He just hoped he wasn't going to rue his decisions to leave it behind before the night was through.
The trip from XXX south to Bridgeport - correction, Lesser York, he thought - would have normally taken them no more than an hour, maybe less, by car, but those days were long gone. Most of the roads were congested with wreckage and those that had been cleared were either watched or guarded by more than one of the Preceptor's spies. They were going to have to stay out of sight as much as possible, which meant keeping to the denser, wooded areas as they made their way south, significantly hindering their progress. Dean didn't expect them to arrive at their destination much before sundown.
As it turned out, they made good time and reached the staging point they'd chosen, a derelict high school a few miles outside the city limits, around three that afternoon. As they rode up to their destination, Cade smiled in amusement at the larger-than-life image of a black knight, the school's mascot, that was painted on the side of the building.
Dean led the way around the side of the building to a set of double doors. Meikle dismounted and opened them up, allowing the rest of them to ride their horses straight inside what turned out to be the former school's gymnasium. Bleachers lined one wall and the lines of the basketball court could still be seen beneath the dust and grime that had accumulated over the years.
The men fell into what appeared to be a well-ordered routine and it was clear to Cade that they'd done this before and knew their roles without being told. Leveen gathered up the horses and led them over to one side of the room, where they were tied off to those same bleachers and given feed bags to keep them occupied. Meanwhile, Meikle and Savile took up positions by the doors through which they'd entered, standing watch in case anything had followed them out of the woods. Leveen conferred briefly with Sergeant Dean and then slipped out the door and disappeared into the waning afternoon light.
Finally satisfied with the preparations his men were making, Dean turned to Cade and Gabrielle.
"The gates to the city close at dusk and remain closed until dawn the next day. The guards tend to be a bit more lax during the final half hour of their shift, so we'll time our entrance to make the best use of that distraction."
He handed them both a piece of metal about the size of a playing card, stamped with the image of a raptor in flight, claws extended.
"These are your authorizations for travel, straight from the Regent's office of trade and transportation. They change every week, so they'll only be useful for another day or so. If you get stopped and asked for ID, you show whoever's asking these. They're fakes, of course, but they're good fakes and should hold up to everything but the most rigid scrutiny."
"And if they don't?" Cade asked.
"Hope to hell that you can fight your way free," Dean responded, "because you won't like the alternative if you don't."
"We're going to leave the horses here and travel the rest of the way on foot. When we get to the gates, we'll split into pairs and join the other travelers waiting in line. Once we're past the guards, we'll regroup and head over to The Bloody Entrails to meet our informant."
"You can't be serious," Gabrielle said. "Someone actually named a bar The Bloody Entrails?"
Dean nodded. "Trust me, once you've had a chance to see some of what passes for polite society within those walls, naming a bar The Bloody Entrails will be the least outrageous thing you'll hear tonight."
Dean's men drew sticks to see who would stay behind with the horses and Meikle lost the draw. Fifteen minutes later, with him gazing forlornly after them from the door of the gymnasium, the rest of the team set out on foot to complete the final part of their journey.
The last time Cade had been in Bridgeport, it had been a thriving historical port of some one hundred and forty-six thousand residents, the largest population of any city in the state of Connecticut. It covered nineteen square miles of land area and sat at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound, some sixty miles northeast of Manhattan.
Clearly, times had changed, Cade thought as he gazed at the city walls rising in the distance from the pile of rubble the group had chosen to hide behind.
The majority of the city had been destroyed shortly after the Seven had seized control, Dean explained. All that was left was a three square mile area near the docks that had been walled off to create the new community of Lesser York. The Regent regularly sent out troops to cleanse the ruins surrounding the city of any squatters that might have been inclined to take up residence there, but they never managed to get all of them and Dean suspected a handful of supernatural had also moved in, drawn by the easy pickings of those who wandered out past the gates once the sun went down.
"All right, just as we planned it," Dean said to them. "Savile and Care, you're first. After them will be Cade and Gabrielle. Leveen and I will bring up the rear. Questions?"
There weren't any, so the first pair slipped out from behind their cover and made their way forward. Dean kept watch on them and then, apparently satisfied, motioned from Cade and Gabrielle to set out for the gate.
As he drew closer, Cade could see that the walls were a good twenty feet high and crenelated at the top like those of a medieval castle. Cade guessed them to be several feet thick, as well. The gate itself was a set of large, iron doors that could be closed and no doubt barred from the inside.
A line of ragtag looking individuals were queued in front of the gate, waiting for the guards stationed there to examine their IDs and let them into the city proper. Most of them had goods of some kind, either in sacks or carts that they pulled along behind them, to be sold to those on the other side of the walls. From time to time, one of them would be pulled aside, only to stand there and protest as the guards roughly looked through their goods, taking what they wanted before waving them through.
Normally the indignity being heaped on them would have gotten Cade's ire up, perhaps even enough for him to get involved, but he knew now was not the time nor the place, Instead, he and Gabrielle queued up at the back of the line, about half a dozen individuals behind Savile and Care, and he surreptitiously turned his attention to studying the guards.
For a time, he'd been told earlier by Meikle, the half-breeds that resulted from the Regent's breeding program were known among the Templars as half-men or prior-men, but then someone had started calling them Fomori, after the supernatural race from Irish mythology, and the name had stuck. The Fomori of legend had represented the forces of destruction and chaos and been portrayed as foul creatures, some with supernatural powers, like Nuada's terrible poisonous eye that killed all that looked upon it, and Cade could see why the name had grown so popular. The four fomori guarding the gates towered over the humans before them by at least a foot, in one case nearly twice that. Their skin was a mottled grey color, like a corpse too long in the sun, and their eyes were a stark shade of greenish-white with vertical pupils like those of a cat.
Cade felt his hackles rise just looking at them. Maybe it was the angelic blood that flowed through his veins recognizing the demonic that flowed through theirs, or maybe it was simply the sense of wrongness that came off them in waves, but either way he found he had to concentrate just to keep from reacting to their presence.
What the hell was it going to be like when he was surrounded by a city full of them? How was he going to manage that?
It seemed he was about to find out.
The line moved quickly and before long Cade found that he and Gabrielle were next.
"State your business," the guard said, as Cade stepped forward.
"Trade," he replied, keeping his eyes on the ground and doing everything he could to project an air of respectful servitude, which was not an easy thing for him to fake.
"Identification."
Cade handed over the metal card that Dean had given him, just as he'd been instructed.
A moment passed.
Then another.
Cade was starting to worry that something was wrong, that they were using
the last week's passes or something equally problematic, when the guard shoved the chit back into his hand.
"Next!" he called.
With Gabrielle at his side, Cade stepped forward and entered the demon run city of Lesser York.
21
The team gathered back together once they were all on the other side of the gates and Dean set off, leading them through the city streets as the sun went down and darkness fell. Cade had witnessed many disturbing things in his life, both as a police officer and as a member of the Templar special response teams, never mind all the time he'd spent in the Beyond, but the sights they so casually passed on their way to the rendezvous with their informant would not easily be forgotten.
Packs of children moving through the streets like feral dogs. Women prostituting themselves to humans, fomori and demons alike, with no more thought to what might happen to them physically beyond the need to get off the cold streets for even a short while. A group of men being led past in chains, guarded by other men who were clearly no different than those in bondage, aside from to whom it was that they had sworn allegiance.
At one point, a mid-level demon strolled past, its leathery wings covered with barbs that snared and tore the flesh of those who weren't quick enough to get out of its way, and it gaze followed Cade for a long moment before it finally turned away, leaving him to breathe a sigh of relief.
Of everything they passed as they made their way through the streets of Lesser York, it was the use of Nero's Torches to light the way that would remain seared in Cade's mind for years to come. Centuries ago, the Roman emperor Nero lit his garden parties with torches made from the bodies of murdered Christians and it seemed the Regent and his demonic allies had resurrected the practice, with a twist of their own.
Long narrow cages just large enough to hold a human form had been welded to poles at regular intervals along the main thoroughfares. Living prisoners were placed inside those cages and set alight using some kind of mystical fire, casting a bluish-green light over everything; the victims burned, filling the night with their screams of horrific pain, but their bodies were not consumed by the flames. Come the morning, the flames would be extinguished, the victims removed, only to wait for the fall of darkness when the cycle would repeat itself all over again.
What made the sight of them nearly unbearable to Cade wasn't so much the torture itself - which was horrible, yes, but he'd seen his share of horrible things in the years he'd given himself to the Order - but rather the callous disregard the rest of the city's inhabitants had for the suffering of the victims, as if exchanging pleasantries by the light of a fellow human being burned alive as a human torch wasn't anything to be ashamed of or even notice as unusual.
If humanity has been reduced to this state in just five short years under the Seven's rule, Cade thought, perhaps it didn't deserve to be saved after all.
Eventually they left the main thoroughfares - and their grisly street lamps - behind and ventured off the beaten track into darker and less traveled roadways. Dean kept them moving at a steady pace, intent on reaching their destination without incident. The others they passed on the street along the way seemed to understand that they were not a group to be trifled with and left them alone.
Finally, Dean brought them to a halt in the shadows by the edge of the street and pointed at a structure half a block away. Customers were coming in and out and each time they did, the flash of electric light could be seen from inside the door.
"Okay, that's the Bloody Entrails, where we're to meet our man." He began passing out a handful of coins to each off them. "We'll go in a few at a time, just the way we entered the gates. Use this money to buy drinks and try to blend in while I have a chat with our contact. Remember, no matter what you see, ignore it. You're a regular part of the crew; nothing should surprise you in there. And watch each other’s backs."
And with that, Dean was gone, making his way down the street toward the tavern entrance with Savile on his heels.
Cade and Gabrielle waited the prescribed ten minutes and then made their way to the door. Whatever they might have imagined the interior of a bar named The Bloody Entrails to look like, the reality of the place was far worse.
It resembled a seedy nightclub in the red light district of a city long past its prime far more than any tavern Cade had ever been in. Electric lights lit the interior, flashing in beams of red, green, and blue from high overhead while music blared from large speakers hung on the walls. The patrons were a mix of humans and Fomori of all shapes, sizes, and sexes.
The room itself was long and rectangular in shape, with just the one door they'd entered through as the only way out that Cade could see. A long, U shaped bar was situated at the back of the room. Behind it, large mirrors covers the wall, making the room seem twice as large as it actually was.
Above the bar, in two large cages that swayed on iron chains, danced a man and a woman, one per cage. Their naked bodies gleamed with unearthly health and perfection, their movements designed to stir the desires of those who watched them for even just a few minutes. Thanks to his years in the Order fighting such creatures, Cade could recognize an incubus and a succubi for what they really were, minor level demons that traded sex for some of their unsuspecting partner's life force. Somehow, trading a mind-blowing orgasm in exchange for five years off your life just didn't sound like a fair bargain to him. And now that he'd seen the two in the cages clearly, he spotted a few others throughout the crowd, working the room for their next victims.
Gabrielle tugged at his sleeve and pointed to an empty table about halfway across the room. Cade nodded and mimed that he was going over to the bar to get them drinks. Gabrielle flashed him a smile and then headed to claim their seats.
For a moment Cade was reluctant to let her go on her own; a woman would be an instant target in this crowd. But then he remembered the amulet and realized that he was the only one in the place who was still seeing her as the woman she was, rather than the bearded man the charm made her look like to the casual observer.
Satisfied she was in no more danger than the rest of them, Cade headed to the bar. There, he used the coins Dean had given him to buy a drink for himself and one for Gabrielle as well. The bartender took his money and returned with two shot glasses full of some kind of amber liquid that smelled somewhere between bleach and nail polish remover. Cade took them, knowing even as he did so that there was simply no way in hell he was letting a drop of that stuff down his throat.
As he turned away from the bar he felt a hand on his arm. Looking to his left, he found himself staring into the eyes of a gorgeous brunette with long hair and a thousand watt smile, dressed in dark leather that fit her like a glove.
"My name's Ilyana," she said. "Come play with me."
Cade ignored the double entendre and gently shook her hand from his arm, trying not to spill his drinks in the process. "Sorry, no time at the moment. I've got to get back to my friend," he said, nodding in Gabrielle's direction.
The succubi looked in the direction Cade indicated, her eyes narrowing as they took in Gabrielle seated alone at the table nearby.
"Two's more fun than one," she said absently, licking her lips and then turning back to face him. "What do you say?"
There was something desperate in her tone, as if her failure to secure some time in the backroom with a willing participant might lead to something much worse than some unresolved sexual tension. He wondered if she were a prisoner here herself and the notion caused him to Cade glanced around, to see if anyone else was watching them.
His gaze passed over the heads of the patrons immediately around them to settle on a group of Fomori sitting on stools in the back corner of the room.
There were a half dozen of them, but the most noticeable was their leader, a large, muscular fellow that might have been mistaken for your average, every day linebacker on leave from the NFL if it weren't for the pair of curling rams horns that erupted from either side of his head at the temple, who was staring at
the two of them with unbridled envy. Cade was suddenly struck by the mental image of the guy trying to pull a football helmet over those horns and had to quickly turn away in order to hide the smirk of amusement that crossed his face at the thought.
He turned back to say something to the "woman" at his side, only to find that she was gone. While his attention was elsewhere, she'd slipped away into the crowd apparently.
So be it.
He brought the drinks over to their table and pushed one over to Gabrielle.
"Drink it at your own peril," he said, "and I mean that with utter sincerity."
Gabrielle wrinkled her nose at the sight of it and left it there on the table in front of her, a convenient prop should they have need of it.
"Do you see the others?" Cade asked, smiling at her and gesturing as if he were telling a witty tale.
"Care and Leveen are at four o'clock," she replied. "Chatting up a pair of women who look like they'd rather eat them alive than have sex with them, but to each his own. Dean's at a table at ten o'clock, talking to a greasy-looking guy in dark overalls. Saville's watching his back."
"Good. The nicest patron in this place would still probably shove a knife in your gut for just looking at them sideways."
"Ain't that the truth. I don't know how any of these..."
Gabrielle stiffened, cutting herself off in mid-sentence and Cade sensed someone approaching him from behind. He turned, only to find those that had been staring at him previously now gathered in a group behind him. Within seconds, the rest of the patrons had moved back, opening a wide circle around them and watching what was about to happen with eager eyes.
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