"John warned that Change)" was one of the fiercest and most warlike of all Santeria gods and that he would not easily be consigned to his casket. He therefore suggested that all of the remaining volunteers should go through the ceremony of possession, which would give them the combined strength to restrain Major Shroud while he was thus imprisoned.
"I was very reluctant to approve this course of action, since there was obviously a risk that the other eleven men would also be possessed forever by their respective gods, and represent eleven times more danger to the Federal forces and to those around us as Major Shroud. John, however, assured me that this was unlikely. He said that Major Shroud had probably committed an act of vengeance sometime in his past life which had made him especially susceptible to Chango's possession. Evil, he said, would always give a home to eviclass="underline" '
Decker finished his beer. "So that's what they did? They all got themselves possessed? And they buried him alive?"
265
Captain Morello nodded. "Lieutenant General Longstreet says that he fought against their influence like a devil out of hell. There was lightning, and thunder, and several officers and privates were killed or injured. But between them the eleven other volunteers were strong enough to overpower him and lift him into his casket. It was like 'eleven columns of dazzling light, with a billowing cloak of absolute darkness in the arms.' They filled up the casket with all the apples and herbs that were required to make an offering to Chango. Then the lid was welded shut by the same marine engineers who had worked on the Hunsley—the hand-powered submarine that the Confederacy had built in their attempt to break the Union blockade of Chesapeake Bay."
She read again from Lieutenant General Longstreet's diaries.
"That night, the casket was hurried by gun carriage to Richmond, and at midnight put aboard the frigate Nathan Cooper to be taken as far out toward Chesapeake Bay as was possible, having regard to the Union blockade, and dropped at the greatest possible depth.
"Unfortunately, the Richmond waterfront suffered that night a heavy barrage from the enemy's naval guns, and before she could even be untied from the dock at Shockoe Creek, the Nathan Cooper was struck amidships by a cannonball which sank her immediately, along with eighteen of her crew. I am sad for their unfortunate demise, but at least I am safe now in the knowledge that Major Shroud will be incarcerated in his casket forever underwater, and will never again represent a threat to humankind.
"I myself am overwhelmed with remorse for my misjudgment, and for having been tempted to take the wrong path, because it is only through the will of the Lord God
266
Almighty that righteousness may prevail; and if the Lord God Almighty considers that I was gravely mistaken in appealing to a heathen religion for assistance in our time of extreme trouble, then I can only beg Him for forgiveness, and hope that He will understand that I was looking only to save the Confederacy, and its commitment to glory, and to honor, and to God."
267
CHAPTER THIRTY
The telephone warbled right next to his ear and made him jerk. He was hunched on the couch with his coat over his shoulders. He had started off the night in bed, but as soon as he had fallen asleep he was overwhelmed by nightmares of fire and screaming and men made of nothing but bones, and so he had camped the night in the living room, with the lights on.
"Lieutenant?"
Decker stiffly sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Hicks? What the hell time is it?"
"Seven-twenty. I'm haven't left home yet, but I've been checking my e-mail."
"What do you want? A citation?"
"I had a message from public records in Charlottesville. Alison Maitland's maiden name was Alison Bell, but her mother was the great-granddaughter of Lieutenant Henry Stannard, of the Second Company, Richmond Howitzers."
Decker reached over to the coffee table and picked up the
268
transcript of Lieutenant General Longstreet's private diary. "Bingo. Lieutenant H.N. Stannard was one of the Devil's Brigade, too. He was possessed by Oya, who was syncretized with Saint Anne of Ephesus. Father Thomas guessed right. Saint Anne was supposed to have been a virgin, but she became pregnant with a child whom she claimed was 'a gift from God.' Her child was killed in the womb and then she was beheaded.
"This is what our perpetrator is doing, sport, beyond any shadow of a doubt. For some reason he's taking his revenge on the descendants of every man who served in the Devil's Brigade, and he's killing them in the same way that their syncretized saints were martyred. Saint Anne, stabbed and beheaded; Saint Erasmus, disemboweled; and so on. And he's doing it in the same order as their saints' days."
"So what was your great-great-grandfather's saint, Lieutenant?"
"Hold on . . . here it is. He was Osun, the messenger of immediate danger, whatever that means. He was worshiped in Santeria under the name of Saint James Intercisus."
"So whatever happened to Saint James what's-hisface . . . the same thing's going to happen to you?"
"I guess so. The trouble is, I don't know what happened to him."
"I'm still on the Internet.. I can check it out for you. Want to give me that name again?"
"In-ter-cis-us. Listen, I'm urgently in need of some coffee. I'll see you at nine, okay? If Ayula Adebolu is right, Chango wants this to be my last day on earth. I'm just going to make damn sure that it isn't."
"Okay, Lieutenant. Be cool."
Decker took a shower. Then he brewed himself a double-strength espresso. He dressed in a dark gray shirt with a ma‑
269
roon silk necktie and black pants. As he flicked up his hair into his usual pompadour, he suddenly stopped and stared at himself. There were damson-colored circles under his eyes that matched his necktie, and the lines in his cheeks looked as if they had been engraved in his skin. What if this was his last day on earth? What if his visions and nightmares were all going to come true? There was no evidence yet that Moses Adebolu had been killed by anything other than a freak lightning strike, but supposing he had been incinerated by Chango, because Chango was angry at him for offering Decker his help?
Aluya had seemed to believe that was what had happened to him; and Cathy had warned him again and again, even at the risk of suffering her killing over and over again, for all eternity.
Up until now, in spite of everything he had witnessed, he hadn't been able to believe that he was in any real danger. Ghosts and visions were frightening, but after all they were only ghosts and visions. But he thought about Lieutenant General Longstreet's account of men being "shoveled wholesale into the fires of hell" and for the first time in his career he felt genuinely unsettled. He had coped in his career with attacks with broken bottles, knives, and shotguns. Once a half-ton block of concrete had been dropped onto the roof of his car. But there nothing so disturbing as knowing that somebody evil and angry was coming for him, somebody he might not even be able to see, and that he was helpless to stop him.