Darla served their drinks. After she left the table Angelina continued.
“We have another problem, although Raphael doesn’t think so. Cat and I believe Carol set us up. What do you think?”
“It may be possible, my love, but is there something we should do about it now?” Abaddon asked. “Would it not be wise for Raphael to simply see Carol until he can perceive whether we have anything else to watch out for? He can determine if she was truthful. It is prudent to remember we are here to do exactly what you believe Carol set us up for.”
“I will see her tonight,” Raphael promised. “I’ll torture the truth out of her.”
“I bet you will,” Catherine replied. “You have a point. It really doesn’t matter what Carol’s intent was. It only matters now because we may be facing another conduit of information being fed to some potent demons’ network concerning our every move.”
“I understand your caution,” Raphael nodded understandingly. “I will pursue this with the utmost discretion. I will not harm Carol even if I find out she’s culpable in our last almost disastrous operation. We’ll learn from this and move on. If we have to tip our hand and lose track of a demon temporarily we are not going to risk you two like we did today.”
“We’ve only been at this for a short time,” Catherine replied. “Most of our close calls have been due to some new twist we had no way of anticipating. I…I’m more worried Abaddon will…will…”
“Not come back, Sister Mary Catherine?” Abaddon finished Catherine’s sentence. “We are all at risk. You and Sister Angelina anchor Raph and I. In the end, we must have faith.”
“I think you were hurt this time out more than you’re saying,” Angelina said. “It’s okay if you’re not invincible. You can share it with us, Abaddon. We can handle it. You’re sure sucking down the beer.”
“Demon slaying in the Abyss is hot work.” Abaddon drained half his beer. “Time passing in the Abyss is not as time passing here. As to my being hurt, victory cures all ills, Sister Angelina. I am here and the demons are not. Have you heard anything new about the terrorists?”
“All went smoothly, thanks to Nasib,” Raphael answered. “Agent Pomada asked if we would stay in Las Vegas until all the immediate details get ironed out. He said not to worry if some of the terrorist plot leaks out slowly into the newspapers. Just how powerful are you, brother?”
“I am unsure of my limits.” Abaddon finished the rest of his beer. He picked up his shot glass and studied the contents for a moment. “Sitting here with all of you, I can easily keep my mind off such things. It will not be hard to stay here as the agent asked. A few days between me and the Abyss would not be unwelcome.”
“So you believe there are others accessing the power of the Abyss?” Angelina asked.
“I am certain of it. It may turn out to be detrimental to the demons though. I will be able to find them, at least the ones using the Abyss. If I concentrate hard enough their whereabouts might be revealed to me. I will need some time away from thoughts of the Abyss for now. There are limits to what I can endure.”
“Can we not avoid the Abyss altogether, Abaddon?” Raphael asked.
“Unfortunately not. I would rather push the limits of my endurance than allow these things to usurp the Abyss in a way never meant by our Lord. I learned much in this battle as all of you did. Let us celebrate a great victory and forget the cost for now.”
Abaddon held up his shot glass and sipped the whiskey with relish. Darla walked over with another beer and Bushmill’s.
“I thought perhaps you would like another.” Darla set the beer and whiskey in front of Abaddon.
“I do indeed, thank you.” Abaddon smiled gratefully at the waitress who nodded and walked away. “We must tip Darla generously. She is very good at her job.”
“Darla ain’t running over here with full glasses every time you twitch just because she wants a big tip, baby,” Angelina remarked. “On the other hand, I doubt she wants to get zapped again… hey… speaking of which, Raph zapped me, Abaddon. I think he needs an attitude adjustment.”
“He what?” Abaddon smiled in anticipation, looking at Raphael.
“Don’t pay any attention,” Catherine jumped in. “Muffy had it coming.”
“Thank you, Sister Mary Catherine,” Raphael said.
“Well, tell me,” Abaddon ordered.
Catherine related the entire incident with hand motions. She mimicked Angelina’s surprised look after she was zapped. Without a pause Catherine launched into an avid description of Raphael’s time at the dice table, including Angelina’s constant teasing and Raphael’s subsequent warning with uplifted finger. Abaddon began chuckling a quarter of the way through the story which evolved into full throated laughter by the end. Angelina tried to look outraged but ended up laughing the hardest at Catherine’s imitations.
“Ah, thank you, Sister Mary Catherine, I needed that. It sounds as if you may indeed have had it coming, my love.”
“If you loved me, you’d zap Raph to uphold my honor,” Angelina pouted.
This pronouncement evoked a laughing binge by all at the table. The satellite phone rang and Angelina quickly pulled it out of her bag.
“Hello, Nuns R Us,” Angelina answered, provoking another burst of hilarity from her table mates. “Oh, sorry Agent Pomada, we were having a small celebration. Yes… here he is.”
Angelina handed Raphael the phone with a much subdued look on her face. Raphael held a one sided conversation for nearly five minutes, only interjecting a word of understanding when appropriate. He related their whereabouts. Raphael said goodbye. He handed the phone back to Angelina.
“Agent Pomada wants to come over and discuss a case with us. It seems he’s heard something about Baker. He wants our help on a similar sounding case.”
“I don’t suppose we could pass on this, could we, Raph?” Catherine asked. “We were directed to Baker. If…”
“It seems we may be directed in yet another way by Agent Pomada,” Raphael interrupted. “We can’t really say no, Cat. Agent Pomada could make a lot of trouble for us. With a friend like him in high places we would be in a much better position.”
“You’re right.” Catherine looked longingly at Abaddon. “I had a vision of three in the Jacuzzi while you and Carol worked things out. Besides, I didn’t even have my second LT.”
Raphael caught Darla’s eye, and she hurried over. “Another Long Island Iced Tea for my associate and I’m sure my brother would like another round also. Ange?”
“Count me in.” Angelina helped Darla bus the table of empty glasses before she left to fill their order. “We ain’t going out hunting monsters tonight anyway.”
“We will simply listen to what Agent Pomada has to say for now,” Raphael agreed. “I am unsure if we can help him at all. He spoke of a serial killer even more prolific than the two in Baker. The killer targets children younger than ten.”
“Did he say how many?” Catherine asked.
“They suspect at least nineteen due to the evidence they found and the clues this thing leaves for them. Pomada was reticent about saying any more on the phone.”
“I would like to help him, Raph.”
“As would I, brother,” Raphael stated solemnly. “We cannot go after every human criminal or we would have little time for anything else apparently. If we make significant gains against the demon host here on earth our victories will ripple through the rest of humanity. Our Lord made this decision because humanity has recently been left to fend for itself against this dark horde of Lucifer’s body snatchers and their offspring.”
“It appears we were dispatched here at a cataclysmic moment. If the horde were able to tap into the Abyss for an extended period of time reality would be at risk - all of which I would wager Lucifer knew.”
“And our Lord,” Raphael agreed.
“Hence our mission here,” Abaddon concluded. “Our undertaking exceeds all the parameters I envisioned. This is truly a monumental war. We
are the four soldiers destined to fight it.”
“We’re a little outnumbered,” Angelina joked.
“It does seem overwhelming.”
“One day or monster at a time, Sister Mary Catherine,” Raphael said.
“Why would Lucifer wait around until we gradually destroy his army?” Angelina asked. “Wouldn’t it be possible for…”
“Him to rush us all at once?” Raphael finished the question for her. “He can’t. The worst he has to fear is a balance as things stand now. If he were to risk the Lord’s wrath by mounting an army against us he could end his existence as well as reality.”
“He would lose.” Abaddon stated. “I would surely end his existence. He must abide for now and hope we are destroyed in one of the myriad battles ahead. We have our own parameters we are governed by. Lucifer is a coward. We will dispel this human personification of him as some omnipotent beast of endless power.”
“I will be happy for what we have and avoid looking too far down the road,” Catherine promised.
“There he is.” Raphael pointed toward the restaurant entrance. “He looks a little crumpled.”
Chapter 32
Blasphemy
Raphael gave Pomada a little wave which the agent acknowledged. They watched the athletic middle-aged man run a hand through his thinning brown hair nervously as he waited for a waitress to move past him. Pomada visibly slumped from his six foot height, looking down at the floor as he made his way over to their table. His lined face was pinched as if he were fighting off a migraine headache. Pomada’s navy blue suit looked as if he had slept in it. Nodding at everyone with a slight smile, Pomada extended his hand to Raphael. Raphael took the agent’s hand in his warm grasp. Pomada’s facial expression changed perceptibly.
“You’ll help us then?” Pomada absorbed the feeling of well-being Raphael passed to him, bringing hope into his countenance.
“We will if it is possible.” Raphael gestured Darla over and asked for another chair, which she immediately took from an unoccupied table across the room and brought back. “Would you like something to drink, Agent Pomada?”
“Just coffee, thanks,” Pomada responded as Abaddon smilingly pointed at his empty glasses for Darla to see. “Please call me Bill.”
Darla left to fill their order, while Pomada sat down.
“How did you find out about our connection to Baker?” Raphael asked.
“I thought at first… let me start at the beginning.” Pomada paused while Darla returned with his coffee and Abaddon’s drinks. “We did very well with the information and witnesses you put right in my lap on the terrorist enclaves. So good, my superiors dumped this child murderer on me when the guy who was handling it went… ah… he committed suicide.”
“I gathered all of his files together. The latest lead was for a follow-up on those sadistic bastards in Baker. The team working the case thought Baker might have been the end of the line for the pervert we’re trying to track down. No such luck - when I went over the details of who had been involved with the apprehension… well… let me put it this way, there was no way two groups of huge guys and young women fitting your exact descriptions were wandering around. I…I have to admit, I’m still processing my feelings about you two, and… ah… your”
“Our extraordinary personas?” Raphael finished the question for him. “Don’t worry about it, Bill. Sometimes faith takes a little time.”
“Then you bunch were involved in Baker? The case closed quickly with the confession or death of all guilty parties involved. It was a highly unusual ending for such a series of horrible murders.”
Pomada sipped his coffee. He then glanced around the bar with a look of confusion. After another moment, Pomada clasped his hands in front of him on the table and went on.
“The way you four caused wanton, hardcore terrorists to either simply confess everything they knew about their operation or actually join our side as Nasib did, I…I thought maybe…”
“We could speed things up with your present case,” Raphael again finished for him. “Was the suicide of the prior agent in charge related to the details of this case?”
“Denny was a dedicated agent with nearly three decades of experience. His seven year old granddaughter was the latest victim. He’d been trying to get the scumbag for eighteen months. Denny took over the case because of prior experience with serial killers. We have a team of profilers who work on these types of cases. Denny was the team leader.”
“The killer moved from where we found his first burial ground in Boston to a myriad of states in the Midwest. He left two victims at each site after tipping us off to the location. This…” Pomada unclenched his tightening fists before going on. “This maniac mutilates and disembowels these kids. They don’t die quickly. He excavates a hole and nails their bodies to crosses facing each other. I…I have a nine year old daughter. If…”
“We will do anything in our power to help you,” Raphael inserted at the pause in Pomada’s gruesome recitation. Unfortunately, we are not detectives. We were directed to Baker. It was part of our mission.”
Abaddon leaned forward, his eyes windows into the blind rage building within him as he listened to Pomada’s recounting of the murders. “You realize if we do find this killer I will not give the creature over to you.”
“I don’t care if you use the perverted sack of shit in a homemade snuff film on nationwide TV,” Pomada replied with passion. “Do you have a computer?”
“We just bought a state of the art setup,” Angelina answered, covering Abaddon’s hand with hers. “It has wireless capabilities and everything you can think of.”
Pomada extracted a card from his pocket. He fumbled for a pen inside his jacket pocket with a trembling hand. After writing on the card carefully Pomada handed Angelina the card.
“Go on-line in an hour and access that web address. The second line is the password. You’ll be able to download a file I’m going to upload. In it will be everything we have on this baby killing…” Pomada shook his head, regaining control over his emotions. “Denny’s granddaughter lived in Las Vegas with his daughter. She was a single mom working in the Luxor’s front office. It was the first time the killer broke protocol. There were three kids found thirty-six hours ago. Two of them were facing each other. The third was placed in the middle at right angles to the other two and slightly higher. The third was Denny’s granddaughter.”
“May we go to the site with you?” Raphael asked.
“I’ll include directions with the other information and leave word you four are to have access to anything on site. It’s just a barren outcropping in the desert. If the killer hadn’t given us directions we would never have found them.”
“This killer feels invincible, I take it.” Raphael saw Abaddon down his drinks morosely and signal Darla once again.
“Freaky is more like it,” Pomada replied. “We’ve got zip after hundreds of interviews. Agents have poured over every inch of each crime scene with all the technology and manpower at our command. It’s like a ghost is doing this. It’s one thing if a serial killer strikes and we find the victims weeks or months later but these killings are presented to us fresh on a silver platter. I keep hearing the same horseshit from our profiling team about how that means he wants to be caught. I think it’s more like you said. He thinks he can’t be caught.”
“Or she,” Catherine put in.
“Why would you say that?” Pomada looked at Catherine with interest.
“Were the children molested?”
“No, but we were moving on this in accordance with what our profiling team came up with as a probable perpetrator. Serial killers of children don’t always molest them. Why would you think it might be a woman? Is it just a guess?”
“I bet it’s rare for the children not to be used in some sexual manner, either symbolic or actual.”
“Yes… but… what would the motive be? I’m a terrorist expert. Frankly, this stuff makes my blood curdle.”
; “Madness,” Catherine answered. “What about that woman not many years ago who chased her children down one by one, drowning each of them in a tub of water? It will be helpful for us to see this latest site.”
“I hope you can pick up on something from there we didn’t find,” Pomada stood up. “I’ll return to the office and get the information loaded on-line. Please keep the details to yourselves. Thanks again for helping with this.”
“It is our privilege, Bill.” Raphael grasped Pomada’s offered hand once more in his own. “I pray we can help you.”
“I’ll be on my knees tonight with you,” Pomada whispered wearily, waving a feeble goodbye at the others before making his way out of the bar.
“I will have this thing in my hands, Raphael.” Abaddon words hissed forth from between his clenched teeth.
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