99 Gods: Odysseia

by Randall Farmer

  Betrayer shoved Persona through a doorway into her ‘main laboratory’, the one with almost fifty million dollars of stolen real laboratory equipment Betrayer used as props. She also had quite a few functional enchantments here, including several duplicates of Inventor and Engineer’s private stock. Betrayer had all nine of Inventor and Engineer’s labs bugged. Her own unique enchantments she kept in the mock storeroom that was her true lair.

  The chrome steel door slid shut behind them with a sci-fi swish. “Now, homie, what I want from you is a projection.”

  “What?” Persona said, after stumbling to a stop. “Why?” Finally out of Betrayer’s grasp, Persona attempted to flee, only to find that she couldn’t open the doors nor pass through, after changing her shape, the air ducts, sink drains or other small openings in the lab.

  Betrayer laughed at Persona’s panicky exertions. “This is for me to know and for the blonde ditz to figure out only after someone tells her.” She had found that she could say the most inane comments and make them believable by speaking with a deep voice and bringing her eyebrows close together. Persona looked like she was about to shit herself.

  Betrayer transported her projection over to Persona and put her hand on the shape-altering God’s shoulder. “So, are we going to do this the nice way or are we going to do this the nasty way?”

  “I’m not giving you anything, madwoman!”

  “We shall see,” Betrayer said, rubbing her hands and chortling. “We shall seeeee.” A dozen metal bolts carved from depleted uranium shells, each a cylinder an inch in width and three long, flew from a cabinet and attached themselves to Persona’s body. Betrayer lifted Persona and put her on an enchanted torture wheel, spread-eagled, the enchantments on the bolts interacting with the wheel’s enchantment to hold Persona in place. “I’ll just have to torture this out of you.”

  “You can’t torture a projection out of a person,” Persona said. “What nonsense is…” Persona interrupted herself with a scream.

  “You’re right about a projection,” Betrayer said. “But I can torture an extra body out of you, given your talents, and it’ll do me almost as much good as a projection will. Heh heh heh heh.” Persona didn’t answer, lost in her screaming.

  With Betrayer’s equipment, stolen from Engineer, she could torture an extra body out of Persona in less than ten seconds. Betrayer, however, had other, more important, games to play. The bolts on Persona’s head did information extraction and other, more intrusive mental games, and those took time to work. So, while Persona screamed in agony, or didn’t, as several minutes through the half hour long process Persona did find a way to master her pain responses, Betrayer learned everything Persona knew about Lorenzi, Satan, Reed, Nessa, Ken, Dave, Elorie, Uffie, Tracy, Diana, Christine Binglehauser and the rest of Abe’s Indigo strike team. In return, Betrayer also implanted a few of her own tricks in Persona’s head.

  The information Betrayer took included the entirety of Satan’s work on the history of the Ecumenist order as well as what she and Lorenzi had put together about the Watchers. The information was crucial; it made sense – finally – of all the mysteries she had picked up in the Place of Time about the Watchers, their activities and their ‘prophets’, as well as the code-word-heavy unintelligible intercepted phone conversations between the Telepaths and Lorenzi, including all the nasty killer secrets Elorie and Dave had discovered, now nicely confirmed by Lorenzi.

  Gods indeed.

  Betrayer remembered Orlando’s work on the 99 Gods makeup and the innards of Lorenzi-style magic, back from her Atlanta days and Orlando’s old days as Singularity. Yes, it made sense that some earlier Host of God’s Angels had made the Watchers, but once you got past the word ‘God’ the similarities ended. The Watchers hadn’t been given to the peoples of the Earth, they had been given to one measly tribe of humans, a tribe that had become the long-vanished Harappan civilization along the Indus River and as far as Betrayer could tell, that group of nothings hadn’t contributed a damn thing to the overall development of modern civilization. The Watchers physical makeup mirrored Lorenzi’s magic, clouds of impossible-in-this-universe tiny lifeforms. They were some form of collective organism, which led to the idea that the Watcher’s enchantments, their gamme, had bits of their collective inside them.

  Not even one of the idiots had asked the obvious question ‘why collective organisms?’ Betrayer thought the question important, though she didn’t have any good answers. This would be perfect to get January and Knot to investigate, if she could ever convince them to deal with her on a regular basis. The only other piece of abnormal crap that involved the word ‘collective’ were the dolphins and their collective group minds. She couldn’t see any connection between the one and the other.

  The Watcher’s directive had been to nurture the primitive Harappan civilization, nothing at all like the ‘stand in judgment over modern civilization’ directive of the 99 Gods. Worse, the Ecumenists’ records also talked of two other groups of divine beings, the Archangels and the Ha-qodeshim. All Betrayer knew about Archangels was that they bossed around Angels. The Ecumenists believed they were a separate order of being, with different abilities and tricks. They rarely appeared on Earth, but when they did, watch out! Which made sense, given the amount of trouble the Indigo’s one apprentice Archangel had caused.

  The Ecumenists only knew of the Ha-qodeshim by rumors of their monstrous nature. They were ancient and divine, and the Ecumenists thought them demons from Hell. The damned Watchers had confirmed that the Ha-qodeshim still existed, and were Gods as well, and not, thank God Almighty, from Hell. The other question she had was whether the Ha-qodeshim were the ‘Twin Gods’ behind the Shamans (according to Knot, as passed along to Diana, and confirmed by Satan) or some other group.

  Betrayer had only one response to all these other groups, the Archangels, the ‘Ha-qodeshim’, the Watchers and the Twin Gods: “Fuck.” It meant that there was far more going on here than met the eye. Far more than Betrayer suspected she would ever learn.

  Persona’s information also gave Betrayer a much better feel for the individual strengths and weaknesses of Nessa and Ken’s people. Worse, if Persona had read the information in Satan’s brain correctly, the Indigo were only a tiny fraction of others that had been active over the past half millennium; Satan termed them collectively the Cabbalists. These Cabbalists instinctively organized and recognized each other with ease (and often fought each other with similar ease), but their abilities, if one could even call them abilities, were subtle and internal. In the long term they couldn’t be ignored, but as far as anything short term was concerned, they were weak, even when compared to Supported, and didn’t matter much.

  Which couldn’t be said about Dave and Elorie’s tricks. Persona knew far more about the two of them than Betrayer, even more than the somewhat ditzy shape-shifting God knew she knew. As Betrayer earlier surmised, those two had the potential to become major players, with the proper training, giving Nessa’s group far more power than Betrayer had realized. Thus, she could throw them into riskier situations and thus up her plan’s chance of success.

  “Perfect, perfect,” Betrayer said, radiating insane hubris as best she could fake. Nothing would succeed if Persona realized Betrayer, underneath her madwoman shell, remained sane and functional. “My very own Persona.” She had squeezed a duplicate Persona body out of the God just before she had tossed the original off the torture wheel. “You, the original, are now free to go.”

  “Fuck you,” both Personas said.

  “In that case, begone!” Betrayer said. A willpower wisp grabbed the original Persona and raced her outside Betrayer’s lair and away, hurtling her back to Orlando’s camp along the same suborbital path. Persona could break free of it at any time, not that Betrayer cared.

  “So,” Betrayer said, to the second Persona. “You still sane after being separated? Functional?” She gave the second Persona a willpower poke.

  Persona jumped. “Yes, I think. This…”
Her voice trailed off. “My head hurts.”

  “You’ll get used to the pain,” Betrayer said, with a wild cackle. “You’re now my number one prisoner, so you get my number one cell.” Which was sturdy enough to hold half a Persona. Not that it took much.

  “What have you done to me? To my mind?” Persona said. “Dammit, the Telepaths aren’t going to trust me anymore, and they need to!”

  “Oh, yur breakin’ my achin’ heart,” Betrayer said, with a Country Music voice. Besides, she had learned Dubuque had picked up from Verona a battle trick set up to kill mortals with a Persona inside. Betrayer couldn’t risk any such thing, especially if said person turned out to be Nessa.

  Nessa and Ken absolutely had to distrust Persona. Bwah hah hah indeed.

  Betrayer dragged the second Persona off and deposited her in the cell.

  “What’s with the books?” second Persona said.

  “Reading material. Wouldn’t want your pathetic mind to atrophy,” Betrayer said, and slammed the cell door. There. With any luck, Persona would actually read the books and learn something beyond the celebrity doo-gooder shit you picked up once you progressed beyond waiting tables in Hollywood.

  Second Persona was bait. Anything else? Gravy.

  Alt led his group of Telepaths back to their living quarters, exhaustion written all over his face. Betrayer, as Leo, had done nothing more today than stand guard, one of the more pointless exercises on the planet. Who did she guard Alt’s Telepaths from, anyway? Dubuque’s people didn’t trust Alt’s bodyguards for anything more than last ditch bodyguarding, so Leo watched from the doorway outside of the workroom Dubuque had assigned Alt’s Telepaths. She couldn’t guard them from Dubuque’s people – her Leo body was so drenched in Dubuque anti-traitor magic that she would have to work hard to act when the time for action arrived.

  What got to her most were the hymns Dubuque’s Supported sang, condemning the evil of Orlando, the Kid God, and the free Telepaths. ‘God, hear Dubuque’s call and smite our enemies down’ the chorus of one went. Millions of Dubuque’s worshippers echoed the thought. Betrayer wanted to scream and attack; since she couldn’t, she just felt sick. ‘Trample their bones as they trample our minds...’

  “Nicole and I have made some progress on the Paladin question,” Alt said.

  “Good job,” Betrayer said, wrenching her focus back on the present. She had worked her ass off to arrange things, but they could now talk freely in their living quarters without alerting Dubuque and his goons. “Tell me everything.” No cackling here. This audience wouldn’t buy it. Under Alt’s leadership, she had them collaborating in their own doom these days.

  Alt sat in a corner, away from the others. Betrayer sat down beside him. This was the men’s room, and cots surrounded them, piled with rumpled bedding and the detritus of various entertainments. On the other side of the room, the rest of the men and Mary played poker using Dubuque souveniers as chips. “We picked it up today from The Edward when Dubuque came down to bother us today,” Alt said. The Edward was one of Dubuque’s top Grade 1 Supported. The Telepaths despised him and treated him like shit, at least whenever they could get away with doing so.

  “Merely a Dubuque projection,” Betrayer said. Although her real body had been on automatic, she had picked up from Dubuque enough to know that the reason he was upset was something he had picked up through the 99 Gods’ joint mission. She suspected Lorenzi’s work with the Watchers triggered his divine angst.

  “Whatever. Are we still safe?” Dubuque had thought the Telepaths were behind the disturbance, so that was a legit question.

  “Yes,” Betrayer said. “His fears were groundless.” Alt shook his head. He knew they were getting close to one of the major break points in Betrayer’s plans.

  “They won’t be, soon,” Alt said. “Since you’re about to do something big, won’t what you’re doing echo through us and reveal everything?”

  “No, because I’m not going to be doing anything personally.” Betrayer lowered her voice. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be danger. Dubuque will end up stronger than before.”

  Nicole sat down beside the two of them. “So you’re doing something that’s going to make Dubuque stronger? How the fuck does that help, Betrayer?”

  Betrayer sighed a thick Caribbean sigh and didn’t answer.

  “Dubuque will be stronger in person, but the City of God will be weaker,” Alt said. “Unfortunately, we can’t afford to know what Betrayer’s trick is ahead of time, Nicole. There’s too much of a chance Dubuque would miraculously learn about the trick.” Always a risk, given this game.

  Betrayer nodded.

  “So tell me about what you’ve found out about the Paladins,” Betrayer said.

  “Despite Lodz’s advances, they still have a killer flaw: fragility,” Alt said. “They’ve got all the offensive power you feared as well as the automatic improvement trick, but Lodz still can’t keep his soul-straining inhabited enchantments from falling apart in melee situations. Dubuque thinks he has a solution for the problem, but he’s sitting on it.”

  “Good,” Betrayer said. That meant they wouldn’t be seeing Paladins in the next fight, thank God Almighty.

  “This is Dubuque’s ‘hidden leverage’ again,” Nicole said. “He’s putting an insane amount of his personal willpower into keeping this hidden.”

  “Have you gotten anywhere on it, boss?” Alt said. “We haven’t.”

  Betrayer shrugged. “Nothing useful, but I’ve picked up that this is something he’s cooked up with the Host.”

  “So this won’t be something evil, then, like Lodz’s crap?” Nicole asked.

  “Not directly.”

  “This trick has my ghosts scared. That isn’t common, you know.” Betrayer nodded. Nicole’s ghosts didn’t have much to fear, just a lot of things to keep them angry. This didn’t bode well.

  Nicole rubbed her eyes, fighting sleep, and leaned up against Betrayer’s Leo body. The conversation lulled.

  “So, can you tell me what we’re doing isn’t evil?” Alt said, staring at Betrayer, about three minutes later. “Sometimes our actions get to me.”

  “What are you worried about?”

  “What we’re doing to help the City of God. For instance, I found another forty Canadian politicians today for Dubuque, all of whom can be persuaded to join the City of God,” Alt said. “I think the last independent governments in North America are going to be toast by the end of next week, at the latest. A lot of this is our fault.”

  “How about the World Peace Faction?” Betrayer said. “This does tie into your question.”

  Alt and Nicole shrugged. Betrayer nudged Dr. Blackburn and had him come over from the poker game and sit at Nicole’s right. He was their expert on the City of God’s diplomacy. “World Peace is still negotiating their entry into the City of God,” Dr. Blackburn said, after he sat. “Yesterday, Stanley” Dubuque’s Secretary of State in the City of God “brought in a low-end Practical God named Musician to have the Telepaths verify he was telling the truth when he surrendered. I chatted with him afterwards and learned that the World Peace Faction’s leaders have cut loose their lower-end God supporters and told them they’re on their own, which I take to mean that the World Peace leadership has agreed among themselves to surrender soon. Musician signed a Divine Compact surrender contract right in front of us. What’s going on with the contract business, anyway? Why is Dubuque using something our side developed?”

  “Dubuque’s primarily an acquirer, not a developer, and he’s got a good nose for useful acquisitions,” Betrayer said. “He stuck with the Divine Compact tech because the City of God is growing too fast to be held together any other way. Which also answers Alt’s question about whether what we’re doing is evil or not: by helping Dubuque bring Gods and others into the City of God so quickly, we’re forcing him to continue using the Divine Compact and keeping him from acquiring any better alternatives.”

  “All of which speeds us closer to the Armagedd
on War we can all see coming, between the City of God and the Tradition Gods. How does what we’re doing help?” Dr. Blackburn asked. They all knew about the Armageddon War.

  “You know I can’t tell you that,” Betrayer said.

  Dr. Blackburn passed along a bag of chips and Nicole opened up another pizza; the Telepaths had heisted six pizzas on the way here, the sort of petty rule-breaking Dubuque suffered them.

  “What Betrayer’s working on right now will stop the Armageddon War,” Alt said. Seeing Dr. Blackburn’s shrug, Alt explained. “It’s something I picked up on while talking to Future.”

  “Not quite. Her tricks won’t stop that horrible war, not at all,” Nicole said. She crossed her hands and pouted. Telepaths and their damned hunches. This wasn’t anything her ghosts could know about, Betrayer hoped.

  “You’re both right,” Betrayer said. “The coming break point I’m working on lengthens the Armageddon War. Instead of killing off humanity in a week, the war does so over a year or two. There’s also a good chance my plans will delay the start of the Armageddon War some more, but this is less of a certainty.”

  “Your current plan also stops the war if your current trick gives you enough time to set up the rest of your plan and if all your plans work,” Alt said. Betrayer nodded, not trying to think about all those big ‘ifs’.

  “Hush up, guys. Verona’s here,” Nicole said, nibbling on another piece of pizza. No beer, of course. That wouldn’t be moral in Dubuque’s house of worship. “As a projection, in the Blue Room.”

  “Let’s eavesdrop,” Betrayer said.

  Shawn Kazmirski’s mind in Chattanooga had given Betrayer the information she needed to bug all the important meeting rooms in Dubuque’s lair with willpower tricks piggybacking on Dubuque’s own internal willpower-based spy system. All the places they couldn’t normally get to were now open. Of course, this produced too much information, but that’s where the Telepaths and their hunches came into play, as well as Betrayer’s many mental tracks. This also solved the Telepath lassitude problem by forcing them to go through the stored records, afterwards.