“I know this isn’t something you expected, and it’s likely the very last thing you want, but it is what it is. We’re all here for the same reason—”
“And just what reason is that, boss?” Thud asked, taking the lead on the interrogation.
“Ourselves,” I answered. “None of us gives a damn about each other and I wouldn’t do you the disservice of pretending otherwise. We’re here because we have to be, each and every one of us strapped in for the ride, the bus careening out of control and there’s no Keanu to rescue us. I’m here because my friends are in danger, and while Maximus could have called off the hostilities at any time, he didn’t. That’s him showing me he’s in charge, that he’s holding all the cards. Whenever he wants, he can direct his resources at my friends and ruin their lives. The only thing keeping that from happening is me playing ball.”
I looked across the table and met the narrow stares of each and every member of the team in turn. Their expressions told me all I needed to know about their own situations, confirming what I’d thought about Thud earlier.
“And the same goes for all of you, I’m sure.” I pulled myself out of my seat and leaned on the table, staring them down. “We don’t need to be friends. In fact, we don’t even need to be polite to one another, but we’re all here for the same reason. Maximus has our frisky bits twisted in a knot, something ugly hanging over all of our heads, and we’re doing what needs to be done to keep that shit from crashing down on people we do care about.”
“And what’s your point?” Kit asked, her fingers unconsciously playing with one of the piercings at her lip. It was cute in a, “Fuck you,” kind of way.
“Maximus wants Shaw because she knows where the bodies are buried,” I said. “She’s been here from the start and knows which closet all of your skeletons are hanging in. I say we do exactly what the old boy wants and find Shaw before Maximus manages to clean up behind her.” I flopped back into my seat. “Life would be so much easier for all of us if we didn’t have an albatross hanging around our necks, don’t you think?”
“Damn straight it would be.” Thud chuckled low in his throat, so much the anarchist he’d side with anyone to keep from playing by the rules. “Fuck the system. I’m in, asshole.”
“That’s the spirit, Stubby.”
Styg tapped a black-nailed finger against the table, signaling what I imagined was his agreement with Thud’s sentiment. At least that’s how I took it. Kit sighed and nodded, giving in, and Poe let a sliver of a smile play across his thin lips. It didn’t take a mind reader to know he was down. I turned to look at Grace, the last holdout.
“And you?”
“You don’t think Maximus is just going to let us slip our leashes and run off, do you?”
I shook my head. “Nope, but I suspect Shaw has dirt on more than just you folks or he wouldn’t be so hot under the collar to have her brought in.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then we make sure we cover our asses and do what we need to, then worry about Maximus afterward.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
I shrugged. “It’s not gonna be easy at all, it’s just a matter of priorities. Right now, we might be near the top of his list but shit’s headed our way that’ll make all this nuke business seem like two toddlers brawling. We won’t be so damn important then, leaving us room to disappear if we’ve got all our crap in order.” Of course, I was blowing a bunch of smoke up their asses. If the Aliterean Consortium came calling, we’d all be bending over to take it raw.
“That makes me feel so much better,” she said.
“So? You in or not, sweetheart?”
Grace groaned. “I’m in as long as you never call me sweetheart again.”
“She prefers cinnamon tits,” Thud said, grinning from ear to ear. Grace slugged him in the arm, a good meaty thwack that had to have hurt, but he just kept on smiling.
I bit back a grin as she skull-fucked the demon with a glare until he relented and let the grin drop. I was starting to see the comparison now. “I presume you’ve had no luck finding Shaw’s trail,” I asked Poe in an attempt to distract myself from that last thought.
He shook his head. “She has managed to block my telepathic scans or is not on this plane of existence. Either is possible, I’m afraid, and I’m unable to determine which it might be, though I suspect it’s the latter.”
I didn’t figure Shaw would make things easy but I had to give it a shot. “You and Mopey Manson there,” I pointed to Thud, and then to Styg, “go and reconnoiter all the DSI safe houses you know about. It’s a long shot but I can only assume Maximus played the government ace and shut down all her bank accounts and seized any property she held openly to keep her from running far.”
“I did it for him actually,” Kit told me, “and I was very thorough, managing to uncover numerous accounts and offshore holdings she’d done her best to obscure.”
“Then all she’s got is whatever cash she managed to stash away for a rainy day. That’s probably a fair amount for a vacation but it ain’t shit against the resources we’ll be turning against her. If she’s sticking around on Earth, she’s gonna need some cash or someplace to stay. Check the more obscure DSI hidey holes first, boys. She’s got a couple day’s head start but she can’t have gone far yet. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Thud jumped up and saluted me as Styg drifted to his feet like an inebriated ghost.
“Stay in touch and don’t confront Shaw if she’s there.” I glanced Poe’s way. “You folks have some super-secret communication devices so we don’t lose contact, right?”
He slid a burner cell phone across the table to me, the group chuckling.
“Guess that works.” I picked it up and wiggled it at Thud. “Call us if you find her.”
“You got it, Boss.” Thud smacked Styg on the shoulder, laughing the whole while as the pair left.
I pointed to Poe as soon as they were gone. “Make sure no one’s knocking on DRAC’s door. I want the hounds called off before I do anything else for Maximus.” With most everyone in Hell they were safe but I wanted to make sure the pressure was off just in case I managed to give Maximus cause to do something rash.
It’s been known to happen.
“Also, put a lifeline in my head so I can contact you telepathically if I need to.” I held up the cell. “Too many places out there where this won’t work.”
Poe nodded and I felt the barest of tingles in the base of my skull. Then he pulled his own cell phone from his inside suit pocket, a twin of the one he’d given me, and auto-dialed a number as he got up. He strode to the other side of the room. I watched him pace for a moment, wondering what was running through his head, before shifting my focus to Kit.
“You have full access to the DSI data banks?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Good. Then pull up everything the government knows about Limbo: entries, exits, and the frilly bits. I want to see it all.”
Kit raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Just a hunch.” It had nothing to do with Shaw but metal-face didn’t need to know that.
“Okay.” She stood to a symphony of clinks and headed off to do what I’d asked of her, much to my surprise. It’s good to be the boss.
“And me?” Grace didn’t look all that excited to take orders but she did her best to fake it.
“You can deliver a message for me.”
“I live to serve, my lord.”
I kept my thoughts about that to myself and told her what I needed. Once she was gone I settled into my seat to wait for Poe to finish up. I was gonna need to know everything about my erstwhile employees in order to keep them in line and Poe knew as much as anyone outside of Shaw.
Four
Kit managed her tasks in record time, computer nerd that she is, so we lounged about in a quiet alleyway deep inside Old Town, waiting for Grace to do her part. She was late.
“You sure you gave her the right address?” I asked.
/>
“You gave her the address.”
“Are you sure I gave her the right address?”
Kit shook her head and let out a groan. “You’re making me miss Shaw, you know that?”
“I’ll be sure to tell her that when we find her.” Right before I put a foot in her ass.
Speaking of which, footsteps sounded on the sidewalk outside the alley and Kit and I glanced over to see Grace strutting toward us, her mission objective in tow, strolling behind her like an advertisement for the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Father Lance du Lac—or more appropriately, Lancelot, the current wielder of the sword Excalibur—looked every bit the part of the great knight of antiquity. His long gray hair was swept out of his face and pulled back tight behind his head, giving his expression a severe cast, eyes narrowed. A few days of stubble speckled his chin, a change from his usual perfectly clean countenance, which lent him an air of grittiness that toughened up the righteousness of his features. His armor gleamed in the dim light of the alley, the mix of chainmail and steel plates polished to perfection, the sheath of Excalibur maintained with obsessive detail. Despite the sheen of his outfit, though, he didn’t look quite as noble as he usually did, his shoulders seeming a bit slumped. He looked tired.
“About damn time,” I said, meeting his golden gaze. “Someone break your hourglass, Father?”
Lance grinned, the effort chasing away all hints of gloom lingering about him. “Not all of us can shirk our responsibilities as easily as you, Frank. Some of us have parishioners to attend to.”
“How obligated do you have to be when the source of your religion is off taking a siesta on company time?”
“His presence is not necessary to sustain faith.”
“Proof that God has the greatest PR in existence. Over two thousand years of radio silence and people are still screaming his name as they get their rocks off.”
“On that pleasant note,” Grace said, waving a hand between us, “can you maybe tell us why we’re here?”
“It’s like you people don’t trust me.”
Grace and Kit shared a look that said exactly that, each of them rolling their pretty little eyes.
“Fine, I’ve probably given you a reason or two to doubt me but…” I waggled my index finger, heading off the snarky commentary I could see coming, “I feel this is the best move we can make seeing how we don’t have any clues where Shaw is holed up. Since Poe can’t ping her on Earth, it makes sense to eliminate the other possibilities first, right?”
“And you think she’s in Limbo?”
“Seems as good a place as any to start. She’s not in Heaven and I can guarantee she’s not in Hell, so that doesn’t leave a ton of places for her to be.”
I didn’t really expect her to be in Limbo as, even with all the DSI knew about the place—having done their damndest to map it under Shaw’s reign, placing mystical buoys around the place to form a rudimentary GPS system—the dimension was simply too big, too untamed to be used as a long-term hideout. A person was far more likely to get lost or run into one of the ugly surprises the misty realm harbored than they were to successfully navigate Limbo and carve out their own niche. Still, I was hoping to find someone there. That was why I’d had Grace summon Lance.
“Get a portal open and let’s get this done with,” I said. “We’re wasting time.”
Kit sighed and held up the small device she’d been palming. A vague waft of magic tickled my senses when she activated the switch and the empty space before us began to shimmer and ripple. The hair on my arms tingled as Kit’s device split the dimensional wall and peeled open a passageway into Limbo. Shimmers of white and blue electricity cast dancing shadows across the alley walls as the gateway grew in size. A moment later, the opening wide enough for all of us to walk through, the portal steadied and gave off a quiet hum.
“Ladies first,” I said, shooing Grace and Kit inside.
The Nephilim muttered something under her breath and pulled out the two pieces of her strange kusarigama, crimson energy spilling loose of each to connect the bladed hook and pommel together with a mystical chain. Kit followed behind her, once more manipulating her techno-magic to turn the tiny little device into a massive hand cannon that would have looked right at home in a Predator movie.
Lance stepped into Limbo right behind them, his gauntleted fist hovering near the pommel of his sword. Last, but certainly not least, I went in after everyone else, dropping one of DRAC’s patented D/A bullets just inside the entryway, a subtle failsafe to ease my paranoia. Imbued with just enough blood of both an angel and a demon to make them deadly to supernatural kind, the ammunition had a distinct magical signature if you knew what to look for. It would get me back to the gateway if things went wonky.
Once we were inside, Kit narrowed the portal until it was just a pinprick at our backs, effectively invisible in the haze of gray fog that made up Limbo. Still, it left just enough of a lifeline to Earth that we weren’t completely cut off.
“You there, Poe?”
“I am indeed, Mister Trigg,” he answered inside my head, using the mental link we’d set up before leaving DSI headquarters. “And you know you don’t need to speak out loud for me to hear you, correct?” The smirks on everyone’s faces told me they could hear both sides of the conversation. I’d never gotten the hang of telepathic communication.
“Just focus on the mission, smartass. Can you use Kit’s thingamajig to expand your range?”
Little Miss Metal fidgeted with a wristband that looked part Fitbit, part Wonder Woman’s bracelet. Gold circuitry gleamed against the black. It was designed to amplify Poe’s telepathic scans like a wifi extender, or so I was told. Fuck if I knew how it worked but it supposedly gave Poe the ability to keep track of us while we traipsed through Limbo, as long as the portal stayed cracked, all while allowing him to search ahead for any trace of Shaw. Kit gave me a thumbs up to let me know it was switched on.
“It appears to be working,” Poe confirmed. “Reaching out now.”
As much as I wanted to kick Shaw’s ass for all the bullshit she’d stirred up I was kind of hoping against us stumbling across her in Limbo. If Maximus got what he wanted this early in the game, he wouldn’t have any reason to let me use the DSI resources to hunt Mike. I needed to drag things out a little for the telepath’s sake.
After a few, quiet moments, Poe popped back into our heads, his telepathic voice a bit dismayed. “She does not appear to within scanning range. Perhaps—”
“We need to go deeper,” I said, cutting him off and heading into the mist. Kit and Grace grumbled but followed me after a few seconds. Lance kept his mouth shut and came along, his head on a swivel, eyes narrowed in an attempt to peer through the swamp of gray. While the others had no clue as to why I’d wanted him there, Lance was a smart guy. He, no doubt, knew exactly why I’d brought him along.
We tromped on for maybe thirty minutes, time difficult to keep track of in Limbo, when Lance stiffened and came to a sudden halt. He glared off into the fog and I watched as his expression soured, upper lip peeling back in a perfect Elvis impersonation.
“Got something?”
He nodded. “Morgan.”
I bit back a smile. Morgan le Fay was exactly who I’d hoped to run across, Lance having already shown me how he was capable of bloodhounding her essence. That was the whole reason he was there.
Right after I’d killed Marduk, Morgan had fled deeper into Limbo to avoid having to duke it out with me, leaving the pitiful excuse of an archangel, Gabriel, to die miserably on his knees. A part of Gabriel’s inner circle, Morgan was the closest thing I had to a lead regarding Mike. If anyone knew where he was, it was her.
“Where?”
“This way.” He pointed in what appeared to be a random direction, one blurry place in Limbo the same as any other, and started off, drawing his sword. I was hot on his heels.
“She’s who you came here to find,” Grace said, sidling up alongside me. “We’r
e not here for Shaw at all, are we?” She glared at me and I kept walking.
“We don’t know where Shaw is so we’re looking everywhere, ruling places out. It’s just a sweet coincidence that another one of the DSI’s enemies happens to be here,” I answered, not meeting her eyes.
“Coincidence, huh?” Her voice made it clear she was giving me a dirty look, and not the fun kind. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that you left Morgan here and knew exactly where she would be. What are you really after, Frank?”
This exact reason was why I hated working with people. Despite being the Devil’s son, I’ve never been all that good at lying. Don’t get me wrong, I can keep secrets from the best of them, my lips sealed, the key tossed into the sewer and washed away, but straight up lying wasn’t a talent I was proficient with. It didn’t help that Grace was much smarter than her model looks would lead you to presume. She wasn’t just a pretty face and I’d forgotten that in my desperation to find Mike.
“The truth?”
“As much as you’re capable of being honest,” she told me. Kit inched closer to listen in. It was hardly the threesome I’d imagined.
“Fine.” I sighed. “You don’t think I took this damn job because I give a fuck what Maximus or the government wants, do you?”
Both ladies shook their heads.
“You’d be right then. I took it to get the DSI off DRAC’s ass and to use the organization’s resources to find Michael Li, who got caught up in all this bullshit because of Shaw and is now missing. He’s my priority.”
“So your speech in the meeting room was nothing more than bullshit to get us to fall in line?” There’s was no mistaking the grating fury in Kit’s voice. Her tongue-piercing clacked against her teeth, punctuating every word.
“No, that part was true,” I admitted, and I really meant it. “I don’t know what Maximus is holding over everyone’s heads to keep you in line but I can guess the nature of it. And while my intentions might not be altruistic, they rarely are if we’re being honest, it benefits me far more to have you free of that obligation than it does for me to leave you dangling under it. As long as the DSI exists, we’re at odds. If I can break those chains, you get to go about your business and I get to evict you monkeys from my back for good.” I pointed to the ground, wisps of gray dancing at the sudden gesture. “This is the start of that, whether you believe me or not. Shaw was my problem, and now it’s Maximus and his string-pullers, but the rest of you are just pawns in all this, no offense. We’re not enemies, we’ve simply been forced into contention. I’m more than happy to make it so that never happens again.”
Institutionalized (Demon Squad Book 10) Page 4
