The intrepid investigators were exhausted as they turned in at the Pawtuxet Hotel. It was too late to head for Martin's Beach, and they all collapsed in their respective beds. Jules Pollack didn't even have time for a single lurid thought about Diana Spinoza before he was out cold. The night was uneventful for a change, or so it seemed to the investigators. While for example Howard Lake was resting with his Luger under his pillow, Mrs. O'Flaherty saw a horrifying sight as she went to the rest room in the middle of the night. While rising from her sojourn on the commode, a dreadfully burned face gazed in at her with two eyes seemingly made out of white-hot coal. She shrieked, and the creature left, but it seemed that malevolent forced were still searching for Howard Lake. Mrs. O'Flaherty spent the rest quietly sobbing in her kitchen together with Burlington Jones and Diana Spinoza before calling Jules Pollack.
That Saturday morning also saw a new visitor call on J. Pollack Fine Antiques: Johnny Schwartz, a journalist from Great Britain representing "The Engineer" of 33 Norfolk Street, The Strand, London. Mrs. O'Flaherty once again called Jules Pollack, and a meeting was set up at Richard's Bakery on West Armitage. Irwin Bowers managed to slip into the meeting as well, and Schwartz turned out to be a charming British person who was investigating the new technology of the Topsfield Power Plant for readers overseas. A couple of well-placed telephone calls from Bowers did establish Schwartz as a journalist for "The Engineer". Schwartz was also quite curious about the other undertakings of Jules Pollack and his friends, and they spent several hours sharing fantastic stories with Schwartz.
Meanwhile, Moira Baker, "Mackie" MacNamara and Howard Lake went to visit Doc Brown for a number of reason, one being to retrieve Lake's automobile. That was not possible, since according to Doc Brown there had been some separation between the engine and the chassis. The disappointed Lake had to make do with an older Model T, not unlike Pollack's. It was promptly packed with dynamite around the fuel tank, and Doc Brown even had a small slab of a new kind of plastic explosive from Washington. It was split up between the investigators, with Mackie rolling ten small marbles of the explosive and stashing them in her brassiere. Moira placed a couple of slices in her handbag, and other slices were distributed amongst the investigators. Doc Brown did remind the investigators that the explosive was sensitive to impacts and electricity, and a not insignificant detonation when a hammer hit a piece of the explosive back at the Pawtuxet did destroy a low table and cause a fire.
Despite all the misgivings, it was decided to accept the invitation from Otto Argo to visit the Topsfield Power Plant. However, Lake and Bowers were to be backup, cleverly disguised as bird watchers on a he rainy and chilly April Sunday. They were armed and ready to light the fuse in their automobile and assault the power plants if something went wrong. That is, if they could find out that something had gone wrong.
Otto Argo
Entering the Topsfield Power Plant on Sunday morning required a quick search of MacNamara, Pollack and Baker, but they had some firepower cleverly concealed in the vehicle. They were met in the spacious and futuristic lobby by a cheerful Bogislav Klimnik. They all went up to the top floor of the research building, and after a remarkably lengthy ride in an enormous elevator, they stepped into an enormous but dimly lit room with a desk in front of three giant pillars at the end of the room. At once they noticed the strange humming sound that the investigators had noticed before: varied in pitch and tempo, almost sounding like disembodied voices, and leaving Baker, Pollack and MacNamara light-headed and with difficulties to focus and concentrate. MacNamara would have nothing of this, and she discreetly plugged her ears with two of the plastic explosive pellets. The man behind the desk greeted them:
"I am Otto Argo. Please forgive the dark room, but I am suffering from a rare skin disorder, and I cannot bear intense light". Mackie promptly lit a cigarette, leading to an irritated "Do you not hear what I say? Put out the light!"
Mr. Otto Argo continued to outline his proposal to the three investigators. It was a travel proposal. Deeming that the investigators had seen and experienced such strange, wondrous and fantastic things, Otto Argo was now willing to transport MacNamara, Pollack and Baker to a celestial body called Yuggoth. This place was described in a fantastic, yet rather weird way, and despite promises of unknown and arcane knowledge as well as amazing sights, the investigators were not convinced. Otto Argo pointed out three cylinders labelled "MacNamara", "Pollack" and "Baker" which would enable the investigators to travel to Yuggoth. The would-be travelers now definitely opted out from such a journey.
Several armed guards in civilian garb now forcibly escorted the three investigators downstairs, where a curious operating theater was set up. Strange machines hummed and whined, while two of the revolting flying beings previously encountered hovered at the end of the steel gurneys, each one of them facing a set of weird surgical instruments that matched the ones found at Meadow Hill. Pollack and Baker were now almost entirely subdued by the weird humming sounds and strapped down to their respective gurney, but MacNamara pulled out the Pocket Knife of Doom with a deft move. She completely surprised the thug to her left, stabbing him straight through the eyeball. He fell down to his knees, blood spurting out of his ruined eye socket, as Mackie spun around and jammed the pocket knife into the kidney of another thug. But now, what was that explosion?
Armed Flying Horror
Moira Baker:
I am so thrilled to finally cross the great void, to finally fly across the great cosmic vistas, and to gain understanding of what we have experienced, as so many before us - and ahead of us. I have been promised to see the dark towers of Yuggoth as they stretch up above the great river of K'nai across the sunless plain lit only by the eternal stars. The earthly feelings are subsiding as I stretch out towards the abyss, to a higher knowledge, and to all the secrets hidden from ordinary mortals. The soul-singers of Ommon praising the lords of the elder ones, the mighty elementals treading between the burning stars beyond Andromeda, the blind servitors piping mindlessly at the apex of creation... all this shall be mine! Iรค!
But what is this? I am not going to fabled Yuggoth? My soul! My mind! My soul! Suspended in Stygian night, encapsulated between the planets for eternities!? What is that explosion?
Jules Pollack:
It is eerie not to remember my Christian name. Am I going or am I being reborn? It is very lonely, very cold, and the darkness is coming alive with unholy entities. They stare at me, they snarl, and I hear how they whisper about Yuggoth while licking their lips with barbed tongues. This place is horrifying, and the living darkness is turning into a color that I cannot name. I blinds me and burns me, and it feels like my flesh is slowly being stripped from my limbs and torso. I cannot bear it! My mortal self is akin to a speck of slowly dying dust, a pathetic ember that is going to be extinguished by the void... but what is that explosion?
By now, Lake and Bowers had rammed the building with a car filled with dynamite after having seen the two flying horrors descending upon the power plant. Bowers rolled around, a bottle of nitrous oxide in one hand and a pump action shotgun in the other, while Lake pulled out his Luger out of a ripped jacket. A secondary explosion shook the Topsfield Power Plant and silhouetted Lake and Bowers as they entered the building.
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