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Sorry about the absence. I hope to be back by September 15 October 6, with a full explanation. Or, at least, a decent excuse.
Nicoletta had gotten everyone drinks. Beer for Banny, light beer for Lissa, a martini made famous by 007 for Antonio, a bowl of scotch for Mr. Fwuzzums, and a white grape juice for herself. She would have taken much less time, but she'd accepted Banny's offer to help. Luckily Mr. Fwuzzums was able to lick up the spills. While Nicoletta blotted her shirt and put on a dry one Antonio gave Banny and Lissa enough background about demons so they would understand (If Banny could understand). Then he told the foursome what had happened at the bar.
Nicoletta nodded. "I suspected a gonner worked out of a bar in Boston. I'd also been wondering about reduced demon activity."
"That was me," Antonio said proudly.
"No," said Mr. Fwuzzums. "She knew you were in town, and had taken your presence into account."
"Demons are voluntarily reducing their actions. I think they're gearing up for something big."
"And if the obvious implication is correct, if a gonner is organizing, training demons, I do not need to tell you the potential threat." After a long blank silence, "Apparently I do need to tell you the potential threat."
Antonio said, "Hey, I'm no expert on gonners like I am on... well, everything else."
And Lissa said, "Don't look at Banny and me like that, dogbreath. This is all still brand new to us."
Nicoletta took a sip of white grape juice. "Demons are excellent fighters. Strong, agile, paralyzing poison in their claws. And they're all but unkillable if you don't damage the brain. They would make wonderful shock troops."
Antonio agreed, "Yeah, they would, but they're crap on discipline. I'd rather face fifty demons than one or two. And I should know, I've done both. Brilliantly."
"And no demon has emerged capable of leading the others. Gonners, on the other hand, though apparently easy enough to kill, are-"
"Easy? Easy?!?" Lissa stood up indignantly, handed her nearly-full glass to Banny. "You try fighting a fire-spitting muscle-bound gonner in a room full of toxic chemicals, all the while your clothes are making crude comments about you! See what you call easy then!" She sat back down, took back her glass. It was empty. She glared at Banny. "I'll get you some more beer, dear," Banny said, and Nicoletta reached out for the glass. "No! I will get it." She left the room, glad she prevented another mess, and wondering if Lissa might not have a problem, she drank that beer down so quickly.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fwuzzums continued. "I admit our intelligence re gonners pales in comparison to the literature available on demons. Regardless, we do know that gonners are organized and disciplined. Though they rarely work well with their own kind, they can lead. It is just barely possible that a gonner could build a demon army."
Antonio caught his breath. This was a nightmare. Not the 'Cherry Yogurt' nightmare, but almost as bad. "I saw more than a hundred demons in that bar. Three hundred demons, she could take over Boston."
"But not keep it," Mr. Fwuzzums said. "This is not some small city in the year 900 she could hold with no outsider knowing. The Army would intervene, and even though they don't know how to fight demons, their weapons would still destroy the brains along with the rest of the bodies. And either you, Antonio, would tell them how to kill the demons, or they'd discover it on their own. Probably the latter. No, she's more likely building to one grand stroke."
"Ten thousand organized cooperating demons," the Demon Tracker said. "That would be enough to take the world, wouldn't it."
Banny joined in. "But we don't know what other resources she's got, right? I mean, Chuckie's big thing was that he was in a good position, he had connections, other gonners owed him." A little nervously. "We don't know what she's got, what gonner powers or abilities she's got, how many gonners will support her and in what way. We don't know what financial and material real world power she has. And maybe she's got other mythical things on her side, like werewolves or fairies or elks." Everyone (except Nicoletta) stared at Banny. "What? What did I say?"
"Something surprisingly intelligent," Mr. Fwuzzums said, his voice filled with awe and amazement. "Excluding the part about the elks."
"Hey, like Lissa said, we're still new at this. I mean, a week ago, I didn't know that demons and talking dogs were real. So how would I know whether or not elks are real?"
Nicoletta thought for a moment. "Depending on her resources, perhaps one thousand to five thousand demons. That would be enough for her to take, and keep, and rule, the world."
Go to Chapter 27: Meetings and Greetings
Go to Chapter 29: A Sudden Need For A Secret Identity
Bring your friends into the Gonspiracy! Tell them about
Banny
And
Lissa
and get their eternal gratitude, and a chance to win $10,000 and a Sony DVD Player, because using your friends for your own personal enrichment, and having them owe you for it, is the gonner way!
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Dave Lerner Stories (note that to use the mailto you'll need to edit it in your 'send to' window. I apologize, but I've already lost one address to spam, and if I get inundated again, I won't have time to read your letters.) - All Rights Reserved. Note that this includes images of the Tricryptogon, and the name "Tricryptogon".