Chase didn’t immediately reply. When he did, he said, “You’re talking out of despair. Don’t you remember the last conversation we had, Frank?”
I remembered: There is and always will be evil in the world, Chase had said. But you can’t fight evil with evil. You can only fight evil with good.
I felt a flush of shame run through me. He’d hit the nail right on the head. Both Alders and I had already decided that fighting evil with evil was not the solution. I could use the excuse that the close call with death had scrambled my priorities, but I was done with making excuses, or running from the truth.
We had to keep fighting the good fight. There had to be another way.
I just had no idea what that was.
“We’re here,” Chase said, pulling into the parking lot of a run-down motel.
Chapter Twenty-Five
And then shall all the righteous escape, And shall live till they beget thousands of children, And all the days of their youth and their old age Shall they complete in peace.
–Book of Enoch 10:17
“You’re back—oh, hello, Frank!” Eugene Yates stood up from the table in the motel room, on top of which was his open laptop computer. I could see several windows running simultaneously.
“Yates,” I said with a smile. “Good to see you.”
He gave me an up-and-down appraisal, then looked at the other two with just as critical an eye. “It looks like you’ve all been through a war.”
“We have,” Rogers said, flopping down on one of the two beds in the room and crossing her ankles as she tucked her hands behind her head. She grinned. “But we kicked their asses.”
Chase made a sour face.
Roger’s smile faded. “Mostly,” she added.
“Seven Watchers were chasing Frank and his partner,” Chase said. “Unfortunately, they abducted her before taking off.”
“Seven!”
“Frank did it again,” Chase said. “He took down Semjaza.”
“But Sam Lancaster’s already dead.”
“Turns out Frank and his partner—” He gave me a questioning look.
“Officer Patricia Alders,” I said.
“—ran into the latest incarnation of Semjaza and managed to destroy the host, Sam Lancaster’s cousin, Stanley.”
Chase gestured for me to pick up the story from there. I gave Yates a brief summary of what had happened during the fight. Then I started from the beginning, detailing everything I knew from the moment I’d spoken to Internal Affairs up until now.
All the while, Yates typed on his laptop. I figured he was adding all the information I had to whatever database he was compiling.
When I was done, he said, “We’ve just been calling him ‘the Bellator’, but now that we have a name for him, maybe I can dig something up that will help us. How do you spell ‘Markowitz’?”
I spelled it, then added, “But Alders and I think he’s been going under the alias, John Tomko.” I gave him the website address of the security company he previously worked for. “I believe he’s been possessed by a Watcher since the day he was born.”
“Not just any Watcher,” Yates said. “The worst one, according to my research.”
“The worst one?”
He nodded. “Azazel. The angel of war.”
“It makes sense,” I said. “Tomko played this campaign to perfection. It’s the oldest strategy in the book: divide and conquer. He’s gotten the people of New York at each other’s throats, and goaded them into targeting those who are his biggest threats. With the city in shambles, he can simply saunter in and pick up the pieces.”
Yates nodded. “According to my research, it was Azazel’s actions that prompted retribution from Heaven. He taught humanity how to go to war with one other; the great deluge was an attempt to wipe that particular skill set from the population.” He turned back to his laptop.
Rogers said, “I guess that little plan didn’t work out so well.”
When Chase frowned at her comment, she let out a huff and said, “I’m going to wash up.” She got off the bed and made a show of heading into the adjoining room and closing the door behind her firmly enough that the picture frame on the wall bounced.
Chase sighed and went to the mini-fridge set into the television stand/dresser. He pulled out a couple of water bottles and handed me one. I wished he had something a little stronger; I could have used a fifth of scotch right about then.
I was thirsty enough that I drank more than half the bottle before I remembered my manners and offered a thank-you to him.
Nodding in the direction of the other room, I said, “What’s her story?”
“She’s been through a lot,” Chase told me, keeping his voice low in case Rogers overheard him through the thin motel walls.
“Oh?”
“She’s Neil Dawson’s daughter.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” Then he filled me in.
I whistled when he finished. “She took out an entire room of Watchers by herself?” My first reaction was awe at the kind of power that took, but then I had another realization, remembering back to the first time I’d taken a life. “It’s got to eat at her. No wonder she’s a little touchy.”
“We all have nightmares because of who we are and what we’ve done. As adults, we can rationalize it; with Serena it’s going to take a little longer.”
“Aha!” Yates cried out.
Both Chase and I spun around.
“What?” I asked.
“I found him.”
“Tomko?”
He shook his head. “Father Putnam. I backtracked receipts for his rental car the police impounded, and found one of his accounts. A week ago, there was a sizeable payment made to a holding company that managed industrial buildings. I think I may have found out where he set up his chemical factory.”
“Where?” I asked, standing up.
“Guys!” The door connecting the two rooms whipped open so fast, I felt a breeze. Rogers stood, framed in the doorway with her hair sopping wet and her clothes hastily thrown on. There was a look of excitement on her face. She gasped as she tried to catch her breath.
“All the Watchers are leaving that building.”
“What?” I asked, hating the feeling of being late to the party.
“I did a scrying,” she said.
“It makes sense,” Yates said. “After what you guys did only a few blocks away, I’m sure every available cop, firefighter, and news reporter is on the scene. The Watchers don’t want to reveal themselves until the time is right.”
Chase asked Rogers, “Do you know where they’re going?”
Swallowing, she nodded. “I don’t know the name of the area, but it’s about ten miles north of us. They sent one Watcher ahead as a scout.”
“Here,” Yates said, turning his laptop toward her. He brought up a map and clicked on a location with his mouse. It was in Queens, I saw. “Is this where they are?” he asked her.
Rogers took a step closer and looked. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
Yates’ expression was grave. “That’s the factory Putnam rented. They’ve figured out Putnam is more of a threat than we are, and they’re going after him.”
“How’d they know?” Chase asked.
I said, “It’s the same thing as with Clarence Brigson. They just knew he wasn’t a regular customer; that’s why they grabbed him.”
Yates said, “One of them must have some kind of clairvoyant ability, like Serena.”
She nodded. “He’s one of the Twenty leaders: Sariel, the angel of knowledge.”
Snapping his fingers, Yates said, “Claircognizance.”
I replied, “Huh?”
“Like a medium. You know, crystal balls, that kind of thing.”
“Alders,” I said, spinning around to face Rogers. “Is she all right?”
Rogers shrank down into herself. “I can only see other Watchers. I’m sorry. I don’t know.” She took a deep breath. “What I do know is that
there are now twenty-seven Watchers.”
“Twenty-seven!”
Rogers took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t see Azazel. I think he’s blocking me.”
“Blocking you, how?” Chase asked.
Yates grunted. “It’s possible that might be a secondary ability. Only half of war is about mounting a good offense; the other half is defense. Maybe his particular skill is being able to ward off attacks, whether physical or supernatural.” He shrugged. “But that’s just speculation.”
“It doesn’t matter whether he’s there or not,” Chase said. “We have to go to the factory and do whatever we can to neutralize the compound, and prevent it from getting into the hands of the Watchers.”
Rogers sounded surprised. “What would the Watchers want with it? It’s poison to them, and us.”
“Just because radiation can kill us, that hasn’t stopped people from stockpiling nuclear bombs,” he said. “Azazel can use the compound as a weapon; tailor-made for killing Grigori. He can threaten to use it on us if we don’t cooperate.”
“Insane,” I said breathlessly.
Chase nodded. “Let’s go.”
* * *
The four of us piled into the rented car. Chase drove; I rode shotgun; and Rogers and Yates sat in the back.
I insisted we head back to the building Tomko had used as his headquarters. “I have to see if she’s there,” I said.
Rogers had an angry expression on her face. “If they left her behind, it’s because she wasn’t any use to them anymore. In that case, it isn’t likely she’d be alive.”
I wasn’t naïve. I knew they wouldn’t want to leave a live witness, especially if cops were anywhere around. “I have to see for myself.”
Yates, being helpful, said, “It’s on the way.”
Chase nodded and headed for the building.
As Rogers had said earlier, there were no Watchers in the vicinity. Both she and Chase would have been able to tell.
There were two young officers in uniforms standing at the gate. I told Chase to stay in the car, and then I got out and hurried over to talk to the two cops guarding the building.
They drew their guns when I approached, but after I established my identity, they told me what I needed to know.
“A local shop owner made the report earlier this morning. Said he was sure the building was supposed to be abandoned, and contacted the property management company who owns it. They called us.” The officer jerked his thumb at the building. “No one’s in there—we swept the place pretty good—but we did find a cache of unregistered firearms. We’re just waiting for forensics to check it out. Larry thinks it might be a storehouse for the terrorists. Like to see the looks on their faces when they figure out we got their guns.”
“Yeah,” I said, and shook the officer’s hand. “Good work.”
I headed back to the car, and said, “No one’s here.”
Chase put the car in drive, and we headed for the expressway.
If the Watchers had taken Alders with them, either they weren’t done interrogating her, or they were going to use her as a hostage.
While it was tempting to use Tomko’s war strategy against him by letting the Watchers and Putnam fight it out, then swoop in afterward to take out whoever was left standing, the potential for collateral damage was high. I wasn’t going to gamble with Alders’ life by sitting back and hoping the Watcher-Putnam problem took care of itself.
Still, I had no idea what we were going to do when we got there. As powerful as Chase and Rogers were, they were no match for more than two dozen Watchers.
With a hard expression, Rogers made a suggestion. To Chase, she said, “You could make a sinkhole under the building. Let them fall until they’re halfway to hell. Then I can fill it in with water; drown any of the rats before they can get away.”
“Serena,” Chase said, his voice tinged with warning.
“Sorry, just a thought.” She didn’t sound quite as sorry as she should have been. There was a lot of anger in her.
Yates piped up. “That does give me an idea.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“We can’t fight on two fronts. We need to prioritize,” Yates said. “The way I see it, the most immediate danger is Putnam’s compound getting out into the open, or into the hands of the Watchers.”
All of us nodded in agreement with his assessment.
“We’ll probably need to split up.” Yates pointed to Chase. “If you can create a distraction—maybe an earthquake to get their attention and draw them away—then Serena can flood the factory. Am I right in thinking the compound will lose a lot of its power if it’s diluted?”
“Probably,” Chase said. “But it would have to be a lot of water. And—” He shot a look back at Serena. “—you’d have to be sure Father Putnam and Clarence are out of harm’s way.”
Rogers flicked her hand at him. “Fine.”
I asked, “What about Sariel? Can’t he just sense danger coming, like Serena can?”
Yates answered, “I don’t think so. I think it’s more like Serena’s scrying ability.”
“How do you know?”
“From what you said before, it was hours after Clarence was in the deli before the Watchers went after him. I think Sariel’s ability is dormant unless he’s performing a séance, or whatever you want to call it. When Serena scries, she needs to set the conditions perfectly and go into a kind of trance. It’s probably the same thing with Sariel.”
Chase said, “All these plans might be for nothing.” He pointed up half a dozen blocks ahead. The road was sealed off by two National Guard trucks. The vehicles in front of us were coming to a stop and lining up. A dozen soldiers with rifles were interviewing the drivers.
Yates leaned forward and looked over my shoulder. “Check stop?” he asked. “Should we chance it?”
While I was sure I’d be waived through if I were on my own, I didn’t know how much information the guards had, or what they were looking for specifically. If they checked IDs, Chase’s name would pop up as being involved in multiple homicides. It might also be tricky explaining how a ‘dead man’ came to be our driver.
“We need to find another way around,” Rogers said, and I got the impression there was more to it than her having a bad feeling.
Chase waited until we got to the next intersection and made a right-hand turn. He drove as if that direction had been his intended route all along. All of us kept checking behind to see if anyone had noticed. A few other vehicles turned to follow us, but there was nothing suspicious about that.
“If there’s one roadblock,” I said, “there will be others.”
Yates flipped open his laptop and launched a GPS application. “Damn,” he said after a minute.
“What?”
“Even if the way were clear, any other route we take will double the time it takes to get to Queens.”
“Turn left here,” Rogers said just as we were halfway through the next intersection.
Chase didn’t hesitate or ask questions. He yanked the wheel and hit the accelerator to speed past an oncoming pickup. The driver tapped his breaks and honked his horn at us in warning.
We kept driving one more block before Rogers said, “Right, then left up the next alley.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Chase followed her directions, and we made it to Northern Boulevard in record time. From there, it was a quick jaunt east until we hit a business park south of LaGuardia Airport.
When we got to the address Yates had found, my gut tightened.
It was on fire.
We were too late.
Chapter Twenty-Six
And then shall the whole earth be tilled in righteousness, and shall all be planted with trees and be full of blessing.
–Book of Enoch 10:18-19
I jumped out of the car before it came to a full stop.
“Frank,” Chase called out, but I had to check to see if Alders was in the building. In my periphery, I registered th
at the other three got out and were following me.
Yates said, “It’s too dangerous. Stay back. You’ll get burned.”
I didn’t care. I had failed Alders’ father; I wasn’t going to let her die on my watch.
The complex had five units, but the fire hadn’t spread beyond the one Putnam had rented. Smoke billowed out of the broken windows. The roar of the flames was loud enough to drown out all other sounds.
The front door was smashed in—probably before the fire had started—and I edged closer to it. I couldn’t see inside; the smoke was too thick.
Already, I felt my throat constricting from the heat. I was about to throw caution to the wind and rush in despite the danger when I noticed someone standing beside me.
“Wait here,” Rogers said, holding up one hand to me. “I’ll go check it out.”
Her entire body was suddenly wrapped in a bubble of water, a liquid shield of sorts.
She stepped inside as if she were going for a stroll in the park. The smoke grew thick, and I choked on the fumes.
Chase and Yates grabbed my arms and pulled me back. “She’s got this,” Chase said. “If your partner is in there, Serena will find her.”
The three of us waited in interminable silence. It was only when I saw a fire truck’s lights flash at the end of the block and heard the scream of its siren that Serena finally emerged unharmed.
“Come on,” she said, walking straight for the car. “We need to go.”
I stood frozen where I was. “Wait.” I pointed to the building. “Is Alders in there?”
Rogers turned around and shook her head. “No. There’s a dead body, but it’s not a woman. Tall, skinny man with glasses.”
“Brigson,” I said. While I was relieved Rogers hadn’t found Alders inside, I felt a pang of grief at news of the geneticist’s death. Though misguided—due to a combination of Putnam’s influence and his own schizophrenia—the man had only wanted to rid the world of the evil that had begun to infect it.
The Complete Book Of Fallen Angels Page 96
