A Flight of Raptors (Paws & Claws Book 2)

  On Wings of Terror!

  When Sunny the Golden Retriever threw herself into the fray between a desperate young Parrot and a rapacious Hawk, she did so out of a sense of outrage and a desire for natural justice, which she and her fellow dogs have sworn to uphold. Little did she know that an act of kindness and pity would plunge the operatives of the Three Dog Detective Agency into a pitched battle with the vicious Birds of Prey. At stake were the lives and freedom of a lost tribe of Parrots, far from a home that had lapsed into legend, caught between a hopeless present and an uncertain future. In what was to become the Three Dog Detective Agency’s greatest battle against evil, the valiant dogs seemed totally outmatched by their foes; they were pitting themselves against adversaries seemingly with every advantage, including the power of flight. Once again, the canine detectives and their feline helpers, along with animals of character on both sides of the fence (and some who refuse to get off the fence) engage in the eternal struggle of good against evil.

  Also by Ralph E. Vaughan

  Paws & Claws: A Three Dog Mystery

  Sherlock Holmes: The Coils of Time & Other Stories

  HP Lovecraft in the Comics

  Reflections on Elder Egypt

  The Adventure of the Ancient Gods

  The Dreaming Detective

  Professor Challenger in the Secrets of the Dreamlands

  The Terror Out of Time

  Sherlock Holmes in The Coils of Time (Gryphon Books edition)

  A Darkness on My Mind (poetry)

  The Horses of Byzantium (poetry)

  Alternate Lives (editor)

  Lost Lands (editor)

  Beneath Twin Moons (editor)

  Fantastic Realms (editor)

  Ancient Nights (editor)

  Fungi From Yuggoth (editor/illustrator)

  A Walk in the Dark (editor)

  The Many Worlds of Duane Rimel (editor)

  The Second Book of Rimel (editor)

  Dreams of Yith (editor/illustrator)

  Sozoryoku: A Literary Magazine (editor)

  Running Dinosaur News (editor)

  Cerberus Magazine (editor)

  A Flight

  Of Raptors

  A Paws & Claws Mystery

  by

  Ralph E. Vaughan

  Dog in the Night Books

  2013

  This is the second volume in the continuing adventures of the Three Dog Detective Agency, the first being Paws & Claws: A Three Dog Mystery. The Three Dog Detective Agency, led by a brave Dachshund-mix named Levi, assisted by Sunny, a Golden Retriever, and Yoda, a Pomeranian, is dedicated to keeping their neighborhood safe. They investigate crimes, help the weak, ensure justice is served, and occasionally save the world. Pictures of the three detectives are included at the end of this present volume.

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to those men and women who work tirelessly, against great odds and with all too little support, to prevent cruelty in all its forms against our animal friends. Be sure to support your local humane society and to report abuse, especially dog fighting, to the appropriate authorities.

   2013 by Ralph E. Vaughan

  All Rights Reserved

  Prologue

  June, 1916

  Christobal awoke in darkness, swiveled his head about, and realized he was a captive.

  The last thing he remembered was flying above the jungle canopy, soaring through a sky fire hot and bright blue. But, no, that was not quite correct, he thought. There was another memory coming to him, rising through the haze that gripped his mind.

  Something down among the trees had caught his attention, a pile of fruits and nuts on what seemed to be a platform of some kind. It was not normal to find such delicious food just lying about, already split open and ready to eat, but there it was, tempting him. How the food had come to be there was no more understandable than the platform itself, partway up a tree, just visible through the foliage, but there it was. He could not deny the evidence of his own eyes, so he sought to explain the food in terms he could understand.

  Perhaps, he vaguely recalled thinking, it was a gift from Quetzalcoatl, whom the northern Parrot tribes also called the Thunderbird.[1] If so, would it be a sin not to take advantage of it?

  Actually, the source of the feast, whether freak of nature or gift of the gods, was really far from his concern. Paramount in his mind was the hunger that had been growing stronger since midmorning.

  A Parrot had to eat.

  So he swooped down to the platform and dug in greedily, enjoying the sweet flesh of the fruits. He should have been more wary, he realized now, less rash, but caution and discretion were generally not attributes of a young Parrot, especially not one known for bluster and bravado, qualities, he had been told more than once by his elders, would one day be his undoing.

  But, today, how good the food tasted!

  What else mattered?

  And it tasted even better because he had not had to work for it, had not plucked it from the heights himself, fluttering his wings till he was exhausted. Why work for what, apparently, came free?

  After just a few bites, however, he began to feel weary, so very tired and sleepy. A nebulous sense of danger began to form at the back of his mind, the realization that if something appeared to be too easy, perhaps it was.

  Have to get away, he thought, hopping to the edge of the platform, flapping his wings.

  He flapped harder as he cleared the edge. But how hard it was now to move his wings at all, almost as hard as it was to keep his eyes open.

  He was falling, turning and tumbling, light as a feather it seemed, and moving just as slowly as a plume caught on a gently wafting downdraft, spiraling softly but inevitably downward.

  The world spun, branches and ground changing places over and over.

  On the ground beneath the platform he saw the colorful coats of dozens of Parrots. Filled with dread, he at first thought they were dead, that he would soon join them in the Celestial Aerie.

  But they were indeed breathing, slow and steady; they were just sleeping.

  Oddly, however, that realization did not bring him any sense of comfort or reassurance.

  Quite the opposite.

  Long before he joined his slumbering fellows, he passed into oblivion, and that was all he knew until he awoke in this dark and claustrophobic place.

  He tightly clutched a rod, but there was no surprise in that. A Parrot would instinctively grasp and hold on to anything with which its zygodactyl[2] claws came into contact, otherwise Parrots would fall from trees like rain as soon as they fell asleep.

  The second thing Christobal noticed was that he was not alone in his captivity. Breathing sounds came to him, some slow and slumberous, others quickened and tinged with fright, bordering on panic. Like Christobal, the other Parrots taken captive were beginning to awaken from their induced sleep, and soon they were all alert. With returning consciousness, voices rose, shrill and discordant.

  “Quiet!” Christobal called, his voice cutting sharply through the cacophony. “Silence!”

  Christobal was quite surprised when the other Parrots listened to him and obeyed. He was accustomed to being ignored, but these Parrots were so frightened they were ready to listen to any strong voice. He wondered if they would be so quick to pay him heed if they could see how young he actually was.

  “Where are we?” a voice asked.

  “What is this dark place?”

  “Are we dead?”

  “We’re doomed.”

  “We are all going to die.”

  “Stop it, all of you,” Christobal said sharply. “We are not dead, we are not doomed and we are no
t going to die! Obviously, we are prisoners, taken captive because of our own foolishness, and we are being held in some kind of container. If we all work together, I am sure we can escape.”

  Suddenly, the container in which the jungle birds were imprisoned tilted, and they could tell it was being lifted. Almost without thinking, Christobal ordered his fellow Parrots to throw themselves in the same direction the container was inclining, and such was their great fear that they did as they were told without dissent. The abrupt shifting of weight within the crate caused it to slip from the grips of its handlers.

  The wooden container crashed to the concrete, smashing open, and the tropical birds spilled from it like colorful glittering flowers.

  Christobal instantly leapt skyward, calling for the others to follow. Grateful for freedom, the birds swept upward in pursuit of the young Parrot they now saw as their savior.

  The air was warm and awash with updrafts, but it was clear to all they were nowhere near their jungle home. Compared to the lushness of their homeland, this new realm was sere and bleak, but it was far preferable to captivity and an uncertain future.

  They were strangers in a strange land, but they were free.

  The flock of Parrots winged its way northward, and the angry voices behind them were gradually lost in the sighing of the wind.

  In the year 1916, many different events occurred in the animal world, some obviously portentous and known to creatures everywhere, while others were noted only by a few, or perhaps only the participants themselves:

  In the deserts of the Southwestern United States, horses pursued vicious bandits into Mexico.

  In England, dogs trained for war on the Continent, while cats and smaller canine breeds watched against zeppelin attacks and the possibility of a Hunnish invasion.

  Off the coast of New Jersey, a shark went rogue, to the dismay of many.

  Responding to some ancient call, the entire pet population of a small town fled to the environs of Mount Lassen National Park, where their descendants dwell to this day.

  And a large crate containing Parrots from Southern Mexico, smuggled into the United States, broke open; the birds, too far from home to ever return, made a new life for themselves in a small agricultural town called Chula Vista[3], dwelling in peace and solitude until a great evil overtook them. And when they prayed for deliverance, it came to them in a most unlikely form.

  Chapter 1

  Sunny stood in her back yard, enjoying both the bright sunshine and the cool breezes. The delightful scents of summer filled the air. Like all dogs, she had a highly discriminating sense of smell, but, as with all Golden Retrievers, it was her keen sight that brought her the most information about the world. Her eyes were a soft golden amber in color, and her delicate eyelashes were the same hue as her luxurious coat. Her vision told her much more about her surroundings than did the eyes of any other animal, except, perhaps, those of owls, sharks and cats.

  But there was, she had to admit, precious little to see in the back yard that she had not seen a thousand times before. Behind her was the short lattice fence delimiting the Canna Lily bed, behind which dwelled Allie, their lizard-in-residence; in the yard itself were the arbor and the storage shed. Just beyond the chain link fence to the southeast was the rising apartment complex that had provided her and her colleagues with some of their most interesting cases; a little north of the complex soared three palm trees, once home to poor doomed Mickey O’Possum[4], and beyond that, in the center of the vacant lot, were the ruins of the Haunted House[5], or at least what little remained since the night of that terrible and tragic fire.

  Sunny snorted derisively. Good riddance to both the Feral Gang and the dismal structure that had served as their power base.

  So, in the absence of visual stimulation, she would have to settle for the pleasant smells of summer and a brief period of peace before the next storm. That there was a storm on the way, she had no doubt; quiet moments were but brief respites for operatives of the Three Dog Detective Agency.

  There was always a whirlwind in the offing.

  Some truths were constant.

  The peace of the moment was suddenly broken by a sound high overhead. Sunny tilted her head back and gazed into the burning blue bowl of the sky.

  Something green and blue flashed across her view.

  A brown object dove fast, striking the first one before arching away, then swiftly darted back for another assault.

  “Oh, dear,” Sunny breathed. “The poor wee beastie.”

  Any other creature gazing upward, assuming vision sufficient to see anything at all, might see two indefinable specks almost lost in the immensity of the sky. Sunny, on the other paw, saw a life and death struggle between a small bird and a much larger aggressor.

  “Fly, little one,” she urged under her breath. “Fly fast!”

  Though Sunny understood the laws of nature, the way of the hunter and the hunted, the predator and the prey, that knowledge did not stop her from taking the side of the weak and vulnerable. Indeed, one could almost say it was her avocation as well as her occupation to always charge to the rescue of the underdog, regardless of breed or species.

  But here, unfortunately, she could do nothing but watch in dismay, her distress heightened by the fact that the larger bird was not just hunting a smaller prey but torturing it, taking savage glee in slashing it with wicked talons on every pass.

  And the bird was so beautiful, so unlike the pet canaries and parakeets Sunny had occasionally seen in neighborhood houses.

  Its head was brownish with a purplish tinge, with a curved beak and large glassy eyes set in white ovals of very fine feathers. Its plumage was nothing short of magnificent, a band of yellow near the neck giving way to greens, blues and purples; just beneath each wing was a patch of flaming scarlet. The multicolored plumes were marred by gleaming splashes of blood, raw gashes where the Raptor had slashed in passing.

  The aggressor bird was an Accipiter Hawk, with wings and body speckled brown and tan. As it moved in for what might be the final stroke, the narrow band of dark feathers upon its brow formed a sharp arrow shape, giving the Raptor an even more sinister cast.

  The Parrot staggered in flight under the force of the blow, but it was not, as Sunny had supposed, the final blow. The Hawk had not yet finished its sadistic game. The Parrot struggled on.

  But weakly.

  As the bird of prey wheeled about for another savage slash at the smaller bird, the Parrot suddenly fell from the sky. It fought to stay aloft, but there was no more strength remaining in its little body. The best it could do was to slow its descent somewhat.

  The Parrot spiraled downward, pursued now by the rapidly diving Hawk.

  The drama would end, Sunny suddenly realized, in her own back yard…quite literally.

  Sunny bolted across the expanse of grass.

  The Hawk spread its claws, stretching its wings wide as it slowed to match its velocity to that of the defeated Parrot.

  Golden Retrievers are not known for their jumping abilities, but in that moment of desperation, defiance and rage Sunny crouched low and leaped high, passing the falling Parrot to crash into the rapacious Hawk. At the same time, she barked and snarled savagely in the face of the startled Raptor, abandoning civilized speech for the ancient warnings of her species.

  Talons sliced across the side of Sunny’s big head, drawing blood, but she felt no pain in the moment.

  The Hawk continued to try to get to the downed Parrot, who was now moaning pitifully and trying to drag itself across the grass.

  Sunny leaped and jousted, barked and snarled, butted and batted.

  Finally the frustrated Hawk retreated to perch upon the fence.

  “Get away from that Parrot, dog!” the Hawk screeched angrily. “Its life is mine to take!”

  “Go away!” Sunny commanded. “He is under my protection.”

  “But a Hawk must eat, and must hunt to eat,” the Raptor said, calming down and forcing a smile. “You wouldn’t
want to go against the laws of nature, would you?”

  “Go eat a bug!”

  Enraged, the Hawk again dove for the Parrot.

  The jaw muscles of a Golden Retriever are so strong that there is a crest[6] along the top of the skull, anchoring them in place. When those jaws snap down, they can smash through the toughest of steak bones.

  Sunny snapped.

  The Hawk pulled back, narrowly avoiding teeth that were every bit as strong as the jaws in which they were set.

  “You’ll regret this interference in our business, dog,” the Hawk threatened. “You have made an enemy of the Birds of Prey!”

  Sunny ignored the taunts and threats, and bent down to the injured Parrot. She could see the stark terror in its eyes.

  “Rest easy, little one, no one is going to hurt you.”

  While the jaws of the Golden Retriever can be unbelievably powerful, they can also be incredibly gentle. Years ago, a baby Wren fell from a nest built atop one of the lateral panels supporting the patio roof, and Sunny had scooped it up gently to help return him to his home. Now, Sunny exercised the same caution and care with the young Parrot, who still trembled, though he no longer struggled as he was surrounded by the warm moist cavern of Sunny’s mouth.

  As Sunny turned toward the walkway that led between the garage and the house, the Accipiter Hawk again attacked, charging and striking along Sunny’s back. Though her thick fur protected her somewhat, she still felt the razor-sharp talons sink into her flesh. She did not fight back for she did not want to take the chance of accidentally harming her small charge. She concentrated solely on getting to the door that led into the Library, that room with bookcases upon bookcases, and innumerable desks and writing tables. Once inside, she and her precious burden would be beyond attack.