The Hunt Continues

Monday Morning, Early, June 16

Mina arrived at 4 am, with another young lady.

Jacob asked her "Is there any effect that Sledge will suffer for giving Oberon a feed."

"Oh yes," said Mina tactlessly. "It will shadow his soul."

But STRIKE FORCE had more pragmatic views.

"The taint of your souls," said Lieutenant Prospero. "Is a small price to pay for the power of the Nexus. This thing ought to be able to help us all."

Mina opened the neck of her lady companion, and used her blood to draw some more symbols on the walls of the tomb, in the sarcophagus itself, and inside the shroud circle on the floor.

Jacob asked what they were for, but she just mentioned "shroud augmentation".

Monday Morning, June 16

Mort researched all the places in town he could think of that might have reason to hold bodies or body parts. Then spent the morning phoning every one to see if anything mysterious had happened last night.

Sledge, Ebony and Jacob were already members of STRIKE FORCE, but Lieutenant Prospero wanted the entire group to join. Mort refused, despite the substantial benefits one accrues for belonging.

Monday Afternoon, June 16

Sledge's mum

Sledge's mum was a Dooley, and she wanted a "good catholic wedding" for Sledge's marriage to
Safiya. So, Sledge and Safiya went to Sledge's mum's local church. The priest, Father Patrick Maynard, was very happy to marry the two, provided that Safiya become a fully-fledged catholic, of course. Safiya agreed, so the priest enrolled her in a Wednesday night Catholic Christian Doctrine course.

"'Indoctrination', more like," muttered Jacob.

The last session of CCD would be on July 23, and Safiya would be confirmed on the following Sunday (July 27) . The marriage could take place after that.

"When the paint has dried" quipped the priest.

Sledge booked him for Tuesday July 29.

Monday Night, June 16

A formal agreement was reached with Mina.

Each day, Abu would have access to the tomb, to spend as much time as he likes documenting and studying the contents.

Each night, Mina would have it for her rituals.

Tuesday Morning, June 17

Mort got a call from the Eastern Regional Medical Center. One of the corpses down in the cancer morgue had been disturbed.

Wednesday Morning, June 18

Lieutenant Prospero told the party that the police had been contacted by the Blue Pine Clinic. One of its patients had died last night, and had been stored on premises for the undertaker to collect next day. In the morning, it was discovered that the body had been ripped apart, and the stomach was missing.

The Blue Pine Clinic was about one kilometre from the Eastern Regional Medical Center.

Wednesday Afternoon, June 18

Safiya had her first CCD lesson. She began to ask Sledge all kinds of questions, none of which he knew the answer to:

• "Catholics regularly bow to, pray to, and kiss the feet of statues of Mary, yet the second commandment says not to bow to idols"
• "Matthew 6:7 says 'And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do', yet doing penance with the rosary is what else but meaningless repetition?"
• "Timothy 3:2 says 'A priest or bishop, then, must be above reproach, be the husband of one wife, be temperate, be prudent, be respectable...' yet the Pope says Catholic priests must be celibate. Who is right?"

Wednesday Sunset 8:32 pm, June 18

Mort had the original electric air compressor that they were hiring from the dive shop. They hired three more compressors, one each for Sledge, Ebony and Jacob. This would allow them to stake out four places at once.

After last night's clinic raid, they had four likely places where the mummy could strike, all within two to three kilometres of the Blue Pine clinic:

1. Penn State Organ bank
2. Eastern Regional Medical Center
3. Blue Pine Clinic
4. Eastern River Hospice

STRIKE FORCE arranged the necessary warrants, permissions and paperwork so that the party could camp the night in each place: Mort went to the organ bank, Ebony the medical centre, Jacob the clinic and Sledge the hospice.

Thursday Morning, Early, June 19

At 3am, Ebony was crouched in a small cupboard in the morgue of the Eastern Regional Medical Center. She heard a loud bang. So, she stealthy crept out to see. Across the room, was a charred skeleton with glowing eyes, and with fresh organs peeping between its ribs. It was tearing into one of the corpses from the body drawers, with loud meaty rips, and wet slopping noises.

She silently texted the others in the group, then sat back and watched.