The Martian Falcon (Lovecraft & Fort) (20 page)

CHAPTER 27
A Dame in Trouble

Fort, Lovecraft and O’Malley spent the rest of that day at the Public Records Office going over the original plans of the abandoned subway system. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company had made a lot of headway before the first of the Dero caverns had been discovered, and additional tunnels had been excavated before the second, third and fourth caverns had been revealed by the boring machines – including one connecting Manhattan with Long Island beneath the East River.

‘The closest station is on Park Avenue and East 57th Street,’ said Fort, pointing out the location on a large surveyor’s drawing.

‘That’s no good,’ said O’Malley. ‘It’s a good hundred-mile-walk from there to where we need to be. It’ll take us days – if the Dero don’t make mincemeat of us first!’

‘You’re right,’ sighed Fort.

‘What about Manorville?’ said Lovecraft. ‘That’s where they broke into the Long Island caverns.’

Fort examined the drawing. ‘You’re right, Howard. An exploratory shaft was sunk there; we could drive out to Long Island and get in that way.’

‘Yes,’ nodded O’Malley. ‘Good idea, Mr. Lovecraft!’

‘Shouldn’t we notify the police?’ said Lovecraft. ‘I’m sure that once we explain the problem to them, they’ll be more than happy to provide some backup.’

‘A nice idea, but a naive one, I’m afraid’ O’Malley replied. ‘For one thing, there’s no way that New York’s finest would consider joining forces with two mob gangs; even if they believed our story, they’d probably arrest the lot of us and go after Crystalman themselves… and I for one would rather that didn’t happen.’

Lovecraft nodded. ‘I suppose you’re right, Father.’

Fort checked his watch. It was a little after five p.m. ‘Well, boys, looks like we’ve got all we’re going to get here. What say we grab a bite and then head back to my place? Then we’ll head out to Jersey.’

‘Sounds good,’ said O’Malley.

They took a cab from the Public Records Office to a small mom and pop restaurant a block from Fort’s apartment, where they ate dinner.

They returned to the apartment to the sound of the telephone ringing. Fort picked up the receiver.

‘Charlie!’ cried the voice of Penny Malone. ‘Where in blazes have you been? I’ve been calling you for the last two hours!’

Fort told her and then said: ‘What’s up, Penny? You sound flustered.’

‘Flustered isn’t the word for it, Charlie. I’ve got someone here who needs to speak to you right now, and I mean
right now
.’

‘Okay, okay, calm down. Are you at the office?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Okay, I’ll be right there. Who is it who wants to see me?’

‘A lady by the name of Rusty Links.’

‘Rusty… Jesus Christ!’

‘What is it, Charles?’ asked Lovecraft.

‘Rusty Links is at my office with Penny right now.’

‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph,’ said O’Malley.

Fort said into the phone: ‘All right, Penny, we’ll be there in ten minutes.’

‘Try and make it five, Charlie,’ said Penny. ‘She’s scared,
really
scared. She says Crystalman is after her.’

‘Five it is,’ said Fort, and slammed down the receiver without waiting for a reply. To Lovecraft and O’Malley, he said: ‘Let’s go, right now. Links says Crystalman’s after her, and if that’s true, I don’t want Penny anywhere near her. Come on!’ He grabbed the case containing the Teleforce Projector and the Anomalous Oscillation Detector.

‘You’re taking that?’ said O’Malley.

‘Damn straight,’ Fort replied. ‘If things turn nasty, this’ll be more use than a gun.’

*

Fort was true to his word. They hailed a cab outside his apartment building, gave the driver the address of his office, and Fort offered him twenty dollars if he’d get them there in five minutes.

‘Consider it done, boss,’ said the driver as he floored the gas pedal.

When they got to his office, they found Penny sitting at her desk and Rusty Links in one of the visitors’ armchairs across the room.

Jeez, what a fine-looking dame
, thought Fort as Rusty stood up and ran to him.

‘Mr. Fort!’ she cried. ‘I need your help. I got your address from the phone book. You’re the only one I can turn to…’

‘All right, Miss Links,’ said Fort as he guided her back to the chair. ‘Have a seat.’ Over his shoulder, he said: ‘Cormack, take Penny home.’

‘What are you talking about, Charlie?’ Penny demanded. ‘I’m staying right here.’

‘No you’re not, hon. Howard and I need to discuss some things with Miss Links here.’ He glanced down at Rusty, who was sitting on the edge of the chair, wringing her hands and looking up at him with wide doe-eyes. ‘She’s involved with some very dangerous people, and I don’t want you anywhere near her.’

‘But Charlie!’

‘I’m serious, Penny!’ Fort said loudly. ‘Cormack…’

‘Charlie’s right, Miss Malone,’ said O’Malley, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

‘Your parents live on Staten Island, don’t they,’ said Fort.

‘Uh huh.’

‘All right. Cormack, take her there, and then get back here quick as you can.’

‘Will do.’

Penny gave Fort an accusing look as O’Malley led her out of the office.

When the door had closed, Fort turned back to Rusty. ‘All right, Miss Links. Suppose you tell me what the hell’s going on and why you think I’m in any position to help you – assuming I want to, which in all honesty I don’t.’

‘Oh, you will, Mr. Fort,’ said Rusty breathlessly. ‘When you see what I’ve got and hear what I know, you’ll want to help me, all right!’

‘Were you the one who killed Johnny Sanguine?’

Rusty dropped her gaze to the floor.

Fort gave a brief, harsh laugh. ‘Well, I guess I’d be a fool to expect you to admit it, huh? Let’s try this: why did you come to me?’

‘Because you’re investigating the Falcon case,’ Rusty replied in a quiet voice.

‘And how do you know that? I haven’t been mentioned in the papers. No one knows, except the cops.’

‘Crystalman knows.’

‘And how does
he
know?’

‘I’m not sure. But you’re in danger from him, too.’

‘Oh, I’m well aware of that, Miss Links,’ Fort replied with a quick glance at Lovecraft. ‘Why is he after you? What did you do to get on his wrong side? You stole the Falcon for him, you turned it over to him – at least, I assume you did…?’

A quick nod.

‘But now you’ve done something to rile him up, right? So, what is it?’

Rusty hesitated, her anxious gaze flitting back and forth. Fort could practically hear the cogs turning in her head. He gave a loud sigh. ‘Do you want my help or not? If you do, you’re going to have to level with me and tell me everything. If not, you can leave right now.’

Evidently, Rusty reached a decision. She reached down and pulled Aldous Bradlee’s briefcase from under the armchair, where she had placed it on her arrival. She handed it to Fort. ‘It’s all in there,’ she said. ‘The reason he’s after me…’

Fort took the briefcase, put it on Penny’s desk and opened it. He looked at the contents, and then at Rusty. ‘Is this what I think it is?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘The ninth rock book. The key to unlocking the power of the Falcon.’

Lovecraft gasped and hurried over to the desk.

‘There are also some notes in there,’ Rusty added, ‘written by the lead archivist of the X-M program. They’re worth reading.’

‘So you made a little trip down to Florida and stole these, right?’ said Fort. ‘Did you kill anyone to get them?’ Rusty didn’t answer, and Fort gave her a long look. He shook his head in disgust. ‘I’d like to toss you out of here and leave you to Crystalman.’

Rusty’s eyes flashed at him. ‘Maybe you would, but you’re not that stupid – at least, I hope you’re not. Read the notes.’

Fort shook his head and turned back to the briefcase. Lovecraft had picked up the rock book and was carefully turning its stone pages, muttering to himself in wonderment. ‘What a piece of work!’ he said. ‘Such craftsmanship! Such finesse in the working of–’

‘Pipe down, Howard,’ said Fort as he picked up the sheaf of notes and began to read, his gaze flitting between paragraphs, grabbing the salient information before moving on. Rusty watched as his eyes flicked back and forth.

When he had finished, he put the notes down and looked at Rusty. ‘Do you know what’s waiting at the centre of Mars?’ he asked.

‘I’ve a fair idea. A Great Old One, summoned from Outside by Haq ul’Suun five million years ago. That’s why I’m here, why Crystalman is after me. He gave me the job of getting the rock book for him, but when I figured out what its true purpose is, I decided that he can never be allowed to get his hands on it. I had the idea of skipping the country, taking it with me, but somehow he knew that. He sent some air elementals after me. He spoke to me through one of them, said I’d betrayed him and told me that if I didn’t bring the book to him, he’d use them to drive me insane.’

‘You’re right about Haq ul’Suun summoning a Great Old One,’ said Fort. ‘But it’s not just any Great Old One. It’s Azathoth.’

Rusty leaped to her feet, her eyes wide. ‘That’s bullshit! If Azathoth were anywhere near Earth, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I dread to think what
would
be happening…’

‘Not Azathoth itself,’ said Fort. ‘Just a moment of its awareness, of its perception of the Earth, which entered our universe when Haq ul’Suun opened the way.’

Rusty sat down again slowly. ‘Crystalman knows it,’ she said. ‘He knows that the rock book is the key to releasing the spirit of Haq ul’Suun from the Falcon. But that was never his real objective…’

‘No,’ said Fort. ‘His real objective is to release the awareness of Azathoth from its sympathetic confinement.’

‘Yeah, but why the hell would he do that?’

‘Because Azathoth is his father,’ Fort replied.

Rusty looked at him open-mouthed. ‘Oh Christ.’

‘That’s right, Miss Links. Crystalman is an avatar of Nyarlathotep. He intends to feed the Earth and everything on it to Azathoth. Real nice company you keep, if you don’t mind my saying so.’ Fort glanced at the rock book which Lovecraft was still holding. ‘But I’ll tell you something else. This might just get you off the death penalty. You’ve given us the way to defeat him.’

‘What do you mean, Charles?’ asked Lovecraft.

‘This rock book, created at the time of Haq ul’Suun’s imprisonment by means of – what do the notes call it? Lithotechnology? – can reverse the process and free his mind from its confinement inside the Falcon. So all we have to do to prevent that from happening is destroy the book.’

‘That’s easier said than done,’ Rusty replied. ‘I’ve tried smashing it, but I can’t. It’s unbreakable.’

‘Makes sense,’ said Fort. ‘Created by the same means as the Falcon.’ He grinned at her. ‘But we’ll see how unbreakable it is.’ He picked up the case he had put on the floor and laid it on Penny’s desk. He opened it and took out the Teleforce Projector.

‘What’s that?’ asked Rusty.

Fort told her. ‘If anything can destroy the rock book, this can.’

Rusty went to stand beside Fort and Lovecraft. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Actually, no, not a hundred percent, but it’s our best option right now.’ He glanced around at the four walls, and then indicated the inner wall separating the office from the corridor outside. ‘Howard, put the book on the floor and stand it against that wall.’

Lovecraft nodded and did as Fort asked. ‘Shouldn’t we take it to a more secluded location and then destroy it, Charles?’ he said as he rejoined Fort and Rusty at the desk.

‘Ideally, yes, but we don’t know how much time we’ve got. If Crystalman knows where Miss Links is, his elementals could be on their way here right now. We’ve got to destroy the thing while we have the chance.’ He indicated the door to his office. ‘Okay, the two of you take cover in there; it’s my guess there’s going to be some shrapnel flying around.’

Lovecraft opened the door and he and Rusty stood in Fort’s office on either side of the door. Fort glanced at them and shook his head. ‘Not enough. Get behind the wall and hunker down.’

Lovecraft and Rusty disappeared from view behind the wall. ‘Good luck, Charles,’ said Lovecraft.

Fort switched on the Teleforce Projector and took careful aim at the rock book. His finger closed on the trigger.

At that moment, the corridor door burst open and John Carter, Dave Wiseman and several uniformed policemen surged into the room. All had their weapons drawn.

‘Drop it, Charlie!’ shouted Carter.

‘What the hell!’ cried Fort.

‘Do it, or we’ll drop you.’

Fort lowered the Projector.

‘On the desk, and hands in the air.’

Fort put the Projector on the desk and raised his hands.

‘Step away.’

Fort took a couple of paces back.

‘Anyone else here with you? Your buddy Mr. Lovecraft, maybe?’

‘No,’ said Fort. ‘Just me.’

‘Like hell,’ said Wiseman, peering at the door to Fort’s office. ‘Whoever’s back there, get out here, now!’

‘Do as he says,’ said Fort over his shoulder.

‘Are you sure, Charles?’ asked Lovecraft from behind the wall.

Fort sighed. ‘Yes, Howard, I’m sure.’

‘Well,’ said Lovecraft as he edged into view. ‘I suppose they’d have checked in here anyway.’

‘That we would, Mr. Lovecraft,’ said Carter.

As Rusty followed Lovecraft through the door, Wiseman added: ‘Well well, Miss Rusty Links, I presume.’ With a glance at Carter, he added: ‘See, John? I told you Fort was dirty; been in it from the start, he has.’

Rusty said nothing; she merely smiled as her skin lost its flawless alabaster hue and turned bright, hellish red.

‘She’s shifting!’ shouted Wiseman. ‘John,
now!
’

Carter pointed his weapon at Rusty, and Fort realised that it wasn’t a conventional service revolver. It was smaller, and the barrel was too thin. When Carter pulled the trigger, the only sound was a muted
phut!
The needle struck Rusty in the side of her neck. She dropped to the floor instantly, her skin returning to its human colour.

‘What the hell is that thing?’ demanded Fort.