TWENTY-FOUR
The noon sun hung directly overhead, a golden disk of brilliance and the source of life. The air was already hot and dry. The Winnebago was parked a half mile down the road from the dam. Out of the way and locked as only Evan and Edgar could lock it. Safe from any intruder. Evan carried the duffle bag with their gear. Once they reached the summit, Evan handed Valerie the stylus and told her that the first pentagram that he wanted drawn in the dirt was Number 1 about four feet across. Then four more smaller pentagrams about a foot across at the true compass points just outside the original circle.
Edgar and Evan both checked Valerie’s rune and sigil work. Evan floated the large brazier to the center of the large pentagram. He placed the smaller braziers into the center of the four small pentagrams. One by one Valerie floated the small braziers to the center of the compass point pentagrams. They were representations of the four watchtowers. With their placements, they were ready to begin.
“It's been decades since I last summoned a watcher,” Edgar said with excitement and anticipation in his voice.
”Have you ever summoned more than one at a time.” Evan asked.
“No, but I’ve read that they exist in great numbers. Now if that number is six, a dozen or six hundred, I have no idea. Are you questioning the validity of your plan now?”
“There is no time for self doubt. It will work. Do we all know what our part in the plan is?”
“Certainly,” Edgar said and Cleopatra confirmed with a meow. “You can be sure that Valerie will be protected at all times.”
“Sure,” Valerie stated with less enthusiasm.
“Then let's get started,” and Evan floated dried herbs out to the big central brazier. They burst into flames and Evan invoked the powers of Anu, Enlik and Enkil. One at a time offerings burst into flames in the four smaller braziers as each of the Watchtowers were called into service. A new eight inch heavy Bowie knife was taken from its scabord. Having been blessed and consecrated as his new sacrificial. Kneeling between the south and west braziers', Evan raised the blade over his head. With as much force as possible, Evan plunged the knife seven inches into the ground. The circles encasing the five pentagrams streamed into life as fire raced from one point on the circle all the way around.
“I conjure thee by the Fire of the towers,”
“By the veils of the hidden Aethyrs,”
“By the powers of the covenants of the order,”
“And by the Lights of the Gates, I summon thee.”
“I call thee here to stand before me, in visible form,”
“To watch and protect at my bidding by this sacred circle.”
“May He of the Unfathomable, the Ancient One,”
“Whom no man nor creature has ever seen,”
“Whom no man nor creature can measure,”
“Whom no man nor creature can control,”
“I call thee forth to stand before me now,”
“And at my request to do my bidding.”
“Rise up and come hither,
“Rise up and honor me,”
“Rise up and obey.”
“By the Code of the Gates on the Ladder of Lights,”
“By the true commander of the Power,”
“I command thee to rise up, respond, appear,”
“In all your glory and in all your multitude, I call you forth,”
“I command the watchers!”
In what was once a clear blue sky, the sun was momentarily blotted out by a band of dark clouds. A lone howl of a large dog could be heard in the distance. Running towards them at an incredible speed was a pack of large black animals. As they grew nearer, the view changed and were recognizable as large black dogs.
Within only a minute or so, the pack stopped between the North and East braziers. The largest of the creatures, which greatly resembled a dog, barked once, deep and resonant, and the other creatures moved to form a ring around the entire pentagram area and the three people and cat. A softer yet deep resonant bark was returned from each of the others.
“I am the Summoner,” Evan said in a clear, fearless voice. “I am the holder of the True Power. I called you forth and am thankful for your coming.”
Evan began to slowly move his head around the circle. “Twenty,” Edgar said. “I think that should prove to be adequate.”
“Thank you,” Evan responded.
The creatures were magnificent in their black sleekness of muscles and raw power. The sun glinted from the short stubby tail to the red rimmed corneas. With all of the creatures now seated on their haunches, the largest growled, and just like with Cleopatra they all understood it immediately.
“A great war is coming soon, and sides will have to be chosen. As I said, the Ancient One, selected me personally to carry the True Power. I would be honored to have you fight alongside me.”
Another guttural growl confirmed the arrangements,
“Set one to the north so none except us may approach from that direction. Set another to south, east and west, so none except for us may approach from those directions.. Guarantee the safety of the woman, My Other, and the old man. These are my commands as the Summoner, and my right.”
Evan bent and emptied a two liter bottle of water into the large brazier. The water changed as the incantation changed, going from clear water, to a milky cloudiness, to a reflective surface responding to the azure blue sky above. The last line was a thank you to Mercury, and the final transformation of the water was to mercury and its reflective ability.
“Come look at the coming battlefields.” The view backs up to include the two towers on the end of the dam at each side. Hiding below the lip of the roof behind a small wall ringing the top of each tower, as a man with a long range scoop on the rifle. “There on the four towers, if any man should made a hostile act, then that shall be their last act upon this world.” Four dogs ran off to do their bidding. The view changed once again to show the parking lot at the east end of the dam.
Three matching light gray, almost silver in color were parked at the edge of the parking area. Windows all the way up. Engine running so the air conditioning remained working at full force in the Cadillac Sevilles. Six dogs ran off to keep whatever was in the automobiles. As soon as Evan finished saying, “If any of them offer a hostile act, be it mortal in origin or immortal, they are to be destroyed immediately and utterly.”
Evan turned and walked away from the pentagram. He heard several sharp barks of the leader of the Watchers. From the corner of his eye he saw several black streaks of motion as the Watchers took off to their assigned place. A minute later the largest Watcher walked along beside Evan. Without turning for confirmation, Evan could feel the presence of five additional Watchers arranged in a moveable defensive posture, three to a side. The urge to reach over and pat the large dog was very strong. At least he was not going into their first skirmish alone and blind.
He lay sweating in his dark suit as the sun beat down upon his back. Even in the high desert, today was supposed to set records. A trickle of sweat ran down his forehead to bead at the bottom left rim of his sunglasses. The sniper rifle, a M24, was carefully laid to one side on a long pad to protect the scoop settings, and bolt action. Stan knew that he did not have to treat it as delicately as he did, but this was his pride and joy consistently hitting his target at just under the thousand meter range. He reached into his back pocket to get his handkerchief to wipe his brow. He prayed that the meeting was short and simple and this guy agreed to the boss’s terms. It was just too hot to kill someone today.
The handkerchief raked across his brow, moving too fast to absorb the sweat and just pushed it around his face. As he began to replace the steel rimmed sunglasses, a shadow suddenly hovered over him. Leaning up on one elbow, he saw the mussel of the largest dog he had ever seen. The dog loomed over him. A deep growl began somewhere in his huge chest as he peeled his lips back showing the huge teeth in the blood red gums. Spittle began to drool from the mouth as the red rimmed black eyes never wavered from him. A new crop of sweat beaded on his forehead, not from the sun this time.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Good doggy,” the man croaked through a desert dry throat. Then the absurdity of calling this monster a good doggy made him laugh. Where the hell did it come from? How did it get on the roof without making a sound? What did it want or want him to do? Besides, scare the hell out of him.
His back legs started to cramp up, which was very painful and he automatically moved to ease the pain into a more comfortable position. The ‘doggy’ growled louder, bared more teeth and moved closer. The man froze. Pain or not, if ‘doggy’ didn’t want him to move then he would play scarecrow for as long as it took.
“Good doggy,” he crooned sweetly. “If you don’t want ol’ Harold to move then ol’ Harold will play along. Just remember that this is a game and don’t make ol’ Harold dead for real.”
The crosshairs of the scope moved over the white shirt next to a green striped tie. The man placed his hands in his pockets standing right next to Mr. Kirkland.
“Bang your dead, Sid,” the man muttered and with the silencer screwed to the end, it would take them forever to figure out which roof the shot came from. “I’m positive you cheated at poker on Tuesday night, I just can’t explain how you’re cheating so well. Maybe you’ll just step in front of some friendly fire when things start. You deserve to die, you lying scumbag, and you have rotten tastes in ties.”
He sat up and momentarily rested the Barrett MRAD MK22 sniper rifle with scope and silencer on his knees. He pulled his purple paisley tie loose and unbuttoned the top button at his neck. Why did Mr. Kirkland insist that all his men wear suits, even if it was expected to be one hundred and five in the shade. Something about appearing to be respectable at all times.
He automatically turned his head and stared at Lake Mead. He watched the silvery beads of reflected sun dance across the water. Closing his eyes, he still saw the silvery beads of light, even in the dark. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” he admonished himself loudly.
A deep rumbling growl came from right beside him. Opening his eyes for only a second, he squeezed his eyes shut this time. Even through the silver glare from the Lake, what he thought he saw was impossible, except for the deep growling sound right next to himself. No dog grew that big! It had to be as big as a baby elephant. Instinct took over, even with limited sight. He picked up the rifle chambering a round as he did so.
The large mouth of the huge dog closed around the neck and bit down. His head fell from the end of his neck into his lap.
The giant dog lifted his head and gave a mournful howl before disappearing from the top of the tower.
“It’s two o’clock, so where is he?” Max Kirkland said to nobody in particular. “Jesus it’s hot, Why the hell did I let him talk me into this place? We could have had an ice cold drink in an air conditioned environment to discuss the whole situation.”
“I don’t know,” the man to his right said.
“Shut up stupid!” the man on the left shouted. “Don’t you recognize a rhetorical question when you hear one.”
“What’s rhetorical mean?” Sid asked anyone.
“I thought you said you graduated from high school, Sid,” Max asked, turning to the man on his left and saying, “We talked about this Buddy. Everyone who works around me has to have graduated or gotten their GED.”
“You asked me, boss,” Sid said. “I just never went that often, and when it was time for graduation, they squealed me through so they could be done with my ass. Sorry boss, is there like a book or something you want me to read?”
“I graduated too, boss. I just wasn’t that good at the whole thing. You know, like English, math and history,” Sid explained.
“So you were good with science?”
“Hell no, I just forgot I took any science classes,”
“Shit, I’m surrounded by imbeciles. I’m going to wait in the car, so let me know when he gets here.”
“I think that’s him, coming up the road.
“What are those things with him?”
“I think they’re dogs,” Sid said.
“No dogs are that big,” Kirkland rationalized.
There was a loud bark and three dogs came running from different directions to catch up. At a hand gesture from Evan, six of the dogs were off to keep the men trapped in their cars. “Shit” and “Fuck” could be heard being yelled in the cars as the dogs jumped up on the doors. The sound of the automatic door locks going down to keep the dogs out could also be heard.
Evan stopped eight feet from Kirkland and his two men, Sid and Buddy Two dogs moved to within three feet of the three men. The largest of all of the dogs sat on his haunches on Evan’s left side.
“I’m Max Kirkland, and you’ll have to forgive me and my men. I don't think any of us have ever seen beasts like yours. Congratulations. Would you care to sit inside one of the cars for the air conditioning? It would be so much more comfortable.” Max stretched out his arm to shake Evan’s hand as was usually done.
“You’ll have to forgive me for not shaking, but my friends don’t like it when I do, mixed signals for them, and we don’t want to do that.”
A fourth dog came over to the leader and whimpered. The leader barked three times softly, and the new dog ran around behind the other three people. Finally the leader barked twice so loud, everybody except Evan jumped at the suddenness and sheer volume. All the dogs sat on their haunches and growled furiously for about fifteen seconds.
“I am sorry to say that none of your snipers like my friends watching them and tried to violently end the stand-off. This is your little dog and pony show Max, so let's get down to business,”
“Christ almighty,” Buddy said softly.
“I can guarantee you that he has nothing to do with any of this business. The last time this was a possibility he hadn’t walked the face of this world.” Evan answered. “Do you know what you’re helping him do?”
“Besides making him rich by paying him forty cents from every dollar I earn. And that before I take any expenses out to get to some net figure.”
“How long have you had your arrangement?”
“Almost forty years.”
“And has he aged during that time,” Evan asked.
“Not really for how old he’s supposed to be. Morgan hasn’t aged with but I attributed it to plastic surgery. Age and beauty aside, Devlin McGuier wants you dead. First it was I wanted to talk to him, and now he just wants you dead. And you want me to Devlin for you.”
“That would be nice, but I believe in handling my own problems. If I want him dead then I’ll do it myself. As for you killing me? That’s not even a remote possibility, Nothing mortal can kill me today, and I doubt even the immortal will work now.”
“That may well be the truth,” Max conceded, “But Devlin might do his own dirty work, or find someone with less problems to carry out what I can’t.” Kirkland’s eyes traveled between the dogs and Evan and back. It was one thing to be scared of a beast so large and dangerous looking. Then to find out they had just killed four of his men made him mad and frightened at the same time. “No, as I see it, your problem doesn’t go away simply because I can’t, but it doesn’t alleviate your problem.”
“What do you propose?”
“I know where Devlin and his woman are right now. You can just take care of them once and for all. And to top things off, I’m willing to share my business with you twenty/eighty.”
“You just finished telling me that he gets forty cents off every dollar off the top. Why should it change for me now? Maybe I want fifty per cent off the top. Or maybe I tell Devlin that I know this swell little backstabber, we can each take forty percent and see how he does with twenty percent.”
The silvery pool of liquid clearly showed the three black limousines. Two men waiting by one of the limos and three other men pacing back and forth a little to the west of the limos. Even with the midafternoon sun beating down on everyone, all the men were in suits. It reminded Valerie of watching television with the volume turned down. Soon they saw Evan and the Watchers enter the viewing area.
“Can you get us closer, please,” Valerie whispered. Afraid that talking too loud would make the magical picture disappear, or they might be able to hear her at site with Evan.
“I think that might just be possible,” and Edgar said several guttural sounding words as he also moved his hands in a very intricate pattern. The image blurred and then came back in clear focus.
“One more time, please,” Valerie asked.
The picture cleared this time to a perfect picture of the three men and Evan, and the heads of the four dogs with Evan. The detail was amazing. Edgar looked at his watch and saw the time, 2:18 p.m.. Buddy’s head began to glow and distorted a little as the color started to change to green.
The dog next to Evan began to growl at Buddy.
A strange voice took over for Buddy as his facial features began to distort. He fell to his knees in anguish, and moaned in pain. Now all three of the dogs were barking at Buddy. Finally, Buddy regained his feet, a green hued man with a different face stood where Buddy had been only moments before.
“Devlin!” Max choked out.
“You shouldn’t believe everything you see Max, dear boy,” and the voice was hollow and tinny. “It’s a pleasure to finally see you and talk to you Mr. Cooper. I must say that you have demonstrated some remarkable skills thus far. Unfortunately, they’ve proven to be highly inadequate”
“What do you want with me McGuier?” his voice iced with anger.
“Why you dear boy, you. By my calculations, you’re a very remote risk to me, and I don’t like risks, no matter how remote. I don’t like risks, so we’ll talk and see if we can come to some agreement. I want you to meet me in the Crystal Cave, at midnight in three days' time.”
“I suppose you have some threat that goes with this to ensure my attendance.”
“No threat dear boy, merely a statement of fact. If you don’t come then I’ll kill your Other. I already have her. Sammy, Toney and Ted were very good at going back to Las Vegas and bringing her to me. I might even reward them by letting them live. Too bad it’s not the same for you, Max. You never did figure out what you were working for or with, over all of the decades.”
Evan snapped his fingers and two of the dogs leapt forward. Buddy had already reached into his jacket and pulled the trigger three times by the time one dog had torn out his throat and related anatomy. The other dog bit down on the wrist with the gun, ruining it’s aim as the dog bit through the bones and tendons, severing the head completely.
The tinny voice kept laughing as the body fell to the ground in the final death throes. Sid’s face took on the ghastly green tinge and Evan automatically snapped his fingers for the dogs to kill Sid. As the body was being torn apart, it tried firing its automatic at Evan, but to no avail. Not knowing who else might be enchanted, Evan clapped his hand and shouted mentally towards the dogs to kill everybody.
Frank opened his door to escape the dogs, but one dog jumped on his back driving him to the ground, while another dog jumped from the front seat to the back seat. Each of their attacks were devastating. One of the dogs from each pair jumped through the back window, followed quickly by its companion. Gunshots rang out in both limos to no effect.
The press would label it the Lake Mead Massacre. A tribe of dogs or more likely wolves, annihilated the tour group. When the police interviewed the people in or near the parking lot, nobody remembered seeing anything useful.
The giant dog with Evan barked three or four times, with all the dogs swarming around Evan. Slowly and calmly Evan walked away from the scene while the dogs never stopped scrutinizing the surrounding for additional threats.