recovered with a small grimace and charged me. The other Feds went for their guns. We were about to get killed.
The door exploded inward and two agents were hurled through, landing and rolling painfully across the floor. Harbinger came in fast, charging directly into the agents standing over Trip and Holly. He went swiftly into the path of their rising muzzles. He attacked, dodged between the guns, struck the agents down with his bare hands, batted aside a rifle, grasped the final Fed by his web gear and slung him back into the wall with a horrible crash.
I had never seen a man move that quickly.
Distracted by Harbinger's superhuman display, I did not see Franks' movement. He forced his palm into my face, pushing me off balance. He bladed off, protecting his right side, going for his pistol. I struggled forward, trying to reach his gun hand. Time slowed down. The pistol came up and out of the holster.
'Stop! Stop!' screamed Myers.
Franks froze. His Glock held in a tight, low, retention position. Finger on the trigger. Indexed directly at my sternum. His eyes were locked on mine. If I moved at all, I was dead.
Julie was still lying on the floor, but had rolled far enough to reach the flamethrower. It was humming, pointed at Myers' legs. The agent that she had knocked over had pressed his pistol into her back. Harbinger stood over the stunned forms of the other downed Feds. The Fed by Gretchen was holding his leg where her totem stick had stabbed him. Unfortunately he had raised his G36 and it was pointed at Gretchen's head. I could not see most of the Feds' expressions behind their black balaclavas, but I imagined that they were about as tense as I was. If one person twitched wrong, a whole bunch of us were going to get shot or immolated. It was the most screwed-up Mexican stand-off I had ever seen.
Another Fed entered the room, hands held above his head, Sam Haven pushing close behind with the muzzle of his pistol screwed into the back of the agent's neck just under the helmet.
'Nobody move or I'll waste this punk!' Sam shouted. He paused as he studied the complicated situation, before shrugging and spitting some tobacco juices. 'Oh… never mind. Y'all are ahead of me.' He sounded rather disappointed.
'Don't spit on the floor, you ape!' Julie ordered. It may have been scorched and blasted with shrapnel, but it was still her house.
Harbinger's hands were empty of weapons, but after the display of physical prowess I had just seen, nobody was in a hurry to mess with him. Five Feds lay on the ground moaning or whimpering. He shouted down the hallway he had entered from, 'Milo! How you doing?'
'Hurry up. There's like a hundred Feds coming this way. And they looked pissed!'
'Myers. Turn on your damn phone,' Harbinger commanded. 'Do it now.'
The Fed complied. He slowly reached into the pocket of his suit, pulled out the phone and turned it on. Immediately we all heard that annoying 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'
'I hate that ring,' I said, as I looked over Franks' Glock.
'Me too,' he agreed, not letting the gun waver at all.
'I shut it off when we landed. It's kind of distracting on a raid,' Myers said defensively as he pushed the button to answer it. 'This is Agent Myers.'
'Yes, I will hold for…' The senior agent sounded surprised. 'Oh… Hello, sir… Sorry… I apologize… Yes, sir… Yes, sir… But this is outside the regular chain of command…' We heard half of the conversation. Myers seemed remarkably collected considering Julie had the flamethrower pointed at him. The agent pointing the rifle at Gretchen looked a little shaky. I hoped this did not take long. 'But, sir… But… But… We can… But… Yes, sir… I understand…' We waited for the conversation to end. 'Understood… Good-bye, sir.'
He refolded the phone and dropped it back into this pocket.
'Stand down,' he shouted. 'Everybody stand down.' The guns in the ballroom slowly began to lower. Sam pulled his Sig 220 out of the back of the agent's neck. Julie set the flamethrower down.
'Tell the guys outside that too!' Milo blurted from down the hall. 'There's a big black helicopter looking at me!'
Myers spoke into the radio. 'Stand down. All units stand down. That is an order.'
Tense moments passed as everyone complied. Franks was the last to do so. With the Glock still pointing at my heart he told me simply 'I'll get to kill you one of these days.' He slowly lowered the weapon and reholstered.
'Take a number,' I replied.
'Well, Harbinger. I'm surprised,' Myers said. He looked flustered and angry. He still reminded me of a professor, only now he looked like one who had just found out his tenure had been denied. 'That's outside the chain of command, but you know I'm not going to go against a cabinet-level appointee.'
'You heard him,' Harbinger stated shortly. 'We have a truce. Y'all can get the hell out of here.'
'For now. As soon as I get orders from the Director, he's going to be overridden, and then I'm going to arrest every single one of you for assaulting federal agents and aiding and abetting a fugitive.'
'I figure that will probably take more than forty-eight hours. So by then either the world is going to be destroyed or this is all a moot point. Until then you have your orders,' Harbinger said coldly. 'You can take the Place. We clean up the local infestations. We tell you what we know. You leave us alone.'
The senior agent appeared to mull that over. The idea seemed to leave a bad taste in his mouth. 'Fine. For now…' Myers said coldly. 'We'll see about that in the long term, Earl.'
I moved to help Julie stand. She looked shaky. Her wound had reopened, but there was not too much blood. She pushed me away. 'I'm okay,' she said.
'Bull,' I stated. 'Let me help you.' I took her by the arm.
'All units. We're clear. Hold your fire. Prepare to pull out,' Myers ordered into the radio. The Feds attended to their injured. The five men that Harbinger had attacked were all stirring, though some looked to be nursing broken bones. 'You better not have seriously hurt any of my men,' he told Harbinger. 'I don't care how important some people think you are, Earl, I'll personally make sure your special status is revoked, and I'll see to it you rot in prison forever.'
'I didn't hurt them too bad,' Harbinger said simply. He spread his hands innocently, though he could not mask his predatory confidence. Somehow he had moved, weaponless, through a crowd of ready and armed men, and beaten down any of them that stood in his way. 'They shouldn't have tried to stop me.'
I remembered how Harbinger had saved me from Darne. At the time I had assumed that it had just been some sort of pro Monster Hunting trick, but after watching him dispatch the Feds with relative ease, I knew that something else was going on. 'Just what the hell is he?' I said softly into Julie's ear. Somehow Harbinger heard me from across the room. He winked.
'It's a long story,' she replied brusquely. 'Earl, Grant's missing. Dad's dead.'
'No,' Harbinger said. His face fell. 'Aw hell.'
'My men have not reported any other Hunters on the premises,' Myers said. 'They probably took your man.'
'Milo?' Harbinger shouted.
'I'm not getting Grant's signal on GPS. It's either broke or disabled… He was wearing his armor, right?'
'Yes. He was on guard duty,' she shouted back down the hall.
'Sorry, Julie. I've got nothing.'
'He will be avenged,' Sam told her. The big cowboy was solemn. 'I promise.'
'If it's any consolation, I'm sorry. But we're wasting time,' Myers stated. 'I need a Place, and I need it now. You have my word. Whatever thing you have hiding out there, we won't bother it.'
'Deal,' Harbinger said. 'Julie?'
'Somewhere inside Natchy Bottom, Mississippi,' she told the room after an instant of hesitation. She would have to grieve later. 'You know about it?'
'Yes. We know it,' the senior agent replied. 'Bad place. Where though? That's a lot of swamp to cover.'
'Dad said that it was hidden. You need to talk to the Wendigo to find out where.'
'Impossible,' Myers said. 'Those are just Indian fairy tales.'
'Nope,' Harbinger said. 'The Bottoms belong to him. We have an understanding.'
'Fine. We'll handle it. You and your thugs can clean up the local undead outbreaks,' Myers snapped. 'We'll set up on the Place and blow the Cursed One to kingdom come.'
