The Paladin (8 page)

The spinning pen moved on its own, rapidly moving across the paper, careening within the confines of the yellow rectangle, leaving a thin blue line in its wake.

While Beck looked bored, Dana looked on with unmasked fascination at the small display of magic.

Soon, a familiar image appeared from the seemingly random scribble.

Mrs. Anderson suddenly stopped her chanting, and the possessed pen shot off the table and disappeared into her garden.

The pad rose and moved to Beck.

"I want this man," she said. "He will stop the Paladin."

"Isn't he your gardener, Bill Long?" said Dana, turning to Beck.

"Yes, that's Bill, all right," said Beck."

"Are you kidding me?" asked Dana. "He's just a gardener. Bill is five-foot even and barely a hundred pounds soaking wet. I don't think the wimp knows how to make a fist!"

"He has the qualities I need," said Mrs. Anderson, "to be the perfect assassin."

"Very well," said Beck. "I will send Bill over."

"You had best get a new gardener, Beck. I am afraid that Mr. Long won't be quite the same when I am through with him."

"I can live with that," he said. "Miss Kirby, take care of it."

***

As Harold opened the car door, Beck sat back in his wheelchair and closed his eyes for a few moments.

"The key to my little plan is Zack Cole," said Beck. "Everything hinges upon him finding that damn jar. Only stands to reason that Mr. Cole must be the target of this Paladin. Mr. White, I want round the clock protection for Cole. Round the clock
discreet
protection; he must not have an inkling he is being watched. Listen to me carefully, Mr. White, I don't want so much as a hair of his head harmed until Celeste is free, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

8

Maggie pulled to the rear of the small ramshackle house. Driving through the overgrown yard, she parked out of sight behind a rusting metal out building.

Maggie slid out of the bright yellow '76 Volkswagen bug and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

"Welcome to Tennessee," she mumbled as she shut her car door and waded through the weeds to the back door.

Lifting a faded and cracked ceramic garden gnome, she retrieved a key.

Maggie opened the back door and entered the dark interior. Force of habit caused her to reach for the light switch. Two impotent clicks later, she smiled ruefully.

"Of course," she said. "This place hasn't seen electricity in at least a couple of years."

Producing a flashlight, she checked out the small house. She found a chair, a few candles, and a freshly made cot sitting in the front room. On the cot sat a video player with a yellow sticky note that read,
Play Me.

Plopping down in the chair, Maggie stuck the headphones in her ears and pressed the play switch on the thin paperback-sized player.

The player came to life and Larry's smiling face appeared.

"I see you made it to Bryson City without incident," he said.

Maggie silently watched the player.

Larry rolled his eyes," What's the matter, baby girl, cat got your tongue?"

"You can hear me?"

"Well, duh," he said.

"This is going to take some getting used to," she said. "So what do you want me to do in the land of Orange and power Ts?"

"First, I must apologize for what you are up against. I wanted to break you in slowly, but that proved to be wishful thinking on my part."

"How bad can it be?" she said.

"Famous last words, baby girl. Have you ever heard of Noah and the Great Flood?"

"Of course. Noah and his menagerie of animals was the theme of my friend Frankie's nursery."

"It will never cease to amaze me how the single greatest disaster in mankind's brief history has been relegated to the decor for a child's room."

"You mean it was real?"

"Very real."

"Are we going to have a flood?"

Larry laughed, "Of course not. What you are about to deal with, however, comes from that era. It is also part of the reason God drowned the ancient world."

"I am all ears," she said settling back in her chair.

"A small group of angels rebelled against God and came to earth. They saw the daughters of man and saw that they were fair—"

"So they got busy?"

"Yeah," he said. "Their children were called the Nephilim: part man part angel. They were the giants of the Old Testament. They wanted this world for themselves and saw that man was in their way. The mythos of gods and goddesses from several cultures come from this time. Anyway, to counter man's use of nuclear weapons they created—"

"Whoa!" Maggie exclaimed. "Did you say
nuclear weapons
?"

"Yes, the antediluvian world was as advanced as far as if not more than today's. That is why, from time to time, people find unexplained items along with advanced knowledge that survived the flood."

"What about those scientists who think we were visited by aliens?"

Larry guffawed. "I get a real kick out of those guys! People today are so arrogant about their own intellectual superiority; they think that ancient is another word for stupid. Seriously, if you took a human being from four-thousand B.C. and gave him today's education, he would fit right in without missing a beat."

"Hang on," she said. "You have just screwed up much of my college education."

"Glad to be of service," he said happily. "You should know by now that the truth is often a far cry from the general consensus."

"What about Atlantis? Don't tell me that was real also?"

"Yep. But its story was distorted. Instead of a seat of learning, it was a party town, more like Las Vegas."

"How about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?"

"Let's focus, shall we, baby girl?" he said. "Anyway, back to my story. The Nephilim created a weapon of mass destruction, one that could decimate if not make mankind go extinct altogether. Her name was Orities."

"What do you mean
her
?"

"Using forbidden dark magic and technology, they created an inhuman, almost unstoppable creature. Cloaked in the illusion of a beautiful woman, she fed upon humanity, building her strength to a point where she could unleash a terrible plague that would level mankind."

"I never read anything about that."

"Thanks to an incredibly handsome and dashing Angel, they never got a chance to use her before the wrath of God struck. Unfortunately, while her creators were destroyed, she survived."

"Incredibly handsome?" she asked. "Really?"

"Face it, I'm a stud."

"You mean that thing is here,
stud
?"

"Relax, baby girl, and listen. The beast is intelligent, and she quickly surmised that to wipe out humanity meant her own demise. Orities has traveled down through history, living on the edge of civilization, taking only enough people to survive."

"Nobody figured it out?

"From time to time, her exploits were discovered and she was tracked down," said Larry. "And her seekers paid dearly."

"What do you mean?"

"Twice, she gave the world a taste of her power. The Black Death killed around sixty percent of the population of Europe and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed around one hundred million worldwide."

"You call that a taste?"

"She was a lonely, ticking time bomb; that is, until she fell in love."

"You're kidding me! Who would marry a thing like that?"

"You would be surprised. The lure of immortality is a heady drug."

"She could do that?"

"Yes, and she did. The fellow she was with, John LaBeck, over the years became warped and twisted. While she fed to survive, he lived for the sheer terror she caused. Her husband became bolder over the years, destroying entire communities and stealing their belongings to the point where the happy pair of demented lovebirds became quite wealthy."

"You want me to stop Orities and her boyfriend?"

Larry laughed. "They were stopped back in 1940 by a preacher named Silas Cole. Going by the names John and Celeste Beck, they tried to set Cole up for their crimes, but this time it backfired. Preacher Cole, escaping a lynch mob, shot and crippled Beck. Later that night, in a still undiscovered place, he trapped the beast."

"Now you have lost me," she said.

"The Nephilim were not stupid; immoral, vicious, degenerate, but definitely not stupid. They created a device to contain their weapon. It is called the Collamarr. I guess you would call it sort of a spiritual prison. Once in, you could not get back out. However, to keep it from being used by humanity, they made it so that its use would cost the user the ultimate price."

"You've lost me even more," she said.

"Once the creature was within a few feet, you killed yourself; that action and no other would trigger the trap."

"Shit! You mean this Silas Cole—"

"Yep, gave his life stopping the beast."

"He is—was a hero."

"Of the noblest kind, baby girl. The people around Bryson City still remember him. They call him the Butcher."

"The Butcher?"

"Yeah, and while Cole got the credit for Celeste Beck's crimes, John Beck became a local celebrity. While tearing the place apart looking for the Collamarr, Beck has put money back into the community; blood money stolen from earlier victims.

For all his contributions, Beck gained the name the Angel of Bryson City. Cole's wife, sons, everyone, on the other hand, thought Silas was guilty and grew to hate him. No one but Beck ever knew the truth."

"That is terrible, but who would believe that crazy story?" she asked. "Wait a minute. How did Silas Cole know how to do all this?"

"How do you think?" asked Larry.

"Ahhh, the picture becomes clear," she said. "So Silas Cole was a Paladin?"

"Technically. I had to pull some dirty tricks to get Silas to cooperate, but it was the only way."

"So, if she is safely locked away…"

"…Why do I need you?" he asked. "I need you to stop her husband from finding the Collamarr. More specifically, I need you to stop Silas Cole's own great grandson from finding it."

"I can move it—"

"Absolutely out of the question! It is in a protected place, one that cannot be located by use of the dark arts. Know this, baby girl: Zack Cole will find it; he is the only one who can and you must stop him."

"You want me to talk to him?"

"Beck is manipulating Zack and he will not listen to anyone. Listen carefully: you must
stop
him."

"Stop him?"

"Think about it," said Larry.

A shiver ran down her spine as the truth dawned on her.

"You want me to kill him?"

"Bingo."

"I am not your murderer, you son of a bitch! Has Zack done anything to deserve this?"

"No, unless you count a string of royally pissed ex-girlfriends and four speeding tickets, the boy is clean."

"I can't. I won't."

"Kill one innocent to save billions of innocents. That is what is at stake. I cannot allow Celeste Beck to roam free. If my hands were not tied, I would do it myself, trust me."

"I don't want to kill anyone, but if I have to let me kill Beck instead; he deserves it."

"Yes, he does, many, many times over, but Zack will still find the vessel, and I know of least three groups who would use the creature to further their own wicked pursuits. No, Maggie. Zack Cole must die."

Maggie, in a fit of rage threw the expensive video player through a dirty window.

***

The room dissolved and Maggie found herself standing on a high hill. All around her for miles lay rotting corpses. The hideous, unbearable stench made her vomit.

Wiping her mouth, she noticed the sky, black with carrion birds waiting to feed upon the dead.

"This is what awaits mankind, baby girl. Only you can stop it."

"You win," she said softly. "Zack Cole is a dead man."

***

"Excellent!" said Larry as the room returned to normal.

Maggie found the video player sitting on the arm of her chair. She reattached the headphones.

"Cheer up, Maggie," said Larry. "I got you a present. Kali is waiting for you on the table."

"Kali?"

"Normal weapons aren’t much good against supernatural enemies. Kali will help even the odds."

Maggie rose and moved to the table.

"It's a khukuri," she said looking at the long curved blade. "Travis was crazy about those knives. He must have had twenty of them. From the slim shape, I would say it is from the Rai region, what they call a sirupati. Looks bad-ass, but I would prefer an enchanted 12-gauge."

"I'll bet you would. Trust me on this, Maggie, Travis didn't have anything like Kali. In fact, no one does."

Maggie extended her hand to the rich black horn handle of the eighteen-inch long knife.

"Stop," said Larry. "There is something you should know before touching her."

Maggie, ignoring his warning, grasped the grip and hoisted the blue-tinged blade. She felt a small shock, almost like a static carpet shock.

"Master,"
said Kali,
"hungry."

"What the hell?" exclaimed Maggie, dropping the knife. The big blade sliced through the oak table and buried itself to the hilt in the floor.

"The damn thing is alive!"

"Anyone tell you that you swear too much?" asked Larry. "Profanity is for the witless."

"You should have heard Travis."

"Travis doesn't work for me, you do. I expect you to have more class and a cleaner mouth."

"Sorry."

"Of course it is alive," he said. "I tried to warn you. Kali is an illusion of a blade. It is, in reality, a powerful demonic entity bound to this form. Once upon a time ago, baby girl, a cabal of six warlocks sent a powerful, monstrous entity named Kali to put an end to a powerful witch, Laylakokumi Akirasoon Shu, or Layla for short. Seems she was muscling in on their territory. Anyway, the warlocks sadly underestimated their enemy and should have left well enough alone. After a particularly hellacious fight, not only did she defeat Kali, she formed it into the weapon you see before you. Layla used it to dispatch the wizards and thousands of others before she finally met her match. It is a weapon like no other. It now recognizes you as its master and will be yours until the day you die."