The Night Beat, From the Necropolis Enforcement Files (15 page)

I followed. “What’s up with you?” I didn’t really want to hear about how hot and awesome Miriam and Magdalena were, but I figured it was better to get it over with now.

“Are all female angels Amazons?” He didn’t make it sound like a good thing.

“Well, no, but when humans become angelic they alter. Not just the wings and all, but there are other changes.”

“Those two were humans? Ever?”

“Yeah. From what I’ve been told, they weren’t quite that hot when they were alive.”

He shook his head. “Define ‘hot’. If you mean scary and emasculating, they’re smokin’. If you mean someone a guy would want to go to bed with, ah, not really.”

I tried to sniff surreptitiously. If someone was telling a whopper of a lie, there were usually telltale signs, and their body odor was one of them. I didn’t smell lying on Jack -- I smelled fear. He was afraid of Black Angel Two? I was both pleased and concerned. “Angels are normally considered the most attractive undead species in existence.”

“Really? Well, I’ll be sure to keep an eye on you around Martin and any other male angels.”

“Martin remained pretty much himself. He had the choice.”

“And the two scary chicks didn’t?”

“Um, I think it was more, at the time, when they died, that they wanted to fit in.” I was reaching. I had no idea what Black Angel Two’s mindset had been at the time. They’d died centuries apart and more centuries before me, but over time had worked hard to become one of the two top Angelic Enforcer teams. Considering that Black Angel One had been together far longer, and had died closer together, all things being equal, Two’s rise was very impressive.

“Fit in where?” Jack shuddered.

“With the other angels. And, what’s wrong with you?”

He shook his head. “I grew up thinking angels watched over us. I never want something like that watching over me.”

Miriam was next to us. Angelic thing. One moment there, the next, here. They moved fast, that was all, but it was freaky the first few hundred times it happened. She looked Jack right in the eyes. “You must tread carefully.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to insult you,” Jack said.

She shook her head. “I don’t care what you think of me. But your soul is in jeopardy.”

“Because I’m a human?”

“No,” Miriam said slowly. “Because you no longer want to be.”

And then she was gone, back next to Martin and Magdalena, her back to us.

Jack looked at me. “Really? The most attractive undead species? Compared to what, Dirt Corps?”

“No, really. More than vampires, even.”

“Um, I’m not really attracted to Amanda, but I’d take her in a heartbeat over Black Angels Charm and Charmer.” He looked around. “They’re going to be working with us for the rest of this case?”

“I think so. Don’t worry, maybe Black Angel One will drop in, too.”

“More ‘hot chicks’?”

“No, they’re male. Brothers.” Considered the hottest things with two wings, too, but I decided not to mention it.

“I can’t wait.”

“You’ll have to,” Monty said. He’d played dead while this was going on, but I knew he’d taken it all in. “Black Angel One spent all day trailing Tomio for, as near as we can tell, no reason. They’re resting, but I believe they plan to join us in a few hours.”

“Good, I’m sure we’re going to need them.” I decided to let Miriam’s comment about Jack’s soul wait. We had to plan our course of action. I’d have time to find out what she meant -- about his soul as well as him not wanting to be human -- later. “Ken, what’ve we got?”

Ken came over to us and the others followed. “Nothing much. Amanda and Maurice are as bored on their trailing detail as they were last night and Black Angel One was all day.”

“No one’s found any of the doppelgängers? Not one?”

Gretel shook her head. “We put out an ABA. Nothing.”

“ABA?” Jack asked.

“All Being Alert.” I heaved a sigh. “So, all the false trails led here. What happened with the people who died at the scene last night?”

“They’re still interred,” Monty answered. “Nothing different about them.”

“The living victims are exorcised,” Martin offered. “But, as I’d suspected, it was a waste of effort. The traces were all external, only. Left to confuse and delay.”

“But why? The Prince’s side hasn’t done anything now for going on twenty-four hours. And with doppelgängers wandering loose, you’d think something would have gone down by now.”

“Are we sure we have doppelgängers at all?” Jack asked.

I shrugged. “No. We’re not sure the Prince or his stronger minions are on the human plane, either. But if they’re not, what’s with all the divide, conquer and confuse tactics? It’s not like doing that would cause us to take monitoring off the normal entryways or stop watching the usual suspects.”

“Everything seems normal, on all the planes,” Magdalena said. “Even in Hell.”

Martin nodded. “Undercover agents report no unusual activity, other than the incident from last night, which appeared to be an attempt to impress the boss that went wrong.”

“Our agents think Slimy acted alone and there was no one else on the grassy knoll or, in this case, in the creepy alley?”

“As far as they can tell,” Magdalena said. “As far as anyone can tell, we shouldn’t be gathered here, trying to find doppelgängers. Or anything else, for that matter.”

The group started discussing the situation, options, theories. I let it wash over me and didn’t add in. Neither, I noted, did Miriam. She still had her back to the rest of us, watching. She was still alert for danger. And I knew I needed to be. Werewolf senses work on many levels, and all of mine were saying we were in not just trouble, but real, potential Apocalyptic trouble. The trouble was, I had no idea of what it was, where it was coming from, or what to do to defend against it.

I realized we were missing two beings I’d requested. “Hey, where are Freddy and Sexy Cindy?”

“Finishing indoctrination,” H.P. advised. “They’ll be along shortly.”

“Good.”

“Why?” Jack asked, sounding tired already. “What are a former bum and hooker going to have that everyone else doesn’t?”

I shrugged. “Whatever they have, the Prince couldn’t get them. Besides, maybe they know where Tomio normally hangs out. We need to know if the person Maurice and Amanda are tailing is the real Tomio or not, for starters.”

“How would they know more than anyone here?” Jack shook his head. “If this were a human-only situation, I’d tell you to round up the usual suspects and find out what’s going on.”

Miriam stalked off. She went to what I knew were fresh graves.

“What’s she doing?” Interestingly, this question didn’t come from Jack, but from Ken.

I watched her. “I think she’s going to do what Jack suggested. She’s gathering the usual suspects, at least the ones from our favorite alley.”

“How is she doing that?” Jack asked.

“By raising the dead.”

Chapter 24

Despite what many religions would have you believe, raising the dead isn’t all that hard, shocking or unusual. Angels and gods can do it any time they want. They just don’t usually want to, for a variety of reasons.

There are also a variety of ways to raise the dead. Resurrection is a rarity -- most who die really don’t want to come back as humans or whatever they were before. The ones who die and are undead material are usually already out of their graves before an angel or god would be coming by.

I let Monty handle Jack’s new, myriad questions, while I went over to Miriam. Raising takes concentration, but she was so strong I figured she could talk and raise at the same time. I watched her movements -- she was going for a limited raising, which I considered good sense. The problem was, a limited raising was just that -- limited. You got a short time to ask whatever you needed of the dead and then they were back to dead.

“What are we going to ask them?”

“You’re the detective.” Miriam had supposedly had a way with people when she’d been alive. You couldn’t prove it by anyone these days, but she didn’t bother me all that much. In a little way, I sort of idolized her and Magdalena -- they were at a level I was never likely to achieve and they’d worked harder than anyone else to get there. I wanted to be like Black Angel Two when I grew up.

“True.” I considered what we really needed to know. What was going on, for starters. But the questions had to be posed in a way to get the right answers. The dead weren’t any smarter or with it in the grave than they’d been in life. And we had a lot of life’s losers raising up.

“You’ve achieved much in your unlife,” Miriam said apropos of nothing other than, I suspected, reading my mind.

“Thanks.” The freshly turned earth was starting to move, in a way that looked like it was boiling.

“Your drive is understandable, your conviction stronger than most. You’ll need to be stronger than you’ve ever had to be, sooner than any would like.”

“I didn’t know you were a prophet.” Now the earth was moving like liquid in a blender within the confines of each grave.

“Magdalena and I both spent our human lives around the most influential prophets the human world has known. Some of it rubs off.”

“I know you think Jack’s in danger, but we’ll all protect him.” The earth in each grave moved to the sides now, so there were openings. The air above the openings shimmered.

“The danger is more than physical.” She looked away from the graves and right at me. “I want you to know -- if you fail, it will not be your fault, it will be his. You have the responsibility only for your own soul, no one else’s. None who have come before, exist now, or will come in the future are your responsibility. Every being can only do what is right for their own soul, no one else’s.”

“I don’t believe that. I think we all help or hinder each other.”

She shook her head. “Right now, two new undeads are coming to join us, to fight the eternal fight alongside all our other warriors. You had no control over their souls. Neither did the Prince. That they were the only two worthy of an unlife was neither your loss nor your victory.” She looked back at the graves. “Remember this -- when it comes down to it, it’s always you alone against the Prince. No matter if there are thousands standing with you, each of you fights him alone.”

The others joined us now, so I wasn’t able to question Miriam further. Seven bodies floated in the air above their graves. They didn’t look good, but they hadn’t looked good prior to Slimy’s attack, either.

I examined them. I didn’t really know them. They were vaguely familiar faces, people I’d looked at to make sure they weren’t committing crimes in front of me. Then I’d looked away from them. Like everyone else had.

Jack was next to me. “Monty said we had limited time. What do you want to ask them?”

All seven were staring at us, their expressions a mixture of fear, truculence and insolence. Just like we’d brought them into the station for questioning. This was truly a routine round-up.

Things being what they were, I decided to go for broke. “What did you all see, right before, and most importantly, right after you died?”

There was the dead version of foot shuffling and averted eyes. The hookers stuck their chests out and tried to distract that way. The bums muttered. The junkies laughed. I decided to focus on them. They were, as we’d all told Jack, much closer to the Prince.

“You,” I pointed to the nearest junkie. “Why didn’t the Prince take you with him?”

He was young, no more than twenty-two. He just grinned at me. “That’s Jerry,” someone said in a quiet voice from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Freddy the new zombie standing there. “He don’t like authority. His daddy’s a preacher.”

“Who’s the other junkie?”

“Bobby. Used to be on the corporate ladder, wife, kids.” Freddy sounded sad.

I looked back at the resurrected. “Bobby, why didn’t the Prince take you?” Bobby looked away. “You know, if the Prince is here, he’ll take your family. Even if you’re no good to him, I’ll bet your wife and kids will be just what he’s after.”

Bobby’s head swiveled back. “I don’t have a family any more.”