Chapter 006: To Trump Or Not To Trump
"Standing
on the shores of the sea of sleep
You're
fully determined to dive in real deep
Without
ever knowing whether you'll surface
Again...
The
answers are always there in your dreams
Hidden
in the depths on the ocean floor
But
the water just gets muddier it seems
And
when you wake you'll know less than before"
The music died with a mighty crash. I sighed and started looking around
for a cd that I hadn't heard yet. Upon doing so I encountered Adrian's tortured
stare. After breakfast he had lain down again, only to find Lush cuddling close
to him again. She immediately fell asleep, but Adrian seemed to have some
troubles with my taste in music. I tried to keep it down a bit, but there are
some kinds of music that you just have to play loud. On the other hand I
couldn't see why he should object to my pastimes when both Lush and Martin had
no trouble sleeping through it all. Maybe that was part of the problem; he just
couldn't rise without disturbing Lush and our noble knight clearly didn't want
to do that. So he just lay there, unable to sleep while I went through Martin's
collection. Since Vincent, Alex and Murlas had all left on personal business, I
could have my own way. Fortunately Martin had a wide range of cd's, from jazz to
hardcore, so I wasn't bored for a minute.
While listening to the music I played some mental
games with Wylde. One of us would conjure up a mental picture to go with the
song that was playing at that moment and the we'd both start adding and
subtracting things as the song went on, thus making our own videoclips, so to
speak. It was enjoyable pastime and about the only one available to me. I had no
wish to go wandering through Angel City again and sadly going to other Shadows
for my pleasure was out of the question, because of the time-flow in this
Shadow. So there was nothing to do but wait until it was time to meet Adrian's
fishing friend.
I tried to keep busy playing Martin's cd's, so as
to keep myself from thinking about Suzanne. When Lush woke again (with a slight
hangover, so I turned the music down again) Adrian saw his opportunity: he rose
quickly and went out too. Besides that and me making myself an omelet nothing
much happened during the day until early in the evening, when Adrian, Alex and
Murlas returned and Martin finally woke up. He immediately ordered some pizzas
to be delivered for our dinner and after a short time we were munching on some
pieces of pastry with artificial tomato, cheese and other flavouring. Murlas and
Adrian had cleared the table, as far as that was possible, and made a show of
eating their pizzas with knives and forks. I thougt they were giving their food
too much credit. The way in which Murlas handled his knife sent a shiver down my
spine though. I got the feeling he was quite used to handling knives, and not
only for cutting food!
While we ate we discussed our plans for that
evening. The fisher hadn't given Adrian a time for our meeting, so we agreed
that midnight would be a good time as any to start our mission. Vincent hadn't
returned yet and, when asked, the others told me they hadn't seen him since he
had left. When there was still no sign of him at 10 o'clock we became slightly
worried, but we decided to wait another hour before starting to look for him. An
hour came and went and still no Vincent. Finally Adrian took out his Trumps and
tried reaching him, but he couldn't make contact, no matter how hard he tried.
When he noticed Adrian's efforts were wasted Murlas decided to try it himself.
He concentrated very hard and apparently he made contact. I saw him frown and
then extend his right hand forward without saying a word. To our general shock
and surprise his hand started turning black before our eyes! Meanwhile Murlas
kept on concentrating very hard,
sweat pouring from his brow.
I looked around at the others, but they were as
alarmed and mystified as I was. I didn't know what was happening, but that hand
didn't look good, especially since the darkness seemed to be spreading to his
wrist and lower arm. Yet Murlas didn't seem to notice it and he kept on
maintaining his contact, despite the apparent effort it required. Or was he
fighting to break the contact? I couldn't tell. The only thing that was clear to
us was that he was in trouble.
"Isn't there anything we can do to help
him?" Alex asked, looking at me. "I
don't know. Maybe there is a way," I replied. Why did he ask me though, and
not one of the others? I still don't know what makes people put that much trust
in me.
Anyway, I tried the only course of action that I
could dream up at that moment and started concentrating on the Pattern. Looking
through the Pattern lens was certainly clarifying, but it also gave me quite a
shock, for now I could see the...thing that Murlas had contacted. It looked like
a big swirling black cloud, which was slowly working its way further along his
lower arm. There was a great feeling of power emanating from the cloud and it
was clear that Murlas could do nothing but struggle to stay out of its grasp.
Suddenly I got a warning from Wylde. To my surprise
it wasn't the ominous black cloud that made her warn me, but Murlas himself.
This stopped me from doing anything for a couple of seconds. Alright, Murlas
looks pretty scary and I had had a few indications that he might be able to live
up to his image, but this was the first sign that there was really something
nasty about him, something that might cause me harm in the future. And most
importantly, up to this point Wylde's warnings had always proven to be
correct...
As I stood there more or less frozen on the spot
Alex decided to act. He quickly grabbed a piece of cloth and threw it over the
Trump in Murlas' hand. His gamble worked: I saw that his intervention gave both
Murlas and the black cloud quite a shock and that it also lessened the contact
between them to the extend that Murlas was able to pull himself free. In a
matter of a second the image of the black cloud had dwindled off into
nothingness. Murlas fell to the ground, overwhelmed by the pain from his hand
which was a horrible lump of charred black flesh. Alex immediately kneeled by
his side to examine his wounds. When he looked up his face was grim.
"We need to get him to a hospital," he
said. "There's no way I can treat those burns here."
"I know one nearby," said Martin, "a
private hospital, where there'll be no awkward questions."
Together they guided Murlas, who was still in a
state of shock, to the door, leaving Adrian, Lush and me behind. Adrian went to
comfort Lush, believing she might be upset by the strange things that had been
happening, but she appeared to be quite unperturbed by it all.
"Well, he had it coming, that freak," was
her reaction.
Meanwhile, I took some time to consider everything
that had happened. It was clear that Vincent was in trouble, but what kind of
trouble? If that black cloud had got hold of him, I'd say the chances of him
still being alive were either slim or nill, judging from the remains of Murlas'
hand. On the other hand that cloud might just be a tool, placed as a sentinel
between Vincent and the person who would try to Trump him (if such a thing could
be possible). In that case he might still be alive, but imprisoned somewhere.
The only thing that was certain was that he hadn't had enough time to contact
one of us.
Or had he not even tried to contact us? It suddenly
occurred to me that there was really very little that we knew about Vincent.
Could it be that he wasn't who he appeared to be? That he had set this black
cloud himself, as a trap for those who would try to contact him? But if that
were so, then why had he chosen to leave us at this moment? Certainly we had not
discovered anything of value yet, or had we?
Hold it, hold it, I told myself, you are becoming
too paranoid for your own good. Okay, I didn't know very much about Vincent, but
neither did I know much about the others. I also remembered that Fiona seemed to
trust Vincent and she always is quite keen in her judgement. Thinking about
Fiona, I felt it might be a good idea to contact her and tell her about Vincent.
Perhaps she might be able to help. I searched through my Trumps until I found my
red haired Aunt. But alas, she appeared to be busy; I just couldn't reach her.
Perhaps later...
As I put my Trumps away again Wylde climbed onto my
lap and began washing herself.
"Why the warning just then?" I asked her.
"Didn't you see that Murlas was the one in danger, not the danger
itself?"
"I just sensed something bad coming from
him," she replied with a bit of indignation in her tone.
"Hey sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's
just that I thought that that black cloud was the real cause for alarm."
She looked up from her work with a questioning look
in her eyes. Of course! She hadn't seen the thing that Murlas had been in
contact with. I quickly gave her a mental replay of the things that I had seen.
"Hmm. I must have felt the danger coming from
the Trump contact, and not from Murlas himself. All the same, I don't trust that
one, Dorian. I still think you should be wary in his company."
"Well, I don't know whether you're right about
him. I don't like him too much either, but we are supposed to work together on
this, so I will have to trust him up to a certain point. We'll just have to wait
and see."
Wylde went back to the business of getting herself
clean while I sat there thinking. Damn! I suddenly remembered that we had no way
of contacting the others, save by Murlas' Trump, and I had a feeling that that
wasn't going to work at the moment. And we also didn't know to which hospital
they'd taken him, so again there was nothing we could do but wait.
It wasn't until one o'clock that Alex finally
contacted me by Trump. He told me that the doctors were operating on Murlas. The
operation would probably take the rest of the night though, and he was wondering
what our plans were. Would we try to sneak into the Myrone building without
Murlas and Vincent or would we wait until another night? It was something I had
already been musing on, but I told him I needed to discuss it with Adrian first.
Alex agreed and told me he would contact me again in half an hour.
I told the news to Adrian and we more or less
immediately agreed that we would go on with the plan. Waiting another night
would give our opponents more time to find us again and we didn't relish the
idea of yet another assassination attempt. Who knows, this time they just might
decide to use some more drastic measures...
While waiting for Alex to call again I once more
tried to reach Fiona, but still no success. Meanwhile Adrian had decided that he
should take care of Lush in some way. She wasn't too pleased to learn that he
would leave her, but there just wasn't any way that we could take her with us.
Adrian gave her one of his Ingramm machinepistols to protect herself with and to
our surprise she proved already quite skilled in the use of such weaponry,
reloading it as if it were one of her daily tasks. Adrian warned her not to let
anyone other than us into the apartment.
Precisely thirty minutes after his first contact Alex called again. I
told him about our decision and he also felt we shouldn't delay our plans. We
met him and Martin under the bridge where Adrian had met that old man. He was
already there, fishing again. Adrian had a short chat with him after which the
old man consented in taking him into the sewers. We agreed that Adrian would try
to reach us once he was inside.
Soon Adrian, the old man and the boat were out of
sight, with the splashes of the paddles slowly fading away. We waited a while in
silence until I felt the beginning of a Trump contact. I opened my mind and was
quite surprised to see Aunt Fiona instead of Adrian.
"Ah, Dorian. I believe you have been trying to
reach me?"
"Yes, I have. We're right in the middle of
something here, so I'll just keep it short: Vincent has disappeared."
I quickly told her about the black cloud and
Murlas' hand. To my surprise she didn't seem very concerned, or at least if she
was she didn't show it.
"I can't promise anything," she said,
"but I'll look into it if I have the time."
"Alright, thank you. I'll call again when it's
more convenient for both of us."
"Take care," she said and she was gone.
Immediately after we had broken contact I felt
another Trump call coming. This time it was Adrian. He had reached the entrance
to the Myrone building and urged us to come through. I observed however that he
was still standing in the boat with the old man; a boat that could carry only
two people. I got the feeling that Adrian didn't like the idea of entering the
building alone. I solved our problem by suggesting that I'd call him back with
his Trump and that we'd stay with him while he went on. Then, as soon as he had
reached a safe spot, we would Trump through. And if he were to run into any
trouble we could whisk him away at a moment's notice. He was somewhat relieved
and a few seconds later I watched him climb a number of metal rungs up to a
heavy metal lid. This was no problem for Adrian however and he soon found
himself in a dark basement. He quickly checked it out, but he found that the
coast was clear. Apparently they really weren't expecting anyone using this
entrance. Alex and Martin clasped my shoulder as I reached out to the image of
Adrian and stepped forward.
As soon as we were there Alex was moving,
double-checking everything. I saw that this basement was used as a storage area
and it didn't look like a place where many people came regularly. I put Adrian's
Trump with the others again, but before putting them all away I found one of my
Trumps for Amber and hid it in my left sleeve, for I suddenly had the feeling
that we might need a way of escaping very quickly. Amber's Trump seemed a safe
choice; I couldn't imagine that one not working.
Meanwhile Alex had checked out the door and after
rummaging through some boxes in a corner he came back with a small device which
produced a small plastic security-card. He entered this card in a slot beside
the door and to my surprise the door opened. A satisfied grin flickered across
his face, then was gone. Without wasting too much time he explained that he had
used this convenient device to encode the card in precisely the right way. He
would probably be able to produce such cards for most of the security devices in
the building. How very convenient...
With Alex in the lead we entered a long corridor
with concrete walls. Stealthily we went on till we came to another door. Alex
quickly put the camera hanging above it out of order and with yet another card
he opened the door. His performance made me feel a bit redundant though. Besides
his experience in security matters I already knew that both he and his brother
were my betters in combat situations. Perhaps I should just focus on the things
that I seemed to be good at. A couple of seconds of concentration and I got the
Pattern lens hanging before my eyes. Not that I really expected to see very much
with it, but this way at least I had the feeling that I was making myself
useful.
You can understand my surprise however, when
further along the corridor I suddenly caught some traces of magical power! I
tried to focus on them, but I just couldn't tell their origin, nor where they
were leading to. I got the feeling though that I might find some answers on some
floors higher in the building.
"I'm sorry, Martin," I said, "but I
was just wondering. Is magic supposed to be common in this Shadow?"
"No, not really," he answered. "As
you probably can tell, technology has a tendency to dominate here."
"That's what I thought. However, that changes
nothing about the fact that I'm picking up the traces of some magic power here.
It's faint, but I'm quite sure it's there."
My announcement stopped the others in their tracks.
However, before they had a chance to ask me anything, I suddenly felt the
beginning of a Trump call. Curious as to who it could be I opened my mind, only
to get what was probably the worst fright of my life up till then: I saw the
swirling growing shape of the black cloud rushing towards me!
Fortunately the fear didn't paralyse me; I
immediately broke off the contact before it really had been established and
concentrated with all my might on keeping that thing out. I felt some pressure
for a couple of seconds, but then it ebbed away. Under the concerned scrutinies
of my three companions I wiped the sweat from my brow. There was to be no rest
for this Amberite though, for again I felt the pressure of a Trump call
building. At that point I was taking no chances: I blocked it with all my power.
It persisted for a few seconds, then died away, then started again. Someone was
really out to get me! In between calls I did have enough time to tell the others
what was happening. Finally after the fourth or fifth attempt the calls stopped.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Whatever that cloud was, I had proven stronger than
it was, or at least strong enough to keep it out.
I heard Adrian gasp beside me. I looked up and saw
that his face was tense. I gathered that someone was now trying to reach him
instead of me, and that he was also blocking the contact, chances being it was
the same person/thing. Whoever it was, he proved as persistent as the one that
had tried to reach me. But it seemed that Adrian had some brains as well as
muscles, for he also managed to keep the stranger out.
While Adrian was busy I had had a few moments to
wonder about how that black cloud had been able to Trump me. The first possible
answer that occurred to me were Vincent's Trumps. If he had been imprisoned or
killed (or if he was in fact the mastermind behind this whole black cloud
business) the cloud could, if sentient, use his Trumps, or, if not, it could
probably be directed through the Trump contact by someone else. Considering this
possibility one had to assume however that the black cloud that had tried to
reach me was the same as the one that had tried to capture Murlas earlier
tonight. I didn't like the thought of there being more than one black cloud very
much, but it was another possibility, and I needed to consider it as such. It
seemed both an unlikely and frightening thought, but maybe the cloud itself
contained some form of Trump power, so that it wouldn't need any Trumps to focus
on a person. If this were so, why had it focussed on me? What had I done to
attract its attention?
I was shaken from my reveries by the sudden
appearance of Murlas. Apparently Alex had decided to check whether he was still
under operation and to make sure the black cloud hadn't got hold of him, only to
find that he was already up and out of the hospital. He still looked very weak
though and also somewhat pissed off. The reason for that quickly became clear:
he now sported an artificial right hand. While he was under sedation the doctors
must have reasoned that amputation was the best solution, not knowing about the
regenerative abilities of an Amberite. This left Murlas with a bit of a problem
though, for this new cyber-hand probably wouldn't work in low-tech shadows.
Given enough time his body would grow a new hand, but the question was: how much
is enough?
"What do you think you were doing?" he
said with a glare of annoyance at me and Adrian. "I have been trying to
reach you for a couple of minutes, but you just keep blocking the contact."
I felt a shiver running down my spine. He had been
trying to contact us all that time and I had seen that black cloud! Coincidence?
I didn't think so. I may not be as paranoid as many of my elders, but I don't
put much faith in coincidences. Besides, Wylde had warned me about Murlas...
Alex and Adrian weren't aware of my suspicions and
explained to him what had happened, which seemed to pacify him a little. I
decided it was better to keep a close eye on him and wait till he truly showed
signs of being untrustworthy before acting. To change the subject I told him of
the traces of magic I had seen. We both brought up the Pattern lens (mine had
slipped when I was concentrating on keeping the cloud out) and he nodded. He saw
it too, but he also didn't know what to make of it. He said he was too weary to
keep the lens up for very long, but I felt fit enough to keep mine up, so I
could keep an eye on those traces...and on him as well!
We went on and after a couple of minutes Alex led
us to a stair-well. We reasoned that the most probable place for useful
information and important people was the top floor, but as we climbed the stairs
I felt the magical traces grow fainter and fainter. Wherever they were coming
from, it was in all likelihood near the ground floor. I didn't remark on it
though; there would always be time to go back and check it out. The important
thing right now was finding the guy who was in charge here and get some answers.
The twentieth floor looked a lot better than the
basement: expensive fitted carpets lay throughout the corridors and on the walls
no money had been spared either. Here and there there even hung some paintings,
which didn't look like reproductions to me. As we passed a window Murlas looked
outside; he reported that Fox' car was still in the parking-lot. Hmm, that at
least was one guy whom I would like to ask some questions to. Meanwhile Alex had
checked some of the doors in the corridor and he had found that all save one
were locked. Also, the security system on these doors was a lot better than on
those in the basement, meaning that he wasn't able to make any cards for them.
We were ready to try the one door that wasn't locked, when we heard a female
voice coming through it from the room beyond. Apparently she was on the phone
with someone, cause we could hear no other voices. She was quite annoyed it
seemed; she kept saying that the other person should try it himself (or herself;
that didn't become clear to us) if he thought that he could do better. We waited
and listened for a few moments and slowly I got the feeling that this lady was
talking about the failed attempt on our lives last night and that she was in
fact the brown haired girl with the machinegun, whom the old fisherman had
identified as Lisa. Another person for our interrogation hour.
Finally we heard her end her conversation and
immediately Adrian kicked in the door and rushed inside, closely followed by his
brother. I hung back, along with Murlas and Martin, but I got a more or less
clear view of the spacious and luxurious office. I caught a glimpse of a female
figure quickly slipping out of the room via another door at the other side,
which she slammed shut behind her. Adrian fired a salvo at the door, thus
providing cover for Alex, who stealthily moved forward. When he had reached the
door he grabbed a chair and bashed it open. Immediately a shot rang out, but it
was way off mark. Still, it was clear that moving into the doorway was nothing
short of an act of suicide. Through the door we could now hear the sound of an
elevator approaching. Damn! There seemed to be no way to stop her from getting
away.
The elevator stopped and shortly after we began hearing strange noises;
noises that couldn't possibly come from any human being. Alex fired a few shots
through the doorway, but he then put his gun away and grabbed his claymore,
apparently feeling that this was a more appropriate weapon. The sound came
nearer and nearer and I felt the tension building inside me. What in Angel City
were we up against?
Wylde's sudden warning jolted me a little, but I
managed to duck just in time, as a sort of laserbeam or heatray shot out from
the doorway, slicing through everything that it touched. Seeing this the
brothers thought it best to retreat. There's not much you can do to defend
yourself from such a weapon. Yet we all were curious what manner of creature or
machine was after us, so we waited in the doorway, ready to turn and run should
the thing fire again. Slowly it drifted into view. Picturing the thing again I
still can think of no better way to describe it but as a sort of big, floating
fur coat with eyes. It probably was some sort of droid with an antigravity
propulsion mechanism, but it seemed a bit too advanced to be in this Shadow. I
began to get the feeling that someone in the opposition had some power over
Shadow.
There was no time to think about that now, for with
a greater speed than I thought it could manage the thing began to turn in our
direction, meanwhile firing its beam again. We ran, with the thing in hot
pursuit. We reached the stairs and taking two or three steps at a time we went
down till we came to the eighteenth floor. There Alex threw open the door and
rushed into the corridor.
"Go on!" he shouted. "Split up! No
point in it catching us all together!"
There was no time to argue. I just hoped that he
knew what he was doing. Running and leaping we went further down the stairs. One
by one the others ran off until I was the only one left besides Wylde. I paused
and listened for a moment, but found that I couldn't hear the droid anymore. I
figured that it must have gone after one of the others, and I wished whoever was
the target lots of luck. He was going to need it!
Okay, I was safe for the moment. So where did I go
from here? I didn't remember who had left at which floor and I wasn't prepared
to return and search for them. I might run into the droid and frankly I didn't
think I would be able to survive such an encounter. I could of course try to
reach Adrian or Murlas by Trump, but after my recent experiences with Trump
contacts I was beginning to become little more careful. Don't use them when it's
not necessary, that was my new credo. Besides, I might just reach them in the
middle of combat with that droid, which would only help to distact them with
possible fatal consequences.
It occurred to me that it might be useful to check out the point where
those traces of magic had seemed stronger. In the light of a possible
involvement of someone with power over Shadow I felt those traces had become
more important. So downstairs I went to the ground floor, once again with the
Pattern floating before my eyes. I quickly picked up the traces and followed
them through the corridors. At one point my feelings told me to take a left
turn, but as I did I bumped into a very solid concrete wall. I stood there for a
few seconds looking very puzzled, for the magical traces seemed to be leading
right through the wall. I tried to picture the lay-out of the building. Yes, of
course! On this spot there should be an entrance to the elevator from which the
floating droid had emerged. I started scrutinizing the wall inch by inch but I
just couldn't find a way in. Damn! I was certain I was on the right track here.
I was startled by the sudden appearance of Adrian
beside me. He asked me whether I'd found anything and I told him of the traces
and the elevator. He checked the wall too, but he couldn't find a way in either.
"The fur coat apparently went after my
brother," he told me. "When I noticed it wasn't following us I went
back to help him, if that were necessary of course. The lab on the eighteenth
floor was completely smashed to pieces, but I could find no trace of either
Alexander or that fur thing. I don't know what happened to them, but I talked
with Murlas and he seemed to think Alexander would be alright. He said I'd
better take out all the guards that I ran into, so that's what I've been
doing."
I didn't like his measure of trust in Murlas, but I
wasn't going to discuss it just then. Suddenly he tensed. A Trump call. I
touched his shoulder and saw the smiling countenance of Murlas. Talk of the
devil...
"Ah, you're together. Good. Listen, I've taken
the elevator from the top floor and I've discovered a very interesting
laboratory down here. I think you should come over and investigate."
I noticed Martin walking up to us and beckoned him
to come nearer. I had no choice but trust Murlas in this, but if he were to
betray us I'd like to have as many people with me as possible. Together we took
a step forward and then we stood beside him in the elavator. He signalled us to
keep still while he opened the doors. There was indeed a lab behind them and I
immediately saw what Murlas had found so interesting: against a wall on the
other side of the room there stood, in various stages of assembly, several of
those golems we had battled in that red desert Shadow. Alright, now we knew for
certain that there was someone involved with Shadow powers.
While I was trying to figure out the full
implications of this discovery, Adrian was more interested in the lone man in a
white lab-coat working alone at a computer. He sneaked up behind him and quickly
grabbed him away from his keyboard. The man took one frightened look at Adrian
and then fainted. Adrian looked a bit surprised at the limp body in his hands
and I nearly laughed, but I suddenly got a creepy feeling, which grew stronger
by the second. When Wylde also started to warn me that something VERY, VERY BAD
was going to happen I didn't hesitate. I plucked the Amber Trump from my sleeve
and held it in front of me.
"Heads up everybody," I shouted,
"something bad is coming down and I'm getting out of here right now. Those
who would like to come along, get over here while you still can."
It was very satisfying that they wasted no time
questioning me, but ran to my side as quickly as possible. I started
concentrating and as soon as I had contact I moved forward. The others were
quite surprised to find themselves in the great hall of Castle Amber. I
explained that I had thought this to be the safest escape route and they
reluctantly agreed. Martin however was quite anxious to get back to Angel City,
and both Adrian and Murlas wanted to go back as well.
"Remember the time-flow," Martin said.
"Every minute here in Amber counts as several over there."
Under the surprised gazes of some servants we
rushed after him to the stables. With some fresh horses we rode out of Amber
again and as soon as we had reached Arden Martin started shifting our way back
to Angel City. So this what they meant by hellriding. Well, it certainly wasn't
heaven, but at least I didn't have to concentrate on the shifting. It gave me
some time to think, especially when we reached a Shadow with the right level of
technology for us to trade in our horses for a car.
In the backseat I let my mind wander while staring out at the
everchanging scenery. The presence of those golems in the Myrone building had
somehow linked them with the Black Trump business, but I still felt a couple of
pieces short of the whole jigsaw puzzle. I also began wondering whether this
thing had anything to do with the things we had been sent to investigate. As yet
there were no visible connections. Maybe it really had nothing to do with us;
that is us as a group. For it occurred to me that we had come to both the desert
Shadow with the golems and Angel City under Murlas' guidance. I vaguely
remembered Aunt Fiona saying something to the extend that the Shadows one would
encounter while shifting were in no small degree dependent on the person who was
doing the shifting. So maybe we had just found these places because they were in
some way important to Murlas. He was the one carrying the Black Trump around.
And he had also been the one who had found the thing, although I had been there
too. But maybe that had just been coincidence.
Wait a minute. Didn't I say somewhere that I didn't
really believe in coincidence? Aww, nothing seemed to be certain anymore. This
whole thing seemed so complex, with so many of the answers still waiting to be
found. Maybe I was just becoming too paranoid towards Murlas. After all, if you
were to look at it in a purely objective way he hadn't really done anything that
might warrant my distrust. It was just that he gave me this feeling...
I closed my eyes and tried not to think too much
during the last part of the journey. Unfortunately sleep is out of the question
on a Hellride. Finally, after what had seemed as half a day to me, we were back
on the streets of Angel City once more. Martin drove us straight to the Myrone
building, but we found it had been destroyed, probably in a fire. Judging from
the ruins this had already happened more than a few days ago.
Back at Martin's apartment Adrian went to look for
Lush, but she had left without a note. He said he thought that he knew where to
find her and that he would be back in a short while. Meanwhile Martin had found
us a newspaper which told us that nearly two weeks had passed while we were
away. I noticed an article on the fire in the Myrone building. The authorities
still didn't know what had caused the explosion that had brought on the fire. I
learned that there had been several casualties, but there were still a few
people missing, among them the directors Mr. Robert Fox and Miss Elizabeth
Feldrake. Well, at least now we knew their full names.
I decided to get some sleep while we were waiting
for Adrian to return. Before dozing off I wondered what had happened to
Alexander. We hadn't heard from him since the encounter with the furry droid
thing and we had no way to contact him ourselves. I hoped he was alright. With
him and Vincent gone this was beginning to look more and more like the Ten
Little Niggers...