For Love of Evil (38 page)

Mars laughed. "Do you think I'm fool enough to listen to you, Father of Lies? If you say you want someone spared, sure as Hell it's to corrupt three others! Get thee away from me, old Scrotch!"

Parry realized it was hopeless. Mars would not listen, and if he did, he was apt to do the opposite of what Parry asked. He was arrogant in his power, and careless of the proprieties.

But if Mars would not listen to reason, perhaps he would accede to self-interest. "Suppose I make you a deal?"

Mars suggested that he do something impolite to himseif.

"Lilah," Parry said.

Instantly the demoness was there, stunningly attired.

"This is one of My creatures," Parry said. "She does My bidding, always. I will assign her to you for the duration, if you will grant the favor I ask."

Mars looked at Lilah. He was a lusty man, and she was the precise figure that evoked the maximum response in such a man. She smiled at him just as if she cared.

"I'll make no deals with you," Mars muttered. But his gaze remained on Lilah.

"I will leave her with you for a time," Parry said. "When you wish, ask her the nature of the favor I want, and she will tell you."

"A man doesn't need to talk to a creature like that," Mars said. "You're wasting your time, Scrotch." Still his eyes were locked on the target.

Parry left, hoping that the man's curiosity would surface after he had sated his lusts. Lilah was very good at her business; if she could persuade him to divert the hostilities, or reshape them in such a way that the minorities would suffer less . . .

Time passed, and the carnage only got worse. Now they were burning Jews and Gypsies in great ovens, and systematically eradicating them from the continent.

Parry visited the Castle of War again. Mars was out, as usual, but Lilah was there. "He never asked," she said. "How much longer must I tolerate this lout? He has appetites that would make a mortal girl nauseous."

Never even asked? Parry realized that his ploy had been wasted. Mars simply didn't care. He would accept the gifts of Hell, but give nothing in return. Parry had merely lost time, and done his friend JHVH no favor.

"Tell him anyway, next time," he said.

He departed, broodingly angry. If he ever found a way to get Mars retired, he would gladly do so. But the Incarnation of War retired only when there was complete peace on Earth, and that was seldom. Certainly it was impossible at the moment.

More time passed. The war progressed, and the Axis forces were losing. But the slaughter of minorities only intensified.

Parry went again to the Castle of War. "He wouldn't listen," Lilah said. "He told me I was here for only one reason, and words were no part of it."

Parry had enough."You are relieved of this duty. Return to Hell."

She was gone so fast there was a pop in the air where she had been. Certainly she had not liked this tour!

What was he to do now? The ploy had failed, and most of the Jews and Gypsies were dead. Though the war was drawing to a close, there was no sign of abatement of the peripheral conflicts. It might be decades before this Mars was retired.

Parry realized that at this stage he had only one alternative. He would have to go to Chronos.

The officeholders of Time had changed frequently, because each was limited by the duration of his mortal life prior to his ascension to the office. But all now were hostile to him, and this one especially so. Parry could not think what had set the man off; something must have happened in the future to enrage him with the Incarnation of Evil. This made dealing difficult. But most had the same problem Mars had, only worse: no suitable women.

He couldn't assign Lilah again, for Chronos lived backward, and he would have had to assign her years ago. The only way she could be with Chronos at this point was if she remained continuously in his mansion, living backward with him. How would that affect her stay with Mars? Parry feared that some kind of paradox would be evoked. Anyway, she deserved a rest; she had done as well as she could in a difficult situation.

What else, then?

He pondered for some time, stumped. Then at last it came to him: he would have to tell Chronos the truth-but in a way that would make the Incarnation react as Parry wanted. This would, incidentally, account for Chronos' attitude toward him.

He sent demons out to prepare his materials. Then he brought his package to Chronos.

"What brings you here. Master of Evil?" Chronos inquired coldly.

"Oh, I had some spare time, so I thought I'd gloat a bit," Parry said airily. He was into the lie already.

"Gloat somewhere else. I am trying to be civil, even to you."

"I want to show you the pointiessness of trying to oppose Me," Parry said nastily. "You control time, but you cannot eliminate the evil I have done among the mortals. Shall I present chapter and verse?"

"Merely present your backside as you depart!" Chronos snapped.

"Naturally you do not wish to know; that frees you of the onus of being unable to prevent it."

That stung the man. "Why should I listen to your lies?"

"Because when I gloat, I don't lie. My accomplishments are real; My lying is only a means to the end of incalculable evil. I can prove everything-if you have the stomach to admit your defeat."

Chronos was hooked. "What defeat?"

"Well, for example, the supposed victory of the forces of good in the recent war. You idiots with God suppose that the elimination of the Nazis makes everything perfect, but there is no way you can undo the evil they did in passing. There will soon be other calamities, as new factions are spawned and quarrel; the termination of the Nazis is only the abolition of a name, not the substance. But those who are already dead can never be revived; that evil is permanent. Thus you, with your vaunted Hourglass, are helpless against Me, and I shall inevitably prevail against your indifferent God. That is your real defeat."

Chronos was visibly suppressing his rage. "What dead? Soldiers in war expect to die; this is unfortunate but not necessarily evil. Many of them go to Heaven, not to Hell."

"These dead," Parry said. He opened his briefcase and produced pictures of piles of corpses. "Noncombatants. Men, women, children. Civilians who did nothing to deserve this fate-but here they are, irrefutably and awfully dead. What does your kind say to that?"

Chronos stared at the pictures. They were truly horrible;

Parry's minions had obtained the most effective available. They showed every stage of the holocaust against the Jews and Gypsies in hideous detail. There was no way to doubt them; they were completely real and almost tangibly evil.

"Practically every Jew in Europe," Parry said with feigned satisfaction. "And every Gypsy too. Do you know about the Gypsies? They are named that because they claimed to have come to the west via Egypt, but actually they came through Romania and are better called Romani. In any event, they live a simple life, always on the move, entertaining sedentary folk, blacksmithing, playing music, dancing and stealing. You might think the stealing makes them Mine, but they do it from necessity because of their poverty. The balance on their souls is positive. But now they are all dead, and there will be no more positive souls generated among them, which gives Me the longterm advantage. It is the same story with the Jews; their extinction diminishes their God, JHVH, and so benefits Me. Meanwhile, the evil accruing to the souls of those who have destroyed these two peoples benefits Me, because-"

"Get out!" Chronos shouted, livid. He smashed his hand through the presented pictures, knocking them to the floor.

"Scream all you want," Parry said evenly. "You have lost, despite your powers. You cannot deny it. There is nothing you can do. Nothing!"

Chronos charged him, but Parry conjured himself away.

His stomach was knotted, but he had done what he had come to do. He had really brought the disaster home to Chronos, and repeatedly taunted him with his supposed impotence. Now he would discover whether this savage and desperate ploy had been effective. For Chronos lived backward; he would in due course be at the onset of the European disaster. If his rage at Satan carried through . . .

He returned to Hell and summoned Lilah. "I regret the duty I assigned you with Mars," he said. "It was ineffective, and no pleasure for you. I am sorry that you and I have grown apart, and would make some amends if you are willing."

"My Lord, what are You talking about?" she asked, perplexed. "I have not been with the current Mars."

"Demoness, don't try to lie to Me!" he snapped. "You may be angry, but I am trying to make it right."

"My Lord, I never lie except on direct order from You, and never to You. Are You teasing me?"

Something was wrong. "Are you telling me you did not perform the duty with Mars I assigned you to?"

"You made no such assignment! I would have obeyed if You had, though I much prefer Your company."

A distant thought nagged him. Was it possible?

"Lilah, what happened to the Jews and Gypsies in the war just past?"

Now she was really perplexed. "Nothing happened to either group, my Lord. Do You plan some mischief for them?"

"Nothing happened? But the Nazis-"

"The what?"

"The leaders of Germany, who-"

"Do you mean the Empire? The restored Holy Roman Empire?"

So it was true! Chronos had acted to change history, eliminating the whole of the holocaust, root and all!

And of course Chronos hated Satan, suspecting what had been on that alternate time line. But the victory was, after all, Satan's. No one else might know it, for no one else could remember what had been, but Parry knew. He was the Incarnation most involved, so it could not be eradicated from his awareness. He alone would know the truth.

There was a knock at his door. Lilah went to answer it.

JHVH stood there. He was abruptly healthier. He spoke no word; he only gazed at Parry with uncanny understanding.

He, too, remembered!

Parry went to him, and the two embraced. Then JHVH departed.

"What was that about?" Lilah asked. "Since when do You have dealings with foreign Gods?"

"Since He did Me a favor," Parry said. "Now I have returned it."

"I don't understand, my Lord."

"You don't need to." He grabbed her, and proceeded to an act of passion so thorough that she, with her experience of millennia, was amazed.

How sweet it is! he thought, embracing a dimension more than the body of the demoness.

He had won a victory very few knew of, and changed the mortal world for the better though he would receive no credit for that. But his battle with the other Incarnations continued, as he probed constantly for his chance to win before Niobe's granddaughter ended the contest. Whenever an office changed hands, he moved in to exploit the weakness. When Thanatos changed, by assassinating the prior officeholder and taking his place. Parry succeeded in confusing the novice. But Niobe's son, the magician, managed to arrange a date between Thanatos and the magician's daughter, Luna, and thereafter Thanatos resolutely refused to let Luna die despite provocation. Mephistopheles overreached his directive and abducted Luna and tortured her, precipitating a crisis that Parry had to tackle personally. Though furious about the torture-he would never have authorized that!-Parry had to pretend it was all his own doing. Unfortunately Thanatos was so provoked that he cast off the web of delusion Parry wove and asserted himself fully as the Incarnation of Death. Parry rather admired that, but protocol required him to depart in a fury.

Then there was the business with Fate's triple changeover, foiled by Niobe herself.

Then he succeeded in retiring Mars. He picked a suitable occasion, when the mortal realm was relatively quiet, and exerted his influence to quiet it further, until for a moment the last conflict died out and the world was in complete peace. That got rid of Mars. In a moment, of course, conflict resumed, for mortals were incapable of complete peace, and a new man assumed the office. But this one was virtually handpicked. Parry had managed to manipulate some of Fate's threads to make this one the leading prospect. He was from a kingdom of India, a Prince, and he stuttered. Parry had inducements that he trusted would prove to be quite appealing to this man.

When the time came. Parry went to the Castle of War. He set up a garden of illusion that functioned as an annex to the Castle, and posed with Lilah as erotic statuary. "I am assigning you to corrupt Mars," he told her. "For the duration you will be known as Lila or as Lilith, and you will be unable to use the terms associated with My opponent."

"You are demoting me to ordinary demon status!" she protested.

"I am reminding you of your place. Succeed in this mission, and all favor will be restored."

"As my Lord decrees," she agreed, but she was not completely pleased.' "This should not be too much of a challenge."

"It is enough of one," he said. "This man has a mortal concubine, a Princess, and he loves her."

"Ah," she said appreciatively. "It has been a long time since I have corrupted a man with a mortal lover."