Lucifer's Abbey

by Smith, Michael James

  Harold peered through the bars. “I'll be back later. No one's going to object to your entertaining me tonight after what happened to the Master.”

  Cherie turned to face him. “I'd die before I'd let scum like you near me!”

  “Oh you'll die alright.” Harold laughed. “You've got a date with Lucifer himself!”

  He walked away and there was nothing but the darkness.

  Cherie waited in the darkness until she could not hear them anymore. Then she stepped to the door and tried to examine the space between the door and the jamb. She took out the scissors and tried to work them into space she had utilised in her old cell. They wouldn't go.

  She tried to put the thought of defeat from her mind. Using one blade of the scissors she began to pick at the wood. Perhaps she could expose the bolt if she dug enough wood out of the way. It was difficult in the dark, she didn't know if she was working the same area all the time and had to keep stopping to feel with her fingers.

  In the back of her mind she knew that somehow Juliet had defeated Hainsley-Sihl's 'familiar'. The thought gave her great encouragement. Hainsley-Sihl had been visibly shaken and hurt by that defeat. He was not omnipotent. He could be defeated.

  She determined to do at least as well as Juliet and worked at the door even after she realised that without light it was going to be Impossible.

  It was hot in the cave? That seemed strange but she couldn't think of any reason and so ignored it. After an hour she had made some progress but it was going to take a long time. How long would there be before Harold came back?

  Something made her think he would wait until everyone else was gone before he came to attack her. He was clearly not an important person amongst them and she didn't believe that he would be allowed to use her for himself. It didn't matter; when he tried - if he tried - she was going to stab him.

  In the end she tired. She was terribly dispirited by her recapture and the loss of Juliet's company. The awful shrieking that preceded Hainsley-Sihl's being thrown off his feet still seemed to echo in her mind. That fiendish thing he could create and control was hideous and filled her with dread.

  What was the meaning of the way he had spoken to her as though they knew each other? There were many questions in her mind that revolved around her strange dreams but she was too tired to concentrate on them.

  She stumbled her way to the bed that was in the same place that the bed had been during her previous period of confinement. She sat down and leaned back and despite the knowledge that Harold would come she fell into an exhausted sleep.

  Harold was already on top of her when she awoke. He had straddled her and was busy trying to push her top up. For a few seconds she was unable to resist whilst she woke up but she began to struggle and he laughed.

  “Oh yes please! Do struggle” I'll enjoy it all the more.” He got hold of one of her wrists and held her arm out to one side as he began to work his other hand under her clothing.

  Cherie tried to bite him but he managed to keep away from her teeth. She flailed at him with her other hand but he seemed oblivious to her striking at him. She reached around behind her but his weight was forcing her down upon the scissors and she couldn't get them out of her pocket.

  He caught her flailing arm and managed to pin it down with his knee. She was helpless now and he knew it.

  “You are for it now you bitch! I got told off for your escaping. You’re going to get it worse for that believe me. I've got all night to teach you tricks!”

  “STOP!”

  It was a single word spoken with such total authority that they both stopped.

  Harold had brought a camping lamp and stood it on the floor against the far wall. In the light of it Hainsley-Sihl looked fearsome.

  The odd coloured light from the lamp lent his opaque seeming skin a strange sheen. His eyes were dark red and the long robe he wore was like something from a Chinese legend. It was covered in symbols and shone in the light. He was every inch the Satanist.

  He was staring at Harold and Harold was cowering away in fear. Hainsley-Sihl lifted one hand and pointed it at the door. “Yours will be the fate of Bartholomew. Go and wait for me in the Tomb.”

  Harold got off Cherie and stood up. He was afraid to go anywhere near Hainsley–Sihl and backed along the side of the bed and then slid along the cell door. His face was full of dread and he turned and ran the moment he was clear of the cell.

  Cherie re-arranged her clothing and sat up.

  “Believe it or not we do have laws and he has broken a serious one. His punishment will be severe.” He closed the cell door and leant back against it.

  “You have slept all night. Twice I checked up on you and you were sleeping soundly both times. I hope that you are refreshed, I have told them to bring you breakfast, I cannot allow you to leave the cell.” He folded his arm across his chest.

  “You and I represent the two oldest powers in creation; the longest war in history. Some battles have been won and lost by both sides but tonight the war will end in your defeat.” He bent and tried to turn the lamp up higher but it didn't change. “Always the light is a problem.” He laughed quietly at his own little joke.

  He returned to lean against the door. “Your purpose here has been hidden from your soul because if it had not been you would not have come here. You would have taken your own life in preference, ended your own incarnation, set yourself back hundreds of years. Others before you have taken that choice.”

  Cherie watched him. He had a strange power to fascinate. He seemed to command the very air in the room. His odd appearance lent him a strange attraction which was enhanced by the weak light.

  “It has always been so that the powers of Light have believed that innocence was pure and the way to advancement through it. They have always chosen to keep their servants in the dark. Even you who has known many incarnations must find the irony in that amusing.”

  “I don't know what you’re talking about.” Cherie said simply.

  He did not reply at once. He seemed to be studying her. “I believe you so I will spare some time on a busy morning to tell you what you do not know. I will treat you more fairly than your learned friends of the Right Hand Path do. A long time ago when the two Paths divided and Lucifer was cast down by mistake there were many souls gathered about that momentous place.

  God in his wisdom declared that they should not be free to return to Heaven until the Paths were reunited. That as you know has never been achieved and so those souls have wandered, sometimes incarnated and here upon the Earth and sometimes on the astral plane where the battle has been much fiercer than that which has taken place on Earth.

  You have known many periods of each existence. You have been involved in the long struggle and as a soldier of the Light you and I - in my true guise - have crossed swords many times.”

  He adjusted his position against the door whilst he gathered his next words. “This place is sacred though the fools who live about it do not even remember that anymore.” He laughed.

  “Can you imagine? The most powerful weapon on the whole Planet lies at their feet and they let this resting place fall into wrack and ruin! The only thing which God himself ever entrusted to Man and it rots beneath their unsuspecting feet! The only protection it is offered is a bunch of old Monks at Buckfastleigh that couldn't cast a decent spell to save their own skins!”

  He uncrossed his arms and let his hands drop to his sides. “They as much as I have called you to this place. Foolishly they think that in your innocence you can be the focal point to which they can attract their astral powers to defeat me. They think they can stop me from finding the Ark. They are wrong Cherie, I have already found it and tonight I will take control of it and blast them all to eternity.”

  He looked down at her. “Unfortunately in order to do that I shall have to terminate your incarnation. Your innocence and the power they placed inside of you will be the key that unlocks the gate and lets Lucifer take God's Weapon.”

  There
was a knock on the door and the man with the injured hand entered. He glowered at Cherie but put the tray on the floor carefully. He backed out without speaking.

  “Humour me in return for my enlightening you. Say just one sentence in return.”

  Cherie looked at him. “You couldn't catch Juliet!”

  “Spoken like a true warrior! I hope that you will enjoy your breakfast.” Hainsley-Sihl turned and left.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  THE KENTS CAVERN MYSTERIES

  I watched Graeme Dee drive Juliet away then turned and went to my chair at Ann Taylor's makeshift meeting table. The tunnel dust was still in my throat and a young constable whose name I did not know was a welcome sight with a nice mug of hot tea.

  “I saw them giving you coffee, inspector and I thought you'd enjoy a drop of the real stuff.

  “You’re most definitely not wrong!” I took the tea gratefully.

  We resumed our meeting and decided that most of us needed to get home and clean up and the best we could do was leave the tunnel search in David Cooper's capable hands, knowing he would call if he found anything.

  If he located any of Hainsley-Sihl's group he would call us at once.

  Whatever Hainsley-Sihl was up to he had it planned for the following night and tomorrow would be another day of playing catch up for us, the last day we had to show that we were not completely out manoeuvred by his scheming.

  Ivor Martin had been located and we were informed that he was leading a search team into a remote part of Kents Cavern on our behalf.

  I looked at Henry. He was a bloody mess. He was tired and full of anxiety about his niece and he was covered head to toe in tunnel dust.

  “We can stop at the Caves and get an update on their search on the way to your hotel Leon. “I said.

  He nodded and lit another cigarette. “We need just a little bit of luck on our side. So far all the breaks have gone to Hainsley-Sihl.”

  Derek Smith had got a mug of tea too. “The best thing you two can do is sleep. The pair of you are both whacked. I'll make an appointment for eight O’clock at Buckfastleigh and then I'll go and find Ivor and give him a hand. If there's anything to find in Kents Cavern we'll find it and I'll call you.”

  I knew he was right. That practical mind of his was seeing everything more clearly than Leon and I. Our emotions had taken a beating in the last twenty four hours and we were both far from our best now.

  “Let's get on our way to Kents Cavern then.”

  When we arrived at the Cavern there was a considerable Police presence in the car park.

  The main door was open and the three of us walked straight in to be confronted by the high chamber that greets its many visitors. Deservedly one of Torquay's leading tourist attractions and definitely it's oldest. People have been visiting the caves since there were first people.

  I knew a little about the wonderful caves but I hadn't been inside them myself for more than forty years.

  I spotted Ivor Martin's tall frame over the heads of a group of Police Officers who were obviously going to undertake the search with him.

  He saw Derek and me and held up a welcoming hand. “Wondered how long it would be before you pair showed up?”

  “I shook his hand but I don't know why. We've been friends so long that it was an odd thing to do. Derek looked at me and I knew he was thinking that I needed my bed more urgently than he'd thought.

  Ivor was another practical man. “I've been told about the tunnels you found and they are a complete mystery to me Mike. There are a lot of old gold mine workings around the Hope’s Nose area which is only a couple of thousand meters from here in a direct underground line. Other than that there are odd bits and pieces but they are all well sealed against kids getting into them. Some of them could be really dangerous. The thing is they don't go anywhere, nothing like the sort of thing I'm told you've found at Hainsley-Sihl's.”

  “Oh my God.” I said and I could have kicked myself. “There's a sign at the top of Hope's Nose all about bloody gold mining and I walked right past and missed it! I looked around at Leon and Derek. “We all walked right past it and took no notice, dozens of us!”

  “Is that what you think this is about then?” Ivor asked. “Was my employer doing some illegitimate gold mining on the side? Because if he was he wasn't bloody sharing the proceeds!”

  “No Ivor I don't think so.” I said and laughed. “He's into occult ceremonies and killing young girls and he has a young girl in there now.”

  Ivor looked me his face very serious. “Yes they told me this was to do with the Hope's Nose girl. There are all sorts of bits and pieces here. Not what the public see but things the potholers would like a crack at or the palaeontologists. There's always someone knocking on the walls in here. The thing is there's not a square centimetre that hasn't been under a microscope for two centuries and there's certainly no tunnels like the ones you’re after. So I said to your Sergeant that the only thing we can do is reopen a small rock fall that took place just a week after Hainsley-Sihl bought the place. He had it sealed up but he and some of his so called learned friends have been going in and out of it ever since, supposedly doing some research with Torquay Museum and a Mr Joplin.”

  “That is exactly where you should start Ivor.” Derek Smith beat me to it. “I'll come with you mate.”

  Derek turned to Leon and I. “I'll go with Ivor, you pair need to go clean up now as we agreed and get a few hours’ sleep. If we sniff so much as a dormouse in there I'll have them wake you both at once.”

  Leon looked worried and I felt wrong about leaving but the fact of the matter was we were both exhausted and exhausted men don't win cases.

  Leon nodded at me and we reluctantly left Ivor and Derek to their search.

  Ann Taylor had not followed us into Kents Cavern. When we came back outside she was stood by Alan Bolt's van which had moved to the Kents Cavern car park. They beckoned us over and I was soon talking to the Chief Constable.

  She was following our every move and was very well informed. The odd one or two important things that we had kept to ourselves gave her pause for thought but she was very positive. “I'll come down to Kents Cavern whilst you sleep,” she said finally and I thought that was very decent of her and thanked her.

  Leon, Ann and I were driven to The Grand Hotel by Pete Selway, who seemed to turn up whenever we needed him. Leon got out and Ann didn't move. “I turned around and looked at her.

  “Go on! What are you waiting for?”

  “You promise that you will really go to bed Boss?”

  “Yes, I promise I'm really going to bed. Juliet has my keys.” I winked at her. The smile she gave me was wonderful. “We'll see you in the morning. Thank you.”

  When I got to my apartment I had to go upstairs and ask my neighbour for my spare key. We have a reciprocal arrangement except that I am always bothering him and he has never needed to come and ask for his. Which is just as well as I haven't a bloody clue where I put it.

  The hot shower was bliss. I stood there feeling half human and realised that my emotions had drained me terribly. I had been so worried about Juliet. The thought of her being hurt had been very difficult to manage and the thought of not being able to tell her how I felt about her before she died had been harrowing.

  She was safe with Graeme Dee now and would shortly be here with me and I hurried up and got dressed feeling much better and opened a bottle of wine. A good one, to let it breathe.

  I rushed around the place trying to make it look a little less masculine but it would have taken a major shopping expedition - and a woman's advice!

  They arrived after about twenty minutes and Graeme Dee told me he had arranged for someone to sit outside my door for the night. I thought that was a bit over the top but I didn't say anything.

  “David Sweetland and Brian Clarke volunteered. The devil himself won't get past them! They'll natter sixties music and football all night.”

  “I also arranged for a car so I can pick up
Inspector Henry in the morning, he knows and will be ready, and I'll be here for you at seven thirty. David Cooper radioed to say you have an appointment at Buckfastleigh with the Father Abbott at eight sharp. He told me to tell you that the Father Abbot has been fully briefed about the investigation”

  “Thanks a lot Graeme.” I said. “Get yourself home and rest up. I think tomorrow is going to be quite a day.

  “Something I want to check first Boss then I'll be away to Brixham.”

  He didn't elaborate and I was too tired to enquire.

  Juliet had a small suitcase and a sports bag which I picked up and carried inside. She had not had long in her own home to do anything to make herself comfortable and a hot bath and some time alone I guessed would be her first requirement. For some reason I was nervous of her.