FALLEN ANGEL
PART 2
The Wurlitzer in the corner of Dion's selected a record and after a few seconds a jazz tune played its slow, comforting tune to the bar inhabitants - not that anyone was really listening.
The bar was almost empty, due partly to the fight that had happened earlier and the hour of day.
Almost that is except for two people - Marla and Loki - who, after gaining a bottle of whisky from Dion, had adjourned to an empty booth.
Loki set up a glass and after passing a glass to Marla poured a glass for him.
Marla looked at Loki's face in more detail. His face - though not handsome, would easily turn any girl if he made an effort - was stubbled, his features seemed to reflect a tired man, one who'd seen too much and had become cynical with life.
Loki, noticing he was being watched turned to look, and Marla turned away quickly.
"So" said Loki, looking towards Marla and finally breaking the silence, "what have I done to merit a visit from a representative of the hells?"
"Talk about master of subtlety - very well." said Marla, who then took a long draught of whiskey.
"In a nutshell about two weeks ago a prisoner escaped from demon central, and I require you to assist in...Recapturing them".
"A prisoner?" enquired Loki "surely their usual security can handle that sort of thing"
"Theres a.....slight problem," said Marla, who produced a small crystal, and laid it on the table.
The crystal began to glow and from the light it emitted face of a man, about 50 or 60ish, with short, well trimmed beard appeared.
"His names Ozymndrus, and from what ive been told this prisoner escaped from the maximum security wing on the 9th level, which makes him a major league problem"
"How so?" asked Loki.
Marla looked towards Loki." From what ive been told he was a former member of the demon high council"
"Former?" said Loki, raising one eyebrow.
"Apparently, he had his eye on Hilds seat and attempted a takeover, but was caught and imprisoned"
Loki sighed "you said he escaped two weeks ago, why the delay"
At this Marla gave a frustrated grunt "you can thank internal security for that. Apparently they tried to find him on the quiet - they even sent one of their own agents after him."
"What happened to him?"
"Her" corrected Marla "and she's currently missing - that's when they called the heavens for help"
"And they called for me" Loki said, completing Marla's sentence.
" Look, I don't know what beef you've got with them, but I was told that you the best man For his job - and its a simple enough task" said Marla "you and me make contact with the missing agent and re - apprehend the demon - how difficult can it be?"
Loki picked up his glass and stared at its contents.
"So yet again I have to clean up the mess" he said before necking the whisky in one go.
As they walked outside they blinked as the leaden grey of a new, albeit cloudy, day dawned.
"Geese, hasn't this country heard of a clear day" grumbled Marla, as she looked up.
"I've heard rumours of it now and again, but I don't put much belief in it" said Loki, who rolled his eyes when Marla totally missed the irony of his last sentence. "Well, come on, the cars over here." He said, walking down the dark pavement towards the main road, Marla quickly following.
"Car?" she asked, "Why can't we just gate where ever we're going? Or fly even?"
Loki looked her square in the eyes, which made Marla flinch "like I said" whispered Loki "I use my initiative. Besides, im the one whose supplying the area knowledge AND the transport"
"Oh really" sneered Marla, leaning her back against a nearby car, "so where is it?"
"You're leaning against it" Loki said, pointing behind Marla.
Marla jumped back quickly, shocked, and saw what Loki was referring to.
The car was a pretty ordinary looking Morris minor , with a dark red metallic chassis, the interior, although looking "ye oldie world" looked surprisingly comfy.
Not that Marla noticed. "You're telling me "she said, smiling rather forcefully "that we are going to be driving around, for the duration of this assignment, in a reject from A HARRY POTTER FILM?"
As Loki approached the car, a set of key in his hands he looked at her, His eyes narrowed in the same way that he stared t the redcaps earlier, "Firstly, it's my car and I like it."
"Secondly" He continued, as he opened the drivers door "it'll look a whole lot less conspicuous than a souped up sports car will, plus we'll need to be travelling all day, so we'll need to conserve our energy."
"And third" he concluded, as he opened the passenger side door, albeit rather reluctantly "it was a Ford Anglia."
"What?" said Marla as she sat down in the surprisingly comfortable leather seat.
"It was a Ford Anglia they used in the Harry Potter film, not a Morris Minor – get your cars straight"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever" grumbled Marla, as she put her seat belt on. "Look, are you driving or what?"
"Bloody demons" growled Loki as he started the car, its engine thrumming into life, and left the club behind.
As the sun finally advanced into the horizon its light provided a less than cheerful sight to Marla, as she and Loki drove through early morning Birmingham.
The city had been heavily redeveloped after the second world war, and as a result the city skyline was predominantly filled with high rise flats and concrete office buildings, their grey exteriors offering little comfort or warmth to the environment. The streets were mostly empty save for the occasional drunk, staggering home, or street cleaner, picking up the remains of said drunkards stomachs. The blue-grey light of dawn didn't improve appearances – merely making the world look like a ….
"Jelly baby?"
Marla, suddenly confused by the question, looked over at Loki who, whilst still watching he road, was offering her a small brown paper bag. "w-what – "
"Here" said, Loki, throwing the bag onto her lap, "help yourself".
Marla tentatively picked up the bag and shook some of the contents onto her hand – whereupon what looked like three solid, multicoloured human-like shapes fell out. She picked one of the curious things which, upon closer inspection, did sort of look babyish. She sniffed one, a not too unpleasant smell of sugar wafting off of it.
She picked a red one and popped it into her mouth.
Now, the reader should be aware of two events that happened to Loki about five seconds after this action was taken.
1] Loki, with a supernatural amount of driving skills, managed to stop himself from piling into a nearby lamppost.
And 2] Said Loki was then forced to clear the ringing out of his ears caused by the near ultrasonic squeal of ecstasy emanating from the vicinity of his cars passenger seat.
Loki tuned, slowly, towards the said seat, a rather red faced Marla looking back at him, a little brown paper bag clenched in her hand. She quickly placed the bag on the dashboard, and kept her eyes looking ahead, whilst trying [miserably] not to look at it.
"Interesting, very interesting" Was all she said, her face still red.
Loki reversed the car back onto the road and carried on, neither talking.
Considering that Astartes, according to Marla, was partial for the rich life, her choice of domicile was....less than exclusive.
"Are you sure this is her place?" said Loki, an eyebrow raised quizzically.
Loki and Marla were standing at the front drive of an ordinary, semi-detached house, the kind that Americans thought of when they thought of "little England", with ivy growing up its front wall, and a perfectly manicured front garden, with a rose bush, and other flowers planted along the edge of the lawn.
"Err...according to the data it is " said Marla, equally bemused.
"Well, there's only one way to find out" said Loki, as he started up the drive towards the front door. After a moment Marla looked around for anyone watching, and quickly followed.
When Marla arrived at Loki's side she found him poking around with the lock with a pair or wires.
"What are you up to?"
"Well, during my stay here ive had to adapt, learn, and..."- a flick of his wrist and the door opened -
"improvise"
"Impressive" said Marla, arnt you just full of surprises she thought to herself as she followed Loki inside.
"well, that and its fun" he smiled he followed her in.
The interior of the house though was the apitamy of chincy - with bare wooden floors and flowery wallpaper covering the entryway.
Loki turned to Marla "well, she's a demon - where would she have hidden her files?"
Marla scratched he head "your guess is as good as mine"
Loki sighed "oh-key, plan b" and entered the door to the living room.
Plan B, Marla discovered, consisted of searching the house from loft to cellar, checking the floorboards, walls and rooms both visually, by hand and with Merlin.
Two hours, and much searching later though, and Marla and Loki collapsed onto the sitting room sofa, exhausted and still nowhere nearer finding anything.
"Urrgh" Groaned Marla, rubbing her eyes, "if i have to look at one more damned doillie i'll....."
"Have sugar in your tea?" asked Loki, getting up off the sofa.
"No suger...ey?" Marla said, suddenly pulled from her thoughts by Loki's question.
"I find a cuppa usually helps me think better" Loki replied as he disappeared into the kitchen.
"You've been in Britain for too long" Marla laughed as she relaxed back into the sofa - and then stopped.
Opposite her, and set over the fireplace, was a large black figurine of a woman, adorned with a breastplate and a sword and axe in either hand, the gold leaf highlighting the armours intricate patternwork.
Marla looked at it, racking her mind to remember something - a phrase, a sight, a conversation - something.
Then, her eyes lit up, Marla advanced towards the ornament and, grabbing hold of both of the figures arms, pulled.
As Loki returned, a mug of tea in each hand, he discovered that the living room had had some....alterations.
By "alterations" read "it now looked like a cross between a set fom "star trek" and an S&M parlour."
Gone was the soft, doillie covered sofa, the glass cases full of antiques [well, one did remain, but Loki didnt even want to know what the purpose of its contents were for.], and in its place were monitors and access points, each showing the unmistakeable symbol of three spikes, joined at the bottom and splayed out at their top.
The symbol of Demon central.
Marla was looking at a screen situated where the figurine had been, a holographic keyboard displayed in front of it.
Marla looked over to Loki, her smile revealing her sharper than ordinarily canines. "ta-dah".
Loki raised an eyebrow "impressive, how did you find it?" .
"Easy" replied Marla smugly "you remember that figurine over the fireplace?"
"Oh yeah" Loki recalled "the one of the woman with the big ti -"
A glower form Marla quickly silenced him. "Well, i remembered something Astartes told me about herself - we were arguing and she was showing off - about how one of her ancestors - her namesake no less - was this major league Phonecian deity, all blood and smiting her enemies and what have you. Well as soon as i saw the statue something clicked."
"like i said, impressive. Now how about acessing the system files?"
At this Marlas face scowled "the files are password protected - and she isnt using standard Nidheg encryption protocols". At this she tried to mash her hand into the keyboard, and was rewarded by nearly falling over.
Loki stepped over, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the bracer that contained Merlin. "let me try".
"Oh comon" Marla growled, "This is a high spec system , with some of the best security protocols written, do you seriously expect to be able to...."
Loki looked at Marla "you the betting kind?" and started typing.
After what seemed to Marla a few seconds of fast typing later, the secreen on the monitor changed, a menu replacing the symbol on the screen.
Marla looked at Loki with utter shock, her jaw slack "butbutbutbut...."
"I err..knew someone from your place"said Loki, trying to finish the topic quickly. "Now, lets see what your friend was up to."
loki's hand highlighted one of the icons, which expanded into a window, a list of dates appearing on the left of the screen "must be her log entries - how reguarly would she have reported to Demon central?"
"Errm, about twice a week, her last report was about two week ago".
Loki moved his hand over towards three of the last dates, opening them into three separate windows.
Loki studied each entry in turn, his attention focused on the entries, his only movements when he moved each page down to continue reading.
After what seemed an eternity he stopped, confused "there's something wrong here".
"What?" asked Marla, shocked at Loki's sudden speech
Loki pointed at one of the windows "According to this she talks about an event - a music festival - that she was going to the day after next".
"Yeah, so?"
"Yet the next entry after that - a day later if this is correct - it doesn't mention the event at all".
Marla's eyes widened "someone tampered with the files".
"And did a damn sloppy job of it - Merlin?" and at this Loki rolled up his right arm to reveal an intricate bracer, with two silver wings hold ing a red genm to his arm.
Maybe it was the way Loki talked to the bracer that freaked Marla out.
Maybe it was the seriousness in his tone of voice.
Or maybe it was because the computer talked back to him.
"Oh Yeah" Loki said, pointing towards the bracer "Merlin, Marla. Marla, Merlin. Meet, have sex, shower, chat..."
"If you have QUITE finished", said "Merlin", its voice dripping with sarcasm. "Connect me and I'll get on to it" replied Merlin as Loki moved his arm up towards the console.
"Accessing system......standby........standby........stan - system access successful." Merlin triumphantly chimed.
"And?" said Loki.
"Your observation is correct Loki - someone has been tampering with these files - but I should be able to reconstruct most of it."
"Get on it" said Loki.
Mr Bentley watered his roses, watching as the droplets splashed over the petals.
At fifty he'd decided to retire early as a teacher, part due to personal reasons.
The fact that he'd been threatened with the sack may have also had something to do with it.
Never a liked teacher, Bentley in retaliating with equal gusto with punishments for the slightest transgressions. If one of the schoolboys hadn't grassed to the governors that he was willing to alter the boys exam results for acting as an informant he'd still be there.
damn children these days, grumbled Bentley to himself, as he lifted his arm to raise his watering can....
The first thing that struck him was that his hand was no longer attached to his arm, a ragged, blood spurting stump. A look showed his hand , the can still grasped, lying not too far away.
The next thing he knew he had been grabbed from behind, and dragged into the shadows, where pairs of glowing, blood red eyes awaited him hungrily. Bentley tried to scream, to shout - anything - but nothing came out.
And nothing ever did.....
Merlin suddenly stopped processing, never a good sign by Loki's book.
"Merlin..."
"Warning - i am detecting multiple M.D.s approaching our vercinity" Merlin suddenly chimed, causing Loki to curse and run towards the door.
Marla followed quickly followed " M.D.s?"
"Multi - Dimensional beings" replied Loki as he made is way to the kitchen, and towards the kitchen door,
"its means - "
Suddenly the door blasted off its hinges, hitting Loki square on and throwing him, door and all, into the fridge opposite.
Marla, who was just behind Loki, was lucky enough to miss it but, as the dust settled and she could see outside, he soon wondered if she'd done something REALLY bad in a previous life.
"Well well well, fancy meetin' youz here darlin' "
There, standing outlined in what was left in the doorframe, was Angus, his face still red and disfigured, his one good eye glaring balefully. Behind him Marla could see other shapes through the kitchen windows and door, their appearance giving Marla no questions to their identity.
The rest of the redcaps, eyes glowing, and their mouths , blood - covered and salivating, slowly advanced towards Marla.
Marla took a defensive stance, a ball of red and black lightning forming in her hand.
The gang stopped, but Angus merely smiled, causing his already ruined face to take on an almost animl like appearnce.
"she only has time to charge and fire one bolt at a time, so as soon as she fires, feckin' take them - "
"NO!"
As one Marla and the redcaps turned towards the rear of the garden - where a tall figure stood, their face hidden by the hood of a dark cloak yet whose visable figure was unmistakbly female stood.
"Your orders where to bring them to our lord ALIVE, not pulverised!"
Angus scowled at the woman - and then the world exploded into a blinding white light.
TO BE CONTINUED