Sins of Angels (The Complete Collection)

by Larkin, Matt

  As if he’d heard the thought, Apollo suddenly looked up at him. Despite his cybernetic eyes, Caleb couldn’t quite penetrate the man’s hood. Some kind of cloaking technology? He had to suppress a shudder.

  “Is there a problem?” Apollo asked, taking a step closer.

  “You … You didn’t call me here to tell me this.” Yeah, great. Way to show him who’s in charge.

  “No. I didn’t.” Apollo walked to another workbench and picked up a transparent dish.

  In the center of the dish was a speck. Normal eyes might have missed it. Caleb focused on it, and his eyes zoomed in, magnifying it many times. It was a microchip of some kind. Not quite a nanochip, but almost.

  “My latest creation. A psionic-blocking implant.”

  A what? Caleb took an involuntary step back. Jericho—and likely QI, as well—had long experimented with tech to protect people from telepaths and empaths. Results had never been satisfactory. And now, without warning, Apollo had something that could do it?

  It should have thrilled Caleb.

  But the way Apollo was looking at him was anything but encouraging.

  “Nanobots will build one inside your brain. The chip will prevent any Psych from gaining access to your most valuable assets. You are, after all, now the Chairman of a megacorp.”

  Angels above, he wanted to put that thing in Caleb’s head.

  “I … I don’t think that will be necessary. I have security to protect me from …”

  Apollo strode toward him with undeniable purpose and grabbed his arm. “Can you really take that chance?”

  Caleb’s heart raced. He didn’t have to do this. He could say no. Just refuse.

  Almost against his own will he found himself nodding. His arms shook and he focused on stopping the trembling. Apollo switched his grip to the back of Caleb’s neck, then turned his head.

  “Wait …” Caleb moaned.

  The scientist injected something into Caleb’s ear. It started as a sudden shock, then his whole ear canal tingled. Then he felt nothing out of the ordinary.

  His eyes switched off for a moment, like something had interfered with the signal.

  For a heartbeat he was left in darkness. Just long enough for the edge of panic to set in.

  And then things returned to normal, and Apollo stood across from him.

  “It’s done.”

  Caleb rubbed his ear and stalked out of the lab.

  He grabbed Rebekah’s hand and ignored her questioning look. They were leaving this damn planet.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

  December 3rd

  A part of me admires Asherah for abandoning the Covenant. Certainly, any thought of a cyborg frightens me. Waller showed me visions of that—I have no idea if they were real or products of Sentinel propaganda—and it produced a visceral reaction in me I couldn’t control. I try to remind myself I was as indoctrinated to fear cyborgs as the rest of mankind.

  Rachel was right, David decided. It was like the pathways of the Conduit bent around his intended destination. They curved so subtly that, were he not watching for it, he would never have noticed. The Conduit tunnels stretched out in his mind and he reached deeper and deeper, seeking a way through.

  They’d been circling the system, the supposed location of Eden itself, for hours, as he swept past one misdirection after another. But there had to be a way in. Rachel was sure of it, and the longer he followed the winding paths, the more he became convinced of it, as well. No one worked so hard to hide something unless that something was worth the effort.

  Eden.

  For thirty-one centuries mankind’s homeworld had been a myth, lost to the ages. And Rachel had tasked him with uncovering it. Hard not to let pride creep into his thoughts. He had to keep reminding himself he was doing this for Mizraim. If he found this planet, Rachel would use the Ark to help win the war against Asherah.

  He was doing what he had to. That was the only reason.

  He shut his eyes, letting himself feel the way. Eyes could be fooled. The infinite colors shimmering all around you could mask a possible route. The Conduit was a series of endlessly branching wormholes, constantly wrapping back on itself, but always shifting you forward in time. Making sure you never wound up somewhere before you left. The greater the pilot, the faster you could arrive somewhere. Distance became a secondary concern to skill. A skilled pilot could arrive at a destination in hours that might take an amateur a day or more to reach.

  And David was one of the best. He could navigate faster than anyone he knew. He knew he could find the way.

  He just had to let go, let his mind reach out on its own, freed from conscious control.

  It was easier said than done. For all his practice as a Psych, even his performance varied. And right now, drawn as he was to the front, every pathway tried to lead him there. His heart yearned to join the battle, and his subconscious tried to show him the way.

  But the only way there was through a less direct route. First, he had to find Eden.

  Maybe, as long as he kept trying to convince himself that wasn’t his true mission, he never would. Could he abandon his mission to save it? Indulge in vanity and allow himself to become the man who led humanity back to Eden, as Rachel would have cast him? If he trod down that path, was there a way back from it?

  The danger of becoming a messiah was falling for your own legend.

  He knew the danger. He could avoid it. And so he swept around and around, diving ever closer to his destination. She needed him to become the one to find it.

  He kept his eyes closed. Tried to focus all of his essence on Eden.

  Earth, she had called it. A blue-green paradise, stories said. Humanity had been born there. The Exodus had spread the Races of Man across the Local Group, but it all traced back here. Everything came back to Eden. When the Adversary attacked, mankind’s destiny was changed forever. Back then, humanity had barely managed to leave their own solar system—only unmanned, long range probes reached out to distant stars. Hard to even imagine life before the Conduit.

  And the Angels had come. They had opened not only the entire galaxy to humanity, but many galaxies. They had planted people on a million worlds throughout the universe and commanded them to breed so often nothing could threaten mankind with extinction again.

  And they had forever denied humans return to Earth.

  David’s eyes opened. The passageway was coming. He could feel it. The Conduit rushed past it, forcing any ship along a route that always put the one entrance behind them. And you couldn’t look back in the Conduit.

  The passage zipped right past him. He reached into the hologram and jerked his hand, pulling a hard, sudden turn with the Ark. The ship shrieked as it brushed the edges of the Conduit.

  “What the void are you doing?” Phoebe shouted.

  The Ark swung around and darted down the hidden pathway. A heartbeat. Then another.

  And the Gate was there. He jumped the Ark into normal space.

  David rose from the chair and turned to Rachel. “We’re here.”

  The entire crew stood on the bridge, and all were silent. Rachel sat in the chair and directed the ship past one planet and another, until at last she fell into orbit around a small world covered in a blue ocean.

  She waved her hand and the screen zoomed in on the world below them. Vast stretches of land bore scars like someone had cut it up with a laser scalpel. But other regions were green, overrun with forest.

  “Radiation is within tolerable levels,” Phoebe said. “Signs of numerous vast cities dot the planet, all in ruins. No signs of intelligent life, though flora and fauna are abundant.”

  “It’s not a wasteland.” Rachel’s voice was barely a whisper.

  David imagined everyone echoed her thoughts. The Adversary was supposed to have made this place uninhabitable. Despite the obvious scars running along the world, life flourished here.

  David scratched his head. “Either the planet has recovered over the last three thousand years—
”

  “Or they lied to us about how bad it was,” Rachel said.

  Why would they lie? Why take mankind from here if the world remained? “Maybe …” David wasn’t sure what to think anymore. “Maybe they were protecting us from the Adversary.”

  “Maybe,” Rachel said. “Or they had another agenda. Either way, we have to go down there. It’s the only way we can be sure.”

  “Someone has to the stay with the ship,” Leah said. “And I suppose it had better be me. I don’t see Rachel staying here.”

  David took a step toward the Amphie. Something had been bothering her for a long time. They’d talked since he was rescued, but it wasn’t the same. Not like it had been on the Logos. She was far away, and he couldn’t bridge the distance. Was the lass disappointed in him? One day soon he’d need to have a chat with her. She meant too much to him to let her suffer like this.

  “Good idea,” Rachel said, before David could object to Leah’s plan. He knew Rachel had taught Leah and Phoebe to control the ship, but David didn’t like this plan. “The rest of us will go down in the shuttle. Be prepared. We have no idea what we’ll find on that planet.”

  He grunted. “We might need a medic.”

  “Well, we know there are no people,” Rachel said. “If we need her, we’ll call for Leah.”

  David sighed. Rachel was right about one thing—he needed to see Eden now, for himself. It wasn’t destroyed, which meant … He didn’t know what it meant.

  “Are you sure you want—” he started to ask Leah.

  “Yeah, go on. I’m fine.”

  Knight coughed. “Let’s just do this.”

  David sighed. Fine.

  But before he went down there, he was going to need one more thing. Despite all he had done, his suit could mean the difference between life and death—not only for him, but for Rachel. Whether he deserved it or not, he had put his uniform back on.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

  The First Commandment tells us that humans are not meant to alter themselves with cybernetics or genetic engineering. The Angels, however, clearly reengineered mankind to create the Races. And they altered themselves with cybernetics. So maybe Asherah is right about everything. Maybe the Angels just tried to cast themselves above us, and this fear we have of cybernetics is totally misplaced.

  Being back on Sepharvaim had brought welcome relief to Caleb. His experiences on Kiriath had so unsettled his stomach he hadn’t even wanted to take Rebekah on the shuttle—which seemed to shock the girl. She was still scared, he knew. Not half as much as he was, though. She had no idea Apollo had put something in Caleb’s brain.

  Angels above, he was off rotation to have allowed that. It was supposed to block telepathy, but God only knew what else it might do to him. What side effects it could have. Jericho had volunteers for testing things like this. They did not test cybernetics on board members.

  Of course, his discomfort was not at all eased by the Redeemer now waiting outside his office. Here he was, a cyborg, about to meet with a Redeemer. If the man had the slightest inkling what Caleb was, he wouldn’t just wash Caleb’s sins away—he’d murder him in his own office. Redeemers were like that. Real assholes.

  “Send him in,” he said, at last.

  It was important to keep people like that waiting, let them know he wasn’t afraid of them. Even if he was afraid. It just didn’t do to let on.

  The Redeemer wore a long coat, emblazoned with the symbol of a man on bent knee. Complete subservience to Angel doctrine. Like a good little dog.

  But not one to be underestimated. The man was muscular. He could probably break Caleb in half with his bare hands. Which was why Caleb clutched a MAG under the table in his new office.

  Rebekah stood nearby, and he’d made sure she had a MAG too, hidden against her inner thigh. He’d had her wear a flowing dress for this, though she normally wore trousers. Better to conceal the weapon.

  The Redeemer walked over to Caleb’s desk and stared down at him.

  Caleb made sure to wear an obviously fake smile. “Jeremiah Jordan. Welcome to Jericho Corp.”

  Disdain oozed from the man’s face like he was looking at a rotting Akeldaman slug carcass. “Gavet. I hope you’ll do better in this position than your last two predecessors.”

  Cute. Keese had been brought down by the Redeemers themselves for experiments violating the First Commandment—experiments Caleb had since taken over—and Mathison was murdered by the Sons of Cain. Possibly at Apollo’s behest.

  Caleb smiled, wondering what Jordan would do if he admitted to inheriting Keese’s projects as well as his Chair. Probably die of apoplexy. “Indeed,” he said. “As I hope you do your family name more honor than your sister has.”

  If it was possible, Jeremiah’s face grew sterner. He pressed his palms against the desk, leaning forward like he intended to intimidate Caleb. “You asked me here to discuss the problem. You said the Conglomerate must act together to retrieve the Ark. So speak.”

  “Your sister has vanished, Jordan. She’s taken the Angel’s Ark with her, the most powerful, most dangerous Angel relic ever discovered. And she seems intent to keep it for herself.”

  “The Ark has no business in human hands at all.”

  Caleb smiled in a way he hoped was placating, not mocking, despite his feelings. “The Conglomerate can decide what to do with the Ark once we have it. But we can agree it does not belong in the sole custody of Rachel Jordan.”

  Jeremiah gritted his teeth and nodded. “We can. Sadly, her blasphemies go deeper.”

  This should be good. What could the girl have possibly come up with to top stealing the Angel’s Ark? Had she opened a door to hell itself?

  “We captured a Seeker of Eden and I’ve been interrogating him. He claims Rachel has been using the Ark to locate Eden. This egregious breach of Angel law cannot be tolerated, Gavet. She must be recovered before she commits a crime from which mankind would never recover.”

  Caleb blinked his eyes, trying to cover his shock. Eden? He had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. Eden! Angels above, the girl thought big. First she’d stolen the Ark, now she was trying to uncover the lost, possibly mythical homeworld of mankind. It was almost comical. In fact, it was ludicrous, made more so by the deathly serious air of her own brother.

  He glanced at the picture of his wife and children on his desk, grateful his family was not nearly so dysfunctional as Rachel’s seemed. Her father was one of the leaders of the Redeemers, Caleb had learned not long ago. A hierophant. She’d cut ties with him long ago, of course, but it was still too rich, too perfect.

  “Allow me to look into the matter,” he said, keeping his expression blank. “I will be in touch as soon as I have more information.”

  His desk creaked as Jeremiah leaned further forward on it. “This matter must be handled with complete discretion, Gavet. We cannot have it get out to the public what she’s after. The Seekers are a fringe group we’ve been hunting down for centuries. The masses would only be befuddled by their lies.”

  “Trust me, Jordan. One thing I know is discretion.”

  The Redeemer nodded, then left.

  Caleb burst out laughing the moment the door closed. “Pompous ass.”

  “Eden?” Rebekah asked. “Is it possible?”

  “I have no idea. But I’m almost starting to admire Ms. Jordan. Her brother, less so.”

  He contacted Apollo on the Mazzaroth, and a minute later the man’s face filled the screen on his desk.

  “I’ve found Jordan—or at least, I know what she’s looking for. She’s convinced she can use the Ark to find Eden itself. Void, maybe she can. If we trace these Seekers she’s working with, I’ll bet we can locate her.”

  Apollo was silent.

  Not a good sign. Had he been wrong to contact the man with so rough a lead? Caleb shook himself. Why the void was he questioning himself about contacting one of his employees? How did Apollo have this hold over him? Caleb was the Chairman for God’s sake. It
made him one of the most important men in the universe, and he was letting this scientist on a toxic planet a galaxy away intimidate him.

  “Prepare the Conglomerate strike force,” Apollo said at last.

  “For where? We haven’t found them yet.”

  “The Ark will show her the way to Eden, if it hasn’t already. And we will find them there. I will send you the coordinates.”

  Wait, what?

  The Mazzaroth cut off.

  A moment later he received a coded message detailing a system on an arm of the Milky Way. And the Conduit route to reach it.

  Caleb’s whole body felt cold. Apollo knew the way to Eden. Who was this man? A chill ran down his spine, and all he could do was sit and stare at the message.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

  For thirty-one centuries, Eden has been a fable, a myth to tell mankind where we come from. This planet, this Earth, is so far removed from most people, they could not even imagine ever seeing it. To tell someone I’d seen Eden would likely sound to them like I was saying I’d been to heaven itself. Beyond belief. That will change.

  Skyscrapers dominated the city. Though the buildings had nothing on the size of those found on New Rome or even Gehenna, the ivy and moss covering many of them created the illusion of a massive rainforest. David set the shuttle down among them, in what had once been a city in the northern hemisphere.

  Flora had retaken so much of the planet, it was hard to find a clear patch to land on. In the end, he landed in what had once been a street. Deer watched their group from the distance, more curious than afraid. Animals that had never seen human beings.

  “Angels above,” Phoebe said. “It’s really Eden, isn’t it?”

  “Aye,” David said, not sure he believed it himself. The ruins, their apparent age, made the conclusion obvious … if still hard to accept.