Last Call

by Lloyd Behm II

  I’m stubborn, I can play this game all night, I thought, rising again.

  This time something crushed my legs to the top of the ziggurat. I screamed in pain, not quite passing out.

  “Bring up the others,” Abzu said.

  I definitely saw Billy this time—he flickered in, waved, and disappeared.

  “You will have the honor of being the last sacrifice,” Abzu said. “First you will watch your comrades being offered to the great Chaos.”

  “That’s…that’s implied in my being the…last sacrifice, you idiot,” I gasped.

  “You’re not going to win,” Oeillet said to Abzu. “He will continue to insult you until you kill him. You need him for the sacrifice; he’s the only one whose powers can drive the return of Chaos.”

  “You speak the truth, devil. He lives for now.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 28 – Diindiisi

  It took a bit, but we were able to rescue everyone above the fortieth floor. Sometimes having a dragon along is helpful. Call of the Sun brought what remained of the building down slowly, dropping it in the parking lot.

  “Man, the insurance company is going to be pissed,” Fred said.

  “Do you wish to scry for Jesse?” Call of the Sun asked.

  AFD and APD were still clearing the scene. We were going to be here a while. The location was not perfect, but if Call of the Sun felt he could do it, it would’t hurt to try.

  “Yes, please,” I said.

  Golden Circle laid her map out on the hood of one of the Tahoes. Dalma was helping Ozzie and Alfie put Sharp Blade’s arm back in the socket. I handed Call of the Sun the chain with the St. Michael medal on it.

  “First we check and see if he is still alive,” Call of the Sun said, spinning the charm.

  It rose into the air and pointed south.

  “This is a good sign,” he said. “There is an entrance to the Shadow Lands to the south, is there not?”

  “Yes, although it is not open at this time,” I replied.

  “Still, that should give us an opening, at least,” he said, walking to the map. “There is a problem with your map, daughter?”

  The Shadow Lands were fading rapidly from the map.

  “I…I do not understand, father. The map was fine when I packed it for travelling.”

  “Is it possible the Shadow Lands have changed?” I asked.

  “They haven’t in the last year,” Golden Circle said.

  “True. However, if Abzu were able to isolate the influence of the Font of Saint Mark the Evangelist, he might be able to regain control over his realm. By doing so, it would change the landscape.”

  “That would affect the spells on the map, Father.”

  “Which leaves us unable to locate exactly where in the Shadow Lands Jesse is,” I said.

  “I can take you to him.”

  I turned. A young man stood there in blue jeans and a T-shirt. He had a UMP slung across his body, and a leather pistol holster hung from a cotton belt around his waist.

  He raised his hands as everyone pointed weapons at him.

  “My name is Billy, and I’m on your side,” he said. “I can take three people to Jesse, but we’re going to have to move quickly. Abzu is about to sacrifice him and a couple of others.”

  “Is this kid glowing?” Padgett asked.

  “Yes, I’m glowing,” Billy said. “I’ve been dead for the last sixty-six years. Now are we going to rescue Jesse or not?”

  “Whatever else, that kid has met Jesse,” Padgett said. “How you want to handle this, boss?”

  “Three you said?”

  “Yes, one touching each shoulder, and one holding my left hand. Before you ask, no, I can’t work the spell if someone’s standing in front of me.”

  “Call of the Sun, Fred, and me,” I said.

  “Are any of you acquainted with first aid?” Billy asked. “Jesse’s in pretty bad shape.”

  “Probably pissed someone off,” Padgett replied.

  “Something like that, yeah. I’m surprised he lived this long, honestly.”

  “Ozzie, you take my place,” Fred said, holding up a hand to stop Dalma’s protest. “I know, you’ve got first aid training, too, but Ozzie’s a doctor.”

  “Fine,” she said, grounding the case for her Lapua, “but as soon as you open that gate, I’m coming through.”

  “Fred, start staging gear here. We will go through and establish a gateway, and then you come through. Our goal is to get him out, then retreat back here and close the gate.”

  “Wonder if we’ve got time to get Thumper?” Fred asked.

  “Here,” Padgett said, handing him the case.

  “All that searching and it comes down to a holy grenade launcher. Graham Chapman must be rolling in his grave,” Fred said.

  “If you’re ready?” Billy asked.

  We all stood where he told us to stand—Ozzie had on two packs, one front, one back, so I swapped places with him.

  Billy did something with his right hand and we were…somewhere else.

  “You dare interfere, spirit guide?” Abzu said in a voice I remembered from a year ago.

  “I made a choice!” Billy said, the words striking Abzu like hammer blows.

  “You made a choice?” a blonde figure in an expensive suit asked. “You?”

  “Yes, me, Oeillet,” Billy said. “You and Abzu got it wrong, just as Isidora said you would.”

  Jesse was on the far side of the surface we stood on, sunk into it up to his knees. Oeillet and Abzu stood on the far side of a raised dais, preparing to sacrifice two men in QMG uniforms.

  Time seemed to slow—I heard the sharp clap of Call of the Sun’s hands as he opened the gate back to the team waiting in Austin. I moved to Jesse’s side, Ozzie in my wake. Billy stood there, the nimbus around him glowing in the half-light of the Shadow Lands.

  “I chose to act. Get thee behind me, agent of Satan.”

  The words rolled like thunder across the sky.

  Abzu disappeared, followed by Oeillet.

  “I…I didn’t know my choice would destroy them,” Billy said, falling to his knees.

  “Diindiisi? Is that you? I must be hallucinating,” Jesse said.

  “Oh, Jesse, what have you done to yourself?” I said, looking at the missing arm.

  “That’s nothin’, you should see the other guy,” he slurred before passing out.

  “I’ve got him, Diindiisi,” Ozzie said, dropping the packs he carried.

  Three things happened almost simultaneously—Call of the Sun opened his gateway to the world, the daemons charged the ziggurat we stood upon, and Billy faded away, leaving behind the UMP.

  “I…I guess I made the right decision again,” he said.

  “Not to be too demanding,” one of the men strapped to the altar said, “but could someone cut us loose?”

  Andre cut them loose, and then started firing into the crowds of daemons rushing the top of the ziggurat. Dalma and Alfie went past carrying the S-18.

  We started firing at the daemons. One of the dwarfs was carrying an Indian can full of holy water, and he put it to good use, spraying the daemons to keep them back.

  “Fred? Can you look at this?”

  “Shit,” Fred said, seeing where Jesse’s legs ended. “Give me a minute.”

  He cut the legs on Jesse’s trousers.

  “Fuck me,” Fred said. “Whoever did this is a sadistic son of a bitch. They didn’t plant him in the stone; they fused it with his legs.”

  “Golden Circle, can you or your father do anything?” I asked.

  “If it were trees or living material, yes, but not with stone,” she replied. “I am sorry.”

  Tatsuo leaped from the side of the ziggurat, transforming into her true form on the way down. When we had been in Austin, she had disguised herself as a western dragon. Here she was the Kirin—a ruby red beast with antlers and an ox’s tail.

  “I have come to purge the wicked!” she screamed before breathing
flame on the daemons.

  Dalma was taking shots from the raised surface of the altar, Speaker acting as spotter. Daemons fell by the thousands, and more appeared to charge the building.

  Jesse came to and grabbed my hand.

  “Yes?”

  “Get everyone out of here,” he said. “Take them home.”

  “We’re not leaving you behind,” Fred said.

  “Leave me a pistol,” Jesse said. “Get the team home!”

  “Idiot,” the second man who had been strapped to the altar said. “There’s a way to do this.”

  He held up a tourniquet.

  “Oh, hell, it’ll take too long,” Jesse said.

  “Alfie! Get over here,” Ozzie shouted. “Andre, take over for Alfie.”

  “What’re you going to do?” Jesse asked. “Unless you’ve got a tame god with you, I’m stuck.”

  “Amputate,” Ozzie said over the thunder of Fred ripple-firing Thumper into the daemons.

  “Oh, great,” Jesse said. “Don’t let that butcher Townsend anywhere near me. He cut off my arm.”

  The man with the tourniquet bent down and slid it around Jesse’s leg. “Saved your worthless ass doing it, didn’t I?”

  Townsend cranked the tourniquet tight. Ozzie had a bone saw in hand, but Townsend stopped him.

  “This combines a tourniquet with the skill of Doctor Lister,” Townsend said, placing the other tourniquet.

  “Didn’t Lister have a surgery with a three hundred percent mortality rate?” Ozzie asked.

  “Yeah he did, but that was an accident. This is going to work.”

  I watched in morbid fascination as the tourniquets worked their way through Jesse’s legs. They cut through the bone as Dalma took one last shot.

  “Go,” Townsend said.

  Ozzie and Alfie grabbed Jesse under the armpits and ran, Alfie dragging the big medical pack behind him.

  “Fall back,” I shouted over the sounds of combat. “Fall back.”

  I shot a daemon as it paused to lick Jesse’s blood from the top of the ziggurat.

  “Dalma, let’s go!”

  “One more…”

  Speaker pointed. Dalma fired, abandoned the Solothurn, and ran neatly through the portal Call of the Sun was holding open. He had had the good sense to move to the other side, at least.

  I gave the top of the ziggurat one last look. All our people were gone, there were windrows of spent brass against the edges of the altar, and a bandage wrapper flapped in the wind like a forlorn flag. I stepped into the sunlight of Austin.

  Call of the Sun released the spell, and the gateway closed.

  “Diindiisi, get in,” Heibert said, sliding one of the Tahoes to a halt.

  “Where are we taking him?” I asked climbing in the back.

  “There’s a parking garage half a mile from here where the top deck is clear of cars—APD’s blocked anyone else from parking there. Dragon is bringing her Black Hawk in, and they’re hauling him to the QMG Trauma Center in Dallas.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 29 – Jesse

  “So it was you on the roof of that ziggurat,” I said, looking at the top of Diindiisi’s head. She was even on my left side so I could touch her.

  If the tubes and other things that hung from that arm would have allowed it.

  “I thought I was hallucinating.”

  “No. Although we almost didn’t know where to find you,” she said.

  “Abzu somehow got control of the Shadow Lands back, didn’t he?” I asked. “That probably fu…I mean screwed up any maps or spells you had on this side.”

  “Something like that, yes,” she replied. “If it hadn’t been for Billy…”

  “Wait, Billy? Dark-haired kid, about sixteen or so?”

  “Yes. He came and found us and led us to you,” she said.

  “Son of a bitch. I guess he was the one who had to make the choice after all.”

  “That’s what he said before he disappeared. ‘I made the right choice, again.’ What did he mean by that?”

  I told her about the ‘53 tornado, and then I took a little nap.

  * * *

  Diindiisi wasn’t in the room when I woke up after my nap. Instead a strange Eurasian girl sat in a chair, staring at me intently.

  “Can I help you?” I asked her.

  “The Foreman requested I keep an eye on you so she could get something to eat. She’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “And you are?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Jesse—may I call you Jesse? I’m Tatsuo. The Foreman holds my parole.”

  “Your parole?” I wondered for a moment if I’d lost enough blood for brain damage to set in.

  “Yes, my parole,” she answered. “I’m a dragon, and the runts working for your wife after you disappeared captured me, so the Foreman had to take my parole.”

  “So Fred took your parole. Is he identifying as female these days?” I asked, more confused than ever.

  “No, Diindiisi is the Foreman,” the dragon in human form said, laughing and covering her mouth with her hands. “Imagine Fred in a dress.”

  Thoroughly confused and somewhat horrified at that thought, I took another nap.

  * * *

  It was three days before they would let anyone but family in to see me. Fred and Ozzie came by and told me to contact them when I was out of the hospital. The head of the Mine had authorized them to fit me for prosthetics that would be better than original equipment. Although Fred’s suggestion that I dip the entire arm in platinum, even if I could afford it, was a bit much.

  There was a slow parade of visitors. Henry Keith dropped by, along with a representative of HR, who explained that while I was no longer fit for active duty, I was still on the payroll since my injuries were in the line of duty. They would also be paying me as a consultant, and to allow them to study me—after all, I was the only specimen anyone had of someone who’d been to three planes of existence—the mortal, The Shadow Lands, and Limbo.

  Dalma dropped in after Keith left.

  “Dude, you look like shit,” she said.

  “Thanks. How you doing?” I asked.

  “Pretty good. I’m going down to Chisos for a while, going to study with Ozzie and Alfie.”

  “Sounds good,” I said.

  “It’s not bad, if that’s what you mean,” she replied, looking thoughtful. “There’s something you should know.”

  “Oh?” I asked, giving her my best raised eyebrow.

  “Yeah, that last shot I took? I killed Abzu with it,” she said.

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yes. Boom. Headshot. Besides,” Dalma said, rising from her chair and kissing the top of my head, “I owed that fucker for Holt.”

  “That you did,” I said.

  She walked out, and I spent a long time looking out the window that afternoon.

  The next day, Diindiisi brought a female elf to visit.

  “Jesse, this is,” and she trilled something in the Fair Tongue.

  “Nice to meet you…could you say that in English?”

  “I am known as Golden Circle,” the elf said with a slight bow, “husband of the Foreman.”

  “Jesse. You can just call me Jesse.”

  “Jesse,” she replied.

  “You have met Tatsuo?” Diindiisi asked.

  “The dragon? Yes. Although I haven’t seen her around since that first day,” I said.

  “She has been busy,” Diindiisi replied, a small smile crossing her face, “liquidating her horde mostly. She and Golden Circle will be coming with us when we move from Austin.”

  “Instant harem, huh? I don’t swing that way,” I said.

  Diindiisi smiled at the joke. It took Golden Circle a moment to realize I was joking, and then her smile was a small thing.

  “Have they told you where we’re moving?” I asked.

  “The company is recommending Waco. Things are starting to get strange there, and they would like it if you were there to consult with
the new team they are establishing. It’s office work, but…”

  “But I can still occasionally smell cordite and hear the thunder. Sure, why not?” I asked. “Although I’m going to have to learn to use the legs and arm the dwarfs are giving me first.”

  “They’ve authorized that. You’re finally going to have to take all your accrued leave,” she said.

  * * *

  “I dreamed of Mel again,” I said to Diindiisi over breakfast.

  We were in the Chisos mine visiting the dwarfs. Golden Circle’s presence made it something of a state visit—the first time a European elf, let alone a female European Elf, had visited the Mine in Terlingua since the founding three hundred years ago.

  I’d learned over the last month to read the elf’s emotions. She was learning to cope with people who didn’t want to stuff her into a cloister, or worse.

  “Oh? Cheating on me in your sleep?” Diindiisi asked.

  We’d discussed the attempts by the daemons and the devil to tempt me.

  “Nothing like that,” I said. “She was just sitting by a lake with a dark-haired boy. I think she’s found peace.”

  “That sounds right…oh dear, excuse me,” Diindiisi said, bolting from the table.

  I found my stick and, hopping to my stumps, I followed her. I found her in the bathroom, throwing up.

  “You ok?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing that hasn’t happened to millions of women since the beginning of time,” she said, rinsing her mouth.

  “You’re…what…I mean.”

  She sighed theatrically. “The state of modern education, I swear. Things were easier on the Great Plains where children learned about sex watching the animals mate. I believe the modern term is ‘we’re,’ as in ‘we’re pregnant.’”

  “How long have you known?”

  “I wanted to wait and make sure, but the baby is due in January,” she said, “if I’ve done the math right.”

  * * *

  “There’s one more house to look at,” I said, looking at Diindiisi in the back seat.

  I was driving. The legs and arm the dwarfs had fitted me with worked perfectly. I could run, and even shoot again, although I was making myself learn how to do that left-handed, just in case.