The Night Beat

refreshing change. We had two mummies, three skeletons, two ghouls and a wraith. Not bad.
    “Okay, I want a mummy and a skeleton each with Hansel and Gretel. Our third skeleton and a ghoul with Ralph. Second ghoul and wraith with Ken. Monty, I assume you and Rover can get more support than I can contemplate for the underground trail, right?”
    “Right.”
    “Great. I want regular reports, in to me if possible, but the Count for certain. Edgar, are you okay staying here to man the portal?”
    He nodded. “Absolutely, and I’ll be fine alone. However, if it would make you feel more secure and if we have some other Dirt Corps personnel who wouldn’t mind playing some whist while guarding and waiting, I’d be amenable.”
    I shrugged. “Sure, why not? And, yes, I’d feel safer if you had someone around to back you up.” Even a young lich wasn’t easy to hurt or kill, but Edgar, like H.P., was special and I’d never forgive myself if either one of them got hurt due to my lack of vigilance or preparedness.
    No sooner agreed to than two eager-looking ghouls and one clearly excited ghost arrived, table, chairs and deck of cards in ectoplasmic hands.
    Monty gave some orders while I helped Ken recognize the aerial trail. This took some time -- vamps smell blood like nobody’s business, but otherwise their sense of smell isn’t anything to get excited about. However, they can see a psychic trail almost as well as a werewolf. Once Ken could spot what I smelled, he was able to confirm it had absolutely flown away, and that it wasn’t a trail from any vampire who’d been here earlier. There were other flying undeads, of course, but neither one of us could be certain of the species the trail belonged to.
    The aerial team took off and the ground teams left right after. Edgar and his group were already into their game. Monty draped Rover around his shoulders then gave me a long look. “What trail are you going to be following?”
    I shrugged. “My partner and I are going to follow the human ones.”
    “There’s more than one?” Monty asked.
    “I think we’re going to find there are a lot.”

Chapter 14
     
    I went back to human form and Jack and I got back into the sedan and started off. “Police headquarters first?” he asked me.
    “Yeah. We need to check in and, since I now find out the Chief knows all about me and Necropolis Enforcement, we need to let him know what’s going on.”
    “What is going on?”
    “Takeover bid. Standard, really. The Prince wants to control all the planes of existence. When he can do that, he’ll have enough power to destroy any and every god. Without a god, even if it’s one puny weak one, every living soul is in jeopardy.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Souls need a…higher source…to tap into. It’s how they work.”
    “Sounds like souls are kind of useless, all things considered.”
    I shook my head. “Souls are what powers the universes. All of them. There’s no power greater than that of a soul, let alone a combination of souls.”
    Jack was quiet for a minute or so. “So, an entity that controlled a lot of souls would be powerful?”
    “That’s the basis for gods, yeah. A god is a concentration of multi-universal energy with the focused power of belief from the souls it controls.”
    “Ugh.”
    I laughed. “It sounds gross, yeah, but it’s not. It’s kind of beautiful, really.”
    “So, the worshipper creates the god?”
    “Sort of. And the god creates the worshipper. Kind of a cosmic, metaphysical chicken and egg scenario.”
    “What about the Prince?”
    “Same idea, turned to complete evil.”
    “Okay, but there’s, what, hundreds of good gods and only one bad one? How does that work?”
    We pulled into the Prosaic City P.D. parking lot. “The good gods don’t force the other gods to join them.”
    Jack snorted. “The Greek and Roman ones did.”
    “No, they have an almost military hierarchy, but the lowest Greek god still has free will. Zeus can’t stop them from doing whatever they want. He can punish them, but he can’t control them.”
    “And the Prince controls the evil gods?” We parked and got out of the car.
    “No. He absorbs them. There are no evil gods, not any more. The Prince joined them into himself centuries ago.”
    Dawn was coming. Probably less than an hour away. That was going to cause problems for Ken, Amanda and Maurice. I activated my wrist-com. “Count?”
    “Here, as always.”
    “I need our top daytime aerial