The Night Beat

looking for him?”
    “No, we’ll find him. Thanks, Darlene.”
    “Chief wants to see you both before you go off duty,” she said by way of signing off.
    I hung up the radio. “Can’t wait.”
    We reached our special alley of fun and everyone poured out of the car. Jack stopped me. “What are you thinking, that Tomio had something to do with the attack?”
    “Possibly. Edgar says a human’s involved. The only human not dead or still hospitalized just strolled out, apparently fit as a fiddle. It seems suspicious to me.”
    He nodded. “How are we going to find him?”
    I got out of the car and Jack followed. “Amanda, we need the drug dealer from this whole incident found. He was released from City Hospital about twenty minutes ago. Think you can remember his signature?”
    “Of course. You want me to tail him or pick him up?”
    “Depends on what he’s doing.”
    “Take someone with you,” Jack said.
    “What?” Amanda looked shocked. “It’s a human.”
    “It’s a human potentially involved in this,” Jack pointed to the end of the alley. “Take your partner.”
    Maurice sighed. “I’d whine about it, but the human has a point. We’ll contact you if there’s anything interesting going on.” They flipped out their wings and took off.
    “How do they get them to sort of disappear?” Jack asked.
    “Illusion. They don’t disappear, they just sort of envelop them so no one sees. Standard vampire stuff.”
    “Unreal.” Jack led the way back to the scene of the manifestation.
    We got close and I started to growl. So did Ralph, Hansel and Gretel. Gretel jumped off Edgar’s shoulder and went normal-sized. I switched to full werewolf form. Whatever it was, we didn’t like it.
    “Ken, keep Jack at hand. Monty, Edgar, full alert. Rover, c’mere, boy.”
    Rover undulated over. White worms can’t growl, they don’t make much noise as a rule, and they aren’t the kings of expressions, either. But what they lack in vocal and facial expression they make up for in body language. And Rover’s body said we had bigger problems than an ancient Sumerian demon.
    I had to say it, some because it was true, some because I was the leader. Mostly because I was scared and wanted to share the fear.
    “I think the Prince passed through here.”

Chapter 13
     
    I heard Ken speaking softly. He’d contacted the Count and was advising Amanda and Maurice to treat their quarry as the most dangerous man on the planet. Tomio might be an ordinary drug dealer, but he’d walked away from Slimy’s attack and no one else had. So we were going to have to find out if he’d walked under his own steam or the Prince’s.
    Meanwhile, I and the rest of the animal squad did our sniff and freak out thing. “I’ve got a trail,” Ralph said. Even he got subdued when we were faced with the biggest bad in the universes.
    “Me, too,” Hansel said. “And, of course, it’s not the same as Ralphie’s trail.”
    “Same here,” Gretel said.
    “I’ve got an airborne trail, and,” I looked at Rover, “Rover’s got an underground one. Fabulous. Either the Prince manifested through five different beings, or four of these are decoys.”
    “Maybe all of them,” Jack said. “If what I’m guessing you all think -- that our drug dealer du jour is alive and kicking because he’s the vessel or whatever for the Prince -- then these could all be false leads to keep us away from Tomio.”
    “Amanda and Maurice have Tomio in sight,” Ken advised. “They’re staying well back. Neither one is picking up any signs of the Prince, but they may not be close enough.”
    “And if the Prince has a plan, he’s sure not going to go waltzing around being all obvious with his psychic signature.” I tried to figure out what to do and came up with the idea I liked least. “We have to split up.”
    I expected to hear a lot of protests and “are you kidding me’s” , but all I got were heads nodding in agreement, even Rover’s.
    “I hate it when you guys are reasonable. Okay, how’re we going to do this? We go against every code in the book if we separate.”
    Monty coughed. “I’ve called Dirt Corps in.”
    “Oh. Ah. Good.”
    “I know regular Enforcement doesn’t think much of them,” Monty said testily. “But they’re brave, dedicated, and fit the code requirements.”
    As he spoke a variety of the Corps arrived. Monty had apparently requested top of the line -- all of the ones before me were full bodied, which was a