Etymology: Mammon was used to describe greed, avarice, and unjust worldly gain in Biblical literature. It was personified as a false god in the New Testament. The term is often used to refer to excessive materialism or greed. Adjectival forms are mammonish and mammonistic.
The word is assumed to derive from Late Latin ‘mammon', from Greek ‘μαμμωνάς', Syriac ‘mámóna’ (riches), and was an Aramaic loan word in Hebrew meaning wealth although it may also have meant ‘that in which one trusts'.
Personifications: In the Bible, Mammon is personified in Luke 16:13, and Matthew 6:24, the latter verse repeating Luke 16:13. In some translations, Luke 16:9 and Luke 16:11 also personify Mammon; but in others, it is translated as ‘dishonest wealth’ or the equivalent.
During the Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly personified as the demon of avarice, wealth and injustice.
The Exvoked Mammon: The Royal Demon known as Mammon is currently resident in the building formerly known as the Swiss Re Tower (now called Mammon Tower) in the Demon City of London. He is widely believed to be the richest entity on Earth, with an annual income from investments equivalent to the GDP of American and China combined.
London Army
The London Army is the joint land, sea and air force of the city states of Demon City and Outer London, created in August 2014, following the Partition of London and the rest of the UK. It is comprised of six distinct types of soldier:
Demonic, humaniform ;
Demonic, bestial in form (land creature);
Demonic, bestial in form (aerial creature);
Demonic, bestial in form (aquatic creature);
Human (enhanced by magic);
Resurrected human.
The LA has two branches: the CFLA (Combined Forces London Army) and the LOR (London Overseas Regiment). No distinction is made between the air force, navy and army, or between the cavalry and infantry divisions. However there are mounted platoons comprised of a blend of humans/damned on horses, demons on demonic horses, and centaurs.
The LA is resident in the Barbican Barracks, but has numerous garrisons along the Thames Corridor where the major nests of Beelzebub’s Brood, its crack aerial troops, are to be found.
In 2015 the London Army deflected a mass nuclear missile strike from the USA by means of an aerial combat involving more than one thousand LA fighter jets led by flocks of Brood spitting flame. All the human aviators involved in this assault were killed but were later resurrected. In order to avert a counter-attack, the American government allegedly paid reparations estimated to be in the region of one trillion dollars.
The LA is certified as a limited company and both the CFLA and LOR are available for hire on a freelance basis, and are currently deployed in China, Iraq, Bosnia and several other places which can no longer be listed on this website following the threat of legal action by London Army plc.
PREVIOUSLY....
Nine years ago the sky turned black when millions of flying monsters from the Hell Dimension blocked the sun. That was the day when Hell came to Earth.
Now it’s 2023. Warlocks led by CHIEF WARLOCK BRANNIGAN keep the peace. And London is a nation state in which power is shared between human beings and creatures from the Hell Dimension. The former City of London is now DEMON CITY, ruled by the Lord Mayor MAMMON. The London Army is a freelance force that fights and wins wars all around the world. Demons who are granted citizenship can live and work anywhere in London, side by side with humans, together with thousands of formerly damned humans who have risen from the dead and emigrated to London.
HELL ON EARTH is a detective thriller about Murder Squad Number Five, led by Detective Superintendent DOUGIE RANDALL and his ‘bagman’ Detective Inspector GINA HENDERSON.
In Volume 1, The Squad were on the trail of a serial killer known as the Embalmer. But Dougie discovered that the killings were all connected to numerous other serial killer murders in the capitals over the last five or six years. There is a prolific serial killer at large who is using different murderous techniques to conceal the connections between the victims: for each person who is murdered, Dougie realises, is the person who was most beloved by the previous victim. It is a Love Chain of Murder in other words; weaving a web from the first ever victim to the most recent.
A student called SARAH PENHALL is killed by the Embalmer and Dougie takes her twin sister JULIA PENHALL into protective custody - realising that she is the one most beloved by Sarah, and hence destined to be the next victim. Dougie visits Julia often and they strike up a rapport, chatting about movies and life. It becomes an important friendship for Dougie - who is a widower with two young children, whose wife was murdered during the Hell Breaches of nine years ago by an imp-demon from Hell.
Meanwhile, a young uniformed constable in Peckham, DC TOM DERRY, stumbles on evidence that someone has hacked the Metropolitan Police database and so has access to all the addresses and residents of the Met’s safe houses. Tom has been closely following Dougie’s serial murder case and guesses there is a connection; and he warns Dougie that the safe house holding Julia may not be safe.
But it’s too late. Julia is abducted by the malign serial killer, a fat bald man called GOGARTY. Julia is imprisoned by Gogarty in his house, as her sister was before her - not by chains but by enchantment. For Gogarty has magical powers of terrifying power.
Julia, an MA Screenwriting student with exceptional strength of character, manages to escape from Gogarty. And when she is fatally injured she leaves clues carved into her body to tell Dougie how to find her killer. As a result, Gogarty is arrested. And thanks to Dougie’s brilliant interrogation technique, Gogarty makes a full confession.
PC Tom Derry is promoted to DC (Detective Constable) and seconded to Dougie’s squad in recognition of his work. He is a precocious over-achiever, and is immensely annoying; but he is one of the few people who can hold their own with the formidable Dougie Randall. He becomes part of the team which searches Gogarty’s East End home for further evidence. Bodies are found in the garden, but they prove to be historic, dating back to Victorian times. Tom deduces a connection with the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, though it’s not clear why or how Gogarty would choose to live in Jack’s old home.
Tom does House to House interviews with RDC Fillide Melandroni - formerly a whore, who died centuries ago and was resurrected, and who was the lover and model of the great artist Caravaggio.
But Tom and Fillide discover that the whole thing is a trap. The excavation of the gardens has triggered a Hell Breach. The ground explodes and demons and resurrected warriors from Hell invade the East End. A battle royale commences.
Simultaneously with this, Gogarty, accompanied by a giant red-skinned demon, escapes from his cell in Dougie’s nick.
Tom and Fillide and the rest of the police and army assault force defeat the invaders from Hell. But Gogarty has got away. The killer is once more on the loose.
In Volume 2, Dougie and his squad are on the hunt for Gogarty and the red demon who broke him out of prison. Dougie’s assumption is that the evil demon is the serial killer and Gogarty is just the human helper.
Meanwhile, we learn more about the backstory of Fillide Melandroni, who had been conjured out of Hell by Dougie’s boss, the corrupt copper Detective Chief Superintendent ROY THE BOY HALL. Roy is a Mason and is in with the warlocks, and so has access to magical powers. When he summoned Fillide he became her lover and for a brief period she was happy. But then he began to use his magic to control and bully her; and Fillide realised that she was now no better than a slave.
As time goes by, Roy’s plan becomes apparent - he wants Fillide to commit a ‘hit’ on his former associate MICKEY DOLAN, once head of the Peckham CID (where Dougie briefly worked). Fillide is whored out to Mickey, then kills his bodyguard and Mickey himself with her bare hands. She is left fatally injured with silver bullets in her body but is rescued by another of Roy’s slaves from Hell, the Viking MAGNUS. Magnus saves then befriends Fillide and helps her plan her
escape from Roy. But it goes horribly wrong; and Fillide realises she has been duped. And now she has to continue working for Roy - committing armed robberies and contract killings, as part of a team of assassins including Magnus who are known as THE TRINITY.
Gogarty is hiding out in the home of SHEILA WHITTAKER, a mumsy middle aged lady who works as a foster parent to hell children abandoned by her parents, including a golem called JACOB, a multi-headed Indian toddler demon called VEDA, and the flying demon ALAZU. Naberius is there too but Sheila quickly perceives that the huge red demon is in fact just the slave of the far more powerful Gogarty. Gogarty, she realises, is a rogue warlock, using his powers for evil.
Dougie’s team are making no progress so reluctantly Dougie agrees to use a supernatural snout to find the demon and Gogarty. Tom and Gina enter Demon City and make contact with HERNEITH, a former Egyptian princess who lives in the dark and dank basilica of St Paul’s. She tells them the identity of the demon - NABERIUS - and under compulsion, agrees to find his location. But when she uses her powers to find Naberius, she encounters a vastly powerful presence in the magical sphere. Herneith is set alight; and St Paul’s Cathedral burns.
Tom meanwhile is pursuing a theory that there is a conspiracy of warlocks behind all these events. He has also discovered that London itself is constructed upon a pattern of magical sigils created by a warlock who - Tom believes - also committed the murders attributed to Jack the Ripper. It is a conspiracy to end all conspiracies.
Tom finds himself trapped in the magically aflame St Paul’s, assailed by demons. Unable to escape he leaps from the lantern of the cathedral - but instead of falling to his death, he flies. For Tom’s mother was a witch with magical powers; and hence, Tom is the son of a witch.
Using more conventional detective methods, Dougie discovers where Gogary and Naberius are hiding. And he also separately reaches the conclusion that there is a conspiracy of warlocks behind these crimes. An armed police squad attack Sheila Whittaker’s house. Naberius flies out and finds himself trapped inside a magical cordon, where Harrier jets fire missiles at him and blow him slowly to pieces. And so the great beast dies.
Gogarty emerges from the house, and surrenders himself. But on Dougie’s orders he is shot dead. Later he is beheaded and the body is cursed - the only way to truly kill a warlock.
Dougie attends the funeral of Naberius in Demon City - a magnificent send off for one of the great beasts from Hell. He is well aware that Naberius was just a pawn of Gogary - who become the innocent victim of Dougie’s elaborate cover up. But Dougie feels no remorse for the terrible injustice he has inflicted on this much loved demonic being. For Dougie is full of irrational, bigoted hate for all the hellkind....
We see the story of how Dougie met and fell in love with his wife ANGELA when they were both working in the same nick in South London. He was later appalled to discover that Angela had been involved in corrupt activities masterminded by Roy Hall and Mickey Dolan (the corrupt copper killed by Fillide, on Roy’s orders). And (or so we may surmise) Angela was having qualms and was close to grassing up Roy Hall for his many crimes, despite the consequences to herself.
But then the Hell Breaches happened. London was invaded by demons and Dougie was part of the defensive force. But when he went home he discovered his wife Angela had been murdered by a demon from Hell. (So did Roy hire a demon hitman to get rid of her??? We may wonder but we do not know...)
From that day onwards, Dougie has nursed hatred for demons and other hellkind. And today, at the funeral, he is carrying a gun and for a while, we think he is going to run amok and start murdering demons - who, under their warlock binding spells, are unable to hurt human beings and so cannot forcibly stop him from killing them.
But Dougie’s hatred ebbs. The great funeral parade passes by him. Naberius is dead. Gogarty is dead. And Dougie can get on with the rest of his life. And maybe that means, that in time, his deep friendship with his friend and colleague Gina Henderson will blossom into something more?
That’s what, in his heart of hearts, Dougie most yearns for. Gina is his confidant. His closest friend. The nearest thing his kids have to a mother. But, being Dougie, he’s never said anything to Gina about his feelings. And she’s never said anything to him.
Yet...
Chapter 1
Skip forward. Six months after the funeral of Naberius. Monday the eighth of January 2024.
There was a round of applause when Tom walked in to Limehouse Station Major Incident Room Number Three.
Dougie was shocked at the boy’s appearance. Tom looked unchanged. No scars, no burns, no limp. No outward signs of the terrible injuries he had sustained. He still appeared as far too young as he ever had. Yet there was something measured and overly careful about the way Tom moved, and the way he stood. As if every motion had to be planned in advance. And his brow was furrowed, permanently, with two thin black lines across his un-acned clear forehead.
Also,he now carried a black cane with a silver skull as its handle, which he didn’t seem to need for walking. But which he clutched so tightly the knuckles of his right hand were white. And there was an oddness to his face. A strange, waxy, still quality.
‘Take a seat,’ said Catriona, but Tom remained standing. He seemed embarrassed at the fuss the team were making.
‘Why the stick, Tom?’ Dougie asked. Tom waited before he answered, as if weighing the words.
‘Safety,’ he said. His voice had changed. It was slower and older.
‘What do you mean?’
Tom lifted up the stick. He held the wooden shaft in his left hand. Then he yanked firmly on the white skull handle with his other hand. A long double-edged silver blade smoothly emerged from the wood of the stick, like a dragon slinking out of its cave. Tom held it aloft. The blade glinted in the harsh fluorescent lights of the MIR. It made a sinister ‘swish’ noise when Tom swung it through air.
‘Sword stick,’ said Gina, impressed.
‘Silver blade?’ asked Dougie.
‘Of course,’ Tom informed him, then paused. Then he added: ‘Anointed thrice, dipped in incense, chilled to a hundred degrees Kelvin then warmed up in demon’s blood.’
The room suddenly got colder.
‘Must have cost,’ suggested Dougie.
Tom thought about that. ‘Can’t be too careful, guvnor,’ he said slowly.
‘Welcome back, Tom,’ Dougie said.
‘Sit down, you’re making the room look untidy,’ Taff joshed.
‘Too right.’ That was Cat.
‘So is it true what they say –’
‘We weren’t supposed to ask about –’
‘ – about you flying –’
‘ – that, were we?’
‘ – Andy, you have a big gob –’
‘I mean, if we’d known that you could –’
‘ – on you.’
‘Give the kid a chance, mun.’
‘ – fly we’d have chucked you out the bloody window that first week.’
‘If you’re interested,’ said Tom slowly, and somehow cleared a pause in the conversation. He continued: ‘Then I shall tell you. Yes, it’s true. I should have died, but I did not. I flew in air. That is because I have certain – powers. More considerable than I – had realised. I am not entirely – like other people. More than that I shall not say.’
‘Good for you lad,’ said Taff.
Cat smiled; adopting Tom as her own. Gina nodded too, her benediction.
But Dougie was still uneasy. Something was wrong with this lad and he couldn’t put his finger on what.
‘Treat me as you would any other detective,’ Tom informed them all gravely. ‘I ask for no favours. On the other hand, neither will I accept disfavouritism, or persecutory disparagement.’ He looked around him, as if daring anyone to challenge him.
‘Is that a word?’ Vincent asked. He mouthed at Alice: Disfavouritism? She stifled a giggle.
‘I propose that from now on,’ said Hyun-Shik, ‘if Tom
says it’s a word, then it’s a word.’
‘It’s good to have you back, Tom,’ said Alliea, for no reason other than to stamp her authority as Office Manager.
‘Let’s get to work,’ said Dougie.
Tom sat down.
‘So. What’s new?’ asked Tom.
The MIR was abuzz once more.
‘Six homicides unsolved since you left us,’ said Dougie. ‘Including a child murder and the beating to death of a grandmother in her home. We’re now spending one day a week on those six old but not cold cases, and five days a week on the Hutchinson case, which we shall brief you on in just a moment. But lest you think we’re a bunch of useless wankers –’
‘No I don’t think that, guv.’
‘ – glad to hear it, laddie. My point being, twelve cases have been closed by Five Squad in the last six months, the first of them comes to trial in two months which means we’re outperforming London West by a factor of many, if you care about that kind of thing, which frankly, I bloody well do. And we’ve just taken on a juicy double murder,’ said Dougie, ‘which is the aforementioned Hutchinson case. Mother and father, Shay and Elena Hutchison, tied up and strangled. No valuables taken from the house, even the car wasn’t nicked. The son Boris is missing, he’s twenty-nine, works in insurance, no girlfriend, credit cards bills of nearly fifty grand. Is he also dead, or did he do it? And if he did do it, why the fuck didn’t he steal the car and flog it? Someone get the coffees, then we’ll start the timeline.’
‘Do you know this man?’ Tom showed the photograph to the barman, who gave it a cursory glance.
Then he looked harder at Tom, with a puzzled look.
He saw a young man with a stick and a police warrant card. A calm young man. An odd, calm young man with a shimmering face. He seemed harmless enough. Yet the barman was perturbed.
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