“If it comes to that,” Talbot said.
“We have to kill him.”
Talbot nodded. “In all likelihood.”
“You’ve done this sort of thing before,” Perrot said.
“Sorry?”
“Hostage situations.”
“We’re not sure that’s what this is, but yes, I’ve handled such situations.”
“How often do the hostages die?”
Talbot frowned. “No one situation is like any other.”
“I’ve heard that Lucifer takes no hostages he does not intend to kill.”
“Ghost stories to scare young recruits, sir,” Talbot said. “The truth is we don’t know why the Devil does what he does.”
“I think his motive today seems pretty clear,” Perrot said. He slumped back into the leather bench seat and started writing his family’s names on the window with his sweaty fingers. “He wants to kill my family.”
Talbot was getting tired of the sad drunk. “We don’t even know that he’s at your home.”
“A home with a dedicated staff doesn’t answer the phone the same day that the Devil learns where I live?” Perrot nodded. “He’s there.”
Talbot had nothing more to say, no way to comfort Perrot for fear of getting his hopes up.
They rode in silence as the car went from pavement to dirt roads and eventually back to pavement again.
In the rearview mirror, April and Ichikawa’s taxi had finally caught up with them.
Talbot had a sinking feeling that he was going to regret today for the rest of his life.
April didn’t belong here, at least not yet. It wasn’t a measurement of her potential or her God-given abilities, but rather her lack of training in the field.
Haagenti’s appraisal of the situation was better than his own. Talbot hated admitting that a demon was right where he was wrong.
They pulled up outside Perrot Manor gate five minutes later.
The mansion was engulfed in flames.
Chapter Sixteen
April stepped out of the taxi and was greeted by the intense heat which permeated off the burning mansion. Ichikawa barely had enough time to take the bags out of the trunk and pay the driver before the taxi drove off, leaving them in a cloud of dust.
Perrot stumbled out of the car and punched in the code to open the gate. Before he could enter, Talbot was already running past him with a gun in hand.
April felt like her feet were incased in stone. Whatever dread the others had managed to build within her, they had somehow left her unprepared for this.
Ichikawa stepped up beside her. He said, “Do you have your gun?”
April lifted her shirt slightly so that she could pull the pistol out from beneath her belt.
“Good,” Ichikawa said.
Before she could say anything, Ichikawa ran through the gate, and was out of earshot over the inferno. He carried a high-powered rifle in his arms and was already aiming down the scope.
And Perrot just stood there in the gateway, embraced by his driver’s gloved hands. Dribble spilled down the side of Perrot’s mouth as he cried into his driver’s chest.
As if spurred by Perrot’s inaction, April felt herself moving beyond the gates and towards the blaze.
Talbot was shouting, “Is there anybody alive in there? Let me hear from you!”
“I’m going around back,” Ichikawa said.
April tried to call after Talbot but he was already running up the front steps of the mansion. He kicked the door down and ran headlong into the burning building.
April held the cold gun and stood on what remained of the front porch. Her skin already burned and she couldn’t imagine taking one step more—but then she did and she was entering the inferno, sucking on smoke, and playing the hero she never believed herself to be.
At first all she could see inside was a blur of orange and red as the flames rolled over her.
She ran through the fire and came to stand in a safe spot near the stairway. She brushed her clothes where they smoked and did her best to breathe only through her sleeve.
Because of the thick smoke, she hadn’t realized how close she had come to almost running right into Talbot.
Talbot stood with his back to her, looking up the staircase to where Ronald Lime waited for them with a little girl in his clutches.
Lime tipped a shard of broken glass to April and said, “I think I know you from some place.”
The little girl was crying and hugging onto Lime, apparently fearing the flames more than the glass blade in his hands.
“Release her, Satan,” Talbot said.
“Understand that if I let her go, she’s rolling down the stairs with a piece of glass stuck in her eye.”
April found the gun in her hands rising upwards. It shook in her grip as Lime’s head lined up down the sights.
“Ooooo,” Lime said and smiled.
Talbot looked back at her. He reached out for her gun, but she jumped back, keeping her aim on Lime.
“April, don’t,” Talbot said.
“Do it,” Lime said.
April pulled back the hammer on the gun and wrapped her index finger around the trigger. She wanted to squeeze the trigger and put a round through Lime’s head, but what if she missed? What if she hit the girl?
“Let her go,” April said.
“I can’t let her go,” Lime said.
“April, put down the gun,” Talbot said.
“Shoot me or don’t,” Lime said. “Make up your mind, April. It’s getting hot in here.”
“Let her go!” April shouted.
April detected movement behind Lime—not the growing fire, but something human.
Ichikawa.
Lime spun at the last second, the girl still held close to him, and slashed his makeshift blade into Ichikawa’s chest.
Ichikawa fell backwards, dropping his gun and pulling at the glass sticking out of his torso.
With Lime now unarmed, Talbot took the stairs three at a time and raced up towards him.
Lime took the girl by the throat and threw her violently at Talbot.
April gasped as Talbot reached out for the girl, but could not catch her.
The girl tumbled through the air, scraping against the staircase wall and knocking off hanging picture frames.
April got into position, feeling too slow even though the girl’s flight seemed to last an eternity.
The girl flew into her arms and April fell over backwards.
Her fall rattled the walls and a chandelier came crashing down next to them, scattering glass everywhere.
April rolled the girl onto her back. The poor girl’s head was bruised and bleeding. She wasn’t awake. April feared she wasn’t even breathing.
Perrot came stumbling into his burning mansion. He got down next to April and his daughter and instantly started checking her condition.
“What happened?” Perrot asked. “What happened? What happened?”
“She was thrown,” April said. She coughed on smoke and pulled a shard of glass from her hair. “I can’t wake her.”
“Talbot knows CPR,” Perrot said. He looked around in a panic. “Where’s Talbot? He knows what to do.”
April checked the staircase, but Talbot was gone.
“He’s not here,” April said.
“He had the power to help, but he left her?” Perrot asked, rage filling his voice.
“Get your daughter out of the building,” April said. “I’ll try to find Talbot.”
She left the girl’s side and hurried up the stairs. She found Ichikawa on the floor trying to dress his wound.
“I’m fine,” Ichikawa said.
April went past him, ducking flames as she went room to room.
She arrived at what had to be the girl’s bedroom. It was one of the only rooms in the house not touched by fire.
A woman was on the bed, her belly savagely torn open.
The girl’s bedroom window had been broken outwards. Ap
ril went to the window and stared outside.
In the distance, backlit by flame, Talbot pursued Lime through a dead vineyard.
Chapter Seventeen
Barren branches lashed at Talbot’s face as he chased the Devil over the French countryside.
Lime zigzagged from one row of the vineyard to the next, occasionally checking over his shoulder to laugh at Talbot.
Talbot’s lungs were still burning from the smoke and his leg hurt like hell from the leap through the window. He hadn’t even thought about it, he just jumped and hoped to have a better landing than his quarry.
Lime reentered Talbot’s line of sight, running a few yards ahead of him.
Talbot tried to aim his gun without slowing down, but it wasn’t easy. The gun bobbed around with every step, barely keeping Lime centered at the other end of the barrel.
He pulled the trigger. The gun bucked and a pink mist shot out the side of Lime’s hip.
Lime stumbled but tried to keep moving. He limped, carrying one leg behind him, but never gave up.
Talbot fired another shot into the dirt next to Lime.
Lime laughed and stopped running. He put his hands over his head and winced as he turned around to greet his pursuer.
“That’s cheating,” Lime said.
“On your knees,” Talbot said as he came up to within ten feet of Lime. He aimed between Lime’s eyes, confident that he wouldn’t miss from this distance.
“My work’s done here,” Lime said, refusing to kneel. “This one’s future is spent and Perrot is a ruined man. Kill me if you like, it makes little difference now.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” Talbot said. “I’m going to arrest you. And we won’t exorcise you, instead we’ll interrogate you, we’ll learn from you. We’ll use you.”
“I don’t want to be arrested,” Lime said, shaking his head. “Kill me or set me free but don’t chain me, human. I will resist you.”
Talbot adjusted his aim and put a bullet through Lime’s knee.
Lime buckled and hit the dirt. Before he could react, Talbot was pulling one arm behind his back and cuffing him. Lime tried to hold his one free arm to his chest, but Talbot overpowered him and locked it to the other arm behind his back.
“I have powers,” Lime said as his eyes turned to flame.
Talbot pulled out a leather mask with only a hole for a nose to fit through. He tugged it over Lime’s head and tightened the laces at the back.
He yanked Lime to his feet and said, “Let’s see those powers now.”
Lime mumbled and struggled against Talbot’s control, but ultimately could do nothing more to fight back.
Talbot led him back towards the burning mansion. They both limped, looking like the living dead somewhere at the end of the world.
When he reached the front yard of the mansion, he found Perrot in the grass crying over the bodies of his wife and daughter.
Perrot’s driver knelt down beside him, rubbing his shoulders and doing his very best not to cry, too.
April and Ichikawa were near the gate. Ichikawa was injured and bent over slightly, but he looked all right. April appeared uninjured, but her eyes showed a dark kind of horror rarely seen this side of Hell.
When Perrot saw Talbot and Lime approaching, he left his loved ones and drew his pistol. Without a moment’s hesitation, Perrot fired, nearly hitting Talbot in the head.
At first he thought it was simply Perrot’s poor aim, but when a second bullet nearly ripped through his stomach, Talbot realized he was Perrot’s intended target.
Perrot screamed, “Where were you?”
Talbot reached behind his back for his gun, but he was not prepared to draw it just yet.
“My daughter—” Perrot broke off into a whimper. He wiped snot on the back of his sleeve. Perrot recomposed himself quickly, and aimed at Talbot’s chest. “You could have helped, but didn’t. She needed you!”
“I left her in the care of April,” Talbot said. “I had to recover the suspect.” He looked at the bodies on the grass and was surprised when he heard himself ask, “She didn’t make it?”
April slowly crept up on Perrot from the side. She wasn’t armed with anything other than good intentions. April wasn’t trained in disarming and subduing a gunman. Talbot had to end this quickly before she got herself hurt.
Perrot glared at Talbot through bloodshot eyes. “They’re gone,” Perrot said. “My family’s gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Talbot said. “I did what I thought was best. Please, put the gun away.”
April was almost upon him. She reached out—
Perrot pivoted and put the gun in April’s face.
Talbot kicked Lime to the ground and drew the gun from behind his back.
In the next instant, Talbot’s gun was empty and Perrot was holding his bleeding hand to his chest.
Talbot rushed over and picked up Perrot’s weapon, then checked to make sure that his shot wouldn’t prove lethal. The bleeding was minimal, the bullet only taking enough of his hand to force him to drop the gun.
April was shaking.
Talbot held her close and led her to a tree to calm her down.
He looked back at Perrot and his family, with the great manor burning in the background.
All the while, though hooded and gagged, Lime was laughing.
Chapter Eighteen
Lime was put in a cage designed especially for him at the heart of Gatekeepers HQ, beneath the streets of Rome.
While the Devil was trapped within the body of Lime, his spiritual power was divided. His entire essence was not locked away in that cage in Rome, but by being stretched so thin, he could not deny a sense of loss, a kind of weakness of the mind and spirit.
The Devil tried to convince himself that by being at the center of the Gatekeepers’ hub he was in the best place to spy upon his enemies. The truth was that perhaps he had educated them on their shortcomings too well, and they treated his capture with utmost caution.
Lime was barely able to catch a glimpse of the world outside his cell. Sometimes scientists or priests came to test him. He possessed the scientist for a short time and cursed the priest to hear sinister voices inside his head.
Lime felt some measure of victory when he learned the priest had fired a bullet in one ear and out the other in order to silence the voices.
His cell was still a work in progress. It had its own air and ventilation system, so that he could not spread his will to the rest of the underground complex. He had a bed, a sink, and a shitter. If he had company, he also had a red, plastic chair meant for a child a third his size.
A doctor gave him crayons and paper one day and asked that Lime keep a diary.
Lime drew portraits of Talbot fornicating with April. He scribbled a little doodle of Perrot and his dead women—he decided to make their skin purple, an artistic choice which paid off quite well, he thought. He even made a little masterpiece for the Japanese guy he stabbed—it was a drawing of dead fish and a pink umbrella. Even Lime had to admit that one didn’t make much sense. He left each and every drawing with his signature at the bottom.
He signed them all with a big, underlined S.
Talbot came to see him one day. He had enough forward thinking to wear a gas mask.
“My captor,” Lime said. He sat in the little, red chair with his hands on his knees.
Talbot did not sit down. He went right to talking. “They say you’re not being cooperative with questioning.”
“I don’t want to make it too easy for them.”
“You will tell us everything we want to know,” Talbot said.
“Oh?”
“We can torture you.”
“I’ve known all kinds of torture in Hell,” Lime said. “So, I’m interested to see what you come up with.”
“We also have drugs that can make you talk.”
“You talk to me like I’m just like you. I’m not.” Lime stretched his arms over his head and yawned. “Speaking of whi
ch, when will you bring the exorcist in and set this poor boy free?”
“Not until you give us what we want,” Talbot said.
Lime smiled. “That doesn’t give me much incentive to talk then, does it?”
“You’ll talk.”
“You would sacrifice a young man’s life, his soul, his sanity, just to ask me something-something about the way Hell works and what I’m planning?”
Talbot took a while to respond. “It’s a rare opportunity,” he said.
“It’s fucking cold, is what it is.” Lime leaned forward in his chair. “But at least you’re learning from the best.” He grinned wide. “And I have so much more to teach you, too.”
Talbot started to pace the cell back and forth. Lime’s eyes followed his every movement without turning his head.
“How’s the Frenchman?” Lime asked.
“Why kill his family?” Talbot asked, anger finally entering his voice.
“Why not?”
“His daughter was still in grade school. Her death meant nothing to you.”
“But it meant everything to her father.”
“It’s foul,” Talbot said.
“And how about my old college buddy?” Lime asked with a chipper tone. “Yes, how’s April doing these days? I heard she dropped the poor girl and is at least as responsible for her death as I am. Shame she can’t catch worth a damn. I hope she’s not on your softball team.”
“Don’t talk about her,” Talbot said. He stopped pacing to face Lime directly.
“Oh, found a nerve,” Lime said. “Got feelings for the young lady?”
“She’s innocent,” Talbot said. “Perrot’s family was innocent.”
“I kill innocence,” Lime said. “I crumple it up and throw it away, and the only thing that’s left are broken, ugly men like you and poor Monsieur Perrot.”
“We’ll have vengeance one day.”
“Yes, build your evil so that it may swallow my evil. Tend to your Hell on earth, build it high, scrape the feet of Heaven and show God the greatness you have achieved.”
“We’re not like you,” Talbot said.
“I love how you say that,” Lime said, “as if you’re even having trouble believing it yourself.”
Chapter Nineteen
April went into seclusion, taking a room beneath the quiet Tennessee church. Fellow Gatekeepers left food at her door and were thankful when they found it gone in the morning.
No one saw April for about a week. No one tried to force the door and enter. And when someone parked themselves outside her door, their concerned questions went unanswered.