by N. P. Martin
Frank let her go and she stood staring down at a near unconscious Leland Cunningham lying on the floor, his face bloodied, his suit torn and disheveled. It was the first time Frank had ever seen the man look anything other than impeccable. “Looking a little rough there, Leland,” he said. “Your friend Tolloch is gone, by the way. It’s just us now.”
Leland struggled to sit up and then started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Michelle said, stepping towards him, looking she was going to kick the man’s head off.
“You two,” Leland said. “Thinking you’re still going to save the day.” He looked at Frank with a bloody smile and said, “Aramis conjuro te, angelus domini, et audierit vocem meam, ad te venio.”
It took Frank a second to realize the significance of the words Leland just said. Frank had only read the words in a book, many years ago. They certainly were not words he had ever uttered himself at any time, mainly because he wasn’t sanctioned to do so by the powers higher than him. And by powers higher than him, he meant Heaven.
For Leland had just summoned an angel.
To summon an angel you not only needed the name of the angel, you also had to have permission from Heaven itself to use the words. Anyone who tried to summon an angel without permission would be punished by having ten years taken off their life. And if you only had ten years left, then you were dead. Leland was okay because he had permission to consort with the angels, being the head of the High Council. That was all he usually did though. Talk to them. Not summon them. Angels were forbidden from getting involved in human affairs except to advise certain people in certain matters. No direct influencing. Despite that, Frank doubted Leland would summon an angel at this time unless he wanted that angel to get directly involved in matters, i.e. by saving the man’s life.
All this was confirmed when a young guy in his late twenties, with longish blonde hair and blue eyes, suddenly appeared standing over Leland. “Hello, Leland,” he said while smiling coldly at Frank and Michelle. “Are these people getting in the way of our plans?”
“Aramis,” Leland said, getting to his feet, now bolstered by the angel’s presence. “Yes, they are.”
“Okay,” said Aramis. “Then I will kill them.”
The angel clicked his fingers and Michelle exploded on the spot.
CHAPTER 29
Frank stood aghast, Michelle’s blood and gore dripping off him. “No!” he said in horror.
“You should have listened to me, Frank,” Leland said. “Now you’ve gone and gotten the girl killed.”
Anger rose in Frank and he felt himself shake with rage. “You—” he growled, making to move towards Leland so he could finish what Michelle started, what he should have let her finish. Stupid! He should have let Michelle kill him.
“Ah-ah,” Aramis said and Frank froze against his will, unable to move a muscle anymore. He couldn’t even blink. All he could do was breathe and stare at Leland and the angel as they stood smugly looking at him.
Another death on your conscience, eh, Frank? Not to worry. Where you’re going, that doesn’t matter much. We don’t believe in conscience in Hell.
“I know you,” Aramis said, tilting his head at Frank. “You died once, if I’m not mistaken.”
Frank could only stare back at the angel.
“What?” Leland asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
“This man died last year,” Aramis said. “Killed by a demon, isn’t that right?” He looked at Frank like he expected an answer. When he didn’t get one he smiled and carried on. “The woman brought him back. Made a deal with a crossroads demon. Her soul for his life.”
“Woman?” Leland said. “You mean Rachel?”
“That was her name, I believe,” the angel said.
Seems our little secret isn’t a secret anymore, Frank.
Leland was shaking his head. “Rachel traded her soul for your miserable life?” he said. He laughed. “I didn’t think she would be so stupid. We may not have agreed on much, but I always admired Rachel. A strong woman. Top notch soldier. I never understood what she saw in you, though Frank. She made the right choice in picking your brother. Dean may have turned his back on his duty, but he was still a better man than you.”
Frank’s blood boiled inside him as he strained to move but couldn’t. I’m going to fucking kill you, Leland, he thought, trying his best to communicate his intentions with his stare.
Leland laughed when he saw the rage in Frank’s eyes. “It must kill you, Frank, knowing Rachel is in Hell, all because of you.” He walked right up to him, pushing his face to within an inch of Frank’s. “I have my own little secret about Rachel, you know.”
Frank’s stomach churned.
No...
“I fucked her, Frank,” Leland whispered, then he looked straight into Frank’s eyes and smiled.
He’s lying Frank...
“She never told you that, I take it? She was only eighteen. Beautiful. Ripe for the taking. A real wild cat in the sack, I’ll always remember that about her.”
I’m going to rip your fucking heart out and eat it, Leland, Frank thought, hoping Leland could somehow hear what he was thinking. If Leland did hear somehow, he didn’t let on however. He turned away from Frank and said to the angel, “You can kill him now.”
If Frank could have closed his eyes, he would have. The only consolation about exploding into tiny pieces the way Michelle just did was that it was quick.
Aramis smiled that cold smile at him again.
Here we go, Frank thought. Finally, here we go...
Until a tall black man in a suit appeared right beside the angel, holding a large curved blade in his hand of a type Frank had never seen before. Frank’s eyes fixated on the coppery looking blade for a second, noticing the small gaps cut into the edge the whole way along, inside of which glowed a slit of bright bluish white light.
The angel who was about to kill Frank looked startled at the presence of the newcomer. “Bezekiel,” the angel said, the fear unmistakable in his voice.
He never got to utter another word before the tall black man with the bald head—another angel, Frank now realized—drove his blade forcefully into Aramis’s stomach, holding it there while the blonde angel seemed to vibrate at a rapid rate before exploding into nothing but blinding white light.
Finally able to move, Frank turned his head away from the light until it had dissipated, then he stood looking at the newly arrived angel. Leland stood staring also, all traces of his usual smug self-satisfaction gone, replaced by tremors of fear. Bezekiel glared at Leland, freezing him to the spot when he tried to backtrack. “I should kill you for what you’ve done, Watcher,” Bezekiel said.
“He’s no Watcher,” Frank said, wiping his hand across his face in an effort clean Michelle’s blood off. “He’s worse than any demon.”
Bezekiel, still holding Leland in place seemingly with no effort at all, not even a directed hand, looked at Frank. “It seems there was a mutiny of sorts in Heaven,” he said, the voice of his borrowed vessel deep and booming. “A few angels thought they could join forces with the other side and create their own playground of sorts here on earth. The others have been taken care off.” He turned to look at Leland again. “This Nephilim here instigated the whole thing. Planted the seeds of dissent amongst our ranks, isn’t that right, Watcher?”
Leland could speak, but that’s all he could do. “Don’t kill me,” he said. “I can tell you how to stop the demon.”
“I am forbidden from killing you,” Bezekiel said. “As much as I would like that very thing. You have betrayed your Watcher brethren, and the humans you were tasked with protecting. You deserve to die, and you will, but not at my hand.”
“Don’t worry, Leland,” Frank said. “I’m not forbidden from killing anybody.”
“I’m the only one who knows how to stop the demon,” Leland said. “You can’t kill me.”
“Explain how to stop this demon or I will insure you suffer for eternity when you do fi
nally die,” Bezekiel said.
“Tell us now, Leland,” Frank said. “Do something to try and redeem your miserable soul.”
“Alright,” Leland said. “Can you let me go?”
Bezekiel released him from his grasp and Leland almost dropped to his knees.
“Talk,” Frank said, pointing his knife at Leland.
Leland nodded, looked like he didn’t want to say anything, but knew he had no choice. “If I tell you,” he said. “How do I know you won’t just kill me?”
“You don’t,” Frank said.
Leland looked at Bezekiel. “You have to promise to protect me. I’m the head of the Watcher High Council.”
Bezekiel, probably as deadly as it was possible for any angel to be, frowned and stepped towards Leland, towering over him as he looked down. “Your conceitedness disgusts me,” the angel said.
“Maybe, but let’s not forget your own kind were involved here as well,” Leland said. “None of this would have come about if it wasn’t for Aramis. He put things in motion when he contacted Tolloch.”
“Really? I’m told that was you,” Bezekiel said. “That you put all this in motion.”
Frank was losing patience. “Stop playing politician, Leland,” he said. “People are dying up there. Tell us what we need to know or I’ll kill you and figure it out myself. It’s what I’m good at, after all.”
Leland gave a heavy sigh and bowed his head in silence for a moment, then he looked up at Frank. “The Holy Lance,” he said resignedly.
“The Spear of Destiny?” Frank said. “What about it?”
“It’s the only thing that can kill the demon, unless you can persuade Tolloch to call his son off, which I doubt he would be agreeable to.”
“No one knows where that spear is,” Bezekiel said.
“Leland does,” Frank said. “It’s in the vaults somewhere, right, Leland?”
“I came across it a decade ago,” Leland said. “Completely by chance. An old mage I knew had it in his possession for a long time. After the mage died, I looked through his things.”
“Pillaged the man’s stuff, you mean?” Frank said. “We all know you’re a relic hunter, Leland. You probably killed the guy yourself just to get his stuff.”
Leland gave Frank a tight smile. “Like I said, I came across it by chance. The spear can kill anything, no matter how powerful.”
“Where in the vault is it?” Frank asked, anxious now to get the spear so he could think about taking down the monster rampaging through the city above him.
“In my own private vault,” Leland said. “It’s protected by a retinal scanner. You’ll need me to open it for you.”
“That’s convenient,” Frank said, walking up to Leland and putting the knife to within an inch of the older man’s right eye, which was bloodshot from the beating he took from Michelle. “How about I just cut your eye out and open the vault myself?”
“Please, Frank,” Leland said. “Just take me down there. I’ll get you what you want.”
You’ll get me some of what I want, Frank thought. The rest of what I want will require putting a bullet in your head, Leland. “Alright, let’s go.”
“I’ll leave you to handle this,” Bezekiel said. “I have to be elsewhere now.”
“Seriously?” Frank said as he pulled Leland roughly up off his knees, a Beretta pointed at his head. “What could possibly be more pressing than this?”
“You would be surprised, Watcher,” the angel said. “We will talk again.”
Then Bezekiel disappeared into thin air, leaving only Frank and Leland in the room. “Looks like it’s just us now, Leland,” Frank said, trying to ignore the remnants of Michelle’s body splatted all over the floor and walls.
“Great,” Leland said.
“You make one move against me, and I’ll put a bullet in your brain. Got it?”
“I got it.”
“Good. Start walking.”
Leland walked slightly ahead of Frank while Frank kept the Beretta aimed at the man’s lower back. As Leland opened the double doors, Frank grabbed Leland’s arm and stuck the gun into the man’s side. He wasn’t all that worried about Leland trying anything. Leland knew when to play it safe, knew Frank wasn’t kidding about shooting him if he tried anything. What Frank was more worried about was the rest of the people in the Facility, most of whom Frank assumed were still loyal to the head of the High Council, as brainwashed as they probably were. He wasn’t sure how things would play out when he inevitably encountered them.
As it turned out, he didn’t have to wait too long to find out. As soon as Leland pulled open the doors of the suite, Frank saw the dozen or so armed guards standing just in the hallway, automatic weapons raised. “Stop!” one of the guards shouted. “Let him go!”
“Kill this traitor!” Leland shouted back.
Frank slid behind Leland to use the man as a shield, putting the Beretta to Leland’s temple. “Easy there, Leland,” he said, his eyes on the guards a few feet away. “I’ll blow your brains out before any one of them gets near me.”
“Stand down!” the male guard demanded. “Or we will kill you.”
“You don’t understand,” Frank shouted over Leland’s shoulder. “This man is the traitor, not me. He’s responsible for that demon wrecking the city up there.”
“I said stand down now!”
All of the guards moved forward a foot, their weapons fully cocked.
“You better fucking tell them, Leland or we’re both going to die here,” Frank said harshly into Leland’s ear. “That I can fucking guarantee you.” He pressed the nose of the gun hard into Leland’s temple.
“Alright, alright,” Leland said. “Stand down. That’s an order. Let us pass.”
“But sir,” the guard said.
“Do as I say, Watcher!” Leland commanded, effortless authority in his voice. The voice of a man used to people obeying his orders.
Frank prodded Leland with the gun. “Tell them why. Tell them you’re responsible.”
Leland hesitated until Frank pressed the gun into him again. “Everything that’s happening, it was all my doing.”
The guards looked confused now, but they all still held their weapons up. “Sir?” the lead guard said, whom Frank realized was barely twenty years of age. How easy it must have been for Leland to brainwash the trainees when they were all so young.
“I don’t have time to explain,” Leland said, not a trace of shame in his voice. “Just let us pass unhindered.”
“Order them out to the city,” Frank said. “All of them.”
Leland addressed the head guard. “Gather all the teams. Tell them to go topside. That’s an order.”
“Get up there and do your jobs,” Frank shouted. “People up there need your help.”
The guard looked at Leland again, still unsure and Leland balled at him, “You have your orders. Now go!”
Reluctantly, the guard nodded and then lowered his gun. After a moment, the rest of the guards lowered their weapons also. Then they all turned, looks of confusion still on their faces, and ran off down the hallway.
“Nicely done,” Frank said. “Anyone would think you were in charge here. Too bad you’re not anymore.”
“Screw you, Frank.”
“Just get moving.”
CHAPTER 30
Frank stuck to Leland like a sucker fish on a Great White Shark until they made it down to the vault. Along the way, they passed numerous personnel, many of them fully combat ready soldiers rushing to get topside to the city. No one gave them any trouble. Leland’s orders had obviously travelled fast. One thing about Leland, he ran a tight ship, kept a good reign on the Facility and its personnel. When he gave orders, they were carried out immediately without question. Although no one tried to apprehend them, everyone gave them concerned and puzzled looks as they passed down the corridor towards the elevator that would take them down to the vault. No one knew what to make of the situation. Some of the personnel knew of Frank and hi
s reputation, knew he wasn’t doing what he was doing without good reason. They also knew about Leland’s confession, but Frank was sure most of them thought Leland said what he said because he had a gun pointed to his head. It would be inconceivable to most of the people in the Facility that their supreme leader was somehow the instigator of all the terrible atrocities that had been committed against the city and its people of late. Still, orders were orders, and everyone obeyed them by allowing Frank to walk Leland at gunpoint to the elevator. Inside the elevator, Leland used a key card to take them down to the bottom floor, which only selected personnel could access. The elevator doors opened right into the vault.
Frank himself had never been to the vault before, so he was shocked to see that the vault wasn’t the steel cave he expected, but more like a massive warehouse filled with floor to ceiling shelving units, on which were stacked endless amounts of wooden crates, all them marked with some kind of alphanumeric identification code. “Holy shit,” Frank said, walking behind Leland into the vault. “Not what I was expecting.”
“This place represents only a fraction of what the Council possesses in terms of relics and artifacts,” Leland said like he was suddenly a tour guide. “We have many other secret vaults around the world.”
“But let me guess,” Frank said. “All the really good stuff is kept here, right? Under your watchful eye.”
Leland glanced briefly over his shoulder at Frank as they walked down one of the aisles. “Something like that. My personal collection is in the back.”
As Frank walked behind Leland, the gun pointed towards the older man’s back, he asked, “Why’d you do it, Leland? Why reek all this havoc, all this death? Tell me it wasn’t just for power and personal gain.”
Leland stopped and turned slowly around. “You’ll never understand, Frank,” he said. “Men like you don’t know what it means to want greatness. You’re just content being a drone, happy in the shadows, tramping through filth every day of your life. You don’t know what real power is, or what it is to want it. To need it.”
“You always were a pretentious prick, Leland,” Frank said. “A greedy son of a bitch out for his own gain. Some of us actually help people from time to time.”
