The Path to Mephistopheles by Caspar Ambrose (best non fiction books to read txt) 📕

a full day, leaving him plenty of time. In the morning he would get in touch with his people at Narita and get them looking out for her. Dastun would no doubt have a tail on her as well.

He could tell he had peaked Stall’s curiosity. For as long as he’d known the man he had found that a good story never failed to captivate his attention. His listening skills were one of the main qualities which had attracted Thornburg the most, and the reason which Thornburg found him a good confidant.

“Have any of the other ones come after you?” Stall’s asked.

“Not to date. Only one of them has even made a worthwhile attempt at escaping me. A man I met while traveling in South America. He was employed as a farmer on a coca field. The man spent his two years living modestly and transferring his credit into assets on the foreign exchange market. Towards the end of those two years he liquidated all of these assets and completely vanished from the grid. Dastun found him living in a small town in Croatia about one year later.”

“I see Dastun is still serving you well. Fancy having a friend that close, I’m sure it makes things much easier.”

“Dastun is the best at what he does. He’d be dead by now if he wasn’t.” Thornburg handed his glass over to Stall’s who refilled it. This was only the second one for each man. They had been drinking slow with each of them immersed in their part of the story, one the teller and one the listener.

“So I assume you took her in at the airport?”

“No, I let her be,” Thornburg took a sip from the glass. “It mattered not why she was in Tokyo. At least that’s what I thought at the time.”

“So she was there to kill you?”

“No, her motives were more cunning than just killing me. I think she understood that she would never be able to accomplish that, she probably even suspected that I had put a tail on her. But she was cleverer than both Dastun and me. I would find this out three weeks after she arrived in Tokyo, that’s when she made her move.”

He had been sitting at one of the patio tables in front of Ristorante L'Osteria, about a five minute walk from his hotel in Roppongi Hills. It was quite amazing what they had done with the development, and not a person on the planet could argue that the Mori Tower was anything if not a feat of architectural mastery. It far outshone any of the surrounding areas of Roppongi and was a truly impressive example of new urbanism, a movement Thornburg greatly appreciated, especially in a city as crowded and expansive as Tokyo.

The size of the city and the confusing nature of its layout all led Thornburg to make it a home while observing the people he made contracts with. He had taken into account that one day one of the people he had made a contract with might actually come to kill him in an attempt to forgo their impending demise. So far he hadn’t had to worry about this issue, but now he was glad he had made the decision. The streets were not labeled and with Tokyo being designed in the old days to confuse any invading army’s, he was confident that it would be a good place to get lost in the event that he was being tailed, such was the current situation.

Dastun had warned him that as soon as Jenny arrived at Narita three weeks ago she had gotten the slip on his people on the inside. Even though Dastun had lost her, he was adamant that she would be heading Thornburg’s direction. To this end Thornburg had been on the lookout the past three weeks, watching over his shoulder and making sure he didn’t stick to any particular routine. With the abundance of shops and restaurants in the area, it was a good place to keep variety. He had even gone so far as to move to a different room in the hotel registered under an alias. He had kept the room he had previously occupied simply to confuse anybody inquiring as to his room number.

He had yet to pick up on a tail. However as he sat at the table in the warm Tokyo weather, he began to feel otherwise. The feeling someone was following him had been present throughout the day causing a certain level of paranoia on his part. To this end Thornburg had been extra cautious in his observations of the surrounding people and the traffic which passed him. Even with all his precautions he had been unable to reveal a tail.

It was much to his surprise then when after about thirty minutes of sitting at the table, an extremely attractive young dirty blonde sat at the table in front of him. She looked quite different than when Thornburg had seen her on the London Bridge, a great deal more attractive but her eyes also spoke volumes more than they had that day. In them shone the determination which had caused Thornburg to single her out for a contract.

“Lovely day is it not Jenny?”

“Quite,” her eyes were defiant. “Not surprised at seeing me, are you Harry Thornburg?”

“It would seem you’ve been doing some snooping of your own,” Thornburg was rather amused at this. She was certainly something special, if nothing else. “I’m sure you had a great deal of trouble finding anything beyond that that name, you see I’ve been in this game a fair deal longer than you have.”

Thornburg sipped his wine, a 1985 Chateau Margaux which he had found to be quite exquisite from the first sip. The arrival of his unexpected guest had done nothing to sour the gratifying flavor the wine provided.

“I think you know it would be very unwise of you to try to kill me,” Thornburg said. “So that leaves the question of why you are here.”

“I thought you said I could do whatever I wanted with the money,” she smiled seductively. “Maybe I just wanted to see Tokyo. Is that a problem?”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. Why are you sitting in front of me right now?”

“I wanted to learn a little more about the devil, that’s all.”

Thornburg laughed at this. He had been called many things by the people he had made his contracts with, usually hearing this from them right before he killed them. However this was the first time he had been compared to the prince of darkness. Usually the insults amounted to him being greedy and cruel.

“Maybe one of the lesser angels cast down from heaven, but the great tempter even I fail to supersede.”

“Mephistopheles then,” she said and then let out a laugh.

“I suppose that makes you Faust, would it not?”

“Touché, my tempter, touché,” she spoke.

She tapped her nails on the table for a few moments as she contemplated the man in front of her. He was handsome, but in a dark and almost haunting way. She would guess his age to be in the late thirties but she couldn’t be too sure. She also had to guess just from this second time of hers to talk to him, that he was quite intelligent too. But something had to be wrong, who else would use their money in such a debauched way.

Either way she would be the one to come on top in this game. She had something that no amount of money could ever give this man, feminine charm.

“Let’s get out of here,” she got up from the table and spoke into his ear before beginning to walk off.

“Why would I want to go with you?” Thornburg questioned.

“It’s better than sitting here in your quiet, bored contemplation.”

She had a point. If nothing else it would allow him to learn more about this woman who he made a contract with. She only had one and one half years of life remaining anywise. It might be cruel even for him to deny her such a simple request.

He pulled his wallet from his inside coat pocket then pulled out two ten thousand yen bills and laying them on the table. In other countries they would be hugely excited to receive the seventy dollar tip which he had just left. However in Japan it was a foreign concept. He would have loved to see his waitress scurrying to find him in the restaurant to give him his change.

“So tell me Jenny, where are we going?”

“This is my first time to Japan, so how about you show me the museum and view from the top of the Mori Tower.”

She turned around and gave him a seductive smile. She was a temptress of her own devices. It would be a challenge to see if she could tempt the devil.

“Don’t leave me waiting Harry.”

“So her goal was to seduce you the whole time was it Harry?” Stall’s was now completely hooked in the story. “It would seem that you picked one too cunning even for yourself.”

Thornburg lit the last cigarette from his case, taking a large drag as he contemplated his friend across the way. He had met the man at a party nearly twelve years prior which Dastun had invited him too. They had both been sitting at the bar nursing cocktails, avoiding the boorish realities of a room full of socialites boozed to the gills.

“Have we become those people we both so despised Richard?”

“What do you mean?”

“Have we become those pedantic socialites patting themselves on the back?” Thornburg returned to his place at the window, a darkness brooding over him now.

“I started this experiment to make a change, but it would seem as if the only thing I have done is to become what I despise,” he looked down at his suit as he spoke. “Exotic cars and five thousand dollar suits, that feeling of superiority as you look down at the weaker of the species and truly understand how great you have become. I loathe this place
in life.”

“It would seem that money and drugs will cannot quash the ego, as we once thought,” Stall’s spoke. “I’ve been having similar thoughts myself as of late. But we’ve spoke of such things before Harry, I’m sure that’s not why you came all of this way.”

“No, no you’re right Richard. There is a bit more to my story,” Thornburg returned to his chair once more and gave Stall’s one last look before continuing. “Her plan worked only too well. If there was one thing I wasn’t prepared for it was being seduced by that Succubus. What I wonder from you though is, would one be better languish to the wayside in love, or drown in money and power?”

“I never thought I’d see the day the great Harry Thornburg would be asking me about love,” Stall’s seemed quite surprised by where the course of the conversation had gone. “But I suppose even the greatest of men struggle with it from time to time. Will you be continuing with these contracts should you choose her?”

“That’s exactly the issue here Richard. I have yet to find any answers and yet may be forced to cut my experiment short. She’s quite convincing when she wants to be. I think that was her plan the whole time, to seduce me in order to spare her life. I’m sorry I’m