1.2: Enter the GTF
The sun moved swiftly across the winter sky, as the citizens of New York went about their business. The day progressed as normally for most of the citizens of New York City… or at least in the fashion that the inhabitants of that city called 'normal.' But as the sun sank low on the western horizon, two police rookies went into the broom closet in the 23rd Precinct, several hours before their shift actually began, and lowered the maintenance ladder that led to the upper floors. One of the pair clutched a large bundle wrapped in brown paper to his chest, while the one lowering the ladder grumbled, "I still say this'll never work."
"Look, 'nothing ventured, nothing gained,' okay?" rookie John Davis said in exasperation to fellow rookie James Carter, another member of the Gargoyles Task Force. "And it's not like we spent your money for all these kids' books," as he patted the paper-wrapped bundle.
"Yeah, but we used up my favor with the guys in Electronics to get those micro-radio transmitters put inside the covers," Carter groused, as they went up the ladder. "And five'll get you ten they'll just sit there on the shelves forever, instead of leading us to the gargoyles' lair."
"Don't be so pessimistic. I'm telling you, I distinctly heard that gargoyle ringleader say they'd be back later for more books! ((back in "The Times They Are a-Changin'… Part 2" – ye author)) And when they do, they'll find these mixed in with the books left on the shelves. At least one of 'em is bound to be picked up, and then we just follow the signal wherever it leads. If those transmitters give as strong a signal as your buddy says they do, we should be able to track 'em down just about anywhere in Manhattan, and over at least half of Brooklyn too."
"And I still say we should just try again to get a warrant for searching that castle on top of the Aerie Building. Just because Bluestone and Maza weren't able to get a warrant from the judges that one time doesn't mean we'll never be able to get one. And we know David Xanatos is involved with the gargoyles; he's the one that pulled them out of that ruined cathedral! And let's not forget those reports of the Quarrymen's helicopter circling that building all Sunday night, and for a couple hours Monday before it flew off to get involved in the incident at the docks. They weren't circling up there just to play ring-around-the-rosy…"
"Right, but we also know that Xanatos actually lives in that castle, with his wife and, I might add, a newborn son. And even if the ones I talked to last week seemed almost friendly, no way you'll ever convince me that a couple with a newborn baby are going to have gargoyles as houseguests."
While they were arguing with each other, Davis opened the trapdoor to the next level up, the abandoned library. He climbed up first, followed by Carter, and they looked around in the dim light from the afternoon sun that filtered through from the hole in the ceiling. Carter was the first to say aloud, "Looks like they came back already, sometime during the week. I'm positive those shelves have fewer books now, than they did the last time we were up here."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Davis sighed, but he set the children's books on the shelves anyway, setting a few on each shelf and trying to blow dust onto them, to make it look like they'd been there a while.
While Davis was shelving the books, Carter wandered around and up to the next level, looking for more evidence that the gargoyles had been back; probably hoping for a nice clear track that they could take pictures of. Davis had just put the last book he'd bought, Liepzig's classic A Fly Went By, onto a shelf when he heard, faintly through that hole in the ceiling, Carter's voice filled with excitement: "Get up here fast! You aren't going to believe this!"
"What did you find?" Davis called out as he hurried up the ladder to the old housing for the tower's giant clock. He saw Carter up at the top of the staircase that led to the clock face, waving to him excitedly. He ran up the stairs, and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that greeted him on the balcony:
A stone gargoyle. And this was no statue that had been put there by the architects years ago, because Davis and Carter had been up there last week, and hadn't seen it. This had to be a real gargoyle, sleeping in stone, just like the Quarrymen said they did!
"We got one! We got a gargoyle! A real live gargoyle, and WE found it!" Davis and Carter gave each other high-fives. "Wait 'till we get the others up here! Let's get Bluestone up here first… no, Captain Chavez first! We'll get some sort of commendation for sure, maybe even early promotion!" Both men were nearly dancing with glee.
After their initial euphoria wore off, Davis studied the stone form, walking around to view it from all sides, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Take a look at this; this guy's been in a few scraps. Either that or somebody's been up here chipping at him while he's asleep. Look at how there's a piece missing off of this horn… and the tail, here… and he's even missing a toe, or claw or whatever," as he crouched down to inspect the feet.
"Caused by the Quarrymen in that fight two nights ago? Or by other gargoyles?" Carter wondered aloud. "My old cat lost half an ear and part of his tail from fighting other toms out on the back fence…"
As Davis walked around the statue again for a thorough inspection, his foot brushed against one of the two dark canvas satchels shoved up against a wall. Satchels that were largely dust-free, unlike everything else in the ruins, and were likely as recent arrivals as the gargoyle. He stared at them as realization stuck him, and said aloud in a wondering tone, "…This critter's got luggage?"
Carter stared at the bags as well, then exchanged a glance with his buddy. "Am I the only one here having trouble processing this? I mean, this makes them seem… almost human…"
"Yeah." Davis stared at the bags for a moment longer, then took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and began going through the satchels.
Carter gave a lopsided smile as Davis opened up the first satchel. "You realize we don't have a warrant for that…"
"Oh, shut up." Davis discovered that the first satchel held another satchel inside, empty and rolled up, and a few items of food. He held up and sniffed a half-sausage that had been wrapped in wax paper and said, "Smells like Bratwurst, I think. And this box here… still has a few crackers left in it. But check out the writing on the side of the box…"
Carter peered at the box's label and decided, "German. Or maybe Dutch, or Polish…"
"Which means that our boy either favors the German and Polish delis down in SoHo, or he's from… out of town." Davis exchanged another glance with Carter. "This just keeps getting weirder…"
While Davis put the food and empty case back in the first satchel, Carter opened the other, smaller one. The first item he pulled out was a pair of paperback books bound together with a large rubber band; one was titled "The Alchemist" by some guy named Paulo Coelho, and the other was titled "Der Alchemist." Then he pulled out another pair, one titled "Crazy in Alabama" and the other titled "Verrückt in Alabama." The next item to emerge was a large dictionary, with the words "Deutsch-Englisch, Englisch-Deutsch" emblazoned on the cover.
"Definitely from out of town," Davis said slowly, his eyes wide. "And he's trying to teach himself English…"
"I wonder how fluent he is now?" Carter mused as he pulled out a zippered bag that proved to contain a small portable tape player with headphones and a handful of audiotapes. He studied the German labels on the tape cases and concluded, "Language tapes, like my sister used to learn Spanish." He reached in again and pulled out with a shake of his head, "And a German tourist's guide to New York..."
"You know what this means, don't you?" Davis said softly, his eyes troubled. "For him to be here, in this clocktower, the first place the gargoyles were caught on video… This gargoyle's come to America to look for more of his kind."
"Yeah," Carter said, his own eyes troubled. "Coming all the way over here and teaching himself the language, just to find more gargoyles like him… Which means he must be almost desperate to find more creatures like himself. When I was in junior high school, I read 'The Last Unicorn' for an extra-credit assignment… I wonder if this guy thought he was 'the last gargoyle'?"
The last two items to be pulled out of the satchel were a loose-leaf binder full of paper, and a packet wrapped carefully in a woolen scarf. The pages in the binder were covered in German writing; Carter glanced at them and shook his head. "Now I wish I'd taken that foreign language option in high school after all. Don't suppose you can make heads or tails out of this?"
But instead of answering, Davis was unwrapping the scarf from around the packet that Carter had handed him, and when he had it unwrapped, he whispered in awed tones, "Sonuvabitch. Family photos…"
"What! Lemme see…" Carter crowded in to look over his shoulder, as Davis went through a small photo album containing a series of Polaroid photographs, some of them obviously old but lovingly preserved. The first one was of a green gargoyle, clearly female, with long blonde hair kept in a braid that went down her back between her wings. She was turned halfway towards the camera and looking somewhat startled, as if the picture-taker had caught her by surprise.
The second photograph was of two male gargoyles, one with royal blue skin and brown hair, and a taller one with charcoal-gray skin, blood-red hair and horns. The two of them were obviously clowning for the camera, just as most human teenagers would. Carter leaned in and tapped the side of the photo with the tall gray gargoyle as he said with assurance, "That's him, that's our boy. Years younger, and before he got his horn chipped."
"Well, now we know he's not 'the last gargoyle'; there are more like him back in Germany. …Or there were…"
The next page was blank, except for the faint outline that indicated a photo had recently been removed. The page after that held a photo of two humans, a man and a woman. The woman was hugely pregnant and sporting a somewhat sour smile, and the man was grinning from ear to ear as he held up a tape measure with the number '167' clearly marked between his fingers. Davis shook his head with a smile as he said, "Betcha ten bucks he just measured her waist, probably in centimeters. I tried to measure my sister-in-law once when she was expecting, but she nearly decked me."
The page after that held a regular photograph instead of a Polaroid, of those same two people smiling at the newborn baby in the woman's arms. The next photo, another Polaroid, had both police officers drawing in hissing breaths of surprise. Then Davis asked Carter wryly, "What was that you were saying about babies and gargoyle houseguests?" The photo clearly showed the green female gargoyle changing the diaper on that human baby, and wrinkling her nose as she worked. Looking at it, they could almost hear her complaining about the stink.
The next page was blank; evidently, another photo had recently been removed. The page after that had a photo of the green female gargoyle again, but now she was hugely pregnant, and the blue male gargoyle was jokingly measuring her girth. The next photo showed all three gargoyles gathered around a table and staring down at a large object, ovoid in shape and covered with purplish splotches, and nestled in blankets. Davis said hesitantly, "Is that… an egg?"
"I think so," Carter said, his voice hushed with awe. "They must be an egg-laying species. My God, what we're learning from these photos…"
Two more photos of the baby progressing through his childhood, with the gargoyles as his nannies and willing playmates. Then they came across a photo of a party; humans and gargoyles gathered together in what was evidently a living room, toasting each other with glasses of champagne and mugs of beer, and wide smiles all around. The banner stretched over their heads had the phrase "200 BERGUNGEN!" over a black, red and gold striped background that resembled the German flag.
Without being asked, Carter grabbed for the dictionary and began flipping through it, looking up the word. After a minute or so he said, "It says here 'Bergung' means either 'rescue,' 'recovery' or 'salvage'. …Two hundred rescues? Rescuing people, or gargoyles?"
Davis opened his mouth to give an opinion, but was interrupted by a strange sound coming from nearby; a sort of crackling and crumbling sound, that reminded them of an object rolling across gravel. They turned to look for the source, and focused on the statue of the gargoyle. Which was cracking right in front of their eyes, with a faint white light showing through the cracks running all across the surface… They'd been studying their finds so intently that they'd lost track of time, and the course of the sun across the sky. Realization struck them both at the same moment, and Davis breathed, "Oh, sh--"
KRACKOOOOM! The statue seemed to explode right in front of their eyes, with stone shards and gravel flying everywhere and pelting them in a painful shower. And where the statue had been was now a living, breathing gargoyle, standing tall and unfurling his wings.
The gargoyle had his back to them, and so didn't see them as he stretched his wings out and lifted his arms over his head, as his tail twitched and uncoiled like a gray python stirring. It was an enthralling sight, but Davis was suddenly and eerily reminded of… an ordinary Joe enjoying a good stretch after a good night's sleep. And he found himself hoping absurdly that the gargoyle really had slept well, because he was about to get a rude awakening…
To Be Continued…
