Part 14 (1/2)
He coughed rather loudly. Both Piers and Katrina turned to look at him.
Roger spoke quickly: ”Storg gnurden Captain Crusader. Minsky smeltzny va-larie?”
Both Piers and Katrina stared at him, open-mouthed.
This was not quite the reaction Roger had been hoping for. His eyes slid down to the subt.i.tle before him: YOUR SISTER HAS DOG BREATH. AM I CAPTAIN CRUSADER?.
Piers turned to Katrina. Roger was too upset to listen to what the haggard man was saying. He couldn't help himself, though. He had to read the subt.i.tle.
HE HAS MET YOUR SISTER.
Katrina's reply was angry. Once again, Roger didn't really listen, but only read:I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER HER PERSONAL HYGIENE.
But then Katrina turned to Roger and smiled. The expression changed her face. Her whole countenance opened up, and the years fell away. Sunlight seemed to be reflected in her eyes. Roger realized that, before this misery descended upon her, she had been rather pretty.
”Blorfen,” she urged. ”Inka minka mensky smelten.” come, the subt.i.tle explained, I will take you to my sister.
Roger nodded, a gesture she seemed to understand. He was glad Katrina had forgiven him for his first blundering attempt at their language. Perhaps, given a little more time, he might find some way of communicating with this pair. He had to, if he was to discover where he was, and where he should go in his search for Captain Crusader.
The computer, after all, had programmed his ring to lead him to the Captain's most likely whereabouts-perhaps not this bleakly symbolic place, but certainly a world nearby.
Katrina rose from her pew. She fussed with her hair in a broken shard of mirror that she pulled from a worn leather bag. She seemed so much happier than before.
Roger felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the frightened face of Piers.
”Mensky valarie,” he whispered urgently. ”Urken blur-geon gesundheit.''
Roger's heart almost stopped when he read the subt.i.tle: HER SISTER HAS BEEN DEAD FOR A LONG TIME.
Piers nodded when he saw Roger's concern. He made a slas.h.i.+ng motion across his throat, the sort of gesture that meant the same thing in any language.
Roger swallowed sharply as Piers faded back into the shadows.
Katrina hummed happily to herself as she put her mirror away. She fingered something at her belt-something black that looked like the hilt of an object whose hidden part would be very sharp indeed.
”Blorfen,” she told Roger. ”Sharpen slashen kooten!”
come, the subt.i.tle rea.s.sured. you will join her SHORTLY.
She reached out to take his hand, presumably to lead him to his death. Her other hand still held onto the black hilt. Roger glanced behind him, but Piers seemed to have dis- appeared.
For a second, Roger felt there was no escape.
But he wasn't trapped. He had his Captain Crusader Secret Decoder Ring. So what if he didn't know where he was? So what if he didn't have the slightest clue to the whereabouts of Captain Crusader? If he stuck around here, there was a good chance he would very shortly be dead.
He pulled the ring from his pocket and twisted it violently.
”See you in the funny papers!”
Nothing happened. The ring didn't work.
Only then did Roger realize how foolish he had been. This ring hadn't been designed to help him find Captain Crusader. Far from it. This ring had been made by the renegade computer VERA, a machine programmed by the minions of Doctor Dread, no doubt to strand him somewhere far away from Captain Crusader, a spot on the most distant edge of the Cineverse, from which he could never return. By using this ring at the Inst.i.tute of Very Advanced Science, he hadn't escaped Dread's plans; he had played right into his hands!
Katrina grabbed his wrist. For one so frail, she was surprisingly strong. She dragged him from the church in a matter of seconds.
”Minsky mensky smertzen bludengutsen!” she cried pa.s.sionately.
MY SISTER WILL BE SO GLAD TO HAVE COMPANY, the subt.i.tle read.
Katrina yanked the blade from her sash.
”Gerenden undsmashen!” she screamed. ”Chopen hacken slashen gooshen!”
Roger didn't read the subt.i.tle. All he could see was the knife.
^ ^ 12 ^ ^
”DEADLY COINCIDENCE!”.
”Gripes!” Big Louie exclaimed. ”Is this guy everywhere?”
Delores managed to nod. She had difficulty even moving her head. She had begun to think of this whole thing as inevitable. The Slime Monster was omnipresent. He was one with shadow-every shadow. Wherever there was darkness, there was slime.
”Good,” the monster remarked from somewhere within the lightlessness before her.
”It will be so much easier, once you surrender to the inevitable.”
Delores didn't know what to say. Instead, she s.h.i.+vered violently in the island heat.
”So few people have taken the time to get to know me,” the monster remarked. ”They don't understand the purpose of my slime.”
”Purpose?” Zabana demanded. ”Slime not have purpose. Slime is slime!”
”See?” The monster sighed. ”It has been that way throughout the Cineverse. But with Delores by my side, I know it would be different.”
Delores tried to get control of herself. She had never actually seen this monster, after all. Perhaps it wasn't as bad as she imagined. s.h.i.+vering in broad daylight, jumping at the approach of shadows-this was no way for a hero to act! She was tumbling into some kind of slime-induced shock.
No, she couldn't let her revulsion control her life. She had to approach this whole thing dispa.s.sionately, like she had been taught in Hero School, especially in Narrow Escapes 301. After all, what would life be like with a slime monster?
She envisioned an existence surrounded by slippery goo; swimming in a lake of viscous mush. She imagined it would all be rather like living in a mucous membrane.
Her stomach lurched as bile rose in her throat. She wished, as soon as she had thought of it, that she could forget that a.n.a.logy.
That's when Officer O'Clanrahan stepped between Delores and the shadow.
”I'm sorry, boyo!'' the policeman interjected. ”It's soundin' to me like you want to put this little lady in jeopardy. And where there are women in jeopardy, where there are wrongs to be righted, where there are dangers to be overcome-that's where you'll find Dwight the Wonder Dog!”
”Bark, yip, arf!” Dwight agreed.