The Hammer Commission Page 19

  Mark canceled the program and turned to Judith. "Still got the artifact on you?"

  "Yeah, but I'm not going out there!" Judith said with a shudder.

  "Who said you have to? Just walk up to the glass here and dismiss the lot of them." Mark said leaning back and catching his breath as the last bullet popped out.

  "You can do that?" Judith said looking surprised.

  "It's a blessing, not a bullet."

  "Won't they run upstairs?"

  "They can't. It's sacred ground. Probably why Flores had them build a new basement. Couldn't build something this evil on the existing grounds."

  Judith nodded and pulling out the cross and called on God to dismiss the devils. A moment later they were all gone.

  "Now what?"

  "Go get Father Aimes, Brother Stevens, and all the holy water you can carry. Leave the cross with me. We have a lot of blessing to do."

  "What about you?"

  "I have some personal business to attend to." Mark said getting to his feet rather shakily and taking the cross.

  Judith nodded and ran out of the room.

  Mark checked the corpse first, it wasn't a pretty sight, and the body was in several pieces now, what was left of it. But he made certain that Flores was dead.

  Next he made his way upstairs to the main floor and walked down to the hospital wing.

  "Oh my!" The nurse on duty said as she saw him and called out for the Doctors. They caught up with Mark in Father Gregory's room.

  "Mark, are you alright? Whose blood it that?" Doctor Susan asked.

  "Mine, and I'm okay." He raised the cross and stood over Father Gregory, he wasn’t sure exactly how Flores was using Father Gregory, but possession was a good place to start. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I cast you out foul spirits! Leave this man and never return!" And he sprayed Father Gregory with the Holy Water.

  Nothing happened.

  "What are you doing Mark?" The Doctor said sounding concerned.

  "Righting wrongs."

  He turned to the equipment then and sprayed it with holy water; it immediately began to sizzle, turning to steam.

  "What the..." Doctor Susan said making the sign of the cross.

  "Ah, I see. That explains a few things."

  “What?” She asked as Mark blessed the devices then, spraying more holy water on them and causing them to burst into flames.

  “Evil weres are hurt by Holy items. Only makes sense that a good were would be hurt by an unholy one,” Mark told her as he watched the devices burn, surprised by the lack of heat as they did.

  One of the nurses rushed in then and used a fire extinguisher on them, but they did not stop burning until there was nothing left, leaving only a small scorched spot on the floor.

  "What, what was that?" Doctor Susan asked. Both Doctors were in the room now, as well as all the floor nurses.

  "Evil. Do we have any more of those machines here?"

  "No, it was the only set."

  "Doctor!" One of the nurses yelled then, Father Gregory was suddenly gripped by a seizure, only this time he went into cardiac arrest as well.

  "Get the crash cart!"

  "No," Mark said grabbing Doctor Susan's arm.

  "Mark, get out of my way!"

  "No. A great evil has been done to him, he's suffered enough. Let him die in peace."

  She shook his arm off, "I have my duty to the Church and the Lord. Let me do it. If it's his time, then there is nothing I can do to save him."

  Mark sighed and stood back as the nurse came in with the crash cart. He stood there and just prayed until fifteen minutes later the Doctor finally called time of death and started to cover Father Gregory up.

  "He was a great man," Mark said bending over to kiss Father Gregory's forehead as the Doctor pulled up the sheet to cover him.

  "Yes, he was. What was that machine for?"

  "Nothing good, I assure you." He said and left the room.

  16

  "Cardinals," Mark said bowing as he entered the room, then approaching the Cardinals he knelt and kissed their rings, moving down the line until he had kissed all twelve.

  "We appreciate your taking the time out to talk to us Mark," Cardinal Richards said as Mark stood before them.

  "It's my duty your Eminences, both to you and the Church which has been so generous to me these many years, even after my affliction."

  "We have already heard from your partner Judith, about what happened to the both of you, as well as what you discovered. Brother Stevens has reported to us on the computer systems and what they constituted."

  "Is it true that he has taken a vow of silence?" Mark asked curious.

  "Yes, he's taken a twenty year vow, he wanted to take a lifetime one, but we were able to talk him down from that. Very stubborn man. He's also being sent to a rather secluded Monastery, again by his own request."

  "I told him not to try and examine those machines. I don't know what Flores did to them, but whatever it was, I suspect it was rather... hideous." Mark said looking as unhappy as he felt.

  "Brother Stevens felt that it was important that someone determine what happened and how it was done. He gave us his findings and advised us on how to keep such a thing from happening again. Sadly we were forced to agree with him that in order to keep the knowledge he had learned a secret, that it would be best for him to take a vow of silence, so he took it here before us.”

  "He's a better man than me, that's for sure," Mark said.

  "Do not be so hard on yourself Mark. All of us here are impressed with your service," Cardinal Richards said and the others all nodded in agreement. "You have proven several times that you and those that share your affliction are not evil, any more than any other man may be. This has reminded those of us who help to run the Church that we must minister to their souls the same as we minister to the souls of everyone else.

  "But we do have a few questions, for you only."

  "Of course your Eminence."

  "You have remained quiet on the matter of the equipment in Father Gregory's ward, saying only that it was evil, and causing him harm. This has led many to believe it was there solely as a device to torture the good Father. I take it that this is not the case?"

  "No your Eminence, I did not want to commit this to paper, and felt it should be for your ears only. You understand that the machine, in and of itself was incapable of actually generating any spiritual mass, as it was not an actual living and breathing man of the earth?"

  The Cardinals all nodded, "Yes, that is why you are here," Cardinal Hertzog said. "Stevens wasn't clear on that connection and told us that you had specifically forbidden him to pursue it."

  Mark nodded, "I don't think it wise for any one man to actually know all of how this was done. I'm sure you're all familiar with the old practice of indulgences?" Mark could see them all nod, "Well there is another age old practice, of one being able to say prayers for another. If the one saying them is holy enough."

  Mark watched as the realization sunk in, the Cardinals were not stupid men; each of them was a genius in his own right.

  "You mean to tell us," A very pale looking Cardinal Richards said, "that Father Gregory was attached to that machine, and it was using him as the medium for the prayers?"

  Mark sighed heavily and nodded. "I further suspect that his condition was probably due to some sort of drug or poison Flores had given him. Flores had never liked Father Gregory, and when he called me to his office to suspend me, I realized then that he wasn't worried so much about Father Gregory's wellbeing beyond his ability to continue using him."

  "I... I see. That is clearly very disturbing. I think we will have to remove that practice from canon," Cardinal Richards looked at the other members of the group and Mark could see they were all in agreement with that. "Anything else?"

  "Not really your Eminences. I have noticed however that I am still on suspension?"

  Cardinal Richards nodded. "Yes, we have a bit of problem here,
and we'd appreciate your help with it Mark."

  He looked at them all a bit confused.

  "As of this moment, due to your fast and rather decisive action, only a handful of people outside of this room actually know of Flores’ betrayal. There is some concern among not just those of us here, but among the entire college of Cardinals about news of such betrayal getting out and the effects it may have on the Church."

  "As well as the Flores’ name your eminence?" Mark said a little hotly.

  "Yes, there are political aspects we must consider as well."

  "You're not going to forgive him, are you?" Mark said shocked.

  "Mark, we are neither fools, nor are we stupid. There will be no forgiveness, his body will not be buried on hallow or sanctified grounds. Even now as we talk a small team is removing his name from every record that exists. Ten years from now it will be as if he never existed. However in order for that to happen we have to allow him to fade out slowly here."

  "So I'm still suspended."

  "Yes, but with pay. And no loss in seniority. We've set the term for one year, however a few months from now we will change the official record to read that your suspension was in fact a cover for your being loaned to one of your homeland's investigative agencies."

  "What about the others?"

  "They have all been in agreement. Having seen the damage that was wrought both here and abroad, no one wants to raise any heroes for the enemy."

  Mark bowed his head, "I will do as you wish; I have no desire to ever say anything about him again."

  "Excellent. We will also take advantage of your time away to work on educating our numbers here about your affliction, as apparently it was made common knowledge among many in the order by Flores on his last day."

  Mark smiled, "I noticed."

  "Yes well, at least you don't have to deal with Interpol asking if we have any more of those 'drug sniffing cats'. I mean really Mark! Couldn't you think of something better than that?"

  "To be honest I was debating sending them my kids and letting them do it. I bet the pay isn't bad."

  "The idea does have some merit. Well you are dismissed; go with our deepest thanks and blessings. You and your family have our best wishes."

  Mark bowed and kissed each of the rings in turn.

  "Oh, who are you going to choose to run the commission now?"

  "We've offered the position to Father Otto, whom you mentioned in your earlier report. He's a good solid man with a first hand understanding of what we face."

  Mark nodded and left.

  Judith was waiting for him in the hallway.

  "So?"

  "So I'm off home for awhile. Sort of an extended vacation. The wives will be happy I'm sure."

  "Yeah, they told us about that. Sucks."

  "Not really, so how's your new partner?"

  "Miles? He's not bad. Funny that he turned up in Rome."

  Mark shrugged, "Miles isn't stupid. He knew something was up, just not what. So he decided to run to Rome and talk to the Cardinals who oversee the Commission."

  "What's the official line on Flores going to be?"

  "That he was the last one killed, and that you and I were able to kill the person behind all of this. And that story is being given only to those who need to know, everyone else will just be told that the matter has been resolved. As for those who knew Flores, they are just being told he suffered from heart failure."

  Judith nodded. "When are you leaving?"

  "I have a taxi waiting outside."

  "That was fast!"

  Mark shrugged, "I hate long goodbyes, besides, I'll be back."

  "Well take care kitty!" Judith said embarrassing him as she gave him a hug. "I'm going to miss my big furry snuggle toy!"

  "Better watch out or I'll send one of my sons after you."

  "What are you going to tell Rafael about the Mercedes?"

  "Nothing. It's mine now." He smiled.

  "You mean a pile of scrap metal is yours now!" Judith laughed.

  "What, you think I'm stupid? I had it insured!"

  Judith laughed loudly at that and with a wave Mark walked out to the courtyard and got in the Taxi and headed off for home.

  Afterword

  The Hammer Commission is a story that came from a dream I had back in early 2001 while I was away from home for the weekend visiting someone. It was a very detailed and vivid dream, especially both the beginning and the end. Several of my friends, including author Lisanne Norman, told me that it would make a great story and I should write it.

  I was even more surprised to find out that there was a whole genre of stories like it.

  The problem however is that the story just wouldn’t let me write it, I had tried and failed four separate times, each time putting it back on the shelf for later until finally in March of 2013 I figured it out. By now I had a lot of notes, and several chapters from the previous four failed attempts.

  All of which needed to be re-written of course.

  So a lot of very late nights followed and I spent four of the five weekends in March writing from seven in the morning to midnight or later, until this time I got it done.

  I'd like to thank Chad Glidden for being there, Ellena Clee for her plot advice and editorial assistance, Lisanne Norman for telling me to write it, and my sister Denise Howell for always encouraging me to write.

  I hope you all enjoy the story, it’s definitely a different genre than I’ve dealt with prior to this, and there are other stories about the King, Mark, and a few others I’d like to tell some day.

  -John Van Stry

  vanstry@gmail.com

  Rancho Cordova, California.

  April 2013