Chronos was hooked. "What defeat?"

"Well, for example, the supposed victory of the forces of good in the recent war. You idiots with G.o.d suppose that the elimination of the n.a.z.is makes everything perfect, but there is no way you can undo the evil they did in pa.s.sing. There will soon be other calamities, as new factions are sp.a.w.ned and quarrel; the termination of the n.a.z.is is only the abolition of a name, not the substance. But those who are already dead can never be revived; that evil is permanent. Thus you, with your vaunted Hourgla.s.s, are helpless against Me, and I shall inevitably prevail against your indifferent G.o.d. That is your real defeat."

Chronos was visibly suppressing his rage. "What dead? Soldiers in war expect to die; this is unfortunate but not necessarily evil. Many of them go to Heaven, not to h.e.l.l."

"These dead," Parry said. He opened his briefcase and produced pictures of piles of corpses. "Noncombatants. Men, women, children. Civilians who did nothing to deserve this fate-but here they are, irrefutably and awfully dead. What does your kind say to that?"

Chronos stared at the pictures. They were truly horrible; Parry's minions had obtained the most effective available. They showed every stage of the holocaust against the Jews and Gypsies in hideous detail. There was no way to doubt them; they were completely real and almost tangibly evil.

"Practically every Jew in Europe," Parry said with feigned satisfaction. "And every Gypsy too. Do you know about the Gypsies? They are named that because they claimed to have come to the west via Egypt, but actually they came through Romania and are better called Romani. In any event, they live a simple life, always on the move, entertaining sedentary folk, blacksmithing, playing music, dancing and stealing. You might think the stealing makes them Mine, but they do it from necessity because of their poverty. The balance on their souls is positive. But now they are all dead, and there will be no more positive souls generated among them, which gives Me the longterm advantage. It is the same story with the Jews; their extinction diminishes their G.o.d, JHVH, and so benefits Me. Meanwhile, the evil accruing to the souls of those who have destroyed these two peoples benefits Me, because-"

"Get out!" Chronos shouted, livid. He smashed his hand through the presented pictures, knocking them to the floor.

"Scream all you want," Parry said evenly. "You have lost, despite your powers. You cannot deny it. There is nothing you can do. Nothing!"

Chronos charged him, but Parry conjured himself away.

His stomach was knotted, but he had done what he had come to do. He had really brought the disaster home to Chronos, and repeatedly taunted him with his supposed impotence. Now he would discover whether this savage and desperate ploy had been effective. For Chronos lived backward; he would in due course be at the onset of the European disaster. If his rage at Satan carried through...

He returned to h.e.l.l and summoned Lilah. "I regret the duty I a.s.signed you with Mars," he said. "It was ineffective, and no pleasure for you. I am sorry that you and I have grown apart, and would make some amends if you are willing."

"My Lord, what are You talking about?" she asked, perplexed. "I have not been with the current Mars."

"Demoness, don't try to lie to Me!" he snapped. "You may be angry, but I am trying to make it right."

"My Lord, I never lie except on direct order from You, and never to You. Are You teasing me?"

Something was wrong. "Are you telling me you did not perform the duty with Mars I a.s.signed you to?"

"You made no such a.s.signment! I would have obeyed if You had, though I much prefer Your company."

A distant thought nagged him. Was it possible?

"Lilah, what happened to the Jews and Gypsies in the war just past?"

Now she was really perplexed. "Nothing happened to either group, my Lord. Do You plan some mischief for them?"

"Nothing happened? But the n.a.z.is-"

"The what?"

"The leaders of Germany, who-"

"Do you mean the Empire? The restored Holy Roman Empire?"

So it was true! Chronos had acted to change history, eliminating the whole of the holocaust, root and all!

And of course Chronos hated Satan, suspecting what had been on that alternate time line. But the victory was, after all, Satan's. No one else might know it, for no one else could remember what had been, but Parry knew. He was the Incarnation most involved, so it could not be eradicated from his awareness. He alone would know the truth.

There was a knock at his door. Lilah went to answer it.

JHVH stood there. He was abruptly healthier. He spoke no word; he only gazed at Parry with uncanny understanding.

He, too, remembered!

Parry went to him, and the two embraced. Then JHVH departed.

"What was that about?" Lilah asked. "Since when do You have dealings with foreign G.o.ds?"

"Since He did Me a favor," Parry said. "Now I have returned it."

"I don't understand, my Lord."

"You don't need to." He grabbed her, and proceeded to an act of pa.s.sion so thorough that she, with her experience of millennia, was amazed.

How sweet it is! he thought, embracing a dimension more than the body of the demoness.

He had won a victory very few knew of, and changed the mortal world for the better though he would receive no credit for that. But his battle with the other Incarnations continued, as he probed constantly for his chance to win before Niobe's granddaughter ended the contest. Whenever an office changed hands, he moved in to exploit the weakness. When Thanatos changed, by a.s.sa.s.sinating the prior officeholder and taking his place. Parry succeeded in confusing the novice. But Niobe's son, the magician, managed to arrange a date between Thanatos and the magician's daughter, Luna, and thereafter Thanatos resolutely refused to let Luna die despite provocation. Mephistopheles overreached his directive and abducted Luna and tortured her, precipitating a crisis that Parry had to tackle personally. Though furious about the torture-he would never have authorized that!-Parry had to pretend it was all his own doing. Unfortunately Thanatos was so provoked that he cast off the web of delusion Parry wove and a.s.serted himself fully as the Incarnation of Death. Parry rather admired that, but protocol required him to depart in a fury.

Then there was the business with Fate's triple changeover, foiled by Niobe herself.

Then he succeeded in retiring Mars. He picked a suitable occasion, when the mortal realm was relatively quiet, and exerted his influence to quiet it further, until for a moment the last conflict died out and the world was in complete peace. That got rid of Mars. In a moment, of course, conflict resumed, for mortals were incapable of complete peace, and a new man a.s.sumed the office. But this one was virtually handpicked. Parry had managed to manipulate some of Fate's threads to make this one the leading prospect. He was from a kingdom of India, a Prince, and he stuttered. Parry had inducements that he trusted would prove to be quite appealing to this man.

When the time came. Parry went to the Castle of War. He set up a garden of illusion that functioned as an annex to the Castle, and posed with Lilah as erotic statuary. "I am a.s.signing you to corrupt Mars," he told her. "For the duration you will be known as Lila or as Lilith, and you will be unable to use the terms a.s.sociated with My opponent."

"You are demoting me to ordinary demon status!" she protested.

"I am reminding you of your place. Succeed in this mission, and all favor will be restored."

"As my Lord decrees," she agreed, but she was not completely pleased. "This should not be too much of a challenge."

"It is enough of one," he said. "This man has a mortal concubine, a Princess, and he loves her."

"Ah," she said appreciatively. "It has been a long time since I have corrupted a man with a mortal lover."

"Seven hundred years," he agreed reminiscently. Actually, Jolie had not really been his lover at that stage, because of her status as a ghost, but there was no point in being technical. "I want you to corrupt him, and if you cannot, to distract him, and if you fail even at that, to tempt him into h.e.l.l. He must be taken out of circulation at the critical time. You will have several weeks, at least."

"Plenty of time," she said confidently. "You forget how much experience I have had."

"Show some of it now," he said. "He is coming. I want him to know you are a concubine; he can relate to that more freely than to a real woman."

"Thank you," she said with not altogether insincere ire.

They a.s.sumed a position of interaction and stilled into a seeming statue. The Incarnation of War walked close, and paused to inspect them with some interest. This was the type of statuary he knew from his homeland.

Parry animated, turning his head to look at the Incarnation. "Ah, the master of the castle arrives," he said.

Startled, the man stepped back. This was the last thing he had expected: a talking erotic statue.

Parry signaled Lilah to disengage. She sat on the pedestal, dangling her bare legs over its edge, her knees slightly spread so as to offer a suitable view for the visitor. She was in perfect form.

"Come, join me," she invited Mars, opening her arms.

"Who are you?" Mars demanded. Then he looked surprised. Parry knew why: another of his offerings had just manifested. Here in the annex, which was actually a part of h.e.l.l, Parry had the power to eliminate the man's normal stutter.

"I am Satan, the Incarnation of Evil," Parry said. "This is one of My innumerable consorts, each of whom is more luscious and tractable than the last." Lilah was very good about the way she masked her annoyance with that description; she of course regarded herself as THE most luscious and tractable female, having no peers. She was correct, of course. But so was he; the innumerable consorts he referred to would in this case all be this one, in changing guise.

"Satan?" the man asked. "Here in my castle?"

Parry explained about the annex.

"Aren't you the Occidental figure of Evil? Why have you chosen to contact me?"

Parry explained that he only wished to help. Lilah bounced down from the pedestal and took Mars' arm.

"I already have a woman," Mars protested, hardly mistaking her approach.

"But not a suitable concubine," Parry said smoothly. "A man of your stature needs more than one woman."

"True. But a Prince does not take a used woman."

"Readily fixed." Parry snapped his fingers, and Lilah obligingly vanished. He snapped them again, and she reappeared in a new formulation. "Lila, here, has never been touched by man." Lilah had, of course, and Lilith, but not Lila. "She will be available whenever you wish." He waved her away, and she vanished again. Her duty would come during Parry's absence, now that she had been appropriately introduced.

He continued to walk and talk with Mars, quite friendly, proffering a rationale for war that the new Incarnation could accept. "Man is not rational; he cheats and enslaves his fellows and refuses to yield to reason. In the end there is only one answer, and that is to restore fairness by force. That is war." It was the fallacious ends and means doctrine, a marvelous workhorse for Evil.

"But war does not restore fairness!" Mars protested.

"That is why it must be supervised by the Incarnation of War." And on; the well-rehea.r.s.ed rationale flowed readily from him, finding a not entirely unwilling recipient. "You will fashion war into a truly useful tool for the redress of inequity among mortals."

The man was listening. Parry capped it by explaining how Mars' woman could eat the food of this region when she could not survive on that of Purgatory. This was because it was imported from the mortal realm. Mars was gratified; his woman was important to him.

It was an excellent start. Parry departed, well satisfied He did not expect such amicable relations to last indefinitely, but there was always the chance that this Mars, like the early Chronos, could become his friend. That would be an enormous advantage.

Next day Mars brought his woman, who was named Rapture of Malachite, to the garden. Parry appeared with Lila, and explained to Rapture that Lila was available as a concubine for Mars if Rapture approved. Rapture considered, and decided to wait a few months on that. This was not spoken with irony; she was a Princess who well understood such things. The second key introduction had been performed.

In the following days Lila befriended Rapture, putting new Occidental notions into her pretty Oriental head. This was a marvelous approach; if the woman, also, could be corrupted...

In due course Mars sent Rapture back to the mortal world, not fully pleased with the liberating effect Lila was having on her. It did not matter; Lila continued to work on him directly. Once she drove him to such distraction that he used his great Red Sword to cut her into segments. Even then she swayed him with her unrelenting logic, until he packed her parts into a chest and shipped it to h.e.l.l proper.

She returned, of course, on another day, intact, to tempt him some more. He resisted, but she played on him with that infinite skill she possessed. Parry knew exactly how effective that could be; that was why he had a.s.signed her to this mission.

Yet it was not quite enough. Mars continued to perform his office, thwarting Parry's incidental mischief among the mortals. Lila had not succeeded in seducing him, despite his loss of Rapture to a mortal man, and without that, Lila's words lacked full effect.

It was time for Parry's big ploy on Earth. Mars had to be out of the way, for the ploy concerned war. Therefore Lila proceeded to the final ploy: she lured Mars to h.e.l.l proper. This was accomplished by telling him of a Princess stranded there, Ligeia by name, who was in need of rescuing. It was true; Parry had saved Ligeia for just such an occasion, and she was exactly as represented. She was indeed the perfect match for Mars. Lila had not been pleased to introduce Mars to Ligeia, knowing the likely result, but at this stage she had no choice.

Sure enough. Mars joined the Princess, came to know her in the course of his attempt to rescue her from h.e.l.l, and fell in love with her. Since she was captive in h.e.l.l, so was he, because he would not leave without her. It was one of Parry's prettiest traps.

Meanwhile, Parry got busy on Earth, freed from Mars' interference. He whipped up the forces of mortal dissention. Soon he would achieve such violence in the world that martial law would be declared in a number of governments, among them the American one in which Luna was to become critically active. That would deprive her of her political position, leaving her powerless to make the key decision that would mark his final defeat. What a phenomenal ploy this was!

But Mars, showing more mettle than Parry had expected, managed to fashion a ploy of his own. He incited the d.a.m.ned souls of h.e.l.l itself to rebellion. Ozymandias, long in charge of operations, was caught napping, and the situation was out of hand. Parry had to return to deal with it himself. He had to keep Mars distracted here just a little longer, until the business on Earth pa.s.sed the point of no return.

He met Mars physically, when the man was deprived of his magic Red Sword. He could not of course actually hurt him; no Incarnation could injure another. But he could bluff him, and perhaps convince him that the infernal revolution was doomed.

But Mars finally caught on, and exploited the weakness of the Incarnation of Evil. "I am going to phase in with you, Satan," he said. That was one of the powers Mars had, to overlap mortals and read their minds. "When I do, I will know all your secrets. All that is in your mind."

It was no bluff. Parry had avoided direct physical contact. If Mars grappled with him. Mars would learn of his activity on Earth, and immediately act to interfere with it. Rather than allow that. Parry had to back off, though it meant the premature release of a number of souls from h.e.l.l. It was a loss he had to take, in order to preserve the situation on Earth, where the true victory was to be won. So he vacated, leaving the field to Mars. It was humiliating, but necessary.

Parry made the finishing touches on the Earthly situation. and let it be. It was now in place, and only heroic action by Mars could reverse it. Had Mars returned earlier, he could have stopped it by routine means, but it was now beyond that stage. Parry was happy to have Mars depart from h.e.l.l now, and did not attempt to delay him further.

But Mars rose to the occasion once more. He succeeded in reversing the corruption Lila was practicing on him, and corrupted her instead. She deserted Parry and fell in love with Mars. She told Mars how to reverse the ploy and win the victory.

Parry was furious. He had never intended this to happen! The damage was done, but at least he could punish the demoness. She had never learned the secret of demon-banishing; like other demons, she would dissipate and be destroyed if he invoked the spell. It was psychological rather than magical; belief was what made it happen, and she believed. Every Law of h.e.l.l had fostered that belief in all demons, her included, through the millennia. But first he had to get her away from Mars' protection.

He faced Mars again, this time by the great Doomsday clock. He knew what Mars had not known: that Ligeia had chosen to return to mortality instead of proceeding to Heaven, so that she could be with Mars. He brought the mortal Ligeia in, offering her in exchange for Lila.

And Ligeia interceded for the demoness. That caused the wavering Mars to decide to save Lila after all. It was in his power to do so, for he threatened to drive the Doomsday Clock to the dread midnight hour and precipitate the final war that would destroy all of humanity. Parry could not tolerate that; it had never been his intent to wipe out mortal man, only to facilitate the cla.s.sification of souls. He had to back off again, yielding Lila, much as it galled him to do so. Wrongheaded righteousness had won the day yet again.

How well he remembered now that when Lilah had deserted his predecessor, Lucifer, it had led to Lucifer's undoing. Now she had deserted Parry, and the time of his final reckoning with G.o.d was drawing nigh. She might already have contributed to his downfall.

Parry retreated, and Mars took over his office, defusing the situation Parry had so carefully fostered. It was yet another humiliation.

Furthermore, it left him without a woman. He did not want to call Nefert.i.ti back from her holiday, and he had not cultivated other d.a.m.ned souls. The truth was that no female creature matched his memory of Jolie. How he wished he could evoke her ghost again, just to talk to!

That reminded him of Heaven, because Jolie would surely go there if she ever could get free of the drop of blood he carried. He was now releasing souls to Heaven, per the agreement with Mars; the Incarnation of War thought he was doing the souls a favor. Well, time had pa.s.sed; perhaps things had improved in Heaven.

Parry decided to check. He sailed up to the Void and called for JHVH. The Deity of the Hebrews was glad to guide him through. JHVH alone knew what Parry had done for His people, and that the Incarnation of Evil was not actually doing evil.

He reached the outer circle of Heaven. Indeed, it seemed brighter than it had five centuries before. Gabriel had been doing some reorganizing, in the name of G.o.d, and now the souls were engaged in various satisfying pursuits. Some were watching the new mortal television; the shows, though edited to exclude anything inappropriate to the exalted state, seemed interesting. Others were practicing various crafts, such as basket weaving with strands of ether, with evident pleasure.

All things considered. Heaven now seemed an appropriate place to be. He would make a report, and release those eligible souls who wished to go.

JHVH guided him through the Void again. Parry thanked him and descended on toward h.e.l.l. But still he was unsatisfied; he knew that he had no woman and no challenging project there, now that the business with Mars was done. The ennui of his long possession of the Office threatened to overcome him. Ozymandias was running h.e.l.l well enough, and needed no help; Parry could not blame the King for the rebellion stirred up by Mars. Only the Incarnation of War could have done it.

Was it time to retire? What was the point in continuing in an office that had become boring? He still had the challenge with Gabriel, but his successor could complete that. In any event, it seemed to be a losing cause; the ma.s.sed power of the other Incarnations seemed to be too much for him.

The other Incarnations-actually they weren't all against him. There was Nox, the Incarnation of Night, with all her fascination. Lilah (now Lila) had feared that Nox would take him away from her. Well, maybe now was the time.

He oriented on Nox, and in a moment he was there in her encompa.s.sing darkness.

"What is thy business, Lord of Evil?"

Ah, that dream-memory communication! He had forgotten how evocative it was.

"Nox, I have alienated Lilah, and now have little interest in pursuing my office."

"What would thou with me?"

"I do not know. Perhaps it is advice. Perhaps love."