Evolution (The Divine Series Book 5)

by M. R. Forbes

  I was surprised, because she hadn't seemed like the type to have doubts. "You handled yourself with Valerix's were."

  "I did. That was one were. How often am I going to get odds like that? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to complain, and I don't regret meeting you." She paused, taking my hand in hers. "I can't rely on being stronger, or faster, or tougher than what I'm fighting. The vast majority of the time, I doubt I will be. That means I need to rely on my human strengths, on being emotional and unpredictable."

  I was the one who had said it. At least she was listening. "There's nothing wrong with that."

  "I want to believe that. If it hadn't been for the bomb, we would still be in a world of trouble. I gave the demons an easy way in."

  I couldn't argue the truth of it. "You've been doing this for one day. You'll learn. I wanted to talk to you about it, because I want to help reign in some of your impulsiveness before you get yourself killed."

  She smiled. "I feel like I could get killed just sitting next to you."

  "I can't make any guarantees."

  "I know. Isn't that the point? I'm part of this now. It's scary as hell, and also one of the most exciting, liberating things I've ever done. I'm human. I know I'm going to make mistakes. I know I can't hang with you demi-gods, but I'm trying to prove that I'm worth having around."

  "You don't have to do anything to prove you-"

  She kissed me.

  She didn't just kiss me. She put her arm across my chest, pushed me back down on the bed, leaned over me, and pressed her lips to mine. It was aggressive and impulsive, emotional and unpredictable.

  I didn't kiss her back. It wasn't that I didn't think she was attractive, or that there wasn't a part of me that was tempted. I was still a virgin. I was sure Rose wasn't. Maybe it was old-fashioned. Maybe it was stupid. I didn't want my first time to go down like this, and I didn't want to complicate our relationship before we even had a chance to be friends. Right now, I needed an ally a lot more than I needed sex.

  She pulled away.

  "That's a new one," she said, looking down at me in disbelief. I could imagine she wasn't accustomed to rejection.

  "Rose..." I took a deep breath and huffed it out. I could feel my heart pounding, my body reacting even if my mind was unwilling. "You don't have to try so hard. You don't have to prove anything to me, or do... this, for me to feel like you're worth having around."

  Her eyes narrowed and rolled, and she pushed herself away from me, pissed. "Is that what you think this is? I don't know what kind of girls you've had around before, but I have a little more self-worth then to just throw myself at you because I feel like it's the only thing I can help you with. Maybe I just thought, you know, you're here, I'm here, maybe it would help us both unwind a little bit, have a little fun and forget about this Divine stuff for a while. It's fine if you don't want to. It's fine for you to say no thanks. You don't have to be an asshole about it."

  She hopped off the bed, leaving me laying there and feeling like an idiot. All the power in the universe hadn't made me any better at this sort of thing.

  "Rose, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult you."

  She smiled, the anger fading from her face. "Just forget it. You needed rest and food, right? I'll go and get you some ice cream. Do you have a preference?"

  "Cookie dough," I said, returning her smile.

  "Good choice." She walked over to the door. "I'll try to be a little less impulsive. I'm not making any promises."

  She slipped away, leaving me tongue tied and tired.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  I slept for three hours, feeling a lot better when I woke up. Gervais was still out, but Rose was there, sitting on the bed next to me, Valerix's laptop open.

  "Shit. The ice cream," I said, sitting up.

  Rose turned her head and laughed. "Don't worry about it. There's a freezer behind that door." She pointed at the dresser.

  "Thanks for picking it up," I said, sliding off the bed and going over to get it.

  "How come you don't just use your special sauce to grab it?" she asked.

  "I wouldn't feel very human if I used the power to let myself be lazy."

  "Are you sure you wouldn't feel more human?"

  I opened the freezer and grabbed the ice cream. There were two spoons laying on top of the lid.

  "I got some teriyaki before, but I left room for dessert."

  I brought it back over to the bed and plopped down next to her. "About before-" I started to say.

  "Forget it, Landon. No harm done on my end. I shouldn't have been so horny. The adrenaline, you saving my life. It hit me right here." She smiled at me, motioning between her legs. "It was my fault for pushing you, especially when I knew you were tired."

  "I don't want things to get complex," I said.

  "If that's what it is to you, I understand, and I respect that. To me, it's just good fun. No emotional attachment needed, and no expectations after."

  I just wasn't built that way. I handed her a spoon and popped the lid. We both dug in.

  "So, what have you found?" I asked, after savoring a nice chunk of dough.

  She turned the screen so I could see it better. "The profile is incomplete. To be honest, it's pretty lousy. Yeah, they got the history from the time our guy was adopted, but I mean, they totally missed his special assignment to Los Alamos."

  "The National Lab? I didn't know they did robotics?"

  "They don't. Not publicly, anyway." She hit a few keys. "Your friend Obi helped me do some digging while you were sleeping."

  "Obi?" I was confused. "You talked to him?"

  "Oh yeah, I borrowed your phone." I noticed it on the bed between us. "Oblitrix, Obi... I made the connection. I didn't realize it was short for Obi-wan though."

  "Okay. So what did you and Obi find?"

  "Zheng was working for a startup in New Mexico, RoGen. It's a mashup of robotics and genetics. Basically, they were working on technology to make robots that had biological components. Self-healing skin, living muscle, that kind of thing. Like a modern day Frankenstein."

  "Why would they do that?"

  "Cost. Growing parts is a lot cheaper than importing rare earth minerals from China."

  "Interesting."

  "Yeah. Anyway, Matthias spent six months over at Los Alamos. We couldn't figure out what he was working on, but I bet its related to his work for RoGen."

  "And the Fists of God?"

  "Most likely."

  "How do you know he was spending time there?"

  "Obi was the one who figured that part out. He noticed that RoGen wasn't too far from the lab, so he decided to check their gate records. He matched up the plate on Zheng's car with daily entrance and exits, six days a week for six months."

  Good old Obi. I owed him a quad latte with extra caramel the next time I saw him. "When did he start carousing with angels?"

  "I don't know. What I do know is that he quit RoGen a week after he stopped checking in at Los Alamos."

  I grabbed another spoonful of ice cream and shoved it into my mouth. Rose did the same, and we were silent while we ate.

  "We need to find Matthias Zheng," I said. "The safe house was a trap, and we have no other leads. My gut says we should make the trip to New Mexico and try to find out what exactly he was working on. If it has anything at all to do with the Fists, we might be able to get some kind of information that can help us find him, and fight them."

  She pursed her lips and nodded. "It sounds like a reasonable plan to me."

  "You did great work. You and Obi, both. Human ingenuity."

  She blushed. "It was more Obi than me. That guy is too smart for words. Hey, I wonder how Dante is doing with that head you gave him?"

  I had almost forgotten. I picked up the phone from the bed and searched the contact list. Somehow, between the time Dante had visited and now, he had added Alichino's phone number. I put it on speaker and made the call.

  "Yeah, what do you want?" The harlequin demon's
voice was a thin rasp on the other end of the line. I could picture him in my mind, his spindly black and white body, his toothy snout, the lycra bicycle shorts he favored to keep himself modest.

  "What's so funny?" Rose whispered.

  "I'll tell you later. Alichino, it's me, Landon."

  "Oh, it's you, Landon. Great. Just the guy I wanted to hear from. I bet you're calling about the head, right? Not to say 'hey', not to see how I'm doing. We haven't talked in two years, and now you only call because you need something."

  "You've been in Purgatory. I can't reach you there."

  "Yeah, like that's an excuse. Whatever, meat sack."

  Rose started laughing.

  "Who's that?" the demon asked. "She sounds sexy."

  "My name is Rose. I'm helping Landon."

  "You a succubus?"

  "No."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes. I'm human."

  "Humph. Well, nobody's perfect."

  "Alichino, what can you tell me about the head?" I asked.

  There were a few beats of silence. We heard clattering through the phone, like the demon had spilled a bucket of screws on the floor. It was followed by a loud bang.

  "Sorry about that," he said. "I was looking for my webcam. You got a computer with a camera there?"

  "Yes," Rose said.

  "Good. My Skype name is Alliequin. A-L-L-I-E-Q-U-I-N. I'll be waiting."

  He hung up.

  "Who is he?" Rose asked while she hit the net and downloaded the software.

  "A demon. He got kicked out of Hell for letting some guy named Bonturo trick him. He's been trying to get back in ever since. I promised to help him get there at one point, and since discovered that once Lucifer kicks you out, the only way to go back is with his permission. He's kind of pissed about it, which is why he's a little abrasive."

  "I don't think he's abrasive. I think he's cute."

  She finished installing Skype, and logged in with her 'DemonHuntress023' name. She added 'Alliequin' and made the connection. The demon's face popped up on the screen, just like I had imagined it.

  "You are sexy," he said on seeing Rose. He glanced over at me. "Here, let me show you."

  He shifted the camera so that it was pointing at a desk cluttered with wires and books, and a computer monitor sitting in the corner. The head sat in the center, with what looked like jumper cables running from the ends of a pair of exposed wires to somewhere off-camera.

  "Okay, so this thing, it is absolutely swimming in scripture. I mean, it makes the Sistine Chapel look like it was painted by a two year old. And this is just the head. You get me?"

  "I get you."

  "Yeah, two things about that. One, there's no hand in the world that can make these kinds of marks at this size with any kind of consistency, except maybe the hand of God Himself, and I doubt he's finger painting on armor these days. Two, the scripture isn't just on the outside. It's on the inside, too. On the circuits."

  "Did you say on the circuits?" Rose asked.

  "Yeah. The lettering is almost microscopic. It's printed right onto the circuit. That means whatever is making it, it has to be industrial."

  "So you think there's a machine that's pressing it?" I said.

  "A few different kinds of machines. One for the circuits, one for the metal. I saved the best for last though. The wiring is made from living tissue."

  It wasn't that surprising, considering what Rose had just told me. "We figured that part out already. Have you been able to work out the meaning of the scripture?"

  "You see those books? I got some of it. This thing is protected against pretty much any kind of demonic attack you can imagine. Teeth, claws, blades, even hellfire. It's also reinforced against ballistics. Bullets, arrows, regular swords, and all that. That's the outer scripture. I'm still working on the inside. It's slow going, because I have to look at all of it under a microscope. "

  "You did a lot of work in only a little time," I said. "Any weaknesses?"

  The demon snickered. "Other than cutting off the head? You could probably drop a rock on it or something to get it to stop moving."

  "Already did that. Do you have any idea what's powering it?" Something that big and heavy had to have a pretty massive battery. It was likely in the torso, but maybe the wiring would give some indication.

  "No clue. Like I said, the wires are all organic, so whatever it is, I think it's pretty unique."

  "Okay. Last question. Does it have a brain?"

  "If you consider a couple of memory chips to be like a brain, then sure."

  "So, no. Rose, do you have any other questions?"

  "Yes, I'll go out with you," Alichino said. His snout split in a sharp grin and his tongue flicked out between his teeth.

  She shook her head. "No. You've been very helpful, Alichino. Maybe we can go out when this is over."

  He nodded enthusiastically. "I hope you aren't lying to me, too."

  His eyes shifted to me, pushing the guilt.

  Then he disconnected.

  "What do you think?" Rose asked.

  "I think we need to stick to the plan. Head to New Mexico and see what we can find out. It's obvious they've built some kind of machinery to create the Fists. Maybe it's hiding in Los Alamos? I-"

  My stomach clenched and released, and I lost my breath. I closed my eyes for a second and put my head in my hands.

  "Landon, are you okay?"

  I opened my eyes and straightened up. The sharp change in the balance had caught me by surprise.

  "We need to pick up the pace. It's started."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  We were on a plane to New Mexico a few hours later. Gervais had reappeared from his extended 'walk' not long after we disconnected from Alichino, and I filled him in on what we were planning to do without mentioning what the demon had told us. Discounting his usual insults and jibes, he was more than willing to follow my lead, and seemed almost relieved that I had some kind of plan.

  It was mid-morning by the time we touched down, the flight going a little smoother than the first now that everyone had gotten to know each other a little better. That wasn't to say Rose was growing any warmer towards her sister's killer, but she was getting more accustomed to his presence, and had managed to fully accept him as a necessary evil.

  I didn't get any more shocks in the interim, the balance staying steady beyond the initial hit. Whatever had happened, whoever the angels had sent the Fists after, the needle moved. Not near enough to be a problem. Just enough that I would notice.

  Was Adam sending me a message?

  Los Alamos was a stark departure from the crowds and hustle of New York. Sparse and spread out, with lots of low lying brush and brown grass, and surrounded by brown hills. It had it's own specific beauty to it. A beauty that I didn't think I was able to appreciate. After making the drive from the airport to the town outside of the National Laboratory, I missed the concrete and glass, the crowds and the congestion. At least it would be easy to spot Divine.

  "It sure is beautiful out here," Rose said. We had rented a mid-sized Hyundai or something at the airport, and she was driving.

  "It reminds me of Hell," Gervais said.

  "I wouldn't be surprised," I replied.

  "Oh, come on. This is peaceful. Elemental. Don't you ever get tired of the noise? The people?"

  "If I did, I could think of a lot nicer places to escape than a desert," I said.

  "You should visit France sometime, Rosie. Picnic along the Rhine, a nice bottle of merlot or maybe a sauvignon. Just you and your thoughts."

  "The idea of you alone with your thoughts is terrifying," I said, looking back at the demon.

  "That isn't the point I was trying to make. There is nothing beautiful about this barren landscape."

  Rose turned the wheel, bringing us off 502 and into the heart of the so-called city.

  "So, now what?" she asked. "We're here."

  "Do we have an address for RoGen?" I said.

  "It s
hould be in an office building a mile or so down Central."

  "Let's head over there first."

  She kept us on the small avenue, driving us past a shopping center, some houses, a few apartment buildings, and some other office buildings. The whole thing seemed kind of random, like the developers here just put stuff wherever, no real zoning needed.

  A few minutes later, we pulled into the small lot of a three story office building. It was newer construction, with reflective, tinted windows and white concrete. There were about a dozen cars parked outside, suggesting the building wasn't heavily occupied.

  "Rose, would you mind waiting in the car?" I said once she pulled into a spot. "It's going to look strange for three of us to go up, and we need someone on the outside keeping lookout."

  I was hoping she wouldn't think I was punishing her because of the incident in San Francisco. If she did, she didn't show it.

  "No problem. What should I do if any Divine show up? How am I going to warn you?"

  "Blast the horn. I'll hear it."

  She nodded, reached down, and pulled the blessed and cursed knives from her calves, putting them on her lap. "Do you think this is a trap, too?"

  "I can't rule it out. I would have preferred to go right to the Lab, but we need to come up with a way in first. I don't want a repeat of the CMO's office if we can help it."

  "Are you coming?" Gervais asked. He was already out of the car, his form morphed into an older man in a business suit. A fresh kill?

  I got out, adjusting my own clothing to match the demon's.

  "So, what are we pretending to be?" he asked.

  "Feds," I replied. "Working missing persons."

  "Fun."

  We made our way into the building. The lobby was clean and bright, filled with the scent of the fresh flowers that lined the reception desk. There was no indication that anyone ever worked behind it.