“It’s holding up okay. What about you?” he asked.
“A few bumps and bruises. Nothing I can’t handle. Do you have any gum?” I asked as I brushed a few strands of hair out of my face with my left hand. The room fell quiet as Ace handed me a piece of chewing gum then silently leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “Are you always this talkative?” I joked as I opened the wrapper and popped the gum into my mouth.
“I’m just here to give you the marching orders,” he replied.
“Already?” I asked.
“Yeah. A lot has happened while you were out,” he said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Well it seems that the Anokians have worked out their differences because The Righteous is apparently calling the shots again. A few hours ago they launched an attack on India with about two-thousand ground troops along with a crap ton of air support. The Indian military put up one hell of a fight but in the end they were outgunned by the Anokians’ superior technology.”
“Well what are we doing about it? When do we move out?” I asked as my heartbeat quickened.
“Unfortunately it’s not that simple, Audrey. We’d need help from the rest of the world in order to put together a force large enough to punch through the Anokian blockades around India.”
“And let me guess, the other countries aren’t playing ball,” I groaned.
“Some of our allies are willing to help India as long as the U.S. is actively involved, but given the high stakes as well as the geography we also need Russia and China to pitch in, otherwise we won’t even stand a chance. The issue we’re facing right now is that several key nations are refusing to join the fight because The Righteous has promised not to attack them so long as they don’t interfere with his actions in India.”
“But why India? What do they stand to gain by attacking one country?” I wondered.
“Howie thinks they’re preparing to execute the ritual that will resurrect their Goddess. India has a population of over a billion people which is just what they need to bring Her back. We think they may have figured out a way to move the antimatter bomb, and if that’s true they’ll have more than enough firepower to wipe India off the face of the map,” Ace explained.
“And you’re telling me the rest of the world is just going to stand by and let that happen?” I said in disgust.
“Not necessarily. Technically Director Wells has a preliminary agreement in place for a joint operation with the UK and potentially the Chinese and the Russians, but they won’t guarantee their support unless we can guarantee that Reaper will be involved.”
“But Reaper’s just one person. Why are they tying their support to him?” I asked.
“It’s a numbers thing. The joint op would require a unified force to storm India from all sides to keep the Anokians busy while I lead a small team into the Taj Mahal, which is where Howie thinks they mean to detonate the bomb. With the help of the Russians and Chinese our ground troops would outnumber them by about two-hundred to one but the numbers inside the Taj Mahal aren’t looking nearly as good,” Ace admitted.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“The biggest concern is Cyrus, The Godhand. Not only is he leading the Anokian occupation of India but he’s set up shop inside the Taj Mahal. Our guess is that he means to guard the bomb in case any of us make it that far. In order to successfully infiltrate the Taj I’ll need to keep my team as small as possible, but in order to defeat The Godhand I would need a team of at least a thousand men.”
“I see your point. And I trust the big wigs have run the probability calculations?” I questioned.
“Yeah, they have. Without Reaper we have a six percent chance of success but with him it’s closer to fifty-five percent. That’s still far from perfect but the Russians and the Chinese are willing to play ball if we can at least guarantee that.”
“I wish he would just blow the bomb. It’s already on board their ship. That would solve everything,” I groaned.
“No it wouldn’t. Even if The Suspect remotely triggered the bomb, according to The Elder, The Pillar of Eden could still get a shot off with their Infinite Mass Weapon before their ship was destroyed.”
“So we’re looking at mutually assured destruction,” I said somberly. “It’s like an intergalactic cold war or something.”
“Well it’s about to turn into an actual war, because we’re going to rescue Reaper,” Ace said firmly.
“Are you serious?” I asked as my eyes widened with surprise.
“Absolutely. Reaper’s our only shot at winning this thing and to me he’s even more than that— he’s my best friend, Audrey, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get him back, even if it kills me,” Ace replied.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked as Ace then pushed his chair back under the table.
“We’ve arranged a meeting between The Suspect and The Righteous, but the guy we’re sending in will only look like The Suspect due to some Equillian holographic-tech that we have at our disposal. We’ll make the extraction during the meeting but we’ll need help from The Strangers if we’re gonna pull this thing off.”
“Whatever you need,” I confirmed as my heart fluttered at the thought of seeing Reaper again.
“Good. I’ll need men and lots of them— and make sure they’re not afraid to die,” Ace replied.
“That won’t be a problem,” I smirked as I thought of how devoted my men were.
“Alright then. One of my agents will stop by shortly to show you to your room and Howie Vargas will check in with you later to help you contact your men,” Ace said before turning and heading towards the exit.
“What do I do in the meantime?” I asked, causing him to pause just as he reached the exit.
“You should probably use this time to think of what you’re gonna say when you see him again,” Ace said without looking back.
I opened my mouth to respond but nothing came out. After a few seconds of awkward silence Ace finally opened the door and left the room without another word.
He’s right, I thought as I stared at my reflection in the mirror once more. As much as I wanted to believe that The Reaper wouldn’t still hate me, something in my gut was telling me differently. And who could blame him after what I had done? It’s like I said, I was hopelessly in love— always hoping that things could be different, all the while knowing that they would never be.
18. VISITING HOURS
REAPER:
- 2.5 HOURS TO DETONATION
WHERE ARE YOU HOWIE? I THOUGHT AS I HUNG MY HEAD and stared at the dark grey floor below me. A few days had passed since I was brought out of the medical coma that The Righteous’ people had placed me in after my battle with The Greater. I was in pretty bad shape when they originally put me under but I guess they must have had some kind of advanced medical equipment or something because after they brought me out of the coma it felt like I had never been injured at all.
After that I was thrown into Anokian-Steel restraints and wheeled off to a large cell where they chained me to a metal contraption in the center of the room then suspended my entire body in midair. Once I was alone in the cell I tried my best to break free of my shiny silver and black restraints but it didn’t take long for me to realize that even with my Anokian strength I wasn’t nearly strong enough to break out of those chains— and even if I was somehow able to escape the chains there was still no way for me to get past the corrosive force field that completely surrounded the lift that I was chained to.
Anokian guards periodically visited my cell on a seemingly routine schedule, but besides that I had almost no interaction with the outside world. Thinking about Monica and sometimes even Audrey helped keep me from slipping too far into depression but sometimes even that wasn’t enough.
Just hold it together, Reap, I thought to myself as I stared down at the floor and wondered if I’d ever see any of my loved ones again. I couldn’t help but wonder what I had done to deserve my current predicament but before I allowed mys
elf to get too caught up in my despair I decided to shut my eyes and focus on the deep hum emanating from the large force field generator that stood near the entrance of my cell. After a while I finally managed to clear my mind and the constant humming of the generator helped me drift off to sleep.
I HAD ONLY BEEN ALSEEP FOR A FEW MINUTES WHEN MY eyes snapped open as the door to my cell suddenly retracted into the ceiling. My heartbeat raced even faster than it already was when the humming of the generator suddenly stopped without warning and the force field around me instantly flickered away.
“Who’s there?” I called out as muffled voices rang out from just outside my cell.
No one answered my call but I narrowed my eyes and cautiously watched the entrance as a large, mysterious figure wearing a long white and gold cloak finally entered the room and paused just in front of the door. The reinforced cell door automatically slid closed behind him as the figure stood and studied me from the shadows while I continued to hang in the center of the cell. Without the glowing force field lighting my cell, the room had grown quite dark; therefore, even as the mystery person began to move closer to me I still could not see his face through the deep shadows cast by his flowing white hood.
“Who are you?” I demanded, as the hooded figure finally stopped a few feet away from me.
“Your time in the medical chambers was well spent, I see,” the figure said in a booming yet scruffy voice.
“I said, who are you?” I repeated as I glared down at him.
“My name is Solomon. Solomon, The Righteous,” the man said as he pulled back his hood and finally revealed his face to me. His skin was leathery and worn, no doubt due to his obviously advanced age, and his face was almost completely covered by a long grey beard that reach all the way down to the bottom of his chest.
“You!” I growled as I pulled against my chains so hard that it became painful.
“Calm yourself, son! I am merely here to—”
“I am not your son! And don’t you ever call me that again!” I barked.
“I am only here to tell you the truth, Reaper— and to answer any questions that you may have about your people,” he said calmly.
“I have nothing to say to you,” I growled.
“I understand your anger, son—”
“Don’t call me that!” I shouted before he could finish his sentence.
“Fine, if you do not wish for me to refer to you as my son I won’t, but that will not change the fact that you are indeed my offspring, Reaper. Ignoring it will not change who you are just as it will not change what you are,” The Righteous said.
“You don’t know anything about me so don’t fool yourself into thinking that you matter to me just because we share a few of the same chromosomes,” I scoffed.
“Reaper, I know that I have been absent from your life; however, you have to understand that I was just as surprised to learn of your existence as you were to learn of mine,” he replied as he stared up at me.
“Spoken like a true deadbeat,” I snapped.
“I would not have abandoned you or your mother had I but known you even existed, Reaper. She was the very reason we were able to escape that wretched prison— but she insisted that I leave her behind. It didn’t make sense back then, but now I realize that she must have known that she was with child and she must have believed her pregnancy would have been a burden on us.”
“So you just left her?” I asked in disgust.
“No! I begged her to leave with us. To leave with me! But she threatened to take her own life unless I left her behind. You have to see that I had no choice, Reaper!” The Righteous retorted.
“You had plenty of choices. You could have easily taken her against her will! It’s not like she could have stopped you!” I snapped.
“Your mother was the most selfless person that I have ever met, Reaper, so who was I to deny her the one thing that she so vehemently insisted upon? Should I have taken her with me? Absolutely! You don’t think I realize that, now?! But after all that she had done for me in the past I could not find it within myself to deny her that one last request.”
“Even if that request meant leaving her to die?” I sneered as his eyes began to glisten with unused tears. The Righteous ignored my remark and he remained silent as he turned his back to me and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his cloak.
“Her name was Karol. Karolyn Stewart to be exact,” he said after he finally regained his composure then turned to face me. “She used to secretly bring me extra food and sustenance during my time as a prisoner in Area 51. Despite her unsolicited generosity I still hated her in the beginning— as I did all humans at the time. But I suppose… she… she sort of grew on me. While I consumed the food that she provided she would sit just outside my cell and before long we began to talk for hours on end without even realizing how much time had passed. It was like the space that we shared in those moments was somewhere outside of time itself. Some place where only she and I existed.” The Righteous paused once more as his jaw slightly quivered and his composure started to crumble once again.
“I was going to kill her, Reaper,” he said quietly as he stared down at the floor in front of him. “Despite everything that she had done for me, I still decided that killing her and using her key card to escape was in the best interest of our people.”
“Your people,” I grumbled.
“I pretended to choke on the food that she had brought me one night and just as I assumed she would, your mother broke protocol and opened my cell in an attempt to save my life. I sprang upon her the second she opened the door because I wanted to end it quickly. I didn’t want her to suffer, you see? Much of my Anokian strength had returned due to the extra nourishment that your mother had provided, but even with that power coursing throughout my veins I still could not find the strength to stop my hands from trembling as I wrapped them around her delicate neck. But even as I prepared to take her life she still refused to hate me— and that’s when I realized that it was too late for me, Reaper. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill her because I had already fallen in love with her. I have lived for 643 years, Reaper. I have crossed oceans of stars and I have seen wonders the likes of which most cannot even fathom, yet the most amazing thing to happen in my life was falling in love with a woman of a different species through the bars of a prison that she was in charge of guarding.”
“If you loved her you wouldn’t have left her,” I defiantly scoffed, though his tale of the beloved mother that I would never know was clearly starting to get to me. I clenched my jaw and fought hard to keep the tears that clouded my eyes from falling as he finally took his saddened eyes from the floor and looked up at me.
“But I did love her. In fact, besides the Goddess, your mother was the only other woman that I have ever loved. For all these years I thought the Goddess had cursed her to die because of me, but due to your existence I now know that She actually must have protected your mother,” The Righteous continued.
“I don’t understand,” I admitted as I quickly rubbed my face against my shoulder to wipe away a tear that had fallen against my will.
“After I released your mother from my grasp that night, we became… intimate. That was the only time in which we connected in such a manner; therefore, I assume you were conceived in that moment. You are part-Anokian and would therefore have weighed nearly forty pounds even as an unborn child. It should have been impossible for your human mother to carry a child of that size to term; however, I believe the Goddess must have reached across the veil in order to protect Karol from the damage that your density would have otherwise done to her womb.”
“What exactly do you expect me to say to all this?” I asked angrily as another tear streamed down my face and fell to the floor below.
“I just want you to know the truth, Reaper. I want you to know that I am not your enemy,” The Righteous replied.
“You brain washed my brother and now he’s dead because of you! How do you expect me to believe we’re o
n the same side?!” I demanded.
“I do but speak the truth, Reaper, and in regards to the wellbeing of your brother, I can assure you that The Suspect is very much alive,” The Righteous replied.
“That’s impossible!” I gasped as my eyes widened with surprise.
“Much has happened during your slumber, dear boy. I’ll spare you the details but you should know that your brother lives, and since his reemergence he has taken actions that directly threaten the lives of everyone on this ship— including you,” The Righteous warned.
“Yeah, well that serves you right and I would gladly die if it meant taking you along with me,” I grumbled.
“Need I remind you that the Goddess’ vessel is also aboard this ship?” The Righteous said as he raised an eyebrow and stared blankly at me.
“Monica!” I gasped as I realized what he was implying. “Wh— where is she?! If she’s in danger you have to get her out of here!” I insisted.
“The vessel is safe, Reaper, and you must understand that I—”
“I don’t have to understand crap! But here’s something that you need to understand; if anything happens to her, and I mean anything, I will make it my mission in life to destroy you!” I shouted as I clenched my fists and pulled against my restraints in vain.
The Righteous took a deep breath and shook his head as he looked at me in pity.
“Reaper,” he finally sighed. “Though it would pain me to have to end your life, you must understand that I am capable of doing so as easily as I am capable of taking my next breath. I would much rather spare you, son; however, I cannot allow you to threaten the safety of our entire race. We will not survive without the Goddess.”
“But why Monica? She’s not even Anokian! Can’t you just use someone else as the Goddess’ vessel?” I insisted.
“There is a fate out there for us all, Reaper. Hers happens to lie beyond the veil. No matter how much you fight there is nothing you can do to change that. We will complete the ritual and through Monica, the Goddess shall be reborn.”
Savior Part 3: Legion of The Godhand (The Savior Series) Page 16
