The Man with the Devil's Tongue (A Prologue to the End of the World and Some Other Things)

Chapter 22

April finished her training and study under the guidance of Haagenti and others in Tennessee. A month passed and it was determined that the demon had told her all that she needed for now. Haagenti bid her farewell. April left him, feeling rather sad as they parted, viewing him as a loyal dog that would never be allowed to leave its kennel. It was unfair, she thought, even while recognizing that far worse prisons had been built to house man not only in Hell, but on earth as well.

The Gatekeepers sent April to Rome.

They wanted her to get acquainted with the center of operations and its leaders.

April didn't have much of a chance to admire the streets of Rome before she was taken below them.

She went from catacombs of stone to a modern facility of steel. April thought that her new colleagues were perhaps a tad overfunded, and that had fueled their paranoia. She mused that a hundred years from now, they would have facilities dug out beneath their underground facilities of today.

One can never hide their head deep enough, said the spy to the ostrich.

April was taken to the office of Dominic Friend, her new boss.

She wasn't impressed by Friend and it was obvious that the feeling was mutual. He regarded her as an annoyance, as if she had no right even stepping into his office. She was only put there to slow him down.

"You spent a long time in your room crying into a pillow," Friend said.

April noted the lack of a question mark. She said, "It was a difficult time."

"We lead difficult lives."

"I'll be better next time," April said.

"Prove it," Friend said.

"I will."

"Now." Friend opened the door of his office and waved for her to follow. "Come with me."

April followed Friend from his office. Every Gatekeeper working in Rome seemed to know who April was and couldn't help watching her. She felt like she was being led to the electric chair.

"We developed a special mask," Friend said. "It allows breathing in the oxygen of the room, but emissions go into a tank. That way there is no pollution to the air."

Friend brought her to an empty basketball court. The floor was squeaky clean and the walls were lined with blue padding.

There was a loud slam as the door shut behind her. A guard locked it.

"What is this?" April asked.

Dominic Friend snapped his fingers. A door at the other end of the court opened and two guards led in a man on a motorized dolly. The man stood completely erect and was bound at the ankles, waist, arms, and neck. He wore a dark mask that obscured everything but his eyes.

April recognized those eyes. They were a shade of red and seemed to boil in the socket like a pit of fire.

Ronald Lime was wheeled to the center of the court. The guards switched off the dolly and stepped away.

Dominic Friend opened a folding chair and set it in front of Lime. He said to April, "He's been asking to talk with you."

April glared at Friend. She tried to control it, but her eyes had started tearing up. It was because of anger, she assured herself, but she hated it regardless. April wiped away the tear and sat down.

"Can the thing talk?" April asked.

Lime said, "Yes, it can." His voice sounded like a recording, distorted and far away.