To her thinking, it was very possible that she had been manipulated a bit by Bullosky but he had not altered her mind and of that she was certain and she had been willing to be manipulated a little by the demon if it meant advancing her cause. It was fairly obvious that Mr. Terry thought she possibly had been mentally altered somehow by Bullosky. While she knew that wasn't true, she also didn't want to blow him off when she was going to need him. After all, one thing she was absolutely certain of was that going forward they needed to rid themselves of the demonic influences among them since most of the usefulness had been gotten out of the partnership. They'd had their place and certainly had assisted O.A.'s move upwards but it was time to move on. That was where Terry came in and why she was willing to humor him his paranoid thoughts.
Terry had already told about how they would attempt to find Dr. Isaiah and convince him to rejoin their little group of Organic Ascendancy loyalists as he called it. That seemed as close to impossible as anything Cain could remember, considering the way he left the meeting room and yet that was the easiest part of the plan. As he went on explaining there were more than a few confused expressions around the room. She knew where he was coming from and also that everyone needed to understand what was going on for themselves so she remained silent.
The first question came from the new guy as Cornell asked, “Why do we suddenly not like where our partnership with the demons has taken us? I can tell you for certain that it has gotten a good bit of attention on the spiritual realm.”
“Really?” Terry asked, “Are the angels afraid of us all of a sudden?”
A smile came to Cornell's face, “Mr. Terry, angels are never afraid of anything. In any situation that presents itself, even the ones that have been surprising of late, they always have faith that they are on the side of the 'Most High' so they will be fine and will always be victorious in the end. I am simply saying that we are being talked about. Demons making themselves partners with a group of humans has happened before, and is even recorded in ancient texts, but it isn't so commonplace to see a group of humans reach out to the demons and that is what is puzzling to most on that realm. Having done something to garner that amount of attention would at least seem to be a good thing for us if indeed we are interested in leaving a footprint there.”
“That is the very problem that brings us here today Mr. Cornell,” Terry said. “It was never in our plans, nor in our spoken or written creed to simply cause a stir among the angelic beings. We are pledged to raise humanity to the same level they are currently on which is why we decided to partner with Admiral Bullosky. It has not turned out the way we wanted unfortunately.”
Cornell said, “But, I'm still confused. Dr. Cain, you were just saying things were going well in the last meeting, that we were taking humanity to the next level. How did we get from there to suggesting that we do not need to cooperate with the demons who took us to that level?”
Dr. Cain knew it was time for her to speak up and set the record straight or at least do a good job of attempting to do so while keeping Mr. Terry satisfied. “I need to make something very clear to you and really to everyone eventually, though for now we'll just keep it between us. First of all, the fact that we have raised humanity to a new, and higher level is absolutely true. The only problem that I have been able to see is that there are troubled issues in the way we reached that new level. Of course I knew that it was possible and likely to be deceived by a demon. I just thought that I could remain in complete control the entire time without sacrificing my moral code and coming to decisions that I might not always have made before.”
She lowered her head slightly, “It is possible that I was partially wrong in that line of thinking. Don't misunderstand me and think I am suggesting we take a step backwards or that I am not proud of the significant steps forward we have made. In no way am I saying that. I simply do not like the impact it is having on Organic Ascendancy to work day in and day out with demons. I expect that some of the developments in Dr. Isaiah and others could be due to the inner-circle manipulations of Bullosky and his demons. I want to keep going in the same direction we are currently proceeding in, I simply want to do so without Bullosky or any demons.”
Mr. Terry spoke up, “I don't really agree with that Dr. Cain but that is not a surprise to you at this point. You suggest we go back to doing things simply for ourselves but keep doing the same things we are doing right now. Is that right?”
Cain nodded, “Absolutely.”
“How does that change anything?”
She glanced at the others around the table as she tried to figure the best way to approach this. It could not appear to anyone here that she was anything other than the boss. That, after all was the main thing she did not like about Bullosky's involvement, that some looked to him as her equal and Dr. Genesis Cain took a second seat to nobody on, under or above the earth. Still, she wanted to keep Terry on-board. Nothing would be worse than losing everyone from her inner circle and she wanted the planning genius more than any of the others. As destructive as it was to lose Dr. Isaiah, she really had gotten more out of the brilliant doctor than she ever thought she would have so it didn't matter that much, other than her selfish wish that he would have shared his little Destiny plan with her before leaving. She did want to keep the allegiance of the soldiers as well as the other important O.A. role players with her however and since Isaiah was not here anymore to execute whatever plan he claimed to have, it was up to her.
Finally she decided on an approach and looked up, “As you yourself stated Mr. Terry, we plan not simply to make the celestials look in our direction but rather to raise ourselves to that same level of existence. While the partnership with the demons and Bullosky has certainly been something to serve their needs and the demonic admiral certainly had his own designs for the deal we made, Organic Ascendancy also had the same selfish desires for the partnership. We have frankly gotten exactly what we wanted from this. Has it cost us something as well? Of course it has but we had to do what was necessary to take these steps and take them quickly. Now that we have done what was needed, we will count our losses, distance ourselves from Bullosky and move on towards our ascension. If you can find and convince Dr. Isaiah and others to profess their devotion to us, go ahead and do it, but we certainly are not going to consider ourselves failures because a few key positions need to be filled. We march onward!”
The military man and Mr. Cornell pumped their fists at what she said and while he did not seem fine with what was spoken, Mr. Terry at least was not arguing at the moment. It seemed like the perfect time to assume that the session was a victory and to move on with their planning session, until the door slammed open and a guard walked in with two other guards flanking him. For a minute Dr. Cain wondered if others had turned on her but when they spoke she knew exactly what was happening.
“Forgive the interruption Dr. Cain and everyone,” the guard said in a serious voice, “But we have just received word that one of the vehicles that was sent out on special assignment recently has returned.”
Dr. Cain knew it was the job of the General in the room to respond so she waited a beat. Just as he should have the General stood, “Young man, your orders were clearly that there would be only one reason for you to storm through that door and that is in case of emergency developments either inside this room or elsewhere on the premises. Surely you do not expect to keep from being punished severely for this intrusion.”
“Forgive me sir,” the guard said with a nod downward, “But there is more.”
“It damn well better be good,” the General said.
“The vehicle normally carries a team of several soldiers but this one only has one O.A. soldier inside. The other two bodies are deceased,” the guard said and then finished before anyone could interrupt him, “The soldier claims they are the bodies of Eric Bayne and Destiny.”
The eyes of everyone in the room quickly turned to Dr. Cain who was feeling the opposite of everyone else at the small table. She
could see the look of hope and looming victory in their eyes. Mr. Terry's expression showed a small amount of disappointment likely at the thought of Destiny having gone the direction she chose to go in but even he seemed excited. For the first time in weeks or probably months, she felt like she really had the people in her charge looking to her for one of her great bits of instruction or perhaps they wanted to celebrate. Cain felt nothing like that because she was the only one at the table that knew for a fact that Destiny and Bayne had been alive when the missions searching for them started. Was it possible that they were really dead? It could be that several teams met up and only one survived a long and drawn out firefight with the two warriors ending up being finally killed in the end. It was also possible, very possible that they had killed everyone but the one they left alive but Cain doubted that an O.A. soldier would go along with any such ruse. In the end she only spared a small grin for those at the table and said, “Have every team you can spare go to where the truck is and check out the story. I don't want to officially celebrate their deaths until I see their dead bodies for myself. Move!”
Everyone scattered at her command but she remained in her quarters, saying to the guards at the door, “Close and lock the door behind you. I will monitor the situation from my personal office.” When she was all alone, Cain went to her computer where she could pull up monitors that would show video surveillance of the bodies or the battle but when she tried to pull them up nothing happened. After a few moments a demonic face came on the screen with a message:
Surveillance System is Down
Cain quickly called the main security detail who reported that everything had just gone down for them as well. They were blind. Everyone in the complex was blind to what was going on. Cain slammed her hand on her desk and grabbed a hand-gun on the way to her door. She would have to actually go see their rotting corpses for herself.
**
A demon dressed in soldier's clothing walked into the darkened room, “Reporting the mission a success Admiral. The entire complex is dark and it would take the best tech-people in the world a week to revive the primary and backup systems.”
Admiral Bullosky nodded at his soldier, “Good work. Continue with the plan as stated.” The soldier left the room and Bullosky waited for the next development in his plan to unfold. When he had heard that a soldier had arrived with the bodies of Eric Bayne and Destiny, he knew exactly what was going on. After all, he had resources that Dr. Cain did not have and eyes in many more places around the virus-sickened world. With the complex dark, O.A. would be scrambling to find out the truth with their greatest warriors and Bullosky would carry out the final part of a plan that was destined to end with the real death of Bayne at long last. With a smirk he thought that sometimes it was a really good idea to make a deal with the devil; at least it was when you were a demon.
Chapter 16
With the tone of the sound of the truck's tires on pavement, Eric knew they were about to go through the security checkpoint. Any wonder about what the soldier Destiny called Curtis was going to do was about to come to a head as he approached the key point in the entire mission. If he wanted to give them up silently, he could do so without them being able to stop him. If he wanted to blow the mission verbally by suggesting outright that there were living and breathing enemies of Organic Ascendancy in the back of the truck he could do that, although it would probably cost him his life very quickly. A sure-fire way to ruin things would be if he decided to attempt to take Eric and Destiny out before they had the chance to retaliate though that would also probably end in a quick death.
It was so far, so good as the truck slowly rolled to a stop and a different voice could be heard saying, “Where is the rest of your crew soldier?”
“We battled to the death with a couple of other groups of men as well. Everyone was killed except me but I was lucky enough to have the honor of bringing in the bodies of O.A.'s two biggest enemies, Destiny and Eric Bayne.” Curtis' voice was even and almost mechanical in nature but apparently that was close enough to normal to convince the guard at the gate or maybe what he said was enough to force the guard to pay attention to the cargo in the back instead of his voice. Either way, it worked for that first minute at least.
Eric was laying as still as he could manage and knew that Destiny was doing the same beside him. The guard at the gate broke his normal mechanical protocol and said, “What the hell, are you serious? Where did you find them? They've been said to be dead for a while now but nobody could find them. I,” he paused, “I need to check and make sure so go ahead and open the rear door.”
An unsteady feeling settled in Eric's gut at that statement. How closely would the guard check to see if they were alive, he wondered? Suddenly Curtis spoke up in a more animated tone, “No way!”
“What?” the guard demanded, “Why not? Open the goddamned back hatch or I'll do it for you!”
“You think I'm going to go through hell to bring these two in just to allow you the chance to steal my thunder and take the credit for yourself?” Curtis asked and followed up when the guard didn't immediately respond. “I know the cut-throat way this military fuck-up works but you aren't going to even have the chance to take credit for these two. I'll cut your fucking head off and piss down your neck hole before you open that mother-fucking hatch! Open the goddamned gate, get someone to cover the gate and follow me inside if you want. You can see them but you'll have to wait until I show them just like everyone else.”
Eric was unsure what to make of the outburst by Curtis. It could well be that he wanted to still take credit for killing them himself after they got inside and he had the best shot to take them out for real or he could fear the telepathic sword threat enough that he was just trying to preserve his life until there were more soldiers around. Either way, it worked well enough as the guard sighed heavily and said, “Alright, but drive slowly; no games or anything like that. I'll be right behind you.” After a brief pause he must have waved on or went to press a button or something because Eric heard the familiar sound of a gate opening and felt the truck slowly move forward. As they drove forward the guard from the gate could be heard yelling, “Three-two-one-seven! Cover the gate; I am escorting this one in personally.”
Other than the fact that it would mean another body being there when he and Destiny busted up this game, Eric didn't mind that one bit. After a moment Destiny remained still but spoke in a whisper, “Keep still Eric. That went well enough but they should still have some surveillance that could pick up movement and we don't want them seeing us move until we are ready.”
“Ten-four,” Eric said quietly and remained still as the truck kept a slow pace driving forward. He noticed a familiar feeling in his gut that he had grown so accustomed to over the years when the shit was about to hit the fan. Unconsciously he began to flex his fingers and build his telepathic powers to a crescendo. A deafening silence rang out as the sound of tires on smooth concrete floor replaced the hum of large tires on the drive in and Eric's fingers began to loosen up. All over he felt a cool and calm presence come over him as he waited patiently for the rear door of the truck to open.
Several loud calls and shouts suggested that they were in the main hanger area that Destiny had spoken about and the sound continued for a solid two minutes at least. He guessed their speed at about ten miles per hour, and though it was impossible to be certain, he noted that this was indeed a huge room. If the size of the main hanger area suggested the size of the complex, Organic Ascendancy was certainly a monstrous facility.
The shouts finally began to calm down and he assumed that they were leaving the main hanger and going into the smaller side room that they had spoken about. No voices could be heard so Eric hoped they had lucked out and the only soldiers around would be the one driving and the one following with only a couple of uninvited guests. They would not be able to hold up in a room such as that he knew because an outfit the size of O.A. would certainly have plenty of ways to take out intruders. They would
need to be on the move and remain on the move if they wanted to stay alive for more than just the first few minutes.
Time seemed to slow down at the same time that the truck slowed down and stopped. Eric knew that any minute would bring an open door and the battle would be on so it was odd that at that moment he wondered why they didn't specify a goal of any kind. The best reason he could think of for not formulating a plan passed the point of getting inside the place was that they both really knew what they wanted to do once they arrived inside and Destiny voiced it with a quiet whisper as footsteps could be heard nearing the door.
“Time to kick ass,” she said and he knew that it couldn't have been said any better than that.
Curtis actually decided to stay inside as the door latch opened and the gate guard said, “Let's see what we have here soldier.” When the large hand grabbed Eric's foot, he felt as calm and reserved as he could remember feeling any time in recent memory. With a mental shrug, his sword suddenly hopped to life and flew directly at the man. A loud gurgle could be heard and Eric knew he hit his target somewhere critical so he sat up and turned around. The guard's face was priceless with eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
“Yeah, I know,” Eric said as he sat forward and removed the sword from the guard's chest with a quick jerk of his left hand, “Payback really is a bitch isn't it?” He twirled the sword around and sliced the man's head off with a clean swipe from right to left. A quick glance up and to the left revealed six soldiers wearing the O.A. logo staring down at him. It was relatively quiet in the smaller hanger so he could hear the group talking.
The Great War (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare Book 5) Page 15
