by Tom Clarke
“Fuckin A!” Darrel replied as he ground his teeth together. “Once we have them, Keith you and Darrel will move them right back to this door.
“I’ll pop a couple of rounds off in the office, when those three butt crackers come in to see what’s up we’ll move out, get in our rigs and hit the road. Keith, you ride with Darrel, you’ll be security. I’ll grab my ride, let’s meet on the back side of that abandoned hospital just outside of town.”
I looked at Keith and Darrel, “You guys cool?” They both shook their heads in the affirmative. As we moved up to the door leading back into the small office I said, “I will be contact, Keith you got the Swedish Chef, Darrel you take the Deacon.”
We stopped just short of the door, stacked up along the wall to the right of it. I was in the front, then Keith, and then Darrel. Darrel reached up and squeezed Keith’s shoulder letting him know that he was ready, Keith then squeezed my shoulder letting me know that he was ready. I then dipped down once letting both Keith and Darrel know that I was moving.
I reached forward and pushed the door to the office in. As I stepped through the doorway I moved directly to the front of the table where the Deacon and his Swiss Guard were sitting. With my handgun out and pointed in, covering our two suspects, I said to the Deacon and his guard in a very authoritative voice, “Don’t move, put your hands on your head and interlace your fingers….do it now!”
As I started giving commands Keith and Darrel quickly moved in, and to the rear of their respective targets, Keith grabbed the role of tape I had seen and stepped behind his man.
“What’s this all about?” the Deacon said as he shakenly put his hands on top of his head.
“We have a situation developing outside” I replied, “and until I know whose side you two are on you’re coming with us.”
Abegg the Swiss Guard started to stand up. Keith reached around with one hand and grabbed him by his head and pulled it against his chest. Using his other hand, Keith then reached around, and while pulling Abegg’s head against his chest Keith applied upward pressure to the nerve cluster located just under Abegg’s nose and above his upper lip. Abegg let out a groan of pain as Keith instructed him to sit down, which he did.
The Deacon had put his hands on his head when he saw Keith man-handling his guard. Darrel grabbed the Deacon’s hands and directed them to the small of the Deacon’s back, where he bound them with some of the duct tape. Darrel then put a piece across the Deacon’s mouth. Once the Deacon was secure Darrel stepped over and helped Keith secure Abegg in the same manner.
Keith and Darrel then stood the two up out of their chairs and using them almost as a shield, moved out of the office and back towards the rear exit.
As they moved I covered them from the rear, the entire thing took about 45-seconds. Once they were set back by the rear exit I went to the front of the church and fired three rounds into the floor.
I ran back to the exit with Keith and Darrel, seconds later we could hear three people come rushing into the church through the front. “Move!” I said as we went out the rear exit and around the church to where our cars were parked. Again, Keith and Darrel were pushing the Deacon and Abegg in front of them almost as human shields.
When we reached our vehicles we shoved the Deacon and Abegg into the back seat of Darrel’s SUV. Keith then jumped into the back seat with them while I covered the door we had just come out of, using the back quarter-panel of the SUV as cover.
As soon as they were ready Darrel started his vehicle, then got out and using the engine block as cover, covered me as I moved to my vehicle.
Once I was in and got my car started Darrel jumped back into his SUV and we left the parking lot. The entire movement from the church to leaving the parking lot took less than 2-minutes, almost like we had rehearsed it.
I closely watched my rear-view mirror as we pulled out of the church parking lot. Watching for any signs of pursuit. As we drove out of the area I saw nothing that would tell me we were being followed. Good training means good tactics I thought to myself as we drove down the road. Once this week something had finally gone right.
11. The Hospital
It took us about 20-minutes to drive to the old hospital just outside of town. It was a good spot, we used it to meet informants, but never did any deals back there. It was one of those places that if you didn’t know that it was there, well you probably didn’t know that it was there.
As I was following Darrel I looked down at the dash board clock, it was almost 10:30am, SHIT! I thought, I’m supposed to be at work! I called Rick and told him that I wanted to take one more day before coming back to work.
As expected Rick said that was no problem, told me to kick back and relax, and that he would call the commander and tell him the operation would be pushed back a day. I then told Rick that Keith had been hanging out with me and that he was probably going to call in and see about taking a comp day.
Again, Rick said that would be no problem. I thanked him and with a smile on my face continued on down the road.
When we arrived at the hospital I drove around the building to make sure that there was no one else in the area. After making sure that we were alone we parked around back in the old staff parking area.
In it’s prime it was a pretty nice building, but now it was just another beaten down relic. All the windows had been broken out by vandals or weather. The parking lot was just an open, semi-paved surrounded by thick woods. The pavement itself in the parking area was over grown and pushed up and buckled by roots and weeds.
Truth be known it was a pretty creepy area. But it was out of the way and a space we were familiar with. We had even done some SWAT training inside years ago so we had an idea of the lay out.
The hospital itself was four floors and a basement, though you would not catch me going above the ground floor for fear of falling through. And with recent events still fresh in my mind there was no way in hell I was going into the basement! Most of the doors leading into the hospital had been kicked in, someone had tried to secure some of them with sheets of plywood but those had been graffiti tagged and then torn off.
I had never encountered anyone else out here, but there was always evidence of humans, mostly drug pipes and remnants of homeless people sleeping in the building.
Darrel and I parked so that the noses of our vehicles came together at an angle, making almost a small corral between the two vehicles. As we got out I told Keith to go and call Rick, tell him that he wanted to take a comp day. Keith smiled and said, “Oh yeah, we were supposed to go to work today weren’t we.”
“Ah shit!” Darrel said, “I better call my office too.”
As Keith and Darrel stepped around to the other side of the vehicles to make their respective calls, I looked in and made eye contact with the Deacon and Abegg.
As expected I could see a real sense of concern on the Deacons face. Abegg was a different story, he looked back at me with determination in his eyes, almost like he had been in this position before and lived to tell the tale. He was thinking, I could see it in his eyes.
I leaned into the back of Darrel’s SUV and said in a slow and methodical tone of voice, “Events of late have made me realize that there are forces at work here I do not understand. Forces that would do me, my friends, and my family harm. When I get you out of this truck I want you to take a good look around, my friends and I are then going to ask you some questions, if I don’t like the answers I’m going to kill you and dump your bodies in the basement of this old building. Nod your heads if you understand me”
both men nodded their heads up and down. It was at that moment that Deacon Grergedes and Swiss Guard Abegg realized that they were not dealing with some back woods American Police Officers who were star struck by their presence. Instead, the understanding started to take root with them that they had a real problem, and that Keith, Darrel, and I were no joke! If we thought for one second that they were not on our side they wouldn’t live to see another sunrise.
/> Keith and Darrel both came back around to my side of the vehicles, I pointed to Abegg and said “You, out!” Abegg crawled out of the SUV as best he could with his hands taped behind his back. As he started to tumble out of the car Keith grabbed him, helped him out and then sat him down with his back against the tire.
I then said the same thing to Deacon Grergedes, who in a much less graceful fashion, managed to get out of the SUV with Darrel’s help. I leaned down next to Abegg and said, “Don’t say a fucking word!”
I pulled the tape from his mouth, he manipulated his jaw around, looked up at me and just nodded. “Good man” I said, I looked at the Deacon and said the same thing, then I removed the tape from his mouth.
The Deacon looked at me and said, “Jim, may I please have my hands cut free?”
“Turn around” I replied. When the Deacon turned and faced the side of Darrel’s SUV I stepped forward, using my right foot to spread his feet apart. My left hand grasped the Deacon’s exposed fingers.
After spreading the Deacon’s feet, I kept my right foot planted against the instep of the Deacons right foot. I put my knee into the back of the Deacon’s knee and pulled back, just slightly, on his fingers pulling him just a little bit off balance, yet keeping myself stable. I then patted the Deacon down for anything he may have that he could use as a weapon against us.
When I didn’t find anything, I instructed him to put his chest against the side of the SUV. The Deacon leaned forward doing as I had instructed and I cut his hands free.
Deacon Grergedes rolled his shoulders and then rubbed his wrists, he turned and faced me. “Jim, where are we?” the Deacon asked.
“The last place you will ever see if I even suspect that you are one of those things!” I replied looking straight into the Deacon’s eyes.
“Fair enough” the Deacon said in broken English as he nervously shuffled in place, his eyes darting around and then focusing on the ground. “You see Jim, we are members of the holy church, that evil cannot invade us. It can physically hurt us yes, but we are immune to its influence.”
I looked at the Deacon, and then down at Abegg who was still sitting on the ground. I took a deep breath and with my teeth clenched I replied “Explain.”
“The power of God protects us!” The Deacon said with a ring in his voice. “It is also the power of God that allows us to do battle with these monsters. It’s our belief in a higher power that gives us force of will, it allows us to bypass that moment of weakness that the monster exploits. You see Jim, my friends, in the darkness it is our faith that allows us to see the light.”
I stood there for a second just looking at Deacon Grergedes. I had been to interview and interrogation school and was, in my own assessment, very good at telling when people were trying to feed me a line if bullshit. In my professional opinion, the Deacon believed every word that just came out of his mouth.
I looked back at Keith and Darrel, Darrel was massaging his forehead as though he was trying to wipe out a migraine, Keith just looked back at me and shrugged. The power of God, what the fuck does that mean? I thought. I had never been a religious man; my wife was the church goer in the family.
As a Police Officer, I had seen the evil that men visit upon other men, but I had always been able to rationalize it as sinister assholes doing their best to ruin everyone else’s day.
Now here I was trying to understand the so-called power of God and how it applies to demons and possessions and all the other nonsense we had found ourselves wrapped up in. I took a deep breath, my mind was reaching for a way to make sense of what the Deacon had just told me, what question can I ask to verify the power of God?
I looked down at Abegg and asked, “How did you get involved with this?”
Abegg looked up at me from where he was sitting and said, “I was already in the states when I was called. They told me to meet with Deacon Grergedes in New York and escort him to meet with Monsignor Cowley.”
I stood over Abegg and asked, “And how about that super nerd of an FBI agent and his buddy from the DSS, how did you guys get hooked up with them?”
Abegg replied “They were with the Deacon when we meet in New York.” I looked at Abegg with a very disapproving scowl on my face, “You expect me to believe that shit?”
Abegg, who had answered my questions with conviction looked back at me and said “Yes, it is the truth.”
Deacon Grergedes took a step towards me and said “Jim he tells the truth! Please, we are men of God, we are here to help.”
I turned to the Deacon and with both hands hit him in his shoulders, shoving him back against Darrel’s SUV. As the Deacon stumbled backwards I stepped into him, following his movement back towards the SUV. “I don’t give a fuck if you say he’s telling the truth!” I yelled.
Without taking my eyes off of the Deacon I pointed at Abegg and barked “Stand that dummy up!”
“Jim, are you okay?” Keith asked in a guarded tone as he looked over at Darrel.
“Do it, get him up and stand him right there next to his buddy from the church.” I said.
As Keith and Darrel stood Abegg up I grabbed the Deacon by the shirt collar and drug him to the front of the SUV so his back was facing the wall of the hospital. Keith and Darrel stood Abegg right next to him.
“Let me tell you what I know” I said, the anger and frustration boiling over in my voice. “My friend is dead! His wife is fucked up, and these demons, or whatever the hell you call them, are running around my town chopping people’s heads off!” I started pacing back and forth in front of our two guests. I suddenly found myself rolling my shoulders and grinding my teeth between sentences.
I stopped and looked right at Abegg and the Deacon, “I got a college professor, who come to find out is some sort of a big wig in the Catholic Church, telling me that these things work alone. But now there are two of them, one of them possessing a DEA Agent who happens to be a friend of mine!”
The more I spoke the louder and more aggressive my tone became, Abegg and the Deacon were becoming visibly uncomfortable. Abegg started straining against the tape which bound his hands, the Deacon was looking at me, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open as though he was trying to process what was happening.
“Jim, what are we doing here?” Darrel asked.
I ran my hand through my hair and down my pony-tail. I looked at Darrel and Keith, both of them were getting nervous as well. “I’m going to settle this once and for all” I said.
I turned and faced the Deacon and Abegg, “I killed one of their folks the other night when we pulled Danny out of that fucking basement. If I have to execute one of these low-rent motherfuckers right here tonight to get some answers I’m going to do it.”
“Jim” Keith said, “take it easy brother, we’re cops, not killers.”
I turned to Keith and replied, “Not tonight we’re not!”
I looked back at Abegg and Deacon Grergedes. I stepped close to Abegg and whispered in his ear, “What about it, are you one of those things?”
Abegg didn’t answer, he just looked at me. I could tell his brain was trying to process what was happening. “Come on man” I said, “I don’t think you are, but I’m having some reservations about your friend here” as I looked at Deacon Grergedes.
“We are on your side” Abegg said, his nervousness starting to crack through his well-trained armor.
I looked back at him and replied “Are you? I know Stevie is one of those demons, and when we left the church he was chatting it up with the two feds you cats showed up with. That’s after super-cop FBI Agent said he was looking for him! Now how do you think that shit looks to us.”
Abegg just looked at the ground and said, “I understand but we.” I cut him off, “Don’t give me that power of God shit!” I yelled. “Explain to me how you two got teamed up with that FBI moron, and that DSS Agent, who by the way, would not be doing this sort of protective detail to begin with. You see I know that those two were lying about trying to find Stevie, an
d I know they were lying about what they were with you.”
I looked at Abegg and said, “We have a saying, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck then.”
“It’s more than likely a duck” Deacon Grergedes said.
I looked at the Deacon, and took a step back. He was starting to hunch forward, his shoulders were rolling, he started rocking forwards and back, his knees were bent, and his head started bobbing up and down.
“Holy shit!” Keith said, “He’s one of them!”
I looked over at Abegg, he had a look of terror on his face. Deacon Grergedes looked at me and said “Power of God, yes, it is strong! But the weakness of the flesh is stronger.” The Deacon looked right at me and said, “He’s waiting for you Jim! He’s waiting for all of you” the Deacon said as he started to laugh.
“Jim” the Deacon said, his tone changing to that of a young child, “I’m marked.” The Deacon raised both his hands, let out a guttural growl, and started to move towards me.