by Lis Wiehl
“So what’s going on?” Casey asked.
“Tell you inside,” Tommy said.
Casey hung his raincoat up in the mudroom and then stopped in the kitchen doorway, surprised by the arsenal laid out in front of him.
“It looks like you’re expecting company,” he said.
Aunt Ruth’s weapons collection covered the food island in the middle of the kitchen. She’d been training Reese in how to use one of the shotguns.
“Just pretend you’re Prince Charles’s third son and you’re out in the yard shooting grouse in your snazzy Barbour raincoat,” she said.
“For me to pretend to be a royal, you’d have to stick a straw in my ear and suck out two-thirds of my brain,” Reese said, closing one eye to sight down the barrel. “And Barbour may possibly be the worst raincoat ever made. On a day like this you’d be soaked to the bone in five minutes. The only people who still buy them are Americans. And royals.”
When Tommy asked Ruth how the training had gone, she said, “He’ll do all right when the time comes.” Then she added, “When this is over, I want to make a big fire in your fire pit and burn these things into charcoal. I’ve had it with guns.”
“When this is over,” Tommy said, “I’ll help you.”
They had four shotguns available to them, as well as nine hunting rifles, two Uzi automatic pistols, the Ares “Shrike” light machine gun with its M203 grenade launcher, a dozen sidearms in a variety of sizes and calibers, and a pair of Barnett Ghost 400 CarbonLite deer hunting crossbows with 185-pound draws, capable of firing bolts at 400 feet per second, each with an illuminating scope and a dozen carbon bolts with razor-sharp big-game tips. Tommy had ordered another dozen Helios 9000 floodlights online and set them up in a circle around his house to shine in all directions.
The plan had been for Tommy to watch the northern quarter of his property, Ruth the east, Reese the west, and Dani the south. Now that Casey had joined them, Tommy asked Casey to take the south quadrant, which would leave Dani free to monitor the security cameras.
“So what exactly are we shooting?” Casey asked, examining one of the hunting rifles and raising it to gaze out the window through the scope.
“Cave weasels,” Tommy said.
“Creatures from hell,” Ruth said. “Literally. They evolved in caves. They don’t like light.”
“We think they’re mesonychids,” Tommy said. “Like giant moles that were once thought to be extinct.”
“Giant nasty moles,” Dani said. “With claws and fangs. But flesh and blood. Or something close. They can be shot.”
“They absorb light, so they’re hard to see without floodlights,” Tommy said. “They’ve been waiting outside the walls for the last four nights.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For tonight,” Tommy said. “I assume.”
“How many are we talking about?” Casey asked.
“Let’s find out,” Tommy said. While Dani manned the ground control station for the drone, flying the aircraft in slow, steady circles above the house, Tommy turned the floodlights on. It took a moment for them to power up, and then the woods surrounding his property were filled with light.
“See anything?” he asked Dani.
“Not on infrared.”
“Switch to night vision.”
Dani did, and an army of black shadows popped up on screen, too many to count. They were closing in on the perimeter.
“Well, that’s not good,” Tommy said, leaning over her shoulder.
“Reminds me of the Alamo,” Casey said. “A little bit. Just the good parts.”
“What were the good parts?” Tommy asked.
“There weren’t any good parts?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Tommy said. “Stations, everyone. Don’t wait until you see the whites of their eyes. If it moves, shoot it.”
39.
December 24
6:12 p.m. EST
“You did good,” Quinn heard someone say.
He opened his eyes. A man with long shaggy hair, a diamond stud earring in one ear, and a chain around his neck, just visible inside his leather jacket, leaned over him, seated on his right.
On his left an EMT, a young Asian woman, was listening to his heartbeat through a stethoscope. Quinn realized he was in an ambulance. His head was a furnace of pain that throbbed with every beat of his heart. Yet the man in the leather jacket was smiling.
“Charlie?” Quinn said.
“How ya feelin’?” the angel asked.
“I’ve been better.”
“That was a brave thing you did.”
Quinn searched his chest with his hand, feeling for blood. “Have I been shot?”
“Almost,” Charlie said. “The ambulance got there just in time.”
“Where are they taking me?”
“Northern Westchester Hospital,” Charlie said.
“Can they—”
Charlie shook his head.
“They can’t hear us,” he said. “Or see me.”
Quinn felt relieved. “I’m ready now,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve come to take me, right? I’m ready to go.”
“You might be ready, but we’re not,” Charlie said.
“What?” Quinn said.
“It’s not your time, Quinn.”
“It’s not?”
“No,” Charlie said. “You have more to do here.”
“Okay,” Quinn said. “I’ll see how long I can last, but right now, I’m not buying any green bananas, if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” Charlie said. “But I also know you’re not going to need that midgrade infiltrating multiform glioblastoma of the pons reticular formation anymore.”
Charlie reached down and put his hand under the back of Quinn’s neck, cradling his head. His hand felt warm and soothing, and then, as if it were nothing more than dirty water in a sink, Quinn felt the pain drain out of him and into the angel’s hand.
Charlie raised his hand, fist closed, to show Quinn, and then he squeezed, the way someone might crumble a fortune cookie. When he opened his hand, nothing more than a bit of dust fell from it, desiccated and harmless. Quinn realized the pain in his head was gone.
“Don’t try to get up,” Charlie said. “You should still spend the night in the hospital, recuperating, but tomorrow you should be good to go.”
For the first time in a long time—for the first time he could remember, in fact—Quinn didn’t know what to say.
“Thank you,” he whispered finally.
“I’m not the one you need to thank,” Charlie said. “But on his behalf, you’re welcome. And thank you. And oh—I almost forgot. If you’re still awake tonight, turn on the local news.”
Quinn closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Charlie was gone.
The EMT took the stethoscope from her ears and handed them to her partner, a young African American man, who took his turn listening.
“I thought you said he was arrhythmic,” the man said.
“He was,” his partner said.
“Well, he’s not now.”
“I know. That’s what I’m saying,” she replied. “Seems like he’s stabilized.”
“Keep the paddles ready,” the male EMT said, “but I don’t think we’re going to need them.”
“I would have bet anything he’d be DOA,” the woman said.
“You would have lost,” Quinn said. “I’m hungry. Have you got anything to eat?”
40.
December 24
6:17 p.m. EST
The Gevaudan beasts were undeterred by the electrified fence. A few drew back from it when they touched it and felt the electricity, but they were trampled by the beasts storming in behind them.
“They’re pushing through the wire!” Tommy said. “Bluetooth and conference call everybody, like we practiced.”
He took a deep breath as everyone scattered; they’d rehearsed for this as much a
s they could, short of firing live rounds. With the drone in the air above them providing intelligence, at least they commanded the high ground. While Tommy was on his boat on Lake Atticus getting water samples, Dani had practiced with the drone so that now she was nearly as good at flying it as Tommy or Reese. Even so, the Gevaudan outnumbered them a hundred to one.
“Any sign of them?” Tommy asked.
“Nothing yet,” Dani said. She knew he wasn’t talking about the beasts, of course, but rather Ben and Charlie. The angels had promised to be there when they needed them, and as far as Tommy could see, they needed them now. “Fingers are crossed. And hands are folded.”
The alarm sounded again.
“Incoming!” Dani called out. “Fences down!”
Tommy fired his weapon before seeing what he was shooting at, knowing only the height and range without picking out his targets visually. The shapes became clearer in the driving rain as the beasts approached. He hit one, then another, then another, using a sandbag he’d placed atop his Viking barbecue grill to bolster his aim.
“Ruth—to your left!” he heard Dani yell over the GPhone link. Tommy heard Detective Casey shout from around the corner of the house and then fire his shotgun.
Tommy killed two more, if killed was the word—it presumed they were alive in the first place. They had animation and corporeal form, but they knew only darkness, and they did not know God, so how was that life? He popped another magazine into the Ares and fired a burst to his left, and then he fired a grenade to his right, the explosion lighting up the sky.
When he turned, he saw that one of the creatures had reached a floodlight. It lifted the extension cord and bit it in half. That creature electrocuted itself, but there were more right behind it. Too many more, Tommy realized. They came on and on, swarming from all directions like angry bees.
“Pull in—pull in!” Dani shouted over the link. They’d planned for this too; a last stand from inside the house, using the walls as shelter for as long as the walls stood.
Tommy emptied the Ares, ejected the clip, reloaded, and emptied the gun again.
“Tommy! Didn’t you hear me? Pull in! Pull in!” Dani shouted again.
He fired the shotgun at point-blank range, blowing the head off one of the creatures. Two more took its place.
Tommy turned to retreat and found another standing right in front of him.
41.
December 24
6:24 p.m. EST
Dani’s heart caught in her throat as she saw Tommy surrounded. He raised his shotgun again. She closed her eyes, unwilling to watch.
Help him, Lord, she prayed. Send him—
A huge explosion rocked the ground. There was a second explosion, and then a third.
“What was that?” Tommy’s voice asked over the headset.
“I don’t know,” Dani said. “It’s not us.”
She heard the sound of machine-gun fire, tracers arcing across Tommy’s property from all directions. A burst of static came from the GPhone and then …
“Thought maybe you folks could use a little help,” said a voice. A familiar voice.
“Ed?” Dani said. “How’d you get on this line? How did you know—”
“We need you to stay inside until we’re done,” Stanley said brusquely. “If we have to use missiles, we may not be able to limit collateral damage.”
Dani switched monitor views in time to see Tommy grab one of the Helios 9000s and point it up into the sky, illuminating the black outlines of a dozen drones far larger than the Orison passing overhead, firing missiles and machine guns.
“Didn’t see you coming,” Tommy said.
“No one does,” Stanley replied. “That’s the point.”
Dani had Tommy and the others take shelter in the windows and doorways of the house. They kept shooting, but the CIA drones took the larger part of the battle now.
As the gunfire slackened, Tommy joined Dani in the kitchen. She’d had the Orison 6 fly high above the battlefield, keeping the camera aimed at the house, giving them a bird’s-eye view of the battle. As the drone climbed, she saw the Gevaudan beasts retreating, defeated and decimated.
Out the window, the fallen body of one of the Gevaudan dissolved in the rain, as if it had been made of smoke or ash.
Casey, Ruth, and Reese met them in the kitchen just as a Skype call from Ed Stanley came in.
“Are you all right?” Stanley said.
“We’re good,” Dani said. “Your timing couldn’t have been better.”
“Speaking of timing,” Stanley said. “We had people at the coordinates you gave us for the boys, from the file Tommy got off Ghieri’s computer. But somebody got there ahead of us.”
“Who?” Dani asked.
“Not sure,” Stanley said. “We’ll have some time to look at the surveillance footage from the drones we had on scene. It looks like somebody shot them with tranquilizer darts, like on a National Geographic special. I thought maybe you could tell me. You’re the ones who wanted to take them alive.”
“We did what we had to do,” Dani said. “Those things out there in the woods, I don’t care. But the boys Ghieri sent out with his little packages—they’re just boys. They didn’t ask for this, and they don’t know what they’re doing. They’ve been manipulated, and they’re victims. I’m not going to allow them to be killed. It’s that simple.”
“And that’s exactly what Ghieri was counting on,” Ed Stanley said. “That’s why they used children. They knew that somebody was going to be too … sentimental to take them out. According to my sources, six of them were able to poison the water supplies they targeted before you were able to subdue them. Six.”
“I understand that,” Dani said. “According to my sources, you killed one of the boys.”
She exchanged glances with Reese.
“If you’re talking about Hythe End near Heathrow, yes. We took out the target. And he was one of the six who got through. Both your defenses and ours.”
“He wasn’t a target,” Dani said. “A target is a piece of paper with a bull’seye on it. He was a human being. His name was Edmond Stratton-Mallins.”
“I’m sorry,” Stanley said. “It couldn’t be helped.”
“Is there anything else you need?” Dani said.
“There’s a party at St. Adrian’s Academy tonight,” Stanley said. “We’re going to be flying over it to take some pictures. I suggest you keep your little paper airplane out of the way.”
He logged off, and Dani did the same.
“Did he just insult my drone?” Tommy said. He was holding the drone’s control module and watching it on the screen. “Speaking of which, I think you ought to see this.”
“What is it?” Dani asked, coming to Tommy’s side.
“Charlie and Ben said they’d be here when we needed them, right?”
“I guess we didn’t need them,” she said.
Tommy shook his head. “This was too easy,” he said. “This was just a screen pass.”
“A what?”
“A screen pass,” he repeated. “The quarterback fakes a play, and the offensive line lets the defense through without much of a fight. And just when the linemen are about to tackle the passer, he lobs it over their heads to a running back. A guy who’s been pretending to be a blocker.”
“A feint, you mean,” Dani said.
“Exactly. It’s one of the oldest strategies known to warfare. I’ve seen it a thousand times.”
“On a football field. Hitler thought Normandy was a feint,” Dani said. “And he was wrong. Normandy was the real thing.”
“These beasts attacking the house were a feint,” Tommy repeated. “If it wasn’t a feint, how do you explain this?”
He showed her the controller for the drone, which was still flying at fifteen thousand feet, surveying the town. The view was from the infrared camera; she saw a blue haze on the ground and above Bull’s Rock Hill. Tommy froze the frame, then played back a portion he’d just recorded at thirt
y times slower than real time.
A chill ran down Dani’s spine. “Dear God,” she said. “Oh, dear God.”
The air above Bull’s Rock Hill, and the ground around it, was teeming with demons, fallen angels far larger and stronger and far more evil than the beasts they’d just driven from Tommy’s property.
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s the real battle.” He put his raincoat on, then took the shotgun he’d been using and a backpack full of shells.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Dani asked.
“Bull’s Rock Hill,” Tommy said.
“The road’s out,” she reminded him.
“I’m not taking the road.”
“What are you going to do?” Dani asked him.
“Attack,” Tommy said.
“Tommy—wait.”
He stopped.
“So you’re going to singlehandedly attack a thousand demons, armed with nothing but a shotgun, even though you fought one single demon in your own driveway and couldn’t defeat it?” Dani said.
“Well, it sounds really stupid when you put it that way,” Tommy said.
“That’s because it is really stupid.”
“They’ll be there if I need them,” he said. “Ben and Charlie.”
He tried to smile, but she saw the fear on his face.
“Dani, I know this is right,” he told her. “This is faith. Sometimes it makes total sense, and sometimes it flies in the face of common sense, but for me, it’s simple. We’ve located the enemy. We attack the enemy. And we attack with faith.”
“I’m coming with you,” Reese said.
“You can’t,” Tommy said. “Someone has to stay here—”
“If you’re about to say ‘and protect the womenfolk,’ I’m going to punch you in the face,” Dani said. “We womenfolk can protect ourselves.”
“Hey,” Detective Casey said. “What am I? Chopped liver?”
“You’re okay with this?” Tommy said, looking first to Reese, then at Dani.
“I’m okay with this,” Dani said. “I trust you. Just make sure you come back.”
Tommy ran across the courtyard to the garage bay where the ATV was parked, the driving rain impossibly falling even harder than it had earlier. He pushed the key into the ignition, pressed the starter button, waited for Reese to take a seat on the cargo rack behind him, then sped out into the rain, pausing briefly in the driveway to mount one of the Helios 9000 spotlights to the front gear rack.
