Nocturne in Black and Gold

Chapter 12: Covert Action

"I found another one." The San Diego detective handed Peter the card encased in an evidence bag. "It was behind a rock next to the starfish pool. That was a good tip to look there."

Diana had suggested they check the starfish exhibits at the aquariums. Since starfish figured prominently both in the Cthulhu Mythos and in her stories, she thought Rolf might reference them.

For the past two hours, Peter had been searching the grounds of SeaWorld. He'd hoped to be finished by now, but he hadn't realized the facility was so large. With 190 acres to survey, they'd barely scratched the surface.

Travis walked up, looking hot and grimy. He'd led the team scouring the Journey to Atlantis ride. Jones had suggested Atlantis might appeal to Rolf since one of Lovecraft's most famous monsters, Cthulhu, was held prisoner in an underground fortress. "We'd scheduled a conference call with the team in New York. Do you want to delay it?"

Peter took out a handkerchief to wipe his face. The midafternoon sun was brutal. "No, I need to step back and reassess. Rolf's still jerking our strings. That has to stop."

He nodded. "My car's closer. I'll drive."

Travis was being diplomatic and Peter appreciated it. Travis knew Peter was too focused on the abduction to pay attention to California traffic. Getting into an accident wouldn't help Neal, and there'd been far too many screeching brakes and honks this morning. The San Diego police had offered them the use of an office at their headquarters and since it was much closer to SeaWorld, they'd take advantage of it for the conference call.

On the way to the police station, Travis insisted on stopping at a fast food place for sandwiches. When Peter protested, he said they could eat while on the call. Peter took advantage of the stop to call El with an update. Even though they'd found additional playing cards, they were no closer to finding Neal.

That was a point not lost on Jones and Diana when the conference call started.

"I'm plotting a map where the cards have been found," Jones said. "The first one was the furthest north up the coast where the giant octopus is."

"That's also the one with the most ominous message," Diana added. The card depicted Azathoth with instructions to destroy all characters not named Azathoth.

"The San Diego police found a card near the leopard shark exhibit at Birch Aquarium with another message about the need to destroy a character," Jones continued. "Now you have a third card with no message showing a man in a suit shooting at a tentacle monster. That could represent you."

"Rolf couldn't have predicted with any degree of accuracy the order in which we'd find the cards," Travis pointed out. "We analyzed the sealife currently being exhibited at public aquariums and have targeted leopard sharks, starfish, and octopuses. But we could logically expand the search to stingrays, jellyfish, and many other species."

"This doesn't feel right," Peter said. "My gut's telling me he's trying to distract us, make us waste time."

"What about Katja?" Diana asked. "Have you located her yet?"

"We can only bring her in for questioning," Jones admonished. "We have no evidence against her."

"True, but shouldn't we at least do that?" she challenged.

"We're trying," Peter said. "So far, no one has found her. She's scheduled to be on a panel discussion this afternoon at Comic-Con. We have agents at the site, ready to bring her in. Richard's already spoken with his boss, Ian Forster, and he can't locate her either."

"What's the panel on?" Jones asked.

"New trends in gaming," Travis explained. "Graphics engines, 3D rendering, virtual reality technology." Travis didn't need to go over the meaning of the terms with Jones and Diana. Both were gamers themselves. But Peter had a limited understanding of the technology that would allow a player to be immersed in an artificially constructed world.