by Thomas Green
His soul struggled when I entered his body, but I shoved it away and locked it deep in the back of his mind. His body felt comfortable, so I wasted no time and walked to the toilets.
I entered a stall, looking for a fire alarm. This one didn’t have it. I tried the other stalls. The next one had the fire alarm, a round box on the ceiling, so I locked myself in there. I gathered a bundle of toilet paper, and sat down, and left the body. His spirit would need an hour or so to regain control of his body, more time than I needed. I flew to the next floor, and repeated the process, finding another man with a lighter, taking him to the bathroom, and knocking him out in a locked stall.
Like this, I prepared eight men, each on a different floor. Once done, I returned to the first man, the one on the lowest floor. In his body, I got up, grabbed the bundle of toilet paper, and struck the lighter to set the paper ablaze. Once I had a nice fire in my hand, I put that under the fire alarm.
To rob the vault, I first had to create chaos.
The fire alarm started ringing.
I left the body, and flew up through the ceiling, straight to the next man. Through him, I did the same.
While they were harmless little fires in toilets, that wasn’t what they would see as in the control center. There, the screens would light up with fire alarms and see how it happened in an upward sequence. That would suggest a quickly-spreading flame, which is especially troublesome in the vicinity of maintenance and ventilation shafts. And those were always near the toilets.
I advanced through the floors, triggering more and more fire alarms. The first response to a fire spreading through ventilation shafts was to close them. They had undoubtedly done that already. But me triggering more alarms afterward would create the illusion of a fire that was spreading anyway.
And with the thousands of guests that were undoubtedly present in the casino, they could not risk doing nothing while sending men to investigate. Not to mention that would be against every fire hazard protocol. I continued with the fires until I set off all alarm for which I had prepared.
Immediately afterward, I flew through the walls to the control center. As expected, chaos engulfed the staff, men shouting, smashing buttons on control panels.
I entered the body of the man commanding the area. This would be a lot more fun if I spoke Chinese, but like this, the best I could do was to push his consciousness into the back of his mind. Since he stopped talking the moment I took over, everyone in the room look at him.
Perfect. I made his body catch his throat, acting as if he lost the ability to breathe. Everyone in the room stared and I was hoping my performance was convincing as I fell to the ground. A moment later, two men rushed to me, trying to help.
I acted it out to the end, holding the breath until I left the body, leaving him unconscious. Instantly, I entered the body of the first man who arrived to help. Once inside him, I pushed his consciousness away and started acting as if he was choking.
Even the men who kept their cool before started shouting. One quickly hit a few buttons on a control panel, and the general evacuation alarm echoed through the building.
Pleased, I left the unconscious body and flew down to the safe. The guards inside the post were hastily tapping the control panels, shouting into their phones. I possessed one and knocked him out by pushing his spirit away from the body’s control.
A second later, I took over the second one, hung up the phone, and stretched. From the first man, I took all his access cards, and then stared at the control panel. I needed to open the door.
But how?
I drew the man’s phone, tapped the Google Play icon, and downloaded a translator. Once the app installed, I opened it, set it to automatically translate, and aimed the camera at the screen. That put a translated overlay over the picture, and I navigated through the menu.
The board asked me to swipe my access card through a reader, which I did, and then for the second man as well. The security procedure also wanted a retinal scan, which I promptly provided.
The vault’s door started opening.
Satisfied, I left the guard post and walked into the vault. If the control room wasn’t already evacuated, they would notice someone opening the vault out of schedule.
With a smirk, I entered the vault, glancing at the neatly stacked piles of cash, tokens, and valuables. Lovely. As I looked at the collection, I had to appreciate Zhang’s ability to strip his patrons down to their underwear, because there even were mobile phones present.
And in one of the chambers, I saw a safety box. I fuelled my gaze with aether and saw a hint of magic from that safe. Excellent.
My body turned cold, collapsing. I flew out, leaving the man unconscious. Apparently, a common man’s body couldn’t handle even a second of me using my powers.
With some extra appreciation for my own body, I returned to the first man I had knocked out down there. I ran to the man whose body ran out of strength, took the access cards, and headed for the exit. I opened all doors that led to the exit stairs and only then flew out of him.
I finally re-entered my body, still lying beneath the stairs, got up, and stretched. From the now-unconscious man, I took the access cards, and made my way to the vault. Inside, I went straight to the safety box, and put my hand on its top.
I channeled my aether into the protections, blended them together, and absorbed the mixture. That took out the defenses, and I crushed the lock of the now-mundane box in my hand. From the inside, I took the jade pin. It didn’t look like much, but magic lay sealed inside. This was actually precious.
After I stuffed that into my pocket, I ran out of the vault, and up the stairs.
Only when I ran into the panicking people who were evacuating the casino, I remembered I told Amaranta someone would bring her the pin. Crap. I totally forgot about that.
Just as I was looking for a suitable victim, I saw her standing by the door, eyeing me. As I smiled awkwardly, her face dropped. She apparently realized. Yes, she was neither needed nor useful for this little theft, but I didn’t want to rub it in her face like this.
I walked to her, wearing an awkward smile. “Sorry, I forgot.” And I flashed the pin in my hand.
“You really don’t need anyone, do you?” she asked in a low voice.
“I do, sometimes.”
“But never me. Because I’m that useless.”
I shook my head. “No, we just happen to be doing things that I can do easily by myself.”
“And will the big heist be different?”
Now this was the correct, and thus very dangerous, question. “Yes, you have a guaranteed role to play in the big heist.” I looked into the crowd sharply, “Where’s Katherine?”
“Probably guarding the chips she has hoarded,” Amaranta said and motioned upstairs.
We passed against the crowd’s current all the way to the fourth floor. After we pushed through the people swarming by the exit, the hall was almost vacant.
Katherine stood by a table, a mountain of tokens behind her, arms crossed over her chest. Like a dragon guarding her hoard.
I leaned closer to Amaranta. “Since when can she play poker?”
“She barely knows the rules.” Amaranta smiled faintly. “But she’s good at telling if someone’s bluffing and also happens to be really, really lucky.”
Was she? That may have come from her royal heritage. A bloodline that ancient was sure to possess a variety of perks. I mean, I came from the direct bloodline of Adam, my father was a fallen angel, and, while I hated to admit that my extreme talent for aether manipulation most likely came from there. Sure, I loved to think of myself as being self-made, but I doubted my father was any worse at aether manipulation and magic use in general. He just used the bloodline’s gifts differently.
As we walked to Katherine, she glared at us. “Really? You cause a fire alarm when I’m winning?”
“I thought paladins weren’t supposed to gamble.”
“Nice try, but I’m on a vacation on non
-Church grounds.” She raised her chin, turning her gaze to Amaranta. “And you aren’t going to rat me out, are you, Amy?”
“No, of course not,” Amaranta said with a forced smile. “I will help you pack the chips. Lucas can handle the rest of the business.”
“Will do.” I spun on my heel and dashed to the stairs. There, I ran up to the control room floor. I had already been there twice, so finding the way was easy since the doors were unlocked due to the evacuation. As expected, I found Li Wei Zhang there, furiously going over the control boards. “Yo,” I said as I walked in.
“Not the time,” he snapped. And then he froze. “Is this your doing?”
“The fire’s a false alarm, and so are the people falling unconscious.” I took out the pin from my pocket and stretched out my hand. “I believe I’m on time.”
He glanced at his golden watches. “Forty-two minutes…” He looked up, dead serious. “I am starting to believe people calling you Lucifer aren’t exaggerating.”
I shrugged. “People say many things.”
“And they sometimes happen to be right.” He pressed a button on the control panel and the alarm stopped wailing. “So, suppose I decided to join your operation. What are the risks of me dying? And answer honestly.”
“Pretty low, actually. Since we will be breaking through the defenses we encounter, the way back will be clear. I can float through the Void limitlessly for as long as I know where I’m going, and to solve that, I will get a high-capacity teleportation matrix with a path-memory function. With that, we can escape at any time. In case things go south, our team contains an angel, and angels are ridiculously powerful in the Void.”
“As are fallen angels.” He nodded. “But still. Suppose we get captured inside. What would be the consequences of that?”
“Since you don’t age in the Void, we would have an unlimited amount of time to figure our way out.”
Zhang thought for a long moment. And then, he finally said, “Very well. I will join you. When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow. We fly to New York an hour before sunset.”
“I will make the preparations.” He pressed a button and started shouting into a microphone, most likely a command for his employees to return to the casino.”
Good. With a brief smile, I left the control room.
The upper lobby was completely vacant, so I enjoyed a slow walk. Without the people, the design of the place became clear. It truly was a collection, arranged into a Ying-Yang sign so that if one walked by the symbol’s pattern, he would chronologically see the entire history of the Tang dynasty.
A movement beyond the massive glass windows caught my eyes. I glimpsed a flash, and automatically contorted my body. A dozen bullets sprayed my area. My left shoulder exploded with pain.
I rolled sideways, shouting in pain. An explosion thundered through the hall. The glass broke, and two dozen vampires flew inside on gliders.
Amaranta 1
FLANKED BY KATHERINE, AMARANTA descended to the ground floor, carrying a tablecloth full of Katherine’s chips. At least here, she could be a tiny bit helpful.
The thought brought a sour taste into her mouth. The best she could do was to help Katherine carry her chips. What a grand role for an angel.
An explosion shook the casino, coming from the higher floors.
“Be right back,” Amaranta snapped and flew out of her body. Instantly, she turned her physical form into lighting and guided it through her spiritual into a chandelier. She aimed up through the power lines, and a split second later, she made the lightning fly out through a socket on the top floor. She didn’t materialize yet, letting her lightning form hang under the ceiling.
In the casino hall were twenty-five vampires landing in on gliders. They wore combat armor and had the bottom half of their faces covered, but they emanated an unmistakable feeling of the undead.
Lucas was scrambling for cover on the stairs and Li Wei Zhang just opened his office door. No one was in position to spoil this for her. Finally.
She let her body materialize among then, releasing a light shockwave to refocus their attention. The vampires reacted perfectly, instantly falling into two half-crescents at her sides, each made of two rows. The ones in the first row each drew a katana and the ones in the second row dropped sniper rifles in favor of shotguns.
With a smile, Amaranta stretched her palm towards the night sky. A spear was her favorite weapon, but she was in China, so she might as well use something befitting the place. Upon her command, lightning split the sky, hit her hand, and formed glaive.
The vampires with shotguns finished positioning so they wouldn’t hit their friends, and opened fire. A dozen slugs flew at Amaranta.
She didn’t bother with blocking. When the projectiles were about to hit, the impact area on her body automatically turned into lightning, making the slugs pass through her harmlessly.
From the corner of her eye, Amaranta noticed Lucas getting up, aether around him intensifying, gathering into his palm.
Oh, no, no, no, no, he was not stealing this from her. She hadn’t had a good fight in four months. Amaranta bolted to the nearest vampire and swung her glaive in a wide arc. The blade blurred through the air, severing the man in two.
She whirled, stepping sideways, and cut apart two more. The others converged on her; katanas imbued with aether. Anything imbued with aether could actually hurt her.
Forcing back her smile, she turned into lightning, streaked behind them, and slashed off one’s head. The ones with swords spun while the ones with shotguns fired once more. The projectiles passed through her, and she severed three men with a single swing.
“Dodge,” Lucas shouted.
Automatically, Amaranta turned into lightning and bolted to the ceiling. She glimpsed Lucas holding a spinning globe of compressed aether in his outstretched palm. The aether collapsed upon itself and released a directed blast toward where she stood a split second ago.
Everything in front of Lucas disintegrated into dust. All the vampires were gone in an instant, as were the window frames, and a part of the floor. As if an unimaginable force tore out a chunk of reality.
Amaranta’s heart dropped into her stomach as she reformed. After over four months of leading sermons, signing bibles, and having absolutely nothing useful to do, she now got barely twenty seconds of fighting.
Not enough. She was a warrior angel. Literally, the only thing she was good at, the one thing she truly wanted to do, was to fight. But she didn’t have anyone against whom to fight.
She wanted to strike Lucas with lightning. Or stab him. Or both. She couldn’t though. And so she just stood by the window, staring at the city full of lights.
The elevator beeped open and Katherine walked out, still holding the tablecloth-turned satchel full of chips. “Lucas, you okay?” she shouted, let go of the bag, chips scattering on the ground, and raised the hems of her skirt to rush to him.
Lucas sagged down by the railing on the stairs. “Not really.”
Absolute truth. Amaranta wished she could turn off the sense for truth, but it told her, without failure, if a statement she heard was true. She just intuitively knew.
“What happened?” Katherine ran to him, looking at his shoulder.
Purple aether blurred by the side, forming a waning cloud of mist from which Zhang walked out. “I am afraid that this is my fault.”
Truth. Interesting.
Zhang glanced at the area where the vampires used to be. “These creatures have been hunting me for months and the evacuation gave them a good opportunity.”
Still truth, mostly. The months’ time interval was intentionally vague and misleading. Amaranta frowned. That was not what she thought. She turned to lightning, bolted to Lucas and Katherine, forming with her face aiming at Zhang. “Why are they after you?”
He shrugged. “They never managed to tell me the details. All I know is that one of the high vampires died, that they want something from the Void, and that they are willing
to do practically anything to get it.”
Partial truth. He knew more. Amaranta peered down at Lucas, who was bleeding vigorously from the shoulder. “You know, don’t you?”
“Amaranta!” Katherine snapped, glowering at her. “He’s wounded. Let him be for a bit.”
Truth, sadly.
“As rude as it is,” Zhang said as he arrived at their side. “I am simply too curious about the answer.”
Truth.
Lucas formed a sour smile. “I don’t fully understand the details, but high vampires have immortal essences that retreat into their font of souls which is somewhere in the Void. They want you to get that essence so one of them can become a high vampire.” He stretched his neck, joints popping. “And as fate would have it, a success in my expedition would lead to the end of your pursuit.”
False; partial false; truth. Couldn’t he, for once, be specific and candid?
“How?” Zhang asked.
“I can’t tell you,” Lucas replied. “But Amaranta can confirm if I am telling the truth.”
False; truth. Amaranta smiled faintly. “Yes, him saying the expedition would solve this for you is true.” She didn’t add that everything else he said was a lie. That would be sabotaging their effort. And she actually wanted to go on the heist since that would finally be something worthy of her time.
Zhang nodded. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble if you started with that.” He cleared his throat. “But anyway, I have medics at the casino, so I will guide you there now.”
Truth; truth. And once again, she had nothing to do. The most she could do was to pray for him. Her gaze dropped toward the ground. She didn’t become an angel for this. But she held the ideals too dear to quit, to fall. She thought about it so often, like now, but she knew she didn’t want to fall out of grace. Since she spent her entire life living with the Christian ideals, she couldn’t even imagine abandoning them.
Zhang and Katherine helped Lucas up. Behind their backs, Lucas drew his phone with his healthy hand, unlocked with his fingerprint, and swiftly started swiping over the screen.
