Dieter was the only one to have escaped such a fate. He was stunned, however, broken down by the horrors that he had seen. When The Mother of Pus had inserted herself, inch by awful inch, into his daughter’s body, all Dieter could do was cry in gratitude that it hadn’t been him instead.
The thing that wore Sonya’s face turned to face him and said, “The stars are properly aligned.” Her voice was hoarse from the screaming that Sonya had done before her soul had been devoured. “More of my kindred can be revived but we have things that must be done. I will need access to this… OFP?”
Dieter paused and then nodded. The Occult Forces Project had funded this expedition in hopes that he would return with mystic relics that could help in the creation of new super soldiers. “We must return to Berlin. I can get you inside the facility.”
“Good.” Sonya looked up into the gray skies. “I hope you can see me, Azathoth, and that you will be pleased with the chaos that is about to ensue.”
CHAPTER V
The Unnervum
Catalyst felt like someone had just kicked him in the gut. Something terrible had just happened but he didn’t know what it was or where it had taken place. He had just arrived in Sovereign City, eager to make his appointment with Assistance Unlimited, but now he felt drained and feverish.
He strode through the streets, blinking up into the bright morning sun. He had come as fast as he could but it had still taken him several hours to complete his research and put his affairs in order.
The crowds thinned out as he approached Robeson Avenue and by the time he stepped up to the front of Assistance Unlimited’s headquarters, he was completely alone and acutely aware of the silence that surrounded him.
The front doors opened automatically, allowing him entrance. His keen sense of detection had noted that security cameras blanketed the entire block and that many of them were extraordinarily well hidden. It wouldn’t be impossible to sneak up on this building but it certainly would have required great stealth and skill.
Samantha was waiting for him in the lobby. Dressed in a mostly white floral print dress, she looked sweet and summery. The perfume that wafted off of her reminded Andre of happier days from his youth and once again brought up stirrings that he’d long thought suppressed.
“It is good to see you again, ma cherie,” he said, gallantly taking her hand and giving it the briefest brush of his lips.
Charmed, Samantha replied, “You’re looking well, Andre.”
“You’re too kind. I imagine I look nothing of the sort. Even before I heard from you, I’d been aware of something amiss in the magical realms. Now, it keeps hitting me like a wooden plank in the back of the head.”
“Well, you don’t let it show.” Letting her slim hand slip into his, she led him towards the elevator that would transport them to the large meeting room located on the second floor. “Lazarus has returned,” she said. “He’s with Eun and Morgan upstairs.”
“Has he called anyone else?”
“No, but it’s funny that you should ask. Are you familiar with The Peregrine?”
“Only by reputation. Masked vigilante from Boston, oui?”
“He’s moved down South but yes, that’s the one. He called Lazarus around dawn and said that he was on his way to Sovereign. He has these visions from time to time and he claims that he saw something that needs our attention. We’re all assuming it’s related to the rash of suicides.”
“Let us hope so,” Andre said with a chuckle. “The last thing we need is another emergency at the same time!”
True to her word, Andre found the rest of Assistant Unlimited waiting for him. Eun was seated at the room’s largest table, his feet propped up on its wood surface. Morgan was poring over the morning edition of The Sovereign Gazette and Andre could see that the front page was filled with speculation about the various suicides. Lazarus stood silently at the head of the table, his gaze fixed upon an open book that lay before him. Whatever he was reading, it didn’t seem to be lightening his mood any. He looked even more grim than usual. When he saw Andre, however, some of the tension seemed to vanish from his broad shoulders and he walked around the table with his hand extended.
“Andre!” he said. “It’s good to have you on board.”
“I sincerely appreciate that.” Andre found himself equally glad to see Lazarus. Most of his time as Catalyst had been a lonely one and it felt good to be in the presence of people who not only understood his mission but who embraced a similar one.
“I’ve been looking through old reports about mass suicides. There are many stories that connect them to visions and the effects that they have on those who are psychically sensitive.”
“Very true. It’s sad to say that these sorts of things aren’t unheard of.”
“But what does it mean?” Morgan asked. He had a kind of haunted look to his eyes that concerned Andre. “And what do we do about it?”
Before he responded, Andre thought back to what Samantha had told him on the phone. Morgan had tried to talk a young woman out of killing herself but had failed to do so and, given the guilt that the oldest member of Assistance Unlimited also felt over losing his girlfriend to the evils of Princess Femi[2], it all added up to a depressed state of mind for Morgan. “We have to trace the visions back to their source, be it a person, entity or place. Then we can deal with it.”
“Why haven’t you had a vision?” Morgan pressed. “If you’re the Catalyst, shouldn’t you have been the first to sense something was wrong?”
“I am not the man that I once was. My powers grow weaker every day. Soon, there will be another who bears my title. For now, I can tell you that I can sense that there is something wrong, but the visions have not come to me.”
Lazarus sat down and gestured for everyone else to do the same. “What do you already know and how can we help?”
“The suicides are all centered around Sovereign. I found no mention of them elsewhere. Now, we know that the early days of the city’s founding was steeped in the supernatural[3] so it should be no surprise that there are more sensitives in this area than might be found elsewhere. I think there’s more to it than that, though. I think the psychic vibrations are more pronounced here because of The Unnervum.”
Eun blinked in confusion. “What the hell is that?”
Lazarus leaned forward and answered, “In the mid-1800s, a spiritualist by the name of Helmut Lowenstein established an office in Sovereign. Within ten years, he had a thriving business performing exorcisms, contacting dead relatives, and offering advice for the future. Unlike most of his compatriots, Lowenstein was the real deal. In fact, he was known as The Ghost Finder for his skill in investigating hauntings. One of the greatest weapons in his arsenal was a crystal ball he dubbed The Unnervum. He found it on one his investigations and according to his research, it dates back to the time of King Arthur and his court. In fact, he believed that it had belonged to no less than Merlin himself.”
“But Merlin’s a fictional character, right?” Eun asked.
“Yes and no,” Lazarus said. “The standard depiction of Merlin first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae and was basically an amalgamation of actual historical and legendary figures. What Geoffrey did was combine the stories of Merlinus Caledonensis with the tales of Aurelius Ambrosius to create the character he dubbed Merlin Ambrosius. It’s Caledonensis that concerns us at the moment. Supposedly, he was a bard who went mad after seeing the horrors of war. He abandoned civilization and escaped into the woods, becoming a wild man who embraced nature magicks. He created The Unnervum, fashioning it out of what he called The Tears of God — a silvery fluid that fell from the sky not long after he went into the woods. The material hardened over time and became a perfect sphere, one that gave him visions of other times and places and which could also absorb the darker passions of those who came near it, leaving them feeling refreshed and ready to embrace the beauty that God had created.”