by Alex Siegel
Alfred took down the other guard with a palm strike to the chest followed by an elbow to the face. It was some kind of Kung Fu technique.
"You know how to fight?" Virgil said in a tone of surprise.
"I dealt with the criminally insane every day," Alfred said. "Personal defense training was mandatory."
Virgil looked at Sara. "What about you?"
"I never needed to worry about dead bodies fighting back," she said, "so I'm not much of a fighter, but I can argue a point strongly."
Virgil took the guns and a few spare magazines off the men. He was holding Furies' Bane, so he gave the other weapons to Sara and Alfred.
Virgil resumed his run through the house. He bumped into a maid who screeched in fear and ran off. He finally arrived in a big kitchen. Stainless steel pots and pans hung on racks above a wooden table. Cabinets with glass doors covered all four walls.
A chef in a white outfit swung a cleaver. Virgil jerked out of the way, but the knife still gashed the tip of his nose. He grabbed a frying pan and swung it like a baseball bat. The pan rang like a bell when it struck the chef's skull. He collapsed to the floor.
Virgil was about to move on when Sara said, "Wait! He might have a brain hemorrhage."
"Tough luck for him," Virgil said.
"I'll heal him."
"You're not supposed to use your powers unnecessarily."
"This is necessary in my opinion," she said. "Go."
She knelt down by the cook and gently blew on a gash on the side of his head. Every time she exhaled, the wound closed a little.
Virgil and Alfred ran out of the kitchen. The sound of a motorcycle engine drew Virgil to the left side of the house. He looked out a window as a motorcycle shot up the driveway. A big man in a black suit was holding the handlebars. A smaller man in a brown business suit was sitting behind the driver and clinging to his back. Neither of them was Daniel.
Virgil jumped through the window. Broken glass sprayed outwards, and he hit the ground running.
The car gate was already sliding open. The motorcycle slipped out through the gap while Virgil sprinted after it. He ran as fast as he could, but the bike got away. Its engine roared as it disappeared down the street.
Virgil stopped running. He wasn't tired, but he was very disappointed. He walked slowly back to the house.
He climbed into the house through the broken window. He found himself in a private library with a billiard's table in the center.
Alfred was there. "The reverend got away?"
Virgil nodded. "Sucks. Let's find Sara."
Now that Virgil wasn't in such a huge hurry, he could appreciate the home. Sebastian Miller obviously had a lot of money. Every room had crown molding, and ornate brass tiles covered the ceilings. Big crucifixes were hung everywhere to the point of being a fetish. All the doors also used a crucifix pattern in their construction.
Virgil and Alfred found Sara still in the kitchen. The chef was sitting up and rubbing his head. He had made a miraculous recovery.
"Why did you try to kill me?" Virgil asked angrily.
The chef cowered. "Security told me intruders were in the house."
Virgil snarled.
Lisa and Haymaker came running into the kitchen.
"We heard a gunshot!" she said.
"I think the reverend got away," Virgil said, "but Daniel might still be around. Let's search the house."
Haymaker frowned.
"What's wrong?" Virgil said.
"This is so illegal. Home invasion, assault, performing a search without a warrant."
"A serial killer might be in the house."
"The evidence supporting that argument wouldn't fly in court," Haymaker said. "I should go. Neighbors might've called the police, and if they show up, my presence will be hard to explain."
"Then go," Virgil said. "We'll call if we discover anything."
Haymaker ducked his head apologetically and left.
When the detective was gone, Virgil said, "He needs to pick a lane. Sometimes he wants to be involved, and sometimes he doesn't."
"He's in a tricky spot," Lisa said. "How do you want to do this? Two teams of two?"
"No. Let's stick together. We only have the one gun." He hefted Furies' Bane. "But let's move fast. He was right about the neighbors calling the police."
Sara pointed at the chef. "What about him?"
Virgil directed his special gaze at the chef. "Stay put. If you run or call for help, I'll find you and punish you."
The chef covered his face with his hands and nodded in terror. "Yes, sir! I won't move."
Virgil and Lisa were the best fighters, so they led the way as the team searched the house. Sara and Alfred followed a few paces behind. Everybody moved quietly but swiftly.
They checked the first floor and found nothing of interest. They returned to the foyer with the intention of taking the stairs to the second floor.
A man standing on a second floor landing stopped them. He was wearing a black suit like the other security guards. He had guns in both hands, and Virgil didn't recognize the model, but they were clearly sophisticated weapons.
"That's far enough," he said. "You're going to stand right there until the police show up."
Lisa sprang into action instantly. She grabbed a little bronze statue off a table and hurled it at the guard. While the statue was still in flight, she ran forward. She leapt, kicked off a wall, and continued upwards until she could grab the railing on the landing. She vaulted the railing and landed near the guard. The thrown statue had distracted him, and he noticed her arrival a second too late. Her foot smashed into his face. Virgil heard something pop.
He sprinted up the steps. The guard was lying on the floor with his head at an odd angle. He wasn't breathing.
"You broke his neck," Virgil said.
"I didn't mean to," Lisa said.
Sara knelt down and breathed onto the man's neck, but nothing appeared to happen.
"I'm too late," she said. "I can't raise the dead."
Everybody was silent for a moment.
"Lisa," Virgil said, "take his guns. We have to move."
Lisa eagerly snatched the high-tech guns from the hands of the dead man. She checked his body but didn't find anything else.
Virgil heard police sirens getting louder. "Come on!" he yelled.
The team moved. They encountered another maid, but she was too frightened to cause any trouble. The second floor contained mostly bedrooms and bathrooms. After racing through the floor and finding nothing, the team climbed to the third and highest floor.
Virgil heard the police enter the house below. He cautioned his companions to be quiet.
The third floor contained more bedrooms, but they were small and cheaply furnished. Virgil guessed the domestic staff lived on that level.
They came to a door which was locked from the other side. He rattled the handle in frustration.
A bullet fired through the door narrowly missed his ear. He kicked open the door. A security guard on the other side was trying to take a second shot, but he was too frightened to aim straight. Virgil slugged him in the jaw hard enough to knock him off his chair. The gun fell out of the guard's hand, and Virgil kicked it away.
He discovered he was in a security control room. Video monitors showed views from all over the house, inside and outside. The equipment included computers and was much more complicated than the surveillance systems of his day. The monitors showed police officers going from room to room.
"I'm sure they heard the gunshot," Virgil said. "They'll be up here in less than a minute."
"I'll talk to them," Alfred said.
"What are you going to say?"
"I still have my state police badge. That and my voice should convince them we're here on official business. You keep searching." Alfred ran off.
"He's a handy guy to have around," Virgil said.
Lisa nodded. "I thought his act was a little annoying at first, but it's growing on me. Come on."
Virgil, Lisa, and Sara continued searching the third floor. At the end of a long, narrow hallway, they came to a steel security door. Virgil tried the handle, but it didn't budge.
"I'm not going to even try to bust that sucker open," he said.
"We'll go around," Lisa said.
She began to kick the wall next to the door. The drywall crumbled under her powerful blows, and she quickly exposed the wooden studs underneath. She kicked between the studs to knock out the drywall on the far side. It took her just a few minutes to make an opening big enough to squeeze through.
"I'll have to remember that trick," Virgil said.
"When the door is too strong, try the wall." Lisa winked.
The three of them passed through to the room on the other side. It was another library, one dedicated to religious works. Virgil saw titles like Lesser Key of Solomon, Angels Among Us, The Strange and Mysterious Truth, and Encyclopedia Horrifica. Artifacts were interspersed between the books. The bizarre collection included a desiccated human hand, a tablet covered with ancient writing, a stuffed rattlesnake, and a brass cross with the bottom sharpened to a point.
A medieval iron maiden stood in the corner. The cylindrical metal torture device was big enough to hold a small adult. Inward pointing spikes would cause a slow, bloody death when the door was closed. Virgil shuddered.
"Over here," Sara said.
Lisa and Virgil joined her at a desk made of quartz crystals embedded in glass. Handwritten notes and diagrams covered the desk. Virgil saw English, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew writing. The intricate designs reminded him of his high school geometry class.
"I think it's some kind of elaborate spell," Sara said. "Maybe this is how the reverend brought Daniel back to Earth."
"It doesn't seem possible for a man to do that alone," Virgil said. "I don't care how clever the spell is. He needed supernatural help."
Alfred picked up a black and white photograph.
"What's that?" Virgil said.
"It's a picture of an old factory. The sign says 'Honey Bear Candy'."
"Here's a map," Sara said.
She pointed to a large paper map on the desk. An elaborate arrangement of lines and circles were drawn over the map in pencil. The pattern converged on a single spot labelled "Honey Bear."
Virgil spotted a newspaper clipping and picked it up. He read out loud, "'Is the old Honey Bear Candy Factory haunted? Ever since the factory closed twenty-three years ago under mysterious circumstances, witnesses have testified to seeing strange sights and hearing frightening sounds late at night. Some say the place is a doorway to Heaven... or Hell. Perhaps the factory was built on the site of a Native American massacre. Perhaps it is the place where Lucifer fell to Earth after the War in Heaven. We may never know the truth.'" Virgil looked at Sara and Lisa. "We need to check it out."
"Agreed." Sara grabbed the map. "Let's go."
The three of them left the secret library.
They found Alfred on the second floor. He was having an animated conversation with six uniformed police officers as they stood around the body of the dead guard.
"It was self-defense," Alfred said in his soothing, friendly voice.
"I don't see any weapons," one cop said.
"We took them as evidence."
"You're not supposed to disturb a crime scene until after the technicians have photographed everything."
"We're going," Virgil said. "Come on."
He started to walk down the stairs followed by Alfred, Sara, and Lisa.
"Hey!" the cop said. "You can't just leave."
Virgil used his special stare. "We are the state police. We have important things to do. You can finish up here."
The officer cowered.
The team hurried out the front door and walked across the street to the car.
"Did you find something?" Alfred said.
"Maybe," Virgil said. "The Honey Bear Candy Factory. It might be the gateway to Hell that Daniel used to escape."
"Hmm."
"Regardless, it's an important place to the reverend. We're going there now."
Chapter Thirteen
Virgil was driving along a narrow road in the suburbs west of Chicago. Small bedroom communities and farms shared the fertile land. Lush trees and bushes grew close together wherever there was space.
He turned a corner and saw the Honey Bear Candy Factory. The sun had set, and the factory was a dark mass in an empty field. The only exterior illumination came from orange city lights reflected off of clouds. A few lights were on inside the factory though, and they made the dusty windows glow.
"Somebody is home," Lisa said.
"That's good," Virgil said. "I think we'll finally get some answers tonight."
Arriving in a car would attract attention, so he decided to approach the factory on foot. He parked on the side of the road, running over weeds and grass in the process.
Everybody got out. A light breeze blew air which was still warm and humid from the summer day.
"I'll call Haymaker," Virgil said.
He took out his phone and made the call.
The detective answered, "Yes?"
"We're about to enter the Honey Bear Candy Factory in Geneva. It's near where the Fox River crosses the train tracks. Something serious could be going on there."
"Should I come? I'm in downtown Chicago. It might take me an hour to get out there."
"I'm not going to wait," Virgil said, "and I have a feeling this will get messy. You probably don't want to be part of the initial assault, but we can meet afterwards."
"I'll start driving. I have something else to say though. I did a little research on Sebastian Miller, and I don't think he exists."
"What do you mean? We met his ex-wife. I saw a guy on a motorcycle."
"You saw a guy," Haymaker said. "There is a Sebastian Miller in the computer systems. He has a driver's license and a social security number. His official address is the one we visited. But once you scratch the surface, there is no meat underneath. It's a fake identity."
"That's weird." Virgil looked towards the factory. "I suddenly have a bad feeling about this situation."
"Be careful."
"Always. I'll see you later." Virgil hung up and related the conversation to his teammates. "Grab your guns. Let's do this nice and slow. No mistakes this time."
Alfred and Sara still had 9 mm semi-automatic pistols from the house, although judging from Sara's awkward grip, she barely knew what to do with a gun. Lisa was armed with two weapons she had taken from the dead guard, and a little internet research had revealed they were FN P90's with 50 rounds apiece. The amazing guns could fire at 900 rounds per minute. Virgil carried Furies' Bane.
When the team was ready, they started jogging along the side of the road. Virgil's excellent eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and he could see a few more details of the factory. Train tracks ran along the side, but lush weeds growing over the tracks indicated they were no longer in use. The factory had a wooden roof, but portions had collapsed revealing a metal frame underneath. The walls were a mixture of brick and concrete slabs.
Some windows had broken glass. Virgil saw the silhouettes of people standing in those spots, and they were looking outwards. He guessed they were sentries.
"Too bad we don't have any camouflage," Virgil said.
"We just need to be fast and quiet," Lisa said.
The team came to a chain-link fence. Rusty yellow signs displayed the words, "DANGER! DO NOT ENTER!" The fence had fallen down in spots, and they climbed over it easily.
Virgil saw more sentries standing at the base of the factory. They were wearing white business suits and carried black pistols.
"Stop," Virgil whispered.
Lisa, Alfred, and Sara crouched down. The area around the factory was clear of trees, but tall weeds provided some cover.
In the silence, Virgil heard a thumping noise coming from the factory. It sounded like somebody beating a kettle drum.
"T
his is getting more interesting," he said. "We have two options. We can do this quiet or loud."
"What's wrong with talking our way in?" Alfred said.
"They might start shooting before we get close."
"Maybe there is less security around back," Lisa said. "Let's circle around and then form a plan."
"Sure," Virgil said.
The team ran off to the side. They made a big loop around the factory by following the fence line. They crouched down the entire time, staying below the tops of the weeds. Buzzing insects help cover the sounds of crunching grass.
The back of the factory featured a big ramp which led down to a river. A sliding access door on the side of the factory had fallen off the rails, allowing Virgil to see the interior. A circular stage stood in the middle of a big, empty space. A small audience surrounded the stage, and everybody was wearing white robes. They were chanting in time with a drum beat.
Some people on the stage were standing around a gleaming metal table. A girl wearing only a loincloth was lying on the table, and her wrists and ankles were tied to the sides. A central figure in white held an ornate ceremonial knife above her neck.
"He's going to kill her," Lisa said in an urgent tone.
"Is Daniel holding the knife?" Virgil said.
The distance was too great to see the killer's face. The hood of his white robe covered his hair.
"It doesn't matter," Lisa said. "We have to stop him."
Virgil looked around. A sentry stood behind the factory, but he was facing the gurgling river. Virgil grabbed a rock and threw it at the water. It struck with a satisfying splash. The sentry walked cautiously in that direction with his gun drawn.
Virgil crept around behind the sentry, moving silently and quickly. The amazing flexibility of Virgil's demonic body allowed him to avoid rustling blades of grass. When he was close enough, he charged forward. He punched the sentry in the back of the head, knocking him senseless with a single blow. Virgil kicked the sentry's gun into the river.
He made a hand signal to his team. Everybody moved towards the factory and converged at the back door.
