Soames smiled. 'What do you think will happen, Amber? I'm not a gambling man but I wouldn't bet against war and death. Especially as the authorities are going to receive this misleading information just after all the world's data has been restored by your magnificent act of heroism. Undoubtedly they'll praise their good fortune that their data came on-line again just in time to detect an attack and retaliate.'
'Why are you so desperate to fulfil the Red Pope's prophecy when you know it isn't the only truth?'
Soames smiled. 'Because it will be,' he said, gesturing to the elevator. 'Soon it will be the only truth.'
The elevator was descending to the next level. Someone had summoned it from below. Miles Fleming was coming up. It was over. Soames had won.
She tensed and stared at the elevator. So did Jake. And the wolves.
'Watch out, Milo,' Jake shouted. Bukowski slapped him hard across the face, sending him sprawling.
'Don't do it, Miles,' Amber yelled.
But it was no use. Even as she willed the elevator to remain stationary the cabin began its ascent. Through the glass she could see the outline of his figure rising with it. When the doors opened, he raised an arm and stepped out.
Soames uttered a guttural command, and the wolves leapt at Fleming, knocking him to the ground, tearing at his clothing. Jake screamed, and Amber threw herself at the wolves, trying to pull them off, but they ignored her and continued their frenzied attack - ripping at Fleming's neck, pulling at his helmet.
When it came off she gasped. The head was plastic. It was the body surrogate. She turned towards Soames and Bukowski as a figure appeared like a dark avenger over the railing behind them and pulled Bukowski backwards, screaming, into the borehole.
'Take Jake and get back to the master console,' the figure shouted at her, reaching for Soames and pulling the protective gear off his head.
Amber grabbed Jake's hand and pulled him towards the elevator - just as the wolves stopped attacking the dummy and Carvelli ran at her. One leapt at her - but then Carvelli pushed himself in its way, opening the path to the elevator. 'Go,' he shouted, as he wrestled with the wolf, which was clawing at his stomach and lunging at his face.
Amber didn't need any second bidding. She flung herself and Jake into the elevator and reached for the down button. But the second wolf was already upon them, clamping its fangs around Jake's left leg even as the door closed. Panicking, she kept pressing the button, but Jake's leg was blocking the door as the wolf's jaws dug deeper into it. All the time the animal stared up at Amber with its evil yellow eyes. To her left, through the tinted glass, she saw Carvelli's body go limp as the other wolf sank its bloody jaws into his throat.
Then Jake reached down to his left thigh and pressed something. His leg came off and the wolf, with one last wrench, fell back, pulling the leg with it, freeing the door.
The elevator closed with a hiss, but as it began its descent Amber could see the wolves move towards the railings, where Soames was struggling with Fleming.
She couldn't think of that now, though. She had too much to do.
Soames was surprisingly wiry and strong, and when Fleming ripped off his protective clothing, exposing his hypersensitive skin to the light, he fought even more fiercely.
Fleming was weighed down with the bulky soul-capture head-sphere with its integrated electrode Thinking Cap. He had used it to control the body surrogate via the NeuroTranslator while he climbed out of the laboratory maintenance door and scaled the borehole.
The wolves were coming for him now.
Standing on the gantry, he punched Soames hard in the face, then wrestled him over the railings until he was hanging in space, gripping Fleming's wrist.
'Call them off,' he shouted. Below him the orb was pulsing like a small sun and Soames's skin was already turning red.
The wolves howled and whined but kept back, as if sensing that to attack would endanger their master.
'Call them off,' Fleming said again.
Soames gave a guttural command and the wolves backed away. 'Miles, you must stop Amber. She mustn't interfere with the signs.'
Fleming shook his head in disbelief. 'You're one evil bastard.'
'I'm not,' Soames pleaded. His voice became earnest. 'This is important. You of all people must understand. There's a reason for what I'm doing and you mustn't stop it.'
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'The Red Pope's revelation has a purpose and I must fulfil it.'
'But his revelation was a lie.'
'No, it wasn't. It was a half-lie and a half-truth. It was his truth.'
'But you want to make it the only truth.'
'I've no choice. I have to convince the world there's no God, that there's only the Devil. That's my purpose.'
Fleming reached down to hold Soames's other arm. The man's skin was blistering now but he seemed oblivious to the pain. 'Why is it your purpose, Bradley? Who do you think you are? The Devil?'
'It's much more complicated than that.' Soames looked directly into his eyes. 'I'm God's second son.'
Fleming almost dropped him. 'What?'
'Listen, listen,' begged Soames. 'Two thousand years ago, God sent down his first son. He was a good man who preached compassion and forgiveness - he even died on the cross for humanity to teach you the true way of God. But it didn't work.
Religions fought with each other over their interpretation of Christ's teachings. They got in the way of faith. It no longer became an issue of free will but of power and guilt. Where's the free will in a priest saying "Do what I tell you to do or you'll go to Hell"? That isn't free will, that's obeying orders because you fear punishment.
'Priests are only men anyway. They don't care about understanding God - they care about building power in this world. But God doesn't want vast churches and adoration. He's not that kind of father. He wants you, His most ambitious creation, to come of age and no longer need Him. That's what his first son tried to explain. Living a good life is its own reward - at death each individual will experience his own soul truth. But no one listened.
'So He sent down a second son, a darker son. Me. Not to preach good and kindness this time, but to prove once and for all that God doesn't exist. That only the Devil holds sway. Only then could mankind outgrow the shackles of religion and develop its own sense of right and wrong -true free will. After all, one can only make a truly virtuous choice when there's no promise of reward. So this is God's gift to you, to erase Himself from your consciousness. That's why I built up Accosta. Arrogant and dogmatic, he was the perfect symbol of religion. By having him, the leader of the most powerful religion on earth, disavow God from beyond the grave the world had to listen. And after the signs they'll have no choice but to believe.'
Soames smiled up at Fleming. 'You, of all people, ought to understand this, Miles. You hate the self-important dogma of religion. You were an atheist who did good for no reward in the next life. And look at Virginia Knight. When she followed the Red Pope she was weak and cowardly, easily led to betray friends and even sanction countless deaths, telling herself it didn't matter because they were terminally ill and she was doing God's will. But it was only when she lost all faith in God that she found faith in herself and the courage to help you and Amber escape. It was only when she stopped depending on the promise of the next life that she acquired independence in this. Miles, you must stop Amber or all is lost.'
'You're insane! Millions will die.'
'Lives will be lost but souls will be saved,' Soames pleaded. 'You must understand. I am who I say I am. I knew what the Red Pope would reveal. That's why I fought so hard for the Soul Project. I knew what the signs would be. That's why I prepared for them. Believe me, Miles, I am both Lucifer and God's son. I am God's instrument. I am the fire of hell that brings suffering and despair, but I am also the purging flame that prepares the ground for hardier future growth. Miles, the future of mankind is in your hands. You must allow the signs to run their course, to burn out the weed
of religion and allow a stronger strain of self-belief and genuine free will to grow up in its place.'
Soames paused, as if waiting for him to respond but Fleming didn't know what to say. There was a twisted logic to Soames's words.
Soames gripped Fleming's wrist. His skin was blistering and tearing, revealing weeping red sores. Fleming tried to pull him up so that he could cover himself, but the more pressure he applied to the skin, the more it ruptured. 'Please, Miles, please,' Soames begged, ignoring the pain. 'Kill me but let the signs run their course. You must hammer the final nails into the coffin of religion. There will only be this one opportunity, Miles, and it rests with you. You must do it now, Miles,' he screamed. 'You must.'
09 ... 08 ... Amber's first glance at the screen told her she was too late. The countdown had almost run its course. The phantom strikes were about to start.
Leaving Jake to watch the elevator in case more guards appeared, she entered the base programming of the computer. It soon became apparent that Soames had been right. All the stolen data had been returned but the act of restoration had triggered the final signs.
06 ... 05 ...
She looked at the map of India and Pakistan and the larger map of Asia. All the red dots were still flashing. If she keyed in a photonic implosion program she could destroy the computer but not before it sent out its misleading information and set in play the war and death apocalypse prophesied by the Red Pope.
She had to overwrite the code.
... 04 ... 03 ...
Starting with the larger Asia map, she opened a small viewing box at the base of the screen, used it to access the base programming and search for the germ instruction that would seed the phantom launch message down the optical Internet. She found it quickly and within seconds had disabled it. The dots on the map stopped flashing.
Excellent.
... 02 ...
She flicked on to the map of India and Pakistan, replicated what she had done with the first map. Opened a viewing window to access the base programming code. Began searching for the germ instructions . . .
... 01 ... 00 ...
Shit. Too late.
The red dot over Delhi stopped flashing. Then a red line arced out of Delhi towards Pakistan.
She checked the base programming. The germ instruction had already been sent to the missile command centre in Lahore, informing it incorrectly that India had launched a nuclear strike. Taking a deep breath, Amber rubbed her perspiring palms together then deleted the message.
The arcing line disappeared from the screen.
Amber's shoulders slumped with relief. Calming herself, she prepared to insert the PIP that would destroy the computer. But before she could start, a flashing dot reappeared on the map. Then, with no countdown or warning, a line arced out from Lahore towards India.
Frantically checking the base code to see whether she had missed something, she realized that this wasn't a phantom strike - this was Pakistan's armed response to the earlier 'strike' from India.
Not taking her eyes off the screen, Amber dived back into the base programming of the most powerful computer in existence, and searched for a miracle.
'You must stop her, Miles,' Soames screamed at him. Soames's earlier calm had deserted him. The skin on his forehead was almost hanging off his face and his eyes were suffused with blood. 'Help me, and I'll help you discover your brother's fate. The computer's the key. There's a relationship between the soul signature and a person's genetic code. The interference pattern correlates with the introns, the junk code that makes up most of our DNA. The computer can work out your brother's soul signature from his genome. With my help you could page him. You could contact him.'
Fleming knew this already. That had been his hunch when he'd left Amber to interrogate the computer. 'I know what it can do,' he said.
Soames's lips contorted into a manic smile. 'So, you realize that the computer's vital if you want to satisfy your need to know - your need to prove he's okay. If it's destroyed, you'll never be able to contact him. Never be able to put your mind at rest.'
Fleming had already come to a decision. 'Rob's okay,' he said.
'But how do you know?'
'I don't, Bradley. I guess I'll just have to have faith,' he said, and a weight lifted off him.
Soames looked close to panic. 'But Amber must be stopped. She's the only one who can prevent the signs and you must stop her!'
'No, I mustn't,' he said slowly. 'Like you said, I'm allowed to exercise free will. And that's what I'm doing.'
'No! No!' Soames shouted. 'You're making a fatal mistake! This isn't meant to happen! You must stop her!'
'Too late, Bradley!' Fleming heard Amber shout behind him. Turning, he saw Amber standing by the elevator with Jake, watching the wolves who were watching him. 'I had a runaway, but I deactivated it and diverted it into the sea. It's over.'
Soames glared up at Fleming. 'You fool,' he spat. 'God gave mankind a second chance. He sent His second son. Yet you blew it. Again. You aren't worth saving.' He released his grip. Fleming held him for as long as he could but Soames's skin peeled off in his hands and the man fell backwards into the borehole, landing in a heap on the pulsing glass sphere.
The wolves howled behind him and Fleming turned just in time to see them launch themselves. Instinctively he threw his arms over his face and braced himself for the impact. But none came. They leapt past him and into the borehole after their master. He looked to see where they had fallen but could see no sign of them. It was as if they had disappeared, returning like demons whence they came.
Their master was still visible.
Staring down at the man who claimed to be both Lucifer and God's second son, a shiver ran down Fleming's spine. Soames lay on the glowing glass sphere, his eyes open. His arms were splayed out as if he was being crucified on a ball of fire.
Fleming felt Amber lay a hand on his shoulder. 'I've got Tripp's access disk. We need to get out of here pretty quick,' she said. 'I've installed a PIP in the computer and it's about to burst.'
Fleming turned to Jake, who was salvaging his chewed leg. He scooped the child up and followed Amber into the elevator.
His back broken on his own creation, Bradley Soames waited for death. His skin was peeling off in layers as the heat and light from the glass sphere beneath him burned him with a pain more acute than any he had experienced in a life already rich in suffering.
He was on a wheel of fire in Hell itself.
But it wasn't his physical agony that distressed him.
It was his sense of failure.
'Forgive me, Father,' he yelled, in his despair. 'I tried to help them.'
Then the ball of fire beneath him cracked into tiny fissures before it exploded in a supernova of blue-white light.
*
Minutes earlier
Running out of VenTec, holding Jake close to his chest, the first thing Fleming noticed was that the weather had cleared. There was even a streak of orange on the distant horizon. The second thing he saw was the back-up helicopter approaching from the east.
Within two minutes they were on board. The Delta Force operator who had broken his leg was already in there. He had told the Black Hawk to pick him up then come to VenTec to check for survivors.
'No one else make it?' he asked, as Fleming settled Jake into the seat between him and Amber.
Fleming shook his head.
'How about you guys?' the man asked.
Amber squeezed Fleming's hand. 'We're okay,' she said. 'We're gonna be just fine.'
'If I were you I'd get as far away from VenTec as possible. And fast,' Fleming called to the pilot.
'Hearing you loud and clear. Setting a course south for Fairbanks.'
Even as the pilot turned the chopper south Jake twisted in his seat. 'Look, Uncle Milo!'
Fleming turned in time to see what looked like a rod of white light burst up from the top of the mountain, blasting through the spider-like structure of VenTec, and piercing the darkening
sky like a vertical searchlight.
Then there was a secondary explosion and the base of the brilliant white light turned to fire. Fleming guessed that the enormous energy unleashed by the exploding fireball must have released the oil trapped deep in the mountain, forming a pillar of flame that seemed for a moment to connect Heaven and Hell.
Lucifer (aka the Lucifer Code) (2001) Page 30
