The Night Beat

Hitler was making.
    Dusting a powerful minion isn’t the same as dusting your average baddie on the street. As with fallen angels, warlocks require specific steps. We’d rarely had the time in the past. Yet Black Angels One and Two were well into the process and no other major minion, or even a minor minion, was on hand to try to stop them.
    I went to Johnson. “Why did they decide to sacrifice him to us?”
    Johnson looked blank. “I’m sorry?”
    “The missing bodies,” Miriam called. I really did idolize them, but they weren’t the most communicative operatives out there.
    However, I had most of my puzzle pieces put together and that one fit in nicely into one of the holes in the big picture. “As Ralph said, the being our best teams are destroying there is really Adolph Hitler. He’s been the highest level warlock on the Prince’s team since he died on the Earth Realm. The Prince is evil incarnate. You’re all about to help bring Armageddon about, though I’ll wager you either think you’re stopping it or about to ascend in the Rapture. Which is it?”
    Johnson shook his head. “We were warned that evil demons would come and try to ruin God’s plan.”
    “Right. They did. And you’re working with them. You did some kind of prayer that blocked our agents and allowed some of the most evil of the Prince’s minions onto this plane. And you did it at least twice. I want to know what that spell was.”
    Everyone was silent. Lots of foot shuffling and eye contact avoidance. Okay, it’d been a long week. “Fine. Ralph, Benny, we dust them all.”
    “What?” Johnson looked horrified. “You can’t just kill us!”
    “Can and will. If the Prince’s side wins, we’re all dusted or evil minions anyway. And despite the fact the bad guys showed you your loved ones, they’re dead and they’re not ascending to heaven, nor joining us on the undead realm.”
    “I don’t believe you,” Johnson said calmly. “The Devil has an attractive face and tells beguiling lies.”
    “That’s nice. I’m not Satan. He’s a cool guy. Not evil, just doing his job for Yahweh. That’s your god’s real name, by the way. I’d imagine he’d like you to cooperate. But here’s the deal -- my soul belongs to him, and I’m charged with the destruction of any who would destroy all the planes of existence. You stand in the way of the safety of billions of souls, in this and a variety of other realms. So, good of the many versus good of the few. You pick.”
    “Don’t bother talking to him.” I turned to see Sexy Cindy and Freddy coming up behind us. “Dude doesn’t see what’s right in front of him.” She went up to Johnson’s wife. “But she does, don’t you? You know why you didn’t see your loser son, when they faked that resurrection?”
    Mrs. Johnson shook her head. “They said…they said you were dead. I asked after you because you’d always…been so kind.”
    “I am dead. I’m an undead, and damned proud of it. So’s Freddy. Know why we’re here and the others aren’t? It’s ‘cause we had good souls. You know your son could never resurrect on the side of good, so you didn’t question. But I saw him dusted, and it wasn’t by our side, either.”
    Mrs. Johnson shook her head. “He just wanted to make us proud.”
    “No. He just wanted to hurt you.”
    The Johnsons both looked at me. “How can you say that?” Johnson asked.
    “I’m a cop, you idiot. I’ve seen plenty like your son. And I had the rare privilege of talking to him, ad nauseum. He wants you two to rot in Hell. He helped set it up so that you would, too. If you don’t help us now, no matter how good the rest of your lives have been, you’ll have caused the destruction of all that’s decent, and Yahweh and the other Gods and Monsters will ensure you burn in the Depths for eternity.”
    “Gerald, this…young lady was always decent to me when I visited Jerry.” Mrs. Johnson touched Sexy Cindy’s shoulder than looked at Freddy. “You were always polite and never begged.”
    “This is a compliment from the rich,” Benny whispered to me. I realized I was growling.
    I cleared my throat. “So, you’re happily joined up with Adolf Hitler? I mean, really? How long have you been listening to him?”
    “Months,” Mrs. Johnson answered. “Mister Tomio introduced us. Said he was working with Jerry and the others to try to rehabilitate them.”
    “Why are you telling them anything?” Johnson hissed. “They’re