25. A Mess of Blues

Back at the office it looked like a thermo-nuclear device had gone off. My desk was matchsticks and there were only shards of glass in the window frames. Samael was sitting on what was left of my chair. It didn't look comfortable.

'Wasn't me,' he said.

'Some other dude did it? C'mon, do I look like Nelson from Blazing Apostles.'

Samael took a horny nail out from behind a snaggle tooth,

'Nope, not much like him at all. 'Specially not now.'

'What do you mean?'

'I'll tell you later. 'S'got to do with this.' He waved an arm at Armageddon's aftermath.

'Ya think?'

He wasn't ugly or gruesome or disfigured. If anything, he was good-looking. There was an air of seething menace about him. As though at any minute he would extend a finger and poke out your eye, just because he felt like it. Although we had worked together once, back when I worked for the Bureau, I was terrified of him, and meeting him twice over such a short period of time was twice too many for me.

He rose out of the chair.

'They left this.'

He handed me a card.

'Shadrach

Special Agent in Charge

Celestial Bureau of Investigation.

Call 911 Cels-R-US'

'Why'd they do this, Gabe?'

Samael had a look of concern on his face. It didn't make him any less scary.

'Damned if I know. Does Uriel want me to - '

Samael snorted. Even his laugh was likely to frighten those of a nervous disposition. He wiped his filtrum with the back of his hand.

'Only Uriel knows what Uriel wants. He should want what the Big Man says but…'

'But what?' He knew something. I asked him what he'd heard.

'It's… yeah, well. Maybe I shouldn't say it. Not out loud.'

'Well someone has already. You wouldn'ta heard it else.'

Samael clenched his fists and I winced. He was a very strong guy. I'd seen him lift a Buick off a dead cat in Brooklyn once. I'd stayed on my side of the street and pretended I hadn't seen him cry.

'They say – just some people – you know. You hear things…'

I wondered what was so awful that Samael, the Wrath of God, was scared to mention it.

'What?'

He whispered it, in the end.

'God has Alzheimer's.'

He let that sink in.

'C'mon,' he said. 'Let's take the Hellavator. I got somethin' to show yuh.'