Deadly Weakness (Gray Spear Society) (30 page)

"We need healers!" Aaron yelled. "Now!"

 The healers dropped their utensils and followed Aaron out of the kitchen. They frantically put their coats and hats on.

Aaron had a sudden thought. "Go out," he said. "See if anybody is hurt."

He ran back to the dining room and grabbed a sniper rifle from the racks. He sprinted outside and looked around. A rising cloud of dark smoke told him where the trouble was. He took off in that direction.

He came to a small wooden building that had been blasted to pieces by an internal explosion. He vaguely remembered that it had been a tool shed.

An injured man was on the ground. The giant yellow cat eyes told Aaron it was Yule, but the rest of him was unrecognizable. Every inch of Yule's body was burned. It was hard to tell where the charred clothes ended and the charred flesh began. All his hair was gone. Odelia was already working on him, and her skin was glowing as brightly as Aaron had ever seen it. Her face was locked in an expression of intense concentration.

Aaron still heard the distant motorcycle, and the sound was coming from the direction of the lake. He spotted a four-wheeled ATV dashing away at top speed. It kept hitting patches of thin ice, but oversized tires allowed the vehicle to keep going. The ATV was moving a little faster than the ice was breaking.

Clever,
Aaron thought.
I missed that one.

He laid down on the hard ground and aimed his sniper rifle. It was going to be a very difficult shot. The weapon was unfamiliar and the windage was uncertain. The target was already a thousand yards away and moving fast.

Aaron took his best shot anyway. It missed, and he couldn't tell whether the bullet had gone left or right. He fired round after round until the magazine was empty. Xavier drove out of view, apparently unharmed.

Aaron got on his knees. Yule hadn't moved at all, and Aaron couldn't tell whether he was already dead. Odelia was still working hard though. That was probably a good sign.

"I'm losing him," she said through clenched teeth. "The burns are too deep. Smythe, I need more power."

Smythe stepped forward. "Tell me what to do."

"Touch my heart."

Aaron wondered about the odd request. It didn't make sense in a medical context.

Smythe lifted the back of her shirt and pushed his hand through her ribs. He was literally going to touch her heart!

The white glow spread from her to him. Within seconds he looked like a giant fluorescent bulb shaped like a man. His hair burned with white fire and his eyes were red. He was grimacing fiercely. Aaron could tell he was in intense pain.

"Aaron," Smythe said through his teeth, "we need your power, too. Yule is almost gone."

"I'm not a healer," Aaron said.

"You're a conduit to God."

Aaron hesitated. "Will it hurt?"

"You may feel a slight pinch," Smythe said. "With all due respect, sir, get your fucking ass over here! Lift up your shirt."

Aaron scooted over. Without warning, Smythe shoved his hand deeply into Aaron's chest. Aaron could feel his heart being grabbed.

Abruptly, he was sucked into a vortex of white flame. He now understood Odelia's gift. She could draw power from the universe itself, but that energy was meant to make galaxies spin and quasars burn. It was far too strong for tiny human bodies. The energy crackled and snapped in Aaron's guts like a popcorn machine set on high. It felt like his blood was actually simmering.

This experience wasn't his worst ever, but it was in the class picture. He just had to wait for the misery to end. He couldn't see or hear anything but roaring white flames. His body was a living blast furnace.

As suddenly as it had started, it was over. He was left gasping on the ground, disoriented and dizzy.

"That was interesting," he muttered. "Let's never do it again."

He focused his eyes and looked over at Yule. The cat man was sitting up. He brushed off ashes to reveal skin as pink and perfect as a baby's.

"Are you OK?" Aaron said.

"I'm not sure," Yule replied in a quavering voice. "I was dead. I met God."

"Did He tell you anything?"

"Get back to work and be more careful next time." Yule looked down at his nude, hairless body. He had nothing to protect him from the bitter weather except a healthy glow.

Aaron smiled. "Good advice. Do you want to go inside?"

"Yes. Excuse me." Yule jumped up and ran towards his cabin.

Aaron turned to Smythe and Odelia. The lovers were holding each other tightly without speaking. Smythe's hair was completely white.

"Hey," Aaron said. "You two have matching hair now."

Smythe used a piece of broken glass as a mirror. "Cool. You too, sir." He handed over the shard of glass.

Aaron looked at himself and the image startled him. "Wow. I hope it doesn't stay this way. White isn't my color."

Ethel walked up. "Just because I have white hair these days doesn't mean everybody has to copy me. I appreciate the sentiment though."

Aaron looked up at the legate. "Xavier escaped."

"I know," she said grimly.

"We have to go after him."

"We will soon, but first I need to talk to all my people. Gather everybody in the dining hall."

* * *

Everybody was back in the dining hall. The convention attendees had gathered in small groups and were speaking in low voices. Word about Xavier had spread and speculation was running wild.

Aaron watched from the corner of the room. He didn't believe Xavier had any hidden allies at the convention, but Aaron didn't let down his guard. It was impossible to be too careful.

He took out his phone and called Bethany.

"Hello, sir," she answered in her soft voice.

"Are all the cameras in the dining hall working?" he said. "The microphones, too?"

"Yes, sir. The surveillance system is completely functional."

"The legate wants you to record her speech and send copies to all the cells."

"I know," Bethany said. "She already spoke to me directly. We're sending out a live feed to all the headquarters. Half the division is watching you right now."

Aaron looked up at one of the hidden cameras in a corner of the ceiling. "Watching me?"

"Yes, sir. I like your new hair color."

His face grew warm. "Thanks." He put away his phone and straightened his robes.

Ethel walked into the hall. She was carrying her silver machetes in her hands and swinging them with each step. She didn't look at anybody as she strode to the center of the room.

The audience instantly became silent and found seats. There was competition for the chairs as far from her as possible.

Marina stood beside Aaron. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She held onto his waist.

Ethel turned and faced her people. Her eyes were solid black orbs.

"Love," she said in a loud voice. "Trust. Friendship. These are very powerful feelings. God uses them to bind the natural world together. Without them, life wouldn't exist. But members of the Gray Spear Society are unnatural creatures, and for us these feelings can be a weakness. A deadly weakness."

She began to pace back and forth. Her machetes gleamed.

"During the last two days," she said, "many of you asked why San Francisco didn't send a delegation. My responses were evasive. The truth is their headquarters was overrun. Five members were killed, including the commander, and the rest were captured. The survivors are still being held. The same enemy attacked Miami seven weeks ago and killed four from that cell."

The audience appeared anxious. Ethel had kept the news about San Francisco under wraps until now.

She continued, "Many also asked me why I called this convention. I did it because I wanted to discover the traitor responsible for these attacks. We now know it was Xavier. He betrayed the Gray Spear Society. Last night he tried to kill us all, and he almost killed Yule a short time ago."

Sampson jumped to his feet. "No, ma'am!" he yelled. "That's impossible!"

"Shut up!" she roared.

His face became red. He looked at the people around him and sat on his chair.

"Why would he do such a thing?" Ethel said in a calmer tone. "The answer is love. Two years ago, Xavier loved a woman named Rhiannon. When she died, grief drove him to such madness that he blamed God. By attacking the Society, he was attacking the Lord. The power of love made him insane."

Sampson shook his head.

"Friendship also had a part to play," she said. "The former legate was good friends with Xavier. He trusted Xavier completely. The legate's weakness gave the madness time to fester and grow deadly. And Xavier has another good friend. Sampson, come here! Now you may speak."

He shuffled his feet as he came forward. Aaron wanted to turn away, but he pulled Marina closer instead.

"Well?" Ethel said. "Go ahead and defend your friend, just as you've done for the last two years."

Sampson faced the crowd. Even though he was a big man, he looked small now. "Xavier is a wonderful commander. He's done so many missions. He saved so many lives." Sampson's voice caught in his throat. "There must be a good reason for the attacks. Maybe he thought those cells were compromised."

She glared at him. "Loyalty and obedience can be a source of strength. Blind loyalty and mindless obedience are a weakness. I'm told Sampson is a very pleasant fellow. I'm sure that's true, but it doesn't matter. He stood back and watched dumbly as his commander's behavior grew more and more erratic. I would forgive an assistant or even a junior
legionnaire
for this kind of failure. Sampson is neither. He is the second in command, and supposedly, Xavier's closest confidant. Sampson needed to save his commander from himself. He did not. Sampson failed us all."

Ethel leapt into the air and spun with her machetes held out. For an instant she was a human helicopter twirling so fast she was just a blur. She landed like a cat. Sampson dropped to the floor and his head rolled away. Blood gushed from his severed neck.

She pointed a machete at the corpse and bellowed, "I will not tolerate muscle bound idiots in my organization!" A drop of blood fell from the tip of the blade.

There was shocked silence in the room. Aaron wondered how the team in Houston was reacting to this spectacle.

Ethel resumed her pacing. Clearly, she wasn't done with tonight's lessons.

She stopped abruptly. "The next question you should ask is how could Xavier betray two other cells? How did he discover the locations of those headquarters? The answer is another form of weakness: trust. My commanders trust each other too much. You incessantly send notes back and forth and tell each other things you shouldn't. Xavier merely had to wait for the secrets to fall into his hands."

She glared at the commanders one at a time. They shrank away.

"So," she said, "all of us will be much more cautious in our communication going forward. We will protect our own teams at all times. Weakness in one cell will not spread like a cancer again. Am I clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," the entire audience echoed.

Aaron hoped the speech was done, but Ethel didn't dismiss the room. She just went back to her pacing.

"Smythe and Odelia!" she called. "Come here."

Smythe and Odelia approached cautiously. They avoided the growing puddle of blood on the floor and stood in front of Ethel.

"I witnessed a miracle today," she said. "That's not a big deal for us, of course. We perform miracles as if they were just simple parlor tricks, but this one was exceptional. Our two amazing healers did something I thought was impossible. They combined their gifts and raised the dead."

She glanced at Yule. For a man who had looked like blackened meat a short time ago, he was remarkably healthy.

"They did it with love," Ethel said. "It was such a profound moment it even moved my crusty, ancient heart. I shed a tear, and that hasn't happened for a long time."

I helped too,
Aaron thought.

She faced the healers. "But even here, there is weakness. Tomorrow morning these two will go back to their separate cities and their separate lives. They'll try to maintain a long distance relationship, but it will seem like thin gruel after this weekend. There will be sleepless nights and endless, pathetic phone calls. Eventually, hopefully, their love will fade and the pain will finally end. It's a problem that will solve itself." She lowered her eyes. "You can go."

Smythe and Odelia walked off with sad expressions.

Ethel took a deep breath. "Aaron and Marina. You're next." Her tone was grim.

Aaron was so startled at hearing his name he froze. Marina tugged his hand to get him moving, and he walked slowly to the center of the room. Ethel still held her bloody machetes.

"This problem, on the other hand, will
not
solve itself," she stated loudly.

Aaron's heart sank. He was certain a very bad thing was about to happen.