Secret of the Corpse Eater

by Ty Drago

  “Indeed,” the Queen replied dryly. “Well, regardless, you’re welcome here. Do come in and have a seat. And, Susan! How lovely to see you again!”

  The last time Karl Ritter’s widow had been in her office, Lilith had revealed herself to her—showing the foolish, blind human the truth behind her Cover. Oh, the sweet terror in the woman’s eyes! At the time, the Queen had meant to have her killed and then wear her lovely body, but that plan had been foiled.

  By the Undertakers.

  Susan Ritter didn’t respond. She took in D’Angelo and his three other men with silent worry, and Lilith noticed how close Jefferson stayed to her. Neither of them seemed inclined to accept her offer of a chair.

  “Why don’t you both sit down?” the Queen said again.

  “Don’t waste my time,” Jefferson growled.

  “Just trying to make you more comfortable.”

  “Then open the windows. It stinks in here … like somethin’ died.”

  The Queen chuckled.

  But Jefferson shook his head. “It ain’t a joke. Y’all stink. Open the friggin’ windows or we’re outta here.”

  Lilith considered the request. They were on the sixth floor of City Hall, with a sheer, seventy-foot drop outside—so where was the harm? She nodded to D’Angelo, who in turn nodded to the other three men, who in turn started opening windows.

  Once this was done, Jefferson said, “Let’s get to it. You wanted to meet. We’re meeting.”

  The Queen looked at the sword. “When you answered my little ad, I seem to recall asking that you come unarmed.”

  “No, you asked that I come without a water gun. I did. You didn’t say nothin’ about a sword.”

  “I also asked that you come alone.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t agree to that one,” he replied. “While you swore to give safe passage, both to and from.”

  “So I did.” Lilith regarded Susan Ritter. She’d lost some weight since their last meeting two months ago, but her body still looked healthy and strong. Fortuitous. “Tell me, Susan … how is life in whatever grimy hidey-hole these adolescent sewer rats call home?”

  The woman seemed to muster up a thimble full of courage. “Better than death … which is what you had in mind for me.”

  “No hard feelings, I hope,” the Queen purred. “How’s that sweet little girl of yours?”

  Susan Ritter’s face colored. “Emily’s fine, no thanks to you.”

  “Enough crap,” Jefferson said. “We’re here to talk about Will.”

  “No respect between enemies then? Very well. Let’s discuss the erstwhile Mr. Ritter. He and your sister have gone to Washington to play Senate pages, I’m told.”

  The boy didn’t reply.

  Cavanaugh pressed the point, “Little Jillian told you all about the big bad Senator Lindsay, I presume?”

  Again, Jefferson said nothing.

  “Well, I’m afraid that particular mission may have been ill-advised. You see … Senator Lindsay Micha is no ordinary Malum. In fact, she’s quite unique.”

  “Straight up?” remarked Jefferson. “From what I saw on C-SPAN last week … what with her making her first appearance in the Senate for months, I’d say she looks pretty much as dead as the rest of y’all.”

  “Now Tom … I’m disappointed in you. You’re too savvy to judge someone merely by appearance.”

  “My bad,” the boy replied. His tone remained conversational, but Lilith noticed how his eyes fanned the room, his every muscle poised on a razor’s edge of action. This was not someone to underestimate. “But here’s a judgment I do feel pretty solid about: Micha’s off the reservation, ain’t she?”

  The Queen’s false smile faltered. “Off the what?”

  “Slipped her leash. Gone rogue. You really gotta keep up with all our turns o’ phrase if you wanna play human. I’m sayin’, it seems to me that Micha’s decided she don’t gotta take orders from you anymore.”

  Inwardly, Lilith seethed. This child knew more than she’d expected. “And where,” she asked with managed calm, “would you have gotten such an idea?”

  Jefferson replied, “Let’s start with the way y’all went after Jill. Pulled out all the stops! Hundreds o’ you on South Street, trying to chase down three kids … well, one kid really. All to keep her from telling us that Micha was one o’ you.

  “But then Micha, after two whole months o’ hiding, shows up in front of the US Senate. Sudden. No warning at all. Heck, if I hadn’t had someone TiVo-ing C-SPAN, just in case, I’d never’ve seen it. But she had to have imagined I would, right? Me or some other Seer. From that I figure that you’re more worried ’bout protecting her Mask than she is herself. That smells like a major strategy shift on somebody’s part.”

  “Clever,” Lilith admitted.

  Now it was Jefferson’s turn to deliver a phony smile. “Thanks. ’Course, I ain’t nailed down the whole story, but seems clear y’all got yourselves a little in-house power struggle.” After a pause he added, “Plus you’ve got some kind of something down there in DC… … one that’s been eating deaders like yourself.”

  “So full of answers, aren’t you, boy?” the Queen hissed. “Now, let me tell you a few things. Senator Micha knows all about Will Ritter and Sharyn Jefferson’s infiltration of Webster Hall. Shall I tell you what she plans to do? Better still, shall I tell you where young Will is right now?” Her grin was back, savage this time, vindictive and completely without pity.

  Instantly, Susan Ritter started forward, exclaiming, “Where’s my son!” But Jefferson stayed her with nothing more than a hand on her shoulder.

  Such terror! How delicious!

  “All in good time,” the Queen said. Then, echoing Jefferson’s words, “Some kind of something. That’s an amusing way of putting it.”

  “I ain’t here to amuse you,” Jefferson told her. “What is it?”

  “My people call it a gravveg. Loosely translated: ‘abomination.’”

  “Gravveg,” the boy echoed. “And how’d it get here. Same way you did?”

  Lilith shook her head. “Not at all. There’s very little organic matter that can pass through the Void between worlds. No, the gravveg has quite a different origin.”

  “I’m listening.”

  The Queen regarded him. “First, let me ask you a question.”

  The boy scowled, but replied calmly, “Go ahead.”

  “How did you discover a way to kill us?”

  Jefferson’s face was stone. “Why should I tell you?”

  “Oh … I know how it’s done,” she said dismissively. “Saltwater … injected into the body using a hypodermic needle. I probably understand why it works far better than you do. No military secret there. What I’m asking is how you managed to discover it?”

  He shrugged. “Why’s it matter?”

  “It matters because it’s never been done before!” the Queen exclaimed, slamming her fist on the table so hard that the heavy thing shook.

  “Careful,” the boy said flatly. “That body ain’t no great shakes. You might crack a bone.”

  “And who do I have to thank for the condition of my host? Do you think I want to be trapped in this rotting …” With some effort, she calmed herself. “But that’s beside the point right now. Tell me, do you know why we’re here, Tom? Susan? Do either of you understand the true motive behind our presence on your planet?”

  “You’re the Unmakers of Worlds,” Tom replied.

  Lilith laughed humorlessly. “Kenny Booth. That fool always favored the theatrical. ‘Unmakers of Worlds’ … a bit trite, if not wholly inaccurate.”

  “You go after power.”

  “We do, but only as a means to an end. We are what you might call isolationists. As a race, we crave solitude. But where others might simply wall themselves up and pretend to be alone in the universe, the Malum take a nobler and purer approach. We have resolved to be alone in the universe.

  “We scan the Void, the space between space, looking for signs of int
elligent life. And, when we find it, we evaluate that life. Study it. And then, when we’re ready, we invade. It might interest you to know that we watched Earth for more than a century before we judged the time to be right.”

  While Susan Ritter’s face twisted in horror, Jefferson’s expression revealed nothing. His control was impressive.

  Lilith explained, “In our culture, the invasion, corruption, and ultimate destruction of a world is an art form. The more subtle the ‘cleansing,’ the more artistic it is deemed. We do not conquer. We do not overwhelm. We infiltrate. Then we destroy from within.

  “Your world will end, Tom. Every single living thing on this planet will die. But it won’t be by our hand … not directly. No, we will manipulate you, cajole you, convince you to destroy yourselves. Perhaps nuclear war. Perhaps biological holocaust. Perhaps something else altogether. The method will present itself in due course. But, regardless of the means, you will all die.

  “And then we will be alone again … until we find the next world. You call us evil, but to us, your very existence is evil. And we are a force for good … removing that evil.”

  “That’s insane …” Susan muttered.

  “No,” the Queen replied, wagging a finger. “I told you: it’s art.”

  “Whatever,” remarked Tom. “You’re borin’ me. Get to the gravveg.”

  “The impatience of youth. Actually, I’m paying you something of a compliment. You see, in all of the worlds we have cleansed, none has ever done what you have done. None has ever found a way to destroy us. It has been … disconcerting.”

  Jefferson seemed to consider this. Then, still clutching his sword, he reached inside his coat. Around them, D’Angelo and the other minions stiffened.

  “Relax, dudes,” the boy told them. Then he pulled out a capped syringe. “We call this here a Ritter. Consider it a gift.”

  He tossed it to Lilith, who caught it smoothly, simultaneously waving off D’Angelo, who’d jumped forward as if thinking the boy meant to skewer her with the big needle—dartboard style.

  “A Ritter,” she echoed thoughtfully, raising the syringe up to the light and examining its brackish contents. “Imagine … I hold something that could destroy me.”

  “Gimme a good day,” Jefferson told her. “And you’ll get to more’n just imagine it.”

  That amused her. “May I keep this?”

  “That’s kinda the point of a gift. Now … how’s about givin’ me something in return? Enough with the deader-history lesson. Skip to the gravveg. What is it?”

  The Queen replied, “In a word … it’s us.”

  Lilith Cavanaugh

  “You?” Jefferson said.

  Lilith nodded. “Haven’t you ever wondered what we really look like? Surely you don’t imagine we stroll around on our Homeworld draped in rotting cadavers.”

  Both of the humans looked stunned.

  “But, no,” the Queen corrected. “While, physically this creature is identical to our native form, in every other way it’s an abomination. Hence gravveg.”

  “Where did it come from?” Jefferson asked.

  “An idea—as it turns out, a poor one. One of our kind, a Royal … are you familiar with our castes? Well, never mind. Suffice it to say that a person of importance crossed the Void into this world with a plan to advance our cause. The concept was bold but risky. Normally, I’d have rejected it. This is art, after all, and subtlety is important. But it was in the wake of your son’s”—she glared pointedly at Susan Ritter—“meddling with my recent bid for the governor’s mansion, and I admit I was tempted.”

  “And what was this ‘idea’?” Jefferson asked.

  “We would abduct a high-profile member of the US Congress. Female, because the idea’s owner is female. Then a very difficult and very dangerous process would be undertaken … one that would effectively allow this person’s likeness and memories to be grafted onto my sister’s mind.”

  “Sister?” Susan Ritter asked. “This … person of importance … is your sister?”

  “Oh, didn’t I mention that? Yes. My sister and rival. But I won’t bore you with my family politics. Suffice it to say that she came here with this plan and, circumstances being what they were, pressured me into accepting it. And … lo and behold, it worked!”

  “Lindsay Micha,” said Jefferson.

  “Exactly. The process is extremely difficult. The source creature—the real Senator Micha—was kidnapped and sedated while the telepathic connection was made. Then, still sedated, she was moved to a safe house and kept under guard. You see, if she should die, then the connection would be severed and my sister’s true appearance would be instantly revealed.”

  “Can’t have that,” Jefferson remarked dryly.

  “Indeed not,” Lilith replied with a grin. “For two months, it worked perfectly. My sister wore Micha’s face, spoke in her voice, and took whatever memories she needed directly from the sleeping woman’s brain. Naturally, she needed to avoid cameras. We couldn’t risk one of you penetrating her disguise. The plan was for her to use the senator’s power and contacts to gradually erode the stability of your federal government. But two things have happened to spoil that approach.”

  “Your sister went rogue,” the boy said.

  “Impatience has always been her weakness, which is one reason why the throne fell to me and not her. Apparently wielding Micha’s political power overcame what little sensibility she has. With her return to public life, she now dares to impose her authority on me. Me!”

  “Great story,” said Jefferson. “But it ain’t got nothing to do with this monster. Why do I get the feelin’ you’re stalling?”

  “Not at all,” the Queen replied. “I mentioned that two things happened.”

  Susan Ritter guessed, “Something went wrong with the … telepathic link?”

  “Correct. Something went very wrong. You see, with this sort of connection there is a risk of what we call ‘de-evolution.’ It’s when the source creature becomes aware enough to reverse the flow of information … to take from the Malum instead of the right way around.”

  “The real Senator Micha woke up,” the boy remarked.

  “She shouldn’t have been able to. But apparently, her will is strong … far stronger than either my sister or I imagined. While de-evolution has happened in the past, it’s never happened so quickly … or so completely as this.”

  “So … the gravveg is the real Lindsay Micha,” said Jefferson. A statement not a question.

  “Yes and no. She took the image of our true form from my sister’s mind, and then somehow adopted it as her own. A metamorphosis at the genetic level. She has become Malum, but with a human mind. Can you imagine such a monstrosity? Do you see now why we call it gravveg? The abomination?”

  “What I see is that Lindsay Micha’s tougher than you figured,” Jefferson suggested.

  “If you like. We lost contact with the DC safe house. Upon investigation, six Malum were found missing … presumably consumed, and the subject creature … the abomination … had disappeared.”

  “She transformed and then escaped,” Susan Ritter said.

  “And now she’s killin’ you folks,” Jefferson added. “Why?”

  The Queen replied, “Nourishment.”

  “The gravveg eats dead bodies?”

  “Yes, but not for the flesh … for the Self.”

  Tom frowned. “Self?”

  “Life energy. Consciousness. The part of us that is able to cross the Void. We call it our “Self.” To get it, the gravveg must consume the Malum’s host body … especially the head. In doing so, the Malum within is utterly destroyed. Devoured.”

  Despite herself, Lilith felt an uncharacteristic stab of fear. The very notion of being consumed in such a way…

  Jefferson said, “But this thing don’t eat humans.”

  “No. Not yet.”

  Susan Riutter asked, “Not yet?”

  “The longer Micha uses the gravveg form, transforming back and
forth between that body and her own, she … it … will continue to need to feed. Eventually, it will discover that humans have Selves, too. Not the same. Surely not as nourishing, but much more plentiful … and far simpler to obtain.” Lilith leaned forward in her chair. “But you haven’t asked me what the abomination wants. Why it stays in and around the Capitol?”

  “I can guess,” the boy replied. “It wants your sister.”

  “Yes.”

  “It wants to eat her.”

  “Consume her Cover. Not quite the same thing.”

  “Will that break the link?” Jefferson asked. “Give Micha her life back?”

  “Yes. So would destroying my sister altogether … perhaps with one of these wonderful Ritters of yours. Of course, doing such a thing —”

  At that moment, the phone on the Queen’s desk rang. Just once. She glanced at it, and then over at D’Angelo, who nodded ever so slightly.

  “Well, Tom, Susan … I’m afraid I have two bits of rather bad news for you both.”

  Jefferson said warily, “We’re listening.”

  “The first involves young Mr. Ritter. It seems the gravveg came upon the boy in the Capitol Rotunda last night, while my sister was making an ill-conceived and poorly executed attempt on his life. I’m afraid the abomination has taken him.”

  “Taken my son?” Susan Ritter demanded. She started forward, but again Jefferson restrained her.

  “Where are they?” he asked. “Will and Micha?”

  The Queen replied, “So far, neither has resurfaced. Perhaps she has consumed the meddling child already.”

  The Ritter woman looked ready to scream. But Jefferson said, with absolute conviction, “She ain’t.”

  “Really?” said Lilith. “And how would you know that?”

  He shrugged, but didn’t reply.

  “Very well. Care to know the other bit of bad news?”

  Jefferson said, “I already do. You’re gonna kill us both. That ringing phone was a signal.”

  The Queen grinned. “So it was.”

  D’Angelo and the other three policemen moved into position, blocking any escape. As they did, Lilith watched Tom Jefferson step protectively closer to Susan Ritter—a valiant, but outmatched, bodyguard. The fools had assumed they would be safe in the middle of the workday morning. After all, hundreds of people were in this building. How could Lilith hope to murder them without somebody hearing something?