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

  Once she lowered the helmet over her head, she went back over to the door. Before she opened it, she tried to think of how she could incapacitate the lions. She scanned the racks of food until she found what she needed. She hefted a box onto her shoulder and then went back into the kitchen.

  The lions huddled in one corner, where they hissed and snarled at a garbage can. The can’s opening was too small for the lions to fit their paws inside to fish Pepe out and its metal sides strong enough to resist their claws as well. “Good boy,” she said to herself.

  She opened the box and found stacks of frozen hamburger patties. She took a handful of these to jam into the kitchen’s microwave. A steak would work better, but that wasn’t on the menu at the cafeteria. The smell of the meat thawing prompted the lions to turn in her direction, but not enough to prompt them to come her way, not when they had a fresh rat dinner so close.

  “Hang on,” she called to Pepe in ratspeak. A few seconds later the microwave beeped to indicate the patties had unthawed. They were still raw, but soft enough to at least approximate real meat. Emma reached into the microwave to grab one of these and then hurled it towards the lions and the trapped rat.

  One of the female lions sniffed at the meat as it had done to Emma earlier to decide if the patty was edible. The lion gulped down the hamburger patty in one bite and then began to look for more. Emma tossed another patty that landed a few feet away from the trashcan. The lion padded after it, followed by her companions. They growled at each other; the male one finally snagged the patty.

  From there it was easy enough for Emma to lure the lions into the kitchen. Once they had gotten behind the counter, she opened the door to the freezer. She tossed a half-dozen thawed patties in the back of the freezer. The lions followed after them; they didn’t pay any attention to Emma until she slammed the door behind them. She waited for a moment to listen to the lions claw at the door ineffectually before she went over to the garbage can.

  “Are you all right?” she asked. Pepe crawled out; he looked none the worse for wear. “You’d better get back to the sewers. I’ll handle things here.”

  The rat didn’t need to be told twice; Pepe streaked across the floor towards the bathroom. Emma hoped nothing had decided to take up residence in there. She didn’t have time to check as she could already hear a ruckus outside.

  It soon became clear that someone had opened the doors to the habitats. She examined the door to the lion’s habitat; whoever was responsible hadn’t tried to be subtle about it. The locks had been smashed, pieces of them on the ground. The strange thing about this was the locks were made of solid steel. To break them like this meant the perpetrator was exceptionally strong.

  She had only to follow the roars and bleats of the animals to catch up to the perpetrator. She stopped in front of the primate house, where she saw a dark figure hunched in front of the door. “Stop right there,” Emma said.

  The figure turned around and rose up to a height of nearly seven feet. He wore a black trench coat and fedora that put her in mind of the old Shadow character. From what Emma could see, the man didn’t carry a weapon. “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Koschei,” he said in a voice that sounded as if it came from a synthesizer.

  “Put up your hands, Mr. Koschei. I’m afraid I have to turn you over—” Before Emma knew it, the man lunged at her. She tried to step aside but was a second too late. A gloved fist caught the side of her head and threw her back at least fifty feet. She lay dazed on the ground to watch as Koschei used his fist to bash open the locks to the primate house.

  Emma followed him inside.

  ***

  The screech of the primates prevented Emma from hearing anything else inside. She scanned the primate house for Koschei with the helmet’s visor. Something soft splattered against her helmet; from the smell she knew what it was. “Thanks a lot,” she grumbled.

  “Serves you right for coming after visitor’s hours,” Marlin said. He hovered next to a tree used by the zoo’s chimpanzees.

  “Someone is releasing the animals. I have to stop him. Do you want to help or not?”

  The ghost paused as if to consider this. “I suppose I’ll have to help, though it would be much more fun to watch them throw feces at you.”

  “He’s a big man wearing all black. He’s probably still in here.”

  “I’ll go check.”

  Emma didn’t wait for the ghost; she made her way along the path that led through the primate house. She could see Koschei had shattered more locks. Most of the primates hadn’t grasped the concept of their freedom yet and remained in their habitats. A baboon lunged out of its cage; a claw raked harmlessly across her chest. She gave it a light push to send it back into its habitat. The baboon bared its teeth for a moment before it slunk away.

  “He’s at the other end of the building,” Marlin says. “You’ll have to hurry to catch him.”

  “Thanks.” Emma broke into a run, but she didn’t get far before she found herself flying backwards. She thought at first Koschei had ambushed her, at least until she saw the silverback gorilla knuckle out of its habitat. Like the baboon, the gorilla bared its teeth and roared; it pounded its chest to prove its superiority.

  “Easy,” Emma said. She wished she knew how to speak to gorillas. She slowly rolled onto her left side. The gorilla glared at her but made no attempt to stop her. Then she rolled across the floor; the golden cape wrapped around her as she did so. The gorilla shrieked with rage as she disappeared. It continued to roar as she appeared behind it; she wrapped one arm around its thick neck.

  The armor protected her as the gorilla banged her repeatedly into walls of the habitats and while she continued to apply pressure around its neck. Somehow she managed to hold on for thirty seconds, until the gorilla’s body finally went slack from the sleeper hold. She rolled the primate back into its habitat; her head still spun as she did so.

  There wasn’t any time to rest as she could hear a door bang open. She reached the opposite door of the primate house in time to see the front gates yawn open. To her horror, a pair of elephants stomped through the opening. Emma didn’t have any choice but to go after them.

  ***

  One of the obnoxious duties of a police captain was to make public appearances. As a sergeant and then a lieutenant, Lottie Donovan had rarely had to shake hands and wave to the public. Since she’d been promoted to captain nine months earlier, she found she spent a lot more of her time these days involved with the politics of the job.

  It wasn’t all bad. Besides the substantial pay increase and added insurance benefits, she also got a front row seat for the Founder’s Day fireworks tonight. Still, she couldn’t help but think there were a lot of better things she could do at the moment, real-life fireworks around the city that she could stop.

  Lieutenant Cielo, her aide, leaned over in his chair to whisper, “A lot of crackpots on the phones tonight. We’ve got at least ten calls about animals running through the streets.”

  “Animals?”

  “Yeah. Big ones: elephants, rhinos, hippos, and such. It’s crazy.”

  “Has anyone checked with the zoo?”

  “We’ve got a black-and-white heading over there. You don’t think it’s a prank?”

  “Maybe one or two calls, but ten? It’s either mass hysteria or something’s up.”

  “Should we head back to the office?”

  Captain Donovan looked around at the dignitaries on the stage with her. The last thing she wanted was to set off a panic. “We’ll stay put for now, but keep on it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Captain Donovan flinched at this, still unused to people addressing her as a superior officer. She wondered again why she had accepted the promotion. But then it was either her or some corrupt idiot like Captain Kramer had been before he received his just reward. At least with the promotion she had more authority to put heat on Don Vendetta and the rest of Rampart City’s criminal underground. Not that it had done muc
h good so far.

  The mayor finished a dull speech on the city’s bright future and motioned for a ten-year-old girl to be brought forward. She was a fourth grader at Madison Elementary who had won some kind of essay contest about Rampart City’s future. The girl looked scared to death as she read her essay, her cheeks flushed red and eyes focused on the paper. “In the future everyone will be happy,” the girl said just as the ground began to rumble.

  At first Captain Donovan thought someone must have lit off the fireworks too early. But there were no colored explosions in the sky. She leaned towards Cielo to ask him about it when the crowd began to part and people began to scream.

  A moment later Captain Donovan saw the elephants. Two of them charged through the crowd gathered in Executive Plaza to watch the fireworks. Captain Donovan squinted at them; her mouth went slack when she saw a red-and-gold figure atop one of the elephants. “What the fuck is she doing?” the captain asked herself.

  Beside her, Cielo said, “What do we do?”

  “Get these people out of here and call animal control.” Captain Donovan bolted from her seat to snatch the little girl who had gamely continued to read her essay.

  “Is that an elephant?” the girl asked.

  “Yes, it is,” the police captain said, not sure what else she could say. “Where’s your mommy and daddy, sweetheart?”

  The girl opened her mouth to answer but only a scream came out. Captain Donovan saw the elephants weren’t alone. A mix of other African creatures came after them: giraffes, gazelles, rhinos, and hippos. The animals stampeded through the crowd; people screamed as they tried desperately to get out of the way in time.

  The stage definitely wouldn’t deter the animals much. The mayor’s security team was already hustling him away towards Robinson Tower, where he would be safe from the rampage. Captain Donovan decided to follow suit; she carried the little girl over her shoulder. The girl shouted for her parents and pounded the captain’s back to get her to let her go.

  “We have to get you to safety. Your parents can take care of themselves.”

  Captain Donovan had neared the front doors for Robinson Tower when she saw something lunge towards her out of the corner of her eye. Reflexively she spun around to protect the girl as the creature collided with her. Teeth sank into her left arm, which prompted her to scream. The little girl’s scream echoed this though the creature hadn’t bit her.

  A shot rang out and something heavy fell against the captain’s body. She turned her head to see a vaguely dog-like head with rows of sharp yellow teeth. The weight fell away as Cielo pushed the body off of her. “What was that?” she asked.

  “A hyena, I think. Oh shit. We’d better get you to the medics.”

  “In a minute.” Captain Donovan rose to her feet; she still carried the little girl despite the pain in her left arm. The doors to Robinson Tower opened to allow her inside. She collapsed to her knees just as she reached the security desk.

  ***

  It was one in the morning before Emma gave up trying to find the rest of the animals—and this Koschei character. She had eventually herded the elephants back into the zoo, where zoo personnel were ready with tranquilizers. The rhinos and hippos proved even more difficult; the former nearly gored her and the latter nearly stomped her. As she stripped off the armor at Ms. Chiostro’s house, she could already see bruises.

  Ms. Chiostro waited for Emma in front of a new nightclub called the Blue Angel, where she put a hand on Emma’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Did I ruin your evening?”

  “We still have plenty of time. Come on.” The bouncer didn’t give them any trouble as they went inside. The loud techno music was enough to give Emma a headache, but she didn’t say anything.

  At the bar, Emma ordered a whiskey. She rarely drank more than the occasional glass of wine, but this had certainly been the kind of day to warrant something stronger. She gulped it down in one shot before she signaled for another.

  Ms. Chiostro patted her on the back. “Are you feeling all right? We can go home.”

  “I don’t have a home,” Emma said.

  “Yes, of course. I’m sorry. I meant we could go back to my house if you’d like.”

  “No, it’s fine.” She drained the second glass of whiskey as quickly as the first.

  “How about we dance and get our minds off of all this?” Emma didn’t have much choice; Ms. Chiostro had already pulled her off the stool to the dance floor. Despite her exceptionally good reflexes, Emma didn’t have the rhythm for dancing, but from the look of it, neither did Ms. Chiostro. They imitated the people around them as best they could, though Emma was certain they must look like idiots.

  It wasn’t bad enough to keep two young men from deliberately bumping into them. “Hi,” one of the men said to Ms. Chiostro. “You guys looked a little lonely.”

  “Oh, we were,” Ms. Chiostro said. Her voice took on a higher pitch to sound younger. “My name is Agnes. This is Emma.”

  “I’m Brad. And this is Brett.” From their beefy forearms, Emma wondered if they worked for Don Vendetta. If not her, they might work for another gang in the city. Or they might just be athletes.

  The latter turned out to be the case. As they clumsily danced to another song that sounded very similar to the first, Brett told her he was a heavyweight on the Rampart City State wrestling team. “That’s nice,” Emma said. She tried to sound impressed. The wrestler went on to quote his statistics while Emma pretended to listen. She turned her head to see Ms. Chiostro already had her hands on Brad’s rear.

  “Would you mind if we go back to the bar?” Emma asked.

  “Whatever you want, babe.”

  At the bar, Brett suggested they get a bottle of tequila. Emma could already sense he wanted to get her drunk; she didn’t want to think what might happen then. They clinked their glasses together and then took their shots of tequila at the same time. Emma slapped the bar as the liquor burned down her throat.

  “Oh yeah!” Brett shouted. “Let’s do it again.”

  “OK, but first I need to use the little girl’s room.” Before Brett could protest, she patted his arm. “I’ll be right back.”

  She didn’t like to lie, but it seemed the only way out of the situation short of demonstrating a few new holds to the wrestler. She found an unoccupied stall and then sank down on the seat. She buried her face in her hands.

  She looked up when Ms. Chiostro poked her. “Come on, dear, it’s four o’clock.”

  “I was asleep for two hours? What about Brett?”

  “I think he found someone else to play with. So did that skunk Brad. Let’s go.” With a flash of light, they appeared in the guest bedroom—thankfully without any lions nearby. With a relieved sigh, she collapsed onto the bed.

  Chapter 4

  It took Emma a moment to locate the clock the next morning. When she saw the pile of her things in the corner of the room, she remembered this was not her apartment. She had been evicted from her apartment and come to stay with Ms. Chiostro until she could get back on her feet—whenever that might be. Memories of the prior night came back to her slowly: the deal on the docks, the escape from lions in the zoo cafeteria, the battle with a gorilla in the primate house, and the attempt to herd elephants and other huge animals back to the zoo before they killed anyone. Then of course there was the club with Ms. Chiostro and her new friends Brad and Brett.

  With a groan Emma rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. It sounded like a good idea to stay in bed all day. Maybe she could put herself into a coma for six months or so, after which things might start to look better.

  As happened whenever she thought this way, she reminded herself of the things she had to do—in particular that the Scarlet Knight had to do. She couldn’t waste any more time asleep; people needed her. With another groan, she rolled out of the bed.

  Downstairs, she found Ms. Chiostro in the kitchen. Her witch’s intuition had already told her to make Emma a
sandwich and pour a cup of tea for her. “I thought you might sleep all day,” Ms. Chiostro said. She sounded perfectly chipper, as if she hadn’t been out most of the night.

  “I considered it.”

  Ms. Chiostro reached into her pocket to produce a green stone vial. “I fetched a hair of the dog potion if you’re feeling a bit hungover this morning.”

  “I’m fine,” Emma said.

  “Now, dear, there’s no need to be depressed. Things will start looking up soon.”

  “I suppose they can’t get much worse,” she said and then regretted those words almost instantly when the noon news came on.

  The top story was of course the escaped zoo animals that had trampled through Executive Plaza. And there on the lead elephant was Emma as she clung desperately to the animal to steer it away from the people. She put both hands to her face; she already knew how this would play out.

  It didn’t come as any surprise when the anchorwoman said, “Last night a herd of elephants led by the vigilante known as the Scarlet Knight ran amok through Executive Plaza. Early reports indicate no fatalities but at least two-dozen were injured from the stampede, including Captain Charlotte Donovan of the RCPD. The department has yet to release a statement on the incident.”

  Ms. Chiostro patted Emma on the shoulder. “It’s not so bad. At least no one was killed.”

  “I suppose, but everyone’s going to think I did it.”

  “I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  Almost instantly she would regret those words as a reporter came on the screen in front of police headquarters. Behind him was a crowd of people who carried signs with clever slogans like, “End the Knight.” Someone had gone so far as to create an effigy of her with a mannequin and the Halloween costume for another superhero.

  As if this wasn’t bad enough, the reporter said, “We’re here with one of the organizers of this protest, Dr. Dan Dreyfus.”

  Emma stared wide-eyed at the screen as Dan said, “It’s time the police stop tacitly endorsing this criminal and put her in prison where she belongs.” Before the reporter could say anything else, Dan pried the microphone away. “There were women and children in that plaza who could have been killed by her sick prank. We have to stop her now before it’s too late.”