The Demon Deception (16 page)

He turned the new information around in his
head. There was a stalking horse out there, just outside of his
vision. He didn’t know who it was, or what it meant. He just knew
it was probably bad news, since it meant collusion with the outside
forces that were hell bent on destroying his world. He was worried.
Not for himself, but for Sam. Sam was like a son to him.

Sam was the most capable human being he had
ever met. His combat skill was like nothing Lazarus had ever seen
in a mortal human before. Sam was intuitive, competent, and
skilled. He was tactically and strategically proficient. Hell, Sam
should be a general in the military. He had that kind of grasp on
the use of violence. Sam had one problem, though. He didn’t suffer
fools, which meant that he would never rise to a high level in that
type of political environment. Sam was not, and never would be, a
political animal. He was a rarity, an honest man.

Lazarus was also worried that even he, with
two thousand years of experience, wasn’t up to this task. He had
dealt death to thousands of possessed over the years. He knew
violence. He was willing to deal with the filth of the world. He
knew the depravity of human beings, and what they were willing to
do to grasp at power.

This was different though. This was dealing
directly with demons. This was dealing with interdimensional
horrors. This was completely outside of his comfort zone. He just
hoped that two thousand years of combat had prepared him for what
was going to happen next. He hoped that he would be able to keep
Sam out of harm’s way. He didn’t know if he would be able to do
that, though, not with this problem set. Still, they had weapons,
munitions. Those items should help mitigate the problem. At least,
he hoped it would.

He ordered another Glenfiddich. Now he turned
the problem of Mephistopheles around in his head. Even if
Mephistopheles wasn’t the stalking horse, he was still intent on
stopping the mission. The BATFE agents gave Lazarus a good idea
about how that was going to happen. He just didn’t know which stop
they would try to intervene at. While they knew where he was, there
was a good chance they didn’t know what Lazarus and Sam were
driving. Lazarus was glad that they had switched from the truck to
the van. Lazarus would have to take countermeasures to ensure that
they didn’t find out.

Two was his limit. He paid his bill and
decided to go to Sam’s room, to give him the bad news. He took the
elevator, and got off on Sam’s floor. He walked to the room and
knocked. He saw the light in the peephole dim. Sam opened the door.
He was standing there in a pair of shorts. Two women walked by and
openly stared at Sam’s cut physique.

“Don’t you know you can catch cold dressed
like that?”

“Not in my hotel room I can’t.”

Lazarus could feel the heat coming from the
room. The temperature was turned up until it was almost
uncomfortable. Lazarus conceded the point, “True, but you might
give a few women a heart attack if you stand around in the hallway
dressed like that.”

Sam shrugged, “So I won’t stand around in the
hallway. That should take care of the situation.”

Lazarus smiled at the simple solution.

“What you doing here so late? I thought you
were going to get something to eat?” Sam motioned for him to come
in, out of the hallway.

“Yeah, I got something to eat, and I had a
visitor while I did so, kind of unannounced.”

Sam motioned towards the chair in the room,
“So, come on. Give it up. Who was it?”

Lazarus walked over and sat down. Sam had an
unopened bottle of coke and offered it to Lazarus. Lazarus
declined, “Mephistopheles decided to sit down with me.”

Sam went still. Lazarus could tell he was
thinking about the implications. Sam spoke, “So, in the last five
days, you’ve met with two demons and one angel. Somehow, I think
things are beginning to get complicated.”

Lazarus nodded, “Yeah, I agree. The worst
part was, he was there with ATF agents.”

Sam’s eyes grew big, “Whoa, yeah, that could
be very bad for us, especially if they interfere with us when we
grab the explosives or AT-4s.”

Lazarus continued, “There’s some kind of
power thing going on between Mephistopheles and Lilith, and
unfortunately, we’ve landed right smack in the middle of it.”

“How’s that going to affect what we’re
doing?”

Lazarus shrugged, “Don’t know. I think we
have to keep moving forward until the other shoe drops. Then we
find out.”

Sam shook his head, “I don’t think I like
that idea. Too many bad things could happen.”

“Yeah, I know. But we have to play the hand
that’s dealt us, and that means dealing with Mephistopheles and the
ATF. We have no choice. We have to do a little counter-surveillance
and see if they’re trailing us.”

“If they are, what’s our next move?”

Lazarus thought about it, “I don’t think they
know about the van, otherwise, we’d already be in jail. We need to
make sure they don’t find out. You and I are too noticeable, so we
need to get somebody else to move it for us.”

Sam popped the top on his coke, “You have
someone in mind?”

Lazarus nodded, “I think so. Only way to do
it is with a cut out. I have a friend that’s good at that kind of
thing. She has an interesting background. I have a burn phone. I’ll
contact her, and we’ll set up the dead drop for the keys and the
location for the meet.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Lazarus continued, “Well, she’ll be doing the
heavy lifting. When she does the pick, and moves the van, all we
have to do is lose the agents, go to the new location, and get the
van.”

Sam nodded, “Sure, just tell me what you
need.”

Lazarus smiled, “Well, it would probably be a
good thing to split them up. That way, I have a better chance to
pass the information with less company.”

“How do you want to do it? You want me to try
and draw them all off of you? Meet you at the pickup site?”

Lazarus thought for a moment, and shook his
head. He stood up, found the hotel pen and paper and began writing,
“No, just go out to this mall for a while, and wander around, maybe
watch a movie or two. That will give me time do what I need to do.
Then go into a counter-surveillance routine and act like you’re
trying to make and shake them. Do all the tradecraft, make them
think you’re serious about it. After all of that, about 6pm, you
just need to go to this address, and pick up two pastrami
sandwiches. Get the sandwiches, come back here, and you and I will
eat two of the best pastrami sandwiches you’ve ever had.” Lazarus
wrote down all the directions for Sam.

Sam frowned, “Pastrami, in St. Louis? Come
on, I can take you to two dozen deli’s in Brooklyn that make
fantastic pastrami sandwiches.”

Lazarus looked at him and smiled, “Sam,
you’ve got to have faith in me. Trust me, you’ll love the pastrami
at this shop. When you get there, ask for Angelo, tell him it’s for
me.”

Sam wasn’t too sure. He still had that
suspicious look on his face, “Okay, I’ll do what you say. I’ll make
sure the ATF guys think I’m going to a meet or something. No way
the sandwiches are as good as the ones in Brooklyn, though. ”

Lazarus stood up, “Good. I think you’ll be
pleasantly surprised about the sandwiches, though. Okay, I’m out of
here. Have a good night’s sleep.”

Lazarus walked over to the door. He opened it
and stepped out into the hallway. The next part of all of this was
going to be tricky. He’d have to do a hand off. It would have to be
a live handoff since he didn’t have any dead drops set up in St.
Louis. He needed someone with skills.

He only knew of one person in the area that
was capable of pulling it off. Pastor Jean Lemarcke, of the United
Methodist Church in St. Louis. She was a skilled pickpocket,
something she picked up before she joined the church, got her
degree in theology and became a Pastor. Lazarus thought about it.
He had strange acquaintances, but then he lived a strange life.
When he got back to his room, he pulled out a burner phone, and
made the phone call to set up the hand off.

----------------------------------------------------

The next day was a beautiful day, crisp and
sunny. It was Friday, so there were going to be crowds in the areas
that he and Sam were using. Sam was already off to the mall. He
said something about catching up on the new superhero movies that
were out. Lazarus hoped Sam could pull a few agents off so that he
could get something done today. It wasn’t going to be too hard. All
he had to do was walk around like an easy mark and let Jean do all
the work. He had an envelope with directions and the keys to the
van in his right coat pocket. It was up to Jean to scope the
situation and pull off the pick without letting the agents around
him know that a hand off was occurring.

The area was fantastic for this kind of
operation. The Ritz-Carlton was located in Clayton, an area lined
with art galleries, restaurants, and boutiques. The St. Louis
Galleria, with 165 stores, was within walking distance. If that
didn’t do it, he could hop the train at the Forsyth Boulevard
Station and take them on a tour of St. Louis.

He began with a brunch at a small cafe just
off the street to start his counter surveillance. Lazarus ate his
baguette, drank his coffee, and read the newspaper. The table he
sat at was far enough back into the café that he couldn’t be seen
from any convenient spots on the street. They had to stand directly
across the street and look into the café, which he’d spot, or send
someone into the café to check on him. They ended up sending
someone in. It took a half hour, then the first agent came in to
make sure that Lazarus hadn’t snuck out through the back.

Surveillance is always a tricky proposition.
You couldn’t just have one person follow the target. The best way
to do it was to have several individuals tracking. That way, fresh
faces could move in and out of the target’s immediate area. This
made it much harder for the target to spot his tails. If this was a
sanctioned surveillance, there would have been as many as seven or
eight tails.

This guy was a little too obvious though. He
didn’t seem to have much experience in surveillance. That was good
for Lazarus. It meant that they probably weren’t using a trained
surveillance team. So, this was probably not a sanctioned
operation. That meant that they would have fewer options to
interdict. It also meant that the ATF agents would be covering
their tracks to make sure their bosses didn’t find out what was
going on.

The agent was tense, and tried to be too
casual. Lazarus knew he was making an effort not to be noticed. It
was very hard for any person to hide their intentions around
Lazarus. The body language screamed at him. This was one of the
reasons that he was good at what he did, and one of the reasons
that he was still around.

He finished with his breakfast and newspaper.
Now it was time to break out some serious counter-surveillance, and
find out how good they were. He threw the detritus of his breakfast
away, but kept the newspaper. While he was sitting, he folded the
sections up so that they were easily separated. The portions of the
newspaper would be used as a distraction. He stood and began
walking.

He chose an alley at random and turned into
it. He looked around, and placed one of the folded paper sectionals
behind a dumpster. He walked back and crossed the street. He used
the surfaces of the windows to watch the alley as he walked away.
He slowed the tempo of his walk and was able to see a different
agent go into the alley. Now he knew two of them.

He did quick stops and double backs as he
walked from store to store. He used the angles and surfaces of the
windows on the street. It took a while, but he finally spotted the
third agent. They were doing the switch and follow, with one agent
in range to watch him, then a switch and another agent was close
enough to watch him. He had to give them credit, they were not bad.
They weren’t great though. Not like the Bulgarians during the
height of the cold war.

Now that he knew their pattern, he just had
to fill in the blanks. He used it to find the missing agent or
agents. One agent kept him in view at all times. Since he knew
three agents, he could time the pattern. When he couldn’t see one
of the three, he knew there had to be another agent. With this
information, he just had to watch for the gap. The gap appeared,
and he watched. He noticed another agent. He kept going for another
hour, just to make sure that the timing was correct and that he had
spotted all of the surveillance team. He didn’t see anybody else,
so he was fairly confident that he had spotted all of them. None of
the surveillance team here had been in the restaurant when he
talked to Mephistopheles. That meant that Mephistopheles had a team
of at least eight ATF agents.

He walked around some more. He placed the
other newspaper sectionals so that they would have to expose
themselves to investigate. Lazarus was having great fun with all of
this. It had been a while since he had used this level of
tradecraft, and he enjoyed blowing the dust off of his skills to
see if he still had the capabilities. The last time he had used
this level of tradecraft was before the Berlin Wall fell. He was a
little worried though. He hadn’t seen Jean at all.

He ducked into old record shop. The record
store had aged gracefully. The store looked like it had been here
forever. It expressed the history of the building without seeming
old. It was aged, but not dilapidated or decrepit. This wasn’t one
of the glitzy, upscale stores of the area. Lazarus was amazed that
it had escaped the fate of the buildings and stores around it. It
was inviting and comfortable. It welcomed people in to enjoy the
history of music and the ambiance of the building. It was filled
with bins of old records, some with music that hadn’t been heard in
seventy years or more. It had 33s, 45s and 78 rpm records. Lazarus
let the feeling of the place seep into him, and wandered around,
flipping through old jazz records.