So Collin (Why is he always referred to by his last name?) enters the cave which is notable for a few features. One: It's huge and man-made. Two: Phosphorescent crawly things. Three: Piles of dead people. Four: A demon.
The demon is described as "a mass of glowing bioluminescence so blindingly brilliant that he could not make out the true form of its body. The rays of multicolored light played on the walls of the cavern... towering at least fifteen feet..." So it's giant, amorphous, colorful and glowing. It sounds like something you'd see advertised for three installments of 9.99 on late night tv. Does late night tv still exist? If it does they're definitely selling this to somebody as a guaranteed way to help your children not be afraid of the dark or as a ward against home invasion or maybe as a holiday decoration. I don't know what holiday would require a dazzling rainbow demon on your front lawn but if someone could find a way to sell kitsch they'd create one.
There are also brain-washed "Devil's men" lined up. In the cave, not on late night tv. Also on late night tv. But these ones are all wearing "jungle clothing" rather than "European clothing" so none of them belong to his group or the hunting party they were looking for. Oh, wait - there they are! The hunting party is all dead except for the tracker, Chaka, who is soon brought in for the demon to feast on. As Collin watches from the shadows Chaka is submitted to terrifying, hallucinatory images that float in front of him like a macabre light show. All the horrors of "Gargoyles, unicorns, and sea serpents." Eventually the demon gets tired of entertaining horrifying his victim and starts the drawn out process of feeding on him with tendrils that burn his head and eyes, leaving him dead.
Collin finds his friends, still caught in the grip of the demon's control, forced to watch the death of Chaka. When the "Devil's men" go for McPhearson he decides it's time to act and explodes their heads with his gun. Of course he's overpowered almost immediately and McPhearson is taken away but he manages to shove the medallion down Smith's shirt which helps Smith fight off the demon's influence. The two of them start walloping and shooting their way free. In the meantime, McPhearson succumbs to his horrible fate and Collin shoots him to put him out of his misery. (What did I say about McPhearson? He was a happy family man; do I know my clichés or what?)
Once outside the cavern, Collin and Smith make for a distant ranger station where they get to collapse in safety. Five days later they head back with a camera and explosives intending to document I'm not entirely certain what. The cave entrance? The people who from a distance just look like people? Were they actually going to sneak in and take pictures of the devil? After their well-thought out plan, I'm sure, they were going to blow everything up. Before they can, everything collapses by itself and they see "a brightly, glowing object, a large C-47 cargo plane... Clearly it had taken off from a hidden airstrip in the valley beyond the next hill." I didn't know there was a valley, I thought we were in "deep jungle" or "rain forest" but apparently the demon owns enough land to build an airfield.
"It's gotten away from us," Collin murmured in disbelief. "God in heaven. Now it could be anywhere. Anywhere on this earth. How are we ever going to find it?" p.110
I'm not sure why he came to the conclusion that the demon made it's escape on a C-47 instead of say, someone else getting wind of this apparently open secret of where this thing lived and coming to destroy it as well but nevermind. The demon absconded in a C-47. Aren't those kind of big? It's meant to cart troops around. Maybe he took all the brain-washed men Collin and Smith didn't kill with him.
Anyway, they resolve to go talk to Hasha about where it might be because that poor, sad bastard still has a minor mental connection to it.
The prologue to the next chapter opens like this: "A feeling of brooding menace pervaded the basement room that was roughly square, and perhaps thirty feet on a side." p.112
The set-up within that room has your typical satanic accoutrements: pentagram, candles (blood red), altar, chalice (gold), book (gilt-bound, though he probably meant -edged), mirror, dagger (silver) and a dead animal (small, species unknown). There's also Maximillian Grey (dark, latin good looks) performing a ritual. He chants words, tosses powder around and drinks blood, the usual, and soon a figure appears in the mirror whereupon Grey offers the "Master of the Outer Darkness" his body. To wear. "After an absence of ages, the Guardian had returned to Earth." p.115
I'm digging this book. It's so action-packed and quite frankly, ridiculous. I love it.
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