Episode Two continued>
"I've filed my final story, Blix. You can read it tomorrow. Here's my official resignation."
Vic pulled out from beneath his coat a galley of tomorrow's front page with the headline in 72 point bold: 'Mirror Publisher behind Terrorism in Iraq!' The story beneath, with Vic's by-line told the story, with documentation of how Edwin Blix and his corporation Blix International had funded and funneled the weapons of mass destruction and his ties with the Legion of the Basilisk. Blix's eyes grew redder, hotter, and narrower.
The gaunt cadavered publisher tried to remain aloof, in charge, but his blood was boiling. "This is Gallagher's work isn't it? He somehow smuggled the story to you. Why am I not surprised, Victor?"
"Perhaps because you know more, much more than you're letting on, Blix, or do you go by another name?"
Blix had moved behind his desk, dialing on his speakerphone. "Annnnsss!" Blix screamed into the air.
"Yes, sir?" came was the squeamish, pathetic weak voice of his patsy servant, the eunuch Ans Ichariak.
"Ans, mah good man, where y'all at?"
"On my way to the Farmer's Market, Sir, to pick up more oranges for you per your request, since the shipment from--"
"Never mind that! Change of plans. See that the plane's fueled and ready to leave at 4:15 from Love Field."
"Very good, sir."
"Oh, and do we have any of the mylar mirror strips still available?"
"Seventy crates in the warehouse, sir."
"Contact the trigger men immediately. See to it that enough are placed strategically on all floors of the Metroplex Mirror building. 4:30 would be ideal. Also ask them to pay a visit heah after we've taken off. Ah do believe Fasif Khadid's home was merely a dress rehearsal. Ah'd sure like another test run. Ah no longer have need of this earthy hovel. Destroy it!"
"Anything else, sir?"
"That'll do for now, Ans. Just git back heah as soon as ya can."
"Of course, sir."
As he was talking, Blix was unaware of a car pulling up in the driveway. It was not Ans. He was completing the sinister mission entrusted to him by his boss just now. He would return shortly, but not now. No, it was someone else outside. The car slowed and pulled up next to Vic's parked car.
Corrie stepped out, straightening her exquisite black slacks and pure white turtleneck silk blouse. She pulled the mink collar of her winter coat up around her neck as she started to head for the front entrance.
Meanwhile in his study, Blix had focused his attention on Van Wess.
"Ah'd love to kibitz with ya for hours, Victor. Y'all such easy fodder. But, as ya heard, Ah've
a plane to catch so Ah'll have ta dispatch of ya quickly."
"Oh, don't worry," Vic shot back, rising and positioning himself between the door and the desk. "I don't expect to get out of this house alive. But I know the truth, Blix, and now everyone else will too."
"Ah wouldn't be so sure of that, Victor." Though Blix tried to hide it, he was seething underneath.
"You are a demon and your mission will fail. God will not allow--"
"Don't you dare mention Him in this house!" Blix shouted in rage. "Ever! Did ya hear me? Ever!!!"
The fury of fire was now evident. His hate exposed ugliness as skin shriveled, revealing scales forming a grotesque reptilian hide. Molten lava-like color surged to his pupils as the mutation continued. The rage grew stronger as did the body. Before Vic's stunned senses Blix's hands morphed into claws, teeth protruded from his disfigured face, growing longer, faster and leaner, weaving, coiling.
Vic had seen enough. He knew what was coming. He had to try to stop it, slow it down somehow. He pulled from his coat his prize possession - his Derringer pistol - and aimed it at the hideous monster forming before his very eyes.
Corrie was at the front steps when she heard an unearthly, hellish roar and then three - four, finally six bullet blasts. Startled she backtracked toward the sound around the side of the house. She would not be in time.
Vic had emptied his gun into the heart of this heartless beast that grew stronger, more voracious as it advanced on Victor.
"Holy God," Vic cried out with all the strength of his vocal chords. It was not a curse, but a prayer, the final prayer of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It was the only weapon he had left as he held the Rosary high. "Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole worl --"
Vic never finished the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, but his prayer for mercy would be answered. God would undoubtedly welcome this loyal son of the faith into His kingdom immediately, for he had given himself totally in trying to destroy the consummate evil personified in Edwin Blix, who had transmorphed into the demonic serpent of the scriptures.
The ghastly and grizzly reptilian creature gorged into Vic, engulfing him in a mass of venomous nothingness as Vic's body, bones and blood imploded within the vortex of pure evil. A devastating sound obliterated the atmosphere. Victor Van Wess had finished his journey on earth. The Basilisk had decimated the remains of his flesh, but it could never have his soul.
Corrie had seen it from 40 feet away through the large Old English windowpanes into Blix's study. Vic had been helpless against this monster. Its bellow had been insane, a roar of rage as it had lunged at Victor, knocking him flat. She could hear Victor's own screams. She had seen the very Basilisk Vic had told her of, warned her about. The same one Pat had been attacked by. It was true. It was hideous, this lizard of a man. It did exist. She had seen it with her own eyes.
Her sense of survival kicked in as she raced back toward her car, screaming "Oh God, it can't be happening. Nooooo!!!"
Frantically she fumbled for her keys. The adrenaline was surging throughout her body as she jumped into her car, gunning the motor. She shoved the gear into reverse and accelerated backwards, propelling towards the gate, trying to steer while looking over her shoulder and watching the rearview mirror. Tears coursed down her face. She gulped for air. Halfway there. It still seemed an eternity away. Almost there.
Within 50 feet of the two gargoyle portals a black limo turned into the driveway heading toward the mansion. Corrie slammed on the brakes, skidding towards the oncoming grill of the limo. Pumping the brake and turning the wheel, she spun the car as it hurtled toward a copse of trees near the outer wall.
With a thud the passenger's side of her car rammed into a mighty oak, tilting the vehicle in a 40-degree angle, the gas tank dangling. Corrie squeezed her lithe frame barely through the small opening in the sunroof and rolled away as the dangling gas container caught a spark from the friction.
The explosion towered above her as she rolled out of harm's way, trying to get as far away as possible. Debris just missed her as she struggled to her feet, trying to run on the grass, crusted by the previous days snow that had left it brittle in the cold. Looking over her shoulder, she could see someone gaining on her. A young thug she thought. She realized it as he tackled her to the turf, practically knocking the wind out of this Italian filly.
As he lugged her back towards the mansion, she swore it would take more than this to keep her down. She swore to herself that she would somehow avenge Vic's death.
They arrived at the front door of the mansion, Corrie still kicking and screaming as Blix opened the door. He looked blanched, gaunt as if he had just given 8 pints of blood. He was definitely weaker than just a few minutes earlier when he had goaded Vic, before destroying him.
"Let me go, let me go, you ass!" Corrie's temper flared.
"Good work, Jordan," Blix complimented Jordan Collier as the latter tightened his grip on Corrie's arm. "Victor should've sent y'al and none of this woulda been necessary."
"Thank you, Mr. Blix." Collier simpered.
"Shall we kill her, Master?" Ans whining voice might have reminded one of Peter Lorre's role in The Maltese Falcon.
"Not right now, Ans. Ah think she can be very valuable to us in Rome." Then, turning toward Corrie, Blix shifted into his saccharinely sweet mode, "Well Ms. Morelli, y'all be returnin' to the land of yur ancestry."
"And you can go to yours: HELL!"
Corrie's slam was meant as an insult. Blix took it as a compliment. He threw back his head and laughed, opening his parched lips to let the sound emerge. Corrie felt the vise of fear constrict her heart. She knew that in all her life all the things she'd ever been afraid of had been merely surface emotions, nothing more than bad dreams. This horrible sound, which cackled up from the depths of Edwin Blix's being and rumbled through the room, booming off the wall-papered and paneled walls like a boomerang, was the core of all Corrie's fears.
"Corinne Morelli, yorah fool!" Blix taunted. "Fools are the tools by which our victory'll be won. Come, we go. Ah do not wish to remain heah any longer."
Immediately Ans and Collier gripped her, dragging her down the steps to the limo. Her hands were bound behind her. Blix slipped into the seat directly across from her to gloat some more.
"You're no doubt askin' yerself, 'why me, why me?'" Blix mocked her.
"Victor was so right!" she substantiated.
"Darlin', understand and understand well. Y'all surrendered yer freedom when ya entered mah domain. Ya shoulda heeded Victor's advice and stayed the hell outta this. Now y'all come with me and see what power's really about!"
She just glared back. She'd not give this beast of a man the pleasure of seeing her fight fruitlessly. She'd rather die than have him know he'd won by fear. Die. Had she really thought that? God forbid! A new strength blossomed within her at that moment, an energy that took her by surprise because she'd never known it existed within her before. Where it came from she knew, realizing it was the same force that spurred the martyrs on. One simple word that meant the world and beyond: Faith.
It persuaded her onward, strengthening her inner resolve. "We'll see, Blix," she calmly replied after a long pause. "The end has not come yet."
"Only a matter of time, mah dear. A matter of time."
"Time will prove to be your enemy, Blix," she countered as the limo approached Love Field and Blix's private jet waiting on the tarmac.
"On the contrary, Ms. Morelli. Now you're gonna find out what retribution is like when it's been kept waiting for an eternity."
"I already know the outcome. Ever read the bible, Blix?"
"A fairy tale Ah assure ya. This little trip'll prove it. A little trip, mah dear," he taunted wickedly, "a jaunt into hell before ya die. A fittin' tribute to the woman left behind, don't ya agree?"
Corrie's emotions were in a pique. He was manipulating her. The Devil was trolling and she was unwittingly taking the bait. Hatred was swelling up. She was unable to contain it.
"I'll see you in hell!" she sneered.
"Ya probably will." He heckled.
Next: PART IV: The Shrouding TWELFTH CHAPTER Episode Four
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