Other Places 3: Detours (30 page)

"
I've
never done anything like that. So, do I get into heaven? I even go to church
regularly." She didn't mean it but the man finally spoke, shaking his head
weakly.

"Only
the elect will be allowed behind the pearly gates. Only the
elect
! Only
those that have followed my words and leadership are holy enough to be in the
presence of God Almighty! Praise the Lord!" He seemed a bit desperate, but
then he'd worked the bible around to allow himself and his family to eat human
flesh, so he probably had to be.

Keeley
took him over, stealing his will after a few seconds, and then set to the
others, only to find that Ann was helping. She killed the younger five and
after a few moments brought them back, leaving them at least as under her
control.

Edom
and Lenore looked on blankly, but Richard sighed.

"I
have some contacts. They'll confess to what they've done? All of it? As well as
forget that we were here?"

Zack
didn't know for certain, but the two women agreed, and didn't even ask to be
paid for their work. For his part, he waited, and then set things up, so that
the family and their bomb would make it to Washington D.C. After all, if they confessed,
no one would believe it, but if they did that, on television and
then
set off a small nuclear device, that would pretty much seal the deal in the
minds of most.

They
were guilty, so it seemed fair to him.

The
rest of the family was still out, on their holy mission of death and slaughter
of the infidel. They wouldn't take long for him to find. The trick would be
making them all seem like they'd killed themselves. It didn't take long for the
division of labor to be set, and it was decided, in the end, that he and Gregor
would take care of that part, while Keeley and Ann handled the press portions
with the Vampires.

He
had to get everyone into place, but it really didn't take long, and then they
started hunting, since the others needed to die before the family's little
event in D.C.

Zack
waved to his new partner for the day and smiled.

"We
can work from the Nexus at Westfield? I should be able to find them all from
there, and spy on them. Then we'll take care of things?"

"Excellent,
Line Walker. Then I must see to fixing the damage done, as best I can.
Radiation is such a problem. Humans never think long term though. Why bother,
if you'll leave a mess for others, and not yourself?"

Zack
shrugged and opened a direct entry point into the node room of his shop. He
made it glow again, going with faint purple.

"Don't
fight it, just want to be in the store. No... Don't add any power, I already
took care of that." The man still struggled for a bit, but then seemed to
trust him and stepped through, easily enough. It worked pretty well, he
decided. The other Demon didn't even scream at him for making it an order.

He
came in right behind the man and then cleared his throat, gently.

"Sorry,
I'm not trying to snap. It's just that everyone always makes a big deal out of
this, when it's really easy."

"Which
is why you are the Line Walker. I imagine that The Rotted would say the same
about reanimating the dead, and that the Mistress of Souls baffles over how the
rest of us fight and struggle to do what she does with but a thought. I have
had long conversations with Tarsus about how simple it is to gather information
from all sources, you know. Well, each to their own talent." He smiled,
seeming peaceful and calm, but didn't bother to share what he, personally,
found to be all that easy.

Zack,
being clever, didn't ask. It was probably in his memories, if he bothered to
check. That library at least.

Working
fast, he located the two that still had bombs first, and simply killed them, outright.
It lacked in elegance, but he simply made their heads explode with a single
rapid punch each, using Bey's trick. It really wasn't just hitting them,
naturally. You drove a fist inside their heads, and then, once inside, you
rapidly opened your hand so fast that the pressure caused nothing but a shower
of red mist and bone particles.

Of
course when Bey did it, he always managed to get out of the way of that part of
things, which Zack didn't manage half as well. He had a fine coating of red all
over his right hand side, and his clothing was probably ruined.

Then,
being careful, he wrote a note using pages from the bibles they had with them,
and carefully tossed the bodies out of the windows of their hotel rooms. Each
one just said, 'Bomb in hotel room.' Along with the room numbers. He was
helpful that way.

Gregor
did the rest, probably thinking that Zack's idea of what looked like suicide
was a bit warped, after that. At least he wasn't insisting that them being
tossed out of a window counted as them jumping. The older Demon seemed to think
he might, or at least kept acting as if he expected an argument.

It
still wasn't pretty, since they were forced to list their sins first, and write
them down, in notes that begged forgiveness. Since, to a person, they had to
put in things about munching people that they'd kidnapped from around the
country, that
had
to be hard. Then they slashed their wrists.

With
a bit of help.

Even
not being the one doing it, Zack managed to find that he ended the day, or
night now, it being about three in the morning when they finished, covered in
blood. Gregor wasn't, his black outfit being free of anything like that at all.

Maybe
that
was his ability? His special talent? If so, it was kind of cool.

Standing
in the back of the store again, the head of North America for their kind...
bowed. Zack did it back, making sure he did it right.

"Thank
you, Line Walker. If the need arises, in the coming days, may I seek your
assistance in this matter further?" There was a sly look to his eyes. A
thing that was hard to trust.

Zack
hedged then.

"If
I deem it needed, and agree to what is being done of my own free will, then
yes. I may insist on making a trade with you for something however. Right
now... Actually, I should change and shower, then eat and go see about that
shipment for Tarsus. Keeley said that you asked her to do it? Is it a trap, do
you think?" That was blunt, but the other man didn't act hurt by the
question.

"I
think so. Tarsus doesn't need aid in doing much at all. Technically he's set
this up so that he has a reason to engage The Mistress of Souls, rather than
yourself. You are, I believe, just the end of the chain. What did you ask of
her for the work?"

Zack
shrugged.

"Some
cash, a favor. Oh, and she has to start sleeping around. You should drop her a
note, actually, since at least one of those people needs to be a Greater
Demon."

That
got a chuckle.

"I
think I understand. She's younger than you are, after all, so don't think too
harshly of her. What Tarsus was thinking, putting her forward at such a young
age, for her testing... I really just believed that he wanted to kill her, at
the time, but then he held his hand very carefully at the end. It probably
means that he's at least part of the current problem we've been having. The
less ordered of our kind have been too well disciplined for a while now.
Working together and behaving themselves, nearly. To what end, I don't
know."

Zack
didn't react at all, but that had the ring of truth to it, didn't it? Tarsus
was one of the most powerful, and clearly close to the top in access to
knowledge, if not the most informed being
ever
. Of course, that didn't
mean much to him at the moment, he decided. It was sort of like the reason why
he was trying to tolerate Xenses, even after the horrors that had been done to
him at the being's hands.

If
the man had been, well, a man, Zack would have gotten a gun and shot him in the
head, then buried the body somewhere. Even if it meant spending the rest of his
life being some large inmates bitch, he would have done it. No questions asked,
no defense even bothered being given.

The
thing was, if he tried that now, on his own or even with Darla and Keeley's
help, he was simply dead. Worse, it wouldn't even impact the Demon at all.
There wouldn't be regret, or hard feelings, just Xenses moving on to the next
thing, not impacted at all.

Tarsus
naturally, was
so
far beyond that it wasn't humorous. If he was behind
anything at all, even Zack being raped and tortured like he had been, the only
thing he could do was grin and hope he didn't want a blowjob
before
he
took a shower,
after
the painful anal. It was that simple. If he was
going to be used from that quarter, it was just going to happen. Zack doubted
he could even escape the creature by dying, if he was on the radar at all. So
the best thing for him to do there was to not play the game. If possible.

That
shouldn't be too hard at least. Tarsus didn't seem to have any plans for him at
all.

Apparently
it was Keeley on the menu, not him. If that held, at least. Of course, being
that he was stupid and too good to survive, he needed to find a way to warn
her, if she didn't already know. It really shouldn't be his job, but there it
was, him with the information, and her not having it at all.

That
meant...

Well,
he'd need to guard his thoughts a lot better, for one thing. The little trick
he was using, warping time to swallow what went on inside his mind needed
several layers more just to be safe. Different things, with at least one of
them being truly new, if he could manage it. Everything in the data he had,
Tarsus would too.

Probably
a lot more.

Then
he'd have to find a way to get Keeley alone, and in a place so far away that
even Tarsus would have problems finding them. Long enough to talk. Even if he
wasn't believed. His job wasn't to convince her of anything, after all. Just
let her know the score. Or, more accurately, his job was to sell books, and
collect a power base.

The
thing there was that he wasn't sane, and this kind of thing showed it. No
reasonable being would go against Tarsus, after all. Would they? Not just for
some girl that was at best a bit creepy,
and
a tease. She got the power
to change shape and the first thing she did was make herself into a woman so
hot that she nearly didn't seem real? That was fine, if your goal was getting
people into bed, like the Alede, but she was, as far as Zack could tell, still
a virgin. Or at least she faked it pretty well.

He
thought as he walked to the node, stripping naked, very carefully, and then
setting his soiled and bloody clothing on the bank of a river, very far away.
It was near a waterfall, but that was too strong to use as a shower. Instead he
made himself remember what it felt like to be warm and scrubbed for a long
time, using handfuls of pebbles from the bottom of the river, with a little
sand mixed in, to make certain he was clean.

Then,
he just waited to dry. Leaving the clothing, he went back home then, directly
to his own bedroom, to find Lisa there, sleeping. Since waking up with a mildly
damp naked man next to her would probably not help at the moment, he just
dressed, in the dark, wearing casual clothing, because he had work to do, he
didn't doubt. Lifting and toting. Carrying and shifting things around. So
jeans, a light shirt that he thought was a plain blue, and running shoes.

After
that he spent an hour in the kitchen, making food and eating it, until he
didn't want anymore. That took a lot, since without meaning to, he'd been
burning through energy the whole time, suppressing the rage he felt. That and
the fear. He was making his fifth round of waffles when Troy came in, his face
a bit sad.

Zack
blinked. Right, massive terrorist attacks. He'd stopped thinking about it.

"Zack...
D.C. It was hit by a dirty nuke. An hour ago. I was at work, no one came in
really, so... You know, we were just hanging out, really. Some of us don't have
a lot of people, and you weren't around. Barb and I, Kevin... You know. The
gang from work. It doesn't sound as bad, but yeah. Another bomb."

Zack,
being a nice person, on some level, he knew, pulled a clean plate out and put a
round of waffles on it for his friend.

"We
should watch some television soon. There's a punch line here. Some of us, Edom,
Lenore and some of my, um, relatives? Took care of things. The
Terrorists?"

It
took a second, but Troy nodded.

"You
should have come and gotten us. We would have helped. Everyone would
have." There was venom in the words, but it wasn't a thing that he would
have ever doubted from Troy. Or Barb. Even Kevin the bouncer. They all would
have handled things, if they could have.

"I
know. An oversight on my part. As it was poor Edom and Lenore ended up just
standing there. Richard Swerlin went in with us too. Today should have some
interesting confessions at least. I don't want to give it away, but I bet
you'll love it, after a fashion."

No
one could love all that death, but there was something satisfying about people
that claimed to be the holiest, being shown to be the worst imaginable. They
always were, in the end, weren't they? It was probably due to the fact that
people that pretended to religion had the most to hide to begin with. That
wasn't to say that some just believed, but it was a system that was too easy to
abuse, and, he suddenly understood, humanity, as a whole, was even more insane
than he was.