Merciless

by Robin Parrish

  She was gone.

  "I do!" Daniel cried, as if hearing the words might bring her back. "I love you! Lisa, I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!!" he screamed. He kissed her, only the third time he had ever done so, trying to will her back to life with the act.

  He was a fool, and he deserved to die for it. He should have kissed her a hundred times. A million. He should have wrapped her body in his and held her, safe and whole. He should have told her every time he opened his mouth how he knew he would never have made it this far without her, how empty he felt when she wasn't around, how she made his life fuller and richer, how happy he was to know her and to love her.

  How life wasn't worth living without her.

  When the others returned, they found Devlin first, unconscious, bound, and crumpled in the corner of the living room. Then they saw the blood. Alex and Ethan rushed into the bedroom first and discovered Daniel sitting on the bed, rocking Lisa's bloodied body gently back and forth, leaning over her.

  Daniel barely took notice, but he heard their voices and Ethan's quick shout for help. He felt the jolt of panic from Alex's surprise. Hector came-too late of course-and touched Lisa's forehead. But she didn't stir.

  Daniel ignored the others and pushed Hector's hand away absently. His eyes were locked onto Lisa's cold face, his lips moving just barely, mumbling things under his breath-all the things that he should have said to her. And the more he said, the more came to him that he wanted to say, that he should have said ...

  He stayed there, immovable by anyone, for an eternity. With time gone, it might as well have been.

  Alex sat in a rocking chair in the tiny, dark living room, her gaze far away from this place. Tears rolled down her cheeks, one by one, even though she repeatedly tried to blink them back.

  How many had they lost now? It was more than twenty, she knew that much, but found it hard to take a complete count.

  The first soldiers to go down were the victims of the fire at the asylum in L.A. None of them had asked to be there, none of them realized they were to become cannon fodder in a war of ideologies, a war of heroes and villains. A war that was ultimately about power-who had it and who could get more of it.

  Then came Hannah. The arson victims had left Grant hollow inside, but losing Hannah had nearly cost him his soul. But he persevered. Then there was Morgan, who was more of a mentor to all of them than anyone had ever been. She died alone, in the hands of the Secretum, far away from her friends. Julie, the soul and conscience of the entire group, but most especially to Grant. Grant himself, fallen at Devlin's hands. And now Lisa.

  Wait, why did she include Grant? She didn't believe he was really dead.

  She didn't.

  No. Even now, after seeing death once again in such vivid real-life detail, up close ... she didn't accept that what happened to Grant was anything like what happened to Lisa. Alex's heart refused to entertain the notion, rebuffed any thoughts that led her down that path. The others could think what they wanted; Grant was alive. It was true in her heart, and that was all that mattered.

  In her periphery she saw Ethan pacing relentlessly back and forth in the tiny room. It was driving Alex insane. He dropped the magazine out of his pistol's grip, caught it with his other hand, and slammed it back in place. This he did again and again as he trod over his own footsteps, again and again.

  "What do we do now?" he asked, his words coming out rapidly. "Do we head for Jerusalem, try to free the rest of the Loci? They'll be almost there by now, right? But we still need Morgan's Ring, so what good would it do to take on Oblivion without finding that first?"

  Nora, like many of the others, was despondent. "Shut up, man."

  Ethan rounded on her, on all of them. "Look, I'm sorry about Lisa. Really, I am. But Oblivion has sent the world to Hell and he's getting ready to finish the job. We can't afford to just sit around and grieve-that's exactly what Devlin expects us to do."

  The words had no sooner left his lips than Daniel entered the room, and everyone stopped to look. His face was empty, his expression muddled, his arms hung limp at his sides as though he was drugged. Nora and Xue rose from their seats to offer them to him, but he shook his head without meeting anyone's eyes and turned away, situating himself on the floor in a corner at the far end of the room. He sat very intentionally opposite Devlin, who was awake, lying sideways and watching everything in calm silence behind his gag. His skin was pale, his circulation probably being dangerously cut off, but no one bothered to loosen his excessive bonds.

  Daniel stared at the ground just beyond his own feet, and made not a sound.

  "Devlin should be interrogated," Payton broke the silence. "It's the reason I brought him here."

  Alex thought of the pain Devlin had caused her when she was lying in that military barracks in Turkey, still under Oblivion's thrall and only reluctantly being allowed to rest. He'd actually reveled in adding to her anguish, lost to the power he held over her. But then, he'd also taken the time to dress her wounds, personally.

  He didn't have to do that.

  It didn't matter. Devlin was evil incarnate. Look at what he'd done to Grant.

  Her thoughts returned to the moment, and she faced Payton.

  "You brought him here," she said to Payton, before she could stop herself. "And look how well that turned out."

  "Don't you dare blame me for what happened to the girl," Payton seethed. "I couldn't have known-"

  "Because you never bother to, Payton!" Alex said, jumping to her feet, a newfound fire blazing in her chest. She needed to lash out at someone right now, and it might as well be Payton with his lone-gun lunacy. "If you weren't always going off on your own and doing things without telling the rest of us-"

  "At least I'm not sitting around waiting to be told what to do by a dead man."

  Grant.

  Alex stood toe-to-toe with Payton, and she was ready to knock his bald head off, when a quiet voice broke the tension.

  "I want to talk to Devlin," said Daniel. His voice was numb and raspy, protruding from a throat that was raw.

  Everyone stared in silence as Daniel crossed the short distance between himself and the silver-haired Keeper of the Secretum.

  "This can't be a good idea," said Alex, crossing her arms over her chest, her argument with Payton all but forgotten. "We should just lock him in a basement somewhere and throw away the key."

  She empathically felt her way around the room, hoping for support from anyone who might agree that Daniel was about to embark down a very dark path he might never return from. Hector remained perfectly still. He hadn't yet made a move to ease the minor injuries Daniel had incurred during his fight with Devlin. He seemed to know Daniel wanted the pain. Nora, sitting on the couch across from her, didn't meet Alex's eyes. Instead, the woman locked her gaze on Devlin, hatred and rage boiling from her.

  Sergeant Tucker stood guard at the front window, gun in hand and ready to spring into action as the need arose. He didn't seem to be paying attention to the events unfolding inside the house. Xue was seated in an armchair on the outer edge of the room, deferentially holding her tongue about affairs she wasn't intimately familiar with. Mrs. Edeson sat beside Nora on the couch, an arm around her son Ryan. She watched the discourse in the room with tremendous interest, though she said nothing to the others. Instead, she continued to dote over Ryan, whispering soothing words to him in tones only the two of them could discern. Ryan, healed after his ordeal with Oblivion, looked about the small room, absorbing every detail, but Alex read his emotional state as blissfully ignorant.

  Ethan was Alex's last hope at an ally. He'd holstered his gun and stood at Alex's right, his arms folded. But aside from mild twinges of grief over Lisa, he was giving off his usual exhilaration and impatience, which she chalked up to thoughts of using his superpowered muscles to beat the living daylights out of Devlin. He would be of no help to her either.

  "I don't know, Alex," Daniel argued, turning to face her with hardened features. "This man and the group he re
presents have manipulated and affected the outcome of the lives of every person in this room, either directly or indirectly. I think we're long overdue for finding out why, don't you?"

  Payton helped Daniel get Devlin to his feet, and then guide him, hopping, to a small, armless chair. The two men applied extra bindings to hold him to the chair and keep him from wiggling to his feet. Devlin's calculating eyes surveyed the room, moving from one person to the next.

  "This is ludicrous," Alex said, walking behind the two of them, watching. "Anything he tells us will be a lie."

  Payton tore the cloth around Devlin's mouth in half and yanked it free. Spitting out the few threads that were lodged in his mouth, Devlin looked at Alex and spoke in an American accent. "That's not true, my dear. If Grant were still here, he could vouch for the fact that I never once lied to him."

  "Fine," Daniel began. "Then tell us everything. The Secretum, Oblivion, all of it."

  "Ah, I'm sorry, you misunderstand," Devlin replied. "I won't lie to you, but I do, however, refuse to cooperate with your inquiries."

  "Oh yes you will!" Nora fought her way to her feet with Hector's help. Her knees wobbled, her stance precarious. "You're gonna tell us everything, or I'll rip through your brain and take it from you, one synapse at a time."

  "I have nothing to lose, my dear," Devlin replied, unmoved. "The dark and terrible storm has come, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it now."

  "Then by your own logic," Payton observed, "there is nothing to be lost from answering our questions. You once told me, long ago, that only a fool says one thing and does another."

  Devlin almost smiled. "It is a terrible thing to hear your own words repeated back to you by your former protege." He seemed to mentally shrug and said, "Very well, then."

  "I still don't trust anything he says," Alex said.

  "There is no rationale for pretense or subterfuge on my part," Devlin explained. "Payton is quite correct. There really is no reason not to tell you everything now. You might as well know the truth, before the end. Ask me your questions; if you even suspect me of lying, Payton here can run me through."

  "I think it's a given he'll be doing that either way," Nora said with satisfaction.

  "It no longer matters," Devlin replied, smiling grimly at the entire group. He faced them from the far side of the room where he had been perched. His smug expression and polite demeanor was enough to generate hatred from all of them, even the few who knew next to nothing about him.

  Ethan began pacing again. Alex remained standing, while Daniel returned to his seat, the black, murderous glint in his eyes refusing to fade. Payton hovered over his old mentor, looking down on him with dark satisfaction. Everyone elseHector, Nora, Tucker, Xue, Mrs. Edeson, and her son Ryanwatched with rapt attention.

  "What happened to Grant?" Alex asked. "And what is Oblivion?"

  "As I have told you again and again since this began, Grant is dead. He has been replaced by Oblivion-death's avatar on the physical plane."

  "'Death's avatar'?" Nora repeated. "You mean Grant's turned into the Grim Reaper?"

  Devlin chuckled at this.

  "Is he possessed by Lucifer?" asked Payton, glaring.

  Alex wasn't entirely surprised that this question had been spoken aloud; it was a possibility that had occurred to her long ago as well. But she was surprised to hear it asked by Payton.

  "No." Devlin shook his head, smiling again in amusement.

  "Then what?" Daniel screamed, his face scarlet. "Stop playing games and just tell us! WHAT IS OBLIVION!?"

  Devlin let out a slow breath. "He is the Angel of Death given human form and flesh."

  "The Angel of Death," Daniel repeated, disbelieving. "As in the Angel of Death who killed the firstborn sons of Egypt-the last of the ten plagues prophesied by Moses? If you believe in that sort of thing."

  "One and the same," Devlin replied. "And I do believe in that sort of thing."

  Silence hung thick in the room as everyone processed Devlin's admission. Only Ryan was blissfully oblivious to what had just been revealed.

  "Why?" Payton asked.

  "Why what?"

  "Why summon the Angel of Death and give it a human form?"

  "To answer that question, I must explain to you who we really are-the Secretum of Six." Devlin watched the others, thoughtful for a moment. "How much do you know about the dawn of time?"

  "You mean, like, the Big Bang?" Ethan replied.

  Devlin rolled his eyes. "Have you never read the book of Genesis?"

  "Sure," Alex said. "My mom used to read Bible stories to me as a kid."

  "But you can't take that `on the first day, on the second day' stuff literally," Ethan added.

  Devlin tsk-ed. "You really are laughably naive, all of you. To have seen and done all that you have, and still not know the truth? Honestly ... Have you never studied the ancient texts contained within Genesis? Examined them, scientifically, for the historical records held within?"

  When no one answered, he continued.

  "The Creation account in the book of Genesis tells us that when Adam and Eve brought two sons into the world, one of them murdered the other in a fit of jealousy. I am of course referring to Cain, the first murderer. As we all know, it was a downward spiral for mankind from that point forward: theft, rape, defilement, debauchery ... Any depraved notion human beings could think of, they did. It became so horrendous that the Maker decided to wipe clean the slate with a Flood so terrible it would cover all the earth."

  "Noah's Ark," Ethan interrupted. "You're telling us this is somehow connected to Noah's Ark?"

  "Indeed. The Flood was a brutal, violent act of mass murder by the Creator, expunging mankind from all that He had made. That is, all but a handful of chosen survivors, who were descended from Adam's third son, Seth. Following this line of reasoning, every person alive today traces his or her origin to the line of Seth."

  Devlin paused so long that Alex finally said, "So what?"

  "So ... what if I told you that the children of Seth were not the only people to have survived the Flood? Abel, the second son of Adam, was killed by Cain before he could bear any children. But Cain ... Genesis chapter four states that Cain found a wife; where she came from is a mystery that did not survive historical accounts, but Cain and his unnamed wife bore a son, called Enoch. Enoch bore a son named Irad, Irad bore Mehujael, Mehujael bore Methushael, and Methushael bore Lamech. Curiously, the text provides the names of these first descendants, but does not provide any details about who they were, how long they lived, or the lives they led. Instead, it skips on to the next man in Cain's line and provides more detailed information about him. Why? Could it be because the writer of Genesis-commonly held to be Moses-was unaware of what became of Cain and his first descendants?

  "What the Bible does not record is that somewhere along the line, these men-Cain and his five firstborn descendantsdiscovered a cavern deep underground. You know the cavern I speak of; many of you have been there. They built a city there, far below the original site of the Garden of Eden, the birthplace of mankind. The cavern was impossibly huge in size, yet completely sealed off from the earth above, and flowing with water and geothermal heat ... It was as if it had been set aside just for Cain and his children to inhabit. At the bottommost point of this multilevel cavern, they found a unique chamber they called the Hollow, which was inscribed with a colossal six-pointed symbol. The Secretum would later adopt this powerful symbol as its insignia; they named it `Cain's Lament."'

  Devlin paused to allow this to sink in.

  "You're saying," Daniel said slowly, "that you and your people-the Secretum-are the descendants of Cain?"

  Devlin nodded, then continued his story. "Genesis chapter four, verse seven, tells of a profoundly significant moment in the life of our father Cain. Just after his brother has been honored and he has been shamed, God tells Cain that sin waits like a hungry lion to devour him, but he must overcome it. Master it. He ... must master ... sin." Devlin repeate
d with great emphasis.

  "After Cain murdered his brother and was sent away as an outcast, he reflected on these words, and came to regard them as a personal charge, a singular purpose that could only have been assigned to him. At last understanding the magnitude of what he'd done in taking his brother's life, Cain couldn't reconcile himself with the fact that God has spared his. Not only was his life spared, but God promised vengeance `seven times over' upon anyone who killed Cain. Why such drastic measures to ensure Cain's survival? Cain made the connection between these two divine statements quickly: He'd been spared for a very special task. He alone would find a way to master sin. It was his destiny.

  "The Bible records that in those times, people lived a great deal longer than we live now, aging up to one thousand years old, even older. Yet the Good Book does not reveal how long Cain lived before his death. We, his children, know that he lived a very long time, long enough to still be alive when many of the very same descendants I listed a moment ago were born, and grew to be men, and had children and descendants of their own. Together with this group of his five most direct firstborn sons, Cain forged his own society. A secret culture that would live hidden beneath the world in the place that had been prepared, to preserve them against the coming Flood, so that they could carry out the great task the Maker had set before Cain: to master sin."

  "You really believe all this?" Daniel said, leaning forward in his chair. "That Cain's descendants have been alive all this time, hidden away where no one knew about you ... so that you could attempt a preordained task to `master sin'?"

  Devlin eyed him knowingly. "Who better than the first murderer to find a way to undo the wickedness inherent in man's heart?"

  "So how does that get you here, to all of this pain and devastation?" Daniel's expression turned dark again, and he settled back into his chair.

  "There were six of them, including Cain himself," Devlin continued, "and the Secretum of Six is named in their honor. We are more than an organization, more than a religion, more than a nation. We are a complete, self-sufficient society that has grown and flourished and evolved independent of the rest of the world.