“What about Mrs. Hump, I thought she was on the West Coast?”
Mann said, “She does some work for a women’s advocacy group out of San Francisco, but her home is in West Virginia. I think she grew up in Tybee Island.”
“Women’s advocacy?” Raphael asked, unclear on what all that header entailed. It was a broad subject.
“The Archangel is a dyed in the wool minister or rather a theologian. Not the kind who stands behind a pulpit, but the kind who works in advocating for the safety of women and children, which is how Mrs. Hump became a Technician, through him,” Mann said, watching Exit’s face for signs of understanding before he said any more.
“Since we are in a state of allocutions, I’m aware of the Archangel’s workings,” Exit said, picking up the drink. He needed to take a hard swallow before he said what he needed to say to another soul. “The Archangel rescued my sister and niece from a cult group in Ohio. They used her up pretty bad and he had to carry her out on his back. He told my niece to keep pace as he ran, which she did and is now a track star at Idaho State.”
“You sound very proud,” Mann answered, watching his face. “Finish the rest.”
“The drink or what I came to share with you?”
“Both.”
“My sister, well, she was pretty spoiled. My mother was a homemaker and our father an orthopedic surgeon,” Exit said. “I went into the military and didn’t keep up much with what happened on the home front, you know, being in the SEALs. The next thing I knew she’d married this nerdy guy named Abraham Slanecki.”
“Why do I know that name?”
“He’s the Glitter Man,” Exit said.
“Shup up! Your sister was married to the Glitter Man?”
Exit exhaled, feeling the effects of the brandy. “For a while, then she ran off to Kentucky to become a vampire. I know. I know. She was into those bleeping Anne Rice books.”
“Just as long as you know how crazy that shit sounds,” Mann chuckled.
“The vamps were no longer there, so she found another group of flower power people, but didn’t like the way the men in the compound looked at my niece and she ended up in Ohio, gangbanged by a bunch of right winged militia bastards that I’m still trying to hunt down,” Exit said.
“There’s more to this,” Mann said, getting up to pour more liquor in his glass.
“Yeah, well, I had the Glitter Man committed to a mental institution for insanity,” Exit said, chuckling. “He was acting crazy, talking about a group of mercenaries that worked out of a warehouse in Chicago, called the Technicians. He planned to sell the house to hire one or two to find his wife and daughter.”
“You had him committed, so now he also hates you,” Mann said.
“Hate may be one thing, but he’s not crazy enough to tangle with me,” Exit said, looking down. “I was sent to assess Wrong Way. I spotted him watching me.”
“Please explain why you didn’t put a bullet in him when you had the chance, Mr. Exit,” the frustration showing around the edges of Mann’s mouth.
“He’s my nieces’ father,” he said, softly. “At one point, my sister loved him enough to create a life with the man. I have no right to be judge and executioner. One bad wrong I did to him was enough. He spent five years trying to get out of that asylum. He’s only been out for a year or so.”
“Your failure to act in a time of decisiveness may prove to be the death of us all,” Mann said. “Do Kurtzwilde and Beauty know you’re related to him?”
“They do, but they don’t know it was the Archangel who moved my sister. I don’t have any contact with her in person, just to keep Rami off her scent,” he said.
“How long do you think it’s going to take him to find out Archangel is the one who hid his family?” Mann said.
“The Archangel doesn’t know anything about him and my sister. The only reason I know is, like I said, I went into that place where she was assaulted by those men, and I was about to burn the bitch of an encampment to the ground, and Archangel stopped me,” Exit said. “That’s how we met. However, he is deeply connected to the Technicians, and I wanted to know how and more about what I’m dealing with in him. He’s placed three souls in my care. I’m waiting to hear what he wants me to do with Willow and my girls.”
“He’s testing you,” Mann said, sipping slowly while looking over the rim of the glass.
“What? What kind of test?”
“He has a strict code when it comes to women and kids, especially young girls. He doesn’t like men taking advantage of any, so if you touch Willow and fornicate with her while she is in your protective care, she’s going to be yours permanently,” Mann said.
“Shut the hell up! You’re saying, if I have sex with Willow, the big bad Archangel is going force me to make an honest woman out of her?” Exit said, laughing.
“Pretty much. He placed them in your care and under your watchful eye, probably quoted some Bible verse or old Negro hymnal and made you respond as if you were in the pews on the fifth Sunday,” he said, watching Exit’s face. “Yeah, you did, didn’t cha? If you have sex with her, you’d better make it good because she’s going to be your wife. He will marry you.”
“He’s ordained to marry people too?”
“He married me and Sharon,” he said, “and he also married Zeke next door over a tablet or an internet app. Archangel actually flew to Vegas to marry Mr. Stop.”
“What about Mr. Yield? Did he marry him as well?”
“Yes, but Yield and the Archangel are lifelong friends,” Mann provided, “Yield knew better than to touch the woman before taking her to the Archangel and he didn’t. He brought Millicent to the Archangel to place her in his relocation and fresh start program, but the weather was bad and the woman had taken a liking to Yield. Why, I have no earthly idea. The man has the personality of a raging bull who knows the genus and species of animals above and below the equator.”
“He’s a scientist?”
“A doctor of letters. I think he has a couple of doctorate degrees in anthropology, archeology, and some other ology that stars with an A,” Mann said.
“Probably Archaeozoology, which is the study of relationships between humans and animals over time. That would be the only other ology that starts with an A that would fit those same parameters,” Exit said.
“How the hell do you know that?”
“I’m a highly educated man,” Exit offered behind a lopsided smile.
“And you kill for a hobby to keep from being bored?” Mann asked, turning up his upper lip.
“No, I do it because it’s what I know how to do best, and there are just some motherfuckers in this world who need to die,” Exit said. “I’m trying to put some coins in the Karma jar, but today I killed a man while he was taking a shit. I left him there, his cock and balls out, waiting to evacuate his bowels for the last time. Tell me, Mr. Mann, why do you do this?”
“No choice really,” Mann said. “When my Dad died, he owed a lot of debt to bad men who came calling. They were trying to get what he owed out of my mother. We had nothing, barely any food to eat in this place, which was just two bedrooms at the time. At 15 I learned to hunt, skin, and process a deer. I grew vegetables on the side of a mountain, and me and my Mamma learned to can foods so we would have winter stores. I booby trapped this place and took down every bastard Kurtzwilde sent this way. After a while, I was getting tired of the men coming at us during all times of the night, so I paid him a visit. I left a nice note in the arm of his favorite chair and another in the nightstand by his bed. He cut me a check to take care of me and Mamma, and asked if I wanted more work. Oscar, his thug of a brother, showed up and put me in the field.”