“So, Hope tells me we’re staying the night?” Judith asked Mark tentatively.
Mark looked at Hope who nodded and he sighed, he didn't want the people at the Commission finding out about his family, Father Gregory had advised him that the less said the better.
“Yes, we’re staying the night. I’ll need to borrow a car tomorrow; mine probably needs to be cleaned to get the stench out of it from where I was sitting.”
“Clem can drive you into the city. Josh will see about getting the car cleaned.”
“Sounds good. What about dinner woman? I’m starving and I’m sure our guest is too.” He teased.
“Well then you better get to cooking, hadn’t you dear?” Hope said teasing him right back.
“Trying to wear me out before the night even starts? Oh no, you’re helping!”
Judith watched with interest as the two of them engaged in light hearted banter and went and made dinner. It was very, well, different. Up until now Mark had been rather direct and blunt, almost cold. Now he was almost hanging off of Hope and well, playing with her. It was like a whole different person.
Dinner was rather good, steak with a few side dishes. His daughters turned up, all three as lovely as their mother, and of course the two sons. They didn’t chat too much, and after dinner Hope was making it very clear that she wanted to drag Mark off to bed.
“Christine, show Judith to one of the spare rooms and make sure she’d comfortable. Clem, Josh, behave or I’ll box your ears.”
Mark couldn't help but smile as he followed Hope down the hall, he owed her so much and he had been away almost a year this time. After this was over he'd see about spending a few months at home.
% % % % %
He sighed and looked around. The trees weren’t too dense here, and there wasn’t a lot of underbrush thankfully, it was as good a place as any. So he dropped his pack and started to clear a campsite. It had taken him most of the day to find this spot and he had started out shortly after sunrise. He figured he was probably close to a day’s hike from town, but probably less than that to some of the remote houses or a country store. Oregon may look like all trees, but people lived throughout most of it.
But he was far enough away from anything that he shouldn’t be bothered by anybody. Which was exactly what he wanted.
Over the next couple of days he got a nice little area cleared out, his small tent set up, and a fire pit dug and lined with rocks. He’d found a few good spots to forage for wild fruits and vegetables, and he’d located some game trails. He set up some snares to see if he could catch some small game; the less he had to go into civilization to replenish, the better. He needed to get back to basics for a while, and just trying to keep warm and stay fed was enough for him.
Hope came across him first. Or rather she came across his camp. At first she wondered if it was another illegal pot grower or drug cooker getting set up; her and her sisters had run more than a few of those out of their territories. But nosing around she found nothing at all illegal as she prowled the small campsite. There was a machete, some pots and pans, a few knives and a bundle of what looked like extra clothes. No sign of any guns, though he might have had one on him. She could smell it was a ‘him’ of course. At least he was tidy. They didn’t appreciate hermits much, but if he didn’t cause problems, her and her sisters would tolerate him.
She looked around some more, but when she heard him coming she dashed off quickly into the woods. She settled down to observe him for a while, see what he did, what he was up to. Then she'd go talk to her sisters and see what they had to say.
"Damn!" she swore softly to herself as he came into view, he was young! Cute too! Here she had thought it was some old guy like most hermits she'd run across but not this guy. She'd bet he wasn't even twenty one yet.
“Wow, you’re right, he is cute,” Helena whispered to Hope as the four of them, Her, Hope, and their other two sisters Faith and Charity crouched back a ways from the clearing watching the young man. It was dark, night came fast up here in the hills, and he was cooking something over a small campfire. “How long ago did you find him here?”
“Last week. He wasn’t here last time I scouted the area, but that was more than a month ago.”
“Wonder what he’s hiding from?”
“What makes you think he’s hiding?”
“He waited until nightfall to start his fire and cook. He doesn’t want anyone spotting the smoke.”
“Huh.”
They watched him as he finished his dinner, cleaned up the camp, took care of his toilet, then crawled into his tent and went to bed. They sat and watched a while longer, and then all four of them left to consider what they had seen.
Mark sat outside and looked at the stars. His watch told him he’d gotten about three hour’s of sleep. Last night he’d managed four, but then couldn’t get back to sleep at all. All their faces, he kept seeing them of course, and what happened to them as they... He shuddered then and tried to think better thoughts blanking his mind before the images could set in. He was tired, just so very tired. Maybe he could get another hour of sleep if he just could think of better things.
When Hope had come back around a month later to see if their ‘visitor’ was still around she was rather surprised to see he still was. He’d lost some weight however, and had circles under his eyes.
Hope continued to watch from a distance still hiding from view. When he grabbed a towel and headed off in the direction of the local stream she followed him and watched him bathe. He was definitely starting to get thin and his back was covered in nasty scars that didn’t seem to be fully healed or even healing well. She'd say he was the victim of a recent attack, but she knew he hadn't been attacked by anything since he'd come here.
“I think I’m going to go talk to him tomorrow.” Helena told Hope when she came around again a week later.
“What, half naked? Now I think you’re going to get raped!” Hope teased.
“Hardly,” Helena laughed. “He’s been losing weight. At the rate he’s going he probably won’t last the winter when it comes.”
Hope nodded, “I know, kind of sad. But why talk to him?”
“I want to see if he’s really crazy, find out why he’s here.”
“He’s not one of us Helena.”
“But he’s all we got, maybe all we’ll ever get. I’m not going to let an opportunity like this just pass. Anyway, there are four of us and one of him, I think if we decide to ‘use’ him that should be enough to control him if necessary.
“Stay here, I’ll want you nearby, just in case anything bad happens.”
“Sure Sis.”
% % % % %
The next morning Mark had another surprise for Judith; there was a second woman at the breakfast table, her hair was more tawny than brunette and she looked a lot like Hope.
“Judith, this is Faith,” Mark said introducing her. He could see the surprise and suspicion in Judith's eyes, he was after all treating Faith the same as he was treating Hope. He was sure she was putting two plus one together and coming up with the correct answer, but dammit this was his home and these were his women.
“Faith got here last night.”
Judith remembered that Hope had said something about ‘unconventional’ and she started to get the picture as the little displays of affection passed from the two women to Mark and back again. When Mark went to the bathroom Faith came over and sat next to her for a minute.
“You take good care of our man, you got that?” Faith said softly. “He told us about yesterday, and I gather you sort of have a history of these kinds of accidents?”
Judith could feel her face turn beat red at that.
“Yes, I can see. Well just remember, we will hunt you down if you get Mark killed. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes ma'am,” Judith whispered back, she had no doubt the woman meant it too. But two women! No wonder he didn’t bring people from the Church around!
5
They
made it to the airport with a half hour to spare. Judith traveled light Mark noticed, which was good, having only one bag. He had two, the usual carry on, and a second smaller one with a diplomatic seal on it. That one that they couldn’t search, and because of which it meant they couldn’t search him either. Judith didn’t have the full setup yet and he didn’t know when he would be able to get it for her. He’d done the paperwork before the flight and faxed it in immediately giving Marilyn their itinerary in the hopes of having everything ready when they got to France. Maybe if he got real lucky they’d pick it up at the layover in Atlanta, but these things always took time. So he packed a few extra things for Judith, just in case. He could give them to her when they landed in Paris.
“First class,” she said smiling, “nice.”
“Well we’re traveling on diplomatic papers, or at least I am. So we have to look the part.”
“Do we always travel this well?”
“No, so enjoy it while you can.”
She nodded. “So why are we going to Paris?”
“I have some business there I need to do.”
“Church business?”
“No, this is more personal. However it is related.”
“So what exactly will we be doing?” Judith asked as they settled in.
“Question people; take another look at the evidence. Maybe talk to the summoner’s friends or co-workers.”
“So just basic detective work.”
“Exactly so.”
“I think I can deal with that.” Judith said relaxing into the seat as the plane took off. “I like your wives, do you really have two?”
“Faith threatened you, didn’t she?” he said with a chuckle.
“Yup, that’s when she hinted that there were two of them, course they way you were all acting this morning it wasn’t hard to guess. Isn’t bigamy frowned on?”
“According to the Church they’re more like concubines and while frowned on, in certain cases it is allowed under Church doctrine. Oh I may have to spend some time in purgatory for it, but not much more than that.”
“So, should I be worried?” Judith asked, still joking.
“Of course. Think of it as incentive not to screw up, because now you have skin in the game."
“Are you serious?” She said concerned.
“Very.”
Judith sighed. “Anything else I should know then?”
Mark turned and gave her his best nasty smile, “Actually yes, there are four of them.”
Judith stared back surprised once more and apparently decided that maybe it was a good time to take a nap.
The first sign Mark had that anything was wrong was when the plane shuddered about an hour into the flight. A moment after that someone back in tail screamed as the oxygen masks came down out of the ceiling and the airplane started a steep dive. Mark grabbed a mask, and then grabbed his bag from under the seat and opened it quickly. He tossed one of the bottles of holy water to Judith and a cross as well, then he carefully got out of his seat to see what the problem was.
It was an Aerolyth, a small, but nasty flying devil. And it was attacking people. Aerolyths weren't terribly large, they were about the size of a really big dog. But they had rather large hands with rather nasty claws, which was their primary weapon. They looked a lot like the gargoyles you saw on cathedrals, just with wings, very small teeth, and they were a very plain light grey color.
Letting go of the mask Mark ran at it with the cross yelling for it to be gone as he doused it with holy water. It worked and the aerolyth evaporated in a sudden cloud of slightly toxic and rather oily smoke. That was when he noticed there were two more that had been behind it in the cabin further back among the passengers. They were busy clawing people up as well as the cabin walls. He got those two next, not too difficult as aerolyths weren't the smartest of creatures and didn't notice him until they got hit with the holy water. The only thing that stopped the people from screaming at that point was that they were too busy choking on the noxious fumes left behind, and that was when he noticed the plane was still shuddering and that it was quiet.
Not people quiet, they were still hysterical and making hysterical noises. It was mechanically quiet. They were flying in an MD-90, which had engines that were attached to the tail of the plane and he couldn’t hear them. Looking around Mark noticed there were tears in the airplane's skin, straight through to the outside and that there were a couple of claws sticking through. The devils had not only appeared on the inside, but on the outside as well. He had a suspicion that a devil going through a jet engine was not healthy for the engine as he sprayed more holy water on the claws poking through the aircraft walls and was rewarded with a loud chilling scream as whatever it was let go.
He grabbed a stewardess then and shook her so she’d look at him. “Is the pilot all right? Did any of these get into the cockpit?”
She stared at him a moment then grabbed the interphone off the wall and said something into it. Then looked relieved.
“They’re okay; they’re just dealing with the massive engine failure.”
Mark looked at her and now he was the one feeling panic. While the devils may have scared her, being in a large piece of metal falling out of the sky was definitely scaring him.
“Massive engine failure?” Mark was now the one with the white face.
“Return to your seat please sir, we’ll be landing in a couple of minutes.”
“Don’t you mean crashing?” He gulped, this was not good.
“We got lucky; we’re close enough to make Hill AFB. Now if you’ll get back to your seat sir, I have a job to do.”
Mark nodded dully and did as she said. Judith had watched the whole thing and was looking pale as well. He didn’t know if it was from the devils or the impending crash landing. The stewardess at that point started to get everyone settled and prepared for landing. Several went running towards the back with first aid kits. He had forgotten about the people who’d been clawed up. Hopefully none of them would die.
“What just happened?” Judith asked.
“Something that’s not supposed to be able to happen.” Mark looked at the cross in his hand. It wasn’t glowing or anything, “least not anymore.”
“What?”
“Someone either apported devils directly here to where we were, or worse yet, summoned them here.”
“Why is that worse?”
“Because you need a circle to summon devils these days. Summoning without a circle is limited to only the highest powers.” He leaned across her and looked out the window. “Plus we’re on an airplane.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“Devils can’t fly this fast, and to put one on a moving object you have to pick the spot about five seconds before the object gets there. Hitting an airplane in flight is supposed to be impossible.”
“Not anymore.” Judith said stating the obvious.
“No, apparently not.”
He dug through his kit and looked at what was there as the pilot came over the intercom and re-assured everyone that everything was going to be okay as the other passengers took the crash position. The two pistols and the six magazines of blessed silver ammunition were still there. However where there had only been one Interpol badge with one ID, there were now two. That disturbed him. Heaven did not get involved normally without being invoked. There were rules to all of this, even if he didn’t understand most of them. If Heaven was bending rules, then someone else must have just broke one. Heaven never bent or broke a rule first.
He handed the gun, two magazines, the badge and ID to Judith.
“As soon as I’m out of my seat, go to the back of the plane, show them the badge and tell everyone to remain seated until I give the all clear.”
“Where did you get this? You can’t have a gun on a plane!”
“The bullets are silver and blessed; they’ll stop a lesser devil. Do not shoot anything unless the cross doesn’t stop it, understand?”
; “And this ID? Where did it come from?”
“Are you listening to me?” He yelled at her and she stopped dead and looked at him.
“Go to the back of the plane and don’t let anyone off until you tell me.” She said.
“Good, now shut up and follow orders, there were some on the outside of the plane, this may not be over yet.”
Judith nodded and as the plane touched down. Mark was out of his seat and he ran up to the stewardess’ station. She started to say something then saw the gun in his hand and quickly shut up.
He showed her the badge, “Interpol. There were some of those things on the outside of the plane. Don’t evacuate the aircraft when we land, let me go out first and make sure it’s safe. Understand?”
She nodded slowly. “May I talk to the pilot?”
“Yes, tell him what went on in the back, tell him what I said, and tell the people in the plane to stay in their seats.”
The plane was slowing now and she grabbed the interphone and started talking into it. Mark loaded his gun and clipped the badge to his jacket. This was not good. He heard her tell them he had a gun, but that he had a badge as well. Mark just hoped there weren’t any trigger happy sky marshals onboard.
When the plane stopped she got on the public address and told people to stay in their seats, and to be calm. It worked for about thirty seconds, which was when he heard a loud metallic noise and then gunfire.
“Oh shit!” Mark cursed and undid the door, triggering the slide and going down it gun held up. There were two of them left, plus one big sucker. They had the rear door ripped off and Judith was shooting the one in the hatch.
“Use the cross Judith!” He yelled and started waving the one he was holding as he ran forward. Things were just going from bad to worse. The Aerolyths could be killed, but that big one would just get annoyed by the bullets. And worse yet he was on top of the plane while Mark was down on the ground.
The Hammer Commission Page 6