“Man up, Mike. It’s doable.”
“I know you’ll take care of Fenton’s Haunt, D. It’s my taking out Avaloz’s Haunt that will be tough. In the middle of the crowd, with me rushing out of the ring, I picture a lot of screaming and bad times. I say we call in all our cop friends on this right now. I’ll call Tom Huang and see if he can set up something at the fight with his partner, along with Joe Gilmer and Callie Natallia from San Jose. Tom and Jason Travers believe.”
“You better do it, Mike,” Joanie agreed. “We’ll give Denny and the team the go ahead the moment you and D knock out the Haunts.”
“Gail and Dad will be our backup to let you know what’s going on in case I get hijacked by the law during our Haunt extraction. We better get going. Gail, Dad, and Mom are going to meet us at the fight. Mom’s going in with our blind gig so as to get Demon up close.”
“She was less than thrilled about all this. I could tell that,” Joanie replied. “Go on, you two. We’ll coordinate from here, right Laura?”
Laura looked up from where she was checking all feeds to the equipment cameras, and putting together a list of possibilities for everything she could think of. “I… oh hell, Joanie, I don’t know. We’ll take a deep breath and try to deliver what we’re supposed to, Mike.”
“I know we can count on you two, Laura. If I’m not jailed, D, Gail, and I will head for Fenton’s place. My expectations of getting us out of there are very low though.” Mike smiled and saluted. “Super D and his sidekick will be back tonight for a beer and shot chaser.”
“Arf!”
* * *
Laura and Joanie stared at the monitors while keeping all communications with each team member open as they checked in. Denny and Steve parked the Demon Inc van outside the condominium shared by Ira Fenton and his girlfriend. They already had Connie and Janis in the back of the van with Stan and Jerry on their way. Each one confirmed clear communication. Laura tested their cameras out, having each one as they suited up and came on line turn a full circle. She checked camera angles so there would be no blind spots. Laura knew one Haunt could maim all of her friends.
Stan and Jerry arrived next, hurrying over to suit up, while receiving congratulations on the UC Davis win. Laura watched the small celebration with the rest of the team helping Stan and Jerry get suited up with grim uneasiness. This would be the trickiest Haunt operation they’d attempted so far. The only high point had been Mike texting in to inform them Tom Huang had called in some favors. He and his partner Jason Travers, along with San Jose police officers Callie Natallia and Joe Gilmer would all be at the fight in uniform. Laura prayed all of this would be enough.
* * *
Gail put in Mike’s mouthpiece. “I’m still not feeling anything bad, Mike. Denny’s idea worked on your touch. I hope it doesn’t work so well you can’t blast the Haunt out of Fenton when you need to. You know where Sandy is, so good luck.”
“What she said,” Dan reiterated, pulling away the stool as Mike stood up.
Mike closed his eyes, made his hands into fists, and straightened up into a statue still stance for a moment. He allowed the darkness to wash over him. Anxiety, Haunts, and exorcisms fled his mind in a rush, leaving only the thrill of violence ahead. “It’s all good. Gail, make sure you’re ready with my pike.”
The referee motioned Mike and Fenton into the ring center, going over the perfunctory rules. When he was done, Mike held out his hands and Fenton fisted them. It was on. Mike knew Fenton incorporated extensive boxing skills with an unrelenting ground game. Mike planned on staying upright, unless he dropped Fenton. Within ten seconds of the referee waving them to begin, Fenton rushed over to try a flying knee into Mike’s chest. Mike countered, turning to allow the knee to brush by, while slamming Fenton down to the mat.
Fenton, expecting a full on body press ground game, jetted up and away from Mike. Seeing that Mike did not follow up his initial advantage, Fenton threw a roundhouse right leg kick toward Mike’s temple. Using a left arm strike to bat the kicking leg, Mike threw a perfect right hook to Fenton’s midsection, backing away as Fenton danced sideways, obviously in pain. Mike darted forward with left and right hand strikes as Fenton covered. Each punch jolted Mike with pleasure. The round ended with Fenton bloodied over both eyes.
“What the hell, Mike?” Gail shouted into Mike’s ear as Dan put the stool down for Mike to sit. “You had the best round I’ve ever seen you do. Why the hell didn’t you put him down?”
Mike’s eyes as he looked sharply up at Gail made her drop the wet sponge in her hand. “Okay, Mike… what is this? Are you with us?”
Dan, seeing the fear in Gail’s eyes grabbed his son’s shoulders. “Mike! What’s up with you? Answer her.”
Mike shrugged them both off as he stood up, his voice like the deep toned bell of doom. “Sometimes I have to go get me some, Dad. I have friends relying on me and D taking the main Haunts out. It’s not an exact science.”
Mike pounded his gloved hands together as the referee signaled for the two fighters to continue. It was then he saw what he had been looking for. The Haunt’s eyes staring malevolently out from Fenton. Mike smiled back. It was time.
Fenton went for a takedown immediately, with Mike countering by straight legging backwards and locking him into a choke hold. He had no choice but to abandon the takedown and squirm away from the choke. Mike hit him with a left hand hook, thrown viciously upwards that exploded into Fenton’s right temple. The Haunt look fled as Fenton’s survival instinct checked in. Mike saw the blank stare before Fenton dropped unconscious to the mat. Mike turned to Demon where he crouched at Jenny’s side, her white cane and sunglasses in place. Demon nodded. Mike pulled off his right hand glove while the referee signaled the fight was over. He concentrated every bit of willpower in his head into the grip he placed on Fenton’s shoulder.
The Haunt shrieked in outrage as it was ejected from Fenton’s unconscious body. Mike threw himself to his back, yanking the referee with him. The Haunt’s raking claws narrowly missed the two human targets as the crowd’s screams became deafening in their all out rush toward the exits. Demon’s snarling shape sailed over Mike and the referee, directly into the Haunt. Mike shot sideways to his feet, vaulting the ring ropes to streak at the only human other than his Mother not to run: Sandra Avaloz.
“Mike!” Gail screamed, causing Mike to pause and look back. Gail threw his iron pike in an arc toward him.
Mike caught it in midair while descending on the now Haunt possessed Avaloz, whose Haunt had taken control in order to run her out of the building. Mike grasped her left arm with his left, releasing her immediately. She collapsed forward, the Haunt shooting out of her in a screeching protest. It spun, raking Mike over his left shoulder as he impaled its head with his pike. Mike went eyeball to eyeball with the Haunt, his pike embedding it to him in its last moments before dissolving into the putrid ectoplasm of death.
Tom Huang arrived at Mike’s side first. “Oh my God, Mike! Are you okay?”
Mike twisted toward the ring, where only Demon stood next to Gail with her iPad in hand. “Yeah, Tom, I’m good. Demon and I have to jet over to Fenton’s place to see if our team was able to close the portal.”
Huang grinned and pushed Mike away. “We got this. You owe me so many freebie crime consults it’ll take you and D a lifetime to pay up!”
Mike waved in acknowledgement as Gail and Demon joined him to rush toward the exit. Gail pressed a towel soaked in holy water to his bleeding shoulder. It hissed and healed. He glanced back for a moment toward the ring where Dan stood with his fist upward toward him. Mike returned the salute.
* * *
“It’s a go!” Laura cried out into Demon Inc’s earpieces. “Mike and Demon wasted the main Haunts! Wipe ‘em out!”
“You heard the Moby, let’s go get some,” Denny said, busting down Fenton’s condominium door with a side kick. Demon Inc’s crew followed Denny in, spreading out past the entryway, shotguns and Haunt weapons poised.
The condominium was saturated with Haunts.
“Holy shit! Light ‘em up,” Denny yelled.
The Haunts streaked to and fro, seeking cover from the deadly mix, leaving only a vapor trail. They tried attacking, but were blitzed with the shotgun/silver loads. Stan and Jerry fired and reloaded in tandem, adding their deadly fire in an unrelenting mix. Moving forward, with Steve Corbett, fully suited up and carrying a Haunt Killer at their back, the crew advanced into the living room of the condo where the portal lie, spewing Haunts out in stunted degrees.
“Above you, Stan!” Laura screamed, seeing the Haunt dropping from the ceiling.
Stan dove to the side and Janis obliterated the Haunt as it descended.
“Let’s do this,” Denny said, aiming at the portal.
The Demon Inc crew concentrated fire on the portal until it disappeared. They immediately retreated with Steve covering them to their supply tank. Denny made placating gestures toward his gasping team.
“We have time. They can’t get away, and there’s no place to go. I know Mike and D are headed here right now. We need D in this final hunt phase. Load up and let’s be ready for the clean up.”
* * *
At Demon Inc’s Command Central, Joanie burst into tears. “Good God, Laura, I love Denny! Damn it!”
Laura grinned over at her younger sidekick. “Cowboy up girl, and put your headset back on… damn it!”
Joanie took a deep breath, wiped away the tears, and put her headset back on. “I owe you one.”
Laura nodded. “Yeah, and I’ll probably collect.”
* * *
A tense celebration erupted upon Mike and Demon’s return. “How’s it hangin’ guys?”
“Five by five, brother,” Jerry replied. “You good to go, D?”
“Oh baby!” Demon projected to Mike, crouching at the doorway.
“That would be a yes,” Mike translated as Demon Inc hunkered down behind their canine master.
The clean up took over an hour because of the daunting number of Haunts that had come through the portal. It was an ecstatic crew that sat on the Fenton front steps as Tom Huang and Jason Travers arrived with the Haunt free Ira Fenton and Sandra Avaloz. Fenton rushed out to embrace the reluctantly standing Mike.
“Thank you! I… don’t know what to say, Mike. How…how did you know?”
Mike pointed at Demon. “Demon knew at the weigh-in, Ira. How did they get to you two?”
Fenton’s face darkened for a moment before glancing over at Avaloz. He hugged her to him. “Sandy wanted to play around with a Ouija Board. That’s the last coherent thing I can remember until I came to in the ring.”
“I…I’m sorry,” Avaloz said, burying her head into Fenton’s chest.
“It’s not your fault, but things are coming to a head with these monsters possessing people. They can’t do so unless you open yourself up to them.”
“That’s ended forever, my friend,” Fenton grasped Mike’s hand. He glanced around at the Demon Inc crew with a nod and smile. “God bless you all. Is it okay to go inside, Mike?”
“Yep. Take care, Ira.”
Tom Huang and Jason Travers met them as they walked away from the Fenton home. “It’s all taken care of, Mike. Joe and Callie are believers too.”
Mike shook Tom’s outstretched hand, and then Jason’s. “Thank you, guys. We sure as hell needed your help tonight.”
“Next missing person’s case you’ll get to pay us back,” Jason said. “Demon Inc will be getting me and Tom promoted in the department. I’m thinkin’ Captain.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Mike replied.
* * *
Demon Inc sat together around the Rawlins’ kitchen table. Each had a shot and a beer. Demon was already laying waste to his beer and double shot with a loud, slurping crescendo. Mike held up his shot glass. “To Farfel!”
“To Farfel!” The chorus called out happily.
Demon tried a robot dance in protest, but the double shot landed him sideways on the floor with only his bark of protest and the laughter remaining.
The End
Thank you for purchasing and reading Demon Inc. If you enjoyed the novel, please take a moment and leave a review. Your consideration would be much appreciated. Please visit my Amazon Author’s Page if you would like to preview any of my other novels. Thanks again for your support.
Bernard Lee DeLeo
Author’s Face Book Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BernardLeeDeLeo/
Author’s Contact Links - http://rjparkerpublishing.com/bernard-lee-deleo.html
Demon Inc (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 2) Page 25