The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One (46 page)

“You’re familiar with him, Max. Your experiences will illuminate him in a way that printed text can never accomplish. Tell me about him.”

“He’s a master criminal, with extensively planned out crimes that usually entail some sort of arcane angle. He doesn’t use guns or explosives, though his agents won’t hesitate to do so. He sometimes uses poisonous animals for assassinations—spiders, snakes, anything he can get hold of.”

“He’s much older than he looks, his longevity increased due to the use of a secret elixir. At one time he was a member of the Imperial family but he backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion and ended up on the run.end here He used his skills as an assassin to build a new fortune for himself but then vanished from sight.”

“After I began wandering the globe, I began to hear rumors of a man who had retired from public life. I knew he’d had his fingers in all sorts of crime but I believed he was beyond all that… and I was desperate to learn from the best. So I sought him out, overcoming numerous obstacles in my path along the way. It was quite clear that he didn’t want to be found… but I eventually did it. He was impressed by my perseverance and took me as his pupil. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, he was grooming me to be his heir. He wanted a son, but his relations in women had left him with only a daughter named Koreani.”

“Eventually, I told him I was ready to leave and he gave me his offer: I could stay and join him in returning to the Western world, where he was planning to re-establish his criminal base… or I could face him in final combat, which he felt certain would lead to my death. The two of us ended up fighting and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. He broke three of my ribs, my left arm and my jaw. I nearly blinded him by gouging out one of his eyes and ran him through with a long sword. In the end, we were both lying on our backs, bleeding to death… and then I was somewhere else.”

Kaslov’s blue eyes flashed and he sat down in one of the spare chairs in the room. He idly stared at several weapons in production on the Peregrine’s work table. “You mean you blacked out and someone moved you?”

“I suppose. I was no longer in the Warlike Manchu’s temple, that’s all I…”

Kaslov looked up to see the Peregrine staring off into space. “Another vision?”

“A memory,” Max answered, his voice sounding distant and cold. “There was a woman there, so beautiful… she was his daughter. She came to us both, standing over her father. I heard her talking to him but I was fading in and out of consciousness and couldn’t make out the words. He said something hateful to her and she turned from him, tears in her eyes. And then she took me to someplace safe.”

“Interesting,” Kaslov murmured.

“I haven’t thought of her in years. I think she did something to me. I can feel it, tickling in the back of my mind.”

“A post-hypnotic suggestion?”

“Yes… but why didn’t it come to the fore during my battle last year with her father?”

“Perhaps something in the current situation has set it off, something that wasn’t present before.”

The Peregrine began to check his pistols, verifying that they were ready for use. “I hope that Flynn is as good as you think he is.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to leave the country for awhile and we can’t take Evelyn and the baby with us. Koreani left behind an address in my head, with instructions to go there if I needed to finally destroy her father, once and for all.”

“Where are we going?” Kaslov asked, standing up again, pleased to see that Max was energized once more.

“Copenhagen, Denmark.”

CHAPTER VII

Master and Servant

January 27, 1940
11:05 PM
Atlanta, Georgia

“Kaslov still lives.”

“Impossible! He and his partner Flynn were inside the temple when I blew it up. No one could have survived.” Hans said, feeling the color rise to his cheeks. He was still clad in his Shinigami uniform, though his skull mask was held tightly in his fingers, dangling at his side. The Warlike Manchu was sitting lotus-style on the floor before him, eating from a small bowl of rice. Two lovely female assistants knelt behind him, ready to jump up and serve him if needed.

“Then perhaps he is a ghost,” the Warlike Manchu responded coldly. “I have the Davies house under surveillance. Earlier this evening, Leonid Kaslov arrived in the company of Benjamin Flynn and Libby Raines. The Peregrine and Kaslov then left soon after, visiting the private hanger that Davies owns at the Atlanta Airport. They have now left the country.”

“Davies abandoned his wife and child? Or did they go with him?”

“They remain at the plantation house.”

Hans looked away, wondering what the Peregrine was up to. Since becoming the Manchu’s pupil, he’d wanted nothing more than the opportunity to finally engage Davies in battle… if the attacks against his friends hadn’t driven the Peregrine out into the open yet, what would? Was he really a coward at heart?

“He is up to something,” the Warlike Manchu said, setting his empty bowl of rice to the floor. The smell of incense was thick in the air. “Call upon your father… see if his spectral powers allow him insight.”

Hans closed his eyes, surprised that his master would encourage him to do such a thing. His distaste for the ghostly side of Shinigami’s powers had been well established… for him to directly ask Hans to call upon them meant only one thing: the Warlike Manchu was concerned about what the Peregrine was up to. For the most part, the Manchu had been content to allow his pupil to handle the lightning war against the Peregrine while he stood back in the shadows, making plans to seize control of the criminal underworld throughout the east coast… but now it appeared that he was ready to step forward into the fray.

For a moment, Hans felt nothing through the spectral void… but then he felt his father emerge from the ether. Lars Merkel stood before him, looking sour and resentful.

“Yes, my son?”

Hans smiled at the sarcastic tone in his father’s voice. He ignored the Warlike Manchu’s stare and directed his full attention to the ghost. “The Peregrine is in flight… where is he going?”

Lars was silent for a moment, staring past his son and into the void. When he spoke again, he seemed to have lost some of his anger and a hint of a smile touched his lips. “It’s hard to make out the specifics because the Peregrine’s father is still protecting him… but I know that Davies and Kaslov are looking for the one person who knows how to destroy the Warlike Manchu forever. They’re supposedly somewhere in Denmark.”

“What is that?” Hans pressed, eyes narrowing.

“Ask your master,” Lars replied, vanishing from sight. Hans muttered an expletive in German, scarcely believing that his father would leave without being told to do so.

“You have learned…?” The Manchu asked.

“My father claims that the Peregrine is seeking information from someone who is capable of destroying you. They are headed towards Denmark.”

The Warlike Manchu stood up so quickly that Hans took a step back in alarm. “You must leave at once. You are to go to Copenhagen and stop them. If you must engage the Peregrine, you are to do so. Do you understand?”

Hans blinked in surprise, wondering what was going on. “Of course. But with the Peregrine away, now would be the perfect time to strike at his wife and child.”

“I shall deal with that! Now go! Now!”

Hans turned and strode from the room, a smile growing on his face. Something had terrified the normally unflappable Warlike Manchu…
When I’ve killed the Peregrine and his friend, I’m going to find out what it is that troubles you so, Master. I might just use it against you myself.

CHAPTER VIII

The Bonds of Friendship

January 28, 1940
12:20 AM
Atlanta, Georgia

“So he still hasn’t asked you out?” Evelyn pressed, sipping from a glass of wine and staring out into the starry Georgia night.

Libby blushed at the directness of the question. The two women were both in their nightgowns, their modesty protected by long pajama coats. It had been Evelyn’s suggestion that they stay up a bit late and enjoy some wine before turning in. Libby found that it was an excellent idea—her duties with Leonid sometimes made it difficult to maintain close friendships and she found Evelyn very easy to talk to. “Leo’s been more attentive… but for him, that’s not saying much. He actually greets me every morning when he comes in the office and he mentioned how nice my hair looked a couple of weeks ago.”

“He’s trying,” Evelyn agreed. “He is a handsome man, I’ll give him that.”

“You’re the lucky one,” Libby teased. “Max is handsome, rich… I bet when he’s not brooding, he’s even funny.”

“He broods
a lot
,” Evelyn pointed out. “But I am lucky. I just wish he’d stop pushing himself so hard. I can’t very well tell him he should retire and let somebody else handle it, though… I’ve been there with him when the world was literally on the brink of destruction and he was the only one who could stop it. So I tell myself to stop being so selfish and just accept that danger is going to be a part of our lives, like it or not.”

“I wish Leo could do that… the reason he’s so stand-offish with me is that he worries he’ll be putting me into danger. But I told him to just look around… I’m
in
danger, just by knowing him.”

“We’re all in danger,” Evelyn laughed. “Every day, we could be hit by a car in the middle of the street or struck by lightning or we could be attacked by a vampire.”

“A vampire?” Libby asked, shocked at the sudden intrusion of the unusual into their conversation.

“Trust me, it happens.”

“You ladies enjoying yourselves?” Flynn asked, stepping out into the night air with them. He had opened his shirt a bit, revealing the white undershirt beneath his button up attire. Evelyn couldn’t deny that he was an attractive man but he struck her as a bit too much like the handsome types who hung around the movie sets, getting by on their charm and good looks.

“We’re fine,” Libby answered, batting her eyelashes at him. “No one’s tried to kill us yet.”

“That’s a relief. But then again, the night’s not over yet.”

Evelyn caught the way that Flynn was looking at Libby and decided it was time she headed up to bed. “I’ll see you both at breakfast,” she said, giving the briefest of winks to Libby as she went inside.

Libby colored slightly and looked away.

“Are you cold out here?” Flynn asked.

“I’m fine, Benjamin… but this does give us the chance to talk.”

Flynn nodded, leaning over the banister next to her. “It’s about Leo, I take it.”

“How did you know?”

“Because all conversations with you go back to Leo sooner or later.”

Libby felt badly for Flynn at that moment. She’d done an awful thing, leading him on… “I think I love him,” she said simply, hoping that would be enough.

To her relief, Flynn just chuckled and shook his head. “I’ve known that, Libby. Known it since before you and I had our little rendezvous on the way to Canada a few months back. I just hoped… I just hoped that maybe I’d make you see different.”

“Oh, Flynn… you’re a wonderful man. Someday a girl’s gonna go all soft over you.”

“I hope she’s half as pretty as you are,” Flynn said, giving her one of those dashing smiles that was equal parts of bravado and sincerity. “Leo’s a lucky man.”

“He’s lucky to have a friend like you,” she answered, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. Before he could say anything further, she turned from him and entered the house.

“You win some, you lose some,” he murmured at her back, too softly for her to hear.

CHAPTER IX

The Dragon’s Daughter

January 30, 1940
3:20 PM
Copenhagen, Denmark

Winter in Copenhagen was far worse than Max had expected. As he and Kaslov moved through the city streets, he couldn’t resist shivering under his long coat and protective gear. His Peregrine mask was not in place, instead resting in the left pocket of Max’s coat, but the rest of his nocturnal attire was being worn.

Kaslov seemed unaffected by the snow and cold, his silver hair and icy blue eyes making him look like a Nordic god come to life.

The two men moved along one of the city’s canals, Max keeping a close eye on the many Nazi posters and slogans written on the walls. The city was not far away from occupation and it was a loudly whispered fact that the city leaders were working in somewhat forced cooperation with Hitler’s men at the moment. Like many in Europe, they feared angering the mercurial German leader, knowing that they could be crushed under his heel at any moment. Though many in America wished to ignore the spreading tide of Fascism, Max knew that the fires of war would reach American shores eventually.

Gaily painted row houses almost made Max forget the dark thoughts that plagued him. Shops, hostelries and private homes lined both sides of the canal. Along the banks were moored a series of sailing vessels, most of them covered by heavy tarps to keep the snow out.

The cobblestone pathways had been swept clean not long before, allowing for the two men’s footfalls to echo loudly as they moved.

“How much further?” Kaslov asked, the first words that had been spoken between them since they’d landed the previous night. Max had to admit that he enjoyed working with the Russian, who seemed comfortable with silence in a way that others never did.

“I think it’s that shop there,” Max answered, pointing with a gloved hand to a store with the stenciled words “Rare Books” on the exterior window. The bookstore was in the bottom portion of a two-story building and looked very well taken care of. A fat yellow-orange cat was meandering about the front door, occasionally scratching at it with one paw.

“The daughter of the Warlike Manchu runs a bookstore,” Kaslov said without humor. The Russian reached the business first and rapped on the door without preamble. Both men were uncertain as to what was awaiting them, but Max was certain that the key to defeating the Warlike Manchu was here.

The door was opened by a woman of radiant beauty. She was of Chinese descent, her eyes a stunning jade in color and full of secrecy. She wore a button-up red and yellow blouse of silk, an ankle-length skirt brushing against her legs. The cat darted past her into the shop but she took no obvious notice of it. Instead, she stared at the Peregrine with the faintest hint of a smile. Max recognized her immediately as the woman from his recovered memory… furthermore, he suddenly knew without a doubt who she was.