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."The archangel Michael.""And what," said Joseph, "if your mother had named you Herbie?""Mock on, Agent Stein," said LaPierre."We'll see if you mock tomorrow, once you witness the destruction of the Antichrist.""From what we've heard from Father Alexander," Laika said, "others have tried and failed.""Old legends perpetrated by a blasphemous church that kept the Antichrist alive when it could have destroyed him.The Book of Revelation tells how the Devil may be destroyed.Do none of you know?""I hate pop quizzes," said Joseph.Tony cleared his throat."He's cast down into a lake of fire.""A-plus, Agent Luciano," said LaPierre, beaming."The 'eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' Fire will destroy him, and it will be the fire of Michael that shall help to light tomorrow's dawn, a dawn that will signal a new beginning, a new age for America, and eventually for the world."Chapter 39The man is definitely on a power trip," said Joseph, after they were taken back to the basement of the mission."He's crazy," said Tony."Absolutely insane.What do we do about it?""What happen?" Ezekiel Swain, still sitting against the wall, rumbled."Where Divine?"So Laika told him, as she might tell a child, what Michael LaPierre had done, and that on the following day, he intended to destroy Swain's "Divine."But Swain only laughed, and said one word: "Won't."It seemed to Laika that he had shrunk somewhat in stature, and they tightened his bonds reluctantly, dreading any contact between his flesh and theirs."For our own safety, you understand," Laika said, by way of apology, though why she should apologize to this monster, she had no idea.Even as disgusting as he was, there was still something charismatic about him, something that commanded respect."Father," Laika said when they were finished, "is there any way out of this cellar? Any.secret passage to escape Indians, or anything?"Father Alexander smiled sadly and shook his head."When this mission was built, there was no longer any danger from the natives.No, the only way out is through that guarded doorway.Or breaking through the three-footthick adobe walls, or digging through solid earth."It seemed fairly hopeless, but Laika drew Joseph and Tony to the far end of the cellar where neither Father Alexander nor Swain could hear them."Our only chance for escape will be tomorrow," she said."We're stuck here tonight.""Don't know if tomorrow looks much better," Tony said."This bunch doesn't look like the type to let down their guard.""We'll just have to stay alert for an opportunity," said Laika."But the most important thing now is getting through the night alive.""You're talking about Fat Boy," Joseph said, glancing at Ezekiel Swain."Yes.He's a monster, a murderer.I'd have no compunction about killing him.If we could.""Iffy," said Joseph."He's already dead.Maybe LaPierre can torch him tomorrow, along with his Antichrist." He said the last word with contempt."You don't believe the story?" Tony asked."No.The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that there isn't anything religious or supernatural about this at all.""How can you say that?" Tony asked."After everything you've seen.""Just because we don't understand things doesn't mean we have to ascribe a supernatural origin to them.For example, there has to be an explanation as to how Swain has managed to stay alive and feed off the living.It's not like he just sucks in their 'life energy,' to use a New Age term.He requires physical contact.There's some organic process at work.""When he was on me," Laika said, "it felt like burning needles.""Exactly.We could theorize that his individual cells merge somehow with his host's.""But he was dead," Tony said."What brought him back to life in the first place?""Some force that we don't understand.Maybe some force derived from this being who everybody's calling the Antichrist.But I'd bet my life that it's got to be explainable by natural laws.It's just that those laws aren't in our lawbook yet.I don't know, maybe Stephen Jay Gould or Edward Wilson could explain it.I can't.I'm not smart enough.""Well, whatever makes him tick," Laika said, "Swain is dangerous to us.""Those ropes are tight again," said Tony."And strong.He's probably tried to get out of them already, and he hasn't succeeded.But we can keep a watch on him in shifts.""I'd rather kill him." Laika glanced at Swain, then at the priest sitting across the room from him."But even if I knew how, it's not something I'd want to try in front of a priest.Let's just keep watch."Laika took the first watch while the others lay on the burlap mattresses, trying to get comfortable enough to catch some much needed sleep.Ezekiel Swain closed his eyes, too, and several hours passed uneventfully.At eleven, Laika woke up Joseph.She drifted into sleep eagerly, surprised at how easily it came.Hours later, she awoke to the sound of a long, drawn out, "Ahhhhhh."When she looked up, she saw Ezekiel Swain on his hands and knees.He was as bloated and corpulent as ever, and beneath him was a brown-skinned mummy smothered in a greasy, gleaming black robe.Tony rose from his sitting position, and as he ran to Swain, Laika figured out what had happened.Tony had fallen asleep just before Swain had lost enough mass to slip out of his bonds.Hungered, he had attacked the priest, and now Tony, enraged at his own failure as well as at Swain, was going after the monster."You sonofabitch!" Tony yelled as he tackled Swain.He landed on top of the man, and went sliding across the floor on the slick surfboard of Swain's moist and slimy body until they hit the wall.Tony struck at him, but his fists sounded as though they were pounding into plastic garbage bags filled with brie, a thick, pulpy sound.The only sound Swain made was a wet whoosh every time Tony hit him, as though the air was sputtering out of him.Finally Tony grasped Swain's thick neck, trying to strangle him.But he could not encircle it with his fingers, and the glutinous flesh seemed to slide right off it.It looked, Laika thought, as though he were trying to throttle a lump of bread dough.Together, she and Joseph were able to pull Tony off the man just as the door opened above."What's going on down there?" a voice said, and then several men came down the stairs, their weapons in front of them.They stopped when they saw the bizarre tableau."What's happened here?" one of the men said, trying to make sense of a scene from hell."Got.Hungry," said Ezekiel Swain, and the stench that the words rode as they came through his lips was abominable.They all winced, but the young man with the gun retched, and fragments of his morning's breakfast dribbled from between his lips and onto the floor."Mmm," said Swain, eyeing the puddle."Dessert.""We'll get Mr.LaPierre," said the man behind the one who'd been sick.Then all of them went up the stairs again, leaving the ops, Swain, and the mummified priest locked in the cellar again."You bastard," Laika said to Swain, who was still lying on his back like a tremendous roly-poly toy, chuckling and snuffling.He spread his sausage-fingered hands in a gesture of submission and smiled.The usual exudations appeared."You, criticize me, for my, nature.""Your nature," Joseph said, "is killing people for their bodily fluids.You can see how one might be critical of that.""Cheer up.Could have, been you."The three agents sat together at the opposite end of the cellar from Swain, who now rolled himself up to a sitting position."Damn it," Tony was saying to himself."God damn it
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