Ash looked at the second Book of the Dead resting inside the RV and then turned toward the older man. "So where did you get yours?" Ashley J. Williams immediately leaned back as though preparing to tell the greatest story ever recorded. "It was a dark and stormy night—"
Pablo interrupted from behind him. "Ash, you told us it was actually a pretty nice day."
Older Ash slowly turned his head. "Ever hear of atmosphere?"
Pablo raised both hands. "Got it. Continue."
Older Ash cleared his throat and began again. Decades earlier, when he was young, he had gone to a remote cabin in the woods with his girlfriend, sister, and several friends, expecting nothing more dangerous than drinking too much and making questionable decisions. Instead, they discovered an ancient book and recorded incantations that awakened Kandarian evil, turning one person after another into Deadites until Ash became the only survivor.
The story grew increasingly ridiculous as it continued, except young Ash already knew most of it was true. Older Ash had fought possessed friends, severed his own corrupted hand, replaced it with a chainsaw, and survived by combining stubbornness, brutality, a shotgun, and what sometimes looked suspiciously like dumb luck. By the end, the ordinary retail employee who entered the cabin had effectively become a one-man Deadite extermination squad.
Young Ash nodded slowly.
That matched what he remembered from his previous life.
This really was the same Ash Williams from The Evil Dead.
The only difference was age.
The legendary demon-killing lunatic had apparently reached middle age, gained a beer belly, and somehow remained exactly as irresponsible as before.
"So after all that," young Ash said, "you kept the book?"
Older Ash nodded. "Couldn't exactly leave it lying around for the next group of idiots to find. I figured if I kept it close, nobody could accidentally wake anything up again."
Kelly folded her arms.
Young Ash noticed immediately. "That expression tells me there's a problem with that statement."
"There is," Kelly said.
Older Ash looked annoyed. "Nobody asked you."
Young Ash looked between them. "The book got activated again, didn't it?"
Older Ash gave an awkward smile.
Ash sighed. "How?"
"Complicated."
Pablo answered before the older man could invent anything. "He was drinking in the RV with a woman, got high, wanted to impress her, opened the Book of the Dead, and read from it."
Silence filled the RV.
Young Ash stared at older Ash.
Older Ash stared back.
Pablo quietly stepped away.
Ash slowly rubbed his face. "Let me make sure I understand this. You survived a cabin full of demons because somebody read from this book, spent decades knowing exactly what happens when somebody reads from this book, carried the book around specifically so nobody would read from it... and then you read from it."
Older Ash lifted one finger. "In my defense—"
"No."
"I hadn't finished."
"I don't need the rest."
Kelly smirked. "Trust me, neither did we."
Older Ash pointed at her. "Everybody makes mistakes."
Young Ash stared at him in disbelief. "Forgetting your keys is a mistake. Accidentally setting off a supernatural apocalypse because you wanted to impress somebody is a lifestyle problem."
Older Ash looked offended. "Hey, I'm fixing it now."
"That doesn't make it better."
"Actually, that's pretty much how responsibility works."
Ash considered arguing, then decided it would probably shorten his lifespan.
He pointed toward the two Books of the Dead. "Fine. Your terrible judgment aside, why were you looking for my father?"
Older Ash's humor faded slightly. "Because I need someone who knows how to shut this thing down properly. I can kill Deadites all day, but the book itself is a different problem. Edwin knew people in the supernatural world, and I figured he could connect me with somebody who knew how to reseal it."
Young Ash frowned.
Older Ash continued, "Your dad knew more about this stuff than almost anyone I met outside the people directly involved in the weirdness. That shop of his wasn't just selling antiques."
Ash already knew that part now.
What he did not know was who Edwin had worked with.
He searched his memories.
At first, nothing useful came to mind.
Then one surname surfaced.
Warren.
Ash went still.
There had been a married couple who occasionally visited Edwin and the family when Ash was younger. He had never paid much attention to why they came, but he remembered Gwen still occasionally mentioning them even years later.
Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Ash's expression slowly changed.
"The Warrens."
Older Ash raised an eyebrow. "You know them?"
"My dad did."
Ash's thoughts immediately expanded into several unpleasant directions. Ed and Lorraine Warren meant haunted houses, possessions, Annabelle, demonic entities, cursed objects, and enough supernatural disasters to make his new AIIB career look considerably busier.
He briefly thought of Valak.
Then Annabelle.
Then several other cases.
Ash stopped himself before the mental list became useless.
The Warrens were experienced supernatural investigators and demonologists, but the Book of the Dead was not a normal possession case. Knowing how to identify a demon or perform an exorcism did not automatically mean they could translate an ancient Kandarian text or undo a summoning tied to one of the Naturom Demonto volumes.
Ash shook his head.
Older Ash noticed. "Nothing?"
"Maybe something, but not enough to gamble on."
He tapped the wrapped book taken from the condemned building. "We already have one solid lead. Danny's recording came from Father Marcus Littleton and was tied to St. Patrick's Cathedral. If the Church had people studying one of these books in 1923, there might still be records."
Older Ash considered that. "So we go to the cathedral?"
"Not by ourselves."
Ash stood.
"I work for a federal agency created specifically for this kind of problem. There's no reason for us to stumble around Manhattan asking priests if they know how to close a demon book when AIIB can handle the introductions."
Pablo nodded enthusiastically. "That sounds way more organized than what we usually do."
Kelly glanced toward older Ash. "That's because his plan involves an actual organization."
Older Ash scoffed. "Organizations slow things down."
Young Ash looked at him. "You summoned the demons you're currently hunting."
Older Ash immediately shut up.
Ash picked up the wrapped Evil Dead Rise volume. "I'll report both books to Raymond. AIIB can contact St. Patrick's, search federal and Church records, and see whether anybody has documentation on the other volumes."
That settled it.
Ash stepped out of the RV.
A gun immediately pointed at his chest.
He stopped.
A Black woman stood several yards away with both hands on a handgun, her posture tense and professional. Her attention was fixed on Ash, but the question she asked made it obvious she was looking for someone else.
"Don't move. Is Ash Williams inside?"
Young Ash stared at her.
Then he slowly glanced back toward the RV.
Older Ash emerged behind him. "Hey, who are you?"
Young Ash looked between them.
"You don't know her?"
"No."
Ash studied the armed woman, then looked at older Ash again. "She came all the way here asking for you by name. Considering your personality, I assumed this was some old relationship problem."
Older Ash looked offended. "What kind of guy do you think I am?"
Ash waited.
Kelly stepped out of the RV.
Pablo followed.
Older Ash raised his chin proudly. "I don't create relationship problems. I keep things simple."
Young Ash closed his eyes.
"Of course you do."
The woman's expression hardened.
"You're Ash Williams?"
Older Ash pointed toward himself. "The original."
Young Ash immediately looked at him. "We are not doing that."
The woman tightened her grip on the pistol. "Drop the weapon and step away from the vehicle. You're coming with me."
Older Ash looked down at his chainsaw hand and shotgun.
"Which weapon?"
The woman's jaw clenched.
Young Ash muttered, "You really do have a gift for making situations worse."
Older Ash glanced toward him. "Relax, junior. I've dealt with cops before."
"That isn't reassuring."
Young Ash looked back at the woman. "What exactly did he do?"
She kept her weapon raised. "He's connected to multiple suspicious deaths."
Ash smiled faintly and glanced toward older Ash. "There it is."
Older Ash threw up his shotgun hand. "Hey, those people were Deadites."
The woman's expression changed.
"Deadites?"
Older Ash realized he had said too much.
Young Ash sighed.
The woman stared at him with growing anger. "You think this is funny? A woman connected to you was killed."
Older Ash's face immediately became serious. "What woman?"
That surprised Ash.
The woman answered, "The woman you were with."
Older Ash stared at her. "She's dead?"
"Yes."
His joking expression disappeared.
For the first time since meeting him, young Ash saw genuine shock replace the older man's usual arrogance.
The situation had clearly become more complicated than an embarrassing arrest.
Unfortunately, older Ash's mouth still refused to cooperate.
He looked at the woman again and said, "For the record, whatever happened between us wasn't prostitution."
Young Ash slowly turned toward him.
"Was anyone accusing you of that?"
Older Ash paused.
"No."
"Then why would you say it?"
Pablo looked away.
Kelly covered her face.
The armed woman looked even angrier.
Young Ash had finally had enough.
"Stop."
His voice cut through the argument.
Several AIIB logistics personnel and NYPD officers near the cordon had already noticed the raised weapon and were beginning to move toward them. Ash raised one hand to signal them to stay back, then reached slowly into his coat with the other.
The woman immediately adjusted her aim.
"Keep your hands where I can see them."
"I'm getting identification."
Ash removed his dark-blue credential case and tossed it toward her feet.
"Check it."
The woman hesitated before crouching just enough to retrieve the credential without taking her eyes completely off him. She opened the case and saw the silver open-eye emblem with the federal eagle, followed by Ash's photograph and Special Agent designation.
Her expression changed immediately.
She lowered the gun.
"Special Agent?"
Ash nodded.
"Now that we've established I'm not one of his drinking buddies, put the weapon all the way down."
She complied.
Ash pointed toward older Ash. "I don't care about whatever argument you two were having. Start over and explain who you are, why you're following him, and what happened."
The woman took a breath.
"Yes, sir."
Older Ash muttered, "Sir? Nobody calls me sir."
Kelly looked at him. "That's because nobody respects you."
Young Ash ignored both of them.
The woman straightened. "Amanda Fisher."
Ash waited.
"Michigan State Police."
He raised an eyebrow.
Amanda continued, "Detective."
That fit her posture considerably better than an ordinary patrol officer.
Ash glanced at the older man beside him.
"You chased him from Michigan all the way to New York?"
Amanda's expression hardened again.
"Yes."
Ash looked toward older Ash.
Older Ash gave him an innocent smile.
Young Ash sighed.
"Of course she did."