The Gorge

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Ace knew exactly where they had taken Clara.

God had shone a thin, golden beam through the clouds, casting its pure light on a dark cleft in the granite. The opening was only about thirty feet above the river, and probably back in the days of Noah, it had been deep underground. But the Unegama had bitched and moaned, as persistent as a psychotic woman, until it cut deep into God’s green Earth and first released these underground demons.

Why had God played such a trick? He’d let Ace think they were angels, in a nasty piece of bait and switch, and that they had been sent from above to assist in the holy work.

It all came down to a test of faith. Why, God had tested the faith of Adam, Abraham, Jonah, Daniel, Job, pretty much every big name in the Good Book. He’d even tested his own worldly son, Jesus. So Ace should never have expected any different.

Besides, God was still on his side, as promised by the guiding light.

“Wait up,” Bowie rasped from behind him.

Ace, beating his way through the scrub vegetation, had no reason to wait. This was his mission, even if Bowie now held the gun. Ace had something even more valuable: the C-4 in his knapsack, rigged with a touchy detonator.

The river guide was maybe fifty feet behind him, and though Ace was exhausted, an inner fire kindled deep in his gut and warmed him. God may have tested him, but it also meant Ace was up there with the big names, that maybe one day an extra testament would be added and preachers would be reciting from the Book of Goodall.

Ace had never been much for schooling, but he aimed to pass this test with flying colors.

He scrambled along the base of the cliff wall, following a natural shelf toward the opening. A geologist might have explained erosion patterns and the different properties of various rock layers, but to Ace, the shelf was God’s version of the straight and narrow.

Though he could use a vision right about now to give him a clue. In school, before he dropped out, he’d been able to bully other kids into cheating for him, or else just wrote the answers on the back of his hand. Except he always wrote down the wrong answers, or they always asked the wrong questions. Tricks. Always tricks.

God, though I walk through the valley of death by the still waters, may I cast no shadow. And if it be Thy will, deliver me unto evil so that I might show you I’m worthy.

And, just as simple as that, the demons came out of the misty night and winged toward the opening. Ace had guessed right. They were all gathering inside, gray, blind pigeons come home to roost.

He paused, moving aside a branch to watch them enter. They were silent, except for the soft stirring of their wings and tongues.

Three made a beeline for the rock cleft, slowing a little and angling sideways as they entered.

Then came another batch.

Feeding time.

Except Ace knew they were after a different, darker kind of nourishment. They had passed up Bowie to go after Clara. They needed the thing in her belly.

And goddamned if they were going to take his blood kin without a fight. A baby was a baby, and life was life. Worth fighting for, worth killing for, and worth dying for.

Bowie caught up, breathing hard right behind him. “Jesus,” the rafting guide whispered.

“Not exactly,” Ace said. He was calm, his pulse and hands as steady as they had been when he’d planted the clinic bombs. Some of his fellow patriots were hot-blooded, ranting about revenge and revolution, but Ace approached his duty with patience and humility. He was a servant. Rewards would surely follow, but not on this mortal plane.

“How many of them are there?”

“They are legion. Don’t you read the Good Book?”

“Not lately.”

“You ought to. Lot of wisdom in them pages.”

“Any instructions on this kind of thing?”

Ace watched another small flock of the creatures descend and swerve into the cave, their gray flesh making them look like glass ravens in the moonlight. “There’s one of yours,” he said, pointing.

“Shit. Can’t be.”

“Proof that he wasn’t worthy. I expect your other people will be along shortly.”

“Vampires. Farrengalli was right.”

“Call them whatever you want. They’re unfit. Cast into eternal darkness.”

“She’s already dead, you know.”

Ace shook his head as the stream of demons slowed and the gorge again fell hushed except for the riffing melody of the river. “Don’t matter none. Being dead don’t get you off the hook. And they ain’t getting’ my baby. Dead or alive.”

Ace stepped from the low, concealing trees and walked toward the light.