by Grimm, Chewy Walrus and The Eurostar
The Fish Factory:
It was morning. Mick Harrison was quickly walking toward the cafeteria where Kit Piper had called a meeting of the team. He briefly stopped as he heard Shirley Francis' voice.
"Mick! Stop for a sec!"
"What is it, hon?"
"You won't believe this! Guess who I talked to earlier?"
"Who?"
"Lance!"
"No way! How is he? What did he say? Did you tell him about...?"
"Hang on -- no, all he said was 'Chicago sucks!' And then I lost the connection."
"Oh..." Mick said, slowly resuming his path to the cafeteria.
Kit Piper stood in the cafeteria with a slide projector set up close by one of the walls. Present at the meeting he had called were Danny Hearn, Edulcore Cicciotto, Chance, Marv Velo, Tobias Christopher, Grimm, Dirk Bell, Priest, Tayden, and the late arriving Mick Harrison. Dr. Henry Quantos was there as well, thanks to a small satellite linkup cobbled together by Grissom Montag.
As Kit began to call the meeting to order, he was interrupted by a loud munching. Dirk Bell was eating potato chips.
"As you all know..."
CRUNCH! MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH.
"As I started to say--"
CRUNCH! MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH.
Kit stopped, putting his hands on his hips as everyone turned to look at Dirk, still munching away.
"Dirk, do you mind?"
"No, Kit, go right ahead."
Kit stared at Dirk for a moment. "Right, now as I--"
CRUNCH! CRUNCH MUNCH MUNCH!
Kit said, "Guys, I really have to stress the importance of this mission. The former owners of BountyLand Foods are attempting to get control of the company back, and if they do, our funding is as good as gone. We're still making back payments on bills from last year. If we don't get some money in soon, it's goodbye MBL Consulting. Now, let's hear what Dr. Quantos has to say."
Dr. Quantos began to speak over the satellite linkup. "We've narrowed down the locations Chance fed us into three primary possible locations for the Liber Vitae. The first location is Monroeville, Pennsylvania, in the U.S. There is a small occult bookstore there called the Dragon's Den, which has a woodcut design hanging above the front door with a strong resemblance to Cuccubao's portrait. This bookstore has long been rumored to have copies of several hard-to-find occult books, such as the Necronomicon, the King in Yellow, and quite possibly, the Liber Vitae."
"The Necronomicon? Wait, that's just something out of a bad horror movie," T.C. said.
"No," Tayden responded, "it's real... and the things that brought about its existence... are real." Tayden failed to suppress the shudder that involuntarily ran down his spine.
"The team that will be going to this location," Kit began glancing at Dirk for signs of potato chip activity, "consists of Grimm..." He sat, staring at Kit with eyeless sockets, more than a little unnerving. "Dirk..." He waved his empty chip bag in response. "Tayden..." The angel smiled and gave Kit a thumbs-up. "And finally, Priest." Kit looked up from his notes.
Grimm looked at Priest. Priest looked at Grimm. Grimm turned to Kit and said, "I'd rather take Blackwulf."
"Sorry, big guy, Wulf is busy today helping Phil and Grissom work on the new training facility. Priest it is."
"Kit, normally, I would list--"
"Listen! As the president of this company, I'm empowered to make these kinds of decisions, and that's exactly what I've done. Now we need to do some work and get out of debt, and this job is precisely the kind of thing we need right now, whether you like the particulars or not! Now I would appreciate it very much if we could continue on to the next location."
Kit looked up at the eyeless sockets of Grimm and swallowed. Much to his relief, he said nothing. The members of MBL Consulting looked at each other in stunned silence after the uncharacteristic outburst.
"'Bout time you grew a pair," Dirk Bell muttered under his breath.
"Now, the next location is..." Dr. Quantos began again, "...Berlin, Germany."
Kit nodded solemnly as he scrolled down his list.
"What's there?" Ed asked, leaning forward and stroking the scabbard of his sword as Tayden eyed him and arched his eyebrow.
This is going to end badly, the angel thought as he redirected his attention to the screen on which Dr. Quantos began to answer the Raptor's question.
"Berlin is said to be the resting place of Nazi General Rolf Netzel," Quantos began, looking down at a page of notes scribbled on a notepad. "It has been rumored that, during World War II, Hitler had some of his most trusted military units on missions to recover occult artifacts in order to extend the power and reign of the Third Reich. He personally commissioned General Netzel to retrieve the Liber Vitae."
"I wouldn't have picked Hitler for one to place much stock in literature," Dirk remarked, crossing his arms across his chest. "What with all those book-burnings and all..."
"Ironically enough, Mr. Bell," Quantos answered from the screen, "that is precisely the problem that Netzel ran into. According to legend, the Fuhrer didn't place much stock in the Liber Vitae's ability to attain the Philosopher's Stone. As a result, the book was in line to be burned publicly in Berlin. However, Netzel deceived his leader and replaced the book with, of all things, a copy of Mein Kampf."
"So... he died soon after, I take it?" Velo asked, raising his hand slightly in the air.
"Actually, no," Quantos answered, with a slight note of surprise. "He served out the remainder of the War, afterward working as a clerk and finally dying of complications of the common cold in 1947. He was buried in an undisclosed location with many other Nazi leaders, who were said to be heads of Hitler's artifact teams."
"So, what does that have to do with the book?" Danny asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Netzel was said to have been buried with the Liber Vitae upon his death," Quantos answered. "He was also said to have been buried in a masoleum, crypt, or catacombs of some sort. The only problem is that this burial place is in an undisclosed location."
"Then how are we supposed to find it?" Tobias spoke up, swinging his feet from his seat impatiently.
"Grissom and I have a mutual friend at Berlin University named Dr. Jurgen Seltsamliebe," Quantos responded. "The team going on this mission will meet up with him at the university library. From there, he will supply you with information on how to track the location of Netzel's tomb and thus the location of the Liber Vitae."
"So who's going on this one?" Chance said, looking to Kit, who sternly ran his eyes over the next column of people.
"Well," the large man said, tapping his pencil on his notepad, "Danny, you'll be the mission leader on this one."
Danny nodded solemnly and ran his hand through his hair.
Man, they're letting you lead another mission? Hal responded inside Danny's head. They must think you have some sort of actual ability or something.
"Not now, Hal," Danny whispered harshly through clenched teeth.
"Mick, you'll be acting as Danny's second," Kit said, looking over to where Harrison sat, holding Shirley's hand in his own.
"Understood," he smiled as he nodded his understanding.
"Velo, since you're back and all, I was wondering if you'd mind going on this one as a sort of mission specialist?" Kit asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Not a problem," Velo said straight-faced, crossing his arms and nodding.
"And, finally, Tobias, I'd like for you to round out this group," Kit said. "I thought it best for you to get back in the groove of an actual mission as soon as possible, so as not to let you get too rusty."
"Great!" Tobias said, grinning from ear-to-ear.
"I take it that means Chance and I have been given the final location?" Cicciotto piped up, his right hand never leaving Ladnikia's hilt.
"Exactly," Quantos answered. "The two of you will be going to... Cordillera Azul, in Peru's Andes. That's the location most likely depicted in the painting. It's a place with very high mountains, dense forests, pretty much unexplored. Satellite images don't help much, because it's a very humid location, always under clouds. And the infrared shots show only trees."
Ed stared at Kit. "You are saying that you are sending four manned teams in Pennsylvania and Germany, while in the asshole of the world we are going in just two?" Everyone became silent, no one having expected him to react this way.
"No, Ed, you will have Ameristar and Drax with you. They seem the best suited for the mission."
"And where are they NOW?"
"In... another fact-gathering mission. She said she knew a place where information about Cuccubao was kept. And it's a place actually on the route that Cuccubao should have taken to go from the Atlantic coast to the Cordillera Azul."
Chance looked at me and then said, "We rendezvous with them, check anything Jackie could have discovered, and then we head for the mountains."
Edulcore sat back silently.
Kit sighed and then said, "Chance is field leader. Your team takes the Stormloader. The rescue mission has been a good test for it. It performed flawlessly. The other teams will go by plane."