He woke up with a scream. For a brief moment, he looked like a man who had been drowning one moment and the next broke through the water's surface, taking his first deep, desperate gasp of air. He saw the desert and the thousands of stars and felt the cold of the night. He clutched his chest, his hands, and his face. Practically in a panic, searching for where the injuries from the torture he had endured should be, where the bullet impact should be. Nothing, no wounds, no pain, no dried or fresh blood.
A man stood at a distance, elegant, unconcerned. A perfectly tailored three-piece suit, as if he had just come from a board meeting.
"You won't find that."
the man said, as if reading his thoughts.
"Your body is new. No one will ever recognize you. A completely new body with the chance for a completely new life."
The agent sat up.
"Who... are you?"
The man smiled.
"Normally I'd make a joke here and say I'm a man of fortune and fame. But I think neither of us is really in the mood for jokes tonight. As your guide in Hell said; I am Lucifer, and I want to speak with you."
The razor-sharp memory of Hell was still vividly before the agent's eyes, and every hair on his new body stood on end.
Lucifer seemed to lose interest in him for a moment. He looked interestingly at his trouser legs and his black shoes, which had probably been as shiny as a mirror not long ago. More to himself than to the agent, he said:
"Why does it always have to be a goddamn desert or some other unpleasant place where I have to come and get one of you guys?"
He gestured theatrically at his suit and shoes:
"This is Prada, midnight blue to be exact, and those are Louboutins. Not exactly built to survive in the desert. The last one I picked up was during that godforsaken war in Vietnam, and during the rainy season at that. Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of sand, water, and Asia, but more specifically places like Bali. Where a cocktail is never far away and the bikinis are inviting. Not the fucking jungle in Vietnam."
The agent had listened to the mini-tirade, shook his head as if he had ringing in his ears, and then asked meekly:
"What do you want from me?"
"A job—I want to offer you a job."
Lucifer said lightly.
"If you do the job properly, God is willing to grant you complete forgiveness for everything you did wrong. Believe it or not, there are mitigating circumstances for what you did, even the killing. He sees what you can't even imagine—all possible timelines. The... beasts you killed in South America each had timelines where they would kill innocent people. If we take a long detour, we could say that you saved lives in the future with every death. That forgiveness also includes access to Heaven."
Against his better judgment, the agent remained silent and continued to listen to the devil.
"What you've done on Earth so far, the figures you've hunted are small game. Oh yeah, the terrorists you were chasing when you were still just yourself. The narcos you were hunting after the DEA recruited you in a very original and unorthodox way. There were some gems in there of what you people call pure evil. Believe me, unfortunately, that's human nature, no matter how violent or disgusting it may be. At the end of the day, it's one person destroying another. However, there is one category that stands out above the rest. Men and women who meddle in things that people have no business with. Unseen forces that you people would call magic. And as with everything in creation, it's dual. White and Black, good and bad. It's the dark side that sometimes worries us and needs to be eliminated where necessary before it becomes too powerful. Oh, believe me, all the stories you've read about what practitioners of black magic do are true. Even the most unforgivable thing, something that personally makes me very angry, causes me to deal with those souls or that soul personally once they arrive in Hell. Idiots who think they have to sacrifice the blood and life of an innocent baby so I will be well-disposed toward them and give them more power. Once such figures arrive in Hell, they quickly learn how well-disposed I am toward them…"
When Lucifer finished speaking, there was silence. Only the wind moved the sand.
"Why doesn't the Devil want those kinds of people on Earth?"
the agent finally asked.
"Isn't chaos, evil, and leading people away from God your thing?"
Lucifer laughed genuinely. At that moment, she appeared. She was clearly an angel because her beautiful gray wings with a golden heavenly glow remained visible. She wasn't very tall. What she was, though, was beautiful. She was wearing a cape from another era, her hair in a bun, and round glasses that suited her absurdly well.
"Azrael,"
Lucifer looked at her and sighed.
"Fashion exists. Give it a try."
With a smile, she replied:
"But this suits my job better…"
"Are you relieved of your duties part-time, Azi, or did Father forget to tell you again because his chaotic brain is busy with something else?"
"Nope, the message came through wonderfully clear this time, I must say. Although it wasn't a lengthy monologue. New assignment: help your brother and a person he has chosen, BUT stay within the boundaries."
Lucifer nodded and said,
"Yep, that's pretty much what it boils down to."
With those words, the king of Hell disappeared from the desert. The angel looked at the agent, who seemed to understand less and less, and said,
"Come." First, back to home base. You need a bath. And then we need to have a long conversation first, after which you'll understand everything much better."
Before he could react, he was standing in a penthouse high above New York.