The Code War (12 page)

'But why squaws ma'am?
W
here does that come from?'

'Americans, Kodrob. Yanks,'
exclaimed Bezejel loudly over the din. 'When Americans started
coming here in huge numbers they noticed the brothels' conical
shape and said it reminded them of native American teepees and
wigwams.'

The doormen threw a squaddie on the
ground. His knife landed beside him. His mates began to walk
through into the interior, leaving him behind.

'So the madams started calling the
girls 'squaws'
and the demons liked
it.

Bezejel nodded her head forward
and they began to amble towards the door of Navaho's.

'So then,' put in Kodrob.
'Brothels became squawhouses and they started naming them after
different American tribes. OK, I get it.'

Kodrob began to raise his arms to
be searched but t
he doormen drew back in
fear when they saw Bezejel. 'These three are with me,' asserted the
demon princess with a smile. The doormen bowed slightly and stepped
back.

Bezejel led the way as they
plunged through the first doorway. To the left was a
wide spiral staircase leading up and around the
building. The staircase led off to dozens of small passion rooms
where squaws entertained their demon clients. They walked through
the next arch and then the next and the next, each separated by a
staircase leading upwards. As Navaho's grew in popularity, its
owners had simply added extra cones outside the first ones, each
cone taller and wider than its predecessor. Now there were nine
cone shells. Gas lights hung precariously off the hide walls of the
corridor, almost setting the structure alight.

As they
made their way inwards to the vast atrium at the heart of
Navaho's, the noise of the party inside grew intense. Demons and
skimpily-dressed squaws passed them walking in the opposite
direction, arms around each other, heading to one of the
staircases. A doom-doom drum beat reverberated through the rock
beneath them and came up through their feet. Everything shook.
Finally the last of the nine great doorways was behind them and
they emerged into the cavernous space that many felt was the true
centre of Inferno.

Bezejel led Kodrob through the
noisy throng of compacted, s
teaming
demonry to the circular bar at the centre of the atrium. Vixens,
attractive demonesses, carried tankards of hot petroleum and cold
diesel to tables of burping, leering upper caste males around the
room. A forest of claws groped and pawed them as they
walked.

The walls displa
yed crude paintings of male and female demons in every
imaginable sexual throe and position. Braziers suspended from above
burned coal and cast their red glow around.

Everywhere demons were
drinking
cocktails of flammable liquids
while negotiating hourly prices with available squaws. After
agreeing a deal with a customer, the squaw would take them by the
paw and lead them up one of the spiral staircases to a room. Her
tail would flick triumphantly from side to side, flaunting her
conquest.

As Bezejel approached the bar, a
nervous quietness descended across the room. Demons nudged each
other and pointed her out. She was wearing a short red dress, its
close fit revealing every contour of her figure. She looked about
her and soaked up the effect she was having.

'What's the matter, boys,' she
bellowed with a bewitching grin, 'seen something you want?' Then
pulling up a stool she placed one foot on it.

The drumbeat
stopped.

'Now that I have your attention,
I'm looking for someone,' shouted Bezejel. Kodrob and the two
bodyguards stayed several paces behind her. The room was now
quiet.

'I'm looking for someone who…'

'You've found him.' All eyes
turned to the speaker, an upper-caste demon wearing steel-framed
glasses who was sitting at a table near the curved wall. A
richly-engraved ceremonial sword hung from his waist. Beneath his
feet was a decorative footrest and he sat back in his chair with
his fingertips together staring ahead of himself
contemplatively.

Bezejel walked over and stood near
his table. Kodrob and the bodyguards followed at a discreet
distance. It was only at this point that Kodrob realised the
footrest was not an object but a female demon. She was dressed in
traditional Japanese costume but was so still as to be lifeless.
Her face was painted white and her upper body moved ever so
slightly as she breathed.

If Bezejel had noticed the female, she
did not give any indication of it. She and the bespectacled demon
regarded each other for several frosty moments.

'Hideki, I see we find you in
reflective mood
. There are not many who
come to Navaho's to meditate.'

'Madam Bezejel,' said Hideki,
noticing her for the first time and half-bowing where he sat. 'It's
a great pleasure to see you again. Won't you join me for a
drink?'

Bezejel sat down slowly
in the opposite chair and crossed her legs
tightly. She looked around her at the gawking faces, which rapidly
turned away.
Kodrob, Gog and Magog stood
respectfully three paces back.

'Now, what is
your poison?' asked Hideki, rapping the table in front of
him. A serving vixen in high red heels appeared
and placed a bottle and two glasses on the table. 'Our best
cold diesel ma'am,' she said, without making eye
contact.

The drumbeat restarted.
The chatter around them picked up.

Hideki poured some
fuel into both glasses and pushed one across to
Bezejel. He also poured some into a small bowl by his feet and
pushed it towards his slavegirl. Kodrob could see the creature's
eyes focus on the drink. But she was waiting for the order of
command before she would imbibe.

Hideki
raised his glass to Bezejel. 'I trust you are happy with
the performance of my department so far, Lady Bezejel. You are here
to reward and congratulate me, no doubt.'

'Hideki, you squaw-voucher
thieving son of Nippon,
' replied Bezejel,
completely ignoring the slave footrest. 'Why shouldn't I have you
sent to the incinerators for a thousand years? You didn't tell me
that knicker-dropping shiksa Nancy isn't a shiksa at all. She's a
Hebrew of tribe Judah. That could be important.'

Hideki smiled broadly.
H
e was clearly familiar with Bezejel's
verbal salvos and was not the least intimidated.

'Bezejel
, my satyr-squeezing friend, you're a motivation to us all.
But you clearly haven't looked at the notes I sent you. Remember,
detail is for devils.'

'Go on.' Bezejel had relaxed a
little. Nobody spoke to her like this without a very good
reason.

'I have spent a lot of time in the
company of the young woman Nancy. Observing her. I know her
intimately. Well, almost intimately.'

Watching his expression,
Kodrob could guess just how intimately Hideki
would like to know Nancy. If he ever got the chance.

The Japanese demon looked up at
Bezejel. 'I
sent you a sheaf of
information when the Leader first asked you to take the project.
Maybe it got lost en route?' Hideki held his hands in front of him,
fingers together, steeple-style.

'I don't read, Hideki. Everyone knows
that. I expect to be told anything important.' Bezejel was trying
to be fierce but it wasn't quite working.

'Ah
.'

Hideki picked up his glass and
took a mouthful of diesel. He swished it around his mouth for a
moment. Then replacing the glass on the table he picked up a
lighted candle and held it in front of his mouth. As he blew
upwards, a perfect cloud of flame leapt twenty feet into the vault
above.

Heads turned nervously all around
the room as curious demons and squaws followed the flame cloud.
They twisted in their seats to see what was going on at Hideki's
table without drawing attention to themselves. Everyone had
expected Hideki to be roasted by now. It hadn't
happened.

'Ah so,' Hideki repeated quietly
to Bezejel. 'Then let me take the opportunity now.'

The other demons
turned back to their own business. It was
dangerous to stare in Bezejel's direction for too long.

'We have known for a long time
that Nancy is a Jew. That was a factor in her selection. But not
the only factor. Here is why she excites us. We have looked back
many generations into her past and there are significant character
strengths in one of her ancestors which we can, with care, bring
forward to poison her mind permanently. Those strengths include
ambition and lust for power in impressive quantities. What you see
in Nancy now is like the painted flower that conceals a hidden
serpent under it. Soon you will see the serpent, dragon even,
reveal itself in her and lay the foundations of the empire that
will last a thousand years.'

'Dragon?' Bezejel knew that Hideki
had exposed her lack of attention to detail. But her curiosity was
aroused.

'Yes, dragon. Seems there is a
connection to the Orient that was made by a Russian ancestor. Most
interesting.' Hideki looked down at the glass in front of him,
apparently lost in thought.

Few demons
were able to forget they were in Bezejel's presence. But
Hideki seemed determined to prove that he was not frightened by
her. He removed his legs from his footrest and said something to
it. The slavegirl inched forwards with her head down and began to
lap from the bowl. Even by the standards of Inferno she was thin
and dirty.

'
I want
to know more about the ancestor, Hideki. The Leader has put me in
charge of the project. Is the ancestor Russian or
Chinese?'

'All in good time,
Bezejel
,' he said patiently. He gave
another command to the slavegirl who immediately ceased her
drinking and returned to her former position. Hideki replaced his
feet on her back.

He looked at Bezejel again. 'But
for now, did you notice the start of my seed trail?'

'If
you
mean the capital R, yes. Of course I saw it. What comes
next?'

'That is our dragon seed trail. It
is our code. It will spell out the person that Nancy will become.
Once she has followed the trail to its end and spelt out the entire
name, eaten all the seeds, so to speak, she will be convinced that
the name was meant for her. She will see it as her destiny. She
will be excited by her new name and will become it. She will be
ours.'

'
How
does it actually work Hideki?'

'It
will
work because we will lead her down a series of paths which will cut
her dependency on others until she lives only for herself. She will
be emotionally isolated. She will lose her belief in the natural
goodness of humanity and sink deeper and deeper into our way of
thinking. At that point she will be presented with something
mysterious which she wants to believe. She will have left her old
self behind and she will be ready for her new life. Then the unseen
bonds that connect generations of families together will become
pathways transporting the sins of the fathers to the sons and the
sins of the mothers to the daughters. For seven generations. The
dark qualities of her ancestor will cascade through the centuries
between them and will be manifested fully in her. She will be both
powerful and deadly. It is all about the timing.'

'What's the next seed in the
trail, Hideki? The next
letter in the
code?'

But for answer, Hideki turned away
and resumed his gaze into the distance. He was as obstinate as he
was clever. He wasn't going to just roll over and divulge all his
work to Bezejel at her whim. Not over drinks at Navaho's
anyway.

Bezejel looked around her.
Everywhere there were vixens scurrying from
bar to table with drinks. There were demons escorting
squaws to the spiral staircases. And there were satyrs and imps
from many different army groups drinking to oblivion.

In one area a fight had broken out
and two drunken jager imps were trying to cut each other's throats
with the rusted edge of a fuel can. No-one wa
s paying any attention to them. But the noise was intense
nonetheless. In the background the doom doom beat added to the
sense of frenzy. It wasn't a good place to be planning a
strategy.

'Hideki, I want you to come to our
next squad briefing. Captain Kodrob and his crew need to hear
directly from you about your planned activities. We have to
remember that we're all on the same team here. We win together or
we lose together. What do you say?'

Hideki, surprised, put down his drink in
front of him. He loomed his face up at hers, searching her eyes,
trying to read her intent.

'Very well
,' he responded finally, sitting back. 'I will come. But
don't try to interfere in my scheme. And don't,' he wagged a finger
at her, 'try to control me.'

Bezejel grasped his hand with the still
wagging finger and shook it.

'It's a deal,' she replied
instantly.
'But I'll go one better than
that.'