Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Read online

  “Thanks. That really cheered me up.”

  “Have you even considered how you’re going to lure him into your feeble trap? You don’t know where he is.”

  “Captain Donovan is working on that.”

  “You really think she’s going to come through?”

  “I don’t know. If she doesn’t, we’ll have to take our chances.”

  “This is going to be a debacle. Mark my words.”

  “Whatever.” Becky stomped away from the dummy and tried to feel more positive about her plan. Emma could probably come up with something better, but then Emma was a genius. Becky would have to do the best she could and hope it would be enough.

  She didn’t see the rat until it ran across her feet. Becky put a hand to her mouth so she wouldn’t scream as she jumped back. To her surprise the rat got up on its hind legs like a dog. It squeaked and screeched at her in its native tongue. “I don’t know what you’re saying.” She saw the silver stripe on its head. It was Emma’s little friend Pepe.

  The rat squeaked at her again. It jerked its pointed snout furiously towards the entrance to the plant. “What do you want?” The rat’s nose pointed to her and then back to the entrance. “You want me to go somewhere?”

  Pepe imitated a human gesture by nodding. “Look, I’m not going to the sewers if that’s what you want. I still haven’t got the stink off from last time.”

  “What’s the little bugger’s problem?” Marlin asked.

  “I don’t know. He’s trying to tell me something. What is it, boy? Is Timmy in trouble?”

  To her surprise, the rat nodded, and then pointed to her again. “Someone’s in trouble?” The rat nodded. “Someone I know?” The rat nodded again and then once more pointed to her. “I’m in trouble?” The rat screeched what had to be a negative. He pointed to her with his snout again. “Emma’s in trouble?”

  The rat nodded. Becky thought back to Emma’s worry about Russian mobsters out to get them both for the stolen meteor. “A bunch of big, scary-looking guys?” The rat confirmed this. “Oh shit. That girl just can’t stay out of trouble.” Becky braced herself before she said, “OK, climb up and show me where she is.”

  The rat’s claws dug into her clothes as it climbed up onto her shoulder. “She’d better be in real trouble,” Becky grumbled as she set out with the smelly vermin perched on her shoulder.

  ***

  She regretted those words after Pepe indicated for her to stop in front of the old Pike Place Cement Company. Marlin ducked inside to size up the situation while she called for the armor and then began to strap it on. The sewer rat jumped down to the ground and squeaked at her. “Thank you for your help,” Becky said. Then she placed the helmet over her head.

  “You’d better hurry,” Marlin said. “There’s six of them and they seem to have itchy trigger fingers.”

  “Great. What about Emma?”

  “They have her and Dreyfus tied up in the center of the place.”

  “Dreyfus? Why do they have Dan?”

  “How should I know? Do I look like their bloody biographer?”

  “It was a rhetorical question,” Becky snapped. She hopped on the heels of her feet to prime the boots for a big jump. Then she leaped onto the old cement factory’s roof. She stumbled as she came down, but managed to stay upright, which she took as progress.

  Why did they have Dan? He didn’t have anything to do with Emma or the meteor. As she sprinted across the roof, Becky sought the middle of the building, where Marlin indicated the Russians held their prisoners. “They’re right beneath you,” Marlin confirmed for her. “It’s a straight drop down.”

  “Maybe I should try something more subtle,” Becky said. “I could use the cape—”

  “There’s no time for subtlety. This is the perfect time for you to be you.”

  Becky decided to take this as a compliment. Then she took the Sword of Justice from its sheath. She stabbed the golden blade into the roof; it sliced open as easily as tin foil. It was just as easy for her to peel back a section of the roof. Through the helmet’s visor, she saw the six Russians arrayed around the prisoners. One of them held out something towards the thinner prisoner who could only be Dan.

  “No!” she shouted as she dove through the opening in the roof.

  There was no time for her to use the cape to slow herself down. As in the alley by McKinley Avenue, she plummeted to the ground like a meteor. Only this time on the way down she felt something ping against her breastplate. She heard someone curse in Russian and then felt someone tug on her cape to yank her upright.

  She faced a hard-looking man with blue eyes. “You’re the hero,” the man said. “It’s good to meet you. Now you will die.”

  “I don’t think so,” Becky said. With Emma and her kung fu the battle would have resembled a ballet. With Becky it more closely resembled a street brawl. She punched the man with the blue eyes in the face; he reeled and coughed up teeth. Then she spun around in time for another Russian to hit her in the side of the head. The Russian cursed and held his hand. The others seemed to learn the obvious lesson that it was futile to punch a woman in plate armor. They pointed their guns at her instead.

  Becky spun the cape around herself to turn invisible; she didn’t want a stray shot to hit Emma or Dan. The Russians shouted to each other as they tried to locate her. Becky edged away from the hostages to try to lure the Russians away. The ploy worked as the four of them started to edge deeper into the building.

  She held her breath as she stood beside a support beam. One of the Russians came within a couple feet of her. She let the cape drop to grab him from behind and then smack his head into the beam. He would wake up the next morning with an enormous headache.

  The other three saw her and opened fire. Becky had just enough time to pick up the fallen Russian’s weapon before she rolled to her left. The weapon bucked in her hands as she fired it and hit one of the Russians in the knee. He went down in pain while the other two fired at her again.

  This time she ran straight at them; she waited for the last moment to hop on her boots and then spring into a leap over their heads. They watched in awe as she came down behind them; for once she even landed on her feet. They were still in awe of her as she shot one in the right shoulder and then slapped the other across the face with the butt of her weapon.

  Behind her came the click of a weapon. “That was very imprethive,” the blue-eyed Russian said through his broken teeth. “Put down the gun or the dieth.” To emphasize his point, the Russian pressed the weapon against Emma’s head—the face Becky had seen in the mirror for twenty-six years.

  “All right,” Becky said. She put the rifle down on the ground and then kicked it away from her. “There you go. Everything’s cool.”

  “Drop the thword too.”

  “Anything you say.” Becky took the Sword of Justice from its scabbard and dropped it to the ground. “I’m unarmed. Now, let’s talk.”

  “Take off the armor.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Do it or the dieth.”

  “Look, I’m not wearing anything under this but my panties, OK?”

  “Don’t take me for a fool. Take off the armor.”

  “No, don’t do it!” Emma said. “Let him shoot me. Then he’ll never find the meteor. I’m sure his boss will be really happy about that.”

  The Russian jammed the gun into Emma’s temple again. “Tell me where it ith.”

  “No. Not until you let her and Dan go.”

  “Let me go? He can’t do shit to me,” Becky said. She glared at the Russian. “Let them both go and I promise I won’t tear out your spleen and cram it up your ass.”

  Emma blushed in her chair, probably embarrassed at the words that came out of her mouth. “Everyone calm down,” she said. “We can work this out.”

  “Thut up!” the Russian said.

  They seemed to have a stalemate. The last one Becky expected to break it was Pepe. The rat skittered across the floor, unnoticed
by everyone else until he neared the Russian. While the humans bickered, the rat ducked beneath the Russian’s pant leg. Becky couldn’t see what Pepe did, but from the way the man screamed, she assumed the rat had bit him on the leg.

  “Fucking ratth!” Pepe distracted the Russian just long enough for Becky to pick up her rifle. She didn’t have much time to aim for a non-lethal shot; she just pulled the trigger and hoped for the best. The bullet tore through the Russian’s right hand. He screamed in pain; the pistol fell from his mangled hand. It was easy enough for Becky to charge forward and give him a final club to the head.

  The rat emerged from the man’s pant leg to look up at Becky. “Good work,” she said to the sewer rat. Then she bent down to shake one of its little paws; she no longer cared about the dirt or smell the rat carried.

  ***

  By the time Becky untied her, Emma shook like a volcano about to explode. Not concerned about the damage to her hand, she slapped her friend across the face. “How dare you!”

  “Is that the thanks I get for rescuing you?” Becky asked.

  Emma pointed to Sasha on the ground, where a pool of blood had formed from his hand. “How could you do that?”

  “You mean save your life?”

  Emma grabbed the Scarlet Knight by the cape and dragged her away from where Dan lay on the ground. “How could you use a gun?” she hissed. She gestured to the weapon Becky still held in her hand. “You know how I feel about that.”

  “I don’t care how you feel about it. I’m the one who heard the Call and that makes me the Scarlet Knight right now.”

  “That’s my body you’re using.”

  “And that’s my body you almost got killed.” She pointed to where Dan had managed to sit up. “What’s he doing here?”

  “I—” Emma’s voice faltered. She looked down at her feet as she said, “He came to see me at the office—at your office. He asked me out on a date. And we had a really great time. And—” She took a deep breath before she spit out, “We made love. Then the Russians found us at his house and brought us here.”

  “You fucked him? You? With my body?”

  It was Becky’s turn to slap Emma across the face. With the armor on, the slap sent Emma to the ground, where she lay in a heap. “How dare you! You complain about me using a gun while you fucked Dan?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

  “Of course you meant to!”

  “He asked me out—”

  “You could have said no!”

  “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just, you know, it’s Dan.” This excuse sounded feeble even to her own ears. “How could I say no after all this time?”

  “Jesus Christ. I thought you were supposed to be a genius, not a horny fifteen-year-old.”

  “It only happened the one time.”

  “Oh, well, that makes up for it.”

  Emma started to cry. “I’m sorry, all right? I love him—and he loves me.”

  “No, he loves me.”

  “No, he really loves me. I know he does.”

  “God, sometimes you’re like a fucking child.”

  “Stop doing that.”

  “What?”

  “Making me swear.”

  “Oh, please, at this point that’s the least of your problems.”

  Emma picked herself up off the ground and then wiped at her eyes. “We need to take Dan home and then I’ll go pick up the meteor. Can you meet me at Ms. Chiostro’s house?”

  “I’m going to be a little busy. That maniac you didn’t kill is on the loose.”

  “No, Becky, you can’t go after him. I know what to do about him. Just meet me at Ms. Chiostro’s later and we’ll talk about it. Please?”

  Becky’s fists clenched and then unclenched. Emma braced for her friend to slap her again, but instead Becky said, “Fine. You’d better be right, though.”

  “What’s going on?” Dan asked as Emma helped him up. “What’s she doing here?”

  “She just saved your ass.”

  “She did?” Dan asked Emma.

  “Yes, she did.” She motioned to the unconscious Russians on the ground. Once they got out of here, she would have to find a phone to call Captain Donovan and have the Russians arrested. Though she was sure Bykov would have more of them.

  Dan surveyed the scene and shook his head. “What a mess,” he said. He reluctantly held out a hand to Becky. “But thank you for your help.”

  “I’m just glad to be of service,” Becky said. Her voice dripped with sarcasm. Emma hated to hear her own voice sound like that, especially to Dan.

  “We’d better get out of here,” she said.

  “That’s a great idea,” Dan said. “But how?”

  The answer was parked outside. Unable to use Sylvia’s truck, the Russians had gotten hold of an SUV almost as big. The keys weren’t in the ignition, but it wasn’t hard to find them in Sasha’s pocket. Before she left, Emma tied a tourniquet around the Russian’s wrist to stop the bleeding as much as possible. It was unlikely he’d ever use that hand for much again. She did some basic first aid on the others, so they might not bleed to death before the police arrived.

  “Are you almost finished, Florence Nightingale?” Becky asked.

  “This wouldn’t take so long if you hadn’t shot them.”

  “Oh, well, excuse me for saving your life—and his.”

  “Hey, come on you two,” Dan said. “The important thing is we’re all alive.”

  “I’m glad someone noticed that,” Becky said in a huff. She stomped towards the front of the building. “See you around. Try to stay out of trouble.” With that, the Scarlet Knight bounded up to the roof of the building.

  Before Emma could leave, she heard a familiar squeak. Pepe nudged her ankle. “What’s that?” Dan asked.

  “Oh, this is kind of a pet.”

  “A pet? He doesn’t look too friendly.”

  Emma let the sewer rat climb up her arm. She held the arm out to Dan, who backed away. “His name’s Pepe because he looks like a skunk.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I know it probably seems crazy, but he’s nice.”

  Dan tentatively tapped the rat on the head, but stayed at arm’s length. “I think I’ll go start the car,” he said.

  She waited for him to leave before she spoke to the rat. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m not sure what I’d have done without you.”

  The rat told her about how he’d led Becky to the scene after one of his comrades had seen Emma and Dan in the factory. “Thank you,” she said again. “How’s Jim doing? Is he still mad at me?”

  Pepe indicated the Sewer Rat was still in a depression. He had gone so far as to destroy the sculptures of Emma he had fashioned out of trash. “Tell him I’m sorry but things are going to be better soon and I’ll make it all up to him.”

  The rat nodded and then hopped down from her arm. Before Pepe left, she called after him, “And don’t mind Dan. He’s just not used to you yet.”

  “Did you two have a good chat?” Dan asked her.

  “He worries about me.”

  “He does?”

  “Yes. Just because rats look dirty and mean doesn’t mean they are. They can be very sensitive—like people.”

  Dan nodded as he pulled the SUV out of the factory’s parking lot. “Don’t judge a book by its cover, right?”

  “Yes.” Emma patted her flabby stomach. “Sometimes what isn’t beautiful to everyone is beautiful to you.”

  “You’re right.” Though the car was in motion, he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. Then he asked, “Do you think we’ll be safe?”

  “For a little while. But you might want to go somewhere else to be sure.” It wouldn’t surprise her if Bykov had another team in Rampart City in case the first failed. A man like that didn’t take chances.

  “I guess I could get a hotel for a couple of days.”

  “Just don’t use your real name.”

  “Right—like a rock star.” They shared a c
huckle over this. His face turned serious again as he said, “Maybe you could stay there with me. We could pretend to be married.”

  “I would love to pretend to be married to you but I can’t. There’s something else I have to do.”

  “You aren’t going to deal with those goons again, are you? I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you, not now.”

  “I’ll be all right. I have to pick something up from the university.”

  She let Dan off at the Rampart Arms and gave him some cash taken from the Russians. It would be more than enough to ensure they’d let him use any name he wanted. She could only hope Markova or her employer didn’t look too hard for Dan.

  Once he had gone inside, she pulled the SUV away from the curb and headed for Rampart State. She just hoped Tim was still hard at work on his robot and that he hadn’t let anyone touch the meteor. Otherwise they were all doomed.

  Chapter 29

  On the way up through the vault, Red noticed the spells didn’t leap out at Aggie. Instead, they cowered back in their holes as they had when she’d still been under the Mirror Image spell. Red felt the same urge to cower in the presence of the ghost called Greesha.

  From what Glenda had given him to enter in the files, he knew Greesha was the twin sister of Greetha, a witch who had existed in the time of Merlin in ancient Britain. Greetha and probably also her sister had relied on an older form of magic dedicated to Mother Earth. Little else was known about her. But she did seem to know a lot about Red—all of him.

  “You are not of this world,” Greesha said. Her harsh tone sounded strange in Aggie’s sweet voice. “You sense what others cannot.”

  “Yes. I exist out-of-phase—”

  “You will make a useful servant when the time comes.”

  “I thought you said you were going to help Aggie’s friends.”

  “I will help the fools. It won’t take long. Then I will begin my revenge.”

  “What about Aggie? What will happen to her?”

  “I care nothing for what happens to her.”

  “You promised—” Red grabbed for his throat as it constricted as if a boa constrictor had wrapped itself around him.

  “You think because you are not of this world that none can hurt you. I can hurt you. Do not forget that.”