It was several hours before initial autopsy reports came through from Inspector Tolliver. Or Marcus as he insisted they call him. Mary’s top personal priority remained locating her semi-namesake, closely followed by her concern about Flint – but fortunately it now seems likely that these both lead in the same direction, which was also that of the stolen nanites.
She was extremely relieved to discover that none of the bodies were the other Mary’s, but only one of them matched one of the known missing kidnapees; that of a Petra Pawłowski. The other two bodies were unidentified, though Marcus’ stated he was waiting on a DNA check with the family of a Philip Secundus who’d gone missing from Liverpool three years before. What was certain was that all three were meta-humans.
It seemed that Labrynth had kidnapped a lot more people that the Police were aware of! The theory seems confirmed, and it was now a case of going all out after “Labyrinth” (and Tempus).
She’d asked Inspector Marcus Tolliver and Tin-Hat Tommy for anything they might be able to come up with on the topics of “Labyrinth” and “Tempus”.
Tin-Hat initially wasn’t a lot of help other than claiming that Labyrinth was the secret rulers of Switzerland (and working with the greys or possibly the Gnomes of Zurich apparently) and were run by a meta-human called Taurus and/or possibly the original immortal Minotaur!
The most frequent rumour about them was that they had access to some form of special process called DNAscendant that could apparently give mundanes powers or dramatically boost existing meta-abilities. Tin-Hat had heard rumours that at least one of the winners of the reality show Britain’s Got Meta-Talent had undergone the process.
He reluctantly admitted that he was talking about the topless page 3 model Tracy Willis, occasionally referred to as UK Patriot especially when she was appearing in the Sun. She’d been a mediocre meta at the start of the contest and after winning had gained a massive boost in powers. Rumour was that she’d undergone this DNAscendant process as part of her prize.
Tempus didn’t figure at all – even on HeroNet, the ECHO network or the dark web. He was a complete enigma.
Marcus had even less – rumours only. Labyrinth apparently had a number of ties to the international criminal underworld such as handling the shipment and upgrading of weapons and personal services to mercenary units around the world. They were a secretive, world-wide consulting criminal resource run by a hidden cabal. They employed the Foundry apparently as a front for their thefts and more blatant activities such as the sale of high tech weapons. He also confirmed that there wasn’t any police or META records of anyone who either looked like Tempus or had his specialist power set.
Once the call ended, Mary considered her options. She hadn’t a clue how the sickly yellow wound-like aura on the rear of Sir Damien (and others) necks fitted into this or what the Carpathian connection was, other that there obviously was one and Sam was somehow connected to it.
The three of them should probably prepare an approach to the coming interview, which was no longer a simple matter of deciding whether to accepting branded employment or not, but possibly an opportunity to infiltrate their enemy??? They had until tomorrow to decide how to approach this.
Mary planned to go back to the crack in the ground she’d used before to get into the sealed off basement beneath Container Town and the scrapyard when she ran across Jeeves muttering away to himself as usual, with his terrier Rascal dancing around him, standing on its rear legs snapping at the air. “Ah Ma’am” he broke off from his cursing, “As requested here are the details on Ivan’s property…” He handed over a typed sheet of paper. “I understand from Ivan’s son Stavros that he just wants to get rid of the land and is selling it at auction with no minimum price.”
The notice read, “Ivan’s Scrapyard, Port Meadow. Land with no Planning Permission, for sale by auction, site is yet to be cleared, sold as seen. Recently used as a scrapyard, all records regarding previous land use have been lost. Potential for continued use as a scrapyard or could be developed as open car parking only – land has been contaminated with unknown industrial chemicals over several decades which cannot be safely removed. Note: the derelict shed onsite was erected without permission and may need to be demolished. No minimum sale price.”
The date for the auction was set for a week’s time. Jeeves lent in close and whispered “I spoke to the auctioneer’s secretary, lovely young lady. Anyway, she says that they expect it to sell for about £25,000 freehold if it sells at all. Stavros just wants rid of it in case he gets stuck with a court order from Environmental Health to clean up the site…”
Jeeves turned to leave and to continue his debates with his invisible hecklers when he turned back again “Oh and there is a young lady to see you – seems she was asking after you in the Park and persuaded someone to give her directions, possibly through a generous sharing of his Majesty’s portraiture in the form of currency of the realm? She’s waiting at your container. I hope that was acceptable?”
Mary nodded and thanking him she hurried back to her home in time to see an attractive dark haired woman lighting up a cigarette. A young woman she recognised immediately; Naomi Van Helsing.
She smiled and nodded, “I see the group has grown” and looked into the darkness as Young Sam and Akira trotted out of the dark…
“Good eyesight, in fact excellent eyesight. I didn’t even see them until you pointed them out. What can we do for you Ms Van Helsing?”
Naomi smiled “Naomi, please? And you asked my help, remember? And I have managed to secure you all an invitation to a library that may be beneficial in that endeavour… She lent in close to Mary and whispered “I don’t mean to be nosey but the elderly gentleman who went to find you? How long has he been cursed?”
“wha? Jeeves? He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, not some medieval curse!”
Naomi smiled again “Really? If that’s the case does his little dog also share his condition? Otherwise what is it the dog is always trying to bite I wonder?”
Mary made a mental note to check out Jeeves (and his dog) with her Mystic Senses next time they met. “Anyway…”
Before Mary can comment further, Naomi handed over an embossed card with an invitation to visit the St. Catherine’s Private Members Library, 88-94 Kingsway, Holborn, London WC2B 6AF along with a request addressed to a Dr. Maxwell Bradbury, Chief Librarian to allow them access to the special collections section. “Not urgent, but they may be able to help with some of your research into mystical matters including dreams… And the new boy on the block?” She turned and pointed towards a bemused Akira, “will really benefit from becoming a student, if they will have him.” With that she stubbed out her cigarette and with a wave of her wrist walked away, within seconds vanishing into the darkness of the access road.
Unsure what the library was supposed to provide, though she imagined it had an occult book collection that Naomi apparently believed would be of assistance to them. Given the lateness of the evening, She suggested to Young Sam and Akira that they also have a look at the abandoned basement she’d found beneath their feet.
It took Young Sam and Akira a few minutes to widen the gap sufficiently for them all to get below ground even if they had to fly or float down. The first thing they saw was the armoured blast doors that had been shoved against the wall. What had this been used for and why had it been abandoned? The walls were reinforced concrete. With their torches they navigated their way into the main room, to their right was a corridor with again what looked like heavy blast doors located at various intervals and then Akira spotted it; a faded, torn poster about the safe handling of explosives… Had this been an armaments factory during one of the wars (the first looking at the poster) hence the heavy construction?
A quick look around discovered the stairs that led to a sub-basement. Both floors seemed substantial. It would require a fair amount of work but there was plenty of space for whatever they felt like using… There was even a section of the sub-basement that had obviously served as staff quarters with an admittedly antique commercial kitchen area!
As they were leaving, a series of text messages came through Akira’s Comm unit from Jasper Dexter. Could they possibly meet up in a few days’ time to discuss whether they might be able to contribute to the repairs of the office loft and he wanted to know if they had any ideas about how he might manage the lease either until Flint returned or the lease ran out?
Remembering her promise, Mary braced herself to try and take a reading from Jeeves and Rascal before bed. Jeeves was sitting at the door of his container ‘apartment’ next to a calor gas heater with Rascal on his lap when she arrived, Jeeves as always, was muttering and arguing away at himself under his breath. Mary knew this wouldn’t be pleasant, as people with mental health issues often had fractured auras and trying to read them often left her with a splitting headache. If she was being honest that was why she’d never tried reading him before, reading schizophrenics really hurt. Well, needs must…
She took a reading of Rascal first; best to start with the least contentious of her subjects. A normal animal aura flared into view on her inner eye but it was impossible to not notice that Rascal was upset and feeling both frustrated and protective. Even in its, his dreams, it was snapping and biting at multiple things, trying to protect his master… Ok!!! Mary wasn’t sure she liked where this was going.
Mary braced herself and read Jeeves. Her mind opened to a chaotic, kaleidoscopic, fractured aura with dark shadows everywhere. The pain hit almost immediately, as shards of his shattered aura cut and sliced into her mind; forcing her to collapse to the ground in pain. Shi..!
Then she saw them, dark silhouettes, nearly invisible in the shadows of his mind, ripping away constantly at Jeeves’ psyche and sanity creating more and more sharp blood-red splinters that Jeeves tried constantly to repair and soothe. Shards created by smoke-like creatures formed of pure hate, clawing and whispering unholy obscenities at him all the time. Horror movies and decades of hell and brimstone preaching had never prepared her for this; demonic imps??? Now that she knew they were there, she could make out their dark outlines in the shadowy corners of his mind, there were dozens of them! Then she had an unsettling thought, if she could see them, could they in turn see her? Several of the shadowy, alien shapes seemed to turn sightless eyes in her direction as she withdrew quickly, way too quickly… Jeeves was schizophrenic alright, but in his case he had reason to be…
Not sure what to do next, she got up and stepped out of the darkness to wish Jeeves a good night. “Good night Ma’am I have left you some savouries as a late snack. Hope that is satisfactory..?” Mary nodded, almost in tears trying to keep her emotions in check “Thank you Jeeves, I appreciate that, good night” and left before he could see her distress.
Sam, sat in his cosy cot-nest, and idled away on his smart-tablet which he was charging. He rubbed his furrowed brow.
It was never going to be easy. It was always, always about power and control; the natural order of things. It was a fact of humanity and the laws of nature that there were always going to be people and groups who would want to rise to the top, the cream of the crop – to create a situation in society where they can live in unquestioned “perfect” hedonism without recourse. Or rather those who carried so much dissatisfaction that they wanted to disrupt and bring down the system. Just so happened that being meta got you dragged into it one way or another. Learn or die trying, Sam supposed.
Focus, what would Flint do? What would Flint do? He tapped his sturdy tablet on his forehead. “Maybe I should read some more Sherlock, or watch some good crime dramas.”
Rather than developing a headache mixed with a dash of paranoia from dwelling on the recent past, he opted to sketch out a quick plan of action for the future. For complex investigations, it is almost always better to bounce ideas off someone else (unless the thoughts were somehow caught in the spiders’ web also).
Sam starts listing the various things he wanted to do…
From developing the Basement complex into a BASE-ment, to visiting the library, by way of investigating a number of people including the Black Dragonkin (he couldn’t be a villain could he?) and it was also about time he revisited the cave in Wales, possibly? He kept on listing items he needed to check out but one thought kept on interrupting his thought processes… A long pause, a single sigh and a heavy flop to the covers.
– Ask Annie to dinner(?)
The idle blinking text icon was taunting. Sam lazily threw the tablet onto a nearby surface and prodded at the nearby somewhat mystical dream catcher. With a heavy sigh, he resigned himself to dreams of chasing and failing flesh. Again. He thought briefly on Annie’s infectious delightful giggle, and felt just a little bit better.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 