Dark Purpose - XV

XV.

Thorne had a tough time keeping up with the woman to the point that Greed was ready to kick the bastard out and take over. To Greed Throne had always been all show and no substance, he talked a big game and flaunted his laissez-faire attitude around like he didn’t give a shit but when he was under pressure he started to crumble. Greed had seen it time and time again. Losing his nerve in interrogations, bumbling the handling of witnesses, and failing to fire on a criminal actively threatening him in the street. All instances, when Greed was present, he had to step in to help. It was no wonder Thorne was only ever given the slow pitched cases. The surprising part was that the Captain even kept him on payroll, but his family, being one of the wealthiest in town, bankrolling bribes right into the mayor’s pocket, kept their do-nothing progeny in the desk across from Greed. Where Greed had to work and work hard to keep his place at the top Throne was given a pass for being the golden child of some banker. It made his blood boil. Especially now sitting shotgun as the woman driving his car was giving Thorne a run for his money.

                “You’re gonna lose her. Keep up!” Greed yelled over the screeching of tires. Thorne was close to hitting light posts, parked cars, and trash cans as they raced up and down the roads. Greed had a clearly trained eye on his car but Thorne was floundering. Greed could see the sweat dripping down the man’s face as he struggled to keep up. One more close call and he’d have to take over.

                “Shut up will ya! Fuck!” Thorne screamed as he barely missed a mail truck pulling out into the street from a side road. The car flailed from side to side as the tires gave its leave of the pavement for a split second. Greed felt his stomach lurch as the forces flung him around. The car spun and came to an abrupt stop against a fire hydrant. Thankfully it didn’t break the damn thing otherwise they’d be drowning here as Thorne was frozen at the wheel. Now was the chance Greed needed to take. Greed leapt from the passenger seat ran around and yanked Thorne from the car.

                “Look you idiot they’re getting away!” Greed yelled pointing towards the fast escaping back of his car as the patrols zipped past them. He saw his car take a turn and disappear from sight. The sirens followed it away as Thorne sat shaking from adrenaline and panic on the sidewalk.

                “I’ll call a patrol to come pick you up. Just stay here.”

                “No…Greed…you can’t!” Thorne tried to protest but his teeth were chattering. He held his hands up to his face they were red from gripping the steering wheel so tightly.

                “I can and I am. Move out of the way. I’d hate to run you over with your own car.” Greed slid into the driver’s seat being sure not to close the door no Throne as he backed away on his ass. He was still breathing heavily when Greed pulled away. The radio was buzzing as men from the other patrols came over the wire.

                “Last spotted on the corner of 4^th and Elm.”

                “You lost them?”

                “They sure are damn fast. I could barely keep up.”

                “Find them damnit!”

                Greed cut in.

                “Officer in need of assistance on Wabash Ln. Please send a car to pick him up. Over.”

                “On it. Over.” A voice broke in during the chaos to confirm.

                Greed tried to make sense of the crackling chaos to find the last position of his car. She seemed to be zipping around without any real destination like she was just playing games.

                “What are you playing at, you crazy bitch?” Greed said looking over the road. The sirens seemed to circle him as he pulled away from Thorne. He didn’t want to jump the gun and start heading in the wrong direction, but he wanted to be moving just in case they zipped by.

                The sirens hit a crescendo then died away moving farther from where he was. They got away. He thought as he sat back in the driver’s seat. Then with a burst of speed his car flashed past him slowing down as if they were begging to be chased. Why the hell did she come back this way?  He thought as he threw the car into gear. He followed her, closer than Thorne had ever gotten, and their course changed. From an apparent joyride to an actual destination. Greed wrinkled his forehead then realized something.

                “I’ll play your game. I won’t be fooled again.” Greed said under his breath, bobbing and weaving, and keeping pace with his car. The sirens were all but gone now, they must have thrown the other patrols off their trail somehow.

                Good. Greed thought. I’ll deal with them on my own. The buzzing voices wouldn’t shut up, and he needed to handle this on his own. He shut off the radio and put his full attention on his car.

                His car brought him to the lake, running south, then back into a business sector. Then it turned into a parking garage. Up and up they went then finally the car came to a screeching halt. Greed slammed on the brakes and sat stunned. The women in the car didn’t move and neither did he. He sat waiting for their next move. Then he heard the horn of his car go off. In a pattern they honked five times, paused, then honked thrice more.

                “What?”

                Before he could react, he was being wrenched from the driver’s seat, stripped of his new gun, and a bag was forced over his head. He was punched once to make his leg’s buckle then carried away. He heard an elevator move but no one around him spoke. He felt the jolt of it coming to a stop then he was pushed out, walked down a hallway and sat in a chair. The bag was ripped from his head and before him sat Erika, the woman who had broken his nose, stolen his car, and put him on his wild goose chase.

                “What is this all about!?” Greed growled.

                “It looks like we are still in need of you and your services.”

                “My services!? Just you wait, they might be bumbling idiots but the other’s will find this place and get me out.”

                “Not likely,” A voice said from behind the one-way mirror in the room, “a radio call was put out saying your car was found sinking in the lake. The APB has been called off.”

                “Is anyone going to explain to me who you people are or what the hell is going on!?” Greed screamed as much as he could before the outburst started to make his face ache.

                Erika looked over her shoulder to the window and the voice came back.

                “Tell him.”

                “Tell me what?”

                Erika pulled out a file and pushed it across the table. Greed looked at it then Erika motioned for him to open it.

                “This is a bit of a crash course, but we have no choice. We are running out of time.”

                Greed flipped through the file as Erika spoke. They detailed crimes around the world, mentioned names of people or books that he never heard of before and in general confused him more.

                “We are the Union. A clandestine organization set to hinder occult machinations around the globe.”

                “Occult? Like the devil?”

                Erika shook her head.

                “No, these are much more real.”

                Erika pointed to a file on the desk before Greed.

                “1919, Virgil, OR, Whole town was burnt down.”

                “Wildfires.” Greed asserted.

                Erika shook her head.

                “Structures were found,” Erika moved aside the main file to show photos of the scene, “throughout the town set in a pattern. A ritual was being perpetrated on the people, we think it was a summoning spell but we can’t be sure. It was destroyed by the prodigal son of the town who stumbled upon the rituals.”

                Greed gave her a dazed look, he didn’t believe what he was hearing.

                “1928, Innsmouth, MA, The feds went in and burned the whole place to the ground after a tip from a lost tourist. Talk of a mutated populace, ancestors of a pirate who made a pact with a fish deity.”

                “This is horseshit, what are you trying to pull.”

                “1952, Ashley, KS. Official reports say that an earthquake caused a fissure destroying the town. It was utterly wiped from the map. Our investigation pointed to something similar to what we are dealing with right now.”

                “What are we dealing with right now?” Greed asked rolling his eyes.

                “The complete destruction of the city.”

                “He doesn’t believe me.” Erika said over her shoulder.

                The interrogation room door opened and a guard entered. He strong armed Greed out of the room and down the hall. Behind him Erika and two other women followed. The guard pushed him forcibly against a cell door with a small window. He flipped the switch on and motioned for Greed to spy on the occupant. Greed hesitated but peered in. Inside the cell sat the man they had tracked down, the surgeon, and around him were markings on the wall in red.

               “The Butcher.” Greed said astonished seeing the man.

                “No. This isn’t the Butcher.”

                “But the shrine we found.”

                Erika shook her head.

                Her twin chimed in.

                “I bit the actual Butcher, he captured me, this guy doesn’t have that injury. This isn’t the Butcher.”

                “So he’s still out there?”

                “Yes.” Erika added.

                “Then who is this? Just some random person?”

                “He’s an Order cultist. Like I’ve spoken of before.”

                “You gave him something to write with?”

                The guard shook his head slowly. Then Greed saw it. The man had bitten into his own arm to draw blood and used his blood to write symbols on the walls. Symbols that reflected the shrine in his closet, that were represented in the pictures he saw from the folder.

                “He’s just insane…you’re all just insane.”

                “No Mr. Greed, this is the reality that exists under the surface. If these people had their way then the whole world would be embroiled in a chaos we can’t even begin to fathom. We’ve dedicated our lives and the lives of our families to combat this evil. I’m not sure what proof you need to get on our side but I’ll be frank. The Butcher is one of these maniacs. Hell bent on bringing something into existence that would wipe this city off the map.” Another woman stepped in to try her hand at convincing Greed.

                “If you’re so powerful why not just conjure something up to find the bastard then.” Greed scoffed not wanting to give any credence to what he was hearing.

                “It doesn’t work that way. We aren’t magicians or sorcerers. We’re like you we just have a different knowledge set. In being a secret though we don’t have a lot of resources to play around with like the police does or the military for that matter. We work in the shadows to tip the scales and try to prevent large scale disasters. As you saw we aren’t always there or fully prepared, but we do our best. And now we are asking for your help.”

                “My help?”

                “We need to find this Butcher before it’s too late. We need to work together, and we need to know that you’ll be a team player.” The woman who was the spitting image of Erika chimed in.

                “A team player…” Greed backed away from the window and started to pace. The others let him walk, they let him think.

What was this all about? Surely this couldn’t actually be true, but the man in the cell…the markings…they couldn’t be a fluke. Why would they pull such an elaborate prank? What would be the purpose? If it’s true? Greed couldn’t wrap his head around it. The alternative to walking out the door wasn’t helpful either. Would they kill him if he refused? What kind of life could he have with this shame and the divide at the precinct?

                “Are you offering me a job?”

                “A partnership. We don’t often bring outsiders in, but this is a special case. Who knows, if you prove useful we might just bring you in.”

                “If I refuse?”

                “There are no repercussions. Thankfully we are hidden well enough that if one person spouts off about us it isn’t the end of the world. We just can’t have you spending too much time trying to investigate us yourself. Now that we would quash. But ultimately the choice is yours.”

                “I know this is all hard to understand…well, it can’t know completely since I’ve…we’ve all grown up in this so it’s normal to us but I can sympathize.” Erika said coming close to Greed, she extended a hand but he brushed her off.

                “None of this makes any sense, but all I care about is getting that bastard. I thought you were on his side.”

                “Well I hope at least in that regard we’ve proven otherwise.” Erika said with a small smile.

                Greed didn’t have to accept everything carte blanche but he needn’t shoot himself in the foot either. His case was still hot and he needed a win to stay in the good graces of his precinct. The past few days have done their damnedest to screw up his life and if he lost his job he didn’t know what he would do. So for now he’d play along and figure out later if all this pig swallow was indeed factual or all a farce. He shook his head, took a deep breath, making sure not to wince too much from the pain in his nose and turned back towards the others.

                “I’ll help you, you’ll help me. This needs to be mutual. More rides on this case for me than you know.” Greed said.

                “We’re right there with you. I’m glad we could come to an agreement. I’m Victoria.” The older woman said extending her hand.

                “I’m Angela.” The woman who looked like Erika also spoke up again.

                The guard said nothing.

                Greed sighed and let his arms fall to his sides.

                “Alright, what’s our first move?”

                “Follow me.” Victoria said leading him back down the hall. Greed looked once more into the cell with the insane tenant. Whether or not this was a farce he’d catch the sick bastard. That’s the most he could do.

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