by D V Wolfe
“Sorry,” I said.
“Ok,” Noah said, looking from Luke to me. “I’ve waited a polite amount of time, but now I want to know what the hell happened to you two.”
“Finally!” June said, setting down her pizza. “I’ve been dying to ask.”
I looked at Luke and he waved his hand as if to say “after you”. I launched into the story with all the details. Whether I liked it or not, Luke and June were now a part of this. I could only hope that when it was all over, they’d be able to compartmentalize this experience and eventually boot it out of their psyche during some mental spring cleaning.
When I was done, we were all quiet for a moment.
“So where does that leave us on the ‘finding the demon’ front?” Noah asked.
“Not sure,” I said. “Walter said that one of the reasons these big ‘forces’, he called it, are so dangerous is because they can blend in.”
Noah nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Well, there’s one suspect we’ve been dancing around,” Luke said.
“Bill Griffith?” I asked and even I could hear the doubt in my voice.
Luke pursed his lips. “He’s hiding something.”
“You sound pretty confident,” I said.
“Well, you said the ‘force’ was tied to a new building right?” Luke asked. “The plant. Griffith is at ground zero there. And I was thinking about it. Burke was the one who caught this case, to begin with. I was finishing up depositions in Federal court and he came down without me. He was down here two days before the rest of us.”
That was something. I looked around at the other three of them.
June was nodding. “I really thought it would be the Feds,” she turned to look at Luke. “No offense.” Luke shook his head and smiled. June continued. “But Luke’s right. It could be Bill Griffith.”
Noah was nodding now. He looked at me. “Couldn’t hurt to check it out, right?”
And just like that, I was outnumbered. “Fine,” I said. “But I don’t want to hear any of you gripping about whatever ‘shit plan’ comes out of this.”
16
With Luke’s hacker skills, we were able to pull the blueprints for the building out of the depths of the city’s planning archives. I mostly stayed in the back and let Noah and Luke drive the internet espionage train. The magic of computers was lost on me. I was old and I knew it. June was glued to Noah’s side and a couple of times I saw her squeeze his hand in excitement while Luke crippled some kind of security system or pulled a file from somewhere. Noah was constantly pink now, not in embarrassment, but happiness, I guessed.
I set up shop, filling shotgun shells with rock salt and pitching in with the planning wherever I could. It was after seven when we finally had the first part of the plan mapped out.
“I need to hit a copy center if we’re going to be legitimately illegitimate,” I said. Noah looked at me, confused. I couldn’t blame him I guess, he’d been staring into June’s eyes for the last half hour. “Badges,” I said to him. “If we’re going into the building with Luke in the morning, we’d better look official.” I’d pulled back on the cleanest jeans and a-shirt I had and I was thankful to be back in my dirty sneakers. I had two headshots of Noah and I on my phone that I’d used before for our FBI badges but they were laminated now and going in as FBI agents might cause even more of a stir at Copia. Instead, just going in as more of the same agents they were used to seeing might not raise an eyebrow, considering how often Luke and his crew had been in there during the last week or so.
“I’ll go with you,” Luke said. “Just in case. None of us should go anywhere alone right now.”
I had assumed Noah would want to come along, but he was sitting with June and looking perfectly happy to continue doing so. He’d taken over on Luke’s laptop and he and June were making a list on the motel stationary of possible entrances and exits, security systems to be aware of, and what we would and wouldn’t be able to take with us.
“Ok,” I said. “You two stay here?” I asked Noah and June.
They nodded without looking up and Luke and I headed out the door. We decided to take Lucy, thinking she might not draw the attention that a “Fed car” seemed to draw around town. Granted, Lucy didn’t exactly blend, but she was rusty and a little more unassuming.
“We’re not going to the copy store,” Luke said after he got in the passenger side and closed the door.
“We’re not?” I asked, turning the key in the ignition and flipping the headlights on.
“We have a stop to make first.”
“Really?” I asked. “And where’s that?”
“The police station,” Luke said.
“What? Again?” I asked. “If you want to see Parker, just ask that woman out on a date.”
Luke raised an eyebrow at me. “Bane, I’m gay.”
“Oh,” I said. “So what’s at the cop shop that means we have to make yet another trip?”
Luke grinned at me and shook his head. “You really aren’t comfortable around cops, are you?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I don’t have time to lay down on the couch and tell you the whole story about why I’m uncomfortable around armed people in uniforms, but suffice it to say, I would be incredibly content to never step foot in there again.”
“You won’t have to,” Luke said. “Park down the block from the station. This should only take a minute.”
“At least tell me what you’re doing,” I said.
Luke sighed. “They scan badges at Copia. I never thought anything of it until now. But it came to mind as I was making a plan with a couple of non-agents to illegally have them pose as coworkers. Every time we’ve gone in, they’ve taken our badges, scanned them through the system, and waited for approval before they’d let us past the lobby.
I slumped in my seat. “So we’re screwed before we begin.”
“Not necessarily,” Luke said. “While I was filling out the incident report, I saw a package in Parker’s inbox with the return address of my office in D.C. She must have forgotten about it or maybe she hadn’t looked at it yet. I didn’t say anything to her about it because I didn’t know when I’d be back in D.C., what with all of this, whatever it is, happening with you and demons and me being involved. I thought mentioning it to her, might lead to complications. But I figured out what’s in that package.”
“I’m hooked,” I said. “Reel me in.”
“I’m almost seventy percent sure that it’s Dawson and Dickson’s back up badges.”
“And why do you think that’s what it is?” I asked.
Luke sighed. “I’ve been on half a dozen task forces with those two. We call them Dumb and Dumber when we’re all out drinking because they turn into morons. Well, our first night in town, they went out for a drink, met these two girls and left their badges at the girls’ apartment.
“The girls were roommates?” I asked.
“Hookers,” Luke said. “The apartment must have been their office. Anyway, Dawson and Dickson came into the police shop, said their badges had been stolen, and had to call over to D.C. to have their backup badges mailed to the police station. Anyways, they took some personal time that afternoon and by and that night, they had their old badges back. I don’t know if they paid the hookers off or threatened them with jail time or what, but their backup badges had already been mailed.”
“Why didn’t they just threaten or pay the hookers, to begin with?” I asked.
Luke grinned. “We don’t call them Dumb and Dumber for nothing. They were late to the meeting and I don’t think they realized they didn’t have their badges on them until we were about to head to Copia and they couldn’t find them. That’s when the police Chief offered to send an officer to their hotel rooms to get their badges, but Dawson and Dickson knew they wouldn’t be there, so they reported them stolen.”
“Oh what a tangled web,” I said.
“Anyways, sit tight, I’ll be right back.”
I watched
Luke pause and look up and down the street before crossing over and jogging a block down to the police station. What had I dragged him into? He was just a normal Fed, going through his normal cases and investigating normal criminals. Now, he was neck-deep in something that, if Walter was right about the magnitude, was likely to get us all killed. He didn’t have to be in this. He could go back to Washington. June and Noah could run off to sunny California together. They weren’t a part of this. They didn’t need to be. This was my bag of ugly and I was the only one who needed to carry it.
Luke was back to the car in fifteen minutes, the tan bubble mailing envelope under his arm.
“She just gave it to you?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I told her I would just take them back to D.C. with me. It meant she didn’t have to deal with it.” He ripped the envelope open and dumped the two leather wallet-style badges onto the seat between us. I picked one up and flipped it open. Nondescript white guy with a buzz cut. I flipped the other one open. Another nondescript white guy with a buzz cut. I’d seen these two.
“I don’t want to burst your bubble,” I said, “but I might not be able to pull off a body snatcher double with either of these guys.”
“Noah and I dug into the Copia security system. Apparently, it just verifies that the badge numbers are legitimate. The log is eventually sent to D.C. for confirmation but from the old traffic logs it looks like it takes forty-eight hours for D.C. to receive and process them so as long as we don’t dick around, we should be fine.”
“Huh,” I said. Luke started picking at the edge of one of the badges, trying to pull the id card out. “Luke, you don’t have to do this,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Luke asked, looking up. “If we’re going to get you and Noah inside Copia, then this is the only way unless we try to break in and I’ve seen their security and trust me, this is a lot easier.”
“No,” I said. “Not just this. Luke, this isn’t your fight. You can just go back to D.C.”
“And what?” Luke asked. He wasn’t challenging me but his expression was simple logic. “Forget? You think I can just suddenly forget that demons are real? That there’s a lot more terrible shit out in the world than I ever imagined? I mean, how would I even begin to forget something like that?”
“Booze?” I asked.
“That ever work for you?” Luke asked.
“No,” I said, “but you still don’t have to do this. It could get pretty bad. Let me tell you from first-hand experience, there is literally nothing these assholes won’t do. Criminals usually have some line they won’t cross. Demons will find the line of what you thought was the worst thing one human could do to another human, and they will race across it, gleefully.”
“Good thing I’m going in with someone who knows that,” Luke said.
The rest of the drive to the copy shop mostly consisted of me trying to talk Luke out of coming with us, arguing that Noah and I could flash the badges, or better yet, I could just flash a badge, get inside and hunt down Berith. I was the only one who actually had something that could take him down. We had more Solomon’s Spice stakes to tide us over until we could get more ammo, but that was for Empty House peons. Berith was the main event.
The argument was put on pause while we printed Noah and I’s headshots and superimposed them over Dickson and Dawson’s faces. Luckily, Dawson’s first name was Lauren so I was Dawson, making Noah, Ralph Dickson.
I tried again when we got back in the truck. Luke sighed and stopped arguing.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Luke said. “I have nothing left to say. I’m going and that’s final so flap your gums if you want to.”
“Flap my gums?” I asked. “I haven’t heard that saying since...well years.”
Luke shrugged. “The grandpa I had in foster care used to say that all the time.”
“You were in foster care?”
“From age ten to eighteen,” Luke said. “I kind of know what Noah is going through.” Luke looked up at me. “I mean, I don’t know that’s what he’s going through, but I can kind of guess.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I lost my mom when I was ten. It was just the two of us. My dad died in an accident when I was four. But I can’t imagine what Noah is feeling. I was at my mom’s funeral. I saw her in the casket. I know where she is. I can go and stand six feet above her. But Noah? To have no idea and to feel crazy because it’s like the whole town’s memories of you and her were wiped away as if they never existed? I would go crazy.”
“I think if it hadn’t been for June, Noah would have,” I said.
“Yeah, lucky she was gone and must have come back after the memory wipe had already happened,” Luke said, shaking his head. “This has to be a pretty powerful demon if he can do that, right?”
I nodded. “All signs point to ‘yes’.”
I pulled into traffic and cut down a side street. The street dead-ended but had a hard right turn to continue on. As we approached the dead end, Lucy’s headlights fell on two hulking men in black suits standing in the road, blocking the turn.
“Well that’s not something you see every day,” I said. I turned to look at Luke. “Yours?”
Luke shook his head. “Nope.”
17
“Ok then,” I said and I turned to look out the back window. “I’m sure we can find another route…” Now there were three more standing behind us. I turned back to see we were quickly becoming surrounded on all sides.
“Demons?” Luke asked. I squinted at the ones in front of me. No red eyes. They weren’t all in suits. In fact, the two directly in front of us were the only ones wearing dress clothes. Most of the others were dressed like, well, cleaner versions of me. They wore dirty jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers. Some of them had semi-permanent oil stains on their hands and arms like they might have been mechanics. There were a few women, but most of them were men.
“Hard to say,” I said to Luke. “At first glance, it doesn’t look like it.”
“Any ideas on why they’re here? And...on why they are closing in on us?” Luke asked.
“Hey I could ask them,” I said. We both punched the locks down on Lucy’s doors and I cracked my window. “So, what brings all of you out on this fine evening?”
The crowd didn’t talk. They just surged, pressing against Lucy. They were climbing into her bed and jumping up and down on her running boards.
“I think we’ll have to just try running through them,” I said. I shifted into gear and gunned Lucy forward. She made it about four feet and the engine died.
“Shit,” Luke and I said. The sound of groaning metal coming from our doors distracted us and in a moment, both doors were ripped open. Hands were grabbing Luke and I and pulling us out of the cab. I was struggling, lashing out with kicks because my arms had been pinned to my sides. I heard Luke yelling on the other side of the truck, so I assumed he was doing the same and making just about as much progress.
“Quiet,” a deep voice boomed in my ear. It was a big man with a bandana tied around his head. He accentuated his command with a hard punch to my kidneys. I decided to let him have this one. We were passed, more than walked, to the front of the mob to stand before the two men in suits.
The man on the left was a tall Black man with a perfectly pressed suit and a professional haircut. The other man wore the same suit but looked entirely different in it. He was pale white with his black hair cut in a flat top and he carried himself like he didn’t usually walk upright, let alone in a suit.
“Good evening,” the Black man said. “We would like to thank you both for meeting with us. We have only one grievance, so we hope to air it and dispatch with our demands quickly.” He looked around at the mob. “We would all like to get back to our families.”
“Well don’t let us stop you,” I muttered. His eyes narrowed on me and then slid to Luke.
“Your...government agency,” the man said, giving the words the same distaste he
probably used on the phrase, “pooper scooper”, “has been harassing a great man and a great company. We want to know why you are threatening our very livelihoods. And I want you to look around because these are the faces of the livelihoods you are threatening.”
“If your boss is so great,” Luke wheezed, “why do you think he’s under investigation?” The man holding Luke punched him in the gut and Luke doubled over.
“He is under your investigation. Uncle Sam always comes calling with his hand out and he doesn’t care that he is taking the food out of our children’s mouths.”
“What do you want from us?” I asked.
“To leave,” he said. “Leave us to work and live and care for our families. Leave Bill Griffith alone to look after this community and let us prosper!”
“And if we don’t?” I asked. Now it was my turn for a gut punch. The man walked closer to me and he dropped his voice to a dramatic level.
“You saw a taste of what we are capable of earlier today. And that was only a taste. Imagine if that started happening all over the city and every one of them was out for your blood.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
He smiled. “Good. Now let them go.”
The mob dropped both of us and I looked over at Luke who was still having a hard time straightening up. He locked eyes with me and nodded, telling me he was ok. We climbed back into Lucy.
“Safe travels home,” the man said, smiling wide. His pale counterpart only glared, but they cleared the road and we were able to move forward. I watched the mob in the rearview mirror, illuminated by Lucy’s taillights until they blended with the darkness.
“What the fuck,” Luke said as we made it back out onto a main road.
“Well, I guess that was Griffith’s cheering section,” I said.