by Alex Siegel
Sight seemed to be having a minor seizure. He was frozen and shivering with his mouth open.
Aaron realized what was wrong. He tapped Sight on the shoulder and said, "Close your third eye."
The growth on Sight's forehead closed. He relaxed.
"Bethany," Aaron said, "these are all the legates. Explain your project to them, please."
Bethany looked at her audience. If she was intimidated by talking to some of the most powerful people on the planet, she showed no sign of it. Her crystalline, black eyes were as enigmatic as always.
"The universe is protected by a shield," she said in a voice made of pure tones, clicks, and hums. "We call it the firewall. It is the primary defense against God's enemies. Without it, the universe would be destroyed in a millisecond. Unfortunately, over the last 13.8 billion years, the firewall has become porous and fragile. Countless clashes have weakened it, and its regenerative properties are inadequate."
"If what you're saying is true," the Dragon said softly, "that seems like a bad mistake by God."
"He was surprised by the success of His creation and the intense jealousy it created among His enemies. He never expected life to be so interesting and useful, especially intelligent life. The Gray Spear Society was put on Earth to fight off the incursions that the firewall fails to block. You're a secondary defense."
"What's your point?"
"The Society was never part of the original design," Bethany said. "You're a patch, a stopgap, an embarrassing hack. My sister and I agreed to design a better firewall and a true solution to the problem of protecting the universe. We succeeded. The new firewall will be much more robust. It will learn and grow smarter as we do. It will heal itself."
"Sounds wonderful, I suppose."
"This is the aperture." Bethany looked at the device in front of her. "It's almost ready for activation."
"Then what will happen?" the Dragon said.
"It will create a portal that will let Leanna and I escape the universe. We will upgrade the firewall from the outside. We will be where God is. In the final stage of the procedure, we will merge our minds with the firewall and become permanently integrated with it. God's enemies don't know these details, but if they did, they would certainly destroy us. You were summoned to keep us safe until we complete the project. Nothing else is more important."
Bethany went back to examining the aperture. Apparently, the explanation was done.
Aaron knew there was more to the story. Wesley was still keeping secrets. Bethany had also implied that the Gray Spear Society would be obsolete after the new firewall was in place. Aaron didn't believe God would simply disband the Society and send everybody home with nice parting gifts. That wasn't how the Lord did things.
Aaron remembered something Wesley had said. The path to the future is a river of blood. That prophesy was starting to look like it might be literal truth.
"Our assignment is clear," Aaron said. "We must protect the twins and the aperture at all costs."
The Dragon faced him. She was a small woman and not much of a threat physically, but she still frightened Aaron. She had the same manic intensity as Ethel, and occasionally, smoke leaked out of the Dragon's pretty, little nostrils.
"Who is our enemy?" she said.
"We don't know, but they're responsible for the recent cannibal plague, and that was just the first phase of their plan."
"What is the next phase?"
"Several divisions of heavily armed troops are pouring into Chicago right now to impose martial law," Aaron said. "I'm expecting our mysterious enemy to take control of those forces at some point. Then the United States Army will come here, and we'll have to fight them. The President was kidnapped to prevent him from interfering. That's pretty much all I know."
She turned to the other legates and began to discuss the situation. The conversation quickly grew argumentative and rancorous. Sight favored a defensive stance. Leonardo wanted to launch a preemptive attack using every legionnaire. The Dragon suggested assassinating all the officers in the Army instead of fighting the regular troops. Every legate had a different opinion, and none of them could agree.
Aaron could tell these people weren't used to working as a team. Normally, they ruled their own divisions with absolute authority. The Society was a covert agency, not a unified military force.
"Quiet," Wesley yelled in a voice that sounded like a chorus singing beautiful music. "That's enough bickering."
The loud conversation instantly stopped. He got off the floor and faced the adults.
The Dragon knelt down in front of the boy. "What's wrong, Child?" she said in a maternal, patronizing tone.
She looked into his eyes. Her jaw dropped open, and she began to shiver. Her right eye twitched. She abruptly turned away. Tears were on her cheeks, and silent sobs wracked her body. The other legates stared at her with obvious astonishment. Aaron wondered if they had ever seen her cry.
"There will be a meeting at sunset," Wesley stated. "Everybody will attend. At that time, the plan will be presented to the entire Society at once. You will be told what to do. There's no point in arguing about it. The decision isn't yours to make."
Aaron hadn't heard anything about a meeting. He wondered who would present the plan. Wesley himself was the most likely choice. He seemed to know exactly what was going to happen and probably already had the plan in mind. Perhaps God would appear and deliver the orders in Person.
"Go downstairs," Wesley said. "Tell your teams to be ready for the meeting. Bethany and Leanna need peace and quiet. They still have a lot of work left to do and very little time to do it."
"Can I stay?" Aaron said uncertainly.
"Of course. This is your headquarters. Charles can stay, too."
The legates had sour, disgruntled expressions. Being told what to do by a boy didn't sit well with them. The Dragon had mostly recovered her composure. The group headed back towards the elevator.
After the legates were gone, Aaron asked, "Who is going to speak at this meeting?"
"Is Marina here yet?" Wesley responded.
Aaron furrowed his brow. "For a kid who calls himself the Voice of Truth, you're very good at not answering important questions. No, Marina isn't here."
Wesley stomped his foot. "Damn it."
"I'll call her. Now you're making me worry."
Aaron took out his phone and called the love of his life.
"Aaron?" Marina said.
"Yes, where are you? I'm here with Wesley, and he keeps telling me you're supposed to be here already."
"We're trying! The military is doing its best to lock down Chicago. They're making travel a nightmare. We had to fly into Milwaukee. We just got on the highway headed south, and we heard there are roadblocks up ahead. It would've been helpful if God had given us a little more advance notice. I got the order late last night, and we were in the middle of a mission! A lot of people could die because my team isn't in San Francisco. This was an extremely inconvenient time to drop everything and haul my legionnaires to Chicago. I'm rather pissed about it. This mess was badly planned." She took a deep breath. "Is everybody else there?"
"Just about," Aaron said. "The entire Society. It's unbelievable. Wesley just had a priceless moment with all the legates. I wish you had been here."
"It's a good thing you have a big hotel for them to stay in. Imagine trying to find accommodations for hundreds of legionnaires and their commanders on short notice under these conditions. It would be impossible. I'll see you in a few hours. I love you!"
"I love you! I can't wait. Bye." He hung up and looked at Wesley. "A few hours."
The boy frowned. "As long as she gets here before the meeting, I suppose it will be OK."
"She made an interesting point. It's a good thing I happen to have a hotel which is just the right size to host the entire Society."
Wesley nodded enthusiastically. "I know. A remarkable coincidence."
"Do any other teams have large hotels at their disposal?" Aaron said.
&n
bsp; "Probably not."
"It suggests my decision to build this hotel was more of a divine inspiration than I realized. The Lord knew this war would happen more than a year ago, shortly after the twins joined the Society."
Wesley grinned. "One could reach that conclusion. Please leave us alone. The twins need to work."
Aaron and Charles took the short walk to Aaron's office.
The room was twice as long as it was wide. The desk was located at the far end, and it was made of thick slabs of gray metal welded together. The special alloy would never corrode. A trophy shelf was behind the desk, and it held just three items. There was a white phone used by billionaire Roger Gains, a miniature monkey machine built by Neville Cantrell, and a stress ball used by General Arnold Joseph. Aaron realized the stress ball didn't belong anymore. Apparently, the Corners of Freedom mission was still ongoing.
A secure video conference system was on the left. A television camera was aimed at a stool in front of a gray curtain, and there was a big video monitor. Aaron had used the system to communicate with Marina during their year apart, and Smythe had used it to talk to Odelia. Aaron wondered if it would ever be needed again.
Perry and his workstation were located near the door. He was wearing a loose, gray sweat suit and sandals. His flying fingers were making his keyboard clatter.
"How is the electronic warfare campaign going?" Aaron said.
"Pretty well, sir," Perry said. "We're just ramping up now."
"Every hacker in the division is helping?"
"Yes, sir. All the legionnaires are here, so they don't have much else to do. Every other mission is on hold. The only exception is the hackers in Washington. The legate needs their help to find the President."
Aaron nodded. He had a thought. "Are military reconnaissance drones flying over Chicago?"
"Of course. Lots of them. Satellites are watching us, too."
"I don't like that. Not in the least."
"Already working on it, sir." Perry grinned. "We're called hackers for a reason. We're going to blind every surveillance system the military has. They'll be groping in the dark by the time we're done."
* * *
A tapping on the shoulder woke General Walker. He opened his eyes. He had been sleeping on a cot in the command bunker. Last night had been very busy, and the coming night would probably be the same. He had no choice but to rest whenever there was an opportunity. Modern warfare was primarily a nocturnal operation.
Walker looked up into the face of one of his officers. "What is it?"
"We have a problem, sir."
Walker rubbed his eyes and got up from the cot. He walked across the elevated platform which overlooked the rows of console operators. Erika's air-tight enclosure was also up here, and she was sleeping on her brass bed. Three of her male slaves were sleeping on rugs on the floor like dogs. The fourth was curled around her feet.
Walker yawned and looked at the giant screens at the front of the bunker. They were supposed to be showing surveillance video of the Rosemont Tower Hotel taken from high-altitude reconnaissance drones. Instead, the screens were blank.
"What's going on?" he said.
"We lost the feed, sir," a technician said.
"I see that. The UAV's are still in the air?"
"Yes, sir. We're getting telemetry, but they're not responding to commands, and the video streams are blocked. We're tracking down the problem now. I'm sure it won't take long to fix."
Walker frowned. They were using a very intricate system of secure relay stations to hide the true location of the command bunker. Data was bouncing all over the continent before it found its way back to Illinois. The problem could be in many places. He didn't share the technician's confidence that it would be fixed quickly.
He looked down at a stack of printed reports on his desk. During his nap, the stack had grown substantially. Keeping up with such a large, unwieldy operation was a chore. He scanned through the reports to see if anything was amiss.
He quickly found another annoying problem. A supply convoy had unloaded at the wrong location due to a miscommunicated order. Three hundred tons of food, fuel, and ammunition weren't where they were supposed to be. It would take a full day to straighten out the mess, and by that time, it might not matter. The miserable, never-ending blizzard parked over Chicago was already creating operational issues all over. He hadn't needed this snafu.
He went deeper in the stack of reports and discovered yet another major issue. A C-17 Globemaster was stuck on a runway in Indiana with a full load of troops. The local air traffic control computers had crashed, and nothing could take off until the system was fixed. Meanwhile, ice was building up on the wings, and other cargo planes were waiting in line to get out. There was no estimate of when the issue would be resolved.
Walker gritted his teeth. Logistics was the bane of every commander. Fortunately, he felt confident he could win with the men and supplies already in Chicago. These problems were just eating into the generous surplus he had baked into the plan.
He looked up at the big screens which were still dark. "Any luck yet?"
"No, sir," a technician said. "The diagnostics look good, but the data isn't getting through. It's very strange."
Walker had a bad feeling. Maybe this sudden rash of problems had a nefarious cause.
He went to Erika's enclosure and knocked on the glass. She didn't move. He knocked louder. Finally, she lifted her head from her bed and looked at him.
"What?" she said in a cracked voice with half-closed lids.
"We're having operational issues. The Gray Spear Society might be attempting to sabotage us."
She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She was wearing purple velvet pajamas. "This is happening much sooner than we expected."
"I know. We haven't even made an aggressive move. I have a hard time believing they're onto us already. It could just be a run of bad luck."
"No. When dealing with the Gray Spear Society, it's safe to always assume the worst, so that's what we'll do. We should start deploying the Red Eye Communication System."
Walker nodded. They were prepared for electronic warfare. Red Eye was a top secret radio technology that was supposed to be impervious to hacking and interference. It only supported low-bandwidth voice communication, but it was enough for Walker to deliver simple orders and receive reports from the field. Red Eye would allow him to remain in control of his army no matter what stunts the Gray Spear Society pulled.
"It will take hours to get the radios out to all the units."
"We have time," Erika said.
Walker looked at the big screens again, and they were still dark. "If I can't have aerial surveillance, I want human surveillance," he ordered. "Post scouts around the Rosemont Tower Hotel. Have them report immediately if they see anything suspicious. Make sure they're carrying Red Eye radios."
"Yes, sir," one officer responded.
"Are the Black Owls in position?"
The officer manning the air traffic control station spoke up, "Yes, sir! If that black and gray bomber comes back, we'll be ready. What are your orders?"
Walker turned to Erika.
She shrugged. "We can't pass up such an easy kill."
He faced the air traffic control station. "If you see it, shoot it down."
"Yes, sir!" the officer said.
Chapter Five
Tawni, Ethel, Atalanta, and Boreas walked into the entry chamber of the Washington, DC headquarters. Tawni was smiling. She had visited this place once before during the Corners of Freedom mission, but it was still fun. Seeing other headquarters made her feel sophisticated and worldly.
A heavy-set man with brown hair and a beard was in the security booth. Tawni vaguely remembered his name was "Rob." She was growing accustomed to having a computer in charge of security, so seeing a human there struck her as an obsolete concept. Computers never got tired, bored, or lonely. They didn't need to work in shifts.
"Hello, ma'am," Rob said. "Welcome back to Washing
ton."
"I wish I were visiting under better circumstances," Ethel said. "Let us in. We're in a hurry."
A side door buzzed. She ran over, opened the heavy door, and went through. The rest of the group hurried to keep up with her.
Ethel jogged through the headquarters at a pace that was a full sprint for everybody else. Tawni barely had time to look around. The place was bigger than the Chicago headquarters. They passed a gymnasium, a library, a swimming pool, a shooting range, a spacious kitchen, and a dining room. It was like a rich man's mansion.
The rushed tour ended in the computer room. There were two computer workstations, and both were occupied. Each workstation had a ring of large monitors around a chair which could spin. Keyboards and mice were attached to the chairs.
Tawni knew one of the hackers was named Todd. He had a shaved head, a nose ring, and the pale skin of a man who rarely saw the sun. He was wearing a white T-shirt, bathing trunks, and flip-flops.
Tawni didn't know the other hacker's name. She was a pudgy woman with braided, blonde hair. She was wearing a pink dress which was probably meant to look cute but was dorky instead.
Both hackers jumped to their feet when they saw Ethel.
"You got here quick, ma'am!" Todd said.
"Yes," she replied. "Give me your report."
He pointed at his computer monitors. "President Haley managed to take five pictures before they threw his phone out the window. They were a little blurry, and I did what I could to clean them up."
Everybody went forward for a closer look. A partial shot of a man's face was the only photo that seemed useful, but it probably wasn't enough by itself to identify the subject.
Todd tapped another photo instead. "This was the winner. If you look closely, you can see a valet parking receipt from Coolidge Manor."
"What's Coolidge Manor?" Ethel said.
"A private social club. Very exclusive. It caters to a wealthy and very conservative crowd."
"That's where we're going next."
Todd bit his lip.
"What's wrong?" she said.
He looked back and forth between Ethel and Tawni. "I don't want to say this in an offensive way, ma'am. Coolidge Manor doesn't accept people of your... ethnicity."
