D. MacHale - The Never War

“Why?” I asked.

“He trusts you. Maybe we can find out how he plans on stopping Winn Farrow.”

Okay, that made sense. At least one of us was thinking clearly. It sure wasn’t me.

“We’ll find out what we can,” Gunny continued. “Then we’ll take Caplesmith’s car and drive down to New Jersey. We might even beat Spader there.”

I nodded. This sounded like a plan.

“You all right now?” Gunny asked.

“Yeah, I’m cool,” I answered. My heart rate was dropping back down from three hundred beats a minute.

“A wise person once said that the only way we’ve got a chance here is if we keep our heads screwed on straight and work it through, together.”

I looked at Gunny and smiled. “I said that.”

“Was that you, shorty?” Gunny asked in fake surprise. “I knew I heard it somewhere.”

“Okay, I hear you,” I said. “My act is officially back together.”

We took the elevator up to the thirtieth floor to see Max Rose. I had no idea what we’d say to him, but it was the obvious place to start. We’d have to wing it once we got there. When we hit the elevator, Dewey looked all sorts of confused.

“What’s goin’ on?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Gunny asked him.

“Men have been coming and going from the penthouse all day,” Dewey said. “Is Max Rose moving out?”

Gunny and I shared glances. Whatever Max Rose’s plan was to stop Winn Farrow, it was under way. The elevator arrived and Gunny and I jumped out. As usual, Dewey closed the door quickly. It was like he thought the floor was haunted or something.

As soon as we entered the hallway, we knew something was wrong. That’s because the two thugs who worked security were gone. There was nobody around to protect Max Rose. Gunny and I ran for the door to the penthouse. We stopped, caught our breath so it wouldn’t seem like we were as excited as we were, and rang the doorbell. No answer. We rang again. Nobody came to the door. Gunny then noticed that the door wasn’t even closed. He gave it a push with his finger and the door creaked open.

“Hello?” Gunny called. “Bell Captain!”

No response. We took a chance and went inside. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, except that nobody was around.

“Hello?” Gunny called again. Still no answer.

“Do you smell that?” I asked.

Gunny took a whiff. “Smoke,” he said.

We both looked around quickly and Gunny spotted it first. Smoke was creeping out from under the door to Max Rose’s office. We ran for the door and I threw it open. Instantly billows of smoke blew out. The room was on fire.

“I’ll get the hose,” Gunny shouted, and ran back into the corridor. A few seconds later he came back into the penthouse pulling a heavy fire hose. “Go turn it on!” he ordered me.

“Don’t close that door,” I yelled. “It locks automatically.”

I ran back to the hallway, following the hose to the source. I quickly cranked the handle and the limp hose jumped to life. I sprinted back into the penthouse in time to see Gunny expertly killing the fire. Billows of smoke and steam blew out from the room as he doused the flames. Seconds later it was over.

“Okay,” he announced. “Turn it off.”

I ran into the corridor and turned off the water, then returned to the office to check out the damage. What a mess. It looked like the inside of a barbeque grill. It didn’t smell so great either. Luckily all the damage was contained in the one room. A few minutes more, though, and it would have spread.

“This was deliberate,” Gunny said. He kicked at a few garbage pails that were full of ashes and water. “Burning evidence is my guess.”

I saw that the file cabinets were open and empty. The desk drawers were empty too. Max Rose was covering his tracks. Every bit of paper in this room was now a charred memory. There was nothing left that might connect him with his network of spies, or with the Nazis.

“I guess this means everybody’s gone,” I said.

“Probably,” Gunny said. “We should do a quick check though.”

We left the wet, smoldering mess and searched the penthouse for signs of life. We checked bedrooms, sitting rooms, the kitchen, and the dining room. Not only were there no people, all the drawers had been emptied too. Max Rose had definitely pulled up stakes and moved out. We knew where he was going, too. He had a date with a zeppelin.

The final stop on our search was the grand living room where I had set out lunch for Rose and the Nazi, Ludwig Zell. Nobody was in there, either.

Gunny said, “We’re wasting our time here. I’ll get Caplesmith’s car so we can get down to-“

We then heard a sound that made the hair go up on the back of my neck. It was the steady sound of somebody clapping.

There was someone in the penthouse after all. Gunny and I looked at each other, then slowly turned toward the door. Standing there looking as beautiful as ever was Esther Amaden. Her friends called her Harlow. Her enemies called her Saint Dane. She was clapping in mock approval.

“Congratulations, boys,” the bogus woman purred. “I’m guessing you finally solved the riddle.”

“At least have the guts to show yourself,” I said defiantly.

The beautiful woman closed the door behind her. Gunny shot me a curious look. It was hard for him to believe that this movie-star-gorgeous woman could be the demon Traveler who was about to turn three territories into rubble. But I knew better. I’d seen it before.

“Whatever you’d like, Pendragon,” she said with a smile.

Esther Amaden then went through the transformation that I had seen too many times. Her body became fluid as she left behind the image of the beautiful big-band singer. Her body grew taller until it was near seven feet. Her rosy complexion turned the pasty white color of a corpse. Her short dark hair grew out into a long, gray mane. Her silky bathrobe turned black and changed shape into a black suit that, as I’ve written before, looked vaguely Asian. The final step was always the toughest to watch. It was the eyes. Harlow’s soft, dreamy brown eyes turned razor sharp. They took on the icy blue fire of our nemesis-Saint Dane.

I sensed Gunny’s surprise and fear. He took a step back. This was the first time he’d witnessed this transformation. It was also the first time he was seeing Saint Dane in his true form.

“Better?” Saint Dane hissed through a twisted smile. “We really don’t spend enough time together, Pendragon, do we?”

It took every bit of willpower I had not to scream.

(CONTINUED)

“I’m disappointed in you, Pendragon,” Saint Dane said. “I’ve left so many clues for you like breadcrumbs in the forest, and it’s still taken you all this time to uncover my little plot. Time is growing short. Are you losing interest?”

Saint Dane walked casually around the room with his hands clasped behind his back. Gunny and I kept our distance. It was like being trapped in a room with a wild animal. You never knew what this guy was going to do.

“I suppose the loss of your uncle’s sage guidance has made it all the more difficult for you to keep up with me.”

Oh, man. This guy loved to hit where it hurt the most.

He then added, “I must admit, you surprised me on both Denduron and Cloral.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“You were a force to be reckoned with. For that, I bow to you. And I must apologize for my own foolishness. It was a mistake to ask you to join me on my quest.”

“You got that right,” I said quickly. “No way I’ll ever join you.” Saint Dane stopped walking and smiled. He was enjoying this.

I wasn’t.

“You misunderstand,” he said. “My only mistake was asking you too early. It gave you the impression that I was somehow…vulnerable.” He chuckled. “I assure you, I am not. That’s why I chose to play out this latest game on the Earth territories. Yourhome territories. I wanted to demonstrate how easy it is for me to make you dance like a toy puppet. Mytoy puppet. In spite of what you may think due to our past encounters, I am in total control.”