“I’m not sure.” Quentin answered. “Where are the Klopph? There’s no way this should be happening.”
“So where are they?”
“I have no idea. If they were recalled to the city, there should be no shortage of Klopph.”
Babel looked ahead. “We have to go through that.”
“Yes, we do.” Jims said. “But don’t worry. If anyone comes near us, I’ll crush their skull.”
“How far to the Erőd?” Babel asked.
“We’re entering from the west side of the city,” Quentin answered, “and the city is longer east to west than it is north to south. We still have a few miles to get to the Elder Quarter.”
“A few miles of this?” Jims commented.
Quentin’s mention of the Elder Quarter took Babel’s thoughts to Triana. He recalled how he felt when they found her in the palace – obviously tortured but alive. He realized then that he loved her. But after all she had been through, was she capable of returning that love?
A shout brought him back and he saw Jims approaching a set of four teenage boys. They had obviously said something for which Jims did not care and as he neared them, their nerve broke and they scattered to the recesses of a narrow alley. Jims was smarter than to follow. “Maggots.” he grunted as raged back to the Quentin and Babel.
Quentin looked over at Babel. “And you were worried that the three of us wouldn’t be enough to handle the business here.”
“The only thing worse than maggots is where they make their home.” Jims said with a wink.
“So what do you think,” Babel inquired. “Do we press on or do we find somewhere to lay low and assess what we are facing?”
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this.” Quentin commented.
Jims nodded in agreement. “I can’t say I have either. But then again, I’m just a Yooper from the Outerlands.”
“Yooper? I thought that was someone from Michigan?”
“Michigan?”
“Nevermind. Anyways, do we hold here or press on?”
“We don’t really know what is going here.” answered Jims. “It would be the smart thing to lay low and access what we’re facing.”
All agreed, the found one of the ransacked buildings empty. They scouted the rooms on both floors and determined they were the same. Jims set up a perimeter of alarms (junk lying about that was piled such to be easily toppled and loud) and they settled into a room with multiple escape routes. Quentin took the first watch while Jims and Babel settled in for another night of cheerless cold.
CHAPTER FIFTY ONE
They navigated the streets easily enough and found themselves mostly unscathed. They had faced some freeloaders who assumed three men would be easy targets; with only a few bruises to show for the altercation himself, Jims made sure the freeloaders did not share that same fate. He made good on his promise to dent heads. Babel stepped over the unconscious and bleeding men to continue his path to the Erőd.
“Piece of cake.” Jims said after they had moved on.
They traveled the next mile in peace. The day would have been serene had it not been for the broken glass belched onto the street from store fronts and the bouquet of burning rubber that incensed their noses. The Klopph remained unseen.
The anxiety grew as they walked. Their intentions were to slip into the city among the crowded streets, avoiding the Klopph in route to the Erőd where they would carry out their plot. The scheme called for Babel to present himself to the Klopph once Jims and Quentin were in place. He would allow himself to be taken inside of the Erőd, then once there, he would torch the place and everyone in it. Now, with the missing Klopph, the plan didn’t seem as forthright. Of course, Babel could always just walk through the front doors of the Erőd and begin setting the fortress on blaze, Klopph or not but he was hoping to be near the Keeper when he began.
When the finally reached the structure, the absence of the Klopp filled an already uncomfortable air. Babel was faced with a choice. He could carry out the conceived plan or they could develop an alternate method of engaging the Keeper. After a brief discussion, Babel made the call. “You stay here. After the fires start, I’ll come running. I can control the fire from the outside. If the Klopph are in there, I’ll take care of them.” Babel turned his attention to Quentin. “Don’t worry, the fire won’t reach the underground levels. Once the building is clear, we’ll all go in.”
Jims and Quentin nodded. Both of them felt helpless standing there, watching Babel walk into the Erőd, but they had deliberated the scenarios. Each ended in the same result: there was little they could do but wait. If they were captured, they could not escape as Babel could do and it would only make Babel’s job more difficult when he had to add in rescuing them.
Babel and entered and the echo of his footsteps portrayed vacancy. He walked through the entire building just to make sure and found the fortress was abandoned. The entire Klopph force had vanished. It was of little importance for what he had set out to do. He started with the top floor and soon the building was engulfed with inferno and dense, black smoke.
Quentin and Jims watched as the windows of the building exploded, flames licking the space around the structure. The held their breath until Babel calmly exited the alley next to the Erőd. “They are gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“The building was empty. But their weapons are gone and the garage complex is also empty. Wherever they went, they took everything with them.”
“Where did they go?”
“I’m not sure. It’s like they’ve abandoned the city. Perhaps they are scouring the Outerlands.”
