by D V Wolfe
“You mean another demon?” Luke asked.
“I know,” I said. “They breed like...well they don’t breed. Demons come from assholes, usually. Human assholes. I mean, people who are assholes in life. When they go to Hell, that’s what they become when... So...just imagine how many assholes you know and then….multiply that by everyone else in history who knew assholes in life.” I waved a hand at Luke as if to tell him, he knew what I meant.
“Shit,” Luke said. “I live in D.C. I know a lot of assholes.”
“So you can kind of see why we need to clean this mess up quickly,” I said.
Luke shook his head as if he was trying to clear his vision. “Wow. Demons are real? I mean, I always assumed aliens were living among us and that the government had just kept them under wraps. A small part of why I’ve always been interested in the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security. I wanted to know the truth. I wanted to know what really went on behind the curtain.”
Oh Luke, be careful what you wish for.
“Well,” I said, “now we’ve shown you ours.”
“Right,” Luke said. He got up and moved over to his briefcase again. He pulled out a stack of files about two inches thick and handed them to me. I passed half the stack to Noah and flipped the top file open. “So I wasn’t looking at agents or the cops for sleepers on this whole investigation. I was looking at Bill Griffith.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Bill Griffith, the guy who is sponsoring kindergarteners.”
Luke shook his head. “He puts on an impressive facade. Read through that dossier.”
“People in town think you and the police are just harassing him,” Noah muttered as he set the files down next to him.
Luke snorted. “I don’t think questioning his business practices constitutes ‘harassment’.”
“Anyway,” I said loudly before Noah could argue. “What kind of business practices draw the attention of Homeland Security?”
“He’s a warmonger,” Luke said.
“What?” I asked.
“Griffith owns two other pharmaceutical companies on the west coast. Last year, he quadrupled the cost of life-saving drugs, including cancer drugs.”
“Makes him an asshole,” I said, “but still waiting for the shoe to drop and the Feds to run in.”
“How about the fact that he owns two handgun manufacturers, each of which have their base gun designed to be easily modified to be a semi-automatic?”
“Doesn’t that just make him an idiot?” I asked.
Luke shook his head. “Not if he’s doing it on purpose to keep the gun sales and profits high.”
I was still doubtful. “I mean, that sounds like something that could be argued against.”
“And that is why he hasn’t been brought up on charges,” Luke said. “Yet.”
“Isn’t this, I don’t know, something the ATF would handle?” Noah asked.
Luke shook his head. “They want no part of an investigation into Griffith. My guess is that he’s paid off someone high-up in the department to turn a blind eye. So, my team decided to take a run at him.”
“And you and your crew are here to what, force it out of him?” Noah asked.
“No,” Luke said. “When Griffith opened up the factory here in Bellum, we saw a whole new opportunity in a new state where the laws for investigation and interrogation are different. We have federal warrants, but on the west coast we kept running into injunctions.”
I grasped about eighty percent of what Luke was saying, but I had to admit I was having a hard time caring.
“And, what about the new factory makes you think you’ll get him this time?” Noah asked.
“Because this time, he’s manufacturing weapons, explosives, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare supplies all in one place,” Luke said. “He’s making the tools of war and what you need to clean up after it.”
I shrugged. “Like I said, sounds like an asshole, but isn’t this country full of guys just like him?”
Luke shook his head. “He has ties to opposing regimes and we think he’s supplying them.”
“One little factory, in the middle of Pennsylvania?” I asked. “He’s going to make enough supplies to help someone go to war with the U.S.?”
“Oh this is a little factory, but it’s just one of the many that Griffith owns. We came here because this is where he’s currently residing.
“Ok, so he’s a warmongering asshole,” I said. “But that doesn’t make him who we’re looking for.”
“He sounds like a demon, doesn’t he?” Luke asked, exasperation pouring into every word.
“He sounds like a…”
Luke held up a finger. “Don’t say asshole.”
“Fine,” I said. “Look, bottom line? We need to find Burke’s boss and since Burke came from the ranks of your department, we need to take a closer look at the other agents.”
Luke shook his head. “I honestly don’t think it could be any of them.”
“Burke…” I started to say.
He held up a hand. “Fine. Just...let me think.” I cut my eyes to Noah. He shrugged and we both turned to watch Luke pace back and forth in front of the beds. Finally, he looked at me and blew out a sigh. “What if I brought you in tomorrow as a ‘special consultant’?”
I snorted. “And they would fall for that?”
Luke shrugged. “I don’t know, let’s dummy up some credentials for you.” He scanned my outfit and shook his head. “And please tell me you have another outfit. Something not inspired by Jackson Pollock.”
14
We were up so late making the credentials for Dr. Lucille “Lucy” Wesson that Luke ended up sacking out on the second bed while Noah sprawled on the first. Once I’d heard them both start to snore, I had picked up my phone and I was now staring at the highlighted contact, “Gabe”. Why? Why was I still thinking about him? It had been pure insanity behind the IHOP. A strange thrill ran through my stomach at the memory of him throwing me up on Lucy’s hood.
So let’s play this out. Say I call him. Then what? I reminisce with him about how much fun we had at IHOP? And that would lead to what, both of us being hot and bothered and hundreds of miles apart. And even if we were right next to each other, what would it matter? There wasn’t anything but regret in the cards for us. If we...became anything, if we moved further along the road of whatever we were doing, it would just make the end that much harder. No, I couldn’t do that. Not to him. What Jo had said about Gabe and me having something between us, something powerful, echoed in my head. I did my best to push it away. She was only trying to be helpful, but I wasn’t sure that she really understood the situation. I ran my finger over Gabe’s name on the back-lit phone screen and tried to be practical.
He was tracking down a potential lead on Sister Smile and Joel in Wisconsin and he said he’d call. As a matter of fact, he’d told me to call him when we got to Bellum. We’d now been here for almost two days and I hadn’t. So really, I was just finally getting around to a courtesy call. I dialed his number before I could talk myself out of it. It rang three times and then it stopped.
“Bane?” Gabe’s voice was groggy and I closed my eyes. Before I called, I hadn’t stopped to think that he might be sleeping at three am. Shit. Oh well, he was awake now. If I hung up, he’d just call me back and the ringing would probably wake Luke and Noah and I really didn’t need an audience right now. Especially a pissy and sleep-deprived one. I stepped outside the motel room door and closed it softly behind me.
“Hey,” I said. “Sorry to call you so late...early...whatever.”
“That’s ok,” Gabe said and I heard him clear his throat. “What’s up?”
“I was about to ask you that,” I said. “Are you still in Wisconsin?”
“No,” Gabe said. “I moved onto the Order business. Wisconsin was a bust.”
“Really?” I asked, trying not to reveal how disappointed I was.
“Yeah, not cannibals, just a regular human serial killer,” Gabe sai
d. “Sorry, I’d been putting off calling you with the bad news. How’s Bellum?”
“Long story,” I said.
“Hey, three a.m. is my favorite time for long stories,” Gabe said. I paused. I hadn’t heard any sarcasm in that statement. He actually sounded like he wanted to hear.
I leaned against Lucy’s grille and filled Gabe in on what had happened since we’d come to Bellum.
“Huh,” Gabe said. “Lucky you ran into this June, otherwise, I’d say Noah had to be some kind of sleeper agent.”
“Not Noah,” I said. I didn’t want to admit to Gabe just yet that I’d been worried about the same thing. I debated and then decided against telling him about Noah’s new “mind-arson” power. Probably best to tell him about that in person, when he could see that Noah and I didn’t have all our hair burned off.
“So, this fed,” Gabe said and he sounded a lot more awake. “Where’s he at now?”
“Sleeping inside,” I said. “Why?”
“In your hotel room?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We were up late working on the fake credentials for tomorrow, and so he just crashed here. Luke apparently was a hacker in a former life and he knew all the places the background checks would pull information from. So I’m official now, Dr. Lucy Wesson.”
“Luke?” Gabe asked.
“The agent helping us,” I said.
“Is he bunking with Noah?” Gabe asked.
“No,” I said. “Why does that matter?”
“Where are you sleeping then?” Gabe asked and I could hear the annoyance in his voice. What the hell did he have to be annoyed about? He was the one asking stupid questions.
“I probably won’t, why?” I asked.
“No reason,” Gabe said. “So what are you a doctor of?”
“Economics,” I said. “I think, or maybe it’s Accounting. Can’t remember.”
“You might want to figure that out before they do,” Gabe said.
“It’ll be fine,” I said.
“So you’re going to do a double check on the rest of the agents and police to see if there are any more bad apples in the barrel?” Gabe asked.
“Yep,” I said.
“And if you don’t find any?”
“Luke thinks this Bill Griffith guy might be worth a look, but I don’t know. The guy just sounds like an asshole without any scruples. I don’t know if that seats him in my section,” I said.
“It’s weird,” Gabe said. “I mean, St. Louis was a powder keg, right? You all told me about the demons being everywhere and the hostages, the gore...and Walter gave out a caution on that one. Why a full-on warning for Bellum?”
“That is the million-dollar question,” I said. “So far, one possessed agent. I thought I’d seen Luke’s eyes turn red when I first saw him, but it could have just been a trick of the light.”
“And you’re sure he’s not a demon?” Gabe asked.
“Holy water and rock salt didn’t affect him,” I said.
“Maybe you should give him a little stab with your sword,” Gabe muttered. “Just to be sure.”
“Goodnight, Gabe. Call if you run into anything interesting.”
“Same for you,” he said. “...Night, Bane.”
I flipped the phone closed and looked up at the stars, what few I could see beyond the greenish-tinted pole light’s reach. Gabe had been so weird about Luke. He was probably just worrying. He did that when he couldn’t be somewhere to physically oversee it.
I went back inside, locking up after me. I sat in the chair by the table with the sawed-off in my lap and the sword on the table. It was a relief to have it off my back. I started rehearsing in my head all the information Luke had given me so that I wouldn’t sound like a moron and immediately get us caught tomorrow. As I recited the facts to myself, I almost wished there was a Dr. Lucy Wesson who had been born in New York and had parents living in Amsterdam. No Hell sentence hanging over her head and free to be…
Someone was banging on something very loud and near my head. I jerked up and immediately wished I hadn’t. I’d fallen asleep with my head down at a ninety-degree angle and now my spine was confused, clearly thinking I didn’t have a head anymore.
“Hang on,” I croaked as the banging on the door grew louder. As soon as blood started going back to my extremities, I hobbled up from the chair and opened the door. The banging had woken the two men who were now stirring with annoyed groans.
June pushed past me into the room.
“I’ve been up all night,” June chirped and I took a second to study her. She looked like she was tweaked on something.
“What did you take?” I asked.
“Red Bull and lattes and, have you ever poured one of those 5 Hour Energy drinks into a Red Bull and then chased it with a latte? I think I did three of those,” June said. I could make out what she was saying, but it took an extra thirty seconds after each sentence to piece it together.
“Why in Lucifer’s Reach would you do that?” I asked.
“Because I was patrolling,” June said.
“Patrolling what?” I asked.
“The neighborhoods, the town. I spent about two hours across the street from the Copia plant, looking for anything that might be suspicious. What did you find out yesterday? Do you know what the black Fed cars are about? Did you find out why there are all these cops and why they’re at Copia all the time? Is it a front for something? White slavery? Is that where Noah’s mom is?” June asked.
I glanced over at the two beds. Sometime during the night, Luke had peeled his shirt off and gotten under the covers. I hoped that was all he had taken off. Noah had had a pillow over his face, but at the sound of June’s voice, he’d moved it and sat up, blinking at us.
“June,” I said, looking back at her, “you need some water and a big ole chill pill.”
“Well, at least tell me what you found out,” June said. “Pleeeease. This is the most interesting thing that’s happened since I got back.”
I sighed. “The black cars are a federal agency and as far as I can tell, the cops are just cops.” I wasn’t sure if I should fill June in on my suspicions. She might end up staking out the police station all day and that could be a problem. “The agency and the cops are looking into some of the things the plant is doing.” I continued. “I don’t think it’s a front for the mob. No to the White Slavery, as far as we know, and we still don’t have any leads on Noah’s mom.”
“Oh,” June said. She looked so disappointed that I ushered her into one of the chairs by the table. She looked up at me. “Really? That’s all you found out?”
I shrugged. “Sorry.”
June’s gaze fell on Luke and she raised an eyebrow. “Who’s that?”
“He’s working with me this morning,” I said. Noah was on his feet now and he padded over to us.
“Hey Junie, good morning.”
“Hey,” June smiled at him and a thought occurred to me.
“Why don’t you two do a little duo snooping around town today? You can keep catching up and you can go around and see if you can find any clues about where Noah’s mom might be,” I said.
Noah looked pleased with the idea, but June frowned. “Oh, really?” I raised an eyebrow at her. She shook her head. “Of course, that sounds like a good plan. We’ll see what we can turn up.”
June smiled at Noah. “Want to go get some breakfast first?”
“Over at Piggly’s?” Noah asked.
June grinned. “Where else?”
“You two call my cell if something happens?”
June pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Yep, got your number listed under ‘Noah’.”
“Perfect,” I said. “I think I can do a decent impression.”
June was the first one out of the room and I leaned against the open door as the digging pain in my gut coughed up two twenties for food money for Noah to treat June. I slipped the bills to him, ignoring the look of worry on his face. “Have fun,” I said, doing my best to grin
and wink at him. He finally took it and followed June across the lot. I closed the door and locked up behind them. Luke still hadn’t moved. If he hadn’t been snoring so hard, I’d have thought he was dead.
“Hey!” I yelled at him. Nothing. I went and took a shower and when I got out, I saw the clock on the nightstand said seven-thirty. I shook him. “Hey!”
Luke’s eyes popped open and he stared at me, confusion forming first. He glanced around the room and then locked eyes on my towel. “Oh,” he said, “now I remember.”
“Seven-thirty,” I said. That got him up and moving.
“Shit! We’re gonna be late,” Luke said. I got dressed in the thrift store agent suit while Luke was in the shower and a few minutes later, he was back, a towel slung low on his hips.
“Not bad,” Luke said, looking me up and down, “not great, but…” I turned and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged. “You’re wearing men’s pants,” he said. “They keep it from being great.”
“Did you forget you just have the one outfit with you?” I asked, nodding at his towel.
He looked down and headed back into the bathroom. He came out wearing his dirty clothes and we headed back to the Holiday Inn. We’d already made a second trip back here when we disappeared Burke’s body in the middle of the night. Why we hadn’t thought to get him a change of clothes then, was beyond me. And considering how squeamish he was when we’d broken into the funeral home’s crematorium, it would have just made more sense to leave him back at his room. It was a crappy joke from the universe that meant Luke had to be mixed up in this shit in the first place. He ran in and changed and I locked up Lucy. We decided it was probably best if we took one of his official cars to go along with the story we’d concocted about how I came to be on the investigation team. I had the sword strapped on again and exhaustion and its weight were slowly pressing me into the ground beneath me.
It was an odd feeling to walk into the police station like I belonged there, accompanied by an officer of the law. I kept messing with my dress shirt. Luke had made me lose the tie and I felt weird without it.