Chapter Eleven
"Shuin'in faithfully reports back his experiences"
Chinatown, New York, New York
Friday 5th February, 1932
11:30
"So, there were four factions abroad The Flying Lancer, is what you're saying?"
The president had started taking notes a little while back as the cripple narrated. Shinji was leaning forward in his seat, eyes wide and mouth hanging open, clearly enraptured by the tale. Shingo's legs had given out and he'd been forced to sit down on the sofa by the door. He had also started jotting down notes as the story continued without signs of slowing down.
"The white suits, consisting mostly of people under the Fuser umbrella organisation, led by Yuri and Serena Polyma, who wish to ransom the train then kill the witnesses" the president listed them "The Lemures, consisting mostly of people from the Kurosaki family, led by Allen Kozuki, who hope to hold Ray and Zarc Drago hostage in exchange for the release of their leader Shun Kurosaki. The faction led by Yuya Sakaki, who hope to steal a bomb being transported in the freight hold. And the mysterious couple Yugo and Rin, who are…hoping to steal a birthday present? Is that right?"
"Honestly, I don't pretend to understand those two" the cripple shrugged "But you're dead on with the others."
"You forgot one" the president pointed out "You."
The cripple blinked. "Me?"
"A neutral observer" the president remarked "A neutral observer who can crawl on train cars. Skills probably put to use dodging conductors as you ride the rails for free across the country. You could have made an excellent burglar in another life."
Shinji laughed out loud at the statement. Even Shingo had to quickly cover a chuckle.
The cripple however tightened his fists against his coverall covered calves, his teeth grinding together and eyes narrowing. Absolute hate shone through the green gleam.
"I think it's time I introduced you" the president announced "I know who you are, but I'm afraid my colleagues don't. In all fairness, you don't look much like your esteemed father."
The cripple softened slightly. "What difference would that make?"
The president just smiled knowingly and turned to his editors. "I would like to introduce you, properly, to the man you've mostly likely been calling the boy in coveralls. His name is Shuin'in. I don't suppose that rings any bells."
Shingo shook his head. The name meant nothing to him.
Shinji froze for a few seconds, then gasped and pointed dramatically at the cripple – Shuin'in – before settling back down and bowing his head.
"Please accept our most humble apologies on behalf of your father, Mr Shuin'in" he apologised.
Shingo's jaw dropped. Since when did Shinji apologise for anything?
Shuin'in also seemed startled, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Uh-huh."
"You've been most helpful, Mr Shuin'in" the president told their guest "But I'm most intrigued by this Rail Tracer you mentioned. You don't mean to tell me it's just a story."
Shuin'in shifted uncomfortably again. "I saw something. I'm not saying it was a monster, or something stupid like that. But something was killing people on that train."
The president sat back, and picked up his pen again. "By all means, please do continue, Mr Shuin'in. I'm sure we're all most intrigued by what you have to say on this matter."
Near Hancock, Maryland
Thursday, 31st December 1931
00:10
"Well would you look at this!"
Yuri, Serena and Gloria had made it to the conductor's cab in the caboose, to be confronted to the grizzly sight that had sent many a soul turning in the opposite direction.
"Look at all this artistry!" Yuri was practically skipping for joy in the pooling blood, white shoes becoming soaked through with it "It's so beautiful!"
"It's so tacky" Serena remarked "No finesse at all."
"An amateur is an amateur, Serena" Yuri pointed out "But the brutality! I want to meet the guy who did this so badly I can hardly contain it!"
"Please try" Serena folded her arms "I'm not scooping your gooey remains of the ground when you melt."
"Hey, boss and boss lady" Gloria called them over to the corpse missing most of it face, lying on the floor of the carriage "Don't you think this looks like someone we know?"
Serena crouched down over the body. It was certainly wearing a conductor's uniform, but neither of the conductors she saw on the platform had long white hair. Someone new who had gotten on when the train was departing Union Station?
Wait, didn't Dokter show off a conductor's uniform there?
Huh, so that's where that guy had gone.
"This is Doktor" she remarked "Well, that's a clear enough message."
Yuri pushed his way onto the balcony at the very back of the train, kicking up puddles of blood in his path and whooping for joy.
"Someone is hunting us" Serena commented "The people in white suits." She looked around the cab. "And last I checked, we're still missing a conductor."
Near Cheat Lake, West Virginia
Wednesday, 30th December 1931
20:15
"Back to your question" Roger now removed a revolver from the inside pocket on his jacket, where Dennis liked to sneakily hide cigarettes sometimes, levelling it with Dennis' forehead "How can you be spared?"
Roger let out a mirthless laugh as Dennis tried to step back away from the gun, become pressed against the cab's wall.
"Thing is, everyone who hears this story dies" Roger admitted, cocking back the hammer as Dennis' eyes went wide with horror "So, my poor boy, there is in fact, no way for you to be spared."
A few moments later, a gunshot ran throughout the caboose, before being lost in the night…
…
At least that's how Chapter Five ended. But I never said that where the conductors' stories ended, right?
Let's take a look at what actually happened.
…
"Thing is, everyone who hears this story dies" Roger admitted, cocking back the hammer as Dennis' eyes went wide with horror "So, my poor boy, there is in fact, no way for you to be spared."
Just before Roger could pull the trigger though, Dennis' foot went from ground level to the height of his head in a split second. The gun went flying out of Roger's hand, making a graceful arc through the air before Dennis raised his hand to catch it.
He brought his arm down to point the gun directly at Roger's head, face shifting from terrified into smoothly confident.
"Oh, there's one way to be spared, alright" Dennis smiled "You just has to kill the monster before it kills you."
Now he'd lost the gun and the advantage, Roger was the one who was scared. "Now hold on, wait a minute!"
"It's too late" Dennis declared, beginning to back the man with his hands held in the air in surrender into a corner "Although I was so rudely interrupted, I feel I must finish my story. The only way to save yourself from the Rail Tracer: to believe the story when it's told to you. But if it's already here, there's nothing you can do. You just have to keep running until sunrise and pray it doesn't catch up to you."
Dennis now pulled the hammer back on the gun, Roger whimpering in distress.
"But there's no saving you" Dennis told him "I'm sure your sacrifice will awaken the monster, and it will come to consume everyone on this train." He tightened his grip on the handle. "It's time for you to die."
Because Roger could try and plead for his life, Dennis pulled back on the trigger, and the treacherous conductor fell down dead in the corner.
Dennis took a deep breath, cleaning some spattered blood off his face with a handkerchief. His white uniform was now speckled with blood. Great, that never washed out. Tucking the gun away in his jacket's inner pocket, he regarded it distastefully. He'd never liked guns – they were so unnecessarily messy.
Just as he was thinking what to do with Roger's body – off the back of the train perhaps? But how to explain the blood? – a man in a conductor's uniform walked into the cab.
"Whoa?!" the man gazed down at Roger's body in wonder, brushing some white hair out of his eyes in the process "What happened in here?"
Not hesitating for a second, Dennis removed his gun again and levelled it at the strange man. "Who are you?"
"Hey man, put that down!" the new conductor put his hands up in surrender, not that that had worked out for Roger "I'm no one suspicious! Just a nice conductor doing his job!"
"Oh yeah?" Dennis' face twisted unpleasantly "There are only supposed to be two conductors on this train: me and him. So that begs the question, who the hell are you?"
"Ok, buddy, maybe we can put that down and we can all relax!" the new conductor tried to calm Dennis down with a hapless smile and gentle waving hands.
"Why are you so unafraid when I have a gun pointed at you?" Dennis then tried. That was something that had been bugging him from the moment he pulled out the gun. "Who the hell are you? And what the hell are you after on this train?!"
The conductor seemed offended for a second, before breaking into a smirk and shrugging it off. "Well you got me!"
"Are you with him?" Dennis gestured at the dead Roger with his head.
"Him, nah, never seen him before in my life" the imposter shrugged dismissively "I have to admit it, you're quick! The secret's out already!"
Dennis considered this for a minute, then tucked the gun back into his inside pocket again.
"You don't seem like the type of man that would bow to the usual treatment" he decided, turning around and opening the balcony door "I guess I'll have to take it a bit further this time."
"Whoa, you don't mean torture, do you?" the imposter raised his hands in mock surrender "Come on, we all know that you never get reliable information that way!"
Dennis ignored him, stepping onto the balcony.
"Well, it was nice of you to put away your gun and all and make it even" the imposter reached into his own jacket and pulled out another handgun "But I'm afraid you-"
The imposter paused. Looking back up at the balcony, he could see that Dennis had vanished.
Had he jumped? But he hadn't heard the sound of a body hitting the ground.
The imposter stepped out onto the balcony, peering down at the rails. No sign of blood or broken bodies…
Suddenly, a pair of hands reached out from under the balcony and pulled the imposter down.
Before the imposter could work out which way was up, he found himself dangling inches above the track; the only reason he hadn't fallen to his untimely demise was because Dennis was holding him in a half-nelson, holding the pair of them above the sleepers by ankle strength alone.
"Now, tell me who you are!" Dennis demanded.
The imposter couldn't say anything, mouth dry with fear. He tried to turn the hand still holding the gun towards Dennis.
Dennis wasn't having any of that though. He forced the gun down against the tracks, the handle flying out of the imposter's grasp sharp enough to break his wrist. Before he could complain however, Dennis now lowered the imposter's hand to the ground, giving it the same treatment the gun had gotten.
"Who are you?!" Dennis demanded over the screaming coming from the imposter.
"D-DOKTOR!" the impostor finally managed to turn his screams into a recognisable word.
"Alright then, Doktor" Dennis smiled ever so slightly "What exactly are you doing on this train?"
Near Hancock, Maryland
Thursday, 31st December 1931
00:15
"I can't wait to meet the genius who made this masterpiece!" Yuri declared, jumping for utter joy around Doktor's body, Serena pushing Gloria back to prevent their stupid dresses from getting covered in blood "I hope its someone who's a little bit handsome and just a little crazy and absolutely certain he could never be killed!"
He knelt down and pick up what remained of Doktor's head by the hair to yell at it.
"Doktor you good for nothing son of a bitch!" he yelled at the head "Tell me who did this to you!"
"Well since Doktor can't even find his own face at the moment, I somehow doubt he's going to be much help locating this guy" Serena pointed out.
"Hmm…That is a good point" Yuri admitted "But I don't care. I'm going to kill the black suits and the guy who did this!"
"Not without me you're not" Serena warned him "I turn my back on you for one second and you'll end up like Doktor here. And it would disappoint Mommy if she could only bury part of her son."
"Oh you have such little faith, Sere-" Yuri didn't even get to finish before Serena grabbed his chin and forced his jaw up, effectively shutting him up.
"You don't get it, do you?" Serena glared at him "Only I get to kill you! Nobody else has the right before I do!"
Yuri just relaxed into a smile again. "Not if I kill you first."
Serena smiled unnervingly also "We're see about that."
Near Cheat Lake, West Virginia
Wednesday, 30th December 1931
20:20
"Alright Doktor, member of the Fuser organisation" Dennis flicked his head to get some blood running down his forehead away from his eyes "Now I know why you're here. There's just one thing I don't get; why are you wearing a conductor's uniform?"
Doktor, now missing most of his arm, appeared to be delirious from pain, eyes rolling and laughing uncontrollably. "I-It's fun! I do it because it's fun! Killing is fun!"
"You think it's fun, you sick psychopath?!" Dennis seemed disgusted "Where did you get the uniform?!"
"I got it from the old man at the station!" Doktor declared.
"Old man?" Dennis pondered "An old man gave it to you?"
Doktor just laughed, and slowly Dennis put the pieces together.
He said he got the uniform from an old man at the station; he didn't say the old man gave him the uniform.
There was on old man at the station who Dennis knew had a uniform. One who would never give up his uniform to a thug like this without a fight.
Dennis tried to keep calm, placing one hand in Doktor's hair and tightening his grip to try and work out the anger before he did something stupid. "What old man?!"
And then Doktor said the one thing Dennis' didn't want to hear. "The old conductor at the station!"
Dennis didn't want to ask the question, but he had to know or he'd regret it later. "And what did you do with the old man?"
Doktor's laugh went from hysterical to ear-piercing. "I KILLED HIM!"
He didn't get any further than that before Dennis lowered his head towards the rail tracks, stopping centimeters short.
"You should know that old man's name was Chojiro!" Dennis told him, hurt flashing in his eyes "He taught me everything I know about being a conductor!"
Doktor didn't get the chance to laugh again, Dennis simply lowered the imposter's head to the sleepers, and it all stopped.
Near Flintstone, Maryland
Wednesday, 30th December 1931
23:15
"What the hell happened here?"
Jacob and Emma had merely been travelling towards the dining car, figuring that some of the black suits would have inevitably wandered back in there. But they'd been distracted by a pool of blood escaping the door of the viewing portion of third class, a large room consisting of several benches so third-class passengers could watch the scenery go by and escape their overcrowded suites. Inside they found a pile of four black suit bodies and enough blood to drown several more people.
"Did Yuri do this?" Emma questioned "Or Serena?"
"No way, these guys died quickly" Jacob pointed out "They like drawing it out, remember?"
"But there's no bullet wounds" Emma gestured at the bodies "How were they killed if not by guns?"
"A knife maybe?" Jacob questioned, looking at the body pile and scratching his head "Pretty easy to find on a train like this. Turned on each other, maybe?"
Emma didn't respond.
"Fine, be bitch about it" he scoffed, kneeling down and sorting through the pocket of a black suits. He pulled out the man's wallet and stole some bills from it. "You and those Polyma sickos might be ok with mindless bloodshed, but some of us have more refined tastes."
He felt something drip onto his face. Looking up, he saw a large bloodstain on the ceiling. It was certainly more blood then should be up there from a knife attack.
"Well, that's certainly impressive" he admitted "What do you think, Emma?"
No response.
"Emma?" Jacob turned from his kneeling position and saw that Emma was gone "Don't tell me you just left you selfish-!"
He felt another blood drop land on his face.
"Cut it out!" he yelled looking up towards the ceiling "You're already dead! Stop-!"
His words caught in his throat at what he saw.
Hanging from the ceiling was a man. It had to be a man. But it was drenched in blood.
All Jacob saw before it pounced down on him was a pair of baby-blue eyes worthy of a movie star, a conductor's hat and a slasher smile.
Near Cheat Lake, West Virginia
Wednesday, 30th December 1931
20:25
Doktor's body went crashing to the floor on the caboose as Dennis lugged it ahead of him, climbing up the balcony and shutting the balcony door behind him. His anger was still burning, but not as badly, as if the blood soaking through his white uniform had helped to dampen it a little.
"Black suits, the Fusers, what a joke" he scoffed, turning to look at his reflection in the window "It's too late now."
He took his finger and painted war paint stripes under his eyes with blood.
"I'm the monster who's going to devour you all."
No, not enough. He lowered his face to his hand. When he looked up again, there was a bloody handprint across his face. Much better. More…monstrous.
"I have become the Rail Tracer!"
Chinatown, New York, New York
Friday 5th February, 1932
11:40
"A conductor you say?" the president questioned.
"Yeah" Shuin'in nodded "It was wearing a conductor's uniform."
"I see" the president stroked his chin "When you were hanging onto the bottom of the train, and it spoke to you. What did it say?"
Shuin'in squirmed uncomfortably. "It's…stupid."
"I promise I won't laugh" the president promised.
Shuin'in sighed with aggravation, running his hand over her face. "Fine!"
Near Accident, Maryland
Wednesday, 30th December 1931
21:30
Finally, the urge to blink was too great for the boy, and he let his eyes shut.
When the opened again, the blood-covered thing was just inches from his face.
It then parted its lips – lips too? Almost human then – and muttered something that sent shivers down the boy's spine.
"Your ticket, please."
He screamed with horror and scrambled away under the carriages again as fast as he could so.
Mercifully, the thing didn't follow him.
Chinatown, New York, New York
Friday 5th February, 1932
11:40
Shingo was sure he'd regret it later, but he couldn't help it. He burst out laughing at the absurd statement.
Shuin'in glared at him, then at Shinji, who had slapped a hand over his mouth to prevent him from succumbing to the same fate. Then he turned to the president with the same glare.
"I said I wouldn't laugh" the president pointed out "I never said Mr Sawatari wouldn't laugh."
Shuin'in still scowled, lying back in his seat. "Alright, old man, you got me."
"So, it asked you for your ticket?" the president questioned, nearly sending the editors into hysterics again.
Shuin'in took out another lemon drop from the box and rolled it between his fingers. "Yeah. It must've known I'd gotten on without one."
"Indeed" the president considered this information "Then there's no doubt about it then. That conductor was Vino."
The editors both straightened, eyes bugging out of their heads.
"Are you sure, sir?" Shinji questioned "How can you know that that monster and Vino are one in the same?"
"Part of what makes Vino so terrifying is that he can commit a killing in one city, then suddenly appear in another" the president pointed out "One moment he's in Sacramento. Next thing you know he's in Salt Lake City, or Boston, or Philadelphia. How could he be travelling from city to city without being noticed? What if he was a conductor on a transcontinental express? No tickets would be purchased in his name to prove a link. He could slip unnoticed around the country and be gone before you even knew he was there."
"That's a good point" Shingo admitted "Rumour is he was coming here after Christmas to do a job for the Guatemalans. The timeline certainly fits."
"Vino" Shuin'in tested the name on his tongue "I've heard that name before."
"Vino, also known as Dennis Claire Mackfield, was born into a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles" the president confirmed "His mother was Melissa Claire, a starlet of the early moving pictures" the president told him "She moved there from her native Australia in the hope of staring in bigger pictures and getting her name in bigger lights. Dennis was born at the height of her rise to fame. She met up with a member of a Latin American mob living in the city and Dennis was raised as his son. Until a hit was carried out by a white-supremacist group who took issue with a Latin man courting a white woman, and both parents were killed in front of the young boy."
Shinji winced, thinking of his own kids back home. "Yeah, I could see how that would screw a kid up."
"Dennis was taken in by the Mackfield family, who were long-time allies of the Latin American families in that area" the president went on "He was raised alongside Yuto Mackfield, who was instructed to think of the boy as his older brother. But Dennis never forgot what happened to his real parents."
"Rumour has it he ran away and joined the circus" Shingo reminded him.
"Yes" the president nodded "It was there he trained with acrobats and wrestlers. He gained almost superhuman strength and agility. Something that probably helps him greatly in his job as a professional assassin."
"Professional assassin?" Shuin'in questioned in wonder "That explains a lot."
"Vino is known for the excessive force he uses to kill his victims" the president recalled "He totally destroys the bodies, until they look like they've been soaked in red vine. It's assumed its his way of assuring that he hasn't left the job undone." He turned to Shinji. "Did you confirm that Vino met up with the Guatemalans?"
Shinji nodded. "I did, sir."
Grand Central Station, New York, New York
Thursday 31st December 1931
11:00
"No offence man, but you look like hell" Damon admitted, looking Yugo over. Up closer, he could see what appeared to be a few bruises on his skin and his clothes were a little torn up. Rin's too.
"What happened in there?" Reiji asked, searching the other doors with his eyes for his family disembarking.
Yugo laughed again, patting Reiji's shoulder, but it seemed more weary this time. "Live long enough and we'll tell ya!"
Just as Damon was about to go and hug Rin now, someone came up and tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw it was his associate, Dobocle.
"What's going on?" Damon frowned "I told you to wait behind, I'm picking him up in the car."
"I caught a cab" Dobocle held up a telegram "We got it just after you left. He's waiting over by the Mexican Consulate."
Damon frowned. "He knows we're Guatemalan right?"
"Don't think he cares" Dobocle shrugged "Let's go."
Damon made his excuses to leave and promised to meet up with the group later, before leaving with Dobocle out a side door. They headed a few streets away down Madison Street until they reached the car park next to the Mexican Consulate. Officially, if they got close enough to the building, they were on Mexican soil, which made prosecuting them for anything said on said soil difficult. Of course, this worked best if you were from the same country as the consulate, but in all fairness, the Guatemalan Consulate was, like, twenty blocks away rather than two.
Waiting in the car park was a man in a long black coat that clashed with his orange hair quite dramatically. You wouldn't know looking at him that not six hours ago he'd been drenched in blood.
"Dennis, mi hermano!" Damon laughed with joy, hugging him.
"Long time no see!" Dennis seemed equally jovial "How's Maria?"
"Getting married now" Damon grinned "And expecting a little one!"
Dennis clapped his hand together in joy. "A wedding! I do love weddings! So did Yuto! I imagine he's so sad to miss it! You must invite me!"
"Wouldn't imagine not, primo!" Dobocle nodded.
"Dobocle!" Dennis now embraced the other man "How are you? Getting ready for the big day!"
"We'll never have it if I let my Mami keep changing things to be 'perfecto'" Dobocle joked "We're trying to have it as soon as possible so Yugo and Rin don't disappear off and miss it."
"Oh, your friends! You must introduce me!" Dennis was practically bouncing up and down on the spot.
"I was going to, but you didn't turn up at the station where they were!" Damon pointed out "Why are you out here anyway? Shouldn't all you conductors be back at the station doing their conductor things?"
"I am not longer a conductor" Dennis announced "In fact, I am not even called Dennis anymore. For Dennis Mackfield died on The Flying Lancer! Killed by some very nasty thugs from Chicago of all places!"
Damon and Dobocle just blinked at him, very confused.
"So…what are we supposed to call you now, primo?" Dobocle finally asked.
"Hmm…" Dennis considered this question "Just Vino will do for now. Or you can call me the Rail Tracer."
The pair of Guatemalans looked at him like he was nuts, but also like they'd come to this conclusion a long time ago.
"Are you kidding me?!" they complained in unison.
"Come on, let's walk" Dennis gestured for them to follow him across the car park "Tell me you have something good for me to do. I'm all warmed up after all that light exercise last night, now I need a real challenge." Suddenly his eyes lit up. "And speaking of weddings! I need to get this job done quickly. I have to find someone here in the city. And if I find them, you could be coming to my wedding soon!"
Damon and Dobocle stared at him, then at each other, each having the same thought.
'Not this again.'
Chinatown, New York, New York
Friday 5th February, 1932
11:40
"But I don't understand?"
The president cocked his head to the side. "Dobocle Rivas is the nephew of the man Dennis still calls Father. He's been willing to do favours for the Guatemalan mob for free when he's available."
"No, not that" Shuin'in waved the insinuation off "But why would Vino want to kill people so indiscriminately?"
"They may seem indiscriminate to you" the president told him "But reportedly Vino has his own moral code, a warped sense of justice. If he felt the white suits and black suits endangered the passengers he was protecting, or would delay the train and make him late for his meeting with the Guatemalans, then he mostly likely felt it was his duty as a conductor and to his distant family to kill the people who may cause these unfortunate things to happen."
"I could maybe understand that" Shuin'in admitted "But what the hell would cause him to try and kill a small child?"
The president, who had been writing another note, froze. "A small child?"
"The boy riding the train" Shuin'in reminded him "You should know him. I can't believe he hasn't told you."
"I see" the president said thoughtfully "In that case, then you may have the chance to ask that boy himself someday."
Shuin'in's eyebrows rose. "Really?"
"But there are more things to discuss" the president steered the topic away skillfully "We've still yet to hear what caused that nasty injury of yours. Do go on."
Near Hancock, Maryland
Thursday, 31st December 1931
00:00
Zarc had been having a rather peaceful time in first class, besides that one bizarre report on the radio that had sent several men in black suits out into the corridor. He had expected to be taken away and interrogated about the army's plans for future weapon developments, or at the very least for the location of Senator Akaba's children.
But it appeared that these men, plus one woman, weren't interested in his army secrets and seemed confident enough that they could locate Ray and Reira themselves.
The only three people left in the room with him was a very large man who appeared to be a bodyguard, Allen and a young lady called Sayaka who kept offering him tea and biscuits before returning to fiddling with a cello case that appeared to belong to her. They seemed completely relaxed, like everything was going to plan and there was nothing to worry about.
Maybe they had a point, because not even a minute into Thursday, Ray Drago was thrown unceremoniously into the suite.
"Ray!" he wanted to run to her side and comfort her, especially since there appeared to be tears running down her face, but he didn't know how the guy with the machine gun by the door would react to that.
"Zarc!" Ray didn't have any such worries, running forward and into his arms "Oh my god, she killed him! She killed him right in front of me!"
"Killed who?!" Zarc's blood ran cold. Reira couldn't be dead, could he?
"A white suit" Ray admitted, to his relief "I'm sorry!"
The 'she' Ray was referring to was a long-haired lady in a black dress who stepped into the suite after her and shut the door behind her. Zarc recalled her having been with the black suits at the station. She didn't say anything, just leant against the wall and looked a little bored.
"I take it you're relieved, Mr Drago" Allen smiled pleasantly, but Zarc knew it was all for show "It wasn't easy, but we managed to rescue your wife from those white suits. It took many lives to do this. Remember that."
Zarc tried his best not to scowl, running is hand through Ray's hair. He didn't care about the lives of stupid train hijackers. He was much more concerned that they apparently found it funny to traumatise a pregnant woman.
"Now we have the whole family back together, we can wait as a group for the sun to rise" Allen told them "As it does, we'll pass a bridge over the Susquehanna River. From that bridge, a signal flare will either be deployed, or it won't."
"And what happens if it does?" Zarc asked.
"Then you will be spared for the moment" Allen told him "A deployed signal means good news from your father-in-law."
Ray now looked up from her tears. "My dad?"
"As we speak, I have members of my group meeting him in his hotel suite in California" Allen confirmed "We're having some…negotiations. His family for ours, essentially. If he agrees to our terms, then the signal will be seen and we'll know that our family is to be released. As second signal in Trenton will confirm he has indeed been released, and we will leave this train in peace. You will all leave this train unharmed to meet the young Mister Akaba at Grand Central. If not…"
Allen paused, looked at the pair, then at the girls who were with him. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision.
"If not, then we'll leave your husband's body on the tracks" he decided, crossing the suite to sit in an armchair "We'll leave the train, and you'll come too, until we can come to an agreement." He leant back in the armchair, apparently mulling over something. "If it's any comfort to you, I'll shoot him myself. And don't do something stupid like ask us to spare him instead of you; we don't need anyone wasting our time, do we?"
Ray looked like she wanted to scream, either at him or the world, even she wasn't sure herself, but it caught in her throat and just came out as a broken sob.
Zarc just fixed Allen with a look of pure hate, absolute rage leaking from every pore, but somewhere down there knowing he was limited in what he could do about Allen's threat.
The girl in black turned her face away, eyes screwing up tight.
Near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
02:30
Unlike everyone else on the train, Yuri had been having quite a nice night. He'd recently obtained a shotgun from a recently deceased Lemure and was now happily hunting for the next one with a nice guy named Ted by his side. Weirdly Ted was the only member of his group he'd seen since leaving Serena and Gloria in the caboose, but no matter. They may just all be in first-class or something.
As he moved back into the freight hold again – maybe they'd all run to hide back in here once he had left, it was possible – he caught sight of something he hadn't expected. A young boy with his arms outstretched, running in the corridor and making aeroplane noises.
What the heck? Was some fabulously rich mother not watching her brat closely enough or something? Big mistake.
"Oi! Brat!" Yuri yelled over to the kid.
Surprisingly, the boy didn't startle and run. Instead he turned to Yuri with the most innocent expression imaginable.
"Hello there, young man" the boy smiled "Can I ask you a favour?"
Yuri appeared stunned silent for a second, certainly for the first time in all the time Ted had known him, before recovering with a sinister grin.
"You've got balls kid" he grinned "Sure, I'll hear you out."
The boy nodded eagerly, then going back to his aeroplane game. He spun on the spot twice before heading into what appeared to be an empty freight hold. Yuri and Ted followed him in, oblivious to the four people in the freight hold next door, and any mysterious music coming from them.
"So kid" Yuri swung his shotgun round so he could lean on it like a cane "What do you want me for?"
"I think you're really strong, mister" the boy admitted "I was in the dinning car when you took down those black suits. You were amazing, sir! I think you could be a champion prizefighter in the ring!"
Yuri was now grinning ear to ear. Not even Serena complimented his fighting skills.
"Is that so?" he nodded, pleased with what he heard "I like it when little kids flatter me."
"My name is Reira-"
"None of that" Yuri cut him off, raising the shotgun ever so slightly again "I came in here because you called me a young man, and I quite liked that and thought you could be a bit of fun. I won't want to hear your mushy sob story. You're in the jaws of the fly trap, kid, so you better keep them open. So make me laugh or cry – whichever option you choose determines whether you live or die."
Reira considered this, then nodded with that innocent expression back on his face again. "Ok, so here it is."
He gestured for Yuri to come closer. Yuri leant further on his shotgun so his ear was inches from Reira's mouth.
"I'm listening" he confirmed.
"Ok, so here it is" Reira told him, eyes smiling up at him "You know all those passengers in the dining car? Can you please kill them for me?"
Yuri shot up to his full height immediately, face slack with shock.
"What?" he stared down at the young boy, struggling to find the words to communicate what was running through his head "D-Do you even know what you're saying, boy?"
Unbeknownst to everyone in the car, behind a stack of crates, the Rail Tracer watched them with interest.