by Tom Clarke
Jim’s mind was racing, “What Tyler, what do they want from me?”
“I don’t know” Tyler replied, tears now streaming down his face, “they didn’t tell me.”
Jim looked back at Tyler, “What’s the doctor’s name?”
“He introduced himself to me as Michael; he said that he worked out of a practice set up in his home, somewhere out by Frenchtown I think.”
“Tyler, this Michael, he contacted you?” Jim asked as he knelt close and put a hand on Tyler’s shoulder.
“Yeah, he approached me one day just out of the blue. I was really hurting so I took him up on his offer. I wish to God I had never met him.”
Tyler looked up at Jim as he wiped the tears from his face, “Jim I fucked up, bad, and now you and Shelly are paying the price. Please let me help you. I’m on leave for the next two weeks, I will do anything you ask! Please just let me make this right.”
Jim took a deep breath, “Stay here,” he said, standing up and patting Tyler on the shoulder.
Jim walked around to the other side of the car. He motioned for Nico and Darrel to join him where he told them everything that Tyler had just confessed to.
“That sounds about right” Nico said. “Think about it, they want to keep tabs on you, wait for their time to move, so they recruit a local asset to help. Who better to do that than a member of law enforcement, and a friend of yours.”
Darrel nodded in agreement, “Yeah, you’re onto it for sure brother. The big question is did this joker know anything about them trying to hit Shelly?”
“I don’t think so,” Jim replied. “I think that after the deal went south they went to a plan B, decided to burn their informant to snatch Shel.”
“Now what?” Darrel asked.
“Tyler said that they wanted something from me. I guess we ask Paul what that’s something is.”
Darrel walked over to the SUV and pulled Paul from the front seat. After yanking him to his feet Darrel pulled the tape from Paul’s face, then with a large smile on his face said, “Your turn Smiley.”
Paul shook off the pain of having the tape pulled from his face, smiled, and said, “Gentleman, there is no need for violence. I am the messenger, I bring you greetings from my master, Rin Alue-Ran.”
“Where is my wife?” Jim asked in a very calm, yet violent tone of voice.
“Ah yes, your beautiful Shelly, she is a treasure Jim, is she not? She is safe with my master, he wishes that you retrieve an artifact for him. When this artifact is delivered he will reunite you with your love and the two of you can live your lives in peace.”
“I’m listening” Jim said as he stood stoic in front of Paul. His eyes burning a hole in Paul’s chest.
Paul reached into his pocket and produced a folded-up piece of paper which he handed to Jim. As Jim unfolded the paper he could see that there was a drawing on it. As he opened the paper up his blood ran cold, he had seen this drawing before. It was a circular, spiral pattern, with symbols around it. Jim handed the paper to Darrel, “Oh come on!” Darrel blurted out as soon as he saw the drawing, “are you kidding me!”
“Ah, you are familiar with the incantation, how nice” Paul hissed as he watched Jim and Darrel’s reaction.
Jim let out a slight laugh and shook his head. He looked up at Paul and said, “I know what this is, if we get this for your boss, then he will be able to bring across others like him. He will be able to possess more people, it will just make him stronger.”
“Yes, that’s all true” Paul replied. “It will also allow him to go home. You see he’s been here for thousands of years, he was here before your God Jesus! He wants to go home.”
Jim looked at Nico and Darrel, then back to Paul, “Why me?”
“Why not?” Paul replied as he raised his hands in a questioning manner.
“Besides, after your last meeting with my boss, as you put it, he feels that you, and present company included of course, stand the best chance of dealing with the competition.”
“What competition?” Darrel asked as Jim stood there with his eyes closed, shaking his head.
Paul stood up straight, looked right at Nico and said with a sneer, “Ask him! He knows who else seeks this prize. Ask him who he really serves, go on tell them!”
“Close your mouth devil!” Nico barked as he stepped forward towards Paul. “It’s you who are the deceiver, you and your master! I should do the world a favor and end you right now!”
Paul flared his arms out, both his palms facing Jim, Darrel and Nico. “You are welcome to try!” Paul yelled.
Jim and Darrel both took a few steps back and watched in amazement as Paul’s mouth opened wide, and then even wider as his jaw seemed to unhinge like that of a snake swallowing its prey. A forked tongue flicked out of Paul’s mouth.
“I am his messenger; his power is mine!” Paul hissed as his body started to contort.
Suddenly the lights went out for Paul. Darkness started to envelope him as he fell to the ground, unable to stop himself. Right as the darkness overtook him, he looked up and saw Darrel standing there above him with a large stick he had just used to strike him across the head with, “I don’t like snakes” Darrel said.
“Nice shot” Nico said to Darrel as he stood over Paul.
“What the fuck was that!” Tyler yelled from behind Nico’s car.
Jim, Darrel, and Nico turned and looked at Tyler, who had an obvious look of panic on his face. Darrel snorted and started to head over to Tyler with the same stick in hand.
“Hold on bro” Jim said. “Tyler, that was what you help kidnap Shelly. They are not human!” Jim said, pointing to the unconscious Paul on the ground. “You got your dumb ass recruited by, and then handed my wife over to, a bunch of no-shit monsters.”
Shaking his head Tyler mumbled, “No, I don’t believe it. Jim, I.”
“Shut up!” Darrel barked before Tyler could finish his sentence.
“What are we going to do?” Darrel asked, looking at Jim and Nico.
“We cannot, under any circumstances, give them what they want!” Nico said, “the ramifications would be disastrous.”
Jim turned his back to his friends and looked out over the lake. The sight of the calm, clear water seemed to slow down the thoughts racing through his head. He could hear ducks splashing around near the shore, it started to drown out the sound of Nico and Darrel discussing what to do. As he stood there he started to hear in his head the song that he and Shelly had danced to at their wedding.
A smile came over his face as he remembered stepping on her toes and then almost dropping her when they dipped. Jim took a deep breath and looked out over the lake with the eyes of a man that did not expect to see it again, he knew what he was going to do.
Jim turned and walked back to his friends who were still semi-arguing/discussing what the next course of action should be.
“Wake that dipshit up” Jim said, pointing at Paul.
As Darrel steadily, slapped Paul back to consciousness, Jim turned to Nico, “My brother, I need you to trust me. I know what this thing wants, and I know what it means if we give it to him. But I also know he has my wife.”
Nico stepped close to Jim, “Jim we cannot give it to him, please.”
Jim nodded, “Trust me.”
Nico ground his teeth as he put a hand on Jim’s shoulder, “I owe you my life. I trust you.” Jim smiled as Paul started to come out of his blunt object induced nap.
As Paul slowly got back to his feet, he looked at Darrel and sneered “You will pay for that.” Darrel just looked back at him, smiled, and winked. Paul growled in anger, then turned to Jim, but was cut off before he could speak.
“Okay, I’ll do it”, Jim said. “But before I go treasure hunting for your master I need to know that Shelly’s okay and unharmed.”
“Of course,” Paul replied with a smile spreading across his face, “you have made the right decision.”
“So, what now?” Jim asked as he cut the tape that was still b
inding Paul’s hands.
“Now you return to your home. I will send to your email the information you will need to recover the talisman.” Paul reached into his pocket and removed a cell phone which he handed to Jim. “Use this to contact me when you have accomplished your task, my number is programmed into it. Likewise, I can call you if I need to.”
His hands and feet now free Paul raised both hands to the sky, his palms facing forward. He started to chant and then to sing. “It’s a great day,” he said in a jovial voice, “it’s a great day!”
“Hey!” Jim yelled, “if you're done with the disco routine, I need some more details.”
Paul smiled, “Yes, of course. I will return to my master and relay the good news. You will receive the email from me in a day or so. When you have completed your task, you will meet with us at which time we will exchange your love for the talisman. Your family will be reunited, and my master can return to his.”
Jim shook his head, “Okay. Listen this is kind of a special order or else your boss would have either gone and got this thing himself or sent one of you jokers to do it. I want one more thing.”
The smile evaporated from Paul’s face, “What might that be?”
“I want the names of everyone in the church who is helping you, especially the ones who bombed the Vatican. I mean, if you cats are really going back where you came from that shouldn’t be an issue…. Should it?”
The sinister smile that seemed to never leave Paul’s face was gone. “I cannot do that because it wasn’t us” Paul replied.
Jim stepped in towards Paul, he looked him right in the eyes and said “I know what you and your master really are; you’re a bad dream masquerading as people. Make no mistake, I am not afraid of you, I am certainly not afraid your boss! The last time we met he turned tail and ran like a little bitch.”
Paul gasped, “Sacrilege!” he said, his forked tongue hissing out between his teeth.
Jim sneered, grinding his teeth, the anger in his eyes burning a hole right through the center of Paul’s chest. “The only reason I’m helping you is because of Shelly. Make no mistake, if she was here I would cut you into little pieces and use you as bait to fish the lake.”
Jim stepped back, giving Paul a little room to breathe, “I will get your trinket, and in exchange you will return my wife to me, unharmed, and provide me with the names I asked for, upfront in the initial email. Oh, and just so we understand each other, if my wife has so much as a broken fingernail I will kill every single one of you fucking rejects…. Starting with you!”
Paul smiled, “I understand. Jim, you are a man of your word, please allow me to show you that my master is the same. Your wife is in no danger; she is being treated as an honored guest at my master’s home. I will endeavor to find the names you asked for, a fair trade indeed. Let us embark, you can drop me back at the hospital, so I can begin my task, and you can begin yours.”
Jim turned to Nico and Jim, “Listen, Nico, you take Tyler with you and go back to my crib. Darrel and I will drop Smiley the Snake off at the hospital parking lot and then meet you there.”
“Wait, that rat is coming with us?” Darrel asked pointing at Tyler.
“Yes, he is” Jim replied, looking at Tyler, who was sitting on the ground, “yes he is.”
Jim walked over and offered a hand to Tyler and then helped him up off the ground. “Tyler, you stepped in it this time,” Jim said as he cut him loose from the tape binding his hands.
“I know Jim, what do I do?”
“You are going to go back to my place with Nico, Darrel and I will join you guys there shortly. From there you get the chance to make this right.”
Tyler nodded in agreement, wiped his tearing eyes and said, “You got it Jim, whatever it takes.”
Jim walked Tyler over to Nico, introduced the two, and then gave Nico the keys to his house. “Jim, you understand that your place is marked by this evil they carry with them” Nico said.
“I know brother, we're not going to be there long. I need to grab a few things and then get Max and Shilo into boarding at the vet.”
“From what I saw of the men in your house we should bring them with us” Nico said with a smile.
“Wish we could but they eat a lot and sooner or later that Max is going to take a dino sized dump, and I don’t want it to be in my car.”
Nico smiled, nodded and then left with Tyler headed to Jim’s house.
“I sure hope you know what you’re doing” Darrel said as they watched Nico pull away.
“Me too” Jim replied. “Listen you sit behind Smiley. If he goes sideways grab him, don’t shoot him! I don’t want that assholes demon scented brains all over my rig.”
Darrel laughed, “No problem.”
Darrel’s tone grew serious, “Jim I got to tell you something. Back at the hospital, I saw something, a little girl with a knife in her chest. It really freaked me out a little, she pointed at me and said something I couldn’t understand.”
“Did Nico see it?” Jim asked.
Darrel shook his head, “I think that he did, but it just didn’t seem to bother him. He told me it was the demon messing with my head.”
Jim nodded, “Probably was.”
“Yeah” Darrel replied, “but listen, the more that I think about it, I’m not sure that the kid was pointing at me. I think she may have been pointing at Nico. He’s changed bro, he’s got more of an edge to him than he had before.”
Jim looked at Darrel with a sense of concern on his face, “I know, I’ve seen it too. He’s got some serious shit going on in his world these days, but all the same let’s just keep an eye on him.”
Darrel nodded, slapped Jim on the shoulder and said, “Come on, let’s get this done.”
7.
CI-1307
The drive back to the hospital was a combination of Paul chanting and singing and Darrel yelling for him to shut up. As they pulled into the parking lot of the hospital Jim said to Paul, “I’ll be looking for your email.”
Paul smiled, “Two days tops. Once I get to my master’s home, I will have your wife call you on the phone I gave you. All will be good Jim, you will see.” With that Paul got out of Jim’s SUV, raised his hands in the air and walked away singing.
As Jim drove out of the parking lot Darrel climbed into the front passenger seat. Jim handed him the cell phone that Paul had given him, “Check this thing and see if it has internet on it.” Darrel took the phone and turned it on, “Looks like.”
“Okay” Jim said, “see if you can download a call forwarding app and set it to forward all calls to my cell phone.” Darrel nodded and started working on getting the application set up.
As Jim was pulling into his driveway, he could see that Nico and Tyler had already arrived. “Okay bro, I got that app on the phone and it’s set to forward any calls it receives to your cell.”
Jim parked next to Nico’s car and took the phone back from Darrel. “Thanks man. Hey, do you still have that lady friend of yours with the DEA who was working in the intelligence group in Billings?” Jim asked.
“Yes, sir. In fact, she’s getting ready to retire and take a job with a private think tank in DC.”
Jim handed the phone back to Darrel, “You think she would stick this thing on the box there at her office and see what information it has on it?”
Darrel smiled, “I will call her and ask.”
As Darrel made the call to his friend in Billings about checking the cell phone, Jim let his dogs out of the back of the SUV and then went inside to meet up with Nico and Tyler. Walking into his house Jim found Nico with his head stuck inside Jim’s refrigerator. “Hey, where’s Tyler?” Jim asked.
Nico emerged from the refrigerator with two beers in hand, “He’s in the bathroom, getting sick I think. Jim, you may already know this, but that guy looks like someone who is going through the beginning stages of withdrawals” Nico said as he handed Jim one of the beers.
Jim took a long drink from the beer, and th
en replied, “Yeah I know. Opiates, he’s addicted to pain killers.”
“You okay?” Jim asked Tyler as he walked out of the bathroom looking pale.
“I’ll make it” Tyler replied, “sorry about your bathroom.” Jim just shook his head and handed Tyler a cold beer.
As the three of them took seats at Jim’s dining room table Darrel came walking in, closely followed by Jim’s dogs. “We are in business Jimmy” Darrel proclaimed as he walked into the kitchen. “Donna’s good to go, she said to just overnight her the phone and she will see what she can do.”
“Awesome!” Jim replied, “What did you tell her?”