Here's the next scene, hope you like it
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Ten minutes later, Doc walked out of his private bathroom toweling the last drops of water out of his hair.
"Was that fun?" Vic asked from her seat on one of the leather couches in the corner of the room.
Doc smiled. Vic always seemed to think that danger was an essential part of fun. She even played solitaire with razor-edged cards, though Doc comforted himself with the thought that at least they weren't poisoned. "Not as much as it would have been for you, I think."
"You're probably right," said the third member of their little group. Augustus Q. Ponchartrain was a silverback gorilla in a custom-tailored suit. "However, even if it wasn't as much fun as it would have been for you, it still raises more than a handful of questions."
"Such as why there were talking gorillas in Nazi uniforms in control of an airship from the Belgian Congo piloted by zombies that was apparently going to crash into the Republic State building?"
"To put it succinctly," said the gorilla: "Yes."
"That's not a handful," Vic said, swirling the ice in her coke.
"It will be," Doc replied. "I'm sure Gus can turn each one of my questions into half a dozen without even trying."
"Just a matter of applying a superior intellect."
Doc nodded. "I've sent Tam in the submersible to see if he can find anything else out about that airship." Crossing the room, he draped his towel over one of the couches and poured himself a glass of mineral water. "From the looks of the crew, they had been zombied in Africa and flown the Zeppelin all the way across without stopping. What I don't know is what they thought they had to gain?"
"You do live here, you know." Gus pointed out. "I'm sure a flaming airship would have done some damage to the eighty-seventh floor no matter where it hit."
"Perhaps." Doc drained his mineral water. "We don't know what was in its cargo hold either. It could have been more than just an airship collision."
"I saw the explosion," Vic added. "I don't think the windows would have held up."
"You don't give us enough credit," Gus said, peeling a banana. "Doc and I calculated these windows to stop up to a one thousand pound bomb."
"And that airship can hold how many tons of cargo?"
"None at the moment," Doc said mildly, "though you do have a point."
The private elevator dinged, and a complete stranger in a black leather coat staggered into the room.
"Do I have the honor of addressing Doctor James Clark Vandal?" he asked in a clipped teutonic accent.
Doc nodded, keeping one hand on the pistol he always carried holstered in the small of his back. "You do."
"Good. My name is Schmidt, and I'm here to warn you that your very soul is in danger."
"My soul?" Doc arched an eyebrow, keeping the man's attention so that Gus and Vic could get into position in case he caused trouble.
"Beware the Eldest Flame," the man said, and then his eyes went wide as he looked at something behind Doc.
Not wanting to take his eyes off Schmidt, Doc started sidling over to where he could catch a reflection of anything that could be sneaking up behind him. "The Eldest Flame?" Doc asked. "What's this Eldest Flame?"
Schmidt didn't answer. Instead his eyes bugged out and a tide of gray rose from his collar and washed out his face. Raising his arms he jumped at Doc, his teeth and nails growing visibly as he leaped.
"That's enough of that." Gus reached out with one arm and caught Schmidt, casually snapping his neck before setting the corpse on the floor. "Zombie interrupted my banana. I hate that."
"D-Doc." Vic pointed at the window behind Doc.
Doc turned to see a gorilla wearing a feathered headdress hanging onto the window with suction cups. Catching Doc's eye, the gorilla waved a strange flame-shaped amulet then deliberately pushed himself backward away from the window. Doc and the others rushed to the window, only to see the gorilla's body as a dark speck falling toward the streets below.
"Quick, after him," Doc barked.
Gus and Vic ran toward the elevator. Doc leaned over Schmidt's body and loosened the coat. Underneath he saw the man was wearing an SS officer's uniform with the Iron Cross. But what caught his attention wasn't the medal, but the wound where someone appeared to have ripped open Schmidt's shoulder with their teeth. "Zombie bitten," Doc muttered. "He was dead before he got in the elevator."
The elevator door had already closed, but Doc hit the override and jumped into the shaft, landing on the roof of the car with a thump. He opened the access door and dropped in between Gus and Vic. "Sorry about that."
Gus brushed debris off his suit. "Don't worry about it, boss. Suit needed cleaning after the zombie anyway."
Doc nodded. "Schmidt was SS - wonder why he wanted to warn me."
"You do look like you ought to be one of the Master Race," Vic commented. "More so than Gus does, anyway."
"I resent that," Gus complained.
"You resent not looking like a Nazi?" Vic shook her head. "That's a first."
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it, young lady."
The elevator door opened, cutting off the discussion and Doc led his two associates into the lobby, waving to the elevator operators as they ran toward the door.
Out on the street, the first thing Doc saw was a small crowd gathered on the sidewalk. Pushing forward, he worked his way through the crowd to where he could see the body. Surprisingly it was still recognizable as a gorilla, though from the way it was lying it appeared to have broken the majority of bones in its body. Leaning over the corpse, Doc picked up the amulet which was surprisingly heavy. Not wanting to draw too much attention, he slipped it in his pocket and turned back toward his cohorts.
"Anything interesting, Doc?" Gus asked.
"Tell you when we're back inside." Doc waved away the question. Anybody could be listening. "Where's Vic?"
"She was right behind me." The gorilla shrugged. "I can push through a crowd better than she can."
Doc scanned the crowd, but Vic was nowhere to be seen. Then he saw the back of a black leather coat disappearing around a corner. "Follow me!"
Whistling too high for a human to hear, Doc chased after the figure, only to find a busy street with no sign of Vic or the figure in the black coat. It was as if they had disappeared into thin air.