A Mystery of Light

by Brian Fuller

  “Not sure yet,” he said. “We’re following four of the buses, and they’re still filling up right now. Hang tight, and I’ll get you an update asap.”

  “Thanks.”

  Someone tapped his shoulder. He turned to find a thin, severe-looking woman in a bathrobe and half-done makeup staring him down.

  “Excuse me,” she said, tone firm. This was a woman used to being in charge. “What is going on here?”

  “The bus was unsafe,” Helo said. “We suspect a leak in the exhaust system was venting gasses into the cabin. The bus driver was affected. Started talking crazy, and we had to remove her. We’ll get another bus here as soon as we can.”

  The woman didn’t look convinced. “Who’s going to watch all of these kids while they wait? I’ve got to go to work! I think that woman needs an ambulance! What did you do?”

  “We will take care of everything,” Melody said, coming down the bus stairs, smile as wide as the sky and voice rich with that same peaceful quality she had used on the kids. “The children will be fine, and we’ll get the bus driver the medical help she needs. You can go back and keep getting ready.”

  The woman’s shoulders relaxed, her head nodding. “Okay, but I don’t want to see these kids unsupervised.”

  “Of course,” Melody said sweetly.

  The woman walked back toward the house directly in front of the bus stop, glancing over her shoulder.

  “What was that?” Helo whispered.

  “The voice of peace,” Melody said. “Works great. You should try it. What do we do with her?”

  Helo glanced down at the bus driver, whose eyes fluttered. “Can’t leave her here. You know how to drive a bus?”

  “How hard can it be?” she asked. “Dolorem let me drive the rig a few times.”

  Melody ascended the bus steps and settled into the driver’s seat while Helo hefted the driver over his shoulder. “Will you kids be okay by yourselves for a little while?”

  Half the kids looked nervous. The other half looked like a party was about to start. A few nodded.

  “Great,” he said. “We’re going to get this bus back to where it can be repaired. Make good choices and all that.”

  He got into the bus just as the bus driver regained enough consciousness for the evil spirit to take control. He dumped her in a seat, and she torched him.

  “Let’s go, Melody!”

  She pulled the doors closed. “Where to?”

  “Just drive around,” he said. The woman beat on him with her fists.

  “Let me go! Let me go!” she wailed. “Filthy Ash Angel!”

  He belted her again, knocking her unconscious. What were they going to do with her? He couldn’t keep beating on her. Evil spirit or no, the woman was a piece of work, but she didn’t deserve to be beaten to a pulp. But they couldn’t keep her around, either.

  Noticing a lump in her jeans pocket, he reached in and pulled out a cell phone. He crushed it with a Strength-powered squeeze. The last thing they needed was for her to call the cops or dispatch. Maybe this was a chance to practice his exorcism.

  He took her by the wrist and concentrated, his Virtus pulsing into her. No sooner had he opened his mind than he felt the familiar oppressive weight. Legion. He broke contact. He didn’t have the time or the know-how to face that challenge.

  He pulled her out of her seat, hefted her over his shoulder, and headed toward the front of the bus. Melody drove down a two-lane road by a park. Helo told her to pull over and open the doors. He took the woman and laid her on the grass, hoping she would be okay. Her jaw was already starting to swell.

  His phone rang, Corinth calling him back. “Talk to me,” he said as he got back on the bus. Melody closed the door and kept driving.

  “They are deviating from their routes,” Corinth said. “Best we can tell, it looks like their going toward I-70. The first couple are headed west, out of the city. The other two we’re tracking are about there.”

  “Any guesses why?” Helo said. “Avadan taking them somewhere?”

  “Don’t know,” he said. “You want me to send someone to pick you up?”

  “No,” Helo said. “I’ve got transpo. We’re heading up to 70 to get eyes on. I’ll get Sicarius Nox up there, too.”

  “Great,” Corinth said. “I’ll head there too. I’m close.”

  They hung up, and Helo dialed up Sparks to have his team reroute. Then he used the phone to guide Melody back to I-70. The westbound traffic on the freeway wasn’t as bad as in the stacked-up eastbound lane. Far ahead, he could spot the back end of a yellow bus. They drove ahead of the advancing desecration field, the world clear of the black carpet a nice change.

  Corinth called. “Helo,” he said, voice sober. “The first bus full of kids just went into the Missouri River. I . . . I think he’s planning on dumping them all in there.”

  Helo froze for a moment in disbelief. It was go time. “On it.” Just when he thought Avadan couldn’t sink any lower. Murdering children? A fire ignited in his heart.

  “Melody,” he said. “Step on it. We’ve got to get to the bridge right now.”

  Chapter 32

  The Bridge

  Melody gritted her teeth and floored it. The bus didn’t exactly leap forward, but the engine roared, and they picked up speed. Weaving in and out of traffic in a big yellow bus reminded Helo of standing on the deck of a boat. The entire cabin of the bus lurched back and forth with the sharp lane changes. Melody’s driving earned her a number of middle fingers and irritated honks.

  “Get up there,” Helo said, mostly to himself. He could just make out the bridge in the distance. Then a horrible idea occurred to him, but it was a way he could prevent more buses from going in. He was going to have to cause an accident. The idea of hurting someone to save busloads of kids stabbed him, but he might have to do it.

  They passed the bus they had been chasing, and there in the driver’s seat was a Dread, red aura blazing through the window. The kids seemed oblivious to the danger. The bridge rose steadily ahead of them, traffic slowing. Several cars had pulled off to the shoulder of the bridge, the drivers staring down at the water below. Then it struck him: he didn’t need to use another car to cause an accident. He could slow traffic to a standstill on his own.

  “I’m going to dump it, Melody,” he said, grabbing the wheel. She was belted in. He would have to hold on. With a firm yank, the bus turned so hard to the right it tipped over, slamming onto its side and skidding along the ground. He kept a death grip on the steering wheel as metal groaned and glass shrieked. The bus ground down the asphalt, blocking the center three lanes.

  But as their momentum had about run out, something rocked the bus so hard it slammed him onto his back. Helo grunted, and Melody screamed. He ignited his Toughness to keep the force from cracking his bones—he couldn’t afford a broken body.

  The bus settled again.

  “Helo!” Melody said, unfastening her seat belt. Out the cracked windshield he could see the bus they had passed. The Dread driver had rammed them, but not without paying a price. Fluid from the bus’s guts leaked onto the pavement, the left side of the engine compartment smashed. But it was still moving, crawling along, limping toward the hole the first bus had punched through the guardrail.

  Melody shattered the windshield with a Strength-powered kick.

  “You get the driver,” Helo said. “I’ll heal.”

  He Sped toward the bus, passing Melody, and jumped up on the back bumper. With a burst of Strength, he pulled the back door off, and Melody jumped inside. Elementary students wailed in pain and fear. Several squirmed in the middle aisle, trying to push themselves back up into their seats. Blood leaked from their noses, and bumps bloomed on their terrified faces.

  Melody made her way to the front, the Dread bus driver unbuckling and standing to face her. The gap in the destroyed bridge rail loomed large in front of them.

  Melody sent of sloppy column of Angel Fire that ranged around the Dread’s torso before fin
ding the heart. Dust and clothes rained to the ground. Melody jumped into the driver’s seat, killed the engine, and engaged the parking brake. The bus jerked to a stop five feet from the edge.

  A girl in the back seat wasn’t moving, face pale, and Helo poured Healing into her until her eyes snapped open. Melody worked her way back to him. They provided triage for the kids, healing a broken arm, a busted nose, and a sprained elbow.

  “Melody,” he said. “See if there’s anyone in the water we can help. I’ve got to contact the team.”

  She nodded, and he hopped off the bus and onto the asphalt. As he had hoped, traffic had backed up behind the accident. Sirens wailed in the distance. He peered over the bridge, Melody coming to his side. Part of the side of the bus stuck up above the water, a black backpack jammed in a window, waiting for the current to take it away. There was no sign of anyone in the water. Vexus swirled around the atrocity site, waiting to be collected. Avadan was the only one who could collect it anymore. Would he show up?

  The black desecration washed beneath them a few moments later and engulfed the bridge and the water, and when the desecration field touched the Vexus, it absorbed it. So that was it. The black desecration could capture the energy for Avadan. The torching effect drove normals to violence, and the desecration collected energy and sent it on to Avadan. Helo didn’t even want to think what it was all for. He dialed Sparks.

  “Sitrep!”

  “We’re stuck in traffic,” Sparks said. “There’s at least three buses ahead of us. We can see the first one pretty well, and it’s got a Sheid in it.”

  “You’ve got to take care of it,” Helo said. “Use a sanctified weapon.”

  “But if we touch the ground, we’re toast,” Sparks said.

  “Car hop.” A series of banging noises drowned Sparks out. Back down the road, a bus was mashing its way through the cars on a path for the bridge. “Gotta go.”

  He killed the call. People dove out of cars to get away from the marauding bus. The driver was another Sheid, its Vexus swirling around it as it plowed through traffic, the front of the bus a dented, smoking mess. The kids’ screaming rose above the crunching of metal and the shattering of glass as the bus shoved cars aside on its way to the bridge.

  Helo Sped forward and Strength jumped right at the windshield. In midair he switched to Toughness and Supermanned right into the Sheid. It exploded in a cloud of darkness, and Helo drilled the seat hard, breaking it and denting the metal behind it. He righted himself and brought the bus to a halt, killing the engine and engaging the parking brake.

  “Stay put!” he told the kids. More blood. More bruises. More broken bones. There wasn’t time, and he couldn’t get them off the bus in the middle of traffic. A quick look out the back window sent his heart into his throat. Another bus was powering down the path cleared of cars by the Sheid driver. It was headed right for him.

  He turned the key, but the engine just turned over and over. He stomped on the gas. Turned the key again. Banged the steering wheel. It was no use!

  “Get your heads down!” he yelled at the sea of bewildered faces staring back at him. Two seconds later the oncoming bus and its Ghostpacker driver rammed them from behind. The middle-school kids shrieked, and the bus whined, its tires howling against the pavement as the Ghostpacker’s bus pushed them inexorably toward the bridge and the other bus a scant five feet from the edge.

  Helo clenched his fists and charged down the aisle. At least three kids were unconscious. He’d help them later. This had to stop. With a Virtus-powered kick, he blasted the rear escape door off, then Strength jumped through the windshield of the bus behind them. The Ghostpacker groaned as Helo’s full weight plowed into his torso, knocking the breath out of him and snapping a few ribs. Helo ripped off the driver’s seat belt and threw him at the bus door so hard the door folded halfway in. Again he stopped the bus and killed the engine, securing the parking brake.

  He ordered the kids to stay put, then cleared the rest of the folding door with a glass-shattering kick. The driver fell onto the pavement writhing and holding his chest. He was neutralized. Another crunch sounded, this one back from the direction of the bridge.

  “Helo!” Melody yelled, her voice barely audible above the racket. He Sped back through the wreckage, but it wasn’t until he got to the bridge that he knew what was wrong. Melody pointed frantically to the eastbound bridge on the other side of the water. Another bus had hit the railing farther down the eastbound side, but it hadn’t made it all the way through the barrier. The concrete and metal rail was broken, but just the corner of the bus had penetrated it, one tire hanging out over the water. Another Sheid driver.

  Great.

  “Time to jump,” he told her.

  He got up on the rail, boosted his Strength, and went for it, sailing over the river below. The bridge girders made the jump tricky, and he ignited his Toughness as he landed awkwardly on the hood of a car and rolled off onto the road. He spun around in time to see a wide-eyed Melody sailing through the air, Strength landing on the rail, and rolling gracefully over the hood of a white Cadillac and onto her feet. Nice.

  He used his Speed to tear through traffic. Good Samaritans had surrounded the bus to see if they could help, a black man in a business suit yanking at the emergency door. It swung open, and the Sheid, dressed like a middle-aged woman in sweatpants and a T-shirt, kicked him square in the face, sending him to the ground hard. Everyone backed up in shock, and then the Sheid hopped down, turned, and started pushing the bus toward the river from behind, grinding it forward with its dark Strength.

  “No!” the assembled crowd yelled.

  Helo was almost there. He had to distract it and fast. He blasted it with Angel Fire, and it dropped the bus and turned. The Sheid shoved aside a woman who had been beating it with her purse, and Helo Hallowed the ground, but it jumped on top of the bus, heading toward the front. The bus wasn’t at the tipping point yet, but it slid bit by bit as the Sheid worked its way toward the front.

  Helo extinguished the hallow. “Get those kids out!” he told the onlookers.

  Then he leapt on top of the bus, the roof denting under his weight. The Sheid stood at the very front. As Helo approached, it crouched down and then leapt into the air like a rocket. Damn. It was aiming for the hood. A good hard landing and the bus would slip into the water. Helo Sped forward. Only one thing to do. A crazy thing.

  As the Sheid dropped out of the air like an anvil, Helo jumped at it, nicking it enough to send it off kilter, both of them heading down into the river. It fell about five feet from him, too far for him to try to destroy with a punch. The Sheid turned its palm toward him, its arm now a fiery tentacle. Helo blasted it with Angel Fire to throw it off.

  Then he hit the water. Hard. The Ash Angel body absorbed the initial impact, but then all of his feeling returned. His heart began to beat. The cold water shocked his skin. He sank. The river swirled murky brown around him, and he fought for the surface. He had to get out. The Sheid had all the advantage in the water. Helo shed his leather jacket and breached just before his lungs ran out of air. He gasped and bobbed in the relentless current of the river. The shore wasn’t far. Time to be a Marine and get this done.

  He thrashed his arms and legs for all he was worth but felt an intense burning in his ankle, and he howled in pain. He turned to see the middle-aged woman, surrounded by Vexus, fifteen feet behind him, effortlessly treading water. A Sheid tentacle had ensnared his ankle, and he yanked his leg to get free. The more he pulled, the more it felt like someone was holding a blowtorch to his foot. He knew what was next: a trip to the bottom. The Sheid sank slowly, its grin that of a crocodile ready to take its prey into the murk of the river and kill it. This was the end.

  That’s when Melody slammed into the water with perfect diving form, hands first, going right through the Sheid’s head. It exploded into dark mist, and she went under. He was free, but his ankle hurt like hell. Melody surfaced a moment later, hair plastered to her head.
/>   “Helo!”

  “I’m good,” he said, grimacing. “Let’s get to shore.”

  She swam over to him. “What’s wrong? Did it get you?”

  “My ankle,” he said. “I can manage.”

  Together they struggled for the shore, and the moment he pulled himself out of the water, the blessed numbness returned. The Sheid’s tentacle, however, had burned through the flesh of his lower leg, right down to the bone. His Achilles’ tendon was severed, his calf muscle knotted into a ball below the back of his knee.

  He kissed the side of Melody’s head through her damp hair. “Thank you. Thought I’d killed myself that time.”

  She grinned. “See, aren’t you glad you let me come along?”

  Time to see if his phone really was waterproof. He pulled it from his jeans pocket and dialed up Sparks. There was one more Sheid driver to worry about.

  “Yeah, we got it,” he said. “Shujaa gets the honors on this one. Andromeda and I are pretty fried. What’s next?”

  “Meet back at Rafael’s Goodwill Barn,” Helo said. “We’ve got to assess the damage. If you come across any other buses, stop them if you can.”

  He hung up. “Melody, help me walk.”

  She pulled him up, and they moved into the trees. He made a call to Corinth. “We need a ride.”

  Black desecration had covered the floor of Rafael’s Goodwill Barn, so they decided to find somewhere else to meet, somewhere with a second floor. Corinth searched real-estate listings until he found a new home for sale in a wooded, rich neighborhood. With a Strength-powered squeeze, Helo crushed the lockbox and retrieved the key, and in an hour the upper floor had become headquarters.

  Helo ordered Faramir to heal him so he could walk around without needing support, then both teams gathered around one of Corinth’s monitors to watch the depressing news flow in. Between both teams they had saved seven buses. The Old Masters had saved two more. The bad news: the Missouri River bridge wasn’t the only strike point. Dreads, Shedim, and Ghostpackers had driven buses from all over the city. Twelve buses had gone under, killing hundreds of school children.