by C W Hawes
The two OUP agents ran down the tunnel, and by Mostyn’s guess moved deeper into the world beneath Chinatown. After half a mile they stopped. Before them the tunnel divided into three branches. The rails and electric wire continued on in the tunnel that bore to the right.
“Now what, Boss?”
“Good question. And I don’t have a good answer.” Mostyn thought a moment, shrugged, and pointed to the left tunnel. “Let’s see where that one goes.”
They entered and jogged for about a hundred feet before the floor began to angle upwards.
Mostyn came to a stop. “This one’s going to the surface, let’s go back.”
They retraced their steps and returned to the spot where the four tunnels came together.
“Okay, NicAskill, fifty-fifty. Which one?”
“Let’s take the center tunnel.”
“The center one it is.”
They jogged down the center tunnel and after a couple hundred feet, the passage began to descend.
“Remind me not to play poker with you.”
NicAskill let out a laugh. “I don’t gamble, sir.”
“You’re in the OUP, what do you call that?”
“A calculated risk, sir.”
Mostyn laughed. “That it is, NicAskill. That it is.”
After another couple hundred feet, the tunnel walls changed from concrete to stone, and the curved ceiling became flat. The stone was rough hewn, except for the floor, which was fairly smooth. Mostyn noted the walls were dry. The air was hot and stale. There was also no indication that there had ever been electric wiring in the tunnel.
“This must be very old, Boss.”
“Looks that way.”
“I wonder if the lizard people made this.”
“Possibly. May have been Native Americans.”
“What for?”
“Who knows? Maybe someplace to hide from us.”
“Why did you decide to continue following this tunnel, sir?”
“Just a guess. The other was going up. This one isn’t. As I said before, if I were the masked man, I’d take Dr Kemper lower, not higher. To keep her from being found.”
“Makes sense, sir. Just hope we find her.”
“Me, too, NicAskill. Me too.”
21
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◼︎
Dotty Kemper lay on the bed. The masked man had left her, left her in order to determine her fate.
“I’m going to die,” she muttered. “He is going to either sacrifice me or turn me into some kind of mindless thing to do his bidding. In either case I’ll be dead.” Dotty took a deep breath and exhaled. “I wonder if he’ll grant me a last wish?”
She had no idea of the time. No idea how long the masked man had been gone. No idea if Mostyn was looking for her.
She snorted. “Of course he’s looking for me. Probably with half an army. He loves me.” And for a moment Dotty Kemper took comfort in that thought. If she was going to die, at least she’d die knowing she was loved.
She sat up on the bed, and looked at the door. Locked. She’d tried it after the masked man had left. She got up and went to the door, trying it again.
“Still locked,” she muttered. “Too bad I never had Helene teach me how to dematerialize. Would never have been in this situation to begin with.”
Dotty sighed and returned to the bed, where she sat facing the door. The room was clear of things she could use for weapons. She was completely on her own. She was going to die. That’s all there was to it.
She heard the click and watch the door open. Before her was the Chinese woman whose eyes had turned red, the one who called herself Zi, and the masked man.
He began speaking without any preamble. “I have made my decision. Tonight the moon is full. Your sacrifice tonight will open the gate which will allow the Gorgons to enter this dimension, making straight the path for the Great Old Ones to follow. Zi will extract the information that is in your mind, and then you’ll be readied for the sacrifice. You must be prepared so you are acceptable to them.”
The masked man departed. The door closed and the tell-tale click announced the door was locked.
The two women looked at each other. Dotty spoke. “Do you actually want him to unleash a horror that will destroy this planet? Do you want to die?”
Zi, her face registering no emotion, said, “I will not die, for I am not human.”
Suddenly it all made sense. “Of course. Precautions.”
“Precisely. Precautions. Now, Dr Kemper, lie down upon the bed.”
“No.”
“Very well.”
Dotty watched Zi lift her arm and point a finger at her. Immediately she felt all the strength go out of her body, and felt herself fall back onto the bed. Dotty realized she was completely helpless. Completely at the mercy of the alien woman. In her mind she laughed a mirthless laugh. Mercy. She was not going to get any mercy.
All Dotty could do was watch the Chinese-looking woman lay her on her back and position her limbs and torso. It was as though Dotty was nothing more than a rag doll.
When she was apparently positioned just right, the alien got on the bed and straddled Dotty, placing her fingertips on Dotty’s head.
Unable to squirm or scream or even blink, Dotty felt as though a vacuum cleaner was running over her mind.
***
Mostyn stopped. He needed a five minute rest. As fit as he was, age was beginning its little tell-tale signs. He looked at NicAskill. While she appreciated the rest, she didn’t need it. He sipped from his canteen, and his partner did likewise.
The tunnel, after descending for at least half a mile had ended. Terminating in a staircase that led deeper into the earth below the city.
NicAskill peered into the blackness. Her wrist light revealed nothing but stairs. “I wonder who built these? I don’t think Native Americans would. What could possibly be their reason? On the other hand, the lizard people… Do you think they built this?”
Mostyn shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I just hope these take us to Dotty.”
“Do you think the others are going to catch up?”
“Don’t know. Hopefully they will, sooner rather than later.”
Mostyn took one last swallow of water, put the canteen away, and indicated it was time to descend.
Down the stairs they went, Mostyn in the lead. The stairwell had been carved out of solid stone. The steps, carved from the same stone, were worn in the center.
“At one time these steps had a lot of use,” NicAskill said.
“Given the dust, I’d say that was a long time ago.”
“Yeah. A very long time ago. This stuff has to be at least an inch thick.”
“And no footprints. So we’re the first to come this way in a long time.”
The stairwell was free of decorations. Nothing but the chiseled rock. The temperature gradually became cooler the further they descended, and after a time the stone changed from dry to wet.
From behind him, Mostyn heard NicAskill curse.
“What’s the matter?”
“Ugh. I don’t like the wet and the slime.”
“Just pray we aren’t dumped into an underground lake or river when this thing ends.”
NicAskill groaned.
The stairs continued for another fifty or sixty feet and came to an end in another tunnel. The floor was wet with a film of standing water. The walls were water-slicked and slime covered.
They had followed the tunnel for a hundred feet or so when Mostyn and NicAskill found themselves at an intersection. They were in a small chamber which four other tunnels fed into.
Mostyn shook his head. “Can this get any harder?” he muttered. “Alright, NicAskill, go to that tunnel and listen. Tell me if you hear anything. I’ll start with this one. We’ll meet in the middle.”
NicAskill went to her tunnel and walked in a few paces and listened. Mostyn did the same with his tunnel. Not hearing a sound, save for dripping water, he went back out
to the little chamber. There he saw NicAskill, who shook her head, and went into the next tunnel. Mostyn did likewise.
Almost immediately Mostyn noticed a slight incline to the floor. The tunnel was also fairly dry. He stopped about twenty feet from the entrance and listened. Chanting! He heard chanting!
He ran out. NicAskill was waiting.
“Come! Listen!”
Mostyn pulled her to the spot where he’d been standing. “Listen,” he said.
“Sounds like some kind of singing.”
“Chanting,” Mostyn said. “Come on. Let’s go. Keep your weapons handy — and your mirror.”
They ran down the tunnel making as little noise as possible, the chanting gradually growing louder the further into the tunnel they progressed. After a few hundred feet, Mostyn put his hand up and stopped.
“What is it?” NicAskill whispered.
“Light. Up there.” Mostyn turned off his wrist light.
Perhaps fifty feet in front of them they saw a rectangular entryway and the dull glow of light coming from beyond.
They crept forward and passed through the opening. Mostyn looked around. They appeared to be on a balcony, carved from the solid rock. A short wall about three feet high ran around the edge of the balcony. There was a set of stairs on one side that Mostyn assumed led down to the floor below.
He got down on all fours. The chanting was quite loud now, and seemed to be building towards a climax. There was no source of light higher up in the chamber, and Mostyn assumed the light they were seeing must be coming from down below. He crept to the edge of the balcony and peered over the wall. About thirty feet below was a large auditorium. A group of a couple dozen men were dressed in long robes and chanting. The words were now audible and they were all too familiar to Mostyn.
“C’goka fahf tgif ng ymg’uln. O n ghft ehye.”
NicAskill hunkered down beside Mostyn, and whispered, “What are they singing?”
“I don’t know. But whatever it is, it can’t be good. It’s R’lyehian. And I’ve never been anywhere where that language was a good sign. Look.”
NicAskill looked to where Mostyn was pointing. On a raised semi-circular dais, four naked women were holding down another naked woman who was spread eagle on a large flat stone, which was obviously an altar. Each of the women were squatting and holding one of the limbs of the woman lying spread eagle on the stone.
A man was standing next to the altar, holding a large knife in the air, his face elevated towards the ceiling, and his mouth was moving. Perhaps in some invocation.
NicAskill gasped. “Oh, my God, Boss. That’s Dr Kemper!”
22
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◼︎
Mostyn shrugged out of his backpack, took out a stun grenade, and hurled it onto the dais. The flash-bang caused instant pandemonium. Mostyn and NicAskill charged down the steps that led from the balcony to the main floor, across the auditorium, and up the steps to the dais.
The women who had been holding Dotty were screaming their panic at being unable to see or hear. The man with the knife had vanished.
Mostyn picked up Dotty, who looked as though she’d been drugged, and headed back towards the steps leading up to the balcony.
A couple of the men who had been chanting tried blocking Mostyn’s way and were shot down by NicAskill. Up the stairs the three went, and once on the balcony, Mostyn laid Dotty down and tried to rouse her. NicAskill dispatched two more of the men in the long robes as they climbed the stairs.
“Can you get her awake, Boss?”
“She’s pretty much out of it. Keeps mumbling something about a Chinese woman, but I can’t make out the words.”
“We’re going to have to get a move on, they’re getting ready to mount a counterattack.”
“Alright, NicAskill, let’s go.” Mostyn slipped on his backpack and hoisted Dotty up over his shoulder and moved into the tunnel.
NicAskill fired a thermobaric grenade into the auditorium and then joined Mostyn. “That ought to slow them down, Boss.”
“Take the lead, NicAskill.”
“I can help carry her.”
“No, one of us needs to be ready for action.”
“Yes, sir.” NicAskill moved past Mostyn, taking the lead, as they walked down the tunnel.
Two men appeared in the tunnel entrance, and NicAskill dropped them before they got off a shot. She sprinted ahead and at the tunnel entrance, Mostyn saw gun flashes and heard the firearm reports. He carefully lay Dotty down, and once again tried to rouse her. All he got was incoherent mumbling about the Chinese woman.
Mostyn stood and saw NicAskill hurl a grenade. The explosion was deafening in the confined world of the tunnel. And even where he was standing, his ears were ringing.
NicAskill yelled, “All clear for the moment,” and moved out into the intersection of the five tunnels.
Mostyn picked up Dotty and followed NicAskill into the intersection of the tunnels, where he saw they were surrounded by armed men in black suits.
***
It hadn’t taken DC Jones long to figure out that Mostyn and NicAskill would soon be out of range and he’d lose contact with them. He made a call to Sumer Base and managed to relay through the static that Langston needed to send him the holographic map he’d sent to Mostyn. Langston sent the map and now Jones had the tunnel system and also the little blinking dots from the sub-dermal trackers showing where Dotty, Mostyn, and NicAskill were in the pile of spaghetti that was the tunnel system below Los Angeles.
Dr Otto Stoppen was the slowest moving in the group, which frustrated Jones to no end, as the doctor’s slowness prevented the team from making good time. However, with Langston’s guidance, Jones’s group was able to take a couple shortcuts that got them into Chinatown fairly quickly.
“Alright, Jones,” Langston began, “now that you’re under Chinatown, we’re going to be dependent on your eyes and ears. Our maps are close to non-existent for this part of the tunnel system.”
“Roger that, Langston,” Jones replied, and began a running monologue of the tunnels as they passed through.
Fifteen or so minutes into the monologue, Jones said, “Okay, we’re coming up to a ninety degree left turn.” There was a brief pause, before Jones continued, “I’ve made the turn. There’s another tunnel coming in at a right angle… What the hell?”
Baker snapped a picture, at the same time saying, “Oh, my God, it’s the lizard people!”
Everyone came to a halt. In the tunnel joining the one Jones and the team were in, were four strange-looking beings. They were humanoid in form. Their skin appeared to have the texture of a lizard’s, and their heads were block-shaped, with the jaw protruding somewhat. They had two slits instead of a nose, and their ears were small and lay flat to the head. The creatures appeared to have no hair, and they wore no clothes.
Jones regained his composure first. He held up his hands, and said, “We won’t hurt you. We’re looking for our friends.”
Two of the creatures looked at each other, then turned back to Jones. Into his mind popped images of Mostyn and NicAskill.
“Yes, yes!” Jones said, and smiled.
Next came an image of Dotty Kemper.
“Yes!” Jones said, and once again smiled.
A fourth image came into Jones’s mind, that of the masked man.
Jones shook his head, put on an angry face, and said, “No! He’s not our friend.”
The two creatures faced each other for some time, then one turned to Jones and in Jones’s mind a picture of him and the team following the creatures.
Jones smiled in reply and said, “Yes.”
“What’s going on down there, Jones?” Langston asked.
“Just made contact with the lizard people.”
“Lizard people? Are you serious?”
“Yep. Baker even snapped a pic. The lizard people know about Mostyn, NicAskill, and Kemper. If I understand them correctly, they’re going to take us to them.”
&nbs
p; “Sounds too good to be true.”
“We’ll find out.”
“You sure they aren’t a product of sewer gas? You know, you’re imagining them?”
Jones chuckled. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
The team followed the lizard people down the tunnel. The passageway made several turns and after the last one Jones saw light and heard voices, voices he recognized. The voices of Pierce Mostyn and Kymbra NicAskill.
***
“We’re a bit outgunned, Boss,” NicAskill said, “so what’s our game plan?”
“I thought you said it was all clear?”
“It was when I said it. So now what?”
Before Mostyn could answer, from out of one of the tunnels stepped the masked man. Next to him was a beautiful Chinese woman.
“Special Agent in Charge Pierce Mostyn, we meet again,” the masked man said in his ethereally sibilant voice. “Although you and your Dr Bardon did have me fooled. However, my accomplice,” he turned and gave a slight nod to the Chinese woman, “was able to extract much useful information from Dr Kemper. Now I know who you are and what you want. Unfortunately for you, you and Dr Bardon will not succeed this time.”
The masked man motioned with his hand and two men stepped up to Mostyn and took Dotty Kemper from him. As they were doing so, Dotty muttered, “Chinese woman, bad.”
“The conflagration you unleashed in my temple, Special Agent NicAskill, only delays the inevitable. However, I will now have you to sacrifice with Dr Kemper which will ensure my success.”
The masked man made a movement with his hand and two men approached NicAskill. At that moment, a high-pitched cry, almost outside the range of human hearing, sounded, the bulbs in the flashlights and lanterns burst, and the tunnel went black.
23
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◼︎
Mostyn hit the floor, and took out his pistol. He saw light in the entryway of one of the tunnels, and then gunfire erupted.
