Rise of the Beast (34 page)

“My name is Julie,” said the Hispanic woman, approaching her. “Welcome to Refuge.”

“And I’m Kim,” said the second woman. “You are among friends, I can assure you. You are safe here.”

Bedillia turned to Kurt. “That went well.”

Kurt nodded. “In and out in less than five minutes.” Kurt hesitated, “Not like the other time.”

Bedillia nodded. “Thank heavens, I could have lived without that experience.”

“Yeah, I hear that,” said Kurt, who turned to look into his wife’s eyes. He had never seen a more beautiful sight. “Do you think you can stand?”

“I don’t know,” said Debbie in a soft, quivering voice.

“Let’s try,” replied Kurt. “Our mission isn’t over. We’ve got one more objective to accomplish, and then I’ll be back with you.”

“You’re leaving me here?” asked Debbie.

Kurt nodded. “Safer than where we are going.”

“Please, don’t go,” pleaded Debbie.

“I have to,” insisted Kurt. “We have another damsel in distress to rescue.”

“My wife, Sue,” said the freckle-faced young man. “Our mission today is a very personal one, and it has been a long time in coming.”

“Amen to that,” said Bedillia.

Debbie only nodded. She would not presume to be so selfish.

“We will all get together later,” promised the young man. “We can take you gals out for dinner.”

“Dinner?” asked Debbie, in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Sure,” confirmed the young man, a broad smile coming to his face. “I know this really great place where they serve the best tossed salads.”

“Sounds nice,” whispered Debbie, who was now more confused than ever.

“But we won’t be able to go there until you can walk,” said Kurt, gently bringing Debbie into a vertical position. Her bare feet met the cool floor. Bedillia quickly produced a pair of leather sandals for her, helping her to slip her trembling feet in. The world went almost dark around Debbie. She struggled to remain conscious. How long had it been since she had been on her feet? She wasn’t sure.

Slowly, her surroundings grew brighter. Somehow, she was still on her feet, with only minimal help from those around her. It seemed incredible to her that she had recovered so quickly.

Julie and Kim helped Debbie put on a long, tan robe. It was warm and comfortable.

“We can’t have you walking around in those awful rags,” said Bedillia. “This will do for the moment, till we can get you cleaned up and give you a new wardrobe. Satan might have found pleasure in humiliating women by dressing us in such filth, but he is not in command here. We call the shots here. Now, let’s try to take a few steps.”

And Debbie did. She nearly fell twice, but she was moving on her own power. Before her was a glowing sphere of light, nearly two feet in diameter, hovering in midair, and beside it stood a man dressed in a gray business suit whom she hadn’t noticed when she’d first arrived. He had dark, curly hair, a narrow mustache, and such intense eyes. He looked almost familiar, though Debbie knew not from where.

“I rejoice with the others over your safe arrival,” he said in a soft voice that held little emotion. “I am Nikola Tesla.”

Nikola Tesla—yes, that name was familiar to Debbie. At least, she had heard it before. He was some sort of famous scientist or something like that, a genius almost
certainly. She wondered if he was behind all that had happened to her this day.

Tesla reached over and adjusted a set of controls on a circular stand about a foot below the glowing orb. “We call it a telesphere,” he continued, without looking up from his labors. “It allows us virtually instantaneous communication with any other telesphere at any point within the known universe.”

For a moment, the sphere was full of static, like that of a television turned to a blank channel, except that this salt and pepper static was three dimensional, filling the sphere. An instant later, a holographic figure appeared within the sphere. He was dressed all in white, and his white-feathered wings arched majestically behind him. He was beautiful; no other words could describe his countenance. From his golden hair, to his azure blue eyes, to his perfect skin and mouth, he was the image of perfection and symmetry. The angel stood amidst shelves of books that looked like a library. At his side stood a young, handsome man who appeared to be in his early twenties. He too was dressed in white.

“The first part of the mission went without incident,” said Bedillia. “We met with no resistance.”

“I’m glad,” said the angel in a melodic voice. He turned to Debbie. “I am so happy to see you safe and sound in Refuge with your husband. I am Aaron, and my compatriot is David.”

“The David who slew Goliath?” asked Debbie, who, at this point, seemed a bit confused.

David laughed. “No ma’am, not that David. I’m from New York City originally. I was killed in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11.”

“9/11?” asked Debbie. “What’s that?”

“There will be time for that later,” interjected Kurt. “How does our second target look?”

“We can’t be sure,” replied Aaron. “We just don’t have enough information. Sarah is alone right now. That is to say, there are no demons within that room. I don’t think she has much time before she is in serious difficulty again. You will need to make haste, my friend, if you are to spare her from additional pain and grief. May the Father guide your steps.”

“Yeah, good luck, Kurt,” said David. “We’re pulling for you and yours on this side. Sorry we can’t be more help.”

Kurt only nodded as the image within the glowing sphere faded. The sphere itself dissolved into empty air, leaving only what looked like a fortuneteller’s crystal ball on the pedestal before her. Debbie shook her head. This was all so surreal, a strange mixture of magic and technology. She couldn’t be sure where one ended and the other began. Maybe they were one and the same.

“The coordinates are set,” noted Julie, turning from a set of controls on a small marble pedestal not far from the nine-foot-diameter silvery ring through which the group had emerged just a few minutes ago. “You’ll be traveling to a place about 1,400 miles southeast and 2,000 feet shallower than your last gate in point. Ready when you are.”

It was at that very second that a metal door at the other end of the room opened and another being entered the room. He was tall and dressed all in black. His enormous black wings reminded Debbie of a gigantic crow. He had a short beard and indeed piercing eyes. Actually, he was quite handsome, very much unlike the demons she had encountered in the past. Perhaps he was no demon at all.

He scanned the room carefully and then focused his gaze on Debbie. “Well, people, are you going to introduce me to the new member of our community?”

For a few seconds there was only silence. Then Bedillia spoke up. “Abaddon, this is Debbie Bellows, Kurt’s wife. Debbie, this is Abaddon, our chief administrator.”

Abaddon approached Debbie. His smile reduced her apprehension somewhat. He gently took her hand in his. “I am pleased to meet you, Debbie. You are welcome among us. I assure you that the horrors of Hell are behind you.”

Again there was an uneasy pause; it was Bedillia who finally spoke up. “We have one more rescue mission. It is very time sensitive.”

All eyes were on Abaddon as he scanned the group carefully. Debbie was still trying to make sense of it all, but she couldn’t.

“Continue the mission,” said Abaddon. “However I need to speak to you, Bedillia, in my council chambers.”

“Thank you,” said Bedillia.

“I’ve gotta go,” said Kurt, taking his wife’s hand. “I’ve dreamed of being with you again for so long. I promise I’ll be right back. Go with Julie. She will take
you to a place where you can rest. You need to rest. I’ll probably be back before you fall asleep.”

“You’d better,” whispered Debbie, caressing her husband’s hand. “I love you so much. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I have a tendency to show up when you least expect it,” replied Kurt. “Get some rest, OK?”

“OK,” said Debbie, watching her husband and the others head for the ring as Kim placed her arm around her and helped her toward the large metal door at the far side of the room.

“Let’s get you into a warm bath and into some nicer clothes,” said Kim. “The nightmare is over. It’s time for the healing to begin.”

She led Debbie through the still-open door at the far side of the room; Julie made a few additional keystrokes to what looked like a small computer keyboard. All the while, Kurt’s eyes were on his wife. She returned his gaze, then headed on down the hall beyond the door. At long last she was safe.

The four Marines gathered before the great ring, gazing into its depths, which had started to glow. A cool, blue mist was beginning to blow through the ring as the wall beyond vanished. What stood in the middle of the room was no longer just a large ring, but a portal, a corridor through hyperspace that led to another place.

“Our intelligence indicates that the corridor you are traveling into is very dimly lit,” noted Nikola, walking toward the four Marines. “You’ll need extra illumination.”

The Marines had already removed the covers from their flashlights. They had the basic shape of a small flashlight at least, but held no batteries or even a bulb. They were each composed of a hollow metal tube at the end of which was set a small, but brightly glowing, crystal before a small curved mirror that concentrated the light into a beam.

“You gentlemen can step through whenever you’re ready; the corridor is stable,” announced Julie.

The team proceeded through the ring without delay. They appeared to be walking through a misty tunnel with clouds instead of stone or metal for walls. As Julie and Nikola watched, they vanished into the starry mists.

“Walk with me,” said Abaddon, looking to Bedillia.

The two walked out into the busy hallway, leaving Julie and Nikola to await the return of the rescue team. The hallway had the appearance of some underground, high-security installation. A network of what looked like water and electrical conduits ran along the ceiling of the rectangular corridor of hewn stone. In the background, one could discern the sound of machinery. Here and there, both human and dark angelic sentries had been posted, guarding sensitive areas and important labs.

“Bedillia, what do you think you are doing?” objected Abaddon as they stepped into a less-traveled side corridor illuminated from the ceiling by light blue crystals. “You above all should realize the position these rescues could put us in. We have managed to broker a truce with the demons.”

“Thanks to Cordon,” interjected Bedillia. “As long as Satan is stuck on Earth and Cordon is in charge of the demons of Hell, we are relatively safe. I know, in his heart, Cordon would like to free those truly repentant human souls. He sees the advantage of us all working together.”

“You don’t know that,” objected Abaddon. “Cordon is in a difficult position. Even I can appreciate that. So long as it serves his purpose to maintain a relationship with us, he will do so, but that might not always be the case. Actions like this, which are clear violations of the treaty, do not help our cause.”

“But I can’t stand idly by while good people suffer when it’s within our power to rescue them,” retorted Bedillia. “Look, there have been seven peace conferences since the war in Heaven, seven. In all that time, what have we accomplished? You’ve called off your ACs. They no longer attack the demons. They feed exclusively upon the non-repentant humans. You even ordered them to refrain from releasing those humans who truly deserve a reprieve from their torment. You’ve bent over backwards for the demons, Abaddon. But what have the demons given us in return?”

“They haven’t attacked,” replied Abaddon. “They leave us in peace. And they claim that some of the ACs are still attacking them, and releasing humans, an issue that I can neither confirm nor deny.”

“And they’ve been using that excuse to exterminate the ACs you released into Hell,” continued Bedillia. “And you’ve done nothing about it. You once called them your children.”

“That was uncalled for,” objected Abaddon. “I still love them, but in recent
months, they have become ever more difficult for me to control since the alpha male was killed in battle in the Valley of Noak. This peace is fragile, Bedillia, and it could unravel on us if we provoke them.”

“Where is the bold Abaddon I once knew?” objected Bedillia.

“Alive and well, thank you,” said Abaddon, “and trying to keep our small community alive. May I remind you that the judgment of the demons who participated in the war in Heaven is well underway. Once the saints pass judgment upon them, they are returned here, swelling the numbers of the demons we must face. We must not give the demons a reason to attack us here. Abiding by the terms of the peace agreement is vital.”

“And while their numbers grow, ours remain static,” retorted Bedillia. “Every day their numerical advantage on us grows. Can’t you see where this is leading? Even if you discard rescuing more of Satan’s victims on purely humanitarian grounds, consider it from a military standpoint.”

“But more people here, utilizing our limited resources, does not necessarily equate to an advantage,” said Abaddon as they entered his conference room. “We need to have weapons for them and power spheres for those weapons. Heaven is the only source of those spheres. With our lifeline to Heaven cut off these past two years, our supply is nearly exhausted. Nikola Tesla has been working with David Bonner on that teleporter thing for over 18 months, but they still can’t make it work. Maybe they will never be able to make it work. Unless we can open some form of supply route between Heaven and Refuge, we will find ourselves in a difficult situation. And there is another thing, how did you obtain the power sphere to bring Debbie Bellows back through the ring? I ordered the storeroom to be closed and placed under guard. Only I have access to those spheres.”

Bedillia didn’t respond, but she had a very odd expression on her face. She cleared her throat.

Abaddon stopped in his tracks. “What?”

Bedillia now had a Cheshire cat grin that was positively amusing. “I didn’t get the sphere from the locker if that’s what you’re implying.”