by Dan Willis
“I used to walk a beat down by the Navy Yard,” he said. “They print that on the side of the big cars.”
“Thanks,” Alex said.
“If you want to find out who this Admiral Tennon is, you should go by the central office and ask for Detective Hawkins. He was an officer during the war and he still has a lot of Navy pals.”
“I don’t know Hawkins,” Alex said, more thinking out loud than talking to the policeman.
“He’s in Lieutenant Detweiler’s division,” the cop said. He turned and headed for the door. “I’ve got to get back to my beat,” he said. “You have a good night.”
“Thanks,” Alex said as the man left. He held up the pay stub and examined it again. He still didn’t know where Leonard Burnham’s motor was, but thanks to the meddling neighbor, he now knew where to start looking.
12
Browning’s Thunder
Alex took a sky bug from the South Side, past Empire Tower, then along Central Park West to 111th. From there he walked east until he came to the neat little house with the Alchemist sign in the yard. The neon light in the sign that proclaimed the shop ‘Open’ had been switched off hours ago, and now the only light to be seen was a magelight on the porch that cast a yellow halo in the fog.
It was after seven, and Dr. Kellin would have already gone to bed. Jessica worked the evening shift, until early morning, then they’d trade off.
The entire yard of the house was encircled by a high fence, mostly to keep the neighborhood dogs out of Dr. Kellin’s herb garden. Many of the ingredients used in alchemy were best when they were fresh. Alex moved to the right side of the house and opened the hidden gate there. Slipping into the back yard, he closed it behind him, then headed down the hill at the back of the house to the walk-out basement.
Enormous windows ran along the entire back of the house and the alchemy lab was plainly visible inside. Alex expected to find Jessica hard at work inside, but instead she was outside. The back yard had a small greenhouse and an underground root cellar. Between them stood a tall chimney leading down to a brick firebox. Spoiled or failed potions could be dangerous and, as Jessica had pointed out to him on multiple occasions, you couldn’t just dump them down the drain, so Dr. Kellin had a small incinerator to handle such things.
Jessica stood with her back to Alex, picking up glass bottles from a box at her feet and pouring them, one by one, into a round chute that led to the incinerator’s interior. She had on a white blouse, the dark pair of heavy slacks she wore when working, and a thick, green apron.
He waited until she stooped down to extract another bottle from the box before calling out to her. She squeaked in alarm and dropped the bottle. Her hand went into the front pocket of her apron, but she stopped when she saw Alex.
“For the love of God, Alex,” she gasped. “You scared me.”
“It’s the fog,” he said, stepping closer so she could see him better. “You didn’t hear me coming.”
She put a hand to her chest and tried to slow her rapid breathing.
“Don’t do that.”
“Didn’t the doc tell you I was coming?” he wondered. “I’m out of the rejuvenator.” He held up the now empty flask and shook it.
“I remember,” she said. “Give me a minute to finish here and I’ll get you fixed up.”
“Sure,” Alex said. She looked at him for half a moment before she turned back to the box of waste potions. It was a look he’d seen often of late. Regret and anger mixed with something he couldn’t define. He wasn’t sure what had come between them, but something had. Maybe it was the ever-present specter of his own mortality, but he didn’t think that was likely. She knew he was dying when they met, though maybe she regretted their relationship now that she knew him better. Then there was Linda Kellin, her best friend. According to her mother, Linda had taken a turn for the worse that was bound to weigh heavily on Jessica.
“All right,” she said as she put the last empty bottle away and shut off the gas to the incinerator. “Come inside.”
Alex picked up the box of empty bottles and followed Jessica in through the storage room on the left of the lab.
“Just put that down by the sink,” she said, indicating the area where she and Dr. Kellin cleaned their equipment.
Alex did as he was told, then followed her into the lab. She held out her hand and he passed the empty flask over to her. She weighed it in her hand, then gave him a sardonic look. He hadn’t seen that fire in her eyes in a long time, and it made him smile.
“You’re not just dumping this out a little bit each day as an excuse to come see me, are you?”
Alex chuckled.
“Would that work?”
She laughed as well, then fixed him with a stern but playful stare.
“No,” she said, then her face turned serious. “You’re using this faster than we thought.”
Alex shrugged. If he were honest, he was going longer than he should between uses.
“I guess you need to make it a bit stronger,” he said.
“Any stronger and it would send you into cardiac arrest and kill you,” Jessica said, moving to the table where she brewed the rejuvenator. As she picked up the collection beaker at the end of the brew line, she shot him another sly smile. “I guess I’ll just have to put up with seeing you more often.”
“You sure?” Alex asked. He’d have been lying if he’d said he didn’t want to see her more. He’d see her every day if he could, even with her weird schedule, but that had to be her choice.
“Yes,” she said, pouring some of the clear liquid in the beaker into a large, round container.
“Because lately I got the impression you didn’t want me around.” Alex pressed.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“I know,” she said, her voice low. “You’ve been great, letting me work and not pushing me. I’m sorry I put you through that.”
“The doc said that Linda isn’t doing well,” Alex said. “I’m not going to make you choose between me and her.”
“And I love you for that,” she said, adding powder from a jar to the container. “I expect...I expect that I’ll have more time for us soon.”
Her hands were shaking, so Alex took the container and set it aside.
“Is it that bad?”
She didn’t look at him, but nodded.
“Dr. Kellin thinks our serum will be ready in time,” she said. “But one way or another, it will be over by next week.” She drew a shuddering breath and let it out slowly. “Now give me back the Florence flask
“Is that what this is?” Alex asked, handing the round-bottomed container back to her.
“Finish this up then, and I’ll get out of here and let you work.”
Jessica wiped her green eyes and accepted the container. She swirled the liquid around, then held it over a burner for a few minutes and repeated the process. The potion began to turn cloudy and the color shifted to a muddy brown. She swirled it some more, then added a few drops of something from a tiny bottle.
“Almost done,” she said, setting the container on the table. She reached to the top of her apron where several tiny pockets had been sewn. Each had a round metal handle protruding from it, and Jessica ran her finger along them until she reached the one she wanted. Grasping the handle, she pulled out a tuning fork and struck it smartly on the edge of the table. A clear note rang out and she held the vibrating fork next to the Florence flask.
Inside the glass, the cloudy brown potion shimmered at the point where Jessica held the fork. The shimmering grew, almost like the liquid inside was boiling, then the brown changed to a golden color that spread out in a pulse of light until it affected the entire potion.
“Done,” Jessica said, replacing the tuning fork in her apron. “Harmonic resonance,” she answered Alex’s unanswered question. “It unifies the solution.”
She ducked under the bench and pulled a copper funnel from a bin, then opened the silver flask and carefully inserted
the funnel.
“It has to be copper,” she explained as she put the round container in a wire holder above the funnel. “Ferrous metal will sour the potion.” She tipped the round container in the holder until the sludgy potion began to slide out into the funnel.
“Thanks,” Alex said, watching the potion gurgle.
An awkward silence stretched out between them as the thick liquid seemed to just sit in the funnel.
“Are you working on anything interesting?” she finally asked.
Alex told her about finding Dr. Burnham and then searching his workshop.
“That reminds me,” he said, when he got to the part about Burnham’s missing notebooks. He opened the back of his rune book and pulled out one of the pages he’d found during his search. It wasn’t any more comprehensible than the others, but there was a circle drawn around the complex formula instead of an X so Alex reasoned it might be important. “Does any of this make sense to you?” he asked, handing the paper to Jessica.
She looked it over for a long time, then finally handed it back, shaking her head.
“It’s a chemical formula, but I have no idea what it’s for,” she said. “It’s much more complex than anything I saw when I was in school.” She pointed to a spot below the formula where Burnham had written several words, though most of them were illegible. “I don’t know what this word means either,” she pointed to the paper. “Maybe if you can find someone who does, they can tell you what the formula is for.”
Alex squinted at the word she indicated, Polymer.
“Thanks for taking a look,” he said, tucking the paper back into his rune book. He glanced at the flask. The liquid had gone down in the funnel a bit, but it was still at least half full. “I can keep an eye on it if you need to get back to work.”
He looked up and found Jessica looking at him. There was a hesitant look in her green eyes, like she was suddenly unsure of herself.
“I don’t want you to go,” she said, looking down. “I’m pretty much done here until midnight.” She looked up at him. He expected the usual mischief in her eyes, but she was still unsure. “I’m sorry things have been so crazy.”
Alex shrugged.
“I know it wasn’t your idea,” he said. “I can stay if that’s what you want.”
“What I want is to get out of here,” Jessica said, looking around at the lab equipment and the brewing potions. “I can’t remember the last time I was out of the house.”
“We saw a picture over at the plaza last month,” Alex said. “I hear Errol Flynn is in some pirate movie right now, if you want to do that again.”
She smiled at him. It was the first real smile he’d seen on her face in six months, and he remembered why he’d fallen for her.
“I’d like that,” she said. “Let me get my coat and we’ll go.”
Alex felt the weariness leaving his body, and he hadn’t even had a shot of the rejuvenator.
The Plaza theater was eight blocks from the alchemy shop and after the movie, Alex had no chance to hail a cab, so he just walked Jessica home. That old spark she’d had when they first met had come back with a vengeance and she seemed like her old self again. Alex knew he was only helping her forget her troubles, not erasing them, but he could live with that. When he was with her, he forgot his own problems as well. Even the fog seemed romantic instead of some magical blight on the city.
“You know,” Jessica said as Alex opened the gate to the back yard for her. “There’s still half an hour till midnight.”
This time when she looked at him, her green eyes smoldered.
Alex offered her his arm and walked her down the hill to the back yard. As they reached the corner of the house, she turned and kissed him. It felt good to hold her again, to feel what he’d felt for her. He was so distracted, he almost missed the movement behind her.
He lunged backward, pulling Jessica with him. Something solid caught him in the shoulder and rebounded into the side of his head. Stunned, Alex found himself face down on the ground. Jessica screamed but before he could rise, two shots thundered in the darkness and he felt the bullets as they impacted his shoulder and lower back.
It took Alex a few moments to recover his senses. The shield runes drawn in the lining of his jacket had stopped the bullets from killing him, but they still hurt like hell. Stifling a groan, he pushed himself to his feet. There was no sign of Jessica or whoever had jumped him, but they hadn’t passed him after he fell, so they must be inside.
Alex wobbled as he stood and put his hand on the wall of the house to steady himself as he shook off the effects of being brained. From inside he heard a man’s voice yelling, followed by a woman crying out. He had an almost overwhelming urge to run to the back door, but he strangled it. All that would accomplish was to give his trigger-happy assailant another shot at him, and he was running out of shield runes.
Reaching into his pocket, Alex pulled out his chalk and quickly drew a vault door. A few moments later, he lit the rune paper, then unlocked and pulled open the heavy door. Ducking inside, he opened the gun cabinet and grabbed his 1911. It was an effective gun, one most people didn’t want to tangle with if it were pointed at them, but Alex didn’t know how many people might be in the lab with Jessica. He needed something more intimidating.
Dropping the pistol into his jacket pocket, Alex took down the shotgun. It was a Browning Auto-5 with 12-gauge rounds, and it was plenty intimidating all by itself. Alex checked the magazine and switched off the safety, then slung the weapon over his shoulder and dashed back outside.
Peeking around the corner, he saw that the back yard was empty. Moving to the store-room door, he leaned to the side enough to see through the lab’s big windows. Inside, three men were searching the lab, while a fourth stood watch over Jessica. She had her hand over her cheek, and Alex could see a bruise forming there.
Moving quietly, Alex opened the back door and let himself in. The needle trap in the knob still worked, and he wondered how the men inside had avoided it.
If they avoided it, he reminded himself. If one of them had opened the door normally, the tiny needle would have pricked them and exposed them to a deadly nerve toxin.
“You’d better wise up,” someone with a Bronx drawl said. “Tell us where Dr. Kellin is, and we’ll go easy on you.”
“I already told you,” Jessica protested. “She’s not here, she went to Albany.”
“And I say you’re lying,” the man said. “We had Julie watching this house all day and he saw her come in, but she never left.”
“Well, Julie must have missed her in the fog,” Jessica said. “You’ve looked everywhere already and she’s not here.”
Jessica suddenly cried out and Alex herd the sound of a slap. Bronx accent started to say something, but Alex was done waiting. He shouldered the lab door aside, leveling the A-5 as he rounded the corner. As soon as he brought the weapon up, his thumb touched one of the runes on the stock. Ghostly green light began to pulsate along the length of the weapon.
The man that could only be Bronx accent stood looking down at Jessica, who had fallen off her stool and was clutching her face. Two of the other men were farther into the lab, one facing Alex and the other with his back to him. The fourth man had disappeared, probably through the open door to Jessica’s bedroom.
He knew instantly that they were too spread out for him to cover with the shotgun. The only chance he had to control the situation would be to thin out his opponent’s numbers.
With the decision made, Alex didn’t hesitate. He pulled the trigger and the shotgun roared. The runes on the stock enhanced the sound and added fire to the pellets. Flaming slugs the size of .38 rounds slammed into Bronx accent, catching him in the arm and side and sending him to the floor in a heap.
Alex turned, pointing the shotgun at the thug facing him.
“Don’t,” he said as the man started to reach inside his coat. “Let me see your hands. Get ‘em up. You too,” he said, turning the A-5 toward the man in th
e back.
They both complied, holding their hands up.
“Now where’s your friend?” Alex asked.
Before either of them could speak two shots rang out from inside Jessica’s bedroom. One hit Alex in the arm, but the other went wide. He felt his third shield rune activate, stopping the bullet. That only left two of the shield runes remaining.
Alex grunted as the bullet stung his arm. Thinking he’d been shot, the two men in the room leapt to action, reaching into their coats. Alex couldn’t be sure they both had heaters but with only two shield runes left, he wasn’t about to take chances.
The shotgun roared, catching the closest thug square in the chest. He cried out and collapsed onto one of the benches, knocking the brewing equipment to the floor in a shower of multi-colored liquids and glass. Another shot rang out from the bedroom, but Alex was moving, and it went wide as well, shattering a glass beaker behind him.
Tracking to the left, Alex jumped over the body of Bronx accent, drawing a bead on the thug he could see. The man had a 1911 like Alex’s, and he started shooting as fast as he could pull the trigger. Bullets and equipment exploded around Alex, pelting him with foul-smelling liquids and shards of glass.
Alex squeezed the trigger and the third thug went down as the buckshot caught him in the face, nearly decapitating him.
The remaining thug dashed out of the bedroom, firing wildly as he ran, and jumped through the window at the front of the lab. Alex was forced to take cover, and by the time he regained his footing, the last man had fled.
The silence in the lab following the enhanced roar of the shotgun was deafening. Alex could hear his own heartbeat.
“Alex!” Jessica screamed.
In the wake of the unearthly silence, the sound hurt his ears.
Jessica pulled herself to her feet on one of the lab tables and looked around until she caught sight of him.
“Oh, God,” she said, rushing into his arms. “I thought you were dead. I saw him shoot you. Are you all right?”
