Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) (35 page)

FIFTY-FOUR

Kevin, Jack, and Evangeline moved their conversation into a private lounge adjacent to the mess hall. Evangeline sat and listened while Kevin recounted the beginnings of his story to Jack.

Jack had inhaled his breakfast like a vacuum. Evangeline asked, as always, if he had even tasted it. Whenever Jack was in a hurry to continue on a project, he gobbled up his food before it had time to cool. Jack thought it was an act of courtesy to finish eating before talking at the table, so he ate fast in order to join in on the discussion.

Felicia, also at the table, was content to nibble on pieces of pancake as she listened to Kevin’s story. She sat with one of her legs tucked beneath her, picking the pancakes apart bit by bit, savoring each bite until she had eaten her fill.

Jack leaned back against the bench with his arms folded across his distended belly. Evangeline sat next to him, hugging his arm with her head resting on his shoulder. She had her eyes closed and continued to half-listen to Kevin’s retelling of his story. Her sleepy mind tuned in and out of the conversation; she was sure that her body was still recovering from the duress and shock of her kidnapping. She nuzzled her head into Jack’s arm, almost in disbelief they were finally together again and he was safe.

Jack covered his mouth and let out a loud burp. “Excuse me.” He said with a shy grin, embarrassed by his lack of manners. Evangeline’s eyes rolled behind her lids, embarrassed at her husband’s juvenile table manners.

Kevin’s storytelling stopped in mid-sentence, filling the lounge with peaceful quiet. Evangeline opened her eyes and looked up to see Kevin giving Jack a warm smile.

“You know, Jack, I’ve known Evangeline a long while. And I’ve missed her; I’m glad I’m not dead anymore! But I’ve never seen her as happy as I have the little while I’ve watched her with you. You see her? She hasn’t wiped that sappy grin off her face since you walked in the mess hall.”

Evangeline felt her face grow hot as she shot Kevin an irritated look. She was not sure she was pleased with the sudden turn in conversation.

“She really loves you, you know,” Kevin said again to Jack. Kevin chuckled at Evangeline’s scarlet cheeks.

Jack wrapped his arm around her and drew her close to his side. She squeezed his arm even harder to fight off the embarrassment, almost threatening to cut off his circulation. She wished Kevin would finish his story and take all the attention off her.

“Where was I? Oh, yeah!” Kevin resumed. “After I found the man dying in the wreckage and he asked me to hide and free the Angels, I didn’t know what to think. I assumed he meant I needed to get them out of the wreckage or restraints or something like that.”

“Wait a minute,” Jack interrupted. “What were Angels doing on a dirigible? I’d never heard of them travelling that way. I didn’t know they travelled at all!”

Kevin’s grin was that of a cat trapping an unsuspecting mouse. Jack, feeling uneasy, shifted in his seat and looked to Evangeline for reassurance. She just shrugged her shoulders, uncertain as Jack was about this information.

“Exactly!” Kevin pounced. “They don’t travel. According to everything I knew, or anyone else knew about Angels, they found a place, called it home and stayed here. They had no need to visit other places when there are people to serve and help all around them in Olympus and the LTZ.”

Evangeline found her voice again. “So, what did you do?”

Felicia snickered a little. Kevin shot her a warning glance and continued.

“I did what I thought was best,” he answered. “The survivors of the crash helped my junior officer and myself move the injured to an area away from the debris. Most of the humans died in the crash. Some of the Angels did too, but a few of them that hadn’t suffered any severe injuries were behaving strangely. One in particular was just lying there, staring up into the sky, smiling. I would have sworn he was a kid watching the clouds go by.”

He glanced over at Felicia.  She had frozen in place and stared at a spot on the ceiling with glistening eyes. Jack and Evangeline followed Kevin’s line of sight and saw Felicia struggling to contain her emotions.

Jack looked concerned, and Evangeline swallowed. This story was starting to sound familiar - she had a haunting suspicion what Felicia feared to remember.

“That’s when I saw it,” Kevin said, leaning forward. “Or rather,
didn’t
see it.”

Chills ran up and down Evangeline’s body. She knew what he was going to say, but did not want to think the words herself.

“The side of his head had been caved in, probably from the impact,” Kevin whispered, “but there was no brain in his skull.” Jack stared right at Kevin, but Kevin was staring at Evangeline.

“You’ve seen it too,” he asked in a low voice, “haven’t you, Boyd?”

Jack’s eyes darted back and forth between Kevin and Evangeline. She had never told him what she had seen at the site of the collision. She had been so concerned about Daryl in the aftermath of his crash and the bizarre incident at the clinic, that the dying Angel in the blanket had been all but forgotten.

Evangeline’s memories played all across her face, as if she were living the discovery of the Angel for the first time. Jack’s head spun in the confusion; he could not grasp what Kevin was describing. His mind did not seem able to reconcile the words and images that raced through his mind.

Evangeline and Kevin locked eyes in unspoken understanding.

“I was there too,” choked out, breaking her silence. Her gaze was still focused on the ceiling. “I was his junior officer at the time,” she said, looking over at Kevin. Her eyes portrayed the shock she felt each time she remembered the horrific scene. Jack looked back and forth between Evangeline, Kevin, and Felicia with bewilderment written all over his face.

Evangeline spoke the words Jack could not seem to utter.

“Are you saying that someone is bashing in the heads of Angels and removing their brains?” she asked in disgust. Kevin and Felicia exchanged another knowing look.

“It would be better if the experts explain it from here,” Kevin said.  He stood, and picked up his coat from the back of the chair. Felicia also stood, brushing her eyes and bolting out the door first. Kevin raised his arm to gesture that Jack and Evangeline should follow Felicia. Evangeline and Jack stood from their seats and followed her out, Kevin bringing up the rear.

Felicia led them back through the maze of tables and chairs in the mess hall and across to a corridor leading away from where the vehicles had been parked. Evangeline and Jack were both looking around at every part of their journey through the old building. The walls, pockmarked with holes and mildew growing up from the floor reeked of decay. The flooring, with missing and rotted tiles, created trip hazards with each step. The majority of the ceiling tiles were either broken or absent, revealing the ductwork above. Jack was surprised to see that, aside from patches of rust, the ducts appeared to be in good shape.

“What is this place?” Jack asked.

“We’re in one of the forgotten cities,” Felicia replied without turning around. Her voice echoed through the chamber. She continued walking until she found a door leading into a darkened stairwell. She stepped in and disappeared into the shadows. Evangeline turned and looked into Kevin’s eyes.

“Where are we going?” she asked. “Who are these experts you mentioned?” Jack had stopped in the middle of opening the door, turning around to listen to the answer.

Kevin let out a silent laugh and raised his arm to point toward the door. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said with a kind smile. “You’re just going to have to see for yourself.”

FIFTY-FIVE

Gabriella and Aban travelled in the security vehicle they had commandeered from the station’s motor pool The schedule indicated it was there for routine maintenance and would be out of circulation until the following week. They hacked into the station’s network, falsifying the maintenance records to show that the repairs were complete and the vehicle had been transferred to another station. This discrepancy would not be detected for a few days, buying them plenty of time to use the vehicle for their own needs before anyone noticed something was amiss.

They had been cruising at dangerous speeds through the high desert beyond the LTZ for several hours before they noticed that their connection to the operations center was beginning to fade. This had never been an issue before. Once they realized they were almost out of range, they stopped along the road to discuss their options with Operations.

Gabriella and Aban surveyed their sparse surroundings. They were in the middle of nowhere.

They had remained cloaked in traditional Angelic garb within the borders of the LTZ, which was in line with their deception protocols. If a checkpoint stopped them before crossing the border and subjected them to questioning, they could claim to have gotten lost while transporting the vehicle.  But once they had passed beyond the visual range of any surveillance cameras, they had morphed their clothing back into their black body suits.

Aban was operating the vehicle while Gabriella utilized the console to interface with the network in hopes of gleaning additional information before they ventured out beyond the perimeter of known civilization. Above her arm console, the display showed the image of Campbell standing in front of the analysts in the Cathedral control center. She could see the twin sensory deprivation tanks in the room behind him. “It’s like having an out of body experience,” she smirked to herself underneath her hood.

“What do you want us to do, Sir?” she asked the floating image. “We can’t go any further without losing reception.” Gabriella hated to trouble Campbell with the signal degradation problem, but their training had not covered the issue of traveling out of communication range. All her previous missions had kept her within Olympus and the LTZ, and she had never been off-world. No agent had ever been off-world. The security risk was too great.

Campbell had to rely on his ability to manipulate people in order to accomplish his tasks without revealing his own involvement. The agents could hear Campbell discussing the situation with the senior technicians in the operations center.

“If we launch a repeater, it will increase their range,” someone offered.

“But it also increases the chances of their detection!” another voice responded.

All eyes in the group looked to Campbell for the solution. He had been involved in the program longer than the rest of them combined. He was a brilliant strategist, and an even more capable engineer.

“There is a possibility of using one of them as the repeater, while the other continues on,” he said. “However, we’ve never actually tried it before.” There was a pause and she could hear Campbell pace in a small circle. The level of intensity in his voice matched the audible anxiety rising in the technicians that surrounded him, like spectators waiting for a gladiator to make the final blow.

“Sergeant Davis,” he called out. “You will have to exit the vehicle and conceal yourself until I can send out a support unit. Sergeant Cross is the more skilled tracker. He will continue in pursuit of Captain Evans. Your connection will be temporarily suspended in order to relay our connection to him.” She did not like the sound of that.

As they sat in the vehicle, motionless, Campbell continued explaining on the display that she would remain connected to passive input only. “All active controls will be transferred from your body into his. You will be aware of everything around you, but you will not be permitted to move.”

“So,” she thought, “I’m going to be a living statue.” Any movement on her part would jeopardize Cross’ connection and his ability to complete the mission, which would be detrimental to them both as well as the program.

“Go! Now!” Campbell ordered before the channel closed.

Gabriella got out of the vehicle and retrieved an emergency kit from the storage compartment. Her partner drove away without a word, disappearing in a cloud of dust.

As she walked away from the road, she made some adjustments on her arm console. Her uniform morphed, transitioning in color and texture to match the dusty landscape surrounding her.

A short distance from the pavement she found a small collection of shrubs that would offer a respite from the glaring sun. She laid down on the sandy ground, placed the emergency kit under her head as a pillow, and became as still as death.

She did not like the vulnerable situation she found herself in. Wild animals roamed out beyond the borders of the LTZ, carnivores that had survived the famines and had next to no contact with Angels or Humans. She had grown up listening to stories about people venturing out beyond the borders, hungry for recreation and adventure. The stories had given her nightmares as a child. Even as an adult, those tales gave her chills, but her concern was not for her mortality. Even if attacked, her agent might suffer, but her own body would survive.

She feared Derek Campbell. She had already lost an Agent on this mission, and Campbell had offered just one more chance. To suffer death at the fangs of wild beasts was nothing compared to the whispered rumors of what the Director of Angel Affairs could do to her.