The Edge Of The Cemetery (19 page)

Billy and I went back to the kitchen. I grabbed another beer, not because I was thirsty, but because I was shaking slightly from having a ghost in my machine…I needed it to steady myself.

Pete was back as well, and Billy asked, “So what's the plan? Did Aris tell you about our new secret weapon?”

Pete nodded and turned to me with a serious and concerned expression. I put him at ease. “Don't worry, this is a one-off—well, two-off if you count our little introductory crash course a few minutes ago—but after we take care of this business, I'm done. It's…too weird, and honestly, I think it would be like taking a really good hallucinogenic drug. The sensation could be very addicting.” He nodded, but I didn't think he was convinced about the safety of it all.

“All right, my guys just reported in,” Pete said. I looked at the clock on the wall and was shocked to see how fast the time had gone by. It was now almost 10 p.m.

“We've got a problem,” Pete continued glumly. “Like Carol suspected, Edgar didn't come alone. Men were posted in the little park area outside of the VA access point and in the area where the museum access point is located. My guys got into the storage bay without being seen, but once they got inside the tunnels, there wasn't much cover, so they couldn't get far. About twenty feet into the tunnels, it becomes a dead zone as far as cell and radio are concerned, so Edgar won't be able to communicate with the men inside; that's an advantage once we take them out. But we're going in blind. We have no idea where to go once we get into the tunnels.”

The connection GG and I had shared earlier was still lingering, like a tenuous length of spider silk; delicate, yet strong. I concentrated on that. I wanted her back in the room…I had an idea. When she appeared, I motioned her over.

“GG, when you helped us with Vokkel, you were travelling between the ballpark and our location, remember?” She nodded. “I need you to do that again, but I need you to go to Edgar and the chamber. We need to know exactly where it is.”

Fear filled her eyes and I remembered our conversation the other day about Gilles…she was terrified of him. I frowned. “Can Gilles sense you?” She nodded. “Can he hurt you?” If he could, I didn't see how our earlier plan to fight as one would work. She shrugged, which didn't tell me much of anything. I said, “GG, we need the element of surprise. If we can't get to the chamber undetected, I don't think we can win, or save Phil and the others.”

She sighed sadly, a forlorn look on her face. Finally she nodded and disappeared.

Aris said, “George, I think we should ask her if she can bring reinforcements again. Perhaps creating our own chaos upon entering the chamber would work to our advantage.”

I thought about it for a moment, and something came to me, another moment of great sadness. This time the image was the garage on Bush Street where we had fought Vokkel and his surge of demons. I sighed. “I don't think she'll be able to do that again. I have this…impression, from her…her memories. I think we inadvertently vanquished many of the good ghosts she brought. I don't think she can get them to come this time, especially because of Gilles and whatever is in that vault.”

GG rematerialized and looked around. Settling on the maps that Pete had returned to the counter, she pointed to them. I went over and touched each one until she nodded; it was the map that reflected the unused storm water tunnels. She put her ghostly finger on the area where the museum entrance was, then ran it along the tunnel outlines. She kept going, even after the outlines stopped, and I said, “Hold on…are there tunnels beyond these, that aren't on here?” She nodded. “Okay, wait a second.” Turning to Eric, I asked, “Got a pencil?” He arched his head with a look that said, “Seriously, you're asking me for a pencil?” I smiled and pulled out a stash of trusty number twos from my back pocket. I'd loaded up on them after Calvin and Gilles pulled their stunt earlier…I didn't want any more electroplasmic shocks today. Holding them up, I said, “Unsharpened.” He rolled his eyes and walked over to a drawer, pulled out a mechanical pencil, and tossed it to me.

Turning back to GG and the map, I asked, “Can you trace that again and I'll follow along and mark it out?” She nodded, and when we were done, a whole new network of tunnels appeared on the map. “You're amazing,” I said affectionately. “So where's the chamber door?” She pointed to a spot and I put an “x” on it.

Dave came into the room smiling. “It's done.” He held up a silver column, similar, but not exact, to the key from Vokkel's house.

“Where did that come from?” I asked.

“I got a jeweler buddy over in West Portal. Pete had me call in a favor, and I had him create this. It isn't exact—we didn't have time for that—but it should fool Edgar for a little while.”

I started shaking my head furiously. “No, no way…that key sat on Vokkel's bookshelf for God knows how many years. Edgar might not have known what it was for, but he'd definitely knows what it looks like.” Pete started to say something and I interrupted. “If he realizes it's fake, he'll kill Phil on the spot!”

“Calm down,” Pete said firmly. “The hand off is being made in a dark place. Even if he shines a light on it, he won't be able to see that much, but it's close enough to fool him in the short run. While the hand off is happening we'll be infiltrating the tunnels, and before Edgar even gets back to them, we should have the situation in the chamber controlled.”

I wanted to protest, but he was right and we were running out of time. He spent twenty minutes going over everything. It felt rushed and inadequate.

Since we now knew Edgar had help, we assumed he was watching the house too. Eric was to do the hand off, so he was the only one going out the front door. The rest of us were to leave by the back, going over the fence, through the neighbor's yard, and into waiting cars one block over on Irving Street. Pete gave us five minutes to change into dark clothing, after which we reassembled in the kitchen for final instructions. Aris was the last to return, and I did a double-take when he walked in. I'd never seen him in anything other than his tailored suits and crisp white shirts. Now he wore black fatigues, a black sweater, and a holster, complete with a gun and extra clips.

Pete's final instructions consisted of handing out weapons to those of us that didn't already have one. Each one was equipped with a silencer. He explained that we'd most likely have to shoot our way in, and we needed to do it quietly. I knew Billy was familiar with firearms, and based on Carol and Eric's reactions, they were too. Phil, who had a small collection of guns, had insisted a few months back that I join him at the shooting range just in case I ever needed to use one. I still didn't feel all that comfortable with them, but I wasn't going to turn it down tonight.

There were two black SUVs waiting for us on Irving Street. I felt like I was entering some strange covert ops movie. To think I'd mentally made fun of Julie's Hollywood style security just that morning, and here I was going full Hollywood to infiltrate a secret supernatural chamber next to a condemned cemetery—which was rumored to still be full of bodies—and defeat a demon and his newly risen army. And let's not forget we had every intention of killing the psychopathic villains of this little skit from hell, Edgar and Calvin. The whole situation dripped with irony, and I gulped hard to choke down the hysterical laughter I could feel building.

The quickest way to get to the museum would have been to go through Golden Gate Park, but Pete wanted to avoid driving by the front of the house, so he headed west to the Great Highway and turned north until he reached Geary Boulevard, from which point he cut over on 44
^th
Avenue and into the VA Medical Center. I thought that was risky. It was a government facility and I was sure they had security. He killed the lights and drove to the northern most parking lot. When we got out of the car and started toward a path he indicated, I glanced back. The SUV had government plates on it, thus his lack of concern…it would look like it belonged. Pete's bag of tricks seemed bottomless.

The moon was full, but there were scattered clouds, causing our only source of light to blink in and out, making the trek down the dark, steep path a little treacherous. The path opened up to another parking lot, which was at the end of El Camino Del Mar and a short walk from the loading bay of the museum. Pete held his fist up, silently commanding us to stop. He checked his watch; the dial glowed an eerie green. It was twenty-five minutes to midnight.

He was wearing a wireless earpiece and microphone, and spoke softly, “status.” He listened for a moment, huddled us together, and whispered, “Edgar's walking toward Eagles Point now. My men already took out his guards watching the loading bay. Let's move, quick and silent.”

We hugged the hillside and walk-ran until we reached the loading bay. The large roll-up door was closed, but the man-sized steel door was slightly ajar. Pete whispered something into his headset and a man appeared and waved us through, then led the way to another door on the far side of the cavernous bay. Through that we found ourselves in one of the tunnels Carol had shown us. I was surprised to see it was lit, although the fixtures were ancient and very few had working bulbs in place. Pete stopped again…he was listening, and hissed “damn-it.” I tapped him on the shoulder and mouthed “what?” Pulling us back toward the door to the bay, he said, “Edgar's on the way back.”

“And Phil?” I asked. Pete shook his head. “Is he dead?!”

Pete scowled. “Keep your voice down. I don't know, but don't shoot until you're sure who you're shooting at.”

Billy whispered, “Is Eric okay?”

“I don't know that either…my guy had to keep his distance. He heard a scream, then saw Edgar sprinting back this way. Look, we need to move. Eagle's Point is on this side of the museum, so there's a good chance Edgar would come in this way too, and it's getting close to midnight…we need to move fast. I don't want him catching up until we've secured the chamber. He's already going to be suspicious when he notices his guards are gone.”

Pete started moving again. It was damp and smelly in the tunnel, and the dim industrial lights running down the center of the ceiling did little to dispel the creepy feeling I was getting. It felt like we walked for a long time. The tunnels were a labyrinth, and I was pretty much lost at that point. The man who'd been leading us stopped abruptly and opened another door. It was steel like the first one, but this one was rusty and pitted…I was surprised it had managed to stay intact. An equally rusty padlock lay to the side. This new tunnel was much older than the ones we'd just come from. Instead of semi-smooth concrete walls, these were some kind of stacked stone, slimy with moisture and a dark, foul smelling moss. Based on how old the walls looked, I assumed we'd now entered the tunnels GG had pointed out. There were no lights here, and Pete and his man pulled out pen lights and continued on until we reached yet another door. When I started to go through, I realized the door itself was made of the same stacked stone, and I guessed that when it was closed, you probably wouldn't know it was a door at all, just part of the wall. A man was lying just inside the door and Billy pointed down at him. Pete mouthed, “Edgar's guard.” I couldn't tell if he was dead or just unconscious, and decided it didn't really matter.

The new tunnel was considerably narrower, the air thick and almost electrified, and I knew we were closing in on Gilles and he was amping up. I tapped Pete's shoulder. He turned, his pen light shining just past me so he wouldn't blind me. I mouthed, “GG.” He nodded and stepped back, waving for the others to move back too.

I concentrated on that silky thin connection, and although there was barely any light in the tunnel, I could see GG materialize before me. She came to me—into me—and I felt that surge of power again. The flashes of her previous existence came again too, but the feeling wasn't nearly as jarring as it had been before. I heard a voice, sweet and shy, but the message and images it portrayed were horrifying and I could feel my eyes widen.

Pete mouthed, “What?” I waved them all back to the stacked stone door of the chamber tunnel, and whispered, “GG, she spoke to me. She said…,” I hesitated, “if they try and open the vault with the wrong combination, she said it would be like an explosion. The vision she sent me was like a mushroom cloud…it would destroy everything for a mile in either direction.” The city wasn't that big—seven by seven miles—and it was densely populated. If GG was right and they tried to open the chamber using the fake key, it would kill thousands and thousands of people, including us.

I grabbed Pete's arm and looked at his watch; it was nine minutes to midnight. If the offshoot tunnels bypassed the ones we had used, it was possible Edgar had gotten ahead of us. He'd had time to explore all the routes, and he'd be very motivated to move fast if he realized his guards were gone.

Pete motioned for us to move and we traversed the last tunnel quickly, coming upon an arch with a solid wooden door, light seeping from underneath it. The air was now so charged with the electrical energy of demons I could feel GG shudder inside me. She was afraid, but it seemed to strengthen her too. Pete didn't hesitate…he pulled the door open and burst through with the rest of us right behind him.

The chamber was so full of demons that I could barely see. I immediately grabbed a pencil from my pocket and started stabbing, moving fast and efficiently, but with every demon I killed, it seemed like three more appeared. Demons weren't the only things moving in the chamber, and the punch to the kidneys that I received was unexpected, but not debilitating. I turned quickly, bashing the large man in the face, feeling his nose shatter. He staggered back and I turned to the next guy, doing about the same damage. I couldn't say how many or how long this went on…it seemed like forever, but could only have been a few minutes. The surge of power I was getting from GG was incredible and very useful. The electrical sizzle was dying down, and now I saw our men, bound and gagged on the floor by the far wall. I also saw Pete's man, the one who'd led us in, lying in a pile on the floor near the door.

Someone screamed, “STOP!” and I turned to find Edgar with his muscular arm around Phil's neck, holding him like a shield. In his free hand he held a gun pointed at Phil's temple. He waved the gun toward the chamber door and said, “Back over there, NOW!”

Billy and I were standing on the far side of the chamber. I looked over and saw Calvin and Gilles; they weren't together yet, but were standing very close to each other. Calvin held the fake key and the journal. He was reading the second drawing, the one with the combination, and glancing at a door nearest him…it was the vault door. I had expected it to be larger. It was made of a smooth white stone, free from the moisture and residue that had caked all the other surfaces in the tunnels. The door was so clean and bright that it appeared to glow. A square sat in the upper center, and inside that were sixteen smaller squares with intricate carvings in each of them. Calvin moved to the door and rubbed his hand over the carvings. Then he turned to Gilles, who immediately began to merge with him.

Calvin's eyes started to turn that dark green again, the irises expanding. Suddenly his eyes themselves bulged and his expression changed to horror, and it occurred to me that it had to be seconds from midnight. Now, suddenly, he realized we were right…Gilles was taking him over and casting him out.

I heard a sharp poof sound and turned to see Edgar—a dark hole in the center of his forehead—begin to fall. He still held Phil by the neck, but his arm started to loosen and Phil pulled away. Aris was at the chamber entrance, his arm, silenced gun in hand, still extended.

I turned back to Calvin. Gilles's silhouette was now shrinking as he converged with Calvin. If he completed the process and we killed Calvin, there was a chance that someday Gilles could rise again as a demon, and I wanted him gone for good. I knew what had to be done, and although I'd only shot a gun a few times and this was close range and it was unlikely I'd miss, still I hesitated. Calvin/Gilles registered my hesitation. They began to lunge, and suddenly Calvin's eyes widened, his mouth forming an O. Billy was right beside me. I could smell the gunpowder from her weapon, and now I saw the hole in Calvin's chest, the blood spreading in a wide circle around the impact wound. Gilles and Calvin began to shake and shudder. I could actually feel the power and anger emanating from them, and then Gilles began to separate from Calvin, whose body was beginning to slump to the floor.

This time there was no hesitation…Billy and I lunged. The moment we made contact with his spectral form several things happened simultaneously; my pencil and her chopstick disintegrated, Gilles swirled away into a grey mist, and a massive jolt of his electroplasmic juice shot through us. It was so powerful that we both flew back, hitting the farthest wall hard.

Stunned, but not unconscious, I looked around. The vibration that had begun with Calvin's death was now amplifying and had moved into the ground and walls of the chamber. Mortar dust started to rain all around us, and a faint foul odor began to permeate the room. Someone—Pete, I think—screamed, “Grab a man and get out NOW!”

We ran, each of us dragging a semi-conscious ghost killer with us. Even Phil, who'd been beaten rather badly by Edgar, managed to muster enough strength to help. We hit the museum storage bay just as the chamber and vault exploded, causing the ground to shake and ripple.

I had no idea where the museum security guards were, but I was sure they'd be showing up any second. The explosion had triggered an alarm and it was blaring loudly. We exited through the steel outer door. The two SUVs were waiting, and we piled in and drove down El Camino Del Mar and disappeared into Sea Cliff, where we made our way back to Lincoln Way.

Phil was seated next to me in the back, and I said, “Are you okay?”

He smiled and said, “No, but I will be.” Then he leaned his head back and sighed painfully.