Free The Adventures of Gravedigger by Barry Reese

one of us.” To Charity, he said, “Your friends are doing this
of their own free will.”
    Charity looked away. She hadn’t really thought of
Mitchell as being a friend and that realization shamed her. He’d been very good
to her and she certainly needed his counsel.
    Max drew up a chair and sat down, resting his
elbows on his knees as he leaned forward. “While you were out, Charity, I did
some digging around on those objects that Meeks stole. I think I have an idea
what he might be up to.”
    “Let’s hear it,” Mitchell prodded.
    “Both the ring and the urn have histories that
suggest they are repositories for sorcerous energies. I think Meeks is going to
draw the energy from the both of them and use them to open a gateway.”
    Li set aside her tea. Her eyes were wide with
curiosity. “A gateway to where? Hell?”
    Charity barely hid her smirk. Li actually sounded
like she was hoping for some terrifying reply to come from Max.
    “Not quite, but close. According to the
information Mitchell and I were able to piece together, Meeks has been
collecting rare artifacts and books related to a group of entities known as The
Great Old Ones and The Outer Gods. This jibes with what Goldstein told Charity
– that Meeks has possession of The Necronomicon . I think that Meeks is
going to attempt to summon one or more of them to Sovereign.”
    “Hasn’t he ever read Faust ?” Mitchell
asked. “Deals with the devil never work out well.”
    “That never seems to stop men like Meeks,” Max
countered.
    Charity drummed her fingers on the armrest of her
chair. “Okay. So, it’s like Josef said… I need to kill him before he can do
that.” She looked at Max with challenge in her eyes, as if she expected him to
try to talk her out of her plan. To her surprise, he nodded in agreement.”
    “We need to move quickly… before he vanishes
again.”
    Charity stood up. “He may already be gone.”
    “I doubt it. If he’s preparing a major ritual like
this, it’s not like he can just throw his items into a bag and do it somewhere
else. It takes time to prepare. He might still go on the run but I guarantee
you that he hasn’t done it yet,” Max said.
    “I’ll go get dressed.” Charity headed for the door
but stopped when she felt Max’s hand on her wrist.
    With a lowered voice, he said, “Let me come with
you.”
    “Are you going to help me zip up?” she asked,
teasing him.
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    “I’ll have Mitchell in the car. He can provide
backup if I need it.” Her eyes searched his own, aware that he was close to
revealing… something… to her. Again, she thought about the way he moved, the
dangerous flex of his muscles, and she wondered about what he did when he wasn’t
at board meetings.
    “Let’s go in the other room,” he said.
    Charity agreed, looking back at Li. “Stay here
until I’ve dealt with Meeks, okay? I don’t want anything happening to you.”
    Li beamed. “A big house like this, stocked with good
looking men? You’re going to have to throw me out!”
     
    ***
     
    “So what’s the big secret?” Charity asked as Max
followed into her room. She stepped behind a changing screen and slid her dress
to the floor. Her Gravedigger uniform and weapons were waiting for her and she
began to change while Max took a second, obviously deciding how to approach the
subject.
    “Have you heard of The Peregrine?”
    Charity looked over the top of the screen. He was
looking away from her, obviously respecting her modesty by not staring at her
silhouette. “Is that you?”
    “Well… yes. Josef knew that.”
    Charity finished dressing in silence, stepping out
only after she’d pulled her mask on and adjusted her hood. “So you’re just as
crazy as I am, playing dress-up and fighting criminals.”
    “Crazier, probably. I have visions of the future,
too.” He went on to describe what he’d seen of her own fate – of a wave of
gore-covered demons, of a powerful man dressed in