I don’t want to leave without Naes, but I know we must. This chapter has come to an end with the Underworld as the victor, but the book is far from being finished. The sun sets as I stare out to the ocean with some sort of wishful thinking that Naes will appear. Highly unlikely that will happen. But what I know for sure will happen is my path will cross Vega’s once again, and either I’ll kill him, or he’ll kill me. Period. End of story.
It has to be, and there’s no other way. This road of destiny of ours was set long ago, and there’s no denying nor avoiding it. But it must be at my hands that he gets sent to the After for good, once and for all. No trial. Straight to Hell with him. He deserves it that’s for sure.
As soon as we got back from Japan, I made sure that I was the one who escorted Charon to the After, which for him will be Heaven. Him and I slowly walk down one of the many hallways within the Agency. Why slowly? Well, it may sound cheesy, or a bit feminine, but we want that extra time together before we won’t see each other for quite a while.
We’ve been really good friends for many years and we will miss each other. Just because we’re Harvesters doesn’t mean we don’t have feelings.
“You’re going to be missed, Charon,” I tell him.
“Not by the Agency that’s for sure,” he retorts.
“Forget about them. I’m talking about me. I’ve never had a friend like you before,” I say.
“And you never will. I’m too bizarre and different,” he states.
I let out a chuckle. “That’s for damn sure.”
Now we’re both laughing.
“Man, you and I have been through some sick, twisted, adventurous shit in our day, huh?” he asks me.
“That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one.”
“I’m definitely going to miss earth,” he says.
“I know you will. The porn, right?” I jokingly ask.
We laugh again as we stop at a set of tall, wide doors. A slight vibrating sound can be heard from the other side. I open the doors for Charon, and he enters. I follow him into the massive room with five Harvester Techs who manage the first Hole that leads to Heaven. Three large star-gate-type spheres, twenty feet high, make loud vibrating sounds and look like massive water globules. We walk on the pathway which leads to the first Hole and stop a foot away from it.
Charon places a hand on my shoulder with a big smile.
“Well, my good friend, what a long, strange trip it has been, right?” he asks.
Charon loves the group Grateful Dead, and from time to time, he’ll use some of Jerry Garcia’s lyrics for everyday vocabulary.
I smile and nod at him. “Yes, it has. Yes, it has.” “Want me to escort you to the other side?” I ask him.
“Nah. I got it from here. I only ask you to do one thing for me,” he says.
“What’s that?”
“Take that bastard Vega out for good, damn it,” he says.
I can’t help but to smile and nod at him. “You got it.”
“See you on the flip side, Harv,” he states.
We shake hands, and then, he steps into the Hole while singing a Grateful Dead song and disappears. I stand there for a few seconds and stare into the Hole. Many memories of Charon and me run rampant in my mind. If anyone misses him the most, it would be me. I bid you farewell, fellow Harvester.
Two months later in Djinn’s applied sciences laboratory, he shows me some of his new contraptions. Some who don’t know wonder how he comes up with so many new, brilliant inventions. The truth of the matter is, yes, he’s a genius, but he received some help. In his natural life, he knew everything about science, all genres. Not to mention, he was a talented engineer in several fields and made quite a name for himself all over the world. When he died, he decided to go to the After, and the judgment was for him to go to Heaven. In Heaven, you discover all there is to discover. You find out all the inner mysteries of the world.
Later, the Underworld began discovering new techniques and were surpassing the Agency’s abilities. This could not be allowed, or they’d win the war. This made the Agency think they needed someone who can do amazing things in the same areas Djinn did. When they thought of him, the Agency made a deal with Heaven and talked Djinn into joining our team. It didn’t take much convincing. He jumped at the chance. He was eager to go back to work. Thus began his career as the Agency’s head of the Applied Sciences Department. Since it’s against Agency rules to create abominations such as Vega’s mixed creatures, Djinn created something to combat them.
He directs me to a chair, and I sit. From off the nearby table, he grabs a syringe filled with a glowing green substance. He has already explained to me what it will do for me, but I don’t believe it until I see it.
He injects the syringe and empties the fluid into my vein. I immediately feel an incredible surge of warmth just like he said I would. Okay, now I’m beginning to believe a bit. If it’s true, I’m not going to like the next part. A few seconds later, my skin changes to a glowing, fiery green color, and it is painful. It burns so bad that smoke emanates from my body. I can’t help but to grimace and yell in pain. And then, just like that, the pain stops, and my skin is back to normal. I look up at a smiling Djinn.
“Do it,” I instruct him.
He turns around and picks up a battleaxe. He excitedly raises it above his head, pauses a moment, and then brings it down with intensity right at my arm. I squint a bit out of anticipation. The battleaxe hits my arm and gets bent to the side when it hits my arm. My arm isn’t injured. It doesn’t even have a mark on it.
“That’s amazing, Djinn.”
“No. It would be amazing if it lasted longer than thirty minutes per day. But I’ll figure it out.”
“It will still prove to be very helpful for all Harvesters, Djinn. Great job.”
“I appreciate any compliment from you, Harv. Thanks.”
“Who knows about your new concoction?” I ask him.
“Just you. Why?”
“Keep it that way for now,” I tell him. “We still don’t know who the spy and which Head is the traitor.”
“Good point. Whad’ya suggest?” he asks me.
“I’ll be the one who decides which Harvesters get to use your new invention. Make it into a pill by days end and try to get rid of pain, skin changing color, and smoke shit okay,” I tell him.
“You got it, Harv,” he remarks.
“Make as much as you can and hide all of it,” I instruct him.
A few hours later, I meet with Mr. Herald at the Agency’s firing range. I practice with a new, powerful weapon that Djinn recently created. In between shots, we talk business. I fire a few times and hit the target every time.
“Not bad, Harv.”
“Listen, Gerald. We got very close to capturing, maybe even killing Vega. You know I want him bad. Tell me you have something, anything on a possible location.” I fire a few more times.
“One of our two spies’ cover in the Underworld was blown recently, as you know. But we just got word from our third one based out of Rome, Italy, just a short while ago transmitted some interesting Intel I’ve been dying to tell you.”
“Great. And?” I ask with a bit of enthusiasm. And yet I still remain pessimistic due to many past experiences with the Underworld. They may have turned our own spy to join them, a double spy. They’re very persuasive.
“As you know, Rome has miles of catacombs, right?”
“Right. So?”
“Our spy is a hundred percent sure that Vega has been hiding out in them and only coming to surface every so often. He uses his White Door too.”
“Looks like I’m going to Rome, Gerald.”
“Not so fast, Harv. The Heads are setting up a meeting to discuss what is the best avenue of attack. We don’t want another Mariana Trench situation, do we? No offense.”
I’m shocked to hear this from him. “We still don’t know which Head is the traitor. Having a joint meeting on this topic would be counterproductive,
disastrous even.”
“Sorry, Harv. It has already been voted and decided by us to have this meeting. My hands are tied.”
I unload my whole clip on the target out of frustration. Mr. Herald knows I’m upset.
“I’m sorry, Harv. But you of all people know how the Agency works.”
I dump my clip out of my gun. “Yeah. To a fault.”
I walk off with a huff and leave him behind thinking about my last comment I’m sure.
“I want you to go to DC to monitor a certain senator who out of the blue is now lobbying against the Agency. We have our suspicions.”
I stop in my place. “Because of the Mariana Trench mission, and you really want me of all people to be assigned to this?” I ask with a condescending tone.
“Considering he has a lot of power and money to bolster that power? Yeah. I need you to do this. Gather some sort of dirt on him,” he tells me. “Anyone trying to gain more power to shut us down, yeah, I want you on the case.”
I nod at him. “I want a three Harvester crew, and I know you know who I want. If you want this done properly, just let me do what I do best, okay?”
“You got it, Harv. Kelly Marie and Dorian, correct?”
“Do you really have to ask? When do we leave?”
“One hour. Be prepared for the unexpected.”
“I always do. You should know that by now, Gerald.”
Dorian, Kelly Marie and myself meet at Mount Rushmore at the height of the tourism day to fit in and not be spotted by any possible Underworlders. I don’t wear my typical Harvester uniform in which I always sport. I wear the boring and typical tourist type clothing to fit in and so does Kelly Marie and Dorian.
“This won’t be our typical job, guys,” I tell them.
“You know what our mission is, so you know what to expect,” I say.
“So Senator Munley, huh?” Kelly Marie points out. “He used to be for the Agency and what it stands for. Why the abrupt change?”
She has a very good point. Why now all of a sudden? I have a pretty good idea who has gotten to him. Maybe Vega has already found some dirt on him and is blackmailing him in order to use him at his will. If that is true, we need to find some even worse dirt on him to get him to stop his crusade against the Agency and maybe even get him to speak highly of us. It’s not a Harvesting job, but this may prove to be more difficult than I had anticipated.
“You have a good point, Kelly Marie. And the answer most likely is what?”
“Vega,” they say at the same time.
“Exactly. By the time we get to DC, we need to come up with a rather elaborate plan. You want to do some sightseeing here or go to—”
“DC,” they say at the same time again.
We arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport later that night. Djinn made our weapons out of a special material that cannot be detected by anything human made, so we were able to fool the authorities. The hustle and bustle of the incredibly busy airport begins to annoy me. People rudely bumping into each other, annoyed airport employees, happy couples reuniting, the cornucopia of stenches, people suffering from jetlag, lost luggage, overeager security, and holy shit, there’s the Messenger. I stop Kelly Marie and Dorian and usher them to a safe spot out of his view.
“The Messenger is right over there. Don’t look,” I instruct.
“Do you think he knows we’re here?” Dorian asks.
“I’m not sure. Let’s hold back and see if he’s waiting for someone.”
Dorian and Kelly Marie cautiously peer over and spot out the Messenger standing by gate 13.
“He’s definitely waiting for somebody,” Kelly Marie states with confidence. “And I have a feeling who it might be.”
We closely observe the Messenger. Passengers begin to pile out of the tunnel to gate 13 from a plane that came from Los Angeles. And there he is.
“Yup. I knew it. The senator himself,” Kelly Marie boasts.
Damn, she’s an incredible woman.
“Senator Munley meeting with the Messenger? Now it’s official. He’s in bed with the Underworld,” Dorian makes the obvious stated.
“It goes without saying, but our surveillance starts now. Let’s move.”
The Messenger leads the Senator, late forties, slicked back hair, well-dressed, towards the baggage claim. We tail them, but at a safe distance. We know the Messenger has a keen sense of smell for Harvesters. I start to wonder why the Underworld has any interest whatsoever with Senator Munley. There’s any number of other people who could aid them better than he can. So, why him? We must find out.
The Senator came from Los Angeles where I know the Underworld has a huge assemblage of Underworlders. So, that would make sense. It would’ve been more profound if he flew in from Italy. Then, we’d really have something. Why L.A.?
To be honest, I’d rather be in Rome tracking Vega, but Mr. Herald seems to think that this is more important now, and he’s my boss, so I’m here in our country’s capitol.
We patiently wait as Senator Munley gathers his luggage. Obviously, he’s not the one in charge here because if he was the Messenger would’ve gathered his luggage for him. But no. This is a telltale sign to be noted. We carefully follow them toward the exit and I notice the Messenger is giving the Senator some sort of instructions.
With all the cornucopia of noises, my keen sense of hearing can’t pickup any of their conversation. We have our rental vehicle ready and parked right outside, so we’ll be ready to tail ’em right away. It wasn’t planned that we’d run into them, but it works in our favor so I say let’s use it to our advantage.
The Messenger escorts the senator toward one of the many exits. People he walks by can’t help but to stare at the Messenger due to his enormous size and tough demeanor.
Harvesters know how to perfectly tail someone, so we slowly follow them as they walk out the exit. The crowds of travelers storm inside, and we momentarily lose sight of them. We pick up our pace and exit. They come up on our radar again when we spot them entering a white limousine.
We turn and walk the other direction and head for our rental car down a ways. By the time we get in, the limousine drives pass us.
I always drive on these type missions, so I pull away from the curb and stay a safe distance behind them in the opposite lane.
“So we stick to the plan, Harvey?” Dorian asks me.
“We’ll try, but plans can change in a moment’s notice. You two know that better than anyone.”
“Hopefully, we can get to the DC Agency safe house to get all our gear before something goes down,” Kelly Marie comments.
“True dat,” for some reason Dorian says.
“True dat? Really?” Kelly Marie asks with a giggle.
Dorian shrugs his shoulders. “It’s what the kids are saying nowadays.”
Moments later and we follow the limousine turning to Dulles Toll Road, which leads toward Interstate 495. Once on the interstate, it’ll be easier to tail ’em because there will be much more vehicles to mask us.
“I’ve never been to DC,” Kelly Marie states.
“The last time I was here was when I took my daughter, Anastasia, on the typical DC touristy tour. She loved all that DC had to offer. We had a great time, and every time she smiled or giggled, it just made me feel so good inside. Now this place just makes me feel angry.”
Kelly Marie places her hand on my shoulder with a very caring expression and sadness in her eyes.
“I can’t imagine, Harvey. Again, I’m sorry for your loss. Anastasia was a great Harvester, and I can only imagine how wonderful of a daughter she was. I only worked with her once, but she seemed amazing.”
I stare into Kelly Marie’s beautiful, Caribbean ocean-blue eyes and try to give her a look that says “I’m interested in you.” And I guess it works because she genuinely smiles and nods a bit at me. I think this might truly be going somewhere between us other than just a Harvester crew member. I can’t think about that now or it will cloud my vision
and distort my decision-making skills.
We’ll dwell on it later on downtime though, that’s for sure.
The limousine turns onto Interstate 495 and speeds up, making me have to speed up as well. I know what we’re all thinking: Where the hell are they going and why? I begin to itch for the battle. Like a junkie, it has been a while since my last fix, and I’m starting to get the tremors for it. Will DC bring my fix? I’m hoping so. But the ultimate fix to my itch is in Italy, and I so desperately would like to be there on the Hunt. But I digress.
The limousine continues to head south on the traffic-ridden Interstate 495 and they exit onto Interstate 66. They only stay on it for a short while when they exit and take a street that leads to a tall, massive church. They park curbside and exit the limousine. We park up the block and observe them walk into the Falls Church near the Metro Station.
“A church?” Kelly Marie confusedly asks.
“I have a sneaky notion that this is going to become heated very quick,” Dorian remarks.
I don’t say anything. I just ponder the possibilities of why a church. They look to me for some sort of input, but I’m not ready yet. This scenario actually boggles me.
“Maybe the senator wanted to make a quick stop to confess,” Kelly Marie jokingly says and this makes me laugh a bit. I love her sense of humor.
“Possibly, Kelly Marie. But highly unlikely. Something in there they want, need, or will utilize to their advantage. I assure you,” I inform them.
“We’re going in, aren’t we?” Dorian asks as if he already knows the answer.
I give him a look that lets him know, “Duh.”
We exit the vehicle and stealthily maneuver toward the backside of the church. We search for an entrance that’ll allow us to secretly enter and not get caught by anybody.
The element of surprise is crucial here. Kelly Marie waves us over to a door one level down some stairs. We quietly descend to the single door. Dorian pulls out his lock-picking kit and goes to work on the door. He’s able to unlock it within twenty seconds.
The Harvester Page 17
