A bit later Wolfe was driving his Subaru down Main Street, headed for Industrial Avenue again. The moon still lit everything, although it was considerably higher in the night sky now, but on Main it wasn’t needed—cars were still common, and the street lights kept everything at least dimly illuminated.
The site that had turned up a hit had been a large complex of warehouses, barely half a mile past the pound where he, Shel, and Miriam had slain Ramius and gone to their first dungeon—the werewolf one.
Now, well into the early hours of the morning, Wolfe and Shel were driving to probably stop a mass kidnapping—and hopefully gain the evidence needed to put a stop to the traffickers in general, one way or another.
About a quarter mile before they reached the site, Wolfe pulled onto a side road and then turned onto another road facing away from the warehouses. Then he pulled over to the side of the road and turned the car off.
Shel raised her eyebrow at his rapid turns.
Wolfe smiled at her, feeling in his element again. “They might have seen the car coming at this range—if they did, not seeing turn away would raise suspicions. This way they’ll think we left if they’re there and paying attention. At the same time, it’s close enough we can likely get to it at a dead run, if we have to.”
Shel shuddered but nodded.
Wolfe reached down and grabbed one of Miriam’s gifts—a brand new Edge STI International Pistol, loaded, with two additional clips in his belt. It felt good—just a touch heavier and more powerful than the usual pistols—the nine-mils—without being unwieldy.
Wolfe stuffed it into the belt holster he’d been given and opened the door to his car, exiting swiftly. Shel took her cadet Glock and put it in the back of her jeans before following him out.
“Alright, from here on out, let’s try and keep quiet—but don’t act like you’re trying to keep quiet.”
“What?” Shel asked, half laughing. “How do I do that?”
“I don’t know… walk casual.”
Shel snorted, but neither said anything else as they walked down the road between the warehouses. There were very few street lights, and almost no cars, to light things, but the moon still kept everything dimly visible in shades of gray.
An owl hooted off to the side, and a chill October wind blew down the street.
Shel shivered and then gave a forced laugh. “All we need is rain for the atmosphere to be perfect for a grizzled P.I. and his femme fatale to be in a crime novel.”
Wolfe chuckled, but something she said struck him as a non-sequitur.
“Have you ever killed anything, Shel?” Wolfe asked.
“Well, not a person, if that’s what you mean, although I’ve gotten credit for helping.”
“Well, you might get your chance tonight,” Wolfe said.
“So much for lightening the mood with some light-hearted banter,” Shel muttered, shivering again.
Wolfe crooked a smile, but he was too wound up to do more.
The two of them reached the edge of the main warehouse complex. It was all asphalt, newer and quieter than the gravel at the train yard. On the other hand, there weren’t a lot of places to hide—no going under train cars, or leaping from line to line. Instead, there were ten warehouses, all around a huge parking lot, four to each side north and south with one each on the other end.
“We go around the back of the warehouse to our right, and then we’ll look around the side, between the two near ones, see what we can see,” Wolfe said.
Shel nodded, and Wolfe started an easy jog along the back of the first warehouse, a couple hundred feet before he reached the turn point and glanced around.
There weren’t any trucks, despite the warehouses—just a huge parking lot, empty in the dark but for a single van, almost a perfect match for the one Wolfe had seen the night this whole mess with Emmett’s case and Wolfe’s early return to Noimoire had started.
“They’re here,” Shel said, her voice a barely audible whisper in the darkness.
Wolfe nodded. “Victor said they were, and I’ve found his information to be reliable often enough I didn’t doubt it. Shall we go?”
“Should we pull our companion cards first?” Shel asked.
Wolfe shook his head. “I think we’re close enough to be detected if they have deckbearers—and I can’t make out who’s there in the darkness. But even if we weren’t, Sorenia is a lantern angel. Let’s get as close as we can, guns out, and then pull our decks.”
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Shel nodded. “We have to try and arrest them first, you know.”
Wolfe hesitated, but nodded. “Alright. One warning. But if they go for guns or knives, I’m sending them to whatever idiot realm wants their shriveled souls. At the end of the day, there are likely another twenty people that need saving in that van, and a lot more that’ll die or suffer some fucked-up fate if we don’t take these guys down now. Cerberus himself showed me my purpose, and it’s to end these fuckers.”
Shel gave a nervous smile. “That was almost a noble speech. Almost.”
Wolfe rolled his eyes. “Let’s go.”
Wolfe rushed forward, half crouching as he ran, trying to keep his closest approach a surprise. Very softly, he could hear Shel’s soles hitting the pavement as she ran after him. He kept his gun in one hand—it wasn’t as good a way to aim, but he wanted his other hand free to slap his chest and summon his deck.
He made it farther than he thought he would, closing to within a couple hundred feet before fate itself decided he wasn’t going to get any closer. The same Ferrari Mythic from the first meeting sped into the parking lot, calling everyone’s attention to it and shining a light directly onto Wolfe as it did.
“Deck!” Wolfe screamed, touching his chest and turning to face the Ferrari. He hoped the snazzy sportscar hadn’t had the same modifications as his far more mundane car. Wishing for once that he had more of a hand cannon rather than his new Edge, Wolfe fired two shots at the radiator, based on a tip he had picked up from the police barbecue, two into the hood of the car almost for the hell of it, and then two right toward the driver’s face—where they hit the bulletproof glass, spiderwebbing the windshield.
But the ones in the radiator seemed to go in—the body of the car wasn’t armored, probably to keep its speed up.
The car had travelled almost half the distance to him in the time Wolfe fired off the six shots, and Wolfe decided to work on self-preservation, taking a step to the side Shel hadn’t run, and then kicking back and leaping in the other direction as the car adjusted. He never took his hands off his chest, even as he hit and rolled—now with bullet fire around him from the direction of the van as well.
He saw his cards—an Angry Hellhound, a Lost Hellhound Puppy, Cerberus’ Home for Wayward Hellhounds, the Gehenna Kennel Master, and, of course, Cereboo.
Wolfe had a sudden thought among the gunfire—what he really needed was cover. Cereboo can physically block bullets, I wonder…
He rolled across the ground but tossed out Cerberus’ Home for Wayward Hellhounds. A series of rocks poked from the ground in a circle, and multiple dog-run style cages formed between them, with a central area of cracked ground showing red.
A bullet ricocheted away from a rock.
Rachel Lyons, allied deckbearer, has pulled her deck.
Unknown enemy deckbearer has pulled their deck.
Unknown enemy deckbearer has pulled their deck.
“Joy,” Wolfe thought as he rolled to the rocks.
“Use Cerberus’s Home as cover!” Wolfe screamed out. “It blocks bullets and shit!”
Shel started back toward him, golden glowing cards in front of her. She touched one and Sorenia appeared, her lantern glowing in her hand.
Near the van the darkness coalesced into a Wraith—but this one was larger and more powerful than Wolfe had seen before.
Malik, Soul Devourer
Unique Tier-7, Power-2 equivalent Undead/Shadow Companion
0 Power
Health: 15
Attack: 0
Magic Attack: 10
Defense: 5
Magic Defense: 5
Special: Incorporeal (Immune to physical attacks)
Special: If Malik gets the killing blow on an enemy deckbearer, Malik’s deckbearer gains a card as if it was drawn randomly from a rare Undead or Shadow pack. This only works against deckbearers who received ‘god gifted’ decks on Drop Night.
Special: Considered a wraith for all things that would affect a wraith.
“Malik, Soul Devourer, was once a mere wraith. But a thousand years in the Deadlands, feeding on the souls of powerful departed he was lucky enough to find, has made him into something more.”
Fuck, he has a companion, Wolfe thought.
The Ferrari screeched as it turned, and in an impossibly badass move, a man in a tailored suit opened the door and stepped out even as the car twisted. He flung his hand out even as his shined shoes hit the asphalt, throwing a card out.
A woman rose up, one with pink hair and old-fashioned, ornate, slightly glowing plate armor, with a lantern strapped to her wrist and a sword at her side, as well as wings springing from her back.
No…
Artenia
Unique, effective Tier-7 Divine/Light companion
0 Power
Health: 13
Attack: 4
Magical Attack: 6
Defense: 7
Magical Defense: 6
Special: While in play, all Mortal creature cards gain Divine typing and +25% (minimum 1) to all stats.
Special: The benefits to Mortal cards stack with the other three named companion lantern angels. If all 4 are possessed the card, Zarachiel, Commander of the Lanterns, a 4-power mythic Tier-8 equivalent Divine companion card, will be gained as well as a free companion card slot.
Special: May make an additional physical attack in addition to her magical attack.
Special: Does not suffer weaknesses against ANY creatures that have Infernal, Undead, or Elder, and gains advantage against all the same. This nullifies all other advantage and disadvantages that would normally apply based on card type.
“A particularly zealous and dedicated member of the hundred thousand lantern angels, she prefers to lead the defense of mortals with sword in hand. None shall suffer from evil while she is vigilant over them. Through her zealous efforts to protect the mortal world, she was once permitted to spar with Archangel Raphael, her fondest memory.”
How, by all the realms Divine and Infernal, is a man wielding the Divine to help human traffickers?
Wolfe’s brief reverie was shattered as Shel let out a shriek and collapsed to the ground a mere few feet from the safety of the rocks.
Wolfe stood, his heart frozen in his chest.