Hard Case Page 17

"We are Azaroti."

  "Demons,” I supplied.

  "Yes, but of a higher order than you are used to..." A moment of disdain crossed Tweedledee's face, not that I'm sure what disdain would look like on a frog's face. "...in this frontier."

  "So I take it you demons come in different shapes and sizes."

  "Demon races," Tweedledum contributed.

  I turned to Izzy. "Guess I forgot to post the ‘no demons allowed’ sign at the edge of town."

  "I understand your distaste for demons. The Rygen of the frontier are nasty but frail, atavistic without any redeeming traits."

  I could feel the ball of fire again.

  "You don't understand anything. You live here, but I've been sentenced here. I am not going to like any of the demon races."

  The two demons just smiled. It was maddening. My shoulder muscles were bunching up. Izzy reached over and put his hand on my shoulder.

  "What are you here for?” Izzy asked in a calm tone without much inflection.

  "We are seekers. We have come to take you to our manitor."

  "And if I say no?"

  The frogs just smiled again.

  It was a fine trap. I wanted to find out about the manitor and what he was going to do about us. However, I had wanted to do it on my terms. I had wanted to learn what I could about him before he met me. Clearly, that wasn't going to happen. Here they sat, like comical frog Buddhas in my office, as if this were as ordinary as anything. No one outside probably even knew they were here. Despite their fat and lazy appearance, I could sense the menace, the danger that hung in the air. They were like the sleepy-eyed mobsters in the movies who would seem fat and harmless, but would have a gun out to splatter someone's brains across the table in a single, unexpected burst of violence. Then they would quietly return to sipping their wine, unperturbed.

  I stood. Izzy stood with me. Tweedledee and Tweedledum didn't move. They could afford to wait. They were in no hurry.

  "Are you going with them?” Izzy asked.

  "I don't think I get a choice."

  "I'm going with you."

  "No, I think it would be better for you to stay and warn the others. If they show up again before I return, we need weapons."

  If this tone of conversation distressed the Azaroti at all, they sure didn't show it.

  Izzy gave me a hug, using it to whisper in my ear. "They will be slow. I'll have Kyo shadow you to find out where they take you."

  I nodded.

  "Okay, let’s go," I said impatiently to the frogs. They nodded without saying anything, but didn't get up. The next thing I knew, there was no floor beneath me.

  I stood in a doorway.

  Behind me was a dark street corner. I knew that without looking, and I didn’t want to look to confirm it. I sensed that whatever lay behind me was a dangerous place. That danger lay in not just going out there but even seeing it. Not that what lay in front of me was safe.

  I stood in a long, dimly lit bar and grill. The walls were wood, maybe mahogany, maybe some tree I had no knowledge of in Hell, though I already had the feeling there was more than a little illusion in this place. The walls might have been polished once, but were now dingy. There were black chairs arranged carelessly around small tables. Each table had its collections of salt, pepper, tabasco, mustard and ketchup, like huddled soldiers. The floor was stone tile, white with black patterns. There were a couple of black support columns on either side. Along one wall were windows, but they had blinds pulled down. I was happy for that. Overhead, several fans rotated noisily. I had no idea what powered them because I had yet to see anything like motors or electricity in this place. The whole place reeked of old cigarettes, warm beer and burgers.

  At the back of the room was a bar that wrapped around and came out into the room along one wall. It was brown wood, trimmed in faded brass. High-leg chairs were scattered in front of it, as if people had left for the night, but no one had cleaned up the place yet. There were several smoldering ashtrays and empty beer bottles along the bar. There was a door at the far end of the bar that led, I would guess, to the kitchen in the back. Finally, against the wall opposite the bar were several dark booths. In the last one sat a pair of figures.

  This was such a complete vision, and almost cliché. The noir Hell. Jazz is the music of the devil. Was it an illusion? A glamour? Was it created in my “mind” or someone else’s? Was I still in Rockvale imagining this, or had I been transported somewhere?

  “I suggest you move away from that door. You are awfully tempting.” The voice was gravelly, but without any recognizable regional inflection. I nodded, though I doubt he could see me doing so. I walked deliberately, but slowly, towards the back booth, my steps echoing a bit in the big empty barroom.

  The man wore a gray suit with an ice-blue tie and a gray fedora tilted jauntily on his brow. His skin was dark, but in this light, or lack of light, it was hard to tell how dark it really was. His face formed a slight snout, his jaws protruding, a pair of razor-sharp canines just under his lips as he smiled. His eyes were red. He studied me as I approached the table. In front of him was a handgun, a revolver with a long barrel. I wrote about fantasy worlds so I didn’t really know guns. He also had a bottle of scotch that was two thirds full and a glass that was half empty.

  Next to him was an exotically attractive woman, dark hair, smooth olive skin in a shimmering evening dress and spike heels. She winked at me and managed to wiggle deliciously without actually moving at all.

  “You brought me here,” I said, meeting and holding his gaze. “Looks like your show.”

  He nodded and turned to the woman. “Later, Babe.”

  She feigned disappointment, pouting with a half smile, and swished herself distractingly through the door by the bar.

  “Sit down.” He motioned. I stayed where I was. He smiled.

  I looked around. “Is any of this real?”

  “Yes, it is. I like bars.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m a manitor. But call me Guido.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  I could sense the composure on his surface, but I also sensed the great danger that lurked just beneath. He took a draw on his scotch.

  “Is this what you really look like…Guido?”

  “Today it is.”

  “Was Janovic your shade?”

  “Yes.” His eyes closed “He certainly keeps things interesting.”

  Like a tripped spring, I took a powerful swing at Guido, but only landed in his seat. He was now sitting on the other side of the table, calmly watching. As I pulled myself up to a sitting position, he picked up the bottle and filled his glass again. Every movement he made was precise, economical. No waste.

  “Why are you hunting me?”

  Guido was lost in thought. “Actually, I’m not. But there are some unusual things about you and some are concerned that you represent a new and unstable element.”

  “Why did you send Janovic?”

  “The demons were afraid of you. Janovic had a connection to you and wanted to go.”

  “And Rox?”

  “A shame about Rox. She is very special. That's why she was prepared for you. Janovic saw her as the way to get to you. He did things to her...”

  "He did those things because he wanted to get to me?"

  "And because he likes doing terrible things to women. Sort of a daily double for him."

  "You are saying she was under his influence when she betrayed me?"

  "I don't really know the details. Once Janovic had done what he needed, she made choices. I just set things in motion. Stuff happens."

  “You don’t really care about any of this, do you?” I asked.

  "I don't think the same way you do."

  "Are you talking about me personally or us ‘former humans’?"

  "I was never human.”

  "Then you are a native race.”

  Another smile. "More than you know."

  "But you are not a type of demon. Are you
a devil then?"

  "I suppose that term will do."

  He was still for a very long time, his gaze fixed on me, as if he were looking for something. I couldn’t quite figure out the expression on his face, but with those dog-like features, who could? I was starting to get agitated again.

  “You are not afraid of me.” It was said like he was thinking out loud.

  “I haven’t figured out what you can do yet.”

  He smiled. “You are not afraid…period.”

  “Not much point in being afraid. You people hold all the cards. Only thing I can do is keep giving you as hard a time as I can.”

  “Makes you different than the others.”

  I shrugged. “Where you going with this?”

  Guido drank more scotch. With a single motion, he put down the glass and picked up the gun. It was aimed between my eyes.

  “That real? I haven’t seen much metal in Hell.”

  “You aren’t afraid.”

  “I don’t want to die. But, no, I don’t feel fear.”

  He laughed his gravelly laugh and put the gun on the table. “Most people would be afraid because they don’t want to die.”

  “What do you want with me? Why am I here?”

  “I wanted to see you.”

  I sighed. “Okay. Here I am. Now what?”

  “You stopped Janovic and killed the demons in Rockvale.”

  “I did. You care?”

  “I think you might be useful.”

  “Useful? How?”

  Guido took another sip. “You may have Rockvale for now. You may keep doing what you are doing for now.”

  “You giving me permission, Guido.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t need permission.”

  “If you do something I wish you not to do, I will find a way to let you know.” He poured more scotch. “You will stop.”

  “Probably not. You’ll probably have to stop me.”

  “I can, you know.” Guido smiled.

  “No doubt. I told you, I know I’m playing against the house. I won’t be the one who stops.”

  Guido gave me a full-face smile, baring his fangs. “Hard cassse,.” he said, hissing the last syllable gleefully.

  “I noticed you said I ‘killed’ demons but only that I ‘stopped’ Janovic.”

  "Janovic did not become a proto."

  "I noticed. Why?"

  "Special powers. He is connected to some very dark powers in this place."

  "What does that mean for me and Rockvale?"

  "Nothing for Rockvale, Janovic doesn't care about Rockvale."

  "So I am his focus."

  "You took away the other world from him. You are his…” Guido paused. He wrinkled the nose of his dog-like face and exposed his canines. "...special project."

  "So, what happens next?”

  "You will have to face him. I can contain him, but I can't stop him. He is far more powerful than the last time you faced him."

  "Are you saying that you don't have ultimate power over him? Or that you won't exercise it?"

  "I'm saying he is something that was set in motion. It needs to complete its pattern. You are part of that pattern. You will have to figure out what to do about that."

  "You are not going to help me?"

  Guido looked at me, then down at his hands. He rubbed his thumbs across his fingers absently, like he was trying to come up with a word, but there was no urgency in his face.

  I spoke first. "You are going to give me a lot of philosophical mumbo jumbo,"

  "I was going to say something, but I know that is exactly how you would think of it. We are very different beings. It is a struggle to translate for you and I am tired. You had best go now."

  “That’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  And just like that, I was standing in my office in Rockvale. Izzy, who was right next to me, stepped back, caught a bit off guard. That suggested at least I actually had been somewhere else.

  "We have anything stronger than tea?"

  20

  One of the first things we had set up in Rockvale was a makeshift gym in an old house on a back street. It was pretty crude. A standard heavy bag made of layers of caned grasses that people in Rockvale made, stuffed with sand, some makeshift weights of rocks bound to wood, wooden staves for "weapons practice" and, out behind the house, a running track with jumping hurdles. Kyo mostly ran the place, so we jokingly called it "The Dragon Lady.” Well, we did whenever Kyo wasn't around.

  Some of the citizens that had been doing tai chi in the park every morning with Kyo had started coming around the gym and were there now with myself and Izzy. It was good seeing them coming around, showing initiative, and, as we talked, showing some interest in defending what we had here. Paul frowned on our using the morning tai chi, which he required for health purposes, as a recruitment venue. If Kyo noted citizens with good skills, she would start talking them up. However Paul knew as well as we did that we would, one way or another, have a fight ahead of us. It ran contrary to his abstract, academic ideas of pacifism, but deep down he knew our piece of this horror of a world was worth sacrifice.

  Izzy was toweling off sweat from the laps he had just run while I was trying some new moves Kyo had given me on the heavy bag.

  "So what sort of creature is this manitor?” Izzy asked, picking up from where we left the conversation earlier. Back in my office, I found I was too antsy after the encounter with the manitor to sit still and talk about it.

  "I don't know. He’s very different from the demons, and I am also pretty sure he was never human. There's something both alien and powerful about him. He really didn't give me any demonstrations of power, but I could feel it. It felt old."

  "Old power?"

  I went into a series of rapid punches against the bag, working up a sweat, then stopped, breathing hard. "Yeah, old power, like old money. I'm not sure I could nail down exactly what makes the new rich different from the old rich, but you know which they are when you meet them. He is powerful, knows it, and doesn't feel the need to prove it to anyone."

  Izzy nodded. "Is he powerful because of his position or because he is a member of a powerful... race?"

  "I don't know. If he is just one of a race of beings, we are in deep trouble. Especially if they don't like what we're doing."

  "If?"

  "That's the funny thing. He was checking me out. He also indicated he was not ready to interfere with us. Said something I didn't understand about me being useful."

  "For now, he plans to leave us alone?"

  "Maybe. The other thing he said was that we are not done with Janovic. Guido..." Before I could say anything else I saw the look on Izzy's face.

  "Guido?"

  I rolled my eyes. "He calls himself Guido."

  "Guido?” Izzy repeated a little louder.

  "I have no idea if he was serious. He’s something of a trickster. But, yes, for now, we know him as Guido." I waved Izzy off while he grinned. "Anyway, he indicated that Janovic was more powerful now and that I would have to face him. There was something odd about having set Janovic in motion but not being able to contain him. I couldn't tell if the manitor couldn’t contain him or couldn’t be bothered with doing so."

  I had toweled off. We wandered together back onto the street and headed towards Izzy's lab.

  "Does any of this help us?” Izzy asked.

  "I don't know. I don't know what to do about Janovic. I don't know where he is or what he is planning. We barely beat him last time, and I had to improvise at the last minute to do it. If he is more powerful now, we’re back to where we were—having no idea how to deal with him."

  "We need information so we can plan."

  "The plan is simple. He shows up again, I take a run at him. However, you are right; we need to know more than we do. Our best bet is to find the manitor. He knows where we are, but we don't know where he is."

  "It sounds like we need a scouting party."

  "Maybe, if we hav
e to. I want to try Saripha first."

  "Saripha?" Izzy looked surprised.

  "She senses things. Maybe she can get a read on him that will help us locate him."

  "So you are joining us?"

  "You, me, Taka and the platform. I think we should ask Kyo to join us for better protection."

  "And Rox,” Izzy added.

  "Yes. Rox.”

  Izzy kept looking at me, no doubt watching my reaction.

  "What?" I said, sharper than I intended. "Saripha wants to see her, she must have her reasons. It's best if she travels with us."

  "She's not the same Rox who betrayed us"

  "We don't know that. She fooled us before. Let’s keep focused on what is important. I don't know how long it is before some folks start unloading cans of magical whoop ass on us. My connection to Rox can wait."

  We set out climbing up into the hills behind Rockvale and heading through the forest to the tower. It was almost like old times. Kyo took the point, Taka followed, walking with Rox, Izzy and me bringing up the rear. Kyo and I both had our short swords. There weren't many of the fiercer wildlife at this elevation, but the unfathomable platform was too important to risk anything happening to it.

  The day was pleasant. We would likely reach the tower just before evening. It would be good to see Saripha again. She provided a certain gravity to the group with her quiet power and presence. It was hard sometimes to keep the focus on what we had to do. Apparently dead former humans were a lot like humans: complacency and comfort set in. Many felt the danger was over. Even I, taking this "hike" through the woods with my friends, could feel my mind wander as I listened to the rustling of leaves in the trees.

  I suddenly stopped. Every one of my senses sharpened. Izzy stopped and looked at me.

  "Quentin?"

  "Izzy, is there any breeze right now?"

  "No, why?"

  Before I could say anything, shapes dropped on us from the trees above. A small band of demons—Rygen, I guess they were called—were waiting in ambush. Whether these were a few last survivors from the tribe we wiped out or a small group of scouts from another territory was hard to know. It didn't matter. They were as nasty as ever.

  Izzy had backed up when they dropped, threading an arrow as he did so. His speed was uncanny as he split the head of one of the demons. The painful howl distracted them all for a minute. One raked me with his claws, reminding me that I had actually had a couple of relatively pain-free days in this place. I unsheathed my sword and slashed his throat in the same motion.