by Jeff Kirvin
A few weeks before, he'd discovered how to do something that would allow him to bypass the key altogether. If he couldn't read the code, he could replace it with null values, effectively deleting it. In theory, the door would then open for anyone. There was a problem with this plan. Once he'd done it, he couldn't undo the damage. He'd have to get in, see what the angels were hiding and get out again before anyone else came near the room. Once out again, he could feign ignorance of the zeroed out passcode, Gabriel would reset it, and no one would be the wiser.
The celebration offered the perfect cover. It was now or never.
Daniel glanced at the security monitors to verify that Michael and Gabriel were still at the party. They were. Daniel then arranged for the security camera that monitored the door to be disabled. Electronics glitch. Terrible thing. Then he finally turned back to his terminal. He already had the command to zero out the passcode typed in. All he had to do was press “enter".
Once I do this, I'm committed, Daniel thought. His hand hovered over the key.
Screw it. His hand pressed the “enter” key quickly and decisively. Daniel was already up and headed out the door.
Daniel reached the door two minutes later. As expected, the hallway was empty. He glanced up at the video camera he disabled, winked, then pushed on the door.
It swung open.
Daniel quickly moved inside and closed the door. The room was smaller than he expected, and filled with computer equipment and a modest conference table. He sat down at the main computer console.
The computer was already on and there didn't seem to be any security precautions. Daniel wondered why at first, then realized it'd be just like Gabriel to decide such measures weren't necessary inside a secure room. He began poking around the computer. It wasn't long before he found the sort of thing he was looking for.
"Oh my God.” He pulled an optical disk from his uniform, then started a file copy.
Several minutes later, Daniel left the room as he found it, the blind eye of the camera seeing nothing.
Daniel caught up with Susan a while later on the roof. “We have to talk,” he said quietly.
Caught up in the festivities, Susan barely noticed him. “What?” she asked, still smiling. Then she caught the expression on Daniel's face and grew concerned.
Without another word, Daniel took her by the arm and led her away from Michael and the crowd, over to an edge of the roof relatively free of people.
"I found out what they're up to,” Daniel said.
"Who?"
Daniel rolled his eyes and sighed. She used to be smarter than this, he thought. “Michael. The angels."
Susan shook her head. “Daniel, what are you talking about?"
"This,” he said, showing her the disk. “I broke into that room. I found this on a computer."
She looked at the disk, but made no move to take it. “What is it?"
"Their plans.” He looked over her shoulder at Michael, roughly a hundred meters away. He never had successfully determined how sensitive immortal senses were. “I don't think it's safe to talk about this here. Can we go to your quarters?"
Susan looked at Daniel and smirked. “Why Mister Cho, are you coming on to me?” For the first time, Daniel noticed she was a swaying a little. Damn, he cursed, she's been drinking.
"This is serious!” he said, but not loudly enough (he thought) for Michael to hear. “We need a place to talk, and Michael probably suspects I don't trust him. Your room is less likely to be bugged."
Daniel's manner finally started to pierce Susan's alcohol-enhanced good mood. “Daniel, what do you think you have there?"
"Downstairs,” he said. They went.
"Here,” he said. He handed Susan the disk and she inserted it into her computer.
Daniel plopped down in a chair as Susan read. It didn't take long for her to get to the end of what he'd been able to copy before caution and fear drove him out of the room. “This can't be right,” she said.
"It is. I took it from Michael's secure system. Why else do you think we're not allowed in there?"
She handed the disk back to Daniel. “I can't believe this. It has to be a prank, a fake, something, but Michael would never do such things."
Daniel sat up straight. “You don't think so? Think about what everybody out there is celebrating. We have peace, yes. We have a unified world government, certainly. But what kind of government? A theocracy, a dictatorship that we all just went along with because Michael's immortal and he claims to know what's best for us. Did I ever tell you about the conversation I had with Satan the night he fell? He wasn't evil. He thought he knew what was best for us, too."
"Daniel, there's a reason he was called the ‘Prince of Lies'."
Daniel stood up quickly. “Yeah, because that's what Michael wanted us to call him!” He held up the disk. “Do you believe this? Do you believe me?"
Susan dropped her eyes to the floor.
Daniel nodded. “Fine,” he said.
"Daniel, I don't think you're lying, but this is just too far-fetched to accept without confirmation. I can't make a decision on a single data point. You've been under a lot of stress recently. I know that for years you were either on the run from demons or chasing them yourself. Don't you think it's possible that you want to believe this because you need an enemy to fight?"
Daniel stared open-mouthed at Susan. “You think I made this up?"
"Maybe not consciously, but—"
Susan didn't get the rest of the sentence out before Daniel was gone, slamming her door behind him.
Falling From Grace
Daniel packed as fast as he could. He had to get out of Heaven before Susan, good intentions or not, ratted him out. His room was still pretty spartan, though not as bare as his old apartment in Washington. He threw most of his clothing into a bag, grabbed a few other things he couldn't bear to leave behind, then walked out his door.
He was stopped only once on his way out of the gargantuan complex, by Heinrich von Braun, now proudly serving as one of Heaven's many guards. Heinrich was obviously puzzled by the bag. “Where are you going, sir?"
Daniel smiled, slung the bag casually over his shoulder and walked over to Heinrich. “I'm off to visit a friend, Heinrich. A young lady that doesn't live here in Heaven, but who might just have a heaven of her own for me."
Daniel winked at the young German, who smiled and blushed simultaneously. Heinrich nodded, and Daniel was on his way. As he walked out of the security gates on the ground level, Daniel vowed there would only be one way he'd ever return.
Michael sat on this throne and frowned. He was alone in his enormous “office” and the object of his consternation was something on one of his many flat-screen computer monitors. He didn't look up until Gabriel walked into the room.
"You wished to see me, Michael?"
"Look at this,” Michael said and spun the monitor over to Gabriel in disgust.
"An email from Cho,” Gabriel observed. “Why did this make you so—"
"Read it!” Michael commanded.
"Michael,” Gabriel read aloud. “I've discovered what you really are and what you're really doing. I know all about your plans, and I won't let you get away with it."
Gabriel paused, then read, “I've been in the secure room."
"Is it true,” Michael asked. “Has he?"
Gabriel looked away from his leader. “It could be,” he said. “I was about to come tell you about it when you summoned me. The passcode on the door has been zeroed out, and the security camera watching the door appears to have malfunctioned. Even so, the only time he could have gone in there without being noticed—"
"Was during the party.” Michael said. “And I don't remember seeing much of Cho on the roof with us."
"No, I remember seeing him talking to Richardson for a few minutes, but that's all. We can't prove Cho was in the planning room last night, but if he says he was, I see no reason to disbelieve him."
Michael sunk further into
his massive chair. “Were you aware that by the time I received this message, Cho was nowhere to be found in the complex, and that his room had been cleaned out?"
Gabriel studied the floor. “No, sir, I was not."
Michael stood and walked to one of the foot-thick windows. “We have a major security problem here, Gabriel. If Cho does know our plans, he could turn public opinion against us. I don't want a rebellion on my hands after only being in office a year."
"My Lord, he's only one human. I doubt—"
Michael spun and faced Gabriel. “One human. One human that discovered our existence. One human that helped orchestrate the fall of Hell. One human that the entire planet recognizes as a hero. That's the one human to whom you refer?"
Gabriel said nothing.
"You've let me down, old friend,” Michael continued. “Cho was given a place of prominence on my staff not only because the world expected it, but so you could keep an eye on him. We knew, you knew, how dangerous he could be and still you let this happen."
Gabriel got defensive. “You still have Richardson."
"Yes, thankfully. She's still under control, and depending on what Cho may have told her, we might even be able to use her to do some spin doctoring. But that isn't the issue. You will find Cho and return him. He's too dangerous to be allowed to walk around on his own, especially if he knows what he says he knows. Find him. Quietly.
"Now."
Gabriel left quickly.
The more Daniel walked, the more furious he became. He felt like a fool. Not just me, he thought. Michael played us all for suckers. As Daniel walked further into the parts of Los Angeles that weren't made of gold, he reflected more and more on what he'd learned.
Virtually everything Daniel had been through in the last three years was part of Michael's master plan. Not his initial discovery, of course; that was coincidence, luck, fate, whatever. But everything that happened after was part of a carefully orchestrated plan to place Michael exactly where he was.
Satan had been telling the truth after all, no matter what Susan thought. Just as he and the demons sought to improve humanity through the fires of chaos, the angels saw themselves as lords of order. When Daniel began to discover what the demons really were, Michael (who had agents everywhere) saw it as his opportunity to eliminate his opposition, bring order to a chaotic world and finally make it stick. Throughout the Demonic Crusade, Michael and Gabriel carefully let the world fall apart, let millions die in the witch-hunts, all so that they could step in and defeat the demons at the last possible minute. All so they could be in charge by the time the world began to rebuild.
In the name of Order.
The problem, Daniel thought, is that the Nazis were obsessed with order, too. Michael's theocracy, earned with the blood of millions of innocent humans, was only the beginning. Now that he was in charge, he had plans for the human race. It was the knowledge of these plans, more than anything else, that drove Daniel from Heaven.
While Satan sought to strengthen the human race through adversity, weeding out the weak, Michael had a much more straightforward strategy. Rather than waiting for misfortune or an inability to compete to weed out the unfit, Michael had decided to remove them directly, in the name of genetic purity.
Daniel had heard rumors about an unbalanced health care system that the angels had implemented. People with chronic problems, the ones that needed the most care, seemed to hit the most delays. He'd even heard that some, people with Down Syndrome or diabetes, for example, had been transferred to specialized “Care Centers". Now he knew what the Care Centers really were: concentration camps.
Michael was systematically removing from the gene pool anyone with illnesses or infirmities that could be passed on genetically. It wasn't a Darwinistic manner of the genetically unfit not being able to reproduce. It was that they simply weren't allowed to reproduce.
Unconsciously, Daniel's hands clenched to fists.
All that was only the start. There had been much more on the computer, but Daniel had only been able to copy so much before he had to get out of that room. Knowing what he knew about Michael, Daniel had no doubts the angel would have him “removed” if he had begun to see Daniel as a threat. So Daniel removed himself first.
He stopped and looked at his surroundings. He didn't know how long he'd been walking, but the immense, gleaming edifice of Heaven was still visible on the horizon behind him. Immediately around him, however, stood buildings of a different sort altogether. The slums reminded him of some of the tenements in Washington he'd visited as a paramedic. Most of the buildings looked as though they were still standing only because they were too stubborn to fall down.
Amazing, he thought, that such squalor could exist so close to the angels’ headquarters. It served as yet another indication of the disdain the angels felt for those that that weren't “good enough".
Daniel was so busy assessing the slums, he never saw the hands reach out of the shadows to grab him.
Inside his armor, Gabriel fumed. He had warned Michael many times that Cho's attitude problem could blossom into something far more troublesome, but Michael had consistently ignored him. If Gabriel had half Michael's talent for organization, he'd have replaced the overconfident buffoon centuries ago.
And these slums! Gabriel had recommended to Michael countless times that they be leveled. Considering his plans for the humans, Michael had been surprisingly concerned with what they'd think of such an action. What good was the power he held over the humans if he didn't use it?
For whatever reason Michael let the eyesores stand, they made Gabriel's job a hundred times harder. He and a team of armored angels had been searching the area surrounding Heaven for hours, but they'd seen no sign of their quarry.
They'd have to turn back soon. The longer he stayed out here, the more questions the humans would ask. They were quickly approaching the limit of what they could pass off as a “security patrol". As much control as Michael had over the media, humans were too damn curious for their own good.
Michael was right about two things, Gabriel thought. Cho is too great a threat to be running loose.
And I will find him.
Heretic!
Daniel crouched in the shadows, held silent and immobile by powerful arms as the angels walked by in their sleek, muscular armor. When the angels were finally gone, the pressure relented somewhat and Daniel was able to turn around. The man holding him was a monster, a walking wall of muscle and bone. The man put a pale finger to his lips, and motioned for Daniel to follow him.
After glancing over his shoulder to where the angels had been, Daniel followed. His huge guide led him through a maze of half-fallen walls and make-shift shacks, occasionally stopping, thinking and scratching the blond stubble on his nearly bald head. Finally, they arrived.
Buried deep within the wreckage of what had been South Central Los Angeles was hidden a sanctuary. The building consisted of one large, open room, and Daniel guessed that it had once been a warehouse. It was hundreds of yards away from the nearest open street, and presumably not discernable from the surrounding wreckage when seen from the air. There were maybe three dozen people milling about, and the few that noticed Daniel's interest quickly turned and went about their business.
"Now you can't be who I think you are,” said voice to Daniel's left.
Daniel followed the sound and saw a tall, well built black man walking towards him. The man wore a tee-shirt and overalls and was busy wiping the engine grease off his hands with a rag. Behind him was a mid-90's era sedan, with the markings of a police interceptor. Daniel wasn't terribly surprised. Internal combustion vehicles had been outlawed for months, but he doubted many here could have afforded the conversion process to electric. It wasn't until the man got closer that Daniel noticed the black eyepatch against the man's dark skin, obscuring his right eye. The man thrust out a hand nearly free of grease. “Ricardo Jones."
Daniel shook. “Daniel Cho."
Jones smiled. “So you really
are Daniel Cho, Discoverer of Demons, Hero of the Crusade, and Security Advisor to the Archangel Michael.” Jones’ smile disappeared quickly at the mention of Michael's name. He now looked very serious, and suspicious.
Daniel decided to take a chance. “Former Security Advisor,” he amended. “Michael and I have had something of a falling out."
"Is that a fact."
Daniel smiled inwardly. Once again, he was about to engage in a struggle to spread the word. He pulled the disk from his jacket. “Got a computer?"
Heedless of the guards, Susan stormed into Michael's office. The angel was alone, engaged with whatever was on his computer monitors. He did, however, notice when Susan barged in. It would have taken intense concentration not to. “Susan,” he said, offering his most charming smile. “What can I do for you?"
"Where's Daniel?” Susan stopped just short of Michael's throne and burned holes in him with her eyes.
"You don't know either?” Michael said.
Susan softened a bit. “You mean you don't have anything to ... I'm sorry, Michael. Daniel said some things to me last night, and ... He's been under a lot of stress—"
Michael stood and walked down to put an arm around Susan. “Yes, he has. And I'm afraid he's done something rash."
"What?"
"Susan, sit.” She took her normal seat.
"I'm afraid Daniel has turned against us. I had been warned someone with his life experience might develop a persecution complex and turn against any and all figures of authority, but I suppose I just hoped Daniel would keep it under control. That changed this morning. I received an email from Daniel shortly after he left Heaven of his own accord. In the letter were many paranoid, inflammatory statements, and threats that I have no choice but to consider acts of treason. Gabriel is trying to find him and bring him back, for treatment, but Daniel, as you know, is awfully good at hiding."
