“We need to move all of our personnel six miles north of here?” he asked.
“Looks like. And can you do it without drawing too much attention?” His face made me wonder if a person’s head could really pop like a cartoon thermometer. “Okay. I’ll take fast and efficient over quiet,” I said.
Chapter 34
I commandeered the SWAT team’s second-in-command, as well as a communications technician and his equipment. Along with Carmelita, we all got in my car and took off. I wanted to take to the air but waited until I was out of the park and could reach a major street. Going airborne in the middle of a forest was too chancy. It was winter, and the trees didn’t have any leaves, but that made any branches hanging over the road more difficult to see.
The SWAT guys proved to be deficient in the sense-of-adventure department. I was too busy dodging traffic to pay much attention to them, but Carmelita did warn them before I took the car off the ground. I assumed her laughter had something to do with their reactions.
I bypassed the gate and set the car down on the road leading to the main parking lot. We didn’t see any people. I drove around a bit, and finally parked where I’d seen the bus driver’s personal car parked. The captain and the technician melted into the forest next to the parking lot while Carmelita and I loaded up on weaponry and crept around the side of the enormous building.
I led her past a loading dock. It would have been an easy way in, but I was afraid it might also be too public. The door I wanted was all the way around the building in the back by the trash dumpsters. The door had no handle or knob on the outside, just a lock that required a key. Child’s play for a magitek.
I unlocked it, then used a knife to pry it open enough to slip my fingers through, and pull it open.
“Isn’t this breaking and entering?” Carmelita asked.
With a shrug, I said, “The door was open. I dare anyone to prove that it wasn’t.”
She grinned and followed me inside. I blocked the door open in case someone else might want to use it, such as the SWAT team.
We were in a room with a lot of trash cans and bags of trash no one had bothered to take out yet. I went to the other door in the room, opened it a crack, and peered out. The hallway was bare concrete, unadorned and undecorated. Not something a lot of people other than the maintenance staff used. The building was an elongated hexagon with large, square towers at each point, and we were on one of the short sides on the east end.
I assumed the ceremony would take place in the main sanctuary, the only space large enough to hold more than a thousand people, but I had no idea how that room was laid out. My only guide was the two-hundred-year-old pictures.
“Let’s try to the right,” I said as I slipped through the door. The light in the hallway was dim, but we could see all the way to the end. No chance someone wouldn’t see us.
There were two doors off that hall, and when we turned the corner, we looked down an identical stretch of hallway.
“It’s going to be a maze in here,” Carmelita said. “But from what I could tell from some old pictures, the main room is on the ground floor. We need to be up from there. Find a place overlooking it all.”
I opened the nearest door and peeked in. It was a stairwell, leading both up and down. Glancing down the stairs, I saw the glow of red light below. I decided to climb instead.
We went up two flights of stairs before we reached the next door. I pushed the door open slightly and saw carpet on the floor beyond. The light was also much brighter than what we had seen in the first hallway or on the stairs. I ventured in a little farther.
It was another hallway, but brighter, painted white, with a beige carpet. What caught my attention was the first sound that we’d heard. The distant sound of a voice over a loud-speaker system.
I stepped out into the hall and followed the sound. We soon came to an opening that turned out to be a balcony overlooking the temple’s main room below. Looking up, I saw the floor of another balcony directly above me, and across the room, there were two balconies on the other side, one on our level and one above.
No one was on either of the balconies across the way, or on the one where we had emerged. The other end of the huge room also had four balconies on the same levels, but they were empty as well.
Below us, the room was almost filled with seated people. At the far end was a raised dais with what looked like an altar and a lectern. A man stood at the lectern, talking about the joys and rewards of ascending into heaven while we were still alive rather than waiting until we died. To the sides of the room at that end was raised seating behind railings. The people sitting there all wore clerical garb. Men on one side, and women on the other.
On the wall behind the altar was a huge cross with the glyphs spelling Akashrian.
“How much do you want to bet that the priests are possessed?” Carmelita whispered.
It hadn’t occurred to me before, but what she said made some sense. Due to the red light I’d seen emanating from the basement, I was fairly sure there were demons in the building. If she was right, we had more than a hundred major demons sitting in the room below. That was a lot of fire power, more than she and I could hope to fight.
I was loath to abandon our position, though. We were in a great place to watch the proceedings below, and if it came to a fight, we held the high ground. But I needed to communicate with our forces outside. Reluctantly, I backed off the balcony and tried another door down the hall.
We found ourselves in what looked like a formal sitting room. A quick search revealed a closet, but no other doorways. It also had a window, which allowed me to get my bearings and see the grounds below.
“Can you cast a sound shield on that door?” I asked Carmelita.
She nodded, and I pulled out my phone to call Luanne.
“What’s going on in the world?” I asked when she answered. “We’re inside the temple, and there are a lot of people in here with us.”
“Commissioner Whittaker wants to talk to you. I’ll switch you over,” she replied. And before I could say anything, she did.
“Where are you?” Whittaker asked.
“Sitting inside the Harvesting Souls temple. All the people they bussed down here are sitting listening to a spiel about how going to heaven when you’re still alive is better than waiting until you’re dead.”
Silence on the other end.
“Boss?”
“You’re kidding.” Before I could answer, he asked, “How did you get in there?”
“Through an unlocked door by the trash dumpsters. Boss, there are steps down to the basement, and the light down there is red.”
I held the phone away from my ear. I appreciate fine creative cussing as much as the next cop, but I could hear him just fine with the phone a foot away. I saw Carmelita’s eyebrows go up, and she was across the room from me.
“Dani, you’re miles away from the Rift. How does this fit in with your theory that they’re sending people across?”
“I think they plan to open a portal. Boss, Carmelita thinks the clergy might all be possessed, and I think that makes sense.”
“I never heard of any magik that can open a portal.”
“My father came through one last week. The demons know how to do it.”
More silence. I waited.
“I’m sending people onto the property. When you want them inside, let me know. Lucas is back?”
“Yes, he’s back. He’s out at my mother’s place. Send me some mages now. Especially aeromancers, and if you have any witches who can cast wards. Back door by the dumpsters. We’ll guide them in.”
“As soon as I can,” he said and hung up.
Chapter 35
Half an hour after I spoke with Whittaker, I received a call from Mychal.
“I’m outside the building by the dumpsters, and there’s a half-open door in front of me. Where do I go?”
I sent Carmelita down to get him while I snuck back onto the balcony across the hall to watch
the show. The guy who had been talking was now leading everyone in a song. I pulled out a set of magik-enhanced binoculars and studied the clergy, trying to discern any signs that Carmelita was correct. I didn’t see anything, of course. Normally, I wasn’t able to tell if a person was possessed until they tried to kill me.
I lay there on my belly for about twenty minutes, then I heard a faint sound in the passage behind me. Using the periscope setting on the binoculars, I peeked around the corner and saw Carmelita leading a bunch of people down the hall. I crawled out into the hallway and crossed to the room she and I had used before.
Mychal had brought eighteen mages and two witches with him. That was when I realized how seriously Whittaker regarded the situation.
“So, what’s the plan?” Mychal asked once everyone was inside the room, Carmelita had sealed the door, and he had introduced everyone.
“I think there are demons in the basement,” I said. “I was hoping that we could cast wards on the stairwells to block anything from coming up to join the party.”
“Yeah, we can do that,” one of the witches, a young blonde woman, said. “How many stairwells are there?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve seen only one. I was thinking we could send two or three mages with each witch, have them go in opposite directions, and try to plug up the basement.”
“Sure, we can try it,” the other witch, a middle-aged man, said.
Carmelita spoke up. “The more people we have out running around, the better the chance we get discovered.”
“I really don’t care. I think things are going to hit the fan pretty quickly, and if there’s a demon den in the basement, I’d rather even our odds.”
“I agree,” Mychal said. “A Magi SWAT team and a thousand of Whittaker’s mercenaries have taken control of the grounds. As soon as anything happens, that SWAT team will be coming through the front door, the loading dock, and that trash-room door.”
I kept one of the mages with me and Carmelita, and sent the rest of them to occupy the other three balconies that I could see above the main room. The three of us snuck back onto the balcony nearest us and settled down to listen and wait. I glanced at my watch. An hour before sundown. Not that demons couldn’t operate during the day, they just preferred nighttime.
Half an hour later, Mychal called. “One of the witch teams ran into a security guard, and it got a little noisy. They had to retreat from the last stairwell, so it’s unblocked.”
“Acknowledged,” I said. “When the action starts, make sure no one has their backs to those stairs.”
I passed Mychal’s information on to my companions. Shortly thereafter, one of the witch teams joined me. The other climbed up another level and joined Mychal on the top balcony at the other end of the room.
Everyone had reported that the building was almost deserted except for the main sanctuary. A total of twenty-three people had been rounded up outside the building. I really couldn’t see directly below me without exposing myself, but it seemed there had to be more people somewhere. Of course, we had seen only the central part of the main building. Whittaker’s people hadn’t attempted to enter any of the peripheral buildings as yet.
A burst of organ music brought my attention back to the proceedings below. As I watched, all the people rose to their feet and began singing. The presiding priest turned and faced the demon cross, and began chanting. A wave of cold washed over me as I realized he was chanting in the demon language.
“All teams, on the alert!” I said into my phone. “Something’s about to happen.”
The air around the cross began to shimmer, just as it had that night at Gunpowder Falls when Besevial opened the portal. And sure enough, when the portal stabilized, Besevial stepped through it into our world. He was holding Akashrian’s avatar in front of him.
A human, dressed in priestly robes, climbed the steps of the dais and stopped in front of the demon lord. I watched in horror as Besevial handed the avatar to the priest, then stepped forward, and merged with him. The priest screamed, the demon disappeared, and only the priest remained.
“Did he just possess that guy?” Carmelita asked.
“Yeah. That’s how it’s done.”
None of the people I could see below acted as though anything strange had happened. Personally, that creeped me out more than anything else that had gone on.
Akashrian emerged from the portal. She stood there for a moment, then walked to the center of the dais and in a loud, sibilant, and faintly musical voice said in English, “Come to me, my children. Come to me and take your place in heaven.”
The people standing on the floor started forward, forming two lines, and began streaming past her toward the portal.
“Now!” I shouted into my phone on the general wavelength. “All troops, assault the building.”
Standing up, I aimed with my new projector weapon, and triggered it with my magik. Two beams of white light merged and shot toward the dais. The light hit the man Besevial had possessed, and he disappeared. The avatar fell to the floor.
Akashrian looked up and pointed her hand in my direction.
“Duck!” I yelled, diving into the hallway. Carmelita, the blonde witch, and two other of my companions landed beside me. The others disappeared in a yellow flash along with the balcony.
I used the periscope to look beyond the gaping hole in the wall and saw the sanctuary devolving into pandemonium. The mages on the balconies were involved in a full-scale battle with the priests and nuns below. Akashrian, holding the avatar in the crook of her arm like a baby, destroyed another balcony.
The worshipers on the floor continued to form two lines and march through the portal, as though nothing was going on around them.
My phone rang. “Captain,” a voice I didn’t recognize said, “there are tons of demons coming up those stairs we couldn’t block. We’re retreating.”
“Go! Be safe!” I responded, but he had already hung up.
I waited for Akashrian to direct her attention to something at her end of the hall, then aimed and fired my weapon at her. She waved her hand in my direction, and the white beam of light hit something that absorbed it.
“Dani, someone’s coming up the stairs!” Carmelita called.
Crap. I ran down the hall to the door leading to the stairs. Pausing a moment with my ear against the door, I listened and could hear footsteps on the metal stairs but didn’t hear anything directly on the other side of the door. I pulled it open and stuck my head through.
Below me, on the intermediate landing, I caught a glimpse of a demon.
“Any humans in here?” I yelled.
My only response was a demon growl. I sent my magik into my weapon and destroyed the stairs. There was an awful sound of crashing mixed with demons’ screams, a lot of dust, and then quiet.
“I hope the elevators are working,” Carmelita said from behind me. “The SWAT team is in the building.”
I raced back to the hole where the balcony had been. The battle below was still chaotic, and the idiot worshippers were still marching through the portal.
In desperation, I fired at the portal. The results were far more satisfactory than trying to kill Akashrian. The air in and around the portal shimmered.
Akashrian sent another energy beam at me, and I ducked back into the hallway just in time. The hole where the balcony had been got a lot larger.
I waited until Akashrian was distracted by someone shooting at her, then I fired again at the portal, and it convulsed. Two people who were in the process of walking into it seemed to convulse along with it, and then it collapsed in on itself.
Akashrian let out a scream of rage. She lashed out indiscriminately, shooting yellow sizzling balls of energy all over the place. Worshippers died, clerics died, cops and SWAT soldiers died. Everyone who was able, including me, fought back.
I fired bolt after bolt of energy at her, but it seemed as though the weapon took longer and longer to recharge. Bullets and missiles exploded all aro
und her. Balls of fire bathed her. Bolts of lightning struck her. It didn’t seem as though anything could harm her.
Suddenly, she whirled around, blasted a hole through the wall of the church, leaped through it, and was gone into the night. No sooner did the tip of her tail disappear than the side doors into the sanctuary burst open and waves of demons poured through.
I thumbed my phone to the general wavelength. “Red alert! The demon goddess has escaped the temple. Repeat, she has escaped. The temple is full of demons. Pull back, pull back!”
I turned to Carmelita. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“How?”
I led her and the others with me into the room where we had originally made our plans. Drawing my Raider, I blew the window out.
“We just need our friendly local aeromancer to ferry us to the ground,” I said.
“All of you?” She took a deep breath. “You’re buying the drinks.”
Chapter 36
Sitting around the table with me at Whodunit were Carmelita, Mychal, the blonde witch, and five others who had come out of the debacle at the Harvesting Souls temple unscathed. I had been introduced to everyone but hadn’t bothered to memorize their names. I had the presence of mind early—after I had bought the third round—to realize I wasn’t driving home. I had called Aleks and had an invitation to spend the night, if I could walk or crawl that far.
The bar suddenly quieted, and I instinctively looked toward the door. Police Commissioner Thomas Whittaker, wearing his uniform but with the coat unbuttoned and the tie loosened, came in and walked over to the bar. The instant that he put his hand on the bar, Ed Donatello, the owner-bartender, set a shot glass in front of him. Whittaker picked it up, drained it, and slapped it down.
Whittaker and Ed exchanged a few words, Ed poured him a pint of ale and a double shot, and Whittaker turned away, focusing on our table.
Soul Harvest (The Rift Chronicles Book 3) Page 18
