Ziggy's Corner: Okay this is the twenty-fourth chapter. Not much action here, Sly and gang get to Calico in time to find Morgan Skye gone, but also in time to find my character, and some information. I have a feeling this chapter is going to be a short one. Next chapter picks up a little action.
They had missed her, Sly didn't know by how much, but it was obvious that Morgan Skye was gone, and that there had been a confrontation. The handsome raccoon kicked himself for not being there, what if something happened? What if she had been hurt, or killed?
"It couldn't be helped, Sly," Bentley tried to console. "Besides reports said that she left on a plane for Australia."
"So, what, are we just going to turn around and head back to Australia?" Murray asked. He looked at the two of them and blinked as they got lost in thought.
"No, not yet," Sly said as he shook his head. "Morgan came here for some reason, and I think it might be best if we discover what that was first."
"I agree," Bentley said. "In my intercepted records of her computer data, I discovered she was meeting a priest."
"A priest?" Sly frowned.
"His name is Hayden Mac Callum," the turtle said as they walked through the old silver mining town. People from around the world travel through its streets, glaring at them for a while, before moving on. Murray liked watching the arm wresting events, and Bentley was fascinated with the steel making around the area. Sly couldn't help but think of the boys were here, they'd like the candy store, and the fake gun battles, while Carmelita would be buying candles.
"Fr. Mac Callum?" a man asked, walking up to them. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ease drop, actually caught only the last bit of your conversation, but I know him." The tall rabbit took a step back as they stared at him and put his large hands in his pockets. "Of course, I should mind my own business."
"No, wait," Sly said as the man took a step back. "We'd be most appreciative for your help."
The rabbit studied them for a very long time, and frowned, not sure if he should say anything next. He blinked and turned away. "Well, if you want to find him, you'd better hurry, he's probably packing his things and heading for Scotland sometime soon." He pointed a bag in the area where the priest lived. "He has a renta house just a little ways up that he uses for the spring and late fall. It's the big tan building."
"Thank you," Sly said. His band began to hurry off, but were stopped as an elderly man stopped them. "You boys don't need to be going there. That man is nothing but trouble, betrayed the Church, reads sorcery manuals, the such. A real dark seed, that one."
"We'll take that into account," Sly promised.
"Its no wonder he was deflocked, by Rome," the old geezer snarled. "No good piece of trash like that."
"He's not a no good piece of trash, he's a good man," the rabbit insisted, pushing back through. "He was a bit more conservative than what his church's leaders wanted."
"Fucking piece of bull shit," the man snarled. "He's evil, pure and simple."
Sly and company watched the two men argue, and slowly slipped away. "Okay either they're both crackpots, or they just really can't stand each other," Sly said with a chuckle.
"Maybe they both had too much old, old fashioned root beer," Murray said with a smile.
"All kidding aside," Bentley said as they walked up to the house, "he is a defrocked priest. And from what I read, he does have a major library of occultic books. It would be best if we took caution."
They approached the building, a long ark like thing that looked like it was built by the Native Americans, rather than the Chinese who had been based in this part of the town in the nineteenth century. There were only two glass panes for windows, and a large wooden door, which two scantily clad vixens guarded.
"What's with the candy?" Sly asked, inching near Bentley. "Odd guards for a priest of all things to keep."
"We're friends of Fr. Mac Cullum," the large tan brown golden retriever snapped. "And yes, I have very good hearing, thank you."
"She's Tina, I'm, Dominic," the German Shepherd said, her accent making Sly cringe as he remembered Dr. Goren. "Fr. Mac Cullum 'saved' us, you could say. We're were models for different internet companies, which I'd rather not get into. After talking to him, he convinced us to turn away from the path we were on, and we followed him ever since."
"Of course he had to beat some sense into our last employer to let us go," Tina chuckled darkly. Dominic eyed her partner, and smirked.
"And you're dressed like strippers why?" Bentley asked.
Dominic's grin pulled up larger. "Would you give us a moments thought, walking up to us?" She waited for an answer. Both women were tall, but there was not much too them, and the very little bit of clothes they wore made it hard to hide any weapons. "We are both tougher than we look. Both Tina and I have black belts, in four different martial arts."
"And even if you got by us, there are two other girls inside, plus one of our former internet employers, that the good priest saved," Tina said, winching a little as Dominic glared at her.
"Even if you got by them, well, being a Komodo Dragon has its advantage," Dominic said.
"We'd like to talk to the priest, if that's okay," Bentley said.
"About what?" the woman snapped in unison.
"I imagine about the same thing that a certain numbat wanted to talk about." A seven foot tall, Komodo Dragon walked out of the door. He smiled at the woman, not wanting to insult his little band of "children" about their clothing, which he also did not agree with. But even he had to admit, it was disarming, and an excellent disguise. He looked at the raccoon, then to the turtle, then lastly to the hippo, baring his teeth. "Though the question is, why?" The priest was massive, large tree trunk arms, legs, though he had a pot belly. His scales were a mixture of both brown and green, and his tongue was nearly as long as he was.
"We wanted to get some computer chips away from her, and study them," Sly said.
Hayden's heavy head pounced up and down. "Interesting things, those chips."
"What do you know about them," Sly began to ask. The priest held up a fat finger and silenced him.
"And I should tell you why?" he pressed his glasses to his face and looked at them. "How do I know that you aren't one of the dark angel's agents?"
"Dark angel?" Bentley asked. Were the stories of him being into the occult true?
Hayden looked at his girls, and back at the group, sighing sadly. "If you aren't people of good intention, you might regret walking into my home." He waited and shrugged, "Come in then."
"Would you care for refreshments?" Hayden asked. Sly and his friends thanked him, and they sat down in a large green couch staring at the priest, and his body guards from inside, a polar bear named Charston, a small monkey named Dana, and an insect named Karrie watched carefully as they stood behind their "father".
Bentley carefully noted the room, with the books about vampires, ghosts, witchcraft. "Did you leave the Church to become a sorcerer?" Karrie, a French Praying Mantis, with a long black ponytail stiffened and narrowed her eyes. The inside guards wore more clothes than the ones outside, and seemed more formidable.
Hayden smiled, "I've done a lot of bad things, gave into temptation way too often, and almost nearly used Confession everyday for the same sins, but no… I never left the Church."
"We were told that you were," Sly began, sipping his tea.
"Defrocked?" Hayden asked with a smile, his sharp teeth gleaming in the light from the sun. He chuckled.
"He was," Karrie growled, "but not for witchcraft."
"Those pinheads in the Vatican thought father was a bit too… conservative," Charston said.
Hayden chuckled and looked at his children. Off all of them Dana seemed more like a cousin, or a twin sister. Before his defrocking she entertained thoughts of entering the convent. "Not Pre-Vatican II Conservative, mind you, I know the Church needs to grow, but they didn't like my talks of hell and such. I was told I'd have to use medication if I wanted to continue to preach, and I turned them down. So they took my life insurance, and what not."
"Then what's with all the books?" Murray asked.
Again Hayden smiled. "I have a keen interest in folklore. Most of this I do not believe in, and the ninety percent I do, I really don't follow."
"So where do you go when not in Calico?" Sly asked.
"Everywhere," the priest said. "Mainly in Loch Ness. I've never really seen Nessie myself, but I have heard of people who have. And I enjoy the weather and the scenery."
The group was quite for a while, and then Hayden rose and took a book from the shelf. "But on to more pressing matters. Those chips you talked about. They are quite powerful, and for the most part, evil surrounds them." He looked at them cautiously. "Not disrespect your parents evil, or torture evil. We're talking about forces of demonic origin."
Sly had seen evil, fought it over and over. But none of it other than Clockwerk could be called demonic. Murray tightened and looked away, paling. He had heard from his friend about his battle with the orphanage bully. In all actuality he'd seen it with Carmelita after the fight with Charlie, how he had begged something, or someone to let him stay to fight.
"I see from your eyes that you've seen what I'm talking about," Hayden said. He flipped through a book and sighed, "The name of the demon is not mentioned, perhaps forgotten for a long time, but we know he had a cult in ancient Egypt who worshipped the demon. It was created by a prince, who for some reason or the other, took up rage against a small clan of thieves."
Sly felt his throat tighten. A prince who had a vengeance against thieves from ancient Egypt? "What was his name?"
Karrie walked up to some books and flipped through the pages. Finally she came across a name and handed the book to the priest. Haden looked at it and nodded thanking the woman. "Here it is, his name was Prince Runihura, an owl and…," he noticed as Sly's skin paled. "You all right, son?"
It was too much for coincidence. Sly asked if he could see the book, but Fr. Mac Cullum had told him it was in Hieroglyphs. Bentley was able to read it, and as he did, he too paled. "Sly, this … this is …,"
"Clockwerk," Sly said. So now there was a little bit more information and history to go with the Thievious Raccoonous.
"He tried to create a revolution in Egypt, holding for a blood bath, but two brave souls stopped him. One being Moses himself, the other, a thief. The prince couldn't take his rage out on Moses, as he and the Hebrews left Egypt after that, so he turned his rage to the thief. As to whatever happened after that," Hayden shrugged.
Sly hesitated, but decided to fill the priest in, after all he'd shown his hand, it was only fair Sly showed his. Hayden listened, his eyes widening and he shook his head. "My boy you have been through a lot. My prayers go out to you."
"If you don't mind, why didn't you met with Morgan Skye?" Sly asked.
"I wanted to," the priest said. "I seriously wanted to, but unfortunately something I ate the previous night did not agree with me. I tried to email the girl and let her know this, but someone was blocking my account, as I tried to get to her computer."
Bentley blushed and chuckled. "Sorry."
Hayden looked at him and chuckled. "All joking aside, my son, you must be both diligent, and careful. The Cult is ruthless, cruel and vicious. It will not stop in anything to make their goals a reality."
"Can you point us in the next direction?" Sly asked.
"Hoping that the girl still has at least one of those chips, I heard she was attacked the night I was supposed to meet her, you're best bet is to go find her, and make sure it's secure. Other than that," Hayden shrugged and sighed again, the sound coming from his mouth sounding like a tea cup whistling.
Sly thanked the priest, who promised to pray for the group of thieves, and the company turned and left the building. They walked back to the headquarters and rested up, as soon as Sly made a flight going to Australia. I feel like we're yo-yos here.
And the chapter ends. More Mystery, more loose ends, but now we get a glimpse of Clockwerk's past. I hope you enjoyed it, and on to the twenty fifth chapter. The action picks up! Oh, what did you think of my character? I hope he was good!