The Code War (60 page)

'Yes. But he wasn't a warlock.'

'Oh. Why was he there then?'

'What, in Inferno?'

'Yes.'

'I really don't know.'

Chan had his hand in the air. 'Jabez, I
know the memories are probably still a bit painful so I'll ask you
about the she-monster, Bezejel, another day. For now, can you tell
me what you thought of the handling characteristics of the Fundial
and if it needs more work on the stabilisers?'

'The stabilisers worked perfectly,'
laughed Jabez, who was looking around him. 'It was the pilot who
was at fault. He definitely needs more engineering work on his
brain.'

While Jo and Chan joined in the
laughter, Luke, Agatha and Ruth approached and sat down. The four
looked from one to another and for a long time said nothing while
Jo and Chan looked on.

It was Luke who broke the silence at
last. 'Bro, you really frightened the lot of us. You frightened us
all the way to the Crystal Springs of Cara Quetzal and back.'

'I promise I won't do it again.'

'What I want to know is,' piped in
Agatha who had taken inspiration from Ruth and sprinkled sapphire
dust over her wings, 'was the Lamb really going to kneel to erm,
You-Know-Who, if Nancy hadn't made the choice she did?'

For once Jabez looked really lost.
'I haven't been able to work it out. On the one hand I know that he
came for me and he would have done anything to get me back.
Anything at all. I'm sure of it. On the other hand, he just looked
so calm and in control of himself, like he wasn't worried about a
thing. The timing of everything was incredible. That voice shouting
'the price is paid' just when it all seemed too late, was amazing.
I'm sorry to say it but I was beyond hope. I still don't
understand. That's the best answer I can give to your question.'
Jabez finished with a smile and looked beyond the group again,
scanning the crowds.

Ruth placed her hand on Jabez's arm.
'Well, ah do declare. Ah've run close to the wire a few times but
ah been weeping all down my newest dress the last two days. Had to
wring it out with a hand-mangle.'

'Ruth, I bet you've never even seen a
hand-mangle let alone know how to use one.' Luke.

'Well ah was speaking figuratively as
y'all knew. By the way Jabez, ah know who you're lookin' out for.
And if you look over your right shoulder, you just might see
her.'

Jabez whirled around scanning the faces.
New arrivals from Earth were appearing in the Landing Field all the
time. Most of them were greeted by long-unseen friends and
relatives. A tearful family group re-united around an elderly man
throwing their arms around him. He kissed them one by one and they
led him off towards the Welcome Pavilion.

Behind where they had stood was a young
woman wearing a fashion pilot jacket over a white V-neck top, blue
jeans and slightly muddy red high-heeled shoes. A Star of David
hung proudly over her chest. She looked a little bewildered.

Jabez leapt to his feet and approached
her.

'Nancy,' he began cautiously, holding
out his hand. 'You've no idea how glad I am to meet you.'

Nancy looked up at the handsome stranger
with his strong, soft-feathered wings. She warily accepted his
hand.

'Do I know you?'

Jo, Chan, Luke, Agatha and Ruth had
joined Jabez and were gathered around Nancy smiling broadly at
her.

'No. B
ut
I know you and I've been following you for months.' Then Jabez
began to weep and for the next minute all he could utter was sighs
followed by whimpers followed by more sighs.

The other five angels looked at each
other and unanimously decided to depart.

'We'll leave the two of you alone
to get to know each other,' said Ruth. 'Lovely to meet you, Nancy.
Catch up with you real soon.'

'Don't go far, all of you. Stay near.
I'm going to need you in a short while,' said Jabez
cryptically.

Then Chan and Luke bowed low to Nancy
while Jo, Agatha and Ruth curtseyed. Nancy regarded them with
wonder in her eyes as they walked away. She looked up at Jabez.
'What's that Music. It's the most wonderful sound I've ever
heard.'

'There's a lot to cover,' said Jabez,
his eyes still watery. 'Let's go to the pavilion and get a glass of
wine.'

'You have alcohol in Heaven?' said Nancy
as they walked.

'Yes, although this particular variety
is non-alcoholic. Even so, it tastes better than anything on
Earth.'

Many eyes turned towards Jabez as
they made their way to the pavilion. The memory of his ordeal on
Halfway was still fresh. They'd also heard the name Nancy and
guessed it was she at his side. Nancy was aware of the attention
but said nothing. She had so many questions.

They found a table and sat down. A jug
and glasses were already there so they poured, cheered and
drank.

Nancy couldn't get over the way Jabez
looked at her. Like he knew her. She was used to attention from men
on Earth but this was different. Pride, that was it. Jabez was
bursting with pride. For her. Why? And his attitude to her in the
short time since they'd met. It was so protective. It was almost…
No.

Then Jabez began to tell Nancy
about his mission to look after her and bring her to Paradise. How
he and the others had followed her across Africa and back. How
they'd watched as the enemy lured her with promises of power and
how they'd fought back with the plan to connect her with Dan. Jabez
told her excitedly how he'd seen her love for Dan blossom in the
last moments of her life.

'You'll see Dan again, I promise you.
Though it may not be for another sixty years. Earth time, that is.'
He smiled at her and held her hands.

'But did he love me? I hardly knew him.
It all happened so quick.'

'He fell for you the instant he saw you,
in the restaurant when you first asked him about his necklace. He
had marriage going through his head even then.'

'I had no idea.'

'It was a beautiful moment. You can
watch the replay.'

'I can't wait. But you know I have
so many other questions. I mean, I wasn't particularly religious.
And I turned to crime. I became a bigwig in one of the biggest
crime organisations in the world. I had plans to corrupt so many
people. Isn't Paradise for good people? Why am I here?'

'You gave your life to save
someone else. You had a lot to lose and you surrendered it all for
another person. Someone you hardly knew. There's no greater love
than that. That's why you're here.'

Nancy sighed deeply and drew her hands
back. She looked around her at the other tables where angels and
recent arrivals were weeping and holding each other as if time
stood still.

'I'm the only one here with no family.
Are my mum and dad here? What about my aunts and uncles?'

'You've got whole flights of relatives
winging their way here. Going back generations. Your death was,
shall we say, a tad unexpected. No-one's had time to prepare. I
can't tell you their names but you've got people coming from New
Moscow, Golders Valley and all sorts of places all over
Paradise.'

Nancy nodded.

'However. There is one exception.'
Nancy could see from Jabez's smile that he was hopeless with
secrets. 'Someone who arrived just before you.'

'Oh?'

'Look to your left.'

And as Nancy turned to look, a man with
a surprisingly nimble step was approaching and holding out his arms
to her.

'Great-Uncle…Shai.'

Shai took Nancy in his arms and held her
tight.

'Roots. You found them. See, I told you
so,' he said after a while. He pushed her back and looked down at
her jade star. 'Nice trinket. I can get you a good price for that.
Want me to ask around?'

And for the first time Nancy burst
out in full-voiced mirth and her laughter was like a waterfall on a
summer's day to all who heard it.

But Shai was not yet ready for
idle chatting and passing the time of day.
A crowd of bright-eyed angels were surging towards him
eager to renew old friendships. 'I'll see you soon. Got a few
others to catch up with.' And he was gone just like the moonbeam he
was on Earth.

Jabez sat Nancy down again and
took her
hand.

S
he
gazed at his perfect aerial limbs. She didn't know that one of them
had been broken or the pain that it had caused him. 'Will I get
wings and become an angel too?'

'I don't know. Not every resident
of Paradise has wings. Some wait a long time for them. And some
never get them at all. They're not my gift to give.'

'They're so beautiful.'

Jabez put his hand to his side and
looked down. The mists in his globe were swirling.

'Nancy, I have to be somewhere shortly.
But I'm going to leave you in good company while I'm gone.'

He plucked his globe and held it by its
sides in front of him, then expanded it. Ruth's face came up.

'Ruth, can you, Luke and Agatha
come in and look after Nancy for a while? I have a mission. Oh, and
can you ask Jo and Chan to wait for me out there, I need to talk to
them.'

Presently, the three angels came into
the pavilion and sat down at Jabez's table. Nancy gazed at them in
awe, just like she'd gazed at all the angels she'd seen since
arriving in Paradise. Their beauty, male or female, was beyond her
knowledge.

Jabez introduced them and asked Ruth to
take charge.

'I'll see you again very soon,' he said
to Nancy as he stood up. 'I have to fly.'

The others looked at him quizzically.
All except Ruth who seemed to know where he was going.

Jabez walked outside the Welcome
Pavilion and found Jo and Chan who were high-kicking to the Music.
He spoke to them urgently and seriously for a while and they
listened intently.

'I promise I won't leave Paradise this
time,' he finished. 'Really, there's no danger of a repeat
performance of Yaumati.'

'OK,' said Chan.
'B
ut with one condition. We come with
you.'

'But how…'

'We've converted the Fundial to a
4-seater,' said Jo. 'It's not that we don't trust your flying
skills. It's that your mission sounds astonishing. We want to be
there.'

'Well, OK. W
hy not? I'll be glad of the company.'

Jo and Chan led the way to the
flying machine. Soon the three angels were speeding their way to
their destination faster than a comet. Chan and Jo took turns
driving.

Jabez confined himself to the
rear.

Heaven's
Shore

Jabez stepped out onto the shingle
of Heaven's shore. He stooped and kissed the ground. There had been
times recently when he never thought he would see this place again.
In truth, there were times when he never wanted to see this place
again.

Jo and Chan alighted behind him and
looked around at the wild beauty of the fringe of Paradise. They
shivered when they looked across at the near reaches of Inferno and
glimpsed signs of furtive movement there.

'Mawls and gurns mostly,' said
Jabez, who was carrying a pack slung over one shoulder. 'They're
looking for any edible hydrocarbons thrown up by Inferno's churning
surface.'

He turned to the engineering pair.
'Maybe it's best if you two stand back a bit. Perhaps up on that
dune over there. Try not to look too ferocious.'

Far from ferocious, Jo and Chan
were actually way out of their comfort zone a
nd were looking distinctly apprehensive. They held hands
and walked back, finally sitting in a little hollow on a high dune,
their knees drawn up in front of them. Chan wrapped a wing
protectively around Jo.

Jabez gazed out across the divide to
Inferno, as he had done on that first occasion when he arrived at
the start of his mission. Only now he wasn't looking for anything,
he was looking for something. Someone.

The air was perfectly still and he
breathed in deeply. He calmed himself and gently hummed some
strains that echoed through his head from the Music that was
playing at the moment they left the Pavilion.

A gurn scratched in the ashen
surface of Desoland just a few miles away. Two mawls, bigger and
faster than the gurn watched him from behind a rock in case he
found something worth eating. Why d
ig the
dirt when you could mug the digger?

Jabez's eyes scanned left and right.
Silence came down and spread all over, slowing down time itself.
This was the moment, surely, if it was going to happen. It was now
or never.

The gurn twitched and looked up
from the hole it was digging. Something had startled it. The mawls,
demons the size of chimpanzees, leaned forward, peering where the
gurn was looking. Jabez grew anxious. Were they a
threat?

His hands tightened into fists as
his body tensed. Gently he eased the pack off his shoulder, lowered
it to the ground and opened its straps. He dipped both his hands
inside the pack and waited. The timing had to be right. He looked
behind him at Jo and Chan. They looked terrified. Good, Jabez
thought, allowing himself a wry smile. They wanted some excitement,
they're getting it.

The gurn was up on its toes,
peering around like a meerkat. Barely a hundred yards from the gurn
a sudden puff of ash leapt up from the surface. A red glow appeared
below it coming from deep in the ground. There was a hole. Next
there was a clang as a circular iron cover was thrown from the hole
and landed yards away in the ash. A head appeared, then a body
which climbed out hurriedly onto the surface. It looked around, in
classic demon fighting stance, a knife in one hand and a sword in
the other.