The Medusa Ritual
A Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation
by
CW Hawes
Will Pierce Mostyn make it in time to save Dotty Kemper from the sacrificial knife?
The adventure continues!
Chapter 22
Mostyn shrugged out of his backpack, took out a stun grenade, and hurled it onto the dais. The flash-bang caused instant pandemonium. Mostyn and NicAskill charged down the steps that led from the balcony to the main floor, across the auditorium and up the steps to the dais.
The women who had been holding Dotty were screaming their panic at being unable to see or hear. The man with the knife had vanished.
Mostyn picked up Dotty, who looked as though she’d been drugged, and headed back towards the steps leading up to the balcony.
A couple of the men who had been chanting tried blocking Mostyn’s way and were shot down by NicAskill. Up the stairs the three went, and once on the balcony, Mostyn laid Dotty down and tried to rouse her. NicAskill dispatched two more of the men who’d been chanting as they climbed the stairs.
“Can you get her awake, Boss?”
“She’s pretty much out of it. Keeps mumbling something about a Chinese woman, but I can’t make out the words.”
“We’re going to have to get a move on, they’re getting ready to mount a counterattack.”
“Alright, NicAskill, let’s go.” Mostyn slipped into his backpack and hoisted Dotty up over his shoulder and moved into the tunnel.
NicAskill fired a thermobaric grenade into the auditorium and then joined Mostyn. “That ought to slow them down, Boss.”
“Take the lead, NicAskill.”
“I can help carry her.”
“No, one of us needs to be ready for action.”
“Yes, sir.” NicAskill moved passed Mostyn, taking the lead, as they walked down the tunnel.
Two men appeared in the tunnel entrance, and NicAskill dropped them before they got off a shot. She sprinted ahead and at the tunnel entrance, Mostyn saw gun flashes and heard the firearm reports. He carefully lay Dotty down, and once again tried to rouse her. All he got was incoherent mumbling about the Chinese woman.
Mostyn stood and saw NicAskill hurl a grenade. The explosion was deafening in the confined world of the tunnel. And even where he was standing, his ears were ringing.
NicAskill yelled, “All clear for the moment,” and moved out into the intersection of the five tunnels.
Mostyn picked up Dotty and followed NicAskill into the intersection of the tunnels, where he saw that they were surrounded by armed men in black suits.
***
It hadn’t taken DC Jones long to figure out that Mostyn and NicAskill would soon be out of range and he’d lose contact with them. He made a call to Sumer Base and managed to relay through the static that Langston needed to send him the holographic map that he’d sent to Mostyn. Langston sent the map and now Jones had the tunnel system and also the little blinking dots from the sub-dermal trackers indicating where Dotty, Mostyn, and NicAskill were in the pile of spaghetti that was the tunnel system below Los Angeles.
Dr Otto Stoppen was the slowest moving in the group, which frustrated Jones to no end, as the doctor’s slowness prevented the team from making good time. However, with Langston’s guidance, Jones’s group was able to take a couple shortcuts that got them into Chinatown fairly quickly.
“Alright, Jones,” Langston began, “now that you’re under Chinatown, we’re going to be dependent on your eyes and ears. Our maps are close non-existent for this part of the tunnel system.”
“Roger that, Langston,” Jones replied, and began a running monologue of the tunnels as they passed through.
Fifteen or so minutes into the monologue, Jones said, “Okay, we’re coming up to a ninety degree left turn.” There was a brief pause, before Jones continued, “I’ve made the turn. There’s another tunnel coming in at a right angle… What the hell?”
Baker snapped a picture, at the same time saying, “Oh, my God, it’s the lizard people!”
Everyone came to a halt. In the tunnel joining the one Jones and the team were in, there were four strange looking beings. They were humanoid in form. Their skin had the texture of a lizard’s, and their heads were block-shaped, with the jaw protruding somewhat. They had two slits instead of a nose, and their ears were small and lay flat to the head. The creatures appeared to have no hair, or clothing.
Jones regained his composure first. He held up his hands, and said, “We won’t hurt you. We’re looking for our friends.”
Two of the creators looked at each other, then turned back to Jones. Into his mind popped images of Mostyn and NicAskill.
“Yes, yes!” Jones said, and smiled.
Next came an image of Dotty Kemper.
“Yes!” Jones said, and once again smiled.
A third image came into Jones’s mind, that of the masked man.
Jones shook his head, put on an angry face, and said, “No! He’s not our friend.”
The two creatures faced each other for some time, then one turned to Jones and in Jones’s mind a picture formed of him and the team following the creatures.
Jones smiled in reply and said, “Yes.”
“What’s going on down there, Jones?” Langston asked.
“Just made contact with the lizard people.”
“Lizard people? Are you serious?”
“Yep. Baker even snapped a pic. The lizard people know about Mostyn, NicAskill, and Kemper. If I understand them, they’re going to take us to them.”
“Sounds too good to be true.”
“We’ll find out.”
“You sure they aren’t a product of sewer gas? You know. You’re imagining them.”
Jones chuckled. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
The team followed the lizard people down the tunnel. The passageway made several turns and after the last one Jones saw light and heard voices, voices he recognized. The voices of Pierce Mostyn and Kymbra NicAskill.
***
“We’re a bit outgunned, Boss,” NicAskill said, “so what’s our game plan?”
“I thought you said it was all clear?”
“It was when I said it. So now what?”
Before Mostyn could answer, from out of one of the tunnels stepped the masked man. Next to him was a beautiful Chinese woman.
“Special Agent in Charge Pierce Mostyn, we meet again,” the masked man said in his ethereally sibilant voice. “Although you and your Dr Bardon did have me fooled. However, my accomplice,” he turned and gave a slight nod to the Chinese woman, “was able to extract much useful information from Dr Kemper. Now I know who you are and what you want. Unfortunately for you, you and Dr Bardon will not succeed this time.”
The masked man motioned with his hand and two men stepped up to Mostyn and took Dotty Kemper from him. As they were doing so, Dotty muttered, “Chinese woman, bad.”
“The conflagration you unleashed in my temple, Special Agent NicAskill, only delays the inevitable. However, I will now have you to sacrifice with Dr Kemper which will insure my success.”
The masked man made a movement with his hand and two men approached NicAskill. At that moment, a high-pitched cry, almost outside the range of human hearing, sounded, the bulbs in the flashlights and lanterns burst, and the tunnel went black.
To Be Continued!
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The Medusa Ritual is copyright © 2019 by CW Hawes. All rights reserved.
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