The Naming of the Beasts

‘Afraid not,’ I said bluntly. ‘Jovan and Rafi haven’t talked in years. He couldn’t tell me anything we don’t already know. Or maybe he just didn’t feel like talking, since he’s going to be executed tomorrow. I had a chance to visit the family house and go through some old stuff of Rafi’s, but I came up empty there too.’

‘Things that belonged to Ditko? Might there be a stronger focus than the fingernail for Pax to use in her divination?’

I thought of the photo. ‘Potentially,’ I said. ‘I’ve got something she can throw into the mix, anyway.’

‘So the time wasn’t totally wasted.’ J-J sounded irked all the same, as though she realised she’d been taken for a ride for once in her life and wasn’t enjoying the novelty. Abruptly, she switched tack. ‘When do you arrive back in London?’ she asked.

I glanced up at the departures board. It was easy to locate my flight, because there were only another three heading out that evening. ‘About midnight,’ I estimated.

‘Get a good night’s sleep. Gilbert has assembled his team for the Super-Self exorcism. He claims he has a full complement without your participation. I’d still like you to be there though. If things don’t go to plan, an additional exorcist might make a great deal of difference. Especially one of your experience. I’ve delayed the operation until tomorrow night for that reason.’

‘I’ll be there,’ I said.

‘Excellent. Before that though, I think another early meeting is in order. I’ve been unable to locate your Mr Moulson, despite having tracked down his previous three addresses. But we’ve been reviewing Pax’s maps, and we have a few insights to offer.’

‘With regard to what, Jenna-Jane?’

‘With regard to the issue of where Asmodeus might be found.’

The hairs on my neck pricked up like good little dogs at their master’s voice. ‘You’ve found him?’ I asked, trying to keep my tone neutral.

‘Not yet. But I may be able to direct your search. Tomorrow, Felix. Eight o’clock. Sleep tight.’

She hung up, leaving my mouth open on a question. I checked my watch. Time was really tight now, but it was a small airport and the gate was probably fairly close to the check-in. I hung up, fed the machine some more coins and dialled again.

The ringtone sounded half a dozen times, and I was about to give it up as a bad job when someone finally picked up.

‘Hello?’ Juliet said.

‘No rest for the wicked, babe,’ I told her.

12

Jenna-Jane was right about the value of an early night. Standing outside Super-Self at half past one in the morning, asleep on my feet, I asked myself for the hundredth time what the hell I was doing here when my bed was five miles north and two east.

But then the answer came stalking down the street towards me, the cynosure of all eyes - I counted six, including mine, the other sets belonging to a homeless guy and a roosting pigeon on a window ledge. All the same, she walked like a queen in procession, the night unrolling its monochrome carpet before her.

I detached myself from the doorway and waved, but Juliet had seen me already. Of course she had: her eyes were adapted for much darker places than this. They had the same faint glow to them that I’d noticed back at the Gaumont. More unsettlingly, the proportions of her body looked subtly different. She was taller, leaner, longer-limbed, without being any less beautiful, any less perfect. She was dressed in red rather than her usual black, and it was shocking to look at, the leather jacket shining with a liquid gloss, as vivid as an open wound, the pleated skirt infolded like labia.

‘Thanks for coming,’ I said when she was in earshot.

‘You piqued my curiosity,’ she answered. ‘Show me this thing. But you’d better not let me down, Castor. I don’t like men who make promises and can’t deliver.’ The shape of her face had changed too. It had elongated and thinned, the cheekbones becoming higher and sharper. The overall effect was to make her look less human, or rather to make her humanity seem like more of a conscious affectation. Her body had become an ironic quote.

‘I’m as good as my word,’ I promised her, trying to make my voice resonate with a confidence I really didn’t feel. ‘I said I’d show you something new, and I’m going to. But anyway, you’re still on my payroll, right? Still on demon watch. I was hoping you could give me an update on that.’

Juliet tilted her head back very slightly, her red eyes fixed on me like rangefinders. ‘You want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth?’ she translated, with a dangerous edge of anger in her voice.

‘I want to make sure nothing happened to Pen while I was away,’ I said. ‘Or to you. That’s all.’

‘I haven’t seen Asmodeus, or felt him. If he’s watching your house, or the woman, he’s doing it from a distance. Circumspectly. Patiently. Does that sound like Asmodeus to you?’

It didn’t, I had to admit. On the other hand, he’s the kind of devious bastard who gives devious bastards a bad name. ‘You know what they say about barn owls?’ I asked her.