“It’s not your fault,” Psymon said.
“I think some of it is.”
“Psymon says it’s not your fault.”
“Well, okay then.”
“Good job showing the Normies what we can see,” I said. “They’re going to be trying to figure that one out for a long time to come.”
“You’re welcome. That was the hardest, and biggest, trick I’ve ever done. I’m exhausted. The Tylenol isn’t touching my headache. I should have gotten some morphine from the medics before they left. But, there’s this.” Psymon handed me a steaming drink. “Rest now. It’s a hot cocoa day all the way to Brooklyn. Then, I suppose, the shit will hit the ceiling fan.”
Hot cocoa days. “Psymon, reading people’s minds is rude.”
“Sorry. Can’t really help it. The radio is always on.”
“So you knew Anguloora’s mission was different from mine, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that. To get that case he had to have Chronos out of the way. It suits the Choir’s objectives, and yours, to get Merlin and the demon together.”
“You should have told me what was really going on. Victor and Anguloora should have trusted me. And Anguloora didn’t have to run through fire. I could have gotten this thing easily if he — ”
“He didn’t plan to run through fire. It was a surprise. I guess a thing like that always is.”
“You should have told me.”
“No,” he said. “Mind reading is rude. You just said so. Besides, every military operation is a secret to somebody. The generals need to know. The rest of us are left and right hands with no idea what the other is doing.”
“You knew.”
He leaned forward. Over raised eyebrows he asked conspiratorially, “Can you keep a secret?”
“Yes, of course. That’s my point.”
“I can keep a secret, too.” He sat back and drank his hot chocolate.
“Why keep me in the dark?”
He turned his head to look at me and said nothing. However, just for a moment, his eyes flicked to my horns.
“Oh, my God!”
Psymon nodded. “You’re getting better at the body language thing.”
“Victor’s not sure I can be trusted?”
Psymon shook his head. “Don’t go too far. It’s more subtle than that. He trusted you with a team to go on this mission — ”
“After Merlin blackmailed him into it.”
“Possibly.”
“So you’re saying he trusts me, but not completely.”
Psymon looked to the case between my feet. “Not with that. It’s too important to trust to any one person.”
“He trusted Anguloora.”
“No, he didn’t. Not even with that case. Not completely. Victor takes operational security very seriously.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because, Iowa, I don’t know what’s in that case.”
“What? How is that possible?”
“Anguloora didn’t know, so I don’t know. Victor only told him it’s the key to stopping a demon invasion cold. That’s all.”
I drank my cocoa and thought about Victor and Minnie and Devin Anguloora. Minneapolis and Anguloora had paid a high price for their trust in Victor’s leadership of the Choir Invisible. Besides hemorrhoids from sitting on his ball chair all day in C&C, how much had the billionaire really sacrificed? It seemed to me Victor Fuentes owed the cause more than a heavy conscience.
“Careful, Iowa. Trains of thought like that can lead to treacherous waters.”
“You mean treachery. Victor worries I’ll turn traitor like my father, as if my genes are destiny.”
“I don’t doubt your commitment to the Choir Invisible,” Psymon said. “But you really don’t care much for the conductor of the Choir right now. Never let the boss know how you really feel about him. Trust me, before I got into show business, I worked retail.”
“Funny.”
“If it helps, the boss never says how he really feels about you, either.”
“Humans,” I said. “That’s the problem.”
“What you just said might be the problem,” Psymon said. “Be careful of us and them thinking. Take it from a mind reader, there is very little us and them except within the confines of the mind.”
I was pissed off at Victor and Anguloora and Chronos and Merlin. Then I was angry with Psymon. Minnie was still blown apart and dead. Wilmington was in the back recovering with the aid of the amulet from the Tree of Life.
I was mad at me, too.
Let’s call, “There’s no us and them,” Lesson 185. But it sure feels like there’s an us and them.
By the time I finished my cocoa it wasn’t hot anymore. I’d figured something else out, too. Psymon was almost asleep when I nudged him with my elbow. Then I nudged him harder.
“Ow!”
“Psymon?”
“Yes?”
“Your daughter is a much better mind reader than you, isn’t she?”
“Fawn is very gifted, yes. Between me and her mother’s contributions, you might say genes are destiny.”
“Don’t be bitchy, Psymon. Victor doesn’t want her anywhere near him, does he?”
“He’s a General, Iowa. Nobody likes mind readers, especially Generals.”
“Victor has a lot to hide, doesn’t he?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“You mean you won’t say. How’s your headache?”
“Still really bad.”
“Good.”
Psymon gave me a weak smile and pretended to go back to sleep.
I whispered in his ear, “You’re right, you know. Nobody likes mind readers.”
“We know. We know. Sometimes, to feel better about myself, I pretend to be a famous comedian everyone loves and I sign autographs. Now let me get some sleep, please.”
But that was not to be. We were somewhere over Illinois when Malta emerged from the cockpit. “Iowa, I have news from New York.”
“What is it?”
“Maybe first we should talk where the others can’t — ”
The plane was already descending quickly, headed for a quick landing.
Psymon jolted up from his seat. “Jesus! No!” The psychic stared at Malta in terror. “My little girl!”
26
Psymon collapsed in tears. The rest of the team stood and stared.
“Malta,” I said. “Report. Now.”
“We got an alert over the radio. At 3:20 a.m., New York time, the demons opened a rift beneath the Keep. The Ra poured through and the Choir was taken by surprise. The Keep has fallen and it’s believed there are no survivors. We’re too late.”
Damn you, Merlin, you jumped the fence.
Paul and Polly held each other and began to chant but at least they did so quietly. The others looked anguished or angry. I looked to Manny first because I didn’t know what to say or do.
Malta solved that problem for me. “We have new orders. The pilot has new coordinates and we’re being diverted to Bloomington.”
“Where?”
“Bloomington, Illinois,” Malta said. “It’s next to Normal.”
I wished I was next to Normal, oblivious to the unfolding Armageddon.
“We’ll be landing in a few minutes. Buckle up. We’re getting on the ground fast.”
“If there are no survivors, who is giving us orders now?” I asked.
“They didn’t say. The alert came from the Pentagon.”
My first thought was of my mother. The debacle in Medicament had ended with Mama coming to the Keep to be the Choir’s pharmacist. She was supposed to be safe there and now she was almost certainly dead. And I hadn’t even said goodbye.
I would have fallen down and started screaming then, too, but there’s this handy thing called denial. I could not believe that my mother was dead. My father, the traitor to the Choir, was a highly placed and respected member of the Ra. Perhaps he would have stepped in to make sure Mama live
d. With so many singers in the Choir and a small army of Magicals around, it seemed impossible that everyone could have been killed. Instead of mourning them, I focused my fury on Merlin. If everyone in the Keep was dead at the hands of a demon invasion, surely it was because Merlin decided not to wait for my return with the prisoner.
The old wizard had told me not to take too long. He’d said he’d waited long enough. He’d waited centuries so I thought a few days more wouldn’t make him snap. Maybe the last few days is precisely what pushed him over to becoming a full-blown traitor.
Psymon reached for his cell phone first but Malta shook her head. “Radio silence. No more communication unless it’s with the tower at Central Illinois Airport. We’re handing over Chronos.”
“Do we have to hand him over alive?” Manny asked.
“We should just open the door and drop him,” Austin suggested.
Wilmington wept. “I can’t believe I missed it. I was supposed to protect Victor. I missed my moment!”
“You protected us, Wil, and I’m glad you’re here,” I said.
I’ve always been afraid of speaking in public, but I was growing more confident with each slaying and carjacking. Even Spider looked to me with an expectant gaze from his place guarding Pandora’s box. They needed a leader now, not a crier. I vowed I would cry long and hard, but later.
“Okay, everybody, sit down and fasten your seat belts. We’ve got bigger things to worry about than the demon in the box. We’ve lost a lot of friends. We’ll hand Chronos over to the military and I’ll see about redeployment.”
They all looked teary but they followed orders. They sat and belted themselves in as our ears popped.
Before Malta disappeared back into the cockpit, I pulled her aside. I could tell she was close to tears but holding back. “You okay?”
“As okay as I can be,” she said. “Dad and I didn’t leave each other on the best terms.”
My cheeks burned with embarrassment and my hands went cold with fear. What if Mama had been killed while running through the Keep looking for me? I hadn’t wanted her to worry while I was away. Now I’d probably never know exactly how she died or how responsible I might be for her death.
“Did the message say anything about the city? Has the Ra spilled into Brooklyn yet?”
“The message didn’t say. I guess it’s like everything else, all on a need-to-know basis.” She thought a moment. “The demons must be establishing their beachhead. If they were on the streets of New York, I’d have heard it on the radio. I’ve been sitting next to the pilot the whole time and there’s no unusual back and forth between planes and towers. If they’d made their move beyond the Keep, the cross chatter would be continuous, right?”
“Like 9/11 times 9/11 to the hundredth power. Buckle up. If you hear anything else on the radio, tell me right away. Even if we’re in the middle of landing, tell me.”
“Roger that, sir.”
Malta managed to keep up appearances with her stoic mask. Psymon was a sobbing mess. I returned to my seat and held him as we landed.
Lesson 186: In our all-is-lost moments, nothing can make things better. We hold hands, embrace, stroke foreheads and say soothing words. It doesn’t help in any measurable way but there are no other options so that’s what we do.
I fear death. Heaven? Hell? Who knows what’s next? The next dimension after death might be all red high heels, chocolate ice cream and dog fights. Elsewhere is unknown, so of course we all fear it. My only consolation, if you can call it a consolation, is that I won’t be the first nor the last to experience it.
In that moment, as Psymon cried on my shoulder for the lost Fawn, I found one more iota of solace. I was more determined than ever to take a bunch of my enemies with me down into that mystery. I’d make them know every dimension of Fear.
I’d make them scream.
I’d make them mourn.
I’d make them pay.
27
It was dawn when we landed just outside of Bloomington. Other aircraft stood still as we taxied toward a huge hangar. Victor might be dead but we still got priority treatment. I guess all that influence and privilege was coming straight from the Pentagon all along. I slipped Excelsior on my back and stepped out into the cold air.
As I hit the top of the airstairs, the technician who ran the machine got out and ran back toward the Tower. He looked like he was under orders to run and not look, but he was just a civilian. If he’d looked up, he’d have seen my horns and probably freaked out.
That was my first clue something was wrong. With the Choir Invisible gone, this was a military operation now. Why weren’t we diverted to a secure military base instead of to a little airport busy with civilian air traffic?
A stiff Air Force lieutenant with a clipboard jogged toward me across the tarmac. I ran to meet him a hundred feet from the plane.
He looked at my horns but then, just like the others, pretended they weren’t there. “You must be Miss Iowa.”
“Miss Iowa? I seem to have forgotten my sash and bathing suit and my best shot at the pageant is Miss Congeniality. Just call me Iowa.”
“Iowa, then. I’m Lieutenant Casey. Have you got the package?”
“Where’s your security detail?” I asked.
He stuck a thumb in the direction of the hangar. “Twelve Marines and three Catholic priests, as per my orders, ma’am. The priests were dragged out of bed from churches in Bloomington and Normal, so they don’t really know why they’re here. When I explained to them what ‘containment’ meant, they started making Exorcist jokes. One of them told me the power of Christ compelled me to go find them a decent sandwich. I don’t think they’re taking this seriously yet.”
“The package is safe as long as it’s boxed up,” I said. “Your Marines know the drill?”
“Nobody opens the box, ma’am.”
“And where are you delivering it?”
“That’s above my pay grade, ma’am. If I had to guess, rumint says they put the weird, secret squirrel stuff in Area 51.”
“Rumint?”
“Rumor plus intelligence, ma’am.”
“Fine. Are you in charge, Lieutenant Casey?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then this’ll be awkward. I need to see your Marines.”
“I was told to be discreet, ma’am. The Marines and the priests are there, so I was thinking it would be best if you and maybe a couple of your team could bring the box to the hangar, ma’am. We have an armored truck for the package and several escort vehicles. My orders are to take the package to Hanna Air Force Station for pickup to places unknown and none of my business, ma’am.”
Lesson 187: I’ve noticed that the more often someone uses the words, ma’am, sir, or, my friend, the more ironic and insincere they sound.
I took a deep breath. “Okay.” Then I brushed past him and steamed toward the hangar.
“Ma’am?”
“Yes, Lieutenant Casey?”
“This isn’t part of the plan.” He trotted at my heels.
“It’s not part of your plan. That’s why I like it.”
“Ma’am? My superiors are in a hurry and this procedure was established as the safest — ”
“Safest for whom?”
“Ma’am?”
“Lieutenant, I’m following my own procedure. If I took what you said at face value, I’d have learned nothing from the last few hours. It seems I have a history of trusting the wrong people and, since a lot of my friends, sisters, brothers and maybe even my mother are dead, I’m in no mood to be polite and just go along to get along. I’ve done too much of that already. Do not mess with me.”
It was a long speech. I was proud of it. I didn’t stutter and it got me to the little door beside the huge hangar door.
Here’s a hint about fighting that I learned from Mr. Chang and was refining with Psymon’s help: if you read body language, you can appear to have ungodly fast reflexes. Being half-demon and all, I guess I do have ungodly refle
xes (pardon the pun). However, anybody can appear to be scary fast if they pay attention to the grit of teeth, the jutting jaw and the tightening of a body as they are about to make their move.
Casey braced his legs a little and took a second to look furious before he pulled his pistol from his holster. I broke his wrist before he got the weapon all the way out. The radius and ulna snapped easily. He went to his knees as his nine millimeter pistol dropped to the cement.
I glowered at him, wishing I had fangs for ripping and tearing. “Told you I was in a bad mood.”
“You can’t do this!”
“I just did this. If I open that door and find I’m out of line, I’ll send you a sympathy card and tell you I’m sorry and I’ll really mean it. I’ll sign your cast and send you bon bons. But I’m not going to have to go find a greeting card store, am I, Casey?”
“How did you know, bitch?”
“Body language. Deduction. And you just confirmed my suspicions. The message was a lie. The Keep has not fallen has it?”
“Not yet.” Casey held his broken wrist with his good hand. “It doesn’t matter.” He took a deep breath to scream a warning to whoever waited for me on the other side of that door.
I wasn’t sure he was human until that moment. His might have been a case of demon possession or maybe the Ra paid him off somehow, promising to eat him last. Like vampires, the demons have found familiars among humans, making some sort of bargain and turning ordinary people into traitors to the human race. I’d seen that before but it was equally shocking every time.
As he took that deep breath in to scream, I had a moment to reflect that my time passed slower than his, even without two powerful and flatulent vegans displacing time for me. I had time to punch and kick.
I delivered the punch above his right nipple and that stopped his intake of breath. The front kick into his diaphragm stopped him from trying again. The kick lifted him off the ground. It’s a good bet his spleen burst open, as well.
Casey’s eyes went wide and wild. He didn’t know what was happening for a moment. He had that thousand yard stare that says, the world has turned upside down, but maybe I’ll figure it out later. Maybe Lt. Casey figured out the depth of his trouble as his body smashed through the door.
Fierce Lessons (Ghosts & Demons Series Book 3) Page 14
