Devil May Cry: Volume 1 (OFFICIAL NOVEL)

Phase 4: Part 2

The scream echoing through the city had a different edge than usual.

Tony had been heading to one of his typical haunts in hopes of persuading the barman to raise his tab limit, when he heard the explosion. An office building several blocks behind him burst into flames.

Somehow, he knew at once that it was Goldstein's shop.

Tony retraced his steps at full speed. Onlookers had already arrived on the scene. He pushed his way through the chaos.

"Outta my way! Coming through!" Tony flung the gawkers aside as he shouldered through the mob. But by the time he had cleared the crowd it was too late. The entire building was engulfed in flames.

"Old lady..."

Tony clenched his fists, willing himself not to get emotional in front of the onlookers. A sign fluttered to the ground in front of him. It was a basic rectangle, bearing the inscription Goldstein's Shop.

Tony scanned the scene. There was no way he was going to just stand there and do nothing. He spied a fire hose flapping around out of the corner of his eye. Someone had turned it on but lost control, and now it was spraying water everywhere. Tony dived toward the hose and wrestled it into submission. He doused himself with water.

I guess I'm going to ruin another coat.

Soaked through, Tony dashed inside the building. The crowd cheered him on, mistaking the red coat for a fireman's jacket. He sprinted up the flaming staircase. "Hang on, old lady! You can't die until you've paid for a new jacket!"

"Old lady! Are you still alive?"

Tony barreled through the blackened remains of the door. To his astonishment, Goldstein sat at her workbench as though nothing unusual was happening.

Her left eye squinted to hold a monocle in place as she rubbed a cloth over her current project. "What are you doing? There's a fire!"

"A fire isn't anything to get worked up over. You young people are so skittish." Goldstein raised her head to look at Tony. He had never seen her wear such a serious expression before. "You got here just in time. I'll have you put the finishing touches on it."

"What part of 'fire' did you not understand?"

"It's okay. Come over here, Tony."

"Old lady!"

"Did you not hear what I said? Come over here, Tony." The tenor of her voice shocked Tony into compliance. He drifted over to her as if under a spell. "That's right. You're a good boy." The fire raged hotter around them. Flames began to creep dangerously close to Goldstein's workbench. Tony knew if they didn't get out of there they would suffer oxygen deprivation before burning to death.

But Goldstein's calm tones overpowered his flight instinct.

"Finish setting this up. With your own hands."

Tony regarded the object before him. It was the thing Goldstein had been working on earlier, still wrapped in a red cloth.

"What is that?"

"Remove the cloth and look at it with your own eyes, Tony."

"Okay," Tony obeyed.

The fabric hid two chunks of metal, one ebony and one ivory in color. They scintillated in the firelight.

"It's your weapons. Made only for you, Tony Redgrave. No one else in the whole world has anything like this pair of pistols."

The pistols were identical, forged from glimmering metal. Tony picked one up, completely forgetting the fire. "My guns?"