Chapter 34

It took three minutes before the rest of WUL realized that two of their colleagues had been incapacitated. No sound had given it away, not even the audible pop from Chay's suppressed pistol. It was their failure to respond to a status call that finally alerted them to a trespasser.

"Attention all agents! We have a confirmed breach in the tower! I repeat, we have a confirmed breach in the tower! Initiate defensive procedures and neutralize the target on site! I repeat…"

From every single floor, the sound of pounding boots and the cocking of guns let out their rough staccato.

On the tenth floor, a dozen WUL agents were taking their places, getting ready to neutralize whoever was preparing to enter. Three had blocked off the stairs, with their pistols and shotguns aimed down the stairwell ready to perforate anyone who ascended. Another three had opened the windows to take up sniper positions, aiming at every rooftop they could find. Yet another three were haphazardly going from room to room, making sure that no possible trespasser was hiding in an office or cubicle.

And yet another three were standing in front of the elevator, guns drawn and aimed at the door.

"Black Sheep to C Brigade.", crackled one of their radios. "Black Sheep to C Brigade, please respond."

One of the WUL agents, a Sinner with a fishbowl for a head containing a pair of floating eyes, clicked the receiver on his shoulder.

"This is C Brigade, over."

"Status report. Over."

"Currently in defensive positions, over."

"Are the elevators being guarded? Over."

"Currently aiming at the doors with my service weapon, over."

"And our clients? Over."

"Safe and restrained in the surveillance office, over."

"Very good. Keep us posted, over."

"Affirmative. Over and out."

One of the other WUL agents, a crab-like Envy-folk with crab-eyes, pointed at the elevator with their claws.

"They're ascending, sir!", he said as the digital number over the elevator door counted up to their position.

"I'm aware, agent.", he grumbled. "Now, when those doors open, open fire. Do not hesitate. Understood?"

"Yes sir!", said the other two agents.

"If I don't make it…", began the Envy-folk agent, "tell my brother he can kiss my ass."

"Noted.", said the leader. "Here they come…"

8, 9...10.

The doors slid open.

"Fire!"

All three WUL agents unloaded the contents of their service weapons into the elevator car. The laminated wood paneling cracked and shattered, the overhead light flickered and sparked into darkness, and bullets embedded themselves into the rubber-covered railing.

"Hold your fire!", the lead agent bellowed.

The room suddenly fell quiet as pieces of the wood paneling broke off and shattered on the carpeted interior. The smoke of their weapons, nearly blinding in the immediate aftermath, began to slowly clear.

The car was empty.

"The fuck…"

Some of the other WUL agents, responding to the gun fire, began to gather near the elevator with their own weapons drawn.

"Sir, we heard gunfire!", said an agent, a Sinner with the head of an antelope. "Are we under attack?"

The fishbowl-headed agent whirled around with fury.

"Hey, I ordered you to not leave your pos-"

BLAM

The fishbowl shattered into a million pieces, with the two floating eyes launching from the force and splattering against the walls. The other WUL agents watched the liquid from the bowl slowly spread out and soak into the carpet.

Then one of the glass pieces of the bowl cracked, stepped on by invisible shoes.

"We're under atta-ACK!"

The agent was cut off mid-sentence by a mouthful of blood erupting from his mysteriously opened trachea. He stood in place, shuddering in choking agony as he was seemingly zipped open by invisible hands from his throat to his groan. His displaced entrails poured out of his torso and splattered onto the floor, though he desperately tried to collect them in his arms.

He finally, mercifully, collapsed onto the floor, face first into his own organs.

The other agents frantically began shooting their guns in every single direction imaginable, desperately trying to hit their unseen target.

They never did.

Another agent's throat was opened by an invisible knife, yet another felt himself levitate off the ground as some invisible hook caught his spine and tore it out of his back.

"For fuck's sake, there's just on-"

BLAM

A bullet erupted out of the back of the Envy-folk agent's head, the side of his jaw disappearing into a fine black mist. Across the room, another agent felt himself stabbed in the stomach by some unseen weapon, then dragged to a window by it before being tossed through the window pane.

BLAM BLAM

Two more agents went down, leaving trails of blood and brain matter against the far walls. The last four suffered similarly gory fates.

As the smoke cleared, Chay and Lester slowly shed their camouflaging. Lester shook the fresh blood from his sickle onto the floor, wiping it on the carpet.

Chay once again popped out the her pistol's cylinder. "OK, you know what to do."

Lester nodded. "You are still making for his office?"

"It's just up those stairs. Remember, if you see him…"

"Blind him."

"Exactly. Whatever comes next, Lester...we're going to find your sister. I assure you."

The short Sinner gravely nodded again. "I trust you."

He turned around and slunk off to one of the far cubicles, heading for the crawl space.

Chay began loading her last blessed rounds into her gun. From here on out, she'd have to conserve ammo.

She turned around and made her way for the stairs. The doorway into Vox's office was emblazoned by an idealized visage of Vox himself, grinning like smug game show host (and twice as narcissistic).

It was 10:15 PM.

"She hasn't spoken to us in weeks."

Fyewackett leaned back into his chair as he puffed at the joint in his hand. Sack-and-sugar leaned over his shoulder, peering at the subject of their conversation.

Across from them, strapped down in a dentist's chair, was the former leader of the ILF's Pentagram City branch, Paizana...and very much worse for wear. Her face was pale and dirty, her cheeks sunken in and her eyes dull. Her clothes, old and patchy, hung off of her sallow frame and were caked with filth.

"Looks like she hasn't been doing much of anything.", he replied. "You've kept her like this?"

"No, we kept her in a cell. We've only do this when we have to force feed her."

"Hunger strike attempt?"

"Attempts.", Sack answered. "Plural. We've become...familiar with the process."

Fye inhaled the cannabis smoke and slowly breathed out.

"Leave us.", he said. "Me and her have things to discuss."

"...Very well, comrade.", Sack answered. She turned around and walked through the door, closing it behind her.

Fye sank further back into the chair.

"Well...we're alone.", he said. "Nothing to say?"

Paizana rolled her eyes.

"Without your tools?", she answered hoarsely. "Not going to happen."

"Well well, we've already made progress. No, none of my tools are here with me. This isn't an interrogation, comrade."

"I'm not your fucking comrade, assbite.", she sneered back.

"Even if you're not Chairman anymore, we're still comrades Paizana."

The older Imp growled angrily.

Fye sighed as he placed his joint into a nearby ashtray. "Pai...I just want answers."

"To what? The schism? Because boy, has that little pig shit you call a General Secretary had it coming."

The younger Imp slapped his forehead irritably. "For fuck's sake, Pai. You have no idea how valuable you are to the movement! You led these people for decades! They trusted you!"

Pai didn't answer.

"Pai...you don't realize just how valuable you really are. You're not just the person who led the PC branch, you're one of the last people alive who knew Chairman Grizelle personally. General Secretary Lucius was still a teenager when she died. You knew her when she was just starting out."

"And look where it got her.", Paizana answered with a low growl. "Look where it got me."

Fye lept off of the chair. "For fuck's sake, Pai! Talk to me! I want to help you! I know this shit with Carcossa or whatever the fuck is involved, but I can't do anything if you don't talk to me!"

Pai again growled at him.

"You wouldn't speak that word so casually if you knew what it entailed, kid."

Fye sighed as he sank back into the chair.

Guess it's time to bring out the big guns.

"Pai...who is Nihlus?"

That got her attention.

Paizana's head lurched up, her eyes angrily staring daggers at Fye.

"You will not speak that name here.", she hissed. "If you care about anything or anyone, you will go through the rest of your life never uttering it again!"

"So I'm on target.", Fye said. "Fine. I won't say it again. But you're going to have to tell me why. Why did you turn on your own people for such delusional bullshit?"

Again, Pai didn't answer.

Fye sighed deeply and leaned back into his chair.

It was going to be a long night. He probably should make some calls, just in case.

He pulled out his hellphone. and scrolled through his contacts before finding the hotline to the main chapter. The clock on the phone said 10:35 PM.

He sighed. He was going to miss the lockdown. Might need to call backup...

He found the number to HQ.

Paizana interrupted him before he could press the button.

"Have you ever seen Satan, Fyewackett?"

He looked up from his phone. "Satan? Not in person, no. Only ever on TV if he holds court."

Pai grinned ruefully. "You're lucky. Because I saw him up close and personal many years ago. It was the tenth anniversary of the Imp ghetto being cleared out. We were planning to hold a rally in memory of all of those who lost everything to Lucifer's ridiculous whim. Me and the ILF were going to hold a massive protest, give a real show of force…"

She grew quiet. Her gaze was shadowed by her greasy hair

"Then he showed up. Him and his whole entourage of hooded reapers. He flew down from the skies and landed right in the middle of the street. Every step he took left enormous cracks in the pavement, some of them so deep you could see all the way down into the sewers. The force from his wings shattered windows. And his voice…it was like a thunderstorm made of cannons. And why did he come? Because he'd gotten word that some uppity Imps were getting ready to challenge the Sins' authority."

Her shackled hands began to shake.

"And then his cronies opened fire on the crowd. He mowed us down like animals. I still have two bullets in my shoulder from that day. All because he couldn't stand the idea of Imps standing up for themselves."

Then her face shot back up, veins popping from her face.

"And yet in all of his might, he still pales in comparison to The King In Yellow. To his terrible majesty whose cowl is the night sky, and whose crown is the stars!"

She grew quiet again.

Miserably quiet.

"When you've looked into the abyss that is His Great Eye, you know that the abyss not only stares back at you, it surrounds you. It lives in the places where you aren't, where you don' t look, where you don't touch...we are utterly, hopelessly powerless before Him, and our only salvation is to construct His kingdom on the ashes of what we love..."

Fye sighed wistfully...sadly. She was too far gone.

"I can't believe a simple stage play can do this to a person's mind…"

Paizana spit on the floor ruefully. Her saliva was coppery.

"The script ain't nothing but old paper, kid.", she said in a harsh whisper. "It ain't the words you have to be afraid of. It's what lives in them."

CHAPTER 34 END