And this contest against Enzo and Paulo? Just meaningless mythology to appease the masses?”
“The idea that Adam will face Enzo as a human is pure fiction; he will fight both brothers as the new species, the fourth species destined to rule this planet. If Adam succeeds, Liara will depart earth and disappear for eternity. That’s what’s at stake. Liara is playing a dangerous game, one in which she must succeed at all her plots and quickly, one after another.”
“But how …”
“There’s more. Much more. So, much more.”
“Tell us. And tell us why we’re here and what we must do.”
***
“What Liara and I are doing is fundamentally altering Adam’s brain chemistry and neural pathways, plus rearranging some brain tissue to be more useful. We added a little more volume to his brain, with new functionality. His existing brain, attached as it was to his senses and cognitive abilities, limited his ability to transmit data to his mind for processing. His mind receives data from his receptor/brain through his senses, then uses his incredible mind to make decisions. Adam has fused his ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’ minds into one, making him even more formidable if he also had more access to advanced data and analytical abilities. Right now, Liara believes that neither Enzo nor his brother have made this breakthrough.”
“Why not? They’ve had eighty years.”
“Because the Rogue Immortals don’t really understand human physiology very well and certainly not the human mind. They have concentrated on the brain as the mind. Liara understands that the two are separate. She is prepping Adam for war and for peace, Her way.”
“Why didn’t Liara see this coming with the Fortizi’s?”
“Too gradual, too hidden, too far from Her mind, too unaware of the threats raging against Her. And other issues.”
“Like?”
“Remember what I’ve told you. We are Immortal, not God. We’ve always been, always existed; how that is, we don’t know. But we are like the Gods of Rome, or the God of your Old Testament. A jealous God, a demanding God, a frightening and all-powerful God who asked Jacob to sacrifice his son. His son. Stopped only by an angel. Is this your God? A God laden with revenge and human emotions?”
“Never thought about it.”
“Well, that describes our collection of existing Immortals. Like the Gods of Rome, they are jealous, fickle, lustful, imperfect, callous and selfish. They want what others have. And an eternity to get it. But they are cold and indifferent to lower life forms; cold and callous.”
Hecate paused.
“I repeat, at your peril, never confuse knowledge with wisdom. Knowledge may inform wisdom, but there is no substitute for what humans have in abundance: compassion, love and empathy. Given the chance, Immortals would fundamentally change the RealVerse. We would all be their subjects and use us for physical amusement. Liara keeps them in check, most willingly. Whether the fate of this planet is determinative of Her fate or not, if Her defense of Her project here fails, it might begin to sow the seeds of doubt. This scenario would then repeat itself elsewhere on other worlds or in other Universes.
“Liara must defeat these rogues here, and now, and nip this rebellion in the bud. It is the only way.”
“So, for like the fifth time, why are we here? Can’t you and Liara maintain this illusion until the procedure is over?”
“The illusion lasts only as long as the rogues don’t discover it, and Enzo and Paulo aren’t activated. Then the illusion will be no more. Then Gens of the Collective, and humans from your governments, will be dropped in by the thousands and will descend on this place to capture or kill Adam.”
“You can’t stop them?”
“Liara can’t destroy, though she can create things that will. But the likelihood is than in destroying her opponents, she will destroy the rest of us too. She gave up the ability to kill selectively uncounted years ago. And I cannot kill them fast enough. If the hordes come by the tens or hundreds of thousands, we will need you and your nanotechnology. We need to kill them and kill them all. You can do this; you’ve done it before. Ready your Hueys and Cargo planes. Prepare your killing weapons and nano-poisons. We may need them.”
Cindy left immediately and began giving orders. She procured more weaponry and ordered it flown immediately to Oregon by jet cargo planes. She ordered crop dusters, and fire-fighting planes from Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho. She staged three areas for loading of weaponry then moved her assets, human and otherwise, to those areas. She called her men, and women in for a briefing. She contacted Rod and Francoise and explained her mission and got them started on strategy. Defensive, then offensive.
Next, she contacted their manufacturing facilities in Seattle, and put them on a 24/7 production schedule for dual human/Gens compounds of poison bomblets. Cindy made sure transport was readied in staging areas she chose. She activated the delivery systems on the Hueys, and the Cargo planes, then made sure they were fueled for action at a moments’ notice. The compound, and all one hundred acres were locked down.
Drones operated within a one-hundred-mile radius of the cabin with telemetry activated and monitored in Ops in the City by Alana and the Tech Centre by Francoise. All eyes in the sky were pointed toward southern Oregon.
***
Misti said, “There’s more. I know it. And you still haven’t told us about this mysterious procedure.”
Hecate said, somewhat evasively. “Your job is to protect him when we can’t, and to guide him with my help once he’s safe.”
“If this gets bad how do we get out of here. We’re isolated.”
Silence.
“Hecate?”
“We don’t. Liara will transport Adam to the City Herself. I’ll go with them. You …”
“We will get out if we can, or die here making your escape possible.”
“Sorry, but yes.”
“You should’ve told us this. We would have come anyway; but the choice is for each to decide. This is Immortal bullshit. When this is over, you should leave with Liara. You’re not welcome in Paraiso or among our family. You’ve proven to be unworthy of us, and untrustworthy.”
“I know. But She doesn’t care. She doesn’t trust humans like I do. Certain humans anyway.”
“What a shame I can’t kill Her.”
“Not likely, but I understand your feelings.”
“Do you? Really?”
“No, that’s lie. I only know what I must do to protect Adam.”
“Then kill him when he’s no longer useful.”
“You say that as if it’s what I want to do. I’ve begged Her to reconsider. She’s intractable.”
“Your job is to oversee his recovery in the City, train him and what? Go watch.”
Hecate did not answer right away.
“First, I operate and change his brain physiology, then we can download the data, and wisdom he needs to fight the Fortizi’s. If his brain isn’t adapted properly and we download too quickly, he dies. If we feed the data too quickly, he dies. If he doesn’t have enough time for the healing to set properly, he dies. Then we all die. You, the wives, the children, the planet. I’m sorry if our methods don’t meet with your approval, but honestly, you don’t matter. Adam does. He is going to survive, and you will die if need be to buy us the time we need to complete our work, and get Adam to safety.”
Misti looked at Hecate, shimmering in the light.
“I have a message for Liara. And you.”
“What?”
“Fuck you. When Adam is safe, and if we are safe too, you are to leave us alone in Paraiso, and Germany, and never return. When Adam finds out, you’ll wish you had just killed him and been done with it. Never contact Cindy or Marie or I’ll tell them what a monster you are.
Misti turned and left, seeking out Cindy. Misti knew Hecate and Liara were correct, though she hated them for it, for not telling the truth. Misti wouldn’t tell Cindy the entire truth now either. They were all going to die. Liara
knew that her illusion wouldn’t hold. It was a matter of hours or days. Liara didn’t know how long they had; even She could only guess.
Misti found Cindy. “Let’s talk.”
Chapter 33
Paulo and Enzo looked out on the waves rolling in from the Penthouse of a building in Hawaii. They liked the place, though few Gens, inhabited any of the island. Too remote for their comfort; islands made them claustrophobic. The new leadership of the Collective was disbursed, and the Councils now fewer. The purges following the debacles in North Carolina probably were overkill; many of the dead were probably loyal. Husbands and children followed treasonous wives to the afterlife and vice versa. Paulo was sorry for these methods; Enzo thought them insufficient. He wanted more death, more bloodshed as a warning to the rest.
The treachery was almost unimaginable; even members of his own Clan had participated in the Black Shirt Movement. Derek Nobilus had fled the UK with his detailed information about the Gens and the Nobilus secret knowledge. Word had leaked out that the Human had him and Derek was talking. Those informants for the Collective had been found by Adam’s people, and would spy no more.
The Gens of Germany and Paraiso were amazing at plugging leaks; they had thousands of years of practice, and were now fanatically loyal to the Manti. That Adam was now in the arms of the Creator and the Demon Hecate only increased their reverence; they placed their lives at his disposal.
With the news of the situation in southern Oregon, Akira had done something on his own with the consent of the Gens in the City. He was preparing for the Fortizi jackals in the only way he knew how. When he was done he would need human help, but that was a given.
***
“They’re coming. We must be ready to act. I think they’re unlocking us, so we only await their orders. Do not argue with them, Enzo. Just do as you are told and as directed.”
“And you trust them? You’re an idiot. We’re dead after we succeed. They will wipe this planet and us along with it.”
“Not at all. We will rebuild this place, and we will have a world of slaves at our feet. And power we cannot imagine; life and death at our whim. Millions on their knees. I will save a few for special treatment if they survive. Pets to keep on a leash for cruelty day and night. I assume they will go mad before having the courtesy to die; but we shall see.”
“And your son?”
“Tragic. Thought he could fly as he dropped out of a helicopter at five thousand feet. Senseless death. Thankfully my other children are alive here in this high rise, along with my harem.”
Two glowing figures appeared in the living room. “We have information for you. How many soldiers do you have on the Mainland, in the west?”
“Fifty thousand, maybe more. What is your bidding.”
“Bring all and more to southern Oregon immediately. They will be there for a day or two, perhaps longer, then they may return home. You will stay put; we may need you for later. I am sending someone else to direct our operation.”
“Who?”
“That doesn’t concern you. But someone capable and worthy.”
“As you wish.”
“Here are your instructions, and what you should tell your men. Do not fail me.”
The two disappeared.
“Or what?” asked Enzo. “You know they’re going to kill us.”
“Or not. They’ve been good to us, rude and arrogant, but good to us. Seventy plus years of training and real power. We’ll do as we are instructed; what else can we do? We’ve nowhere to hide.”
“I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to. Just do as you’re told and pray we’ll be rewarded. You have zero choice in the matter. Let’s go downstairs and enjoy our women. You can borrow one of mine.”
***
Had Liara thought more like a human and less like an Immortal, She would have seen what was coming next. She and Hecate were thinking that Paulo and his brother would need help to discover the cabin, then send a few thousand foot-soldiers to take the compound. Between Her defenses and Hecate’s ability to implode heads, coupled with a few hundred heavily armed humans and fully armed aircraft, She thought safety was assured. Even Hecate couldn’t imagine anything more being needed.
Had Adam, been made aware, he would have thought differently, as would Cindy and Misti. However, Immortals being Immortals and extremely arrogant, the others weren’t informed.
Most often local intelligence is the best intelligence. Sage advice, ignored.
The Collective, and the Fortizi’s, didn’t need satellite telemetry or other forms of earth-bound intelligence; they had Immortals. “Immortal telemetry” was far more accurate and faster in locating other Immortals, so when the rogues showed up, and decided to look around, it was a matter of milliseconds before Liara, and Hecate were discovered in the same spot with some sort of protective bubble surrounding them over a small human structure. Within and around the compound were hundreds of humans and a few Gens. Spreading out were more humans and fewer Gens, but they could trace other humans to other locations with some sort of flying vehicles readied for flight. They couldn’t be sure what or why these humans, and their flying toys were there, but they decided to speak to the Fortizi brothers.
“Weapons,” said Paulo. “Deadly weapons and lots of them. If we attack, we will need gear we don’t have. Many, if not all our Gens soldiers, will die.”
One Immortal said, “What if we send tens of thousands of Gens soldiers? Will they all die? Can the compound be overrun anyway? We need not worry about Liara, or even Hecate for that matter. We only need to find and kill one specific human. And we know exactly where he is.”
“Can you rid us of the bubble?”
“Yes, that can be done. I will need at least a few more Immortals who I will summon. They can assemble here in three days’ time, so you have that amount of time to get your military assembled and moved to places near the compound. Not too close to scare them off, but close.”
“How many?”
“One hundred thousand will do, with one hundred thousand in reserve. No point in taking any chances. The human must die.”
“We have no money to move, outfit, feed and house that many people.”
“How much of this ‘money’ do you need?”
“Fifty million dollars. Maybe one hundred million.”
The Immortal said, “You now have access to several accounts at these banks, with these account numbers, identification and checks. They belong to large multi-national ‘companies’, I believe you call them, and there are billions on deposit in secret accounts worldwide. No one will miss the money, at least not for a while. You have plenty of time to do your job, so I suggest you get moving.”
“May we ask a favor?”
“What?”
“We need an account of our own at another bank. Please transfer a billion dollars there.”
“Why?”
“Next time we need to do your bidding, we won’t need to do this. Faster and cleaner.”
“It is done. The information you need about everything we have just offered is on your computer as is all the other information you will need to succeed. Just press the ‘B’ key three times and the information will appear. Now get moving. We will reappear in three days. The new leader of field operations will arrive in Portland tomorrow.”
***
The brothers foolishly assumed the new field commander would be their Russian associate, or at least someone high up in the Collective’s military structure, but it wasn’t. Instead, it was a former US Army Ranger who was high up in the Gens Collective military, but a virtual unknown to the Fortizi’s. He wasn’t of their Clan, nor any of the other constituent clans of the Fortizi power structure. He was like a “free agent” from a group of wild Gens, originally from Australia. Many of his command structure and outfit were Aborigines, and the balance from various parts of Africa. And, an additional percentage of soldiers were from renegade clans in Asia, making this man’s small army unrelated to,
and possibly hostile to, the Fortizi leadership structure worldwide.
None of his people were on any councils and were consistently ignored by anyone who mattered in the Collective. But somehow, they had come to the attention of the rogue Immortals and immediately set about ordering the military of the Collective about. Those who refused his commands simply vanished into thin air. Those refusing the commands of his junior officers were quickly on their knees, choking to death. If they recanted their disobedience in time, they survived.
This guy, and his Immortal masters, were not fucking around.
He had contacted the Fortizi brothers to warn them that disobedience would be lethal, and to let them know that he would have direct access to their funds. He was taking over the logistics and command structure from them; their sole job was to survive, and deal with the Chosen One should he escape, and find refuge elsewhere. The new commander had overwhelming force, but he was battling Liara, the Creator and her minion, the Demon Hecate. These ronin Gens knew nothing of human nanite tech weaponry. He thought that their own sacrifice that day would include a few thousand killed by Hecate, but Liara was impotent by her own choice. Neither she nor Hecate would die, but they would watch all around them be destroyed.
Hecate the Immortal wasn’t as strong as other Immortals, but was clever and, when she needed to be, vicious and deadly. She wasn’t to be taken lightly and many Gens of the Collective would die at her feet before all this was over.
Resolution Page 57
