by Michael Todd
One by one the troops lined up in front of the portals with their guns raised. As the demons made a break for it, trying to escape back to hell, they opened fire, taking line after line of the scaly black monsters down to piles of dust.
By the time the last row was gone and the last few stragglers had had their throats cut, everyone was just about out of ammo. They all looked around for a moment, and the portals slammed shut. It was still eerily quiet, but this time the feeling of victory overtook the fear that had once been there. They had won the battle, and after a few moments that fact sank in and a roaring cheer went up. They had lost many, but they had killed so many more, including two very strong and powerful demons who a year before would have squashed them where they stood.
One of the French soldiers climbed on top of a pile of rubble and put his hand up to quiet the crowd. “Shush! The general is speaking over the com!”
The French general addressed all in audio range. “Bien que cette bataille ait été gagnée, nous sommes tristes de rapporter que ce n'était peut-être rien d'autre qu'une diversion. Plusieurs petits portails ont été ouverts sous Notre Dame et pendant que nous battions valablement ici, l'île a été prise et tout le monde dans la région a été tué. Rapport à vos commandants immédiatement. Ce n'est pas la fin de tout.”
The soldiers couldn’t tell what he was saying, and when it was done Brock grabbed the arm of one of the French soldiers. “We don’t understand. What happened?”
“C'était…this was a ruse. We have won nothing. Notre Dame is lost, and the people around it also. We are to report to our commanders for orders. Si c’est vrai…ma famille. les bâtards de démon paieront.” The soldier shook his head
Brock nodded in thanks and turned back to his men. They were all waiting to hear the news. Brock wiped his forehead and took a deep breath, shaking his head.
“This was a diversion. They have attacked Notre Dame and killed everyone in the area. We have to go back to camp to clean up and prepare, then go to the area and fight to get Notre Dame back.”
“Just nuke the bastards.”
“Though that would seem to offer the fewest casualties, France is not willing to bomb Notre Dame Cathedral unless it becomes absolutely necessary.”
“I think a demon takeover might make it ‘absolutely necessary.’”
Brock shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t matter. We don’t make the choices, they do, and they are not willing to do that. So, we are going to go in, find these portals and these demons, and send them straight back to hell. We follow orders, boys, as best we can. As you can see from this incursion, they are relying on us and our weapons to help, and we will represent the United States in the finest manner. Now, gather your shit. We’re heading back.”
“What about all this?”
“They have a team to clean this up and get the bodies back to the family. Our focus is on Notre Dame.”
“I always wanted to go there,” one of the guys said as he slung his rifle over his shoulder. “Though I never expected demons. Hunchbacks maybe, but not demons. I guess nothing is sacred to them, not even a cathedral.”
The guys walked back to camp and changed their clothes, went through their gear, cleaned their weapons, and prepared to head out. They were all exhausted, but the vision of all of those dead innocent humans filled them with a little bit more adrenaline than they even thought they had left. The red flashed in several of their eyes as they cleaned up their barracks and zipped their bags shut. Brock smeared some dark camouflage paint across his cheeks and tossed it in his bag. With his rifle in his hand, he turned to the others.
“Time to teach these bastards some international manners.”
17
Katie and Calvin pulled up outside a small one-level motel. The light out front flickered balefully in the daylight. Katie raised her eyebrow at Calvin, but they weren’t planning to actually stay there, and it would be easier to come and go at a place used to renting by the hour than at some fancy hotel where someone watched everything they did. Besides, they had both faced down some serious demons in their days. They weren’t about to be freaked out by some dirty motel on the side of the road in Mexico.
Calvin went inside and rented two rooms side by side, tossing Katie the keys as he climbed back into the car and drove over to the parking space out front. Quietly, they pulled their bags from the car and went inside. Katie looked around her room, almost afraid to touch anything. The bed was barely made, the pictures on the wall were crooked, and the wallpaper was stained in several places. The air conditioning unit in the window was running at high speed, and there was a wet spot on the carpet below from the water dripping down. Katie walked over and stood in front of the cold air, only to wrinkle her nose and switch it off. She was pretty sure that at some point something died inside the thing, and from the stench, it hadn’t been that long ago.
This is the most disgusting place I’ve ever seen, Pandora snarked. Unless you count that bathroom in London I went to in the forties. I can assure you that thing had seen its fair share of dead bodies.
Like this place hasn’t?
Pandora sniffed and then coughed. I’d say fewer dead bodies and more naked dirty bodies. I wouldn’t sit down on that bed if I were you...or the chair. In fact, walk lightly on the carpet, too.
Katie sighed and put her bag down on the dresser, pulling out her normal fighting garb. She changed into the armored black stretch pants and top and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror, noticing that her top was beginning to be a bit tight.
I don’t need bigger boobs.
Where would you like me to divert all the extra calories, then? Your ass is big enough, my friend.
Then I guess we’ll have to cut down on the donuts and start eating vegetables. Maybe I’ll replace meat with tofu.
Uh, no... I’ll make them disappear. Just please don’t eat that.
Katie smirked. I figured you would change your tune. Right now, though, we need to get suited up and go back out there after Mateo. This is just a staging area, so don’t get too attached to the home-like feeling you get here.
Oh, yeah, you know me… Can’t get enough of sticky sheets and rodents in the bathtub.
Katie laughed and looked at the adjoining door between the rooms as Calvin knocked hard on it. She opened it and walked back inside, pulling out her laptop and opening it. Calvin grimaced at the smell in her room and looked cock-eyed at her.
“It’s not me. Blame whatever died in here recently.”
She logged into her laptop and connected it to the free wi-fi, pretty much the only thing in the whole place that seemed to work without sparks flying or strange smells coming from it. She pulled up her secure line and video-called Timothy. His face appeared on the screen and he smiled, batting his eyelashes. Katie could tell they had been playing with makeup, which she now understood was what he meant by using company money for team morale. In the background sat Sofia, her hair shimmering and beautiful. She had light makeup on as well.
Calvin stepped up beside Katie and smiled, waving at Sofia in the background. Timothy looked back at her and grinned before taking over the screen.
“Okay, so this is how it works. You are going into a pretty small town here, and the houses are definitely not for the poor. Most of these people don’t use their homes on a regular basis, so you are going to have to maneuver through security lights and property alarms as you move through it. I sent earbuds with both of you so that I can talk you through as you are moving toward the compound.”
“Right,” Katie replied, pulling out two small boxes and tossing one to Calvin.
They tested their earpieces and watched the screen as Timothy explained to them where to park. “You want to stay at least this far away. You don’t want to park on this block. There is a dog there, and his barking will alert anyone nearby that someone is on foot. One block up from that is a large mansion with motion sensor lighting that stretches all the way to the light posts, so you do
n’t want to set that off either.
This would be a good time for those feather things.
You mean my wings? Katie laughed. I think a winged woman carrying a fully-armed man through the air might be a bit more conspicuous than just walking through the streets.
You have a point.
Timothy put up a map on the screen, a yellow line moving forward, right, left and around through the map leading to Mateo’s compound, which he had circled and drawn a skull inside. “You won’t be able to see this map while you are out there, but I am going to walk you through it as you go. It is imperative that you do exactly as I say. Can you handle that, Calvin?”
“Hey, I’m not the difficult one. You might want to ask Pandora.”
Watch it, meatsack!
They agreed to follow Timothy’s instructions and called in on their headsets before disconnecting the laptop. They headed to the indicated parking location and turned off the car, sitting there for a moment to watch for any kind of movement. The majority of the houses didn’t have lights on, and there were no cars parked in the drives.
“You ready?” Katie asked.
“Hell yes, I’m ready. I want to get back home.”
“Me too,” Katie replied. “Let’s hit this.”
They got out of the car and stepped into the street, waiting for Timothy. “All right, we are on the street. Where to?”
“You want to walk straight down the center of the street. Do not walk on the sidewalk or you’ll set off a perimeter alarm. Go down three blocks and make a right on Windsor Place. Once you reach the second house, you can go up on the sidewalk.”
“Copy that.”
Katie and Calvin walked along the hot pavement. Even though the sun had gone down, the air out there was still calm and stagnant. They walked in silence at first, scanning from side to side for any kind of movement, but there wasn’t anything. Katie stuck her fingers in the top of her vest and rested her arms there as she walked.
“You really care about this girl, don’t you?” Katie asked.
Calvin looked at her and smiled. “I guess I do. I haven’t met anyone in a long time that I want to see every day. She changed that for me, and though I know she can’t live in this world, I want to take advantage of the time we have together.”
Katie smiled. “I like that. I like that you are happy, for a change. We all need that from time to time.”
“Uh, guys?”
“Go ahead, Timothy,” Calvin said.
“There is no mute on your speakers. Just figured you would want to know that.” Timothy chuckled, but Calvin was mortified. “And Sofia says you make her happy too.”
Katie laughed as they turned the corner and hopped up onto the sidewalk in front of the second house. “All right, where to now?”
“This is the trickiest part. You are going to walk straight for two blocks. When you reach house number 5478, you are going to cut across the road and into the yard. Stay as close as you can to the tall fence, which will keep you out of view of the cameras on that porch. Go through the backyard, and on the other side of the fence is another cross-street. That cross-street runs right in front of the Mateo compound. There will be a wide iron gate and a tall stone wall topped with barbed wire.”
“Got it,” Katie replied.
They walked faster down the blocks and across the street to the yard. Katie and Calvin kept their backs to the fence, staying in the shadows. When they reached the other side, Calvin laced his hands together and boosted Katie up and over the solid wood fence. On the other side, she quietly loosened three of the boards and Calvin sucked it in hard and squeezed through. They ducked behind some bushes and looked at the sprawling hacienda on the other side.
“Okay, Timothy, what are my details for this?”
“Seven guards roving the property. None on the inside, and one at the gate.”
“None on the inside?”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. The thing I forgot to tell you...”
“Uh oh.” Calvin groaned.
“It seems that this is not just Mateo and his cronies. This is his family home, and he has a wife and three young children, and they are all currently home. The good news is that so is Mateo. My satellite images caught him coming into the property this morning, and we did not see any sign of him leaving again.”
Katie hit the button on the earpiece and turned to Calvin. “So, this isn’t as in-and-out as I thought it would be.”
“Yeah, doesn’t seem that way.”
“I have a tingling feeling in my chest, which means someone on that property is infected. I think we should sneak in and first find out if he is the one.”
“And if he is?”
“We have a duty to take the least lethal action possible—we will strip him of his demon. In my opinion, no matter who this guy is, we don’t want another death on our hands. The less killing we have to do, the better.”
“I agree. And if he isn’t a demon?”
“Then put on the silencer and put a bullet in his head. He’s obviously not the type of man who can be persuaded. We will be saving more than just Sofia’s life by doing it.”
“Copy that.”
Katie spoke to Timothy again. “Okay, Timothy, we are going in. We will let you know when it’s done.”
“Good luck, kiddos.”
Katie and Calvin crept down to the end of the block, then dashed across the street and hid around the corner. They waited there for several minutes, trying to figure out the best way to get over the gate. However, as they considered every angle, the gate slid open on its own.
Katie asked Timothy, “Did you do that?”
Timothy laughed. “Magical isn’t it? Now hurry while the guard has his back to the gate. He’s going to notice it’s open if he turns around.”
Katie nodded to Calvin, and the two slunk along the tall stone wall and around the corner of the gate. They dove into the bushes, and Timothy hit the button to close the gate. The guard exited the guardhouse with his weapon drawn and took a look around. The gate had just opened and then closed on its own, which was not something that normally happened.
After checking the area, the guard went back into his shack and picked up the phone, talking in Spanish to another guard about getting the gate inspected again. When he hung up he sat back down in front of the monitor screen, and Katie and Calvin snuck out of the bushes and up to the side of the house. They crouched there, waiting as the patrolling guards walked by. Katie nodded and set off toward the back of the house. Calvin followed quietly behind her, making sure to keep a lookout behind them. The two guards shone their flashlights in wide arcs as they crossed the yard, barely missing Katie and Calvin.
When they were gone, Katie and Calvin slipped down a set of stairs at the back of the house and stood on either side of the door. Katie peered through the inch the door was ajar, seeing a huge flat screen television showing a soccer game. From the mahogany bar, masculine décor and various boy’s toys, she guessed they’d found Mateo’s man cave. The man himself was lounging on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table. He held a phone to his ear with one hand, and a glass of liquor in the other. Katie was relieved to see he was alone.
Calvin quietly reached down and ever so slowly pushed the door open a little more, just enough for the two of them to creep in and quietly close it behind them. Katie rubbed her chest, feeling the heat build. She sought the reflection of Mateo’s eyes in the entertainment center’s doors, catching the flash of red. His eyes shifted and caught her stare.
They were out of time.
Mateo lunged to grab a gun off the table in front of him and Calvin dove over the back of the couch, taking Mateo with him. They crashed through the table, and Calvin landed with his knees in his back. He grabbed Mateo’s hands with one hand, and clamped his other hand over the drug lord’s mouth.
Mateo was cursing in Spanish, but it was too muffled under Calvin’s hand to understand. Katie looked down at him and smirked, pushing up her sleev
e and shaking her head. “Oh yeah, he’s infected. Pandora says that a medium-level demon has been squatting in him for over a decade. I guess that’s why he is such a bastard, or maybe he was just born that way.”
Mateo’s eyes grew wide as Katie‘s hand came toward him. She tore the demon from him, a hissing, growling creature that snapped at her as she stood up. She shook her head and squeezed hard, and the broken demon disappeared into thin air. Calvin pulled himself up onto his feet and brushed his hands off on his legs.
Mateo was still on the ground, his eyes open but seeing nothing. He hadn’t passed out like the others, but after what Katie was calculating as twelve years infected, he was going to be in for quite a shock at the memory loss he was about to discover. While he was in the haze, Katie and Calvin crept back out the basement door and stood waiting for the guards to finish their conversation. They snuck back around the side of the house and waited for Timothy to create another diversion. They exited through the gates and ran across the street, diving into the bushes as an alarm sounded.
“They must have found his dumb ass completely confused on the floor of his man cave.”
“They are going to think he had a stroke or something.”
“Watch…he’ll come out of it and end up being some crazy philanthropist or something.” Calvin laughed.
“I doubt it. One thing I’ve noticed about demons is that they pull out the bad things that already exist inside you and compound those traits. If he was this evil and the demon hadn’t fully taken him over after twelve years, he was a dirty fucking bastard before that too. At least he won’t remember anything that happened—or anything about you and Sofia.”
“True, and that is a relief, unless of course his guys tell him about it.”
“These guys tend not to act on things like that unless they have an emotional investment in it, and he won’t have that since he will feel so far removed from the whole thing.”