by Siegel, Alex
Marina parked in front of a small farmhouse made of hand-cut wooden planks. Real cedar shingles covered the roof. It looked nice even if it was a fire hazard. She got out of the car and took a deep breath of fresh air scented with pine.
Olivia climbed out of the back with a cute smile on her face. The girl was wearing a fuzzy pink outfit and plastic sandals with butterflies on her toes. A straw hat protected her pale skin from the sun. Colorful rubber bands held back her blonde hair.
"What is this place?"
"El Toro and his gang used to own this farm," Marina said. "It was where they kept traitors and enemies. I'll show you."
She led Olivia into the farmhouse. There was a little furniture inside, but it was old and in poor condition, not even worth stealing.
Olivia tried a light switch, but it didn't work. "Is there electricity?"
"Yes," Marina said, "but the cables are buried, and only certain rooms have power. It's supposed to look like nobody lives here."
They went into an empty bedroom. Her footsteps kicked up dust which made her nose itch. She felt around until she found the handle of a concealed trap door, and she pulled it up. She and Olivia climbed down a ladder to reach the room below.
It was a surveillance control room. Gleaming, modern equipment surrounded Marina, and she turned it on. Monitors lit up, showing her views from hidden cameras all over the farm. Some of the cameras operated in the thermal band, and the ghostly images looked surreal.
"Cool," Olivia said.
"El Toro's gang had to look out for cops and enemy gangs." Marina pointed to one monitor. "That's where they kept prisoners."
The view showed four cells with steel doors. She knew they were buried underneath the barn and were as secure as any real prison. The surrounding foundation had concrete walls two feet thick.
Marina made sure Olivia didn't see the interrogation room. She was too young to witness such horrors. The equipment was medieval, and many men had come to horrible ends in that place.
"What happened to the prisoners?" Olivia said. "Were they killed?"
"Eventually," Marina said.
"Where are the bodies?"
Marina grinned. "That's a very smart question. One of the nice things about a farm is there is plenty of room for unmarked graves. Some are in the woods and some are in the fields. The gang kept a backhoe in the barn to make the digging easier."
"Oh."
Marina checked all the cameras to make sure there were no intruders on the property. One couldn't be too cautious where Olivia's safety was concerned. God's enemies were still trying to kill her.
Eventually, a blue sedan drove into the farm and parked next to Marina's car. She saw Hanley and Katie's faces through the front windshield.
Marina's phone rang.
She put it to her ear. "Yes?"
"We're here, ma'am," Hanley said.
"I see that. Just stay in the car for ten minutes while I make sure nobody followed you."
Marina continued to cycle through cameras. She checked the perimeter of the farm and all the surrounding roads. El Toro's gang had invested in top-grade surveillance equipment. She could see every inch of the property.
When she was satisfied, she turned everything off and climbed out of the hole. Olivia followed Marina back through the empty house. Some of the floorboards creaked despite Marina's efforts to tread lightly.
She opened the front door and beckoned her legionnaires to come inside. While they did so, she looked around to reconfirm nobody else was in the area.
Hanley, Katie, and Brian Kelly entered the house. Kelly was in even rougher shape than Marina had expected. Holes in his clothes revealed soiled skin. His beard and mustache looked like they had been last trimmed with hedge clippers. He shuffled his feet like an old, crippled man.
Olivia held her nose. "Eww! He stinks!"
Marina agreed but was trying to be nice about it.
"You want to buy my figurines?" Kelly said.
"What?" Marina looked at Hanley.
He nodded. "Five thousand dollars."
She turned back to Kelly. "Sure. I'd love to buy them, but first, I have a few questions. And before that, this girl wants to touch your head."
"Why?" he said.
"Because you're a holy man, and she wants your blessing."
Kelly smiled. "OK. No problem."
He knelt down. Olivia had an expression of disgust and obviously didn't want to touch his filthy forehead, so Marina gave her a nudge. Finally, Olivia went forward.
As soon as she touched Kelly, he became visibly relaxed. Marina knew the girl was putting him into an extremely cooperative mood. He would answer any question truthfully and do anything she asked. Olivia was more effective than any torture device or truth serum. Marina knew only one person who was even better at making people tell the truth. That was Wesley, the Voice of Truth, the Beacon of Light, the Child of Destiny, and Olivia's future husband.
"Do you feel good?" Marina said.
"I feel wonderful," Kelly replied in a sleepy voice. He sat down abruptly on the dusty floor.
"Great. Let's start at the very beginning. Where did you get your inspiration for your book? Can you remember the exact moment? Describe what happened."
He furrowed his brow and kept quiet. With a frown, Olivia touched his forehead again. His head rolled on his neck, and he almost fell over.
"It was at night. August, 1998. I was driving a pickup truck. My wife was with me." His expression became sad.
"You were married?" Marina said.
"Just two months, but we were already talking about having kids. I was working as a county surveyor. She was a grade school teacher. So beautiful..."
She watched powerful emotions play across his face. She already knew this story would end in tragedy.
"Something bad was happening in the county those days," Kelly said. "People were going blind unexpectedly."
Marina cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"The scientists and doctors couldn't explain it. People would suddenly lose their sight for no good reason. There were dozens of victims, and I don't think they ever healed."
This story was going in an unexpected direction, and her interest was piqued.
"I was driving," Kelly said, "and a truck coming the other way veered into my lane. I found out later the driver had lost his sight. I never had a chance. We crashed head-on at sixty miles an hour. I should've died."
"What happened?" Marina said.
"A white energy surrounded me. My pickup truck was smashed, but the energy shielded me. The metal actually deformed around my body. When it was over, I looked out the window. A beautiful woman was standing there. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She was dressed like a soldier, but her clothing was gray. I asked who she was, and I'll never forget what she told me."
"What was that?"
Kelly spoke in a somber tone. "'I am a warrior of God. I could only save one of you. Sorry.' I knew she had to be an angel with miraculous powers. I looked at my wife, and she had been crushed. She had died instantly, but I didn't have a scratch. When I looked back at the woman, she was already gone."
Marina didn't doubt he was telling the truth as he knew it, but she had a different interpretation of the events of that night.
"Why didn't you tell this story before?"
"I felt guilty. My wife..." He lowered his head.
She understood. Survivor guilt could drive a person crazy, and in this case, it had. He felt like he should've died with his wife.
"Where did this happen exactly?" Marina said.
"Fairfield."
She took out her phone and stepped into another room. She needed confirmation of her suspicions, and there was only one person to call, but Marina hesitated. Was this question important enough to bother the legatus legionis of North America? Marina judged it was and made the call.
"Marina?" Ethel said. "What's wrong? I hope this isn't more bad news. We've had too much already."
"Not n
ecessarily, ma'am. I just need a quick favor. Are you near a copy of the tabella?"
The tabella was the official record of the Gray Spear Society. Every mission going back 1500 years was documented in the 300 volumes.
"Yes. Why?"
Marina relayed the story she had just heard. Ethel went off to see if there was any mention of those events in the tabella.
Marina heard her boss flipping through pages and whispering in Latin. All the records were in a particular dialect of Latin that Marina was supposed to learn as part of her duties as a commander. She had managed to put off that task because her headquarters still didn't have a copy of the tabella. When the team moved into a permanent facility and received their copy, she wouldn't have that excuse.
"By the way, ma'am, where are you?"
"In Chicago," Ethel said.
"Huh? Why?"
"All hell is breaking loose here. It's one of the ugliest situations I've ever seen. Somebody has to make sure the twins are safe while Aaron deals with all the other shit."
Marina furrowed her brow. The legate had thirty years of experience in the Society and wouldn't make such statements lightly.
"I think this is all about the twins," Ethel added. "God's enemies are desperate to stop the project, and they're almost out of time. The thing will be activated in just a few days. Then everything will change."
"The thing?" Marina said. "Aaron has been extremely vague about what exactly the twins are doing."
"With good reason. Nothing is more important. There is no bigger secret in existence. Ah! I found the passage. In August of 1998, there was a mission in Fairfield. Somebody was using a kind of energy ray to blind people. The technology had come from God's enemies."
"What about the woman who saved Kelly's life?"
Ethel paused. "She was a legionnaire. Her gift was the ability to create a protective barrier around herself or one other person. She could bestow invulnerability for a few seconds."
"She protected his body but not his mind."
"Yes. Whenever we get involved in the lives of ordinary people, there are always unintended consequences. Let that be a lesson to you."
"Yes, ma'am," Marina said. "Thank you for your help."
"My pleasure, and Marina, be safe."
The legate sounded afraid, and that rattled Marina. Ethel had won hundreds of battles and was the most powerful person on the continent. She wasn't afraid of anything.
"Yes, ma'am. Bye." Marina put away her phone.
She returned to the room with the others.
"Who were you talking to, ma'am?" Hanley said.
"My boss. I'll tell you about it later. Give Kelly the money he was promised and drop him off someplace safe. We're done with him. Meet me back at headquarters."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Come." Marina beckoned to Olivia.
The two of them went back to the car. Marina looked around again before getting in and driving off.
When they were safely on the road, Olivia said, "You talked to Ethel?"
"Yes," Marina said.
"I like her."
"There are very few people who can say that with a straight face. She's pretty terrifying."
"You're worse," Olivia said.
Marina was surprised. "Oh?"
"I've touched your mind. All you think about is death."
"That's my job."
"It's not a nice job," Olivia said.
Marina let that comment go. She drove onwards towards home.
Chapter Seven
Marina walked into headquarters. "What's the latest news?"
She headed straight over to Min Ho's workstation. The hacker was wearing plaid today, and the green-red combination made her eyes cross. She had long since given up trying to understand his strange sense of style. Some days, he looked more like a clown than a professional.
Ipo and Yang joined her to hear the report. They were wearing karate uniforms and were flushed from working out.
"Today's angel message was translated," Min Ho said. "The rapture will happen tomorrow at noon local time."
"That's nice and specific," Marina said.
"Yes, ma'am. To get into Heaven, people will have to make a leap of faith. Anybody who doesn't will be stuck on Earth for the Great Tribulation. That's when Satan takes over."
"What do you mean by a 'leap of faith'?"
"Unknown," he said, "but there a million theories on the internet. Do you want to hear some?"
"Not really. What I want to hear about are those green trucks."
"That was the other thing. When we went back and looked at the surveillance video from the second event, we saw the same kind of green trucks. We also saw them on the latest footage from Union Square."
Min Ho clicked on his keyboard, and a video appeared on one of his monitors. Marina immediately recognized Union Square. There seemed to be a normal amount of traffic, and clearly, she was looking at events before the angels had appeared.
Two lime-green trucks drove down the street adjacent to the park. Seconds after they passed, Marina saw the effect on the pedestrians. They swayed on their feet, and their eyes rolled back. A few seconds later, bright white light came down from the sky.
"That's interesting," she said.
Min Ho backed up the recording and froze it. She saw an opening in a back door of one van, and a thin brass pipe was sticking out.
"That's a gas nozzle!" Marina said.
He nodded. "We believe so, ma'am. The wind was blowing the right way. What happened with Brian Kelly?"
"We found out what made him crazy about angels. His life was saved by a legionnaire back in 1998 during a mission, but he mistook her for an angel. His wife was killed."
"Oh." He frowned.
"What matters is God's enemies didn't inspire him to write that book. If anything, it's our fault."
"Then the angels aren't a mission?" Min Ho said.
"We don't know. We must continue to investigate."
Marina stared at the gas nozzle frozen on his screen. Clearly, the technology behind the angel illusion involved spraying gas in the area. Also, equipment had to be placed in a high spot with a clear line of sight. Jockel had talked about a source of light and a screen. The clues were coming together.
She had no idea of the purpose though. Somehow, the enemy had to turn religious fervor and chaos into a useful outcome. Otherwise, the exercise was an expensive waste of time.
"I assume you looked up the license plates," Marina said.
Min Ho nodded. "All fake. Trucks matching that description aren't registered anywhere, at least not with that color."
"We need to find them."
"Yes, ma'am." He looked at her expectantly.
She rubbed her fingernails as she tried to come up with a plan. Sometimes being a commander was a heavy responsibility.
Yang came to her rescue when he said, "I have an idea, ma'am. That color can be seen from the air very easily. If we flew a reconnaissance drone over the Bay Area..."
"Yes!" Min Ho said. "Jia and I could write software to automate the search. It's a simple visual match. I bet we'll find those trucks within a couple of hours if they're out in the open. We just need a drone."
"How big a drone?" Marina said. "Like a model airplane?"
"It needs to have enough endurance to carry a camera back and forth across the Bay Area while being invisible to radar. It will have to pass through controlled airspace."
"Sounds like we need to borrow one from the military."
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "A Predator or a Reaper."
She frowned. She had extensive contacts in local law enforcement agencies and even the FBI, but she fell short when it came to the military. There was nobody she could call for a favor like this.
"Do you think you can hack into the Army's computers and generate fake orders to send up a drone?"
"I can try," Min Ho said. "I believe I have the right access codes."
"Get on it," Marina said.
"Yes,
ma'am."
She turned to Ipo and Yang. Seeing them in their karate uniforms reminded her she had fallen behind on her training during the last couple of days. She was due for a vigorous workout.
"It's curious," Ipo said. "Why would the bad guys drive such distinctive trucks? It seems kind of stupid to call attention to themselves."
"I don't know." Marina shrugged. "Maybe the color has some kind of religious significance. We'll ask them when we find them. In the meantime, I need to work off some aggressive energy. I'm going to spar with both of you. Let's go."
The two legionnaires gave each other uneasy looks.
* * *
"A leap of faith," Hanley said. "There are so many ways to interpret that phrase."
"It could be very literal," Katie said.
They were driving up Interstate 280. It was a very wide highway with lush landscape on both sides. There was a reservoir on the left and mountains beyond. Some recent rains had turned the grass green. The scenic route could make a person forget he was in a dense urban area.
Min Ho had sent them a text message containing the latest information. Hanley had really liked Yang's idea of using a drone.
"The bad guys can't want people to make an actual leap," Hanley said. "Where would they leap from or to? How many people are we talking about? The idea has to be more ceremonial."
"Maybe the leap involves showing trust and giving money," Katie said. "It could be part of a big scam."
"Yes. We just have to figure out the scam."
"There must be thousands of hucksters trying to profit from this mess. Only one of them is our real enemy."
"True." He furrowed his brow.
Hanley's phone rang. He handed it to Katie so he could drive safely.
She answered, "Yes? OK. We'll go straight there." She returned the phone. "Something is happening on Gateway Boulevard in South San Francisco. The boss wants us to investigate."
"Got it." He pressed down on the gas pedal.
It took twenty long minutes to reach their destination. As they approached, Hanley saw dozens of flashing red and blue lights. Police cars and fire trucks surrounded a tall office building. News vans had also beaten the legionnaires to the scene, and their microwave link masts were up.
