Read Online The Peregrine Omnibus, Volume Two by Barry Reese - Free Book Online Page B

she says she works for you.”
    “Did she give a name?”
    “Yessir. She says her name is Miss Pence.”
    “Do you know her?” Evelyn asked, eyebrows raised. She knew that from time to time Max dealt with some stunning young woman, but most of them were in his nocturnal exploits as the Peregrine. Women like Whisper and the Domino Lady knew better than to call upon her husband when she was around.
    “She’s the exchange student who started working for me back in ’41. The girl from Africa, remember?”
    Awareness suddenly dawned on Evelyn and she felt guilty for her momentary jealousy. Sally was lovely, but she was also a vulnerable young woman. Her father had been much like Max, a man so driven by his desire to see justice done that he’d fought crime behind a mask. They were alike in other ways, too: both had been sculpted into who they were by fathers who had desired to see their sons become warriors.
    Sally had surprised Max by arriving on his doorstep shortly after the Peregrine’s first encounter with Dr. Satan. She’d gotten his address from Leonid Kaslov, the Russian superman who had aided Max on numerous occasions. Kaslov and her father had worked together from time to time, and the Russian encouraged Sally to seek out Max. The girl’s father had been brutally murdered several years before and she’d moved to America to attend college almost immediately after. Upon graduation, she’d wanted to find work for herself doing something that would help people, following in her father’s footsteps in some fashion. Max had hired her as an investigator, someone who scoured the papers for him and alerted him to odd news that might be of importance. She’d also become his gofer of sorts, traveling across the country to acquire objects for him.
    Max hurried downstairs with Nettie while Evelyn took William to his room to change him out of his pajamas and into his daywear.
    Sally was waiting for him in the study. She was clutching a folder against her chest and Max immediately noticed that she looked exhausted. Her skirt was sullied with mud and her blouse was torn in several places. Despite this, there was a fresh beauty to her that took his breath away.
    “Sally? What’s wrong?”
    The young girl fairly ran into his arms and Max awkwardly patted her back. They had never had any physical contact before and Max had always been impressed with how Sally carried herself in a professional manner.
    As if sensing his unease, she pulled away and handed him the folder. “I was going to bring this to you last night, but I was followed and then attacked by a monster… I barely got away and I ended up sleeping in the woods. You have to see the papers. I saved some of them—enough, I think, and—”
    “Sally. Calm down.” Max steered the girl to a chair and helped her into it. He took a seat near her and opened the folder. There were clippings within, with headlines talking about bizarre sightings of a humanoid creature, a series of murders where the victims were burned to death, and a photo of a German officer identified as Hermann Krupp. “Start from the beginning, please.”
    Sally took a deep breath and seemed to settle herself. She looked at Max somewhat apologetically, as if realizing that she had been acting in an embarrassing fashion. “There’s something I never told you about, Mr. Davies. The real reason I came to America.”
    “Call me Max. We’ve known each other for a few years now.”
    “All right… Max. You know that my father was the last in the long line of Revenants. He died while investigating a Nazi scheme. The man in that photo—Hermann Krupp—led an expedition into Bordia in search of the Golden Goblin. They found it… and took it away. My father knew of a prophecy surrounding the creature: The end of days shall be marked by the arrival of evil men. They shall awaken the sleeping beast and the world will soon die by fire. My father was going to try and stop Krupp from getting out of the