by Siegel, Alex
However, the legionnaires were having a hard time finding it. According to its last known position, speed, and heading, it should've been two hundred miles due west of San Francisco. Hanley's sharp eyes saw nothing but black water. Clearly, the airplane had changed directions, and finding it would require searching thousands of square miles.
He was about to give the order to his teammates when he heard a voice in his head.
"Hanley," the Lady of the Society said, "have you found the Goddess?"
She was still in Chicago, but that didn't matter. He would hear her commands from the far side of the universe.
"No, ma'am, but we're getting closer."
"Tawni is interrogating two prisoners who may have relevant information for you. Go to her. Tawni, did you hear?"
"Yes, ma'am," a female voice answered. "The prisoners are cooperative now."
Hanley had never met Tawni. She had gone to Washington, DC with Ethel to rescue the President while everybody else was in Chicago. Aaron and Marina had used their new powers to add Ethel and Tawni to the Society after the aperture was gone. Hanley had heard Tawni was a very nasty individual.
Hanley, Ipo, and Katie followed Tawni's voice to her. It turned out she was in an armored bunker at the bottom of a deep coal mine. The place had been wrecked, but Hanley saw plenty of evidence of a major operation. There were rows of high-tech control consoles, and computer displays were hung on the walls. The bodies of many men in military uniforms littered the floor. Hanley guessed the enemy had controlled the U.S. Army from here.
Tawni had taken on a frightening form. She was a vortex of black mist and gleaming silver blades. Except for a silhouette of a female face, there was little evidence she had ever been human.
Tendrils of mist reached out to a man and a woman lying on the cement floor. The supernatural darkness penetrated all their orifices in a way that Hanley found repulsive. It looked too much like a kind of rape. The victims were twitching spastically and obviously trying to scream, but only choking noises came out. They were in excruciating agony and helpless to protect themselves. Their faces were almost purple.
"That's enough," Hanley said. "We need to talk to them."
Tawni withdrew her mist. The prisoners sobbed and curled into fetal positions. A strong odor told Hanley they had soiled themselves. He heard their hearts pounding rapidly and irregularly.
"Focus on the woman," Tawni said. "Her name is Erika, and she's the queen of the Pythagoreans." She went on to explain who the Pythagoreans were.
The revelation intrigued Hanley. Here was an enemy that knew about the Gray Spear Society and was capable of creating the angel illusions in San Francisco. The Goddess was almost certainly a Pythagorean.
Hanley stood over Erika. "Tell me about the operation in San Francisco. Who is trying to kill Olivia Bellar?"
Her bloodshot eyes looked up at him. Her eyelids were half-closed from exhaustion.
"Talk," he bellowed, "or I'll bring the darkness back."
Her face twisted in terror. "It's Iris! She took the assignment!"
"Tell us about her."
"A master of deception and illusion. She always stays hidden. And she has this ability..."
"What?" Hanley leaned down.
"She can lock onto a person's eyes and look through them later," Erika said. "She sees what her enemies are doing without them knowing. It's a kind of clairvoyance. It's very powerful."
He looked over at Ipo and Katie, and he knew they were thinking the same thing. Iris' strange gift would explain how she could follow people so easily.
"She went to meet a man named Grupo," Katie said. "He has a big mustache. Who is he?"
"How do you know...?" Erika said.
"Answer the question!" Tawni yelled.
Her black mist snaked across the floor and attacked Erika's face like a hungry animal. Erika couldn't breathe. She silently thrashed on the floor and clawed at the mist, but she only gouged her own skin.
"Let her speak," Hanley said.
He had seen Marina perform interrogations, and she was certainly cruel, but Tawni was a true sadist. He decided he didn't like her much.
Tawni withdrew her mist.
Erika gagged and heaved. Convulsions made tears fly from her eyes. Hanley almost felt sorry for her, but then he remembered how many people had died because of her. Innocents were still dying as cannibals continued to terrorize Chicago.
"He's a Pythagorean in South America," Erika said at last. "He lives in Rio de Janeiro."
"Where, exactly?" Hanley said.
"I don't know. We don't tell each other those kinds of details. Iris has a personal relationship with him."
"How do you make contact with him?"
"Red Eye radio."
She pointed at a red device on a table. The table was inside a broken glass enclosure which also contained a bed and other furniture. A large entertainment system included a television and a stereo. Somebody had been living in there.
Hanley walked over and grabbed the radio. It was as big and bulky as a Vietnam War walkie-talkie. There were just a few knobs and switches which didn't have labels. He played with the controls but nothing seemed to happen.
"How does this work?" he said.
"A retinal scanner activates it," Erika said. "Most of the Pythagoreans carry one. Grupo uses it, but Iris doesn't."
"Why not?"
"She only trusts her own technology."
"Probably wise," Hanley said. "We can trace the signal to Grupo and wait for Iris to meet him. We'll bag two Pythagoreans at once."
Erika shook her head. "Impossible. Nobody can trace the Red Eye radio. That's the whole point."
"I doubt that's completely true. Who invented this wonderful technology?"
"A benefactor gave the secret to Dr. Sigmund Eppinger. His team builds the radios for us."
Hanley guessed the term "benefactor" referred to God's enemies.
"Then he should know how to trace the signal," Hanley said. "How do we find him?"
"His research center is at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The Pythagoreans have a large facility down there."
"Very clandestine. Where, exactly?"
"The Leviathan gas field," Erika said. "They use the gas for power."
He turned to Ipo and Katie. "Let's go swimming."
* * *
Hanley was standing on top of the Mediterranean Sea. He didn't need a solid surface to support his weight. Willpower alone was enough.
Dawn was breaking, and clouds in the eastern sky were turning orange. He was near the shores of Israel and Egypt, but from his current location, he couldn't see any land. Drilling platforms dotted the horizon instead. Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas were trapped deep underground here. The waters were much calmer on the Mediterranean than the Pacific Ocean.
"How are we going to find the research center?" Katie said.
She and Ipo were also standing on the water, and the strangest part was it didn't look strange to Hanley. The new abilities of the legionnaires seemed completely natural.
"I can scan the bottom of the sea using my gift as a form of sonar," Hanley said. "I just need a sonic pulse to create echoes. An explosion would work."
"What about a water impact?" Ipo said.
"If it's big enough."
"You'll have it in five seconds."
Ipo vanished, and Hanley sensed he had jumped into outer space. Ipo was falling towards the Earth at thousands of miles per hour.
Hanley descended into the water. It was so dark and murky, even his extraordinarily sensitive eyes had trouble seeing anything. His hearing was much more effective, and he could discern the pressure waves caused by fish swimming in the water. The sea was alive with life both large and small. The clicking of crabs scuttling across rocks sounded loud to him.
Ipo struck the water with the force of a powerful bomb. The shockwave shot outwards, and when the echoes returned to Hanley, he created a mental map of the sea. The big pipes and support str
uctures underneath the drilling rigs produced sharp, clear reflections. Discarded equipment and dead well heads littered the sea floor.
A large dome was about a mile to the north under five hundred feet of water. That's it, Hanley thought.
"Follow me," he told Ipo and Katie.
Hanley jumped to the dome which was about the size of an office building. He was amazed that the Pythagoreans could build such a thing in secret. Tethers and tubes connected the dome to a drilling platform on the surface, and the platform obviously provided support functions.
"A great place to conduct secret research," Katie said.
Hanley nodded. "I guess we'll pop in and take a look around. We'll be gnats until we decide how to proceed."
He teleported into the dome and changed his body into the form of a gnat. Ipo and Katie appeared beside him the same way. The tiny team buzzed through the interior at high speed.
Hanley's first impression was of being inside a submarine. The walls, floors, and ceilings were made of welded steel. Exposed pipes and ductwork made narrow corridors seem even more cramped. Watertight hatches were placed at regular intervals, and they had automatic closing mechanisms.
Hanley had expected to see horrible experiments being performed on human subjects, but most of the activity seemed mundane. He flew past meeting rooms, a cafeteria, a machine shop, a chemistry laboratory, computer rooms, offices, and other facilities one would find in any serious research institute.
The staff wore standard military insignia, but their uniforms were red instead of green. The technicians and guards had plain outfits, while the officers' uniforms were decorated with piping and braids. It looked like a tightly run operation. At least, everybody was moving quickly and had very stern expressions.
Eventually, Hanley reached what seemed to be a command center. A man with the bars of a captain on his epaulets sat in a central rotating chair. Circular rows of operators surrounded him, and most seemed to be performing security functions. Displays showed many views of the interior of the dome.
The three legionnaires hovered near the ceiling. They listened and watched.
One monitor showed the kind of experiment Hanley had expected. A cluster of surgical robots was operating on a man strapped to a table. The robots were inserting small devices into his muscles and organs. Hanley wondered what they were for.
All these people must die, he thought.
Yes, Ipo responded, but the mission comes first. Find Dr. Eppinger.
Hanley flew through one of the doorways. When he was out of sight, he changed his body to look like a random technician in a red uniform. He re-entered the room at a quick trot.
He went to an officer and said, "Do you know where Dr. Eppinger is, sir? I can't seem to find him."
The officer looked at Hanley. "I expect he's in his office."
Hanley had a lost expression.
The officer frowned and walked over to one of the consoles. "Show us Dr. Eppinger," he told the operator.
The operator clicked on his keyboard. After trying a few cameras, he settled on a view of a man working in a private office.
"There," the officer said. "Why couldn't you find him?"
Eppinger had a dense gray beard, but his pasty white scalp was bald. Glasses with thick round lenses were perched on his nose. A legend at the bottom of the feed showed the words "Room 312."
"I'm new, sir," Hanley said. "I guess I just didn't know where to look."
"Then get on with your business," the officer said sharply.
Hanley hurried out of the room.
He switched back to gnat form, and Ipo and Katie accompanied him. It took just a minute to find room 312. The three legionnaires hovered in front of the door.
"How do you want to play this?" Katie said in the high-pitched whine of a gnat.
Hanley considered his response. They needed Eppinger to build a device capable of tracing a signal from a Red Eye radio. Olivia could make him cooperate, but she was probably asleep, and Hanley didn't want to put her at risk by getting her involved.
"We'll talk to him nicely," he said. "If that doesn't work, we'll give him to Tawni. She'll straighten out his attitude. Ipo, stay out here and make sure nobody bothers us."
"Sure," Ipo said.
Hanley made himself look like a lieutenant in a red uniform. He entered Eppinger's office without bothering to knock. Katie followed Hanley and closed the door behind him. She had chosen the form of a technician with her original human face and brown hair.
Eppinger looked up from his computer. "Hello? What do you want?" He had a German accent.
Books and professional journals filled the shelves in his office. He also had electronic components in glass cases, and Hanley guessed they were important experimental prototypes.
"Nothing much," he said. "Just a device that can trace a signal from a Red Eye radio back to its source. We'll use it to hunt Pythagoreans. At the moment, we're most interested in a South American named Grupo."
Eppinger stared. "Is this some kind of bad joke?"
"Not at all."
"I'm calling security." Eppinger picked up a phone on his desk.
Hanley quickly reached over, grabbed the phone, and crushed it with his hand. "Why? I thought we were having a pleasant conversation."
Eppinger looked at the broken components and swallowed.
"By the way, your queen, Erika, gave us your name, so we know you're the right person to talk to. She's our prisoner. I should also mention the operation in Chicago failed utterly."
Eppinger's eyes widened. "You're with the Gray Spear Society."
"Close enough," Hanley said. "If you're smart, you'll realize the game is over for you."
Eppinger grabbed a gun from a desk drawer and fired wildly. Bullets struck Hanley's chest, but the impacts didn't even dent his skin.
A moment later, he heard a siren wail. He guessed somebody in security had seen the gunfire through the surveillance system.
Hanley rolled his eyes. "I know it sounds cliché, but we have ways of making you cooperate. You'll be better off if you just concede the point now."
"You may be bulletproof," Eppinger said in a quavering voice, "but we have weapons down here that shoot things more powerful than bullets. There is no way you can escape alive. You were stupid to come here."
Hanley heard men running in the corridor outside the office. Automatic gunfire followed, and then he heard what sounded like a powerful electrical discharge. The lights flickered. There were screams of pain and crashing noises as Ipo fought back. A thud made the entire dome ring like a giant bell.
"I have more important things to do than sit here and argue," Hanley said. "Will you build my tracer or not?"
Eppinger looked at the door of his office. It sounded like a war was being fought outside. There were metallic crunches, booms, and bangs.
Ipo, Hanley thought, don't kill them all.
I'm only killing the ones who shoot at me, Ipo replied. We'll have plenty left.
Hanley turned to Katie. "Go outside the dome and make sure nobody escapes."
She nodded and vanished.
"The ocean is outside the dome," Eppinger said.
"Obviously," Hanley said. "Last chance. I want to hear a 'yes' or a 'no'."
"But the Pythagoreans will kill me if I do anything for you."
"That's not an acceptable answer."
Hanley reached over and grabbed Eppinger by the wrist. Hanley teleported him to the underground bunker where Tawni was torturing Erika.
After recovering his equilibrium, Eppinger looked at the devastation with wide eyes. When he saw Tawni, his expression turned to terror. He backed away and stumbled over a chair.
His gaze settled on Erika, and he ran to her.
He knelt down. "My queen! What have they done to you?"
"Show him," Hanley told Tawni.
Tendrils of black mist snaked out from her body like tentacles. They skewered his eyes, mouth, and anus. His whole body began to shake as if he w
ere having a powerful seizure. Hanley expected Eppinger was in unbearable agony, but he could only make gasping noises.
Hanley turned to Tawni. She was hardly even trying to look human. Only a silhouette of a woman's face behind a veil of mist was recognizable.
"You're very good at causing pain," he said.
"It's my gift."
"Do you enjoy it?"
"Some people deserve to suffer," she said, "and I'm happy to make it happen."
Hanley saw Tawni as a perfect example of why God had appointed Aaron and Marina to run the Society. There was a fine line between a legionnaire and a monster, and clearly, Tawni didn't mind crossing it. If she went too far, the Lord and Lady would snap her back hard. If Tawni still didn't get the message, she would be destroyed. Marina had very little tolerance for disobedience, and Aaron was probably the same way.
"Let him talk," Hanley said.
Tawni withdrew her mist. Eppinger curled up his body and sobbed like a baby. It had only taken a minute to break him completely.
"Are you ready to work for me," Hanley said, "or do you want more?"
"I'll do anything!" Eppinger cried. "Just keep that... horror away from me!" He pointed at Tawni.
Hanley grabbed his wrist and teleported him back to his office.
"Where to?" Hanley said. "Your laboratory?"
"Yes." Eppinger nodded. His pale face had red splotches, and he wobbled on his feet.
"Lead the way." Hanley opened the door.
Eppinger staggered into the corridor.
Hanley shook his head at the mess. Heaps of dead bodies blocked the way, and he pushed them aside. Explosions had scorched and bent the steel walls. Most of the lights were broken. Puddles of blood were everywhere, and some had even sprayed the ceiling.
Ipo walked up. He had reverted to his default form which was big, round, and brown. He looked like a boulder with stubby arms and legs. He had to crouch down to fit through the corridor.
"You took him to see Tawni?" Ipo said.
Hanley nodded. "The doctor is in a much more cooperative mood now."
"I don't like her methods, but they're effective."
"Indeed. Move." Hanley gave Eppinger a shove.
