Dogs of S.T.E.A.M. (Paws & Claws Book 5) Read online

  “Tough neighborhood,” Yoda murmured.

  “Tougher than ours?” Kelsey challenged.

  “No, but just as dangerous,” Levi replied. “Here, you have deep shadows, lonely roads and expanses of wilderness interrupted by pockets of civilization. The perils around you are mostly hidden, lurking terrors that depend upon on stealth and surprise. Otay is just as dangerous, but there the dangers are more open.”

  “Outlaw packs and clowders roam the streets, claiming this stretch of a road and that side of a street as their own territory,” Yoda said. “And the Companions there are just as bad, violent law breakers, all of them. It’s all crime-infested, from bottom to top.”

  “It is bad,” Sunny conceded, “but not as bad as Yoda makes it sound. There are decent animals and Companions there, but they keep themselves to themselves, like you two.”

  “Pets don’t get taken for walks, and the lucky ones are the ones with fenced-in yards so they can’t be attacked or snatched,” Yoda continued. “It’s a dangerous life for any pet south of Chula Vista.”

  “Sounds exciting!” Sammy exclaimed, earning a scowl from Kelsey. Ignoring her censure, he continued: “Is that where you guys are going from here?”

  “We already have two operatives in the area,” Sunny said. “We will be joining them…” She glanced at Levi and received a nod. “…as soon as we can.”

  “Wow!” Sammy exclaimed. “Double wow! Being a detective sounds exciting! I wish I was a detective! Maybe I could…”

  “No, Sammy,” Kelsey interjected. “Now, calm down and chew your bone.” She looked to Levi. “I think it would be best if you…”

  “One last thing,” Levi said, “and then we can be on our way.”

  “I know! I know!” Sammy’s head snapped up, all thoughts of the chew-bone banished from his mind. “The dog in the fez!”

  “Yes,” Levi confirmed, unable to completely stifle a smile at Sammy’s effervescence, at the same time earning a scowl from the older Shih Tzu. “The dog in the fez. This may seem an odd question, but was he a real dog?”

  Sammy’s agitation vanished, replaced by a worried frown. He tilted his head in confusion. “You mean…like, was it a ghost dog?”

  “Not exactly a ghost as we experience them, but insubstantial, like a phantom,” Levi explained. “Could you see through him?”

  Sammy and Kelsey looked at each other. Kelsey said: “No, he was as solid as you or me…at least for as long as we saw him.”

  “Perhaps you could tell us what happened, as you recall it,” Levi suggested. “Leave nothing out, for even the smallest fact might prove to be important.”

  “I’ll tell!” Sammy exclaimed, then looked at Kelsey. “Please let me tell them what happened this morning.”

  “Both of you saw the dog in the fez?” Sunny asked.

  “Yes, but I saw him first.” Again, Sammy looked at Kelsey.

  Kelsey sighed and motioned for her friend to continue.

  “While we were looking out the rear window, we heard a sound downstairs,” Sammy began. “The Companions were asleep, like they did not hear the trilling.”

  “We think only dogs can…” Yoda started to explain, but Levi motioned for him to let Sammy continue uninterrupted.

  “Around here, when you hear a sound where there is supposed to be no sound, you check it out,” Sammy said. “Maybe it’s just a bug or a mouse come in to get some food—we don’t allow that even though they really don’t mean any harm—but it could also be an outlaw come in to take our stuff.” Unconsciously, he pulled his chew-bone closer. “We may not be guard dogs, Kelsey and me, but we got sharp choppers and we ain’t afraid to use them. And we can also yap up a big ruckus. Burglars beware!”

  Sammy,” Kelsey said, “I think they’d like to hear the Reader’s Digest version rather than the War and Peace edition.”

  “But Levi said not to leave out any…”

  “Move it along, Sammy,” Kelsey urged sternly.

  “Okay,” Sammy sighed. “I was first ‘cause it isn’t easy for Kelsey to move like she used…” He saw her eyes narrow. “Anyway, I got down there first and saw him—a Corgi-mix—in the middle of the living room, standing in front of the fireplace, staring up at the clock. He turned around and that was when I noticed the fez. It was bright red and secured to his head with a cord.

  “I asked him what he was doing in our house, and he asked, ‘Am I home? Have I returned?,’ like he thought maybe he might be in his own home. I told him this was not his apartment, but ours. I know for a fact there is no other apartment here that looks anything like ours, so I demanded to know what he was trying to pull.”

  Sammy looked at the clock on the mantel. “He looked back at the clock, then around the living room. He said, ‘It’s all so real, as if I were back. Pray tell, young Shih Tzu, what is the year by the calendar in current usage?’ I told him what year it was, and he sat down on the carpet, eyes wide, mouth open. He murmured, ‘No, not the correct year,’ but that’s nuts ‘cause I know what year it is. Then he said, ‘Lord Cerberus has done it! By Gelert the Peacemaker, I must find the other Dogs of STEAM and let them know…”

  “Let the Dogs of STEAM know what?” Yoda demanded. “And who are the Dogs of STEAM? Don’t leave us hanging, Sammy.”

  “Don’t know who they are,” Sammy replied. “And that’s all he said. It then turned weirder than weird! Double-double weird.”

  “Sammy means that the dog in the fez vanished,” Kelsey said.

  “Vanished, as in he faded away?” Levi asked.

  “As with June’s cat,” Sunny mused.

  “Or do you mean he ran out the door?” Yoda added.

  “No, he ran through the door,” Sammy exclaimed. “And the door was closed! Right through, like it wasn’t even there. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would not believe it, but it really happened. I’m not supposed to swear, but if I were to swear by Anubis, he would not call me a liar.”

  Levi looked to Kelsey.

  “As unbelievable as it sounds, Sammy is telling it just as it happened,” Kelsey confirmed. “I was still coming down the steps when Sammy spoke to the Corgi, but I heard it all and I saw…well, yes, right through a closed and locked door. We went to the window overlooking the street, but he was gone. I told Sammy to keep it to himself. I didn’t want it to get around our place is haunted.”

  “I didn’t tell anyone,” Sammy protested.

  “The hobo cat,” she reminded.

  “Well, I didn’t tell anyone living here,” Sammy said. “Hobo cats really don’t count because they never hang around long, do they? Not like ferals and strays.”

  “It was enough to bring us trouble,” Kelsey pointed out.

  “You heard the dog downstairs while the trilling was still going on?” Levi asked.

  “Yes,” Sammy confirmed. “I heard the dog and away I went.”

  “I waited a moment, then joined him,” Kelsey said. “That was the real reason I took a bit longer.”

  “Did the dog vanish…go through the door before or after the trilling stopped?” Levi asked.

  “There’s no way to tell,” Kelsey answered. “Once away from the window, we couldn’t hear the sound.”

  Sammy nodded in agreement.

  “Is there anything else you can add to what you’ve already told us?” Levi asked. “Either of you?”

  They shook their heads.

  “Kelsey, you said you lingered a moment at the window after hearing the sound downstairs,” Levi said. “Why was that?”

  “It wasn’t because it was calling me or anything,” she snapped. Then she added, more gently: “I started after Sammy, but something caught my attention, a light afar off, a greenish glow that glimmered or flickered. Then I couldn’t see it anymore. It was so faint, I can’t really be sure it wasn’t just my imagination.”

  “It was in the same direction as the sound?” Levi asked.

  “Directly over the Denny’s sign,” she averred.

  “Th
ank you for helping us,” Levi said when it became clear the dogs had no more information. “We’ll be on our way.”

  “Do be careful, Levi…all of you,” Kelsey said.

  The three dogs exited the townhouse. As they made their way to the street, just before the door closed, they heard:

  “Kelsey, maybe we should start a detective agency.”

  “Sammy, don’t be an idiot!”

  Yoda chuckled. “Might give her a nervous breakdown at that.”

  “Levi, what does it mean?” Sunny asked. “Who was the Corgi in the fez, and who is Lord Cerberus?”

  “The Corgi in the fez is clearly a lost dog, by his own words,” Levi said after a thoughtful moment. “He may have been drawn to that house because it recreates another era. He thought he was home, not in the sense Sammy took it, that it was his own house, but that it was his own time—the Victorian Age.”

  “Wait a moment, Levi,” Sunny protested. “You’re saying the Corgi-mix is a time traveler? That’s impossible!”

  “Improbable, but not impossible,” Levi countered. “It fits the facts more than other theories, and explains the other manifestations, as well as the Corgi’s archaic manner in addressing Sammy.”

  “Lord Cerberus then…” Sunny ventured.

  “Perhaps our giant dream hound,” Levi said, nodding.

  “And the other name he mentioned,” Sunny prompted. “Gelert the Peacemaker?”

  Levi frowned thoughtfully. “It’s familiar, but I can’t place it.”

  “What about the steam-powered dogs?” Yoda demanded. “Are they weird robot dogs or something?”

  “I think he meant ‘S.T.E.A.M.’,” Levi said, spelling it out. “I believe it’s an acronym, each letter meaning a word.”

  “What does S.T.E.A.M. mean then?” Yoda asked.

  “If we knew that,” Levi answered, “we’d be much closer to solving this mystery.”

  “What do we do now, Levi?” Sunny asked. “Go to Otay and see what Smokey and Groucho have come up with?”

  “Yes, we must go to Otay,” Levi agreed. “And we don’t have time to walk.”

  Chapter 6: Lost in Time & Space

  Date: Unknown

  The Rift

  “Can anyone hear me?” Penelope called. She looked around, but saw only thick roiling grayish fog. “Is anyone here?”

  “Here I am, luv,” Chauncey responded.

  “Where are you, Chauncey?” she shouted. “I can’t see you. I can’t see anything!”

  “Keep talking, luv,” the Bulldog urged. “I’ll find my way to you. You can’t be far away.”

  The black and tan Lakeland Terrier kept calling, encouraged when she heard Chauncey’s voice in the distance, frightened when her calls went unanswered. Knowing her best chance lay in standing still, letting Chauncey come to her rather than them both running helter skelter, she fought the urge to sniff, sight or sound her way to the other dog.

  After what seemed an eternity, a pale squat shape lumbered from out of the fog. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was Chauncey, goggles pulled down over his eyes. When he caught sight of her, he ran, pushing the goggles up out of the way.

  “Bloody useless goggles!” he snarled. “Sorry about…”

  “No, it’s all right, Chauncey,” she assured him. “I’m on the verge of a little salty language myself.” She looked nervously at the fog pressing around them. “Have you seen the others?”

  “Seen no one, luv, least no one what can be real,” the Bulldog replied. “I been wandering around for…I don’t know how long, do I? Sometimes, it feels like only seconds ago we were fighting against Lord Cerberus in the gasworks; sometimes…” He paused. “Forever don’t seem big enough to cover how long I been here.”

  “Wherever here is.” Penelope sniffed the air. “The fog is…”

  “Passing strange is what it is,” Chauncey supplied when her voice trailed off. “Like no London Particular I ever seen, or smelled. It ain’t got no smell to it, nor moisture. If I was to close my eyes, I wouldn’t even think I was in a fog.”

  “Are we even in London anymore?” she asked.

  The Bulldog shook his massive head. “Where else can we be?”

  “Where indeed, but it does seem London has vanished,” she said. “No sounds, no smells.”

  “Just this peculiar fog,” Chauncey added. “And the ground ain’t really ground, is it? I feel a hardness to it, but when I look at it, it ain’t anymore substantial than the fog. But at times the fog does seem to give glimpses of things…” He looked to her hopefully.

  “I’ve seen things…” she murmured.

  “Things what can’t possibly be real?”

  She looked at him with surprise. “Buildings…vehicles that cannot exist, fading in and out of vision. None of them seem real, don’t have any smell or substance. And I’ve seen dogs and cats who tumbled through the air, even as they seemed to be walking. There were others who…” She was reluctant to share her experience, even though Chauncey nodded knowingly. “They passed right through me, as if they could not see me.”

  “Some acted like they could see me, but ran away, vanishing like smoke at dawn.” The Bulldog shuddered. “Do you think we might be…well, dead?”

  Penelope looked upon the older dog with compassion. She had always relied upon Chauncey’s great strength of will and character when doubt and weakness assailed her. It was heart-rending to see her old friend suddenly beset by similar destructive emotions.

  “Did you see the Rainbow Bridge?” she asked.

  “No,” he murmured.

  “Did you see Anubis?”

  “No, but…”

  “Neither did I,” she interjected with a confidence she did not entirely feel. “Therefore, we are not dead. Simple logic.”

  Chauncey did not believe her as much as he wanted to believe her, but he also saw that she needed to believe in her own words, desperately so. As he had done so many times before, Chauncey fought his own depression and fears and rose to the occasion for the sake of someone else.

  “Too right you are, luv,” he agreed. “That explosion against my noggin must have…”

  “Yes, there was an explosion,” Penelope blurted. “I remember it now. Lord Cerberus was working on the machine as we fought to reach him. There was an explosion.”

  “No sound,” Chauncey added. “Just a light.”

  “That’s right, just a bright light surrounding us,” she agreed. “I couldn’t see anything, but…just before I…I felt like I was tumbling through the air…away into darkness…I thought I saw Gearhead leaping toward Lord Cerberus.”

  “Gearhead?” Chauncey exclaimed. “Not possible! Quigley sent him out of harm’s way.”

  “You know Gearhead,” Penelope said, her moist brown eyes becoming moister. “We try our best to protect the little fellow, keep him away from danger, but if there’s a way to get back into a fight, he’ll find it.”

  “That’s one pup with a heart of oak,” Chauncey said.

  “He certainly is,” Penelope agreed. “The last I recall, he leapt over everyone, bound and determined to reach Lord Cerberus.”

  Chauncey nodded vaguely. His last memory before the light overwhelmed them was fighting alongside Spyro against Mordred and Sykes. Now, he also recalled seeing Gearhead flying over the battle, floppy ears trailing behind him, that ridiculous red fez tight to the top of his head. But he also remembered something else, that close behind Gearhead was that cur Snitch, malevolent eyes burning and jaws gaping. He shuddered at the thought of Snitch’s spine-like teeth piercing the flesh of their little friend.

  “We’ve got to find Gearhead,” Chauncey blurted. “And the others too, Quigley and Spyro.”

  “No to mention Sergeant Beefsteak.”

  Chauncey nodded. “If we’re here, they must all be too.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “But so must be Lord Cerberus, Mordred, Urias and Sykes.”

  “And Snitch,” Chauncey added.

  A
look of disgust crossed Penelope’s face. “And Lilith.”

  This time it was Chauncey’s turn to look chagrined. “Cats are not dogs, but I’m not sure that cat is really a cat. Creeps me out, she does. And I don’t like the way she talks for Lord Cerberus.”

  “We must find our friends before any of Lord Cerberus’ crew finds them…or us,” Penelope said.

  The two dogs set off through the mist pervading this unearthly realm. Now that they understood that the fog must hide hunters as well as the lost, they no longer shouted for Sergeant Beefsteak and their colleagues from S.T.E.A.M. They searched the mist with their eyes, ears and noses, the ancient and reliable tools of the canine race, despite the best efforts of well-meaning Companions.

  As their made their way through a nebulous landscape devoid of any markers by which they might orient themselves, they had no idea whether they were traveling a great distance, traveling in a circle, or even traveling at all. Likewise, there was no concept of the passage of time.

  “Don’t know about you, luv, but I feel like I been…” Chauncey froze and looked about frenziedly. He was alone. “Penelope!” He pulled down the goggles, but a moment later pushed them up disgustedly. Not worth a bent farthing, but they had been given him by a Companion, so stuck with them he was. “Penelope!”

  Two lights loomed out of the mist. Behind them was a vast machine. Buildings rose on either side like phantoms, pressing against the roadway on which he now found himself. Everything seemed flat, like a daguerreotype, but there was no denying the deadly reality of the infernal contraption hurtling at him. With nowhere to go, he threw himself down. There was a roaring noise and a rushing wind, both of which ceased abruptly.

  “Chauncey!”

  The Bulldog’s head shot up. He opened his eyes. Penelope stared at him, concern etched into the terrier’s curly-haired face.

  “Where were you?” she demanded.

  “Where was I?” he countered. “Where were you?”

  “I haven’t been anywhere except by your side,” she said. “That is, until you left me.”

  “I didn’t leave you,” he protested.

  “We were walking, you were talking, and suddenly you left off in mid-sentence,” she related. “I looked, and you were nowhere to be seen. I called, but there was no answer. It seemed like hours. Then I turned around, and there you were, flat on the ground.”