Read Online Diabolical by Hank Schwaeble - Free Book Online

all people. The plan was to unleash canisters containing thousands of bats—to drop bat bombs, if you will—over Tokyo. The bats were to have tiny incendiary devices attached to their legs.”
    Hatcher shot a glance over to Mr. E. He was leaning back near the door, poker-faced. Calvin was in a chair, still holding his throat.
    â€œI can’t say I understand where this is heading, General.”
    â€œI’m getting there. The idea was simple. Once the bats were loosed, they would immediately seek shelter in crevices and crannies, in attics and under eaves, anywhere dark they could insinuate themselves. Tokyo was made mostly of wood. The trickiest part was designing a workable mechanism to start the combustion. Once they had one, the army tested the plan on a deserted mining town in Utah. They set the delay on the devices for two hours. Within minutes after detonation, the entire town was up in flames. But before X-Ray got the green light, they pulled the plug on it. The A-bomb had been successfully tested. And that project was a lot more expensive. They weren’t going to waste all that money and all that science in favor of dropping bats.”
    â€œFascinating. But I still have no idea what you’re trying to tell me.”
    â€œI know what you did, how you fought to keep Demetrius Valentine from fulfilling a prophecy of apocalyptic proportions. That you saved Vivian here from being . . . violated by the demon prince known as Belial.”
    â€œI killed some bizarre animal Valentine had engineered, or whatever. That’s all I know for sure.”
    â€œYes, well, you certainly don’t need to affect an air of skepticism with me.”
    â€œI’m not ‘affecting’ anything. I killed a creature grown in a lab by a rich nut case. You can read the police report.”
    â€œThat would be like directing someone to the Warren Commission findings for the truth about JFK’s assassination. Are you really going to stand there and tell me you don’t believe that what you encountered, the thing you killed, was a demon hybrid inhabited by Belial? Don’t get me wrong. I can see why you wouldn’t want to. She also explained the price you paid for protecting her. And that means you’d also have to believe that in touching it, in having contact with the crown prince of Hell, you’ve rendered yourself unclean. Damned.”
    â€œLook, General, I’m tired. My neck feels like somebody used a blood-pressure cuff on it. My head felt better the time my M9 exploded and the slide ricocheted off my face. Just tell me what the hell I’m doing here.”
    Bartlett let his gaze linger on Hatcher for several moments. Then he dipped his head toward Vivian. She reached down next to the bed and lifted a canvas satchel. The bag rose slowly, twisting as she floated it over the bed, sagging in the middle from its weight. Vivian turned it over and dropped its contents onto the mattress. Something hard tumbled out. It sunk a couple of inches into the comforter with barely any bounce. She pulled back and set the empty canvas on the table.
    â€œI don’t suppose this means anything to you,” Bartlett said.
    It was a piece of engraved stone, a corner section of something larger, maybe a foot across and eighteen inches long. At least a couple of inches thick. Rough and jagged where it had been broken off, but flat and squared at the bottom corner and along the unbroken edges. The surface was dark and smooth. There were symbols carved into it.
    Hatcher stared at it. “Should it?”
    â€œNo, but it was worth asking. This is a plaster cast of something I came into possession of about six months ago. Don’t ask how.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œThe real one is a sandstone tablet, dating back two, but more likely close to three, millennia.”
    â€œMillennia?”
    â€œYes. The composition of the stone is consistent with other relics that have been