“A symbolic burning is just that for us. Symbolic. We meant and we mean you no physical harm. Burning the symbol of authority is a signal that we must overturn completely the current order of Hell.”
“Now you sound like a politician.”
She shakes her head.
“I mean spiritual order. Though I suppose to Lucifer there’s no difference between the two.”
“You didn’t have anything to do with the attacks on me, did you?”
“Don’t be absurd. Assassination is the last thing we want. Hell has seen enough upheaval to last us a thousand years.”
“But if someone else put a bullet in my head, you’d be happy to send flowers to my funeral.”
“Asphodels and moon wort in a lovely arrangement.”
“See? No one else admits they want me dead. That’s why I don’t trust them. You want a drink?”
I head down to the couch. Deumos follows, pausing to examine the broken bookcase and splinters from where I tossed the desk.
“What do you have?” she asks.
“Aqua Regia.”
She makes a face.
“No thank you.”
I find the bottle Wild Bill sent.
“This too. I’ve never heard of it before.”
She looks the bottle over and nods.
“This I’ll try.”
I find a fairly clean glass behind the sofa and pour her a drink. I fill mine with Aqua Regia and raise it to her. She raises hers to me and takes a sip.
“You knew my church and I had nothing to do with the attacks on you and you arrested us anyway. Why?”
“You tell me.”
She stares at her drink and doesn’t say anything for a minute.
“To make a public spectacle. To make us look like more than we are and yourself less.”
I hold up my glass like I’m toasting her.
“Give the people what they want. The ones who are after me. They want me weak and twitchy. I send a SWAT team to take out a storefront preacher and it comes off like a huge overreaction.”
“You get your shadow play and we get to sit in prison. Forgive me if I don’t applaud your cleverness.”
“If I thought you’d applaud me, you’d still be locked up.”
She sits on the sofa, relaxed but alert.
“Here we are. Two civilized beings having a drink. Tell me why you called me up here.”
“You know why. To make a deal. A deal where you get released with a pardon and something else.”