I reach down, pick up one of the pistols, and level it at idiot one.
“Now, take me to Nal or you will find this gun in a rather unpleasant area.”
Idiot two stands up and walks me to the suite.
“Mitch, glad to see you. Guess those cops won’t be bothering us anymore, eh?” Nal says. If you had the balls to say it, he is a rather nerdy guy. The last guy you would expect to see running a crime ring. What he makes up in looks though, he makes up in brains. In times like this, the later is more important.
“Not unless they raise from the dead. Took down the whole pack. The sheriff I got in his sleep, nice and clean. The others,” I pause for dramatic effect. “I can’t really tell you what I did to them. You may want to get a few guys out there to take pictures, though. Was the best display yet.”
“Doesn’t it ever bother you, the work I have you do?”
“I’ll be honest. I’d rather be in sales.” If there was a sales job open now, I would probably take it. The problem is that those jobs used to pay in cash. While we still use the same currency, supplies are now much more valuable. Believe me, I miss the days when you could buy two cans of corn for a dollar.
Nal laughs leading me to one of the side rooms. He opens the door revealing a nice large cache of food and other supplies. Mainly can can goods and ammunition. This is the modern version of Fort Knox, unless someone figured out how we can eat gold. While I am standing in a sea of wealth, over in the corner is my prize.
Behind the crossbow and leaning stack of sniper rifles is a sword. Not any sword, but the sword used by the angel Tamiel. He was one of the first angels to come down after the Rising and one of the first to die. This is why I never even considered the Marines after high school. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be in a hurry.
I really don’t care that Tamiel owned it before Nal got his mitts on it. I just want the blade to help with my demon problems.
“Where’d you get her?” I ask, trying not to cut myself while trying to do some Jackie Chan moves with it.
“Couple of my boys picked it up on the riverfront. They say Tam died there, trying to shut down the rift.”
It makes sense. Not long after the Rising, a pack of demons had come straight into St. Louis. They planned to use the arch to create one large portal straight to the hells.
Yes, there are more than one. I’ve seen at least three of them. Ole Eunie tells me he has seen eight, but I digress.
They were attempting to do a flat-out hostile takeover of the Midwest. Something similar to what Hitler tried in World War II. Tamiel led the group that moved in to destroy the portal. He supposedly died destroying the portal. When the portal went, half of the Landing went with it. So much for the beautification initiative a few years back.
“Well Nal, it has been a pleasure, as always.” I put the sword back in its sheath and attach it to my belt. I’m three steps from the door when I hear my name.
“They found something else while they were downtown that you may be interested in.”
I turn around and look straight at Nal. The bastard knew how to get my attention, I’ll give him that. “And that is?”
He holds up a small black notebook. It almost looks like my sister’s old diary that I may or may not have read a few dozen times. “Blaine’s journal. It is full of notes on how he was able to control his demon.”
“You always believe everything you read?” I say. “You can’t control them. You just set up a mutually acceptable working agreement ahead of time so you know who gets to play and when.” Sadly, I did want that journal. If there was even a sliver of truth behind it I might not have to clean up many more of Eunie’s messes. “What’s the job?”
“I want you to take out Duncan Stansbery.”
“The guy who runs Memphis? He is well out of your territory, isn’t he?”
He walks up and pulls out his phone. He shows me a dozen or so text messages from his people on the east side all complaining about some new guys coming in, demanding taxes. Considering the nature of the businesses on the east side, the tax could be ass or grass. It would take some enormous balls to tax Nal’s gas, but something tells me Duncan has some big ones.
“He has been sending his people this way for a while now. For the most part they have just hit us on the outskirts, nothing that really hurts us here.”
“Then why send me down to Memphis? Just have me hit his lackeys.” Unless he has some massive intelligence network, there wouldn’t be a reason to head down there. His guys could be dead for months before he even caught wind of it.
“You aren’t going to Memphis,” he says. “I think he has set up somewhere on the north side.” He shows me more messages from the guys he has in charge up north. They normally check in twice a week, every Wednesday and Saturday. They have done it for months without fail. “Two weeks ago, things up north went black. It’s not like the boys to not send word after this long.”
“Perhaps they went rogue.” Doubtful, they know that Nal would call me. He makes a habit of showing off my handiwork when he can.
“I considered it. That is why I want to send you. You come back with Duncan’s head, or with the heads of Jason and Mark, and the journal is yours.”
“One of these days, you’re going to have to clean up your own shit storms,” I say walking towards the door. “As long as you keep getting some nice shiny toys I guess I’ll keep being your maid. Just don’t expect me to wear one of those short, sexy skirts.”
“Bad visual man,” Nal winced. He definitely got the visual.
“Tell your guys in the kitchen I’m heading down to get a case of Diet Coke and a bag of salt.”
“Why the hell do you need salt?” He asks giving me one hell of a look.
“Don’t ask.”
-3-
My first order of business is to check in with Sara, my tech girl.
She is hot. Not hot in a Gisele sort of way, but hot in a sexy librarian right down the the nerdy glasses and pony-tail kind of way. If I need information on anything, she can find it in about as much time as it takes me to piss. The best part is that she only accepts two forms of payment. Sex and Diet Coke. Too bad for me her sex machine is closed.
Guess that is what I get for walking home drunk wearing some stripper’s panties around my neck.
“Why hello there, beautiful.” I place the case of soda at her feet.
“What do you want now, asshole?”
Ouch. Guess it is going to take a lot more than some Diet Coke to fix this one.
“Nal has another job for me. Some dude named Duncan Stansbery has been harassing some of the border ops for the last few weeks. He wants me to go all Kane from Mortal Kombat on his ass and bring him his head.” Part of me wants to do the move, but the humor would probably be lost on her.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Let’s see. We start with the soda that I had to give Nal entirely too much for and I’ll throw in dinner at that fancy steak place you like.” I can remember the days when the dinner would have been enough to persuade my wife to do something for me. Considering they haven’t reopened the Coke plant, the soda is the deal maker here.
“I think we are on two different pages here, Mitch.” It’s a cold day in hell when the soda doesn’t seal the deal.
“Name your price, then.”
“I want in. I’m tired of sitting here in the house while you get to have all of the fun.”
It’s that argument again. It’s been about seven years since I last had this fight with a woman. The last time was about my wife staying at home to raise our son. She wanted to get back to work immediately after having him, but I didn’t want to have him in daycare. In hindsight, we should have had the conversation before we started having kids.
“Darlin, this is work for a man.” I say, grabbing a beer from the fridge.
“Mans work?”
Yeah, it didn’t turn out well back then either.
“Sarah, honey. These are bad men. This guy
took over Memphis by force. He killed anybody who tried to get in his way. It may not seem like it, but I do love you and don’t want you to get hurt”
“I’m not the type of girl to sit and home and raise the kids. You should try having to sit in here all day looking at these same walls. The only thing that ever changes is what I pull up on the net.”
As a teen, I would have loved that life. Give me the house to myself and a computer and I’m good for hours, days even. She is right, though. After a few days, even that would get boring.
“Then you have to take this.” I hand her the pistol I grabbed from idiot number two at the hotel. “I don’t expect you to be able to use it, but it may just be enough to get someone to hesitate long enough for me to take down”
She takes the gun, placing it in her pants at the small of her back. “Give me two hours.”
I don’t know who said power naps were a good thing, but if I ever meet them, I am going to kick their ass. Every time I take one, I always end up feeling about thirty times worse when I wake up than I did before laying down. Thankfully, Sara is a coffee aficionado and carries the good shit. Not the weak ass breakfast blend that my wife used to buy. This stuff will actually give you the shakes after a couple of cups, just the stuff I need right about now.
“What did you come up with.” I give her a peck on the cheek. No sense in pushing things too fast yet.
“You are right about Memphis. He did some pretty nasty things there.” She taps the mouse a few times and pulls up his website.
“Wow, that dude is bold. Naming himself King after Memphis. Gotta take over a lot more than one little redneck town to call yourself King.”
“You don’t know much about Memphis, do you?”
I really don’t. I know it was in Tennessee. That’s all I care to know. “He came here to expand his reach.”
“I would have skipped this shit hole and went straight north to Chicago. Taking that large of a city would help his cause.”
“The problem is…” She pulls up another website. “Chicago is firmly in demon hands.”
“Well, they did vote for gun control. It only took the Rising to prove how stupid that was.” Chicago was supposed to be the city that proved gun control works. Our after-fathers didn’t have the same conviction that our forefathers once had. They claimed that the second amendment was only to protect the use of a militia, which we had no need for. Demons trying to take your home, your life, your soul… seems like a pretty good time to need a militia.
“Besides, St. Louis is still a good target. To get across the country by the highway, the fastest route usually passes right through downtown. Then you add control of the water traffic north and south on the Mississippi and you have a winner. It’s amazing that the city wasn’t bigger than what it was.”
“So, let’s just say that you are a king invading another territory. What would you hit first?”
“The first things we had to scramble to get back online after the Rising. The power plants.” No hesitation, that’s why I like her.
She is right, too much still relies on electricity. Sure, it is not as reliable as it was before the Rising, but it’s still hard to think of life without it.
“Nal has plenty of men at the stations. He would’ve told me if someone tried to take one of them,” I say as I down the rest of my coffee.
Then it dawns on me. The only reason he wouldn’t make a play on the power stations is if he knows Nal is holding a trump card. That is why he hit the guys on the east side and why it looks like he took over the north. “He wants to pull me out in the open.” Seems like someone else knows how to do his research.
“What is the plan, then?”
“Let’s take a trip up north, see things for ourselves.”
-4-
We pull into a parking lot somewhere close to the barbecue joint where my friend Jim used to take me to. The thing I loved most about that place was the smoked ribs. It’s a shame they were only open three days a week. I could never remember which days they were open or closed. Usually that just meant that I was just stopping off for a burger somewhere instead.
“What are we looking for?” Sara asks while grabbing the bag of chips from my hands.
“Jason and Mark were in charge of a prostitution ring on this side of town. The first order of business is to see if the girls are still in service.” I reach over and take my chips back. Why is it women never want anything from the store until the moment you go to eat it? My wife loved doing that with fries. After a while I made it a point get another order of them, otherwise I wouldn’t get any of them.
“Are you sure we are in the right spot? There is nobody out here.” She takes the bag of chips back, hiding them between her seat and door.
“It’s still early. The girls are usually split on the northeast and southwest corners. One on each corner.” I pull the lever, reclining my seat. “Wake me up when you see something.” If she is going to snag my chips, she can take the watch. Maybe if it’s boring enough, she won’t want to come along.
It takes a while with all the crunching, but eventually I fall asleep.
* * *
My eyes jar open when I hear a popping sound in my ear.
I sit up to look for the source of the noise. When Sara breaks into a maniacal laughing fit, I know. Guess that means the chips are gone.
“See something?”
“The girls just stepped outside.”
I open the glove box and pull out a pair of binoculars to take a peek. Nancy and Lacy drew the first shift. Glad to see the normal girls are still here. “Let’s wait here for a few minutes and see if anything happens.”
I keep scanning the area looking for anything odd. Nal has always made it a point to stress what I would do to them if they decided to go into business for themselves. The upside to his management style is that he has no problems trusting his guys with anything. From there, the trust usually passes down the supply chain.
I catch a glimpse of a guy about a block away keeping a close eye on the girls. Someone has to have taken over because they don’t realize the girls are probably the most trustworthy ones of the bunch. Nal takes good care of his girls.
I start the car and drive towards Nancy. “Okay, I just need you to act natural.”
“What are you going to do?”
I look over and smile. The look in her eyes is one of concern. Or is it pure terror? It doesn’t matter, because it’s too late to turn around.
I pull up to the corner and roll down my window. On cue, Nancy walks over to the car.
“Looking for some company tonight?” Nancy bends over, her breasts struggling to stay inside her loose fitting shirt. Those were her main selling points. The other girls hate working the corner when she is out thanks to them. Not that they hated her, she is a doll. They just hated that her 38Es leave them standing a while longer between customers.
“Why yes, we are.” I look over at Sara. She is looking at me, wide eyed, shaking her head.
Nancy looks in closer. She must notice I have company in the car. “I don’t do threesomes darlin,” she says.
“Oh, it’s not a threesome,” I say. “I just like to watch.” I flash a toothy smile which she returns.
“Two hundred an hour. Up front.” Price increase. Either someone is getting greedy or they are looking to make a point. It is probably a little of both.
“Little out of my budget.” A lot out of my budget, and she knows it. This isn’t my first romp with her. I look over at Sara and shrug my shoulders.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She reaches down and pulls out two crisp Benjamin’s out of her purse before handing them to Nancy.
“There is a motel about a mile north of here.” She opens the door and sits down in the back seat.
“We don’t need a motel.” I put the car into drive and take off.
“The new boss won’t like that.” Another change, Nal doesn’t care where the girls go as long as the money was good and they
came back in one piece.
“Then he really won’t like this.” I slam my foot on the gas and take aim at the creeper watching the girls. He jumps behind a mailbox moments before eating my bumper.
I make two quick right turns. I need to make my way back towards the interstate, pronto. Shit is about to get real and I’m not about to get lost on some side streets. “What happened to Jason and Mark?”
“Dead. Shawn’s in charge now.” She looks out the back window. She knows the drill. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten her out of a jam. Something tells me it won’t be the last.
“Seems like a trusting guy.” Two cars swerve around the corner behind us. It doesn’t take long to learn they aren’t friendly. In my rear-view mirror I see the passengers leaning out their windows and start unloading their guns at us.
“Time to learn how to use the gun, darlin’.” I put my hand on Sara’s leg.
“I never thought I would actually have to use it,” she says, taking the gun out of her purse.
In the rear-view mirror, I watch the passengers fire at us with the accuracy of stormtroopers. As long as I can hold this distance, we should be safe. That feeling lasts as long as it takes for me to look at my fuel gauge. I wish I got Nal to throw in a tank of gas. I don’t have enough in the tank for this chase to last more than an hour or so.
“If you aren’t going to use it, hand it here.” Nancy reaches up and grabs the gun from Sara’s hands. “Mitch, I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
She levels the pistol and fires, taking out my back window. Winter is about to get a lot colder. It might finally be time to trade her in.
I turn onto the ramp leading onto the highway and floor it. The two Camaros behind us must be flooring it a bit harder, because they are on my ass within about thirty seconds. Guess the highway wasn’t my brightest idea.
In the backseat I hear Nancy continuing to exchange fire with the thugs behind us. After a minute there is a lull in her shots.
Demontouched: The Demontouched Saga (Book 1) Page 2
