Lunt felt stung by the rebuke, since it mirrored his own thoughts from moments before.
Twining pressed on, obviously having already decided what this conversation would be about. “You want to control us. We want to remain free. Your friend Mr. Gray wants to see both of us dead and gone. I think it would be in our best interest to remove Gray and his allies and then sort out our own affairs. Don’t you?”
Lunt nodded, feeling his uncertainty slip away. A marriage of convenience was something he understood all too well. “He’s only human. You could destroy him easily enough.”
“Given your own repeated failures to do so, I’m surprised you’d discard his threat in such a fashion. Regardless, let me tell you this: we found Whip Marshall and his damsel. We learned of their quest for the Soul Stones. Whip believed that he could cement his fame and fortune by finding them. We followed him to the Xian Caves, intending to feast upon the ancient souls contained in the rocks… only to find ourselves thwarted. The magicks used to bind those spirits are immune to our attempts to devour them.” Twining’s smile became a cruel one. “I’m afraid we took out our frustrations on Whip. His lady fled here to Kalgan and sent her stolen Stone to her sister. All of which leads us to our current situation.” Twining leaned forward, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Right now, Lazarus Gray and his friends are in the Xian Caves. They’re going to find Mr. Marshall, only he’s not quite the man he used to be. Perhaps Marshall will find a way to kill them. Perhaps he won’t.”
“If you know where they are, shouldn’t you be doing something about it?”
Twining reached into the dark recesses of his jacket and pulled forth a cigarette. He lit it with a match and took several puffs before he responded. “I actually have someplace to be, Walther. I can’t be bothered to deal with Lazarus directly. I’m on a schedule.”
“Can’t be bothered… or too afraid?” Lunt said, pressing his luck but wanting to see if his suspicions were correct.
“Gray is dangerous but he’s still just a mortal. And like all mortals, he’s fragile.” Twining drew out the last word, pronouncing it fra-gihle. “Now hear me out, I’ve told you where you can find your old foe. I suggest that you take your followers and head there posthaste. If things go well for you, you might finally get retribution. Or is it redemption?”
“And you’ll be taking off to some other place, I take it?”
Twining nodded. “Yes. We will.”
Lunt sighed, knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop Twining at the moment. He stood up, forcing a smile on his face. “It’s not over between you and I. After I’ve dealt with Gray, I’ll resume the search for your group and Die Glocke.”
“I have no doubt of that. But you might find it harder than you think to find us.” Twining rose, towering over Lunt. “You see, it’s occurred to us that if the Bell can open up a rift for us to emerge through… well, who knows about the possibilities? It might allow us to travel through space and time, to anywhere we can imagine. Or it might allow us to free other entities, ones who would be just as grateful to us as you thought we would be to you.”
“You don’t strike me as the scientific type,” Lunt said, trying to hide the fear that he now felt. “You wouldn’t know how to operate it.”
“It’s not just science, there’s more than a fair bit of magic involved,” Twining argued. “But you’re right. We’ll require help to make full use of the device. But we have Die Glocke, nearly a half dozen canisters of Xerum 525… and we’ve found a man who’s brilliant enough to fill in the gaps.”
Lunt stood silently as Twining turned and began to move away. He had only a small window of opportunity to kill Lazarus but he felt like he should somehow stop Twining from escaping. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do — and they both knew it.
Stifling a groan of frustration, Lunt headed towards the exit, his mind already turning to how he could best ensure Gray’s demise.
The gunshot sounded explosively loud in the confines of the cave. For Lazarus Gray, time seemed to slow to a crawl. It was an experience that he’d had many times before: when his life hung in the balance, everything seemed to shift and his mind went into overdrive. He calculated the trajectory of the bullet, realizing that it was most likely to strike Samantha, who stood just to his right. Not caring that he was putting his own safety at risk, Lazarus threw himself into Samantha, knocking her hard to the ground. The bullet passed harmlessly through the spot where the girl had once been standing, ricocheting off the rock wall and embedding itself in an area of stone behind them.
The other members of Assistance Unlimited were not quite as fast but they still moved with breathtaking speed. Eun spun about, striking Marshall’s gun hand with a roundhouse kick. The weapon went flying out of the man’s grasp and Morgan delivered a solid punch to Marshall’s jaw, sending him onto his back. Morgan settled on top of him, using all of his strength to hold the adventurer in place.
Marshall snapped at the air, flecks of spittle flying from his lips. His eyes bore the telltale signs of madness. “Let me go! Let me go!” he screamed hoarsely. “They’ve got my girl! They’re going to take my world! MY world!”
Lazarus helped Samantha to her feet and then knelt beside Marshall. He touched the man’s shoulder, gaining his undivided attention. The hypnotic power of his gaze was so profound that Lazarus was able to calm Marshall almost immediately. “Who has Maggie, Whip? Was it Walther Lunt? Or Satan’s Circus?”
Marshall made an anguished expression. When he began to talk, the words spilled out in a panicked rush. “The Circus! They followed us here… All my plans — they were ruined! I was going to be famous. I was going to find the Soul Stones and unlock the key to Counter-Earth! But they came and they broke me, they made me tell them all that I knew and then they tried to crack open the Soul Stones but they couldn’t and they got so angry—”
“Where is your fiancée?”
Marshall grew quiet, his eyes narrowing. “She ran away. Took one of the Stones. Said she was going to get help but she never came back. I think she’s dead.”
“What were you saying about Counter-Earth?”
“Stanford, he and Metropolis stole my chance at glory. I could have proved its existence. I could have been rich beyond anyone’s dreams! I stole his journal but it didn’t help me. I had to find another way, another means of passage.”
“What does that have to do with the Soul Stones?”
“On one of my trips into the Orient, I met a man who told me that passage between worlds can be accomplished by unleashing a powerful burst of mental energy. I thought that if I found the Soul Stones and destroyed them all at once, the resulting power burst would send me into the etheric plane. But it’s pointless. The Circus ruined my plans, just like they’re going to ruin everything!”
Lazarus stared at him for a moment before reaching into one of his pockets and withdrawing a small vial and syringe.
“What’s that for?” Marshall asked.
“It’s going to help you sleep. You look like you haven’t rested in days, if not weeks.”
“Just kill me,” Marshall pleaded, his words taking on a whining quality. “I’ve lost my girl and everything I love. Just kill me.”
Lazarus said nothing as he injected the narcotic into the side of Whip’s neck. Within seconds, the man was drifting into a much-needed slumber.
“What the hell was he mumbling about?” Morgan asked. “Counter-Earth? Stanford? Astral project? Was he really that insane?”