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Prague: July 2006 Slow Burn dvd One Fine Day trailer The Ant Bully on dvd The spirits fanned out, the pack of dogs flowing like a fog down the street, around corners, through walls, through doors, through the city. Eldritch walked in the middle of the pack, a casual pace, taking in the senses of a thousand spirits picking up a thousand scents. Sounds of fighting roared behind her, the rest of the team tangled with an unexpected foe, but her goal remained unchanged. “Eldritch!” she heard in her head, Johann Weisz calling out to her, interrupting her focus, her thoughts. “Tommy,” she thought back in a tone that, were spoken, would have sounded like a hiss, “silence.” And she was alone with her thoughts. She stopped, standing in the middle of a cobblestone intersection, closing her eyes and leaning her head back, the ghosts flowing around her in every direction. She thought. She searched. She found. Her eyes snapped open and the ghosts all disappeared but one beside her that turned and ran down the street. Eldritch followed, running, then crouching, then reaching all fours, keeping pace, her teeth bared, her hair falling behind her as she went. The ghost turned a corner, she turned a corner, and she didn’t need it anymore to pick up on the scent. He was close. The ghost dog halted in front of a door and arched its back, growling as a sign but out of fear. This was as far as it would go. Eldritch stood upright, brushed the hair from her face and took a deep breath. The building was a shop, a bookstore who’s sign claimed in English that it dealt in antique books. She could smell not only him but the aging pages inside, the musk of antiquity. She tried the door and found it open and walked inside. He sat at a table in the middle of the room, a book in his hands, turning a page when she entered, not bothering to look up. They stayed like that for a moment, her standing in the doorway, tensing slightly as the door closed with a chime of its bell behind her, him sitting, reading. “I had a feeling you would be the one to find me, Estella,” he finally said, startling her as he spoke. He looked to her as he closed the book and set it on the table. “As much as Weisz likes to fancy himself a grand player in the scheme of things, he really doesn’t measure up. You on the other hand…” She braced herself as he placed his hands on the table and pushed himself up. He seemed older beyond just the years since she had last seen him. Weaker. But she knew looks to be deceiving. “You should have killed me on Churchill,” Eldritch said with a growl. “Yes, I should have,” Erlend Romanov said. “But there’s no time like the present.”
Post Modern #2 Three Years Before… North to Alaska psp A jostle, a jolt, a stab of pain through her body and the darkness split to a familiar face. “Jeffery…” “Where’s Alfonse!” Jeffery Carter shouted, shaking her again, shaking her world. She gasped out of pain, tried to hold back the tears. “Inside,” she said and he let her go, dropping her back on the ground as he ran toward the burning Burke Estate. “Jeffery, please…” And darkness overcame her again. *** The team spread out on the front lawn of the Burke Estate, keeping a watch in all areas but quickly giving the all clear. Dr. William Richmond waived off assistance out of the helicopter as he stepped onto the well manicured lawn and stood for a moment, staring at the burning house. He sighed and started out across the lawn. A medical team handled one of the two bodies, ignoring the other that was clearly beyond their help. Richmond felt a pang of disappointment and loss as he stared at the body of Alfonse Saint Libatique. It wasn’t a matter of liking the man. He downright detested him. But it was with a small amount of respect and a large amount of missed opportunities that Richmond shook his head. “How is she?” Richmond asked, turning to the medics who were moving Eldritch onto a stretcher. “She’s stable,” said one, not looking to Richmond, trying to focus on the task at hand. “Looks like someone stitched her up.” Richmond nodded and looked up, across the lawn to another team that huddled around another body. He sighed again. So much lost potential. And in the distance there was a flash of light from the sky, a lance that tore from the heavens and down into the cityscape just visible on the horizon. There was a silence on the lawn of the Burke Estate, one cut only by the sound of helicopter blades slicing through the air, a stillness that crept over all as they watched light blossom from the city center, growing up and out, expanding, covering the city. Richmond turned away from the sight just as the roar of an explosion never before heard on Earth reached him. He shook his head. So much lost potential. *** “You’re not from here, are you?” Eldritch didn’t lift her head, her chin on her chest, her breathing heavy. Dr. Richmond shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, tilted his head to study her. “Estella Calohan is an old woman living out her days in Foxton, England. You should visit it sometime, lovely place. Yet here you are, same DNA but much younger and with some sort of ability to negotiate with animal spirits. I do not care so much about the ability, Estella. I want to know where you’re from and how you got here.” Richmond leaned forward. “You do remember where you’re from, don’t you?” Eldritch looked up with a snarl and a glare, a growl in her throat. “That won’t do.” Richmond picked up a bell from the table beside him and rang it. Eldritch screamed as an electric jolt ran through her body, pulling on the straps that held her to her chair. And then it stopped and she collapsed back into her seat. Richmond leaned forward again. “Where are you from, Estella?” He jumped back into his chair as Eldritch jolted forward, pulling on the restraints, giving him a guttural shout. He reached for the bell again and her eyes went wide. Richmond smiled. “I take it you’re familiar with Pavlov?” She didn’t answer, just stared at his hand hovering over that bell. He pulled his hand back and folded it with his other one in his lap. “Shall we begin?” *** Something was wrong. As she lay in her room she felt closed in. Not because of the size of the room, as small as it was, or because she was here against her will. No, something else was wrong. The room had no noticeable scent. She sniffed the air and found nothing. She rolled over and smelled the mattress. It smelled of mattress. And nothing more. But there should have been more. The iron of the springs, the cotton stuffing, the liner, all processed, all distinct, they should have smelled. And they didn’t. She licked it. Nothing. She leaped up and pressed herself to the wall. Sniffing. Nothing. She licked it. Nothing. “No,” she whispered, spinning around to take in the room, smelling the air. “No,” she said louder. She threw herself through the room and at the door, pounded it and screamed. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!!” She stopped, paused, listened for a footfall, recirculating air, something, anything. Nothing. She stepped back from the door, stumbled back, collapsed to the floor, balled up and cried. *** “Do you know how long you’ve been here now, Estella?” She didn’t answer. She had no idea how long she’d been in there, but however long it was she had never uttered a word to Dr. William Richmond. “It’s been just over a year. Do you know how many times someone has come looking for you?” She clenched her jaw. He was toying with her. He was always toying with her. “Not once. Not everyone died in Pacific City. There are some out there who knew you and are still alive. They could be asking questions and looking around. But they are not. You were seeing one of them if I recall correctly, weren’t you?” She looked up to him, the smug look on his face, and looked back down. She didn’t move when there was a knock on the door. A guard came in and bent next to Richmond’s ear, whispering something to the doctor, something Eldritch could not hear which made her nearly cry. “Get her back to her room,” Richmond said, standing up and turning to leave. The guard stepped next to Eldritch and pressed a cylinder to her neck. With a hiss and cold rush to her spine darkness came in and she was out. *** She was first aware of the bouncing, of being carried. She opened her eyes and let them focus into the face of the man carrying her. “Johann?” she croaked. “Hey!” he shouted, not hearing her, looking down the hall he was walking. “Does someone want to help us here?” Other hands were quickly on her, taking her from Johann Weisz and setting her on a gurney. She tried to move but was held down as a stethoscope was on her chest, her eyes wrenched open and light shined in them. “Johann…” she said again but she was already being wheeled away and darkness came back over her. *** “How are you feeling?” The doctor smiled at Eldritch blinking awake. “I’m tired.” “I’m not surprised, with everything they pumped into you and all.” “Your accent,” Eldritch said, “am I in America?” “No,” the doctor said, “you’re still in Australia, but this is an American facility. You’re under diplomatic protection.” “What?” “There will be plenty of time for answers later. Right now I want you to rest. We’re going to keep you under observation, see if we can clean everything out of you, but we’re going to have to talk about what they did to you, what we need to do for you. OK?” “Why am I here?” “I’m afraid I don’t have that information. But you’re safe. Just rest for now.” Eldritch wanted to ask more questions but the doctor turned before she could and left. So she just turned and stared out the window instead. *** Walter Shriver pushed a folder across the desk. “A passport and birth certificate are in there. Your name is the same so you should do fine, but if anyone asks you’re from Dundy, Nebraska and the weather’s beautiful this time of year.” Eldritch nodded but didn’t reach for the folder. She had said nothing since she entered the American Embassy in Canberra. Her escort led her to Shriver’s office and left her there. She was just going along with the motions, doing what she was told, still trying to get her bearings, still trying to find her place. “Your flight leaves tomorrow morning. We have an apartment for you in Seattle. You’ll work under the DHS field office there and push papers while we figure out what exactly to do with you.” “I don’t want to go.” “You don’t have much of a choice, Ms. Calohan. Australia does not want you, we laid claim to you, so if you want to walk the streets as a free woman this is your only chance. Otherwise we turn you back over the Australian authorities and they put you right back where we found you.” “Why are you doing this?” Shriver sighed and leaned back. “Have they told you anything?” Eldritch shook her head. “Damn it.” Shriver stood up and walked around his desk, stopped in front of Eldritch and leaned on his desk. “They were supposed to fill you in before they brought you here.” Shriver sighed again. “Johann Weisz made a deal with us back before Pacific City was destroyed. He wanted diplomatic immunity for himself and a few others, you included. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but it has, and now here we are.” Eldritch didn’t respond, just staring at and through the desk. “What am I supposed to do?” she asked. “You’re supposed to take this,” Shriver said, picking up the folder and holding it out to her, getting her to look up to him, “and get on that flight tomorrow morning and move to Seattle and make do.” She looked at the folder. “We’ll get you your powers back. We’ll find something for you do to. We’ll put you to use. These are all things you won’t get staying here.” He leaned down to catch her eyes and did, smiling to her. “This isn’t the end for you, Estella. This is a new beginning.” She looked back to the folder. A new beginning. She didn’t have much of a choice.Kenny divx
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