Daemon

by Doug Dandridge

  “Then I baptize you in the name of the Good God,” said the Bishop, pulling the sprinkler out of the fount and splashing Jude with drops of water. “The manifestation of the creating deity that has come down to us through the ages. Known by many names, by many people, through the mists of time. Yahweh, Allah, Brahma, the Trinity, and many more. Here with us still this day, protecting his chosen people, of which today you are one.”

  “Thy will be done,” said Jude in the response. He felt startled just a bit as the cool drops hit his forehead. Startlement turned to surprise as he felt what seemed to be a presence within him, a power greater than himself, than any human, who was now with him. He looked up into the Bishop’s eyes and saw the smile reflected there as the man made the open handed sign of the Good God over him.

  “I feel him,” said Jude, a smile stretching across his own face. Sarah squeezed his shoulder.

  “That does sometimes happen during the baptism,” said Burns, looking toward the heavens. “It is not the norm,” he said, looking back down at Jude. “But it does happen, and is something to be cherished.”

  The Bishop reached down and grasped Jude by his forearms, helping the man to rise to his feet. He wrapped Jude in a hug and held him tight.

  “Welcome to the family of God,” said Jasper Burns, clasping the newest member of the church to him. “May you serve the Good God well. May you serve man well.”

  “Amen,” said Sarah from behind, and Jude felt the power flowing from the two of them into his body.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jude felt even more nervous than before, approaching the Daemon Building yet again. This time he had others going in with him. Others to worry about. Sarah Stranger, Gerald Stranger, and two big burly men, brothers, known as Josh and Clarence. All sported the uniforms the building maintenance crews wore, blue jumpsuits and boots, along with stone amulets provided by Primate Jasper Burns. This time he didn’t have to worry about being observed while walking across a wide open space. Instead, he worried about being observed while walking through the sewage tunnels that ran under that parking lot and the building it served.

  Must have been nice in the old days, he thought as he followed Gerald and Josh through the straight line of tunnel, trying to get used to the awful odors of the sewage flowing in the center of the access shaft. Back before the coming of the Shadows people could use the darkness itself as an ally when they were trying to sneak up on each other. Now such a tactic was considered suicide. Jude reached into his jumpsuit and fingered the amulet once again, praying that it worked to keep the inhuman eyes from seeing them.

  “It will work,” said Sarah, putting her hand on his shoulder. “The church has used them before, and we know they work. But only for believers.”

  Jude nodded while he clasped his amulet in a tight grip. He knew this power they worshipped existed. Whether it was really God, or some form of God, of that he was not sure. He knew it was an entity of great power. It needed to be to keep the suffocating desert away from the missions. That belief must have been enough, because he could feel the amulet throbbing with power. He was tempted to use his mage sight on it, to see just what kind of energy was pulsing through the stone object. He held that impulse in check.

  Any use of magic will shatter the bond, he thought, remembering Primate Jasper Burns admonition to him. He couldn’t afford to use any spells, from now on, or else he would sever that connection. Something he couldn’t afford at this time and place.

  Jude let go of the amulet and patted the pistol on his belt, a forty-five. At least he could depend on it, and the jacket he wore over his coveralls concealed it nicely. The jacket also covered the smaller revolver, a thirty-eight, that he wore in his shoulder rig. All the others in the party wore the same workman’s jacket, and carried two pistols each, except for Sarah, who only carried the one thirty-two caliber.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Sarah, looking ahead as she touched her own gun.

  “Me too,” said Jude, nodding. “If we get into a firefight I don’t think we’re going to get out of here. But I’d rather have them than not.”

  Ahead a shimmering field of blue closed off the sewer main from the sewer that extended under the building. This was part of the outer defenses for the building, put there to keep intruders from getting to where they were not wanted. Jude looked at the barrier with some trepidation. He didn’t think it was anything that would hurt them. It would probably just extend an impenetrable wall against anything that tried to come this way. Josh, the lead man, walked through it like it wasn’t there. Gerald followed. Then it was Jude’s turn. He grabbed his amulet and said a quick prayer, then strode ahead, feeling the barrier part before him like cobwebs.

  “It really works,” he said in surprise. He looked back to see Sarah walk toward the barrier.

  “For who can be against us when God is with us,” said Sarah as she penetrated the barrier.

  They continued on through the drip dripping sound of the sewers, moving along until they came to a ladder that led up to an open hatch. One rung of the ladder was wrapped in red cloth, put there by the inside men who had marked and opened the way. Josh climbed up the ladder. He looked down from the top and motioned the others up. Gerald followed. Jude was on the rungs when he heard a yell from above. He hurried up the rungs and climbed into the room, to see Josh cowering in a corner while Gerald stood firm against a red spirit creature that was swirling through the room.

  Jude felt his blood freeze as he recognized the guardian. It was in the form of a snake, with small flapping wings on its back. With open mouth it looked agitated, and Jude knew it could kill them all in seconds, if it decided to. Josh flinched again as the creature went through him, its spirit form penetrating his physical form without resistance.

  “It can’t see us,” said Jude, as the creature flew through Gerald and out, looping up to the top of the chamber and then plunging back down. “It senses something is there, but it can’t tell what, or where.”

  “Well, it’s still scaring the hell out of me,” said Josh, sliding along the wall toward the door out of the chamber.

  “It’s supposed to,” said Jude, reaching down and helping Sarah up through the hatch. “But if it can’t locate us it won’t hurt us. It’s a guardian, set here to keep intruders out. Not a killer that simply destroys everything it encounters.”

  Josh nodded his head, but looked doubtful as he slid to the door and pulled it open. The man put his head out the door and looked around, then gestured for the others to follow him. Gerald followed him out, then Sarah, more than willing to quit the room. Jude nodded at Clarence, then moved out of the room and into the alcove beyond. Clarence followed and closed the door behind him.

  The hallway the alcove opened up into was empty, though Jude was sure it was under some kind of magical surveillance. The encounter with the guardian spirit had buoyed his confidence though. They would only have to worry about mortal eyes, and with the proper acting to go along with their uniforms, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

  “I think we’re below the sacrificial and detention rooms,” he said to his companions as they walked along.

  “More like two levels below them,” said Clarence, pulling a map from his pocket and looking over the schematics of the basement. “If we can find this stairwell we can ascend both levels in one shot. Then we can get through one hallway to the observation deck over this trio of sacrificial chambers.”

  Jude looked over the other man’s shoulder at the map as they moved. He wondered if those were the same chambers he had looked at. The map showed a total of twelve sacrificial chambers, as well as another six under construction. The information had come from a Church member that worked on the maintenance crew down here, performing a distasteful task so that his superiors could get needed information. The man worked in another area of the large subterranean structure, not near where the Eldritch were being kenneled. But he had been able to get the information needed from the mainten
ance store rooms. Now if they could only get through to those rooms and witness what was going on. Burns already knew what he had seen before, but it was so much easier to call one man a liar than a team of five.

  “I think this is the stairwell,” said Clarence, stopping in front of a door. He tried the handle, which did not budge. “Give me a few minutes,” said the man, pulling a small leather package from his pocket, opening it, and pulling out some picks. He knelt by the lock and started to work on the mechanism, grunting a couple of times while everyone backed off to give him room.

  “Ah hah,” he said, twisting a pick while something clicked in the lock. He swung the door open and all hell broke loose. Alarms sounded and lights recessed into the ceiling fell into place, strobing red.

  “What the hell did you do?” said Josh, looking frantically down both sides of the corridor.

  “It must have had a mechanical alarm,” said Clarence, standing and looking up the stairwell. Voices sounded at the tops of the stairs, followed by the clattering of booted feet down the steps.

  “We need to get the hell out of here,” said Jude, grasping Clarence by the shoulder and pulling him back.

  “Where?” asked Gerald, looking wide eyed at his daughter, then back to Jude.

  “Anyplace but right here,” said Jude, pulling out his forty-five and gesturing up the hallway. He knew they could go back to the alcove, then down to the sewers, but he suspected those areas would be filling up with security very quickly. Up the hallway might offer other possibilities. Or it might offer a dead end and capture. But he had to decide quickly, and that was his decision.

  The others nodded or looked blank faced up the corridor, but everyone followed him when he ran that way. Jude looked to both sides of the hall as he ran, searching for something that looked like it might provide cover, or lead them away from this area. Voices started yelling from behind, and he glanced back to see a trio of men coming out of the stairwell and start after them. They yelled for the intruders to halt, something that Jude and his fellows were unlikely to do. One of the guards stopped for a moment and took aim with a pistol, firing a pair of shots after the group. The rounds struck the walls and ricocheted down the hall. Jude felt his testicles contract as he tried to will himself to be as small a target as possible. He slowed for a moment, allowing his companions to move ahead of him, then looked back and fired off a pair of shots. The pursuers ducked down, slowing their pursuit.

  “In here,” hissed Gerald, looking out of an open doorway. Josh was already out of sight, and Sarah and Clarence ducked into the doorway. Jude looked at the entrance dubiously for just a second, wondering if this was really the place they wanted to make a stand in. The others had already gone in, so unless he wanted to abandon them he had to follow.

  The room itself was about twenty by twenty feet, half full of wooden boxes of various shapes and sizes. Jude quickly glanced over the room, including the door on the opposite wall from the entrance, and decided he didn’t like it. He realized that the people he was working with did not have any combat experience. They had chosen a dead end, and now it was up to him to make the best of it.

  “What’s through that door?” he asked, grabbing a large box and manhandling it on top of another.

  Josh moved to the door in question and popped it open, looking in.

  “More boxes in a smaller room,” said the man, his face wearing a worried expression.

  “Fuck,” said Jude, looking back toward the door to the hall. People were speaking out there, probably figuring out how they were going to storm this room. Or maybe thinking of other ways to root the intruders out. Ways that Jude and his partners would not be able to deal with. The voices grew louder outside and Jude crouched behind the barricade.

  “Everybody get under cover,” he called out, taking aim at the doorway. Just as the last word left his mouth the red spirit guardian came flying through the wall about five feet from the door. Clarence took a shot at the creature, the bullet passing through it and striking the wall, to ricochet away with a small shower of sparks.

  “Don’t shoot at the damned thing,” shouted Gerald as Josh let off a round at the creature. As he said that two guards came running into the room, pistols blazing. The room quickly filled with the odor of cordite, some smoke, and bullets flying through the air. Most hit wooden boxes with heavy thunks. Jude aimed and fired at one of the guards. The man clutched at his leg and went down to the floor. The other guard fell with strikes to the chest and stomach. The first guard crawled toward the door and out of the room. The spirit guardian continued to circle the room, agitated and looking for the prey it knew was there, but could not find.

  Jude started to mumble the words of a spell, then flinched as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to look into the disapproving face of Sarah as she shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “No magic. The Good God will not protect you if you use magic.”

  “But we all may die if I don’t,” he hissed back at her, glancing back at the doorway, where he could hear the voices and movements of people.

  “There are worse things than death,” she replied, looking at the doorway, her face a mask of fear and concern.

  “You’re still frightened of it though,” he said, pressing the back of his hand to her cheek. “Death, I mean.”

  “Scared to death of death,” she said with a tight smile. “More afraid of not going to heaven when it happens. So remember, no matter what, no magic. We live or die by the Good God’s terms.”

  He nodded his head and looked back toward the door. Something was going to happen there, soon. He could hear a lot of movement, and his shoulders tensed as he waited. Sarah put one hand around him and started to knead the muscles.

  “I would recommend that all of you come out with your hands in clear sight,” said a harsh voice from beyond the opening. “You don’t have a chance.”

  Jude motioned for everyone to be silent. He thought that bravado statements made for good theater. In real life it was better to be silent and leave your opponent guessing. And hope that they guessed wrong.

  “If you want to be foolish, that’s on you,” yelled the voice beyond the door. “That’s on you.”

  Jude looked down the barrel of his pistol, knowing that something was going to happen fast. Just as he finished that thought a man came running through the door, a sub-machinegun chattering in his hands. He backed up against the door, sweeping the room, while a second man came through and started to back up to the wall on the other side of the door.

  Jude put a slug through the chest of the first man, then ducked down to the floor as the top the box he was behind erupted into a shower of splinters. The gunman swept the box, but the one on the bottom, filled as it was with machine parts, kept the bullets from going through. The box on the top didn’t do as well. Bullets penetrated wood and the clothing that was inside the box. Sarah cried out from the noise, and Jude put his arm over her as she lay beside him. The box stopped throwing things on top of him as the man swept the weapon over to another target. The chattering stopped. Jude knew the man would be out of ammunition and would be hurrying to change magazines.

  Jude forced himself up, hoping he was right, his chest tight as he waited for the gunman to sweep a stream of bullets through him. He looked over the box at the man who was just pushing a new magazine into his weapon. Jude brought his own pistol up in a quick motion and aimed at the chest of the man, pulling off a double shot. The man bumped back against the wall, red gouts of blood flying from his chest. His eyes widened, then glazed, and he released his weapon, which fell to below his waist before the strap caught it. He then slid down the wall, leaving a smear of blood, until his buttocks hit the ground and he sat there in death.

  There was a groaning behind him, and Jude turned to see Josh lying on the floor, nothing moving but the puddle of blood that spread out under him. Someone was crying behind a grouping of boxes. As he watched Gerald Stranger stood up, cradling an arm which was bleeding and held the dist
orted profile of a broken bone. Stranger walked over to the box and knelt down. Jude got up, helped Sarah to stand, and hurried over, to look down on the form of Clarence, holding a hand over his stomach to try and staunch the flow of blood.

  “Oh Clarence,” said Gerald Stranger, putting his hand on the man. “Why didn’t you get behind cover?”

  Clarence coughed once, then looked up at Gerald, who was holding his own injured arm still. “Just my bad luck. I could have gotten hit in the arm, like someone else who didn’t take cover.” He coughed again, this time blood flecking his lips. “If I have to die, at least I died doing the Good God’s work. No better way to go.”

  “We’re going to give you one more chance,” yelled a voice from outside the room. “Come out now, or we’ll drag you out in whatever condition we leave you in.”

  “They could probably give you medical help if we surrendered,” said Sarah, looking down at Clarence. The man shook his head and coughed up more blood.

  “Where’s my brother,” he said in a weak voice. “I’d like to see him before I go on.”

  “He’s dead, Clarence,” said Jude, laying a hand on the man’s arm, then glancing around the box to see what was going on at the door. “I’m sorry,” he continued, turning his attention back to the dying man. “He went instantly. He felt nothing.” Jude was not sure how much of that was truth, but from the look of the body it was probably close to it.

  “I’ll see my brother in heaven then,” said the man, coughing again. This time a gout of blood passed his lips and his hands dropped, releasing the pressure on his wounds. Blood spurted from the abdominal wound and the man slumped down, his eyes closing.

  Jude looked over at Sarah, who had tears running down her cheeks. He opened his mouth to try and comfort her, when the clanging of something hitting the floor and bouncing caught his attention. He stood up and looked over as the can that was rolling across the floor started putting out a yellow smoke. He started to yell when the gas hit him, and the room started to blur and spin. Gerald yelled something out and fired his pistol at the door, then fell back as blood and brain matter gushed from the back of his head. Then Jude was falling backwards, and the room faded from his sight.