An ongoing web serial perhaps inspired by The Screwtape Letters. Unless otherwise noted, “the Ex-CEO” refers to God, “the opposition” to the side of the angels, and so on.

Read the previous installment here.

“You sure that’s the right one?”

I reached down, looking for a sticker on the mini-fridge. I saw the sticker with my name on the back, and the strip of adhesive tape still in place on its left corner. I looked up at the janitor who had let me in and nodded.

“This is it. Thanks for opening the basement for me.”

The janitor offered to help me carry the mini-fridge up to my room, but I insisted he should get back moving his own things.

It was the first day of the semester at this small college in Indiana. I had taken an assistant teaching job shortly after coming back from China, hoping to finish Zane’s project during my evenings. Teaching, writing and an unplanned trip during the summer to help one of Zane’s colleagues in Prague stalled the project.

Right before I left for Prague, someone broke my office door. Nothing was stolen. The college assured me the office door would be fixed by the time I got back and let me store my office items in the storage basement.

I wheeled the mini-fridge to an elevator and got out on my office’s floor. I ran my hand over the new oak door and felt for the three plastic slivers I had wedged into the crack when I came by that morning. Still there. I unlocked the door and slid the mini-fridge inside. The office had that new carpet smell that lasts exactly three and three-quarters of a week. 

With the door closed, I opened the fridge and took out the metal racks. I pulled strips of masking tape off the plastic bundle attacked the fridge’s bottom. I carefully removed the bundle. The leather envelope was still inside the plastic. Two paperclips I had placed inside the flap were in the same places I’d put them when I packed the file in the fridge.

Thus far, I had established the envelope didn’t contain one set of documents. Two-thirds of the documents were written to Deception, dated from the 1960s to the late 1990s. I had finished annotating those documents and sent them to Zane.

The second set of documents were addressed to another demon and covered about 15 years of operations. I couldn’t tell from whether this second mission had stopped, or was ongoing. 

I took out a pair of latex gloves and opened the folder.