Portals of Infinity: Reprisal

by John Van Stry

"How's Laria, is she okay?" I asked as soon as I stopped rolling.

  "Yes," Fel's voice answered, "She's fine. I told her what you did to save her, and she's very happy."

  I stood up and looked at Fel's device on the wall; I figured it was as good as any place to give him my 'incredulous' look.

  "You explained it to her?" I said surprised.

  "She's a nice girl, it's just too bad she ended up with someone like you," he laughed.

  I grinned, "Well thanks for putting her at ease. I was worried. I guess I'm going to need to plan things better with the next place."

  "Less showing off would be a good idea," Fel pointed out.

  I shrugged, "The IRA has some pretty tough characters, if I can get them to deal with any remaining locals, it makes my life easier.

  "By the way, are the wolats actually related to Irish Wolfhounds?"

  "Direct descendants. About two hundred years ago, a portal traveler brought a bunch through a portal in Ireland to here. When she died, they continued on quite happily."

  "Huh, guess I'll have to find a way to follow through on my promise then. So what about the other woman who came through with Laria?"

  "She's dead."

  "Who killed her?"

  "Laria stuck her knife in her."

  "And that killed her?"

  "Well, actually I killed her, but I'd prefer Laria and everyone else think that she did it." Fel confided.

  I nodded, "Sure thing. Did you get anything useful out of her before she died?"

  "The Texas installation is pretty big, she'd been there. I'll have to create a map for you at some point."

  "What about the others?"

  "No. She'd been to the South African temple several times, but that's no longer an issue. She was actually Cenewyg's only priestess. He'd been rather taken with her some time ago."

  "Well, I'm thinking the Central American one next. After that, the one in Russia and then the one in Afghanistan. I do have one question," I said thinking about my trick with the gateway.

  "Yes, you can open a portal on the floor, but it wouldn't have worked in this case."

  "Why not?"

  "Because they were already standing there, you can't open it where somebody or something, is putting pressure on it, and would fall through when you did."

  I nodded, it made sense.

  "Well, let me go collect Laria and then we can head home and relax for couple of nights, then it's on to the next one."

  Eleven

  Earth - Managua, Nicaragua

  5 Months

  We were sitting in a nice hotel in Managua, looking out over the lake, enjoying a dinner on the balcony as the dogs snoozed. We'd been here a week, and I'd spread more than enough cash around, trying to find out what I could about the local situation.

  The government here had changed hands several times in the last few decades, and there had been a lot of violence on both sides of the divide. Right now things seemed stable and I wondered just how much of that violence was due to an unethical bastard using his champion's abilities?

  Did Cenewyg set up shop in these areas just to make money? Somehow, I don't really think so. I was starting to suspect he was using his powers and abilities to impress the easily led, and turn them into followers. With him being out of the picture for the last decade, things hadn't been going so well for him, as some of these war torn places, were no longer at war.

  I'd taken the time to present Edward with two puppies, male and female, and had then wondered aloud if perhaps he could let any of his more religious friends know that Gatwick's cult had a following in Managua?

  He said that he would see what he could do, and we had left it at that.

  When I'd first gotten here I'd taken the time to hire a driver and take a tour of the town, getting a feeling for the layout and where both the good and the bad parts of town were. When I'd had our driver go by the location that I had for the Gatwick estate on the edge of town, I'd noticed that the Gatwick symbols on the gate had all been painted over.

  Either they'd been warned someone was after them, or they'd been having some problems with the locals. I'd hooked up with a local underground gun dealer, so tonight I was going to go take a look for myself and see.

  "This is such a lovely place," Laria said leaning back in her seat, looking out over the water.

  "We're just seeing the good part," I said, enjoying the way she looked as she stretched. I had to admit, it was nice having her with me, and I took advantage of it rather shamelessly. I'd really have to do something special for Rachel when I got some free time.

  "What, they live in something worse than a poor village that gets raided by bandits every couple of years?" she asked me with a grin.

  "Hmmm," I said and thought about that, "The bandits there were smart enough not to kill off the villagers. Here, they get their money from outside factions, so they're pretty ruthless."

  Laria nodded, "I could see where that would be bad. But the living conditions here are actually kind of nice; I could get spoiled here rather quickly."

  "Uh, huh."

  "So what is our plan for tonight?"

  "We'll drive out to the estate, see what is there, and deal with it."

  "You don't think they're still there, do you?"

  I shook my head, "No, but even if they moved out, they probably left an altar there, so I still need to go check on it."

  Laria smiled, "Well whatever will we do to pass the time?"

  I got up out of my chair and walked over to her, "Oh, I'm sure I can think of something....

  It was late when I pulled up off the road near the front gate in our rented car, well after midnight. We were both wearing black, in my case I was wearing loose fitting clothes as I was planning on shifting once we were ready. We had managed to buy two rather nice AK-47's from the gun dealer I'd met. Apparently there were a lot of them to be had here in Nicaragua, as well as grenades, mines, explosives, anything you'd need to fight a civil war.

  I also had brought a sledgehammer along. If the place was deserted, I didn't want to attract undue attention by setting off explosives.

  As for the guns, our helpful connection had gotten us a couple of Volkswagen oil filters that screwed on the end quite easily. Not the best of suppressors perhaps, but they worked well enough I was surprised to find.

  Laria I learned, really liked submachine guns. I took her out two days ago to train her on using them, and the only thing I didn't like was that she was a much better shot than I was. Quite the blow to my ego there.

  "Ready?" I asked and looked at her, she nodded.

  I shifted then and led her and the dogs into the woods, along the fence line. When we got a bit further from the road, I used a pair of wire cutters to get us by the fence, and then led us up to the estate from behind.

  There were four outbuildings, and I checked each of those first, three of them had gun ranges in them, each was set up for a different type of problem. Obviously this was used to train people in urban warfare.

  The fourth one was simply a large garage for cars, and was now empty.

  When we got to the house, I took my time checking it out before we went inside, I didn't see any alarms, or signs of anyone living there. The doors were locked, but I was able to break in rather easily.

  The house was empty, almost all of the rooms had been cleaned out, the only ones that still had anything in them were the kitchen, which still had the appliances like the stove and the fridge, and the room with the altar.

  Everything had been covered up, including the altar, which was under several heavy blankets. As it was made from marble, I could see why they hadn't tried to move it. I set the dogs and Laria to keep watch, and then I got out the sledgehammer and went to work.

  It took a half hour to break it in two, and then for good measure I pissed on it.

  "We found somebody," Laria told me when I came outside to where she was waiting for me.

  On the ground there was an old man, he was face down and Jeri wa
s sitting on him, I was surprised he was still breathing!

  I shifted back from my champion form, and walked around him, looking for any weapons.

  "Off, Jeri," I said when I didn't find any.

  "Who are you?" I asked him.

  He slowly got up onto his knees, and then sat back as he rattled off a bunch of stuff in Spanish, little of which I understood.

  "If you can't speak English, I'll just shoot you," I said, which had the desired effect as his eye's got wide, "Don't shoot! I speak English! I thought you were from the Church!"

  "Which Church?" I asked him carefully.

  "The Catholic Church! There was much talk here when they left, about problems with the church, that they had to go, or they'd be found out."

  "And why didn't you go with them?" I asked.

  "I live down the road from here, when I saw your car; I thought I'd see what you came here to do. They asked me to watch the place for them."

  "Uh-huh," I said. "And who were you supposed to call?"

  "The police! They wanted me to call the police if there were any problems. You should probably go soon, before they show up!"

  Laria looked at me, "Police?"

  I shook my head, "This guy doesn't have a phone, and if he did, you can be sure he didn't call anyone." I looked at the old man, who was looking down, embarrassed at being caught lying. "Where did they go?"

  He shook his head, "I do not know."

  "What do you know then?" I asked.

  "I know all their names!" he said and rattled off a dozen people's names. I knew half of them from having seen the letters.

  "I already know who they are," I told him.

  "I know the name of their patron!" he said looking up.

  "Sean Gatwick, already know that one too."

  He shook his head, "No, no. That was who they followed. They had a patron, in town, in Managua! I saw him out here many times, he's well known.

  "What will you give to me, if I tell you?" he asked looking at me.

  "I won't give you to the dogs to play with," I said.

  He looked at Jeri who growled.

  "Juan, Perone. His name is Juan Perone."

  "Peron, like the rulers in Argentina?" I asked surprised.

  "No, Perone with an 'e' on the end. He is a coca grower."

  "Oh!" I said and thought about that a moment, yeah, I could see how a cocaine grower might want to buy weapons. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wad of bills in the local currency, pealing off a few of the larger bills I gave them to him.

  "Just remember," I cautioned him, "you tell anyone about that, and I'll tell Juan you're the one who gave me his name."

  He nodded and standing up, he gave both of the dogs a wide birth, and then fled out of sight.

  "So now?" Laria asked me.

  "We go back to our hotel and see what we can find out about this Juan Perone."

  Juan Perone turned out to be rather easy to find, I just looked him up in the local phone book. Later that day we took a drive through town, playing tourist, and went by his place. It was impressive, and it was rather large.

  With a nice wall around it.

  Plus it was well defended by guards with guns.

  "Hmm, that looks interesting," I said.

  "Do you think that they're in there?" She asked.

  "Could be, but I'd hate to go in there and shoot it all up to find out that they're not," I said thinking about that.

  "Maybe there is someone we can ask?" Laria said.

  "Like who?"

  "Well, isn't everyone around here supposed to be in the same religion?"

  I nodded, "Yes, but if he's been a patron to them, he's probably not."

  Laria shrugged, "Ask a priest, maybe he's just being nice to them, because of the weapons and stuff."

  I thought about that for a few minutes as we drove around town, Edward had said he'd reach out to some of his more religious friends and connections, which I had assumed meant the church itself. I had no idea what kind of role the church here on Earth played in dealing with other religions. In this age of 'enlightenment' I doubted they got involved in the kinds of things I'd seen so far.

  Then again, it might not hurt to ask. I pulled over and got directions to the nearest church in town, which was surprisingly rather close, and rather large. There was a cafe across the street, so I parked the car and went over to sit there and have a bite to eat with Laria, as I watched the place.

  "Why don't you just go in?" she asked me.

  "Champions of other gods are not usually welcome in the churches and temples," I told her. "I have no idea what will happen if I do set foot in there, and to be honest, I'm afraid to find out."

  "You think something bad could happen?"

  I nodded, "And I don't want to cause any more problems than we already have."

  I sat there sipping my coffee, which being in coffee country, the stuff they were serving here was incredibly good, so I didn't mind wasting some time as I sat there watching the church. I was on my second cup when an older priest came out of the church and walked across the street into the cafe.

  Apparently he was rather well known here, and when I heard the word "Monsignor" I raised my hand and waved to him.

  "Monsignor, if you would be so kind as to join us?" I asked.

  He looked a bit surprised; I think I was the first to address him in English. He came over and looked at me, and then Laria.

  "Where are you from, my Son?" He asked, his accent sounded European, but I wasn't good at judging accents.

  "Far, far, away, Father. If you could sit and talk for a while, I would appreciate your help."

  "Why don't you come over to my office then?" he asked, curious.

  "Because I'm not sure I would be much welcome over there. I really am from rather far away, Father. But please, join us for lunch, I have a bit of a problem, and I think the Church just might be able to help."

  He noticed Fel's ring on my left hand at that point, which wasn't surprising as I was playing with it. His eyebrows went up a fraction.

  "I've heard stories about people like you," he said.

  "Sit, please, Father, we are not at odds."

  He thought about that a moment then pulled out a chair and sat down.

  "So what, brings you here."

  "Do you know Juan Perone?" I asked first.

  "Yes, he comes to church quite often, I wish he would choose another line of work, but I must still administer to his soul, why do you ask?"

  I pulled out the ring from Garrison and showed it to him, "You recognize this?"

  "Put that away!" he said in a low voice and made the sign of the cross, "How did you come to be in possession of such a vile thing?"

  "So you know that the people who follow that sigil had a place down here?"

  He nodded, "Yes, though I've been informed that they are no longer active."

  "I have been told that they live within Perone's house. That he has given them protection."

  "Are you sure of that?" the priest asked.

  I shrugged, "No, put I have to go in and find out. However, I would rather Juan and his friend's be elsewhere, if such a thing is true, while I went and looked."

  He thought about that for a few minutes, during which his coffee arrived, and he took a drink.

  "Juan has been a fairly devoted Catholic, for all of his other misdeeds; I cannot see him aligning himself with those people."

  "Maybe he does not know what they really are? They are also weapons merchants; they may very well have hid this from him."

  He thought about that for another minute, and then nodded slowly again. "I'm Juan's confessor; do you know what that means?"

  "Not exactly, Father."

  "It means, when he tells me of his sins, I set his penance. I will have a talk with him very soon, if he is protecting 'those' people, I will require him to withdraw his protection as a measure of his faith, and leave his house until they are gone.

  "Would that work for you?" The
father said a little grimly and looked up at me.

  "Yes, Father, it would."

  "Why are you doing this, if I may ask?"

  "Because some things just shouldn't be allowed to stand, and well, Gatwick is an evil ass and I want to see him dead."

  "Points for honesty," he sighed, but nodded. "You are right however, some things cannot stand, and sadly there are too many in today's world who are content to look the other way and pretend that they do not see it."

  I put some money on the table to cover the bill, "Have a good day, Father, and thank you."

  We left then, and went back to the hotel. I was curious as to what was going to happen next. I knew that people here took their religion seriously, unlike many of the folks back where I grew up, sadly.

  I guessed that we would find out tonight.

  We were sitting down the street, in the car, the four of us waiting.

  After about an hour, the gates opened and a rather nice Cadillac drove out, followed by three more sedans. The guards suddenly all walked out of the gate and got into the last car and then they all drove off.

  "That must be our cue," I said and opening the doors Laria and I got out of the car, then waited until the dogs were out, before closing them.

  "Don't kill any children," I said.

  "What about women?" Laria asked.

  "Use your own judgment," I said.

  I had bought both of us ski masks, and we put those on as we walked towards the gate.

  We made it through the front door before we ran into anyone.

  "Juan? Dominga? Charles?" A man said coming out of one of the side corridors, he saw us and his eyes got wide.

  Laria shot him in the head, before I even got my gun up.

  We moved quickly then, going room to room. Several of the people we came across were wandering around, apparently wondering where everyone had gone, two more that we found were in bed, asleep. Another two were in bed, together.

  "Go hunt," I told Tom and Jeri, once we hit the top floor.

  "Think we got them all?" Laria asked. She had shot twice as many of them as I had so far tonight. I wondered if it was just a Saladin thing in general, or did I just have the fortune of attracting homicidal women? Not that I was complaining, there was something sexy about a woman who wasn't afraid to take matters into her own hands.