by Larkin, Matt
“Do not put cybernetics into your body, Rachel,” he said, voice low. “Not ever.”
“Why the void not?” One rule for the Angels, one rule for humanity. They claimed God sent them. But she’d seen the look on his face. Raziel had never spoken to God … Maybe the Angel wasn’t even sure there was a God. He was an alien who had come and made up laws to bind humans. “You did.”
“We can no longer live without them. And so we live in continuous torment, at war with ourselves, trembling before the passage of the Beast. And some of us fell.”
Rachel shook in his arms and he released her. “What does that mean? You fell. Fine. So what, the fallen …?”
“They serve the Adversary now. I have to go, Rachel. I will try to do what I can for your people.” At that, he turned and strode from the room.
Leaving her alone. She collapsed onto his bed and rubbed her temples. The Adversary ship that attacked Eden looked like the Ark … Because it was piloted by Angels. It was an Angel ship. Some of them were in service to the Adversary and its Beast. Out of fear? Raziel said they were at war with themselves. A civil war among Angels.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO
April 22nd
We race to aid Degana and the NER, but I cannot help but feel more things are going on here—events beyond my knowledge. And I fear the future.
Caleb woke screaming. Cold sweat streamed down his face and neck. Rebekah, lying by his side, wiped it away, and he let himself fall into her lap. He felt like weeping, but he couldn’t allow himself such weakness. Not in front of her. She needed him to be strong.
They had escaped the Sons of Cain on a Jericho transport ship, the Balaam. A few loyal mercenaries had helped him take it and get away. And since then, the Sons had pursued him. From the moment he turned on Apollo. From the moment he realized what that bastard was doing.
Every night, the same torment. Even on waking, he felt that alien presence in his mind. The whispering, the threatening, the pleading, the demanding. It was cold and on fire. A burning ache searing down to his soul.
On Apollo’s orders he had destroyed four Angel stations. And with each one, the presence had grown stronger. Until at last, in a fit of revelation, he’d known. He’d known the unspeakable truth.
Apollo was in communion with the Adversary. The Angel stations … Caleb had thought to weaken the Angels. They were his enemies, after all. They were hunting down cyborgs—Caleb’s own kind, thanks to Apollo—and slaughtering every last one of them. So any power he denied them was a victory. He was fighting to save the universe from oppression. Except the Adversary was real. And those Angel stations had been holding it back, keeping it at bay. And with each he destroyed, the true foe of humanity grew in power.
He had been wrong about everything. Wrong to ever trust Apollo. Wrong to destroy the Angel stations, though they too were his enemies. And he had damned Rebekah down this same path. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close.
“What’s wrong, love?” she asked.
Everything.
Everything was wrong. In fear for his life and family, he’d followed a madman into Hell. And though he would like to blame mere self-preservation and love of his wife and children for his sins, he had started down the path willingly. For power and greed and fame and the chance to fuck pretty little things like Rebekah.
God, he’d tried to warn Rachel Jordan. He once tried to sway her to his point of view, and in so doing might well have damned her too. And when he tried to tell her his folly—that was when the Sons of Cain found out about him. They’d broken in on him and stopped the transmission. If he hadn’t had a few mercenaries nearby …
The truth was, he doubted Ezra Dana had any idea about the truth of who he was working for. As one of the Sons of Cain, he was a pirate serving Apollyon for easy money. But the Icie had given Caleb no chance to explain. And who would believe such off rotation nonsense in any event?
He pulled himself up to face Rebekah. She was naked, but he had no energy to take her now. He should. If only for a moment’s reprieve. There were too many voices in his mind. Not just Apollo, not anymore. Others … calling his name. Clawing at his mind and soul. He had no peace except when he was buried inside Rebekah. Somehow, she stilled the voices, if only for a moment.
As if she could sense what he needed, she kissed him. Her tongue massaged his, and the pain began to recede. For a heartbeat he had clarity of thought. It was the Great Attractor. That’s when things first became so bad. Out there, looking into the void …
Rebekah’s hands ran down his chest and over his abdomen. He felt himself harden. She caressed his whole body, and the tension fled. She was his little heaven. His redemption.
Rebekah was … Was not Ayelet. His wife was …
His assistant lowered herself onto him, and thought fled. Her fiery hair brushed across his face. That’s right, she was heaven.
He kissed her again and again, and they made love. Then at last he fell back, spent, and at peace. It wouldn’t last. It never did.
Apollo had to know Caleb had betrayed him. He would make good on his threat. God, why hadn’t Caleb acted sooner? Why hadn’t he …?
Rebekah brushed his cheek, and her face filled his mind. Ayelet was fine. James and Miriam were fine. No one would …
No! They were his life. He had to be sure.
Caleb sat up roughly. “I need you to do something for me. I need you to go to Sepharvaim and get my family. I can’t go, he’d be watching for me.”
Rebekah frowned. “You don’t want me to leave your side again, Caleb.”
Of course he didn’t. The thought of losing even the brief peace she offered him … The thought he would spend every waking moment in torment and every minute of sleep visited with horrors he never quite recalled on waking … It left his insides cold. But … But his family … He could not sacrifice them for his own sake.
“Please. You’re the only one I can trust.”
“We should just go back to him, then,” Rebekah said. “Explain we made a mistake. It’s the best way to keep them safe. You don’t want me to leave.”
They could go back to Apollo. He might accept them back. Punishment might follow later, but his family would be safe.
Caleb chewed his thumb for a moment, indulging in the self-delusion. They wouldn’t be safe. Even if Apollo didn’t have them killed, they would never be safe. Not in the universe Caleb had helped to create. Not in a universe overrun with the unfathomable hatred and darkness the Adversary represented.
“Go to Sepharvaim. Please, Rebekah. Get them and bring them to me.”
She folded her arms and snorted, then hopped out of the bed.
The instant she left, the pressure in his mind returned.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THREE
April 24th
The Redeemers cling hopelessly, blindly, to the Codex. I have tried to tell my brother the words are suspect. Angels claim their words are divine and thus beyond reproach. But they are divine set by their own standards. For my trouble, I have been named blasphemer and khapiru.
Rachel’s brother had come to her wedding, and it had meant the world to her. For so long they had been on opposite sides—ideologically, and now militarily. But he had come to see her married, and she’d never forget that. Jeremiah hadn’t complained when he was escorted back to the brig afterward. He was charged with assault and murder of Sentinels, and, if the universe were not in such chaos, would likely have already been sentenced to a world such as Horesh.
The one reason to be grateful for the ongoing war against the Angels. Her brother was still in the brig, and Rachel tried to visit him at least once a week. He wouldn’t see things her way, but after meeting Raziel, he had at least become less hostile. Maybe she could even get something useful out of Jeremiah.
Now the Angels were back, and working with the Redeemers. And, if rumors held true, they had dangerous allies.
Rachel paced in front of her brother’s cell. “Is it tru
e the Gogmagog have signed on with the Redeemers?”
Jeremiah sat on his cot, leaning against the wall, legs folded beneath him.
“Miah? Are you working with those creatures?”
The Angels’ secret police were the first tradition to be shed following the Days of Glory. Even Redeemers didn’t—or hadn’t—supported the spies.
“It’s not our place to question the Angels.”
“They question themselves!” Raziel was gone. Shame—if the Angel were here, maybe he could talk some sense into Jeremiah. “They’ve been engaged in some kind of civil war for God-only-knows how long.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Adversary is fallen Angels, those who turned against their own kind.”
“No.”
She shook her head and paused in her pacing. “It’s the truth, Miah.”
She could feel his uncertainty, his doubts, wafting off him and clogging the air. She had to remind herself they were his fears, not hers. She had more than enough of her own.
“The universe is not as simple as either of us once believed, brother. The Angels are more than the oppressors I once took them for … and far, far less than the divine saviors you worship them as.”
Jeremiah let his head fall into his hands, saying nothing. If she told him what Raziel had recently shared with her, it might break him. He had built the foundation of his life on faith. And when that crumbled away, maybe he would be lost. But she had to believe the truth was the best road. For thousands of years Angels had lied to mankind while telling themselves they did it for humanity’s own good. But such deceptions twisted and writhed over time, taking on insidious lives of their own. Until men like her brother became zealots for causes as ephemeral as dark energy.
Rachel leaned against the smart glass. How could she knowingly cause her own brother such pain? The moment she spoke, he would spiral into the abyss of doubt and pain. And maybe, maybe he would never find his way free. But then … to leave him mired in self-delusion was perhaps still the crueler act.
“Raziel told me … The Angels lied to us. They told us what they thought we needed to hear in order to listen to them. God never sent them, Miah. They’ve never seen God, never spoken to Him. They’re just aliens.”
“Lies!” Jeremiah jumped to his feet. He clenched his hands at his side, sputtering and grinding his teeth.
Though he feigned rage, she could feel the undercurrents of horror seeping out of his cell. She had broken something within him and his universe was crumbling around him.
“I’m sorry, brother.”
The bitter truth was all she had to offer him. He sank to his knees and his head fell to his chest. Rachel sighed, and left him. Time alone with his thoughts might be his only remedy.
Outside the brig, she found Knight waiting for her.
“What is it?”
“We’ll reach Eden soon,” he said.
“Yeah.” It would be nice to see Degana again. Thomas’s sister was a sweet girl who loved to laugh and tried to look for the bright side in everything. Her brother’s death had broken her heart, but she’d kept going with a smile on her face and a kind word for Rachel at every turn. Rachel wasn’t going to let her down now.
“I’m coming with you. The last time you went to a secret meeting the Redeemers broke it up. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She smiled and walked with him toward the lift. His earnest loyalty warmed her. Less than a year ago he’d been a brutal, rough killer who feigned indifference to the people around him. Faced with Armageddon, Knight had become a hero. More than that—he’d become Nephilim, a being of legend. His telekinetic powers were shocking, even if he had little in the way of other Psych abilities.
“I’m proud of you,” she said.
He cleared his throat, saying nothing.
Still a bit socially awkward, but that was improving, too.
“You know David is going to be there. He’s more than capable of protecting me, Knight.”
“Yeah. Still going.”
Rachel smiled.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR
The claims of divinity were ludicrous, even before Raziel admitted they were lies. The Angels are beings of violence, of flaw. They rule as tyrants and enforce their ways with the sword. But such claims, repeated long enough, become self-perpetuating. Children believe as they are taught, until the worship of Angels became ingrained in our basic nature.
Knight exited the shuttle behind Rachel and David, with Phoebe on his heels. He wore his helmet up to protect against the thin atmosphere. The red planet had never been terraformed, so the colonists here had constructed several domed enclosures. Eventually the NER would look to hire Laban Worlds to terraform this planet as the capital of the Republic. They were already calling it New Eden.
That was, of course, if the Angels allowed this place to exist. And they wouldn’t. It represented a direct challenge to their authority. In a way, they ruled like the Shadow Council of Gehenna. Absolute authority, enforced through terror. Men obeyed the Shadow Council because if they didn’t, the Gibborim showed up. Now, the Angels threatened to destroy whole fucking planets if mankind didn’t get in line.
Knight had had more than enough of totalitarian regimes. A republic sounded like idealist nonsense to him, but it was about a trillion times better than the alternative.
It was a short trek from the landing platform to the central dome where they were to meet Rachel’s friend. Red dust kicked up under their boots as they walked, especially Rachel, who clearly had no practice at stepping lightly. When they reached the dome she buzzed the airlock.
Knight followed the others inside then removed his helmet once air whooshed into the chamber. The dome beyond was perhaps five kilometers in diameter. Not large for a center of government, so people were tightly packed among narrow streets. Hovers whizzed by, carrying supplies—crates marked with the cornucopia of Manna Products. It would be a long time before people on this planet could grow more than small hydroponic gardens.
Knight’s fingers twitched at the mass of people so close. His pulse pistol was folded into the thigh holster on his suit, but he could eject it and fire in a heartbeat. With so many here, it was hard to tell who might be a Redeemer agent. And those chameleon Gog things could be anywhere.
He swore something moved in the shadow of an alley. Knight took a step toward the shifting darkness.
“That’s him,” someone said.
“The Nephilim!”
He turned to see a small crowd forming up around their group.
“Your fame precedes you, big guy,” Phoebe said.
“Shite, we don’t need this,” David said, as more and more people flocked around them, clogging the already narrow walkways.
“Are you here to lead us into the light?” a child asked.
“The what now?”
“They say you’re half Angel,” another man said. “That you can crush a ship with your mind.”
“Uh, no. A shuttle, maybe.” He tried to shoulder his way through, but it was like the whole damn colony had come out to see the freak.
Several fell to their knees. “Save us, navi,” a woman said. “Bless us.”
Knight shrugged and stepped around her. This was off rotation. They thought he was a prophet? If God spoke through anyone’s voice, it would not be his.
“Hey!” Rachel shouted. “He’s not a damned navi. Move on.”
A pair of young women stepped in front of him, twins by the look of it. One had hair dyed green, the other dyed blue. “Excuse me,” the blue-haired one said. “Can we have your seed?”
Knight’s jaw dropped and he sputtered. He’d thought with the Shekhinah gone, maybe the need to spread his DNA would evaporate, too.
Phoebe shoved both girls to either side. “Sorry, ladies, he’s fresh out. No planting of seeds going on today. But if you stick around, I may be willing to plant my boot up your asses.” She grabbed Knight’s arm and yanked him after her.
“And you, don’t get too excited there.”
“I wasn’t!”
“Right. For future reference, let’s just assume I’m the only farmer in charge of your seed. I’ll tell you when and where to plant it, m’kay?”
David snickered from behind. Knight gave him the finger without turning around.
Phoebe pulled him along until they reached a central building, marked with the letters N-E-R. They were going to need a symbol at some point. Something striking and bold.
A guard at the door scanned their palms to check DNA, then waved them inside. A secretary escorted them to a meeting room where a half-dozen Sentinel captains sat around a table, debating with each other and even more politicians. Knight recognized two of them from prior meetings. An Icie woman rose as they approached and rushed over to embrace Rachel.
“Degana. So good to see you.”
“You too! I heard you got married. I can’t believe you didn’t invite me.”
“It was kind of a rush thing.”
“Yeah, well … Is this the lucky guy?” She turned to David and offered a hand.
He took it and nodded. “Nice to see you again, Ms. O’Malley.”
“Probably safe to call me Degana at this point, Captain. Won’t you have a seat?”
David and Rachel took a place at the table and joined the debate.
Knight took up a position against the wall. “Is the ship safe with both you and David here?” he asked Phoebe.
“Yup, yup. He left Leah in charge. This was too important for me to stay behind.”
Several other officers also stood or sat around the rim of the room. He supposed the formation of a new republic was something everyone wanted to be part of.
“Look, McGregor,” one of the captains said, “we all know Hannah Hertz is leading reunification on your behalf.”
“Hannah’s no puppet,” David said.
