Necessary Evil and the Greater Good - A novel

Necessary Evil and the Greater Good - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Once Upon a Town

They stood at the top of a tall hill overlooking the city of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. A water tower decorated with a typically Southwestern motif of eagle feathers, dream catchers, and Kokopelli in pastel colors stood on the hill with them, watching the sun rise in the east. Down amongst the small, blandly colored houses and the sickly beige dirt roads, it was a calm and still somewhat cool morning. Up on the hill, there seemed to be a permanent gusting of wind that sent hot air into everyone's nostrils and was already whipping up a small swirl of sand around them.

They weren't up there to enjoy the view; they were trying to find a Nazi. Not just any Nazi, though—the Nazi.

"You could have told me that your forgery artist and hacker extraordinaire was Hitler," Leviticus whispered to Mestoph.

Mestoph stopped squinting at the houses down below and stared at Leviticus blankly.

"Would you have gone along with it if I had?"

When Leviticus just sighed, Mestoph smiled. "That's what I thought," he said, and he went back to squinting at the grid of streets below them.

Considering most of Truth or Consequences fit in a two mile by one mile rectangle, comprised of a compact grid of streets, and that the view from the hill gave them sight of most of it, it should have been easy to spot the Nazi house from a couple hundred drably painted houses with nothing more than rocks and cacti for decoration.

"Would it be too simple to just look him up in the phone book?" asked Stephanie. "It's not like there's a bunch of Adolph Hitlers out there."

Leviticus and Mestoph looked at Stephanie, clueless.

"Don't know about phone books, huh? How long have you guys been dead?" asked Stephanie.

"About two thousand years," said Leviticus.

"I was never alive," said Mestoph. Leviticus looked sharply at him. They had decided not to mention that Mestoph was from Hell, so he needed to be careful of what he said about his history. "And we know about phone books, we just don't really expect someone to list themselves as Adolf Hitler. Not sure if you know this, but he's not exactly a well-liked guy."

"Then why do you think his house is going to look like Nazi Headquarters? Is he supposed to have a cactus in the shape of a swastika?" asked Stephanie.

Mestoph looked like he was about to say something but he stopped, leaving his mouth hanging open. He had finally seen the flaw in his logic, and although he hated being wrong, he didn't really have a comeback. Leviticus started laughing; softly at first, but then it became a loud and obnoxious guffaw that sent a couple of nearby birds flying in retreat. Mestoph shot Leviticus a dirty look.

"Oh come on, Mestoph. You've got to admit she's right," said Leviticus.

He didn't have to admit that she was right. Even if she was. But regardless, he did have to admit that looking for a Nazi from a hilltop wasn't the most efficient way to go about it. He had avoided calling Hitler, even though he had taken Atreyus' phone and dumped his own, for fear of St. Peter getting wise. Out of alternatives, Mestoph finally gave in and dialed up the Fuhrer. Fifteen minutes later, they were walking up a broken sidewalk to a small, pale green ranch house. It was just one drab house amongst dozens, with only its choice of (drab) color separating it from the others. Like all the houses in the area, it had accumulated a thick coat of fine sandy dirt on the walls and windows. The lawn was mostly desert rocks and pea gravel except for a single large boulder next to an extremely stout poplar tree. There were also a few cacti planted throughout the yard. Leviticus tapped Mestoph on the shoulder and pointed to a corner of the rock-strewn lawn at one in particular. When he had spotted what Leviticus was pointing at, he laughed triumphantly and then tapped Stephanie on the shoulder in turn and pointed. Marcus and Sir Regi looked over as well and saw a cactus in the shape of a swastika.