by Jon F. Merz
The Crucible
A Lawson Vampire Novel
Jon F. Merz
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Also by Jon F. Merz
Copyright © 2015/2016 by Jon F. Merz
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1
I was sitting in a small cafe outside the main drag of Punakha, the largest town for miles in Bhutan. And when I say large, I’m talking maybe one square mile. In this part of the world, they didn’t have large towns. They had assorted shacks clustered together. The bitter tea steaming in the cup before me tasted like some sort of root I couldn’t place. But it was warm and sweet and I liked it. While I listened to the locals bitching about the weather, my iPhone vibrated. I took it out, frowned, and had another sip of my tea before answering.
“Yeah?”
Niles’ voice came thundering into my ear from thousands of miles and another world away. “Where the hell are you?”
I glanced around. “It’s probably better if you don’t know my exact location at the moment.”
“The hell,” said Niles. “You dropped off the face of the planet after New York. Max didn’t even know you and Jack had left. And he’s gone missing now, too. Just what the hell are you playing at here, Lawson?”
I wanted to tell him. I really did. I wanted to tell him that the Chinese assassin Xuan Xiang had reached out in a very unusual and highly supernatural manner to tell me that he was holding Talya prisoner and unless I agreed to meet him at some spot in the world one week from now, he would kill her. I wanted to tell Niles all about that. I trusted him. But the fact was, I didn’t trust the Council or any of the sycophants that normally hung around there. And if word got out that I had gone off the reservation - that I’d initiated an unsanctioned operation without Council approval - then Xuan Xiang would guess something was up and kill Talya ahead of schedule.
I couldn’t have that.
So instead of telling one of my closest friends the truth, I lied. “I’m getting a massage on the lower east side. I don’t know where Jack is. The last thing he said to me was that he had a date. I assume he’s gone home to pick the little lady up.”
“You’re getting a massage where? It sounds like a car just rolled past you.”
I cursed the loud exhaust on the Datsun that had just rambled past. “Must have been outside.”
Niles paused. “You know, Lawson, a smarter man wouldn’t think to test the boundaries of friendship like this.”
“A smarter man might not have any choice but to do just that.” I sipped the tea. Across the street, I saw Jack making his way through the crowds. He nodded when he saw me and headed over. I pointed at the phone so he’d stay quiet until I got Niles off the line.
“You got something you want to tell me?”
“Not particularly.”
“And New York? How did that go down?”
“Jack said it was some sort of random possession. I don’t know much about it, frankly. That magic shit always freaks me out, anyway. You’re better off talking to Jack and getting the specifics from him.”
“I’ll do that. Provided I can manage to locate him.”
I smirked as Jack sat down nearby. “Well, he’s young. You know how kids are. He’s probably neck-deep in beautiful young women right now. Give him a few days and he’ll check in. He knows the procedure for this stuff.”
“You think?”
“I’m sure of it. And if you can’t find him, call me.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be back in a day or two. I want to visit an old friend while I’m down here.”
“An old friend?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“You know something, Lawson?”
I braced for it. “What?”
“You’re not that much different from Jack. The two of you are a real danger to women everywhere.”
I smiled, but it pained me to have to lie like this. “America’s most wanted.”
“Call me when you get back.”
“Will do.”
The line disconnected and I pocketed the phone. Jack frowned at me.
“Neck-deep in beautiful women?”
“What-no good?”
“A bit over-the-top. But it’s not such a bad image.” He brought the bag around that he’d carried over. “Got what we needed.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep. The area we want is about a fifty kilometers away. According to the guide, it’s hard terrain. Steep elevation and deep valleys. He said it would take us an easy three days to get in there properly.”
“We don’t have three days.”
Jack eyed me. “We don’t have two days, either. But I don’t know how the hell you intend to get in there on foot. I checked around and you can’t even get horses around these parts.”
I pulled out the hastily-sketched map from my pocket and examined the details. “It’s not supposed to be easy to get to. That’s the point. If it was, anyone else could have grabbed it before now.”
“True, and I’d never complain about a hard slog, but the fact is, we don’t have time. We’ve already burned nearly a day just getting here. Time is the one luxury we do not have right now.”
I looked up. “So, you’re saying we need to think outside the box on this, right?”
“Obviously.”
I nodded. “I’m glad you agree. That makes the next part a bit easier to take then.”
Jack frowned again. He’d been doing that a lot lately. “And what exactly does that mean?”
I smiled. “You may not think too highly of my next suggestion.”
“Do tell.”
I shook my head. “Not just yet. We need a few more supplies before we get going. I want to make sure we can get in and then get out as soon as possible.”
Jack sighed. “Yeah, which brings up another point, dude.”
“And what’s that?”
“If we manage to get in there, we still have to get out. And if it takes a long time to get in-“
“It won’t.”
“So, you say, but how are you planning on getting us back out again?”
I scratched my head. “I hadn’t given that much thought just yet. All I know is we need that item and we need it now. If we have any hope at all of rescuing Talya, we’re going to need all the help we can get. And that particular item
is going to help us out considerably.”
“Provided it does what it is supposed to do.”
“Yeah.”
Jack pointed. “Finish your tea, old man. We’ve got things to do.”
“This? This is your brilliant outside-the-box plan?”
He had to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind rushing into our faces. I smiled at him. “You have to admit, it’s going to get us in there quickly.”
Jack pointed at the Bhutan landscape zipping past us far below. “It’s ether going to get us in quickly or it’s going to get us killed.”
I laid a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, pal, this mission is probably going to be more dangerous than anything you’ve ever experienced before. I don’t like risking lives foolishly. But this is the best way to get in there.”
Jack tested his straps for the fifth time since we went airborne in the puddle jumper. We were flying over a remote area of Bhutan that a long time ago had been part of Tibet. I watched the jagged peaks reach up toward us. And in the valleys below, lush greenery was scored by bright blue lines of thin rivers carving their way through the ancient rock. Years from now, when Jack and I were both long gone, those same rivers would no doubt still continue to wear down the ancient stone that had once been on the ocean floor millions of years ago.
And none of what we were doing would probably even matter.
But history was just a callous bitch only interested in facts and figures. Never emotion. So it wouldn’t remember the plight of a vampire assassin and invoker on a quest to rescue a human woman in Qinghai, China. The books wouldn’t talk of our struggle; they wouldn’t know our names or faces. And like the shadows that are born in the fading light of a waning day, we would be indistinguishable. Just another legend whispered about late in the night.
Perhaps it was supposed to be that way. Maybe the struggles that define those like me are gifts given only so we may realize how precious life is.
If history didn’t care, that was fine by me. I don’t do what I do to be recognized. I don’t walk the path to be awarded some trophy or praised by those who don’t dare.
The mission I was on now was about getting the woman I loved back.
And killing the man who had taken her prisoner.
The plane jumped as a pocket of turbulence buffeted us around the sky until the pilot managed to wrestle control back from Mother Nature. I glanced toward the cockpit and saw a thumbs-up from the pilot. I grinned in spite of the fact that my stomach was still floating above my head somewhere. Jack was right; this was incredibly risky. And we were technically wasting time. But I felt that it was worth diverting from our journey to Qinghai. And it might just help the missions’s slim chances of success.
If I was wrong, then it wouldn’t matter anyway. We’d all be dead.
The pilot shouted back at me in Dzongkha, the dialect of western Bhutan and parts of Tibet. It was one of the few languages I didn’t speak well and I frowned at him. “English!”
I got a middle finger for my trouble and then the pilot turned around quickly. “Two minutes, gringo.”
Gringo? I shook my head. It always amazed me what sort of slang you could find in the most bizarre places. I glanced at Jack. “Final check. Turn around.”
He did and I went over each of his straps, checking the drogue chute and the reserve canopy. We weren’t exactly jumping with the highest quality gear, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Finding chutes and a plane willing to dump us out at eight thousand feet was enough good fortune that I thought I’d won the lottery. I gave Jack the thumbs-up and then turned around so he could check me out.
“Good-to-go.”
I turned back around. Jack didn’t look remotely excited about jumping out of plane. “You okay?”
“Oh yeah, I’m great. Fantastic plan, by the way.”
I smirked. This wasn’t the first time we’d jumped out of the plane. But the last time had been when the plane was going down in a fiery heap. We hadn’t had a choice then. If we didn’t jump, we would have died. Now, if we didn’t jump, there was a chance Talya would die.
I didn’t expect anyone else to understand what it felt like knowing Talya was prisoner in some godforsaken Chinese prison. Xuan Xiang had given me his word that she wouldn’t be harmed as long as I played by his rules. But I didn’t trust him any more than he probably trusted me. There was a chance we’d get all the way to Qinghai only to discover that Talya was already dead. I couldn’t leave her to die, though. And she would have done the same thing for me.
“One minute!”
I looked at Jack. “You’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, famous last words. If this chute doesn’t open, I just want you to know that I am more than capable of coming back from the dead to haunt your miserable ass for the rest of your life.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Jack nodded. “Good. Pray these things work properly.”
I stood in the door and braced my hands on either side of the frame. The wind blasted my face and filled my ears. My heart pounded in my chest the way it always did when my adrenaline was ticking up. The goal was for Jack and me to jump into a small valley located near the ruins of an old temple. From there, it would be a fast hike into the ruins.
If everything went to plan, we’d have what we were coming for and be back on the road in an hour.
I hoped.
Then I heard the pilot shouting, “Go-go-go!”
And I jumped.
2
We’d flown north out of Punakha and our drop zone had been over the Jigme Dorji National Park. The park covered several hundred square miles of lush forest and mountainous terrain. Looking down at it from eight thousand feet, I marveled at the beauty of the world before me. Bhutan was one of those rare, last unspoiled environments in the world. Very little ever seemed to touch this place and just getting entrance to the country required me pulling a lot of strings with old contacts; contacts I hadn’t touched base with in years. I could have easily gone through Niles and gotten in without any trouble, but that would have meant a break in operational security. I wanted to vanish and reappear only when Jack and I were ready to spring Talya.
What waited for us below would hopefully help.
I tugged my risers a bit to steer into the wind to give me some lift as I approached our improvised landing zone. The patch of level ground looked a lot smaller than it had on Google, but I couldn’t really complain. In this park, just finding level ground was a treasure.
I looked around, searching for Jack. I knew he was back and above me by a few meters. On the plane trip up, we’d talked about coming in and how I would steer right and he would go left. Hopefully, that plan would remain in effect.
The breeze kicked up as we descended and I felt the chill in the air. On some of the mountaintops in the distance, I could see the white caps of snow and ice. We were close to the roof of the world, with Nepal to our west and Tibet to our north. All around us, the ancient mountains closed in, and in Bhutan especially, they preserved a world few people ever see.
Time to focus, I pulled on the risers to brake myself as I came in, just about touching down at a complete stop. I gathered the chute quickly, wrapping it up as I walked. Jack came in a few seconds later, sticking his landing with ease. Not bad for someone who only jumped out of a plane once before.
“Nice.”
He shrugged. “I got my Grade A license a few months back.”
I frowned. “You could have told me.”
“What-and miss out on all that Mother Hen loving stuff? No chance.”
I clapped him on the back. “What made you take it up in the first place?”
“It wasn’t a choice. The school has recently started bringing on other courses for us. Freefall was deemed important so that we could deploy anywhere in the world without too much drama. After all, spirits don’t always show up in posh Manhattan condos, do they?”
“I wouldn’t know, but I’d guess not.” I helped him gather his chute
and we stowed them under a nearby pine. Under the canopy of the trees, the world around us was devoid of human life. The birds sang in the trees and the cold breeze kicked up the smells of wet grass and snow somewhere further off.
Jack glanced around. “I wonder if it’ll storm.”
“This part of the world, it’s a safe bet. Especially this high up. I want us in and out fast. You got it?”
“Yup.”
From the small backpack I’d brought with me, I drew out the improvised map again. I showed Jack. “Remember?”
“You copied this from the tapestry we recovered in Maine last year.”
“Sure did. If it’s correct, this will show us the location of the Cloak of Despar.”
Jack whistled. “So that’s the plan, huh? Get the Cloak and that should somehow help us when it comes to rescuing Talya?”
I nodded. “If the legends are correct, yes. But I don’t think we’ll really know what it’s capable of until we recover it.”
Jack studied the map. “These are ruins of an old temple.”
“And the Cloak is supposedly hidden inside.”
Jack frowned. “So, how come no one recovered it until now? How do we know it’s still there?”
“We don’t,” I said. “But we don’t really have a choice. If we go into China without the Cloak, odds are we’ll get snared the moment we cross the border. Two white guys traipsing about? The PLA will scoop us up in no time. The Cloak at least gives us some sort of advantage.”
“Even if you don’t know what it is yet.”
I smiled. “I’m an optimist, what can I say?”
“At this point, you’re more of a dreamer than an optimist.” Jack smirked. “But I’ll go along with the theory. It can only help us if we can get it.”
I glanced to our left. “We need to go north. About one mile. We should see the ruins just under a bunch of trees near a cliff.”
“Oh, great. A cliff.” Jack got to his feet and took a pull of water from the tube running into his rucksack. “Don’t get too close to the edge.”
“There will be time enough for that later,” I said.
