you, horror of science!”
Adam took a step back, and then a second. He lowered his sword, his gaze all the time on the vampire as the nobleman rose and brushed himself off. Andrew straightened his garb and then stepped toward Adam. “You are not here for me after all, are you?”
“No. You are not my monster. Your name is known to me. Your battle with your wife is legendary in our world.” He put his thick hand out. “I apologize for my haste. This monster I pursue evades me with more ease then I have ever known.”
“I suspect we are here for the same monster. I am here in advance of my allies, and we travel to Nanda Parbat to learn the answers we seek. Come with us, Adam, Spawn of Frankenstein.” The vampire took the revenant's hand firmly as the two outcasts forged their alliance.
---DT---
King Faraday's sleek black roadster halted in its spot next to the hangar, with the agent smoothly exiting immediately after. He had a case in his hand and tugged his hat down low. He entered the door and found his traveling companion making the last minute preparations on the airplane. The design still took some getting used to as he looked it over while he walked closer.
“Hey there, King. Thanks for getting Steve to loan us one of his babies for the trip,” Speed called down as he finished the pre-flight check on the engines, then clambered down the iron stairs. “Got a lot of miles to cover, and this will help us out.”
“Well, Mr. Savage said he was too busy to fly out himself, but didn't have an issue loaning us one of his prototypes,” King said as he loaded his luggage into place. “Seeing how he's eager for all the testing he can get on these.”
“Makes sense.” Speed stood close to King and passed him a yellow slip of paper. “Change of plans.”
Faraday scowled at the suggestion but took the telegram and examined it closely. “I'm surprised at you, Saunders. I figured finding Cooper would be your priority, not going off on a fairy tale hunt.”
“Well you're wrong then,” Speed said. “Our friends need our help. Trin's in trouble,
and we might find Nanda Parbat? If you think going after some witch that stuck me in the back takes precedence over going to the aid of my friends, then you don't know me at all!”
Faraday watched Saunders climb up into the cockpit and start looking over the control panel, then back down to the telegram.
There are no coincidences on the Danger Trail, the agent remembered Saunders explaining when they first met.
Or rather, the Trail is nothing but coincidences, a serendipity road those in the know can use. I intend to be one of those in the know.“Fine then,” Faraday said as he settled down into the plane. “We go to our friends.” He stuffed the telegram into the coat pocket and started to buckle up. “Lucky for them we were gearing up for a flight to the Orient anyway, isn't it?”
Speed's face finally broke into his normal eager appearance as he taxied out onto the runway. “Gotta love a coincidence!”
---DT---
The heavy blanket of snow made the trek even harder, as biting cold and mean winds smacked the two travelers. Trin Dee bundled herself further into the heavy woolens that guarded her petite frame, as Nmura gripped his cloak tight around his own thick body. The silhouette the pair made would seem almost comical if there were anyone out in the dismal weather to see.
“You realize that the locals are going to have a field day when they find all these wild man tracks you're leaving them?” Trin said to try and distract herself from the frigid cold and fatigue in her legs.
“I have given consideration to the idea of remaining in the area, and seeing if I can uncover this mystery,” Nmura replied without quite understanding the humor. “The concept of these lost cousins is quite intriguing. But I am a jungle creature, and this cold is intolerable.”
They continued on in silence again for some time. Conversation took more effort then they could afford. So they continued up the incline, against the storm, until the at last saw shapes forming on a level area ahead. As they closed, they found the makeshift camp, and their companions.
“There's Bennett,” Nmura said as he pointed to the vampire in their midst, distinguished even against this gale, unencumbered by coats, cloaks or the like. “Who are the others?”
As the pair finally reached the perimeter of the camp, Speed stepped up and caught Trin. “Heya! You made it! Come on, let's get something warm in you. Good to see you again, Nmura.”
“Indeed, it is good to meet with you again, Mr. Saunders. We did not get much time in the wake of recent events,” the gorilla knight replied.
“This is King Faraday,” Speed introduced the agent, who looked at the newcomers while handing a cup of steaming liquid to Trin.
“Equally excellent to make your acquaintance, good sir,” Nmura said as he offered to shake hands. “Your name is held in quite high repute by your friends.”
“You're a gorilla. A talking gorilla.” King glanced over at Speed.
“Did I forget to mention? Sorry about that. He doesn't just talk, apparently he's telepathic too.” Speed laughed as the group bundled into a large shelter.
“Is there an issue with this, Agent Faraday?” Nmura asked with a wary look, as he took a cup of broth as well.
“I guess not. If the others say you're the cat's meow, then I'm good with it,” Faraday said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Besides, you all haven't met the new guy.”
“'New guy'?” Trin arched a brow, then jumped a bit when a massive shadow fell over the group from the front of the shelter.
“This is Adam,” Speed introduced as Adam wedged himself into the pavilion.
“You're a gorilla,” Adam said in that rumbling voice of his as he looked at Nmura.
“You're Frankenstein's monster,” Nmura replied, staring back.
“Now that we've got that sorted out,” Speed said. “Tell us about why we're all here.”
---DT---
“I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're asking of me, Miss Dale?” Lee Travis sipped the cup of coffee, and watched the young woman hunched into the other side of the diner's booth. It was clear by the extremely obvious way she hid her information that she had information to hide. It was adorable, he had to admit.
“I'm asking for your help,” Joan Dale answered as she picked at her toast. She leaned over the table, and whispered as loud as she dared. “Your father's as big as the Hearst guys, and not so blatantly crooked. Someone passed me papers about military misappropriations, and I want to act on them.”
“Go to my dad then,” Lee said with a shrug, then stabbed his eggs with a fork. He watched her brush the black locks of hair back out of her earnest blue eyes, and smiled. “I'm not the publisher.”
“No, you're better. You're gonna take over at some point, and you're gonna do all these new things,” she said in an excited voice. “If you let me hitch my wagon to yours, I get to ride the tide and make a name as an ace reporter. And we both get our start with this!”
Lee chuckled and shook his head. “Careful how you talk, doll. Hitching and riding and all that. Don't say anything you don't mean to say.”
“I mean it. I want to be a reporter.”
“And I'm telling you, I'm not in the newspaper business, that's my dad. And I'm not taking over for him. I've got no interest in it.”
She looked so crestfallen at his words. “Oh. I...I just figured...I've had no luck. I'm afraid to take this to the Hearst papers, they'll take it away from me.” She paused, sipped at her tea, and admitted, “And probably use it in some sleazy way. It just felt like you'd be my best bet.”
“You can make it in the papers. You got a pretty face, for all I know you write okay, you're clearly eager and ambitious. Go get a column.”
“I don't want to do gossip, I want to do news. Real news, that will help people!” Her voice rose and people glanced their way.
“What's the plan?” Lee asked at last.
“The papers I have point to military money being used to buy property out on Montauk, but there's no related plan to build a base with the land. They're just buying it, and sectioning it away. There's more too.” She saw his reaction now, how he listened, how he seemed to be drawn in and she grinned eagerly. “If you come back to my apartment, I could show you.”
Lee again shook his head. He pulled his wallet out and signaled for their check. “Aren't you a cute little bunny?” He got out of the booth, grabbed up his hat and held a hand out to her. “C'mon, show me these papers, and we'll see if I'm in. If you can handle it, on the way I'll explain what I actually heard you say, and we'll find out if you were just razzing me.”
“Okey-doke,” she said with a confused smile as she got up and straightened her skirt. “Whatever you say.”
As they headed out of the diner then down the street, he idly asked, “So assuming we don't start tonight, you want to get some supper, maybe a little dancing?”
---DT---
“I think I'm getting lazy,” Speed said as the six strange figures clambered up the snow-covered cliff face.
“Oh? Why do you say that?” Faraday called out from where he clung to his ropes.
“I just use the Danger Trail to get places, and it's easy. When you're not being ambushed by immortal cavemen,” Speed explained as the pair of them and Trin struggled against the slippery slope. “This place isn't on the map, so to speak. That's amazing, but it means I have to try again!”
Faraday barked a laugh and then pulled himself a little further up. Nmura and Adam had made it easier due to their strength and other attributes; Bennett had little trouble in his gaseous form. The three of them established the guide ropes and helped the other three, but it was still a difficult climb.
”Cry for me, Trin Dee,” the haunting face had beckoned in the night. The blue eyes still pierced the pitch black, the sharp teeth gave off silver like moonlight as it smiled on her despair. The vial plucked another sweet drop of water from her cheek. “Let it out. Leave it to me to take this pain from you, sweet child. Sweet...sweet...”
The words trailed off as a writhing snake-like tongue slithered from between the teeth to lick her sorrow up like a sweet treat. “...child.”“Come along, Trin, don't get distracted now!” Speed called out to her as she lagged behind. She looked up, dark eyes within dark circles that haunted Speed. He shivered from cold, but more from memory of Nmura's call that past night.
”Away from her!” Nmura cried as his eyes opened and he took in the looming misshapen figure. He rolled over and swiped with a thick paw that hit nothing. He narrowly avoided striking his companion.
Those eyes turned on him now and the taloned fingers snatched at Nmura's face. “The delicious essence of grief fills me with strength, beast!” The talons curled into his flesh and forced the gorilla to cry out in pain.
The tent tore apart then though, as Speed and Faraday pulled Nmura away from the monster. As Adam and Andrew prepared to react, it was swept away in the blink of a watery eye.“This gets worse,” Adam mused to the two weird companions flanking him. “We all saw the Tear Collector.” Even he felt as if he shivered from the name, one they learned from Trin, passed to her from her Honored Teacher. “That is not supposed to happen from the reaction it had to you, Nmura.”
“It said it grows stronger. From Trin, or from nearing Nanda Parbat is the real question,” Nmura replied as he reached down to draw the rope up, to help Trin now.
Finally, the three others reached the top with their companions, collected their gear and caught their breaths while pondering the next steps.
“We have to get to this place fast,” Faraday said as he tried to burrow into his clothes further, the cold irritating him. “I'm done with snow and freezing and all this stuff.” He looked at Trin, who wobbled a bit in the wind, saying and doing nothing. “
All of this stuff,” he emphasized.
”What the hell was that?” Faraday called out as he tended to the claw marks sliced into the gorilla's face, like a gruesome sunburst.
“The Tear Collector. Some strange monster that's feeding off of Ms. Dee's grief,” Andrew answered. “That is all we've managed to learn at this stage, and why we travel to Nanda Parbat.”
“Why?” Speed asked again, wanting a reminder as he tried to heat up more broth against the night-time freeze.
“What grief?” Faraday asked.
Speed looked at Faraday with frustration and covertly held circled thumb and fingers up to his eyes to mimic a domino mask. “Right, Midnight. Didn't realize they'd gotten so--”
“Nanda Parbat is where both Trin, and possibly this monster, come from,” Nmura explained. “We hope to achieve much there.”Nmura collected Trin into his arms now as the group trudged through the knee-deep snow. Cold and wet crawled into each and every place possible; even those normally unaffected found themselves being worn thin by the relentless white, the hidden rocks that clutched at them. A narrow pass beckoned, Trin muttering enough against the muscular chest to direct them properly.
Night threatened to swallow the sky again, the cold plunged further to claw at throats and numb noses. Eyes hurt, feet were caked in frigid winter, and no one was interested in another night, even higher in the Himalayas.
That was when a single sharp word broke the wailing winds, slapped the group like a shot across the face. The word was foreign to almost all of them but Trin, but there was not a single one of them that failed to grasp the meaning. Not as five figures appeared through the blasting snowing rise ahead of them; heavy cloaks guarded them from the frightful weather, each carried a voulge that was prepared to strike at the group. The one in front pointed sharply with his and repeated the word.
“We can't stop now,” Nmura said, and stepped forward. “She needs to return home. She needs help. Yours. And ours.” He showed the woman in his arms, and eyes pleaded with them. The group knew that they were close to their goal; relief started to flood their hearts, teasing numbed extremities with warmth.
“We know who she is. We know why you are here,” the guard captain snapped. “We know the horror you bring back to us. And we say to you now,” the weapon being pointed to the pass behind them, “go back! Now! While you still can!”
“No!” Trin pulled herself out from Nmura's grasp, standing as tall as she could, shucking her covering to the side to show herself fully. “I have business, I have a need, and I will not be kept away from it!” She clutched Midnight's hat in her hand, held it out for them to see.
<“Captain, we can not deny one of our own,”> one of the other guards said, in their own language.
<“They respond to our demands as we were told to expect,”> another counseled now.
<“I don't care,”> the captain snapped. <“They are disturbed spirits, you can see it in them!”>
<“And that is why we are here.”> Trin stepped up to the captain now. She tugged the hat onto her head, stared up at him as she did. <“That is what we do here, take in troubled souls and help them. Or have you forgotten that, Kam Ulsan?”>
“I will be watching all of you,” the captain at last said as he tilted his weapon upward. “You bring the horror with you, back to our home. I will not relax my guard.”
“I'd ask nothing less of you, Kam,” Trin said with a smile. She patted his cheek as she trudged past him, the others trailed behind her. With the guards as escort, the entourage slogged up and through the massive gates of the legendary city.
