Reichard’s expression turned to stunned admiration. “How on earth did you manage that?”
Jake glared at the man. “Like you said, I’m resourceful.”
“Yes, you are. But why did you kill them? They were only there to guard you. We were bringing them here for your judgment ceremony.”
Jake felt claws pinching his biceps and forearms. “How flattering. But I couldn’t very well know that, could I? These things don’t talk. Maybe you should have taken those two in your limo.”
“I think you realize how impractical that would be, even with tinted windows.”
“You just don’t want your car to stink like caviar. You also took my ring. I didn’t feel safe without it.”
“Our ring,” Schlatter said with an air of triumph.
Reichard raised one hand in a placating gesture. “For now. Jake still has to be judged. Who knows? Avademe could approve him for membership after all.”
Weiskopf laughed. “After killing eight of the children? I doubt it.”
Reichard smiled. “I’m rooting for him. Look at everything he’s accomplished.”
Jake supposed it was good the cabal’s leader wanted to see him succeed in becoming a member.
“In any case, we’ll know soon enough.” Reichard took a cell phone from his pocket and struck a button. A moment later, he spoke into the phone: “Bring them up.”
Jake tried to free himself from the watchers who held him, but they sank their claws deeper into his arms, causing him to groan through clenched teeth.
Reichard clucked his tongue. “I like you, Jake. Please don’t provoke them. They’ll tear your arms off if you give them cause.”
Jake relented. “I know we’re in your shipping yard. How the hell do these things run around here without being seen?”
“It’s a dedicated building. The children are generally restricted to this docking bay and the lower level. And the Atlantic Ocean, of course. They wear the robes just to be safe, in case they should be seen, though they hate them.”
The Atlantic Ocean. They must frolic in this water and use it as a portal to get outside.
“I’m afraid Weiskopf is correct. Avademe will be most distraught that you killed eight of the children. That’s one quarter of their number, and they’re all sterile. They don’t even possess sexual organs. I can’t say that bodes well for you.”
Twenty-four of these things left. Jake figured they all surrounded him at that moment.
A steel door set in the cinder-block wall thirty feet to Jake’s left opened, and two women emerged. Jake’s heart leapt in his chest at the sight of Bianca, followed by Marla. They were both alive! He recognized the muscular man who followed them: Lionel, the doorman from the brothel, who held a revolver aimed at the women’s backs.
Marla’s face appeared sheet white, her lips drawn tight. She looked ten years older without makeup. Bianca seemed to have recovered from whatever drug the cabal had given her. She moved sluggishly, but her eyes revealed panic. They walked along the dock’s edge, their shoes clacking on metal, and Bianca cast a worrisome glance at the dark water, as if fearing the cabal intended to drown her like a witch.
Or maybe she prefers to drown herself, Jake thought.
The women stopped walking as they neared the waiting crowd. They stared at the watchers and held on to each other.
“Keep moving,” Lionel said, prodding them with the gun.
They resumed walking, and Marla looked in Jake’s direction, her eyes widening with disbelief.
“Jake?” she said as they joined the cabal members.
At the mention of his name, Bianca looked at him, too, and gasped.
Am I that unrecognizable? “Yeah, it’s me.”
Marla’s lips quivered. “I’m so sorry I got you involved in this.”
“Don’t be.”
“He thinks he’s going to be one of us,” Madigan said, lighting a cigar.
“Put that out,” Weiskopf said. “Avademe doesn’t like smoke.”
“Sorry.” Madigan pinched the end of the cigar, snuffing it.
“What does he mean?” Marla said.
Jake bit his lip, regretting it as the pain in his gums and jaw flared. He didn’t want to disappoint Marla, but he had to maintain what remained of his cover in the hope of getting them out of the building alive.
“I mean that your knight in shining armor is no better than the other gnats you hired to spy on me,” Madigan said, clearly relishing the opportunity to flaunt his power in Marla’s face. “Oh, he did more than they did; I’ll give you that. They all took the money and ran. Jake here is more of a big picture kind of guy. Aren’t you, Jake?”
Jake held his tongue. I’m going to be real disappointed if I don’t get to kill you.
“You never should have messed with me,” Madigan said to his wife. “All you had to do was smile for the cameras whenever I gave a speech, take care of the kids, and open your legs for me once in a while.”
“You repulse me,” Marla said.
Madigan took a step forward. “You could have been wife of the governor of New York. You could have been the First Lady of the country.”
“That’s enough, Myron,” Reichard said. “You’re being deliberately cruel. I don’t like it. And we don’t discuss our plans in front of others.”
Madigan huffed. “It’s not like she can tell anyone.”
Reichard gave Madigan a hard look that silenced the mayor.
Jake noticed Lionel remained behind the women. “What’s wrong, Lionel? Are you uncomfortable around these kids? Don’t worry. They don’t bite. They just shoot you full of venom.”
Lionel snorted. “Don’t worry about me—worry about yourself. Half your face is about to fall off.”
“Don’t taunt him, Jake,” Reichard said. “If you manage to impress Avademe as you have me, you and Lionel could end up working together one day.”
Jake glanced at Weiskopf. “And you doubted my qualifications? This guy’s nothing but a bouncer. Or a pimp.”
Weiskopf gave Jake a crooked smile. “That’s what you think, wise guy. Lionel is White River Security. Taggert was training him to be his successor. You whacked Taggert and took the ring that was meant to be Lionel’s.”
Now Jake understood the undercurrent of hostility he had sensed in Lionel at the brothel. That hostility was becoming more overt by the moment. He saw Lionel flexing his fingers on the revolver’s grip.
“Take it easy, buddy. Yesterday you were in the sex trade. Now you’re the head of a powerful mercenary corporation. You’re welcome for the promotion.”
Lionel didn’t respond. Unlike Madigan, he knew when to keep his mouth shut.
A foamy cloud of bubbles burst to the water’s surface, causing the women, Lionel, and Jake to flinch.
“Let’s get on with it,” Reichard said. “Avademe’s heard everything.”
There really is something down there, Jake thought.
The cabal members moved behind the watchers and stood with their backs to the wall. The watchers spread out, the two holding Jake remaining put. Lionel circled the women and turned them in the same direction, his broad back to Jake, so everyone faced the water.
More bubbles surfaced and the water grew choppy. Lionel stepped back. On either side of Jake, the watchers’ feelers wiggled in the air, as if genuflecting.
This is not happening, Jake thought. It can’t be happening.
The water churned and grew darker as a massive shape rose to just below the surface.
Jake’s heart beat faster.
Bianca screamed.
A gray metal shape broke through the surface and ascended ten feet before the spectators.
A conning tower. I was right. Avademe is a submarine. Jake laughed despite the pain doing so inflicted on his lacerated face.
Lionel glanced over his shoulder at Jake with a stunned expression, as if Jake had lost his grip on sanity. Then Marla screamed, too, and Lionel returned his attention to the shape rising before them.
&n
bsp; Jake blinked in confusion. Why were the women screaming? It was just a submarine, for Christ’s sake!
But he knew better. His mind had somehow deceived him, refusing to accept anything this impossible. The thing in the water was dark gray but made of flesh, not metal. The great dome consisted of two halves, with a giant crevice running down the middle, and water poured oft” its lumpy, veined tissue.
Jake’s knees shook. Oh, my God. He wanted to look away but couldn’t. It’s a giant fucking brain.
Avademe continued to rise, water raining down from its flesh. Four eyes the size of garbage cans appeared below the brain, two on either side of the thing’s cone-like head. The eyes on the left turned in synchronization with each other, as did the eyes on the right, but each pair moved independently of the other. To Jake, they looked human despite their gargantuan size, with whites and irises and pupils rather than the black, indecipherable orbs of a whale or a shark. Below the brain, the monster’s flesh was darker, almost black. The portion of Avademe that had surfaced was larger than a cement mixing truck.
Another creature split the water and then another after that: huge serpents shooting straight into the air, with suckers running their length. Then they curled and writhed, and Jake realized they were gigantic tentacles. Another pair surfaced, undulating like the arms of a belly dancer. Within seconds, their number doubled, with webs of translucent flesh connecting them. Waves struck the dock, and streams of water jetted high into the air. Avademe unleashed a deafening roar that shook the walls. Jake couldn’t tell where the sound came from, as the monster had no mouth with which to bellow.
“Hail, Avademe!” the cabal members shouted in unison, their voices filled with wonder and terror and love.
Jake’s knees gave out, and his two watchers jerked him back up. Marla and Bianca continued to scream, their voices puny in comparison to that of the great monster god. They broke free of Lionel and ran, but watchers caught them with ease. Glimpsing the terror in Marla’s eyes, Jake struggled to escape from the creatures holding him, but he felt their claws cutting his biceps and stopped.
Left alone at the edge of the dock, Lionel turned rigid. Avademe grasped a beam in the ceiling and pulled itself closer. Jake could hardly blame Lionel for panicking and firing his revolver at the enormous creature, though he knew the bullets would cause little damage. He barely heard the gunshots over Avademe’s roar, which reminded him of a foghorn.
“No, you fool!” Reichard waved his arms over his head. “Don’t shoot!”
Too late: with blinding speed, one of the tentacles whipped through the air, disintegrating Lionel’s head and torso in its wake. Blood spattered Jake, the women, and the watchers, and for a moment Lionel’s legs and hips remained standing before they toppled to the dock, covered in loopy intestines. The tentacle returned to its former position, curling and uncurling with the others.
Jake felt a blast of agony on the side of his face and realized he’d joined the women in their screaming. With his fists balled and his arms trembling, he felt the muscles in his neck bulge.
To Jake’s astonishment, Reichard crossed the dock and kneeled before the monster.
Avademe’s four eyes focused on the old man.
“Mighty Avademe, we praise you and your deeds. Forgive us for presenting you with such an unworthy candidate for your church. We did not mean to offend you.”
Reichard gestured at Jake. “We have another for you to judge.”
Oh, God, no!
Avademe’s eyes moved to Jake, and the watchers dragged him forward.
“No,” Jake shouted. “No!”
Reichard screwed his face in anger. “Don’t show fear, you idiot.”
“Fuck you!”
The watchers threw Jake down on the dock, and for one terrifying moment he thought he would plunge straight into the water. His hands slapped metal, and the fresh wounds in his arms stung. Raising his head, he gaped at the monster.
“Stand up,” Reichard said.
With much effort, Jake rose. The same tentacle that had annihilated Lionel maneuvered through the air in his direction. Its pointed tip stopped just short of his face, wavering between his real eye and glass eye. Feeling sweat and tears running down his facial wounds, Jake tried to control his shaking body. The tentacle’s tip descended, and then he felt it encircling his waist like an anaconda. He glanced at Reichard, who offered him a reassuring nod. The tentacle tightened around him, and a sick feeling rose from his groin to his throat. Then his feet left the ground.
Jake set his hands on the tentacle for balance as Avademe lifted him from the dock. The touch of the monster’s sandpapery flesh sent shudders rippling through his body.
Ten feet. Fifteen. Twenty.
Jake focused on the ceiling. Maybe he could escape onto one of those beams . . .
The tentacle descended with the speed of a roller coaster, bringing Jake to within ten feet of Avademe’s eyes, which studied him with interest. Marla screamed again. Twisting his neck, he saw a tentacle had wrapped itself around her torso three times, pinning her arms to her sides. Its tip remained free and rose up her back and beneath her hair. Marla threw her head from side to side. Jake heard a loud crunch, then Marla turned silent and still. Her head tilted back, eyes wide and unblinking.
“No!” The word escaped Jake’s throat as a scream.
Bianca screamed, too, and Jake jerked his head in her direction. A tentacle had wrapped around her as well, its tip producing a similar crunch from the back of her head.
Jake pounded his fists on the tentacle holding him.
Both dead, just like Sheryl and Carmen Rodriguez . . .
The tentacles unrolled from their victims, spinning them like human tops while holding them by their heads. They lifted the dead women like marionettes and dangled them in the air for Jake to see.
Marla’s and Bianca’s eyes had rolled up in their sockets with their eyelids twitching. Their mouths opened in unison, and they spoke in perfect synchronization. “We are Avademe.” The women sounded as they had when they were alive but lacked emotion.
Jake yelled and kicked and thrashed around in the tentacle’s grip.
“The earth is our dominion,” the dead women said. “Will you serve us?”
Make this good. “Yes! I’ll serve you!”
The tentacle brought him closer to one pair of Avademe’s massive eyes, then moved him to the other pair. The monster’s stench overwhelmed him. Then the tentacle raised Jake before the dead women again.
“You’re a liar,” the women said. “You killed eight of our children.”
“Oh, Jesus God . . .”
“We judge you inadequate to serve us.”
Jake saw no point in arguing with a giant mutant octopus.
“He still has Nicholas Tower’s records,” Reichard said somewhere below. “We sent a team to his office while he was in Albany, but his safe was empty. We didn’t find them anywhere.”
Avademe’s dome-like body heaved and exhaled foul-smelling mist in Jake’s direction, like an angry bull snorting. The mist soaked him.
“Where have you hidden Afterlife?” the dead women said.
That fucking file. “How do you know what it’s called?”
“We know all about Nicholas’s research project,” Reichard said.
Avademe rotated Jake so he faced the old man.
“He initiated it while he still belonged in our circle,” Reichard said. “We had numerous disagreements over it. As I told you, we serve Avademe. We don’t worry about the afterlife, because we never face the consequences of our actions. We pledge our souls to our god knowing that the trade-off for a lifetime of immeasurable wealth and pleasure is that when we die, there will be no eternal reward—and no eternal suffering for our deeds in life. Nicholas got it into his head that he wanted eternity right here on earth. He betrayed Avademe.”
“And I killed him,” Jake said. “So I guess you owe me one.”
“Did he suffer?”
“Gre
atly. One of his creatures chewed through his tonsils, and a broken skylight minced his body.”
Reichard smiled, a twinkle in his eye. “I wish I could help you. I really do. But Avademe’s word is final.”
“You’re parasites,” Jake said.
“And you’re nothing but a flea, hopping around to survive with nothing to show for your efforts.”
“You worship a fish!”
The tentacle tightened around Jake’s midsection, and he squirmed in its grasp.
Go ahead, kill me. Get it over with, damn you.
Reichard smiled. “Blasphemy. Avademe is no fish. Octopuses have extremely large brains that never fully develop because of their short life span. But Avademe has lived for centuries.”
Avadame rotated Jake to face the dead women again.
“Afterlife,” they said.
“Why should I tell you anything if you’re going to kill me anyway?”
“You can die quickly or slowly,” Marla’s corpse said.
“We can end your suffering in an instant, as we did Lionel’s,” Bianca’s corpse said, “or we can digest you over a period of several days, one layer of skin and muscle at a time.”
While holding Jake in the same space, Avademe rocked its great body backwards, tipping its cone so it touched the sea doors, and lifted its underside to face Jake and everyone on the dock. The water slammed against the back wall, and a giant wave rushed toward the dock, dousing Reichard, who did not react.
The monster’s underside was pale white and silver and covered with suckers except in the middle. There Jake saw two parallel slits, vertical from his viewpoint. The tentacle suspending Marla lowered her body to the slit on the left side. The lips of the slit peeled back, revealing tremulous layers of translucent membrane inside, and thick fluid gushed out. The stench that rose from the opening caused Jake to gag. The tentacle shoved Marla’s corpse into the opening, snapping Marla’s back and folding her in half so her head rested on her heels. Clear slime poured over her body, which disappeared into the hole. Jake watched in horror. The lips smacked shut and sucking sounds emitted from within. Jake squeezed his eyelids shut.
“Where is Afterlife?”
Dear God, give me strength. He opened his eye. Bianca dangled before him, close enough for him to touch. He found it impossible to fathom that her mouth had sucked him only the night before. “Go to hell, you bitch.”
Cosmic Forces: Book Three in The Jake Helman Files Series Page 24
