Chapter Twenty-Four

“You have to leave it in the water,” Jane insisted.

“What are you doing with a sword anyway?” Peter asked.

“It’s for my protection. I have to have it on my person,” John insisted.

John continued to hold the sword in its scabbard in the water and Jane continued to watch with amazement. Clearly the contamination had disappeared in the vicinity of the sword and appeared to be retreating. Definitely not advancing. In the corner of her eye she saw a small alligator swim into the pool sized water reservoir in the junction chamber and move in their direction. They took this as further evidence that the contamination was no longer present in that part of the system.

“It must be some sort of interaction with the metal in the sword,” Jane said, thinking aloud.

“More precisely the scabbard of the sword. The sword itself is not in the water,” Peter observed.

“I’m sorry but I need to keep the sword” John insisted.

“Take the sword and leave the scabbard holder. Leave it partly exposed. I’ll take a scraping and then we can do spectrograph analysis on the metal. If we identify it we can use the metal to seed the system and kill the contamination,” Jane instructed.

John hesitated.

“What’s the matter?” Peter asked.

“The sword radiates,” John said. “I stored it in a sealed containment area in the Natural History Museum. The containment area silenced the sword. There’s a history here,” John stammered, as if uncertain how to explain.

“Leave the sword and scabbard or take it out if you must but the scabbard stays in the water and I’m taking a sample with a scraping,” Peter said.

“It won’t scrape,” John said.

“Why not?” Jane demanded, her tone reflecting her excitement at the impact of the sword on the contaminant and her impatience with John’s intransigence.

John sighed knowing he was going to appear foolish.

“It’s a magic sword,” he said lamely.

Jane and Peter exchanged glances.

“Maybe you are under a lot of stress,” Jane said kindly. “John I know you firemen have been working around the clock and the Chief did say you’d had a recent loss of a close friend...”

Jane paused and when John did not respond she continued. “John, just trust us. You have by accident or somehow, hit upon a solution to the problem. This is mega. We must act. Let me have the scabbard and sword please.”

“No,” John said, taking the scabbard out of the water and holding it with the sword across his chest. “I must have it.”

In the silence and to break the standoff, Peter scratched his chin and said.

“John, just do me a favor and put the sword in the water. We need to see if it also drives out the contaminant.”

“John, the red stuff is coming back,” Jane added, pointing at the water with her torch.

John drew the sword from its scabbard. He felt he could easily take out Jane, but Peter looked young and fit. He dismissed the thought.

Peter and Jane stared in wonder when the sword came out of its housing. It was short like a Roman sword but and appeared to be of one piece, the handle and guard and blade being of the same color and texture, apparently all of the same metal.

And in the dark of the tunnel it glowed in John’s hand. They could see the red of the blood in his hand as the glow lit it up.

“Gosh,” Jane said.

John stepped over to the side and plunged the sword into the water. Nothing happened and the red contaminant continued to approach the sword.

“Doesn’t work,” Peter remarked.

Then the contaminant reached the sword in the water. There was a churning and the water began to boil and then a wave of energy passed out of the sword and into the water sending a large wave down the tunnel in all directions.

“What the hell,” Peter said.

John put the sword back into its scabbard. He was white-faced in shock.

“You don’t know what you are dealing with here,” he said.

“Magic,” Jane asked, impressed despite herself.

“The contaminant must be of magic provenance. The Great Fury belonged to the Celtic God of Love. It will attack all evil, especially evil magic,” John said with conviction.

“Come on John, this is the twenty first century,” Peter said with a laugh. “There is a scientific explanation, we just don’t know what it is yet.”

“I’m done here,” John said.

“What!” Jane said in frustration. “We...”

“The contamination is gone. Nothing left to do,” John interrupted.

“Wait,” Jane said.

She and Peter shone their torches over the stretch of water. It all looked clear and calm.

They stood in silence.

The radio crackled.

“Calling the fire service team, come in please. Over.” it was the voice of the Superintendent calling form the tunnel entrance.

Jane fumbled in her jacket and came out with the two-way radio.

“Hello, Fire Service team responding,” she said.

“Calling the fire service team, come in please. Over.”

“You have to press the send button,” John coached.

“Hello, Fire Service team responding,” Jane repeated, this time pressing the send button.

“Say over,” John added.

“Over,” Jane said.

“Alan, site superintendent here, Over.”

“Listening, over,” Jane said, getting the knack of using the radio.

“I’m getting reports from all over the system,” Alan came back. and added, “It appears the contamination has vanished. There was a burst of energy through the systems. They even felt it up in the Catskill Mountains. Over.”

“What...over,” Jane stammered.

John and Peter stared with raised eyebrows at this news.

“Did you do something?” Something was done. Did you notice? Was it your team? Over,” Alan said.

John reached over and took the radio from Jane. “Nothing to report our end. No sign of contamination, we are coming out, over,” he said.

“Over,” Alan said.

John put the Great Fury back into his holdall.

“Where are you going with that?” Jane demanded.

“Home,” John said.

“No way,” Jane insisted

“We have to analyze the metal content, to see why it works,” Peter added.

“Tomorrow, I’ll bring it in tomorrow,” John promised.

“We won’t be able to declare an all clear for twenty four hours,” Jane said. “We must continue to investigate until then.”

“We can’t do much unless you guide us,” Peter said.

“I’ll radio the Superintendent that we are staying on the job,” Jane said firmly, but not meeting John’s eye.

“There’s an exit in another couple of miles. We can continue down and come out there,” John said resignedly.

“Peter you stay with John, all night if you have to. We are not letting him go out of sight with that sword.”

“Right,” Peter agreed.

“I’ll contact the office and set up a spectrographic test for first thing in the morning. We need to know what that sword is made of.”

‘Magic?” Peter joked with a grin.

“Don’t buy that,” Jane said.

“Me neither,” Peter agreed.

John scowled and said nothing.

In his mind John was happy to make this arrangement. He felt safe underground and he felt he’d need time to think things out and to decide how to handle things going forward.

Jane radioed back to the Superintendent and John led them further into the tunnel system. He kept his holdall on his shoulder. Jane and Peter were happy with this for the moment although they knew they would need the bag and its contents.

Jane followed in the hope that at some point they could get John to surrender the sword, the Great Fury, without her having to coerce or use the police to force John to hand it over for analysis.

***

In the Bronx in a side lane behind a skip under a cardboard shelter a body moved. He was disheveled, dirty with a voluminous grey beard, wearing shabby worn clothes in the manner of a long established tramp.

Wild eyed he staggered out into the street.

Passers-by withdrew in repulsion.

“The sword!” he screamed. “The sword!”

He began to shuffle along “I must find it,” he muttered.

As he moved along the pavement a pathway was cleared. He seemed a threatening presence. He was a big man and despite his decrepit state he emanated a certain energy, a wildness.

***

Oengus collapsed on his knees and almost lost the blanket.

“What are you at?” Maedbh demanded. “You’ll draw attention to us.”

Venus said nothing. They were attracting a lot of comment as it was. But so far no cops had spotted them.

“Pigeon!” Venus barked at Puca the poodle.

Puca flew a circle and awaited further instruction.

“We’re nearly there,” Venus meowed. “Puca should do a reconnoiter.”

“I felt a surge of energy,” Oengus said. “It was like a shock. I don’t know what caused it.”

“Reconnoiter?” Puca asked in a fly by.

“Go,” Venus instructed.

“I want to go in the direction of Manhattan, something is calling,” Oengus said.

“Get real Oengus,” Maedbh said in exasperation.

“I must.”

“Clothes first, “Maedbh insisted. “We can’t go around like this.”

Puca landed with grace, happy he was getting good at being a pigeon. But he kept away from Venus. Instinctively he knew pigeons didn’t trust cats.

“It seems quiet at the Witch’s house,” he reported.

“Lets’ go,” Venus instructed.

They followed the cat, Puca sweeping ahead watching for danger.

Deirdre’s house was on a corner, semi detached and two storied and similar to the brownstone houses in Manhattan. It had a boutique type front window and a sign that read in white neon, ‘fortunes told.’

There were lights on and the house appeared occupied. Maedbh felt her nerve fail and she wondered if the recovery of a credit card justified the risk.

“Oengus you have to pick the lock,” Venus said “when we reach the front door.”

“What if they are inside?” Oengus asked cautiously.

“The vampire,” Maedbh warned.

“Puca,” Venus called.

Puca landed and listened.

“What could get in through that keyhole?”

“A small serpent?” Puca suggested.

“Very small,” Venus said, “not a chance.”

“A Kerry Fisherman should be able to open from the inside,” Puca conceded.

“What about the vampire?” Maedbh asked.

“Puca needs to be careful,” Venus said.

“We’re not going in there,” Maedbh decided. “Too risky.”

“Lets’ go,” Oengus said and they walked away from Deirdre’s house. “we can go find Nina and ask her to help us,” Oengus added.

“But she’s on the other side, isn’t she one of the enemy?” Puca objected.

“I would trust Nina and it’s a better option than going into that house,” Oengus said.

“The best worst option,” Venus agreed.