Apocalypse Soldier by William Massa

glances at the pictures. The murderous cult had branded the Arizona church with seven sigils, each one representing a Judeo-Christian demon associated with the seven deadly sins: Lucifer for pride, Mammon for greed, Asmodeus for lust, Leviathan for envy, Beelzebub for gluttony, Satan for wrath and Belphegor for sloth. The sigils provided a better sense of the cult’s belief system, but still shed scant light on their goals.  
    Perhaps Casca was giving these murderers too much credit by assuming they had an endgame of some kind. Maybe they just liked to sign their grisly handiwork with the signatures of demonic heavy-hitters. Casca knew Talon was planning to talk with the priest who survived the massacre. Hopefully Father Cabrera could answer some of their questions.  
    The one-hour meeting felt like it was never going to end and Casca stifled a yawn on more than one occasion. He was eager to get back to his true calling. As the CEO wrapped up his projections for the coming quarter, his cell buzzed again. A text told him that Talon had talked to Cabrera and gotten a name.  
    Nicole Roberts.
    Reading this gave Casca a jolt of adrenaline and all traces of weariness vanished. His breath hitched and he pursed his lips, his whole being surging with excitement. “ The Exorcism of Nicole Roberts ” was one of the most famous cases of demon possession in recent history. They’d written a book and even made a film about the incident. To the public it was just another exorcism tale supposedly based on a true story, but people schooled in demonology regarded it as one of the few genuine cases of possession reported in the 21 st Century.  
    Armed with this new piece of information, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The cult wasn’t hunting exorcists. Father Cabrera and the other priests had been a means to an end – the cult was after Nicole Roberts, a young woman who had been saved from the darkness. A shiver spiked up his back and a feeling of dread settled in. It all made sense now.
    Casca knew what these soldier cultists were planning to do…
    And it was far worse than anything he’d previously imagined.

C HAPTER N INE

    TALON CURSED UNDER his breath as he dashed out of the hospital and jumped into the Jeep Wrangler. Running into the FBI agent was an unfortunate development. He’d hoped to stay under the radar, but now the authorities would know that a new player had entered the picture. He’d have to move fast.  
    Arid expanses of desert stretched all the way to the pale horizon as he guided his rental past Tucson’s city limits. The wheels of his vehicle whipped over the heat-cracked highway while the white-hot sun bounced off the rocks and hills in shimmering phantom waves.  
    Wiping sweat from his brow, Talon sent Casca a quick text and updated him on the situation. At least they now understood the agenda driving the cult. These cultists were looking for Nicole Roberts, who had legally changed her last name to Stivers. The attacks were beginning to make sense. The cult had targeted priests with a background in exorcisms, hoping to find the one who’d performed the ritual on Nicole. That information had never been disclosed publicly.  
    They’d started in New York, worked their way south to Miami until they found Cabrera in Arizona. According to the priest, Nicole had recently graduated from nursing school and moved to the small Mexican border town of Sierra Nogal, population 9,000, located about two-hundred miles southwest of Tucson. Cabrera was privy to all this information because he’d continued to check in on Nicole over the years. He even believed that Nicole had gone to school in Tucson to be close to him. A precaution on her end, in case the demon should return one day.
    Unfortunately, her decision to share her plans for the future had backfired.  
    Talon wondered how Nicole coped with the knowledge that evil could consume her life at a moment’s notice. A giant darkness hung over her, casting