Agents of Light and Darkness

become directly involved. Make no mistake, if agents of the Principalities go to war here, they could level the Nightside.'

'If the Unholy Grail is here, I can find it,' I said, giving Jude my best confident smile. He didn't seem impressed or reassured.

'It won't be easy, Mr. Taylor. Even with your famous talent. A lot of people are going to be searching for the Unholy Grail, for all manner of good and bad reasons. And in the wrong hands, its power could conceivably upset the balance between Above and Below. The Last Days could come early, and we're not nearly ready yet.'

'So if the angels don't destroy the Nightside, whoever gets to the Unholy Grail first could do the job too? Wonderful. I just love working under pressure.'

'But you'll take the commission?'

'I can find anything. It's what I do. That is why you came to me, isn't it?'

'You came highly recommended,' said Jude. 'Though for the sake of your ego, I don't think I'll say by whom. Now, the Unholy Grail was being kept in the House of Blue Lights, one of the hidden complexes deep under the Pentagon. But a guard somehow got past all the defenses and protections, and smuggled it out. He couldn't hang on to it, of course, the poor fool. It had just used him to escape.'

I remembered the man in black at St. Jude's, and what had happened to him. The awful voice(s) had mentioned a Grail. But I didn't say anything. I had no reason to keep things from Jude, but I still wasn't ready to trust him entirely either. I was pretty sure he was keeping things from me.

'If it's here, I can find it,' I said flatly. 'But I'm not so sure I should turn it over to the Vatican. Your reputation's taken a series of knocks recently. Everything from banking to the Ratlines.'

'The Unholy Grail would go straight from me to the Holy Father,' Jude said earnestly. 'And he would ensure it would be locked away and properly contained. Until the End of Time, if necessary. If you can't trust the Pope to do the right thing, Mr. Taylor, whom can you trust?'

'Good question,' I said. I wasn't convinced, and he could tell. He thought for a moment.

'We only want to preserve the status quo, Mr. Taylor. Because Humanity isn't ready yet for any of the alternatives. I have been authorized to offer you a quarter of a million pounds. In cash. Fifty thousand in advance.'

He placed a stuffed envelope on the table between us. I didn't touch it, though my fingers were itching to. A quarter of a bloody million?

'Danger money?'

'Quite,' said Jude. 'You'll get the rest when you place the Unholy Grail in my hands.'

'Sounds good to me,' I said. I picked up the envelope and tucked it away, giving Jude my best confident smile. 'You've got yourself a deal, Jude.'

And then we both looked up as three large gentlemen loomed over us. They took up positions standing as close as they could get without actually joining us in the booth. I'd heard them coming, but hadn't said anything because I didn't want Jude distracted while he was talking about money. The three gentlemen glared at us both impartially. They were the best-dressed thugs I'd seen in some time, but the attitude gave them away. They might as well have been wearing I am a mafioso hit man T-shirts. They looked slick and heavy and dangerous, and each of them had a gun. All three were professionally calm, forming a semicircle to cover both me and Jude, while efficiently blocking us off from the rest of the bar. No-one could see what was happening, and we wouldn't be allowed to shout for help. Not that I had any intention of doing so. The largest of the three gunmen flashed me a humorless smile.

'Forget the pew-polisher, Taylor. From now on, you're working for us.'

I considered the matter. 'And if I prefer not to?'

The gunman shrugged. 'You can find the Unholy Grail for us, or you can die. Right here, right now. Your choice.'

I smiled nastily at him, and to his credit he didn't flinch. 'Your guns aren't loaded,' I said.

The three gunmen looked at each other, confused. I held up my closed hands, opened them, and let a stream of bullets fall out to clatter loudly on the table-top. They pulled the triggers on their guns, and looked very upset when nothing happened.

'I think you should leave now,' I said. 'Before I decide to do something similar with your internal organs.'

They put away their guns and left, not quite running. I smiled apologetically at Jude. 'Boys will be boys. You leave the matter with me, and I'll see what I can turn up.'

'Soon, please, Mr. Taylor,' said Jude. He fixed me with his deep brown eyes, positively radiating sincerity and earnestness. On anyone else, it would probably have worked. 'We're all running out of time.'

He rose to his feet, and I got up too. 'How will I find you, when I have something to report?'

'You won't,' he said calmly. 'I'll find you.'

He walked off through the bar, not looking back. Interestingly enough, people moved to get out of his way without even seeming to notice they were doing it. There was more to Jude than met the eye. Mind you, there would have to be. The Vatican wouldn't send just anybody into the Nightside. I went back to Alex, who was refilling the hand in the top hat's glass. Frankenstein's creature was moodily tightening the stitches in his left wrist. Alex nodded to me.

'Got yourself a new client?'

'Looks like it.'

'Interesting case?'

'Well, different, anyway. I think I'm going to need Suzie's help for this one.'

'Ah,' said Alex. 'One of those cases.'

There was a crack of thunder, a flash of lightning, a billowing of dark sulphurous smoke, and a sorcerer appeared at the bar right next to me. He wore dark purple robes and the traditional pointy hat. He was tall, dark, and imposing, with long black fingernails, a neat goatee, and piercing eyes. He gestured dramatically at me, while fixing me with a ferocious glare.

'Taylor! Find the Unholy Grail for me, or suffer an eternity of my wrath!'

While the sorcerer's attention was fixed on me, Alex calmly produced a heavy bung-starter from behind the bar. He plucked off the sorcerer's tall pointy hat and hit him over the head with the bung-starter. The sorcerer yelped once, and collapsed. Alex raised his voice.

'Lucy! Betty! Time to take out the trash!'

Lucy and Betty Coltrane, Alex's body-building bouncers, arrived and cheerfully hauled away the unconscious sorcerer. Alex glared at me.

'Unholy Grail?'

'Trust me, Alex. You really don't want to know.'

He sighed. 'Taylor, get out of here. You're bad for business.'

Three - Meetings in Dark Place

The long and narrow alleyway outside Strangefellows was as dark, gloomy, and filthy dirty as always. The heavy blue light from the huge moon hanging overhead gave the cobbled alley a bleak, sinister air, like the uneasy streets we walk in our dreams, and never to anywhere good. Business as usual, in the Nightside. I headed for the bright city lights at the end of the alley, picking my way carefully through the rubbish littering the way. There were severed hands everywhere, and not a few feet, all hard as ice and dusted with hoarfrost. The Little Sisters of the Immaculate Chainsaw had been busy tonight. The Christmas season must be starting early this year.

A figure appeared suddenly at the far end of the alley, standing silhouetted against the glaring neon, and I stopped dead in my tracks. For a moment my heart slammed painfully against my chest, and I forgot how to breathe. The last time I'd walked down this alley, I'd been ambushed by my enemies. The faceless horrors of the Harrowing had come for me, and I'd only escaped with the help of my old friend Razor Eddie. Of course, he'd been the one who set me up for the ambush; but that's friends for you, in the Nightside.

But this time there was only the one figure, with a distinctly female silhouette, and as she started down the