Hey Jude

Inside was... well, it looked like some kind of break room? There was a little kitchen area, a few couches, and a widescreen TV. And there was McCartnnon, sitting on one of the couches. He stood as we entered and gave me a smile that made my skin crawl.

I wanted to hit him. I wondered what would happen if I did. Even if McCartnnon couldn't defend himself, though, Brandon would definitely be trained in combat. Would his training be a more powerful force than my incredibly justified rage?

"Welcome to Ark military base number ninety seven, Jude," McCartnnon said, the smile remaining firm on his face even as I glared at him.

"Oh fuck you," I shot back. I wanted to come up with something more creative, but his smiling face was stirring so much rage in me that I was finding it hard to think.

McCartnnon nodded his head at Brandon and I heard the door slide open and then shut again behind us. I was alone with McCartnnon.

"You cheated on my test," McCartnnon said. "You shot the crate before it opened."

I kept on glaring, but a tiny thrill of fear ran through me. This man, I had to remember, was very dangerous.

"Honestly, I was quite pleased to see you using your head." McCartnnon turned and headed towards the kitchen area. "Would you like something to drink? Something to eat? You didn't lose much blood, I'm glad to see, but I'm sure you've done plenty of sweating and burnt through a lot of energy with all that adrenaline running through you."

"No," I said. I wasn't about to eat or drink anything he offered me. Not that he needed my cooperation to poison me, but I'd already done enough to make it easier for them to cause me harm.

"I will make myself a cup of tea, then," McCartnnon said. He took a kettle from the counter in the kitchen area and began to fill it with water. "Feel free to sit. Although now I suppose you're more likely not to sit simply because I suggested it. Teenage rebellion, hm?"

This guy wasn't just infuriating, he was also deeply irritating. I sat on one of the couches because my legs hurt and this was looking like it might take a while, but I hoped the look of disgust I shot him got my feelings across.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" he continued as he bustled around in the kitchen area. "This is very nice tea, and we have some biscuits. I know I seem not to care about your wellbeing at all, but I assure you that's not true."

"No, I don't want any fucking tea," I told him. "The douchebag who brought me here promised me answers. Do you know where Zion is?"

"No. Do you?" he shot back from where he was leaning against a counter in the kitchen area, waiting for the kettle to boil. He seemed to be finding this whole thing amusing. "I know what he is, though. Would that information interest you?"

"If you plan to offer it freely."

"It's not free, no," McCartnnon said. "But you have already paid for it with your impressive efforts today. Would you like to know what he is, Jude?"

I cringed reflexively at the sound of my name coming from his mouth, but nodded.

"We call them demons." The kettle beeped, and he picked it up and began pouring the hot water into a green teapot next to it. "We don't know where they came from, but they've been around for at least many thousands of years."

"Zion's a demon?" I asked skeptically. I really had preferred the crazy scientific experiments gone wrong theory, but I was fairly sure McCartnnon wasn’t bullshitting me.

"Well, no.” He placed the teapot and two teacups on a tray and walked over to where I was sitting. For a moment I thought he was about to sit next to me, but my expression must have discouraged him because because he quickly changed course. He settled the tray on the coffee table in front of my couch and sat in an armchair on the other side of it, facing me. Once settled, he continued. "We believe his father was one, though. Rape is, unfortunately, quite a common act of male humanoid demons."

"Lovely," I mumbled.

"Mm, yes." McCartnnon filled his own teacup and then gestured to the second one. "Are you sure you wouldn't like any? It's really quite—"

"I don't want the fucking tea."

"You are quite charming," McCartnnon said, but he was smiling and seemed to find it more amusing than anything. "Anyway, yes. Full blooded demons reproduce asexually in a process that involves only the females of the species. As far as we know, it's impossible for two demons to reproduce sexually. It is, however, perfectly possible for a male humanoid demon to reproduce with a female human. And that, my boy, is how things like your friend happen."

I wasn't sure to be more offended by him calling me 'my boy' or by him referring to Zion as a 'thing'. I still needed more answers, though. "Are there many of them? Demons and people with some demon blood in them?"

"This base and hundreds like it around the world have been built to combat the threat they present." McCartnnon sipped on his tea. "So yes, there are quite a few of them. Each year, in fact, we are seeing greater and greater numbers. It can be quite difficult to keep it quiet, really."

"And the ones that look like animals, like those monkey things. Are they demons too?"

"That's right.” McCartnnon smiled, like we were having a friendly discussion. "The non-humanoid types are far more single minded. The humanoid types enjoy rape as well as mental and physical torture along with their murder, but the non-humanoid ones simply kill at every opportunity they get."

"How does the public not know about any of this if there are demons running around killing people all over the place?"

"Demons are generally rather reclusive creatures. It's not very often we have to cover up one running down the middle of a street killing people." Another sip of tea. "But people turn up butchered in abandoned buildings or out on rural properties, people go out into the bush and go missing... Things happen, and generally the public is perfectly willing to accept whatever mundane story they're fed as explanation."

The mention of people going missing out in the bush made me flash back to the creepy Cheshire cat demon. I wondered if McCartnnon knew about that. I wasn't about to ask, though.

"Okay, so demons exist?" I asked and he nodded. "Some look like fucked up animals, and you call them non-humanoid demons. Others look like people and can reproduce with people but are... kind of like vampires?"

"Vampires?" McCartnnon asked, and then laughed. "Is that what you thought he was?"

I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. "I preferred the genetic experiment gone wrong theory, personally."

"That's not an uncommon conclusion for people to reach when they're left to come up with their own explanations," McCartnnon said. "I take it you're not religious?"

I shrugged and shook my head. I wasn't sure how that was relevant.

"People usually come up with their answers within the context of their current belief system. If you had any kind of religious faith, your conclusions might have been somewhat different."

If that was true, Zion's Catholic upbringing couldn't have had much impact on him. He had decided he was probably a vampire. I wondered if he knew any better now.

"In any case," McCartnnon continued, "Zion is only one kind of humanoid demon. I do suppose he possesses quite a few traits associated with the vampire myth, so I can see how you might have reached that conclusion. Perhaps his kind of demon was even the inspiration for the myth? I doubt anybody knows for sure."

"Are there many different kinds of demons?"

"Oh yes, very many." McCartnnon returned his empty teacup to the tray, stood, and picked the tray up. "We have records of hundreds of different varieties and are still discovering new ones. It's... interesting."

I watched as he took the laden tray back to the kitchen and left it on the counter.

"What other kinds are there?"

He smiled, and it irritated me how pleased he seemed to be to have my interest.

"I'd like to show you something, Jude. Something I don't show many people.” He gestured towards the door. "Will you come with me?"

I considered saying no just to be contrary, but I was beginning to get the feeling he didn't intend to kill me and it was probably in my best interests to gather as much information from the man as I could. "All right."

"To answer your question from before, Jude, there are more kinds of demons than I can list, and they come in an interesting array," McCartnnon told me as we left the room. "Of the humanoid demons, some can make fire or ice. Some can transform their bodies. Some can see into the future, move things with their minds, or heal devastating injuries in seconds. A rare few even have ways of getting inside people's’ heads and controlling their actions.”

"Are demons always bad?" I asked. "I mean, can they ever just be like normal people?"

"Demons are not people," McCartnnon said firmly. "Their sole purpose is to bring death and suffering to humans. They are evil in the truest sense."

"But half demons like Zion aren't, are they?" It wasn't really a question. I knew Zion wasn't in the least bit evil.

"They're... human in morality," McCartnnon said hesitantly. "They're not evil, but they can be extremely dangerous. The abilities they and their descendants inherent, however, can be quite useful to our cause."

"Is that why you wanted to find him?" I asked. "Because you thought his abilities might be useful?"

The smile McCartnnon gave me was disturbing. "Something like that."

When we reached the elevator McCartnnon pressed the button to open the doors. As we stepped into the elevator I was glad of its size. I really didn't feel like standing too close to the asshole.

Instead of pressing one of the numbered buttons, McCartnnon held down the last two and pressed each of the three above them, starting at the closest, one at a time. The elevator pinged and the doors slid shut. "Now, Jude, what I'm about to show you is something of a secret, so I would appreciate it if you were to perhaps keep quiet about it."

"Who would I even tell?" I asked instead of making any kind of agreement. It was a valid answer — there was no one I could realistically tell — but I neglected to mention that if I met someone I could talk to about all this, I would tell them in an instant. Just because, well, fuck this guy.

"Hm," was McCartnnon's only response, but he didn't sound too bothered so I figured he'd decided his secret, whatever it was, was safe with me.

The buttons lit up one by one as we went down, indicating the floors we passed. The further down we got, the more discomforted I became. The last button, labelled '17', lit up and then went out again and for an instant none of the buttons were lit. A moment later they all lit up at once and the elevator stopped.

"Not many people know this floor is here, by the way," McCartnnon informed me. "So that's another thing I would appreciate you keeping to yourself."

"Whatever you say," I murmured as the doors slid open. I was definitely betraying this guy at the first opportunity I got.

I really had to question why he was sharing anything secret with me at all. He hardly knew me, and I had made it clear enough that I hated him. Surely they never would have allowed him to be in charge if he was really as stupid as he seemed.

The corridor outside the elevator extended only a short distance before it ended with a large set of electronic doors. McCartnnon pressed a button on the door and with a loud beep they slid open.

"This is my collection," McCartnnon said proudly, stepping into the room and spreading his arms to indicate its contents.

It was a large, round, open room with high ceilings. Along the walls were cages, and inside the cages were what I could only assume were non-humanoid demons. Like the other two kinds of non-humanoid demons I'd seen before, they looked more or less like really fucked up animals.

I stepped cautiously into the room, drawn forth by my curiosity.

They varied a great deal in size. The smallest I could see was a small wire cage full of mouse sized spiny insect-like creatures. The largest was a three metre long, two metre wide cage containing something that resembled a large, very underfed dog with no fur and bumpy, leathery brown skin like a toad. All in all there were at least thirty different kinds of demons in there, with some cages containing multiple demons of the same kind.

"I take it this is where you got those fucking monkey things," I said just loud enough for him to hear. I didn't feel like it would be a good idea to speak too loud or make any sudden movements in this place.

"Mm, yes," McCartnnon said. "They were rather interesting little things. A bit noisy, though."

"You're a creepy guy," I told him, but his lips just quirked up in amusement.

"This floor is usually uninhabited apart from our evil little friends here, except at meal times," he said as he slowly strolled into the middle of the room, "and except, of course, when the scientists are doing their work."

"Creepy," I muttered.

I did my best to keep my eyes on all of the demons as I followed him into the room. They were all in cages, of course, and it was unlikely he'd let them out when he was in the room, but I still had open wounds from my latest demon encounter so I was understandably nervous.

"These demons here weren't the secret, by the way," McCartnnon said as he approached the door at the opposite end of the room. "Few people have been down here, but it's no secret that we keep non-humanoid demons on hand to study and for training."

I moved too close to one of the cages near the door McCartnnon had approached and its contents, half a dozen small, vaguely canine demons with bristly fur, suddenly hooted loudly and threw themselves at the bars of the cage. I leapt back reflexively, causing McCartnnon to snicker.

"Don't worry, they're securely contained." McCartnnon paused before pressing the button on the door. "What you are about to see, you must not tell anybody. Do you understand?"

I nodded. Understanding and obeying were two very different things.

"Good boy," McCartnnon said, and then pressed the button to open the door.

I wanted to stab him. Well, actually, I'd been wanting to stab him pretty much since I first met him, but there was a definite rise in the stabbing urge.

The first thing I noticed when the doors slid open were the people in the room. The second thing was that they were in glass cells. The last thing was that all of the people, the visible ones anyway, were children or teenagers.

There was a range of ages, with some appearing to be in their mid teens and the youngest I could see looking about five or six. None of them looked quite as old as me.

Through the centre of the long room was a corridor, and each side was lined with glass cells measuring just a few metres in length and width. Several curious sets of eyes watched me as I slowly entered the room.

Each cell had a small mattress on the floor, a sink, and a toilet. There was no privacy.

"Don't worry, they're not human," McCartnnon said, causing me to jump. I'd forgotten he was there.

A young latina girl who looked about ten years old watched me from the cell closest to me. Her expression was blank, closed off, not at all like a child’s should be. Not like anyone’s should be.

"I'm sure you can understand why this must be kept quiet, Jude," McCartnnon said. "They are demons, but they look like human children, and that can cause a reflexive desire in people to protect them."

I didn't like him saying my name and I didn't like him standing next to me. I continued slowly walking down the corridor. "And you thought, what, that I seemed like a guy who really hates kids?"

He chuckled. "No, you simply seem like a sensible, logical young man. I thought you might be able to appreciate that things are not necessarily always what they appear."

"Why are you even keeping them here?"

"For one thing, to study them. The adults are too dangerous, but the children have proven to be quite useful for our research."

Okay, that was even more creepy. Looking at these kids, I was beginning to question a lot of what McCartnnon had said. For one thing, I wasn't entirely sure he was being honest about what they were. I was usually fairly good at telling when people were lying, but when he said they weren't human, that they were demons, I had a hard time telling whether or not he was being honest. Whatever the case, I just couldn't see evil in these kids.

McCartnnon paused in front of one of the cells and rapped his knuckles against the glass. The boy inside leaned against the back wall of the cell and glared at McCartnnon. He had short brown hair and looked almost as old as me.

McCartnnon pressed a button on the glass cell door and part of the glass slid down, revealing a slot at about face height. "You will approach the door."

The boy's glare intensified, but he obeyed.

"You will behave for our guest," McCartnnon said. "And before you get any ideas, you will behave according to my definition of the term, not your own. Do you understand?"

"Yes," was all the boy said, but his voice was brimming with rage.

"This is Jude. Tell him what you are."

"I'm a demon," he said, but it sounded forced and, again, not entirely true. I wondered what McCartnnon had done to him to make him so obedient despite the boy’s obvious hatred.

"He's the oldest we have, nearly eighteen, which means it's almost time for us to get rid of him," McCartnnon said with an unsettling smile. "I'm sure he will be missed. He's been very popular in his time here."

My face scrunched up in disgust. "I'm not sure you appreciate how creepy just about everything that comes out of your mouth is."

He seemed to find that funny, but he didn't comment on it. Instead, he tapped on the glass and addressed the boy again. "Show Jude what you can do. Show him your ability."

The boy didn't stop glaring at McCartnnon as he slowly lifted his arm and bent it at the elbow, extending it away from his body. I flinched reflexively when flames sprung to life on his outstretched palm, then blinked at them in astonishment. Somehow, his hand didn't appear to be getting burnt.

"Is it real fire?" I asked, unable to mask my amazement.

When the boy's eyes shifted to me, his glare softened somewhat. "Mmm."

"That's seriously cool," I told the boy. Somehow, though I'd been told this boy was a demon, I still preferred him to McCartnnon. "What's your name?"

He eyed me suspiciously for a moment before answering. "Alex."

I looked into his eyes and quirked a sceptical eyebrow. "Are you a being of pure evil, Alex?"

"Yes," he said, but it was all lie. He didn't look even vaguely sincere.

"You think I'm lying to you, Jude?" McCartnnon asked, his voice full of curiosity.

"You almost got me killed," I told him. "So, no, I don't exactly have a huge amount of trust in you right now."

"He almost got you killed?" I couldn't blame Alex for looking so interested. I got the feeling he'd been locked down here for a while, and they didn't appear to have anything to entertain themselves with. I had to wonder, though, whether an actual demon, these creatures that were supposedly interested in nothing but causing suffering, would really find conversations and stories all that stimulating. I seriously doubted Alex or any of the children here were what McCartnnon said they were.

"Yeah, I guess it was some kind of stupid test?" I told him. I turned my arm to show him the deep incisions the monkey demon's teeth had left in it and the surrounding mess of scratches. "I don't know if you've noticed, but he's kind of a dick."

Alex laughed, but his gaze jumped nervously to McCartnnon.

Without a word McCartnnon pressed the button on the cell door and the piece of glass slid back into place, putting an end to my conversation with Alex. I felt McCartnnon's hand on my arm and then he was gently leading me away from the cell. I held up a hand in farewell to Alex.

"They may seem like normal children, Jude, but they're not," McCartnnon said.

He still had his hand around my arm and though breaking his grasp wouldn't have been difficult it made me feel restrained. I managed to control myself enough to shove his hand away rather than punch him in the face. "Can I go home yet?"

He chuckled, and I wished I hadn't restrained myself. "Not yet. We still have a couple of matters to attend to."

The reassurance that I would be allowed to go home eventually was very welcome. This whole place made me feel uptight and edgy, and I had no way of predicting what might happen here.

"All right, what matters?"

"First and foremost, the matter of your employment here."

That was more shocking than it should have been. What had I thought he'd been testing me for? "I'm not going to work for you."

"You will," he said, his voice full of a confidence I reflexively wanted to destroy. "You will, because if you do I promise that we will stop looking for that boy of yours and, if we should happen to find him anyway, we will tell you his location and make no attempt to apprehend him."

There were few things that were worth enough to me for me to even consider becoming part of this madness. Zion was one of them. Even so, I was sceptical. "It's been two years and you haven't managed to track him down. I don't think there's much chance of you catching him now."

McCartnnon smiled, but it was tight and unkind. "That really depends on our level of motivation. He's been out of our jurisdiction for some time, but if our level of motivation were to increase... You must understand, Jude, that I have some very capable and powerful individuals in my employ."

"So this is blackmail.” My eyes narrowed. "Why do you want me so much anyway? I killed the demons, yeah, but it wasn't exactly a spectacular affair. Why me?"

"I like you, Jude," he said with a smile that made my skin crawl. "And I think you have the potential to be useful to me."

When the look I gave him didn't shift from profoundly disturbed, he sighed. "If it helps at all, I promise that I will not ask you to do anything morally dubious. You will be trained to hunt non-humanoid demons, and that will be your job. You will unquestionably be doing a good deed and you will be paid well for your efforts."

"This isn't about money," I grumbled, but only because I could feel myself giving in. After a few more seconds I sighed and nodded. "Okay. Okay, yeah, I'll do it."

"Excellent!" McCartnnon said, his smile less creepy now but just as off-putting. "I'll take you up to see our healer now. Those wounds look nasty."

As well left, I looked around once more at the children in the cells. Whatever McCartnnon had said, I refused to believe these kids were anywhere near as evil as he was. Now that I had accepted the job, my resolve to fuck McCartnnon over to the utmost of my ability only increased.