"That's true," Aaron said, "but just because you're here doesn't mean you're safe. Marina and I also have the authorization and ability to kill you. We can decide at any moment you're not worth the trouble. You were called to fight for the Lord, same as us. If you don't like it, take it up with Him. We don't care."

Smythe clenched his jaw and glared.

Aaron nodded. "That's the smartest thing you've said tonight."

The crowd parted, and three tall men entered the room. They wore black silk robes that covered their bodies from head to toe. Even their faces were hidden in shadows. The red "sunset" symbol of the Order of Eternal Night was st.i.tched on their backs. They carried two boxes shrouded in black cloth.

The men climbed onto the stage and took up positions. One stood at the table, and his two a.s.sociates flanked him on the left and right.

"Welcome!" the man in the middle said in a deep, powerful voice. "All of you were invited here for one reason. The Order of Eternal Night believes you might be suitable for our cause. Tonight I will explain our beliefs. If you become horrified or disgusted, go away and never come back. At the end we will pa.s.s out a sheet where you can write down your contact information. Make sure to provide your legal name, address, and phone number. We'll call you in a few days."

Aaron crossed his arms and settled on his heels. This could take a while.

"First, our manifesto," the leader said. "This is the full version, the one we share only among friends.

"For billions of years, Earth was lifeless. Inevitably, the Earth will return to that pristine state, and it will remain so for the rest of time. The existence of life is a temporary departure from the natural order. Death is simply the universe eliminating that which is aberrant and unsustainable. We must celebrate death and advance its cause whenever possible. We must create a world where people do not fear its loving, gentle embrace; a world where the eternal night is more revered than the fleeting day."

Very interesting, Aaron thought. He touched Marina's shoulder, and she nodded back to him.

The mysterious boxes were placed on the table and the shrouds were removed. One box was made of dark wood with bra.s.s hinges. The leader of the Eternals took several items out: a butcher's knife, a gla.s.s funnel, a crystal flask, and three wine gla.s.ses.

The other box was actually a cage containing a large rabbit. Without hesitation he reached into the cage and grabbed the rabbit by the hind legs. Then he chopped off its head with one, smooth motion. Even though Aaron was disgusted, he had to admire the man's expert technique.

The leader held the body of the rabbit over the flask and used the funnel to collect the blood. When the flow slowed, he gave the rabbit a hard squeeze to force the last dribbles out. He served the blood to himself and his two friends using the wine gla.s.ses.

Aaron glanced at Smythe to see how he was reacting. Smythe's face was tight and his skin had lost a shade of color.

"Cheers!" The leader drank down his blood and put the empty gla.s.s on the table. "Delicious and refreshing. I suggest all of you try the warm red wine whenever you have a chance. The flavor is unique. Of course you want to drink it when it's perfectly fresh. It sours quickly."

Several members of the audience hurried out of the room.

The leader continued, "Death is always around us. At this moment countless cells inside your body are expiring. Some will be replaced but some will not. Every tick of the clock brings us closer to eternity. Most of you are very young and the end of your life seems distant, but it is not. On the scale of stars and planets, your lifespan is just a brief flash in the darkness.

"But this is a blessing. The journey to our final rest is quick, which means we don't have to endure the pointless activity called 'life' for long. We come from dust and return to dust. One day, the Earth itself will be a ma.s.s grave, and all the works of man will lie in ruins. Then the aging sun will incinerate the ruins. Even the sun will not last forever. It will shrivel until it is just a cold cinder. The ultimate destiny of the universe is to become an infinite expanse of frigid darkness. Absolute zero, absolute peace. These are scientific facts, not opinions."

The audience was silent and attentive. It seemed this was the kind of nonsense they wanted to hear.

Aaron whispered in Marina's ear, "I have a strong feeling about these guys."

"Me, too," she replied.

The presentation continued for another half-hour, but the theme remained the same. The Eternals were obsessed with death. Their leader never outright condoned murder but he came shockingly close. His speech sometimes sounded like a lawyer had written it, with language just vague enough that it would be defensible in a court of law.

After the speech ended, a large number of young people came forward to write their contact information on a clipboard. Aaron, Marina, and Smythe waited patiently until the rest of the audience had dispersed.

Marina went forward. "That was amazing!" she said. "I love you guys."

The men in the black robes still had not revealed their names or faces. It was hard to tell if they were even looking at her. The erotic sway of her hips captured Aaron's attention, and he wondered if it had the same effect on these men.

"It's strange," the leader said. "I don't remember inviting you three to this meeting. We usually recruit much younger talent."

"My son told me about you," she said. "You might say an interest in death runs in the family."

"Where is he?"

"I wanted to check you out first. I'm very impressed and I'll certainly bring him next time. My name is Cataclysma, and I'm a Wiccan paladin. These two men are my slaves."

Smythe shifted his feet but remained quiet.

"Interesting," the leader said in a tone that indicated no actual interest.

"I have something to show you."

Marina reached into her purse and took out a large, ceremonial knife. Nancy had prepared it earlier that day and had done a great job. The blade curved to form an S shape with a blood groove along its length. The hilt was made of forged copper with a beautiful green patina. The guard looked like a crown with many sharp points, and each point had a ruby. There was also a diamond at the tip of the blade.

"Nice," the leader said with more interest now.

"This is what I use to collect blood and manna," Marina said. "It has served me very well."

"Are those gems real?"

"Of course. I keep the blood in a special refrigerator in my bas.e.m.e.nt. It took some experimentation to find the right temperature, until I settled on exactly forty degrees. That seemed to keep it the freshest without freezing."

Even though Aaron knew she was creating a cover story, the easy delivery of her lines disturbed him. He wondered how much experience she actually had with fresh blood.

"We use a slightly warmer temperature," the leader said. "Forty-five degrees. We drink the blood quickly enough that it doesn't have to keep long."

Marina nodded. "Would you like to borrow my athame?" She offered the knife.

"Really?"

"It would give me great pleasure to know that men of your stature were using it."

He took the knife. "I don't know when I'll be able to give it back."

"I have others. I can live without this one for a while. I'll leave my name and number with you." She took the clipboard and wrote a few lines of text on it.

Aaron studied the Eternals closely. Even though he couldn't see their faces, he could read their body language. They stood at attention and didn't scratch their noses or look around, which meant they had military discipline.

Patterns were sewn into their robes, but very dark red thread made the shapes faint against the black background. He picked out many half-circles and radiating lines, which echoed the sunset symbol. There were so many intersecting lines that they reminded Aaron of a spider web.

"I'll see you later," Marina said. "Thank you. This has been an inspirational evening."

She walked out of the room, and Aaron and Smythe followed. They left the noisy club and emerged into the much quieter, colder night air.

Chapter Ten.

"So, I'm your slave now?" Smythe crossed his arms aggressively.

Aaron widened his stance slightly in case the conversation turned ugly and physical.

"Calm down," Marina said. "It was a cover story and a pretty good one. It worked, didn't it?"

"Worked how?" Smythe said.

"The knife has a homing beacon in the hilt." She took an electronic device out of her purse. It was a gray box the size of a paperback novel, and it had a display screen. "And I'm receiving the signal perfectly."

"You're going to follow them? Why? They were creepy, maybe even dangerous, but there isn't a chance in h.e.l.l they're connected to PRooFS."

"I disagree," Aaron said. "They have the right philosophy. They would happily spread death to the four corners of the Earth. That covers motive. The only question is means."

"Which is a pretty big question," Smythe said. "I don't see how a bunch of blood drinking whackos could manufacture and distribute a highly sophisticated, biological weapon."

"We think it might be a poison."

Smythe raised his eyebrows. "I'm familiar with that theory. My research team performed thousands of tests and found nothing conclusive. You're suggesting these Eternals invented an entirely new type of poison, one we don't even know how to detect. That's ridiculous."

"True," Aaron said. "They would need help."

"Which means a major government is involved."

"There are other ent.i.ties that are more powerful than any government."

"What are you talking about?" Smythe shook his head. "Ent.i.ties from beyond? G.o.d's enemies? Every time you people talk, I have to wonder what you've been smoking."

"Ethel will have that conversation with you," Marina said with a sigh. "For now you'll have to trust that this lead is worth pursuing. How did you get here?"

"Me?" Smythe said. "I drove, of course."

She furrowed her brow. "In your own car?"

"I didn't have much choice."

"Leave it behind," she said, "Ours is safer, and it's already packed with all the supplies we could need. Did you bring weapons?"

"I have a couple of guns under my shirt. I thought about trying to arrest you when I got here, but there were practical difficulties with that idea."

She nodded. "You mean the fact that we would've killed you?"

"Yeah," he said. "Do you have a gun?"

"Of course. Two guns, four knives. We're always well armed."

He stared at her body. "Where? That outfit is a tight fit."

Aaron smiled. I like it that way, he thought.

"My secret." She winked. "Let's go."

They started walking around the block. Except for the night club, downtown Naperville was dead quiet at this time of night. They pa.s.sed a shoe store, a bridal boutique, a chocolate shop, a toy store, and many other small businesses. Large trees grew at regular intervals, and concrete planters contained the dried remnants of summer flowers. The street lights were made to look antique, but the bulbs were modern sodium vapor lamps.

They came to a gray sedan, parked in the shadows.

"You guys must like the color gray," Smythe said.

"We are the Gray Spear Society," Marina said. "A thousand years ago, we put gray ash on our faces when we operated at night. It was a primitive form of camouflage."

"You're making that up. A thousand years?"

"People like us have been around for as long as man has walked the Earth. Get in the car."

Smythe sat in the back seat, Aaron took the driver's seat, and Marina sat beside him.

She took out the tracking device. "They're moving. Head north."

Aaron started driving. Using the rear view mirror, he kept an eye on Smythe. It was still possible that the man would try something heroic and stupid. He obviously still had doubts about the Spears. Aaron looked at Marina and tipped his head towards Smythe. She nodded and touched her thigh, where a gun was concealed under her short skirt. If Smythe made a move, he would be dead before he could draw a second breath.

Using the tracking device, they followed the Eternals past the edge of town, where tract housing gave way to vast corn fields. The pursuit ended at a small motel built on a river bank. There were just eight rooms connected in a straight line. Each room had a door that opened onto the parking lot without even the amenity of a sidewalk. The walls were painted a dull, dirty yellow, except in spots where the paint had peeled away, exposing aluminum siding.

Aaron entered the parking lot with the headlights off. He parked as far from the other cars as possible.

"I guess we're spending the night here," he said. "I hope they have two rooms available."

"Two rooms?" Smythe said. "You and I are sharing a room?"

"Marina and I will be together."

"Oh. I see."

"Let's go find the manager, quietly."

"I'll do it," Marina said. "I know how to talk to people."

"Dressed like that?" Smythe said. "You look like the queen of the vampire s.l.u.ts."

"Shut up and get the luggage."

She got out of the car and wandered off.

Aaron also stepped out into the brisk night air. He went around to the trunk but didn't use his car key to open it. That would set off a bomb. Instead, he reached underneath the fender and tapped a combination on a hidden keypad. The trunk popped open.