All four fingers involuntarily tightened on their respective triggers.
Four red laser lines criss-crossed in mid-air, their uppermost tips delicately tracing the scarred skin of the creature's bony head and face. They saw that its grimy brown cranium mhad black tattooed symbols. Ancient symbols, etched or seared into its leathery skin like a cattle brand.
Steam rose into the cold air, weaving among the red beams. If the creature understood their plans, it showed no fear. Instead, it merely looked at each of them with a calmness they found unsettling.
Then, as if sensing its head was just about to be ripped apart by exploding rounds, it finally broke its silence.
"Boo?" It said suddenly and laughed through what sounded like a mouth full of gravel.
Despite their training and sober professionalism, each jumped back, hearts beating wildly. Fingers tightened on triggers, muscle and tendon braced to absorb the energy of their weapons' rapid discharge.
"All that you are, we know. We've mastered your Babel of Tongues. We know you more than you know yourselves. You could say we know you intimately." It said, rolling its bluish dark tongue to gain precious moisture from the damp surrounding air. The gesture seemed deliberately seductive. "Part of you knows us too, but part of you won't admit to it," it said with a sly lizard wink.
They were all unsure what to do. Their desire to listen and understand was counterbalanced by their need to kill and destroy.
"Fight the programming boys," it said, expertly picking through their random thoughts. "Look past my appearance; know and understand that it is only a reflection of your darker selves staring back at you."
"It's trying to trick us. Don't trust it" John whispered suspiciously. His voice seeming loud in the space they now occupied. A space that now felt uncomfortably closterfobic, like a dungeon, deep within the Earth's own womb.
It continued as if he'd not spoken this threat. "I could destroy you now, if I so wished it; reveal dark truths or lies about each and every one of you. Paranoia and fear would have you point your weapons on each other. Nothing would stop me and nobody would care. All they want is my head. My head against your lives? Sorry, boys, you lose. That prize is worth far more than you beating hearts combined."
This made them look suspiciously at one another.
"See? Suspicion comes easy for you and your kind."
"How can we trust you?" Said the first of the four to set eyes on this fountain of chatter.
"Trust doesn't come into it. The end of all fear is almost upon you."
Apart from the movements of another team closing in on their location and the sound of sewer water rushing bye, there was silence amongst the four.
"I see you understand most of what I say but I need to speak to those who seek to control this world and its people. They need to know we have risen up in response to your call, to break the shackles of your enslavement."
It paused to let its last words sink into their consciousness. They were not alone. Their words were being recorded for prosperity and bounced off satellites that straddled the world.
"Who among you would not like to be free of the roles you've been given? We give you a common foe – that foe is we."
***
The second team took up its position.
Their orders were to bring back the head. Alive.
They were not to engage the head in conversation. It was felt their adversary had the power to enthral and mesmerise. This had been clearly felt by the remote viewers, even despite the fact that the creature's face had been a predictable blur to the probing digital cameras, trying in vain to focus in on the creature's face.
Everything word it spoke was being recorded for future study and dissection. The more they heard it speak the more they wanted it alive. Alive at all cost.
The information the head contained was priceless and could potentially save a whole human species and their lives and their family's lives in with the deal.
If this cost the lives of a few errant soldiers, then so be it.
***
"What's it going to be then? Time is ticking. As we speak, guns are being brought into play. Soon they'll be trained on the back of your necks. Orders are in place to take you out if you make an aggressive move towards me. I'll survive your bullets, as I don't truly exist in this dimension, but they'll kill you anyway.
Save your bullets and spare your lives. Do it for your friends and family. This is not your time or place to die, your faces floating in the shit and the mud. See this as a kindness between or species. No sacrifice has to be made."
John looked over his shoulder and saw criss-crossing beams of red light which marked them all. "He's right, they have us covered," he whispered to the others.
"Talk to them, let them know you are in control of the situation and pose no threat to what they seek. Walk away. They have a radio-controlled robot which will salvage what is left of me. No human hand will touch me while I'm still alive. They fear me too much. At this point in time I'm the most valuable item on the face of the planet," it said, with a certain sense of pride and great beaming smile that made their collective stomachs crawl from this life into the next.
"John, go tell the other team we're coming out."
"Yes, Sir," he said, reluctant but relieved to be given permission to leave. Backing away, he did as he was told and was glad of it.
"What are you?" Said the one called Mark, as he turned his attention back to the head.
It paused, as if trying hard to make itself known to a small child. Finding the right words to fully translate its existence in a language that could be easily understood.
"We are many things to many people. We are the breaking dawn, the crashing waves. We are the harvester of souls, the darkness in the night. To some we are considered demons, to others we are far far more. If you were bad I would have responded as such. You would have seen a demon and that demon would have played its part so very well. As any good demon should." It smiled with the irony of these words.
"As it was, you saw deeper than that. Which is to your credit, by the way."
"Although we are all much alike and have a common aim, what we are fundamentally depends on the reader. Depending on you, we can be angels or demons. But we are all of these and we are none of these. Indeed, we are so much more and yet, we are nothing at all. Just bodies, vessels with a message from this planet. It's the message, not the messenger, that you need to listen intently to. We are merely the conduit between worlds, a message in a bottle that was sent out many millions of years ago." It paused as if deep in thought and decided on its last words on this matter. "All will be clear in the fullness of time."
"But why are you here? What is it that you want?"
It smiled warmly. Despite its grotesque choice in teeth, all three of them saw the image of its face dissolve and shimmer briefly to reveal a less benign version of the face it had so far presented them. Its brown skin became slightly translucent and seemed to radiate an inner light which seemed at odds with its currently demonic appearance.
"We're here to set you free – free from the slavery you have all imposed on one-another. We are here to dissolve the mindless complexity you have built between each other and deliver you from the hell you build each day. This can only be done through hardship and pain. We have a long road ahead of us. Much of what you take for granted will change beyond what you currently know and understand on an intrinsic and very real level. Your drive to conquer us will bring greater unity among the people of the world and miracles in technology will bring you closer to to the world you live on, rather than further away. As a species, you share this world with many more life forms but your ignorance and stupidity sees them as disposable commodities."
"So there is a reason to all of this?" Mark asked, hopefully.
"Oh, yes," said the creature, casting aside its normal sermons for something more concise and to the point.
They were all convinced. Something deep within each of them seemed to penetrate the thick and distorting ice of their conscious minds.
Lowering their guns, they backed away and retreated to where the other team lay in wait. This very act saved them a bullet to their heads. An act not done out of fear, as now they felt a strange reverence for what they'd just seen and heard
-----
The creature was right. No human hand would go near it.
When they reached the surface, they saw a robotic buggy being offloaded from a shiny black van. They recognised it as the type they used to remotely disarm bombs. It had a big pincer like hand which would be perfect for plucking the creature's head from the darkness of the sewers, like a crusty jewel.
Plucked like the forbidden fruit of old. It would either enlighten or poison the minds of humanity. Only time would reveal which....