Clint got to his feet, ready to fight, joining Dante and Gladys who had been quicker.

“Wait,” said Adam, stepping between his allies and the oncoming strange figure.

The figure’s long coat opened enough for Adam to see the wearer. He saw a coiled mass of snakes, writhing in such a manner as to emulate the motion of a single entity. What Adam had taken for its legs were actually strong tails.

A sleeve rose, pointed forward, a snake head poked out and dropped a note into Adam’s hand.

Adam read the words on the note: “I am Nineteen Snakes.”

The strange figure in the long coat pushed the door and stepped out onto the roof.

It was immediately apparent that it was not human.

It walked as if it were a satire of bipedal locomotion. A leg, or some kind of naked sinewy and scaled limb, protruded from the coat, probed ahead, and found a place to set down. The tip of the serpentine limb coiled onto the roof and supported the weight of the rest of the figure as it swayed forward to repeat the process.

From the top of the coat protruded the head of a snake.