The Adventures of Lazarus Gray (8 page)

"Of course. Same
here."

"Good." Samantha turned
away and headed toward the stairs. She didn’t look back at Morgan
but if she had, she would have seen him wincing. Their conversation
hadn’t gone anywhere along the lines of what he’d intended and he
was beginning to wonder if there was something about Miss Grace
that would always leave him tripping over his feet.

***

Lazarus Gray was not a
particularly large man but there was something about him that made
men pause when they saw him. It might have been the mismatched
eyes, one a sparkling emerald and the other a brooding brown. Or it
might have been the stern, almost emotionless cast of his features.
But most likely it was the way he moved, with the elegant grace of
a dancer and the dangerous tread of a panther.

Eun Jiwon normally
considered himself a very dangerous individual. Quick and athletic,
the young Korean had proven himself capable of dealing with two or
three grown men in combat but against Gray, he found himself simply
outclassed. The two men were sparring now, throwing punches and
kicks so quickly that they were little more than blurs to the naked
eye. But Eun knew that Gray was holding back, a supposition that
proved correct when Samantha entered the training area, an envelope
in hand. Gray ducked another one of Eun’s fists and delivered two
quick chops to the younger man’s midsection, knocking the breath
from his lungs. Gray then finished him with a kick to the knee that
left Eun temporarily hobbled.

Gray straightened and gave
his opponent a polite bow. "Excellent work, Eun."

The Korean stared at him in
disbelief. Though he was far younger than Gray, he was panting and
covered in sweat while the older man looked fresh as a daisy. Eun
gingerly walked over to pluck up a towel and was using it to wipe
off his brow when Samantha handed over the papers to
Gray.

"This came in the mail this
morning, Chief. No return address. I took Latin in school but I
can’t really make heads or tails of this."

Lazarus studied the pages
very carefully, his eyes raking over the words. "Everyone needs to
come together in the briefing room. Immediately."

The tone in his voice
brooked no further discussion. Samantha whirled at once, heading
off to fetch Morgan. Eun, meanwhile, set the automatic recording
devices that answered the phones when the team was busy. Within
moments, all four members of Assistance Unlimited were gathered
around a sturdy oak table.

Gray sat at the head of the
table, the papers arranged in two rows of four in front of him. He
was dressed in black slacks and a white shirt today, the sleeves of
which were rolled up to the midpoint of his forearms. It was a
fairly casual look for Gray but even so his ever-present tie was in
place. "We have an interesting case before us," Gray said at last.
"These pages are extracted from a tome known as the Codex
Gigas."

Morgan leaned forward. "How
do you know that?"

"The content of the pages
leads me to that conclusion but it’s borne out by the size of the
sheets themselves. The Codex Gigas is the largest extant medieval
manuscript in the world. It weighs over 160 pounds and has
measurements of 36 inches in height, nearly 20 inches in width and
over 8 inches in thickness."

Morgan glanced over at Eun,
who gave a shrug of his shoulders. None of them were surprised that
their leader would be able to quote such figures off the top of his
head, but it was impressive nonetheless. Despite the fact that his
own past was a mystery to him, Gray’s head was filled with data
about subjects both famous and obscure. "Okay. So it’s an old book.
What’s it about?"

Gray picked up on one of
the pages and studied it. "The tome contains the Vulgate Bible, as
well as many historical documents. The entire thing is written in
Latin and legend has it that Herman the Recluse compiled it in the
Benedictine monastery of Podlazice near Chrudim. It’s drifted from
hand to hand since then but was seized in 1648 as plunder by the
Swedish army. The rest of the book is currently part of the
National Library of Sweden. People have known for years that there
were eight missing pages and these appear to be them."

"Are we going to contact
the Swedes, then?" Eun asked.

"No. Not yet. You see,
there is a bit more to the story. There is a legend attached to it
and these pages may shed some further illumination upon that. I
daresay the secrets contained here are worth dying for."

Morgan sat back and
grinned. "Well don’t keep us in suspense, Chief. Spin the yarn for
us."

Gray stood up, clasping his
hands behind his back as he began to pace slowly back and forth.
His voice remained low and even but all of his aides found
themselves leaning forward as he talked, drawn in by the tale he
was weaving. "The story goes that Herman the Recluse broke his
monastic vows and was sentenced to be walled up alive in the
monastery."

"Must have been some nasty
business he took part in," Morgan muttered, drawing a stern frown
from Samantha.

Gray continued as if he
hadn’t heard Morgan’s interruption. "In order to avoid this fate,
the monk promised that he would create a book that would contain
all the knowledge of man. The other monks, hungry to see his fall
from grace, demanded that he do this in a single night. Having no
other choice, he agreed and began to work. At some point in the
night, he gave in to despair, knowing that he would never have a
hope of succeeding. And so he turned to the one being who might
help him: the Devil himself. Satan claimed the monk’s soul and
completed the book for him, going so far as to insert a
self-portrait on page 577. The image is a horrific depiction of the
Devil and all those who gaze upon it feel a shiver go down their
spines. It’s like staring into the abyss. Modern scholars who have
studied the manuscript are adamant that a single hand wrote it all,
with no discrepancy due to age, sickness or simply the passage of
time. It’s estimated that it would have taken twenty years or more
for a single person to create such a work."

"So the work isn’t cursed?"
Samantha asked. "I can’t believe Satan would create something like
that and not have it be something incredibly evil."

Gray looked at her. "In
addition to all the histories included in the tome, there are also
magical spells. These are mostly exorcisms but it’s been rumored
for centuries that the missing eight pages contained spells of
summoning, rituals that would allow mortal men to summon entities
of great power and bind them."

"And do they? Eun wondered
aloud. He reached for one of the pages and held it up before his
eyes. The writing looked like gibberish to him but he couldn’t deny
that there was a tingling sensation in his fingertips whenever they
made contact with the paper.

"Yes. They do."

Morgan exhaled loudly and
when everyone turned to look at him, he shrugged. "I just don’t see
what the big deal is. So we found some old papers that have magic
spells written on them. So what? We’re not actually going to act
like we believe in this stuff, are we?"

"What about the Scanlon
case?" Samantha reminded him. "Mr. Scanlon comes to us and hires us
to track down Wilma Nero, who happens to have an alien creature
living behind her eyes? And I run into a man who turns his walking
stick into a lion, right in front of me? Who’s to say what’s real
and what’s not? Besides, it’s obvious the Chief believes in it and
that’s good enough for me."

"Thank you, Samantha." Gray
took back the page that Eun had been holding. He took all eight
pages and put them back into order. "I have every reason to believe
that these pages have been used to summon a demonic entity.
Unfortunately, without these pages, whomever has done so is in a
world of trouble. The spells that are used to bind the demon must
be performed on a regular basis or else the hold begins to weaken.
Likewise, the demon cannot be banished without the words on these
pages."

Morgan tapped his chin
thoughtfully. "So somebody sent us these pages to screw somebody
else over?"

"Possibly. Or they may have
wanted us to use the spells contained on these pages to banish the
demon in question."

"But where do we go from
here? We don’t know who sent the pages or who might have summoned
these things, assuming that they have." Morgan stood up. "Looks to
me like we’re at a dead end."

"Not necessarily. There are
actually two clues here and they both bear investigating. Firstly,
the envelope itself is oversized to accommodate the size of the
papers." Gray lifted up the envelope and turned it so that the
backside of it was facing his aides. "Look closely at the bottom
here. You’ll note that someone recently wrote some numbers down.
The imprint went through the paper that was used and onto the
envelope. It’s a local phone number. I took the liberty of checking
with the operator before this meeting began. It’s the phone number
of an importer named Malcolm Goodwill. I’d like for Samantha and
Eun to pay him a visit."

"Will do, Chief," Eun piped
up. "Should we tell him why we’re there?"

"No. Go under the pretense
of wanting to buy some something that would remind you of home.
Given your ethnic background, it won’t surprise him that you’d be
looking for hard-to-find items that the usual stores here wouldn’t
stock. He runs his business from his home so you may also get the
opportunity to learn about his personal life."

Morgan began to grin. "And
what about you and me, Chief? What angle are we taking?"

"We’re going to visit a man
named Harry Nance."

"Nance? I know him.
Small-time numbers runner. A real small fish in the big Sovereign
pond."

"He might be a bigger fish
than you think." Gray tapped the papers. "Because he’s the man who
sent us this envelope."

Chapter II

The Black Heart of Malcolm
Goodwill

Harry Nance’s apartment was
never particularly well kept but now it looked like a tornado had
descended upon it. The mattress had been ripped off the bed and
sliced apart while every drawer and cabinet had been opened and
rifled through.

The black-clad ninja had
finally admitted defeat and Goodwill had banished them back to his
home. He remained behind, however, sitting on Harry’s couch, in the
middle of the mess. He’d hoped that something would occur to him,
some clue as to where Harry might have stashed the
pages.

A chill took hold of the
room as the temperature dropped some twenty degrees in the space of
mere seconds. Goodwill glanced down to see that his breath was now
visible, emerging from his mouth in tiny clouds of carbon dioxide.
Goodwill took out a cigar and lit it, using the expensive smoke as
a calming influence.

A humanoid figure took
shape beside him. The smell of cinnamon filled Goodwill’s nostrils,
overwhelming even the acrid odor of his cigar. He kept his eyes
straight ahead, however, refusing to turn and look at
her.

"Do you have something for
me to do?" a feminine voice said and Goodwill felt his resolve
weakening. When he’d summoned this demon, he’d expected almost
anything besides what he’d gotten. A female with a seductive voice
and a body to kill for… but a face that was so horrid that even one
glance meant that you’d forever see it when you closed your eyes at
night. Her name was Sazar and she was a blood demon, one who
relished sex and death in equal amounts. "I grow tired of walking
invisibly at your side."

"It’s what I want of you.
If people see you, it’s going to cause problems."

A soft foot began to rub
against his leg. "Don’t you like me, Malcolm?"

"Of course I do. But now
isn’t the time." Goodwill stood up, taking a long drag on his
cigar.

"I need to eat," the demon
said petulantly. "I haven’t killed in days. Why didn’t you let me
sup on Harry Nance? You wasted all that blood."

Goodwill didn’t answer at
first. He had kept her at bay because he’d sensed his hold on her
was slipping. He needed the stolen pages from the Codex Gigas to
renew his power. Without it, she could easily slip her bonds and
turn on him. He wondered if she could tell that her leash was
growing ever longer. "I’ll let you feast this evening," he said.
"Now be gone!"

Sazar rose from the couch
and rubbed his shoulders. He could smell her soft skin and a part
of him yearned to take her. But the thought of her face was too
much for him and slowed the rush of blood that she always brought
on. "There are other things I hunger for as well. Can you promise
to satisfy those desires as well?" she teased.

"Of course. With relish."
Goodwill reached up to squeeze her hand. A knock at the door made
him pause and he quietly hissed. "Vanish. Now."

Sazar withdrew her hands
but he could hear the challenge in her voice. "One of these days
you’ll recognize my power, Malcolm. I’m not your toy."

Goodwill ignored her,
walking toward the door and peering through the peephole. A skinny
young brunette was standing there, wearing a threadbare green
dress. Her hair was soaked from the morning rain.

"Harry? You in there?" she
asked. She knocked again. "Let me in if you are. I’m drenched to
the bone."