They booked passage on the Curnard ocean liner Georgic for its maiden voyage to New York, for the trip back. The cruise back took only four days and the weather was fair and warm. They enjoyed the luxury of the first class states rooms and used the time to get caught up on current events around the world. Lukas found it interesting that Al Capone had been convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to jail. Helena joked that he had better call the company accountants when they got back home. Of all the things that Al had done, and Lukas knew of many of them, that was the only thing the police could pin on him? That was simply amazing. A couple of days before docking, news came that the Lindbergh child’s body had been discovered. “Right on time” Lukas thought, but Helena was visibly upset with this news. Although she knew of some of Southern United’s shadier dealings, she had never been privy nor was it ever let on about her great uncle and his… other plans. To this both men regretted, but it was a necessity to keep her safe. Lukas sent her ahead for dinner, giving him and Lord Nemesis a moment to decide if the media coverage would be sufficient enough to move more troops and equipment into Paragon City from their plant in Atlanta, Georgia.
Lukas and Helena decided his apartment in Baumtown would be better suited than hers in the United building, they were far larger than the ones she currently occupied. Not to mention if Lukas were to stay in the building everyone would find a reason to seek his advice or help. She accepted this but only under the conditions that her great uncle would hire a duty nurse, just in case anything happened.
Lukas woke up and dressed and quietly kissed her good bye and headed to his morning meeting with Colonel Tomain. He was greeted with coffee and Danishes from that bakery over on 12th Avenue and sat down at the head of the large oak table in the boardroom. It was one of the secure rooms beneath the Southern United building so there was no outside windows to let light in. To keep it from being claustrophobic most of the basement rooms had 9-foot ceilings.
Reading quickly through the usual business reports, he waited for the other directors come in. He made notations of actions to be taken and signed vouchers for items to be paid. He chuckled over the accounting report that assured him that the companies, as well as his own personal taxes were current and correct. He guessed he could give up the idea of bunking with Big Al. Gerald Tomain was the first to enter and came around the table to congratulate and hung his friend on his catching the most beautiful girl in New England. The other directors followed suit before sitting down and starting the meeting.
“Well gentleman, thank you again for the well wishes. I will gladly pass them along to Miss… to my wife. That’s going to take some getting used to. We will be having a private reception at The Palms nightclub. You should be receiving your invitations in the next few days. I have read through the reports and I’m pleased to find we aren’t bankrupted. I would like to take a moment to express my displeasure with the production numbers on the new Warhulks. I had hoped to have more of them completed by now. Regardless I am happy to see that the Kings activities have been curtailed to some degree. Also we may have another opportunity to move more equipment coming up here shortly. I will send you a list of duties to have ready for the when the time is right. Once again we will use the media to cover our actions. Unless someone else has something pressing, I still have a long day ahead me.”
“Well sir,” Gerald started. “We have one item and we don’t know to what degree it may or may not be a problem. Chasseur Krichbaum hasn’t been seen in a couple of weeks. Actually not since your wedding was announced around here.”
“Anthony? Give me the details.” Lukas said suddenly remembering that look on his face and wondered what he had gotten himself into.
“He was acting funny after hearing the news of your nuptials. His squad mates said he became real sober. As everyone who knows him will attest to, he is always jolly. So that got many wondering as to what was going on. Quartermaster Kirk reported that afternoon that his long rifle wasn’t turned back into the armory after practice. He called for an extensive search of the rifle range and then the outlying buildings and training center. Not a trace was found of him.”
“Did someone over look the rules that unless they are wearing a uniform, no one got access to their weapons?”
“That’s the second problem sir, he was wearing his uniform and it was never turned back into his locker.”
Lukas let that sink in. His driver was missing with his uniform and a very special sniper rifle… a sniper rifle… What was he up to? “Just going through the basics, you had someone checked his house?”
“Some of his friends went by his place, but no one answered the door.”
“Did they go in?”
“No sir.”
“Okay, Colonel, get Jerry and his crew on the streets. If the Kings are involved I want to know about it. See if they can find anything out. I want a couple of men with us as we go to Anthony’s apartment. Also send some men to watch over Helena.”
“Sir I doubt the Kings had anything to do with it. With their hate of us, they’d be parading like peacocks.”
“I don’t think so Gerald… If they suddenly found themselves in possession of one of our sniper rifles, they may not want to let anyone know what they’ve found. I know I wouldn’t broadcast having a unique weapon coming into my possession. Have my car…. Have a car pick us up in ten minutes.” This wasn’t what he needed today, but to not act upon it would be negligent on his part.
It was a pleasant late spring day in the city as they drove towards the garment district. Lukas was getting a more pronounced uneasiness as he saw Anthony’s apartment building was in fact in the center of the garment district… an area now being referred to as Kings Row. The building was only four stories tall, and a nice elderly woman let them in the entry door when Lukas explained he was worried about his employee. They climbed the wooded stairs, the faded carpet runner might have added color to the dreary hallway at one time but now only added another shade of brown. They reached the third floor and looked for room 307. Knocking yielded a response from the neighbor, who hadn’t seen the gentile giant in weeks. From the apartment itself, came no response to their knocking.
“Open it.” Lukas said in a soft tone and moved his body to block anyone’s view of what they were doing. One of the men turned to the door and pulled what looked like a cigar box out of his coat. He pulled what looked like small bundle of wires from the box and inserted them into the keyhole. He pressed a switch and there was a soft hiss and then a click as he turned the box to unlock the door. The two larger men moved into the apartment first and Lukas and Gerald followed them. The two-room apartment was military neat, and Lukas was impressed. A small couch sat on one wall with a radio on a table next to it. Several magazines lay on a coffee table in front of the couch. The kitchen was little more than a stove and icebox and a very small chrome table with one chair. The sink was clean and overall again, military neat.
The next room revealed a single bed, made and a clothes cupboard. The cupboard was locked but it didn’t stay that way long. Inside they found Anthony’s clothes but more importantly they found maps, some actual, some hand drawn. Names and some pictures, and a lot of notes where also spread across the inside of the two doors. Lukas and Gerald carefully looked these over, trying to piece the puzzle together.
“Do any of these names mean anything to you Colonel?” Lukas said showing him a piece of paper.
“They do now. Look at this page.” The sheet handed to Lukas had a several names listed on it and a couple of them were circled. Near one of the circles was written The Kings. “I think he thought he found the leaders but why would he bother?”
Lukas thought a moment. “The last time he was my driver was in April, when the Kings tried to kill me at Gallo’s. I had mentioned that I wanted someone to hit any of the leaders, just to show them that we aren’t fooling around. He must have taken me serious. That might explain this map where he circl
ed a block. And I’m guessing “x” marks the spot. Let’s go look at this building.” They closed everything up and headed back to they car. Very conscious of who may be watching now and what they were watching them with, the men moved quickly to get in their cars.
The building was an old textile printing company, now long since abandoned. They got out of the car and went to the car’s trunk and opened it up. Each man took a pistol and then divided up the two Thompson submachine guns and two shotguns. Lukas also grabbed the pool cue case and swung it over his shoulder, and headed for the roof. Once on the roof they orientated themselves to the hand drawn map and looked out to where the “X” was pointed. In the immediate distance nothing presented itself, but as they looked further away there were a row of low warehouses. Lukas opened the cue case and pulled out a riflescope. He attached to a base with three legs and set up the spotter’s scope on the ledge of the building. Lukas looked through it and got it locked onto the building and pushed down a button on the top. A small hiss moved the internal lenses and brought the loading dock into focus… he scanned along the row of bay doors and then stopped.
“What do you make of this Colonel?” He said stepping aside to let him get a look. The scope showed a loading bay door wrenched and twisted out of its framework. Gerald shifted the scope and looked at the surrounding area to the same twisted metal pieces and the path of destruction.
“You know General, I’ve seen something like this before, it was down in Texas when I was looking into purchasing some oil fields and one of those Texas Twisters had come through a small town early that month and everything looked like that.”
“Are you saying that place was hit by a tornado?”
“That’s what it looks like to me.”
“General, Colonel, excuse me, but you need to see this.” They turned to walk to where one of the guards was standing. The roof paper had been torn in a ragged strip and was just a pile against the backside of the roof entrance. Buried in the pile they found a single rifle shell. The bricks behind the torn roofing showed fresh cracks and scratches as if something big had hit it.
“Colonel, Get some men to check out that other building. I’m thinking we have a new freak to deal with.”