“It’s childish, but I guess I can deal with it, Toad brother,” Gail allowed, pointing at Ed Brandt. “Take him next, Stan. Frodo lit him up so he’s pliable.”
Stan helped the still dazed Brandt to his feet. He and Jerry gripped him between them and walked Brandt over to where Mike and Demon waited.
“Why don’t these two try something?” Ruiz whispered in Janis’s ear.
“We figure the Haunts can’t overcome a human’s survival instinct. They can make their hosts do anything unless it involves getting hurt or worse. What did you guys think of the exorcism?”
“It’s nightmarish,” Tobian answered, watching Mike grip Brandt. Demon timed the exit better, ripping the Haunt’s head off before it could get past Brandt’s chest. “Damn that dog’s fast! Is he the only one that can grip a Haunt?”
“Mike could,” Connie replied, “but they can’t hurt D. He’s immune, and Mike’s getting there.”
Denny pointed at Loza. “You’re next Aaron. Don’t make me have to juice you. Get up.”
Gail moved into a better position to back Denny up. “How’d Mike do tonight in the birth class, Laura?”
“He did great, HG. I heard he’s taking heat from Fluffy about it.”
“Mostly just the metro-man cracks,” Gail answered. “He didn’t mind because he repeated all of them to us, but he didn’t let us know how the class went, Moby.”
“You brat!” Laura giggled. “I kept my mouth shut so it went pretty smooth. Hey… listen up… I have Navarone moving on you.”
“How the heck you know that, girl?” Janis asked.
“Ummm… Denny.”
“Got it.” Janis reached over and patted Denny on the shoulder. “Nice one, Frodo. Your early warning Navarone system is working great. She’s on her way towards us.”
“Good,” Ruiz said. “Save the last one here for her to see. We need her on our side kids.”
“You get all that, Mike?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, I got it. Bring Loza over you guys.” Mike waited while Stan and Jerry brought the suddenly struggling Loza over.
“Let him go, Jer. I’m going to toast him!”
“No… no, wait.” Loza held up his hands. Sweat was pouring off him as he did inner battle with the thing trying to guide his actions. “I’ll stop. Don’t zap me!”
“Okay, but you even twitch and you’ll be going through your exorcism unconscious,” Stan warned him. “Get over there by Mike.”
Mike grabbed Loza by the shoulder. “Would you rather have him lying down, D?”
“No. It can’t get out of the house so I’d rather have it flitting around in here if I miss it, and I don’t want this kid raked before we can move him. Better to have him on his feet.”
“Aaron. Look at me!” Mike commanded. “I know you’re scared. When you feel the thing leaving you, try and move away from it.”
“I will Mike… I…” Loza gritted his teeth. “Hurry, it’s clamping down on me.”
Mike grabbed Loza’s bare right wrist. The Haunt streaked out Loza’s back. Jerry fired, hitting the Haunt with half the blessed salt load. He didn’t have a Colloidal Silver mixed load because they were guarding the possessed teens. Demon leaped high in the air, snagging a piece of the shrieking Haunt. Mike dodged a swipe at his head and buried his spike in the Haunt. When it fell to the floor, Demon ripped its throat out.
“Good Lord, God almighty…” Tobian mumbled in a daze.
“Amen,” Ruiz added.
“You okay, Aaron?” Mike crouched near the wide eyed teen.
“It…it’s gone! Oh my God… it’s gone!” Loaz leaped off the floor and hugged everyone in sight, including the FBI agents. He rushed back to kneel next to Demon, hesitantly stroking his head. “Thank you.”
Demon raised a paw and shook with him. “Come get this mental midget, CD. I hope you can lecture these morons on reality.”
“That makes two of us.” Mike helped Loaz stand and guided him back to his friends. “This will all be over shortly.”
“Can’t we just go home?” Clarissa asked. “We’ll never do it again.”
Gail shot over in front of Mike. “Oh hell no! You don’t just walk away! You’ll stay here until we let you go. You’re the nitwit that enticed these dodos into doing this crap. Shut the hell up! If I hear your whiny voice one more time I’ll get Mr. Sparky out and zap your cheerleading ass into the stone-age!”
Clarissa cried openly, her grip on what she’d done an obvious element. Gail wasn’t having any.
“Oh sure, you bawl your eyes out now that you got caught before our world ended up in Haunt hands!” Gail reached down and gripped Clarissa’s chin. “Listen up! This ain’t no game. That thing you had inside is a preview of what they’ll do to us, you stupid cow!”
“Navarone’s parking outside,” Laura warned.
“Thanks, Laura,” Denny said. “C’mon, Gail, let’s take Sandy over into position. I have a feeling Agent Navarone’s patience will be short.”
Gail shook Clarissa’s chin. “Not one sob, not one whine, or I light you up, FBI or no FBI.” Gail released Clarissa and immediately went over to drag Sandy onto her feet. “I’m on my last nerve with these idiots. You’re up, girlfriend. I’m not like the boys. I’ll arc your ass in a heartbeat, so walk on over there with your hands behind your head.”
Sandy did as she was told. The rest of Demon Inc simply let Gail play out her frustration, feeling much the same way as she did. Mike spread blessed salt and holy water on the floor. He’d already decided to prevent the Haunt from emerging any other direction than what they wanted. Demon came over to watch in an agreeable manner.
“Good one, Cap. We’ll lay Satan Sandy down right on the spread. I should have figured they’d start exiting the back.”
Mike kept the conversation in telepathic form. “We’re doin’ good so far, D. If we can sell this to Navarone, we’ll get some much needed help.”
“Agreed. Uh oh, here she comes, and she ain’t happy, Cap. Juice her, CD.”
Mike straightened, watching Navarone stride into the house with her arm still in a sling, and rage on her face. Ruiz and Tobian met her half way into the room. He could tell they were pleading their case logically, indicating they had witnesses to everything. Navarone hadn’t responded. She kept looking over the scene with what Mike thought was cement headed skepticism. When Navarone saw him, Mike could tell his touch had worn off somewhat. All he recognized in the look she gave him was animosity.
“I think you’re right, D. I’m sick of this game.”
Demon head butted Mike’s leg, attracting attention from the rest of Demon Inc. “Don’t overdo this, Cap! I don’t want her following you around like a love sick puppy.”
Mike grinned down at Demon. He took a deep breath and headed over to the group meeting of FBI agents. “I’ll be careful, D.”
Before he could get near Navarone, she pointed at him threateningly. “That’s far enough, Rawlins! This shit stops now. You’ve managed to fog my two agents with your dimensional warfare con, but I’m going to see to it you are caged into a position where this type of scenario will never happen again!”
“Please… help me,” Sandy called out. “My friends and I have been tortured. Please… stop them from-”
Gail stun-gunned Sandy to her knees, evoking a scream of agony as she fell to her side. “I warned you, pumpkin.” Gail turned toward the shocked Navarone with an indifferent expression.
“You are under arrest!” Navarone started toward Gail.
Mike grabbed hold of her bare hand. He let loose the darkness hovering inside him. His mind push nearly crumpled Navarone. Her face went blank for a moment before Mike’s onslaught. “Agent Navarone. Please let us finish this. You’ll see why we have to handle these teens like we do. Sandy over there is possessed by a Haunt. I will force it out of her right in front of you. You won’t ever be unsure again.”
Navarone stared at Mike for a moment in incoherent fashion. Her features softened. �
�Rawlins? I don’t think I ever thanked you for saving my life. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am. May I show you how we take one of these Haunts out of a person it has possessed?”
“Sure. I need to see that.”
Mike led her over to where Gail had positioned Sandy over the blessed salt/holy water mix, with the now stunned Ruiz and Tobian following. “We coated the flooring with a mixture that won’t allow the Haunt to escape from Sandy’s back. Demon and I will kill the Haunt, but you stay here out of range, okay?”
Navarone nodded numbly. “I’ll stay here with Ruiz and Tobian. Show me this thing.”
Gail leaned into Mike as he crouched near the still floundering Sandy, recovering from Gail’s stun-gun attack. “You dog, you. I’m liking this Captain Darkness side of you.”
“Let’s stick to business, HG. Let’s give Navarone a glimpse of hell.”
“Just sayin’, I got no problem with you making her into your personal sock puppet,” Gail whispered.
“You’re really edgy tonight. Anything I should know about?”
Gail gripped Mike’s hand. “You mean other than I want to rake your coals?”
“You do know I can hear you, right, along with everyone else in Demon Inc?”
Gail patted Mike’s hand. “I hear you, Moby. I just don’t care.”
Her statement evoked suppressed amusement amongst their teammates.
Mike made sure everyone was in position. Stan and Jerry stood at the correct angles for backing the Haunt’s flight no matter what it did in exiting Sandy’s body. They grinned back at him. Demon hovered over Sandy, his low pitched snarl making it plain he was ready to move.
“We’re ready, CD,” Stan stated. “Cut it loose.”
Mike reached down to grip Sandy’s hand with his left. His right clutched the coated iron spike. When the Haunt burst out of Sandy’s chest, Mike snaked a hand in to grip its neck, while plunging his iron spike into its chest before it could exit completely. Demon, sensing Mike’s off the wall adlib, tore the Haunt’s left clawed appendage off. He streaked around Mike’s hold to tear off its right, but only after it had shredded Mike’s Kevlar vest. Smiling, Mike gripped the Haunt with both hands at its throat, staring into the hellish face as it shrieked in pain from Demon’s attack. Mike weathered the beating of its stumps, looking back at Navarone’s face questioningly.
“See why we do this?” Mike managed to gasp out as the Haunt thrashed in his iron grip with Demon tearing at its flanks.
“Jesus! Kill it!” Navarone screamed out, cringing at the nightmarish sight in front of her eyes.
Mike pinned the Haunt next to the screaming Sandy, pulled his spike out of its chest and plunged it through the Haunt’s head. It vaporized, leaving the screaming Sandy the only sound in the room. Gail grabbed a handful of Sandy’s hair and yanked her hard enough to halt her screams.
“What’s wrong, Sandy? Didn’t you like your buddy, you twit?”
Sandy tried to scoot back away from Gail, but Gail pinned her in place with a knee on her chest. “Where do you think you’re goin’? Shut the hell up and stay where you are!”
Sandy froze in place as Gail again held her stun-gun near her face. “Don’t… don’t zap me… please. I’ll be quiet.”
Gail helped Sandy to her feet and took her over next to the rest of the exorcised teens reluctantly. She then walked over near Mike.
Mike stood and joined the FBI agents gathered in varying shades of shock. “You can no longer deny what we’re fighting against. We have everything that happened tonight on video. I held onto that last one with one hellacious close-up from my video cam, so you three could see plainly this is no special effects trick. We’re not low keying this crap anymore. The SyFy Channel’s getting all our footage no matter what. Can you help us wage the war we’ll need to stop this?”
The FBI agents glanced at one another as if they had no idea how to answer Mike. Navarone finally answered. “We’ll do everything in our power to give you anything you need to beat this threat. Do you have a plan for what you want to do next?”
Denny stepped forward gesturing at his Haunt weapon. “I’ve found a deadly mixture for vaporizing the Haunts: holy water and Colloidal Silver. Mike and Demon want to go through a portal with a large hose pipe, fed by a tanker loaded with Haunt killing mixture, hooked up through the portal. We’ll be able to see what kind of damage can be done along with finding out if it can be done.”
“I think we can pull that off without involving Homeland Security oversight,” Navarone said. “I have some leeway and assets to pull off something like what you’ve described. Where do you propose to try this experiment?”
“I’m thinking our Demon Inc building would be the best place for it,” Denny answered. “We have a large lot in front where a tanker could be parked. We also have a priest willing to assist us. I understand the need to establish a large scale plan. This would be the way to formulate one. If this works, we could open numerous portals and wreck havoc in Haunt world.”
“Just Rawlins and the dog go through the portal?”
“Because of healing from Haunt wounds, Mike has some immunity, and has passed back and forth safely, Agent Navarone,” Denny answered. “Demon came from a dimension already overrun by the Haunts, so he’s passed through the rifts before, and is immune. It doesn’t make this safe, but they’re our best hope to find the answers we’re looking for.”
“I thought Rawlins was in charge of Demon Inc,” Navarone said.
“Denny invented all our weapons, and he handles all planning and set-ups for operations,” Mike answered. “I tend to lose the big picture when I’m involved in planning. I was endangering us too often when a different approach would have been safer.”
“Mike runs the operations at point of contact,” Denny added.
“You three may as well know something else of vital importance,” Mike continued with some trepidation. “Demon and I have telepathic communication with each other. He also can understand everything you say.”
“Oh for God’s sake!” Navarone threw her hands in the air, including the arm still in a sling, turning to her fellow agents in disbelief. “See, this is why-”
“Hey!” Mike barked at her, while also concentrating his will. Navarone quieted immediately, absently putting a hand to the side of her head. “I wouldn’t say it if I couldn’t prove it. Let’s keep our voices down because I don’t want it as public knowledge yet.”
Mike gestured for Navarone to come nearer. He whispered in her ear. “I’m going to have Demon do a Michael Jackson ‘Moonwalk’ right in front of you.”
Mike turned to Demon as Navarone clucked derisively. Mike said nothing out loud. Demon came over in front of Navarone and did a ‘Moonwalk’, shielded from the other teens by Mike, Denny, and Gail.
“Oh my God!” Navarone exclaimed as Ruiz and Tobian started howling in laughter. “We need… we need to have this dog studied. This is-”
Demon dropped down out of his act, and into a snarling crouch.
“That’s Demon’s way of telling you he ain’t being poked, prodded, or studied. He never moves from my house unless you kill me first,” Mike stated.
“And me,” Denny added.
“And me,” Gail said.
“And all the rest of us,” Janis put in from where she’d been eavesdropping on the conversation while watching the now exorcised teens. “Don’t think to try any MIB crap on us either.”
Ruiz and Tobian watched Navarone, expecting to hear her declare authority over everything by invoking Homeland Security. Navarone instead simply looked confused and hesitant. She bent down and stroked Demon’s head. He stopped snarling, figuring Mike had juiced her. When she straightened, Navarone faced her FBI comrades with a slight smile.
“I’m going to go with Stossle’s recommendations. We’ll leave Demon in Rawlins’ care. I’m thinking we can pull this off without being banished if we take the video evidence up the ladder together. I can’t think of a
ny other way we can do this on a scale we’ll need to wage an inter-dimensional war. They can’t ignore three FBI agents’ sworn eye witness testimony.”
“I’m with you all the way, Al,” Ruiz stated, noting Tobian was already nodding. “Jack and I saw what’s beyond the portal. It’s literally hell.”
“Manny’s right,” Tobian agreed. “We’re just glad you feel the same way about this.”
“Good.” Navarone turned to Mike. “We’re going to do this, just not on as small a scale as we originally discussed. We’ll put our careers on the line so that you can go through with the experiment with the tanker attack across dimensions. I’ll have a few people present who will not be ignored when they call for a full scale alert. I know you can’t predict inadvertent rift openings, but do you think I can get a week to sell this?”
“Denny has an early warning program in effect now if any portal is fully opened. That’s why we knew Clarissa and Sandy had opened one last night. Denny confirmed it when he put a lapel camera on Sandy to prep her for tonight. The only reason she kept it on was because Denny told her we’d move on them immediately if we lost contact. You already know Demon Inc’s in all the way. Can we go ahead with the release of these videos to SyFy Channel? Their special was for Halloween, but it’s possible they can do a special in between times.”
“Can we go through with your attack plan first before we send the populace into a panic?”
“Maybe featuring these videos first on SyFy would be the best initial release, Al,” Ruiz said. “They could also issue a warning about fooling around with these spirit boards and spell books.”
“Manny’s right,” Tobian agreed. “They could even enhance their release by letting Stossle explain how his deadly mix works and how it can close a portal. They’ve already warned us they plan on doing a show in the next few days featuring the Kinsler kidnapping.”
That surprised Mike and Denny. “When did you hear that?”
“We got word today,” Riuz replied. “They sent a copy of the show to inform us of their intentions. They already had an interview with the Kinsler girl in it too. We didn’t look too bad, and the gunfight you filmed made us look pretty good at the end. The boss okayed it.”
Demon at War (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 3) Page 13