ACADEMY OF THE UNDEAD; BOOK TWO Stand Together ... Or Fall Together
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Desmond Cordeir

Johnson gummed his lips, then he said, “No, no we didn’t, but we did encounter an interesting intervention. We were in California, and two men approached us, two men from a biker club. They asked if we were the people asking questions about the Holy Woman, and of course, we said that we were. They wanted us to meet someone, and they said this person might have some information for us. I was sceptical, and I might add, a little nervous; because I doubted that members of an outlaw biker’s club would know about events that had a loose religious background. To cut a long story short, we met this man, Desmond Cordeir, and as it turned out, he didn’t have any information about the woman, he was more interested in extracting information from us. He told us that if we helped him replace either of the girls, he would pay us handsomely. Father Corsivo told him the whole story, told him that he met the man with red eyes who had supposedly raped the Holy Woman, and this Cordeir fellow seemed to know the story well; he knew the characters involved, knew the dates and he knew the sequence of events. Cordeir became dismissive towards us when we didn’t know where the girls were, and he also mocked us, saying that the Reign of Light on this planet was coming to an end, and all those who worshipped God would pay a heavy price. He said that the girls were Light and Dark, and when the Dark Girl found her sister, she would kill her, and that would then open the Gateway to Hell, and the Dark Prince himself would be able to walk on the planet.”

Miles was becoming restless, because they didn’t have any clues where to start looking for Iveta’s mother, and the mythological crap was piling up. He glanced at Lucia and he was surprised, because an unusual expression danced across her face. Her lips peeled apart, and her eyes opened wide, and she seemed a little unsettled. Turning to Johnson, Lucia asked, “Father, what are you saying, the Devil could come into this world?”

Johnson pondered, then said, “The man in the cave, and also this Cordeir fellow, both told Father Corsivo that if the Dark Girl triumphed, it would open the Gateway to Hell and Satan would walk on this planet. Desmond Cordeir believed that for those who opened the Gateway and allowed Satan to enter this realm, Satan would reward them by granting them immortality. Two possibilities exist here, the first is that the man with red eyes and also Corsivo and Cordeir had been so blinded by their willingness to believe, that they couldn’t distinguish fantasy from reality, although the second possibility requires a huge leap of faith.”

“You are saying that what they believed could be true?” Lucia asked.

“No, I’m not saying that, because that leap of faith is too huge for me.”

“But Father, does the Bible not talk of Armageddon, the final battle?”

Johnson stood up and grabbed a book from the shelf, then opened it up as he sat down. “The New Testament, in Revelations 16;14, it is written; For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.” Johnson looked up at Lucia and said, “I came across an interesting interpretation of this Biblical prophecy, and I will read it to you; it says Revelations 16;14 could be symbolic of the progression of the world toward the great day of God the Almighty, in which the great looming mountain of God’s just and holy wrath is poured out against unrepentant sinners, led by Satan, in a literal end-of-the-world final confrontation. Armageddon is the symbolic name given to this event based on scripture references regarding divine obliteration of God’s enemies.”

“Excuse me Father, I get confused,” Lucia began, “Is Satan the Devil, or is Lucifer the Devil?”

“There is much debate on that subject Lucia, but personally, I believe that Lucifer and Satan are the same entity. A Hebrew translation of the name Lucifer, means Shining Light, and opinions have been offered that God looked upon Lucifer as the most perfect Angel ever created. It was only when Lucifer was cast down from heaven that his alternate entity was known as Satan.”

“I understand, thank you,” Lucia acknowledged, “But what you read is saying that there will be an end-of-the-world final confrontation.”

Johnson pursed his lips and seemed deep in thought until he asked, “Will there be a judgement day? Will there be a final confrontation between good and evil? I don’t know, nobody does; although I live my life according to the principles of Christianity, because if there is a judgement day, I would prefer to be on the good side.”

Miles wanted to get things back on track, so he said, “Okay, so you didn’t learn anything from this Cordeir fellow, because it seems like he just added to the ghost stories, so why is he relevant?”

“Ohhh yes, so after we met Cordeir, later that evening, Father Corsivo asked me if I thought there was anything unusual about the man, and I said no. Corsivo looked very unsettled as he said that he suspects the man was a vampire. I was a bit bemused, but I asked him how he arrived at that conclusion, and he couldn’t explain it, he just said that he was overcome by a feeling of being in the presence of someone who wasn’t normal.”

Miles cocked his head and asked, “He suspected that the man was a vampire? How old was Corsivo at this stage?”

“In his late seventies.”

“If Father Corsivo suspected that this man might be a vampire, could it be that he was losing his grip on reality by that stage?”

“That is a fair question Mr Miles, although I would say no. A few years later, Father Corsivo began experiencing the health issues that would eventually kill him, but in the all the time I worked with him, I found him to be sane and rational.”

“Sure, understood, but a supposedly sane and rational man of the cloth talking about vampires just doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes, and I held the same view at the time, and I made Corsivo aware of my doubts. He sat me down one time and said with the events we were investigating, sometimes you need to suspend your belief of what we perceive to be real. He said that our whole religion was based around the belief that there is a God, a supreme being, and because he had an unwavering belief in God, he also accepted that there was a Devil. I personally have always believed in the existence of both our God and the Devil, so Corsivo suggested to me that the two forces could have servants on this planet who do their bidding.”

“Father, this comes back to the debate about good versus evil,” Lucia began, “But as fonok said, talk of vampires makes no sense.”

“I guess Lucia, we must ask ourselves, how powerful are the supreme beings? Did Jesus Christ resurrect Lazarus? Did God resurrect Jesus Christ? Can people actually be resurrected?” Johnson questioned. “Father Corsivo wanted to know more about this man, Desmond Cordeir, so we spent more than a month replaceing out everything we could about him. If you wouldn’t mind waiting a moment, I have a file somewhere which contains a few interesting pieces of Cordeirs history.”

Miles was getting restless, and he said, “No, don’t bother.”

“Actually Mr Miles, I think you need to hear this.”

“Why?”

“The deeper you delve into this story, the more bizarre and mysterious it becomes.”

“Okay, I guess I should hear the whole story.”

Less than ten minutes later, Johnson opened a worn A5 exercise book, and while skipping through the pages, he said, “The only thing relevant here are the dates, but I wanted you to hear them, because in my opinion, they are important, or possibly the best description of the dates is that they are troubling.” Johnson stopped at a page, and he studied it before he said, “We uncovered details about two Desmond Cordeir’s, one born in eighteen ninety-three, and the other born in nineteen eighteen. Both were born and raised in Ohio, and the older one passed away in nineteen seventy-five, while the younger mysteriously disappeared when he was thirty-four.”

“I presume this is leading somewhere.” Miles asked impatiently.

“Yes it is,” Johnson replied, “The younger Cordeir was married, and when he went missing, his wife reported the disappearance to the police.”

“What year did he go missing?” Miles asked.

“He went missing in nineteen fifty-two; anyway, Father Corsivo’s instincts were pricked, so we spent weeks trying to locate the wife of the younger Cordeir, and eventually we found her. By this stage, Father Corsivo was spooked by the whole chain of events, and even though I didn’t understand why this was necessary, I basically conducted our interview with the wife. The wife, whose name escapes me, was in her late sixties, and I asked her questions about her husband, you know, Did anybody ever see him again? Was there any reason why he would just simply abandon her? She answered my questions honestly, but to me, it was obvious that Father Corsivo wanted to know more about the Desmond Cordeir that we had met, so I asked her about her children, and she went and got a photo album. I flicked through the album, and two girls were prominent throughout; young girls turning into teenage girls, teenage girls turning into young women, young women becoming mothers, so I asked her if she had any photos of her son. She said that she didn’t have a son, just two girls, so I was a bit mystified.”

“Listen Frank, I’m not quite following this.”

“Well either was I at the time,” Johnson said reflectively. “Father Corsivo had been silent for most of the interview, but he asked, Do you have any photos of your husband? The wife flicked pages of the album over and pointed out her husband, and as I took a more thorough look, this man looked identical to the man we had met.”

Miles willed him to continue, although when Johnson sat back in silent reflection, Miles asked, “What are you saying?”

“The Desmond Cordeir in the photos looked identical to the Desmond Cordeir we met.”

“Frank, the guy skipped out on his wife and kids and started hanging around with a biker club, so what?”

“Mr Miles, the dates.”

“What about the dates?”

“Desmond Cordeir junior was born in nineteen eighteen, and he was thirty-four when he vanished in nineteen fifty-two, so …”

Miles saw Lucia’s eyes widen in surprise, and then she slapped her right hand over her mouth, although personally, Miles was puzzled, so he said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Mr Miles, we met this Desmond Cordeir more than thirty years later, and he looked identical to the photos that the wife had shown us.”

Miles shrugged his shoulders and said, “No, I still can’t see what the great mystery is.”

“Mr Miles, Desmond Cordeir was thirty-four years old when he disappeared, and when we met him more than thirty years later, and he still looked like he was in his early thirties.”

Miles pondered, then offered, “So maybe when this guy vanished, he started a new life and had more children, and the man you met was one of the children.”

“Well I can’t confirm or deny that, but don’t forget the significant factor here; Father Corsivo suspected that the Desmond Cordeir we met was a vampire.”

“Frank, seriously, vampires aren’t real.”

“Ohhh, so I assume that you have conclusive proof to support your statement?”

Miles shook his head and said, “No, it’s impossible to disprove something that doesn’t exist.”

“Mr Miles, let me say that I do agree with you, but Father Corsivo suspected that Cordeir was a vampire, and his suspicion was based around his belief that he had previously met a vampire.”

“It’s getting a bit fanciful for me Frank, but you’re saying that Corsivo believed that he had met a vampire before?”

“Yes indeed. He was convinced that the strange man he met in the cave was a vampire.”

“And he was convinced how? What did the man do to bring Corsivo to that conclusion?”

“Father Corsivo told me that he had never forgotten how unsettled he was by gazing into the soulless red eyes. I myself have never believed that vampires exist, but referring back to the Book of Enoch, it says that the Fallen Angel Azazel was chained by the ArchAngel Raphael, and he was left to abide in utter darkness until the great Day of Judgement, and I mention this purely because some dark religious faiths believe that Azazel may have been the very first vampire.”

“Dark religious faiths, like what, devil worshippers or occults?”

“Yes, and this man Cordeir, Desmond Cordeir, I got the impression that he had been searching for Iveta and her sister for awhile, and he wasn’t going to stop until he found them.”

Miles sat back and gathered his thoughts, then said, “The whole story, with everything you and Sister Renata have told us, nothing is concrete, nothing has been confirmed by irrefutable evidence, and it’s all based around sketchy eye-witness accounts, so there is every possibility that the supposed Holy Woman could just be a mother who deserted one of her children, and Iveta could simply be a normal girl who had a violent and abusive childhood.”

“Yes, I agree. The story, or the inter-weaving stories are difficult to digest.”

“Well you were involved in this for twenty odd years, so what do you make of it all, what conclusions have you come to?”

Johnson sucked his bottom lip and stared into space until he said, “The most solid conclusion that I have formed is that I still believe in God, I believe in the supreme being, and the investigations that I have been involved in have me suspecting that there are many things that I will never understand or have the answer to.”

Miles nodded and said, “Well Frank, this has been a very interesting conversation, and I thank-you for your time.”

Miles was intrigued that his unflappable Hungarian assistant had sat though the last ten minutes in silence, and he said, “Lucia, we will go.” She nodded woodenly, then he packed the recorder into his bag, and after Lucia pushed out of her chair, they began walking towards the door. Johnson began opening the door, although he tarried as he said, “Mr Miles …”

Miles faced him and asked, “What?”

Johnson lowered his gaze, and he appeared hesitant as he said, “One last thing …”

Miles looked at him, then said, “Yes, go ahead.”

“The strange man in the cave, supposedly a vampire, the man suspected of raping the Holy Woman told Father Corsivo that the two girls born out of this act of violence would be the Light and Dark, so …”

For Miles, the immediate future looked bright; drive for a couple of hours, book a motel room, and then see what exciting things his travelling companion had in store for him; so Johnson’s frequent pauses were starting to annoy him. He asked, “What are you saying?”

Johnson slowly raised his gaze, and he said quietly, “I can fully understand your scepticism Mr Miles, although when we take into account the history of the girl you are interested in, I think we can safely say that she isn’t the Light, she isn’t the good one.”

“Possibly, but if we forget about all the unproven mumbo jumbo, she’s just a girl who had a horrific upbringing.”

“That is a fair point, although Mr Miles, people are looking for this girl and her sister, and since the people looking for her are part of an outlaw bikers club, I would presume that they would stoop to any level to get their hands on her.”

Miles nodded and said, “Thank you for the warning, and also for your time.”

“Father,” Lucia said quietly as she clenched her hands together in front of her dress, “I have been thinking about all this, and the stories say that Iveta’s mother was an Angel, and her father might have been a vampire who descended from a Fallen Angel; do you believe this is possible?”

Johnson held her gaze and said, “I have no answer to your question, because I never saw the man with the red eyes or the Holy Woman, although Sister’s Renata and Olga swear that they saw the man raping her.”

Miles frowned, knowing that most of what they had heard was supernatural hogwash, although Lucia still seemed unsettled, so he asked, “Lucia, do you have any more questions?”

Lucia glanced at him, then turned her attention back to Johnson as she said, “Father, it is said that Mary the Virgin Mother gave birth to Jesus Christ, but do you believe that a woman could give birth to a servant of the Devil?”

“Lucia, again, I have no answer for you, although when the girls were born, the mother asked the nuns to kill Iveta, so we can presume that the mother had some kind of strange antipathy towards the girl. I believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and he walked on the planet, so who’s to say that the Devil isn’t capable of sending a servant to this planet.”

“Father, Christian beliefs say that God banished the Devil and sent him to Hell, so that must mean that our God is more powerful than the Devil.”

“I believe, and I will pray Lucia, that what you just said is true.”

Lucia stared at Johnson for a moment, then after dropping her gaze, she muttered, “Fonok, let us go.”

As they walked out on to the street, Miles was deep in thought, not overly concerned about the bizarre rambling tales he had heard, he was more concerned about his client’s reaction to them. He could almost imagine Devil glaring at him suspiciously as he grumbled, Well, this appears to have been a waste of time. Yes indeed, although with the fanciful stories about vampires still floating in his mind, Miles began wondering about Devil and Chester. He had known Devil for more than fifteen years and he had known Chester for the best part of ten years, and their physical appearance had hardly altered, especially Chester, because she still looked like a teenage girl. Whenever he met with them, it always had to be at night, after the sun had gone down, and Miles remembered Devil advising him, ‘We sleep during the day.’ … Really, everyday? The Ranch was out in the middle of nowhere, away from prying eyes, and it seemed to offer a commune kind of lifestyle. Every time he went to the Ranch, there was plenty of activity going on in the vast grounds, people tending to crops or feeding the livestock … at night-time. At their very first meeting, Devil had announced, If I am to use your services occasionally, you must understand that me and my people are invisible. You will never mention us, you will never mention this place. I will pay you above your normal rates, although in return, I ask for your eternal silence. Keeping his lips sealed was something that Miles was good at, as his profession demanded discretion and confidentiality; and indeed this job promised to deliver the biggest pay packet he’d had in years; although his mind wandered, thinking about what he’d heard over the last few days. Angels with wings, men with red eyes, vampires … Miles was snapped back to reality as Lucia nudged him and said, “Fonok …”

“What?”

“If I have nightmares, I will blame you.”

Miles stared at her as they stopped by the car. “What are you saying, you believe what he said?”

“No, I do not.” she replied.

“Well I would suggest that you won’t have any nightmares then.”

“In daylight on a busy street, I do not believe, although when I sleep, I cannot control what I dream of.”

Miles was interested that the normally unreadable Hungarian might be a little spooked, and he said, “We found out where Iveta was born, and we found out that her mother abandoned her, but none of that ghost story stuff can be confirmed.”

Lucia seemed deep in thought, then she said, “Tonight I will cuddle you, but do not cuddle me.”

“Sure, I’d like that.”

Lucia said, “Fonok …”

Miles held her gaze, eager to hear what was on her mind, so he asked, “What?”

She stood by the passenger door and said, “Open the car.”

*

After dinner, they went to the room and Lucia undressed then asked, “Fonok, you give me orgasm?”

“Yes, I’d love to.”

“Please begin.”

Sex with Lucia was divine, not only because the girl was compliant and uninhibited, but also because it softened her. The curt, abrupt nature of the girl vanished when she got lost in the sexual experience. Aroused and hungry, she became someone else in the tangle of bodies, and she responded passionately, her slender body writhing sensually, her moans of pleasure being whispered out in melodic triumph, and the big, brown eyes sparkled as she rode through every intimate moment, although the following morning, the no-fuss Lucia re-appeared. “Fonok, shower and then take me to breakfast.”

Over breakfast, Lucia said, “I booked your flight, it leaves at twenty past eleven tonight.”

“Thank-you Lucia.”

“It will take you five hours to drive me home.”

Miles did the math in his mind, It’s 8am, have her home by maybe 2pm, airport is two hours from her place, flight takes off after 11pm … then he said hopefully, “If we get to your town around mid-afternoon, I’ll have a few hours to kill, so maybe I can, you know …”

“What?”

“Maybe I can book a room and you and me can, you know …”

Lucia cocked her head and asked, “Fonok, if I ask you to stop saying you know, you can do this?”

“Yes, sorry, I won’t say it again, but would you like me to book a room?”

“No.” Lucia replied abruptly.

“No?” Miles questioned, then he added shyly, “I could pay you one hundred American for our final, errr, you know.”

Lucia raised her eyebrows and asked, “Did you say you know again?”

“Sorry Lucia, but listen,” he began as he gazed at her. As usual, she was sitting straight, her gaze straight at him, and he was struck by a moment of indecision. He wanted to tell her that he’d grown very fond of her, although Lucia was a straight-shooter and she said what was on her mind, so the reply that could come hurtling back at him might bruise his ego. A surge of bravado hit him, and he said, “Lucia, I like you, I mean I really like you, and I would like to stay in touch with you.”

Lucia nodded and said, “I will give you my phone number.”

Miles wondered whether that was a disguised way of saying that she liked him, so he asked, “So you like me?”

“How old are you fonok?”

“Forty-three.”

“Fonok, I am twenty-one; I am young and you are not so young, so I believe that you like me more than I like you, but I will speak to you if you call me.”

Miles couldn’t help but smile. The girl was honest, almost brutally honest, although the brutality of the honesty meant that there was never going to be any bullshit flying between them. Liking her more and more, he said, “Maybe next year I can come over and see you.”

Sitting straight, holding his gaze, she said, “No.”

Miles rocked back, surprised by her refusal, and for a fleeting moment, he didn’t like her.

Lucia said, “I will not see you again …” then she added a little more demurely, “Not here.”

Miles was confused, and he asked, “What are you saying?”

“Do not come here, I will come to America.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” she stated, “All young Hungarian women want to go to America.”

“Okay, well sure, you can come and visit me.”

“If I come, I can stay in your house?”

“Yes, of course, but I live in an apartment.”

“If I come, I can stay in your apartment?”

“Of course you can.”

“If I come, I will not replace wife in the apartment?”

Miles spluttered out a laugh, then said, “No, I told you I’m divorced, I mean I’m single.”

“Fonok …”

With a growing excitement, Miles asked, “What?”

“Why did you say I mean? Why did you not just say, I’m single?”

“I’m sorry Lucia, I apologise, but yes, if you come to America, you can stay with me in my apartment.”

“If I stay with you fonok, I will teach you how to speak English.”

“Yes, sure, but when would you like to come?”

“I am at University, so I could come for one month at next years summer break.”

“Fantastic!”

“You will pay for my airfare fonok?”

“Yes, I will.”

“If I come, you will take me to Disneyland and Hollywood?”

“Yes, I’d love to.”

“You will take me to Grand Canyon and LasVegas?”

“Yes, I mean anyway you’d like to go, I will take you there.”

“You said I mean again,” Lucia noted, then she asked, “Will wife come with us when we go to Disneyland?”

Miles sat back and laughed, then he said, “Lucia, I don’t have a wife, I’m single.”

“Fonok, I watch American movies, and all Americans lie and cheat.”

Miles would have liked to argue against that statement, although the more pressing matter was in closing this deal, so he said, “Lucia, if you come, I will pay for your airfare and I will take you anywhere that you want to go.”

Lucia seemed reflective, then she said, “I will come, but I will not eat steak and chips every night.”

Miles was struck by a zap, a Big Zap, a zap that declared, Ohhh my God, I think I’m in love! Although as was her way, Lucia kicked the zap in the balls as she said, “I will come to America every year for seven years in summer if you pay for my airfare, but when you turn fifty, I will not come because you will be too old.”

Affronted, yet wanting to keep the dream alive, Miles said, “Yes, whatever, do you have a passport?”

“No, will you pay for my passport?”

“Of course I will.”

“Then I will have passport before next summer.”

Miles wanted to kiss the abruptness out of her at that very moment, and caught in a carnal swirl, he asked, “So before I drop you off, can I book a room?”

“No, you have plane to catch tonight.”

“If we get to your place by mid-afternoon, we’ll have plenty of time.”

“I said no.” Lucia replied bluntly.

Wanting to test the water, Miles said, “One hundred and fifty American.”

Lucia held his gaze and said, “No, I will not have sex with you again in this country.”

Miles laid his cards on the table and said, “Two hundred American.”

Lucia sat straight, staring at him, and Miles assumed that she was thinking about it, so he said, “Two hundred and fifty.”

She barely moved, her facial expression never altering as she asked, “Two hundred and fifty American?”

“Yes, of course.”

Lucia lowered her face as she slid a slice of bacon into her mouth, then she said, “Quick, finish breakfast, then we go.”