Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

The mercenaries were all wearing battle armor, and carried their automatic weapons in a way that suggested they were only waiting for an excuse to use them. The few people out and about on the streets gave the soldiers plenty of room, and were careful to avoid eye contact. Daniel and Tina got as close to the Museum as they could, and then slipped down a particular side alley mentioned in the mission file. Streetlamps at either end of the alley provided just enough light for them to find the manhole that would give them access to the sewers. Daniel studied the cover carefully. It looked very solid, and very heavy.

“We should have brought a crowbar.”

Tina looked at him pityingly, ripped the metal cover out of the ground with one hand, and threw it away. It rolled an impressively far distance down the alley.

“Sorry,” said Daniel. “I keep forgetting.”

They leaned over the opening, and a blast of foul air hit them in the face. Daniel and Tina competed to see which of them could appear most stoic. Tina produced a flashlight, and shone it down into the darkness.

“I thought you lost that up a vampire?” said Daniel.

“This one was in the backpack, along with a whole bunch of other useful items,” said Tina. “Didn’t you look?”

“I would have got around to it,” said Daniel.

They descended into the sewers on a series of steel hoops hammered into the brickwork. Tina went first, because she had the flashlight and because she was Tina. The smell grew steadily more appalling, and by the time they reached the foot of the ladder they were both grabbing for their gas masks in self-defense. Once they had them fitted tightly, Tina flashed her light around, and the fierce beam showed them an old brick tunnel with a ceiling so low they were going to have to keep their heads right down to avoid banging them. The partially flooded tunnel was ankle-deep in dark and murky waters that swirled sluggishly around them. Daniel made a sudden surprised sound.

“What?” said Tina.

“Something just bumped into me,” said Daniel, with as much dignity as he could manage. “There are things floating in the water.”

“What did you expect, in a sewer?” Tina flashed her light up and down the tunnel. “This way.”

“You memorized the map again, didn’t you?”

“Someone has to.”

They followed Tina’s light through the tunnel for some time. Strange sounds came and went, in front and behind and off in the adjoining tunnels. Worryingly loud groans and creaks, strange splashing noises, and what might have been some kind of animal moving about. Daniel wasn’t sure which he found most disturbing. Tina kept her flashlight moving, but they never saw anything. The murky waters rose slowly up their legs and made a bow wave ahead of them as they progressed. Some of the sounds seemed to be getting closer. Daniel tried to take the lead, but Tina was having none of it.

“Why are you so jumpy?” she said.

“I’m keeping an eye out for alligators,” said Daniel. “You know the stories, about how people used to keep the babies as pets, until they grew so big they weren’t cute anymore, and then they got flushed down the toilets and ended up roaming the sewers.”

“That’s just an urban myth,” said Tina. “Think about it: what would alligators find to eat down here?”

“Rats, cats, the occasional repairman . . . ”

“Alligators have far too big an appetite to be satisfied with that.”

“Really not helping, Tina.”

“However . . . ”

“What?” Daniel said quickly.

“I have heard stories about this incredible purple moss that can only be found in the sewers, grown wild and feral on all the various drugs and chemicals that get dumped down here from clubs and parties and private labs. Some say if you smoke the moss, it cranks your inner eye open all the way up to eleven . . . ”

“Can we please concentrate on getting to the access point?” said Daniel.

They pressed on, through a series of increasingly narrow tunnels. Tina kept a careful watch on the walls, just in case.

They’d almost reached the access point when they heard something moving in the waters up ahead. They both stopped, and listened hard. Tina velcroed the flashlight to her belt, so she could have both hands free, and light jumped around the brickwork every time she moved. Daniel leaned in close, so he could murmur in her ear.

“If Professor Pinder told the mummies about the access point before Edward got to him, they could have sent some of their mercenaries down into the sewers to wait for us.”

“Good,” said Tina, and Daniel could hear the grin behind her gas mask. “I could use a little exercise, to warm me up for the main event.”

“I really don’t like what I’m hearing,” said Daniel. “It sounds . . . big.”

“Could be guard dogs,” said Tina.

“I am not killing any dogs,” Daniel said firmly. “I like dogs.”

“We are talking expertly trained military attack dogs,” said Tina. “You try saying Nice doggie and patting one of them on the head, and they’ll have your throat out before you can figure out why you’re making that strange whistling noise when you breathe.”