Page 47 of The Wickedness of Man

“There was also the matter of Investigator Benedict’s request,” continued Brother Will. “He wanted to have one of the holy water dispersal bombs when the request for backup came in from the other field agents. I don’t know if they used it, butI thought that we normally saved those for archdemons and the like, so it was a bit shocking.”

While as a leader within the organization, I should have condemned the agents under my care when I discovered they were idly gossiping like this, but it had shed dire light onto situations in the past—as it was doing for me right now—so I only waited for him to hand me the tablet. I stuffed it into the fold of my robes nearest my keychain.

“Does anyone else know about this?”

Brother Will shook his head. “I know you said for all information about Agent Knight to come to you first, so I thought?—”

I patted him on the shoulder. “Good lad. I will bring this to the archdiocese’s attention at our next meeting. Tell no one else—and erase the footage from the main databanks.”

Brother Will beamed at the praise and nodded emphatically. “Already done, father.”

“Wonderful. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? Tell the others I’ve got you on a special assignment, but please, by all means, go and relax.”

Brother Will looked so pleased the stress evaporated from his face for a moment. “Thank you, Bishop Knight!”

He turned and headed back down the hall, a skip in his step as I frowned and turned back toward my room at the opposite end. I felt the presence following me—it had been for several minutes now—but paid no mind to it.

I know I’ve taught you better than that, I wanted to say, but sometimes playing the doddering old man gave me far more of an upper hand than displaying any kind of cunning ever had. I’d learned that lesson the hard way on many occasions. Caleb and I… we weren’t so unalike—though I’d never tell him the truth of it.

Harry had to have known when he’d assigned Caleb that there was the chance that when they got into that building, he wasn’t coming out the same again. He was always so confident in his sneakiness; his eagerness, however, usually made him as easy to read as an open book. Even now, thinking he was doing so well had made him sloppy in following me.

The truth of it was, if Archbishop Benedict hadn’t allowed Caleb to be on this team, then Harry would never have gotten his bait. This could only mean that Benedict had wanted Caleb there, in that room with the doctor… and quite possibly, Caleb’s mystery woman.

Coincidences were rare around here. Harry volunteered Caleb for every dangerous mission he’d been on, and the approval had never come down before.

So why now? There had to be a reason for it—but Benedict played his hand carefully this time—much more carefully than his son.

I don’t know what this will mean for Caleb… but I suspect bad things. Very bad things.

I made a slow, steady progress, allowing the weight of my worries to show in every step.

Harry

Iwaited until the old man was almost back to his room at the end of the university’s third floor and stole out of the shadows.

“So,” I said, “how did Caleb take to being placed in the cells? Did he cry? Beg?”

Jax startled, clutching his heart as he turned to face me.

Pathetic, I thought to myself.How did this sorry, wrinkled bastard ever get to have a legacy within the organization as a fighter?

“Oh, Harry, forgive me, I didn’t see you there,” he said, rubbing the scar on his cheek and forehead. “I was just heading off to pray a bit before bed. I must be more tired than I realized.”

“Where is Caleb, Jax?” I kept my voice purposefully low.

The bishop cleared his throat. “I didn’t take him immediately to the cells. I left him in the visitors’ rooms to-to fast and—and pray?—”

I grinned at him; I couldn’t help it. Everything was playing out just as I’d foreseen it. “You’re too soft, old man. Come with me. There’s something I’d like to show you.”

“Now Harry, you know he can’t leave, so it doesn’t matter?—”

I began striding back down the hall toward the elevators without letting him finish his protest. Once we were both inside, I pressed the button that would take us to the fifth floor, and then up we went. I unlocked the door to my bedroom with my keycard, and then gestured for him to go inside.

“The window, if you would,” I said.

He goggled at me through those thick lenses, but then did as ordered, and I followed him as he walked over to one of the large windows at the back of my room that looked out over the campus’s front lawn.

“You see, I had a theory about Caleb,” I said as we looked outside together.

---