The Devil's Elixir

by Raymond Khoury

  Step one: Deal with the pain.

  Step two: Talk to the ranking officer and make a deal.

  He knew something they needed to hear about. Maybe he was the only one who knew.

  Covering the store with both guns, he crept slowly toward the pharmacy.

  52

  I was already halfway out of the SUV before Villaverde had thrown it into park. There were at least ten black-and-whites scattered across the main lot, plus a SWAT truck and two incident response vehicles parked off to one side. A couple of uniforms had already thrown up a tape barrier about fifty yards from the mall’s main entrance. On the other side of the lot were four local news trucks. A fifth pulled in as I jogged over to the command-and-control truck, Villaverde a few paces behind me.

  I waved my creds and climbed into the truck. The SDPD incident commander was expecting us and introduced himself as Captain Jack Lupo. In turn, he introduced Sergeant Alan Schibl, who was the ranking SWAT officer, a civilian hostage negotiator by the name of Tim Edwards, and Belinda Zacharia, a sharp-suited lady from the sheriff’s office, which made sense considering Torres was a witness to the killing of their deputy. There were also a couple of uniforms and a comms technician.

  Lupo brought us up to speed. As far as they knew, there were nineteen hostages in the CVS—seven staff and twelve customers—though they couldn’t be a hundred percent sure about the number of customers. No hostages seemed to have been harmed—yet. Torres seemed to be acting alone. The witness who had shot the camera-phone video had stated that Torres was acting bizarrely, obviously in pain, and had been sweating profusely. Edwards had tried calling the store’s fixed line, but once they got past the automated answering system the number rang unanswered. Torres wasn’t picking up.

  Schibl, who had been itching to chime in since we’d entered the truck, couldn’t contain himself anymore.

  “I’ve got a pair of marksmen on either side of the store’s main entrance. They can’t see him at the moment, but if he moves into their line of sight without our move endangering a hostage, I’ve given them the order to shoot.”

  Zacharia jumped on him before I had the chance. “Hang on there a second, sergeant—we need this guy alive. He’s our only solid lead. The sheriff’s consulted the mayor on this and he has his full support. We can’t let whoever murdered Deputy Fugate get away. Not under any circumstances. So I suggest you tell your men to stand down.”

  There was a good chance things were going to get ugly very quickly. I’d spent a decent chunk of my professional life locked in these interdepartmental pissing contests. Although Villaverde was officially in charge, he’d still have to fight the others every step of the way in order for his orders to be given priority. I looked at him and he flashed me a subtle, wry smile. I knew that look. He was going to sit back and wait for the loudest voices to burn themselves out, then calmly assert his authority. It wasn’t my way of dealing with a situation like this, but I was on Villaverde’s turf and far too close to the case to risk trying to shout down the natives. Against all natural inclination, I decided to give them a couple of minutes to reach the correct conclusion on their own.

  Schibl puffed out his chest—the most he could do in the present company to show his intense displeasure at being ordered around by a woman, and not even a cop at that—and gave her both barrels.

  “We need to take him down at the first opportunity,” he shot back. “End of story. He’s an ex-Marine with a history of violence. I’ve dealt with siege situations before where the hostage-taker is a soldier with PTSD. He might as well be high on meth. The outcome’s always the same anyway. The grunt ends up dead one way or another. So how about we put an end to this as soon as we can and avoid any additional casualties.”

  He turned to Lupo, as though Zacharia didn’t exist.

  “I hear you,” the incident commander told him, “but there’s a bigger picture here. This perp’s right in the middle of a major federal case and he’s the only witness to several major crimes, crimes in which at least ten people have lost their lives. If there’s any way we can talk to him, we need to take it. So I’m afraid I have to agree with Belinda here. Tell your men to hold their fire unless one of the hostages is in immediate danger.”

  Schibl grimaced. He had obviously hoped that Lupo would back him up, but instead, the ranking cop had told him in no uncertain terms to do what he was told. It was my turn to shoot a quick smile at Villaverde, who finally took the opportunity to say something.

  “Before the day is out,” Villaverde told Schibl, “there’s a good chance we’re going to need you to ask your men to take that shot. But right now, I think we do need to balance the need for action with the benefits of restraint.” He turned to the hostage negotiator. “Hand me the comms link, will you? Let’s try calling him again.”

  Edwards dialed the number then held out the handset to Villaverde, who gestured toward me.

  “You want to take this?”

  I nodded and took the handset. After about twelve rings, someone picked up. Edwards’s face lit up with anticipation, and the comms operator nodded to signal that the call was being recorded.

  “Ricky,” I spoke into the silence, “my name’s Reilly. I’m with the FBI.”

  “Are you one of them, too?”

  It was Torres. He sounded agitated, desperate, and absolutely terrified.

  “One of who, Ricky?”

  “Those things.”

  “What things? I’m with the FBI, Ricky. Is everyone okay in there?”

  “Just keep those things away from me, man. I saw them outside the entrance. I won’t let them take me, whatever they do, you hear me? Any of them come near me, I’ll blow their fucking heads off.”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about. He was obviously having a bad trip, and was far more scared than someone who still had the chance to give themselves up before the shooting started. It was pretty obvious which tack I needed to try.

  “Listen to me, Ricky. Whatever it is you’re scared of, we can protect you. We wanted to protect Wook, but they got to him before we did. We know who you and the rest of the Eagles were working for. Guru told us. We just need you to help us find them. Then we can lock them up and keep you safe.”

  “Guru?” he blurted. “Guru’s gone, man. How’d you talk to him? You’re lying. You’re one of them, aren’t you? You want me to come out so you can sink your claws into me. Well fuck you, man. Fuck you all to hell.” Then he hung up.

  “The guy’s totally lost it,” Schibl said.

  I had to agree. Which didn’t bode well for Torres. Not with a SWAT sergeant who was itching to fast-track him to join up with the rest of his biker buddies.

  I, on the other hand, wanted him alive and talking. But I didn’t think I was going to get that chance.

  At the westernmost edge of the parking lot, under cover of a line of trees, Navarro and his two surviving pistolerossat in the air-conditioned cool of their Toyota Land Cruiser. They had doubled back after releasing Torres into the wild and taken up their surveillance point just as he had disappeared through the mall’s main entrance.

  Navarro had a pair of binoculars trained on the area of the parking lot that had been overrun by the police, and a slight grin tugged at his cheek as he tried to imagine what kind of hell Torres was probably going through. The drug, a gray powder that he’d rubbed into Torres’s open wound, was a particularly insidious one. He’d been taught it in Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, by a shaman with a fully tattooed body who was referred to as the Black Vulture. Navarro had used it on several captives over the years, and it had never disappointed him. It would scour its victims’ unconsciousness, dredge up their deepest fears and paranoias, and bring them bursting to life in heightened, surreal ways, turning the most mundane settings into the stuff of Wes Craven movies. Left unchecked, it had the uncanny ability to send one’s soul spiraling into self-destruction in the most unexpected ways, something that never failed to entertain Navarro, although this was one implosio
n he knew he wouldn’t be able to enjoy in person.

  He watched Reilly and Villaverde dash out of their car and into the melee, and the sight caused him further disappointment. He’d been expecting them to arrive separately. This was a twist he’d thought possible, but he’d been hoping things would work out differently.

  Still, he knew that they had a good opportunity to put the rest of his plan into action. It was obvious from the spectacle that was now unfolding at the other end of the parking lot that the first half of his plan had gone exactly as he had imagined it would. That was another thing the blind Peruvian’s drug had taught him. What was real in the imagination—whether under the effect of drugs or not—was just as real as what you held in your hand or put in your mouth. Maybe more so. He had imagined himself as the sole dispenser of a drug that no one would be able to turn down. And soon—after years of waiting—it would be true. The thought didn’t excite him unduly, as he’d known that this moment would come, sooner or later. He had imagined it, and soon it would be happening, for real. Indeed, who could say that the imagining was not as real as the events that it brought about?

  He inclined his head toward the gunman in the back, who was watching live coverage of the siege on a 3G-enabled tablet.

  He nodded to the man.

  The pistolero nodded back, set the tablet down, and climbed out of the car.

  53

  Torres waited nervously as the pharmacist hunted through the meds behind the counter. He’d already given Torres a couple of codeine-laced painkillers, but they only seemed to have made things worse, and he was now hunting for some antibiotics.

  Torres raked his eyes back and forth across the store. He knew the place was far too big for him to control for any length of time. He just had to hope that the rest of his unit would come and rescue him before the creatures tore him to pieces. He felt lost and confused, unsure about whether the insurgents were being controlled by the monsters, or if they were simply one and the same. His head felt like it was going to burst open, and his skin was so itchy he wanted to slice it off. The pain in his stomach had eased off a bit, but his shoulder was now hurting so bad it felt like he’d only just been shot.

  The pharmacist returned from behind the counter carrying a square cardboard box, from which he removed a strip of pills. He pressed out two into his palm and offered them to him.

  “This is the strongest penicillin we have. Take them. It’s still the best thing for infections.”

  Torres reached out to take them, but as his fingers were about to touch the pills, he saw that they weren’t pills at all, just two shiny beetle-like insects with serrated legs ending in vicious-looking hooks and long antennae that waved back and forth trying to feel their way toward him.

  The pharmacist stared at him. “They’ll help. Trust me.”

  Torres blinked, but the beetles were still there, squirming around in the palm of the pharmacist’s hand.

  He swatted the man’s hand away viciously and reared away from him.

  “You’re trying to get those inside me?” he screamed. “So they can eat me up from the inside? What did you give me before?” He swung his gun into the pharmacist’s face. “Is that why my shoulder hurts so bad? Have I got them inside me already?”

  The pharmacist raised his hands to calm him, and Torres saw the yellow eyes, the twisted and sharp horns, the long fangs, and the shimmering skin that he knew was the way that all of them really looked. The beast was coming right at him—

  And he pulled the trigger and just watched as the monster’s head exploded, spraying blood across the pharmacy counter.

  A ripple of panic spread across the lot, and the pistolero didn’t know what had caused it. The news crews had sprung to action, talking animatedly on live feeds, while cops and agents were moving to and fro with a sense of renewed urgency.

  He guessed that something must have happened inside the mall. This was good and bad. Good, because it provided him with a measure of diversion, distracting everyone around and making his task potentially easier. Bad, because it could mean that the situation his boss had engineered was coming to a head, which could lead to his window of opportunity closing sooner than expected.

  It wasn’t a problem. He didn’t need that much time.

  He picked up his step marginally, making sure he didn’t attract attention, and kept moving through the tangle of parked cars.

  Twenty seconds later, he was by the SUV he’d seen the agents arrive in.

  And before anyone could take notice of him, he was heading back the way he came, a slight grin of satisfaction pinching the edge of his mouth.

  Screams erupted from the other side of the store, the noise cutting deep into his head as he staggered backward, waving the guns wildly from side to side.

  “Stop! Stay back! Keep away from me!”

  His throat was parched and burning now. He still hadn’t had a drink. He’d meant to have one when he first entered the store, but he’d forgotten. He couldn’t seem to keep a thought in his head.

  “Someone bring me some water. Please.”

  No one moved. Why wouldn’t they listen to him? He wasn’t being unreasonable. He just wanted some help. Wanted the searing pain in his shoulder to stop. Wanted his head to stop throbbing. Wanted his mouth to stop feeling like it was slowly filling with sand. Wanted to stop sweating like he was in Nasiriyah. He couldn’t work out why no one would help him and was suddenly overcome with violent rage.

  “Bring me some water. Now!” He waved the guns around to reinforce his point.

  After a few seconds, an older man approached him. He must have been at least sixty. He was holding a bottle of water.

  “You a soldier, son?”

  The man sounded friendly. Like he wanted to help.

  “I was,” Torres replied, shivering now. “Not now. Not anymore.”

  The man took a few steps toward him, holding out the bottle as a peace offering.

  “My brother was in the army,” he told Torres. “Got himself killed in Kuwait in ninety-one.” He held the water just a few inches from Torres’s hand. “Here. Drink this. You look like you need it. Just don’t hurt anyone else, son.”

  Torres stared blankly at the bottle. After a long moment, he took it. He unscrewed the lid and raised the bottle to his lips, but as he was about to drink, he noticed a weird black shape inside the bottle near the bottom. He held the bottle up to the light and saw a snarl of black snakes writhing around in the water. They were grotesque, with bulbous eyes too big for their bodies and sharp spines along their backs. One of them thrashed against the side of the bottle and hissed at him.

  They were trying to poison him. They’d do anything to get the creatures inside his body so they could rip him up from the inside.

  He hurled the water across the room and pointed both guns at the old man, who nonetheless took a step toward him.

  “Give me the guns, son,” the man said, calmly. “You need to give me the guns so you can get the help you need.”

  He knew the man was lying, trying to trick him. He was going to take his guns, then drag him to some dark basement where they’d cut him up and feed on him. Is that what they did? He couldn’t make sense of it anymore. It was all jumbled up in his head. Was he back in the army, or was he dreaming? Monsters weren’t real. He knew that. But there was one standing right in front of him. And no way was he imagining this. It just was there, yellow eyes and fangs staring back at him, drool oozing over its bottom lip, talons outstretched.

  He realized he had to get out before they ate him alive. There were too many creatures for him to defeat alone and he was locked in here with them. He had to leave. To run the gauntlet and escape. Shut in with the creatures, it was only a matter of time before they devoured him. Outside, at least he had a chance. And maybe they wouldn’t want to lose any more of their number. He’d soon find out.

  He backed away from the treacherous monster and made for a small group of the creatures that were still pretending to be human
. He grabbed a young woman around the neck and dragged her over toward the main entrance, pulling the keys from his pocket. He unlocked the doors and maneuvered the woman so she was in front of him, then opened one of the doors a few inches and peered out into the plaza.

  “I’m coming out,” he shouted. “Let me go and I won’t kill this one.”

  The mall was empty other than for two of the creatures waiting for him about sixty yards down the main plaza.

  Torres took a step forward, but then he felt his hostage’s weight shift, as though it were trying to stop him from going any farther. He turned toward the creature. Giant razor-edged bones were breaking through the skin of its neck. Elongated talons were sprouting from the ends of its arms. Feathers were covering its body. Its face was melting as a serrated beak burst through the flesh. He let go of the disgusting creature, raised his gun and fired. Or he thought he did. He’d definitely meant to pull the trigger, but somehow he hadn’t managed to. Maybe it was something to do with the darkness flooding his head.

  He felt his legs buckle underneath him.

  The floor felt like quicksand under his boots, and as he fell, he wondered whether now, finally, he would be allowed to sleep.

  I held my breath as I watched Torres go down on the feed from the lead marksman’s helmet-mounted video camera. The bullet hit him square in the side of the head, just in front of his right ear. The woman he’d been using as cover only seconds before was hysterical, but alive.

  Which was the prime objective.

  I had no idea why Torres let go of her, but in doing so he had given the sniper a clear shot. A shot he’d had to take, since it was clear that Torres was about to kill his hostage.

  I was fully aware of the probability that the siege would end with Torres dead. But knowing it didn’t make things any better. Navarro had yet again caused a bloodbath, and our only lead to him was dead.