Heretic, page 1
The Tainted Wars
Heretic
W. J. Grupe Jr
Twin Pines Publishing
Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including the use of information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Requests for permissions should be addressed to Twin Pines Publishing via email to wgrupe@wjgrupejr.com
Copyright © W. J. Grupe Jr., 2024
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is coincidental
ISBN (Hardback) 978-1-952662-08-9
ISBN (Paperback) 978-1-952662-07-2
ISBN (Ebook) : 978-1-952662-06-5
For Luca.
Through your eyes I can see a great big beautiful tomorrow.
The Tainted Wars
Heretic
Chapter One
“The cliffs of insanity!”
The Princess Bride - 1987
“Chris are you sure this is a good idea?” Marie asked.
“Of course,” I replied. “What could go wrong?”
“With you? Anything.”
The wind picked up straight into my face and I had to turn. “You risk your life all the time.”
“To prevent drugs from getting on the street so people don’t do things like this.”
“Yes, but they don’t have superpowers to heal them.”
“Is she trying to talk you out of it?” Adam walked up behind me.
I tilted the phone away from my mouth and turned to my fellow Bishop. The title identified us not as a Roman Catholic priest of rank, but as a member of a secret supernatural sect dating back to the dawn of humankind. So we’ve got that going for us. “Yeah, she said it was a stupid idea.”
“She’s not wrong.” A hawk cried out not too far away as if accenting his point.
I stuck my tongue out at him. “You’re no help.”
“Not trying to be.”
I talked back into the phone. “Alright, I’m going now.”
“Okay, have fun storming the castle.”
I hung up smiling and put my phone away. My new girlfriend had a tendency to try to dissuade me from doing things she saw as unnecessarily risky endeavors. As a DEA agent, I would have expected her to be more adventurous.
“You ready?” I asked him.
“Not really.”
“Then why did you agree?”
“You wouldn’t shut up about it.”
I zipped up my sleeves, stepping up to the edge. Adam did the same, shaking his head.
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One!”
We jumped off the cliff. The wingsuits caught the air as we started soaring down the mountain. The ground streaked by, becoming a familiar blur. After about fifteen seconds, trees started dotting the landscape. A few at first, which increased quickly, turning into a forest. We were skimming the top branches consistently by the height of a tall house, as the slope of the ground matched our descent angle. You can’t fly with a wingsuit, nor are you gliding. Your plunge to the earth is simply elongated. For every fifty feet you drop, you move two-hundred feet laterally. The whole process gives you a feeling of flying.
After a few glorious seconds like this, the ground dropped and we were out in open air. I looked behind me at Adam and saw him grinning. How could he not? If I wanted to turn, I tilted my body. To slow myself I arched my back. There were no handles to pull, no motor driving me, nothing to sit on. It was just me riding the wind. Off to the left, I saw my objective. A large outcropping jetted out. The center of it had fallen away a millennium ago, leaving a gap about thirty feet wide and a few hundred long. I aimed towards the fissure.
“Chris, what are you doing?” Adam’s voice buzzed in my ear through the com, just audible over the rushing of the air.
“I’ve got to do it.”
“No, you really don’t.”
“You only live once.”
“Yeah, and you only die once as well. I’m not sure even we can survive face planting into a mountain going eighty miles an hour.”
I kept on my heading, more determined. “Relax, I’ve got my helmet on.”
“It won’t stop you from becoming a human pancake.” Adam sounded like a parent trying to explain to a child that the stove was hot.
“Then why did I wear it again?”
“You’re not funny.”
“You can’t really believe that.”
“Chris veer off.” An edge of panic was creeping into his voice. I appreciated the concern for my safety, but no one was talking me out of this.
The mountain side rapidly approached. The gap somehow looked narrower than it did in pictures.
“Chris, shit!”
“Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby.”
“Chris!”
I rocketed at the cliff face at inhuman speed, even from my heightened perspective. One second I had elbow room to spare, the next I was surrounded by rock, then out in the open again. The flush of adrenaline had me buzzing, and it was all I could do to not attempt a barrel roll. I arced towards Adam as we came within sight of our landing area, a large clearing where Marie and Jelena waited for us. We both leaned back, slowing our forward momentum, then pulled our chutes. There was an intense quiet that permeated the seconds before the silk caught the air, then a loud pop almost like a gunshot. My whole body jerked with the dramatic deceleration.
Drifting slowly down, I tugged hard on the maneuvering cords and landed lightly, then turned and pulled in my chute.
Marie stepped up; giving me a hug and a kiss. “That was pretty impressive. Crazy but impressive.”
I smiled at her. “If that impressed you, just wait for tonight.”
“Another attempt to beat the wing record at the Buffalo Lodge?”
“I can do it this time. I only missed by four.”
She kissed me again, leaned back, and looked into my eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
I was going to pull her in for another embrace, but Jelena stepped up. As soon as Marie had stood clear, she punched me in the stomach.
“Estúpido estás loco?”
“Glad to see you, too.” I grunted. She knew I couldn’t prepare myself for fear of activating my powers. If that happened, my skin would turn to iron and she would break her hand. Both she and Marie were human, with no additives. Unless you considered Jelena’s other worldly ability to shoot a wart off a frog’s ass at six hundred yards. I’d hired the former marine sniper as the first major violation of my career as a Bishop. Up till then we didn’t solicit help from those they considered unblessed.
“What was the point of that stunt?” she asked.
“It was fun.” My voice was still laced with pain.
“And do you think it would be fun for us scraping you off the mountainside?”
“Why are you yelling at me? Marie wasn’t upset. Why are you?”
“Are you that thick? Just because she doesn’t yell about it doesn’t mean she’s not feeling it. You are not immortal and you have a job to do. Remember the Tainted? The—” She wiggled her fingers in the air like she was playing the piano, then turned to Adam. “What’s the word?”
“Puppet masters.”
“Si. Puppet masters. You killed one, starting a shit storm all over the world.”
“Which is why we came here,” I countered, getting defensive. “To get away from all that for a few moments. To forget for a time that my actions have made everything worse.” I stalked a few paces away.
“We are barely hanging on with you. What would we do without you?”
I faced all of them. “I don’t know what I’m doing, okay? I said it. I’m clueless back there.” Stepping forward again, I stood toe to toe with her. She didn’t retreat, staring up at me with a look that made me think sparks were going to shoot from her eyes. I pointed at the mountain without breaking eye contact. “But that! That I know. That I can do.”
“They taught you to have a death wish in the Rangers?”
“Three jumps a day for a month. I am more in control hurtling down the earth than I am battling the Tainted and their minions.” I looked over at Marie. “I just needed to feel in command again.”
She smiled at me. “I know, but we’ve been here a week.” Looking closer, I could see the concern etched in her face.
Jelena yanked my head back to her. “Now that we have settled that, can we get out of this friggin jungle?”
“Forest,” I corrected.
“What the fuck is the difference? There are a shitload of trees and nowhere to get good tacos.”
Marie stepped up and wrapped her arms around me. “Maybe going back is a good idea.”
Adam added. “It’s the right thing to do.”
I took a deep breath of clean mountain air and realized they weren’t wrong. I nodded. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Two
“You aint so bad.”
Rocky III - 1982
“This was not my fault.” I stared down the hulk of a man in front of me. I wondered if he had been accidentally shrink-wrapped into a sack of potatoes. I had to look up at him and for me, that is saying something.
“How is it not your fault?” Marie stood ne xt to me, holding her DEA issued Glock pointed at the monster. “He was dozing. I warned you not to wake him up. Don’t wake the sleeping giant. Isn’t that one of the Bishop rules?”
“Yes, but only after climbing a beanstalk. Did you see a beanstalk?” I looked around to further make my point. “Nope. Also, let me remind you that had we still been in the woods, the likelihood of running into a supernaturally drug enhanced pro wrestler would be dramatically reduced.”
“You’re an ass.”
“You would think you could come up with something new.”
“Fine, you’re a giant ass.”
I shrugged. “Not original, but topically relevant.”
“Can you focus on the task at hand?”
The big man shifted his gaze between us, not sure who he wanted to pummel first. “Hey, Hodor!” I pulled his attention to me. “Where are the drugs? Once we get them, we will be on our way and you can return to your nap.”
He roared and ran at me.
As he got in close, I side stepped with my left foot, ducked under his grab, then stood up quickly. I let the momentum launch him over my back. With the added force from my boon, the giant sailed across the gym and into the boxing ring.
“You did that on purpose just so you could get in the ring with him,” Marie accused.
“Yeah, I made sure I was in the perfect position and goaded him so I could put him in that exact spot.” Not for nothing, but if I could have, I definitely would have. I climbed into the ring as the big man got to his feet and faced me. We started circling each other; knees bent, hunched over, hands in claws like a scene out of the World Wrestling Federation. He must have felt more comfortable than I was because a smile crept onto his face. I went into a blur—when Bishops move faster than humanly possible—and tried to get behind him. He backhanded me when I moved in close and the blow tossed me into one corner in a heap.
This man’s powers, unlike mine, were derived from a drug laced with the blood of a fallen Bishop. Another tale that you can research on your own.
In my upside-down position, I watched as the hulk-moron looked out at nonexistent fans and raised his hands in triumph. He pounded both fists in the air, then started flexing his muscles.
Marie stepped up next to the elevated ring, playing the role of my manager. “You good?”
I righted myself to sit on the correct part of my anatomy. “Oh yeah.”
“Let me guess, you’ve got him right where you want him.”
I gave her a side eye. “Of course.”
“Getting bitch slapped was the plan?”
“Of course, I’m lulling him into a false sense of security.”
Marie repeated the last four words in stereo with me, nodding with a corner of her mouth clenched. “How about you get up off your ass and finish this?”
“See, I knew you were always in my corner.”
“Geek.”
I was about to get back up when rock-brain grabbed my foot and dragged me into the center of the ring.
“Not cool, man!” I yelled. “I didn’t hear no bell.”
He ignored me. I planted my other foot and launched myself over his head. He turned to see what I was doing, and I ended up landing behind him. I was in a playful mood, shocking I know, so I tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around, I landed a powered up punch to the chest with an accompanying dramatic foot stomp. It staggered him for a moment and when he came back in to grab me, I hooked one arm between his legs. Draping the other over his shoulder, I body slammed him.
The force of the supernaturally enhanced move sent out a concussive wave so that the heavy bags swung and rattled the metal weights, sounding like a cacophony of gongs. Not wanting to take any chances, I followed it up with a flying elbow to the chest. I didn’t put everything I had into it, but it was a lot. The give in the floor of the ring caused his whole body to lift a few inches before slamming down again. Without hesitation, I hooked my arm around the back of his knee and hauled his bulk up so there was nothing touching the mat except his shoulders. With my free hand, I slapped the mat three times then released him, leaping up and performing my own celebratory dance where I struck a few poses and growled for effect.
Marie must have climbed in at some point because she was in the corner with her arms crossed. “Are you done?”
I stood up straight, looked around, then down at the now unconscious man, and nodded. “Yup, I’m good.”
She threw me a small pen injector. I caught it and removed the cap with my teeth. Stepping over the giant, shoved it into the muscle between his neck and shoulder. It was our version of Naloxone that Dorothy, the Covenant’s cranky ninety-year-old lab tech, had created to counteract the tainted drugs.
Recapping it, I tossed the pen across the room into the small garbage.
“You are a showoff. You know that, right?”
I mimed shock. “How could you say that? I am simply doing my part in this epic battle against the evil immortal Tainted who...” The rest of what I was saying was lost in Marie’s kiss.
When she finally pulled back, she narrowed her eyes. “You also talk too much as well.”
“Now that I’ve heard.”
I leaned in for more.
There was a groan from behind me. “What happened? How did I get here?”
I turned. “Dude, timing.”
Marie smacked me in the arm then extended her hand towards the man, now sitting up in the middle of the ring.
“Fine.” I climbed up while hanging onto the top rope. “The drugs you have been taking were laced with a deadly chemical. We saved your life. Now, where are they?”
“I don’t take drugs.”
“The fugue state you were in would disagree,” Marie said.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Let me guess, steroids?”
“Uhhhh.”
Marie flashed her badge. “I don’t want you to struggle too hard, so I’ll read it for you. It says DEA, which stands for—”
“I know.”
“Good, then you know the only thing that can get you unscrewed is for you to tell me where the drugs are, and where you got them from.”
“Hey, that reminds me of a joke.”
Marie ignored me. “What’s your name?”
The big guy rubbed his neck. “André.”
“Are you serious? Marie, he’s André the…”
“Yes, I get it.”
I asked, “Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?”
“What?”
Apparently, Andre hadn’t seen one of my favorite movies of all time. I was very disappointed.
“Where are the drugs?” Marie continued prodding like I wasn’t there.
He hesitated and I just couldn’t resist. “Did I make it clear that your job is at stake?”
Marie pulled her Glock and pointed it at me. “Speak again, and I’ll shoot you.”
I pantomimed zipping my lips.
“André,” Marie said. “The drugs.”
Whether it was Marie’s badge, her gun, or not being able to stand any more Princess Bride quotes, he gave us the drugs and his dealer’s info. I followed Marie out the door, but not before peaking back in for a last dig. “I’m going to have to find myself a new giant, that’s all.”
Chapter Three
“If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer.”
Miller High Life - 1979
We returned to the Covenant house in Miami, Florida. It was a five-acre complex containing three buildings: a large garage, a dilapidated building in the back, and a church. The latter stood in the frontmost area and was charming, but minimalistic. Mass was still held in the front section, but the larger add-on was where we plotted all of our secret defensive operations against the Tainted.
I had been in this little slice of supernatural-addict-infested paradise just shy of six months. We had weeded out most of them since we reclaimed Kristina. She was the Bishop who we had believed to be dead. Instead, she was captured, tortured, and converted. It was her blood that had been laced into illegal narcotics to give normal people inhuman abilities and urges. Well, I guess the impulses were theirs, just magnified about a thousand times.
