The Siege (31 page)

A shrill whistle emitted from the computer speaker.  Marvin the Martian marched his troops of robots across the monitor.

“I think Jake wants to know if you need an escort.”

“No, Jake, you concentrate on flooding the internet with inquiries concerning our guest,” Ted requested.

Marvin saluted and dismissed his troops.

Tom watched the melee from the second story window.  He ached to get out there and fight.  Ed was a big man, but he was light on his feet, a dancer’s grace in a bodybuilder’s body.  He suspected that Ed didn’t lift weights to maintain his girth but acquired the muscles from combat training.  Tom loved the twisting a ghost into a Christmas decoration trick.  That and Lorna’s and Murphy’s moves made him want to improve himself.  He was an expert marksman, and he could pass the physical training tests of the department, but he could be in better shape.

He heard footsteps pounding up the stairs.  Tom leaned out of the room and saw Ted move quickly into the nursery holding his hand.  Was he their first casualty?

Mia looked up to see Ted standing at the doorway.  He had a towel wrapped around his hand.

“What happened?” she asked, encouraging him to sit beside her where Judy had settled her on the mattresses she dragged off the guestroom bed.  Ted noticed that a few baby shower gifts were put into service; a bassinet and an infant car seat were sanitized and ready for use.

Judy unwrapped his hand and examined it.

“I punched the wall with my hand,” he admitted.

“Did the wall smart off or something?” Mia teased.

“No, I was being stupid.”

“He’s broken two bones in the process.  You ought to have Ed show you how to punch properly.  May I?”

“Excuse me?” Ted asked confused.

“Judy wants to heal your hand.”

“Please.  I should probably bear the pain, but I may be needed,” he said, looking down at his young wife.

Ted withstood the pain of the healing without a whimper.  The tears that rolled down his face were more from the bad news he had to share than from his own discomfort.  “Minnie Mouse, I talked to the abbess, and she said that Angelo is already on his way.  She did, however, give me bad news concerning your condition.  She said that your fate is in the Other’s hands.”

“I pretty much figured that out.  I think that’s why I went so ape-shit down there.  Is he still encased in salt?”

“Oh yes.  The iron kitchen rack was a good touch.  How come these things hold him?  I thought he wasn’t a ghostee.”

Mia looked over at Judy and asked, “Do you want to answer this one?”

Judy nodded.  She knew that Mia wasn’t just being polite but was in considerable pain, pain that she was keeping from her husband.  “Richard Chapman has been around ghosts so long that he has picked up their fears as his.  If you believe strongly that something is going to hurt you, it will.”

“Two down, one to go,” Tom shouted from the front of the house.

“Did you hear that, pumpkin?  We ought to try to get you to the hospital now.  Lorna said the snow was deep, but the wind had pushed a lot of it off the road.  We could probably make it to the main drag if we used your truck.”

“I’m not sure I can make the stairs,” Mia confessed.

“We’ll carry you,” Ted assured her.  “Judy, you’ll go with us, won’t you?”

“I’m up for an adventure,” she said with too much cheer.  “We’ll get the two of you safely to the hospital.  Doctor Walters may not be happy to see me, but I’m game.”

Mia looked over at her. “You don’t lie very well, Judy.  But thanks for trying.  We all know that I can’t leave here.  Even with the Soho hobos gone, I still have the Other to deal with.”

Murphy continued to take cuts out of the mammoth ghost.  He and Lorna backed him towards Ed.  Ed tapped the ghost on the back, and the ghost turned around and faced his destiny.  The two of them took up a battle stance.

“Let’s give them room,” Murphy told Lorna.

She nodded, climbed the porch and opened up the front door.  She called in, “Tonia, you ought to see this.  I’ll watch the booger.”

“Coming,” Tonia said in a singsong voice.  She passed her partner in the hall.  “Dick’s not having a good day.”

“Let’s see if we can make it worse,” Lorna said.

Tonia eased herself out the front door in time to see the two giants engaged in hand-to-hand combat.  Ed had the ghost’s throat in his hands, and the ghost was wrapped around the rest of the superhuman’s body, trying to cause enough pain for the big man to disengage his hold.  Tonia spotted the iron spear lying on the ground a few feet from the combatants.  She moved quickly to it and waited for her chance.  When she saw the small gap, she used the spear to pry the clinging ghost off Ed’s body.  She then tossed Ed the spear.  He caught it and drove the spear down through the left shoulder of the ghost, through his body and pinning him to the ground through his right foot.

The air was filled with the death cries of the entity.  Tonia put her hands over her ears, almost feeling sorry for the thing.  It was bad enough the man probably died painfully the first time around, but to be torn from the ether to walk the dark world this way was the most pain anyone would ever have to feel in this life or the afterlife.

Cid walked out of the office, and Tom raised the window above to witness the final moments.

Inside, Lorna gritted her teeth so that the Other would not see how the passing of the ghost affected her.  She looked over at Ryan whose eyes acknowledged the pain of the scream, but yet his demeanor also recognized the justice.

“Another bad soul gone,” he said.  “What about you?  Are you ready for yours?” he asked Richard.

Unnerved but resolved to bring this contract negotiation to a close, Richard actually managed to smirk.  “It doesn’t change a thing.  Mia will come with me or you all will die.  If I have to call the hounds from hell, this contract will be …”

The screaming stopped but was replaced by another sound.  The sound of machinery.  Ryan walked past Richard and headed down the hall.  “It sounds like…”

“There’s a snowcat moving down the hillside.  I think, yes, it’s friendly.  I see Mia’s aunt waving a bottle of champagne out the window.  I believe she’s chilling it.”

Lorna couldn’t be certain, but she swore she saw a flicker of concern cross the face of the Other.

Mia agreed to let Ted carry her down the stairs.  Judy followed them, carrying the baby equipment.  They made the landing when the door burst open.

“Ted, put Mia down.  She’s not a toy.  Judy, before I forget, could you look at a mole on my back later?”  She handed Ryan the bottle she was carrying.  “Be a good boy, open this and find me a glass.  God knows, in this house it will have a cartoon character on it, but it will have to do.  Now, can someone show me where this Other is?  I’ve got a contract to break and a Christmas party to plan.”

Ted ignored Bev, and carried Mia into the kitchen.  They found Bev studying the Other pinned to the wall.

“Love what you’ve done with the kitchen, Mia.  Not everyone can pull off Early Dungeon.  Who’s the dashing young man?” she said, holding out her hand to the Confederate ghost still at his post guarding the Other.

Breeze, totally captivated by this brassy woman, knelt on one knee and kissed her hand.

“Breeze, my aunt, Beverly Cooper,” Mia said.

A look of disdain filled Richard’s face.

Beverly turned back to give him her full attention and said, “Beverley
Anne
Cooper.  We’ve met before.”

Chapter Twenty-five

“Do we have everybody?” Bev asked, looking around the living room.  “Two bounty hunters, two law officers, two ghosts, two dashing young men.  Yes, Gerald, that’s you and Cid.  Two Martins, well, three actually.  A birdwoman and a superhuman.  I think that’s everyone.  No, I believe we’re missing an Other.  Mia, would you please release him?”

Mia closed her eyes.

In the kitchen, the salt fell away as the iron rack tumbled to the floor.  Richard pulled his sleeves free from the knives that pinned them to the wall.  He patted his pocket to assure himself he still had a copy of the contract.  Bev had taken the other copies, handing one to Gerald and keeping one for herself.

“Dick, we’re waiting,” Bev called.  “You can leave, but then you lose.”

Richard straightened his tie and brushed the remaining salt particles from his tattered suit.  He rolled his neck and squared his shoulders.  He would make them all pay for his humiliation just as soon as he turned Mia over to his client.

Mia felt an easing of her pain.  Judy had her hand on Mia’s stomach and on her lower back.

“I’ll slow things as much as possible so that there is no harm to your son.  But we’ll have to deliver him soon,” she warned.

Mia nodded and looked over at her aunt.  Bev looked back and gave her a look that Mia could have mistaken for parental concern if she didn’t know the woman better.

Bev turned around to watch Richard walk into the room. 

“I believe we have a contract to negotiate,” he said to Mia.  “All these people can’t stop the process.”

“Dick, ‘ave a seat will yah,” Bev ordered.  “Gerald and I were looking at your contract, and we’ve found a few errors.”

“Impossible.”

“No, really, there are a few points that make this contract null and void.”

“Impossible.”

“You’re repeating yourself, dear,” Bev said.  “Open it up, and let us all look at it together.”

Richard did so.

Gerald handed his copy to Mia so she could read along.

“First rule is, you have to be invited into the home of the target by the target.”

“Mia invited me into the farmhouse.”

“She invited you into the farmhouse, but not into her home,” Bev corrected.

“She lives here,” Richard said confidently.

“Ted, whose name is on the title to the farmhouse?”

Ted looked surprised.  “Mine.”

“You didn’t put your wife’s name on the deed?”

Ted looked embarrassed.  “No, not yet.”

“Sheriff Ryan, can you answer a point of law for me please?” Bev asked.

“Yes, if I can.”

“Who owns this land?”

“Theodore Martin.”

“Not his wife?”

“Technically no.”

Richard fumed.  “She’s his wife. This is her home!”

“Mia, do you still own the peninsula property on which your home still sits?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Is your name on the title of the property?”

“Yes.  Mia Martin is on the title.”

“Not Mia Cooper Martin?”

“No, that’s not my name.  I’m legally Mia Martin.”

“Dick…”

“Richard!” he insisted.

“What name is on this contract?  My, oh my, I see Mia Cooper Martin.  Now who is that?”

“It’s ‘er name,” Richard blurted out.

“It’s not, dear,” Bev said and turned to Ryan again.  “Who is sitting beside Ted Martin?”

“Mia Martin.”

“Legally?”

“Mia Martin.”

“Not Mia Cooper Martin?”

“I’d have to look at her driver’s license.”

Cid strode over to the hall table and handed Mia her purse.  She dug her hand inside and pulled her driver’s license out and handed it to Cid who delivered it to the sheriff.

“Sir, before you tell us all what it says there, what are the legalities in securing the document before you?”

“You must present identification that this is your legal name, pass a driver’s test if you haven’t already have done so, and take a rules of the road test if you have not already done so.”

“Let’s concentrate on the name.  What do you need to put your name on the document?”

“Two legal papers that identify you as this person.”

“I imagine, Mia, that you did so.”

“Yes.”

“So according to the state of Illinois, you are?”

“Mia Martin.”

“Not Mia Cooper Martin?”

“No, that is not I,” Mia said.

“Sheriff?”

“It says Mia Martin.  Legally the person on that couch is Mia Martin.”

“It doesn’t matter that she was born Mia Cooper?” Bev asked.

“Not in my county.  Here, she is Mia Martin,” he answered, handing the license to Bev who, in turn, showed it to Richard.

A low rumble followed by a tremor underneath the farmhouse preceded all copies of the contract falling into ash.

“’ow did this ‘appen?” Richard lamented.  “Again!  I told those goons to check everything out.”

“So you have no hold on Mia.”

Richard flicked his wrist and a shock of electricity hit Mia so hard, it forced her and Judy back into the cushions.

“What have you done!” Beverly screamed at the Other.

Ed moved towards Richard.

“Wait,” Judy called.  “Mia’s fine, but the baby is coming.  Ed, get her upstairs.  Now!”

Ed picked Mia up.

“Shouldn’t she go to the hospital?” Ted asked.

“There’s no time,” Judy said.  “Upstairs,” she ordered.

There was a flapping of wings and the thud of three sets of bird people landing above them.

“I forgot to close the window,” Tom admitted.

Judy rushed up the stairs, followed by Ed carrying Mia.

Beverly waited until they were safely upstairs before she turned back to Richard.  “You didn’t need to do that.”

“I simply released her.  I can’t help if I may have gotten a little carried away,” he droned.  “If you will excuse me,” he said, getting up and smoothing the line of his trousers.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Tonia proclaimed.  “I’m arresting you for conducting illegal negotiations.”

Bev lifted two fingers.

“Twice.  You will be taken to a place of confinement until you will be judged by your peers.”

Richard walked to the foyer.  He turned back to address the humans in the living room.  “Really, you have no power to take me anywhere!” he scoffed.

“I do,” Angelo declared from behind him.

The birdman flexed his mighty wings and quickly enveloped the Other.  In a split second, both of them were gone.

Ryan smacked his knee.  “Now that’s something you don’t see every day.”