Attack on an Evil God

by Ásgrímur Hartmannsson

Chapter 7: Wards Against Evil

Anna called the police and gave them an anonymous tip about a dangerous gun-runner and his general wereabouts.

The message was received, and the police mobilized the special weapons unit to go and look for the malefactor. But look as they might, they could not seem to be able to locate the address.

After two hours of driving in circles around where the address should have been, they exited their vehicles and went about on foot, each with their own GPS. One of them got an old map for reference, but all was in vain, and they returned, baffled.

They called it in as a false alarm after a thorough check and comparison of paper maps against their GPS and real terrain.

Maggi kept a close ear on the radio the following morning on his way to school but heard no mention of police activity. The political agenda was still all “unity and equality” and assorted turf in that vein, making him annoyed.

There was some meeting of European officials to be held in the city soon, but he figured he’d skip that one. Freyja had given Anna two copies of John Locke’s On Liberty, and she had handed him one. Things were locking in place in Maggi’s mind, and it all screamed terrorism! He wondered what evil scheme they were up to. He wondered if those insane looking people he had met before had been right.

To Maggi’s great surprise, Freyja and Hansi showed up in the cafeteria at lunch break. They smiled at him and waved. He was petrified. He went to them just before he went to his class, and asked them if they had seen the police. They just smiled and invited him back.

Anna had seen them too, from where she sat with her usual friends, and had given Maggi worried glances. Maggi spotted her before she disappeared around a corner on her way to class, and told her about the invite.

“Please come with me, I need witnesses,” he said.

She just nodded. But she came with him, and stood beside him as he rang Hansi’s doorbell.

Hansi was in a good mood when he opened the door, grinning audaciously as he asked, “What did the police say?”

“I should be asking that question. We gave them your address.”

“What is my address?”

Maggi told him, Anna did likewise. Maggi and Anna looked at each other, as they noticed that each of them had given a different answer.

Hansi shook his head, and pointed to them to come in. Hansi pointed to a plaque above the door. It had five symbols on it, and he explained them. “That’s a ward against thieves, the next one is to confuse thieves. It is written in human blood. That one is to change the thoughts of men in my favor, and those two are wards against evil dispatchments.” He picked from his pocket a piece of leather with a planetary snowflake on it. “This one is to protect me against attacks of wicked men.”

“Thieves? We called the police on you.”

“The police are thieves,” said Hansi, grinning.

“You—”

“Confiscation or theft, magic sees no difference in it.”

“By law—”

“I do magic, not law, and it works. Like a charm.” Hansi rolled his eyes when he realized what he just said, and added, “Literally. Anyway, I should have put those up last week. Would have saved me trouble. All of us.”

Freyja came and said coffee was ready. They had coffee. Maggi just had to ask Hansi where he had gotten the rifle.

“U.S. Military armory. We had a guy steal it through the mara when Palli and Laura were here. I guess he’s in a world of trouble right now.”

Maggi sipped the coffee, and contemplated that.

“And you think you can use it to shoot the Antichrist?”

“In so many words... sort of.”

Maggi peered at him.

“I know you don’t follow politics, but Dora, leader of the Social Equality Movement is the current avatar of the Antichrist, to use simple terms. Next week she meets with various European officials, one of them is Dieter Bauer, Minister of Culture. She will speak to him to put in his mind the idea to hold a conference with European leaders at the Seat of Satan in Berlin.”

“The seat of Satan?”

“Altar of Pergamon. It’s Turkish. It was dug up in the 1800’s by Humann and moved to Berlin.”

“Seat of Satan?”

“To put it simply.”

“You believe there is an actual Satan?”

“I know there to be an entity that can, with certain conditions, serve the same purpose, or of God, if you like. I’ve made contact with it. It will make the world properly magical, it will enable everybody to gain powers though sacrifice of other living organisms; little powers with little lives, large powers with large lives. A little life for the god, a little life for the magician. It will be addictive. People will all become one in the end, devoured by the god, who will emerge when they have gathered enough power to physically bring him through.”

“That’s nice. So you believe there’s a God, too?”

“It depends on your definition of God, but yes, by most definitions, there is a God. Several, in fact. And I plan to shoot all of them.”

Maggi decided not to ask any more questions.

Proceed to Chapter 8...