Chapter the First

In which our intrepid Hero waits for some news, informs Someone of Events and takes possession of some important Objects

Damien woke up to the sound of voices from downstairs and reached over to the bedside table, turned on the lamp and checked his watch; it was five in the evening. He put on what he had been wearing yesterday, but when he opened the bedroom door, there, on the chair next to the door, was a fresh change of clothes and a suitcase. He picked up the clothes and the case, stepped back into the room, took a long, hot shower and dressed in fresh clothing and headed downstairs. However, when he got to the second floor landing, he realized that Kate had been moved to one of the bedrooms and went to see what was going on. Inside the room were three nurses and Dr. Taggart, who, upon seeing Damien, came over to him. "Kate is sedated. When did you have sex?"

"Two days ago, more or less."

"And was she ovulating?"

"I would have been wasting my time if she weren't." Damien came over to Kate. She was gagged and bound, but not with what Damien had first used to secure her. She moaned and tried to move away from him. He closed his eyes and reached out, unsure as to what he would find, if he found anything, but…nothing. He would come back every few hours and check to see whether she was pregnant. For now, he left Kate's room and went downstairs to eat and as he entered the dining room, he was greeted by two guests, one of whom was unexpected.

Paul Buher looked up as Damien entered the dining room and sat at the table. Damien knew that Thomas had contacted Paul once it began to look like that events here were drawing to a close, and Damien had known that Paul was due to arrive here as early as yesterday, depending on what was happening in Chicago. Paul was no doubt en route when he had been contacted by Thomas and told that the situation had been resolved-in their favor. Damien and Paul nodded to each other and Paul returned to what he had been doing.

The unexpected person in the room was Anna Buher, Paul's niece, whom Paul had seemingly liberated from school in order for her to be involved in what was happening here. While Anna was only seventeen, she had inherited her uncle's business acumen and his good sense; Paul was training her to be his eventual replacement.

Damien had woken up and come down in time for dinner. Someone had gone into the city and had come back with Indian take-away. Everyone helped themselves and he began to devour his food, even though Indian cuisine wasn't his favorite. The meal was good, but it somehow reminded Damien of Chan's in Chicago, one of the few remnants of his former life with Richard and Ann that he held up as tradition. Thomas handed Damien a glass of cold beer, with which he washed down his first mouthful of food. He would be back in Chicago, under one circumstance or another, and his first meal would be at Chan's and he couldn't help but think that if he had children, he would get to introduce them to the best Chinese food in the Western hemisphere.

"So, DeCarlo has been taken care of and Peter was with our medical people at St. Margaret's and is now at a funeral home. Apparently, Peter died from a brain injury, and he'll be cremated; the funeral will be the day after tomorrow. Next, I'm assuming that once this pregnancy matter is resolved, we're headed back home to the Windy City?" Thomas put a forkful of food in his mouth and looked at Damien, who nodded.

Paul handed Damien a piece of paper and he began reading it. It was a hastily written document stating that for various reasons, including the attack on Damien's life, Jacob Schroeder's involvement in the near destruction of the Aswan Dam, and Schroeder's so-called connection to Damien, Thorn Industries would be better served with its commander-in-chief back at the helm and he would be immediately resigning as Ambassador to Great Britain. It was all fine to Damien, who gave Thomas the go-ahead to have the resignation drawn up and made official; he would sign it when he was at the Embassy in London. Paul looked at Damien. "You're still going to have to call the President and talk to him...what about the Presidency of the United Nations Youth Council?"

"It depends whether she's pregnant. I'm also going to have to call Kate's boss and tell him that she's taking a leave of absence." Damien continued to eat.

"We've got the contact information here. You can call now, try the office first, he might still be there." Thomas handed Damien another piece of paper that had on it the name and phone number for Kate's boss, both at his office and at home.

"I'm heading back to Chicago tonight. There's the meeting the day after tomorrow for…"

"…the bid for the contract to rebuild the Aswan Dam. Let me know how it goes." Damien looked at Paul, who smiled. Leave it to Damien, with everything that had been going on, to know what was happening on the home front.

"Am I still staying here, Uncle Paul?"

"Yes, you will come back with everyone once this is over and done. However, I want to speak with you before I leave."

"Yes, sir." Anna went back to reading the notes that her uncle had given her about the meeting that was scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

Once everyone was done eating, Anna went off to let the others speak privately.

"In case it wasn't mentioned earlier, I'm glad you're okay." Thomas looked at Damien and Paul concurred with a nod of his head. "So what exactly happened?" Paul raised his eyebrow at Damien. No doubt, Thomas had told Paul what Damien had told him, but Paul wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth.

Damien took a drink of his beer. "It was all a lie, beginning with the prophecy in the 'Book of Hebron,' which served to prime the pump as it were. They assumed, correctly so, that I would educate myself on them, on me and that I would eventually find the prophecy, conveniently telling me the location of the birth of the Nazarene. Not only that, but any over-zealous do-gooders like DeCarlo would have the motive, the opportunity and location to try to kill me. There was an alignment of stars, but it was meaningless...full of sound and fury signifying jack shit, but then they invaded my head making me believe that the Nazarene had been reborn. Whatever baby was born and was supposedly their christ, was nothing but a child born to someone. I don't know what DeCarlo told the parents or parent of that child, if he said anything, who now may be thinking that their son is destined for great things." The Cheshire cat smile was back again. "It was all bull, all to get me to lay down my life, but my Father intervened and I'm here and the Nazarene isn't…a shame, really." And Damien let that smile sit there as he took another drink of beer.

"On a different yet not unrelated topic, what do we do about her?" Thomas looked at Damien.

"We wait for the next few days to see whether she gets pregnant. If not…"

"Can't you just bring her back to Chicago and try there?" Thomas proposed.

"It's not that easy. Remember, these children were supposed to be born to replace me, but I'm not going anywhere just yet. Not that having children, or a child, wouldn't be advantageous, but if she's not meant to get pregnant, then it's not going to happen."

The three of them sat and worked out a plan to call Kate's boss. The call would be made from Kate's room so that she could talk to Michael, her immediate supervisor at the BBC. Kate would be taking a leave of absence from work. If Kate were pregnant, it would be long leave of absence as she would be brought back to Chicago and be taken care of until she had Damien's children and then she would be eliminated. If Kate didn't get pregnant, Peter's death would push her over the edge and she would kill herself. Either way, it was simply a matter of time until Kate Reynolds was dead.

Upstairs, the nurses left the room in order to give Damien and Thomas the privacy that they needed to make the call. Damien called the office number first and for whatever reason, he was there this late at night. "Michael Jones here." The clipped, crisp British accent was unlike the reporters back at home with whom Damien was used to dealing.

"Mr. Jones, this is Damien Thorn."

"Mr. Ambassador, to what do I owe this unexpected surprise?"

Damien put on his very best concerned voice and continued talking to the man. "Well, it's not very good news. I'm calling for Kate, actually; Peter...Peter passed away."

"Oh God, is she okay?"

Damien felt like telling him that that was one of the stupidest questions that could ever be asked of someone who was experiencing a personal tragedy, but he thought better of it. "I'm afraid not. She's with me and we're…well, we're somewhere private. The press hasn't been notified…"

"Of course not, that's best. When's the funeral?"

"That detail is being worked out. I can get back to you with the exact time and place if you like. While I'm sure that Kate had many friends at work, she can't take the stress of a crowd. She's under the care of my personal physician, who has her on some mild sedatives for now. I called not only to tell you about Peter, but to say that Kate will be taking some time off from work."

"Of course, completely understandable. It will just be myself and one other person at the service. And yes, please, get back to me with the information and we'll be there. I want to support Kate anyway that I can."

"Kate's here with me, would you like to speak with her?"

"If she's up for it."

"Kate's nodding for me to hand her the phone; here she is." Damien handed her the phone, dropped the concerned boyfriend façade and placed all of his energy into controlling Kate. Thomas gave Damien another phone so he could listen in on the conversation.

"Katie, I'm so sorry."

"Thank-you," Kate's voice was weak and tired, but that was good; she sounded as if she'd been through the proverbial ringer.

"You take off from work whatever time you need. And if there's anything that you want, you just ask…day or night."

"Damien is taking care of everything; we're somewhere private."

"Good, nobody is going to hear anything from us until you give us the say so to say anything about Peter, okay? I'm glad Damien is taking care of you. You landed a good one there, Katie."

"Thank-you, I'm going to let you go now. I'm tired and I want to rest. I'll put Damien back on the phone. Good-bye, Michael." Damien took the phone from Kate and Thomas was there with her gag and put it back in place.

"Hello?" Damien's voice was gentle again.

"Take care of her, please…and please get back to me with the information about the funeral."

"Of course, I'm going to take her up to bed…not that things will be any better tomorrow, but…"

"Understood, what else can you do?" Michael hung up.

"Yes," and Damien hung up at his end and he and Thomas looked at each other. "Make sure you call him back with where the funeral will be."

Thomas and Damien went back downstairs and Anna and Paul were talking. Paul had his suitcase with him.

"Thomas, can you come with us so that you can drive Anna back?"

"Sure, but before I forget." Thomas went outside and came back with a box and handed it to Damien, who knew what was inside.

Before Paul left, he took Damien aside into the living room. There weren't many men who could make Paul Buher look and feel insignificant; of course, Damien Thorn was no man. "Are you okay?"

Damien smiled. "I'm better than okay. I'm alive, my Father loves me and has proven His power in the face of their ineffectual god and his son and I could very well be a new dad shortly."

"You want this child?"

"Is there a reason that I shouldn't?" Damien held Paul with his eyes and Paul could feel fear begin to work its way through his brain and he only started breathing again once Damien released Paul from his gaze.

"No, I'm just surprised. You've never shown an interest in wanting to be a family man."

"I don't want to be a family man; I want to be a father. I don't want to marry, but it doesn't mean that now that the situation has presented itself, I can't look forward to having a child, or children."

Paul put a hand on Damien's shoulder. "I hope you get what you want. I'll call you and let you know how the meeting went and you call me with any news." Damien nodded in agreement and watched as the three of them left.

Damien went upstairs, checked in on Kate, who was still not pregnant, then went into his room and closed and locked the door. He retrieved the first dagger from the drawer and brought it, and the box, over to the bed. Damien made sure that the knife he had taken from DeCarlo was apart from the others as he removed all the daggers from the box, holding one of them in his hand.

Crafted nearly one thousand years ago, the knives had been created to be the destruction of the individual now holding them. The Daggers of Megiddo, twelve inches long, constructed of early steel and deadly, and that wasn't even taking into consideration that the blade was triangular in shape, creating a wound that was extra nasty and difficult to close when the knife was removed from its victim. He turned it over in his hands and smiled; he now owned the only things on Earth that could kill him. With the exception of the dagger that had killed DeCarlo, which was apart from the others, Damien couldn't tell which daggers were which, but it was irrelevant; he had them now and that was all that mattered.

One, the first one, the one dropped by the priest in the BBC studio, the one that had signalled to Damien that he was being pursued by, as it would turn out, some very poor hunters. That priest had ended up being burned and melted to death in an attempt to kill the Antichrist. Damien put the first, and each subsequent dagger back in the box after he held them.

Two, three, four, those ones had been taken from three priests whom Damien had followed to an abandoned church miles outside of London. Damien had tricked two of the three men into believing that they had murdered the Antichrist when they had, in fact, stabbed and killed one of their own. The two remaining priests had considerately dropped their knives before Damien forced them into a sealed off staircase, re-covered the stairwell with the grate and had left them there to die. Damien retrieved the third dagger from the dead priest and had driven back to London.

Five and six had been taken off of two priests at the fox hunt, the symbolism of which had not been lost on Damien. With the first priest, he had invaded the horse's mind, making it think that it was being attacked by jackals. Spooked, the horse had thrown its rider over the side of the bridge to his death seventy feet below. Later, Damien had had to ride down the embankment and retrieve the dagger, which he had with pleasure. With the second priest, Damien had acted as pack leader to a group of hounds and ordered the dogs to rip the priest to shreds. If that hadn't been enough, Damien had used the blood from that kill to engage in a particularly interesting tradition; he had bloodied Peter, initiating the boy into more than just the sport of foxhunting.

Damien held the seventh and last dagger in his hand. Taken from DeCarlo, the architect of the quest to kill the Antichrist, but it had been Damien who had, with the help of his Father, survived. He gripped the dagger and let the memory of the absolute despondency which had overwhelmed DeCarlo fill him and then, the feeling of ramming the dagger through the priest's eye. Damien was alive and they were dead; he had triumphed while they had been vanquished and that sense of absolute victory of his foes filled him with inexorable ecstasy.

Damien realized something, looked down, and then back at the locked door and smiled.

He was downstairs enjoying a glass of wine when Anna and Thomas came back to the house with his suitcases in tow. "All of my stuff is out of Felix, so they can get a cleaning crew to come down and make it ready for the next occupant. That looks like a good idea." Thomas poured himself a glass of wine and he and Damien sat and talked and Anna went to her bedroom on the second floor. At one thirty in the morning, Thomas called it a night and went to his bedroom, which was on the first floor. Damien went upstairs and, after checking in on Kate for a final time, retired to his room.

Damien stripped naked, got into bed and had brought a book with him, uncertain as to whether he would be able to fall asleep. Damien read two pages, felt tired, put the book on the bedside table, reached over and shut of the lamp, and, surprisingly, was asleep in minutes.