Arkham International: Shadow of the Drowned City – Chapter Ten: Arkham

The Week of Arkham Horror brings with it the concluding chapter in the first season of Arkham International. Check out the concluding part below, or if you’re new to the series, find Chapter One here, in both text and audio, and you can listen to the complete Season 1 here.

CHAPTER TEN: ARKHAM

by Josh Reynolds

Commissioner Qiana Taylor studied the two dossiers before her. It was more for show than anything, as she’d compiled them herself. They contained everything one needed to know about Roland Banks and Trish Scarborough. The former was a decorated field agent, but there was a shadow on his career – an unspoken accusation that he’d asked the wrong questions one too many times. Scarborough was a different story; a black bag operative, acting on the margins of society, often hand in hand with the sort of people the Foundation were set against.

She glanced up at the pair, where they sat across from her, on the other side of the desk Taylor had commandeered in the Orne Library on the Miskatonic campus. The Foundation had set up a field office in a disused part of the stacks not long before the disaster; it had mercifully escaped the worst of things, but still reeked of river water and fish. The personal effects of the agents who’d manned it sat in boxes, waiting to be turned over to their next of kin. Both had died in the disaster. Taylor hadn’t known them well, but she tried to avoid looking at the boxes, nonetheless. It was never easy losing people.

Both Banks and Scarborough had been pretty shaken up by their experience in Kingsport, and she’d thought it best to get them someplace secure. A deep one was one thing; a shoggoth was something else again. It had been a trap, but the sort of trap that caused a lot of collateral damage. The shoggoth wouldn’t likely have stopped at two victims, not when its appetite had been whetted. Worse, whoever had summoned it and set it to wait had known that, and not cared.

Both Banks and Scarborough seemed to think Randall Tillinghast was behind it, but Taylor was starting to have her doubts. Tillinghast was a schemer, but he was the type to go for the knife in the back, rather than the bomb in your face. Maybe the Pilgrims of the Drowned City had a new leader who’d decided to do things the Innsmouth way, property damage and all. Unfortunately, there was no way to know, until they caught Tillinghast and all his surviving cronies.

When she thought enough time had passed, she looked up at the two sitting across from her. “You two have been very busy, I have to say. It’s no wonder you’re persona non grata with the higher-ups. The expense report alone would probably have gotten you drummed out.”

“I’m sure you had nothing to do with our difficulties, then,” Trish said. Taylor glanced at her. Scarborough was tense and ready for a fight. In contrast, Banks looked relaxed. Then, he was more comfortable with the machinery of bureaucracy.

“Not as such,” Taylor said. “The Foundation has its remit, and it supersedes those of domestic agencies – even the Cipher Bureau. But that doesn’t mean we get to throw our weight around… not without good reason.”

“Was what happened to Arkham a good reason?” Roland asked, softly. Taylor looked at him for a moment before answering. She had to be careful not to scare them off, or worse. It was a hard line to walk, but she needed them.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. What happened here was… a horror. A paradimensional incursion unlike anything I have ever seen or read about. Something so one-of-a-kind that the whole world stopped, just for a moment, because what was happening here was too terrible to look away from. It’s the sort of thing the Foundation is supposed to stop.”

“You’re not very good at your job,” Roland said, in a mild tone. Taylor felt a flush of anger. She wanted to shout, to pound the desk. Instead, she took a deep breath.

“We were… distracted. Not to mention understaffed. Not enough agents in the field.” She shuffled the dossiers. “Normally, we catch these things in time. This time, we flubbed it. I’m not making excuses. Not really. We missed the boat on this one, and as a consequence, innocents suffered, and the instigators are in the wind.”

“Tillinghast,” Trish said.

Taylor nodded. “Among others. The problem with something like this is it sets all the roaches to scurrying. When that happens, it’s hard to focus on the right one.”

“What about that thing in Kingsport? Did he… summon that as well?” Roland looked uncomfortable as he said it. Unlike Scarborough, he wasn’t quite used to the idea of paradimensional incursions. That would change, in time. It would have to, if he was going to be any use to the Foundation. “And what happened to it? Your people said something about a – a containment team?”

“You answered your own question: we contained it. You don’t need to know how, just yet, but rest assured we put it somewhere safe.” Taylor opened the dossiers. “You’re both sterling investigators – driven, loyal, capable of independent thinking. Exactly the sort of people the Foundation can use, now more than ever.”

“So Agent Antonova was right, this is a job offer,” Trish said.

Taylor nodded. “It is. We need people like you. And you need us.”

“How do you figure?” Roland asked.

“Because someone in the American government put out a warrant for your arrest. They say you’ve been selling state secrets – or at least Scarborough. Someone doesn’t want you digging into the Arkham incident.” Taylor sat back. “If you come work for me, I can make it go away. If not, you’re on your own.”

“You’re all heart,” Trish said, but Taylor could see she was interested. Scarborough was a woman after her own heart. Banks looked troubled, but not disagreeable. He was the sort of man who needed the stability a badge provided.

“I don’t have time to be nice; I have a world to save. You can either help me, or spend the next few years enjoying activities in the yard at Sing-Sing. It’s your choice.” Taylor watched as they looked at one another, and then back at her. She saw from their expressions that they were in before Trish said it.

“Looks like you have two new agents, Commissioner Taylor,” she said.

Taylor smiled. “Welcome to the Foundation. I hope you survive.”