There was a statue close to the base of the stairs and it provided a perfect spot to conceal myself. The stairs descended in such a shallow arcing path, I now found myself on the other side of the circle of crazy. I had a view of Catpaw’s back and the dancing flames help to conceal me from his flock. From this vantage point, I could now see where the draft was coming from. Carved into the wall under the stairs was a huge tunnel. It had remained hidden from view until I’d almost reached the bottom. Torches lined its walls and illuminated it enough to let me know it went on for a very long way. I assumed this explained the lack of cars in the lot. They must have arrived via the tunnel. Hopefully this meant it was very unlikely anyone would use the stairs and discover Vix and Freddy hiding there. I thought about making my way back up the stairs to give the full layout to the team when a commotion from the tunnel caught my eye.
There was a group making their way up the tunnel, heading right towards the fire. The worshipers were clearly expecting this arrival as they slowly shifted themselves to the sides creating a nice open path to the fire. There wasn’t enough light in the tunnel to make out any detail from here, but once they stepped into the dome, I could see what was happening.
There were maybe ten of them, their point man carrying a torch and a smile as if he brought a great gift. The remaining nine struggled to carry an oversized figure and as they got closer, I was able to make it out. It was a female troll, her body prone and broken. She was slightly smaller than the last troll I’d met, which made me think she was a juvenile, maybe in her teenage years. The closer they got the more detail I could make out. Bruises and cuts covered her body and her left leg was at an odd angle and clearly broken. She kept trying to lift her head to see where she was going, but the pain was causing her to shake and convulse and she couldn’t keep her one good eye open. One of her giant ears was nearly torn off and I was pretty sure her jaw was dislocated. They were carrying her straight to the fire pit and I no longer had to debate all of the tactical options I had been mulling over. They’d just made my decision real easy.
I stood up and walked out of the shadows heading in the direction of the Catpaw. I was easily fifty feet away, so I had plenty of time to address the room. I held up my badge and raised my voice to make sure I would be heard.
“How is everyone doing tonight?” I started. It was impressive how quickly a hush fell over the room. I continued, “I’m afraid this is a GHOST surprise inspection and as I’m sure you’re all aware, cannibalism is an instant fail. So, if we could step away from the troll, get everyone face down on the ground, and maybe throw some clothes on Catpaw, I’ll make this quick.”
They held their silence, clearly waiting for Catpaw to make the call. I continued my slow stroll in his direction. He gave a deep guttural laugh and they all followed suit. He gripped his paw staff tighter and began stalking towards me. I thought about Vix’s parents in that dungeon and I looked over at that young troll, her suffering evident. I was trying so hard to walk a better path, a road without killing. So, I took a deep breath, calmed my anger and decided to simply beat these people to within an inch of their life. Aren’t I a saint?
Catpaw was up first and as he got closer he started to run at me. I continued my walking pace. He was gripping the staff tightly in both hands and it was fairly obvious that he planned to swing it at me. Once he was about ten feet away, I sprang forward. As he swung, I jumped as high as I could, flipping over his head and smacking his mask as I did. It spun enough to put the eyeholes on the side of his head and temporarily blind him. I landed and immediately kicked back, driving my heel right into his ass. He sprawled forward onto his face with a crash. The staff bounced across the ground as he released it in his failed attempt to catch himself.
The hordes of angry cultists slowed a bit when their leader toppled. I was facing them, making eye contact with as many as I could. Those who met my eyes realized they were facing a killer. I was trying to remain calm, but I couldn’t hide my contempt for these cultists and their sick ways. A few smart ones tried to hold everyone back. But three of them willed through my presence attack and started to rush at me. I could hear Catpaw getting to his feet behind me, but I knew it would take him a few seconds to grab his staff and recover, so I decided to send a message to the sheep instead. I sprang forward and kicked with all my might, catching one of them in the chest and sending him flying backwards. He hit the ground hard banging his head in the process. The second guy swung at me with his right, I slipped under his arm, grabbed his wrist with my right and brought my left forearm into his elbow with tremendous force. There was a loud snapping sound as his arm broke and he immediately fell to the ground yelping in pain.
The third cultist was almost on me just as I could feel Catpaw coming up from behind. So, before the third guy could even swing at me, I reached out and caught him in the throat and kicked the inside of his right knee, causing him to bend over at exactly the angle I wanted. Since he wasn’t wearing a shirt that I could use for a handhold, I grabbed his head in both of my hands and pulled him over my shoulder and right into the path of Catpaw’s swing. The man screamed in pain as Catpaw’s staff raked across his back.
Before Catpaw could recover from his swing, I lunged in and drove my shoulder into his, my hands grabbing the staff as I did. I could see the muscles in his forearm tense, as he clearly didn’t want to lose his weapon. So, I stomped down on his foot and twisted my body in order to send him flying through the air. But, he wasn’t willing to let go of the staff, so he flipped over and slammed down hard on the ground in front of me. It clearly knocked the breath out of him, but he still tried a weak kick towards my legs while he lay prone. I leapt over his leg and brought my knee down firmly on his mask. The wooden jaguar mask splintered into pieces and the blood that shot out of the sides made it clear that his nose followed suit. He wasn’t moving.
Before I stood up, I noticed that among the blood and splinters, tied tightly around his neck was the very thing we needed, a Wu Xing Key. I recognized it from the pictures Freddy had shown me. I snapped it free of his neck, breaking the cord in the process. As I got back to my feet, I looked over at the cultist who were standing there, clearly unsure what to do. They seem to be debating their own safety verse saving their leader. Two more charged ahead as their intuition failed them.
They were running side by side and made my life almost too easy. I waited until the very last moment, stepped to the side, and kicked the right guy in the ribs in such a way that his head bounced off of left guy’s head. They both collapsed to their knees and started rubbing their heads. They lined up so perfectly it almost felt like they were asking for it. So, as a man who likes to give people what they want, I sent one sweeping kick across their faces. They both hit the ground unconscious.
I figured that would be that. Obviously the other members would realize they didn’t have much of a chance and either surrender or flee. But somehow they were even dumber than I could have guessed. A handful of them in the back were actually trying to carry the young troll back through the tunnel and escape with her. There was zero chance I was going to let that happen. Also, at that moment, Vix joined my side. We both started striding forward in unison when I boomed out, “PUT DOWN THE TROLL!”
They hesitated for a moment, then dropped the troll and began to make a break for the tunnel. The sentiment seemed to be shared by the entire cult, as everyone started to flee. But I wasn’t planning on letting anyone get off that easy. I started grabbing blades from my person and hurling them at the closest targets. I caught several of them in the calf, the pain forcing them to the ground. Vix was following my lead, hurling knives into the back of calves and thighs. Somehow, this bladed flurry inspired two of the cultist to go down fighting. They both nodded to each other and charged us. Because I’m all about sharing, Vix took one and I took the other.
I grabbed my cultist by the wrist and arm, continued his momentum, flipping him over and driving him into the ground. The back of his head slammed down har
d on the stone floor and he was out. Continuing my spin, I planted my butt on his unconscious body and watched Vix have her fun.
Her cultist was a much larger man. While he was no longer in peak physical condition, it was clear that he used to be an athlete of some kind. She allowed him to charge up close as he attempted to snag her in a bear hug. But just as his arms swung forward trying to grab her, she dropped down and slammed her fist into his groin. As he cried out in pain, she drove her elbow into the side of one knee and then punched into the side of the other. The pain of the attacks almost caused his legs to buckle, but as he looked down and attempted to steady himself, she moved. Springing up with all of her might, she drove her forehead up through his chin. His head snapped back and his body followed. As he stumbled back she lunged right at him. Planting her left foot right into his gut, she pushed up and drove her right knee into his face. He immediately started falling and she rode his body down, bringing the full force of her weight down on his chest. His body was in such shock it could barely react before she hammered her fists repeatedly into his temples. She then sprang back and out of range in case he had any fight left in him. But she was being overly cautious, as he was definitely unconscious.
She caught me watching her and smiled. I was so turned on, I wanted to rush over and kiss her right there, but there were still bad-guys to crush. Loving would come later.
These people weren’t fighters, so while they had numbers on their side, they weren’t very difficult to contend with. The entire battle was over rather quickly, Vix and I managing to incapacitate about twenty of the cultists, the rest escaping up a ladder at the end of that very long tunnel. I checked on the young troll and fortunately she was still alive. We did our best to comfort her as we waited for help to arrive. While Vix had made her way down to me, Freddy had returned to the surface to call in reinforcements. Smart kid that one. Crazy, troll-eating cults needed to be stopped. After twenty minutes or so we had the place crawling with GHOST security personnel. It made me miss the rest of my team, but I knew they were still too banged up to be joining us in the field.
However, there was one person who decided to make the trip, and I wasn’t sure that was necessarily a good thing for me. Dutton is not a small man by any standards. He stands just under seven feet tall with dark brown skin and eyes so black they almost don’t seem human. Although he was in his fifties, you wouldn’t know it by the shape he was in. His large frame and muscles threatened to pop the buttons on his blue collared shirt. Rolled up sleeves showed forearms the size of my head. This was not a man you wanted to be on the bad side of. I gave him a smile and he bit down on his ever present cigar even harder.
“What the hell is going on here Chang?”
“Breaking up cults sir. Just something I like to do in my spare time.”
Dutton was not amused. There’s a frightening slow cadence to his speech. Like every word is delivered with great weight and meaning. He was especially forceful today. I tried to think of the best way to explain why we were busting up a cannibalistic cult. Although I guess if you’re a human eating a troll, you’re not technically a cannibal. Right?
“Would you believe we just happened to be in the area?”
Dutton didn’t bother to respond, instead giving Freddy a look that made it clear he better start talking. Freddy straightened his tie and adjusted his suit to look as professional as possible before he spoke.
“Yes sir, as the team has a bit of down time at the moment, Mr. Chang and I were investigating…well you know how I collect Wu Xing Keys sir, well we were investigating a sarcophagus that was rumored to be opened by such a key. When we arrived we discovered the cult attempting to take the life of at least one troll. Mr Change sprung into action while I phoned in the situation to HQ. I apologize for not alerting you all sooner, but we did not believe there would be an immediate threat when we arrived. This was supposed to be a simple investigation,” Freddy smiled.
I had to say, it was one hell of a story and seemed pretty plausible. The key itself was hidden in my pocket and since no one else knew about it, they didn’t ask. But Freddy made me proud and I smiled at him to make sure he knew. Dutton wasn’t really buying it but didn’t have much else to say, so he gave me a menacing look.
“Is that what happened Chang?”
“Yes sir, that’s exactly what happened.”
“I see. There better be a report on my desk in the morning,” he barked.
Freddy and I both nodded an “of course”.
Dutton wandered over to direct the efforts of the GHOST personnel. Vix had vanished, which was probably a good thing. No reason to try and explain her and why she knew about the GHOSTs. Medical personnel were helping the troll and they let us know she should recover in time. That was something at least. Freddy wandered over to examine the sarcophagus and I slyly showed him the key. After a bit of examination he nodded and smiled and let me know we had what we needed. I slipped the key back in my pocket and once it was clear we weren’t needed to answer any more questions, we headed back upstairs. We hopped into Freddy’s car and Vix was hiding in the back. As we drove off and got out of sight, I turned to show Vix the key. She hugged me from the backseat and couldn’t contain her excitement. Freddy had a huge smile on his face and it was clear he too was feeling a great sense of accomplishment. We found a nice park to chill in and I handed Freddy the key.
The key was a weird little thing. It was the color of sand and shaped a bit like a saltshaker. There were lots of small carvings and runes covering each side. Freddy held the key up to us and pointed to a particular series of marks.
“You see those? Those tell us exactly what order we need to create the opening cycle,” he smiled.
CHAPTER 10
As it turned out, this key didn’t use the generic overcoming cycle, but rather had been given its own unique sequence. The first elemental we needed to find was wood, the walking tree. Freddy handed me a book before he started up the car and began driving. There was a bookmark in the small hardback, so I flipped to that page and found myself staring at a frightening picture. I guess it was basically what you’d expect, a tree with arms and legs. The main trunk was very thick with a giant face on it. A full beard of branches and moss covered its mouth and its giant nose was rough and knotted. The branches and leaves coming out of its head almost seemed like a giant Afro of hair, or maybe just the top stalk of broccoli. It’s arms were skinny long branches with the occasional bunch of leaves growing about. Its legs were thicker and a bit stubby, almost trunks in there own right. The feet were long extended roots that looked very much like the base of any large tree you’d come across in the forest. And by large tree I of course mean it was huge. I looked up from the picture and watched Freddy’s reaction closely as I asked my next question.
“And you’re sure that little red ceramic blade is going to hurt this thing?”
“Of course. Baxter’s products are of the highest quality,” he replied, no hesitation.
Freddy’s confidence made me feel a bit better. But still, I was going to have to fight a tree with a fancy piece of glass. Not an easy prospect to be optimistic about. Since we’d already packed everything we’d need for our mission, I figured Freddy was driving us towards the nearest tree.
“Okay Freddy, where do we find one of these tree people?”
“While the tree folk can be found living in our world, they are few and far between. Our best bet will be to locate one of these elementals in the Veil. Almost all of the great forests have them. They view themselves as guardians of nature, which should make finding one fairly easy,” he tried.
“How’s that?”
“Well, since they are guarding their forest of residence, it should be fairly easy to provoke them and cause them to reveal themselves.”
“You mean I just have to keep threatening vegetation until something comes to their rescue?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
Vix couldn’t help but laugh from the back seat
. I didn’t blame her. This was going to be very silly. But sometimes a tree has to fall in the forest to help a friend.
“Great. Any chance we can ask nicely and they just agree to help us without a fight?”
“We can certainly try. Unfortunately the tree folk are notoriously slow to make decisions, as they are very untrusting of outsiders. While I would much prefer a peaceful alternative, I do not believe we can achieve one in a time efficient manner,” Freddy frowned.
“Understood. So, where’s the closest major Veil forest?”
“Well, there were several that we could choose from. But if you will forgive my presumption, I have already selected our destination. I am taking us to the Whispering Pines Forest. While it is not the closest Veil forest to us, I believe it will be the most beneficial to our mission. The Whispering Pines are located in the Serpent’s Valley. This should put us in very close proximity to locations containing the other elementals we seek. I’m hoping this will speed up the process of charging the key. Would that be acceptable?”
“I told you Freddy, I trust you here. You lead and I’ll follow. The prospect of one stop shopping sounds great. Although, I don’t like the sound of the Serpent’s Valley.”
“There is no reason to fear,” Freddy smiled, “The Serpent’s Valley is named for the serpentine manner in which it winds through the White Mountains. Not because of its residents. The Veil entrance we seek is located in the Patuxent Research Refuge.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Much like our organization, it was founded by executive order from FDR in the nineteen thirties. Officially, the National Wildlife Refuge was established to support wildlife research, the only one of its kind. Unofficially, the National Refuge was created to hide a large Veil entrance from the public. Right in the middle of the refuge, far away from the visitor paths and nature tours, an enormous rock resides in a small marshy pond. That is where we will find the entrance.”
G.H.O.S.T. Teams (Book 3) Spirits Page 9
