Between Heaven and Hell

by Jeff Kirvin

  “Gotcha.”

  Susan turned her attention back to the PC and found it asking for a password. Damn! she thought. She should have known that with all the other security Zagam wouldn’t leave his computer unprotected, but she had allowed herself to hope anyway. She already lucked out by guessing Steve’s password, and she could only do that because she knew so much about him that she could guess his likely choices. This demon she knew practically nothing about except that he was an unimaginative career bureaucrat, went by the human identity of Richard Birchmere and his true demonic name was—

  Susan’s hands flew to the keyboard and she typed the name “Zagam”.

  The login screen disappeared and Zagam’s desktop lay before her, ripe for plundering.

  She was in.

  The Burden of Proof

  Daniel tried to follow Zagam as closely as possible without being noticed. The demon was headed downtown, probably towards the Social Security building.

  Daniel was still a little riled over Jeff’s question. He knew exactly what he was up against, and that was the best part. For the first time in what felt like years, Daniel knew what was going on, what needed to be done. Granted, what needed to be done was to eradicate an immortal race of beings that had preyed on mankind for centuries, but at least he knew he wasn’t going mad.

  Trying not to follow too close, Daniel trailed Zagam deeper into the labyrinthine, traffic circle infested maze that was downtown Washington D.C.

  Zagam pulled up first at a red light, Daniel two car lengths behind. With no warning, Zagam lurched across the intersection to a blare of horns.

  “Damn!” Daniel shouted as he too leaned on his horn. He should have known a creature that had been around as long as Zagam could spot, and easily lose, a tail. As soon as the car in front of him was clear, Daniel sped down the streets of Washington, headed for the Social Security building.

  As he pulled up in front of the granite building, Zagam’s car was nowhere to be seen. The demon wasn’t there, but Daniel thought he had a pretty good idea where Zagam was going. He hit the gas and sped back the way he came.

  Susan had hit paydirt. Almost everything she could want was in Zagam’s computer. Dossiers of thousands of angels and demons, complete histories, current identities, everything. Susan pulled an optical disk out of her bag and started the transfer. There was a lot of data, and the copy would take quite a while. She started poking around the room for anything interesting.

  As she expected based on Daniel’s account of Batarel’s apartment and their examination of Zagam’s trash, the books on the shelves were numerous, but limited in scope. The overwhelming majority were either world history or theology.

  On the top shelf to the far left was a dusty, leather bound tome so seemingly ancient that any print on the binding had long since faded from sight. As the progress indicator on the file copy inched slowly towards completion, Susan took the book down and opened it.

  Outside and down the street, Jeff kept vigilant with his binoculars. Daniel had been gone a long time, and it seemed like he’d waited forever just since the last time Susan checked in.

  Though Jeff was still serious and committed to help, the reality of what they were doing was making him increasingly uneasy. He’d come to accept the idea that the creatures they were plotting against were the actual demons of legend, and while it strengthened his resolve, it terrified him at the same time.

  As Jeff panned back up the street, he caught sight of the now familiar gunmetal Mercedes and almost dropped his binoculars. He scrambled for the walkie-talkie.

  “Susan, come in,” hissed Jeff’s voice over the tinny speaker.

  Susan hurriedly shoved the book into her bag and keyed the walkie-talkie. “Yes?”

  “He’s back. I can see his car coming up the street.”

  “But, Daniel—”

  “Is nowhere to be seen. Get out of there. Now.”

  Susan turned her eyes to the computer screen. The copy was almost, but not quite, finished. Susan spared an anxious look towards the door, then picked up the walkie-talkie again.

  “I can’t leave yet,” she whispered. “It’s not done.”

  “You don’t have a choice, kiddo. He’s pulling into the driveway. Get out, right now. Take the back door. I mean it.”

  Susan turned off the walkie-talkie and sat down facing the computer. The progress indicator bar read 98% and was moving too slowly to discern.

  Outside, she heard a car door slam.

  99%.

  Susan looked at the window, above her and to the right. It faced the street, and there was a small section of roof beneath it, leading down to a ten-foot drop over the driveway.

  She heard the front door open.

  100%. The computer was silent once more.

  “Conan!” she heard Zagam shout.

  Ripping the disc out of the computer and slamming it into her bag, Susan got up on the computer desk and tried to open the window.

  It wouldn’t budge.

  “Here, boy,” Zagam called, sounding much closer this time. Susan wrenched the window with every ounce of force she had.

  It moved. Only an inch or so at first, then it flew open as the last of the dirt and corrosion that held it shut broke free.

  Susan threw her bag out the window, then followed it as quickly as she could. After a brief pause to collect it outside, she leapt into space.

  Landing on the hard, concrete driveway brought a sharp, stabbing pain to her right ankle and bright spots to her eyes. Shaking it off as much as she could, she limped away into the darkness and was out of sight when the light came on in Zagam’s computer room.

  Daniel met up with the Winnebago at the designated rendezvous, a supermarket parking lot. When he walked in the door, he found Jeff and Susan in jubilant conversation.

  “This is fantastic!” Jeff exclaimed.

  “Isn’t it, though?” Susan answered smugly.

  Daniel walked over to where they were and looked over Jeff’s shoulder at Susan’s notebook computer. It was cycling through a database of faces, alongside columns of text. Names, aliases, histories. Everything they needed to track down any demon in the world.

  “Incredible,” Daniel whispered.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” Susan smiled. She got up and limped across the cabin. “And that’s not even the best part.”

  “What happened to your leg?” Daniel asked.

  Susan shrugged. “I had to jump out of Zagam’s house. Can’t let you hog all the action.”

  She picked up the ancient leather book she found in Zagam’s study. “This,” she said, “is the cool part.” She handed the book to Daniel.

  Daniel unlatched the book and opened it, noting that the book was very, very old. The text was a dialect of Latin he couldn’t fully decipher.

  “What is it?”

  Susan sat back down next to the computer. “It appears to be a text written by a monk around 500 A.D. It’s a detailed history of angels and demons, and it jibes much more with what Uriel told us than what we learned in the Bible.”

  “You can read this?”

  “I studied a lot of languages in school. It’s amazing how knowing other languages increases your ability to communicate in English. It’s a very uncommon dialect of Latin, but I can make out most of it.”

  Daniel handed the book back to Susan. “So read.”

  Zagam was incensed. In the thousands of years of life he’d seen, he couldn’t remember having a day this bad. After returning from the wild goose chase Cho had coaxed him into, he’d discovered that it had all been a front for that damned reporter to raid his house. Of all the days for the damn dog to disappear!

  He found his computer on and the database accessed. He could only assume that Cho and his friends now knew everything. Zagam had to find a way to make sure it didn’t get out any further. But if he didn’t know where Cho was, what could he do?

  Zagam picked up the phone and dialed a number with a San Francisco area code. There was a
demon assigned there that owed him a favor dating back to when they were both stationed in Salem.

  If he couldn’t find Daniel Cho, he could do the next best thing.

  Susan read well into the predawn hours of the morning. The book recounted the history of a race of immortal beings, much as had been explained by Uriel. Once united, the angels split in a civil war instigated by the archangel Satan.

  The war dragged on for centuries, neither side gaining nor losing much ground. There were rules of engagement, and much care was taken to avoid actually killing one another. As the sides were separated only by ideology, a simple change of heart could theoretically make an angel into a demon or vice versa. Neither side wanted to waste an irreplaceable potential ally.

  Finally, as the sunlight began to stream into the windows of the camper and Susan continued her translation of the history of the war, Daniel, Susan and Jeff found what they were looking for.

  “The demon Baraqel had committed many atrocities against mankind, and with a heavy heart Michael thusly decreed that Baraqel be destroyed.

  “A dozen angels stalked Baraqel as ten winters passed. Finally cornering the demon in a ravine, the angels set upon him with swords.

  “Baraqel fought fiercely, and his wounds healed almost as quickly as they were inflicted. The angels fought day and night, giving no quarter, until near the sunset of the third day, Baraqel tired and fell. His wounds no longer healed quickly enough, and the angels cut him to pieces. The pieces were separated, burned and the ashes scattered to the four winds, and Baraqel was no more.

  “Their task completed, the angels each cut off one of their own fingers to honor the memory of their fallen brother and former comrade, Baraqel.”

  Susan closed the book and put it down.

  “They can be killed.”

  “I’ll be damned,” Jeff breathed.

  “We finally have a weapon,” Daniel said. “Now we just have to figure out a way to use it.”

  Changes

  Daniel woke later to the early afternoon sunlight streaming through the window of the motel room the three of them had rented. As he rubbed his eyes and sat up, he couldn’t believe that it had only been twenty-four hours since he’d climbed on top of that warehouse in Old Town. It was amazing how much life could change in a single day.

  He got up, stretched, and walked over to the bathroom. Susan was out cold on the other bed, and Jeff snored softly on the couch. As Daniel closed the bathroom door, he took survey of what he saw in the mirror. He had aged. There were lines around his eyes that weren’t there two weeks ago, and he could swear he saw gray hairs on a head that hadn’t even seen thirty years yet. Stress, he thought. Well, a lot of that’s about to turn around.

  As he walked back into the motel room, he was startled by a knock on the door. He checked his watch; it was one thirty. Maybe they missed checkout? As Susan stirred awake and Jeff continued snoring, Daniel walked to the door and looked through the peephole.

  There was no one there.

  Cautiously, Daniel opened the door and looked out, squinting into the bright sunlight. Before he could react, a strong hand appeared out of nowhere and lifted him off his feet.

  “No, no, no! Terrible! Never do that!” Uriel admonished Daniel before putting him down. The angel strode past him into the motel room and knocked Jeff’s feet out of the way before taking a seat on the couch.

  After looking out the door and seeing no one else, Daniel closed the door and turned to face Uriel. “How did you find us?”

  “It wasn’t that hard,” Uriel answered, reclining comfortably as Jeff sat next to him and struggled to pull himself together. “I placed a tracking device on your camper last night before I spoke to you.”

  “You can do that?” Susan asked.

  “Just because I’m older than recorded human history doesn’t mean I’m limited to archaic means. We angels are every bit as technically adept as humans, if not more so. We keep up with the times. And so do the demons. If it was this easy for me to track you down, it won’t be that much harder for Zagam.”

  Uriel had the humans’ undivided attention.

  “Which brings me to my reason for dropping in on you today. It has come to my attention that you raided Zagam’s house last night, and made off with quite a bit of potentially damaging information. Bravo. Smug bastard’s had it coming for centuries.

  “Still, that said, it doesn’t change the fact that you three are now the most endangered creatures on the planet. Before last night, you were a nuisance to the demons, a thorn in Zagam’s side, nothing more. Zagam isn’t that popular, so many of the demons probably found you a source of amusement. Mortals that learn our secret aren’t quite as rare as you might think, but there’s usually not much they can do about it, short of getting themselves committed.

  “All that has changed. Now, you three are a legitimate threat. You alone can prove our existence to the world beyond a reasonable doubt. And, as you probably also know, human weapons technology is finally powerful enough to end even our lives. Zagam and his fellow demons won’t let it come to that. They will stop at nothing to prevent you from passing on the information that you possess. I had to shake two of them this morning just so I could meet with you without leading them here.

  “With all that in mind, I offer some advice. Change your appearance. Zagam will have seen to it that every demon on the Eastern Seaboard knows what you look like. Ditch the camper. Batarel, at least, knows it quite well, and you can’t afford to be recognized. Lastly, lie as low as you can until you get that information out, confirmed, and believed. Wide exposure for this information is your only salvation. Once their existence and nature is exposed, the demons will have bigger problems on their hands than what to do with you. Good luck.” He got up and walked to the door.

  “Wait!” Daniel shouted.

  The angel turned. “Yes?”

  “What about you? What will you be doing?”

  “The angels and I will watch, and act when the time is right. For reasons beyond mortal understanding, we can’t get involved yet, at least not directly. We will watch, and offer what little protection we can.”

  “But why can’t you help us directly?” Susan asked. “Why can’t you go public on your own?”

  Uriel lingered in the doorway. “Imagine, if you will, what would happen if I, in my identity as a prominent businessman, called a press conference and confessed that it was all a front, that I was actually an immortal protector of humanity, what they would refer to as an angel? They’d fit me for a straight jacket on the spot. And believe me, that’s getting off easy. It wasn’t too long ago that sort of talk would get one burned at the stake for heresy. Do you know how long burns like that take to heal, even for one of us? No, the revelation about our existence must come from a third party, from a human. We will help you when and where we can. But watch your backs.” The angel walked out the door and turned the corner.

  Daniel, Jeff and Susan all rushed out the door after him, only to find Uriel had once again vanished without a trace.

  “How the heck does he do that?” Jeff asked.

  Batarel fumed. Word leaked out quickly about what had happened to Zagam, and from that, that Cho had actually been at the meeting, and recorded it. It was more important than ever that the mortal be silenced. Unfortunately, the speck had disappeared. He and his bitch reporter had fallen off the face of the Earth.

  He had to find them, and stop them. For the safety of his people and the sanctity of their mission, Batarel had no other choice. And knowing modern humans as he did, Batarel knew the perfect place to start.

  “I wish I felt better about this,” Jeff muttered, stepping out of his camper and lugging a battered suitcase.

  They were in the long-term parking lot of Dulles International Airport, more than half an hour’s drive from the D.C. city limits. It was early evening, and the sound of aircraft carried quite well in the cooling, humid air.

  “I’ve told you, it makes perfect sense,” Daniel r
eplied, the five o’clock shadow on his face nearly as long as the shaved hair on his head. “We needed to find a place to stash your camper and rent a car the demon’s aren’t likely to trace to us. This does both.”

  “And,” Susan, now a blonde, said as she opened the trunk of their huge rental sedan, “if anyone does spot it, all the way out here, they’ll think we skipped town.”

  “I know,” Jeff grumbled, putting his suitcase gingerly in the trunk. “It’s just that this old girl has been my home for almost nine years. I don’t like leaving her behind.”

  “Hey,” Daniel said as he opened the passenger door for Jeff, “it’s not like you’ll never see it again. In just a few more weeks, this’ll all be over, thank God.”

  With one last look over his shoulder, Jeff got into the car.

  Barely ten minutes after they left, Batarel’s battered brown Buick pulled into Dulles International Airport.

  Hours later and three thousand miles away, two demons got out of a car in San Francisco. While one removed gas cans from the trunk, the other walked up to the front door of the Cho Vegetarian Grocery. Ignoring the sign on the door that read “closed”, the demon grabbed the doorknob and simply ripped the door off its hinges.

  Responding to the clatter, two Koreans in their fifties appeared from the back room, a man and a woman. The demon recognized them as his targets, Ronald and Delores Cho.

  “What are you doing here?” Ronald demanded. “We’re closed! My God, look what you’ve done to my door!”

  Without a sound, the demon stepped forward, took Ronald’s head in his hands, and snapped Ronald Cho’s neck.

  Delores ran screaming to the stockroom as the second demon entered and began sloshing gasoline over the store’s shelves and floor. The first demon followed her.

  Delores was hysterical. “Please, don’t kill me,” she begged. She frantically scrambled to the desk in the corner and grabbed a handful of photos of Daniel and his sisters, Kathy and Samantha. “Take what you want, but let me live. I have children. They need me.”