Night Tale - Chapter 4
"Thank you for coming, Erica." Gaspar didn't have a mood. Only a bloodless face under his cap of tangled hair. The full moon is a very difficult time in the clinic of Doctor van Richten.
"It's nothing, Gaspar. You can count on me anytime."
"Baron von Stolz, let me introduce Erika Nagel, our best specialist."
"I'm very glad to meet you," von Stolz snapped his heels and flashed the monocle, leaning towards her hand.
Dry lips. Spiky mustache. The smell of barracks and burnt gunpowder. A new black uniform hasn’t soaked this smell, but it was in the skin and hair of von Stolz. In blood. Generations of his ancestors were commanders in numerous wars. And they died in them.
But the baron proceeded to war. Guns and machine guns, gases and tanks, it wasn’t enough. He and others are now scouring for new weapons. An ancient forbidden knowledge, which willingly devours all who are in contact with it.
They find it. Lock in a cage. Study under a microscope.
Then someone makes a small mistake. A small miscalculation.
And now the weapon itself is scouring the streets of the city in search of next victim.
"How did it happen?"
Erica's heels pounded a ringing sound over the marble tiles of the corridor. The baron's sparkling boots were minting. Gaspar limped behind.
"He hanged himself in his cell. On the grate. He tore the mattress with his bare hands and twisted a rope. The guard came to pick up dinner and saw it through a peephole."
The Baron grimaced. He was distracted by the presentation of such details.
"Frau Nagel, I doubt that my story..."
"Tell me," Erica snapped. "It's useless to begin the persecution until midnight. He hid. Tell me, any clues are important to me."
She loved stories once she was a small girl. Since then, curiosity has diminished in her. But she really needed to know who she was dealing with tonight.
"As you wish. The guard acted according to the instructions. He called two submachine gunners with sheepdogs and a doctor on duty. They opened the camera to check the body."
Erica already knew what would happen next. Another tombstone of human stupidity.
"Without a doubt the subject was dead. Fracture of cervical vertebrae, death from strangulation. According to the instructions, the body was transported to Block-C for autopsy and cremation."
"And on the way he transformed, killed the guards, and fled."
The Baron stopped.
"Yes? But how do you know?" He looked at Gaspar with suspicion.
"I know." Erica didn’t slow down, and von Stolz had to catch up with her almost running. "Instead of instructions, give excerpts "the Hammer of Damned" manuscript to read it. Especially the part named "Complete eradication of beasts". "When the human body is dead, remember that the Beast manifests itself in two hypostases. Having lost one, it hurries to incarnate in the next, while the Gate of Life is still open for it. "
Next two turns they walked in silence.
"Frau Nagel, have you though to cooperate more closely with our department?" finally said the Baron. "Maybe then we could avoid such incidents."
"I do not want to offend you, Baron." Erica stopped and looked directly at the interlocutor's tiny pupils. "But I will never work closely with people who don’t know what they are doing."
Baron Stolz turned pale. Then the blood rushed to his face.
"What. What do you mean," said confused Baron slowly.
"If I were a man, I couldn’t avoid a duel," Erica thought. "Regretfully. A duel is a good reason to close the Gate of Life for such a bastard."
"That, what I'm saying, Baron. Here, a catch-all example. Do you know what signs you wear in your buttonholes?"
Von Stoltz glanced ridiculously at the collar of his uniform.
"I'm not sure..." he began.
"But I'm sure. These are the inverted runes of Algiz. Runes that predict death. You and your chiefs put your head in the lion’s mouth. I don’t want to be around when it closes."
