Johnny Black, Soul Chaser: The Complete Series (Johnny Black, Soul Chaser Series) by Zep JJ

Author:Zep, JJ [Zep, JJ]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2012-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

XXV

After General Bacchus had been returned to his cell and Pandora had been sent on her way, Dope filled me in on what had been going on in hell in my absence.

“Strike’s over,” he said. “It’s always over by Halloween anyway. Nothing gets these deadbeats motivated faster than the opportunity to dress up and go door-to-door scrounging for candy.

“But, I’m afraid you have other problems my friend. Belial lodged a complaint to Abaddon about his staff being used for SPAA work. Abaddon, of course, knew nothing about this latest assignment. He didn’t half chew my ass I can tell you.”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I assured him. “I’m used to Belial’s hissy fits. I’ll just nod in all the right places and apologize and say I’ll never do it again.”

“It’s far more serious than that, I’m afraid. Abaddon himself wants to see you. There’s been serious talk about transferring you to the Global Warming Department.”

I don’t need to tell you that this was not good news. Global warming was the one job nobody in hell wanted. Even the pyromaniacs gave it a wide berth. It meant operating the big boilers twenty-four seven, shoveling coal and chopping wood and working the bellows.

“Way I see it,” Dope said, “is you can take it like a man, give yourself up and face the music. I doubt they’ll give you more than a few decades, a century at most. Or …”

“I’m liking the or part already.”

“Or, I can send you on another mission, starting right away.”

“I’m going to go with option B,” I said.

“Wait, till you hear the mission first, I need you to go after Commodus.”

“I figured as much.”

“There’s a wrinkle,” Dope said.

“Isn’t there always.”

“The wrinkle is, we don’t know where he’s got to.”

“Not at all?”

“Not a clue. He gave Jitterbug the slip coming up the tube from the Tiber, must have ducked into one of the side shafts. Now we’re pretty sure which one he took, but the problem is we don’t know where it leads. You could end up on one of the moons of Jupiter, in the Triassic sea or in the middle of the Black Plague. I just don’t know.”

“Compared to working the furnace, it sounds like a holiday.”

“Another problem?”

“There’s more?”

“Because we don’t know where you’re going to end up, we can’t guide you towards a host. You’re going to have to figure that out for yourself. Still in?

“Still in.”

“Good man. I’ll get Jitterbug to take you to the portal. He’ll show you where he lost Commodus, but he’s sitting this one out.”

“He’s not coming?”

“No, he’s got some vacation time due. Thinking of going to France, if you can believe that.”

“So, I’m basically going in with no back up.”

“Fraid so.”

I thought about that for less than a second. “Let’s do it,” I said. “What have I got to lose?”

“Only your five lives,” Dope said. “And your cushy job here in hell.”

We found Jitterbug down on U14 standing next to the yellow pool that had led us to the Tiber. The

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