Iron Angels

by Eric Flint

  Temple’s phone rang.

  Joy kept her head down and fed Robbie.

  “Excuse me,” Temple walked into the hallway outside the apartment, leaving Jasper in a somewhat awkward position.

  “I’m sorry we barged in on you here,” Jasper said.

  “It’s okay, we had to be getting up anyways.” She handed Robbie the sippy cup and he smiled as he brought it to his mouth.

  Temple returned seconds later.

  “Joy, thank you so much for the information,” Temple said. “But please keep this between us.” She turned to Jasper. “We have to go. Now.”

  Chapter 31

  Wayland Precision didn’t look right, as Temple and Jasper approached it. Wisps of black smoke came into focus, rising from blown-out windows. Two fire trucks poked into view as they passed in front of the building. Temple had refrained from explaining anything beyond saying there was an incident at Wayland Precision.

  Jasper punched the Charger’s accelerator and winged through the open gate and into the parking lot behind the building. An ambulance sat near the rear entrance.

  A group of people milled about, not looking all that worried—except Penny. She was easy to pick out of a crowd, as tall as she was and with her bright hair. She leaned, face pale and distraught, up against one of the parked trucks. But at least she didn’t look hurt. When Temple hadn’t said anything, he’d assumed the worst.

  They both exited the Charger and went up to Penny.

  “The bastards took my father.” Penny’s voice trembled. Her hair hung limp, covering most of her face as she dropped her chin.

  “Penny, please tell us what happened.” Temple said.

  “It had to be an industrial accident of some kind,” Penny said, “although I can’t for the life of me figure out what could have happened. Machine shops are full of machine tools and whatever steel alloys they’re working on. There’s nothing to burn or blow up.”

  “Not that, Penny,” Temple said. “Steve. What happened to your father? Did they abduct him from here?”

  “Yes, early this morning.”

  “You know what time?”

  “Father arrived early, and opened up. He said he wanted to examine all of the evidence so far and determine our next course of action against the Câ Tsang and the Nephilim entering our world. He’d finally decided he wanted to assist you with the investigation.

  “Steve’s been kidnapped, then?” Jasper folded his arms.

  “That has to be what happened.”

  Penny raised her head and wiped the hair from her face, revealing red and swollen eyes. “But the fire department—now, the police too—are starting to make noises about arson. They’re saying something about insurance money and suggesting my father is the culprit, wanting to collect on some policy that as far as I know doesn’t even exist—and I’m the one who handles the company’s books.”

  “There’s no way he’d do such a thing,” Jasper said. “Not with what you’ve told us about the, uh, you know.”

  “Yeah.” Penny sniffled, but regained some of her poise. The anger and grief, however, simmered below the surface, ready to go off like a geyser. Jasper understood those feelings.

  “How much damage was done inside?” Temple asked. “And were any clues left behind pointing us to where they may have taken him?”

  A few firemen loped by, heading back to their trucks. EMTs remained in the ambulance. Apparently, no one had been hurt and the firemen hadn’t found anyone inside the building. No one paid them any attention.

  Penny grimaced and turned her head. “Damn it. I wish my father would have given in earlier.”

  “Given in?”

  “It took me a while, but I finally talked him into it.” She shrugged. “I don’t like the idea of working with you, myself, but the world has just gotten too complex for guilds like ours to be able to operate completely out of sight of the official authorities, the way we could for centuries. I think we need to establish liaison with some branch of government, and you guys look like our best bet. So I wanted to bring you Feds in to help us out, even though both my father and I understand how government assistance typically turns out, right? Eventually, if not the CIA or NSA, certainly the DOD would get their hands on the information and attempt to weaponize the material from the other world.”

  Jasper blinked and shook his head. He’d thought Völundr’s Hammer leanings were more religious, like Temple’s.

  “Well, it seems we need you now,” Penny said. “But we need an understanding, and promises from you.”

  “Oh? You mean finding your father and Carlos and rescuing them isn’t enough?” Temple arched an eyebrow.

  “No, I’m sorry, it isn’t.” Penny wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “We need an agreement. I think you’re both reasonable people, but that doesn’t mean the people above you in the food chain are. This,” she spread her arms, “is a secret thing. The guild has had many incarnations over the years, and to this day, offshoots exist throughout the world. We’re all sworn to battle the Câ Tsang and other Nephilist cults.” She licked her lips. “Help us eradicate them and send the evil back to where it belongs. If any other three-letter agency gets wind, or the military, or heaven forbid another government, this will get out of hand. The entire world might become at risk.”

  “That’s some speech there, and the second time you mentioned government agencies and military. Automatically that makes me a little suspicious,” Jasper said.

  Penny looked at Jasper. “Makes you suspicious? This back and forth we’ve had with the cults over the past centuries has been difficult. But in the highly surveillance conscious world in which we find ourselves living, and all the gadgets and hoo-ha, well, keeping the fight with the cults hidden from the government—not just ours, any government—only got worse. The Câ Tsang or any of the cults would be hard to stop with the power of the other world behind them, granted. But something tells me whatever power lies on the other side would also become dangerous if in the clutches of—no offense—government folks like you.”

  Temple laughed. “Would it make you feel better if we signed a nondisclosure agreement? Or we arrange a pact with you? How would you be sure we’d keep it anyway? Relax a little, will you? Whatever we do directly with you will only be known by my Scientific Anomalies Group. Who’d believe us in the first place? Do you know how crazy talk of another world and aliens sounds—or demons, take your pick?”

  Temple’s words brought home a reality to Jasper that he hadn’t thought much about. They might find and arrest the cult members, but she was right that portions of the investigation would remain unsolvable and/or unanswerable. He’d have to be satisfied with that, and so would Temple. The objective now, however, was finding Carlos and Steve. If the pattern—what little pattern they had to work on—was accurate, they had until evening before any sacrifices would be made. It was still late morning, but time ticked away, and despite proof of the cult’s bumbling, they couldn’t take the chance they’d bumble some more.

  Jasper cut in: “We want to find your father, and we want to find Carlos as well, but what exactly would you have us do? We can’t just be partially in. We, SAG, need to be full in—not the FBI as a whole, at least not for now, only SAG. You want us to help but you’re also afraid of people like us, figurin’ the big bad government will swoop in and steal some of this phantom power I’ve yet to lay eyes on. Make up your mind.” He stared at Penny.

  “Seems at this stage I have no choice. My father’s life is in danger, as is Carlos’s—though I’m still not sure he didn’t have something to do with all of this.” Penny gestured at the smoldering building.

  “Any clues as to where they took Steve?” Temple asked. “And you’re sure they kidnapped him?”

  “Had to be.” Penny folded her arms. “Unless he caught the bastards messing with our place here and gave chase when they ran. He’d do that sort of thing. But he would have called me by now. So, he must have been taken. His truck is still here, for
one thing.”

  “That’s a fair assessment and we don’t have much else to go on. Is there somewhere we can speak in private? If we’re going to work together, there are some events we need to brief you on—stuff we’ve learned.”

  Penny directed them to another building set off from the main part of Wayland—a storage building. They briefed her and she in turn provided what she could. They had no idea where to start looking other than where Carlos’s vehicle was found and back to the Euclid Hotel, the site of the first rescue. Would the cult be so stupid as to keep using the same place for the sacrifices? Quite…Possibly.

  Jasper and Temple, now back in the Charger, dodged the fire trucks angling to get out of the parking lot. Two policemen came out of the building, frowning at them; one raised his hand as if telling them to hold on a second. Jasper ignored him, and as they left the parking lot, saw Penny approaching them—hopefully diffusing the situation with the locals.

  “Back to the Euclid,” Jasper said. “I’m getting tired of that place. Maybe we should look into having it demolished after all this is over.”

  Temple grinned, but her expression morphed to worry.

  “What?”

  “Time is not on our side,” she said, holding up her watch. “We spent a great deal of time at Lali’s apartment, well, at her neighbor’s apartment, and we’ve been here an hour. It’s already one in the afternoon.”

  “Oh, hell,” Jasper said. “We never even tried to get into Lali’s apartment—we got distracted speaking with the neighbor and responded to the phone call to head to Wayland. What if there is something inside Lali’s place that would direct us to Carlos and Steve?”

  “Let’s get Vance—he’s not doing any good over at the FBI building at this point.” Temple pursed her lips.

  “But he can’t go into the Euclid alone—What if the cult is there? He’d be out of his depth, don’t you think?” Jasper glanced over at Temple and then back on the road. Traffic picked up, but since they weren’t in Chicago, their biggest problem would be avoiding the constant movement of trains.

  “Good point. So, you’re saying we should go to Lali’s apartment and break in if need be?” Temple raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes.”

  “Fine by me.”

  * * *

  Jasper and Temple took careful steps down the hallway leading to Lali’s apartment. The light in the hall appeared dimmer than before, and the carpet—worn and threadbare—only somewhat masked their approach. Even though they figured she wouldn’t be home, why take any chances?

  They crept past Joy’s door, hearing no sounds coming from within, and reached Lali’s apartment.

  The door was cracked open.

  Jasper put a finger on his lips, pointed at himself, and then at the opposite side of the door. Temple nodded. He drew his Glock and Temple pulled hers from beneath her jacket, keeping the weapon depressed as Jasper crossed over. He positioned himself where if he pushed the door open a bit more, he’d get a better idea of what waited. He cursed himself for not having a little mirror with him—one with a telescoping arm for a better glimpse within.

  This was bad.

  He pointed at his ear, at Temple, and at the door.

  She shook her head. Hopefully she understood he wanted her to listen for movement within.

  He pushed the door open a few more inches. The hinges cracked, but at least the sound wasn’t an agonizingly long squeak.

  Nothing. His view of the apartment opened up a bit—sparse from what he ascertained with a mere six inches of opening. He pushed the door all the way open.

  No rustling noises. No movement. No creaking floor boards.

  “Anything from your viewpoint?” Jasper figured the game was up now anyway if someone waited inside.

  Temple kept her Glock depressed, but ready to bring up to eye level if needed. Her head moved side to side and her chin elevated glimpsing a different angle of the apartment’s insides. “Appears empty from my perspective.”

  Jasper cleared his throat. “FBI, anyone inside?” He repeated the phrase three more times, louder with each utterance. To his surprise no one from other apartments on the floor poked their heads out as Joy did earlier.

  “All right,” Jasper said. “Nothing over here either, and if a bad guy’s inside, they aren’t coming out. We’ll button hook in. I’ll go right, you go left.”

  “Ten-four.”

  He held up three fingers and folded them down one by one.

  They hooked in, Jasper first, Temple following.

  The apartment appeared empty, a little too empty, as if she planned on moving out soon or had never really moved in. A small dining table littered with stacks of letters, and two worn chairs pushed up against it stood near a wall close to the kitchen. A love seat and a smallish television on a stand—an old television—looked lonely in the living room, without the company of a coffee table, bookcases, side tables, and lamps. Only a chintzy chandelier hanging above the dining table and harsh fluorescents in the kitchen provided light.

  “Didn’t even know you could still get these, or that they’d still function if you did.” Jasper patted the top of the old television, a twenty-five incher if it was lucky.

  “Huh?”

  “The old CRT over here.”

  “Not everyone is rolling in government cheese like you.” Temple didn’t bother turning to address him, but he saw the smile on her face anyway.

  “I’ve got nothing,” Jasper said. “I’m going to check the kitchen. Then we’ll hit the bathroom and bedroom.”

  “Ten-four. I’ll keep an eye on the bedroom and bathroom doors.”

  Jasper searched the kitchen, finding nothing but a tray of takeout food.

  They cleared the bedroom and bathroom. No one hid under the bed, in the closet, or in the bathtub. They retreated back to the dining area.

  He worked through the possibilities, but drew no concrete conclusions.

  “What do you think, Temple?”

  She was shuffling through the papers on the table. “Okay. Another odd situation, which doesn’t make much sense at all.”

  “Agreed.”

  “But if Lali is one of the perpetrators, why would her door be cracked open?”

  “That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering.”

  Temple tossed letter after letter aside into another stack, and took a few of the others, forming yet a third stack. “Possibility number one: Steve came here after discovering what happened at Wayland.”

  “We would have just missed him, right? I mean, Wayland isn’t far from here.”

  “Yeah, I’m not keen on that one myself, which is why I put it out there first,” Temple said. “Two: Lali isn’t involved with the cult, but after being observed with Carlos, was targeted by and kidnapped by the cult—yeah,” she didn’t even wait for Jasper’s response, “I’m not buying that one either.”

  “I’m going to check the closets, keep going.” Jasper opened the closet near the front door they cleared earlier, but didn’t search for clues. A few jackets, a hoodie, some gloves, a few pairs of boots and shoes, nothing too crazy.

  “Three: Lali is involved with the cult, but forgot something and came back. Maybe she saw us coming—you know, your car rolling through the parking lot by chance, and ran out of the building before we got up here.”

  “That one sounds reasonable. Gonna check the bedroom closet.” Jasper strolled into the bedroom and ripped open the closet, one of those flimsy French door deals on a track that wouldn’t last a minute with a kid around. “Keep going. If you have any other ideas, I’ll hear you.”

  The air was off, and the building seemed eerily quiet, especially for one where you’d expect a lot of people not working or if they worked, kept odd hours.

  “Hmm,” Temple said. “Okay, four: She was robbed by someone else during the time we left and returned.”

  Jasper laughed. “I bet they made off with all the fine silver and priceless jewelry.”

  “Yeah, good one.�
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  “You finding anything in the bedroom?” Temple asked from dining area. “I’ve run out of ideas.”

  “Still poking around.” He shuffled through the clothes and then the long shelf running above the hanging clothes. There was a laptop up there. He pulled the computer off the shelf, and flipped open the screen, which lit up. An Apple laptop—he never used one, but the display prompted for a password.

  He tried a few random passwords, like Lali’s name, her street name with apartment number, but none of them worked. Another option appeared offering help to remember the password.

  Bingo.

  The prompt for the forgotten password offered: SACK OF LYING SHIT.

  “Oh my God, how stupid and simple.” Also an odd phrasing, he thought.

  He typed in Carlos. The password section shook—wrong answer. What? He pulled out his smartphone and studied Carlos’s photo and biographical data. Okay. He typed in Carlos followed by his birth year. Another wrong guess. What would Lali have chosen?

  “You okay?” Temple came into the room, no longer trying to be silent.

  “Yeah, but I can’t figure out this password.” He showed her the laptop.

  “Trying to crack a password? Good luck.” Temple sighed. “We don’t have much time.”

  “Yeah, but the laptop is offering a hint.”

  “Oh?”

  “The hint is: sack of lying shit.”

  “That’s an interesting way of putting it, don’t you think? I mean, wouldn’t we say, lying sack of shit?” Temple frowned. “She obviously means Carlos, right?”

  “Yeah, but as for the phrase, it probably has something to do with speaking Spanish as well as English?”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “I tried Carlos as the passphrase—didn’t work. I also tried his name followed by his birth year.”

  “How about his full name?”

  “Ah.” Jasper typed in Carlos’s full name, and the screen unlocked.

  During his search, Jasper hadn’t found any modems or routers, so Lali’s lack of Internet connection didn’t surprise him. She must use free Internet at places like Starbucks. But, if she used the built-in email, it would be saved on her computer. He clicked an envelope on the bottom of the screen, but it prompted for setup. Damn.