“All right then, let’s call this a détente for the moment and agree not to escalate.”
He took a minute before conceding our little truce with a nod.
“Fantastic. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about what I came here for in the first place.”
“Which is?”
“That shit like this,” I motioned to the destruction all around us, “likely wouldn’t have happened had I been informed of everything that Shaw knew of your organization. I’m chasing my tail, trying to dig up information that no one in the DSI knows but you and her. How the hell am I supposed to get ahead of Shaw if she knows how the DSI works better than I do?”
“So you want to know all our secrets? Is that what you’re asking?”
“I don’t give a rat’s pecker about your secrets, Maximus,” I was so totally lying, “but Shaw has the advantage here. She attacked you at a location I didn’t even know existed. She’s using the money she’s stealing from you to raid your buildings. She’s fomenting chaos by using the connections she’s made through the DSI,” I said. “All of this might well have been curtailed had you taken the time to inform me, to truly inform me of the resources and contacts she has available to her. It’s not like you can’t just shuffle the deck the moment I’m done taking out Shaw, slipping your aces back into your sleeve.”
Maximus swallowed hard, clearly debating whether or not he was going to entrust me with his secrets. At last, he looked as if he had made his decision.
“I will tell you everything you need to know, but be warned, Triggaltheron, do not attempt to cross us. My masters would be most displeased.”
My masters would be so displeased, I mimicked in my head, wishing Chatterbox were there to mock this asshole with me.
“Scout’s honor,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes and turned away, waving me on. “Then walk this way, Triggaltheron, so we might find someplace secure to have our discussion.”
I was so tempted to imitate his stuffy strut but I restrained myself. Mel Brooks would be so disappointed.
Eight
Maximus had been true to his word.
Not long after he and I chatted, I found myself outside a nice house in a well-to-do neighborhood on the west side of El Paseo. A stone brick wall, with tall wrought iron fencing that rose in spikes, skirted the house, though the gate was open and there were no cars in the driveway. The windows had been shuttered with those rolling metal security shutters and the porch light was on despite it being daytime.
I casually strolled down the sidewalk, glancing about to make sure no one saw me, and then slipped into the yard and headed toward the back. There was a short gate separating the front and back yards, but I hopped it easily, and circled the house. A nice pool and manicured yard greeted me, a fancy pavilion set near the corner, but the place was silent, not even the birds chirping. The pool had been left uncovered and hadn’t been cleaned in at least a few days, a layer of brown dirt shifting about at the bottom of it.
Like the front, the windows were all blocked off but the wrought iron security door at the back allowed for me to stick my hands between the bars and grab the knob inside. Comfortable that the eight-foot wall that surrounded the backyard would cover me and most any noise I made, I squeezed and twisted the knob, crushing it in my hands and yanking it forward. There was a muffled crunch and pop and the door swung open. Then I just put my shoulder into the inside door and cracked the frame, bursting inside.
I’d subdued my senses since I’d arrived, just to be sure no one picked me up before I made entry, but seeing how I’d just ripped the door from its frame, the need for stealth was gone. My senses lashed out, doing a quick and dirty search of the home as I darted down the hallway. They rang back empty, though I’d pretty much expected that.
After all, it was Shaw’s son’s house.
I hadn’t even known she had a kid, and neither did the rest of the team. If any of us had, we could have swung by here earlier and possibly caught Shaw before she vanished on us. Instead, she’d snatched her kid up to make sure we couldn’t leverage him like she had the rest of the DSI folks.
Much as I hated the woman, I had to give her credit. If you looked up the word devious in the dictionary, her picture would be right there, grinning, flipping you the bird.
Still, despite her caution, she couldn’t eradicate her entire existence in the short amount of time she’d had, so there I was at her kid’s house, snooping through the dirty laundry for clues.
Well, not literally the laundry. That’d kind of be creepy.
Anyway, after clearing the laundry room, which was set right beside the back door I’d come through, I circled the kitchen. It was neat and clean and didn’t offer me anything of value except for the fact that Shaw’s son—Jonathan—had a chub for expensive, high caffeine coffee.
I liked him already.
So, after setting a cup to brew, I traipsed into the living room. There wasn’t much more to it than the kitchen. The place looked more like a showroom than a home. Everything was in its rightful place, clean and orderly, magazines on the coffee table, remote set dead center of the pile.
“Somebody’s got a wee bit of OCD,” I muttered, circling around the couch to examine the bookshelves set on either side of the big screen TV.
Expensive artwork covered the walls. It was a bit abstract for my tastes but it highlighted the cluster of certificates and degrees framed and stuck up on the wall. I went over and scanned them, noting that Shaw’s kid had done well for himself. The biggest of the certificates read:
St. Edward’s University
Doctor of Religious Studies
Jonathan Keyser
Not living off Mommy, even to the point of using a different last name, he had gone out and earned a doctorate, focusing on ancient religions and mythology and mastering in anthropology on top of it all.
That was an interesting coincidence given our current predicament. Even more convinced I could find something now, I took in the rest of the room.
I’m not sure what I expected, seeing how Shaw was Jonathan’s mother, after all, but both of the shelves were covered in books about the occult and witchcraft on top of those about ancient religions, finished off by all sorts of mystical paraphernalia on display. It all reminded me of Abe and my stomach knotted.
I missed the old guy.
As capable as Rahim and Rachelle were, Abraham had been the heart and soul of DRAC. His every breath infused the organization with life, and we’d crashed and burned without him, barely able to cope with all the shit the world was throwing at us. He’d been there for me every time I needed him. Too bad I couldn’t say the same for me. While I didn’t blame myself—too much—for his death these days, there was no mistaking I’d played a role in it. It sickened me to think of what we lost that day, the day he was murdered right before my eyes. If he were still alive—
I cut that thought loose of its tether and tugged one of the books out. Now wasn’t the time to rip open old wounds. I had a mission to accomplish and needed to get out of there, seeing how all the dust in the room was making my eyes water.
Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I flipped through a book on mythology, riffling the pages until a bitter tingle at the base of my skull told me I wasn’t alone. Tossing the book on the shelf, I spun around, trailing the mystical essences I’d picked up, and found myself face to face with Rebecca Shaw.
And she had brought a friend.
“On my very long lists of reasons to kill you, Trigg, stalking about my son’s home is at the very top.” At her side was Nergal, whole and hale and grinning at me with pit bull intensity. He looked a whole lot less maggoty than the last time I’d seen him.
“Didn’t we kill you?” I asked.
He shrugged.
I hated when the bad guys had a Get Out of Death card.
“Why are you here, Frank?” Shaw glared at me, and I could feel her power swirling about he
r. She knew damn well she couldn’t take me out—even with the plague gods help—but she was gonna be ready no matter what went down. And as much as I wanted to smoke her right there, I still needed to find out where Mike and Rala were.
“I think that’s obvious, Shaw, but I guess you got ahead of us on this one, whisking your kid away in the nick of time.”
She smiled, dropping the temperature in the room a good ten degrees. My sack shriveled in the cold.
“As much as I would love to disembowel you and leave your intestines for the neighborhood cats to feast on, my fight is not with you right now.”
That was damn specific. “Then prove that by returning my people to me, unharmed. They’re all I give a damn about. This shit between you and Maximus can stay that way. You can kill him and both of us can breathe easier.”
She shook her head. “It isn’t that easy, Frank.”
I twisted my head to the side, popping my neck and taking a warning step closer, my magic welling. “No, it really is.” Nergal’s grin broadened and I was afraid he might poke his eyes out with his dimples in all his excitement.
“If you truly care about your friends’ lives, do not threaten me.” She locked her eyes onto mine, déjà vu kicking in, reminding me of my earlier face off with Maximus. I didn’t like the feeling of being helpless. “They are in the possession of someone who cares nothing about you or your desires. Should you cross her, she will snuff the life from both of them without a thought and there is nothing you nor I can do to stop it.”
Much as I wanted to rip Shaw’s head off and piss down her neck, I couldn’t risk the lives of Rala and Mike just so I could get some petty revenge. “Tell me who this someone is and I’ll figure out what can be done. No one kidnaps my friends without consequence.”
Shaw laughed in my face. “That’s not going to happen, Trigg. The only way out for them is for you to walk away and stop interfering in our business.”
“What business is that?” While I was fairly certain Shaw would only tell me what she wanted me to know, I felt compelled to press, to see if I could get something out of her that she didn’t mean to share; something that might lead me to where Rala and Mike were being held.
I reached out to Poe while I waited for her answer. Time to tune in, buddy. His telepathic nod tingled in my skull, letting me know he’d hitched a ride on my senses.
“Maximus and his masters,” she answered. “I intend to kill each and every one of them before I’m done.”
“And the others, Grace and Kit and the rest?”
“If they stay clear, then I have no issue with them. The same goes for you.”
“We’ve played this game before, Shaw, and I’m sure you remember how that turned out.”
She nodded. “This time will be different, that I promise.”
“Sure sounds like the start of a supervillain monologue to me. All that’s missing are your hands on your hips and a maniacal laugh. Maybe a laser shark or two. You’ve got the brainless brawn aspect down pat.” I gestured to Nergal with my chin.
“Believe as you will, Frank, but when the bodies of the DSI overlords lay in repose, you will see the truth of it all.” Casting a glance at Nergal, she pointed a long-nailed finger toward the shelf.
The dark god started forward and I sidestepped to get out of his way. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him, having whooped his ass easily enough once already, but I didn’t want to provoke anything more than I already had. It took way more restraint than I expected to reposition myself so I could watch both him and Shaw. Off to my right, Nergal grabbed what looked like a golden amulet off the shelf, but before I could determine exactly what it was, he hid it from me, clutching it to his chest.
“Mind your place, Frank, and you’ll see your friends again,” Shaw said, clearly trying to provoke and distract me from what Nergal had grabbed. While it didn’t work, the stocky plague god slipped the broach behind his back as he returned to stand alongside Shaw.
Any chance you saw that?
“No,” came the ethereal answer. “I can only see what you can, and he grasped the item too quickly for me to identify it.”
I sighed, realizing what I’d been looking for there had likely just been snatched away right under my nose. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice then, do I?”
“No you don’t,” Shaw replied, power manifesting around her, the dimensional wall being cleaved open.
I felt Poe narrowing his focus through me but Nergal wasn’t gonna be so generous as to allow us to see what lay behind the rift. Just like with the amulet, he played defensive. A swarm of locusts appeared out of nowhere, the buzzing, flittering mass of icky green blocking our view. I hissed and cut a swath through the insects, my magic mirroring a shovel but it was too late. The portal rippled and died away before we had a chance to pick out any details from the shimmering gate. The locust withered the instant he was gone, gray dust fluttering to the ground and filling the room with a fetid stench.
“I cannot sense her or Nergal any longer,” Poe told me, disappointment in his disconnected voice. “Wherever they went, it is not on Earth.”
Shit!
I so hated that woman. She was a pox on my life, like a bad case of herpes, always popping up when she was least wanted. But at least now I had a better idea as to what she was trying to accomplish. This wasn’t between me and her, not really, though I’m sure it would be eventually. That bridge had been left to burn a long time back.
She wanted to drag Maximus and his bosses—whoever they were—through the muck for whatever reason. Not that I could blame her. I’d only worked for the guy for a few hours and I already wanted to kill him. Still, I was kind of stuck in the middle, both sides willing to come after me and mine if I broke ranks. Unfortunately for Maximus, Shaw had the upper hand and had put me in check. That left me few options. I was gonna have to ride the fence until I saw which way the field shifted and go from there.
I only hoped I didn’t get pulled down the middle. Nothing good would come from splitting that wishbone.
Nine
“They have to be in the Interstice,” I muttered under my breath, pacing back and forth in the wrecked conference room while the rest of the team puttered about, doing whatever it is they do.
Poe had told me that Father Lance had checked in while I was gone, and he still hadn’t been able to track down Morgan, either in Limbo or here on Earth. Maximus had given me the information I needed to know with regards to the DSI super jails spread across the country, which told that there were five more of them that hadn’t been hit by Gabriel but they were monitored remotely at all times. While he hadn’t told me where they were, he had given me access codes to the system so I could peek in on them as long as the rest of the team wasn’t around. None of the jails housed Shaw and, according to Maximus, she didn’t know their location anyway. That was one of the few secrets he’d managed to keep from her, just as he had from me.
Now with Poe being unable to latch on and follow Shaw, no way she’d been able to slip on a neural blocker between her vanishing and arrival, wherever that was, all fingers were pointing toward God’s unnatural prison dimension as there wasn’t anywhere else she could disappear so completely.
Still, there was a hint of uncertainty. Was it possible for someone to gate directly into the Interstice from Earth without the ritual spell? I mean, it made sense that it could be done, but the reading of the spell seemed the only way to crack the wall between dimensions. It was an involved process, the portal opening slowly, unlike what Shaw was doing, ripping it open and poofing almost instantaneously.
Maybe her innate magic just made it that much easier. Rala could do it because she understood the language of the spell, but she didn’t have any natural mystical powers. That could explain the difference.
It had to.
“I’m picking up a whole lot of chatter along the supernatural channels,” Kit said, her voice catching me off guard, lost as I was in my thoughts.
“What do
es that even mean?”
She shook her head. “It means an attack is imminent, given how much traffic is appearing across the boards.”
I stared at her, waiting for her to go on. While I got the basic gist of what she was talking about while using CNN as a sleep aid, I still didn’t know what all it entailed.
“Fantasma is featured in a lot of the intercepted conversations, those involved in the group going dark, and those not involved, heading for cover.” She motioned to something on her laptop that looked like math, symbols and number flowing across the screen in a steady stream that made no sense to me. I shrugged at it. “Fantasma is planning an attack, something big, though I can’t pinpoint what exactly given the nature of the intel.”
“Shit.” Just what I needed. This had to be Shaw’s doing, setting them up to rattles DSI’s cage and keep the team busy while she did whatever she needed to in order to get to Maximus and his faceless masters.
That was the one thing the old boy wouldn’t divulge; who he was working for or why. Shaw knew though, and that scared Maximus. And while I didn’t give a damn if the two of them killed each other in a blaze of glory, the fact that some unknown, powerful organization, whose motives remained a mystery, remained in place to manipulate shit behind the scenes bothered me. They would have to be dealt with but I’d have to figure them out first. Not even Lucifer’s memories had a clue, not that I’d expected them to. Fifty years is a long time in the evolution of supernatural politics.
Fortunately, his memories were quite useful in other matters.
I turned to Grace, waving her over. “You and the team go throttle Fantasma’s head honchos and see if you can head this attack off, or at least figure out what the hell they’re planning.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Follow up a hunch,” I answered. “Before you go, I need about a hundred foot soldiers, armed and armored and prepared for recon in hostile territory.”
Institutionalized (Demon Squad Book 10) Page 8
