"You Say You Want Some Evolution"
"You Say You Want Some Evolution"
4/12/1987
I.
Four rotors slowed as the black stealthcopter settled onto the damp grass. On this drizzly overcast day, the woods around the estate were half-concealed in mist and the CORBY seemed to have dropped straight down from nowhere. The pressurized hatch on the pilot side slid open with a hiss as air escaped from the cabin. Dressed in a black commando suit complete with visored helmet, Jeremy Bane swung out and dropped lightly to the ground as if he expected immediate attack from every direction. In his left hand, the dart gun with its extended needle-thin barrel swung in tight circles.
Six feet tall and lean, Bane looked even more gaunt in the snug field suit. He thumbed one ear pod of his helmet and the visor slid up into its internal track to reveal cold watchful grey eyes under feral black brows. Twenty seconds later, seeing no sign of an ambush, the Dire Wolf lowered his arm slightly and began to move around toward the front of the CORBY. He had flown straight from Manhattan here to northern California as soon as he had gotten the call from Sam and Isabel Guthrie. His nerves were too taut for him to be at his best.
Up a slight incline from where he had landed the copter stood a gorgeous A-frame home of redwood, with a balcony by its second floor windows and a carport under which stood a gleaming new Ford Explorer. On either side of the enclosed walkaround porch were matching blazes of gardenias in neat round gardens. The Dire Wolf had never been here before but he knew the Guthries' dedication to keep their homes attractive. Even in their early seventies, they would be sure to spend as much time as possible on yardwork and upkeep.
Hopefully he had arrived in time. There were no other vehicles in sight, no sign of Eldritch. Bane had begun to holster his dart gun again when he caught the faintest rustle from the brush twenty yards away under the trees. In an instant, a huge tawny shape charged snarling out of those bushes. No normal Human could have reacted in time, but Bane's arm whipped up in a blur and he fired a full clip of the anesthetic darts in a single burst. Sixteen of the metal stings slid into the attacking beast, any one of the darts capable of incapacitating a grown man.
Even if the lunging animal had been dazed instantly, its momentum still drove four hundred pounds of muscle and bone forward quicker than any observer would have followed. Bane nimbly hopped five feet to one side, ejecting the empty clip from his gun and clicking a fresh one into place as he did so. The solid body of the beast crashed hard against the side of the CORBY, rocking even the heavy craft on its landing gear, before sliding motionless to the ground.
Stepping closer, Bane examined the brute. His tentative identification during that split-second of action had to be figure this was a bear of some kind with yellow fur but he saw now it was clearly a big cat... a lion built with massive shoulders and chest, thick short legs and huge paws. In the upper jaw, a pair of long curving canines stretched down seven inches into alarmingly sharp points.
A Sabertooth? There was no uncertainty about it. Then what the Guthries had feared most had come to be. The relics of ancient Zhune were still potent and incredibly dangerous. Bane bent carefully, watching to be certain that the monster's chest was not rising and falling. The big jade-colored eyes were open but did not follow him. Gingerly, he touched the carcass and satisfied himself that the Sabretooth was dead. A full clip of the potent anesthetic had been too much for even a beast that huge. Respiratory failure and cardiac arrest probably had occured before the cat had even been aware of its impending death.
The Dire Wolf swung around, clapping his hand on the butt of his weapon again. The faint sound of a doorknob being turned at the front of the house had been enough to alert him. Recognizing the older couple emerging onto the porch, he released the dart gun and turned to face them openly.
Sam and Iabel Guthrie were both in their early seventies but still mobile and active. They were almost the same size, not much over five feet six, dried and withered by time but moving out onto the porch without canes or relying on a hand holding the railing. Both were neatly dressed and presentable, Isabel in a yellow print sundress and Sam wearing tan slacks and a white short-sleeved dressed shirt.
"Jeremy!" called Sam. "I believe you can see why we called you!"
"So glad you're unharmed," his wife added. "My word, where did you get that weird helicopter? You're not working for the government, I trust?"
Moving toward them, Bane reached up to remove his helmet. The short fine-textured black hair over a narrow face had not changed since he had last met them in person years earlier. "It's KDF property, privately owned. Sam, Isabel, I'm a little surprised to encounter a prehistoric creature in Northern California! Care to explain?"
The man's thick-lensed glasses had slid down on a beaked nose and he pushed them back up with an index finger. "Maybe it would be better if we showed you? Come around the back, please."
Following them from the yard as they slowly walked around the porch, Bane found he was still more keyed up than usual. "Any other prehistorical killers out here I should be aware of?"
"No, no, just the opposite," called Isobel. "Take a second. Look at the hummingbirds."
Bane stepped closer to the side of the house to where a red glass globe hung on a stick. A deep buzz sounded past his ear. Hovering near the feeder was an emerald bird no bigger than his thumb, its wings a haze of motion. As he watched, the hummingbird thrust its long curved beak into a hole in the feeder. "Yeah, I see it."
"Get a little closer," the elderly woman said.
As the Dire Wolf took a few more steps, something unexpected happened. From the furiously beating wings dropped a flurry of glowing sparks... bright, evidently hot reddish glints that slowly drifted down to the ground. Then the bird shot away and was gone in an instant.
"That's something new," Bane admitted. "Never heard of a bird doing that before."
"We think it's an adaptation to distract venomous insects which attack them," said Sam Guthrie. "Hummingbirds won't evolve that ability for another fifty thousand years."
II.
They gathered around a device made of ruddy metal that sat in the back yard. An oval plate was half-sunk in the ground, large enough for a grown person to lie down upon, encircled by four posts that were topped with clear glass globes. Bane's heart sank as he saw the contraption and recognized the hot copper-colored metal it was constructed from.
"Zhune...." he growled. "Dammit, I hate running into these things! They drive me nuts. You can never tell what impossible trick they're going to pull." The Dire Wolf swung around to turn his pale eyes accusingly on the old couple. Both the Guthries winced visibly at the anger in those eyes, even if it wasn't aimed specifically at them. "How'd you two even get hold of something like this?"
"Easy, easy, Jeremy," Sam Guthrie said as he went over to lower himself onto a redwood picnic bench that had been brought nearby. "We were as surprised as you seem to be. You know, Isabel and I don't really get involved much with the genuine Midnight War. That stuff is much too dangerous."
"Let's be honest," the old woman added as she dropped down next to her husband. "We write scripts for syndicated shows like MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN and turn out paperbacks about things like the Bermuda Triangle and Area 51. Most of it we simply fabricate or build up on early tall tales."
"But this is genuine!" Bane snapped, pointing an accusing finger at the apparatus. "This is from the civilization of Zhune, just after the end of the Darthan Age. You have to realize that Zhune artifacts create effects that are unpredictable. You'd be better off having a gigantic bomb ticking away in your yard!"
"That's why we called you, Jeremy. When we realized what we had obtained from Weinman's estate, we felt real panic. You are the only person we ever heard of who might be able to deal with this machinery," Samuel said. "I'm so glad you're here."
"I have to load it in the CORBY and get it away from you," Bane told them grimly. "It's not just that the apparatus is dangerous itself, it's that Karl Eldritch is sure to come for it. I swear he can smell the Zhune relics.. maybe he can sense the energy they give off." The Dire Wolf stepped up to the machine and gingerly tapped one of the glass globes. It was warm to the touch but not enough to burn him. "Help me disasssemble this damn thing," he said as he tried to unscrew the globe from its mount of the copper rod.
Everything turned unrelenting white for an instant. A split-second later, as the glare dimmed, a sharp crack as of thunder right at hand detonated. Bane came to his senses lying on his back forty feet from the Zhune apparatus, with smoke curling up from the hole burned in his field suit jacket. The grey sheen of the Trom armor underneath was exposed. The Dire Wolf growled, rolled over onto his hands and knees but promptly fell down as he tried to stand. His arms and legs were too numb to support him, and his vision was clouded with swirling white after-images. Bane managed to get into a sitting position on the lawn but that was the best he could do.
Striding forcefully around the corner of the house was the towering brute he had dreaded meeting again. Seven inches over six feet tall, the massive bulk of Karl Eldritch stopped to place his fists on his hips and survey the situation. The warlock was impeccably dressed in a dark blue suit with matching vest, pale yellow shirt and blue tie. The shaven head featured deepset hazel eyes under shaggy brows. When he spoke, it was not with quite the bass rumble one might expect but with a subdued, almost mellow tone.
"Bane. Again! Why am I not surprised?" the sorcerer muttered.
Trying again to get to his feet, the Dire Wolf managed to stand with legs well apart but his balance was uncertain. He nearly fell again. "I've lost track of the ways you were supposed to be destroyed," he yelled at the giant. "Weren't you last seen buried under a cave-in in Greece? Or was that the time before last, after a giant squid dragged you under the ocean?"
Eldritch made a scornful noise. "Hah. Perhaps I should be angry with you, Bane. After all, each time we clash, you attempt to kill me in a different way. Frozen solid, shrunk into nothingness, having the center of my chest blown away.... But it is beginning to amuse me. I admire your creativity."
Both Sam and Isabel Guthrie had risen from the redwood bench with the hope of escape. A single ferocious glance from the giant warlock stopped them short. He pointed one broad hand at the couple if it were a weapon. "Remain where you are. You do not have the Dire Wolf's armor, nor his healing abilty. My atomic fire would leave nothing of you two but memories."
"Do whatever he says," Bane called over. He seemed steadier on his feet, still swaying a bit but ready to tackle the warlock. "Still tracking down Zhune relics all over the world, eh? You've got a real obsession, Eldritch."
"And with good reason. It was the lost science of the ancients which showed me the ultimate secret of the universe. I am the only living being who can turn matter into energy and energy into matter. I may well be immortal. Certainly, the gruesome methods you have attacked me with have merely slowed me down for a time."
The Dire Wolf jerked a thumb toward the copper-colored metal appartus on the lawn near them. "And this thing? I figure you saw that sabertooth on your way back here. He still sleeping?"
Eldritch went over to place a reverent hand on one of the glass globes. "The wise men of Zhune! Philosopher that classical Greece or old China could not match. They unlocked cosmic secrets with sheer overwhelming genius. This artifact is one I have sought for years. The Evolution Wheel!"
"Wait, wait a second. Let me get this straight," Bane said. He raised both hands in a placating gesture. "Look. I'm not educated like you are. I grew up on the streets. But even I know that evolution doesn't work like this. It's not... it's not a literal force like electricity or heat. It's just a blind process where animals and plants pass on traits when they reproduce and the ones that survive build up traits that help that success. Right?"
"In a simplified way," Eldritch admitted. As he concentrated, a shimmer of white light played over his hand and the four glass globes flared up brightly. "I thought so. The charge was nearly dissipated. Yes, Mr Bane, evolution as it is usually understood is a natural process that cannot be harnessed or hindered. And yet, like so many Zhune relics, this device seems to provide impossible effects."
The huge warlock gestured to Isabel Guthrie. "Come here, madame. I insist. Yes, step closer and step up on this plate. You are to be part of a great moment. We shall see the Evolution Wheel in action."
III.
"Wait, wait!" Bane yelled. He took two shaky steps forward before Eldritch stopped him with a threatening flare of white light from one meaty hand.
"Perhaps I need to reduce your legs to stray atoms so you finally remain compliant," the warlock said. "To be honest, I can't imagine why I don't simply convert you into energy and disperse you forever."
"Listen a second," the Dire Wolf pleaded. "Leave these two alone. They're civilians. I'll go into your Zhune contraption. Whatever it does, let it happen to me. Deal?"
"No." The big bald head lowered and its deep hazel eyes regarded the ground. "It occurs to me that perhaps I enjoy clashing with you in some way, Bane. You add complication and surprise to the Desperate Game. Of course, if I did kill you, I would then be pestered by all your Tel Shai friends hungry to avenge you. Khang. Sulak. The Trom. Nebel with the Eyeless Helmet. They would be an insufferable nuisance."
Bane moved one foot forward, but a surge of intolerably bright light blasted into the ground. Inches from his toes, the ground had vanished in a wide ditch down to the bedrock. Bane froze into position after that, thinking and discarding strategems furiously. Confronting Karl Eldritch was always nerve-wracking because the warlock was overwhelmingly powerful and almost impossible to harm.
"Now, Mrs Guthrie, if you will?" Eldritch gestured again toward the Zhune artifact.
With infinite reluctance, glancing back at her anguished husband, Isabel moved forward one step at a time and finally stepped into the circle of the four glass globes. The instant her foot placed its weight on the central plate, a sharp click sounded and the globes exploded in a silent burst of that same unbearable white light. As the radiance faded, everyone stood blinking and struggling to see again.
Where a seventy year old woman had stood seconds earlier, a thin hairy primate no more than four feet tall dropped to rest some of its weight on its knuckles. Not a Chimp or an Orang or any other familiar species, the ape stared wildly around and took off at a full run into the woods.
"Isabel..!" Sam yelled. He got to his feet and swung around to pursue her, but Eldritch had stepped in closer toward him. The warlock clenched the fingers of one powerful hand into the old man's shirtfront and yanked him up entirely off the ground so his feet hung freely in the air.
"I will not sear you with the atomic fire, fool," Eldritch said. "It is your turn upon the Wheel."
In the moment that the warlock's attention was fixed on Sam Guthrie, Bane had whipped both silver daggers out from their sheaths under his sleeves and headed for him. Unfortunately, little of his usual speed had returned and he was not moving any more quickly than a normal Human. Eldritch caught the onrushing motion from his peripheral vision and held up an open palm.
Once again, the late afternoon scene was drowned in white light that blotted out everything else. Ozone stung the air. When normal visibility returned, Bane was lying face up on the lawn thirty feet away with steam rising from his body. Most of his turtleneck and jacket were gone. The Dire Wolf suffered a painful coughing jag. He flailed about for a few moments but could not do more than rise up on one elbow. Both the silver daggers had spun away out of reach. Bane spat a mouthful of blood out onto the grass and cursed under his breath.
"You came within an inch of being vaporized entirely," Eldritch said in a scolding but not entirely serious tone. "May I suggest you settle back and content yourself to watch! Mr Guthrie, it is your turn." The warlock chuckled. "Thank you for volunteering."
With that, Eldritch bluntly tossed the elderly man through the air to land with a sad thump onto the central plate. When the primal light blasted again, Bane had enough presence to turn his head away and squeeze his eyes shut but even so, he was dazzled again.
Karl Eldritch had covered his face and he lowered his hands to blink at where a tall slender figure now stood in the center of the Zhune apparatus.
"This has gone far enough," announced a pleasant, tranquil voice from within the artifact.
IV.
As Eldritch bent forward uncertainly, peering with watery eyes, a naked man stepped away from the Zune artifact. Pale to the point where veins showed blue through translucent skin, the apparition had long spindly arms and legs, fingers that extended beyond normal length and the bare minimal muscular development. The head was hairless and oversized, the forehead stretched up twice as far as normal. In a face with a snub noise and receding chin, it was the eyes that dominated... huge, gleaming bright blue eyes that were lit with wry amusement.
"You have misunderstood this invention," the man announced as if speaking to children. "It does not affect evolution at all, nor does it replace its subjects with the bodies of remote ancestors or even more remote descendants. It's a hypothetical manifestation device. The machine alters its subjects into what their ancestors or descendants might have been in ages past or as they might become in future eons."
"How do you know this?" demanded Eldritch, but although he sounded angry, there was an undertone of definite alarm in his voice.
"I understand how the principle works," the man answered. "All the secrets of Zhune seem obvious to me. I am Man as he might become one million years from now, when the latent powers of the mind have been explored. I perceive you are thinking of trying to harm me, Karl Eldritch."
The giant warlock gasped and doubled up in pain, sinking to his knees. He remained there with his weight resting on his stiffened arms to prop him up. "What? What have you--"
"I have damped your abilities to convert matter and energy," the future man said. "You will be weak for several days. I suggest you take this opportunity as a chance to reconsider the choices you have made in life."
Bane was still endeavoring to get up on his feet, but his arms and legs were shaking too badly. He had taken two point-blank blasts of that primal atomic force and even his enhanced healing could not repair the damage. As the future man had spoken, Bane had followed his statements without fully being able to comprehend them. He realized dimly that he was going into shock.
"Isabel.. Mrs Guthrie," the Dire Wolf still managed to croak through a raw throat. "We have to find her. Help her."
"This does you credit," the strange man told him. "Even in your distress, your desire is to help someone else. Yes. We will go find Isabel Guthrie and restore her to the state that is rightful for this time and place. Here, relax and do not resist."
Nothing visible happened, there was no bolt of force or crackle of gralic energy, but Bane shuddered and felt back to normal. The pain and confusion from trauma washed away from him, leaving only relief. The Dire Wolf hopped back up to his feet. Automatically, he looked for his daggers and went over to retrieve them. They had been given to him by Kenneth Dred at the beginning of their association with each other, and he valued those silver blades more than everything else he owned combined.
"Thank you," he said simply as he returned the daggers to their sheaths. "I suppose you'll be able to restore her to normal. You certainly seem to have mental powers advanced enough for it."
"I will not remain in this state for long," the future man reassured him. "Sam Guthrie deserves to live out the rest of his alloted time with his wife. Come. In her primitive state, Isabel's mind is difficult for me to locate. You must help track her."
"Sure. But, wait, is Eldritch going to stay harmless while we're gone?"
"Yes. He will not regain normal vitality at least the rest of this day, and his Zhune-related abilities will not return for longer than that. I need not take his life."
Bane glared at where the giant warlock had fallen asleep, face turned to one side in the grass. "I suppose not. That would sure be convenient for me, though. I guess I can always take him to Tel Shai for judgement. The Teachers there are bound to have some idea how to keep him out of trouble once and for all. Okay, let's go find Isabel. She went in that direction."
Long after the Dire Wolf and his eerie companion had disappeared into the woods, Karl Eldritch stirred restlessly, groaned and rolled over on one side. Yards away, a click sounded from the central plate of the Zhune artifact and the blinding white light detonated one final time.
V.
Getting the Guthries back to their property took more than an hour, even though Isabel had not gotten far. The future man version of Sam had transformed the primate back into her Human form as soon as she was in sight, but then they were confronted with a baffled seventy year old woman. Isabel Guthrie gave in to genuine hysterics after finding herself naked in the woods, and the future man only calmed her down by reverting immediately back to the familiar form of her husband. Sam repeatedly explained the situation and eventually she stopped shaking.
"I thought I was having a blackout or something," she said, clinging to him. "Like I suffered a stroke."
Bane had taken what remained of his black jacket, not much more than most of the back portion held together by the sleeves, and draped it over her. The couple were in no condition to hike barefoot back to their yard. After asking them a few questions, Bane took off at a full run to their house. Quicker than they would have expected, he returned with his arms full of clothing. Each got a pair of slippers and a bathrobe, enough to provide them with some modesty and foot protection. After they were properly covered and shod, both the Guthries felt better. He had also snatched up a pair of prescription sunglasses which Sam claimed and two bottles of water which they both sipped gratefully.
"I don't have any memory of turning into anything," Isabel said. "That horrible man forced me to step onto that machine and suddenly I was standing out here without a stitch. I was afraid I must have had a stroke or something."
"It's all over now," her husband told her. "Look, you can just see our house there. See it, there in that gap between the trees? We'll be home and safe in a few minutes."
Bane had broken off two tree branches of appropriate length and thicknesses, trimming off side branches with one of his silver daggers. "Use these as walking sticks. The ground here is uneven. Watch for vines and roots that might trip you."
"My upper plate is gone!" Sam announced. "Oh no."
"It sure seems all your clothing simply vanished when you two were transformed. I guess you'll have to order new dentures made. Come on, let's get moving. This area is nice and clear." He started leading them through the woods, keeping a sharp eye to make sure they were safe. Bane had been only twenty when he had started working for Kenneth Dred, who had been a fragile seventy-nine. The young Dire Wolf had developed a lifelong habit of being watchful around the elderly to prevent accidents. Once, the Guthries paused to sit on a fallen tree trunk for a few minutes but soon they were back on the neatly trimmed lawn of their back yard with the redwood back wall of their house to reassure them.
"Stay back here by the picnic benches," Bane told them in a voice that abruptly had turned hard. He stalked over to where the Zhune apparatus lay in ruins. Something had smashed the four glass globes and twisted the metal parts out of shape. Even the thick central plate was bent almost in half. The Dire Wolf swung around warily, staring and listening but not picking up on anything out of the ordinary. Karl Eldritch had managed to get up into a seated position, leaning back against the landing gear of the CORBY but unable to rise without assistance.
Bane went over to the warlock. "What happened here?" he demanded bluntly.
"Ha ha, you are in for still more surprises today," answered the warlock. "I can't say I'm sorry to see this development."
"Eldritch, knock it off and just give me a straight answer! You're flesh and blood right now, you don't want me executing you before your powers come back."
The giant sorcerer shrugged. "I am not worried about that. You have a reputation for not killing prisoners, Dire Wolf. When you went into the forest, the Zhune relic still had a good charge of cosmic energy in it, more than enough to transform one more subject."
"What? Are you telling me some animal wandered onto the gadget? What kind of animal? What did it turn into?"
A roar of laughter burst from the warlock. "Oh, I believe you'll find out soon enough. Whatever beast it was, it became a future self. It's obvious. He emerged intelligent enough to figure out how to steal and drive my car. This was only a few minutes ago. By now, he must be miles away."
Jeremy Bane swung over to slide open the pilot hatch of the CORBY and hop up inside. With the ease of long practice, he thumbed the series of buttons and flipped the toggle switches to warm the craft up. Pastel blue and green lights illuminated the cockpit and the row of exterior monitor screens lit up. The Trom-built craft had not been powered down for long. It would be ready for wheels up in only a few minutes. Jumping back down again, Bane popped a rear storage compartment and unwrapped a spare field suit jacket complete with the dozen weapons and gadgets within its inner pockets. He packed away the anesthetic dart gun with its holster and instead buckled on a gunbelt that held his familiar long-barrel Smith & Wesson .38 revolver.
Eldritch had been watching all this with great amusement. "I believe you will have your hands full this time, Dire Wolf. You're chasing quite the formidable adversary."
"Glad you're enjoying this, old buddy." Bane slid open the hatch behind the cockpit, revealing the rear compartment with its metal bench on one wall and rows of drawers holding equipment. As big as Eldritch was, the Dire Wolf hauled him up off the ground and into the compartment without any seeming difficulty. Fetching restraints from one of the drawers, Bane handcuffed the warlock's hands behind him and then added a short leg shackle to a sturdy post.
"That should keep you out of mischief for the moment," Bane said with satisfaction.
Wriggling in an attempt to be more comfortable, Eldritch snorted derisively. "When my abilities return, I will convert these shameful restraints into pure light and be free. In fact, I will turn this entire helicopter into a sunburst.. with you in it."
Bane started to slid the hatch shut, saying, "Hopefully this will all be settled before that." He secured the panel, thought for the barest second and raced back to explain to the Guthries what was going on.
"Oh, we'll be fine, Jeremy," Isabel said. "Don't worry about us. We've survived a lot in life. Sam went in the house to use the bathroom. He said he'll make us sandwiches, we have some wonderful corned beef from last night."
"I wanted to make sure you two are safe."
"We'll be fine," she repeated. "Especially if you're taking that horrid man with you."
"All right. I'll come back to explain everything when this is all over." Bane hurtled across the yard, vaulted lightly up into the pilot seat and closed the hatch. In another second, the rotors began to turn and then sped up. He examined the gauges and dials and readout screens as he fastened the straps across his chest and shins, then pulled back on the collective stick. The CORBY launched straight up with startling acceleration and in nearly total silence into a sky that was growing dark.
VI.
Reaching two thousand feet, the Dire Wolf began searching with the CORBY sensors. There was only one main road this far up in the hills and traffic was sparse. The nearest town was thirty-five miles away. The Trom probes in the CORBY combined Doppler radar for motion detection and infra-red heat sources, as well as more arcane systems that registered the noises made by car engines or rubber tires in motion. Within a few seconds, he had a positive ID. Bane swung the nose of the stealthcopter east and accelerated smoothly forward and just over a hundred miles per hour.
From the back compartment, Eldritch grumbled, "I can't understand why you just don't simply kill me while I am vulnerable...."
"It's tempting," Bane replied absently as he searched for the fleeing car. "When I was young and callous, I once shot a man to death in cold blood. I found him still carving the body of his third victim, so I felt justified. He never saw it coming. But it bothered me. It still bothers me. I think people who have never taken life have no idea what a mark it leaves."
The giant warlock scoffed. "It seems you are too soft for this trade, Dire Wolf. If our positions were reversed, rest assured I would have cut your throat by now."
"I'm okay with that," Bane said, as if not fully paying attention. "I am the way I am. I'm not sparing you because I think you can be rehabilitated or anything, you're a lost cause."
After a minute, Eldritch went on, "This helicopter uses Trom technology, I gather? It's so quiet, so smooth. I couldn't even tell we were in the air. How does that work?"
Now it was the Dire Wolf's turn to snort dismissively. "You're trouble enough with just Zhune knowledge. There's the car. Looks like this year's Lincoln Continental. Tinted windows. California plates. I'm going lower." Through the light-enhancing factor of the windscreen, Bane could see the car sharply. "The driver is the only occupant. Let's get him to pull over."
Without warning, the CORBY swooped down to treetop level and rushed forward over the top of the speeding car like a black wind passing. Its powerful backdraft swung the Lincoln from side to side and spun it completely around so it was facing the direction it had just come from. Bane lifted the CORBY up a few hundred feet and looped around. He saw a dark manlike figure jump out of the car, leaving the driver door open, and lope off into the woods.
"What's happening? I can't see. What did you do?" demanded Eldritch.
"Settle down back there. I gave him some turbulence and he abandoned the car. Looks like he's booking it for the creek. There's an open space there where I can intercept him."
"Isn't this helicopter armed? Don't you at least have machine guns, Bane? I don't think you take the Midnight War seriously enough."
"Quiet. Maybe I should give you an anesthetic dart or two while you're Human." Bane passed over the running figure and brought the CORBY down in a clearing alongside a broad fast-running creek. The sensors indicated that the target was still racing directly at them.
"I don't think he's going to try to escape," Bane said. "He wants confrontation." Slowing the rotors but leaving the Trom impulse engines on low, he unfastened his seat restraints and slid open the hatch to his right. There was a hiss as air left the pressurized cabin. The Dire Wolf dropped lightly to the damp soil, searching with all his senses rather than relying on the sensors built into his helmet. Closing the pilot hatch, he thought for a second and then moved over to slide open the rear compartment.
Bane unlocked the shackles holding Eldritch to the bench, then threw the giant warlock over one shoulder and brought him outside. As he lowered Eldritch to the ground against a tree, the ease with which he performed this gave a rare glimpse into how strong Bane actually was. Eldritch was seven inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the Dire Wolf, yet Bane lifted the big man up and carried him without effort, lowering him to the grass without any apparent difficulty. It wasn't just sheer physical muscule doing this but knowledge of leverage, balance, how to use his body.
Seeing Eldritch tugging at the handcuffs experimentally, Bane said, "Those were designed to hold Melgarin. Unless your powers come back, you won't be breaking them."
"What are you doing? You don't make any sense, Bane."
"I know, I know. After all the victims you've killed and all the trouble you've caused, I really should just put a few bullets through the back of your head. But that's not an option for me. I'm leaving you outside like this in case whatever super-evolved creature is loose kills me. I don't want you starving to death inside the CORBY because you're tied up."
"And this way I can at least walk to the highway after you die?" Eldritch laughed. The deepset hazel eyes were bright with unexpected amusement. "God have mercy on us. Bane, for someone with such a fearsome reputation, you have a heart soft as a marshmallow."
"I'm okay with that." The Dire Wolf straightened up, head cocked as if listening, and stepped quickly away from where the sorcerer sat propped up against a tree. "Don't draw any attention to yourself. I think this monster is aching for a fight against prey that can fight back."
Without a warning growl or rustle of branches, a man-sized furry shape catapulted out of the brush to slam into Bane with deadly intent. Even his lightning reflexes only enabled him to sidestep an inch and barely escape most of the impact. The Dire Wolf automatically fell back into a defensive stance, arms swinging up in front of him just in time to block a sharp jabbing blow. The strength behind that punch was superhuman. Bane's forearm was swept to one side and he was left open for the barest instant. Another knotted iron-hard fist connected to Bane's cheek and knocked him down.
Even as he hit the dirt, the Dire Wolf rolled over twice and leaped back up onto his feet. For the first time, he got a good look at his opponent. The creature was Humanlike, covered in short grey and white fur. There was a vestigial tail and the hind legs bent the wrong way from a human norm. It was in the canine-dominated head that the enemy differed most. The long narrow muzzle with sharp teeth, the erect ears on top of the head, the bright green eyes... all made this creature seem incredibly menacing.
Facing his enemy, Bane allowed himself a faint predatory smile. "A wolf, huh?"
"No, you fool," answered the creature. Although its jaws opened, the lips and tongue did not move when it spoke and its voice had the faint echoing effect of telepathic projection. "I was a simple coyote. Now I am the supreme life form on this planet... I am what that coyote might have become after a million years of directed evolution."
"Sorry, I took you for a wolf," Bane said. "No offense meant." As the last word was spoken, his left hand whipped up from behind his hip with the anesthetic dart gun ready to fire. His arm twitched violently and the gun went spinning off into the bushes. The muscles in Bane's arm ached as if they had been through a seizure.
Coyote laughed. "My mental abilities are far advanced of anything you know. I am the ultimate combination of physical prowess and psychic gifts. I can kill you in a thousand different ways."
"You'll have to prove it," Bane replied. Without any crouching or giveaway posture, he launched himself at the creature in a blur that covered the distance instantly. A left hook and left backfist smacked nearly simultanously against the brute's muzzle with a force that would have killed most Humans. The feral head rocked to one side, but even as Bane's other hand was lashing up in a jab, Coyote caught that arm with both hands and flung Bane up and over behind him. The Dire Wolf hit the ground in a tuck and roll, up on his feet again instantly.
He was facing an opponent equal to him in both speed and strength, something rare in his career.
"You still have not realized what you confront," Coyote announced in his sepulchral telepathic voice. "I only needed your mind's memory for a moment to learn your language. Already, I know enough history and geography from your mind to be able to function in this world. The rule of Humankind has reached its final days. The era of Coyote is dawning."
"Oh, please," Bane answered. "I saw how you smashed that Zhune gadget. There aren't going to be more of you turning up."
"I do not need rivals. I will have slaves by the millions. Perhaps I will begin on a small scale, taking over the State Police or the National Guard, but as those under my control increase in numbers, millions will run to join me out of fear. Wars will blaze across all nations. My reign is inevitable. The world will be my throne!"
"For someone so advanced, you sure brag a lot," the Dire Wolf said. He darted one hand into a jacket pocket and tossed a small metal ovoid up over the Coyote's head. In mid-air, the dazzle grenade swerved wildly aside and spun fifty yards to splash into the creek without detonating. It had only been a distraction. As the creature focused on the grenade, Bane closed in quicker than any fencer and blasted thirty full-strength alternating blows to Coyote's torso, left-right hooking punches that would have broken ribs wherever they landed on a normal opponent.
The brute gasped at the assault but recovered instantly. To his horror, Bane felt his wrists seized in mid-motion by an iron grip he could not break. He stared into the grinning muzzle of Coyote from inches away, feeling that hot breath on his face and seeing the killing urge in the yellow-green eyes. Reacting without hesitation, the Dire Wolf hooked one foot behind his enemy's ankle, twisted around and got the monster off-balance. As Coyote released him, Bane shot one leg up and out in a high side kick with all his strength behind it. The creature deflected it easily with an open palm and sneered.
As he shifted into position for another attack, Bane convulsed unexpectedly. His arms and legs swung about savagely as he left the ground and fell right on his face without being able to catch himself. The pain told him he had torn some muscles during that induced seizure and he needed a second to recover. Even his enhanced healing was not instantanous.
Looming over him, Coyote snarled in a way that had nothing Human to it. "I am enjoying this game too much. There is nothing to be gained playing with you. Your own memory has instructed me how to operate your helicopter. There is advanced technology in that craft that is worthy of me."
Propping both hands beneath him, breathing deeply as he recovered, Bane began to rise. "Listen to me. If you are so advanced, if you're intelligent as you claim, isn't conquest a waste of your abilities? Shouldn't you be planning something more... I don't know, more elevated? You could be improving the world instead of just taking it over."
"You are so transparent," Coyote said. "It's pitiful. I am still a predator by nature. I am being honest about myself. You will not stall me further. You might have some value as a hostage to be used against your colleagues, but I can tell you would never stop trying to obstruct me. It is best to simply kill and eat you now. I might as well get some protein to digest."
Bending over Bane, the creature seized his head by the hair and yanked it viciously. Bane rose to his knees, going along with the pull, and his hands swung up with a silver-bladed dagger in each one. Coyote cuffed the Dire Wolf on the side of the head with an open paw swat that sounded like a board hitting rock and Bane was thrown down again. One dagger dropped from a limp hand but the other was still gripped firmly as Bane struggled to rise.
"I admire your tenacity," Coyote chuckled. "Of course it's wasted on futile resistance. I believe I will eat your liver first, purely for the symbolic value of-" The monster broke off abruptly and stood up, his ferocious expression switching to alarmed fear as he whirled to the side. "What? How are--"
Before that sentence could be completed, a roar like a great river rushed over them and intolerably bright white light flashed. When it faded, nothing remained of the future Coyote. Jeremy Bane got up on one knee, pushed with both hands on the ground and rose swaying to his feet. Slowly he turned his head.
Karl Eldritch towered over him, solid and imposing, free of the handcuffs. The sorcerer tugged down his suit jacket and straightened his tie before looking Bane in the eye and giving vent to a triumphant snort.
"I guess your powers came back quicker than expected," the Dire Wolf said, surprising himself at how weak his voice sounded.
"You should be grateful. The entire world of sheeplike Humans should feel gratitude that they have been spared the assault of that horror. If I had not intervened, that Coyote would be chewing on your internal organs right now."
"Yeah, I have to admit it," Bane said. "I was running out of options. Thank you. Never thought I would be saying that to you of all people, but thanks."
"You might as well relax, Bane. You will not strike at me with that knife, ensalir blade or not." Eldritch looked around and spotted the trail up to the road. "Hopefully my car is still untouched. Very well, I will be going about my business then. I am going to spare your life simply because you spared mine when you easily could have slain me. Don't read anything into this. That's all there is to it."
The Dire Wolf was recovering quickly. He leaned down and seized the other silver dagger, then carefully slid them both up into the sheaths under his sleeves. "I wasn't sparing you so that you would owe me a favor, Eldritch."
"I know. You were only being true to your nature. As I am doing now. Mark me, Dire Wolf. This is not a truce! There is no ending to our conflict. If you insist on getting in the way of my plans again, I will crush you without hesitation. Do you understand?"
"Perfectly."
"Good. I admit I think I understand you a bit better after today, but it changes nothing. I am still going to locate every surviving Zhune relic and claim them for myself. You would be wise to simply concentrate on other areas of the Midnight War." With that, the giant warlock turned on his heel and strode quickly toward where his car waited.
Feeling stronger with each passing moment, Bane watched him walk forcefully up the trail toward the main road. Then Eldritch was gone and the feeling of impending doom that always hung in the air when he was present left with him. A crisp breeze blew from the fast-flowing creek and the world seemed to come back to normal.
Getting down on one knee, the Dire Wolf examined the ground but could not find the faintest trace of Coyote. Not even ashes remained. A series of pawprints in the dirt showed where the creature had been standing when he had been vaporized by the primal atomic fire of ancient Zhune. Bane rose, brushed himself off and headed over to where the CORBY waited for him. He still had to return and explain everything to Sam and Isabel. They must be frantic with worry by now. He swung up into the pilot seat, sealed the hatch and checked all indicators before pulling back on the stick.
As the CORBY rose smoothly straight up, Bane gazed at the spot where he had confronted Coyote and where Eldritch had stepped in. There was not the slightest sign anything unusual had happened there. He often wondered how many other seemingly innocent spots in the world had been witness to desperate crises of the Midnight War which no one would ever suspect.
6/5/2017
4/12/1987
I.
Four rotors slowed as the black stealthcopter settled onto the damp grass. On this drizzly overcast day, the woods around the estate were half-concealed in mist and the CORBY seemed to have dropped straight down from nowhere. The pressurized hatch on the pilot side slid open with a hiss as air escaped from the cabin. Dressed in a black commando suit complete with visored helmet, Jeremy Bane swung out and dropped lightly to the ground as if he expected immediate attack from every direction. In his left hand, the dart gun with its extended needle-thin barrel swung in tight circles.
Six feet tall and lean, Bane looked even more gaunt in the snug field suit. He thumbed one ear pod of his helmet and the visor slid up into its internal track to reveal cold watchful grey eyes under feral black brows. Twenty seconds later, seeing no sign of an ambush, the Dire Wolf lowered his arm slightly and began to move around toward the front of the CORBY. He had flown straight from Manhattan here to northern California as soon as he had gotten the call from Sam and Isabel Guthrie. His nerves were too taut for him to be at his best.
Up a slight incline from where he had landed the copter stood a gorgeous A-frame home of redwood, with a balcony by its second floor windows and a carport under which stood a gleaming new Ford Explorer. On either side of the enclosed walkaround porch were matching blazes of gardenias in neat round gardens. The Dire Wolf had never been here before but he knew the Guthries' dedication to keep their homes attractive. Even in their early seventies, they would be sure to spend as much time as possible on yardwork and upkeep.
Hopefully he had arrived in time. There were no other vehicles in sight, no sign of Eldritch. Bane had begun to holster his dart gun again when he caught the faintest rustle from the brush twenty yards away under the trees. In an instant, a huge tawny shape charged snarling out of those bushes. No normal Human could have reacted in time, but Bane's arm whipped up in a blur and he fired a full clip of the anesthetic darts in a single burst. Sixteen of the metal stings slid into the attacking beast, any one of the darts capable of incapacitating a grown man.
Even if the lunging animal had been dazed instantly, its momentum still drove four hundred pounds of muscle and bone forward quicker than any observer would have followed. Bane nimbly hopped five feet to one side, ejecting the empty clip from his gun and clicking a fresh one into place as he did so. The solid body of the beast crashed hard against the side of the CORBY, rocking even the heavy craft on its landing gear, before sliding motionless to the ground.
Stepping closer, Bane examined the brute. His tentative identification during that split-second of action had to be figure this was a bear of some kind with yellow fur but he saw now it was clearly a big cat... a lion built with massive shoulders and chest, thick short legs and huge paws. In the upper jaw, a pair of long curving canines stretched down seven inches into alarmingly sharp points.
A Sabertooth? There was no uncertainty about it. Then what the Guthries had feared most had come to be. The relics of ancient Zhune were still potent and incredibly dangerous. Bane bent carefully, watching to be certain that the monster's chest was not rising and falling. The big jade-colored eyes were open but did not follow him. Gingerly, he touched the carcass and satisfied himself that the Sabretooth was dead. A full clip of the potent anesthetic had been too much for even a beast that huge. Respiratory failure and cardiac arrest probably had occured before the cat had even been aware of its impending death.
The Dire Wolf swung around, clapping his hand on the butt of his weapon again. The faint sound of a doorknob being turned at the front of the house had been enough to alert him. Recognizing the older couple emerging onto the porch, he released the dart gun and turned to face them openly.
Sam and Iabel Guthrie were both in their early seventies but still mobile and active. They were almost the same size, not much over five feet six, dried and withered by time but moving out onto the porch without canes or relying on a hand holding the railing. Both were neatly dressed and presentable, Isabel in a yellow print sundress and Sam wearing tan slacks and a white short-sleeved dressed shirt.
"Jeremy!" called Sam. "I believe you can see why we called you!"
"So glad you're unharmed," his wife added. "My word, where did you get that weird helicopter? You're not working for the government, I trust?"
Moving toward them, Bane reached up to remove his helmet. The short fine-textured black hair over a narrow face had not changed since he had last met them in person years earlier. "It's KDF property, privately owned. Sam, Isabel, I'm a little surprised to encounter a prehistoric creature in Northern California! Care to explain?"
The man's thick-lensed glasses had slid down on a beaked nose and he pushed them back up with an index finger. "Maybe it would be better if we showed you? Come around the back, please."
Following them from the yard as they slowly walked around the porch, Bane found he was still more keyed up than usual. "Any other prehistorical killers out here I should be aware of?"
"No, no, just the opposite," called Isobel. "Take a second. Look at the hummingbirds."
Bane stepped closer to the side of the house to where a red glass globe hung on a stick. A deep buzz sounded past his ear. Hovering near the feeder was an emerald bird no bigger than his thumb, its wings a haze of motion. As he watched, the hummingbird thrust its long curved beak into a hole in the feeder. "Yeah, I see it."
"Get a little closer," the elderly woman said.
As the Dire Wolf took a few more steps, something unexpected happened. From the furiously beating wings dropped a flurry of glowing sparks... bright, evidently hot reddish glints that slowly drifted down to the ground. Then the bird shot away and was gone in an instant.
"That's something new," Bane admitted. "Never heard of a bird doing that before."
"We think it's an adaptation to distract venomous insects which attack them," said Sam Guthrie. "Hummingbirds won't evolve that ability for another fifty thousand years."
II.
They gathered around a device made of ruddy metal that sat in the back yard. An oval plate was half-sunk in the ground, large enough for a grown person to lie down upon, encircled by four posts that were topped with clear glass globes. Bane's heart sank as he saw the contraption and recognized the hot copper-colored metal it was constructed from.
"Zhune...." he growled. "Dammit, I hate running into these things! They drive me nuts. You can never tell what impossible trick they're going to pull." The Dire Wolf swung around to turn his pale eyes accusingly on the old couple. Both the Guthries winced visibly at the anger in those eyes, even if it wasn't aimed specifically at them. "How'd you two even get hold of something like this?"
"Easy, easy, Jeremy," Sam Guthrie said as he went over to lower himself onto a redwood picnic bench that had been brought nearby. "We were as surprised as you seem to be. You know, Isabel and I don't really get involved much with the genuine Midnight War. That stuff is much too dangerous."
"Let's be honest," the old woman added as she dropped down next to her husband. "We write scripts for syndicated shows like MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN and turn out paperbacks about things like the Bermuda Triangle and Area 51. Most of it we simply fabricate or build up on early tall tales."
"But this is genuine!" Bane snapped, pointing an accusing finger at the apparatus. "This is from the civilization of Zhune, just after the end of the Darthan Age. You have to realize that Zhune artifacts create effects that are unpredictable. You'd be better off having a gigantic bomb ticking away in your yard!"
"That's why we called you, Jeremy. When we realized what we had obtained from Weinman's estate, we felt real panic. You are the only person we ever heard of who might be able to deal with this machinery," Samuel said. "I'm so glad you're here."
"I have to load it in the CORBY and get it away from you," Bane told them grimly. "It's not just that the apparatus is dangerous itself, it's that Karl Eldritch is sure to come for it. I swear he can smell the Zhune relics.. maybe he can sense the energy they give off." The Dire Wolf stepped up to the machine and gingerly tapped one of the glass globes. It was warm to the touch but not enough to burn him. "Help me disasssemble this damn thing," he said as he tried to unscrew the globe from its mount of the copper rod.
Everything turned unrelenting white for an instant. A split-second later, as the glare dimmed, a sharp crack as of thunder right at hand detonated. Bane came to his senses lying on his back forty feet from the Zhune apparatus, with smoke curling up from the hole burned in his field suit jacket. The grey sheen of the Trom armor underneath was exposed. The Dire Wolf growled, rolled over onto his hands and knees but promptly fell down as he tried to stand. His arms and legs were too numb to support him, and his vision was clouded with swirling white after-images. Bane managed to get into a sitting position on the lawn but that was the best he could do.
Striding forcefully around the corner of the house was the towering brute he had dreaded meeting again. Seven inches over six feet tall, the massive bulk of Karl Eldritch stopped to place his fists on his hips and survey the situation. The warlock was impeccably dressed in a dark blue suit with matching vest, pale yellow shirt and blue tie. The shaven head featured deepset hazel eyes under shaggy brows. When he spoke, it was not with quite the bass rumble one might expect but with a subdued, almost mellow tone.
"Bane. Again! Why am I not surprised?" the sorcerer muttered.
Trying again to get to his feet, the Dire Wolf managed to stand with legs well apart but his balance was uncertain. He nearly fell again. "I've lost track of the ways you were supposed to be destroyed," he yelled at the giant. "Weren't you last seen buried under a cave-in in Greece? Or was that the time before last, after a giant squid dragged you under the ocean?"
Eldritch made a scornful noise. "Hah. Perhaps I should be angry with you, Bane. After all, each time we clash, you attempt to kill me in a different way. Frozen solid, shrunk into nothingness, having the center of my chest blown away.... But it is beginning to amuse me. I admire your creativity."
Both Sam and Isabel Guthrie had risen from the redwood bench with the hope of escape. A single ferocious glance from the giant warlock stopped them short. He pointed one broad hand at the couple if it were a weapon. "Remain where you are. You do not have the Dire Wolf's armor, nor his healing abilty. My atomic fire would leave nothing of you two but memories."
"Do whatever he says," Bane called over. He seemed steadier on his feet, still swaying a bit but ready to tackle the warlock. "Still tracking down Zhune relics all over the world, eh? You've got a real obsession, Eldritch."
"And with good reason. It was the lost science of the ancients which showed me the ultimate secret of the universe. I am the only living being who can turn matter into energy and energy into matter. I may well be immortal. Certainly, the gruesome methods you have attacked me with have merely slowed me down for a time."
The Dire Wolf jerked a thumb toward the copper-colored metal appartus on the lawn near them. "And this thing? I figure you saw that sabertooth on your way back here. He still sleeping?"
Eldritch went over to place a reverent hand on one of the glass globes. "The wise men of Zhune! Philosopher that classical Greece or old China could not match. They unlocked cosmic secrets with sheer overwhelming genius. This artifact is one I have sought for years. The Evolution Wheel!"
"Wait, wait a second. Let me get this straight," Bane said. He raised both hands in a placating gesture. "Look. I'm not educated like you are. I grew up on the streets. But even I know that evolution doesn't work like this. It's not... it's not a literal force like electricity or heat. It's just a blind process where animals and plants pass on traits when they reproduce and the ones that survive build up traits that help that success. Right?"
"In a simplified way," Eldritch admitted. As he concentrated, a shimmer of white light played over his hand and the four glass globes flared up brightly. "I thought so. The charge was nearly dissipated. Yes, Mr Bane, evolution as it is usually understood is a natural process that cannot be harnessed or hindered. And yet, like so many Zhune relics, this device seems to provide impossible effects."
The huge warlock gestured to Isabel Guthrie. "Come here, madame. I insist. Yes, step closer and step up on this plate. You are to be part of a great moment. We shall see the Evolution Wheel in action."
III.
"Wait, wait!" Bane yelled. He took two shaky steps forward before Eldritch stopped him with a threatening flare of white light from one meaty hand.
"Perhaps I need to reduce your legs to stray atoms so you finally remain compliant," the warlock said. "To be honest, I can't imagine why I don't simply convert you into energy and disperse you forever."
"Listen a second," the Dire Wolf pleaded. "Leave these two alone. They're civilians. I'll go into your Zhune contraption. Whatever it does, let it happen to me. Deal?"
"No." The big bald head lowered and its deep hazel eyes regarded the ground. "It occurs to me that perhaps I enjoy clashing with you in some way, Bane. You add complication and surprise to the Desperate Game. Of course, if I did kill you, I would then be pestered by all your Tel Shai friends hungry to avenge you. Khang. Sulak. The Trom. Nebel with the Eyeless Helmet. They would be an insufferable nuisance."
Bane moved one foot forward, but a surge of intolerably bright light blasted into the ground. Inches from his toes, the ground had vanished in a wide ditch down to the bedrock. Bane froze into position after that, thinking and discarding strategems furiously. Confronting Karl Eldritch was always nerve-wracking because the warlock was overwhelmingly powerful and almost impossible to harm.
"Now, Mrs Guthrie, if you will?" Eldritch gestured again toward the Zhune artifact.
With infinite reluctance, glancing back at her anguished husband, Isabel moved forward one step at a time and finally stepped into the circle of the four glass globes. The instant her foot placed its weight on the central plate, a sharp click sounded and the globes exploded in a silent burst of that same unbearable white light. As the radiance faded, everyone stood blinking and struggling to see again.
Where a seventy year old woman had stood seconds earlier, a thin hairy primate no more than four feet tall dropped to rest some of its weight on its knuckles. Not a Chimp or an Orang or any other familiar species, the ape stared wildly around and took off at a full run into the woods.
"Isabel..!" Sam yelled. He got to his feet and swung around to pursue her, but Eldritch had stepped in closer toward him. The warlock clenched the fingers of one powerful hand into the old man's shirtfront and yanked him up entirely off the ground so his feet hung freely in the air.
"I will not sear you with the atomic fire, fool," Eldritch said. "It is your turn upon the Wheel."
In the moment that the warlock's attention was fixed on Sam Guthrie, Bane had whipped both silver daggers out from their sheaths under his sleeves and headed for him. Unfortunately, little of his usual speed had returned and he was not moving any more quickly than a normal Human. Eldritch caught the onrushing motion from his peripheral vision and held up an open palm.
Once again, the late afternoon scene was drowned in white light that blotted out everything else. Ozone stung the air. When normal visibility returned, Bane was lying face up on the lawn thirty feet away with steam rising from his body. Most of his turtleneck and jacket were gone. The Dire Wolf suffered a painful coughing jag. He flailed about for a few moments but could not do more than rise up on one elbow. Both the silver daggers had spun away out of reach. Bane spat a mouthful of blood out onto the grass and cursed under his breath.
"You came within an inch of being vaporized entirely," Eldritch said in a scolding but not entirely serious tone. "May I suggest you settle back and content yourself to watch! Mr Guthrie, it is your turn." The warlock chuckled. "Thank you for volunteering."
With that, Eldritch bluntly tossed the elderly man through the air to land with a sad thump onto the central plate. When the primal light blasted again, Bane had enough presence to turn his head away and squeeze his eyes shut but even so, he was dazzled again.
Karl Eldritch had covered his face and he lowered his hands to blink at where a tall slender figure now stood in the center of the Zhune apparatus.
"This has gone far enough," announced a pleasant, tranquil voice from within the artifact.
IV.
As Eldritch bent forward uncertainly, peering with watery eyes, a naked man stepped away from the Zune artifact. Pale to the point where veins showed blue through translucent skin, the apparition had long spindly arms and legs, fingers that extended beyond normal length and the bare minimal muscular development. The head was hairless and oversized, the forehead stretched up twice as far as normal. In a face with a snub noise and receding chin, it was the eyes that dominated... huge, gleaming bright blue eyes that were lit with wry amusement.
"You have misunderstood this invention," the man announced as if speaking to children. "It does not affect evolution at all, nor does it replace its subjects with the bodies of remote ancestors or even more remote descendants. It's a hypothetical manifestation device. The machine alters its subjects into what their ancestors or descendants might have been in ages past or as they might become in future eons."
"How do you know this?" demanded Eldritch, but although he sounded angry, there was an undertone of definite alarm in his voice.
"I understand how the principle works," the man answered. "All the secrets of Zhune seem obvious to me. I am Man as he might become one million years from now, when the latent powers of the mind have been explored. I perceive you are thinking of trying to harm me, Karl Eldritch."
The giant warlock gasped and doubled up in pain, sinking to his knees. He remained there with his weight resting on his stiffened arms to prop him up. "What? What have you--"
"I have damped your abilities to convert matter and energy," the future man said. "You will be weak for several days. I suggest you take this opportunity as a chance to reconsider the choices you have made in life."
Bane was still endeavoring to get up on his feet, but his arms and legs were shaking too badly. He had taken two point-blank blasts of that primal atomic force and even his enhanced healing could not repair the damage. As the future man had spoken, Bane had followed his statements without fully being able to comprehend them. He realized dimly that he was going into shock.
"Isabel.. Mrs Guthrie," the Dire Wolf still managed to croak through a raw throat. "We have to find her. Help her."
"This does you credit," the strange man told him. "Even in your distress, your desire is to help someone else. Yes. We will go find Isabel Guthrie and restore her to the state that is rightful for this time and place. Here, relax and do not resist."
Nothing visible happened, there was no bolt of force or crackle of gralic energy, but Bane shuddered and felt back to normal. The pain and confusion from trauma washed away from him, leaving only relief. The Dire Wolf hopped back up to his feet. Automatically, he looked for his daggers and went over to retrieve them. They had been given to him by Kenneth Dred at the beginning of their association with each other, and he valued those silver blades more than everything else he owned combined.
"Thank you," he said simply as he returned the daggers to their sheaths. "I suppose you'll be able to restore her to normal. You certainly seem to have mental powers advanced enough for it."
"I will not remain in this state for long," the future man reassured him. "Sam Guthrie deserves to live out the rest of his alloted time with his wife. Come. In her primitive state, Isabel's mind is difficult for me to locate. You must help track her."
"Sure. But, wait, is Eldritch going to stay harmless while we're gone?"
"Yes. He will not regain normal vitality at least the rest of this day, and his Zhune-related abilities will not return for longer than that. I need not take his life."
Bane glared at where the giant warlock had fallen asleep, face turned to one side in the grass. "I suppose not. That would sure be convenient for me, though. I guess I can always take him to Tel Shai for judgement. The Teachers there are bound to have some idea how to keep him out of trouble once and for all. Okay, let's go find Isabel. She went in that direction."
Long after the Dire Wolf and his eerie companion had disappeared into the woods, Karl Eldritch stirred restlessly, groaned and rolled over on one side. Yards away, a click sounded from the central plate of the Zhune artifact and the blinding white light detonated one final time.
V.
Getting the Guthries back to their property took more than an hour, even though Isabel had not gotten far. The future man version of Sam had transformed the primate back into her Human form as soon as she was in sight, but then they were confronted with a baffled seventy year old woman. Isabel Guthrie gave in to genuine hysterics after finding herself naked in the woods, and the future man only calmed her down by reverting immediately back to the familiar form of her husband. Sam repeatedly explained the situation and eventually she stopped shaking.
"I thought I was having a blackout or something," she said, clinging to him. "Like I suffered a stroke."
Bane had taken what remained of his black jacket, not much more than most of the back portion held together by the sleeves, and draped it over her. The couple were in no condition to hike barefoot back to their yard. After asking them a few questions, Bane took off at a full run to their house. Quicker than they would have expected, he returned with his arms full of clothing. Each got a pair of slippers and a bathrobe, enough to provide them with some modesty and foot protection. After they were properly covered and shod, both the Guthries felt better. He had also snatched up a pair of prescription sunglasses which Sam claimed and two bottles of water which they both sipped gratefully.
"I don't have any memory of turning into anything," Isabel said. "That horrible man forced me to step onto that machine and suddenly I was standing out here without a stitch. I was afraid I must have had a stroke or something."
"It's all over now," her husband told her. "Look, you can just see our house there. See it, there in that gap between the trees? We'll be home and safe in a few minutes."
Bane had broken off two tree branches of appropriate length and thicknesses, trimming off side branches with one of his silver daggers. "Use these as walking sticks. The ground here is uneven. Watch for vines and roots that might trip you."
"My upper plate is gone!" Sam announced. "Oh no."
"It sure seems all your clothing simply vanished when you two were transformed. I guess you'll have to order new dentures made. Come on, let's get moving. This area is nice and clear." He started leading them through the woods, keeping a sharp eye to make sure they were safe. Bane had been only twenty when he had started working for Kenneth Dred, who had been a fragile seventy-nine. The young Dire Wolf had developed a lifelong habit of being watchful around the elderly to prevent accidents. Once, the Guthries paused to sit on a fallen tree trunk for a few minutes but soon they were back on the neatly trimmed lawn of their back yard with the redwood back wall of their house to reassure them.
"Stay back here by the picnic benches," Bane told them in a voice that abruptly had turned hard. He stalked over to where the Zhune apparatus lay in ruins. Something had smashed the four glass globes and twisted the metal parts out of shape. Even the thick central plate was bent almost in half. The Dire Wolf swung around warily, staring and listening but not picking up on anything out of the ordinary. Karl Eldritch had managed to get up into a seated position, leaning back against the landing gear of the CORBY but unable to rise without assistance.
Bane went over to the warlock. "What happened here?" he demanded bluntly.
"Ha ha, you are in for still more surprises today," answered the warlock. "I can't say I'm sorry to see this development."
"Eldritch, knock it off and just give me a straight answer! You're flesh and blood right now, you don't want me executing you before your powers come back."
The giant sorcerer shrugged. "I am not worried about that. You have a reputation for not killing prisoners, Dire Wolf. When you went into the forest, the Zhune relic still had a good charge of cosmic energy in it, more than enough to transform one more subject."
"What? Are you telling me some animal wandered onto the gadget? What kind of animal? What did it turn into?"
A roar of laughter burst from the warlock. "Oh, I believe you'll find out soon enough. Whatever beast it was, it became a future self. It's obvious. He emerged intelligent enough to figure out how to steal and drive my car. This was only a few minutes ago. By now, he must be miles away."
Jeremy Bane swung over to slide open the pilot hatch of the CORBY and hop up inside. With the ease of long practice, he thumbed the series of buttons and flipped the toggle switches to warm the craft up. Pastel blue and green lights illuminated the cockpit and the row of exterior monitor screens lit up. The Trom-built craft had not been powered down for long. It would be ready for wheels up in only a few minutes. Jumping back down again, Bane popped a rear storage compartment and unwrapped a spare field suit jacket complete with the dozen weapons and gadgets within its inner pockets. He packed away the anesthetic dart gun with its holster and instead buckled on a gunbelt that held his familiar long-barrel Smith & Wesson .38 revolver.
Eldritch had been watching all this with great amusement. "I believe you will have your hands full this time, Dire Wolf. You're chasing quite the formidable adversary."
"Glad you're enjoying this, old buddy." Bane slid open the hatch behind the cockpit, revealing the rear compartment with its metal bench on one wall and rows of drawers holding equipment. As big as Eldritch was, the Dire Wolf hauled him up off the ground and into the compartment without any seeming difficulty. Fetching restraints from one of the drawers, Bane handcuffed the warlock's hands behind him and then added a short leg shackle to a sturdy post.
"That should keep you out of mischief for the moment," Bane said with satisfaction.
Wriggling in an attempt to be more comfortable, Eldritch snorted derisively. "When my abilities return, I will convert these shameful restraints into pure light and be free. In fact, I will turn this entire helicopter into a sunburst.. with you in it."
Bane started to slid the hatch shut, saying, "Hopefully this will all be settled before that." He secured the panel, thought for the barest second and raced back to explain to the Guthries what was going on.
"Oh, we'll be fine, Jeremy," Isabel said. "Don't worry about us. We've survived a lot in life. Sam went in the house to use the bathroom. He said he'll make us sandwiches, we have some wonderful corned beef from last night."
"I wanted to make sure you two are safe."
"We'll be fine," she repeated. "Especially if you're taking that horrid man with you."
"All right. I'll come back to explain everything when this is all over." Bane hurtled across the yard, vaulted lightly up into the pilot seat and closed the hatch. In another second, the rotors began to turn and then sped up. He examined the gauges and dials and readout screens as he fastened the straps across his chest and shins, then pulled back on the collective stick. The CORBY launched straight up with startling acceleration and in nearly total silence into a sky that was growing dark.
VI.
Reaching two thousand feet, the Dire Wolf began searching with the CORBY sensors. There was only one main road this far up in the hills and traffic was sparse. The nearest town was thirty-five miles away. The Trom probes in the CORBY combined Doppler radar for motion detection and infra-red heat sources, as well as more arcane systems that registered the noises made by car engines or rubber tires in motion. Within a few seconds, he had a positive ID. Bane swung the nose of the stealthcopter east and accelerated smoothly forward and just over a hundred miles per hour.
From the back compartment, Eldritch grumbled, "I can't understand why you just don't simply kill me while I am vulnerable...."
"It's tempting," Bane replied absently as he searched for the fleeing car. "When I was young and callous, I once shot a man to death in cold blood. I found him still carving the body of his third victim, so I felt justified. He never saw it coming. But it bothered me. It still bothers me. I think people who have never taken life have no idea what a mark it leaves."
The giant warlock scoffed. "It seems you are too soft for this trade, Dire Wolf. If our positions were reversed, rest assured I would have cut your throat by now."
"I'm okay with that," Bane said, as if not fully paying attention. "I am the way I am. I'm not sparing you because I think you can be rehabilitated or anything, you're a lost cause."
After a minute, Eldritch went on, "This helicopter uses Trom technology, I gather? It's so quiet, so smooth. I couldn't even tell we were in the air. How does that work?"
Now it was the Dire Wolf's turn to snort dismissively. "You're trouble enough with just Zhune knowledge. There's the car. Looks like this year's Lincoln Continental. Tinted windows. California plates. I'm going lower." Through the light-enhancing factor of the windscreen, Bane could see the car sharply. "The driver is the only occupant. Let's get him to pull over."
Without warning, the CORBY swooped down to treetop level and rushed forward over the top of the speeding car like a black wind passing. Its powerful backdraft swung the Lincoln from side to side and spun it completely around so it was facing the direction it had just come from. Bane lifted the CORBY up a few hundred feet and looped around. He saw a dark manlike figure jump out of the car, leaving the driver door open, and lope off into the woods.
"What's happening? I can't see. What did you do?" demanded Eldritch.
"Settle down back there. I gave him some turbulence and he abandoned the car. Looks like he's booking it for the creek. There's an open space there where I can intercept him."
"Isn't this helicopter armed? Don't you at least have machine guns, Bane? I don't think you take the Midnight War seriously enough."
"Quiet. Maybe I should give you an anesthetic dart or two while you're Human." Bane passed over the running figure and brought the CORBY down in a clearing alongside a broad fast-running creek. The sensors indicated that the target was still racing directly at them.
"I don't think he's going to try to escape," Bane said. "He wants confrontation." Slowing the rotors but leaving the Trom impulse engines on low, he unfastened his seat restraints and slid open the hatch to his right. There was a hiss as air left the pressurized cabin. The Dire Wolf dropped lightly to the damp soil, searching with all his senses rather than relying on the sensors built into his helmet. Closing the pilot hatch, he thought for a second and then moved over to slide open the rear compartment.
Bane unlocked the shackles holding Eldritch to the bench, then threw the giant warlock over one shoulder and brought him outside. As he lowered Eldritch to the ground against a tree, the ease with which he performed this gave a rare glimpse into how strong Bane actually was. Eldritch was seven inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the Dire Wolf, yet Bane lifted the big man up and carried him without effort, lowering him to the grass without any apparent difficulty. It wasn't just sheer physical muscule doing this but knowledge of leverage, balance, how to use his body.
Seeing Eldritch tugging at the handcuffs experimentally, Bane said, "Those were designed to hold Melgarin. Unless your powers come back, you won't be breaking them."
"What are you doing? You don't make any sense, Bane."
"I know, I know. After all the victims you've killed and all the trouble you've caused, I really should just put a few bullets through the back of your head. But that's not an option for me. I'm leaving you outside like this in case whatever super-evolved creature is loose kills me. I don't want you starving to death inside the CORBY because you're tied up."
"And this way I can at least walk to the highway after you die?" Eldritch laughed. The deepset hazel eyes were bright with unexpected amusement. "God have mercy on us. Bane, for someone with such a fearsome reputation, you have a heart soft as a marshmallow."
"I'm okay with that." The Dire Wolf straightened up, head cocked as if listening, and stepped quickly away from where the sorcerer sat propped up against a tree. "Don't draw any attention to yourself. I think this monster is aching for a fight against prey that can fight back."
Without a warning growl or rustle of branches, a man-sized furry shape catapulted out of the brush to slam into Bane with deadly intent. Even his lightning reflexes only enabled him to sidestep an inch and barely escape most of the impact. The Dire Wolf automatically fell back into a defensive stance, arms swinging up in front of him just in time to block a sharp jabbing blow. The strength behind that punch was superhuman. Bane's forearm was swept to one side and he was left open for the barest instant. Another knotted iron-hard fist connected to Bane's cheek and knocked him down.
Even as he hit the dirt, the Dire Wolf rolled over twice and leaped back up onto his feet. For the first time, he got a good look at his opponent. The creature was Humanlike, covered in short grey and white fur. There was a vestigial tail and the hind legs bent the wrong way from a human norm. It was in the canine-dominated head that the enemy differed most. The long narrow muzzle with sharp teeth, the erect ears on top of the head, the bright green eyes... all made this creature seem incredibly menacing.
Facing his enemy, Bane allowed himself a faint predatory smile. "A wolf, huh?"
"No, you fool," answered the creature. Although its jaws opened, the lips and tongue did not move when it spoke and its voice had the faint echoing effect of telepathic projection. "I was a simple coyote. Now I am the supreme life form on this planet... I am what that coyote might have become after a million years of directed evolution."
"Sorry, I took you for a wolf," Bane said. "No offense meant." As the last word was spoken, his left hand whipped up from behind his hip with the anesthetic dart gun ready to fire. His arm twitched violently and the gun went spinning off into the bushes. The muscles in Bane's arm ached as if they had been through a seizure.
Coyote laughed. "My mental abilities are far advanced of anything you know. I am the ultimate combination of physical prowess and psychic gifts. I can kill you in a thousand different ways."
"You'll have to prove it," Bane replied. Without any crouching or giveaway posture, he launched himself at the creature in a blur that covered the distance instantly. A left hook and left backfist smacked nearly simultanously against the brute's muzzle with a force that would have killed most Humans. The feral head rocked to one side, but even as Bane's other hand was lashing up in a jab, Coyote caught that arm with both hands and flung Bane up and over behind him. The Dire Wolf hit the ground in a tuck and roll, up on his feet again instantly.
He was facing an opponent equal to him in both speed and strength, something rare in his career.
"You still have not realized what you confront," Coyote announced in his sepulchral telepathic voice. "I only needed your mind's memory for a moment to learn your language. Already, I know enough history and geography from your mind to be able to function in this world. The rule of Humankind has reached its final days. The era of Coyote is dawning."
"Oh, please," Bane answered. "I saw how you smashed that Zhune gadget. There aren't going to be more of you turning up."
"I do not need rivals. I will have slaves by the millions. Perhaps I will begin on a small scale, taking over the State Police or the National Guard, but as those under my control increase in numbers, millions will run to join me out of fear. Wars will blaze across all nations. My reign is inevitable. The world will be my throne!"
"For someone so advanced, you sure brag a lot," the Dire Wolf said. He darted one hand into a jacket pocket and tossed a small metal ovoid up over the Coyote's head. In mid-air, the dazzle grenade swerved wildly aside and spun fifty yards to splash into the creek without detonating. It had only been a distraction. As the creature focused on the grenade, Bane closed in quicker than any fencer and blasted thirty full-strength alternating blows to Coyote's torso, left-right hooking punches that would have broken ribs wherever they landed on a normal opponent.
The brute gasped at the assault but recovered instantly. To his horror, Bane felt his wrists seized in mid-motion by an iron grip he could not break. He stared into the grinning muzzle of Coyote from inches away, feeling that hot breath on his face and seeing the killing urge in the yellow-green eyes. Reacting without hesitation, the Dire Wolf hooked one foot behind his enemy's ankle, twisted around and got the monster off-balance. As Coyote released him, Bane shot one leg up and out in a high side kick with all his strength behind it. The creature deflected it easily with an open palm and sneered.
As he shifted into position for another attack, Bane convulsed unexpectedly. His arms and legs swung about savagely as he left the ground and fell right on his face without being able to catch himself. The pain told him he had torn some muscles during that induced seizure and he needed a second to recover. Even his enhanced healing was not instantanous.
Looming over him, Coyote snarled in a way that had nothing Human to it. "I am enjoying this game too much. There is nothing to be gained playing with you. Your own memory has instructed me how to operate your helicopter. There is advanced technology in that craft that is worthy of me."
Propping both hands beneath him, breathing deeply as he recovered, Bane began to rise. "Listen to me. If you are so advanced, if you're intelligent as you claim, isn't conquest a waste of your abilities? Shouldn't you be planning something more... I don't know, more elevated? You could be improving the world instead of just taking it over."
"You are so transparent," Coyote said. "It's pitiful. I am still a predator by nature. I am being honest about myself. You will not stall me further. You might have some value as a hostage to be used against your colleagues, but I can tell you would never stop trying to obstruct me. It is best to simply kill and eat you now. I might as well get some protein to digest."
Bending over Bane, the creature seized his head by the hair and yanked it viciously. Bane rose to his knees, going along with the pull, and his hands swung up with a silver-bladed dagger in each one. Coyote cuffed the Dire Wolf on the side of the head with an open paw swat that sounded like a board hitting rock and Bane was thrown down again. One dagger dropped from a limp hand but the other was still gripped firmly as Bane struggled to rise.
"I admire your tenacity," Coyote chuckled. "Of course it's wasted on futile resistance. I believe I will eat your liver first, purely for the symbolic value of-" The monster broke off abruptly and stood up, his ferocious expression switching to alarmed fear as he whirled to the side. "What? How are--"
Before that sentence could be completed, a roar like a great river rushed over them and intolerably bright white light flashed. When it faded, nothing remained of the future Coyote. Jeremy Bane got up on one knee, pushed with both hands on the ground and rose swaying to his feet. Slowly he turned his head.
Karl Eldritch towered over him, solid and imposing, free of the handcuffs. The sorcerer tugged down his suit jacket and straightened his tie before looking Bane in the eye and giving vent to a triumphant snort.
"I guess your powers came back quicker than expected," the Dire Wolf said, surprising himself at how weak his voice sounded.
"You should be grateful. The entire world of sheeplike Humans should feel gratitude that they have been spared the assault of that horror. If I had not intervened, that Coyote would be chewing on your internal organs right now."
"Yeah, I have to admit it," Bane said. "I was running out of options. Thank you. Never thought I would be saying that to you of all people, but thanks."
"You might as well relax, Bane. You will not strike at me with that knife, ensalir blade or not." Eldritch looked around and spotted the trail up to the road. "Hopefully my car is still untouched. Very well, I will be going about my business then. I am going to spare your life simply because you spared mine when you easily could have slain me. Don't read anything into this. That's all there is to it."
The Dire Wolf was recovering quickly. He leaned down and seized the other silver dagger, then carefully slid them both up into the sheaths under his sleeves. "I wasn't sparing you so that you would owe me a favor, Eldritch."
"I know. You were only being true to your nature. As I am doing now. Mark me, Dire Wolf. This is not a truce! There is no ending to our conflict. If you insist on getting in the way of my plans again, I will crush you without hesitation. Do you understand?"
"Perfectly."
"Good. I admit I think I understand you a bit better after today, but it changes nothing. I am still going to locate every surviving Zhune relic and claim them for myself. You would be wise to simply concentrate on other areas of the Midnight War." With that, the giant warlock turned on his heel and strode quickly toward where his car waited.
Feeling stronger with each passing moment, Bane watched him walk forcefully up the trail toward the main road. Then Eldritch was gone and the feeling of impending doom that always hung in the air when he was present left with him. A crisp breeze blew from the fast-flowing creek and the world seemed to come back to normal.
Getting down on one knee, the Dire Wolf examined the ground but could not find the faintest trace of Coyote. Not even ashes remained. A series of pawprints in the dirt showed where the creature had been standing when he had been vaporized by the primal atomic fire of ancient Zhune. Bane rose, brushed himself off and headed over to where the CORBY waited for him. He still had to return and explain everything to Sam and Isabel. They must be frantic with worry by now. He swung up into the pilot seat, sealed the hatch and checked all indicators before pulling back on the stick.
As the CORBY rose smoothly straight up, Bane gazed at the spot where he had confronted Coyote and where Eldritch had stepped in. There was not the slightest sign anything unusual had happened there. He often wondered how many other seemingly innocent spots in the world had been witness to desperate crises of the Midnight War which no one would ever suspect.
6/5/2017