The House

1

Parker Dundee stepped back and looked at the house he had inherited with three other people. It felt strange to have roommates, but they were stuck together for another eleven months. He felt optimistic and believed in the old saying about time flying.



Parker told himself the house looked better since they had started working on it. Lloyd and Malone had been deft hands at repairs. Parker's own ability had been helpful in its way, but it was more useful for breaking things than putting things up.



He had scraped the old paint off in half the time it would have taken a full crew so he was at least being useful.



"You Parker Dundee?" A man called from outside the iron gate at the end of the driveway.



"I'm Dundee." Parker inspected the man as he walked up to the gate. "What can I do for you?"



"My name is Bell." The man held out a card from a law firm in town. "I was wondering if you could help me."



"I don't understand." Dundee approached the gate, his talent marking things for him as he moved.



"I represent a client who can't sell their house. He heard how you and your friends had started fixing this house up and wanted me to contact you and see if you would agree to help him." Bell looked used to negotiating things, but this seemed beyond what he normally did.



"Let me guess." Parker already saw flaws in the offer. "His house is supposed to be haunted."



"Yes it is." Bell waved his hand at the old house behind Dundee. "Just like this one is supposed to be haunted."



"I can't agree to anything without talking to my friends." Dundee wondered if he was stretching it by calling his roommates his friends. "I'll get back to you after we talk."



"Fair enough." Bell handed him the card after writing down another phone number on the back. "Call me when you can."



Dundee took the card, watched the man walk over to a Ford Focus, and drive off. Another haunted house in town was a big coincidence. Maybe they should look at the place.



Nolan would agree with him. He wasn't sure about Malone, or Miranda. Taking the house had been a battle for the four of them when they first met. Charging into another similar situation might be too much to ask.



Still, he should at least look things over before turning his back on it. It might be something he could handle on his own with his new talent. The others could take it easy.



Still he should leave a message to explain where he had gone in case there was trouble.



He realized suddenly that part of his reluctance stemmed from the fact he already thought this was a trap and he didn't want to involve the others. He didn't want to have to rescue them, or put them in a position where they needed to be rescued.



Dundee turned the card over in his hand as he thought.



This looked more and more like a trap.



Parker walked up to the house. He had a laptop with an Internet connection. Maybe he should do a little research on the attorney while he waited for the others to get home. Then he could hash everything out with the other heirs.



He had a feeling he was involved no matter what they voted on.



2

Parker Dundee spent a few hours surfing the net while he waited for his fellow inheritors to return. The more he delved, the less he liked what he read. The strange feeling that he should have refused the card washed over him.



He was heading into trouble.



The law firm had a number of stories of members facing disbarment and walking away. The rumor that they were actually the criminals keeping scapegoats from jail persisted no matter the lack of evidence. Bell had faced two proceedings but seemed to have retired from active defense trials in the last few years.



Parker's research pinpointed two likely candidates for the haunted house. Stories marked one house as the home for witches, strange happenings, and deals with the devil. He made sure it wasn't the same house as the one in which he had partial ownership.



The other seemed to have suffered a series of strange accidents. There were too many to be a coincidence.



People checked in but they didn't check out.



Carter Malone clumped in, boots thumping against the wooden floor. He was taller than Parker, as wide as a bear, and wearing a John Deere cap backwards. Clear eyes danced as he spotted Parker sitting in the common room.



"What's going on, genius?" Malone took a piece of chewing tobacco from a Levi pouch and put it between jaw and cheek muscle.



"What if I were to tell you someone wanted to hire us to be exorcists?" Parker ran what he had found through the small printer he had plugged in his laptop. He nodded at the papers coming out.



"The words I'm thinking of are 'You're nuts'." Malone looked around for his spit cup. "Didn't you get enough fighting the forces of hell when we moved in here?"



"Something is going on." Dundee shut off and closed his computer. He started going over the papers with a fingertip to mark his place. "A lawyer was asked to talk to us about looking into this other house across town."



"Smells like a set up to me." Malone spotted his cup on the mantle, grabbed it, and settled in the easy chair he had claimed as his own. "Just because we beat one guy don't mean we're badder than King Kong."



"The guys that Bell works for seem as crooked as their clients." Dundee had a plain, wooden chair next to the coffee table he was using for a desk. "So that's my first guess too. I told him I would talk it over with everybody and call him back."



"You're going for it, aren't you?" Malone spat brown juice in the cup. "Even if it is a trap."



"Something has to be done." Dundee continued to read. "I have a feeling that Carey has asked us to deal with everything he couldn't handle on his own. Maybe not ask."



"Once we took the hook, we're stuck for the year the will said." Malone closed his eyes, thinking of turning demons into grenades down in the basement last month.



He had never been so scared.



"We signed on to fight whether we like it, or not." Dundee put the pages down as he thought about his research. "I rather find out if there's anything there and take care of it before it comes after me."



"I agree." Malone's eyes snapped open. "We should deal with it before it deals with us."



"All for one?"



"One for all." Malone smiled. "I'll let you tell Miranda and Lloyd."



3

"It stinks in here." Lloyd Nolan's face wrinkled at whatever was assaulting his nose. "How can they stand it?"



"Working at home." Parker Dundee kept his voice low, looking around the carpeted array of private offices trying to hide behind a reception desk.



"You're too sensitive." Miranda Rambo glared at the lobby, checking her watch. "Wolf nose."



When the four had learned of what their inheritance had entailed, they had sought weapons to help them. Nolan had become a wolf man.



"I don't have Lloyd's nose, but something stinks in here." Carter Malone stood at the back of the group, taller and wider than any one of them. He smiled at the receptionist looking at the four of them with some trepidation. "It's making my eyes water."



"Let's talk to Bell." Dundee led the way to the desk. "You guys are creeping me out."



"Miss, we have an appointment to see Mr. Bell." Dundee leaned on the desk, looking down at the appointment book. "Dundee and associates."



"He's expecting you." The receptionist stood up. "If you follow me, you can wait in a conference room."



"Have you thought about getting your air conditioning looked at?" Miranda glided along the floor, sniffing the air. Nolan was behind her, hand to his face.



"I'm sorry about that." The receptionist led them to a large room accommodating a table and plushy chairs on rollers. "We've had people come out and look for the cause, but they haven't been able to find it. If you'll wait, Mr. Bell will be here as soon as he can."



The receptionist left, shutting the door behind her.



"I'll find your stink for you." Nolan paced the room, trying not to retch.



The other three stared. Lloyd was typically silent and nearly invisible. Whatever was in the air must be driving him crazy.



"Sit down, Lloyd." Miranda gestured to a chair she pulled out from the wooden table. She waited until he complied. "How's this?"



"That's better." Nolan sniffed the air. "Much better. What are you doing?"



"Redirecting the air away from your snoze." Dundee went to the vent covers, inspecting them with his eyes.



"How do you do?" Bell came into the room, file in his hand. "I'm Ronald Bell."



"Carter Malone, Lloyd Nolan, Miranda Rambo." Dundee indicated his three friends as he rapped on the vent cover. "Why come to us with whatever your problem is?"



"Someone I know heard how you inherited the haunted house that belonged to Harry Carey." Bell sat down away from the heirs. "When he heard how I was having problems with this property I'm trying to get rid of, he thought of you and told me his idea."



"What's wrong with the property?" Miranda sat back, using Lloyd as a shield for her own nose.



"There have been a number of mysterious deaths." Bell pulled out some news clippings from the file. "When I show the house, the clients have near lethal accidents. The police can't help me. Other investigators haven't found anything when they look into it."



"We want our fee up front whether we can help you, or not." Miranda tapped the table. "You leave everything on this house that you have. We'll talk about it and give you our answer. If we agree to it, our fee is handed over and we'll do what we can to help you. If we can't do anything, we'll tell you what we found out to pass on to the next guys you want to hire."



"That seems excessive." Doubt crawled over Bell's face.



"Priests are free." Miranda made a hurry up gesture with her hand. "We'll be glad to let one of them try to exorcize your house for you."



4

Parker Dundee checked his notes as he looked up at the house in front of him. His face betrayed the doubt that rolled up unbidden. Something was wrong with the place. He examined the yard before he took another step for the door.



Maybe a sign would be there to tell him to turn around and get out of there.



"I should have negotiated for double what we asked for." Miranda Rambo glared at the homestead. "This has all the signs of a big mistake on it."



"I agree." Carter Malone spat tobacco juice on the ground.



"It stinks." Lloyd Nolan sniffed the air. "Smells like something died."



All of the others looked at him. He shrugged.



"We took the money." Parker started toward the door. "The least we can do is pretend that we're looking around."



"I feel like the Scooby Doo gang." Malone spat again. "All we need is a fake monster to jump out so we can wrap this up and be on our way."



"I wish it was that easy." Parker paused at the door, then used the key they had been given.



The inside of the place looked as decrepit as the outside, dusty and smelling of fungus. Lloyd's nose twitched as he entered. He went toward the back of the house, following whatever scent attracted his attention.



"Maybe we should stay together." Parker started after him.



"I got it, Park." Malone pushed pass, filling the doorway with his bulk. "Two and two."



"Let's search the other rooms." Miranda sniffed. "If we can't find anything, we'll see what Lloyd has."



"It's probably something dead." Dundee looked around. "Why is Bell's firm so interested in this house? That doesn't make sense."



"I agree." Miranda went to the other door off the main front room. "Why come to us at all?"



The house consisted of five rooms stacked together in a square circle. Furnishings and personal belongings were still in place, but in bad condition. They looked at the pictures still on the shelves but didn't touch.



The feeling of wrongness increased as they made their way to the back of the house. Malone and Nolan stood in the back yard, examining the ground. Neither looked happy at their discovery.



"What did you guys find?" Dundee stepped out of the kitchen door, down some brick steps, and started across the yard.



"Graveyard." Malone spat on the grass. "A pretty big one by the looks of it."



Nolan nodded, pointing at the bones sticking out of the ground. They appeared to be animal bones, but they stretched to the property line marking the back yard. Dundee admitted to himself he had never seen so many skeletons in one place.



"This isn't natural." Miranda looked at the three men. "I don't know much about animals but even I know this is wrong."



"Whatever is going on has to be stopped." Malone spat again. "It's dangerous, and there's no telling what will happen if it got free."



"You could say it will kill anything that got in its way." Dundee inspected the ground closely. "It even kills the bugs."



"I say we burn the place down." Miranda eyed the house. "That'll settle things for Mr. Bell."



"That might make things worse." Dundee rubbed his face. "Let's get some dinner. Then we can spend our night and see what happens."



"What do you think killed all these animals?" Malone shifted the tobacco in his mouth around as he forced himself not to look at the scattered bones. "Something specific rather than the haunted house."



"I don't know." Dundee started across the yard, back to the car. "Maybe Carey left something in his notes that can help us."



"Night vigil?" Nolan seemed happy to get away from the killing fields.



"I don't see any other choice." Dundee got behind the wheel. "Let's eat, then I'll get Carey's notes and we'll try to figure something out."



"It'll be a pleasure to burn that place down." Miranda glared at the house as they pulled out.



"Down, girl." Malone smiled in the back seat.



5

The heirs returned to the house after a good meal and a search through Carey's notes. The ghostbuster had not left them anything they could use as far as Dundee could tell. They were on their own.



"So we stick together, find out what's going on, deal with it." Dundee got out of the car. "Seems simple enough as a plan."



"It always seems simple." Malone's bulk let the shocks release with pleasure. "Finding out what's going on will be the problem since the animal killer might want to take us on."



Nolan's other self had risen to standby mode, making him hairier, more wolf like in appearance, and yellow eyed.



"Let's set up in the living room." Dundee pointed at the window. "We might as well be ready for what's going on."



"How long do you think we'll have to wait?" Air stirred around Miranda as she glided across the ground.



"Not long." Dundee headed for the front door. "We're just bigger animals."



"After the sun goes down." Nolan sniffed the air. "Something smells like car exhaust."



"Then we only have an hour to look around again, and get ready." Dundee opened the door. The waning sun made his eyes a stranger shade of brown than usual. They looked almost red.



"After we're done, we burn the place down." Miranda followed at a slow glide.



"Ditto." Nolan looked hairier as he looked around, more wolfish.



"I'll pull the place down myself." Malone chewed on his tobacco before spitting on the thin grass. "We're not letting this stand."



"We have to win first." Dundee frowned as he opened the door. "Then we can think about ruining Bell's investment."



"We'll win, Park." Malone spat again, aiming for a spot just off the porch. "You can take that to the bank."



Dundee led the way into the house, letting the scale of numbers fall over his vision. Carey had passed his burden to them whether they liked it, or not. Still, he wasn't going to turn away. Something had to be done, and they were the ones who could do it.



"Where do we keep watch?" Dust stirred in the heat of Miranda's worry, blowing away from her steps. "I assume none of us are going to even try to get some sleep in this hole."



"We'll wait in this living room together." Dundee turned around in the center of the front area. "All the bones are in the back. If something is appearing in the back yard to hunt, we'll have some warning. If it's the house, we'll be together unless something happens to separate us."



"So we watch out for anything and try to stick together." Malone looked around, pushing his CAT hat back on his furry skull. "Lloyd, it looks like you'll have to keep us together."



The wolf man nodded. His nose should track the others down easy enough. The only exceptions were if he lost the scent to obstructions, or someone killed him.



He didn't plan to get killed.



The four heirs paced the room, waiting for sundown. They hadn't prepared to camp out overnight. If nothing happened, they would do that tomorrow with food to snack on and a radio to listen to as they waited.



Something was going to happen. The air lifted their hair with a static charge, smells of smoke and sulfur drifted in. A heavy clank sounded close and far away at the same time. Dundee frowned, wishing he smoked.



"Something's coming." Nolan's yellow eyes raced around the room. The sun had started its final three minutes of life, leaving red shadows on the walls around the four. Long claws scratched the floor as Lloyd's ears twitched in nervousness.



The front room shook under the heirs' feet as they waited. The floor fragmented into square sections drifting away from each other. Dundee looked around, judged the distance was too far for him to jump to another section.



Nolan leaped across the spreading gulf to Miranda's square. Frost covered his fur as he looked around. He shook it off.



"See you guys on the other side." Malone spat some juice over the side of his platform as he faded from sight.



Strange walls appeared around Dundee. His talent marked places for him in the grit covered brickwork. He looked up, frowning at the cloudy sky. Taller buildings overlooked where he stood.



Dundee turned in a complete circle. He stood in an alley covered in trash, and smoke. Narrow walls led in two directions. He couldn't see the ends.



He needed some height. He suddenly was happy that Lloyd and Miranda were together. She brought out his protective instincts. The werewolf's claws tended to slice through anything that got in his way. That gave a lot of comfort to Parker they would be all right.



That didn't help him.



Parker decided he needed some more height. He didn't know if the others were in this reality. He didn't know where he was. He did know that he needed to find the others as fast as possible. That meant he needed an overview.



Malone would stand out as soon as he started using the catapult on something.



Parker dug his fingers into the brick, boosting himself up the wall. Doc Savage used to do the same thing with his tremendous strength. Of course the pulp hero didn't have to punch handholds like Dundee.



The heir dragged himself up on the roof, getting to his feet with the crackling of muscles. He looked around. A city of packed in buildings spread out in front of him. Some stood taller, some no higher than the first floor, but they formed a maze from horizon to horizon.



Dundee hopped over to the next roof with the intent of getting a better view. One dark tower stood out. What appeared to be a moat of a clear space circled the building. A sign flashed, then went out.



Maybe he could get some answers there.



Maybe something would try and kill him, and he still wouldn't know anything.



Dundee heard a noise like a clank. It drifted from the scattered valleys below. He didn't seem to be as alone as he had thought.



Should he wait for it, or move ahead?



Dundee decided to keep moving. He wasn't strong, or fast. His talent allowed him to strike weak points. That didn't seem that effective compared to the noise he heard drifting toward him. Parker set a course for the dark tower, trying to maintain an even pace so he didn't panic and use up his endurance before he got somewhere he could use as a lever.



Dundee heard the sound of ripping shingles behind him. He glanced back. Something with huge pie plate eyes had decided to come up to the roof the way he had. Only long claws had been used as the climbing tools.



Dundee decided that standing out in the open even if he was running across a roof was not such a good idea. He needed to get away from that thing as fast as possible. It looked too big to maneuver inside the buildings he saw. Maybe he could use that as cover.



How could he get inside?



Dundee jumped across an alley. His preternatural aim had picked out a window for him. He crashed through the glass with a roll. The litter and dirt didn't surprise him as he got to his feet. He went to the interior door to get some distance in case his foe decided to copy his move.



Something that big crashing through a portal that small could only be a disaster.



Dundee made his way to an interior stairwell deciding to go down and use the street as cover as best that he could. He didn't know if he could pull off an ambush that would work.



He missed Malone right then.



The bigger man's catapult crushed anything in its grip into a ball to be hurled. All he had to do was touch whatever he wanted to use as ammo. That would stop this chasing business in its tracks.



A crash told him that his guesses had been right on the mark so far. He decided to go down before the thing caught up with him. Still if it did, he would fight with whatever he had.



His experiences with Carey's will had changed him that much.



Parker sheered through supports for the staircase as he stepped off on a landing. The concrete and steel started to the ground floor. Maybe that would slow down the big eyes.



Parker roamed the rooms, looking for an exit. All he saw were windows looking out on the bleak landscape. He found one with an awning stretched out under it. He didn't want to chance that.



He wasn't a movie hero to risk his neck on a piece of cloth.



The ceiling gave way halfway down the corridor. Dust and falling debris hid the thing from Dundee's point of view. The smell of steam filled the dusty hall.



Dundee smashed out the window. He jumped on the awning, grabbing the edge and swinging over. The ground was only a few feet below. The cloth tore, dropping the heir low enough to let go. He moved away from the building, knowing the thing could jump down on top of him, or try to move down the hall to keep him in view before coming after him.



He needed to find the others, deal with whatever it was, and return home.



Time to run.



6

Lloyd Nolan's ears wiggled as he sniffed the air. Amber eyes regarded the maze with suspicion. He kicked over a nearby trash can, examining the garbage from arm's length.



"Newspaper is dated ten years ago." His voice contained a soft growl of berserk fury.



"What would Parker do?" Miranda looked around at the walls surrounding them. "Get to higher ground to get a better look?"



"Might as well." Nolan looked around. "Something's down here with us."



Miranda grabbed the brick, letting it hoist her up to the roof. Nolan jumped after her. He landed, then helped his friend up with a tug from his giant hand. He was careful not to stab her with the talons on the ends of his fingers.



"I see a big scary looking place over there." Miranda pointed at the dark tower in the distance. "Parker would go there."



Nolan turned her head gently to the left. Pink glows swarmed on a roof a couple of buildings and a hundred yards down and to the right. Miranda frowned.



"What are those?" She squinted to get a better look through the musty air.



"Don't know." Nolan threw Miranda over his shoulder. "Don't care."



The wolf man loped across the shingle, leaping across the open alleys. His human side was slim, wiry. The canine that came out would make a linebacker look small. He paused to look over his clear shoulder. The pink eyes followed at a slower pace.



Maybe they were waiting for Lloyd to make a mistake. He wasn't sure.



"That's a lot of eyes." Miranda pointed as she counted. "I see at least a dozen."



"Fight or flight." Nolan jumped to the next building. "More on the way."



"We're going to have to fight them, and kill them all." Miranda looked around the best she could on her bumpy ride. "We need a place where we can catch them in a trap."



"One of these buildings." Nolan jumped over another alley. He flipped down, kicking out a window. The wolf landed lightly.



"We need to find a dead end." Miranda straightened in his grip, looking around. "Let's use one of these for our trap."



Nolan carried his burden over to an abandoned office. He put Miranda down, then he carved a hole in a wall so they had an escape hatch. Miranda gathered a bundle of paper together, some of it moving with air currents. She twisted some of it into a long strand.



"I hope this works." Miranda pulled a lighter out her jacket pocket.



Lloyd pushed her against the wall. His ears swivelled back and forth. He held up a finger to signify silence.



Something padded across the wooden floor. Sniffing carried to the waiting pair. A small chorus of barking chilled Miranda's blood as she flipped open the top of the lighter, holding it under one end of the paper twist.



Pink eyes appeared at the window. Miranda glared at it, realizing she might have been too smart for her own good. A growl escaped Lloyd. He leaped through the window with a crash. Both of them fell out of sight.



Miranda flipped the wheel on the lighter with her thumb. Fire struck against the wand as the former accountant turned the corner. She had a glimpse of small figures wearing some type of mask. She breathed her torch into a dragon's flame.



The fuel exploded into a wave washing over the masked marauders. Yipping escaped the demons as they fled from the room. Miranda followed them, knowing they could flee and try to come at her from behind.



Nolan had his quarry by the neck, the other hand ripping away the mask. Something fox-like and hideous snapped at him. Then he brushed the face away with his claws. He landed lightly in the street, turning to break open the front door.



He couldn't leave Miranda alone. Parker would kill him if anything happened to her. The delivery driver was sweet on her, whether he wanted to say it or not.



Miranda stood in the middle of an inferno. She turned in a circle. The little monsters couldn't have given up that easily.



What would they do to get at her?



The wooden floor cracked under her feet. She breathed on it. The flames ate through the planking. She drifted down, guard up in case the monsters came down after her.



She hoped Nolan was unharmed. He was usually so quiet, you forgot he was there. Then he came out of nowhere and saved your life.



A large shadow loomed over her. Miranda turned, ready to fire the flames around her hand. Amber eyes laughed at her.



"The next time, it's on." Miranda smiled. "I think I got a couple upstairs."



"Took one." Nolan listened. "Plenty more around."



"We have to keep moving." Miranda took off her jacket and set it ablaze so she would have some type of weapon. "I'm sure the others are looking for us."



Nolan sniffed the air, ears working as he turned his head. His expression, even as a human, tended to be under control. Still Miranda thought she could detect a smile.



"I can smell Malone's tobacco." Nolan started off. "It's this way."



7

Carter Malone adjusted his hat, spat tobacco juice on the ground, and wondered what he could do to get out the mess he was in. He wasn't sure why they had been separated other than it made them easy targets to take care of on their own.



Malone already knew no one was taking care of any of his friends easily.



The trucker decided to head for the center of town. The place reminded him of a maze. The center had to be where the brains of the outfit overlooked things. Then he could have a chat with the man.



Or thing, whichever the case may be.



Malone pried a door open with his talent. He kept the grip on his ammo as he wandered the halls, looking out the windows. Something loomed over the maze to his left. He couldn't get a clear view of it from inside the building.



Malone decided that was the way he had to go. The others would see that and head right for it. It was the tallest thing in sight.



That's what Dundee would do anyway.



Malone heard something moving behind him. He turned, pointing the rotating ball that used to be a door.



"Come out." Malone's eyes searched the musty dark. "We can talk about this like reasonable people, or I'm filling the room full of holes."



Something with too many arms and three burning rubies for eyes stepped out of the shadows. Golden blades glimmered as the air whistled when the swords moved. One foot stomped a cloud of dust from the warping floorboards.



The thing smiled, showing Malone too many teeth that looked like something stolen from a shark.



"Let me guess." Malone stepped back. "You don't want to be reasonable about this."



The statue of Shiva charged, slicing and slashing with the swords. Malone fired the held pellet as he stepped back. The projectile struck the leading hand, breaking it. The heir frowned, wondering what he would have to suck up to stop that monster.



The growling monster struck with its flashing swords, driving the heir out of its reach as Malone jumped back to avoid being cut. The catapult had to admit that his opponent had more reach, and more speed. Grabbing any part of it meant a high risk gamble that might be more of a loss than it was worth.



So Malone grabbed the floor in front of him with both hands.



Pieces of wood came apart from floor studs and nails. Malone's big hands took up more than three planks when he spread them. The statue stepped forward, jumping over the hole in the floor, weapons upraised. A hissing laugh escaped its gullet. Malone fell on his back, raising his hands as the thing descended on him.



Each hand held three orbs. All six smashed against the statue like musket balls. One of the arms came off completely as divots smashed apart the front of Shiva. The demon fell back, trajectory interrupted by the impacts.



Malone grabbed more of the floor as he sat up. He pointed his hands straight out and let go. The catapult's missiles struck against Shiva's legs. Its chest cracked against the floor as it reached for the heir.



"I don't think so." Malone slid forward, kicking with a big foot.



Shiva took the boot in the face. It scrabbled on the floor, trying to gain purchase on the dusty floor. A roar escaped it as it tried to bite Malone's foot before he drew back.



"You're gone, buddy." Malone grabbed one of the flailing hands around the wrist, avoiding the blade sticking out of its grip. The guardian shrank as it compressed into the palm of the heir's hand.



Malone stood, looking down at the cannonball in his hand. He turned, aiming the weapon toward the center of town, toward the tower in the distance. He released the missile. It flew through the window, the next wall, the wall across the hall and out the other side.



Malone moved to the hole he had punched in the wall, looking up and down the street below. No one seemed to object to his remodeling. Time to get moving.



Malone grabbed the edge of the hole where the window used to be, and lowered himself down so he was hanging down a few feet off the ground. He let go, dropping to the ground.



Malone marched to the wall under the tunnel he had created. He created a hole in the wall by sucking in bricks until he couldn't hold them in any more. Then he released them down the path he was going to travel.



Being quiet just wasn't his style.



Malone remembered seeing a hedge maze in a book somewhere, remembered that people thought they were the X-box of the day. He always thought the gardeners had too much time on their hands.



Malone punched through another building. It looked like he was the chainsaw for this particular maze.



The trail he was breaking should bring the others a lot faster than he could find them.



8

Parker Dundee looked around when he heard the crash of a wrecking ball somewhere in the maze of empty buildings and stores. The thing that had come after him had disabused him of the feeling of being in a store after closing.



The others were probably having an easy time of it.



Dundee heard the thing flailing behind him. He turned, not wanting to face the beast. Battling monsters was what Carey wanted him to do, what he had inherited. The responsibility was something he couldn't duck.



Time to get this monkey off his back.



Dundee waited, glad there was only one of the things to deal with at the moment. He didn't want to spend time killing monsters when he needed to figure out how to get home.



The thing glowered at the heir as it climbed down an outer wall. Pie plate eyes glowed as the scales absorbed darkness. It was twenty feet long, with claws and teeth. Steam escaped its joints.



Dundee's mixed vision pointed out weak points along the structure of the beast. Every time it shifted the numbers would move along its body to different stress areas. The thing came on, unafraid of a man as thin as the demon breaker.



Dundee took a deep breath to steady himself. He heard a steam whistle cut the air as he waited. That's when he realized his mistake. The thing was a dragon, and dragons breathe flame or other noxious stuff from their mouths. Standing in one place for the beast was a mistake.



Dundee punched the wall to one side as soon as he spotted a stress point. The bricks and mortar caved in for him. He ducked inside as a ball of flame hit the wall where he had been standing. He ducked down for cover, glad the projectile hadn't smashed through the old wall as easily as he had.



Claws ripped at his shield, the dragon not trusting to run its head through the hole behind Parker. He punched the wall down on top of it. He hoped the collapse would bury it long enough for him to do something to it. The machine shrugged off the weight, smiling as it regarded the human in front of it.



Parker stabbed it in the eyes with his fingers. The lamps exploded as the dragon roared in pain. Glass dropped to the ground as the heir retreated from the snapping jaws, and metal daggers that made up its claws.



Parker waited for it to calm down, standing just out of reach. It couldn't see, but that meant nothing if its hearing and smelling compensated enough to lead it right to him. The breaker eyed the forelimbs ripping the wooden floor. They had to go next.



Dundee pulled a quarter out of his pocket. He threw it across the room, waiting for it to land. The sound of impact swung the dragon's head in that direction. Parker jumped forward, spotted the head swinging back his way. His hand landed two inches from a perfect strike.



Instead of crushing the head, breaking it enough the mouth didn't work at least, Dundee nicked the paint. He jumped back, aware that his coin trick wouldn't work again. It was time to think of a plan B.



The heir picked up a loose brick from the floor. He took careful aim, waiting for the dragon to make a move one way or the other. The steel snake started backing out of the building. Claws scrambled around the hole in the wall to help it.



Parker let it go as he jogged in the other direction.



Fighting was not something he preferred, and he wanted to find the others. If the dragon found a way to get repairs in that empty place, more power to it.



9

Lloyd Nolan moved like a hulking, furry shadow. He led the way, sniffing the air. He had heard a loud crash. Small jackhammer noises followed the big crash. He hoped it was Malone doing his thing.



The lack of other scents but his and Miranda's and the furry oil smell from the things following them unnerved him. Why build such a facade so devoid of life, but keep guard dogs just in case of company?



Was someone coming home to check on things?



Nolan put the thought aside as he picked up the tang of tobacco juice. The jackhammer sounded again just ahead. If someone did check on things, he or she wouldn't like what they were doing to the place.



Lloyd waited for Miranda to catch up and watch his back before he went to the next corner to find the source of the jackhammer. He might be wrong about the source. If he was, he didn't want the thing to see him before he saw it.



Lloyd gestured for Miranda to come up, wolf face smiling a little. They had finally found one of their friends after wandering around lost.



"Hey, Malone!" Miranda crossed her arms. "Look at this mess."



"I'm glad to see you two." Malone paused, holding his load. He had almost fired it at them in surprise. "Where's Parker? I thought he would have caught up to you two already."



"We've been moving quietly." Miranda examined the hole through the building Malone had carved. "We left nothing but footprints."



"And dead monsters." Nolan held up his hand. He listened to the silence. "They're still behind us."



"I already killed one myself." Malone held up his hands to indicate size. "Big old thing."



"Something probably went after Parker too." Miranda looked around, air playing at her feet. "We should look for him."



"Old Dundee is fine." Malone spat on the wooden floor. "He can whip his weight in wildcats."



"How do you know?" Miranda's eyes blazed at the bear-sized trucker. "And what does that mean anyway?"



"I have an intuition that Dundee is the only one of us who can bust out of here on his own." Malone tapped the side of his head with a finger, careful not to release his hold on his ammo. "He's got that calculator thing in his head. That'll take care of him."



"So we need to find him, find the exit, and deal with whatever opens this place on the house in the real world." Miranda nodded, smiling slightly. "Let me guess. You're going toward that dark tower?"



Malone nodded. He took aim, and blasted the wall away. His big hands stocked up on ammo as he walked over to the next building in line with where he wanted to go.



"Quickest way is a straight line." Malone blew out the next wall. "Sides the noise will let Dundee know where we are."



"It also lets the hunting party know where we are too." Nolan looked down the alley. "They're getting closer."



"We ambushed them once." Miranda followed his gaze with her own. "Maybe we can do it again."



"I'm for that." Malone picked up bricks that compressed into his projectiles. "No use letting them follow us all over the place."



"I can hear about seven or eight of them." Nolan listened with his eyes closed. "They are packed together down the line. Something big is coming up behind them. I can't tell what it is."



"Doesn't matter." Malone looked around. "If they're smart, they'll split up and come at us from both sides."



"From above too." Miranda grabbed some wood displaced by Malone's blasts. "They are agile monkeys."



"Well, let's take to the roof for a better view." Malone entered the empty office, and found a familiar set of stairs leading up. "I don't like the way everything looks the same. It's easy to get lost when there are no landmarks."



"I don't like the fact that our only landmark is laid out like a trap." Miranda glided up the stairs behind him, wood under her arms.



"Come here, come here, rats in a maze." Malone's falsetto tone wasn't pleasant to the ears.



Carter Malone wished he had a better idea than a showdown on a roof on a building that looked like every other building around under a starless darkness with things that could be faster than he was. Since he didn't, he loaded his hands with ammo and waited for the battle to come to him.



That was the best he could come up with at the moment.



"The small ones decided to surround us while the big one is coming from that end of the building." Nolan waited as patiently as Malone. He had trained to fight, just not enemies like the little masked guys and whatever had hooked up with them.



"I'll take the big one." Malone waited, hands at his sides. "You guys take the little ones if they come up here after us."



"Got it." Miranda held her lighter in her hand. Wind whipped her hair behind her as she glared at her side of the roof. "Let's get this done before more of them show up."



A giant head appeared over the edge of the roof. It looked like a lizard, or maybe a big snake to Malone. Then he let loose his buckshot before the rest of it scrambled up. The round orbs ripped the head apart, releasing a cloud of steam into the air before it crashed down in the alley below.



The small goblins in their fox masks scrambled up on the roof. Some came up from the access the heirs had used. Some clawed their way up from the windows, gripping the brick in their claws.



They didn't know they were about to die.



Nolan bounded forward, raking his own claws along the shorter things in front of him as they tried to swarm his furry bulk. His talons cut through them in a series of swipes, releasing the foul smell of decomposition into the air. He covered his nose as he kicked the last one over the side when it tried to bite him on the leg.



Miranda flicked her lighter to life, breathed on the flame, and rolled the dragon breath over anything that wasn't Malone and Nolan. Shingles exploded as the roof caught fire. Her masked hunters tried to get to her before she focused on them. They ran into a wave of fire that dumped them off the arena in fiery bits.



"So much for that." Miranda shut the lid on her lighter. "I'm so tempted to burn this place down."



"Can you make the fire bigger?" Nolan looked down at some of the cuts that bled themselves clean before they closed. He hoped he hadn't just been poisoned by some unclean thing. "Really bigger."



"Lloyd's right." Malone smiled, spat his dried leaves out on the flames that were already going. "Dundee will see a beacon like that for sure."



"Why didn't I think of that before?" Miranda waved the men back out of the way before blowing on the flames, building them up. "This will attract anything else in the neighborhood, but at least we'll finally be facing it together."



"We were trying to be sneaky." Nolan pointed out. "If we're going to fight, we might as well have all the light we can."



The bonfire reached into the sky, casting foul smelling smoke and cloudy light across the maze town. No one had done that before. No one had dared. Most had arrived alone and outgunned. Setting fire to the one thing promising concealment hadn't seemed wise when they were sneaking around, trying to avoid any hunter.



Malone fished out some fresh tobacco and put it in his mouth as he looked around. He sensed a change in the air, but didn't know what. They had taken the first team pretty handily. He wondered what was next?



"I hear wings." Nolan looked around. "Giant wings."



"Let me get some ammo, Lloyd." Malone spread his hands over the shingles. "Just point it out to me when it gets close."



"Maybe the fire wasn't such a good idea." Miranda held her lighter ready.



Nolan pointed up in the air. Malone followed where he pointed with his eyes and let go with the compressed shingles. Sparks denoted impact but the small material didn't have enough stopping power against whatever he had hit.



He knew he had hit it from the shower of sparks falling from above.



Malone needed something bigger to use as ammo. Unfortunately his talent wouldn't suck in a whole building like the one he was standing on.



"I think we should run." Miranda put the lighter away.



Nolan picked his two friends up in his arms and jumped off the roof of the building. He landed lightly, running away from the wings with his wolfish speed. Malone bawled, but Lloyd didn't stop.



10

Parker Dundee spotted a column of flame blooming a few blocks over, and smiled. The thing he had battled hadn't seemed interested in destruction on that scale. It had to be the others. He started running, mindful of running into another dragon like the one he had blinded.



He didn't want to get killed because he wasn't watching where he was going.



Parker saw the others running, and ran after them, calling as he went. He heard something in the air, looked for whatever made that commotion, and saw gleaming wings. He saved his breath for running faster.



The wings were carrying something huge to the street. Parker didn't want to be where those big appendages dropped. The stage dressing around him was about to suffer. He didn't need his special vision to tell him that.



Parker jumped at the last moment before touchdown. Buildings on either side of him collapsed under the weight of the thing. It looked like the heirs had been scaled up on who they had to take down.



Dundee picked himself up as lightning descended from on high. He threw himself out of the way as the beam cut through more of the housing. There had to be something he could do to shut that thing up before it barbecued him.



One of Malone's projectiles smacked into where Dundee thought a head should be. The only thing the heir could see himself were those wings beating the air into a wind blowing dust and dirt everywhere.



Parker's unique vision settled on what appeared to be a dog's paw. The paw was bigger than Parker was tall. That didn't matter. The fact that Dundee could reach the paw did matter. That, and the fact that he could break anything he could reach.



That gave him an opening he could exploit.



Parker charged between strokes of lightning. Malone seemed to have attracted its attention with his hurling bullets. The heir got as close as he could to the paw. Then he brought one fist down as hard as he could. Something cracked under his hammer blow.



The monster lifted its paw, limping back in pain. Lightning descended on whatever had stung it. It didn't see what had hurt it for the first time since the grounds had been set up. This was the first time prey had been worthy of it leaving its kennel.



Parker waited for the right moment before attacking the other paw. The snap of bone told him he had succeeded in limiting the thing's ground mobility. Two broken forelegs meant it had to fly if it wanted to catch any of the rabbits in the maze. If he could get the wings, the goliath would be a sitting duck for Malone to use it as a bullet.



How could he get to the things?



Parker ran into a surviving building that was standing nearby and headed for the roof. He approached the edge of the wings as the thing belted out another ribbon of electricity. Quickness had never been his strong suit. He jumped on the wing, landing on large glowing feathers. He hung on while numbers shifted to a pressure point he could destroy. One punch lamed the wing, sent the giant behemoth skittering sideways. His fingers lost their grip, sending him plummeting to the cobblestones below.



Parker hit a leg on his way down. He used the fur to slow his fall enough to where he could push off for a roof to land on safely. His arm and leg took the blow, but the pain told him that he hadn't broken anything on himself. A glowing furnace dropped down as he tried to pick himself up. He looked up into angry eyes that seemed full of hateful streamers.



So this was how the road ended.



Parker rolled for it as the roof he was on went up in a blast of revenge. He hit the edge, dug into a wall with his working hand. Then he dropped, using his fingertips to dig in enough to slow down so he wouldn't be killed when he hit the street.



The building exploding threw him clear. He laid stunned as the mouth adjusted its aim. Lightning marked out bared teeth as the thing growled.



Malone turned at the wave of destruction behind him and his two friends. Buildings fell to rubble. That brightened his day somewhat. He grabbed a loose brick and fired it in the air. He wasn't sure if he had hit anything.



"What in the world is that?" Miranda halted her glide, dust falling around but not on her. "All I can see is wings."



"It's coming this way." Nolan looked around. "We're going to have to fight."



"I don't think I've grabbed anything that big before." Malone grabbed and released another brick. "It's certainly leveling that one spot. I wonder why."



"After something." Nolan shielded his eyes with a furry hand. "I can't see what."



"It has to be Dundee." Miranda clenched her hand. "We have to go back and help him."



"I'll do it." Malone grabbed a pile of loose debris in his hands. "You guys get to the tower. We'll hook up with you there."



"You can't go alone." Miranda held up her lighter.



"Go." Malone started running forward. "You might be able to find something there to crack this."



Nolan grabbed Miranda and took off the other direction, running on threes until he shifted her body to a shoulder so he could use his other hand. He ignored the beating fist on his back as he scaled to the top of the maze wall and started jumping across the alleys. The tower had a few flickering lights in the darkness ahead.



"I'm not happy with you right now." Miranda shouted.



Nolan shrugged. Those things happened.



Malone went the other way, firing anything that came to hand as he jogged alone. If he lived, he vowed to start jogging, anything to make running easier. He had a feeling he would be doing a lot of it for one reason, or another.



The winged beast, taller than the maze around it, turned its gaze on the human catapult. It directed its glowing maw at the trucker. Lightning shot out to end his annoying blasting. The tiny target jumped out of the way at the last moment.



The monster reared up to adjust its aim. The wounds inflicted on it hampered its mobility. It couldn't even claw the human the way its front paws had been broken. It turned its gaze for a second on the fallen human at its feet. Then it looked for its other enemy.



Malone had vanished out of the alley.



The winged monster frantically snaked its horse's head back and forth. Where could its prey gone? It staggered forward, glaring into the broken windows of the closest buildings. The quarry would not get away.



A barrage came in from the left, rocking it back on its haunches. Then Malone jumped from a hole he had carved in a wall by sucking in a section of bricks. His hands gripped the slimy fur.



The beast started shrinking in his hands. He rode the compressing mass until he reached the ground. The end result was a sphere roughly the size of a weather balloon, and the feeling his hands were going to explode at the end of his wrists. The trucker turned and let the ball go. Everything in its path turned into a demolished cloud of dust until it ran out of power.



Malone stared at the devastation. He looked around. Nothing was in sight. Maybe he should go before something did show up.



"Carter Malone, you just blew up Oz." Dundee had got to one knee. "What's next?"



"We're going to Disneyland." Malone grabbed his friend under an arm and shouldered him to his feet. "Let's get out of here before something else shows."



"What about the others?" Dundee stared at his feet to make them do something that looked like he was walking instead of being dragged through the dusty, deserted streets.



"They're meeting us at that tower." Malone looked around as he ran. "Any ideas?"



"Don't get eaten is high on my list." Dundee found his legs supported his weight more. He tested it out and found he could actually make them work. He started jogging beside Malone, afraid to fall.



He might not get back up if he did drop on his face in the road.



"I'm with you there, bud." Malone looked back. "I can't believe what I just did."



"You saved my life." Dundee closed his eyes. "Thanks."



"No big." Malone paused in a cross street to get his bearings, then turned and began tracing his way toward the tower. "We need to hook up with the others and see what we can find out at that tower thing. I don't want to be in this hole longer than I have to be."



"There might not be a way out." Dundee's words were a slur. "We might be stuck."



"Don't say that, Park." Malone glanced at his friend's face. He didn't like the way the guy seemed to be out of it. "Think of something."



"I'll try." Dundee's head drooped. It bounced on its own, as he started to snore.



"Awesome." Malone shook his head, glad to see the round column of grayness ahead. The others would be waiting for him. Then they could revive Parker and get back in the game.



Malone smiled when he saw Nolan waving at him, Miranda on his shoulder.



11

"I can't believe you guys." Miranda glared at Malone and Nolan. Malone looked abashed. Nolan just looked at her, ears forward, tongue hanging out as he panted. "We're supposed to be sticking together."



"We're together now." Parker looked up at his friends. He realized they had sought cover in the shadow of a building blocking their way to the tower. "Why the hunting of us?"



"Food." Nolan's voice growled. "Some kind of resource."



"For fun too." Malone spat on the ground. "That thing with the arms enjoyed coming after me."



"So they started small, then went to something huge." Dundee got to his feet, taking a breath to steady his dizzy head. "Why the sudden change?"



"I don't know about that." Malone adjusted his hat. "Maybe overcompensation."



"Maybe the natural cycle." Miranda flecked some lint off her pants. "First the little ones get the chance to soften us up, then a big one comes out if the little ones don't work."



"Or it could be a bigger one to replace the one we beat." Dundee took another breath. He felt much better. "How long does that take?"



"Why Parker?" Miranda looked around. "Why do you have to say the worst thing possible?"



"It's a gift." Dundee smiled, then winced. "So what's our plan?"



"I think we're agreed to look at that tower thing, and find out what's going on." Malone turned to look up at the bulky columns and railings overhead. "It's the only thing different about this maze."



"Something's coming." Nolan sniffed the air. "Something smelly."



"That's exactly what we need." Miranda sniffed the air, sniffed again. "It smells like a skunk."



"Let's start walking." Dundee led the way to the corner. "Miranda, get your lighter ready in case we need it."



The tower stood in a cleared plaza of long grass and broken concrete stepping stones. It reached up into the starless sky, becoming one with it at some point because of its color. Small sparks drifted along some of the railings of the steps that ran around the outside of the giant cylinder. Access to the staircase was a red gate with a lock bar closed against intruders.



"Looks like a giant drill bit." Nolan turned to face behind them. "Big stinky is coming up fast."



"A drill bit?" Malone grabbed the gate, compressed it in his hand. "I guess it does."



"I think we should start climbing before the smell kills us." Miranda tried to push pass Malone to start up the steps. The big man blocked her with his gargantuan girth, and started up.



"Hey!" Miranda held up her lighter. "That wasn't cool."



Dundee pushed pass, taking the second man slot. "We need your air power to keep that cloud from reaching us before we climb far enough it doesn't matter."



Nolan started up the stairs, eyes looking out on the maze they had vacated. He waited for Miranda to start up after him. One hand covered his nose as he climbed.



Malone led the group up the stairs, frowning at the decorative statues he spotted ensconced in alcoves on their path. He paused once to look at one. He didn't like the agony carved on its face.



"Creepy statues." Malone kept his eyes straight ahead.



"I don't think so." Parker spared a glance as he huffed after his friend.



"Don't say it." Miranda looked up, then back out over the railing. "Don't think it."



"You have got to be kidding me." Malone spat over the side of the railing. "Frozen people?"



"Just like Han Solo." Dundee looked out over the endless array of orange brick and red shingles with a frown. The higher they went, the more the numbers told him all paths led to where he was standing. That's where the hunters wanted them to go.



Let's see if we can beat their trap and get out of this.



"Let's put an end to this." Dundee pushed on.



The climb made Dundee wonder why he had decided he should be carrying on Carey's legacy. He should have kicked back and told Bell to get lost. At least that's what his legs told him with aching fury.



"We're almost there." Malone held up his hands. "Let's take a breather before we pass out."



"That's a long way down." Miranda leaned on the railing. "I think we left that smell at the bottom."



"Probably didn't want it smelling up whatever's at the top." Malone smiled. "Must be a pain to get out of the furniture."



"Any bets on what's waiting for us at the top?" Dundee rubbed his legs. "I say evil demon."



"Vengeful ghost." Malone checked his watch.



"Relic from some lost civilization." Nolan's wolfish face seemed to grin.



"Grow up." Miranda crossed her arms as she glared at the others. "All right. I'll take a Frankenstein. What's the bet?"



"Chores for a month." Dundee smiled.



"I'll take that action." Miranda pushed ahead of the group. "Let's see who won."



Miranda jumped the last two stories with her air power. She landed lightly at the top of the tower. That forced Nolan to grab his two other friends and jump up after her, using the railing as handholds. He landed, dropping Malone and Dundee on their feet.



"I'm so glad to have visitors." The slim figure sitting on a chair surrounded by control panels screamed mad scientist. Not even the third eye, or the two horns in the middle of his forehead detracted from that impression. "I have so few over the years."



"Maybe if you didn't turn them into statues when they got here, that might not be a problem." Miranda held her lighter up in front of her. "Let's get to whatever master plan involves killing as many as you have."



"I needed their juice." The horned doctor leaned forward. "That's what I use to power my drill, and keep my pocket from folding in."



"That's over." Miranda flicked the flame to light. "I want you to shut this down, and return us to the world. No more killing."



"I'm afraid that is quite impossible." The doctor stood, spreading his hands to say he was harmless. "I can't give up my research because some female declares it."



"We're not giving you any choice." Malone spat on the gray cylinder top. "You're leaving death in your wake and it's affecting our world. We don't want to be here, and we don't want you to keep grabbing victims for something that doesn't mean anything."



"It means everything to me." The doctor's third eye caught fire. "I've spent centuries and I won't have some baboon deny my work's purpose."



Energy speared out at the truck driver, reaching from the depths of the doctor's mind through his eye. Malone threw himself to one side. He released the door ball in his hand. It missed the mastermind, striking his chair. Miranda blew on the flame from her lighter. The dragon's breath burned the air, but hit a bubble around the mad scientist.



"Keep him busy, Lloyd." Dundee started running to the consoles. Nolan bounded from the edge of the roof to where the bubble glowed to keep him from doing something hostile to the doctor. His talons struck sparks from the protective field as he pushed his quarry off balance.



Dundee ignored the ferocity of Lloyd's attack as he looked at the screens floating on rods sticking out of the drill's exterior. He couldn't make sense of the language. He hadn't run over to read the screens.



He was there to break them with his hands. As long as the drill couldn't be controlled, it couldn't suck the unwary into the death trap maze. That was a win in his book.



Dundee sliced through the screens with the edge of his hands. They cracked and shattered under the stress of his attentions. He smiled at the smoke drifting in the air.



"What did you do?" The doctor stared at Dundee, erupting fire. The heir ducked under the violent stream.



"We're shutting your tinker toy down, nitwit." Malone had his hands on the flat roof of the tower. It flowed into his hands, pulling the cover off the drill. Everyone had to think fast to avoid falling down in the guts of the machine. Blood poured into his eyes from the strain of compressing so much material into a ball of energy.



"What are you doing?" The doctor raised his hands. The bubble glowed.



"Signature move." Dundee used the revealed metal scaffolding to get out of the way.



Malone pointed the compressed mass at the horned doctor as he released his fiery gaze. The trucker let go of the projectile, sending it into the beam. The ball split the energy stream before it hit the bubble. The impact sent the doctor flying across the sky, and toward the ground.



"If there's a slim chance he could have survived that, I say we keep working on breaking this thing down." Dundee looked down inside the hole uncovered by Malone. "Breaking the inner workings should net us something."



Nolan dropped down inside the device, claws raking through delicate machinery with ease. They could hear the sound of flying parts from the top.



"He's into the werewolf thing way too much." Miranda looked down the hole. "I don't think my powers will help."



"Don't worry about it, Merry." Malone started climbing inside the machine. "You can deal with the big ugly while we're doing this."



"Thanks a lot." Miranda quickly followed, the air making her lighter as she went.



Parker Dundee descended into the bowels of the complex machinery. His hand entered weak points as he passed. Sections of the giant drill broke off. Parker made sure to push them away from him and his comrades.



Somewhere below, Lloyd Nolan noisily pulled things from the walls of the inner chamber and sent it below. The crashing rang upwards like hammer blows.



Carter Malone grabbed whatever he could reach. Sections of the walls disappeared as he stocked up ammo and released it. The dark sky gleamed through the holes.



"Look for a central core." Dundee pushed a section of the wall away. The slab fell over the railing, overbalanced and was gone. "We break that and this thing won't work no matter what."



"I think I see it." Nolan's words sounded like a lonesome howling. "Looks like a crystal."



"Hold on." Dundee used his ability to slide down the interior of the device to join his comrade. He smiled when he saw what his friend had found.



Miranda floated down to join them. She stood beside Nolan. A tissue came out of her pocket and went in his furry paws. She touched her mouth with fingers. He growled but wiped the foam from his lips with the tissue.



Dundee looked around, smiling slightly. He started snapping pipes, wires, anything that went into the tube with the crystal floating inside it. The chamber came out of its supports after he worked his magic along the restraining clamps. Nolan's large paws held the tube up so it wouldn't smash into the ground.



"What do we do with it now?" Miranda stepped back to be out of the way.



"We do what we always do." Dundee examined the outside of the cylinder, and its floating prize. "We wreck it."



Dundee drove his hand into the holding chamber. Stress fractures spread from the first blow, opening a ripple of cracks as he pulled back his hand. He struck again. Slime drifted from the hole he created and floated upwards. It seemed thin and smelt dead.



"What is that?" Miranda swept air up to carry the ooze away from them.



"Leftover juice." Dundee waited for the slime to finish trailing from the chamber before reaching in and grabbing the crystal. He crashed it against the palms of his hands, breaking it apart.



"What was that?" Malone dropped down to join the group around the empty holding cell.



"Leftover juice." Dundee looked around. "That felt good, but it won't get us out of here."



"I wonder if we can finish wrecking this place from the outside." Malone looked at the damage already done. "I think I can drop this thing like a tree."



"Sounds good to me." Miranda looked around. "I would like to wipe that smugness off the juice man's face."



"I think Malone did that already." Dundee began to slice a path through the wall, machinery, everything in his way. "Let's get out of here so Malone can work more of his magic."



Dundee's hands ripped a hole through the exterior wall. He took the time to look outside before jumping down. They were still several stories above the ground. That was good. He stepped out on the stairs and started down.



Lloyd grabbed the rail and jumped down. His ears worked around as he listened for anything else that shouldn't be there. Miranda dropped down beside him, using the air as a slide. Dundee dropped clear of the stairs as Malone stepped out in the dusty air.



"If I had known I was going to do this, I would have saved myself a climb." Malone came down the stairs.



"Do you really think you can knock it over?" Miranda looked at a glow on the horizon.



"Does a bear crap in the woods?" Malone rubbed a still red eye. "I just need to figure which direction I want it to fall."



"Better hurry." Miranda pointed. "I think Mr. Wonderful is coming back for round two."



"I thought he was done." Malone looked at the glow. "He must be a lot tougher than that demon guy we beat."



"Do what you got to do." Dundee clapped his hands together. "We'll try to hold him off."



Malone grabbed the base of the drill just above where it stuck out of the ground. His talent pulled a section of the wall away from its infrastructure. He released his missile into the tower, blowing out its innards as it passed.



One more, two more and it's coming down.



"You vandals!" The horned doctor dropped out of the sky. His snazzy lab coat and pressed trousers had been ripped from the earlier explosion. "What are you doing? That drill took me years to build and perfect."



"Lloyd?" Dundee got in front of Malone to let him do his job. He felt that the tower was the key to everything. If it was destroyed, maybe that would stop the master plan. Bad guys always seemed to have a master plan.



The werewolf leaped at the doctor, claws slashing against the protective bubble. The horned scientist tried to catch him with a blast. Nolan was too quick for that.



A wall of dirt and cobblestones smashed against the protective screen. The doctor went down under it like a sacked quarterback. The dirt settled over him, covering his cage before solidifying into solid stone.



"That was awesome." Dundee smiled.



"My power works a whole lot better when I have all of the elements around me." Miranda stepped back from the instant hill. "I don't know how long it will hold him."



"It doesn't have to hold him long." Dundee glanced at the tower, vision lighting up a myriad of stress points. "Malone is almost done."



The improvised grave ripped open like an egg holding a birthing chick. The horned doctor stuck his head out. He looked up at Lloyd Nolan's growling face. He couldn't raise his shield fast enough to stop claws ripping through him.



"Timber!" Malone stepped one way as the tower started to fall. Nolan had to pull Miranda and Dundee to safety as the machine fell where they were standing. The steel sentinel smashed everything in its way, even as fractured as it had become.



"I hope he's dead after that." Dundee looked around. "What do we do now?"



"Stay here until we starve to death." Miranda glared at the burial site. "Too bad we couldn't expect the mad doctor to help us."



"There has to be a way out of here." Dundee trained his keen eyes on the pocket environment.



"We go down." Malone waved them over. Sweat rolled down his face. A vein stood out in his forehead as he tried to catch his breath.



"What do you mean?" Miranda walked over.



"You don't look so good." Dundee paused in concern at the sight of his friend's face.



"I'm good." Malone wiped his face with a fingertip. "I'm okay."



"You don't look okay." Dundee was sure Malone's eyes were bleeding. "We can hold up until you catch your breath."



"I'm good, Park." Malone spat out his dried up tobacco. "Just touched the limit what I can do is all. Like a three minute mile, you know?"



"Your eyes are bleeding. Maybe you should take it easy." Dundee handed over a ripped off sleeve.



"I'm good, Park. Don't make me say it again. Quit worrying." Malone wiped his face off.



Dundee nodded before looking at Malone's discovery. An emerald light burned down below. It moved like water. The tower drill had cut to the edge of the thing. Dundee blinked several times as the numbers in his vision shifted back and forth.



"It looks like we climb down." Dundee turned and looked over the destroyed maze again. "This doesn't make sense."



"I know what you mean." Miranda looked down. "A house that opens to a rat maze that had a Frankenstein trying to drill to another level. What's down there?"



"Why didn't he just go there instead of snatching people from town was my more immediate thought." Dundee knelt, then swung over the edge. "But, yeah, I was thinking what's down there too."



"What are you doing?" Miranda knelt down.



"Someone has to check it out." Dundee used the swirling drill pattern on the inside of the tunnel as a ladder. "If something happens, look for some other way home."



"What if you get down there and you can't get back?" Miranda swung a leg over the edge. "How would we know you were okay?"



"You got me there." Dundee kept descending, keeping an eye out for threats.



"Exactly." Miranda started down, keeping an arm's length to his right.



"They make such a cute couple." Malone nudged Nolan with an elbow. "I wonder if we're invited to the wedding."



"No!" drifted up in a double response. Then Parker in a more gleeful tone, "Jinx!"



"Grow up, doofus." Miranda rolled her eyes.



Malone started down the ladder, willing his hands not to shake. He positioned himself between Dundee and Miranda. The accountant might stop him if he fell with her control of the stone. Dundee'd probably rip off his arm by mistake trying to catch him.



Nolan waited for the group to get halfway down before he flung himself over the edge. He bounced from one side of the shaft to the other until he reached the edge of the pool of glowing green water. He sniffed it as he waited for the others to join him.



"No smell." Nolan reported. "Not alive. Just water?"



"Doubt it." Dundee waited for the numbers in his head to zero before sticking his hand into the shifting flow. It started to pull him in. "Grab on."



Lloyd seized Parker's other arm before he could vanish completely. Miranda and Malone latched onto him with both arms wrapping around his furry barrel chest. Then they slid into the green glow like the water it resembled.



The heirs jetted out of a fountain of green water, in the middle of a park, with a glowing cityscape above and beyond. Floating metal teardrops soared across the sky, going about whatever business they were on.



"We're not in Kansas anymore." Dundee smiled. "I wonder if we'll find a wicked witch here."



"Let's see." Malone pointed his finger at the four path entrances, mumbling under his breath. "That way."



"Why that way, Carter?" Parker raised his eyebrows slightly.



"My momma told me to pick that one." Malone started down the path. At least the pain was gone from his eyes, if not his neck. "Any way is good if you don't know where you are."



The four walked along in silence, examining the trees as they went. The leaves seemed to be made of polygons. The pattern covered everything once they spotted the initial shape.



"I wonder if we're going to see another nutcase trapped in a world he made." Dundee blinked to obscure the regularity into random shapes again.



"I hope not." Miranda toyed with the ring on her hand as they walked.



12

"I hear something coming in fast." Nolan looked around. "Let's get some cover."



The four heirs scattered, looking for trees and rocks to hide behind. They settled out of sight off the trail as floating twenty sided polygons came into view. They spun in place when they didn't immediately encounter the four.



The hunters separated, moving into a triangle to cover every direction. They started moving toward the edge of the path. They spun around in place.



"Hey, guys." Dundee stepped out of hiding. He waved his hands slowly. "Can we talk? I'm a stranger around here. I come in peace."



The roughly spherical guardian nearest Parker stopped spinning. One of the triangular sections lit up. A beam lanced out. It struck a tree. The heir jumped out of sight.



"So much for peaceful talk." Malone called out.



One of the other triangle points fired at where he laid. He laughed at the effort. Another shot chopped at the rock in front of him. Splinters flew at his face as he ducked down.



Malone grabbed the rock, compressing it. He released it as he ducked behind a tree. The rock bullet struck the shooting guardian. It splintered against the ground.



The other two guardians spun to concentrate on Malone. Red beams concentrated on his tree, setting it on fire. He was obviously the most dangerous of the intruders. He had already destroyed one of their number.



Lloyd Nolan grabbed a tree in his furry hands and ripped it up out of the ground. He swung as hard as he could, letting the weight of the thing carry the swing. The trunk smashed against the two sentinels, driving them into the ground. The wolf let the tree go on top of the fragments.



"I guess we can expect that all intruders will be shot." Dundee stood up. "He must not get a lot of visitors with that attitude."



"Sometimes I wonder what you're thinking." Miranda dusted hexagon dirt off her clothes. "You might have been killed."



"We needed information." Dundee smiled. "Talking seemed to be the fastest way to get that information."



"We are now informed of the no trespassing." Malone flexed his hands. "Shall we argue about this later? More of those things might show up."



"Shall we?" Nolan led the way from the scene of the ambush.



"I'm working on my enunciation so I sound smarter than a fifth grader." Malone smiled. The redness in his eyes had gone down, leaving a vague yellow behind.



"I didn't even know you could say something like enunciation." Miranda looked around as she followed the other two. "So how do we get out of here before we get fried?"



"We have to talk to the owner somehow." Dundee brought up the rear. "I say look for the tallest building around."



"Why?" Miranda's eyebrow rose.



"Because I have been thinking. That's where I would be if I had a choice. I'm running things, I want a loft to look out at my little world." Dundee looked up at the skyline. "We just have to get up there to see if we can find it. This might be another maze."



"So we should get into one of those buildings and look for another building that is taller than any of them." Malone scratched his head. "Sounds easy."



"We still have to worry about the floating Phantasm balls." Miranda closed her eyes. "The tallest building is over there somewhere."



"How do you know that?" Dundee looked along her pointing finger. Malone did the same, standing behind Dundee.



"I can feel air, the earth." Miranda started walking toward where she was pointing, already drawing a bead on what she could feel. "I can feel the air moving around a large object in that direction. Something that big pushes air around everything else."



"That's great." Dundee smiled. "I would have never thought of that. Good thinking."



"I'm more than a pretty face." Miranda smiled. "How do we get in?"



"The fastest way we can." Dundee examined the buildings as he went.



"Naturally." Malone cracked his knuckles.



"Incoming." Nolan dashed ahead. "More of those things are coming."



"We'll split up. Carter and Miranda will find the building for us. Nolan and I will hold off the little things." Dundee waved his hand. "You guys let us know when you got it."



"Are you crazy?" Miranda glared at her friends. "We can't do that."



"You two are better at bargaining with people." Dundee smiled. "We can handle some small basketball things."



"It's not small, Parker." Nolan turned his face in the direction of his enemies.



"We can handle it." Dundee made a quit talking face which was answered by a hairy shrug. "Do what you can. We'll do what we can. It's what we do."



"I hope you're right about this." Malone picked up Miranda over his shoulder and started jogging.



"Put me down, you galoot." Miranda followed this with a series of things about the trucker's personal habits, his history, and anything else she could think of to say.



"You ready, Lloyd?"



Nolan nodded, walking instead of running. He had killed monsters by the score. The defensive spheres he had seen hadn't impressed him all that much. Just making one of them bigger didn't make it better.



A giant sphere shaped like the previous three descended on the two heirs as they walked after their friends. One of the facets pointed at the two of them. The glow of burning retribution lit up the triangle. The beam reached for the two of them as they split up.



Lloyd bounded to one side. His fur stood on end as the beam just missed him. He was glad the thing couldn't seem to aim to save its life.



The bad thing from his point of view was the guardian hovered just out of reach.



13

Malone carried Miranda over his shoulder, keeping an eye out for any more security. He wondered if that was a pattern. First the small guys show up, wreck some, then the big guy shows up. It might be exploitable somehow.



"They'll get killed trying to hold that thing back." Miranda kicked, trying to push away from Malone's grip.



"Lloyd can take care of himself." Malone looked around. "Which way?"



"Put me down." Miranda glared at his bearded face. "I'll go quietly."



Malone placed her on her feet. Lost among the concrete canyons, he saw only tall towers of metal and glass. They all looked the same to him.



"This way." Miranda started along the street. "We shouldn't have left the others."



Malone followed. He didn't disagree with her, so he didn't argue. He wanted to be fighting with Lloyd and Parker. On the other hand, if the two of them dealt with whomever was running the place quick enough, Lloyd and Parker wouldn't be fighting much. He didn't have to like it.



"This one." Miranda started for the door. "If this one is like the other, he'll be on the top floor."



"Let's talk to the man." Malone grabbed the door, compressing it with his touch. He stepped inside the empty frame. He didn't like the lack of alarms.



"Elevators are over there." Miranda pointed at two sliding doors to their right. "Why elevators?"



"I know what you mean." Malone compressed the elevator door when he couldn't find a button to summon a cab. "Why any of this? There aren't any people around. Why does he need this? Maybe he tours the town like an old movie villain."



"Like Scrooge McDuck and his money bin." Miranda looked inside the shaft. The car was somewhere above. They had to climb the shaft or find stairs.



"Exactly." Malone examined the shaft also before deciding to look around for stairs. "I don't even want to think about having to climb up there and grabbing the brain behind this."



"I'll go up and get him." Miranda stepped into the shaft. The air held her on an invisible step. "You can climb up, or try to find some stairs. I'll see you at the top."



"Don't do that, Miranda." Malone rushed to hold her. He stepped into the shaft and his bulk started floating upwards. "I'm flying."



"I'm carrying you." Miranda floated to his left, arms crossed as she looked upwards. "And you could stand to lose a few pounds."



"I'm not fat, I'm fluffy." Malone sucked his gut in a little. "Just get us up there, and I'll punch a hole through the elevator, or door."



"Fluffy like an anvil." Miranda closed her eyes, reaching for an invisible chain to pull them up faster. Wind howled in the shaft as they drifted toward their destination. "Get ready. I don't know how much more I can do this."



Malone pointed at the bottom of a stopped elevator cab with the two projectiles in his hand. He released them. Two holes punched through the floor. They were side by side, and made a space big enough for him to squeeze through. The conveyance had shook from the twin blows, but he hadn't hit a cable holding it up.



Miranda lifted the trucker up. He scraped through the opening, standing by the door. The big man waited for her to climb in, taking a fresh chew out. When she was ready, he pulled the doors into balls and stepped out in a hall going around the perimeter of the space.



Malone started along the hall, checking the doors like a television cop. The mood he was in meant he would blast first, and ask questions later. He found all of them were locked as he caught sight of the opened elevator doors again.



"We're just going to have to break things." He looked at each of the closest locked doors. "Any preference?"



"Let's try the one in front of the elevator." Miranda went to it, listening at it. "I can't hear anything. Must be solid."



"Let's see how solid." Malone grabbed the door, pulling it out of the way. Stairs were revealed by the opening. His eyebrows scrawled upwards. "Looks like we go up."



"Naturally." Miranda started up the wide stairwell. "He would be on the roof waiting for us to show up."



"Maybe not for us." Malone followed, holding on to his projectile. "I have a feeling he likes to be up high."



"Like his brother." Miranda paused at a door blocking them off from the roof itself.



"Like his brother?" Malone compressed the door out of the way.



"That sounded weird, didn't it." Miranda stepped out on the roof. "I'm sure I'm right."



The heirs found their man sitting in a crystal chair, hand on a screen floating in the air. His three eyes, and horns looked familiar. The glare more so.



"Didn't we kill you already?" Malone looked at the horned doctor's twin, and spat on the white roof.



"You must be confusing me with some incompetent." The mayor stood up. "I think you should leave."



14

Parker Dundee moved to one side. A red beam cut the sidewalk up to his right. His vision marked places for him to stand. At least he was holding its attention. Only he couldn't get close enough to touch the guardian.



It was too high up, out of his reach.



Lloyd Nolan stood down the block. He couldn't fly either. But he did have an idea he could use, looking at the thing floating in the middle of the street. He just needed some more height to make it work.



Nolan smashed into a building through a window. He found an elevator, but no stairs. It took a minute to push the doors open, and climb up to the next floor. He rushed to a room, noting it was empty but placing that fact in the unimportant file. He smashed out the window with his huge paw.



Now he had to get it closer so he could move to phase two.



"Hey Parker!" Nolan waved a furry arm. "This way."



Parker nodded, walking toward the guardian. He dodged several blasts as he passed under it. He started down to where Nolan had smashed into the building. The guardian paused in its firing. Dundee stepped through the opening.



"Come on." Lloyd waited, watching around the edge of the window. "Come on."



The polygon rolled through the air until it rotated in front of the window. The firing facet burned the air as it lifted it up to where Lloyd had chosen his launch pad. He was already in the air before the gun could swerve up to shoot at him.



Nolan landed on the triangular edges of the guardian. He clawed the glass and metal with his tough talons, ripping through the wall of the floating sentry. The wolf man worked his way along the path of rotation, wrecking as much as he could and trying to stay on. The watchdog tried to line up its gun to blast him off.



Dundee carved his own grips in the elevator shaft as he climbed up to the next floor. He jogged to the window, intent on the polygon. He leaped at the last minute. His hand punched through a fragile area of the outer shell. He hung on with one hand, while breaking a door open with the other. Then he pushed inside the menace.



Dundee smiled, not lost on the fact this was how they had wrecked the giant drill on the other side. Time to do what he did best.



Dundee swept his hand through anything he could reach. He figured the power source was probably in the ball's center. So he cut his way there. His vision picked the numbers for him, pulling him forward like a saw blade.



Dundee hit the core and kept going. His hands sent the wrecked engine in front of him like a ram. He used the mass to punch out the other side of the polygon. He dropped down on the street and rolled as the sentry crashed behind him. He kept going as the polygon rolled after him. A furry hand pulled him out of his dead victim's way.



"Thanks Lloyd." Dundee watched the guardian roll away for a moment before brushing at his clothes. "I'll have to burn these when I get home."



Lloyd started down the avenue, sniffing the air. He moved fast, trailing their comrades with his new nose. Dundee jogged to keep up.



"This way." Nolan pointed to a building.



"It does have that wrecker stamp to it." Dundee said, brushing his sleeves back.



"Wrecker?" Nolan paused at the opened door.



"That's what I have been calling our little group." Dundee shrugged. "It sort of fits."



Nolan looked at the wreckage left by Malone. He nodded in agreement. There were worse things to be called than a wrecker.



"Which way, Lloyd?" Dundee stepped into the lobby.



Nolan pointed up. He went to the open elevator shaft. Seconds later, he was climbing the walls with his strength. Dundee looked up the shaft, and sighed. Lloyd would be at the top long before he could get halfway.



Dundee started carving handholds. Even if he was last, he still had to get up there. He couldn't let his friends fight on their own.



He was better than that.



Dundee looked up, and started cutting faster.



15

"We would love to take off and leave you to your empty wonderland." Malone spat again. "How do we do that?"



"You got here on your own." The twin stepped closer, third eye glowing. "Why don't you go back that way?"



"I think that's impossible." Miranda clenched her fists as she moved to the chair, separating from Malone. "Your brother used a sink to draw people in to use them for his machinery. You do the same thing, don't you?"



"I don't know what you're talking about." He stepped to block her from his chair. "Stay away from that."



"Those statues and the bones." Malone moved the other way, holding his projectile next to his leg. "That's what was left over after the juicing."



"Sure." Miranda kept one eye on the doctor as she tried to look at the screen. "That makes sense. You do the same thing, don't you?"



"I don't understand." The doctor tried to keep his eyes on both of his visitors.



"You have been pulling people here for your own power." Miranda bent to look at the screen. "How many have you killed for this?"



"Don't touch that." The doctor went for Miranda, anger sparking his third eye.



Malone pointed his waiting elevator door and let loose. The projectile smashed against the doctor's brother, sending him to the edge of the roof. He looked around for more ammo as Miranda sat down in the chair.



"What are you doing?" Malone grabbed part of the roof, tearing it free from stress rather than design.



"Let's see if tri-clops left his control panel open so we can open a door home." Miranda touched the screen, looking for anything that could be considered useful. Two clicks revealed she couldn't read what the twins used for language.



"I can't read this." She glanced over at where the master of the land got to his feet. "Maybe I should start pushing buttons."



"No! Don't do that." The doctor held his hands up. "You'll ruin everything."



"Better talk faster." Malone kept his hand up, ready to release. "I don't know if you noticed, but ruining things is what we do."



"If you just hit buttons, you could shut this fold of reality forever. If that happens, we'll cease to exist except as memories of what could have been." The doctor gestured with his hands. "Please don't touch anything else."



"We want to go home." Miranda held one finger over the screen. "How do we and our friends do that?"



"I can reverse my viewer and send you through that." The horned creature looked desperate. "It could take a moment but it should be doable."



"I think you're lying." Miranda inched her finger closer to the screen.



"I swear it's true." The twin closed all three of his eyes. "Please listen. I can send you home."



"How?" Malone moved to stand next to the chair. Once Miranda let him have the controls, he might do anything.



"There's a viewer that allows me look at the anchor that I am using in your part of the multiverse." The demon smiled slightly at the reprieve it had won. "I can set it to send and that will open a portal to the anchor."



"We'll wait until our friends show up." Miranda smiled. "We wouldn't want them to be left behind."



"I understand." The twin backed up. "How long do you think it will be before they join us."



"I couldn't tell you." Miranda checked her watch. "Dundee likes to live on his own time."



"He's slow as Christmas." Malone smiled. "He'll be here. He lives for this kind of thing."



"Finding some mad demon doctor holed up in some other dimension has always been one of his dreams." Miranda glared at her extortion victim. "Unfortunately for us, we'll have to hear his cheer of happiness and yodeling."



"At least we can get home and enjoy the rest of the week." Malone shifted. "Dundee will have to be happy with just meeting you."



"I can see that will be so much of a happy thing for him." The twin looked at the stairs. "I hope he hurries anyway so I can get rid of all of you."



16

Parker Dundee didn't cheer or yodel when he met the twin horned doctor. Instead he frowned and gestured for Miranda to get up so he could sit in the chair. Nolan and Malone blocked the chair from the demon while the others exchanged places.



"Be careful with that." The doctor made to step forward to keep Dundee's hands from the screen. Malone's upraised hand kept him beyond arm's reach.



"How do I make this read out in English?" Dundee read the strange symbols, feeling that he should know them, but unable to capture their meaning. "I assume you have some translation method."



"What makes you think that?" The twin stepped back further.



"How else do you know the meaning of what we're speaking?" Dundee pressed a button at random. "It's okay. I'll figure it out on my own."



"Wait." The doctor held up his hands. "I'll tell you. Don't push anything else."



"I'm waiting." Dundee raised his finger to push something else.



The architect gave the heir instructions on how to change the writing to something readable. Parker nodded at the sight of English giving him a menu to choose from instead of symbols. Time to get his friends out of there.



Parker typed on the floating hologram. A portal opened in the air. A dusty room with ruined plaster walls and stained floor peeked through from the other side. It wasn't the same place they had left, but they couldn't just choose where they wanted to cross over.



"I have this thing locked open for us to cross and leave you to your little place. As soon as we're gone, you'll be back to business as usual." Dundee typed in some more commands before standing up. "I think we've caused enough trouble for you."



"Anything as long as you're gone from my model." The architect smiled, rubbing his hands together.



"That's exactly how we feel." Dundee gestured for the others to step through the portal. He smiled at the tri-clops as he herded his friends across the threshold. "Say hello to your brother for us."



Dundee crossed the marking line, turning to wave at the architect as the portal closed. He was still smiling. The demon didn't like that look.



The horned demon settled in his chair. He changed languages, running a check on the system. A program signaled its loading as he tried to press the reset keys. Those humans would pay for the damage they had done to his perfect city.



The program already set ran as he tried to reboot his network. The buildings he could see came apart as he watched. His fingers pressed keys but that didn't stop the sky from vanishing, leaving a dark void. He grabbed the arms of his chair as he stared up at his doom. Then the chair vanished. The architect fell into the sky with a scream.



His world collapsed behind him.



"Say hello to your brother?" Miranda rubbed her face as if she had a headache. "What if he goes back into business? Malone and I are pretty sure he was using this place as some kind of trap like his brother."



"He's not going back into business." Dundee headed for the door, brushing cobwebs out of his way. "You could say he's where he belongs."



"What did you do, Park?" Malone still held the projectile he had fashioned from the roof. His eyes still called for Visine.



"I shut his little world down for good." Parker pulled the door open. "He's done, just like his brother."



The other three heirs looked at each other. Dundee didn't wait. He stepped out in the yard, walking down the gravel driveway to the mailbox. He read the numbers, nodding at being right. This address was the second house in his research.



Two birds with one stone was the best way to say it.



epilogue

Parker Dundee sat behind Harry Carey's desk, leaned back in the plush chair, and smiled.



Dundee had taken his cut and bought a display case with some of it. It was a simple counter with a glass top. Index cards marked his souvenirs as they lay on padded cushions on the top shelf.



Carey had done the same thing as far as Parker could tell from looking at the house they had inherited from the dead man.



It couldn't add anything to the aura of haunting that followed them around at any rate.



Miranda and Malone pushed into the office, paused at Dundee relaxing in the dead man's chair, and then pulled up chairs of their own. Malone's eyes looked normal again after resting from using his talent.



"You look entirely too comfortable in Carey's chair." Malone smiled, tapping out some chew.



"Especially since everyone we know who has sat in it has died." Miranda crossed her arms in front of her.



"Hush." Dundee closed his eyes. "Let me enjoy my temporary repose."



"Repose?" Malone laughed. "We think Bell's outfit is going to be trouble. We've been talking. We want to deal with him."



"I agree but I don't know how we can do it." Dundee didn't open his eyes. "He knew us, had an idea that we could do something, maybe not what. Someone put him on us."



"Another deal maker?" Malone chewed thoughtfully. "Hell must be full of them."



"I don't know." Dundee sat up. "Just getting Carey's house couldn't make us that important. Other wreckers have to be out there doing their thing."



"There must be something here waiting for us to find." Miranda stood up, looking around. "We've gone over every inch of this place. What could it be?"



"I don't know." Dundee sat back. "I expect more guys to show up to offer us jobs."



"They get the house if we're gone." Malone nodded. "Easy to take the land if the owner isn't around."



"I'm staying." Dundee went over to where he had stashed some cokes near the book shelves. "These jobs have to be done, whether they're traps, or not. Too many innocent people are wandering around who need help from people like us."



"People like us?" Miranda gestured and one of the six plastic bottles flew to her hand.



"Wreckers." Dundee tossed one to Malone before opening his. "That's why Carey picked us to guard his house beyond the will. He wanted someone who would monkey wrench the people he didn't like."



"I wouldn't exactly say people, Park." Malone spit his chew into a trash can and opened his bottle.



"So we're agreed?" Parker held up his bottle. "Wreckers?"



"Wreckers." The other two held up their own bottles for the toast. Miranda asked, "We'll have to talk to Lloyd."



"He's the one who talked about this to me." Dundee swigged some of his coke. "Don't be surprised if Bell is reported with problems. Lloyd said he could feel the wrongness in the man."



"Too bad werewolves can't testify in court." Miranda smiled. "I can feel the wrongness, your honor."



"I doubt any court in the land would like to have us bring something in." Malone drank half his bottle in one shot. "It would be funny to see."



"I'm afraid we might be the court." Dundee sipped again. "And no one likes judges."



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