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  Tom went back to Fixx’s room, wondering what message Pandora had passed on to Stone.

  “How about you buy me lunch since it’s almost lunch time,” Fixx said when Tom stepped back in the room.

  The realization that it was lunch time struck Tom like a lightning bolt. “That’s it,” he said realizing what Pandora was up to just before he grabbed hold of Fixx and jerked him up onto his feet. “Let’s go,” he shouted, dragging Fixx toward the door with just his one shoe on.

  “Not really in that big a hurry,” Fixx said as Tom flung open the door.

  He let go of Fixx then, until Fixx went to go back for his hat, so Tom grabbed him again and starting dragging him down the hallway. Fixx could not have weighed more than a hundred and ten pounds and Tom mostly dragged him behind him down the stairs.

  “What’s the hurry?” Fixx shouted as his feet bounced off every step.

  “It’s almost lunch time,” Tom explained as they reached the hotel lobby where he helped Fixx get back on his feet. “When we get to the TCPD building,” he said shoving him toward the hotel entrance and throwing the troll his pass key back. “I want you to run upstairs and pull the fire alarm right by the booking desk.”

  They ran out the doors and on the sidewalk, Tom pointed at his car and told Fixx to get in as he hurried to the driver’s side.

  “Why do you want me to pull the fire alarm?” Fixx asked as Tom started the car and then floored the gas pedal. “And what’s this all go to do with lunch?”

  “The fire alarm will cause people to step out their offices and head for the hallways.”

  “Why don’t you pull the fire alarm? Fixx asked. “Some cop might shoot me.”

  Tom thought about that as he honked at the cars and carriages entering the intersection just ahead of him and wended his way through them as they moved out of his way. Some eager constable might actually shoot Fixx if he ran in the TCPD building and pulled the fire alarm.

  “Tell ‘em Inspector Flynn ordered you to and then start yelling for people to get away from the north walls.”

  “Why?”

  “Because a wrecking ball’s going to come through it just after noon time unless we can stop it.”

  “Oh,” Fixx said. “I think I see what’s going on.”

  “Do this right and you might just be in the papers again,” Tom told him.

  “What about a reward?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  He sped down the street toward the next intersection and turned. The next corner was Mulberry and looking ahead, he saw a large crowd gathered behind the wall of barricades watching the demolition crew. The crowd was twelve deep and Tom realized he wouldn’t be able to get through them in time because, looking over the crowd, he saw the wrecking ball had been delivered, and right then was being drawn back so it could be released to swing forward. If the crane did not swing around some before the wrecking ball was released, it would swing right across Mulberry Street and into the north side of the TCPD building just a little above street level, right at the spot where the prisoner’s lunch room was situated. He also noticed that the black wrecking ball had painted on it a menacing-looking, bone-white skull and cross bones.

  “Change of plans,” he said he shot past the crowd and drove down the ramp into the TCPD garage.

  “What?” Fixx asked.

  “I won’t be able to stop them now, but if I can get to the jail in time. I can keep Stone from escaping,” he said as he brought the car to a quick stop and Fixx was thrown against the dashboard.

  Tom ran for the door that lead into the armory. He had to unlock it first, but then Fixx and him ran down the hallway, past the RCO’s counter, past the locker room and up the stairs.

  “Get up there and pull that fire alarm,” he told Fixx, pointing up the next flight of stairs, but just then, the fire alarms throughout the building went off.

  The clock in the hallway read one minute after 12:00 pm and the prisoners, including Stone, were, right then, entering the lunch room.

  Tom yelled at the guard at the entrance to the jail, to open the door, and then instructed him to grab a couple of golem guns. The guard handed him one and then they hurried down the hallway.

  As they came into the lunch area, the prison guards were ordering the prisoners to return to their cell block since the alarms were ringing, but Stone was sitting calmly at a table in his heavy chains. He spotted Tom making his way toward him and smiled, as if Tom were the last person in the room to understand a joke.

  “Move, move” Tom yelled pushing prisoners out his way and then when a path had been cleared, he stopped to aim the golem gun. He fired and the steel net shot out and spread open like a parachute, as Stone ducked under the lunch table and was able to avoid its barbs. Tom grabbed the other gun from the guard, and stepped closer, but just before he fired, the wall exploded.

  Bricks flew toward him like a colony of bats rushing out a cave. Tom shielded his face and head as most of them sailed over his head, but still a number of them smacked into him, as well as everyone else in the room. He was knocked down and then partially buried under a pile of red bricks, and the last thing he saw - clearly that is - before a cloud of dust and debris filled the room - was a large skull and cross bones swinging right at him.

  The floor above gave way on one end and slipped. Ceiling tiles fell and pipes burst, causing water to spray across the room from several different spots. More bricks tumbled across the floor and piled up against him. When they stopped, he lifted up his head and looked around.

  There was just too much dust hanging in front of him to see anything at first, but as the air cleared, prisoners went to escape out the hole in the wall, and in the middle of them was Stone. He was moving slowly, shuffling toward freedom in his heavy irons, pushing tables, kicking bricks and tossing other prisoners out of his way. Tom got up and ran after him, but the going was slow because of the bricks, tables and prisoners in his way. He planned to knock Stone down with the golem gun still.

  Near the hole in the wall, he stopped and lifted up the bazooka-like gun. When Tom pulled on its trigger, a spring was released that shot a steel net out of the barrel of the gun, but just before it would have entangled Stone and stuck to him like glue – a truck passed behind Stone and the net hit it instead, breaking out the side window and denting the truck in a number of spots.

  Stone jumped onto the back of the truck then and it sped off, crashing through the barricades and causing people to jump out of its way.

  Chapter 5

  Red and Fixx found Tom among the clutter and wreckage of the jail’s lunch room. Outside, police and ambulance sirens blared.

  “Doesn’t appear we had any serious injuries,” Red told him. “A broken arm or two and a few heads given knots, but luckily someone pulled the main fire alarm before the wall exploded.”

  “Stone escaped,” Tom said.

  “I guess the Vampire Council must really want him back,” Red said looking at the large hole in the side of the building.

  “No,” Tom said. “Pandora is behind this.”

  “What’d you find out?”

  As they headed upstairs, Tom told Red everything he’d learned, showing him the picture of Pandora with Titan and how they had asked Fixx if Stone was allowed to have visitors.

  When they reached the desk sergeant’s desk, a crowd of reporters and photographers had pushed their way into the creaking building and were shouting questions and flashing camera bulbs in people’s faces.

  “Can’t believe I’m going to do this,” Red said when a reporter ran up to him and asked what had happened. “This fine creature here,” he said grabbing Fixx and pulling him closer as bulbs flashed in their faces, “saved many lives today when he ran into the station and pulled the fire alarm so that people would step out their offices before the wrecking ball smashed into the building.”

  “That’s not exactly true,” Tom leaned forward and whispered in Red’s ear as reporters started peppering Fixx with
questions - Wasn’t he the same hobgoblin that helped with the capture of Jack the Ripper? How did he know the wrecking ball was about to come through the wall?

  “Someone pulled the alarm,” Red told Tom as he stepped away from Fixx. “Nobody else has taken credit for it, so we might as well let Fixx play the hero. What was he doing with you anyway?”

  “Pandora went to see him, so I went to see him and that’s when I figured out what she was up to.”

  “Why’d she go to see him?”

  “She knows Fixx from before. They both are from the U.R.R.K. She saw his picture in the paper recently, so she went to him, thinking he could help her find a golem by the name of Titan.”

  “Fixx is from the U.R.R.K.?”

  “Sure is.”

  The newspaper men were still peppering Fixx with questions when Red grabbed him and pulled him away. “I got some questions of my own for you,” he told him, leading Fixx toward the stairs.

  “Your phone’s ringing,” Tom told Red as they were headed toward the inspectors’ offices.

  “Probably some reporter,” Red said, in no hurry to answer it.

  The inspectors’ offices looked like someone had been in a rage there. The desks had all slid toward the north wall, pictures and broken glass lay on the floor, one cabinet file had fallen over spilling its contents across the floor.

  Red’s office was likewise a mess, a chair was tipped over and some items had slid across his desk when this floor and the one below had slipped about a foot, but overall the building seemed sturdy enough, although the floor was slanted now like a funhouse.

  “Chief Inspector Meriwether speaking,” Red said picking the phone up. Tom watched as a puzzled look came across his face. “Maybe you should turn yourself in,” he said into the phone. “No, no one was hurt. Why would you help Stone escape? You have a nice day too, because you’ll be spending the rest of them never seeing the sun again when I arrest you – Pandora.”

  “Pandora?” Tom repeated.

  “That was her,” he said hanging up the phone.

  “What’d she want?”

  “She wanted to know if anyone was hurt.”

  “What did she say when you asked her why she helped Stone escape?”

  “She said she needed him, but that she would see to it that he never caused any trouble here again.”

  “Need him for what?”

  “I have the feeling we’re gonna find out,” Red said. “Maybe you can help with that,” he told Fixx. “Who is this Pandora? Why did she want to leave the U.R.R.K? And for that matter if you are from there why did you want to leave there?”

  “I didn’t,” Fixx said. “None of us did. We were told to leave.”

  “That pamphlet says you creatures left there to avoid persecution.”

  “That was just an excuse to get rid of some of us. They threw me out just cause I had lived in the village where Anna came from. Afraid we might cause trouble I guess.”

  “Huh,” Red said. “Why did they throw this Pandora out then?”

  “She might have wanted to leave. I don’t think it was safe for her there.”

  “Why?”

  “Because her name is not Pandora. That’s the name she chose for herself when she arrived here.”

  “What’s her real name then?”

  “Anna.”

  “Prince Yuri’s wife?”

  “That’s right.”

  Red looked at Fixx and then at Tom. “Let’s just keep this to us three for now.”

  Chapter 6

  The Pawn

  That night Red, Rebecca and Tom hung around the Flying Squad office just in case anything happened. It was a full moon that night and every detective was either helping with werewolf duty or searching for Stone and Pandora, so the place was empty.

  Rebecca was sitting at a desk reading out loud, a book about werewolves. The book, written by Mungo Park, had been written during his second lifetime, when he lived in Transylvania City for a time.

  She was reading about how werewolves are capable of swimming across rivers and even lakes, but they rarely do so as they do not like water and are reluctant to cross even a bridge if they have no strong reason to do so.

  “They are particularly attracted to the smell of garlic,” Rebecca read next.

  “That’s why none of the restaurants here serve dishes seasoned with garlic on nights when there is a full moon,” Red said as he paced the hallway just outside his office. Right then his phone rang and he rushed to pick it up. He listened a moment, and then hung up abruptly.

  “Time to go,” he said hurrying across the inspectors’ offices toward a locked cabinet.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Desk sergeant just called saying a werewolf was spotted just a little west of Goblin Park,” he said as he unlocked the cabinet and then threw open the doors. Inside was an arsenal; machine guns and pistols and several rifles. “Take this,” he said handing Tom a rifle. He grabbed one for himself as well and then a box. “Load your rifle,” he said tossing Tom the box.

  Tom opened the box, expecting to find silver bullets inside, but instead found darts. Red then grabbed a box of silver bullets.

  “What are these,” he asked.

  “Tranquilizer darts,” Red said. “Slip one in your rifle, and put the rest in your pocket.”

  The three of them hurried down the stairs and out the front of the building where Red’s car was waiting and climbed inside.

  “Empty your clip,” Red said pulling his own pistol out of its holster and dropping the clip into his lap as he pulled away from the curb and Tom flipped the siren on. “Load it with silver bullets.”

  Tom did just as Red had and then began loading the clip of his gun with silver bullets.

  “If we come across the beast, try and take it down with the darts, but if someone’s life is in danger - use your pistol. Remember it may be a werewolf now, but the rest of the time it is an ordinary man or woman, and we don’t want to kill them unless we absolutely have to.”

  “I understand,” Tom told him.

  Red drove quickly down Appian Way, turned west on Murder Street that took them across Dracula Bridge to the other side of the Black River. He turned north on River Road then and drove the full length of it, to where it dead ended at the start of a forest just west of Goblin Park. They got out the car.

  “Stay right behind me,” He told Rebecca.

  “How exciting is this?” she said.

  Immediately upon exiting the car, they head the howl of a werewolf, coming from deep inside the woods just in front of them.

  “Let’s stay right here a moment,” Red said. “See if we can get an idea which direction the thing is headed.”

  “How accurate are these rifles?” Tom asked.

  “Hundred yards at best.”

  They waited for the werewolf to howl again and less than a minute later it did. It seemed to be making its way eastwards, moving closer to Goblin Park. Its scream seemed particularly anguished, enough so that Rebecca grabbed on to the back of Tom’s coat.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a werewolf sound so tortured in all my years here,” Red said. “Let’s head into the woods here,” he said starting there.

  The car’s headlights lighted their way into the forest, but before long they were swallowed up by it as they marched further into the woods. Before long the werewolf howled again.

  “It’s not too far in front of us now,” Red said. “Let’s head east here and come out in Goblin Park.”

  Goblin Park is located just the other side of the Black River from the Hotel Triumph, not far from where the Black and Blood Rivers come together. A foot bridge crosses over the river near the hotel and leads into the park to a spot where the public can sit in some grandstands permanently constructed within the park boundaries. The grandstands offer the public a place to sit outside come the full moon, to listen to the howls, and even possibly spot, a werewolf in the flesh.

  There are four, five-star hote
ls in Transylvania City; The Fountain, The Monte Christo, The Hotel Romania, and The Triumph, but of these The Triumph is hands down the most luxurious, grandest and largest. Across the river from it lay Goblin Park, the only spot in the city where the T.C.P.D. allows tourists, or anyone, to be outdoors north of either the Black or Blood Rivers, come the full moon’s rising.

  Twenty four constables, spread about fifty yards apart, form a half-circle perimeter along the park boundaries, stretching from the banks of the Black River to the northern edge of the park and back to a point further east along the river. These officers will stand duty one hour before the moon rises the night of the full moon, until the sun rises above the cliffs surrounding Transylvania City the next morning.

  Each constable is responsible for keeping a fire going inside a barrel and while the warmth and light from these fires is enjoyed by the constable, this is not their primary purpose. Werewolves are frightened by fire, especially torches and if any of these constables should spot a werewolf emerging from the forest, (which would have been cleared of any visitors long before the moon began to rise that day) his first means to shoo the werewolf back into the woods is a flare fired into the air. He then is to light a torch and jab it at the beast. On average, one werewolf might appear near Goblin Park each full moon and it is considered great luck to be sitting in the grandstands there and witnessing an actual sighting of a werewolf.

  If the constable is not successful scaring the werewolf back into the woods with his flare and torch, then he is to blow his whistle, which act usually does the job if the flare and torch do not.

  Also, at the sound of the whistle, a team of constables, comprised of three officers, will begin moving toward the constable who has spotted the werewolf. If by the time they arrive there, the werewolf has not been frightened back into the woods. Each of these officers has a specific duty or piece of equipment they are deploy if the werewolf lingers or advances closer. The first one has a scatter-gun which fires rock salt. Maybe once or twice a year is the scatter gun needed within Goblin Park.