Play with Fire

chapter Thirty-Nine

LIBBY PICKED UP her phone, glanced at it, and said, “Well, now.” She looked at Morris. “It’s Ashley.”

Morris’s eyebrows rose as Libby pressed “Answer” and said, “Hi, Ashley.”

“Hmm,” Ashley’s voice said. “Caller ID – or magic?”

“Who says Caller ID isn’t magic? ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’”

“Arthur C. Clarke, right?” Ashley said. “Very interesting man. But it’s real magic I want to talk to you about.”

“Fair enough. Quincey’s here – I’ll put you on speaker.”

“But if you do, I won’t be able to whisper sweet nothings in your ear.”

“Guess we’ll have to save that for another time,” Libby said, and pressed some icons. “Okay, you’re on speaker.”

“I might as well do the same,” Ashley said, “since Peters is with me. He hates feeling left out of things.”

“So, what’s on your mind?” Libby asked.

“Apart from the usual, you mean? How about the Corpus Hermeticum?”

“Okay – what about it?”

“Have you tracked it down yet?”

Libby hesitated. “Mostly. We’ve got four volumes out of five.”

“Nice going, kiddo. Where’s the fifth one?”

“We’re still working on that,” Libby said.

“Crap. Any leads?”

“Not much. A name, which is almost certainly an alias. Oh, and we’re pretty sure that the guy behind the name tried to kill us today.”

“Do tell. Well, I’m glad he failed – for any number of reasons. What’d he use – a spell?”

“No, a werewolf. The kind that don’t need moonlight to transform, apparently.”

“Gracious me,” Ashley said. “I assume said lycanthrope isn’t feeling too well, right about now.”

“I think it’s fair to say that he isn’t feeling anything at all.”

“You go, girl!”

“What’s your interest in all this Ashley? I mean, I’m grateful for your help in tracking down the book, and all, but...”

“I didn’t call to gossip, Libby, if that’s what you’re getting at. It appears that, once again, we have a common interest.”

“Indeed? What’s that?”

“I should start by telling you about a very unusual text message I got this evening...”

After Ashley had finished speaking, there was silence on the line.

“Libby? You still there?”

“Yes, I’m just trying to integrate this new information with what I already know, and come up with something that makes sense. It’s making my head hurt. But before we get into that, there’s a couple of things we learned from Adelson that you don’t know yet.”

“Hit me,” Ashley said.

“One is the alias that the mysterious buyer of the Corpus Hermeticum was using – Theron Ware.”

“Black Easter,” Ashley said, almost at once.

“You know the book?”

“Know it? It’s one of my faves. Interesting sense of humor this guy has – and it would seem to confirm that he really is interested in opening the Gates of Tartarus.”

“Yes it would, wouldn’t it? The other noteworthy item is that Mr. Ware was only interested in volume five of the Corpus Hermeticum. Adelson offered to sell him the whole thing, but all the guy cared about was the last volume.”

“So, the crucial spell’s in book five,” Ashley said. “Must be. It would be nice to get a look at one of those.”

“Good luck with that,” Libby said. “Father Bowen said the only other two copies he knows about are locked up: one in the Vatican and the other in the Kremlin.”

“Shit. I used to have some contacts in the Kremlin, but they joined us in Hell decades ago – although it seems like only yesterday. I still know a couple of guys in the Vatican, but neither of them is high up enough in the pecking order to have access to the secure room of the Vatican Library.”

“Hell has people in the Vatican?” Libby said.

“Not demons, of course – more what the Soviets used to call agents of influence.”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised – but I confess I am, a little.”

“It’s like the man said in that James Bond movie, honey: ‘We have people everywhere.’”

“We’ll talk to Father Bowen,” Libby said. “Maybe he knows somebody in Rome who can get a quick peek at volume five for us.”

“It would be a big help,” Ashley said. “Although I’m not gonna hold my breath waiting.”

“I’ve been taking notes while you two have been talking,” Morris said. “Trying to organize the information we have, versus what we still need to know. See if this makes sense to all of you.

“Here’s what we know:

1. A demon made flesh, calling himself Theron Ware, is abroad in the world – specifically the United States.

2. Ware’s mission is to conduct a black magic ritual that will open the gates of Hell, allowing its denizens to enter our world, with catastrophic results.

3. The ritual, Ware is using, can be found in volume five of the Corpus Hermeticum.

4. The spell apparently involves the ritual murder of clergymen, then burning their houses of worship down around them. Each sacrifice so far has involved a different religious denomination.

5. Four such sacrifices have taken place. They seem to be occurring at ten-day intervals, which, if that’s the pattern, means the next one will be nine days from now.

6. Ware appears to know that Libby and I are on his trail, and has tried to have us killed once already.

“Now here’s what we don’t know, but need to find out, pronto:

A. How many more sacrifices does Ware need to perform to complete the ritual? Although, I agree with Ashley that five makes sense, given that number has a powerful role in black magic.

B. What does Astaroth mean in his text when he refers to a ‘big sacrifice center?’

C. Where will the next (and presumably last) sacrifice take place?

D. Assuming we can find the answer to ‘C,’ how do we stop the bastard?

“That’s what I’ve got, kids,” Morris said. “Did I leave anything out?”

“Only this,” Peters said. “If we f*ck this up, will Ashley put in a good word for us when Satan takes over?”

“I’ve always loved your sense of humor, Peters,” Ashley said. “Now shut up.”