The Log of the HMAS Marigold: The Serpent and Cross (Part Six)

[Alexis Voltaire]

The nighttime heat of London was made thick and oppressive by the changes in the air that preceded a summer thunderstorm, though as yet Brother Nathanial could only see small clouds and haze in the gray light of the east. "May the fire of God strike down the wicked as they stand." He muttered in Latin at the thought of the coming storm.

He took a rolled document from the folds of his simple brown habit, and flattened it against the door. It was heavy parchment, and decorated with the colorful script and artwork of a traditional illuminated manuscript. Latin text proclaimed that the mortal Starling Scott would be given one full day to repent her sins before she would die by the righteous hands of the Order of Lux Divina. Brother Nathaniel fixed it to the door with our silver tacks, an said quietly "May God have mercy upon your soul, Starling Scott, for we shall have none."

Elsewhere, another monk was affixing a similar document bearing the name Hannibal Rourke to it's owner's door. Both monks then stepped back, and clasping their hands and bowing their heads began to chant quietly and quickly in latin. The air began to waver and distort around them like heat rising, and then they were simply and suddenly gone.

The order of Lux Divina was not the only organization with their eyes on the Marigold crew, and Dr. Scott in particular, but they were the first to make a move. Others would note the particular energy signal associated with the bi-locational abilities of the monks, and discover the locations of their appearance and disappearance. Other moves would follow...

[Cpt Wallace]

His eyes looked up from a book he was reading in his new apartment the green witch fire lamps around him flickered with unease and his gaze drifted towards the window. Since his return he'd been forced out of his home supplied by the Intelligence Corp and into one of the vacant apartments owned by his family. Oh how his father had loved it the day he'd come to ask for the key.

Finding himself without work he'd quickly utilised his skills and found himself employed by the London Metropolitan Police as a freelance expert in the strange, with the increase in supernatural occurances across London he'd found himself in high demand and his income had balanced it's self for the lack of his Captains wage.

After the incident in the crypts which had prompted his return and his exposure to the device he'd discovered and lingering injury, not physically but magically, it was painful to tap into his power to manipulate the aether around him and for one such as him it was like losing a limb, he cursed the dammed device for it was what had wounded him but he'd made matters worse by tapping into the old magic of England he'd inflamed the wound by allowing the raw force of the country to burn through him, it had given him power to rival Starling's but it was short lived and not something he wished to visit again in the future, that power was intoxicating and full of false promise, the miss belief that anything was possible led many magic users to their deaths burned out by power beyond their control.

He folded a marker into the book and set it aside standing and walking through the apartment into his study books were piled here most of them recovered from his old residence and a fresh pile from the Marigold, as a civilian he'd been forced to remove himself from the airship as well. He strode round the desk giving the case files a brief glance before he slid into the old leather chair, his eyes fell upon one case file a missing persons report concerning a tarot reader, the woman had in recent months become strikingly accurate in her readings predicting peoples futures without fault and in exact detail, she'd become quite popular before her disappearance, her manager had waited two days before he'd contacted the police and it had been a week more before they'd called him in, by that time there was little evidence he could use and it was unlikely he'd be able to find her. He pushed the file to one side and reached for a small crystal ball holding his hand over it wincing he closed his eyes.

"Do you have anyone trans-locating in London?"

With his injuries he'd be isolated form the Fey save for talking through the link of the crystal ball it left him felling refreshingly alone sometimes but also inconvenienced him when he needed to ask questions, it also had it's failing the voice was never as clear as a direct link with himself.

"No, why do you ask?"

"There are only a few beings capable of trans-locating without a focal."

"We were not involved."

"You do not need to defend yourself you me, have there been any more attempts to enter your realms?"

"No the white witch has vanished from our sight, and no more attacks have occurred, what about you have there been any more attempts on your life?"

"Not since the last."

Sinclair had sent people to kill him for refusing to kill Starling and the last had attempted to kill him at Horseguards he'd left the man dismembered as a message to Sinclair.

"I think it's time for a walk."

"How are you healing?"

"It still hurts but the pain does not linger as long as before."

"We could heal you in a matter of hours."

"I am not ready for that, and besides I don't know what would happen if Rourke deployed the device again afterwards."

He released his grip on the ball and was rewarded with a stillness that was uncommon for him, a dull throb in the back of his skull quickly faded as he stood and headed for the door, he collected up a long coat pulling it about his shoulders and slid a Mk1 Webley revolver at sat on a table beside the coat stand into a holster built into the coat his hand hovered over a collection of swords in a rack by the door, he considered the Fey Sabre he'd brought back with him but instead picked up his sword cane drawing the blade he looked at the blued blade which shimmered in the light before sliding it back into the cane, he opened a drawer and picked up an Apache revolver and pushed it into a pocket followed by a sap into the other before heading out as he pulled the door closed he looked into the apartment and the witch fire died leaving the place in darkness.

He headed down into the street paused for a second, for all his inability to use magic without pain he could still feel it's effects and track them without discomfort turning in the direction of Starling's residence which was closest he set off at a brisk pace.

[MWBailey]

Rourke awoke from a light nap; he had taken up residence in a third-story flat that was  adjacent to several others occupied by the Royal Airship Corps. His was somewhat different from the others; located back-to-back with Piggott-Steng's (he suspected the old man wanted to keep an eye on him, or that he had helped Rourke get the flat for other, more machiavellian, reasons), it's "back" door opened onto the inner stairwell that only Piggott -Steng's and three other apartments, in the building (one of them Rourke's) shared.

It had one other feature shared by the other central-stairwell apartments, which all housed other RAC Intel officers (quel suprise): its own front door, which in the case of Rourke's domicile was reached by an inner stairway which ran up the inside of the outside wall, made a right turn at a broad private landing, which sported a well-curtained window, and then ran up to the entrance to the flat on a similarly-spacious landing. The inner portal consisted of a door with a butler's sliding panel; The inside of the doorway sported an aetheric lamp, which at night shone out through a series of glass bricks over the top sill of the doorway. In the wall next to the door and facing down the stairway was a narrow, arrow-slit-like window.

The whole seemed designed to make invasion from the street a risky proposition. The street-level door gave onto one of the three streets that surrounded the building, known as 123 Brindle Street, and which was three blocks away from Horseguards. The rest of the neighborhood was dotted with similar housing establishments, catering mostly to Military or Government personnel.

The thing about the stairwell at the rear of the four RACI apartments was that it went (apparently) nowhere but down to a rather dank cellar below street level, and from there to a doorway which let out onto an underground corridor which at one end led to a doorway in a below ground stoop across the street; the other end led into the Sewers, and always seemed to be attended by several "workmen," who were for some reason perpetually mending the pipes located there, or doing some other work that seemingly always required their presence. The aboveground  approaches were similarly always thronged with similarly-occupied people, often even in the dead of night; a group of vagrants had apparently taken up residence in the alley behind the building, and they were always interested (sometimes to the discomfort of visitors to the edifice) ongoings on at 123 Brindle Street. It was thus with some consternation tha the notice naled to Rourle's door was found by that same personage after being rather rudely awakened from his nap.

BANG! BANG! bangbangbangBANG BANG BANG!

"Alroight, alroight, bloody ALROIGHT! I'm comin', ye black'arts!" He arose from his couch, straightened his clothing, and went down to the bottom landing (grabbing first the nunchaku and then his service revolver) to see who in blazes was knocking so loudly and persistently at his door. he checked the peephole, then flung open yteh door, only to find a somewhat stormy evening, and the distinct impression that Nobody was there .

It was as if someone had just been there and departed suddenly, however, leaving a faint trace of body odor and of all things, burnt beeswax and incense, like someone would burn at an altar. "Bloody 'ell, smells loike clergy out 'ere..." he muttered, and then he trailed off as he found the poster.

"Rourke 'as one day ta repent...What inna bleedin, bloody 'ell is THIS! HE ripped down the poster, noted teh silve rnails and pulled them out as well and stic=uck them in his trouser pocket, and sslammed and locked the frontg door, an dthen stormed back upstairs, back into his flat, out the back door, across the landing to Piggott-Steng's back door, and knocked loudly. "Permission to enter, Sah! Got summat 'ere I need ter talk about," He answered to the muffled voice of Piggott-Steng from the other side of the door.

[Cpt Wallace]

The rain started to fall and his pace slowed he relished the rain, the feeling of somehow being washed clean of the grime from the steam filled streets of London, each time it rained the pea soup this fog vanished and London seemed refreshed, a smile crept across his face as he walked the cane tapping out a regular rhythm as he walked he'd found it help him work out if he was being followed as he altered the taps occasionally he could hear the foot falls behind him.

He turned the corner before Starlings residence and paused, he could see the sheet of paper pressed into the door and as he approached he peered at it closely pulling a small device from his pocket he wound a handle on it several times and a filament illuminated with green fire he read the words carefully and then stood up right tucking the device away he rapped on the door with the silver handle of his cane.

He turned slightly looking at the point where the monk had stood closing his eyes he focussed on the other source of trans-location.

"Rourke."

He could feel the location the Royal Airship Corps apartments he knew Rourke had taken a flat there while the Marigold was berthed for refitting.

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling had been halfway up a scaffold painting clouds on her ceiling while listening to her gramophone when she heard the strange tapping.  Since the events in the tomb she had become more of a home body.  Things seemed unstable and at the university there had been people asking about her that would not leave their names.  All in all it made her a bet nervous not so much for herself because she now understood the power she had to call on but worried for her friends and her love who were mainly mortal.  So she stayed home only flying out at night to drop off research or pick up supplies.  The taping was very persistent so she climbed down wondering if it was of her students from the lab with either a problem or a breakthrough.  It turned out to be neither.  There was a very fancy note and a lingering smell of incense that stirred up strangest memories of being worshipped in the distant past.  She looked but the streets seemed empty. Starling went back in to grab tools to remove the note.  Some of the boys were doing amazing things with fingermarks and she certanly wanted to catch whom ever was doing this.  She read it three time to make sure she had it right and then called up to Redburn who was in the kitchen.  "I think we had best contact Felix, Rourke and whom ever else we can trust .  I just found a death threat nailed to the door." Hearing the knock she pulled Old Betsy , nodded for Redburn to follow and half crept half limped to the door then flung it open aiming her gun right at Talbot's head. She was tense for a moment then relaxed  "Find one on your door too?"

[Alexis Voltaire]

Feilx opened one eye at the sound of a tiny thin chime, and then sat up quickly in bed when he heard two more chimes from the pocket watch on the table next to his bed. He grabbed it and flipped the cover open, and rubbing his eyes tiredly he saw that the tiny signal switch had been activated. The simple signal was meant as a means to contact him at any time no matter where he was, it wasn't informative but it was practically impossible to usefully intercept, as it was given pre-arranged meanings depending on his assignment at the time. Right now it meant to report to Dr. Scott's residence, sent either by her or someone who had been assigned to watch her residence at night.

The watch itself showed it to be five-thirty AM. He shut the watch and started to quickly out on his clothes, and then his various weapons and a few gadgets that he often found useful. After quickly double checking to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, he picked up a small but heavy pack by the doorway and locked the door behind him as he left. Instead of heading down to the street, (which was not far from Rourke's own residence) he headed up one flight of stairs to a flat landing on the roof, taking a compact set of powered wings out of the pack and strapping them on.

he pulled on a set of goggles, started up the wing motor and extended the light canvas and wood wings, and took a running jump off the roof. The light motor whined up to full power and the wings caught just enough lift to keep him in the air. The wings were so light and finely tuned they had to be built to each individual person, they had very little margin of error for weight and couldn't stand high wind, but they could turn on a dime and were almost soundless compared to most powered wings.

It took him less than three minutes to reach Dr. Scott's street, and there he spotted one of the guards Wilhelmina had assigned earlier. The guard heard the wing motor and waved a safe signal to Felix, showing he wasn't immediately needed down below, so Felix set down on another roof landing nearby. He folded the wings back into the pack and headed down a set of steps on the outside of the building down to the street below. The guard told Felix what he'd seen and that he'd sent the signal, as they walked across the street to Dr. Scott's door.

Felix got there just in time to meet Talbot and Dr. Scott at the door. "Hello Dr. Scott... Talbot." He said with a respectful nod.

[MWBailey]

"Aright, leftenant, come in and lets see this thing you've got." Brigadier Piggott-Steng let Rourke into his flat, which was sumptupuously furnished, looking much like a cross between a lavish hotel suite and a museum of natural and technological history. The difference here was that as opposed to museums, in which many of the artifacts on display were either broken or so worn by time and use as to be too fragile to use, everything in Piggott-Steng's apartments actually worked. The weapons were especially well-maintained. The Brigadier was a short. stocky man with a shock of black hair shot through with gray, and a full moustache, waxed and twisted. His aquiline features were pudged and somewhat softened by age and office work; his build was nonetheless trim and well-proportioned. Those who had faced him (as had Rourke) upon the fencing mats or in combat training and sparring found him to be a formidable opponent. He directed Rourke to a map table and twisted a knob on the wall, increasing the flow of gas to the overhead lighting and illuminating the polished mahogany tabletop in a rich, bright, golden-white light.

Later, Rourke left Piggott-Steng's flat better-armed ion tghe knowledge department. A bunch of  antimagickal fanatic monks. That swas about the extent of what he had gotten from Piggott-Steng, but it was better than nothing. He stopped short as not only Mina but a Paladin, name of Wilder, he thought, appeared in his sitting-room. "Paladin Rourke? He rmajesty requests that you accompany us, " Rourke figured Wilder meant himself and Mina, who Squeaked familiarly and flew to his shoulder. Rourke grabbed his saber, and his gunbelt, and managed to pull on his boots, and then Wilder took hold of Rourke's aerm, and suddenly the three were standing at Starling's front door. Rourke reached up and knocked.

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling hopped to the door smiling when she saw it was friend not foe. "Welcome to the party Rourke. Someone has been playing Martin Luther on my door and we are trying to figure out who."

[MWBailey]

"Mine, too," Rourke said, simply and rather grimly. He pulled the rolled-up parchment from under his coat, and handed it to Starling. "Brigadier Piggot-Steng says they're an obscure sect of vampire-'untin' monks, but 'e wouldn't say more.  The man seemed a bit spooked, though, and that's 'ard to do..."

[Stella Gaslight]

Starling's apartment was a riot of colours with bold wallpaper and murals of the sky and the places she had been painted over any remaining plaster.  She was dressed in paint spattered overalls with her hair half tucked in a cap that was hard to tell the true colour of under the blue and white smudges. She was leaning on Old Betsy the vines wound there way over the top of her foot looking like some strange jewellery.  Her leg was still not strong enough to support her for long but she was finding a way to get about and was getting dammed good at landing one legged with her wing pack. "I was rather hoping it was just someone who took offence at us monster hunting. This sounds more complicated."

[Alexis Voltaire]

"They're called the Order of Lux Divina." Felix said, from where he was looking closely at the document left on Dr. Scott's door. "I've seen one of these before- not in action, there's an old one in the department archives somewhere. They always leave a warning like this for people they target with free will, supposedly." He looked up from the document. "The good news is you have twenty four hours before they start coming after you. Bad news, they can appear from out of nowhere and no one knows where their base of operations is... This is odd, really, they've never targeted one of our people before. Usually they've gone after people we considered a problem."

"Which is interesting, perhaps." He added thoughtfully. It was possible there was a connection between Sinclair's anti-magic movement and Lux Divina, but it was equally possible that they both had the same goal and nothing more. Without more information connecting the two there was no way to be sure.

"We'll have to be on guard for more than just Lux Divina now, though." Felix continued. "So far we've seen agents from a number of organizations watching Dr. Scott, but until now none of them have taken any open action. Threats or otherwise. We think they've been waiting for someone to make a move first, and now someone has."

[Cpt Wallace]

"Well I feel almost left out of the party."

He smiled as he slid into a seat resting the cane beside himself.

"There have been a number of pacts between the Church and Vatican and the special branches of the Intelligence Corp and Military for a number of years protecting agents such as Rourke and myself. One of the standing pacts was with the Order of the Sacred Light which is a possible translation for Lux Divina. With Starling technically being a civilian she's not per say covered by the pacts when she's not serving as medical officer on the Marigold and can only assume that you've crossed some sort of line with your own powers Rourke old boy, the Order of Sacred Light has been known to go after people protected by the pacts if they think they pose a risk or have gained too much power."

He looked at the sheet of paper.

"The method they use to travel is magical in nature, though like many of the clergy that are gifted they don't see it like that, they believe their gifts are divine manifestations of God's will, If I were not still recovering from that dammed device I could track their movements perhaps even follow them, but for now all I can do is feel when they are using their power, I could set up a rudimentary detector to alert us to a possible attack."

His fingers slid over the seal and something triggered in his mind something from one of the case files on his desk.

"There has been an increase in supernatural crimes occurring across the city, spirits being let loose and curses that sort of thing mainly but there has also been a number of magic users vanishing without a trace, I wonder if The Order of Lus Divina is behind it."

[MWBailey]

"Powers? I've got powers, now?" Rourke was dubious as well as slightly irritated. The 'taint,' as he thought of it, had crept into his life a little more every day, bit by bit, since he had drunk that tiny bit of Wilhelmina's blood. He was not completely turned yet, he thought. No, not by a long shot, but it had  done things to him he hadn't expected, just as Her Nadir Majesty's blood had both healed an otherwise mortal wound, and altered him in odd and unforeseeable ways earlier on. That impact with the stone wall of the crypt in that battle with May Li, now. That should have killed a normal human, but he escaped with little more than bruises, and those had healed up disturbingly quickly. And the fact that Mina seemed to be able to translocate him and a paladin with little or no difficaulty. He supposed those could count as powers, but it still seemed pretty thin.

"I 'aven't been throwin' around power," he said. "Why don't they go after somebody loike May Li or 'andthorpe? Make a positive differ'nce in the world, instead o' goin' after people on their own soide! Well, let the bloody turncoats come, if they think they're 'ard enough!" He had a thought, just then. "trans-low=kay-shun, ah? Huh." He looked at Mina, and Mina looked back at him like a cross between a cat and a saint bernard (but with a vampire bat's bizarre face, of course). "Mina Dear one, kin you track sommat through the ...the... whatever it is you trans-low-kate through?"

There followed, to the others' ears, save possibly those of Talbot and Thomas, a series of squeaks, high-pitched yowls,  growls, and more shrieks, most of them low enough to be painless or even inaudible (ah, there's another damned power, I guess, Rourke thought, when it became obvious that the others couldn't hear some squeaks that were perfectly audible to him), but there were a few that were ear-piercing, especially to Rourke. What the vampire bat had actually said was something along the lines of "It's called the sub-aether, Sir Rourke, and yes, I can, to a degree. I do it for My Lady when I track you."

"Could you pick up the trail o' those monks?" It had to be somewhat odd for everyone else to see and hear him talking back-and-forth to the bat, he thought suddenly. Damn, I suppose that's another flaming power...

"Perhaps, if I could get a whiff of what they smell like." her head cocked to one sid, and though the voice was still one of squeaks and yowls and growls and shrieks, it was still obvious that Wilhelmina was now the one speaking. "You could do some of that yourself, Han Dear, if you would just be a good boy and drink your blood the way you should."

"Rourke winced, like a schoolboy reminded to drink his buttermilk. "Please, not in front o' th' t'others, Mum," he said underhis breath. "Now,"  he said in a louder, more audible voice, "if only we could get a trackable whiff of Lux Monk..."

[walkthebassline]

Morgan stepped in from the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Lux Divina? I heard rumors about them in New Orleans a few years ago. One of the Voodoo queens had gone missing, and some said she ran afoul of them. As it turned out, it was just a gator, but I could tell people were scared of the name. I had forgotten about it until then. Never dreamed they were more than local witch hunters though."

[Stella Gaslight]

"So they know where I live and can magicly appear inside my house?" Starling was not at all happy.  "Is there any place we can go that will give us more of a fighting cance? I mean I know smple wards but most of my knowlage comes from before the time of" the church and I have never had to use them so I don't know how strong they are or if they even work."

[Alexis Voltaire]

"Well, if it's warding you're after, there's a safehouse about fifteen minutes from here that was just recently set up with magical seals." Felix said. "I don't know the specifics but it's supposed to stop magical tracking and it should keep them from trans-locating inside."

[Cpt Wallace]

"My home is probably the safest place in London right now, it's warded from magic and guarded from physical attack, plus my father likes to keep a vertible armoury in each of his properties so there are plenty of weapons."

His attention shifted for a second looking from one of the windows.

"Plus all of my equipment is there so I can work on personal alarms while we plan our next move."

He turned his attention back to the others.

"I've read the files on the Lux Dinvina we've always had trouble following them they make multiple jumps and over lap their routes back so tracking them become more difficult, but if we can get a solid scent on one of them, Little Mina would be able to lock onto that and follow them home."

He slid a vial from his pocket and tossed it to Rourke

"Belladonna and garlic and some distilled aether, Mina should be able to follow that half way round the world, get it on one of them."

[Stella Gaslight]

"Let me grab my gear and we can get moving.  Any place is better than waiting here for them to turn up.   I realy don't want to mess the paint up I just finshed."  She took the cap off and ran her habds through her hair.  "We had better go by foot even tho I am a bit slow these days it will be easyer for us to go un noticed thsn if we flue."

[walkthebassline]

Morgan followed Starling into their bedroom. He grabbed the case he kept prepared for just this occasion, took the time to throw a few extra items in, and slung it over his shoulder. Then he reached for his weapons. Both of his LeMats, his Vulcan pistol, two boot daggers, and a bowie knife were added to the basket-hilt claymore that hung at his side. He turned towards Starling as he finished packing.

"Almost ready, my dear?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"Yes nearly.  I don't want them to get their hands on my notes they seem to be the type to take research like that and used it to fuel a fire.  Sorry we are having to run like this I was rather looking forward to having a picnic on the roof with you once the storm cleared. I never would have thought being a monster hunter would be so complicated."  She packed her big Gladstone with books and a few samples she would be sad to loose and Thomas' favourite ball that had a jingle bell in it.  Thomas perked up when he herd it.  "Something is wrong isn't it.  First the smell at the door and now my person is worried and now she is getting ready to go but it isn't happy.  Like when she hums and dances putting stuff in bags this is more like goodbye."  He did not like it one bit.

[MWBailey]

Thomas, spomebody's threatening to kill yoour Lady and my Rourke! Mina said. people who can pop in and out likeme. But I'll track 'em down if I can. Nodody's going to take sir Rourke from me...!"

[Cpt Wallace]

"My apartment is about fifteen minutes walk away."

He stood and moved to the window looking out across the street.

"Felix I have need of you skills, come look at this please."

He was staring at a bush and the man standing beside it, the man was using a glamour to mask his presence effectively hiding in plain sight it would work on most people even half vampires like Rourke wouldn't be able to see him if they tried to look directly at him, but he wasn't looking at him he was staring at the bush, he could feel his presence the ebb and flow of the magic around him and that was what gave him away like a halo of light around a shadow.

"Take a look at that bush over there Felix, really concentrate on it until you can see the bigger picture."

[Stella Gaslight]

"But they can't do that right? I mean I thought my lady was death."  suddenly Thomas realised what hat men and bristled up in fear.  "They can kill death? We have to get away."

[MWBailey]

"What bush, where?" Rourke said, edging closer to the window. Talbot seemed to be pointing at a roundish ornamental across the street.he could tell ...something... but what, he couldn't say; it was as if the wee-hours light had bent in a funny way; the shadow... "Wait...that streetloight... some o' th' shadows're off, back over there." He slowly drew his service revolver, buit he couldn't really see anything to shoot at. he glanced around from one side to the other, and saw a bobby walking up from the east, taking his time in the typical way of beat officers the world over, from time immemorial. "better 'urry up an' do whatever you're gonna do," he said to Talbot and Felix. "There's a copper comin' up Spalterwick Lane..."

"My Lady and Sir Marmont are both undead, and they can be destroyed," Mina answered Thomas. "Not easily, of course, but it's possible." a whiff of a slight residue on the outside of the bottle that Talbot tossed to Rourke had reached her hyper-sensitive nose. "The faery-knight and Mr. Skulky (Mina had come up with the nicknames in a flash of mental similarity to her Mistress, of whom she was at least partly -mostly, in fact- a detached part) seem to have discovered one of the people across teh street." She flapped up to Rourke's shoulder and squeaked very softly in his ear. "Where are they?" she asked. "if you can tell mne where, I can go snell them."

"Mina sez she thinks she could go fly out an' smell 'em, wherever they are," Rourke said quietly. "You sure there's somebody--" he cut off as the bobby came around the corner, and something, whether the invisible person moved, or the flame of the streetlight's gas flame guttered and came back to life, caused teh shadows to waver. Rourkle still didn't see the person, but he did see the shadow of one of teh bushes not move with the others, and then suddenly move as if the shadiow realized it had failed to move, and was required to do so. "Now tha's downroight weird, tha' is," he breathed. "Did you see that, Mina?"

[Cpt Wallace]

"It's not them, If it's who I think it is he works for Sinclair. If either you or Felix could slip our and come from behind you'll get the jump on him, I'll distract him from here."

He winced at the thought of using his powers to glamour the unknown.

"In fact if Mina could trans-locate you behind him that would be quicker and save me some pain."