Tuesday of Infamy
The sunset cast Manhattan with an orange glow. The shadows on the building lenghtened, until one side was completely in shadow.
On a castle located on top of the tallest building in Manhattan sit some statues. Many buildings on this islands have these statues. But these statues were different.
The statues on the castle start to crack, like an egg about to hatch. Then the stone breaks out, and living creatures with wings roared,m announcing to the people of Manhattan that they are awake.
The lavender-skinned person- for these creatures are certainly people, capable of intelligent thought and choosing between right and wrong- who was named Goliath by some humans over one thousand twenty-five years ago, looks down from the highest parapet of the castle, which is his position as leader of the Wyvern Gargoyle Clan. He looks down upon Manhattan to the south, facing Battery Park, upon the city he has sworn to protect just as he once protected the territory of the Scottish Prince Malcolm over a millenium ago.
Something was wrong, terribly wrong. The usual bustle of Lower Manhattan was met with an eerie silence. The only vehicles he can see are emergency vehicles and military vehicles.
He needs answers. He picks up a Motorola cellular phone he usually carries in his loincloth. He had to speak to Elisa immediately.
The night before....
The sunset cast Manhattan with an orange glow. The shadows on the building lenghtened, until one side was completely in shadow.
On a castle located on top of the tallest building in Manhattan sit some statues. Many buildings on this islands have these statues. But these statues were different.
The statues on the castle start to crack, like an egg about to hatch. Then the stone breaks out, and living creatures with wings roared,m announcing to the people of Manhattan that they are awake.
The lavender-skinned person- for these creatures are certainly people, capable of intelligent thought and choosing between right and wrong- who was named Goliath by some humans over one thousand twenty-five years ago, looks down from the highest parapet of the castle, which is his position as leader of the Wyvern Gargoyle Clan. He looks down upon Manhattan to the south, facing Battery Park, upon the city he has sworn to protect just as he once protected the territory of the Scottish Prince Malcolm over a millenium ago. He looks upon the maginificent buildings, housing the offices of the financial sector. He had lived in this city for seven years, ever since a magical spell was broken when Castle Wyvern was planted on top of the Eyrie Building.
The first thing he does is make a phone call on his Motorola cellular phone. The signal goes out and causes a cellular phone currently in the Twenty-Third NYPD Precinct Building to ring.
"Maza here," says the voice.
"Elisa," says Goliath.
"Hey big guy," says Detective Elisa Maza, NYPD. "What's up?"
"I just got up, my love. I'll have to assign patrol shifts to the rest of the clan."
"If only the sun set an hour before my work shift," says Elisa. "Well, I guess by December, I could see you before I go to work. Well, I've got to look over some case files. I'll see you after work, okay?"
Inside the detectives' office of the Twenty-Third Precinct, Elisa hangs up the cell phone. She looks at a folder containing documents related to a case that she and her partner for the past seven years have been working on.
"Was that Goliath on the phone?" asks Detective Matt Bluestone.
"Yeah," replies Elisa. "I told him I would see him after my shift ends at 2 A.M."
"Maybe you'll get to see him sooner, when he and his clan are out patrolling the city." Matt can still remember that day six years ago, when Elisa introduced him to the clan. When she and Goliath went to Avalon, he became their contact with human society until their return.
"Good evening, Detective," says Officer Morgan as he walks into the room.
"Good evening, Morgan," says Elisa. "what's up?"
"Well, I've got to go on patrol tonight with O' Malley," says the dark-skinned human. "I'll see you later. Here is something for you."
Morgan places on a table a box from Winchell's Donuts, there were a few donuts left.
"Thanks, Morgan," says Elisa, taking out a powdered donut. She then returns to the file she was working on.
Suddenly, some fellow enters the detectives' office. He is Rush Simmons, a fingerprint technician. As fingerprint technicians, he compares fingerprints collected at crime scene to the NYPD fingerprint database which has records on over one hundred thousand people.
"Maza, Bluestone," he says, adjusting his glasses. "We've got a break on the fingerprints we collected. They belong to a parolee named Horace Fulbert, currently residing in Harlem. Here is his address."
"Well, Elisa," says Matt. "We've got probable cause. Let's roll!"
And so the two detectives roll in Elisa's red Ford Fairlane. With the siren on, they weave through the traffic on Franklin Roosevelt Drive.
Elisa decides to call Goliath. "Goliath, this is Elisa," she says.
"What is it?" asks the clan leader.
"We're coming to arrest a suspect in Harlem. Is thre anyone in the area?"
"Yes. Brooklyn is patrolling near there. I'll go get him to cover you."
"I hope he doesn't need to get involved," says Matt.
Elisa continues driving along Franklin Roosevelt Drive towards Harlem. More than once has the Manhattan gargoyles assisted her in cases. The large plumpy one called Broadway is into detective stuff himself.
They finally arrive at the place. It is a huge apartment building on 135th Street, with a liquor store and a McDonald's at the ground floor. The blue Ford Crown Victoria police cars that followed the Fairlane all park on the street, the lights flashing in red and blue.
"Let's go," says Elisa.
"Elisa. Matt," she hears in a small speaker she wears on the collar of her red jacket. "This is Brooklyn. I'm in position."
"Just stay put," says Elisa. "Hopefully, this won't get ugly."
"I could use the exercise."
Elisa, Matt, and the police officers go into the building until they reach Horace Fulbert's apartment. Matt knocks on the door.
A beer-bellied man wearing a sleeveless white shirt and boxers opens the door. "What is it?" he asks. Then he sees the badges. "Aw, man."
"You're under arrest for burglary and larceny," says Elisa. "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you can not afford an attorney, one will be provided for you."
"But you already know that," says Matt. "It looks like you'll be going to Attica once again."
The police officers take Horace Fulbert into custody and then they drive out, leaving Elisa and Matt. After the uniformed officers leave, a rbrick-red beaked gargoyle glides down.
"Well, I guess you got him," says the gargoyle Brooklyn.
"I gurss he knew of your reputation," says Matt. "He just put his hands up quietly."
"Well, I like nights like this," says Elisa. "It sure beats dealing with cyborgs, mutates, renegade fay, and such."
"I still have to finish by patrol. See you later."
"Okay," both of the detectives say. they watch the brick-red gargoyle scale a building and then open his wings and glide above the streets of Harlem.
A black Honda Civic is parked on Forty-Eight Street, just a few blocks east of Rockefeller Center. There is nothing remarkable about the car.
But three people have decided to steal this particular car. They have had experience in stealing cars. Often, the cars are gone in less than sixty seconds.
One ofd the thieves, a small wiry fellow, takes out a lockpick and starts to undo the lock. He will then hotwire the car, and then just like that he will take the car to a chop shop near the Hudson River. The two bigger fellows stand watch, in case someone like a police officer walks by.
But then, something swoops in fast, and takes out the two of them. The lockpicker looks up. He sees someone with webbed wings dressed in a loincloth.
"You're a gargoyle!" shouts the lockpicker.
"And you're a human," says the web-winged gargoyle.
One of the two humans knocked down by the gargoyle gets up and takes out this mean-looking knife to stab the small gargoyle. But the gargoyle just hits the guy ibn the face wityh his elbow. He then turns his attention to the last of the car thieves, who is looking pretty scared.
"You ain't done no good, ya freak!" shouts the wiry car thief. "I know how the courts work; I watch Law and Order. We'll be out of jail 'cuz there's no evidence."
"Is that so?" asks the gargoyle.
Minutes later, a police car arrives and two police officers come out and look at the car thieves who are tied up.
"Hey Morgan," says the officer named O' Malley, "someone left a note on the windshield of the car."
"Let me see," says Officer Morgan. He reads the note. "Dear NYPD. I have caught these three humans trying to steal this car. I have also enclosed some photographs which should incriminate them. -Mr. Lexington."
On the rooftop above Forty-Eight Street, the olvie-skinned gargoiyle whose namwe is called Lexington looks down on the scene, and then holds the Polaroid camera designed with a telescopic zoom lens. He had checked the photographs before putting them on the windshield for the police to find; they clearly identify the thieves.
"Goliath, this is Lexington," the gargiyle says into his radio. "I've just caught some car thieves on Forty-Eight."
"Very well, Lexington," says Goliath. "Continue your patrol until your shift is over."
For the two gargoyles known as Broadway and Angela, patrolling and dating are equivalents. Manhattan can looks so lovely at night, with the buildings and streets lit up to look like a field of stars dotting the surface of the Earth. The two of them hold hands as the air currents under their wings keep them aloft.
"How about we see a movie after our shift is over?" asks Boradway as he and his mate land on a rooftop.
"We've seen all the movies already," replies Angela.
"Then we can go to a theater or something."
The moment they look down, they see something. they see a human being chased by a whole bunch of other humans. The humans giving chase are mean-looking.
"Let's see what that's about," says Angela.
The tww of them glide above the humans, keeping watch. The human being chased goes right into an alley, and right into a dead end. The other humans look like they intend to harm the human.
The two gargoyles land in the alley. All of the humans are surprised to find a large, blue gargoyle and a slender, levednaer garoglye with brown hair land suddenly among them. Their anger turns into shciok.
"What are you doing?" asks Broadway.
"This punk here slashed the tires on my Harley!" shouts a bearded man with tinted eyeglasses. "We're gonna teach 'im a lesson!"
Angela looks at the human who was being chased by these other humans. "Did you vandalize his Harley?" she asks.
The human seems to havbe diffiuculty looking into the gargoyle's eyes. "Okay, okay, I confess!" he shouts. "I slashed his tries. Just don't let them hurt me."
"I think we'll be turning you over to the police," says Angela.
"Not until we're done with him!" shouts the human whose motorcycle tires were slashed just minutes ago. "he's gonna pay for it."
"So sue him," says Broadway.
"This ain't your business, freak!" shouts another human.
"He surrendered," says Angela. "Now the law should handle it."
Then red lights flash. The humans see a red Ford Fairlane which a white roof. Two people dressed in plainclothes walk out.
"What's the situation?" asks the raven-haried woman who came out of the driver;'s seat.
"This human vandalized a motorcycle," says Angela.
"He's not wearing gloves," says Broadway. "His fingerprints should be on the motorcycle."
"Thanks," says the red-haired man. He walks up to the human who was accused of vandalism. "If we find your prints where these two gargoyles said they were, you'll wish they dealt with you instead."
Back inside the Twenty-Third Precinct, Detectives Maza and Bluestone both interrogate Horace Fulbert.
"You're in big trouble, Horace," says Elisa. "But we want to help. There was one set of footprints unaccounted for. We know you have a partner. Turn him in, and we can ask for leniency when you come up before a judge."
"I know nothing," says Horace. "I ain't gonna talk until I get my lawyer."
"So we'll talk, you stupid punk!" shouts Matt. "If you don't talk, then we'll mention to your parole officer that you aren't cooperating with us! Cooperation with us is a condition of your parole; we can have your parole revoked."
"I ain't talking."
"Forget it, Matt," says Elisa. "Let's just go."
The two detectives walk out while a uniformed police officer takes Horace back to the holding cells in the basement level.
They meet upo with a browbn-harired woman wearing a blue suit.
"What's up, Captain?" asks Elisa.
"You're going to go to a stakeout," says Captain Maria Chavez. "We finally located that chop shop. Some officers from another precinct will provide backup."
On a rooftop on a building near Twelfth Avenue near the Hudson River bank in Manhattan, Goliath glides down, his taloned feet touching the surface. He can see Elisa's car and the NYPD cars arriving at the scene.
"Okay, Elisa," he says. "I'm in position. I can see you clearly. The rest of the clan is on their way." He looks and sees Elisa and Matt wave.
Down below, Elisa and Matt knock on the warehiouse door. "Police!" shouts Matt. "We have a warrant!"
they are answered when a Lincoln Town Car breaks through the wooden walls of the warehiouse and then speed east on Fifty-First Street. Elisa and Matt get into the Fairlane and drive off, with the other police cars giving chase. Goliath glides in pursuit. He notices that the Lincoln is gojng the wrong way on a one-way street.
Fortunately, the air currents give him a much-needed boost. He manages to zoom past the police cars and the Lincoln Town Car. He then glides down, and he lands on the hood of the black Lincoln.
The driver of the Lincoln, surprised by the sudden appearance of a gargoyle, swerves around. Then he feels a big jolt and hears a crunch as the Lincoln strikes a metal pole on a street corner near the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel. The police cars all stop at the intersection, and police officers draw their revolvers.
they are all pointing at the gargoyle.
"Wait!" shouts Elisa. "He's not the thief."
"Stand down!" shouts a pepper-haired police sergeant. "We're not after the gargoyle."
As Matt cuffs the thief, Elisa looks upon the police sergeant. "Sergeant Rabb?" she asks.
"Elisa," says Sergeant Rabb. "Good to see you again."
Some more gargoyles glide down to meet with their leader.
"Friends of yours?" asks Rabb.
"Yeah," says Elisa. "They've helped me and Matt out on a few cases."
Rabb approaches the big lavender gargoyle. "Hello, I am Sergeant Daniel Rabb, NYPD."
"I am called Goliath," says the gargoyle. "How long have you known Elisa?"
"I've known her since I babysat her and her brother and sister. I used to work with her dad. I'm a close friend of the family."
"Hello there," says Matt. "I'm Matt Bluestone, Elisa's partner. You knew Elisa since she was a girl?"
"Yup," says Rabb. "between me and her dad, it's no surprise she joined the force."
"Maybe we'll run into each other again," says Elisa.
Rabb addresses the gargoyles who gathered on this intersection. "I know that a lot of New Yorkers still fear you guys," he says. "But I've known that you're on our side. Elisa Maza here just confirmed it."
"Thnak you," says Goliath.
"Nice to hear from you," says Lexington.
The gargoyles then scale a building and glide out.
Elisa Maza rides an elevator in the Eyrie Building all the way to Castle Wyvern which sits atop the skyscraper. The elevator reaches the castle level and the doors open, leading to the courtyard. He walks through the courtyard,m through the castle's great hall, and into the gargoyles's living quarters. Every step into this castle is like stepping back one thousand years in time.
Onr thousand years ago, Castle Wyvern was a ruin, sacked by the Vikings in 994. The humans who lived in Wyvern fled south. Only six stone gargoyles sat on the castle. It was in 1993 that the castle was purchased by David Xanatos. In 1994, the castle was reassembled atop the Eyrie Building, and the stone gargoyles woke up again.
Elisa enters the gargoyles' quarters, and she sees a leather-skinned gargoyle and some four-legged beast.
"Elisa," says the gargoyle named Hudson. "Good to see ya here, lass."
"Is Goliath here?" asks the detective.
"Aye, he returned from patrol a few minutes ago. He's been expecting ye."
The blue gargoyle beast-Bronx-nudgled against Elisa's right leg.
"So you missed me too," she says. Though Bronx is an animal like a dog or a horse, he has gotten her and the gargoyle clan out of some tight spots. "Good to see you, boy."
She glanced at Hudson, who appeared older than the other gargoyles, in spiute of the fact that his aging process was suspended for one thousand years. His left eye is blind, having been critically injured in a battle with an old foe known as the Archmage. David Xanatos once offered to have the eye replaced, but the stubborn veteran turned him down.
Goliath and Elisa eat their dinner inside the clan's dining room. Dinner is steak, which was cooked by Broadway.
"What will you doing doing during the day?" asks Goliath.
"Well, tomorrow afternoon I am scheduled to give a deposition in a court case. Margot Yale will be the prosecutor."
Goliath winced. He and his clan had a few less-than-pleasant encounters with the woman.
"I know, Goliath. I'd rather face the Pack head on than face questioning from Yale."
The Pack is locked away in a maximum-security cell block in Attica State Prison. Tony Dracon was also serving time in that same prison, with his underlings reduced to running small-time operations like the car theft ring busted a few hours ago. Thailog and Demona have apparently left the country to pursue their goals elsewhere. The renegade fay factions are hiding around the world from the wrath of the fay king Oberon.
"How long have you known that officer you were talking to earlier?" asks Goliath.
"Sergeant Rabb?" says Elisa. "Well, he used to babysit me. He must have told you he worked with my dad. I last saw hikm a few months ago while working on a case with Matt."
"He mentioned that earlier. Does he have a family?"
"Yeah, he's married and has three kids. Two boys and a girl. They're all grown up now."
"Let us just enjoy this moment, my love," says Goliath as he pours wine into a wineglass."
"How about we have dinner at my place tomorrow night?" asks Elisa.
"I would love it."
The sky is getting brighter and brighter with the sun about to rise. The gargoyles take their usual positions on the hgihest tower of Castle Wyvern. Goliath steps on the top of the tower, looking towards the south as he always does whenever he is at Castle Wyvern at dawn.
"See you tonight," says Elisa.
"I'll look forward top waking up, my love," says Goliath. Then the sun rises. Goliath's skin becomes hard like stone and then he becomes indistinguishable from the other statuary in Manhattan.
Elisa yawns. "Time to get some sleep," she says. She rides the elevator down to the lobby of the Eyrie and then drives home.
A telephone call wakes up Elisa. She brushes a few strands of her black hair off her face and answers the phone.
"Hello?" she asks, still feeling a little sleepy.
"This is Captain Chavez," says the voice on the phone. "There's an emergency and all available units are needed. Dress up and head to the World Trade Center. There was an explosion there."
"WHAT!!!" shouts Elisa, upon hearing the news. "I'm going over there right now!"
Minutes later, the siren wailing and lights flashing, Elisa and her Ford Fairlane arrive at the corner of Trinity Place and Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan. Officer Morgan is there to greet her.
"What happened?" she asks.
"A plane crashed into the North Tower!" shouts Morgan. "We're evacuating the whole place."
Elisa looks out and sees smoke. It comes from the north tower of the World Trade Center. On the street, there are a bunch of fire trucks around. The police had already erected a barricade on the streets leading to the place. The whole sight looks surreal.
She remembers than the ascent and descent approaches to John F. Kennedy International Airport pass over southern Manhattan.
"Elisa," says Detective Matt Bluestone. "You made it. It looks terrible."
"What kind of plane hit the tower?"
"Judging from all the fire and smoke, a big one," says Matt. It could have been one of those big cargo or passenger planes."
"I guess it was either coming from or going to JFK," says Officer O' Malley.
Another police car arrives, and Captain Maria Chavez comes out and flashes her badge. "You're all here," she says. She looks at the fire and smoke high up in the north tower. "It even looks worse here."
"The Fire Department and some police officers are assisting with the evacuation," says Morgan. "The fire chief himself came down here to direct the rescue operations."
Elisa looks and sees a news van stop near the barricade. She recognizes the TV reporter Travis Marshall.
"Elisa," says Sergeant Rabb, who had just arrived at the scene. "You're here. I heard what happened. It looks terrible."
She looks up at the burning section of the skyscraper. "Yeah," she says. "The pilots, the crew, maybe the passengers."
She sees another plane flying nearby, probably approaching JFK for a landing. For a second she wonders why JFK did not reroute other incoming flights; surely they would have heard about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.
Then she sees the plane is flying too low for an approach to JFK. She can see the livery on the fuselage, which identifies it as a commercial airliner.
Then she sees the plane slam right into the south tower. Flames erupt from where the plane struck the building.
"This isn't an accident," she says with shock. "This is an attack!"
Everyone at the scene is now looking at the south tower, which had just been struck by an airplane. They realize that this is no coincidence, but an attack, an act of war.
"How could they be doing this?" asks Matt.
Then they hear a crash. they all look, and see that a man on top of a police car, the roof crushed. He must have been on a floor above the impact, and he must have jumped off to avoid being burned to death.
"Listen," says Chavez. "We've got to get those people out of there now! Who knows how many more planes will be crashing?"
Elisa and Matt and some other police officers and firefighters get inside the north tower's lobby. They can already see some people, who had gone to work this Tuesday morning, now fleeing the tower. There were some high-ranking police officers and firefighters who set up shop inside the north tower to direct rescue operations. Elisa and Matt hear which floors have not been cleared.
The elevators are not working, so they climb up the stairwells to look for survivors.
"Everyone exit in an orderly fashion," announces Matt, holding up his NYPD badge.
They exit the stairwell and search the offices. They see a woman in a wheelchair.
"We're evacuating the building, ma'am," says Elisa. "We've got to get you out."
Elisa holds up the woman while Matt takes down the wheelchair. Together, they go down the flight of stairs as fast as they can, until they reach the lobby. The woman is put back on her wheelchair and the paramedics on the scene take her from there.
Seconds later, Elisa and Matt head back into the north tower.
The building was still being evacuated; people were still loving down the stairs to the safety of the lobby. Elisa remembers that over ten thousand people work in the two towers every day. She hears talk from the firefighters about a helicopter rescue for those trapped in the upper floors.
"We still haven't checked this floor," says a firefighter. He, Elisa, Matt, and the other firefighters and police officers gom in to check the floor.
They go search the offices and the restrooms and even the custodian closets for anyone who might be trapped in the tower.
"It's clear," says a police sergeant.
Then the whole world, the whole universe crashes upon them.
The sunset cast Manhattan with an orange glow. The shadows on the building lenghtened, until one side was completely in shadow.
On a castle located on top of the tallest building in Manhattan sit some statues. Many buildings on this islands have these statues. But these statues were different.
The statues on the castle start to crack, like an egg about to hatch. Then the stone breaks out, and living creatures with wings roared,m announcing to the people of Manhattan that they are awake.
The lavender-skinned person- for these creatures are certainly people, capable of intelligent thought and choosing between right and wrong- who was named Goliath by some humans over one thousand twenty-five years ago, looks down from the highest parapet of the castle, which is his position as leader of the Wyvern Gargoyle Clan. He looks down upon Manhattan to the south, facing Battery Park, upon the city he has sworn to protect just as he once protected the territory of the Scottish Prince Malcolm over a millenium ago.
Something was wrong, terribly wrong. The usual bustle of Lower Manhattan was met with an eerie silence. The only vehicles he can see are emergency vehicles and military vehicles.
He needs answers. He picks up a Motorola cellular phone he usually carries in his loincloth. He had to speak to Elisa immediately.
The night before....
The sunset cast Manhattan with an orange glow. The shadows on the building lenghtened, until one side was completely in shadow.
On a castle located on top of the tallest building in Manhattan sit some statues. Many buildings on this islands have these statues. But these statues were different.
The statues on the castle start to crack, like an egg about to hatch. Then the stone breaks out, and living creatures with wings roared,m announcing to the people of Manhattan that they are awake.
The lavender-skinned person- for these creatures are certainly people, capable of intelligent thought and choosing between right and wrong- who was named Goliath by some humans over one thousand twenty-five years ago, looks down from the highest parapet of the castle, which is his position as leader of the Wyvern Gargoyle Clan. He looks down upon Manhattan to the south, facing Battery Park, upon the city he has sworn to protect just as he once protected the territory of the Scottish Prince Malcolm over a millenium ago. He looks upon the maginificent buildings, housing the offices of the financial sector. He had lived in this city for seven years, ever since a magical spell was broken when Castle Wyvern was planted on top of the Eyrie Building.
The first thing he does is make a phone call on his Motorola cellular phone. The signal goes out and causes a cellular phone currently in the Twenty-Third NYPD Precinct Building to ring.
"Maza here," says the voice.
"Elisa," says Goliath.
"Hey big guy," says Detective Elisa Maza, NYPD. "What's up?"
"I just got up, my love. I'll have to assign patrol shifts to the rest of the clan."
"If only the sun set an hour before my work shift," says Elisa. "Well, I guess by December, I could see you before I go to work. Well, I've got to look over some case files. I'll see you after work, okay?"
Inside the detectives' office of the Twenty-Third Precinct, Elisa hangs up the cell phone. She looks at a folder containing documents related to a case that she and her partner for the past seven years have been working on.
"Was that Goliath on the phone?" asks Detective Matt Bluestone.
"Yeah," replies Elisa. "I told him I would see him after my shift ends at 2 A.M."
"Maybe you'll get to see him sooner, when he and his clan are out patrolling the city." Matt can still remember that day six years ago, when Elisa introduced him to the clan. When she and Goliath went to Avalon, he became their contact with human society until their return.
"Good evening, Detective," says Officer Morgan as he walks into the room.
"Good evening, Morgan," says Elisa. "what's up?"
"Well, I've got to go on patrol tonight with O' Malley," says the dark-skinned human. "I'll see you later. Here is something for you."
Morgan places on a table a box from Winchell's Donuts, there were a few donuts left.
"Thanks, Morgan," says Elisa, taking out a powdered donut. She then returns to the file she was working on.
Suddenly, some fellow enters the detectives' office. He is Rush Simmons, a fingerprint technician. As fingerprint technicians, he compares fingerprints collected at crime scene to the NYPD fingerprint database which has records on over one hundred thousand people.
"Maza, Bluestone," he says, adjusting his glasses. "We've got a break on the fingerprints we collected. They belong to a parolee named Horace Fulbert, currently residing in Harlem. Here is his address."
"Well, Elisa," says Matt. "We've got probable cause. Let's roll!"
And so the two detectives roll in Elisa's red Ford Fairlane. With the siren on, they weave through the traffic on Franklin Roosevelt Drive.
Elisa decides to call Goliath. "Goliath, this is Elisa," she says.
"What is it?" asks the clan leader.
"We're coming to arrest a suspect in Harlem. Is thre anyone in the area?"
"Yes. Brooklyn is patrolling near there. I'll go get him to cover you."
"I hope he doesn't need to get involved," says Matt.
Elisa continues driving along Franklin Roosevelt Drive towards Harlem. More than once has the Manhattan gargoyles assisted her in cases. The large plumpy one called Broadway is into detective stuff himself.
They finally arrive at the place. It is a huge apartment building on 135th Street, with a liquor store and a McDonald's at the ground floor. The blue Ford Crown Victoria police cars that followed the Fairlane all park on the street, the lights flashing in red and blue.
"Let's go," says Elisa.
"Elisa. Matt," she hears in a small speaker she wears on the collar of her red jacket. "This is Brooklyn. I'm in position."
"Just stay put," says Elisa. "Hopefully, this won't get ugly."
"I could use the exercise."
Elisa, Matt, and the police officers go into the building until they reach Horace Fulbert's apartment. Matt knocks on the door.
A beer-bellied man wearing a sleeveless white shirt and boxers opens the door. "What is it?" he asks. Then he sees the badges. "Aw, man."
"You're under arrest for burglary and larceny," says Elisa. "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you can not afford an attorney, one will be provided for you."
"But you already know that," says Matt. "It looks like you'll be going to Attica once again."
The police officers take Horace Fulbert into custody and then they drive out, leaving Elisa and Matt. After the uniformed officers leave, a rbrick-red beaked gargoyle glides down.
"Well, I guess you got him," says the gargoyle Brooklyn.
"I gurss he knew of your reputation," says Matt. "He just put his hands up quietly."
"Well, I like nights like this," says Elisa. "It sure beats dealing with cyborgs, mutates, renegade fay, and such."
"I still have to finish by patrol. See you later."
"Okay," both of the detectives say. they watch the brick-red gargoyle scale a building and then open his wings and glide above the streets of Harlem.
A black Honda Civic is parked on Forty-Eight Street, just a few blocks east of Rockefeller Center. There is nothing remarkable about the car.
But three people have decided to steal this particular car. They have had experience in stealing cars. Often, the cars are gone in less than sixty seconds.
One ofd the thieves, a small wiry fellow, takes out a lockpick and starts to undo the lock. He will then hotwire the car, and then just like that he will take the car to a chop shop near the Hudson River. The two bigger fellows stand watch, in case someone like a police officer walks by.
But then, something swoops in fast, and takes out the two of them. The lockpicker looks up. He sees someone with webbed wings dressed in a loincloth.
"You're a gargoyle!" shouts the lockpicker.
"And you're a human," says the web-winged gargoyle.
One of the two humans knocked down by the gargoyle gets up and takes out this mean-looking knife to stab the small gargoyle. But the gargoyle just hits the guy ibn the face wityh his elbow. He then turns his attention to the last of the car thieves, who is looking pretty scared.
"You ain't done no good, ya freak!" shouts the wiry car thief. "I know how the courts work; I watch Law and Order. We'll be out of jail 'cuz there's no evidence."
"Is that so?" asks the gargoyle.
Minutes later, a police car arrives and two police officers come out and look at the car thieves who are tied up.
"Hey Morgan," says the officer named O' Malley, "someone left a note on the windshield of the car."
"Let me see," says Officer Morgan. He reads the note. "Dear NYPD. I have caught these three humans trying to steal this car. I have also enclosed some photographs which should incriminate them. -Mr. Lexington."
On the rooftop above Forty-Eight Street, the olvie-skinned gargoiyle whose namwe is called Lexington looks down on the scene, and then holds the Polaroid camera designed with a telescopic zoom lens. He had checked the photographs before putting them on the windshield for the police to find; they clearly identify the thieves.
"Goliath, this is Lexington," the gargiyle says into his radio. "I've just caught some car thieves on Forty-Eight."
"Very well, Lexington," says Goliath. "Continue your patrol until your shift is over."
For the two gargoyles known as Broadway and Angela, patrolling and dating are equivalents. Manhattan can looks so lovely at night, with the buildings and streets lit up to look like a field of stars dotting the surface of the Earth. The two of them hold hands as the air currents under their wings keep them aloft.
"How about we see a movie after our shift is over?" asks Boradway as he and his mate land on a rooftop.
"We've seen all the movies already," replies Angela.
"Then we can go to a theater or something."
The moment they look down, they see something. they see a human being chased by a whole bunch of other humans. The humans giving chase are mean-looking.
"Let's see what that's about," says Angela.
The tww of them glide above the humans, keeping watch. The human being chased goes right into an alley, and right into a dead end. The other humans look like they intend to harm the human.
The two gargoyles land in the alley. All of the humans are surprised to find a large, blue gargoyle and a slender, levednaer garoglye with brown hair land suddenly among them. Their anger turns into shciok.
"What are you doing?" asks Broadway.
"This punk here slashed the tires on my Harley!" shouts a bearded man with tinted eyeglasses. "We're gonna teach 'im a lesson!"
Angela looks at the human who was being chased by these other humans. "Did you vandalize his Harley?" she asks.
The human seems to havbe diffiuculty looking into the gargoyle's eyes. "Okay, okay, I confess!" he shouts. "I slashed his tries. Just don't let them hurt me."
"I think we'll be turning you over to the police," says Angela.
"Not until we're done with him!" shouts the human whose motorcycle tires were slashed just minutes ago. "he's gonna pay for it."
"So sue him," says Broadway.
"This ain't your business, freak!" shouts another human.
"He surrendered," says Angela. "Now the law should handle it."
Then red lights flash. The humans see a red Ford Fairlane which a white roof. Two people dressed in plainclothes walk out.
"What's the situation?" asks the raven-haried woman who came out of the driver;'s seat.
"This human vandalized a motorcycle," says Angela.
"He's not wearing gloves," says Broadway. "His fingerprints should be on the motorcycle."
"Thanks," says the red-haired man. He walks up to the human who was accused of vandalism. "If we find your prints where these two gargoyles said they were, you'll wish they dealt with you instead."
Back inside the Twenty-Third Precinct, Detectives Maza and Bluestone both interrogate Horace Fulbert.
"You're in big trouble, Horace," says Elisa. "But we want to help. There was one set of footprints unaccounted for. We know you have a partner. Turn him in, and we can ask for leniency when you come up before a judge."
"I know nothing," says Horace. "I ain't gonna talk until I get my lawyer."
"So we'll talk, you stupid punk!" shouts Matt. "If you don't talk, then we'll mention to your parole officer that you aren't cooperating with us! Cooperation with us is a condition of your parole; we can have your parole revoked."
"I ain't talking."
"Forget it, Matt," says Elisa. "Let's just go."
The two detectives walk out while a uniformed police officer takes Horace back to the holding cells in the basement level.
They meet upo with a browbn-harired woman wearing a blue suit.
"What's up, Captain?" asks Elisa.
"You're going to go to a stakeout," says Captain Maria Chavez. "We finally located that chop shop. Some officers from another precinct will provide backup."
On a rooftop on a building near Twelfth Avenue near the Hudson River bank in Manhattan, Goliath glides down, his taloned feet touching the surface. He can see Elisa's car and the NYPD cars arriving at the scene.
"Okay, Elisa," he says. "I'm in position. I can see you clearly. The rest of the clan is on their way." He looks and sees Elisa and Matt wave.
Down below, Elisa and Matt knock on the warehiouse door. "Police!" shouts Matt. "We have a warrant!"
they are answered when a Lincoln Town Car breaks through the wooden walls of the warehiouse and then speed east on Fifty-First Street. Elisa and Matt get into the Fairlane and drive off, with the other police cars giving chase. Goliath glides in pursuit. He notices that the Lincoln is gojng the wrong way on a one-way street.
Fortunately, the air currents give him a much-needed boost. He manages to zoom past the police cars and the Lincoln Town Car. He then glides down, and he lands on the hood of the black Lincoln.
The driver of the Lincoln, surprised by the sudden appearance of a gargoyle, swerves around. Then he feels a big jolt and hears a crunch as the Lincoln strikes a metal pole on a street corner near the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel. The police cars all stop at the intersection, and police officers draw their revolvers.
they are all pointing at the gargoyle.
"Wait!" shouts Elisa. "He's not the thief."
"Stand down!" shouts a pepper-haired police sergeant. "We're not after the gargoyle."
As Matt cuffs the thief, Elisa looks upon the police sergeant. "Sergeant Rabb?" she asks.
"Elisa," says Sergeant Rabb. "Good to see you again."
Some more gargoyles glide down to meet with their leader.
"Friends of yours?" asks Rabb.
"Yeah," says Elisa. "They've helped me and Matt out on a few cases."
Rabb approaches the big lavender gargoyle. "Hello, I am Sergeant Daniel Rabb, NYPD."
"I am called Goliath," says the gargoyle. "How long have you known Elisa?"
"I've known her since I babysat her and her brother and sister. I used to work with her dad. I'm a close friend of the family."
"Hello there," says Matt. "I'm Matt Bluestone, Elisa's partner. You knew Elisa since she was a girl?"
"Yup," says Rabb. "between me and her dad, it's no surprise she joined the force."
"Maybe we'll run into each other again," says Elisa.
Rabb addresses the gargoyles who gathered on this intersection. "I know that a lot of New Yorkers still fear you guys," he says. "But I've known that you're on our side. Elisa Maza here just confirmed it."
"Thnak you," says Goliath.
"Nice to hear from you," says Lexington.
The gargoyles then scale a building and glide out.
Elisa Maza rides an elevator in the Eyrie Building all the way to Castle Wyvern which sits atop the skyscraper. The elevator reaches the castle level and the doors open, leading to the courtyard. He walks through the courtyard,m through the castle's great hall, and into the gargoyles's living quarters. Every step into this castle is like stepping back one thousand years in time.
Onr thousand years ago, Castle Wyvern was a ruin, sacked by the Vikings in 994. The humans who lived in Wyvern fled south. Only six stone gargoyles sat on the castle. It was in 1993 that the castle was purchased by David Xanatos. In 1994, the castle was reassembled atop the Eyrie Building, and the stone gargoyles woke up again.
Elisa enters the gargoyles' quarters, and she sees a leather-skinned gargoyle and some four-legged beast.
"Elisa," says the gargoyle named Hudson. "Good to see ya here, lass."
"Is Goliath here?" asks the detective.
"Aye, he returned from patrol a few minutes ago. He's been expecting ye."
The blue gargoyle beast-Bronx-nudgled against Elisa's right leg.
"So you missed me too," she says. Though Bronx is an animal like a dog or a horse, he has gotten her and the gargoyle clan out of some tight spots. "Good to see you, boy."
She glanced at Hudson, who appeared older than the other gargoyles, in spiute of the fact that his aging process was suspended for one thousand years. His left eye is blind, having been critically injured in a battle with an old foe known as the Archmage. David Xanatos once offered to have the eye replaced, but the stubborn veteran turned him down.
Goliath and Elisa eat their dinner inside the clan's dining room. Dinner is steak, which was cooked by Broadway.
"What will you doing doing during the day?" asks Goliath.
"Well, tomorrow afternoon I am scheduled to give a deposition in a court case. Margot Yale will be the prosecutor."
Goliath winced. He and his clan had a few less-than-pleasant encounters with the woman.
"I know, Goliath. I'd rather face the Pack head on than face questioning from Yale."
The Pack is locked away in a maximum-security cell block in Attica State Prison. Tony Dracon was also serving time in that same prison, with his underlings reduced to running small-time operations like the car theft ring busted a few hours ago. Thailog and Demona have apparently left the country to pursue their goals elsewhere. The renegade fay factions are hiding around the world from the wrath of the fay king Oberon.
"How long have you known that officer you were talking to earlier?" asks Goliath.
"Sergeant Rabb?" says Elisa. "Well, he used to babysit me. He must have told you he worked with my dad. I last saw hikm a few months ago while working on a case with Matt."
"He mentioned that earlier. Does he have a family?"
"Yeah, he's married and has three kids. Two boys and a girl. They're all grown up now."
"Let us just enjoy this moment, my love," says Goliath as he pours wine into a wineglass."
"How about we have dinner at my place tomorrow night?" asks Elisa.
"I would love it."
The sky is getting brighter and brighter with the sun about to rise. The gargoyles take their usual positions on the hgihest tower of Castle Wyvern. Goliath steps on the top of the tower, looking towards the south as he always does whenever he is at Castle Wyvern at dawn.
"See you tonight," says Elisa.
"I'll look forward top waking up, my love," says Goliath. Then the sun rises. Goliath's skin becomes hard like stone and then he becomes indistinguishable from the other statuary in Manhattan.
Elisa yawns. "Time to get some sleep," she says. She rides the elevator down to the lobby of the Eyrie and then drives home.
A telephone call wakes up Elisa. She brushes a few strands of her black hair off her face and answers the phone.
"Hello?" she asks, still feeling a little sleepy.
"This is Captain Chavez," says the voice on the phone. "There's an emergency and all available units are needed. Dress up and head to the World Trade Center. There was an explosion there."
"WHAT!!!" shouts Elisa, upon hearing the news. "I'm going over there right now!"
Minutes later, the siren wailing and lights flashing, Elisa and her Ford Fairlane arrive at the corner of Trinity Place and Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan. Officer Morgan is there to greet her.
"What happened?" she asks.
"A plane crashed into the North Tower!" shouts Morgan. "We're evacuating the whole place."
Elisa looks out and sees smoke. It comes from the north tower of the World Trade Center. On the street, there are a bunch of fire trucks around. The police had already erected a barricade on the streets leading to the place. The whole sight looks surreal.
She remembers than the ascent and descent approaches to John F. Kennedy International Airport pass over southern Manhattan.
"Elisa," says Detective Matt Bluestone. "You made it. It looks terrible."
"What kind of plane hit the tower?"
"Judging from all the fire and smoke, a big one," says Matt. It could have been one of those big cargo or passenger planes."
"I guess it was either coming from or going to JFK," says Officer O' Malley.
Another police car arrives, and Captain Maria Chavez comes out and flashes her badge. "You're all here," she says. She looks at the fire and smoke high up in the north tower. "It even looks worse here."
"The Fire Department and some police officers are assisting with the evacuation," says Morgan. "The fire chief himself came down here to direct the rescue operations."
Elisa looks and sees a news van stop near the barricade. She recognizes the TV reporter Travis Marshall.
"Elisa," says Sergeant Rabb, who had just arrived at the scene. "You're here. I heard what happened. It looks terrible."
She looks up at the burning section of the skyscraper. "Yeah," she says. "The pilots, the crew, maybe the passengers."
She sees another plane flying nearby, probably approaching JFK for a landing. For a second she wonders why JFK did not reroute other incoming flights; surely they would have heard about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.
Then she sees the plane is flying too low for an approach to JFK. She can see the livery on the fuselage, which identifies it as a commercial airliner.
Then she sees the plane slam right into the south tower. Flames erupt from where the plane struck the building.
"This isn't an accident," she says with shock. "This is an attack!"
Everyone at the scene is now looking at the south tower, which had just been struck by an airplane. They realize that this is no coincidence, but an attack, an act of war.
"How could they be doing this?" asks Matt.
Then they hear a crash. they all look, and see that a man on top of a police car, the roof crushed. He must have been on a floor above the impact, and he must have jumped off to avoid being burned to death.
"Listen," says Chavez. "We've got to get those people out of there now! Who knows how many more planes will be crashing?"
Elisa and Matt and some other police officers and firefighters get inside the north tower's lobby. They can already see some people, who had gone to work this Tuesday morning, now fleeing the tower. There were some high-ranking police officers and firefighters who set up shop inside the north tower to direct rescue operations. Elisa and Matt hear which floors have not been cleared.
The elevators are not working, so they climb up the stairwells to look for survivors.
"Everyone exit in an orderly fashion," announces Matt, holding up his NYPD badge.
They exit the stairwell and search the offices. They see a woman in a wheelchair.
"We're evacuating the building, ma'am," says Elisa. "We've got to get you out."
Elisa holds up the woman while Matt takes down the wheelchair. Together, they go down the flight of stairs as fast as they can, until they reach the lobby. The woman is put back on her wheelchair and the paramedics on the scene take her from there.
Seconds later, Elisa and Matt head back into the north tower.
The building was still being evacuated; people were still loving down the stairs to the safety of the lobby. Elisa remembers that over ten thousand people work in the two towers every day. She hears talk from the firefighters about a helicopter rescue for those trapped in the upper floors.
"We still haven't checked this floor," says a firefighter. He, Elisa, Matt, and the other firefighters and police officers gom in to check the floor.
They go search the offices and the restrooms and even the custodian closets for anyone who might be trapped in the tower.
"It's clear," says a police sergeant.
Then the whole world, the whole universe crashes upon them.