The Gatekeeper's Sons

Chapter 18

After the dance, Than hovered with Alecto, both of them invisible in the air conditioned air above a man at a desk in a small room at the back of a shoe store in Indianapolis. The shoe store was closed for the night, so there were only two others in the shop, taking inventory of their stock. The man Than and Alecto knew as Steve McAdams had short brown hair and a suit that was old and too small with a slight brown stain on its lapel. He was about forty and the ring on his pudgy finger signaled that he was married. He was filling out forms with a ball point pen that bled black ink on the side of his hand.

The two gods materialized outside his door and knocked.

"Yeah?" the man called. "I'm busy. What is it?"

The two gods entered. "Federal agents." They flashed badges. "We have a few questions."

"And what is this about?" He sat up, flustered, tossing the pen on the desk.

"Do you recognize this man?" Alecto showed him a picture of Kaveh Grahib, the man that had shot Therese's mother and caused the death of both of her parents.

Steve McAdams shook his head. "No. Who is he?"

"Think carefully," Alecto said in a threatening voice. "Be sure before you reply."

"His name is Kaveh Grahib," Than said. "Ever heard of him?"

The man looked at Than and then back at Alecto, whose eyes were narrowed and appeared to be shooting invisible darts into the man's skull.

"No," Steve McAdams said. "Why? Should I?"

Alecto walked across the room and put both hands on the desk, leaning her face toward the man's within a foot of his. He leaned back as far as he could in his chair.

"I swear I don't know him."

The room began to shake, and hot steam jets shot up from the Lethe River through the floor on each side of the man's chair.

"What the...?" the man flinched and cowered further back in his chair.

Pouring up from the two jets were swarms of black snakes, hissing and darting their tongues as they quickly curled their way up from the floor, onto the legs of the man, and up to his wrists and neck.

"Ah! Ah! What's happening? What the hell is happening?"

"Think carefully," Alecto said again. "Are you sure you do not know of this man?"

"Help!" the man screamed, but Than knew his cries were futile, for Alecto had already immobilized the two others in the store with her acrid steam from the Lethe, putting them in a funk they would not recall.

The steam enveloped the man.

"I swear I don't know him!"

Alecto stood up and turned to Than. "He's not the one."

Immediately the snakes rushed back down from the man back into the holes in the floor from whence they came. The man fell in a stupor on his desk covered with the foul steam. The jets stopped and the steam began to dissipate. Than and Alecto left the man, but not through the door.