CHAPTER 18

Zim turned down the road that would take him to Fitz's place. He just had another mile or so to go. Grumbling, wishing he were taking a nap, he shuffled along, staring at his feet in front of him.

Leland popped into existence. "Zim! Good to see you! Hey, where are Kristen and the others? You should have met them by now."

"Who?" Zim asked.

Leland smiled, trying to remind himself that Zim wasn't as bright as his usual gang of idiots. "The assessors."

That rang a bell. "Oh, I remember them. Yeah, two of them are dead."

"Dead?" Leland considered this. He didn't care about Ben one way or the other. David being dead would also be ideal. But Kristen needed to be alive for his plans to work. "Which ones?"

"I don't know their names," Zim said.

Leland changed tactics. "Is the woman still alive?"

"Oh no. She got fucked up in the car crash. The priest dude is still alive."

Fuck. That couldn't be good. Perhaps trusting in Zim's abilities had been a mistake. Leland knew all his young ward's weaknesses, but one of his strengths was his ability to go through something terrible without it having any effect on him. Naturally he'd survived a car crash. He would survive them all. He was a cooler, wasn't he?

Fuck. Fuck. FUCK. There went the whole plan. Success was impossible now. Leland briefly considered killing Zim and moving on to the next troubled incel, but he knew if he raised a hand against Zim, Leland would be the one to die. It was axiomatic.

He had to find a way to get someone else to try to kill Zim. And if Crowley operated as usual, then . . .

"I killed Crowley," Leland said.

"Who?"

Irritation crossed Leland's mind, but he stayed his hand. "He operates with a partner when things get dicey. I'll bet if we went to your friend's place we'll find Raymond Reddington."

"Who?"

Leland smiled so hard he thought he'd go blind. "Let's continue to Fitz's place. I believe you have a score to settle?"

"I guess." Zim had always been jealous of Fitz. Soon he would be jealous of no one.

They turned down the corner and approached Fitz's house. There was a blocky SUV in the driveway—black, so it was probably Reddington's—and there were people gathered around it. They looked kind of familiar. Two of them were brothers, he thought. They got in the back of the SUV. Another got in the driver's seat, and the fourth milled around a little before he looked up and noticed Zim and Leland. He then got into the car, which popped out of existence.

"Whoa," Zim said. "That was pretty cool."

Leland rushed to where the car had been, holding a device in his hands that kind of looked like something out of Ghostbusters. Fitz probably knew what it was. It hummed for a moment before it beeped. "Aha! They've gone to Ω Earth!"

"So what?" Zim started toward the front door.

Leland no longer needed him. Fuck it. Maybe Fitz would try to kill him. He had Reddington where he wanted him now. He opened the portal to Ω Earth, then took some time to open a portal to Hell. Reddington wasn't going to be pleased to be facing down the entirety of Hell's armies. Not even the Winchesters stood a chance.

Leland stepped through, ready to eliminate the last of his enemies.

Zim, meanwhile, let himself into Fitz's house.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .