Jon Merz - Vicarious

“Would those tricks fall into the same category as picking locks?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Curran.

“I’m quite certain you do,” said Darius. “Did you have a nice time in my house today?”

“Like I just said, I have no idea what you mean.”

Darius smirked. “Come now, Curran, you don’t think I’m wired do you? Do you really believe with everything that you have apparently discovered about me — whether through guile or criminal intent — that I would resort to such plebian and utterly human measures as electronic surveillance?”

“Well, you’ve got cops watching your house. Besides, at this point, Darius, I don’t know what you’d resort to and what you wouldn’t.” Curran looked over his shoulder checking to see where the two uniforms were. They were each smoking and chatting quietly.

Curran turned his attention back to Darius. “But it seems to me you’d do almost anything to make sure your little dream comes true.”

“My dream?”

“Quest, whatever you want to call it,” said Curran. “Makes no damned difference to me.”

Darius looked beyond him and smiled. “I see you brought some friends with you tonight.”

“Help,” said Curran.

“Ah, the woman.” Darius’ eyes narrowed and he licked his lips. “I’d wondered what had become of her. And here she is.”

“You’d do well to leave her alone.”

Darius’ eyes flamed. “False bravado, detective. You are well out of your league here and deep down in your pathetic existence, you know it.”

“Maybe.” Curran shrugged. “So, let me ask you something then.”

“Certainly.”

“Let’s pretend you actually succeed in this mission of yours.”

“There’s nothing pretend about it, Curran. It will come to pass. I’ve worked too hard to see it fail. No one will be able to stop me anyway.”

“That remains to be seen,” said Curran.

Darius looked like he wanted to say something, but apparently thought better of it. “If you say so. Continue with your question.”

Curran nodded. “So you are able to bring back Satan. Then what?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what exactly happens? I mean does he take over the world? Does he kill off all the innocents and leave only the truly wicked? What happens to you?”

“I will finally be able to leave this forsaken plane and return home.”

Curran tried to grin. “If things work out well, I’ll send you back to Hell myself.”

Darius started laughing. He kept laughing and then turned and walked back into the house.

Curran stood there and heard the deadbolt slide home with a heavy thunk.

Then he turned and walked back down the steps. “Good night, guys,” he said to the uniformed cops.

Back in the car, he sighed.

“So, what the hell is going on?” asked Kwon.

“Darius called the cops and told them someone broke into his pad earlier,” said Curran. “He’s got some uniforms standing guard over his place for the next day or so.”

“That makes getting to the jar a little difficult,” said Lauren.

“Yeah,” said Curran. “It sure does.” He leaned back into the seat and started the car. “We won’t be able to do anything sitting here.”

Kwon cleared his throat. “So, what’s our move?”

Curran looked at Lauren. “How soon do you think it will be before he kills again?”

“I have no way of knowing,” said Lauren.

“We might have to wait,” said Curran. “As much as I don’t want to.”

“For what,” said Kwon. “For those uniforms to get bored and go away?”

“They won’t go away until they're told to,” said Curran. “I mean, it’s a crap detail but they’re making over thirty bucks an hour just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. It’s easy money.”

Lauren sighed. “So we either wait for the police to leave the house unguarded again or we wait until he leaves the house?”

“He’s going to have to leave it sooner or later,” said Curran. “If he’s got another soul to eat, he’ll have to leave.”

“And what,” said Kwon, “we follow him?”

“Catch him in the act,” said Curran. “Or we wait until he goes, break into his place and then destroy the vat then.”

“Risky,” said Kwon. “The police dispatcher will probably pay more attention to any suspicious calls coming in from around here.”

“True,” said Curran. “But only if they’re paying attention. Continuity isn’t great in 911 operations.”

“Continuity?” asked Lauren.

“Yeah, when one shift comes on duty and the other leaves, there’s always a handover of what’s been going on during the last shift. That way the new operators know the general scene of the city, what the hot spots are, that kind of thing. If it’s poor, and with Boston, it generally is, then there’s a chance a call reporting suspicious activity will go into the low priority file.”

“A chance.”

Curran shrugged. “Nothing’s perfect.”

“Better move this car,” said Kwon. “Your buddies in blue are starting to wonder what we’re up to.”

Curran nodded. “No sense giving them reason to be alert.” He slid the car out of its space and rolled down the street.

“You realize,” said Kwon, “that’s it’s insane that Darius has protection right now.”

“He apparently donated heavily to the mayor’s last election campaign. He’s got friends in high places.” Curran glanced at Lauren. “I never knew demons contributed to political parties.”

Lauren shook her head. “Amazing isn’t it? He uses our own systems against us to make his job easier.”

“Fantastic,” said Kwon. “It’s always so damned refreshing to see the system hard at work for the criminals.”

Curran laughed. “It’s almost comical.”

“Yeah,” said Kwon. “If only the fate of us all wasn’t at stake.” He sighed. “Man, this is nuts. Why don’t you just let me call a friend of mine who can cap this guy from distance with a sniper rifle? Whole thing’ll be solved real quick.”

Curran turned around. “You know people like that?”

“Man’s got to have friends in seedy places.”

“Much as the idea appeals to me,” said Curran, “we can’t. Primarily because we’d all be implicated.”

“How so?”

“Darius isn’t some naive fool, Kwon. He knows what kind of danger he’s in now. He knows I’m not the only one after him. And he’s smart enough to take precautions to let the world know what happened to him should a bullet zoom into him without reason.”

Kwon slumped back against the seat. “This sucks.”

“Besides,” said Curran. “The sniper trick might work on a human. This guy’s a demon. Who know what hurts him?”

“Never know until we try.”

Curran frowned. “Yeah, well we’ve got another problem right now.”

“What’s that?”

He glanced at Lauren. “He seemed very interested in seeing you. I don’t like having you around us right now. He might come for you or do something else.”

“Then we can use that,” said Lauren.

“I’m not treating you like bait,” said Curran. “And I’m not arguing about it, either.”

Kwon sat up. “Drive me home, I’ll grab my car, come back and set up watch on him. You stash the lady here and then come on back.”

“You comfortable doing that?” asked Curran.

“Not really,” said Kwon. “But someone’s got to keep watch on that guy. I’ll stay here. I got your cell phone number. I know how to dial.”

“Okay,” said Curran. “Let’s do it.”

They dropped Kwon off at his house shortly after eight o’clock. Curran shook his hand. “You sure you’ll be okay?”