by C. G Harris
I grabbed the handle and tried to open it again, but it was sealed tight.
“Gabe, what are you doing?” Alex sounded anything but amused. “Do you have any idea how loud that was? Open the door, now.”
“It’s not me.” I reached out and yanked hard on the handle. “The door closed on its own. Can you unlock it from—”
“Mr. Gantry. You have been summoned to the Judas Agency.”
I knew that voice. No one, no human at least, had a voice like that. I turned and peered up into Procel’s blood red eyes. They were haunting next to his snowy skin and towering, pale horns. His dusky wings twitched lazily behind him, making his soiled white robes flutter and flow on the breeze.
“Mr. Iscariot is not pleased with your recent disregard for his summons.”
Alex yelled again from the other side of the door. She sounded angrier than a shaved badger.
I glanced in that direction and then looked back at Procel. “I know. I’ve been super busy. I have been through some crazy stuff today. I was just on my way to check on the people Topside. I think something bad may have happened and—”
“I am to retrieve you now. In pieces, if necessary.”
Procel stood motionless, staring down at me with an impassive expression.
“You’re kidding about the pieces part, right?”
Procel waited a beat. “Mr. Iscariot was quite graphic in his instructions.”
I cringed. “I would rather go in a single, sort of complete piece, if that’s all right with you.”
Procel turned, and I thought I recognized a hint of disappointment on his face. “Either is satisfactory.”
I followed him around to his pride and joy. A 1955 oval window VW Beetle with factory ragtop. I had no idea how he had gotten it down here, and it looked like a rusted pile of road trash. But if a Hellion’s face had the ability to light up, Procel’s did every time he laid eyes on this bug.
“Get in.”
“Um, I am not trying to be difficult, but my partner is in the shop. If I’m not here when she gets out, she might be a little ... disagreeable.”
“Ms. Neveu is not my concern.”
“I understand, but couldn’t we give her a ...”
Procel began to face me again.
“Okay, okay. No hitchhikers. I just thought I would ask.”
I opened the passenger door and got in. The front seats and rag top had been removed to allow for Procel’s height. When he got in, his horns and part of his head stuck out of the roof, making him look like he drove a child’s toy rather than a classic German rat rod.
The engine roared to life, and I wondered how many bullets I would have to dodge today. If I survived this ride, I had to face an angry Judas, which was arguably worse than any demon. If I survived that, I would have to face Alex and explain why I had ditched her at the shop. Worse than Judas and a demon. All in all, I thought maybe I should have chosen option B when Procel had offered it the first time. Showing up in pieces would have been a lot easier.
Chapter Forty-Three
I stepped off the elevator at the last stop on the tallest tower. Judas had the entire floor. The receptionist flicked her eyes up to me from behind her desk, and she gave me a wary look. We had met several times, and I still didn’t know her name. I did know that she had this place wired. If she looked nervous, I might be in for more than I could handle.
“I hope you’re wearing your bullet proof everything. He’s been breaking stuff all morning.” She stretched her lips into a thin smile. “A little friendly advice. Don’t ignore Judas. He has a temper. Most of the time he keeps a lid on it, but ignoring him is his nuclear launch button, and you tap-danced all over it.”
I swallowed hard and eyed the door painstakingly carved with one horrific scene after another.
“Does he have a reset or redo button somewhere?”
She sat back in her chair. “If he does, you’re going to need it. Now hurry up, before he breaks something else. I have to go in and clean up that mess when he gets done. I would appreciate it if you kept any bleeding or other body fluids to a minimum.”
I did my best to offer half a smile, but smiling was out of the question on top of my wide eyed, please don’t kill me, expression.
“I’ll do my best; although, I might need a diaper.”
“Check the cabinet on the right as you go in. We keep them in pretty much every size.”
I nodded and headed for the door, wondering if she was serious. A crash came from within the office, like a million pieces of kindling breaking at once. I waited for the noise to die down then knocked on the huge, carved wooden door. It flew open so fast it sucked the air in around me and crashed into the wall. As usual, no one was there to open it, the thing just sort of opened itself. Apparently, it had a temper too.
“Get in here, now!”
Not one part of my heart, mind, or continence wanted to heed that command, but I forced my feet to shuffle forward until I emerged around the corner to see Judas hovering over what used to be the bone chair I usually sat in. It had been smashed to pieces, as were many other things in the room, and he held a detached human arm out in front of him like a club.
“You better have an exceptional explanation for ignoring my calls.”
Procel already stood at his post behind Judas’s desk. I was astounded at how fast he could get up here after dropping me off in front of the building. Mastema had moved from her usual position and crouched behind Judas on the floor, smiling. She looked like the world’s most deranged pet, sitting behind her master as he dismantled the bones of who knew how many people. Her smile seemed much broader than usual. Probably because Judas might be angry enough to set her loose.
“I do have a good reason. Lots of them. I would never ignore you on purpose.”
Judas stood before me and began to break off each individual finger bone, one by one. Every crack made me cringe and sent little bubbles of vomit into my throat, threatening to go full on express exit at any moment.
“I think I know how they’re planning to move the Catastropher Topside,” I began, then my words gained speed with every passing syllable. “I mean, it’s not someone up there now, not yet. It’s a Woebegone possession, and it may be one of your old agents, some guy named Simeon Scott. I found that out while I rescued my friend. My cousins had her at the Skin Quarries. Alex and I had to fight them. That might be a problem later, by the way ... never mind. They had this Simeon guy too, and he was surrounded by Whisper Wraiths, but Zoe and Alex couldn’t see them, and I had the flaming axe, but I couldn’t beat them in time, and Simeon disappeared, and I think he may have gone Topside to inhabit the guy we’ve been delivering reports to, but I can’t be sure unless I go up and find out.”
I gasped in a breath while Judas snapped off the last bone in the pinkie. His face looked so strained I thought he might shoot a giant death ray at me ... A Judas Ray ... A giant Judas death ray right out of his forehead.
After a second, he let out a guttural scream and broke the brittle arm bones over his knee.
“You have been running around taking care of personal business instead of attending to your job? Have I got that about right?” Judas threw the pieces to the side and waited for me to answer.
“Well, sort of, but I think you may be focusing on the wrong ...”
Judas took a threatening step in my direction. “Focusing on the wrong what? The wrong screw up? Tell me, how did you come to this hypothesis of yours? Do you have some sort of hard evidence? Do you even understand what you’re insinuating?”
I shuffled back half a step. “Yes, I mean, no ... Well, sort of. It’s a Woebegone possession, right?”
Judas let out a humorless laugh and turned his back on me. The moment his eyes were off me, my chest felt like it could move again, and I did my best to keep my organs functioning.
“I guess you deserve a Twinkie. Isn’t that what you and your pets give out at your shop?”
“Yeah, that. Or we have some Sno Ba
lls, but no one ever wants ...”
Judas spun around, and I sucked in my breath.
“Woebegone possession is difficult, verging on impossible to achieve,” he explained. There are very few who even understand the proper ritual for such a thing, and I can assure you none of them would be eager to give a Woebegone his freedom.”
“What if it were someone they wanted Topside? Someone they wanted in a particular position? Is it possible?”
Judas seemed to consider, staring at the ceiling while he stroked his rough beard. “Very specific items must be passed from here to the living world. Items representing the Woebegone’s blood, body, mind, and spirit. You delivered nothing but trial reports. I checked when you didn’t bother to show up and brief me yourself.”
I nodded and drew my eyes to the ground, not willing to look at him any longer. Maybe he was right. I had spent too much time messing with Zoe and her crusade instead of investigating Nick and his company. There had to be lots of people working there who ... My eyes shot up to Judas again.
“What sorts of things would they be?”
Judas had not calmed down, but at least he wasn’t breaking bones to keep his hands busy anymore. Baby steps.
“The items could be just about anything. Blood is obvious, but it can be contained in any sort of vessel. A vial, a blood-stained cloth.”
“What about inside a doll?”
Judas narrowed his eyes. “Explain.”
“Papers weren’t the only things we delivered. We also brought these little gifts to an autistic guy up there. Nice kid, but what if Nick sat back and waited for all the items we brought to arrive? He could scoop everything up from Ryan and have everything he needs for the ritual. But why would Nick want someone to take over his body?”
“Power? Money? He may not realize what he’s doing and thinks he is dabbling in the dark arts for insured success.” Judas seemed more interested now. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on his desk. “Regardless, if this is indeed what is happening, we, as in you, need to stop it. What else did you bring to your autistic friend?”
I thought about it for a second. “There was this sort of horseshoe decoration with beads and horsehair weaved inside, but that was a last minute ...”
I trailed off and remembered the chill I had felt in Alex’s office, and the fact that she said it had showed up out of nowhere. “Those sneaky bastards.”
Judas raised an eyebrow.
“All this time I thought an admirer gave it to Alex as a gift, but the Whisper Wraiths must have planted the thing on the wall, then suggested to Alex that we bring it to Ryan.”
“I suppose the doll could have contained the blood, and the hair might belong to the donor.”
“You mean I touched some guy’s hair? Gross.”
“Perhaps we should focus on the problem at hand.” Judas pinched the bridge of his nose.
“It was so soft. I rubbed it all over my face and everything.”
“Gabriel.” Judas’s harsh voice snapped me out of my cringeworthy contemplation.
“Sorry. What else? Well, there was ...”
I tapped my finger on my lower lip and tried to think of any other gifts we may have brought him but came up empty.
“I think that’s it. I feel like sort of a scrooge, but I sure felt like we were bringing more than that for the poor guy.”
“This is why you’re having such difficulty settling into your position here. This poor guy is nothing to you. He is an object. A piece on a chessboard. Your job is to manipulate anyone or anything in such a way to prevent global tragedy. Getting attached to anyone ...”
Judas trailed off, leaving the statement in a pool of dark emotion. I wanted to ask what he meant, but to be honest, I was terrified of the answer. Anything that could stab Judas that deep was something I did not want to know about.
I wracked my brain, going over our every meeting and trying to forget the last one where I had made a mess out of that too. Just another example of screwing something up. Alex depended on me, and I kept putting her position at the agency in jeopardy. How long could I do that? Was she another emotional attachment I had to get over? This job was no gift; it was a curse.
I stopped for a second and squinted at Judas, trying to think. “Wait, there was one more thing. It was a box—a gift. It had a sort of weird dream catcher inside with feathers and a key or something.”
Judas’s hands gripped the edge of his desk, and his knuckles began to turn white. Great, I had hit the volcano button again. I really needed to figure out how to avoid that thing.
“What did you say his name was?”
“Simeon, or at least that’s what Alex said.”
“Alex saw him?” If he could have torn two chunks out of the polished stone desktop, I was pretty sure he would have.
“Well, yeah. She was with me when I went to rescue Zoe. I told you all this when I came in. You were sort of busy ...”
Judas walked over and scooped up a skull and began popping the teeth out of the jaw one at a time.
“Yeah. Doing that.” I winced.
“I don’t believe you mentioned his name before.”
I had said it about a dozen times when I came in, but to be fair, my mouth ran so fast only an auctioneer would have understood it all.
“I am assuming by your sudden interest in dentistry that this is a problem for you.”
“If Simeon Scott is back, it is a problem for us all.”
Judas spiked the head into the ground like a football, shattering what remained of the skull and hurried around to the back of his desk.
“Get Topside and find out what happened. And don’t screw this up. Simeon Scott knows all our secrets. He was once part of the Denarii Division, and he’s a master at manipulation.”
“Wait, you said ‘once.’ Does that mean he was sucked into the coin?”
“Precisely. If he’s out for revenge ...”
I nodded and started to back out of the office. A thought hit me before I left, and I paused, unable to keep myself from asking the question.
“Why go through all the trouble of a possession? I mean, we can travel Topside, right? Why not jump on the Envisage Splice and head up for good? You know, not come back.”
Judas raised his eyes to me as if he were about to warn me not to step on a landmine. “Woebegone do not belong in the world of the living. We can go up for a little while, but staying too long ... Well, let’s just say you would rather die and face the Gnashing Fields.”
I ran that through my mind for a second. I wanted to ask what could be worse than the sulfur pools at the Fields but decided I had pushed my luck far enough.
“I will report to you as soon as I get back.”
“See that you do,” Judas said. “That is the last time I will send Procel to fetch you.”
I wondered what he meant by that, then my eyes flicked over to Mastema still crouched over the pile of broken bones on the floor. She grinned at me and cooed.
“No need to send any ... thing. I’ll be back.” And with that, I all but sprinted out the door.
Chapter Forty-Four
“You better have an excellent reason for why you left us all locked in the shop like that,” Alex shouted.
My day was not improving.
I hadn’t even made it down the front stairs of the Agency before Alex squeaked up on my trike looking like a Circus Valkyrie ready for a fight.
“I’ve had it with your games!” she yelled. “Whatever you’re up to, spill it, or find yourself a new partner.”
I held up my hands and hurried over to her, so we could talk without having to shout. I was pretty sure she would shout anyway, but at least everyone didn’t have to hear my side of the conversation.
“I didn’t lock you in, I swear. I don’t understand what happened. I tried to pry you out. I did everything I could to get the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.”
That was true. As long as Procel was there, nothing but a tactical nuke w
ould have cracked that thing. I wasn’t even sure that would work.
“I thought if I came back to the Judas Agency, I could find a way to get you out. Nothing lying around in Scrapyard City would do the job, that’s for sure.”
Also, technically true. Part of me did not like how easily truth through shielded omissions rolled off my lips.
“So why didn’t you ride your Wonder Wheels back? “
“I left the Wonder Wheels for you, in case you got out. I figured you would need a way here.”
“I never thought I would wish for your obnoxious smog monster again, but that ride was terrible.” Alex winced and rubbed her left butt cheek with the palm of her hand. “So how did you get ba—”
I cut her off, knowing if we continued twenty questions, sooner or later she would hit on something that would throw a monkey into my wrench.
“Look, we don’t have time for this. We need to get back to MiRACL. I think something went sideways, and I want to check it out.”
Now it was Alex who held up a hand to stop me. “Are we still going with the ghost story?”
My eyes sunk to the ground, and I took in a deep breath, considering what I should say. “You know how I couldn’t figure out why we were working so hard to help out a good guy?”
Alex narrowed her eyes, and her lips drew into a thin, strained line. “Yes, and I thought we discussed our role in this agency and how we’re not going to get involved with the why’s anymore.”
I winced. “I may have gotten a teensy bit involved. Through no fault of my own, mind you.” I rushed that last part when it looked like Alex might haul off and deck me. “I sort of fell into the answer, after talking to you about the whole Voodoo thing, Woebegone possessions, and then seeing that Simeon guy disappear back at the Skin Quarries. Plus, he said something.”
I hesitated, wondering if this was even thinner than the ghost story.
“Now you and Simeon are pen pals?”