Burning Monday: (Dane Monday 2) Read online

  Unfortunately, Stage Two wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Oh yes, it got the El Camino moving at an impossibly dangerous speed so that the car was less a transportation device and more of a high velocity weapon, but it hadn't truly helped them against the Ghost Greaser. While they had initially overtaken the Chevelle, seconds later it had caught back up to them. The Greaser seemed to be thrilled with this new set of events, but he was not letting this race be won so easily. With the cars parallel again, Dane didn't have a lead to throw out the Carnacki Catcher. It would never get in front of the Greaser. They needed more speed.

  Dane looked at the scenery that was flashing by. They had merged onto MLK and they were running out of time. They were in the heart of the city. The danger was even higher and the race couldn't go on any longer. Abby already had to swerve past cars, slowing down for a moment, the experimental booster engines allowing her to catch back up to the Greaser easily.

  "Engaging Stage Three!" shouted Dane.

  "What? Not Stage Three!" shouted Abby. She had heard about Stage Three.

  Dane had been explicitly and forcefully warned about Stage Three. The exact warning from Jaya was, "Don't use Stage Three," followed by, "Stage Three isn't ready. You're going to ignore me and try to use it anyway. That assumes you're listening to me right now instead of dreaming up the perfect cup of coffee. Don't use Stage Three. EVER. "

  As he looked at the button for Stage Three, Dane admitted he really could go for a good cup of joe at that moment. Maybe after this was all done. Without further thought, he engaged Stage Three.

  Stages One and Two had both been loud, much louder than a simple car engine. Stage One was a growl, Stage Two was thunder. Stage Three was like growling thunder was erupting out of the car at one hundred and twenty five decibels. Stage Three was waking up New Avalon for the quickest and loudest heavy metal concert they had ever heard.

  Stage Three also erupted large flames out of the back of the experimental booster engines. Dane thought that was pretty cool.

  The El Camino surged forward, almost against the will of the shaking mass of metal and bolts that it was made of. The entire car vibrated and every piece of fatigued metal and stressed structure did not want to go this fast. Prolonged use of this speed would probably eventually destroy the El Camino. Dane also conceded that maybe, just maybe, the erupting flames were in fact a sign of something bad happening and not just a sign of awesome.

  But for at least a short time, the heavily modified El Camino overtook the Ghost Greaser. Currently out of sight, Dane imagined that the Ghost Greaser was looking on with frustration but also even more excitement. It had been decades since someone had beat him. Maybe he was looking forward to the challenge.

  "Dane!" called Abby.

  "Not now," said Dane, clicking the on switch on the Carnacki Catcher, getting it ready to toss out.

  "Dane!" called Abby.

  "Not now!" insisted Dane, pulling his arm back to throw the Catcher.

  The brakes of the El Camino screeched, the sound a banshee wail heard even over the Stage Three engines. Simultaneously, those experimental booster engines died. Dane would wonder what happened, but part of Jaya's design included a kill switch in the driver's seat. Even she correctly realized that having engines that even the driver couldn't shut off was very bad.

  Dane lurched forward, dropping the Catcher in a mad attempt to grab onto the roof of the El Camino. His bare hands managed to clutch some of the metal trim to hold him, just barely keeping him from flying forward onto the asphalt in front of the braking El Camino.

  Abby continued braking sharply, the car still skidding forward. She finally wrenched the wheel to the right, the front of the car turning away from the road. But the car kept moving forward with its momentum, now skidding sideways. Through some great miracle it didn't flip or start tumbling end over end. Even more miraculously, it came to a stop only two feet behind the car in front of it.

  The Houghton Bridge was in front of them and luck had not been with them. There had been an accident on the bridge in the middle of the night, and it had been closed down to just a single lane. That single lane even in the middle of the night was clogged with traffic. The residents of the Ville were trying to get home after a late night at the clubs and bars. Abby had just barely stopped their speeding El Camino before crashing into the end of that line of cars.

  Dane struggled to right himself now that the car was not moving. He was in an awkward position, and when he let go of the car's trim he spilled forward down the windshield onto the hood. He realized he was dizzy and took a moment to lay there. Abby pulled off her seatbelt, which had heavily bruised her and probably saved her life.

  There was a flash of white smoke as the Ghost Greaser raced past them. The Chevelle lacked the constraints they had, the transparent vehicle travelling through the barriers and stopped traffic as if they didn't exist. A moment later, the Chevelle reached the beginning of the bridge itself. It vanished into a cloud of white mist which quickly disappeared.

  Dane pulled himself off the hood, awkwardly finding his footing as Abby got out of the car.

  "I guess we know the bridge part of the legend is true," said Dane.

  Abby brushed hair out of her face. "Is that all you have to say? Do you know how close to death we were? And you wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to stop you!"

  "I'm sorry," said Dane. "But we almost had him! We were so close and I didn't want to give up!"

  "We almost gave up our lives," said Abby.

  "Okay, I guess that is true too," said Dane. "But on the plus side, we now know that Stage Three is really awesome!"

  Someplace Dark and Scary

  Once they recovered their nerves, Abby drove the El Camino to Jaya's garage in Riverside. As well as being a robotics and tech expert, Jaya was also an accomplished mechanic who simply enjoyed fixing up cars. She was dismayed at seeing the blackened experimental booster engines.

  "You did it anyway, didn't you?" said Jaya. "You didn't listen to anything I said about the boosters."

  "They were phenomenal!" said Dane. "They spit fire and everything!"

  "Fire?" said Jaya with shock.

  Abby was exhausted. It was the middle of the night and she was adrenaline crashing. "He's your problem now," she said wearily as she left to grab a cab home.

  Dane, on the other hand, was excited and it took a while before he wound down. He spent that time talking about Stage Three, extolling all its virtues and awesomeness. Jaya was somewhat patient. She smacked his hands when he tried to make coffee at four in the morning, but she finally conceded he could have decaf. It was at that point that Dane's excitement had dispersed enough for Jaya to have a real conversation with him.

  "You weren't supposed to use Stage Three," reminded Jaya.

  "I'm not supposed to do a lot of things," said Dane.

  "This wasn't an Against the Rules situation," said Jaya, "this was a May Cause You To Die In A Horrible Fireball situation."

  "Six of one," said Dane with a shrug, "half a dozen of the other."

  Jaya rolled her eyes, knowing this type of conversation was no use with Dane. She had years of experience to know that. Instead she changed the topic. "So what's the case with this one? Are you supposed to capture the Ghost Greaser or what?"

  Dane Monday worked weird cases, but he didn't get them through an agency or even have clients. The way he learned about them was as weird as the cases themselves. He would just get some random message and he would just know that's what he should do. It could be a dream, a message in his cereal, a wrong number phone call, a passage underlined in someone's book in the subway, or a myriad of other strange and ridiculously unlikely coincidences that ended up to be true. The problem with that was that it only put Dane on the trail or where whatever Powers That Be needed him. The message never told him what he actually needed to do.

  "Oh, this isn't for a case," said Dane. "I didn't get any message about the Ghost Greaser."

  "Then why waste
your time?" asked Jaya.

  Dane shrugged. "It just seemed like a fun idea! We could catch the Ghost Greaser! A real live Avalon urban legend! That seemed exciting! Isn't it exciting?"

  Jaya shook her head dismissively. "You should probably keep that fact from Abby, particularly after tonight's failure. I think she thought this was a real case."

  "Yes, but Stage Three!" began Dane again excitedly, his hands gesticulating wildly. "You should have seen it! It was - whoops!"

  Dane's wild flailing had knocked over the flat screen display for one of Jaya's computers. She used this one on the floor of her shop for displaying schematics, ordering parts, and monitoring the security camera feeds. Whacked by Dane's errant movement, the display fell over onto its face. Jaya glared at Dane, who nervously picked it back up. When he put it back onto the table, the screen flickered black and white.

  "Oh great, you broke it," said Jaya with a sigh.

  "I didn't do anything!" said Dane, throwing his hands up in the air.

  "You're a one man wrecking squad," said Jaya, elbowing him out of the way. She set the display back into its proper place and jiggled the cords. Miraculously, the screen stopped flickering and showed the computer's web browser.

  "See, no harm done," said Dane.

  "This isn't what I was looking at," said Jaya reading the screen. "This wasn't even up on here a few minutes ago." She took a closer look at the photo. "It's beautiful, whatever it is."

  Now Dane was interested. The web browser had loaded a site about monsters in New Avalon. It seemed rather sensational, but that wasn't the subject of their attention. This particular page had a photo of something seen in the sewers. The lighting was low, the quality not perfect. But there in firelight on top of a dais was something special. It was either a robot or a suit of armor made entirely out of Avalon Brass. It was unlike anything either of them had ever seen, but they were both intrigued.

  "I know what it is," said Dane. "It's my next case."

  Do you like spelunking?

  This was the text message that Dane used to introduce the next case to Abby. Whatever the word for it - sidekick, companion, partner, associate - Abby was the one who tagged along to help Dane with his cases. She tried to film what she could, but the adventure alone was often worth it, even if she often had reservations about the sheer careless recklessness Dane engaged in and she freely criticized him as it happened. As Abby had discovered, she was not the first to have this role, but she was its current occupant. The others had all enjoyed it but eventually found the danger too great as they got older. Abby was still new and hadn't reached that point yet.

  She didn't respond to the spelunking comment directly but instead asked what the new case was, correctly guessing it wasn't just a new hobby of Dane's. He explained that they were going down into the Avalon sewers and he had contacted some help.

  The New Avalon tunnels were a dangerous place. The website the photo had posted been on listed many of the hazards down below, but Dane had been down there himself a few times to know that there were actually creatures in the sewers and that the website wasn't some fantastic piece of fiction. Monsters were not his area of expertise, even if he'd seen a few in his day. That meant he and Abby needed someone who could defend them from creatures. There weren't many who could do that, and their selection was obvious due to one other factor. The two Dane hired were the two individuals who had found the armor/robot in the first place. Since they were the only ones who knew where it actually was, they were the best to hire for protection against monsters.

  "I'm Mikkel, this is my brother Szandor. We're the Nowak brothers. We spoke on the phone."

  They were meeting in a smoky neighborhood bar in South Egan, not too far from North Egan - the final resting place of Roger Carmichael and his ill-fated plot to destroy the city. The two men they met were young. Abby realized they were probably even younger than her, and she was a recent college graduate. Mikkel, the taller of the two, had long dark hair and a scar on his forehead that he was clearly trying to hide with his hair. Szandor had short dark hair, stubble, a lip piercing, and a generally sour expression. Mikkel, also the eldest of the brothers, was more laid back, while Szandor was tense to the point of being intense.

  "Why do you want to go down there?" asked Szandor.

  "To see the armor of course," said Dane. He had already discussed details with Mikkel.

  "What's it to you?" said Szandor.

  "Slow down there, brother," said Mikkel. "It doesn't matter. He wants to see it. And he's going to pay us."

  "Ok then, so what is the compensation?" said Szandor. "You two don't look like you're rolling in money."

  Dane placed a strange object on the table. Abby hadn't seen it before today either, but she knew Dane had been frantic in the cab on the way over, unable to decide which of his gadgets he would give up as payment. He had finally decided on this one. It looked sort of like some high end piece of electronics, the surface white plastic and full of curved edges. There were a number of ports for connecting to computers and electronics.

  The two young men looked at it for a while. "Okay, I'll bite, what is it?" said Szandor. "It looks like it gives wifi."

  "It's like a police scanner, but better!" said Dane.

  "Define better," said Szandor with suspicion.

  "Plug it in, see what it does!" suggested Dane enthusiastically

  "We'll get Paulie to look at it," said Mikkel to his brother.

  "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!" said Dane. "Go take it to your friend and have him take a look at it. He'll tell you how great it is! I trust you guys."

  Abby wanted to suggest that these two didn't look trustable, but she didn't want to mess up the deal.

  "So you two just want an escort down there?" said Mikkel.

  "I want to see the armor, as you called it. That's what's most important. But I think we might need protection if there's anything near it," said Dane. "You have no idea how excited I am to check the armor out! Can we go today?"

  Mikkel and Szandor shared a look. "We're not going today," said Mikkel. "We had just wanted to meet first to go over expectations and your fitness for the task."

  "Fitness?" said Abby.

  "Yeah," said Szandor, looking them over. "Can you climb? Ladders, rubble, et cetera. Can you run?"

  "Running for my life is part of my job description!" said Dane.

  "What is it you do?" said Mikkel.

  "Oh, odd jobs and such," said Dane evasively.

  Mikkel and Szandor shared another look.

  "And you're sure you want to go down into the tunnels under the city to see the armor?" said Mikkel.

  "I have never been more sure of anything in my life," said Dane solemnly, the tone inappropriate for the question.

  The two brothers shared yet another look and Abby wished she had someone other than Dane to share a look with.

  "Tell you what," said Mikkel. "Let me get back to you on this. I'll have a friend check out this... uh... device. If it's sufficient payment for the risk, then we'll do it. If not, well, we'll get the device back to you."

  "Fantastic!" said Dane. "That is an awesome plan!"

  Two days later Dane got a call from Mikkel, despite Abby's suggestion that he might never hear from the brothers again. The device was satisfactory and the Nowaks set a time to go underground. On a morning that was remarkably sunny after all the spring rain, they met in a parking lot on the north side of town. The only building nearby was an old disused maintenance shack.

  "Okay, we're doing this, but I need you two to know this is dangerous," said Mikkel. "I know you think you know how dangerous it is, but it's more dangerous than that." The two brothers were dressed for work. Thick jackets, LED lights, flares, flashlights, and weapons. They each carried gas masks and goggles around their necks. They each also had large backpacks full of gear. Their clothes had seen better days, or at least many days underground.

  Dane and Abby turned to share their own look and smile. "We're not wor
ried about danger," said Dane. "We have some experience in that area."

  "Well, last time we were near the armor, there were a whole ton of ghouls," said Mikkel. "Worshipping the armor. So if that's still going on..."

  "Ghouls?" asked Abby.

  "Feral, flesh eating creatures," said Szandor. "Vaguely humanlike, so kind of like cannibals."

  "Ick," said Abby. But Dane just nodded, as if he had already figured in the ghoul variable to his plans.

  "But we'll keep you safe," said Szandor.

  "We'll do our best to keep you safe," said Mikkel, "but if we're overwhelmed, we might not. Its best for you two to be ready to run. If things go bad and we haven't given you other instructions, be prepared to run to the last safe place we had been at. Maybe keep running even after that."

  "Right, when in doubt, run for our lives!" said Dane enthusiastically. He was enjoying this.

  "Some things never change," said Abby with a weak smile.

  "Monsters like ghouls are a big deal," said Mikkel, "but there are other dangers. Szandor, the masks."

  Szandor reached into his bag and pulled out two low end gas masks. They were cheap and probably wouldn't last a long time, but they were more than adequate for a single trip underground.

  "Oh, no, we have masks," said Dane, pulling out his own gas mask. Abby also pulled out her mask with a smile, having finally realized a few weeks before that a gas mask would be useful to keep around if she travelled with Dane. She had even needed to buy a bigger purse to carry around some of the Adventuring With Dane necessities. In addition to masks, Dane had brought his satchel full of gadgets. He had also brought coffee. He had rated the coffee as a 7.5 - not their best brew, but a fine start to a morning that would be spent underground. Abby thought it was ludicrous that Dane had thought to bring coffee down into the tunnels. She rolled her eyes when she saw Dane had attached a cup holder to his belt so he could holster his sealed coffee travel mug when they climbed down into the tunnels.