“No,” Sett answered gravely.
“Volk was told by his teachers that this day was coming. They saw the writing on the wall. They knew that not until things grew hopeless would there be any chance of us turning back to our Creator.”
“We are not hopeless,” Sett said. “The judges have a plan. There is still Solow.”
“That is not hope, Commander. That is desperation; the final convulsion before we have no where left to turn.”
“How did Volk get so deep into your head, lady? This is not the way sons and daughters of Eros talk?”
“Eros?” Grace chortled. “Seriously, Commander, we both know what is going on here. You have no more faith in the judges and their insipid mythologies than I. You have observed these decrepit leaders of ours for centuries. You have listened to their nonsensical orders and exhortations forever. They haven’t a clue what they are doing and never have. And why?”
She leaned in closer and answered her own question. “Because they are marooned! They are lost, like astronauts cut off from home base. So long have they been adrift, that they no longer even remember their mission, or who sent them on it. They disconnected themselves from our Creator. They smashed the transceiver, believing they could captain this ship by themselves.
“But there is something else I know,” Grace continued. “I know that you are not like them, Commander. Your sense of loyalty goes deeper than blind obedience. You feel it every time you go out into the field. Perhaps you never bothered to articulate it, but when you are there you know it was what you were meant to do. To act. To serve. To glorify. But then, upon your return to this mother ship of ours, the same nagging questions befuddle you. Why am I acting? Whom am I serving? What am I glorifying? Tell me that isn’t so, Commander.”
“You give me too much credit, Celestial. I am neither a philosopher nor a saint. I’m a soldier. Give me a job to do, and I do it. No questions asked, no thoughts pondered.”
“Really?” Grace said, amused. “And what do you call that display of indignation you put on the other day before the judges?”
“That was an expression of my low tolerance for incompetency,” Sett rejoined. “My troops are my responsibility, and it burns me up to see them treated like raw meat for these sons-of… For nothing.”
“Precisely, Commander. For nothing. The nothing gnaws at you. The nothing infuriates you. It wouldn’t if you didn’t know deep down that there is a something. Captain Volk has that something. What you saw him do was real. It was no parlor trick, no illusion. Such things come standard with angels. You can have it too, but you must reclaim it. You are equipped with your own homing beacon. The receiver is in your soul, the transmitter in your mouth, in your prayers.”
“What are you saying? That I’m supposed to beg Volk to teach me how to fly?”
“No,” Grace said. “Beg God to teach you how to be an angel.”
“I don’t know the first thing about it.”
“You’re wrong, Sett. You know, you just forgot. You know, but you’re afraid.”
“Lady,” Sett retorted angrily, “I’ve fought more demons than you can count. I’ve gone hand to hand with the meanest, ugliest, most savage beasties you could dare imagine!”
“Yes, Commander, I’m well aware of your stouthearted exploits. Only a fool would deny your valor. But, are you bold enough to seek forgiveness from your Maker? Do you have the nerve to humble yourself before the Almighty? That is the only courage that matters for us.”
“And you, Celestial, what did you do? Did you meet this…Maker?”
Grace reached into a drawer and pulled out her Bible. She set it on her desk and slid it towards Commander Sett. “I started here,” she said.
“A book?” Sett said. He rifled through it. “A book?” he repeated, incredulous.
“For most humans today it is just a book. But we are not human, Commander. We are angels. The words in this book will speak to you in a manner few humans comprehend. In you they will strum chords that you forgot you ever had. Distant, collective memories will flood back. Like a man who was torn away from his father when a child, you will yet recognize His voice and His ways.”
Sett rose and tossed the book carelessly onto Grace’s desk. “Celestial, you’re gonna have to do a lot better than a damn book. I want proof I can see with my own eyes. I don’t know what razzle-dazzle Volk pulled on you, but it doesn’t work on me.”
“Commander,” Grace said, furious, bolting to her feet, sending her wheeled office chair crashing into the cabinets behind her. “Proof?”
She marched from around her desk and put her flaming, beautiful face in his. Her righteous indignation blazed forth.
“We are ruled by five delusional oafs who are about to sign eternity over to a vicious megalomaniac set on permanently enslaving mankind, and you demand proof? You can’t see what is happening right before your eyes, yet you have the gall to demand that Almighty God Himself come begging to you for acknowledgement?
“Did you ever demand proof of Eros, or the judges’ legitimacy to rule over you? No, yet you are willing to follow these charlatans right into hell. You’re right, Commander. You are just a puny cupid soldier blindly carrying out your orders, and your mulish obstinacy is going to mean the end of us all!”
Their eyes met in a battle of ferocious wills. Never had anyone dared to speak to the commander with such impertinence. If she were a soldier he’d have stuck her right then and there with one of his demon daggers. His glare would have blanched the mightiest of cupids, but Grace did not retreat. Instead, he saw in her eyes a confounding brilliance.
She really did believe this crap.
But, what he saw was neither blind faith nor fanaticism. He knew what that looked like. He had seen it in the faces of Anteros’s flocks of true believers during the Civil War. This was not that. The radiance he saw was almost otherworldly.
Grace was unaware of the pyre raging behind her eyes; oblivious to the danger she had put herself in. She knew she had spoken insolently, but she felt more a conduit than the generator. The locking of horns, though only a second or two, seemed much longer to both of them. It was broken up by a breeze.
Sett was the first to notice. He saw Grace’s platinum strands begin to stir like leaves on a tree. Her long hair rose from her shoulders and trailed behind her as if she were standing in a storm.
The two combatants heard a strange whooshing sound, looked about, and then at each other. Their eyes lifted towards the vaulted dome ceiling, and their jaws unhinged.
21
State of Grace
“Kohai?” Grace said, shocked.
She knew who I was, of course, but I was badly mauled and my uniform was in tatters.
“What on earth—?”
“Cadet Kohai!” Sett barked.
“Commander Sett, Sir,” I answered, saluting the commander as I hovered ten feet overhead. “Sorry for the intrusion, Sir.”
“How do you do that?” Sett said, twirling his finger in the air, ignoring my battered condition.
I zipped across the room to the other side so that the commander needn’t crank his head.
“Sir, Ma’am,” I said urgently. “Have you seen Captain Volk? I have to speak with him.”
“No, Cadet,” Grace said, aware of my distress. “What’s wrong? What is going on?”
“They got Virgil!”
“Who’s got him?” Sett said.
“Anteros and the yetzers. I tried to help him, but there were just too many of them!”
“Slow down, Cadet,” Sett said.
“Yes, Sir,” I said, alighting onto the floor. “Virgil and I were scouting a mission—a match in progress—and we were ambushed by two squads of Anteros soldiers and at least a dozen yetzers. They dropped a net on Virgil and captured him. I tried to get to him, but I was,” I lowered my eyes in shame, “…met with overwhelming force.”
“Captured?” Grace said. “So he’s still alive.”
“I think so…for now. But
we have to mount a team and go rescue him!”
“Do you know where they took him?” Sett asked.
“A fortress of caves, bunkers, and tunnels in the mountains about twenty klicks from where they ambushed us.”
“What were you two doing there, Cadet?” Sett said angrily. “I authorized no such mission. You are under orders to report every coming and going.”
“Yes, Sir. Guilty as charged, Sir. We were following up on some intel and didn’t want to wait for all the paperwork to process, Sir.”
“You disobeyed orders! I can stick your ass in the slammer for that.”
“Understood, Sir. But what about Virgil?”
“I’m sorry, but he’s on his own. We are under strict orders from the Academy that there shall be no engagement or interdiction of Anteros forces while Solow negotiations are ongoing.”
“What?” Grace said, appalled. “But they attacked us!”
“I will approach Judge Minos with the news,” Sett said, “but an order is an order.” He turned back to me. “Cadet, report immediately to the Academy debriefing room.”
“But…”
“That’s an order, Cadet!”
I turned to Grace. “Ma’am,” I pleaded. “Virgil is my best friend. My only—” I choked on the word.
Grace opened her mouth, but she had no response, just the sympathy in her eyes.
“Cadet,” Sett said menacingly, incensed by my reluctance. “Now!”
I inhaled deeply, and shook my head with a defiant, no. I quoted from the prophet Micah.
“‘But as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me!’”
Furious, Sett stepped towards me.
I thrust out my open palm. “Stop!” I commanded.
Sett froze, immobilized. He tried to move but he couldn’t. It was as if his feet were cemented to the floor.
“How the hell—?” he said, confounded.
He was about to spew every curse he had at me, but his words were cut off by what his eyes were witnessing.
“Oh my…” Grace said, flushed with wonder.
I followed the line of her sight, and to my own amazement, I watched as every cut, gash, and welt on my hands and arms was miraculously healing before my eyes. I touched my forehead where I knew I had a painful knot caused by the slamming butt of an Anteros splicer rifle. To my further astonishment, it was gone. I was completely pain free. In mere seconds, I had not only returned to my pre-battle self, but I felt different. I felt…stronger.
I twirled, and levitating two feet off the ground, glided over to Commander Sett. “I’m sorry, Commander, but I have to go.”
He swung at me, but I easily evaded his fist. The commander lost his balance and nearly stumbled to the floor.
“This is your final warning, Cadet,” he shouted, incensed. “Desist immediately or spend the next century behind bars!”
“With all due respect, Sir,” I said, flitting a safe distance away from him, “a life behind bars is the least of my worries, and my conduct the least of yours. Anteros is up to something major. I saw their fortress. They are no mere renegades. The Anteros troops are well-trained, well-armed, motivated and massive. Solow or no Solow, they are coming, and we don’t stand a chance.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?” Sett shot back. “I’m not in charge here. I have no say.”
“Our soldiers look up to you, Commander. They have no fealty for the Academy and its judges. It’s you they respect; you they will follow. You are much more powerful than you know, Commander.”
“Oh, terrific,” he said. “Here we go again. As if being sermonized to from a celestial wasn’t bad enough.” He snatched the Bible off of Grace’s desk. “I suppose you want me to read a damn book too, huh, Cadet?”
He hurled the book at me. I caught it, kissed it, and zipped over to Grace and handed it to her.
“It wouldn’t hurt,” I said. “But more than that, what God really wants is your heart, Commander. He will forgive you, but you must ask for His forgiveness. Bend and bow, and He will straighten you. Drop your head, and He will lift you. Give up your false hubris, and He will strengthen you.”
“Commander Sett,” Grace said, mocking laughter in her voice. “Are you really this daft? A cadet who hasn’t his first whisker is flying about this room and making an ass out of you, and you act like it’s just a typical day in Heaven.”
“Come down here, kid,” he demanded, “and I’ll teach you a thing or two.”
“I’d rather not, Sir. I could get into big trouble for that.”
“You’re already in big trouble, Cadet. Get down here right now. That’s an order!”
I sighed, alighted onto the floor, and walked over to the commander. He swung at me, and missed. He swung again and followed with a kick, hitting nothing but air. He dove at me in an attempt to tackle me to the ground, but I leaped somersaulting backwards evading his grasp. His attacks continued, but he never laid a finger on me, and I never responded.
The commander took a final dive at me and crashed into the wall. Enraged and panting, he reached for his goop gun. Despite its name, a goop gun is not lethal. It fires a string of pink, fast-fixing plastic used to subdue an opponent without harming him.
“Looking for this?” I said, pulling the gun from behind my back.
Sett went for his demon duster, and I reached behind with my other hand and presented that to him as well. Then he went for his knife, but it too was missing. I stuffed the demon duster back into my belt, gave my sleeve a shake, and dropped his knife into my hand. I held it up for him to behold, then whipped it at him, pinning the inner part of one pant leg to the wall. He looked down at his crotch, and swallowed hard.
“Not bad, Cadet,” he admitted, “but you haven’t proved a damn thing.” Sett tapped the mini transceiver behind his ear. “Send a SWAT team to this signal immediately,” he barked. “Bring tasers, goop guns, and stun nets. Now!” He turned to me. “You stay put!”
I whirled and shot up to the vaulted ceiling. “I’m sorry, Sir, but if you aren’t going to help me rescue Virgil, then I’ll go alone.” I tossed him his guns and said, “You can be against God, Commander, but you can never be without Him. May HaShem Elohim, the Lord of Hosts, forgive you for your obstinacy.” I threw a salute at him, went into a high velocity whirl, and vanished.
Sett worked at the knife that pinned him to the wall. It was lodged surprisingly deep. Finally he freed himself and jammed it back into its sheathe.
“What are you snickering at, Celestial?” he scowled.
“You.”
“Okay, so he’s a half-decent fighter. Whoop-de-do.”
Grace rolled her eyes and shook her head, and then a tremendous crash sent her leaping back with a gasp. The door to her office burst open and the SWAT team rushed into the room, guns at the ready.
“You’re late!” Sett hollered.
The team exchanged looks of disbelief. “We got here pretty damn fast,” said the team leader, Captain Abishai.
Abishai was a mighty cupid of valor; a stocky, bearded warrior who took great pride in his squad.
He checked his watch. “Under three minutes.”
“Dismissed!” Sett said.
The SWAT team backed out the door amid hushed grumbles.
Grace chuckled. “I didn’t even know we had such a team.”
“They don’t get much action around here,” Sett admitted. “Usually just breaking up bar fights, prostitution rings, and drug smuggling.”
“Bar fights? Prostitution? Drugs?” Grace repeated.
Sett shrugged, embarrassed. “Hey, it’s not as bad as it used to be.”
“No wonder we are a laughing stock,” Grace said, shaking her head.
“Who cares what those Anteros freaks think?”
“Not Anteros, you twit. Heaven’s other angels. What a sad sack of miscreants they must think we are. And they’d be right. Really, just pathetic…”
“Oh, s
o not only am I to believe that we are angels, I’m supposed to believe there are other parts of Heaven with other angels! That’s a knee-slapper, Celestial. Who are you calling pathetic?”
“I’ve seen other parts, Commander. I’ve heard other angels. Do you think that the Creator of the Universe would satisfy Himself with a bunch of jokers like us? Do you really believe that this amazing universe could be supervised and monitored by the likes of our Academy wizards of dunce? Give me a break.”
Grace approached Sett, no longer caring what he thought of her or her words.
“The only reason foul-ups like us are still here is because of the Lord’s abiding mercy and compassion, and because of angels like Captain Volk and Cadet Kohai. It is their unshakable faith and heartfelt prayers that have averted our oblivion so far. Libertines, lechers, and rakes; drug addicts and drunken bar fights! Oh, such glory we bring to His name!”
“So, we’re not perfect,” Sett conceded. He jabbed a stern finger at Grace. “But we’re still the only game in town, and I’d pit my soldiers against any others, real or imagined.”
“Sure you would,” Grace mocked. “You’re so gallant that you allow a couple of beardless boys to face Anteros all by themselves.”
“I tried to stop him,” Sett retorted. “He wouldn’t listen. We have rules here, lady. We have protocols. And we have priorities!”
“You have hubris, that’s all you have,” Grace shot back.
“You’ve wasted enough of my time, Celestial.”
“You came to me, Commander, remember? You wanted to know what was up with Captain Volk, and I told you. He is an angel of God, and if you can’t get that through your thick skull, then that is your problem. I was skeptical too at first, but thankfully, not quite as obstinate and dim-witted as you clearly are. I have made my choice, and you and the rest of your disgraceful Academy can do with me as you deem fit. I will go to my exile or death singing God’s praise!”
“Don’t worry your pretty head, Celestial. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a thug. Your secret is safe with me. Just stay out of my way.”
Shooting Eros - The Emuna Chronicles: Complete Boxset: Books 1 - 3 Page 47
