The Adventures of Lazarus Gray (12 page)

Miya looked around their
shared hotel room and pursed her ruby red lips. Walther had been
hopeful that they’d become lovers but Miya hadn’t allowed that to
happen. They were living here under the pretext of being husband
and wife to throw off any who might be looking for them but she
harbored no romantic feelings toward him. It wasn’t just because of
his face, either. There was only one man who had ever tasted the
pleasures of her flesh. He had been the first in her entire life
that had seemed to be her intellectual and sexual equal. "Nothing
that you didn’t already know. He arrived out of the blue in 1933
and immediately made a name for himself. He first came to the
attention of the press when he involved himself in the kidnapping
of Arthur Lingold’s baby. The entire country was riveted by the
case since Lingold’s exploits as a pilot had won him so much
acclaim. And now his infant son was missing, with only a bizarre
ransom note left at the scene. Lazarus Gray managed to find the
child and bring those responsible to justice. From there, it’s been
one success after another. His agency, Assistance Unlimited, is
considered the last hope for those who have nowhere else to turn.
He’s considered quite the hero."

Miya realized that Lunt was
staring at her over the rim of his glass. "The way you speak of
him," the German said. "It’s clear you still harbor feelings for
the man."

"He’s hard to forget," Miya
admitted.

"Sad that he can’t say the
same for you. Apparently, he remembers virtually
nothing."

"That can be a blessing in
some ways," Miya countered. "How is he to know the difference
between the true past and a fiction?"

"What are you
planning?"

Miya stood up, her body
moving enticingly beneath her dress. "I seduced him once before.
Why shouldn’t I be able to do it again?"

"What if seeing you again
sparks his memory? The last thing we need is for him to remember
who he really is. Or who we really are, for that
matter."

Something dark and
malevolent flashed in Miya’s eyes. "If he doesn’t accept the way
things have to be, then I’ll just have to kill him.
Again."

***

"It’s suicide."

Goodwill looked over at the
Black Heart ninja who had spoken. The man was one of the group’s
leaders but it was still rare for him to openly challenge
Goodwill’s decisions. After looking around at the other ninja who
stood watching, Goodwill asked, "Would you care to explain
that?"

"You want us to lie in wait
while you approach Assistance Unlimited with only that… thing… at
your side? You could be cut down long before we could respond. Take
us with you."

"I’m not looking for a
fight. Not right now. I need those papers." Goodwill glanced over
at Sazar, who was watching them with all the disinterest of a bored
cat. She was toying with her nakedness, raking her fingernails over
her flat belly and across her nipples, making them stand up in
sharp little points. She was successfully distracting many of the
ninja, but not their leader, nor Goodwill.

"But surely you don’t
expect them to hand them over. That is not the way of Lazarus Gray
or his men."

"Yes. That’s why I’ll have
Sazar with me. She’ll be invisible and ready to strike at a
moment’s notice. Assistance Unlimited may be capable of handling
normal men like yours but they won’t be able to handle
her."

The ninja’s eyes were the
only part of his face left visible but they flashed with anger.
"They nearly killed her the last time, didn’t they?"

Sazar hissed and moved
forward but Goodwill held up a hand and she stepped back, though
she looked like she might ignore him at a moment’s notice. "I
appreciate the fact that you believe in your men so much," Goodwill
said. "That confidence makes you one of my best assets. But the
discussion is over. Do you understand?"

The man nodded and bowed.
"As you say."

Goodwill waited until all
the ninja had left the room, heading toward the vehicles that would
transport them to the old coal factory. There they’d take up
positions all around the property, hidden out of sight.

"Why didn’t you tell them
about Walther Lunt?" Sazar asked.

Goodwill turned toward her,
keeping his eyes on her breasts. They were so much nicer to look at
than her face. He had called Walther Lunt and asked him to meet him
at the coal factory immediately after getting off the phone with
Gray. Sazar had been with him when he’d made the call but he’d
deliberately made sure that none of the Black Heart knew about it.
"Because I think the time’s come for me to abandon Sovereign City
and I’m going to need a lot of cover to make that happen. When Lunt
arrives, I’m expecting all hell to break loose. That’s when you and
I take off. We’ll leave my ninja to fight both Assistance Unlimited
and Lunt’s men."

"After you’ve gotten the
papers back," she whispered.

"Yes."

Sazar slid around in front
of him, undulating her hips like a serpent. "You don’t remember the
spells, do you? That’s why you’re so desperate to get the
papers."

Goodwill tried to retain
his bravado but some of his willpower began to wilt. She knew he
was helpless now. "I remember enough to bind you," he
bluffed.

Sazar laughed throatily.
"You amuse me, Malcolm. For that reason – and because I’ve fed
recently – I won’t kill you. But don’t think that you’re my master
any longer. I can come and go as I please."

Goodwill cleared his throat
and moved around her. "Let’s get going, shall we?"

***

Lazarus Gray and his people
were the first to arrive. He had chosen this site for several
reasons: first and foremost, it had been abandoned for years,
meaning it was unlikely that any innocents would be hurt. Second,
Gray owned it, meaning any collateral damage that occurred would
only cost him and not anyone else. Finally, he had set up the old
factory as an emergency base for Assistance Unlimited, meaning that
it had a stash of weapons and equipment hidden around the
property.

Gray had Samantha stand
with him in the large parking area, which had a gravel surface. It
was here that he planned to make the proposed exchange. Morgan was
perched on the second floor of the nearby factory building, where
he was waiting with a high-powered rifle. Eun was hiding behind
some old mining equipment, ready to explode onto the scene if
required.

Five minutes before the
agreed-upon meeting time, the Black Heart ninjas arrived. Eun
spotted them first, watching with amusement as nearly a dozen of
the men spread out, hiding behind any cover they could find. They
must have parked their vehicles a mile or so away and come the rest
of the distance on foot. He did nothing, though, remembering the
plan. When one of the ninja tried to take his spot for his own,
however, he quietly took the man by surprise, snapping his neck
with a move so exquisite that few on the planet could have matched
it. Of course, one of those men was his employer.

The next to arrive was
Goodwill, who drove himself in a small roadster. He parked thirty
feet away from Gray, who stood with the papers clasped in his
hands. Goodwill emerged from the vehicle and looked around in
dramatic fashion. He smiled at Lazarus and took several steps
toward him. "I confess, I’m surprised to see you here. I’d thought
you were leading me into a trap."

"And yet you still came,"
Samantha said.

"Yes," Goodwill responded,
frowning. He obviously didn’t appreciate having one of Gray’s
underlings answering him. "So, Lazarus. I’ve brought you enough
money to cover the transfer." Goodwill reached into the pocket of
his slacks and Morgan tensed above. When Goodwill’s hand emerged
holding a wad of bills taped together, Morgan’s finger relaxed on
the trigger but he still remained ready to fire if need
be.

Gray caught the money when
Goodwill tossed it to him. Without even bothering to count it, he
handed the bills to Samantha. "I must warn you, Mr. Goodwill,
you’re dealing with things best left alone." He held up the pages
and his already grim face turned even darker. "You risk not only
your life but your immortal soul."

"I appreciate the concern,"
Goodwill answered, still using his faux British accent. "Now may I
have my papers back?"

"Why did you kill the young
woman we found in Nance’s apartment?"

"Because she knew too
much." Goodwill extended his left hand. "The papers, Lazarus.
Now."

"Of course." Lazarus took
several steps forward and pushed them into Goodwill’s hand. Before
the transfer was fully complete, he stared into Goodwill’s eyes and
said a series of words that sounded like gibberish, unless you knew
that they were the ancient tongue of the demon world.

Goodwill’s eyes opened
wide, for he did recognize them. They were the words he’d not been
able to remember, the words that bound the demon to whomever spoke
them.

Sazar suddenly became
visible, standing just to the left of Goodwill. She stared at Gray
with mounting interest, wondering what he would order her to do.
Now that the spell had been spoken, she was his to
command.

"Blood demon," Gray said
loudly, "capture him – but do not kill him!"

Goodwill snarled, spinning
away from Sazar. He held the papers in his hand – if he could just
have the time to read the words on them, he could try to wrest
control of her from Gray. Or banish her, if need be. But before he
got more than three steps away, Sazar was on, throwing him to the
ground and crouching over his chest. Her mouth was open near his
neck, close enough that he could feel the heat of her breath and
feel the spittle that dripped from her tongue. "No! Please!" he
whispered.

At that moment, the Black
Heart ninja sprang into action. They had held off, waiting for a
signal from Goodwill, but now it appeared that he was in no
position to summon them. They rushed forward, leaping and spinning
impressively. Their swords flashed in the murky Sovereign sunlight.
Eun moved into view, clashing with several, but it was Morgan who
did the most damage. From his vantage point, he was able to pick
them off at will, pausing only long enough to reload his rifle.
During the bloodshed, Gray remained exactly where he’d started out,
though he now had Samantha clinging to him. The girl buried her
face in his shoulder, averting her eyes from the mayhem. The Black
Heart assassins died in droves, bullets riddling their bodies, save
for the few that Eun killed by hand.

When the sounds of gunfire
had faded, Gray ordered Sazar to step away. She did so but was
obviously hungering for a taste of Goodwill’s blood. Now that all
remnants of his hold over her had faded, she saw Goodwill as
nothing more than food.

Goodwill rose to his knees,
looking up at Gray in astonishment. "You’re not human, are you?
You’re just as much of a demon as she is. Nobody human could stand
there and be so calm."

"I’m as human as you," Gray
responded. "But I’ve chosen to live my life with meaning. For those
who traffic in death, there is only more death. But those who live
for others will find a richer meaning."

"How trite," Goodwill said
with a laugh. "You don’t really believe that, do you?"

"I do. It’s a lesson that
Harry Nance learned at the end. That’s why he risked his life to
make sure that someone learned what you were up to."

Goodwill glanced over at
Sazar. "Kill me if you want but don’t let her do it.
Please."

"I don’t plan to kill you
at all. I’m going to turn you over to the authorities. But before I
do, I want answers. What do you know about Walther
Lunt?"

"Not much. He wanted to buy
these papers. That’s it."

Gray looked disappointed
and Samantha knew that he was more troubled by Lunt’s resurrection
than he’d let on. She could sympathize – here was an actual piece
of his past and he couldn’t make sense of it.

At that moment a crack rang
out and Goodwill’s body lurched to the side. Blood sprayed from his
head and Samantha instinctively looked up at Morgan, thinking he
had fired the deadly shot. Gray, however, knew that someone else
had been behind the blast. He pushed Samantha behind him and drew
his own handgun, looking in the direction of the shot.

There he saw him, standing
beside a black sedan. The German held a Mauser in one hand and his
walking stick in the other. It was Walther Lunt, who gave a mocking
salute before sitting back behind the wheel.

Eun sprinted up beside his
employer. "Should I?" he began but Lazarus shook his
head.

"You’d never make it in
time," Gray muttered as Lunt spun his vehicle away from them,
kicking up gravel as he did so. "All you’d do is get yourself
shot."

"Why did he kill him?"
Samantha wondered. "Goodwill didn’t know anything about
him."

"Maybe he was angry over
not getting the papers," Eun suggested.

Gray said nothing, not even
when Sazar lunged on Goodwill’s bleeding corpse, lapping it
lustily. He knew the real reason why Lunt had done it: because
there was something dark and cold inside Lunt’s soul and he wanted
Gray to know that he could have done that very same thing to
Samantha or Eun or Morgan. It was a taunt, the proverbial ‘you
can’t stop me.’