Night Call (Book 2): Demon Dei (35 page)

“No question.”

“At least she’s stopped testing the doors.”

The alarms had fallen silent, which was worrying more than reassuring. Sure enough, a moment later, something dark moved outside the office window. It’s shadow could just be made out on the blinds. Indistinct but very few things of that size could hover outside a twelfth storey window. I stopped breathing. I think Erin did too.

Erin reached up to the desk and felt around. A package tumbled down. I caught it before it could hit the floor. Erin and I stared at each other, eyes wide. Then we looked to the window. She was still there, doing what, we had no idea. Again, Erin reached for something and this time, found it. She scribbled something in the notebook and passed it over.

‘Can she sense us?’

I shrugged. ‘Doomed if she can.’

‘Cheerful thought.’

No matter the strength of the tempered glass, I was certain Amaya could have cracked it with a flick of one finger. That she didn’t was either testament to my summoning circle theory or she was the world’s biggest, meanest tease. The wait to find out which was true was agonising. Could she, couldn’t she? Would she, wouldn’t she? Did she sense us? Could she hear the frantic beating of my heart? I would have bitten my nails down to the quick if I hadn’t been busy passing notes.

We tried to formulate a plan for if and or when the demon got sick of playing and attacked. Most of them were ridiculous and in the end we settled for simply running for it. I made the choice to avoid the elevators though, to which Erin agreed whole heartedly.

Had to give Amaya points for stamina. It was four a.m. before she left. By that time, Erin was nodding off, leaning against my shoulder, presumably because I was a tad more comfortable than the desk.

When I was certain Amaya was gone, I nudged Erin. “We made it,” I said gently. “She’s gone.”

Erin rubbed her eyes. “Your idea worked.”

“Must have because I think she’d be one hell of a hide and seek champion otherwise.”

“My butt’s gone to sleep.”

I resisted the urge to offer my assistance in waking it up.

“What’s this?” she mumbled, picking up the package she’d knocked down.

Turning it over revealed a consignment note from a courier company and a giant CONFIDENTIAL sticker. It was addressed to Erin personally, not Sol Investigations. Erin tore open one end.

Several external hard drives tumbled out, followed by a USB stick with ‘Play me’ written on it and a folded piece of paper.

“What the…?”

Erin picked up the paper and read it, her jaw dropping.

“Something interesting?” I asked.

“And sometimes,” she said as she handed over the note, “detecting is just plain, dumb luck.”

I read, “Erin, you don’t know me, but Brad has told me a bit about you. I got the sense you’d be the best person to send this too. Of course, I hope you never have to read this, but if you do, then it’s because I’m dead. I gave strict instructions to the couriers to only deliver this if I didn’t call them at an appointed time. I hope that if you do receive this, you will be able to use it to help my family.

“Regards, Geraldine Davis.”

Geraldine Davis didn’t look like a physicist. Though I have to admit my preconceived image of female physicists came from those uptight-accademic-woman-learns-to-let-her-hair-out-of-that-tighter-than-tight-bun type movies. Either way, Geraldine looked like the Gerry people called her. She wasn’t classically gorgeous, but she was pretty in that low maintenance, wash my face, brush my hair and off I go way. Her face was clean of makeup and her hair was shoulder length, loose and touched in places with grey.

She sat in the offices at Hamilton. Behind her were white boards of equations, much like I’d found in Karl
Roeben’s head. It disturbed me a little, but not as much as what Gerry said into the camera.

“Between the Many Worlds theory, String theory and the dozens of interpretations of these and other theories, scientists have spent decades trying to prove the existence of other worlds. Parallel dimensions, multi-verses, however you want to label them. I won’t go into the science behind what I, and Karl, were trying to do here. All that’s explained on the hard drives. It’s a backup of every equation, every supposition, every discussion, every argument…”

Gerry sighed and leaned back in her chair. She looked tired, and perhaps a little scared.

“It’s all there, anyway. Do with it what you please, but I urge you to be careful. Perhaps things would have been better if someone had shot this Pandora before she even thought about opening the box.” A wry smile twisted her lips. “But because I am what I am, I can’t see all this work go to waste. Maybe, with what we’ve accomplished here, someone else with more smarts than either myself or Karl can use our discoveries in a better way. Please, think carefully before passing this research on. Make sure it goes to someone with strong morals. Maybe Long. I always thought he was too soft for what he did, but perhaps that makes him the best person to deal with this.”

She gave herself a little shake and sat forward again, face serious. “The purpose of this isn’t to talk about the science. Do you remember that discussion we had when we first met at the shooting range? My shot went wide and I couldn’t figure out why.” Gerry smiled and held up a hand. “No. I hadn’t yet figured out why. I would have eventually. You know, that’s the only time I haven’t pursued a problem through to a reason. All because you said sometimes shit happens. You said that sometimes, science can’t explain why things happen, or predict an exact outcome.” The smile faded. “Well, you were right. Long story short. We did it. Karl and I worked out how to reach across to another world. And I guess, shit happened.

“The maths allows us to speculate that these other dimensions are out there, that they’re viable worlds separate from ours, but very intimately linked. To go to the next step and actually prove it takes more than math. You could call it a leap of faith. Trust that the parachute will open and jump. Karl was the one with the faith. It was his idea. He has this theory that perhaps myths and religion, or rather, what the various religions purport, aren’t of this world. What if these supernatural beings, the Christian God, Allah, Zeus, Ra, Odin, all of them, what if they’re real beings living in a parallel world? What if the human subconscious is able to sense these other worlds, in a sense see these beings and the fantastical things they can do in these strange places, and build a myth around them? That was Karl’s idea. I wasn’t convinced. I read the books he gave me to support his argument. Books by philosophers and psychologists, murky, convoluted sciences at best.”

My stomach gave a little quiver as Gerry diverted into a one sided argument about why no one could trust psychology or philosophy. All I could think of was Lila’s explanation for demons. Then I got annoyed I was still thinking of Lila as a real person. But, as Gerry wound down, coming to perhaps, maybe, possibly admitting there might be, at a stretch, a vague truth behind what some psychologist had to say about the human subconscious, I felt a little bit better about what Lila had said. At least she hadn’t been lying to me.

“Anyway,” Gerry said after a short pause to catch her breath, “this was Karl’s idea. Pursue this thought humans had been in contact, one way or another, with these other universes pretty much constantly since apes stood upright. It was Karl’s idea, but I found the means. This.”

She held up a piece of paper to the camera. On it was the now familiar circle for summoning a demon.

“I didn’t want you to ever find out about this, but shit happens. I was sorting out the washing one day and found this in Rufus’ jeans. When I asked him about it, he told me it was just something harmless. Something he did for fun. It wasn’t illegal and therefore you couldn’t come down on his back about it. He summons demons. Of course, I didn’t believe it at first, but as I kept reading the books Karl gave me, I began to see where Rufus’ demons were just another part of Karl’s theory.”

Erin gave me a sick, horrified look. I nodded in total agreement. Any other parent would have been disgusted that their child—even step-child—was doing such a thing. But Gerry simply saw the means to an end.

“Rufus came to our offices and showed us how he did it. It’s very simple. I even managed to summon a demon. It was a slimy little creature, consumed with hatred of all things. Of course, when I say ‘creature’ I mean entity. We never saw these demons as anything other than what Rufus called their spirit form. A coloured, gaseous substance. None of them lasted long. One said it was because their spirits are volatile in our atmosphere. To survive they need a host body.” Gerry put the paper down and twisted her hands, not looking at the camera. “We argued over this for ages. I didn’t want to do it but Karl did. He was fanatic about this new means of research. He wanted to offer a host to a demon of sufficient strength so it could remain in our world and tell us everything it knew about the different realms. In the end, Karl did it without me. He summoned the strongest demon he could and made his proposal. And that’s when the shit really happened.

“The demon he summoned refused but gave him the name of another demon that would accept the offer. A demon who could not only tell us about the other realms but help us with our original research. The demon’s name was Asmodeus. None of us were strong enough to summon him, but he came voluntarily at Rufus’ call. Karl offered himself as a host and Asmodeus accepted. I only discovered this after the fact.

“I didn’t want anything to do with it. It had gone too far. Karl assured me the ‘possession’ was voluntary, that Asmodeus did not influence him or control him. I spoke with Asmodeus and…” She shivered. “And he was charming and persuasive. I suppose I came to like him, after a while, after he proved he wasn’t here to cause havoc. He was interested in our work, fascinated with our theories on how we could bridge the boundary between our two realms. He’s very intelligent but his views of quantum physics are radically different to ours. And his knowledge of math…” Gerry trailed off with a dreamy little sigh.

Erin and I exchanged worried frowns.

On the tape, Gerry shook off the moment and continued. “It’s all about the numbers and angles, and having to encompass four dimensions. That’s what the summoning circle, the Ring of Solomon, is. It’s the result of a very long, very complex equation. I researched King Solomon. He wasn’t just the greatest summoner, but I think he may have been one of the first physicists. How he had the ability to discern and comprehend the very substance of the universe in his time is… is… impossible to understand. How he learned to manipulate it with words and symbols is beyond understanding.” With a tired shrug she concluded, “That mystery will have to go undiscovered, I’m afraid. However he discovered the ability to summon demons with the ring was irrelevant. What was relevant was taking that original
equation, and expanding on it. Asmodeus challenged us. He wanted to know if our knowledge of physics was up to the task of making the circle bigger.

“You know what I’m like when I’m presented with a problem to be solved, and I’m worse when it’s couched as a challenge. So I accepted and… and I guess I lost sight of the implications, forgot that Asmodeus wasn’t human and that his desires weren’t entirely clear.”

Gerry put her face in her hands for a moment. When she looked at the camera again, she had tears in her eyes. “Rufus refused to have any more to do with it. He said Asmodeus was going too far. I agreed. But.” She swallowed hard. “But I was too caught up in what we were doing. It was like a drug. A hundred years of theories and finally, in the space of a couple of months, we’d blown them all out of the water. We had a means of opening a passage between two different worlds. How could I just walk away from that?

“So we kept working. We didn’t need Rufus anymore, either way. Hadn’t needed his help since Asmodeus had come across. He would call every week or so, demand to know if we’d stopped. He got so angry with me, and I didn’t want to upset him, but I couldn’t stop. And in the end, I did it. I adjusted the equation to create a circle that was bigger. Much bigger. Asmodeus was pleased. Then, yesterday, you attacked Karl.”

Gerry tried to look stern, but the unshed tears still glimmered in her eyes, stealing the severity from them. “It was totally uncalled for and pointless and ridiculous. I still haven’t forgiven you for not trusting me. What possessed you… Poor choice of words perhaps. What were you thinking? You know I love you. Besides, you’d left me. You shouldn’t have cared what I was doing. But, it was a wakeup call, in more than one way. You literally knocked Asmodeus out of Karl. I have no idea where the demon went but he left Karl and effectively left me as well. Without him here, I feel different. Less driven, less… comfortable with what we were doing. I looked around these offices and it was as if, for the first time, I saw what we were doing. I began looking through all our papers and I found this.”

She held up several bits of paper. And again, they were familiar to me. I’d seen those equations before, on the blackboards in Karl’s mind. Here, though, his mad ramblings were interspersed throughout the numbers. Gerry had highlighted particular words. She kept the papers up long enough for us to read them.

‘He’s here. I rule. Big holes. Don’t trust. Bring them through. Can’t rule my world. He’s always here. Suffocating.’

“I think this makes it clear that Asmodeus wasn’t honest with us. With me. He’d been suppressing Karl, I guess. Perhaps Karl could sense the real reason why Asmodeus wanted us to create a larger circle. Rufus was right. It was going too far and if it didn’t stop, Asmodeus was going to do something terrible with the developments we were making. So, I put a stop to it. Wherever Asmodeus is now, I don’t care. I won’t help him anymore and he won’t ever have access to the work we’ve done here. But I can’t destroy everything. The basis of our work, the new insights Asmodeus gave us, is on those hard drives. When he finds out, and I fully expect him to, he’s not going to be happy, which is why I’m taking this precaution. I’ve wiped the computers here. When he catches me, this copy—” She tapped her head. “—will be gone too. The only evidence will be with you, Chris. Please treat it carefully.

“Love you.”

The video ended. Dawn had occurred sometime and light peaked in through the closed blinds behind us. Erin and I stared at each other.

Beep.

Both of us scrambled to pull out the drawer of TV screens. Erin cycled through the images until we saw movement.

“Holy crap,” I breathed as we watched a cleaner enter a PIN into the garage elevator keypad.

Erin sagged back into Ivan’s chair. “Well, that answers some questions.”

“The cleaner?”

“No. The recording. Gerry knew she was in danger.”

“Except it wasn’t Asmodeus who got her.” I leaned against the desk.

“Don’t know if you remember, or if you were even conscious at the time, but when Asmodeus broke the bond between you two, he said he’d get someone else to find Gerry’s killer.”

“I heard it.”

Erin grabbed the notebook we’d used earlier. She tore off the pages of our hasty planning and taking up a pen, she began jotting down names and facts, much as I had done.

“Maybe she read him wrong. Do you think Asmodeus wasn’t angry with her for tossing the research?” she asked as she considered her notes.

“I think he is angry. It isn’t revenge for Gerry he wants.”

Erin sighed. “You’re probably right. He doesn’t seem the sort to be concerned for a human life.”

“He’s a demon.”

“So’s Amaya.”

I stalked to the table with the coffee machine. “Your point?”

“My point is she at least has some redeeming qualities.”

“Like?”

“She felt guilty about hurting me. She doesn’t want to do what other people force her to do.”

“Other people,” I muttered.

“Oh, get over yourself. You’re not the only one she fooled.”

A half dozen or so responses lined up for rapid fire, but not one of them sounded even slightly mature, so I sent them packing and decided silence might work better for the time being.

“Okay, so what do we know?” Erin began pacing. “Asmodeus voluntarily got caught in their circle. He negotiated his way into possessing this, what was his name? Karl. Who is he anyway?”

“Karl
Roeben.” I quickly filled her in on the whole sordid mess.

When I was done, she made a few more notes, studied them and then nodded.

“Asmodeus is in Chris Davis.”

“Huh?”