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  He rose from there and started chasing after the fire truck soaking wet. He fired his weapon at the driver as the truck made the turn onto Royal Street and the fire engine veered and crashed into a car, but it kept going, heading down Royal Street, pulling a pair of thrashing fire hoses behind it.

  When a flash of gunfire came from the balcony again, Mr. Slang’s attention was brought there again. Krakov had reached the rope that he was to use to climb up to the room above and was firing at the King’s Guard, but suddenly Krakov dropped five feet when the bed slid across the room.

  Fireworks exploded in the sky, whistles were being blown all around the hotel, the fire engine’s siren and horn were blasting as they made their escape, and constables were rushing all about as Krakov fired down from the hotel room at one of the King’s Guard who had spotted him climbing in the window. The guardsman returned fire and then did Inspector Meriwether also, having recovered from Pandora’s initial blast, but Krakov disappeared inside the hotel room.

  Mr. Slang almost forgot that he needed to head for Goblin Park, but before doing so, he put the two chairs back, picked up his suitcase and hat box and started out the building with a smile on his face, even though things had not gone as planned. He would have to answer for that, but you just don’t get to see such excitement every day. It was days like this that made his job enjoyable.

  Chapter 20

  Tom soon gave up chasing after the fire engine. Like a dog chasing after a car, he didn’t know what he would have done if he’d caught up to a fire engine full of golems and bridge trolls anyway. He watched them ram their way past a squad car that tried to block their escape and then they turned at the next intersection, headed toward the Executioner’s Bridge.

  When more gunfire erupted from behind him, Tom turned around and started running back toward the hotel. Inspectors Dunne and Jones were in front of the hotel looking up at the balcony, their clothing soaking wet from having taken a blast from the fire hose, but then they rushed inside. Tom yelled at a constable to call an ambulance there, shouting that several people had been shot inside the ballroom, and then he rushed inside also. His first thought was to head upstairs, but then thought that Krakov would have some escape planned and he rushed through the kitchen and out the back of the hotel.

  He heard a woman scream as soon as he came out the kitchen door and he ran toward the pool area. Tom flashed his badge at the people standing there and asked what had happened. A woman pointed down the boardwalk and said a man had just run past with a gun.

  Tom ran toward the river as fireworks continued to burst in the sky north of Goblin Park, but it was too dark ahead of him to see much, except for the area underneath a lamp just at the start of the pier.

  He saw Krakov run through the light there and he, but Krakov disappeared into the darkness again.

  Tom approached the pier cautiously, looking for Krakov. He looked down at the tall reeds lining the riverbank, listening for someone moving through them, but he heard nothing. He ran to the end of the pier then and looked for Krakov hiding there, but he was not there. Looking out onto the river, which was bathed in moonlight, but also a heavy fog, he spotted a few rental boats drifting down the river. Just a little ways downstream the river took a sharp turn as it meandered toward the footbridge that crossed over the river into Goblin Park.

  He was alerted when a young woman screamed, but it was just a young girl in one of the boats shrieking because the young man with her had splashed her. He looked at the other boats floating down the river and noticed something different about one of them. Only one boat did not carry a couple, instead there was just a single man in the boat.

  Tom ran back toward the hotel. A pair of constables coming down the boardwalk with guns draw yelled at him to stop and drop his weapon and he thrust his hands up and yelled that he was Inspector Flynn.

  They approached him, still pointing their weapons at him, but then one of them recognized him.

  “Go find Chief Inspector Meriwether. Tell him to meet me by the footbridge that leads into Goblin Park,” Tom ordered one of the constables. “You come with me,” he said to the other. “I know you,” he said as they jogged across the hotel grounds.

  “Yes,” said the constable, “I was the one who dove in the river to retrieve that sack a few weeks back.”

  “That’s right,” Tom said as they hurried toward the corner of the hotel. “What’s your name?”

  “Officer Andrews.”

  Tom stood in the shadows at the back corner of the hotel. Just across from him was the river and he could see the boats coming around the bend from there. He spotted Krakov, despite Krakov having thrown a raincoat over his tuxedo to hide it.

  “That’s our man,” Tom said pointing him out to Constable Andrews.

  Constable Andrews and Tom remained in the shadows alongside the building as they made their way toward the front corner of the hotel. From there they watched as Krakov floated under the footbridge. Tom tapped Constable Andrews on the arm then and they started across Royal Street toward the park, walking under the clock tower by the footbridge, waiting for Krakov’s boat to emerge from under the bridge just below them.

  Instead Tom spotted him coming through the reeds up the slope or the riverbank on the other side and then Krakov started walking briskly toward the north end of the park, where the woods began. Just overhead fireworks exploded in the night sky still.

  Tom started across the footbridge, maybe forty yards behind Krakov as people were coming across the bridge the other way, to see what was going on at the hotel.

  “As soon as we get to the end of the bridge, you stop there and when I yell at the suspect to stop walking, start ordering these civilians to get down on the ground,” Tom whispered to Constable Andrews. “Then you take up a firing position behind me.”

  “Yes sir,” Andrews said.

  When Tom came to the end of the bridge, he stepped off the path onto the grass. He followed Krakov a little ways out onto the field, wanting to put some distance between him and the people behind him on the bridge. Krakov was maybe forty yards ahead of him still, when he aimed his gun at his back.

  Chapter 21

  Bishop Takes Pawn

  Mr. Slang stood just a few feet into the dark woods watching Krakov coming toward him. Vampires do not smile easily, but despite that being their nature and having been shot a couple of times, Krakov had a slight grin on his face. Another hundred yards and he would reach the safety of the woods. Mr. Slang had a car waiting just the other side of the forest, just a ten minute walk away. He had Krakov’s coat with him, but he’d disposed of everything else. He noticed Krakov had not thrown his weapon in to the river. He was still carrying at his side.

  Then Mr. Slang noticed Inspector Flynn and a constable coming across the footbridge. The constable stopped at the end of the footpath, but the detective continued out onto the field after Krakov. He was about forty yards behind him when he lifted his gun and aimed at Krakov.

  “Krakov,” he shouted. “Stop walking and drop your weapon.”

  Mr. Slang watched as the constable behind Inspector Flynn started ordering everyone atop the bridge down on to the ground.

  Mr. Slang looked at Krakov and saw he had not stopped walking, he was still coming toward him, but he had lost his smile. The detective fired and the bullet landed just next to Krakov’s shoe.

  “Next one’s in your head,” the detective yelled and Krakov stopped walking then. Behind the detective on the bridge, people screamed. The constable there got down on one knee and aimed at Krakov too, but the detective was in his line of fire.

  Krakov stood still. His back remained to the detective, but he was looking right toward Mr. Slang. He seemed like he just wanted to collapse now. He’d thought he’d escaped, but returning to his wife and child now had just been robbed of him, unless…

  Mr. Slang looked back toward the bridge and saw a woman hurrying across it. “Tom,” she yelled, but the detective could not turn around. The young c
onstable on the bridge hurried and caught her and brought her down to the ground.

  “I want you alive,” the detective yelled, “but unless you drop that weapon by the count of five. I will kill you,” he yelled matter-of-factly. The eyes of every man and woman lying on the bridge, or standing near the grandstands were riveted upon the detective and the man he was attempting to arrest. When the detective yelled out the number one, a few people gasped. Then he yelled ‘two’ and a lady by the grandstands fainted. When he yelled ‘three’ Krakov swung around so quickly, his raincoat swished around his body like a bullfighter’s cape. He swung his gun around toward the detective and there was an exchange of gunfire, but the detective fired first and his aim was true. Krakov fell back, but still he fired… bam, bam, bam went his gun and Mr. Slang saw a bullet strike the ground and kick up dirt just between the feet of the detective. The detective fired his second and third shots, bam, bam went his gun and Mr. Slang heard a sound like the flap of large bird passing close by just before a bullet struck the tree next to him. When he looked back, Krakov lie flat on his back, not moving.

  Inspector Flynn’s wife shouted again and he briefly glanced toward her. She rose up off the ground then and ran toward him. When she reached him, he grabbed her and hugged her with one arm, but the other still held his weapon at Krakov. The young constable ran past them, gun drawn, toward Krakov.

  Right then another, older man, came running across the bridge shouting. The detective glanced back at him, but the man ran past him to where Krakov lay. Mr. Slang recognized the man then – he was Chief Inspector Meriwether. Mr. Slang stepped back further into the woods, but he remained watching as the young constable reached down and took the gun out of Krakov’s hand. When Inspector Meriwether reached Krakov he knelt next to him. He seemed to check his pulse and then Inspector Meriwether looked right toward where Mr. Slang stood in the woods.

  He could not possibly see me, Mr. Slang thought, but he must figure that Krakov was going to meet someone. Mr. Slang walked quickly away when Inspector Meriwether ordered the young constable to draw his weapon and check out the edge of the woods. The last thing Mr. Slang observed was Inspector Meriwether placing his raincoat over Krakov’s body.

  Chapter 22

  Early the next morning, as Tom came into the inspectors’ offices, he popped his head into Red’s office. Red was on the phone, but he gestured for Tom to stay.

  “A ransom note just arrived,” he said hanging up. “Let’s you and me go downstairs.”

  “What are her demands?” Red asked as they came into Chief Roger’s office.

  “She wants all the expatriates from the U.R.R.K. to be allowed to go home,” Chief Rogers said. “She’s demanding both zeppelins be brought here. King Havel is on his way here already.”

  “If both zeppelins are coming here we’ll have to construct some kind of docking platform.”

  “I’ve got Captain Clarke of the Fire Brigade working on that already.”

  “Have you told Colonel Popov of her demands?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Mind if I take a look at the note?”

  Chief Rogers handed him it. Red read it, and as he did Tom saw something in his eye.

  “Looks like she had Stone write this note for her,” Red said. “There’s nothing on here about how to respond back to her,” he told Chief Rogers as he handed the note to Tom. He tapped on the top corner of it then and Tom looked there. Printed onto the note was a small drawing of a wolf snarling.

  “I expect she’ll get in touch with us again when she sees two zeppelins coming floating into the valley,” Chief Rogers said.

  “All right then. Anything you want me to do right now?” Red asked just as Chief Roger’s phone rang.

  “You could find Pandora and arrest her,” he said rudely. “You could locate some evidence that Count Vasili and her were in on this together,” he said. He picked up the ringing phone then.

  “I just might do all that before lunch,” Red muttered as him and Tom left.

  “What was that drawing?” Tom asked as they went down the hallway.

  “The pad of paper they must have ripped that sheet off must have come from a tavern out in Draculia called The Wolf’s Fang. The best thing we have going for us right now is that Pandora has Stone and Titan working for her.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “You are going to drop Fixx off at The Wolf’s Fang. I’ll let you negotiate how much money is in for him, but don’t be too generous. I’d have you poke around out there, but Fixx won’t draw attention to himself sitting inside there all day. It’s the king of place that caters to goblins, golems and trolls and besides you have to be at the courthouse by one to testify at the hearing.”

  “Okay.”

  “Take someone from wardrobe with you to the Shadows Hotel. They can slip a disguise on Fixx before you drive him out there. I got the feeling Stone can’t stay away from a beer too long. I’d bet a Vlad note to a schilling Stone shows up there again before lunch.”

  “What are you going to be doing?” Tom asked.

  “I have to go talk to Count Vasili upstairs,” Red said. “Make sure you give Fixx some coins for the pay phone. And make sure he only talks to me.”

  Chapter 23

  As Red came through the steel door to the cells on the fifth floor, Count Vasili was sitting on his bunk looking at small metal object in the palm of his hand.

  “At noon you’ll be taken over to the Royal Court building for your hearing,” Red told him.

  Red had arrested Count Vasili the night before at the insistence of Colonel Popov and others of the U.R.R.K. delegation.

  Count Vasili nodded. “Are you a man who is more interested in enforcing the law or are you more interested in doing that which is right?” he asked.

  “I believe they are the same thing.”

  “Most times, yes,” Count Vasili said, “but not always.”

  “What are we talking about?” Red asked. “You don’t think you’ll get a fair hearing?”

  “The outcome of the hearing has already been determined,” Count Vasili said. “You have not answered my question.”

  Red stared at Count Vasili. “I suppose if I could be shown how enforcing the law was not the right thing to do, then I would not enforce the law.”

  “Do you have men in your squad that will carry out your orders, no matter if they do not understand why you ask them to do these things?”

  “Yes,” Red said.

  “I would like to speak to you alone,” Count Vasili said glancing toward the guard by the door. Red waved at the guard, who stood up and went out, closing the steel door behind him.

  “I believe I am being framed,” Count Vasili said.

  “I don’t think there is anybody but you and Pandora involved in this trouble. I think you wrote that death threat. I think you were behind hiring Krakov.”

  “Where is Krakov now?”

  “In the morgue.”

  “Too bad,” Count Vasili said. “He is the only one who could have identified the man who hired him.”

  “What makes you think someone hired him?”

  “Krakov would not take such a risk just to strike back at the monarchy for booting him out of the country. Krakov would only have done it for money or something of value to him. Someone put him up to it. And had he lived then he could tell us who this man was.”

  “Just for the sake of argument. Why would someone, other than you,” Red said pointing at Count Vasili, “want to assassinate the prince and kidnap the princess?”

  “Here is your answer,” Count Vasili said reaching his hand out between the bars. He opened his palm then.

  Red took the object from there. He looked at it. “It’s a bullet.”

  “The doctor removed it from my shoulder last night.”

  “It’s not a wood bullet like we use here in Transylvania, just an ordinary lead bullet like you would find anywhere else in Britannia,” Red said looking at it.

  �
��That’s what I thought at first too,” Count Vasili said. “Until I happened to start rubbing on it while I sat here. Look more closely at the tip.”

  Red held it up to the light and looked. “You’re right, what is that, gold?”

  “Exactly,” Count Vasili said. “It is a gold bullet.”

  “Okay. So what?”

  “Why don’t you ask someone you trust? A witch preferably. None of the lesser order of witches prevalent here would know what it means, but I’m sure you have someone you can ask who would know.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me?” Red asked.

  “Better if you learned from someone else.”

  “I’ll do that,” Red said heading for the steel door.

  “Don’t show it to anyone else though please. Especially that young detective - Inspector Flynn.”

  “What have you got against him?”

  “Absolutely nothing. He seems to be a very honorable, capable young man, incorruptible even. I see why you trust him with everything. In fact for that reason maybe it would be best if you told him nothing of this.”

  Red left then, taking the bullet with him.

  He headed downstairs and found Miss Kensington. He asked her to come into his office. He shut the door behind them as he handed her the bullet. The gold was easier to see now, because he’d scrapped some more of the paint off it with his pocketknife in the hallway outside the fifth floor cells.

  “That bullet is made of gold,” Red told her. “It came from the gun Krakov used last night. Does that mean anything to you?”