The Adventures of Lazarus Gray by Barry Reese Page B

matter what. She was about to say as
much when they heard voices from a nearby room. She crept over and
placed her ear against the door, confusion making her eyes widen.
She recognized one of those voices but the impossibility made her
doubt what she was hearing. She looked over at Eun and saw that he
was watching her closely.
    The first of the voices,
which was unfamiliar to both of them, was speaking in hurried
tones. "He’ll be back soon. If you’d just wait, I’m certain he’d
want to speak to you."
    "I don’t have time for
that," the other man responded. It was this person that had evoked
the frightened response in Samantha. He spoke with a German accent
but he was quite fluent nonetheless. "Tell Mr. Goodwill that I want
those papers and am willing to pay for them. This is not open to
negotiation. If he tries to withhold them from me, I’ll kill him
and everyone who stands at his side. Do you understand?"
    "Yes, I’m quite clear on
that."
    "Good. Tell him I look
forward to hearing from him soon."
    Eun and Samantha flattened
themselves against the wall, hiding as the door opened and the
German emerged. He was dressed like an undertaker and he leaned
heavily on a walking stick that was topped by a roaring lion’s
head. His progress carried him away from the Assistance Unlimited
agents but Samantha was certain that this was Walther Lunt, the
cultist who had tried to work with the vile Doc Pemberley during
the group’s most recent case. The right side of Lunt’s face was a
ruined mass of flesh, scarred by an acid attack years
before.
    "That’s him," Samantha
whispered when he’d vanished down the hall. "That’s the man who
turned his cane into a lion. He tried to kill me!"
    Eun frowned. "That doesn’t
make sense. That cane’s back at headquarters. Besides, you said he
was dead."
    Samantha swallowed hard.
"He is. I saw him die. Heck, I went with the Chief to drop his body
off at the morgue. That’s how we found out his name. He’s a big
muckity-muck in Berlin." Eun started to suggest that maybe the man
had a twin but he fell into silence when Samantha grabbed him by
the sleeve. "C’mon," she said, "Let’s follow him."
    "What about
Goodwill?"
    "Forget him. This is far
more important!" She locked eyes with Eun and leaned in close.
"Remember, Lunt said he knew who the Chief was. If there’s any way
we can help Lazarus find out about his past, we have to do
it."
    Eun considered it briefly
and then nodded, following her in pursuit of Lunt. He’d been the
first of the group to find out the truth about Gray’s amnesia and
he knew how much it ate away at their employer. She was right:
nothing was more important than finding out the truth.
     
    ***
     
    Malcolm Goodwill stood
outside 6196 Robeson Avenue and stared at the imposing black doors,
adorned with only a single metal placard. The words "Assistance
Unlimited" were embossed on its surface. A small buzzer was located
beneath the sign and Goodwill considered it for only a second
before he pressed it with one gloved hand.
    A mechanical-sounding voice
responded at once. "I’m sorry but all agents of Assistance
Unlimited are currently away on missions. If you would like to
leave a card with your name and number, you may slip it beneath the
door and someone will get back to you as soon as possible. If this
is a matter of life and death, please press the buzzer twice more:
one long and one short."
    Goodwill paused, both
amused and perplexed. He’d spent a good twenty minutes wandering
around the building and had no obvious means of entry. All the
windows were barred and shuttered and the doors had a strange kind
of lock on them that he’d never encountered before. The somewhat
strange method of breaking in by ringing the doorbell had finally
presented itself as the only possible thing to do. Now a mechanized
voice was walking him through the process of getting inside? It was
bizarre, indeed.
    After pressing the buzzer
twice, with one long and one short, Goodwill