by M. R. Forbes
"Is she here?" I asked.
"No. She said we would destroy you and escape unharmed. That she had seen it happen."
I looked back at Adam. My point was proven. Sarah believed too strongly in her visions. She had never learned to take them for the potential that they represented.
He shrugged, a dark, sheepish smile spreading across his face. I looked back to the djinn. I had been preparing for the worst. I had fought my way through their kind before, but it hadn't been easy, and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of doing it again. I was glad I wouldn't have to.
"Show me the way out," I said. "I have what I came for."
The lead djinn bowed to me and waved his hand. They all turned back the way they had come and led Adam and me up a steep, narrow stairwell and into their house proper. It was as would be expected. An abundance of colored rugs, statues, artwork, gold, gems and other finery decorated every inch of the place, along with silk beds, pillows, and brightly colored, translucent cloth, all of it stolen or won or captured over thousands of years. I paused when we passed by the current harem, tempted to free the girls I knew would be inside, most of whom would be slaves to the creatures. My hand tightened on the sword, which I didn't trust the djinn enough to risk putting away or letting leave my grip. I said nothing and did nothing in the end. If I failed in the rest of my tasks, I would be leaving them to an even worse fate.
We finally reached the entrance to the home. The djinn had thinned out as we walked, leaving only the one who had attacked Adam by the time we got there.
"Bar your doors as best you can," I said to him as he put his hand to the side of the wall. It shimmered and faded, opening us up to the outside world. We were in the rainforest for sure. I could hear the calls of parrots, see the thick vegetation, and feel the humidity as it began to pour in. "When she finds out you let me go, she won't be happy."
"We can protect ourselves, sorcerer," the djinn replied.
I didn't respond to his attitude. I moved out into the open air, turning as I cleared the entrance. It had already vanished back into the trunk of a large tree.
"That was interesting," Adam said, standing beside me. "How did you do what you did to that djinn?"
"I can disperse energy," I said. "Release it back into the universe. When the sword got stuck on him, I figured that might get it free. The side effect was unexpected." I felt my heart begin to beat a little more rapidly. Unexpected, and potentially valuable. If I could do the same to Sarah, I could save her from herself without having to take her life.
Of course, I didn't know if it would work on true Divine. There was only one way to find out.
"So, now what?" he said. "You came to rescue me for a reason. I'd love to know what it is."
"I got you out of there, and away from Sarah. You owe me. If you want back in His good graces, you'll do your best to help me out, no tricks."
He scowled a little but nodded. "No tricks."
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about your girlfriend."
"Don't ever talk about her, Landon," he snapped. "You have no idea."
I didn't press the issue. "I need you to tell me everything you know about the Fist of God."
"Why?"
"Gervais and a son of Lucifer have control of one of them. They want to use it against Sarah, and then to begin waging war against everything until they've satisfied their hunger for power."
"They're demons," Adam said. "They can never satisfy their hunger for power."
"Exactly. The son of Satan, Zifah, is able to control the Fist remotely without any obvious electronics. I need a way to either take control of the Fist myself or to interrupt his signal."
"I'm not well-versed in things of such a technical nature."
"You helped design the Fist."
"Matthias did all of the engineering, but thanks to you Matthias is dead."
Ouch. "You didn't keep records anywhere? Schematics? Anything?"
Adam considered. "In the beginning, Matthias didn't know what he was working on. The entire project was skunkworks, top secret and classified. Yeah, I'm sure he had a backup, but it could be that Gervais already got his hands on it. That may be how they figured out the means to control it."
It was possible. Likely, even. The demon could kill anyone, and become anyone in the process, with all of their thoughts, memories, and knowledge. It would be easy for him to get in somewhere and get the intel he needed. The bigger question was if he would be able to destroy it?
"Where would the most likely location for a backup be?"
"I know the communication tech was earmarked for use in American military combat drones," Adam said. "There were other engineers from DoD-funded companies working on that portion of the project. The U.S. has a number of data centers throughout the country." He paused. "But if you want to be able to access all of it, I would say hacking the Pentagon would be your safest bet."
The Pentagon. Right.
I guess it was a good thing I knew someone who not only used to be in the military but also knew his way around a network.
Forty-Five
I was nervous, standing outside Obi's room in the hospital. I wasn't in love with the idea of dragging him back into this thing, especially this soon, but what choice did I have?
"Time's wasting," Adam said beside me.
I had bamfed from the Congo back to Mexico, grabbed the fallen angel some new clothes, and then transported us here, where I had stood and hesitated going in to ask for my friend's help once more.
Mainly because I knew he would give it.
I was about to open the door and make my way in when the door opened from the other side. Obi was in front of me a moment later, a look of surprise taking over his face.
"Landon?" he said. "What are you doing here, man?"
He wouldn't remember fighting the Fist, or taking the hit. He likely woke up in the hospital, already healed by the seraphim.
His eyes fell on Adam, narrowing immediately. "You son of a-"
"Obi, wait," I said, getting between them. "Don't."
"What the heck do you mean, don't? What is he doing here, man? After what he helped Sarah do."
"I helped Sarah kill demons," Adam said. "That's what angels do. We kill demons."
"Brian wasn't a demon, you asshole."
"He was close enough."
Obi lunged toward Adam. To the orderlies in the hall, it looked like a muscular black guy going after a one-armed man. In other words, it didn't look good.
"Obi," I said, pushing him back with my power. "Use your head."
He paused, scowling. "Why is he here?"
"The Fist. He's the only link we've got."
"Damn. I should have guessed."
"You should know, Sarah turned on him, too. He was being held by a group of djinn."
"She's got djinn helping her?"
"Not so much, anymore."
"I didn't know about the Mass," Adam said. "She used me."
"Why would I believe that?"
"I don't care if you believe me, but it's true."
"Whatever."
"Can we focus?" I said.
"Okay," Obi said, standing down somewhat. "Do I have you to thank for this stay? I can't remember anything since Mexico."
"You got hit by the Fist. He broke a bunch of your ribs. The seraphim took care of you."
He smiled. "I remember one of them coming to me when I was half out of it. She was a dream." He snapped out of it. "So you were watching over me while I healed? That's sweet, man."
"Not exactly," I admitted. "I was bailing Adam out. I learned a new trick in the meantime. I may be able to stop Sarah without killing her."
"That's great news."
"It's still a pretty big maybe. Right now, we need to try to get our hands on the documentation for the communication system Matthias built for the Fist. If we can figure out how Zifah's controlling it, maybe we can break his control."
"I thought he was using his power to boss it around?"
; "He probably is, but it has to be receiving the commands somehow. Rebecca is a prisoner inside the thing, not a willing participant."
"And there is only one way for it to receive commands, regardless of how the source is generated," Adam said. "I know that much."
"What do you know about military datacenters?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow and stared at me. "Say what?"
"Department of Defense security protocols, black hat hacking, you know, that sort of thing?"
"No way, man," he said, shaking his head. "Can't you get Alichino to hack the Pentagon for you?"
He had before, but there was a limit to what he could accomplish. "What level of clearance was the FOG program?" I asked Adam.
"Top Secret. We didn't want the tech falling into the wrong hands."
Obi laughed at that. "Nice work, then."
Adam glared.
"The point is that kind of clearance is going to require a little more finesse than Alichino can provide," I said. "Social engineering from someone who knows people."
He bit his lip, considering. "If I can get into an account with high enough clearance, I might be able to find a way through. But man, if I get caught, it's going to be that soldier's life that gets completely messed up. Someone who trusted me, or at least in the ideals of the system."
"That's easy enough to solve," I replied. "Don't get caught."
He looked like he wanted to hit me, and I didn't blame him. I was asking a lot. Just coming back to him after the Fist had nearly killed him was asking a lot.
"What do you say?" I asked.
He sighed, clearly resigned to his fate as my sidekick.
"Let's do it."
Forty-Six
I brought us back to Mexico, leaving Obi with Alichino to work out the details of their planned electronic break-in. For as much power as I had gained from Raguel, Dante, Srizyl, and the djinn, all of the globe-hopping was starting to leave me feeling the drain. We didn't have any time to waste, and I wouldn't have considered trying to rest if it weren't for the fact that when it came to hacking government systems, I was a miserable failure.
Then again, my hacking days had been limited to pre-written scripts and fast-talking. Obi's skills were far more advanced and far less likely to be detected. I winced at the thought of the days I had spent in prison, all of those years ago when I was still a mortal. If I had only known what my afterlife would become back then.
I fell onto my bed, the one I had intended to share with Alyx. I stared up at the ceiling. It was mirrored so that Espanto could see every part of whatever happened in here from whatever position he was in. The idea of watching yourself was nauseating to me, and I reached out with my power, putting pressure on the glass until it cracked into a thousand pieces. Then I looked over each of the slivers, catching my reflection there. Some people theorized there was a new dimension for every decision every person made, an infinite number of timelines that stretched infinitely across time and space. It was a mind-boggling concept, and as I stared up at the hundreds of me, I wondered if I was looking into those other places, getting a glimpse of who I would be if I had done things differently at any one of a thousand points in my life.
The funny thing was, every one of them looked the same.
I closed my eyes. In theory, I didn't need to sleep. In truth, I had always found it helped restore me, if only because I didn't have to worry for a while. I drifted off in a hurry.
I woke to someone shaking my arm. I opened my eyes, looked over, and saw Alichino standing there.
"Hey boss, we're ready."
I slid off the bed and trailed behind Alichino, back to the control center where I found Obi and Adam standing over a workstation. Obi was wearing a headset.
"What's the play?" I asked.
"Okay, so Allie got me hooked up with a line onto the Pentagon intranet," Obi said, pointing at his monitor. "He's got a login, too, but the clearance isn't high enough to get to the goods. So, I'm planning on giving Ms. Cecilia Jackson a call. She's the secretary for Colonel James Lamont. I served under him in the middle east fifteen years ago, and the guys always told me I did a spot-on impression of him."
"You're going to try to get her to give up his credentials?" I asked.
"Yeah. I already tried his birthday and all that crap, but he's too smart for that."
"Why would she know them?"
"Because that's how Colonel Lamont is. He wouldn't trust writing something like that down. He would give it to a second source he felt he could trust."
"Even though it leaves them open to this sort of thing?"
"Anyone working under Lamont is going to be a tough nut to crack. That's where the impression comes in. Either she believes she's talking to the Colonel, or we get nowhere."
"And you're sure Lamont's not the guy Gervais used to get himself in?" I asked.
"Yes," Adam replied. "I already had Alichino check it out. You probably won't be surprised to hear that a General Weston was found murdered in his home a few months back?"
"The murder, no. A few months? That would predate Matthias' death."
"I know," Adam said. "It seems like Gervais had been watching me for a while. He knew quite a bit about the program."
"That asshole. He led me into thinking he didn't know what the Fist was."
"Playing both sides, waiting for his moment," Obi said. "Sounds just like him."
"And you're sure he isn't in the office today?"
"I called him already. I asked him if he were in New York because I was thinking about him and wanted to see if we could meet. He said he's in Los Angeles for a speaking engagement." Obi smiled. "He remembered me like he had seen me yesterday."
"Okay. It sounds like we're ready. Do what you're going to do. Let's see what we can get."
Obi nodded and then tapped a key on his workstation.
"We're spoofing Lamont's caller id," Alichino said. "That was my idea."
Obi put a finger to his lips. He looked completely relaxed, but I knew he was feeling the pressure internally. The last thing he would want would be for his former XO to take any heat over this.
"Hi Cecilia," Obi said, adding a couple of octaves to his voice and gaining a southern drawl. "How are you today?" He paused while she spoke. "Good to hear. How are the kids?" He paused again. "Great, great, great. Oh, Maggie? She's fine. Just fine. Thanks for asking. Hey, listen, Cecilia, I was just firing up my laptop so I could grab a copy of the slide deck I've been working on for this here gig, and I'll be damned if I can remember my password. Yeah, yeah, I know. Losing my head in my old age."
He laughed raucously. I tried to imagine what the Colonel was like in real life. Probably a real ass-kicker.
"I know, I know, the channel's not secure. I'll tell you what, can you text it over to me? End-to-end encryption. No spies except maybe our own boys in the NSA." He laughed again. "You have the number right?" He paused. "Yeah, that's it. I appreciate it, Cecelia. Okay. I'll call you back if I have any trouble. Have a great day."
He pressed a button on the workstation and the phone hung up.
"Text you the password?" I asked.
Alichino smiled. "The pièce de résistance, Landon."
A bubble popped up on the workstation, with only the password in it.
"How?" I said.
"Espanto has some very cool toys," Obi said. "Including a back door into every major utility in the country. We hijacked his cell number for a few minutes."
"What if he were on the phone?" I asked.
Obi shrugged. "There's always some risk."
"Well, you've got the password. Now what?"
"Now we try to get the files. We've already routed our traffic through a VPN in LA that should be close enough to trick any auditors into thinking we really are Lamont's laptop. Unfortunately, we don't know his MAC address to fake that, too, or I'd feel even more comfortable."
He returned to the portal and typed in the password from the text. Then he was into the main Department of Def
ense index. There was a search field in the top-right corner, and he typed in 'Project Fog.'
Nothing came up.
"Hmm," Obi said, looking over. "Maybe Gervais was able to delete it? That doesn't make sense, though. This kind of thing should be read-only once it's submitted."
I thought about it. "Project Fog was the codename at Taylor Heavy Industry. But you said the Pentagon didn't have the entire project under their wing."
Adam nodded. "That's right. Only specific portions."
"What was the command module called?"
Adam shook his head. "I don't remember."
"You have to remember."
He considered, tapping his fingers on the side of the cubicle.
"The longer I sit here, the more suspicious it looks," Obi said.
"Oh, I know," Adam said. "Amplified Neural Gateway for External Logistics."
"Angel?" Obi said. "You couldn't remember that?"
"Falling from Heaven takes a lot out of you," Adam said in defense.
"That's your own damn fault," Obi replied.
Adam looked like he wanted to start with the former Marine again. A glare from me got him to step away.
"Here we are," Obi said, getting a single result on the hit. He clicked on it, opening up a document that was over a thousand pages in length. "I'm going to download it so we can get offline. I just hope the security team doesn't ask Lamont what he needed it for."
The PDF downloaded quickly. As soon as it was done, Obi signed out of the account, passed the document to Espanto's internal network, and shut off the workstation completely. Then he leaned back in his chair as though he had just finished a marathon.
"That was easy," I said.
He turned his head to glare at me with his shut-the-hell-up face.
"I'm printing it now," Alichino said. "Give me a few hours with it and I'll figure something out."
"Thanks, Allie," I said. "I'm going to head out for some reinforcements."
"Reinforcements?" Obi asked, leaning forward.
"Yup."
It was time to bring Alyx back into the game.
Forty-Seven
