Barry Reese
The Adventures of Gravedigger, Volume Two
Chapter I: Voyagers on the Sea of Death
Bulky and foreboding in the thick night fog, the steamship Geischler loomed over the pier to which she was moored, where busy ship hands were loading the last pieces of cargo into her hold.
The dim lights cast from the pier were kind to the Geischler, hiding the scratched and unpainted hull of the ship. In fact, the lighting combined with the fog to give the false impression of grandeur to the steamship, making it appear to be a mammoth, proud vessel, when in fact it was rated at only eight thousand tons.
Though a freighter, the Geischler carried passengers, sometimes as many as two dozen. One of those passengers was standing on the main deck watching the men work. Dressed in an Oriental wrap-style dress, Li Yuchun was lovely enough to prove a distraction to the stevedores who were hurrying to finish their tasks.
Li was a young Chinese-American girl with raven-black hair and almond-shaped eyes. In her twenties, she radiated a youthfulness that made her especially enticing to the opposite sex.
What none of those would-be suitors knew was that Li had recently been saved from a life on the streets. Now employed as an agent of a dark vigilante, Li had found her perpetual curiosity and fearlessness put to the test again and again. To date, she had never been found wanting.
Li served The Gravedigger and she eagerly assisted in the investigation of crimes both great and small. Gravedigger was actually Li’s old friend Charity Grace, a common street thief who had made the mistake of robbing the wrong house on the wrong night. Killed in the attempted burglary, Charity had been revived by a mysterious entity known as The Voice, who offered her a perverse chance at redemption: become The Voice’s servant on Earth, slaying all those who worked to harm the innocent, and Charity would be given a second chance. In three years’ time, however, The Voice would stand in judgment of Charity’s soul… if she was still heavily tainted by sin, then Hell would be the woman’s final destination. But if Charity had redeemed herself, then the slate would be wiped clean for all time.
Li wasn’t sure how much of the mystical mumbo-jumbo she believed but it didn’t matter. She relished danger and enjoyed the opportunity to match wits with the seedier side of humanity. It was that sort of work that had led her to book passage on the Geischler.
Watching closely, Li observed a shadowy figure moving along the pier. Recognizing the silhouette, she knew that Gravedigger was making her way towards the ship.
At that moment, her attention was attracted by the arrival of an armored truck. It came to a rolling stop alongside the freighter, blanketed by four motorcycle police. The officers remained where they were as the rear of the truck was opened, keeping a watch to ensure that nothing threatened the delivery. A massive strongbox, borne by rollers, appeared as it was pushed from the back of the truck. The thing almost filled the truck and Li guessed that it measured close to eight feet in each direction.
Two large doors formed the front of the giant steel cube and she could see a complicated combination lock that would have looked right at home on a bank vault. For added security, the entire thing was girded with padlocked chains.
Attached to the front of the double doors was a plate that read:
Property of The Sovereign Museum
On Loan
The strongbox was led out of the truck and wheeled into position, where the hooks of a derrick were attached. The big box was lifted up into the air and it swung delicately for a moment before it was lifted up and onto the Geischler. When it settled down with a clank, Li thought she felt the entire deck rumble with the force of the impact. She hadn’t been told what was inside the box but she knew it was the reason why Gravedigger was so interested in this particular excursion.
Li sensed a presence beside her and she turned her head to see another of the ship’s passengers, resting his elbows on the railing. She’d noticed him before, having taken note of his strong cleft chin, well-coiffed hair and expensive suit. He didn’t look like the sort of man who’d be traveling on a freighter. He seemed more like the yachting type.
He flashed her a confident smile. “What do you think’s in that thing?” he asked, gesturing with his head towards the steel box. “I’m betting bars of gold or silver.”
“Why would the Museum be shipping anything like that?” she asked, batting her eyelashes and deliberating seeming a lot more dense than she was. Men had a habit of underestimating her and she often used that to her advantage.
“That plate on the front’s just a red herring,” he explained. “So nobody aims to break into it. If you think it’s just a box full of museum pieces, you’re not going to waste time hiring goons to try and steal it.”
“You seem very clever, Mister…?”
“Whitman. Donald Whitman.” He held out a hand and she accepted it lightly, a false blush reaching her cheeks as he lifted her wrist. His lips brushed ever so gently across the surface of her hand and he held on to it for a moment before releasing his grip. “And your name, Miss?”
“Li Yuchun.”
“Chinese?”
“My father was Chinese, my mother American.”
“How exotic!”
Li giggled, continuing to play the part of a naïve young woman. “And where are you from, Mr. Whitman?”
“Donald. Just call me Donald.” Whitman waved a hand towards the city. He did it in the same way that a man might point out a car or an animal that belonged to him. “Born and bred right here in Sovereign.”
“A local boy,” she teased. She jumped as the freighter’s horn filled the night air.
Whitman moved closer, taking on the demeanor of the protector. “Just their way of letting us know we’re on the move. Is this your first voyage?”
“It is.” Li gave a little shiver. “I think I might retire to my room. It’s starting to get a bit chilly out here.”
“Want me to walk you there?”
“I appreciate the offer, Donald, but I think I can find my way. Perhaps I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“You can count on it,” he said. Li could feel his eyes upon her as she vanished into the ship’s interior.
BECAUSE OF THE fog, the Geischler made slow progress in pulling away from Sovereign City. Li took her time in making it to her cramped cabin, enjoying the novelty of being onboard a ship for the first time in her life. Being an agent of Gravedigger’s meant that she was constantly being exposed to new things, which helped satisfy the urgent need she felt for different experiences.
When she stepped into the darkened room where she’d be sleeping, some form of female intuition gave her pause. Though the shadows were too thick for her to see anything of substance, she knew immediately that she was not alone. Nonetheless, she closed the door before her, a smile dancing across her full lips. When given the chance to face potential death or the warm security of safety, she always chose the former. It would be the end of her eventually but until then, she had no regrets.
Her hand reached out for the light switch but a strong grip seized her wrist and a familiar voice said, “You look ravishing tonight.”
Li gasped as the unseen figure pulled her close and kissed her upon the lips. For a long moment, she allowed his hands to explore her back and hips but then she playfully pushed him away. “You’re lucky I didn’t bash your head in.”
He flipped on the light switch, revealing his handsome face at last. With dark hair, deep-set eyes and a square jaw, Cedric Hendry had originally been a businessman from Pittsburgh. But after meeting Li and Gravedigger, he had become yet another recruit in their war on crime.