Rabid *HF* Chapter 4
By Gene
TWO OPERATORS AT WORK HERE.
SHIFT IN LOCATIONS IS INDISCRIMINATE.
TRAVEL APPEARS TO BE LAND-BASED ONLY, BASED ON TIME BETWEEN SHIFTS.
STRIFE EXISTS BETWEEN OPERATORS. FIGHT FOR DOMINANCE.
EVENTS CAN BE PLANNED OR RANDOM.
ON THE MOVE. WILL TRY TO TELEGRAPH NEXT LOCATION.
PREPARE STRIKEFORCE.
GPA TWB KP
Grover crumpled the fax in his hand and opened his office door.
"Alice, call a general meeting of the Court. How many members are here today?"
"Everyone but Gene and Toby, sir."
"Good. General meeting, ten minutes, mandatory."
"Yes, sir."
***
"People, I sent the King's Pawn on a mission a few weeks ago to investigate what I thought may have been related acts of violence around the major cities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Gene set up a base in Washington and found that there was a pattern, but he could not tell how many were responsible or what the motive was. A week ago, The Queen's Pawn was sent on a similar mission. Her communication equipment was destroyed and scattered over three states. Some was actually sent to an office she maintains in New York, but a trace of the package and the sender revealed nothing. Toby herself remains missing."
Grover brought out the fax and handed it to Alice, who passed it to the members of the Court.
"That fax was sent in a half hour ago by Gene to my private machine. He's finally on the trail of something. He's going to try to let us know what city will be next. I need a task force to be ready. Until we hear from him, I want all of you to look at that fax and tell me what you think. It's not like his normal communications, but on the other hand he may be rushed and trying to maintain a low profile. What can you tell me?"
"I have something to add," Queen Nebula said. Her voice was grim.
"You've heard something?" Grover asked, hope in his voice.
"You could say that," Nebula replied. She put a manila envelope on the table.
"That arrived this morning. Pictures of a crime scene. Toby was the victim. The address was printed on the back of the envelope. I sent a medical team to the location immediately. Toby is alive and being treated at Arlington Medical Center in Virginia. She's comatose, and if she comes out of it, I wonder if she'll be able or willing to work with us again. If I were that girl, retirement would be looking pretty good about now."
Diablo opened the envelope, looked at the first two photographs, then winced. He passed the material on to Strider.
"Obviously the product of a sick mind," Diablo rumbled. "There is a place in Hell for him. He thinks he's making a Hell on Earth, that he comes from Hell, but he has no idea what true Hell is."
Strider shuddered. "He's making a good try, though. If it's a he."
Strider passed the photographs to Gomurr, who was already looking at the fax. Gomurr shuffled from one photo to another and back, studying them closely.
"Where were these taken?" Gomurr asked.
"The Southeast corner of Washington, D.C. Toby was found in the room pictured there."
Gomurr flipped the pictures over. He grabbed a pen and paper from in front of Mufasa and wrote something, then nodded.
"Gomurr, do you know something?" Nebula asked.
Gomurr pointed toward something on one of the pictures and mumbled to Mufasa, who looked, then nodded.
"Perhaps. In the fax, Gene mentions that there are two operators at work, with strife between them. A struggle for control or dominance. When you examine the pictures, you can see two different patterns of evidence from combat. The blood splattered on the wall in this picture is consistent with the patterns you seen in combat with an oriental sword. The blood fans out or arcs in streams. But..." He flipped over another picture. It showed Toby collapsed on the floor, her head a matted mess.
"The damage here was clear done with a blunt instrument."
"That's true," Nebula said. "The doctors said she had several cuts, as with a sword. One of her thumbs was almost severed, as were the tendons for both index fingers. Her skull was severely fractured from a blunt object. They thought it was a hammer."
"Could they tell what kind? Was it a ball peen? Mountaineering? Dry wall?"
Nebula closed her eyes a moment, struggling to maintain composure.
"Sledge."
Gomurr blanched, then looked at Mufasa. The two looked at Grover, then Gomurr spoke.
"I thought as much. Two types of weapons, two types of combat. One is refined, the other simply brutal. This would seem to indicate two men."
"Are you sure it's men?" Cyclops asked.
Gomurr nodded. "No woman could do this. With this kind of force. There's no doubt it's a man. Or subhuman monster." He pointed at the same picture again. "Did you see what was written on the wall and floor?"
"I didn't look long enough to see words at all," Nebula said.
"Me either," said Grover. "I don't have the stomach."
Gomurr laid out three of the pictures, creating a full view of the room. On the floor near Toby's body, the word "Amateur" was spelled out in her own blood with large block letters. On the wall behind her, the words "INCOMING MAIL!" were carved into the wall, then brushed over with blood.
"Calling her an amateur is a big enough clue," Mufasa said. "The guy is a pro. Or thinks he is. Or he was. An ex-soldier, maybe. A CIA operative. Green Beret. KGB. What's 'incoming mail?'"
Alice put her face in her hands. "I know. It's a quote from a movie."
"What movie is that?" Mufasa asked
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre II. One of the killers, Chop-Top, the Viet Nam vet, screams it as he's beating a man to death with a sledge hammer."
The room was quiet for a second.
"Since when are you a horror fan?" Gomurr asked.
"I'm not," Alice said, her face still covered. "Gene is."
END PART FOUR
Gene
Original and Longest-Running Editor
White Bastard/King's Pawn--HellFire Club
Knight of the Long-Necked Bottle
Forbidden by Law to Eat Onion Rings
Selectively Sterile
Wielder of Unbridled Contempt for Humanity