Forty-two
Abraham Darker watched the full-scale assault on the
Trevor hill from the shoulder of the highway near King’s motel. Men
rushed the hill using the guns with the antenna assembly on the front to
kill Billy’s little machines. Hordes of Evie’s demons flashed silver in
the sunlight, rolling down the hill and collecting like metallic snow
at its base. Then King’s men used small satchels of
explosives to blow the entrances to the underground tunnels. They were
inside the hill for a half hour. During the wait, Delaney joined him in
silence and watched.
King’s men retreated hastily at one point. They
gathered a good distance from the base of hill as larger explosions from
inside the hill blew out the entrances like blowtorches. Finally, one
single explosion jolted the ground beneath Abe’s feet. The entire hill
upon which the Trevor mansion had once stood sent up a halo of dust that
rose high enough to be carried away by the wind.
“King wants you,” Delaney said, and turned away.
Abe went back to the motel, tapped at King’s door,
and then let himself in. The room had been cleared except for a central
desk and some equipment along the wall. King was talking to several of
his men. He looked up at Abe in disinterest. “The two you named as
occupants of the hill, Billy Trevor and Evie, your sister," King said to
him. "Neither were
found inside the hill. Help search the valley. They’ve nowhere else for
them to go. My men will deal with the Trevor boy. I want you to bring
your sister to me personally. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
King returned to his conversation with the others.
Dismissed, Abe left the cabin. Delaney waited for him outside. “You
gotta be hard, Darker. He’ll push you as hard as he can, just to be sure
he can trust you again.”
Abe decided there was more to King’s strategy. “He’s
trying to break me. He wants me to worship him like the rest of you do.
You all worship him.”
Delaney shrugged. “You’ve seen enough to judge for
yourself. Is he an ordinary man, or something more?”
“He’s the devil.”
Delaney chuckled. “Okay, so he’s the devil, and he
offered you a quarter of a million dollars to do a simple job. You
accepted the money and the conditions that went with it, which means he
already holds title to your soul.”
“You said I could just take my money and walk away
when it’s over,” Abe said.
“When it’s over, you can. King gave us all that
option. That’s why he’s so sure of our loyalty in the end, because as bad
as it gets, it won’t last much longer. He’ll go back to where he came
from, back to hell maybe. He’ll leave us with our reward, if that’s all
we want from him.”
“There’s more?”
Abe saw it for the first time in that instant, a
madness in Delaney’s eyes far worse than Lazarus’ simple-minded lust.
“When King rules the world, Darker, as he will for a time, we’ll be given
the opportunity to stand at his side. Those who accept will go back with
King to his world.”
“Back to hell?” Abe said evenly.
“King is bringing hell to Earth, Abraham Darker. You
will either be honed by it, or destroyed in its wake. King is building an
army of warriors. That is his purpose here. He will use this army to
break down the barriers to a world that was abandoned and forgotten by his
own people, a world more beautiful than any man has ever known.”
“You’re crazy,” Abe said calmly.
“I must sound crazy when I say that the devil has
offered to take his followers to heaven. Look around you, Abraham
Darker. Judge for yourself whether we are dealing with men, or gods.”
