“Might have known you’d find a way to be here for the end, and grab all the glory for yourself.”

“That’s right,” I said. “Because I’m so like you, Harry.”

“Boys, boys,” said Molly. “Put them away or I’ll cut them off. We are on something of a deadline here . . . Truman’s going to take us to the tower.”

“You do know he’s infected?” said Roger.

“I used to be,” Truman said haughtily. “I destroyed it with my augmented brain.”

“Actually, no,” said Roger, looking thoughtfully at Truman. “With my amazing demon X-ray vision, I can See it’s still in there. Hell, I can practically smell it, it’s so advanced. It just let you think you’d destroyed it, so it could grow and influence you undetected. Sorry. There’s never any cure, once you’re infected.”

“Never?” said Molly.

“Not a chance in Hell,” said Roger, still looking at Truman.

Truman started to say something, and then stopped. He looked distracted, as though listening to some inner voice. And then he looked at us, looking at him, and his face firmed.

“Kill me,” he said. “I will die a human being, and myself; not some damned alien thing. Kill me!”

“Glad to,” said Roger Morningstar.

He leaned over the desk, grabbed the steel halo connecting Truman’s implanted spikes, and ripped it away. Truman screamed piteously, in pain and shock. Roger grabbed the spikes and pulled them, out one by one. They came out in sudden jerks, inch by inch, under his demonic strength, accompanied by gouting blood and bits of brain, and the sound of cracking, splintering bone. Truman was screaming constantly by now, an almost animal-like sound, his arms flailing helplessly, but none of us moved forward to stop Roger. I wanted to look away, but I made myself watch it all as punishment. By the time it was over, Truman was slumped forward over his desk, his head torn apart, twitching slowly as the last of his life went out of him. Roger studied the last spike closely, as though it might hold secrets, then just shrugged and tossed it aside.

Harry glared at him. “There was no need for it to be that brutal!”

“Oh, no need,” said Roger. “But it was fun.” He smiled at me. “You can’t tell us you never dreamed of doing that, Eddie.”

“No,” I said. “I never dreamed of doing anything like that, hellspawn. ”

“Oh well,” said Roger. “No point crying over spilled brains.”

“I could kill the hellspawn for you, if you like,” said Mr. Stab.

He might have been discussing the weather. Roger started to say something, looked at Mr. Stab, and thought better of it.

“Thanks for the thought,” I said. “But no.”

“We have to get to the tower,” said Molly, her voice cold and focused. “It’s not far. I can feel its presence with my magics.”

“Then lead the way,” I said.