2.1 Crusaders Book II - Demon's Deal

Demon's Deal

1.          Makati City, Manila

Grace Pelt stood off the street onto the pavement to avoid the oncoming cars and bikes which makes up the traffic here. She was to meet a contact arranged for her. The contact was considered an informant on some cases she was handling. Its near to late evening now in this humid hot weather that permeates the surrounding. Across her is the Ayala Center; a sopping mall in this district. She been there before and got a number of bargains, but this trip she's on a mission.

She made her down to the Ayala MRT station nearby and got herself to stand in a corner. She looked at her watch; he was to be here by now but he may be late or its a foul up in te intel side. She told herself to give him another five minutes. The train came and stopped on the tracks as people board or disembarking. Then she felt the presence of some one standing next to her. She looked in front of her where the train windows would reflect the stranger.

Its a guy in casual with a baseball cap over his face and holding a blue bag. That's the informant as advised to her. Upon contact, she was to take out her portable phone and shake it as if its out of battery.

"What's it worth?" She asked the stranger. That was the code word.

"Fifty on the train." The stranger replied. Grace took the envelope from her side pocket of her jeans and handed it over.

"I am impressed, Ms Pelt." The voice came from in front of her. It was a woman dressed in a long overcoat and her face was partially concealed by the wide brim hat she wore. Its more of a Paris design and not suited for this locality. The lady flips her coat opened and a flock of crows flew out. It was not a small flock but a rather large one. The crows flew towards Grace and the man in the baseball cap. They attacked the two of them with their becks and claws. Soon it was over and the crows flew back into their mistress' coat.

Grace and the stranger are plastered to the wall which they were earlier leaning on. The dead bodies were plastered on with their legs joined but the arms are spread out widely. Their eyes were gouged out while their lower torso were rip open. Above them written in blood were these words; there are no guardian angels.

The surprising part was no one saw the killing until the train left the station. It was a scream from a lady who saw the dead that lady that attracted the rushing crowd to stop and see the dead bodies.

2.          Ford Dry Lake, Arizona

Ford Dry Lake, west of Blythe had nothing much to offer except vast lands of greens that's assuming it been raining or parched up ground on dry weather. There are the dense ecosystem with small rolling sand dunes and non-typical desert foliage. Sheriff Decan find himself having to escort a visitor to this lake that summer. He was wondering what did he do wrong that morning to justify a call from someone way up there asking him to be a guide for this young man. The man dressed in some drab that makes him stands out like a possum on the prairie. He told the Sheriff his name and neither did Decan asked. Sometime back, he had one of these visitors and when he asked too much, they shovel him a stack of papers to sign. According to Decan' lawyer, he signed off his freedom of speech and rights. Since then, he kept his bear trap shut and looked stupid like the possum in the prairie. The Sheriff did want to asked him why he's holding the cross on his hands most times.

"People around here wears it around their neck. But you are holding it like some rosary beads." The young man ignored him.

"Are those vultures, Sheriff?" The Sheriff moved his shoulder to the right and looked up at the skies the dark shades.

"I reckon so. Probably a dead possum or something that attracted them flesh poachers." The sheriff ain't diverting his driving. If its a dead person, the other deputies can picked up the search or let nature takes its own burial.

"Sheriff, could we drive over there?" The man asked.

"I thought you said Ford Dry Lake; that's another ten miles on." The Sheriff protested as he was keen to get back to his office for the evening poker game. Its a Friday event with the boys. They once had Mama Drake over, and when she lost more than her moneys' she offered to bet in her half cup bra. Them boys said to her; Mama Drake, you ain't pulling that one out. It might all spill the secrets of you being a transvestite. 'She-he' never joined us no more.

The man was insistent so the Sheriff made the detour. What he saw was an abomination; a man with a set of goat's leg and a dead lady near him. The Sheriff heard the man calling up on his GPS phone to some one up there.

"She's dead but she took the beast with her." Then the man hung up and told the Sheriff to go back alone. "I am staying here for the rescue team."

There was no rescue team reporting in to the nearby County Hospital nor was the young man seen again. The Sheriff was given a lecture on non-disclosure.